The Top 20 Weirdest gadgets of 2006
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The Top 20 Weirdest gadgets of 2006
By Tech Digest
20th December 2006 08:51 GMT
It's been one of those years when technology came on in leaps and bounds. Around the world, thousands of pointy-headed scientists and product designers beavered away in high-security laboratories, investing time, money and effort to create... more silly USB gadgets.
Yes, 2006 has been the year when gadgets got a bit ridiculous. And it wasn't just USB devices either. Here's Tech Digest's pick of the year's gadgets that got us chuckling, frightened, or just scratching our heads in bafflement.
1. Gupi the robot guinea pig Complete with his animatronic carrot and 30 different sounds (most of which are presumably a variation on "WeeEEEeeeEE!").
Features
Gupi - an interactive, intelligent, robot Guinea Pig
Interactive - becomes happy if given attention (touch sensors) and nervous and shy if ignored
Reacts to sounds and will come to you if happy or run away if scared
Interacts with its environment - will not bump into anything and can find its way out of a maze
Will follow carrot 'food' light beam
Gets 'hungry' (needs to be recharged) and will 'feed' on carrot to recharge
Interacts with other Gupis and will learn to recognise as well as share food with them
The Gupi is the latest Version Three model and will interact with the Version 2 Gupis.
Makes more than 30 sounds
Super soft fur.
2. The BeerBelly Released in time for the World Cup, this gave football-loving men a false beer-belly full of, yes, beer. Complete with a rubber tube to suck the booze through.
Made up of an insulated neoprene sling and a polyurethane bladder connected to a drinking tube, the Beerbelly holds up to 2.3 Litres (over four pints) of amber nectar and it will stay cold for hours with the optional freezer pack. Brilliant, eh? Okay, so you'll look a bit podgy when wearing it, but who gives a XXXX when you can surreptitiously swig your favourite brew wherever you may roam.
Features:
Designed to fit wearers up to 6'8" tall with up to a 40" waist.
Made of neoprene, the sling insulates and feels like skin to the touch under your clothes.
Holds up to 2.3 Litres of your favourite drink (over four pints!).
Holds either cold or hot drinks.
The bladder has a wide mouth opening for adding ice for Margaritas, and to simplify cleaning.
When worn under your clothes you just look like a dude with a beer belly.
The optional freezer pack keeps drinks colder for longer. It can also be used as a hot pack to keep drinks or soups hot! -
3. Solar-powered insect theatre This eco-gadget isn't that silly, actually. It stores power in the day, then lights up at night to attract moths and butterflies for you to watch. Their version of Hamlet is a bit rubbish, mind.
The Solar Insect Theatre is a neat little insect habitat. During the day, its solar-charged batteries get their charge, by night it uses the power to light up in a fashion appealing to moths and butterflies. It's no prison - they can get out as easily as they got in and there's a door on the side through which you can insert plant material or branches as you see fit.
4. LumiGram fibre optic clothing Scared you won't stand out from the crowd at your office Chrimbo party? How about clothing with fibre optics inside for a shimmery effect? Nigel from Accounts will love it.
Lummy pillow! 
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5. Froot Loop cereal bowl light Very strange indeed. Dip your spoon into this bowl of Froot Loops, and it lights up. What are Froot Loops anyway?
Description
Cereal Bowl Light, touch the spoon and it lights up.
The best thing that you will ever buy in your life.
Amaze and impress all your friends with the coolest light on earth. Everyone will want a turn touching the spoon and being amazed and perplexed- "How does that work !" they will proclaim. You can tell them its magic or tell them the truth that it's a touch sensor but that's not as much fun.
6. Geek-a-cycle It's a reclining exercise bike hooked up to a computer desk, ensuring you can spend four hours a night updating your MySpace page and have Calves of Steel. At last!
Now, exercising is easy and convenient, too.
Get your daily exercise while doing your daily work.
Keeps you healthy
Physical activity while you work at your computer improves blood flow and increases oxygen to all parts of your body. Your heart and lungs work harder during the day thus providing all the health benefits of a moderate workout. -
7. USB pole dancer For the man who likes his desk to have a classy vibe. She's an eight-inch bikini-clad blonde, who dances on a lit-up podium. Nice.
http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/12/13/usb_pole-dancer.jpg
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Possibly the best wind-up toy ever invented, the Racing Grannies are to geriatric speedway what Ferrari is to Formula One. As anyone who has been on the receiving end of a Zimmer-frame will know, grannies are formidable movers with legendary stamina, and these delightful wind-ups are testament to their endurance. With expressions of steely determination and complete with go-faster cardigans, these two are just a few winds away from the race of their lives. It's time to have your own Gran National!
