Spot Cool Stuff: Entertainment

5 Cool Appcessory Toys

Spot Cool Stuff — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:39:04 +0000

Users of Apple iPads and iPhones downloaded more than 5 million mobile applications from the iTunes app store last month. About that many apps were downloaded by users of Android tablets and smartphones. A million or so more went to Blackberries and devices running other operating systems.

Among the people who were struck by the high—and fast increasing—popularity of mobile apps: toy makers. Increasingly, toys are either designed to be used with an app or are inspired by them. Here’s our review of five especially cool ones:

iCADE

Spot Cool Stuff, having spent a collective chunk of our youth in the 80s and 90s playing arcade games, absolutely loves the iCADE. This cabinet turns an iPad into miniaturized version of a classic arcade gaming machine.

The iCADE was first conceived as an April Fool’s joke by the cool folks at ThinkGeek. Turned out, the joke was on them. Demand for a real iCADE proved so great that ThinkGeek felt compelled to make it a real.

After designing the iCADE arcade casing, ThinkGeek partnered with ION to create iPad versions of Atari arcade classics. There are currently 100 games available, including Battlezone, Lunar Lander Tempest, Breakout, Asteroids and Missile Command.

The iCADE case itself has a joystick and buttons that are the same size and feel as those that the classic arcade machines had. The case connects to an iPad (either the original or an iPad 2) via Blutooth. You don’t need to put a quarter into the iCADE’s slot. But there’s no need to tell your friends that when they ask to play. $99

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Angry Birds: Knock On Wood Game

Time was, popular board games might inspire a video version. Today, popular smartphone games inspire board versions. And no smartphone game has become more popular than the Angry Bird series. (Inexplicably so, in Spot Cool Stuff’s opinion. We far prefer Plants vs Zombies, available for both Android and the Apple iOS).

The board game version of Angry Birds is aimed mostly at kids; they’ll likely enjoy it even if they’ve never seen Angry Birds played on a smartphone or tablet. Parents are unlikely to love this board game, but it probably won’t make them crazy either. One nice feature of Angry Birds: Knock On Wood is that kids across a wide range of ages (from around 3 to, say, 13) seem to like it. What parents doesn’t like that? $26

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Helo TC Helicopter

Sure, there are plenty of remote control helicopters that come with an old fashion controller. But how much cooler is it to maneuver a toy helicopter using an iPhone? The Helo TC Helicopter comes with an adapter that clips onto an iPhone (or iPod touch or iPad) and plugs into its audio jack. With that—and the free Helo app—you can control the helicopter directly from an iPhone. The controls are straightforward and basic flying is easy. More advanced flying like, say, navigating an office obstacle course can take some practice. Not that your gift recipient will mind putting in the time. $45

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By the way: If you like your iPad-navigated vehicles to be closer to the ground check out our review of the Rover Spy Tank.

iMarker Digital Stylus

The iMarker Digital Stylus from Griffin Technology—together with the free Crayola ColorStudio HD app—turn an iPad into an amazing coloring book. Most kids favorite activity using the iMarket Digital Stylus will be coloring in the animated coloring, which are like the normal print book coloring pages except the scene moves cartoon-like after a child is done coloring it. There’s also a free sketch mode. Artistic creations can be emailed, shared on Facebook or printed out.

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Cars 2 Appmates

Spot Cool Stuff has tried out several toys that involve physical pieces interacting with a play area on an iPad. The unnecessarily Pixar-branded Cars 2 Appmates from Spin Master is the best of them. The game involves sliding mini-cars around a virtual iPad world. Players can race, navigate obstacle courses and complete missions. Needless to say, an iPad screen protector is highly recommended. Check it out in the video below.

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published: 16 Dec 2011

THE Art Museum Book

Spot Cool Stuff — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:32:56 +0000

If you could curate the ultimate art museum with an unlimited budget what works of art would you choose to display?

A team of over 100 editors, art historians and archeologists spent more than a decade tackling that very question. The result of their collective research is displayed in an epic volume titled, appropriately, The Art Museum.

The Art Museum is not another artsy coffee table book. It is THE artsy coffee table book. No other book has as extensive a display of humanity’s art, from cave paintings to modern works.

Then again, virtually no other book is as big as this one. Opened up, The Art Museum is almost three feet across. In its 1,000 pages you’ll see more than 2,700 works of art. To visit them all in real life you’d have to go to 650 museums, break into the mansions of 50 private art collectors and, oh yeah, infiltrate a dozen archeological sites Indian Jones-like.

