Every year the American Forbes selects some of the coolest technical devices of the season. Unfortunately, most of them are not for sale in Russia, but they can be ordered by mail or purchased abroad.
Homestar Planetarium, $ 199
I love to show off the view of Tokyo from my rooftop terrace, twinkling skyscrapers by day and hundreds of flashing lights at night. Only the sky is not impressive. Rays of the brightest stars make their way through the orange halo of the city. For disaffected urban stargazers like me, Japanese game and console maker Sega Sammy offers a home planetarium, a watermelon-sized Homestar projector invented by self-taught Takayuki Ohira. The projector has been on sale in the US since September, and in Japan it has already brought Sega $ 21 million in two years of sales. I set up the projector on a table in the middle of the room and inserted a slide with a starry sky into the receiver on the side of the machine. My wife turned off the light. "So-so picture, huh?" she grumbled, pointing to a bright spot on the ceiling. With some fiddling, I found the focusing wheel, and the spot turned into the Milky Way. A switch on the back of the projector caused it to spin slowly.
Sega claims that the device produces up to 10,000 points of light: about the same number of stars can be discerned with the naked eye in a clear night sky. Heavy curtains make the effect more dramatic. Of course, it cannot be compared to the night sky in the tropics, but the view from my terrace loses to it.
- Tim Kelly
Jawbone Headset, $ 120
Red - like a Ferrari, the color of an apple in caramel, silver - like Masrati. Well, the black one is like my evening dress and, by the way, perfectly matches my pink cell phone. So I was choosing a new headset from Aliph. The developers of this model hired sound experts to write a special noise reduction algorithm and designer Yves Béart to make the body. The result is a trendy accessory that hides two miniature microphones, a voice sensor, and clever software. Jawbone listens to all sounds and mutes everything except the sound of my voice. The system adjusts parameters at a rate of 500 times per second. Whether I am in the car, on the street or on a windy beach, my interlocutors hear me as well as if I am speaking from the office. The design of the novelty is kept in the spirit of minimalism: no buttons. The body is divided into two panels that perform different functions when pressed in certain places. It's easy to forget which press to press for what, how long and how many times, and generally not very convenient if you are driving. Nevertheless, in Silicon Valley, greedy for everything new, Jawbone has already become the most fashionable thing. At a recent banquet, one expert did not take off his headset all evening. He was lucky that everyone around was turned on technical innovations. My grandmother would definitely not tolerate this, no matter how stylish the headset was.
- Erica Brown
Fritschi Diamir Freeride Plus, $ 425
Skiers looking for untouched snow should either use a helicopter or have special anchorages with a free heel that allow them to climb the slopes off the paved pistes. After lifting, the heel is secured, and you can descend. Previously, such bindings were not strong enough to ride in a ski resort for days on end. So people like me, who spend roughly equal amounts of time on paved trails and untouched wilderness, needed two sets of skis, boots, and bindings. As a result - heavy luggage and additional costs. The situation changes dramatically Fritschi Diamir Freeride Plus … For $ 425, you get bindings that can easily take the load of the boot on a fast downhill slope and allow you to climb untouched slopes on your own by unbuckling your heel. With these bindings, I have already traveled the slopes of the Alps from Chamonix to Zermatt, spending more time climbing than descending. And in Utah, I enjoyed rolling 7 hours a day along the highways, climbing up in a 125-seat trailer. And all this on one pair of skis. Diamir also produces a cheaper model, but this is the one I recommend for professionals.
- Christopher Steiner
Sirius Stiletto 2, $ 350
Two years ago, I encouraged music lovers to switch from iPod to Sirius Satellite s550 portable player. Since then, a myriad of iPods have been sold, and I understand that you still didn't listen to me. Maybe listen now. Sirius has just introduced the new Stiletto 2 portable player. And that's the thing! The old portable Stiletto 2 players were too big and didn't pick up the signal well while moving. The Stiletto 2 is slightly thicker than a Motorola RAZR cell phone, and the built-in antenna from Altec Lansing provides excellent signal reception. In the range of a Wi-Fi network, the novelty can connect to the Sirius server on the Internet. You can pause and rewind broadcasts, record up to 100 hours of continuous shows and up to 10 hours of individual tracks. The Stiletto comes with 2GB memory, but you can insert a larger card to download music from your computer to it. On the front panel of the player there is a convenient scroll wheel, the back panel has a special coating - it is pleasant to hold the player in the palm of your hand. Funny thing: when you change stations, the player pronounces their names in different voices: nasal for country, growling for rock, etc. (The device works only in the USA, where satellite radio is developed.)
