Another kind of timer. This one’s for your pet!

Thursday, March 18^th, 2010, Netcast 1049  

This easy-to-use, three-button system is the perfect pet assistant for dog owners; Dog-e-Minder is your dog's new best friend! It keeps track of the last time your dog was walked, fed and received medication. It’s perfect to use as a training aide or as a reminder for busy pet owners, multi-pet homes and pet-sitters/walkers, Dog-e-Minder takes the guesswork out of "pet parenting" and let's you rest assured that your pets are given the attention they deserve! A business and family man, Dog-e-Minder co-founder Yair Shalev, designed this product with the busy dog owner in mind, and knows first-hand just how challenging it can be to keep things orderly at a time when people are doing more with a lot less. The simple, three-button design is easy for any family member to use. Each button has a symbol related to an activity. The "fire hydrant" symbolizes walk time, the "dog bone" represents feeding time and the "RX" symbol records the last time medication was administered. When you perform any one of these activities, simply hold the corresponding button down for three seconds and the current date and time is saved. To view stored information, just press the appropriate button once, and the display shows the last time the task was completed. When idle, the Dog-e-Minder also acts as a dog identification tag, displaying important pet name and owner contact information. The durable and waterproof casing will handle everything from fetching to swimming, in rain or sunshine. With a battery and backlight included, the Dog-e-Minder is easy to program and has an easy-to-read digital display. Available in black, blue, pink or red. $19.95 + S&H.  

www.dogeminder.com   (Receive an optional PUPPY PINATA for FREE just pay S&H.)

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1049

A clock that teaches kids to sleep in so you can too!

Wednesday, March 17^th, 2010, Netcast 1048 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

Some time back on The Daily Giz Wiz we talked about the Good Nite Lite a device to help toddlers judge how long to wait before waking their parents. That device is here: www.goodnitelite.com And the Netcast on the Good Nite Lite is here: www.twit.tv/dgw801

But now there’s a new, even more convenient device, the OK to Wake! Alarm Clock & Nightlight. So your child will not disturb you too early in the morning, the OK to Wake! glows green when it’s time for young kids to go see mom and dad in the morning! (Turns "green" notice the clever St. Patrick's Day tie-in!) OK to Wake! features a dual-color nightlight. The nightlight is programmable. The parent defines what time the "Green means GO!" light turns on in the morning. In the evening, OK To Wake! is a comforting nightlight (soft yellow glow) that can be turned on at the tap of a "toe" for a programmable duration (up to two hours). For older children that want to get up "on their own", OK To Wake! is a fully-functional alarm clock with snooze - just like mom and dad's! A pleasant gradual-wake (ascending volume) tone gently rouses your child. When sounding, the left toe button snoozes for ten minutes and the right toe button silences the bell. Fun animations make OK To Wake! come to life with smiles and winks whenever the alarm is sounding. And something else that’s very convenient is the Built-In Nap Timer. Just press a button to nap for up to 24 hours (fully customizable) without the other clock settings. And, best of all, the nap timer can conclude with the OK To Wake! light, the gradual-wake tone or both! But wait, there’s more! The clock ships with two interchangeable colored bezels (green bug and pink flower). Volume and brightness settings are fully adjustable to meet the preference of you and/or your child. Runs entirely on battery power (2x AA required) Under $30 

http://www.americaninnovative.com/buy/

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1048

What’s up with Leo? He’s starting to do down-to-earth gadgets on Tuesdays!

TTTT, Tuesday, March 16^th, 2010, Netcast 1047

This Tuesday’s gadget of the day is the Car MD. Now to be fair, Leo didn’t have even have to look under his desk to find it. It was in his “goodie bag” from MAC World. But Leo tried it, and likes it! Car MD is designed to give drivers two things they need most when it comes to their vehicle’s health:  easy-to-use tools and empowering information. Leo said it’s very easy to use. It should work on any 1996 and newer car, light truck, SUV and minivan. To get started you plug Car MD into the data link connector (DLC) of your 1996 & newer vehicle. That gives the device access to the vehicle’s on-board computer. (Videos on the company’s website can explain a lot more.) After the CarMD gathers the info it needs, a LED light tells you to disconnect it. When Leo did it, it took less than a minute to get the info downloaded into his Car MD. Then you use your PC to upload the information and tap into the CarMD online database for a specific report about what’s ailing your vehicle. The company says their easy-to-understand reports let you determine things like why your vehicle’s “check engine” light is on and find out how severe the problem is and how much parts and labor should cost. It’s like getting a second opinion on your repair estimate by comparing your CarMD report with your mechanic’s to ensure they located the true source of your car’s pain and bill you fairly. The CarMD database has real-life fixes from thousands of ASE certified technicians across the country and a range of resources to help you decide to attempt repairs yourself or refer to a qualified mechanic. Cost is $99.

