Amazing Cars That Use A iPad For Their Fun Travels!

Disney has combined a real hold-in-your-hands toy car with a virtual Cars 2 world online with their new Appmates. The Cars 2 toys use the iPad as a virtual inter-active play mat for kids, and for adults too. You get to drive them and interact with other cars via a free downloadable app. Once the car is placed on the app's colorful background, the scrolling begins! You cruise (and crash) your cars in different locations in world-famous Radiator Springs - a neat location from the movie. There are five different racetracks, where you can race against on-screen, but still fun-to-beat, virtual opponents. Each Appmate car features a unique sensor on the bottom that unlocks features and content specific to that movie character. One of the things the spokesperson from Disney pointed out at the press preview is that the cars have no electronics of their own. Even though it doesn't even have a battery, Disney technology makes it appear as though the car has working headlights and an illuminated number on the top! (Most likely their version of fiber-optics.) Cars 2 are sold in two packs. They feature Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell. (There are single packs too, but it's a better value to buy two at time. Apple Stores sell an exclusive two-pack featuring Francesco Bernoulli and Shu Todoroki. 

Giz Wiz Video: http://youtu.be/8xb11TQy4XM

Disney Video: http://youtu.be/VaNzbCtxtcY

Gadgets to help you fall asleep & wake up - as seen on World News Now! A link to the video will be posted soon.

A sleep mask that can also wake you up!

Sleep experts agree you need a totally dark room to go to sleep, and it’s best to wake naturally to the light of day. But if you’re a gadget fan, your bedroom is full of gadgets that glow in the dark with all their various LED indicators. You can wear a sleep mask to block out the light, but then you’ll be in darkness when morning comes around. The answer? A LumiMask. LUMI is the world’s first sleep mask that not only blocks light, but also simulates sunrise. It focuses on two strong sleep cues, Darkness and Light, to help you fall asleep with ease and wake feeling alert and refreshed. Like traditional sleep masks, Lumi blocks out light. But, In the morning, a light unit inside the mask simulates a sunrise 30 minutes before you wake. The LUMI mask is molded from soft neoprene foam, forming an eye cavity to allow for normal blinking and circulation. LEDs affixed to the inside of the mask provide a soft light source for the sunrise sequence. There’s a built in digital clock and an alarm controller allows you to set your wake-up time and the light intensity. LumiMask is a design that came out of the KickStart program. Info about KickStart and the Lumi is at the company website. $74.00.

www.lumimask.com

A different kind of sleep machine.

If you’ve ever used one of cheap sleep machines that generate sounds of rain, waves, etc. you usually find out something annoying about them quite quickly. To save money, they use a digital chip that repeats the same computer generated sound every 5 seconds or so. You suddenly find you’re more awake than sleepy because the sound becomes more annoying than relaxing. I spoke to the inventor of SOUND+SLEEP and he told me they use high-quality, mostly natural and lengthy recordings of relaxing sounds from ocean waves to crackling fires. But what makes this sleep machine very different is its Adaptive Mode. A built-in computer and microphone continuously “listen” for intruding noises such as barking dogs, automobiles, overhead airplanes, or loud roommates. In Adaptive Mode, SOUND+SLEEP dynamically adds sounds to the SoundStory and automatically adjusts volume to offer superior sound masking or neutralizing capabilities. As the intrusive noises subside, SOUND+SLEEP gradually and automatically returns to normal playback settings. The sound itself is very rich and full with its high quality top-facing speakers. More than just a single sound, each of SOUND+SLEEP’s 10 SoundStories has a library of dozens of enhancing sounds. There’s a “Richness” setting which determines how many sounds are added to augment the base SoundStory. Other features include the ability to turn Adaptive Mode OFF and ON; four sleep timers with automatic, gradual off; and even the ability to turn display lights completely off. $99.99.

www.soundofsleep.com

A gadget that help you fall asleep faster.

NightWave was designed to eliminate tossing and turning in order to help you fall asleep naturally. Many people lie awake at night suffering from common insomnia or jet lag. Sleep loss can be due to: over stimulation from an active mind. (That’s me! Bouncing off the walls at 3 AM). Environmental and lifestyle stresses and unfamiliar sleep surroundings can hinder sleep too. With NightWave, adults and children can begin to relax within minutes and then easily drift into sleep. It can also be used to fall back asleep in the middle of the night. Here’s how it works: NightWave projects a soft blue light into your darkened bedroom. The "luminance" of the light slowly rises and falls. You lie with eyes open and synchronize your breathing with the blue wave as its movement becomes slower and slower. After a short time, NightWave shuts off and you roll over and fall asleep. And unlike sound machines, the soft light does not disturb others. (Well hopefully it doesn’t disturb them.) The regular cycle is 7 minutes, but there’s also a 25-minute cycle for people who need, or want a longer time to fall asleep. I used it for a couple of nights and found it does help. Of course from time to time my brain over-rides my breathing and I suddenly think –“Did I post tomorrow’s DGW gadget?” – or something like that! But the object is to retrain your brain to relax and breathe properly. So you don’t have to use it forever. When you’ve mastered sleep, you can pass your NightWave on to a friend or family member who needs fall-asleep help. At the company’s website, it’s $59.95. If you do a price search on Amazon, you can find it for $49.95. The company says people who take prescription or over-the-counter sleep aids, can recoup the price of the Nightwave quickly with the money they’ll save. It’s offered with a 30 day money back guarantee at the company website.

www.nightwave.com

A Nice iPod/iPhone Clock Radio at a decent price from iLuv.

Here’s a iPod Dock/FM radio from iLuv with quite a few nice features. It’s the iMM178 Dual Alarm Clock for iPod/iPhone with Bed Shaker/Speaker. It lets you wake to your iPod music, the FM radio, or a buzzer. Along with any one of them, you can have in-bed shaker vibrate your bed or pillow. Great if you’re a heavy sleeper. The bed shaker is also a speaker. That way you can fall asleep to music under your pillow and wake up to the shaker feature! Another nice feature is the LCD display which has 10 brightness settings, including completely off. Way better than those high/low dimmer options on most clock displays. This unit picks up the time from your iPhone or iPod/iPod Touch. You can use other music devices via an 3.5-mm input. The FM radio has auto tuning and 10 memory presets. The two built-in speakers provide decent sound for the nightstand, especially at the price. A sleep timer lets you drift off to sleep to the sounds of your iPod/iPhone or FM radio. When docked, the iMM178 will charge your iPhone, iPod or iPod Touch. This radio is $52 at J&R Music. I have bought stuff here, but not this particular radio:

http://www.jr.com/iluv/pe/ILU_IMM178/