Gadgets and Gear

  • Take Flight with the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K Quadcopter Camera Drone

    Take Flight with the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K Quadcopter Camera Drone

    Everyone wants a quadcopter drone. Over the past year or two, these small, multi-rotor radio controlled aircraft have hit the mainstream. There are tiny palm sized ones, giant professional camera ones, and then the middle of the road – the backpack-sized, easily flyable, fun-sized ones. The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K fits right in there –…

  • The Best Gear from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2015

    The Best Gear from the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2015

    Last week I attended the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market show, a giant collection gear manufacturers showing off their wares for the upcoming years. Although I didn’t get to talk to everyone at the show, I did stop by a bunch of booths to check out what they have coming up. Here are a few of…

  • InMyBag.Net – What’s In Photographer’s Daily Bags?

    InMyBag.Net – What’s In Photographer’s Daily Bags?

    My new website obsession is InMyBag.net, where photographers show off what’s in their photo kit bags. Endless entertainment.  I especially love seeing Aaron Bates’ Adventure Travel Photography Bag.  InMyBag.net.

  • Google Street View in the Grand Canyon: Google Trekker

    Google Street View in the Grand Canyon: Google Trekker

    Introducing Google Trekker in the Grand Canyon – what a great use of Google’s street view tech: Today, demonstrating the rocky and rugged paths we’ll travel to make Google Maps even more complete, we’re collecting imagery from a place no car, trike or snowmobile has ever been before. On its first official outing, the Street…

  • The iPhone 5 Is the Best Smartphone | The Wirecutter

    The iPhone 5 Is the Best Smartphone | The Wirecutter

    Good blurb from Brian Lam at The Wirecutter on the logic of upgrading your phone when the current one is “fine”. It’s “The One Thing That’s Always Within Arms Reach”, and has such an increasingly large effect on our lives that it’s the one thing worth shelling out to keep upgraded. I’m in complete agreement.…

  • Apple reveals Lightning to microUSB adapter

    Apple reveals Lightning to microUSB adapter

    Finally, and as expected, Apple is out with it’s micro USB to Lightning adapter. This adapter is necessary to satisfy Europe’s demand for all smartphones to have a standard Micro USB connection, which I certainly support. Stateside, I think it’s also the go-to adapter to carry around – as the legacy 30-pin iPod cable begins…

  • Barcode vs NFC Payments on iOS6 and iPhone5 – Why Barcodes Are Better

    Barcode vs NFC Payments on iOS6 and iPhone5 – Why Barcodes Are Better

    With Apple’s eminent announcement of iOS 6 today, mobile payments will get yet another major boost. Now my barcode-scan based payment scheme won’t be restricted to only the beloved Starbucks app, but will open up to lots of other applications too. A few thoughts on Barcode Scan Payments vs NFC Payments. Certainly not fully fleshed…

  • What Youll Be Able To Do With The Next iPhones New NFC Antenna

    What Youll Be Able To Do With The Next iPhones New NFC Antenna

    Very interesting roundup of all of the uses for the new iPhones NFC Antenna. If Apple does in fact include an NFC antenna in the new iPhone, and if implimented correctly, the implications are quite exciting.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KY8H61TKDUE Word just leaked that the next generation of iPhones will come with a special kind of antenna, designed…

  • Stay Versatile with Polychrome Lab’s Alpine Concept Jacket

    Stay Versatile with Polychrome Lab’s Alpine Concept Jacket

    Cool jacket today – white on one side, black on the other. Wear it black side out to absorb sunlight and stay warm, wear it white side out to reflect heat and stay cool. Perfect for travel! alpine concept j | | polychromeLAB. Creator’s blog post about testing the jacket: POLYCHROME JKT DAY ONE From…

  • Printing On Fabric Using Sunlight And An iPhone

    Jesse Genet of Lumi is offering a new product that lets users print their pictures on fabric using the company’s Lumityper app, and printing with their Inkodye system. Very cool application of tech+crafts. Found via Alan and DesignTaxi. Support Jesse on Kickstarter. About the process: Taking photography out of the darkroom, Jesse Genet of Lumi…

  • Explainer: How A Digital Camera Is Made

    Thanks to PetaPixel, who brings us this cool video on the production of a Canon digital camera:

