I love to play with nifty gadgets. Personally, I like the ones with lots of nifty features. Of course, it doesn’t help if half those features don’t work as advertised. I could say more, but this good article explains why more isn’t always better and why certain types of gadgets are doomed to fail.

Hooray for boat-airplane-cars!

People make robots that do the strangest things. Now I’ve found one that uses LEGO parts and solves Rubic’s Cubes. It’s an interesting application of LEGOs and software to solve a rather silly problem.

I’m not sure if I would have the patience to build something like this from scratch, especially since I don’t have any Rubic’s Cubes that I  desperately need solving. But I commend someone for doing what they think is fun, so that’s cool.

If and when I ever start soldering my own electronic gizmos, I’m sure I’ll end up needing a circuit board or two. I’ve found Pad2Pad, which I run across every so often, that lets you do custom circuit boards. The prices don’t look too bad at all, although they certainly are more than mass-produced boards you can buy in the store.

But, hey, they’re custom.

If you need more than just circuit boards, eMachineShop (no relationship to the computer brand) lets you create things like gears, brackets, decorations, etc.

The downside of these sites is that you must have Windows and not Linux to use their software. Pretty cool stuff anyway, however.

I found a new site with things to drool over: TOPGADGET. I’m not sure about the things like the ‘Q-link’ pendants, but darn those watches are something I really want! I’ve also wanted the EcoSpheres for awhile.

Even though the site is UK and I’m not… I can still look and drool.

No matter how old you are, it’s always fun (in my opinion) to make ‘toys’. However, if you’re the type that needs an ‘excuse’ to play around with stuff, then you should simply skip the Science Toys site. It has a variety of ‘experiments’/toys from various areas of science.

There is even something about playing with electronic fish - something like an electric eel, only not quite as dangerous.

I have an urge to try making the ‘3 penny radio‘… but I’d need a few parts first. Hm.

Don’t you hate when you lose the remote? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could, oh, say store that information on your computer and never lose it? Or how about being able to control various parts of your computer (such as a music player) via remote?

If so, and you’re electronically inclined, go check out LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control). If I tried to explain it all, I wouldn’t do as good a job as they did.

Go check it out and never lose your remote again, you geek you.

I’ve been meaning to learn how to solder, since there are several things that I would like to make (like the Altoids MP3 player), but I haven’t got a soldering iron or gun.

I can still look, right?

Well, I found this guide on how to make a desoldering iron, or a ‘hot air pencil’. It looks pretty nifty and if I ever get around to soldering things, it’s certainly something I’m going to have to make.

Apple has announced that they will be releasing a new product later this year: The iPot. The iPot will be available by November, just in time for Thanksgiving.

The iPot is a combination Crockpot and microwave type device, with the addition of internet connectivity features. Like a Crockpot, the iPot must be plugged into the wall (as opposed to being used on the stove). Like a microwave, you can program the iPot for various foods.

You will be able to put food into the iPot in the morning and it will keep the food cool (using reverse thermal induction technology) until the afternoon, when it will start cooking. By the time you get home from work or school, your food will be hot and ready for you to eat.

Sensors in the iPot will tell the attached mini-computer the exact temperature and moisture content of the food, letting the mini-computer know when your food is cooked to perfection. Once your food has finished cooking, the iPot changes to ‘warming’ mode, letting you retrieve it at your convenience.

The iPot also comes with an Ethernet port, allowing you to hook the mini-computer up to your network to download recipes from the official iPot site. The recipes will be free and allow you to cook a variety of thousands of different dishes without having to program the iPot yourself.

The iPot also has a slot for flash memory, allowing you to take the recipes you’ve programmed with you wherever you go (for example, to give to a friend).

For those worried that the mini-computer will be damaged by the heat, it will be connected to the iPot itself by a long cord which will allow the sensitive components of the mini-computer to be separate from the heat generated by cooking.

The iPot will come in sizes from 1-quart sauce pan all the way up to 8-quart stew pot. Plans are also in the works for a ‘bacon & eggs’ breakfast model, which will be a frying pan.

Prices for the iPot have not yet been announced.