First new gadget from CES! Something to "Keep under your hat!"

Monday, January 11^th, 2010, Netcast 1001

We recorded this episode, DGW #1001 at CES. We recorded the rest of this week's shows before we went out to Vegas so they could be edited for air. So today's show is a gadget from CES & then next week we'll have lots more. But, trust me,  this one is the weirdest!

This photo is from our friends over at Gizmodo. We'll can't see who's wearing the cap - which is a good thing, right?I expect to find unusual things at CES and boy did I find one. On a Daily Giz Wiz episode about a month ago I told Leo I had read about this device and Leo thought it was a joke. But it wasn’t! I’m talking about the TV hat: a baseball cap with a brim that's about a foot long!!  There’s a clear plastic VideoMP3/iPhone/iPod holder at the tip of the cap that drops down. You put your player in there. In between your eyes and the screen is a drop-down rectangular magnifying glass that makes your video source appear much bigger. It’s on a track so you can slide it forward or back for focus. The company says it’s: “A movie theater experience absolutely anywhere!” I’m not sure about that, but I must say it does work pretty well. (But DO NOT THINK High Def, or even medium def.) Even Leo had to admit, “this thing works”. One thing is for certain. You will look truly weird wearing this device. Black flaps drop down around the cap to block out the light. The kit even include a black flap to hang from the cap behind your neck. If you don’t mind looking like the “Elephant Man”, you could use this on the plane, train, bus or even on a camping trip. A camping trip is good because less people will see you! Also the price isn’t bad. Here are the official details: Receive the As Seen On TV Hat in your choice of Cap or Visor for $19.95 plus $7.95 S&H and a FREE neck protector. You can also choose your color; choose from blue, white, red, khaki or camouflage. When you purchase 2 or more As Seen On TV Hats we will pay the additional shipping!

https://www.asseenontvhat.com/flare/next

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1001  

OMG, We did it! We hit Daily Giz Wiz 1000!!

Before we jump into today’s Daily Giz Wiz – THANK YOU all so much for making it possible for the Daily Giz Wiz to carry own through 1,000 episodes and win a People’s Choice Award for Best Comedy Podcast. (I don’t know why we won in that category when we try to be so serious!) Monday, we’ll start on our second 1,000 episodes!

AND WHAT COULD BE MORE FITTING THAN FOR LEO, I AND MOST OF TWiT TO BE IN LAS VEGAS AT CES WHEN DAILY GIZ WIZ 1,000 AIRS!

Friday, January 8th, 2009

Wake Up To Your Own Voice!

For this Friday's Dick's Gadget Warehouse I found the Wake Yoo Alarm Clock. This was a clever device that was around for a few years but didn’t make a big noise. When I said didn’t make a “big noise”, I meant in sales. The Wake Yoo website now says: “Might be for sale" – and it’s one of those ‘parking websites’ which has nothing to do with the clock.  The idea of the clock is clever. You record your own message or sounds right into the Wake Yoo Alarm Clock built in memory chip. It’s only a ten second chip, but it was enough to record your own reminders or wake -up message.  And it was really easy to do. Just hold the big 'record button' on the front of the clock and start recording the message. That message will wake you up every morning until you decide to change it. You could have given this clock to a loved one and let them hear your voice every morning or you could record something you think might motivate yourself to get going in the early hours. There’s a built-in volume control that let the message playback loudly for heavy sleepers. It sold for about $20. You can still see it here and there on the web, but all the places that list it have “no longer available” printed below the clock. It was available from about 2001 to 2005.
 
Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1000

Again, thank you all for listening! I LOVE recording the Daily Giz Wiz with Leo & I'm thrilled others enjoy our silliness, I mean, our seriousness!

Stick this in your ear! It’s the smallest MP3 Player I’ve ever seen. Or heard!