- Bruce Upbin
Sony Rolly, $ 480
Japan spends billions of yen on robotics research robotics. And what do we have from this? The dancing egg. The Sony Rolly, a music-playing device, made our list of the coolest gadgets of the season in part because it doesn't do anything useful. To begin with, this potato-sized toy aroused genuine interest from my concierge when I received the long-awaited package from Japan. After unpacking it, I uploaded music into the toy (the memory card holds 1 GB) and chose the automatic dance movement setting mode. Then she put it on the table to admire the dance. Two touches of the button on the side - and the toy began to sway to the beat of the country-style composition, moving in a circle, wiggling its ears with speakers and blinking blue, pink and green. To the next song, the unit began to slowly swing back and forth, flapping its wings, like an elderly rocker at a concert with his high.
Is it funny? Yes. The novelty impressed my Japanese teacher very much. "Kawaii!" - she exclaimed, rewarding the toy with the highest compliment of the Land of the Rising Sun: "Adorable!"
- Chana Schonberger
Atrio Earbuds, $ 200
The brush on the cymbals of the drum kit, the gasp of the saxophone, the scratching of the guitar string - that's what gives the recorded music a lively sound. But you won't hear any of this with the simple headphones that come with your iPod or other player. True music lovers will prefer to pay $ 800 for custom-made headphones for the geometry of your ear, such as Ear Monitors from Future Sonics. If you're willing to shell out that amount, for heaven's sake. For everyone else, the same Future Sonics unveiled a $ 200 budget Atrio model in May. Of course, for this money you can buy an entire iPod, but believe me, in comparison with the Atrio, the standard headphones of the player will sound like a transistor of the middle of the last century. With them, I was able to hear such nuances, the existence of which I did not even suspect. Moreover, in the recordings that I had previously listened to many times on good stereos. The division by instrument is amazing. The headphones come with several silicone tips to block the ear opening as much as possible and cut out external sounds. I adjusted the size and now, listening to the player, sometimes I forget that I have something inserted in my ears. It seems that there is only one music.
- Daniel Lyons
Ford Syncs, $ 395
A friend of mine got into my car in the corporate parking lot. I calmly asked if she was listening to Kay Dee Lange. She said yes, and I pressed a button on the steering wheel of my 2008 Ford Focus and commanded, "Put on KD Lang."The machine obediently responded, "Lost Kay Dee Lang," and Big Boned Gal sounded from the speakers. If only my children were so obedient! The car follows orders thanks to Microsoft's new Ford Syncs technology. The car wirelessly communicates with bluetooth-equipped music players and cell phones, so I can chat with friends and play DJ without taking my hands off the wheel. When a text message arrives, Sync interrupts the music and reads it aloud. The speech recognition system needs improvement, but at least it's the best I've tried. Disadvantages: Sync only works with the most modern phone models. There are compatibility issues with iPod models released after mid-2004. But at $ 395, you're unlikely to find anything better. Sync will be installed on 12 American Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models of the 2008 model year.
- Joan Mueller
Multi-Touch Wall, $ 100,000
After work, I flip through the catalog of an expensive department store for fun. There is so much here for those who do not mind money. My wife can buy a crystal owl from Baccarat for $ 6750. Mom - Marc Jacobs Mayfair handbag for $ 895. Children by the ears cannot be dragged away from a $ 35,000 dragon sheared from a bush. Well, well, what would I buy for myself? Personal submarine Triton 1000? Great thing, but $ 1.4 million is overkill. The $ 100,000 Perceptive Pixel's 2.5-meter Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall is a better choice. By comparison, the iPhone looks like a pathetic caricature of touchscreens.
The panel electronics can sense the touch of countless fingers, as well as elbows, pencils or umbrellas. They will not overlap. Panel inventor Jefferson Hahn has sold many of these devices to government agencies and large companies whose names he does not disclose. They all wanted to revolutionize the way they visualize data. Each object on the panel can be manipulated with three degrees of freedom: left / right, forward / backward, and up / down. In just a few minutes, the panel will completely revolutionize your idea of interacting with a picture. Along with your friends, you can write on it, draw with your fingers, play the digital piano, browse websites, watch YouTube videos and photos from Flickr, zoom in / out and rotate the map of the earth. The resolution will be as good as the quality projector you place behind the panel. We can offer the new Sony 5XRD 4K ultra high resolution 4096 x 2160 pixels. For only $ 120,000.
- Bruce Upbin