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Gizmoville buzzes to iPod vibrator

Clitoral stimulation from your MP3 player, and much more

Tech Digest  

Obligatory iPod Accessory of the Week: Audi-Oh Vibrator for your iPod

Yes, that's right, someone's created a wearable vibrator that works in harmony with your music player. Strap the silicone butterfly in place, plug it into your favourite music player and get jiggy with the musical beat. It will also work in rhythm with external noises from stereos or club sound systems, so you'll be able to get into the... er... groove and get off on it all at the same time. Ah, the joys of modern living... If that's not an example of technology making life better, we don't know what is. Get yours from the excellently-named Grand Opening for $70.

Audi-oh

Pac-man

Traditional 'how did that get on eBay' Story: Pac-man Cocktail Cabinet

Forget running round a maze gobbling pills. We're happier lounging about at home sipping a cool Mojito. Ye Gods, now we can do both! How? With this game-tastic cocktail table, that's how. It's a fully working arcade machine that plays Pac-Man, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man, yet you can also stand drinks on it. Now that's progress. The seller claims that they can add extra games on request too.


OTT Home Entertainment stuff: Sharp's 'watch two TV channels at the same time' LCD TV screen

When we were in Japan last year we noted that Sharp were doing some pretty interesting things with LCDs. One in particular was a way of superimposing a "parallax barrier" onto the LCD to make the source light separate into right and left directions. Sounds dull but its key application - that two people, sitting on opposite sides of the room can watch two separate things on the same screen simultaneously - is pretty amazing. Interestingly, it seems that Sharp is about to unleash that technology to the masses with the first dual display screen set roll of its production lines later this year.

The fundamental flaw, though, is that two separate audio channels delivered into a room at the same time might be tricky. So it is either headphones for one party, or more likely people will use the screen to watch TV and surf the web simultaneously.

Sharp mirror display


mytan

Vaguely useful Gadget of the week: mytan intelligent sun cream dispenser

It is 30° out there and many pasty-faced anaemic looking Brits are already on their way to morphing into lobsters. Still, Ed Phillips, one of the bright sparks at Brunel University, has come up with a smart way of preventing sunburn. mytan is basically an intelligent sun lotion dispenser. It determines a person's skin type, the sun's intensity, the time they plan to spend in the sun and then dispenses the necessary strength sun lotion to prevent them from burning.

Users do have indulge the gadget a bit by inputting skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, quantity of freckles and colour of skin when tanned, but once this is done the information is stored for good. mytan's in-built UV index sensor then measures the sun's rays and in tandem with information about how long a person intends to spend outside works out and dispenses the necessary strength sunscreen to help people tan safely.

The inventor Ed Philips continues: "mytan is portable and small enough to hold comfortably in your hand. In addition, mytan holds up to one week's worth of sunscreen and it can be easily re-filled with sunscreen sachets." Here's hoping that mytan gets a commercial release soon.


Child-unfriendly gadget of the week: Verify Location Sazo

Turn your kids against you by refusing to kit them out with the latest mobile phone and hand them this little gadget instead. The Sazo is about the size of a credit card and comes with a GPS (Global Positioning System) on board which lets you keep tabs on the whereabouts of your tots at all times.

The Verify Location Sazo means parents can pinpoint the fruit of their loins' location to within a few metres via the internet on a PC or a mobile phone. There are two version of the Sazo and the more expensive one can also be used to make and receive voice calls. The Sazo also features a panic button which, if pressed, automatically sends a text message to the parent. The device costs £100 with a monthly service charge starting at £10.

Verify Location Sazo

 

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