Thursday, January 7^th, 2010, Netcast 999

We've seen some very mini MP3 players in our time. Take a look at the iPod Shuffle and the tiny MobyBlu. (I think MobyBlu has given up the MP3 market.) But so far I’ve seen nothing is as small as the Micro Sport MP3 Player. It’s imported from Japan by the folks at Think Geek. Somehow the folks overseas have crammed 4GB of memory, a rechargeable battery and a couple of tiny buttons into an MP3 player about the size of two sugar cubes. Amazingly this tiny player features full stereo sound. One ear bud is attached directly to the main unit along with the controls. You can wear that unit by itself if you want just mono music. For full stereo sound there’s another ear bud with a cord that plugs into the main unit and drapes around the back of your head. Viola! You have full stereo in a tiny package. Loading music is easy. Plug the Micro Sport into a USB port on your computer and it shows up as a USB thumb drive. Simply drag any MP3 files you want to take on the road into the Micro Sport. Now not only is this MP3 tiny, so are the controls. It takes some getting used to – to find the buttons while you’re wearing it. And since the Micro Sport Japanese MP3 Player is imported from Japan it means that the directions are all in Japanese. But unlike my Japanese Traffic Light Alarm Clock website which offered no help for me, ThinkGeek does help folks who buy this device. There’s a mini-English use manual on their website. The Micro Sport’s built in rechargeable Li battery charges via USB. No drivers are required and it works with any OS. Sound is really decent although you’ll need the foam pads for the earbuds. But they’re included. $79.99

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/c76a/

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw999

IS IT POSSBILE???  DAILY GIZ WIZ 1,000 TOMORROW!

Holy Cow! I won something --- and it wasn’t a scam email!

Wednesday, January 6^th, 2010, Netcast 998

When I saw the subject line: You won a Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini, I moved my finger toward the ‘delete’ key. But something told me I should open the email instead. Surprise, I really did win. At a press event I had been to everyone was invited to throw a business card in a fish bowl to win a B&W Zeppelin Mini. At this event I saw the Mini for the first time, but I was already familiar with regular Zeppelin. If you haven’t seen one, it looks like – well, a Zeppelin. It’s long – more than 25” long - and pointed at both ends. The Mini is much smaller, but still different from other iPod docks on the market. It has a bright mirror-like plate at the top. It looks very high tech, but attracts fingerprints like an magnet. The Mini comes with a pebble remote and an AC adapter. (There’s no battery operation option.) You have to make sure you don’t lose the remote because the unit itself only has on/off and volume. But when you connect this to your iPod, iPhone or Touch, you will use their on screen controls. The arm that holds your iPod device rotates if you want to watch wide screen video. You can also connect any other MP3 player or music source through the 3.5mm auxiliary jack in the rear. I think the unit doesn’t make sense if you’re not going to use an iPod device because the empty bracket will just sit there in plain view at the very top of the unit. You can connect the Mini to your computer via USB to listen to tunes on your hard drive, but it’s not wireless as many other iPod docks are. There’s a light in the center of the mesh speaker grille that changes color and/or blinks to tell you what the Mini is doing. Inside the unit (the Mini is only about 12” wide) are twin 3-inch glass fiber drivers. There’s a rear bass port and a 36-watt amplifier. The sound is good, but to my ears it really lacks bass. And it’s not inexpensive at $399.99. (The full-sized Zeppelin is $599.99.) 

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=4361

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw998

Where’s my iPhone? I want to check my weight!

Tuesday, January 5^th, 2009, TTTT, Netcast 997

via our friends at unplggd.comNo, you don’t step on your iPhone to get your weight, but you can get results from your scale sent to your iPhone! This is a different kind of scale. You could display it on your coffee table instead of hiding it in the bathroom! That’s how smart and high tech it looks. Leo bought one so you know it’s no ordinary scale. It’s the Withings Connected Body Scale. It not only measures your weight, but by sending a tiny bit of voltage through your body, it also lets you know fat mass, and lean mass. Actually, if you like, it can let EVERYONE know everything about your body mass. It can not only send info from the scale to your own personal area of the company's website via WiFi, it can send it to TWITTER for ALL to see. It runs on four AAA batteries and gets connected to a PC or MAC just for the initial set up. Then it’s wireless and operates anywhere your WiFi area is active. It can keep track of up to four people in the family. And as you might expect, yes - there's an iPhone app too! You can receive data about your weight, fat mass, etc. on your iphone so you can show it folks who don’t follow your body on TWITTER!  The Withings scale is far more expensive than a normal bathroom scale, but it sure does a lot more. I guess the fact that you let so many people follow your progress encourages you to do your best to reduce, or maintain your weight once you get to where you want to be. Since I weigh myself at the gym only when I’m sure no one is looking, this is a device I won’t be running out to order. $159.00

www.withings.com    

Follow Leo’s Scale on Twitter. www.twitter.com/leos_scale

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw997