By Andrew Liszewski Designed primarily for persons living in single floor ranch-style homes (I’m assuming) the Slink-O-Matic does the slinking for you when you’re lacking a staircase, or even adequate multi-hand coordination. It was built by Jim Sellers out of Oregon, and is a perfect example of a ‘why ask why?’ invention. I’m also excited about his rumored pet rock walker, and his upcoming hula hoop straightener.... 

By Andrew Liszewski It’s an issue that’s plagued old-timey wild west theme towns for years. You want to keep the saloon looking authentic, with an upright piany in the corner, but at the same time you want to appeal to today’s tech-savvy tourists. Well an Italian company called Craft Line has come up with the perfect solution with this upright piano called the Mediano that features a hidden mechanism to hide and raise or lower... 

By Andrew Liszewski You can file this one under desk crap, but as desk crap goes, it’s a rather clever combination of an hourglass ’sand’ timer and those immiscible liquid devices. Instead of sand, this hourglass timer, which runs for about 30 minutes, uses an orange colored liquid that is lighter than the clear liquid, so when flipped upside down the hourglass appears to run in reverse. The sand effect is more convincing if... 

By Andrew Liszewski In what is easily the best use of the iPhone/iPod Touch’s hardware interface to date, New Potato Technologies has created a dock, which they refer to as an ‘appcessory’, that turns your phone or MP3 player into a miniature one-armed bandit. While the Jackpot Slots dock will set you back $39.99 , the accompanying app is a free download from the App Store . It includes realistic graphics and sounds, online... 

By Andrew Liszewski People don’t seem to mind paying a few bucks to use a public toilet, so designer Fabian Brunsing figured the same idea would fly when applied to a park bench. The idea is pretty simple, just insert 0.50 Euros and a rather unpleasant looking set of spikes retract providing a comfortable place to sit. I just hope there’s some kind of audible timer or warning for when your funds are about to run out. Update: So with... 

By Andrew Liszewski What looks like an amazing set of speakers on a living room wall actually turns out to be a series of sound dampening foam tiles. The SP-Tiles from Typhonics are designed to pretty much do the same thing as the acoustical tiles you’d find on the walls of recording studios and other sound quality critical venues, but look a bit cooler doing it so you’ll be less apprehensive about using them in your home. They attach... 

By Andrew Liszewski At first glance I worried that this adapter plate from Thanko that allows you to perch your laptop atop an unused tripod could lead to a nasty fall, turning your expensive hardware into a pile of unusable electronic bits. But I guess professional photographers do the same thing with high-end DSLRs that can be considerably more expensive than even the most-tripped out laptops. So it should probably work just fine, as long... 

By Andrew Liszewski I’m not sure I ever feel this much animosity towards unwanted solicitors banging on my front door, but according to this product shot, the elderly certainly do. This removable decal, created by a company called Monkey Business, makes every vacuum salesman, Jehovah’s witness or girl guide flogging cookies seem like your next target. But if you find the rifle a little harsh, more innocuous versions of the decal... 

By Chris Scott Barr Do you grow tired of drinking coffee?  I don’t mean the flavor, or even the hassle one has to go through to procure a good cup of Joe. No, I mean are you tired of having to lift a cup to your lips and drink every few minutes in order to get your caffeine boost? I’ll be the first to admit, it takes a lot of effort. You have to drop everything you’re doing with one of your hands for a few seconds, not to... 

By Andrew Liszewski The only downside to owning a dog that I can see is having to deal with their unmentionables left in the backyard. Now there are contraptions of all shapes and sizes designed to make cleaning up after your pup a bit less unpleasant, but this is definitely the first vacuum I’ve come across designed specifically for the task. The cordless Pooch Power Shovel sucks the waste directly into specially designed plastic bags... 

By Andrew Liszewski Believe it or not this inflatable contraption from Taylor Gifts is actually designed to eliminate neck pain. You wrap it around your neck and then go to town with the handheld pump until it’s inflated enough to relieve pressure caused by pinch nerves, tension headaches and osteoarthritis. On one hand $19.98 seems like a steal for a product that promises to reduce neck pain, but on the other hand the “If you have... 

By Andrew Liszewski I don’t care if you were the star quarterback, there’s nothing ‘cool’ about wearing a Jostens ring to commemorate your years spent in high school. So you can imagine what I think of these ‘Geek Pride’ models designed for kids who spent their spare time in front of a gaming console instead of playing sports, or debating, or whatever else high school kids do these days. [ GoNintendo –... 

By Andrew Liszewski This art installation seems to date back to 2006, but since it’s new to me, I’m going to assume it’s new to at least a few of you as well. In the same way a television uses colored pixels to produce images, the VSSTV plotter injects bubble wrap with cyan, magenta and yellow ink using a printhead featuring 3 long needles. Created by Gebhard Sengmüller, in collaboration with Jakob Edlbacher, Johannes Obermayr,... 

By Andrew Liszewski In past articles I’ve already made my frightening Nostradamus-like prediction that Hello Kitty will eventually take over the world. But that doesn’t mean the human race has to go quietly, and ironically this Hello Kitty themed chainsaw will be the perfect tool as we battle for our freedom from the forces of cute and pink. [ Hello Kitty Hell - Hello Kitty Chainsaw ] VIA [ Albotas ]  Read More →

By Andrew Liszewski If you have dreams of one day making it big in the NBA/WNBA, you can’t stop playing basketball just because the sun’s gone down… and the streetlights have all burned out… and the moon has disappeared. Not at all! You have to keep practicing until the wee hours of the morning, and the only feasible  Read More →