  • Video: Assembly of the AWARE2 Multiscale Gigapixel Camera

    Video: Assembly of the AWARE2 Multiscale Gigapixel Camera

    Today, a very very cool time laps video of the assembly of the AWARE2 Multiscale Gigapixel Camera: Project overview, from The Duke Imaging and Spectroscopy Program: This program is focused on building wide-field, video-rate, gigapixel cameras in small, low-cost form factors. Traditional monolithic lens designs, must increase f/# and lens complexity and reduce field of…

  • The Art of Crafting a Leica Camera

    Great video from Leica highlighting the meticulous craftsmanship that goes into each Leica Camera: Watch the making of the Leica M9-P »Edition Hermès« — Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas, introduced in Berlin at the “LEICA – DAS WESENTLICHE” on May 10, 2012. This limited edition is a celebration of the friendship and collaboration between Jean-Louis Dumas,…

  • Moving your iPhone Stream to Paper: Networked Receipt Printers

    Over the last year or so, there’s been a bit of a trend to get what once was a purely digital news stream and turn it back into paper. The coolest implementation I’ve seen of this trend has been the use of receipt printers – those tiny thermal printers that are ubiquitous in retail shops,…

  • gokey: keeping your keys safe on the go

    An interesting concept, but I’m not totally convinced. I already run with my large-ish Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch on one wrist, and try to keep the stuff I run with to a minimum. If you must run with a metal key on you, this could be a workable solution – however, how about just…

  • Project Glass: One day…

    Interesting concept… getting closer to making this a reality.

  • Composer Creates Artificial Engine Sounds For New Audi Hybrid @PSFK

    Interesting concept from Audi – custom vehicle noises for otherwise silent electric cars. audi e-sound for e-tron electric vehicles from designboom on Vimeo. Composer Creates Artificial Engine Sounds For New Audi Hybrid [Video] @PSFK.

  • Muji’s Ambient Background Music

    Muji’s Ambient Background Music

    Every time I shop in the Muji down the street from my office, I notice their soothing, hip, and perfectly fitting background music. Sometimes it’s ambient dreamscapes, sometimes pop, sometimes acoustic, but always nice. Today Boing Boing posts a piece about Muji’s BGM ambient background music. Soothing… Makes me remember back to the Buddha Machine,…

  • Geode – eInk and Transmorphing Credit Card in an iPhone Case

    Geode – eInk and Transmorphing Credit Card in an iPhone Case

    Check out the Geode, another great product funded on Kickstarter: Geode is an iPhone Appcessory that stores credit cards, loyalty cards, gift cards, and membership cards and protects the information with biometric security. The onboard universal card and e-ink barcode screen means that any card can be stored in the Geode and used anytime, anywhere.…

  • Gear Review: AGloves Touchscreen Compatible Gloves Let Me iPhone while I Run

    Gear Review: AGloves Touchscreen Compatible Gloves Let Me iPhone while I Run

    This past summer, friend Jean Spencer hooked me up with a pair of awesome AGloves Touchscreen Compatible Gloves. It’s been a while since she gave them to me, and now that the weather has turned cold, I’ve gotten a great amount of use out of them. In short, my 1st generation AGloves are great. A…

  • Shooting with the Lytro Lightfield Camera

    Shooting with the Lytro Lightfield Camera

    This past weekend friend Dave Surgan and I visited the Wired Holiday Store to demo the new Lytro lightfield camera. Although the workflow process for importing and manipulating images was a little buggy, the camera worked great. Form factor is very first generation, but apparently is necessary to accomodate the complex lens design. The square…

  • Marathon Prep: The Gear

    Marathon Prep: The Gear

    I’m going to be running the NYC Marathon tomorrow, and in preparation, here’s a brief rundown of the gear that I’ll be using. Although running is a relatively gear-sparse sport, there’s still a good amount of thought that goes into each thing I carry with me – which I’ll need to lug for every step…

  • How good is the video from the iPhone 4S? Pretty Damn Good.

    One of the key new features of the iPhone 4S is its upgraded 8 megapixel camera. The new camera module, coupled with Apple’s powerful A5 processor now has the ability to take very good looking 8MP still photos, as well as full 1080p video. But how good really is that 1080p video? Very good, according…

  • Review of the 2011 Apple Macbook Air i7 13″

    Review of the 2011 Apple Macbook Air i7 13″

    This week I got the new Apple Macbook Air 13″ with the 1.8ghz Intel Core i7 ULV Processor, and 256gb SSD. Here are some of my initial thoughts. Compared to my old Core i7 15″ Macbook pro, it rocks. The processor is still an i7, but the clock speed is slower, and it’s a new…