But The Art Museum isn’t all about quantity. The book is excellently organized, divided into 25 “galleries” which are then sub-divided into “rooms” connected by “hallways.” At least one of the works on display, a 14th century alter piece, is only visible in its complete form within the pages of The Art Museum. The piece was divided into parts two centuries ago and remained so until the editors of The Art Museum tracked them all down.

All this work and book heft isn’t cheap. The Art Museum retails at US$200—
though it’s currently on sale at Amazon for half that. Not bad for the only art book your coffee table will ever need.

published: 11 Nov 2011 | via NPR

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Look Ma, No Wheels

Spot Cool Stuff — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:20:23 +0000

Rarely is there highly compelling video of an airplane crash landing in which no one dies and no one gets hurt. Yet—amazingly—that’s exactly what happens here.

A Boeing 767 LOT Airlines flight took off on a seemingly routine flight from New York City with with 230 passengers aboard. As the plane began it’s descend into Warsaw’s Chopin International Airport, pilot noticed that the landing wheels weren’t lowering.

After an hour circling above the Polish capital it became clear that the issue couldn’t be fixed while the plane was in the air. So the decision was made to land sans wheels. Can you imagine being on board and hearing THAT announcement over the loudspeaker?

The plane dumped all the extra fuel it could while airport officials cleared the airport and coated in the runway with a special fire retardant.

Then the plane came in for a landing. An absolutely perfect landing, thankfully.

The first phone call the plane’s captain, Tadeusz Wrona, received was from the president of Poland offering his congratulations. Spot Cool Stuff is mighty impressed as well.

published: 1 Nov 2011

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Take a Video Bitpop Trip

Spot Cool Stuff — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:20:40 +0000

Were you to download one song from Rymdreglage and then another from Ninja Moped you would have two songs from the same band. Why the two names? To confuse their opponents.

And that’s not the only strange thing about the pairing of Swedish high school friends Daniel Larsson and Tomas Redigh.

Under either name, Larsson and Redgh produce Bitpop, an obscure but growing sub-genre of electronic music that is characterized by the primary melody played by an 8-bit electrical device, like an old Commodore 64 computer or Atari gaming console.

Anyone who played video games in the 1980s and ’90s is already familiar with the bleeps and bloops of 8-bit computers. The Legend of Zelda theme song, the sound of losing a life on Super Mario Brothers—these are 8-bit creations. Composing Bitpop is thus a classic case of finding freedom in limits. Because an 8-bit computer is only capable of producing certain sounds it demands extreme creativity to form those sounds into a song that’s cool (or at least tolerable).

Rymdreglage (aka Ninja Moped) is masterful at Bitpop. And to promote their track 8-Bit Trip, they did what a lot of musicians do: They produced a YouTube video. But unlike other music groups they spent 1,500 hours creating their video—a stop motion masterpiece using themselves, 8-bit computer generated graphics and a whole lot of LEGO pieces. (1,500 hours! That’s more than two months without sleeping, eating or taking breaks!). The video was shortlisted for YouTube Play. Check it out, below.

Larsson and Redgh’s current project is more about destroying musical objects. The two are building a crossbow that’s large enough and powerful enough to catapult a piano 100 meters.

published: 28 Oct 2011

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Infographic: Lifespan of a TV Show

Spot Cool Stuff — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:05:45 +0000

Obviously, the infographic shown below doesn’t depict the lifespan of every TV show (even with the exception of some shows on HBO). My So Called Life only lasted for one season (sadly). The Simpsons has been going for more than 20. Still, it’s amazing how many television series do fit within the basic framework of the lifespan as described in this infographic.

The seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we’d argue, match up with the infographic perfectly. (To the point that we wonder whether that was the inspiration for its artist). The West Wing fits the pattern too, as does Malcolm in the Middle, The Gilmore Girls and Boy Meets World. Each of those lasted seven seasons. (Star Trek: The Next Generation lasted seven season too, though we maintain they were consistently strong through at least the first six).

Even some television series that didn’t make it to a seventh season fit with the basic infographic lifespan. Alias definitely plateaued in Season 3 and from there entered its downward spiral especially quickly. So did The Wire.

How does your favorite show measure up? Let us know in a comment, below.

published: 17 Oct 2011

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Other Infographics on Spot Cool Stuff:
Mac People Vs. PC People
How a Father’s MusicInfluences His Kids
Turn Your Resume Into a Creative Infographic

The Truthiness of Stephen Colbert

Spot Cool Stuff — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:01:25 +0000

Open wide, baby bird, cause Mama got a big, fat, night crawler of truth.

Those were the words with which Stephen Colbert readied his audience at the start of his first show on DIRECTV in 2005.

