Tape measure skills

Some guys with too much time on their hands.

As seen on Signal vs. Noise

1:1 Scale models

Michael Johansson creates life-size scale model kits.



More at http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/under-the-influence/just-add-johansson/

Green mouse

This eco-friendly, wooden mouse by AlestRukov uses natural materials as much as possible in the design.


Read more about Wooden mouse on the Behance Network

Google Chrome OS

Just watched the (over 1 hour long) Google Chrome OS webcast.

Today Google released it to Open Source and gave a demo. It looks interesting and really fast, simple and secure to use.

It won't be available for a year and then you'll need a supported device to run it, but it looks very promising.

The "What is Google Chrome OS?" video below is a much shorter intro:

Google Wave Invites

I've got some spare Google Wave invites if any of the Muzgadget Bros or our readers are curious to use this technology. See my earlier post Google Wave : Communication revolution for a long video introduction to Google Wave. Or to save time see this much quicker and funnier introduction:

What is Google Wave?

Digital Camera Kit for Kids

As seen on Make : Bigshot, an amazing educational digital camera kit that teaches kids how the camera works and helps them discover photography.

under $10 webcam

I got a cheap webcam from a small supermarket today because they had a special price 9.90 Turkish Lira (about 6.75 USD).

It is the art1300t webcam from artes and features a built in microphone, 10x digital zoom, face tracking, some tacky frame effects and reasonable basic picture quality.

A picture of the webcam box (it is tricky to capture a picture of a camera with the same camera) with the Magnify Special Effect Frame

Need a part-time balcony?

This fold out balcony from Bloomframe morphs from a window to a balcony. These innovative building components are now in production and available in a variety of colors and materials as well as custom designs to match new and existing buildings.

The quirky world of "manspaces"

A TED talk from Sam Martin about custom built man hangouts.

Check out too the LifeHacker featured workspaces.

Model railroads - the analog version of SimCity

When I was about 8 years old, a friend's Dad had a model railway set up in their shed. It was nothing compared to this huge layout of the Diablo Valley Lines (imaginary railroad company) at Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society.



Much more at Giant Model Railroad Is an Analog SimCity | Raw File | Wired.com

Restaurant in a box

A fast food restaurant in a shipping container?

Müvbox is a standard shipping container that has been converted into a fold out restaurant. Features include solar power, a full function kitchen with a wood fire pizza oven and room for four staff. Complete with tables for up to 28 people (half seated), it is a fascinating concept.


Specs and more at muvboxconcept.com.

Learning from lizard tails and sticky feet

A cool TED talk on advances in robotics by looking at nature.

Frankenputer

A hybrid device - part tablet, part netbook running Google Android and Windows XP is being developed in Taiwan.

The video shows how the HP Mini 1000 has been modified with a tablet for display.

VIA@Computex2009: Hybrid HP Mininote/Tablet PC

As seen on How TO Be Mobile via Make.

bing

The beta version of the search engine from Microsoft - bing - possibly an acronym for But its not Google went live today.

A quick comparison with Google shows it has a long way to go to be a replacement. A search for muzgadgets produced 17 results, almost all of them to pages that refer to here. There were no direct search results to here.

A search for muzgadgets.blogspot.com gave "We did not find any results for muzgadgets.blogspot.com."

Google on the other hand gives about 123 results for a search for muzgadgets and the blog just makes it to the first page at position number 10. Google also has 364 results for a search for muzgadgets.blogspot.com with the blog coming in at number 7.

Google Wave : Communication revolution

Unveiled at Google I/O, Google Wave is a revolutionary way of collaboratively communicating. Still under development, it is open source and already has an impressive number of features. Google is opening it up for developers to add even more rich features with server based robots extensions and embedded gadgets to make a website more collaborative.

The long demo is impressive, but covers all the cool stuff.

More info at http://wave.google.com/

Mission One: Fastest Electric Motorcycle

Yves Behar and Forrest North grew up experimenting with wind and solar power. They have collaborated to design Mission One, a high speed electric motorbike with twice the range of any electric motorcycle.

More images of the design at fuseproject.

Wanganui Airport 11th largest in the world!

According the new search engine Wolfram | Alpha, humble Wanganui Airport in New Zealand is the 11th largest in the world by number of runways.

Wanganui has one asphalt runway of 1378 m and four grass runways between 504 m and 902 m long.

