High-tech tea stick for purists

Something for the tea lover and gadgeteer in your life that won't break your holiday budget.

The Tea Stick from Chiasso for US$20 is a stainless steel spring-loaded stick and sieve. You use the tiny shovel to scoop loose tea and load it in the stick. The stick is completely enclosed when dunking.

Via Crave CNET

A strip of paper that speaks

Now, your pictures can speak for themselves.

Labels That Talk, from Kailua Hawaii, has come up with software that lets consumers print high-density barcodes on strips of paper that store recorded voice messages. Scan the paper with a cheap handheld scanner--or a cell phone with a built-in scanner--and it plays back a message. The strip of paper you see in the picture can hold about eight kilobits, enough for a 10-second voice message, said Ken Berkun, president and founder.

"We're trying to get it to 20 seconds," he said.

The idea is to let consumer enhance their mementos with sound. "I have a daughter and I have photo albums," Berkun said, explaining how he came up with the idea for the company. Another large potential market lies in pharmacies and hospitals, which would put labels on medicine bottles. Thus, Mick Jagger, via your plastic prescription vial, could sing "you go running to the shelter of your mother's little helper" every time you go for a Paxil.

Hewlett-Packard is working on something similar called Memory Spot, which is a sticker that contains a NAND flash chip. Memory spot prototypes can contain 256 kilobits to 4 megabits of data, so you could store videos in them or additional pictures. Pictures and videos on Memory Spots could be beamed to a nearby computer or cell phone via an integrated networking interface.

Although flash costs continue to drop, chips invariably will always be more expensive than paper, Berkun said. HP, in fact, has estimated that Memory Spots could cost ten to 50 cents each when (and if) they finally come out. Labels will cost far less, says Berkun.

Other companies have experimented with talking barcodes, too, but the barcodes typically contained canned messages from a vendor.

Labels that Talk wants to concentrate on making and selling the software to consumers and printer makers. The company is currently trying to line up partners to make scanners. Some cell phone makers, he said, are already in discussions with the company.

Although you don't see a lot of startups like Labels that Talk out of Hawaii, some believe the picture could change in the future. Ira Ehrenpreis, a partner at Technology Ventures, calls it one of the last untapped geographies for start-ups. His firm has made a couple of clean energy and medical deals in the state in the past few years. The state's somewhat generous tax credits offered to in-state tech companies help too, added Berkun.

Via Crave CNET

How green is your office?

And it looks like McLaren's Lewis Hamilton pips Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to win the Singapore Formula One! If only. Instead, the only race being fought out at today's breakfast seminar was one on a slow track that was gearing up one notch: The race toward greening offices and their bottom lines.

Leaving a lesser carbon footprint while trimming costs were key messages that global video-conferencing leader Tandberg and the Singapore Environment Council delivered at the unveiling of Singapore's--and possibly Asia's--first Green Office. The aim: To raise environmental awareness among the business community and to provide an advisory role on the hows, while improving productivity and lowering costs. Toward this end, both partners will have a permanent Green Office showcased at SEC's Cluny Road premises, with real estate developer City Developments lending a hand with permanent roadshows that may go beyond the island state.
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The "smallest precision guitar", at a big price

The craze over guitars may be getting bigger by the day, but at least one gadget maker is looking to shrink them--to the point of the "smallest precision electric guitar" available.

How small? It measures just 26.5 inches long yet still includes 20 frets, according to its product description. (But we'll spare you the marketing-speak about reproducing the "cellular structure of wood" and such.)

Of course, there's always the question of why someone would want one of these, not to mention spend US$800 for it. Especially when there are "Pac-Man Guitars" to be had.

Via Crave CNET

A Knife Block that cuts it for sadists

Admit it, there's a little bit of the sadist in all of us. Which explains why we get all squealy over knife blocks given a (designer) twist in the guts. Straight out of UrbanTrend is Throwzini's zany Knife Block which features (oooh lovely) a red dude strapped down haplessly to a Wheel of Death that, if we read correctly, actually spins.

Made of handcrafted wood, this has five magnetized sheathes for your chef knives to slot into. Once the patent on this is secured, you can bet we'll be giving the Voodoo Knife Holder the chop. For bloodthirsty collectors, we'd recommend adding the Voodoo Doll Toothpick Holder, Hanging Harry Light Pull and Dead Fred Penholder to form your very own Addams family of weird (read: Cool) and wracked implements for the home.

Via Coolest Gadgets

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