Features
Set of 2 wind-up grannies.
Clashing outfits, silver hair, droopy breasts and a snazzy zimmerframe.
Adjustable arms so the Grannies can be in 'Stand-up' mode or bent to 'Race' mode.
Made of plastic. -
8. Fatman referee suit Should become standard issue in Premiership grounds next season
http://techdigest.tv/2006/08/one_minute_vide_10.html catch the video on how to use!
9. Crazy Frog karaoke mic Somewhere, in a company boardroom, someone actually had the idea of teaching The Kids to sing Crazy Frog songs better. Strewth.
As if children aren't annoying enough, here comes a product to make sure your offspring grows up to be the type of person who describes themselves as 'wacky'. This karaoke mic from Nikko Toys is actually designed to make youngsters learn and perform a number of the Crazy Frog's 'hits' and to make things worse, it's portable so you can make those school holiday car journeys to Alton Towers drag on that little bit longer. For society's sake, just drop them off outside the nearest Spar, load them up with two litres of White Ace and spare us. -
10. Spray-on condom Safe sex in a can! And gives you a choice of strengths and colours. Possibly good for preserving courgettes for a few more days in the fridge, too.
Dubbed the Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (NCC), it's designed for female rather than male usage. The condom-in-a-can is essentially an antiseptic foam spray that the manufacturer claims forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.
It's not known who makes the NCC, but Beijing-based Chinese-Canadian condom maker Blue Cross Biomedical has been touting something along these lines for a while now. It maintains its spray-in condom "can effectively kill gynaecological disease pathogens such as staphylococcus aureus, Candida, coliform bacillus, and can prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
"It can remain in the vagina for a long time without destroying the vagina's chemical balance," the company adds. "Daily use of this product can help maintain genital hygiene and prevent infection by pathogens".
The condom's antibacterial properties presumably arise from the nano-particles of silver incorporated into the spray. Or do they? In South Korea last week, the Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB) lambasted local washing machine vendors for claiming their products, which are coated internally - not unlike... - with a nano-silver spray, kill 99.9 per cent of germs in the wash. -
11. Walking Gundam robot He's called GuardRobo, he's 3.4m tall, and can stomp forwards, backwards and sideways. That said, he can only fire foam bullets, so Robocop would make mincemeat of him.
Seems to be a good day in the world of robotics, first GuardRobo, the crime-fighting champion of mall security, then this 3.4M tall walking gun-platform. Fortunately, unlike its security guard brethren, the Land Walker is controlled directly by a human, is based on the fictitious Gundam cartoon character and only capable of firing foam bullets. Phew. It weighs in at 1 ton and can walk forwards, backwards and sideways at an unthreatening 1.5kph. And if you think the neighbourhood kids are becoming a bit of a pest then Masaaki Nagumo will happily custom build you your very own Land Walker for a the princely sum of 36m yen (about £186,000).
12. V Girl virtual girlfriend Think having cybersex is sad? Now imagine having cybersex with a Tamagotchi...
Ideal for perfecting your relationship skills, each Virtual Girlfriend/Virtual Boyfriend features 8 LCD characters, all with their own distinct personality: from studious square to insatiable gothic bunny boiler.
The idea is to keep your randomly selected cyber partner happy by taking them out, complimenting them, buying them gifts and doing naughty things with them.
If you don't like your date you can attempt to get dumped by insulting them and giving rubbish presents. Just like real life. Alternatively you can press reset and try your luck with someone else. Nothing like real life. The possibilities are endless and really rather risqué.
You don't need us to tell you how ludicrously addictive attempting to get your wicked way with a special new someone is, even when they're encased in a little plastic box that hangs from your keyring. In fact, we feel a craze coming on. So hit Add to Cart before the whole world goes digi-date doolally. -
13. Inflatable office in a bucket Designed for both indoor and outdoor use. Here's a tip: maybe don't pin anything on the walls.
http://www.officeinabucket.co.uk/ This is cool! check it out!
14. Lockup cup Another office gadget, this time a ceramic cup with a lock at the bottom so nobody else can use it. Be warned, workmates may see this as petty, and take to weeing on your cheese in retaliation.
http://www.gommeh.com/
16. Flying alarm clock Wakes you by taking off into the air while making a siren noise. Not recommended for any war veterans, in other words.