Comedy Central‘s fake-news TV pundit claimed that, like his hero George Bush, it’s better to “know with your heart” than to “think with your head.” Colbert promised to deliver “truthiness.” He won’t just read the news to you, but “feel the news at you.”

Starting on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Colbert’s former boss gave him ample opportunity to develop his political comedy chops in his role as correspondent. The Colbert Report format is fashioned after flag-waving news pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, whose self-important puffery makes for fertile comic satire.

Colbert’s character is an over-the-top caricature of punditry that plays loose with the facts and constantly promotes both himself and the multitude of products he endorses. It’s a character he rarely steps out of and manages occasionally to insert into real news stories. In the 2008 presidential election he talked about getting on the ballot in his home state of South Carolina before balking at the US$35,000 fee.. More recently, he testified in character before Congress on immigration, and held a mock rally in Washington, DC. His current project is the Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super-PAC that pokes fun the American campaign finance system by taking part in it.

Colbert also has a talent for getting things named after him. His segment, "Who's Not Honoring Me Now," highlights those who have the audacity to ignore his greatness, though many succumb to his super-inflated egoism by naming a variety of things after him:

	Colbert-Inspired Name		Item
	Estaban Colbert		Falcon in San Jose
	C.O.L.B.E.R.T. (Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill)		NASA treadmill
	Stephen Jr.		Bald eagle at the San Francisco Zoo
	Agaporomorphus Colberti		Beetle from Venezuela
	Stelephant Colbert		Elephant seal in a study by the University of California at Santa Cruz
	Stephanie Colbertle the Turtle		Leatherback turtle in the first Great Turtle Race
	Air Colbert		Virgin America jet
	Aptostichus Stephencolberti		Trapdoor spider
	Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle		Mascot for the minor league hockey team Saginaw Spirit

The show has won both popular and critical success with its mix of interviews and recurring comedy segments. Since its launch, the series has won 18 Emmy nominations and a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. His writing cohort won 2 Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program. Perhaps most telling of Colbert's impact on the social consciousness, though, is that "truthiness" was proclaimed the 2005 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society and the 2006 Word of the Year by Merriam Webster.

published: 14 Oct 2011

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The App-Controled Rover Spy Tank

Spot Cool Stuff — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:40:30 +0000

Another entry for the category of Toys I Wish Had Existed When I Was Young: The Brookstone Rover Spy Tank.

Though, to call something that lights up this brightly when turned on a “spy” anything is a bit of a stretch. The rover tank doesn’t run at a whisper quiet either. But it is a very cool.

The best part: The Rover Spy Tank is controlled from a free app available for the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. (Check it out in the video, below.)

The tank has a camera aboard as well as a microphone. Those beam audio and video to your Apple iDevice via a wifi network created by the tank itself.

That engineering decision—to connect via wifi, as opposed to Bluetooth or IR or another method—is instrumental to the Rover Spy Tank working as well as it does. Linking up with wifi means that you don’t need line-of-sight with you tank. It means you’ll have an operating range up to 200 feet (61 meters). You also won’t have any interference with other devices.

Best of all, wifi enables large amounts of data to rapidly invisibly fly between the spy tank and the controlling device. That helps make the remote control responsive, the video picture surprisingly crisp—and the Rover Spy Tank as a whole incredibly fun to use.

The Rover Spy Tank can also take still pictures and has an infrared video camera for navigating in very low light.

Our biggest complaint: Instead of using internal rechargeable cells, the tank runs on six standard AA batteries. Spot Cool Stuff recommends purchasing good rechargeble battery system—like this one from Duracell—together with the tank.

published: 7 Oct 2011

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The Treehouse Book

Spot Cool Stuff — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:51:43 +0000

Once purely the stuff of children’s fantasies, treehouses have gone upscale and grown-up. (Dare we say “mainstream?”)

The Treehouse Book explores all the possibilities for arboreal housing. It is not really the how-to manual it bills itself to be—there are better books for that. But the photos and descriptions in this book will provoke inspiration for creative types, jealousy among treehouse lovers and instill an urge to climb a tree among nearly everybody.

Not incidentally, if you fancy spending the night in a treehouse but not so much the time and money it would take to build one in your back yard, our travel blog has several treehouse hotel reviews. Among them:

Treehouse Point – Issaquah, Washington USA
Cedar Creek – Ashford, Washington
Hana Lani Treehouses – Hana, Hawaii
Free Spirit Spheres – Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Rosalie Forest Eco-Lodge – Dominica, Caribbean
Baumhaus Hotel – Neißeaue, Germany
The Treehotel – Harads, Sweden
Green Magic Resort – Kerala, India
Kadir Yörük Top Tree House – Olympos, Turkey

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