Geekery

Pokens – Leave them alone. They’re cute.

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

They’re cute. They are decorated by top graphic designers and look a little like vinyl toys. They utilize cutting edge Near Field Communication technology. They have almost no worldly use whatsoever. Meet the Poken.

The Poken is a little device that has ambitions to replace the business card. And, seeing as we need to decrease our carbon footprint and stop cutting down the trees, this isn’t a bad idea. Basically, the Poken comes in the form of a little device, like a memory stick but better looking, which has a hand on it. In the middle of the hand is a little pad. The idea is that when you meet someone else with a Poken you ‘high five them’, basically touch their device with yours, and the pads on each Poken will light up to let you know that it has worked. Then, when you get home, you plug it in like a normal USB and download the details of the people you have ‘poked’. These people are arranged into some kind of buddy-style social network.

Apart from the obviously dodgy connotations of walking around all night ‘poking’ random strangers, the Poken will, in all likelihood, suffer due to the fact that it does not provide a function that is particularly needed. Business cards have become less prevalent as it is, since most cellular phones are equipped so that people can very easily store each others details. Have you ever sat around thinking about how much your life would improve if you had a little gadget to automatically save people’s contact details through some kind of high-fiving ritual? No? Well exactly. It’s not about to replace the iPad as this week’s most talked about piece of technology.

In its defence, at R200, its affordable, and has definite novelty value. The device’s greatest challenge, though, its that it can only work if everyone has one. If it ever gets to the stage that everyone is poking away everywhere I go chances are I will feel left out and get one. But, if you go to a bar and only 3 other people have them (and, so far, even that amount seems unlikely), your poken is not going to get a whole lot of use. And, most probably, people in the near vicinity will look at you funny if you ever do get the opportunity to use it.

Pokens are cute though, and as bunnies and babies the world over would hope, that has to count for something.

You an pick up a Poken at ilovepoken, buycool or Digital Planet. For more info, go here.

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Ninjas unbox the new Google Nexus 1

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Ninjas are trained in ancient Eastern martial arts, not boxing.
But, while they don’t know all that much about boxing, they are very good at unboxing, as this cute new animated ad proves. If this doesn’t go viral I’ll eat my iPhone. Nice one, Google, this is the way forward if you want to promote your new phone!

Thanks to Engadget for the pic.

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Water is so hot right now

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by Jake.

Let’s face it. Water is often boring. Maybe not when it’s in a swimming pool or the sea and certainly not during devastating floods. But water that comes out of the faucet at the tap near you is just totally yawn-worthy. Yes, I know, without it we’d die, but I would suggest that very few people would bother with it if they didn’t have to and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is an unpopular topic at dinner parties. So it stands to reason that, at some stage, someone will invent a gadget that intends to give water a much-needed makeover and make it a bit more exciting. The Colour Changing Faucet Light manufactured by the not-too-manly company LaFemme Products transforms the water coming out of your faucet into a vibrant bright blue when cold and a festive red when hot. Could this be the PR boost that water from the tap so sorely needs?

The Faucet Light doesn’t just sit around looking pretty. It has a purpose. By changing the colour of the water using LCD lights when it gets hot, the product stops those who use its faucet from inadvertently burning themselves. Which may not win its manufacturers a Nobel Prize, but as someone who burns himself fairly often I can appreciate the sentiment.

All in all, a fun and not altogether useless product that will only set you back roughly R200 including packaging and postage if you order it from Amazon.com. My biggest problem with the gadget is that it makes water look so beautifully colourful that one’s natural first reaction would be to stare at it flowing from the tap for hours on end – which is not a great idea in these hard times of dwindling water supplies. But, used with restraint the Faucet Light may save you from a blister or two, and that’s never a bad thing.

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Coffee without the break – The USB Coffee Warmer

Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

Having focussed lately on quite a few gadgets that have several functions, today I thought I’d keep it simple and concentrate on a device that can do one thing and one thing only. And the USB Coffee Warmer could not under any circumstances be accused of doing more than one thing.

A small USB-powered hot plate that sits next to your keyboard as if to say, ‘c’mon, spill it!’, the USB Coffee Warmer is for those people who work too hard and drink their coffee too slowly. It has the sole function of keeping your hot beverage hot, a function that it fulfils with aplomb. So in a sense I suppose it’s a successful gadget.

Intuitively, though, I have fundamental problems with the concept. As a geek and a non-smoker, the only opportunity I ever get to do something other than sitting in front of a computer screen is when I go and get another cup of coffee. Similar to those offices which ban Facebook, this is one of those inventions which seems to shout ‘work harder! Why are you sitting around drinking coffee. Now you can drink coffee and work at the same time, thanks to the USB Coffee Warmer!’ I have worked at places that would not have hesitated to buy one of these for each of it’s employees and then ban coffee breaks.

I have a friend whose dad once said to me, ‘You know, when we were growing up they told us that all this new technology would make our lives easier, and allow us to work less. Turns out it has just forced us to work harder’. And I completely see his point. In an age where we are supposed to be connected to the world and ready to reply to another email at all times, the coffee break is sacred. Please don’t get me one of these for Christmas.

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Gadget – The Swatch Infinity Concept Watch

Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by Jake.

Once I had a Swatch watch. It was big and multi-coloured and analogue and I loved it with all my heart, because I thought it was cool even though, in retrospect, it probably wasn’t. This was before cell phones, back when one actually needed a watch and it wasn’t just a fashion statement. So although all my Swatch could do was tell the time (it didn’t tell me the date or the temperature or do my maths homework like a good digital watch could), I wore it day in and day out until the plastic strap gave in. I even got used to the surprisingly loud ticking noise it made.

So imagine my surprise in discovering that the kings of analogue, Swatch themselves, are busy developing something called the Infinity Concept Watch. It doesn’t tick. And it sure as hell doesn’t just lie around on your wrist telling the time all day. It has video, music, photo sharing and video recording. It doesn’t have bright cartoons on it or a plastic strap.

It looks like the watch of the future. The kind of thing a One World Government run by shape shifting lizards would force all its citizens to wear while they finish developing the microchip. And as much as I like technology, gadgets and gimmicks, a part of me thinks that Swatch have sold out with this one. Swatch is a brand that, to me, is synonymous with analogue. They shouldn’t try to be Apple. If this were the iWatch I’d understand. But Swatch, I expect less from you. All the same, I have to admit that if this were being developed by anyone else I’d be drooling over it.

The watch will have a removable face and a magnetic strap that attaches to the watch, which can be removed to be recharged. One of the gadget ten commandments, – though shalt not design things which attempt to do absolutely everything – has been ignored here. We’ll have to wait and see whether it manages to make up for this transgression by adequately fulfilling its multiple functions. While it functions as an MP3 player, mini-cinema and photo album, I see no evidence that the thing can actually tell time. That’s fine, we have cell phones for that.

I look forward to actually testing the Swatch Infinity Concept Watch out, but the thing is still in production and hasn’t yet reached the shops. And I’m guessing it will take even longer to reach South African shops. For now, like riding the Gautrain or, for that matter, real live members of the opposite sex, local geeks are just going to have to imagine what it’s like.

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