You'll have to get up when this little baby starts, because it takes off and flies round the room, making a really annoying noise like a mosquito,
so you'll have to find it first, before you can turn it off. Even if you hit the snooze button, it will take off again, so it will undoubtedly get you out of bed, though of course it might smash the place up a bit before you catch it, and if you sleep with the windows open you might find yourself running round the garden in your jimjams (no way to wake up) and may frighten the neighbourhood dogs.
There's also a slight danger that if you are a really heavy sleeper, and the things flies around the room without waking you up, eventually it will run out of juice, so it could wake you up by dropping on an exposed body part, such as the head, though I suppose you'd at least be awake. Or unconscious, possibly! -
17. Pimp My Bed Make your bed glow like a boy racer's car, giving the impression that it's floating. And spooking the bejaysus out of your cat.
You've seen it in the hit MTV series, now you can give your bed a fast and furious look this Christmas with this glowing neon light. Fix Pimp My Bed to the underside of your bed, switch it on and it'll transform a dull and dreary room into a pimped out pad fit for the likes of Snoop Dog!
This little device looks like a small flying saucer in appearance, but once connected to the mains, Pimp My Bed will illuminate any dark place with it's amazing neon glow. The glow gives the illusion that the bed is floating on a layer of neon light and is especially effective in complete darkness. Pimp My Bed is perfect for anyone who loves to customize their car and those seeking to create the ultimate bachelor pad!
18. Zaporozhye, the musical condom Has mini-speakers that play music louder and faster as your bumping'n'grinding becomes more frantic. Would be marvellous teamed with the Crazy Frog mic. Sorry, did I say marvellous? I meant arrestable.
If music be the food of love, play on, seems to be the message of the Zaporozhye, the musical condom. There's a sensor in the base and some teeny-tiny speakers that play music "louder and faster" as the sex becomes more enthusiastic. No word on cost, playlist, or how long it'll take Banksy to reprogram them to quote Paris Hilton.
19. iBuzz Two MP3 vibrator The sex toy that was so good, Apple called in the lawyers! Connect this to your MP3 playing device, and it buzzes and pulses in time to your tunes. I'm guessing sales of pounding Belgian techno have soared on the iTunes Store as a result...
The iBuzz Two will shake to the rhythm in the usual way, but a new feature is what manufacturer Love Labs calls "music-activated vibrations" - four "pulsing patterns" triggered by your tunes. You can fine-tune the device by selecting one of 11 vibration speeds.
The gadget comes with two bullets and a pair of rubber covers: a ring for him and a rabbit for her. It also sports two earphone sockets of its own allowing you and a chum to carry on listening while you... well, you know.
The whole thing runs off two AAA batteries, and is available from LoveHoney for £35. ® -
20. Duck Fadar. Part rubber duck, part Darth Vadar. And it lights up to give your bathroom a comforting glow. Although not quite comforting enough to make you forget the fact that you've just spent £6.95 on glowing Star Wars duck.
Duck Fadar is, as you may have determined, an LED-packed rubber duck resembling everyone's favourite Dark Lord. Simply pop him in the bath and watch in awe as he floats around and automatically phases through various mesmerising colours.
With his hi-tech helmet, hybrid beak/mask and glowing eyes you won't know whether to kneel before him or soap your wobbly bits as he bobs about in a menacing (okay, ridiculous) fashion.
Turn the lights off and breathe heavily into your toothbrush beaker and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in a bath tub far, far away! Then again, fear is the bath to the Duck side. Or something like that.
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19 is so damn cool!
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any ideas where can i get e flying alarm clock? seriously i want it. can i have e web?
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i want the pillow case taht is shiny!!! and i wan the vibrator at 19!
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ahahahah good stuffs
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It is here! http://www.boysstuff.co.uk/product.asp?id=13583Originally posted by stan.:any ideas where can i get e flying alarm clock? seriously i want it. can i have e web? -
Just make sure you dont get electrocuted on a rainy day with the lummy blouse and lummy pillow!Originally posted by MyPillowTalks:i want the pillow case taht is shiny!!! and i wan the vibrator at 19! -
most of the gadgets are great, where to get them??
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i need that geek a cycle!
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VS WHICH ONE?
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check out tech digest website loh...Originally posted by leo-kun:most of the gadgets are great, where to get them?? -
I want the Gundam suit!!!
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wat abt a soft toy incorporated with webcam ? any1 bought from here b4 ? just7983.com
any comments? -
number 20 looks cute!!! and i'm a fan of star wars too. but too bad i don't take baths anymore. maybe i'll take fadar to the swimming pool?