 http://www.carmd.com/Shop/Products

 Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1047

Michelin Smart Jumper Cables Making Charging A Breeze.

Monday, March 15^th, 2010 Netcast 1046  

What seems like an easy task to some, hooking up jumper cables, can actually be dangerous if not done correctly. Improper use of ordinary jumper cables can result in sparking or shorting, which can result in injury to the user. It can also produce a power surge that causes damage to a vehicle’s electrical system. And that’s bad news for your entertainment and navigation functions. Yes, it should be easy. The red battery cable goes to the positive side of the battery, and the black battery cable goes to go to the negative side of the battery. These days the usual recommendation is to connect the black battery cable to exposed metal on the engine block or the car frame to complete the ground. But if it’s dark, if the battery itself is poorly marked or just dirty, it may be difficult to make the connections properly. That’s where MICHELIN’S new Smart Jumper Cables come into play. They can help avoid problems during an improper jump-start. The first thing you notice is that these jumper cable ends are not marked with red or black, or negative or positive. That’s because it doesn’t matter how you hook them up. The built-in safety technology (a sealed box at the center of the cables) in Smart Jumper Cables provides surge protection and automatic polarity adjustment from either positive or negative connections. A green LED light tells you the circuits are complete. If the green LED light does not come on it might mean one of the cables is not making good contact. You’ll know which side isn’t making contact because there’s an LED light for both ends of the cables. They also have a textured grip to improve handling, especially in cold weather. But wait, there’s more! These cables stay flexible and tangle free because Michelin says they’re made with cold weather resistant materials. They also come with a sturdy zip-up storage case Under $40. 

www.michelinsmartcables.com 

I found them at the link below for $34.99, but I haven’t bought anything there.) 

http://www.amazon.com/Michelin-5100-Smart-Jumper-Cables/dp/B002RRZX06 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1046

Another old camera format you may have never heard of!

Back to Dick’s Gadget Warehouse, Friday, March 12^th, 2010, Netcast 1045

Years ago I had two APS still cameras, both from Kodak. APS stood for Advanced Photo System and we reported on it here: http://www.twit.tv/dgw745.

Then there was the camera that you loaded with “round film”, the Kodak Disc Camera. We reported on it here: http://www.twit.tv/dgw690.

Photo via http://www.rangefinderforum.comLess known then those two old formats were the “half-frame” cameras like the Konica AA-35. The half-frame format let manufacturers make smaller, more compact cameras than the typical 35MM camera of the day. While these cameras used regular 35 MM film, they were able to take two pictures on every 35MM frame. So a normal roll of 36 exposures yielded 72 half-frame pics. But when you had the regular 35 MM film processed you had to indicate HALF FRAME on the envelope, or your slides might be mounted 2 in 1 frame, instead of one image in each frame. Up until a couple of years ago Wal-Mart processed Half Frame Film and you got back 72 prints. Probably the most famous of the half-frame format cameras all was the Olympus Pen models. (There are still a lot of forums for fans of the Olympus Pen cameras.) But when companies found they could build compact cameras that used 35MM film in its normal full frame format, half-frame was doomed. The Olympus XA was one the first compact cameras that proved it was possible to make cameras as small as the half-frame models while taking full frame 35mm shots. My choice for a half frame camera was the Konica AA-35. It had a lot of features for the time, including the first drop-in loading film. It also had a built-in motor-drive, auto-exposure, and flash. When you finished shooting on the pictures on a roll of film, you flipped the switch on the bottom of the camera and the motor rewound the film into the cassette. Wow! Very high tech for the time! 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1045