Wolfram Alpha is powered by Mathematica, the powerful tool for mathematics and statistics and is in early stages of development.

Mechanical sculptures

As a child, Arthur Ganson was introverted and used his hands for expression. He makes dynamic sculptures and in this TED talk, shares about his work.

Mobile Mini House

Pop-Up Campers Could Go Modern!

Pop-up campers have come a long way in terms of comfort and built-in technology, but for the most part the design has remained unchanged. Of course, it was only a matter of time until someone came up with something new and exciting and in this case, it could change how people look at their "home away from home."

Read more and see the insides at InventorSpot

Augmented Reality Magic 1.0

Cool video of reality and virtual reality interacting. Magic!

World's largest Kiwi built piano

Number 8 wire, blokes in sheds - classic kiwi ingenuity!

2 wheeled urban vehicle

This battery powered GM/Segway project, expected to be developed by 2012, will use wireless technology for navigation. I imagine a single seat version could be a good replacement for most mobility scooters, especially with the roof providing all weather riding.

Emergency rope

If you are ever stuck in a MacGyver situation where you need a rope and your shoelaces are just not long enough, here are some handy wearable gadgets that might help your survival.

Survival Straps - Paracord Survival Bracelets, Lanyards, Belts and Accessories... Be Prepared!

As seen on Springwise: Promising new business ideas for entrepreneurial minds

Easter themed Rube Goldberg Machine

As seen on MAKE Magazine

Utilikilts

Check out these mockumercials for Utilikilts, practical menswear.

UTILIKILTS : Mockumercials

NPrize - the race to launch a tiny satellite with a tiny budget

Several teams are registered to design and launch a tiny satellite (between 9.99 and 19.99 grams) higher than 99Km and orbit the earth 9 times for less than £999.

There are a couple of prizes. £9999.99 for single-spend-to-orbit and £9999.99 for doing it with a reusable vehicle (entrants can exceed the £999 budget, but per-launch cost remains within budget).

The Official Site for the N-Prize

Electric guitar with replaceable soundboards

For guitarists who want different acoustic style sounds without investing in multiple guitars


As seen on MAKE: Blog : Chameleon guitar takes on many tones

Petaminx puzzle

In November, I blogged about the Pentultimate. The latest development from PuzzleForge is the Petaminx.

This amazing custom built puzzle took hours to make. It has 975 parts (not counting the 1212 hand stuck stickers).

Read more about the make at The Making of The Petaminx

Designing Interactions

I stumbled across this website (and book and DVD) about designing interactions. The first thing that attracted me to it was this image of remote controls made simpler, by hiding features that are not commonly used.

This is just what my father-in-law needs.

Designing Interactions starts with chapters about the invention of early interaction devices like the mouse, desktop and PDA. The middle talks about designing services, the internet and play. It finishes with some discussion of what the future may hold.

Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge

Cloudburst - aerial firefighting gadget

IMS Ltd » Cloudburst
One of the MuzGadget brothers recently did some video work for the company making this helicopter fire fighting gadget.

[Edit 13 April 2019. Images and video freshened to replace broken links]

Mono wheeled rollerblades

Orbitwheels - mono wheeled rollerblades

Happy Birthday MuzGadget Bro

One of the MuzGadget Brothers is having a birthday today. Why not make his day with a gadget gift, or at least some blog posts about some cool gadgets?

Emergency gadget stand

Here is an innovative idea for creating a stand for your iPhone (or similar sized handheld gadgets). You might get away with just 3 pencils and 2 rubber bands, but this configuration would give better support.

Pencil iPhone Stand | Geeky Gadgets

dolphin-inspired submersible watercraft.

Small is the new big

I've seen a couple of interesting items about miniaturization recently:

Willard Wigen makes tiny sculptures.

Microscopic Art
by funnytoo

In 1960, famous physicist Dr Richard Feynman described How to Build an Automobile Smaller than this dot -> .

Portable computing with a tiny projector

The DLP Pico Projector kit looks promising. It is a iPod sized projector that coupled with a similar sized BeagleBoard makes a great little Linux system. Low priced too - 500 USD for the system.



See the details at MAKE: Blog: TI's BeagleBoard and DLP Pico Projector == Linux everywhere

Cool Tools: 5-in-1 Painter's Tool

Here's a gadget that could come in useful, especially if you are in the process of building a big house like one of the MuzGadget brothers is doing.



See the uses at Cool Tools: 5-in-1 Painter's Tool