Ever wondered what happens to all those pills that you have swallowed by following your doctor’s order? The MagneTrace will be able to know what kind of medicine enters your body system through your throat, recording the exact time and date so that you can no longer fool your doctor that you’ve been taking your meds regularly. This is made possible by placing tiny amounts of “passable” magnets inside pills, where you then have to wear a special necklace or skin patch that come with integrated sensors to detect whether such medicine has gone down your throat. This information will then be sent to a cell phone and relayed to your doctor/caregiver. (Read the full post about ‘MagneTrace Monitors Pills Taken’…)

Getting hit by a paintball is a painful affair, but at least you can try to exact revenge on your human counterpart. What happens if you are up against a robotic opponent? Builder Che Edoga (aka “darkback2?) has come up with Gepetto, a remote-controlled robot who fires paintballs without flinching when fired at. Originally designed to be an artificially-intelligent mobile robotic platform, throwing in a paintball modification is nothing but a stroke of genius. Gepetto has the strength to carry a laptop on its back and is able to navigate challenging surfaces courtesy of independent wheel mechanisms that can travel as much as 3″ in height. (Read the full post about ‘Gepetto Paintball Robot’…)

Swiftpoint’s Slider is a novel solution to the problem of laptop mousing. Instead of making a tiny mouse to fit on the small patch of table by a notebook, the Slider actually uses the keyboard itself as a mousepad. The pointer can be held like a pen, as you see in the photograph, but comes into its own when tucked under the thumb. Your fingers are free to type, but when you need to move the cursor, the Slider glides over the keys. A pinch with the forefinger make a click, or you could use your other thumb on the laptop’s own trackpad. Right now the Slider doesn’t have a price or a release date, but keep your fingers (or thumbs) crossed that it will be as cheap as it is cheerful. (Read the full post about ‘Gliding Slider Turns Your Keybard into a Mousepad’…)

Posted Mar 7th 2008 4:55AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Household, Wireless It’s hard to pinpoint the most ridiculous thing about the Urban Tool perCushion which we first peeped as a concept. Is it the vendor’s not so flattering name, the marketing shot above, or the fact that Urban Tool will be charging about $500 for their Bluetooth mono-speaker cushion when it begins shipping sometime between October and Christmas? We had the chance to try the perCushion out at CeBIT ourselves. The pillow itself is rigid — think martini lounging, not bedtime — and constructed with enough finesse to support your Bluetooth audio streaming or cellphone handsfree adventures in sloth. (Read the full post about ‘Urban Tool’s Bluetooth perCushion for rich urban tools’…)

The But-On Koncept microwave design will fit in very nicely with homes of the future, not only looking very simple but colorful as well. This is one unique microwave idea as it features a top loading microwave in the same vein as a washing machine. Features include temperature control, a timer and removable inner lining that makes cleaning a snap. While front-loading microwaves are probably more efficient and a snap to operate where there are tall kitchen counter tops, this different idea is worth exploring. You just gotta love that bright orange color. (Read the full post about ‘But-On Koncept Microwave’…)

Belkin have created PodcastStudio which is currently on display over at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. PodcastStudio is a device which allows you to dock your iPod to make high quality recordings. Once you have finished recording the upload process is simple. All you need to do is dock your iPod with your computer and the podcast you just recorded is automatically uploaded to iTunes for all to listen to. The PodcastStudio comes with a built-in microphone to make the recordings and also has a speaker so you can play back the recordings out loud. The other alternative is to just listen through the headphones on your ipod. (Read the full post about ‘PodcastStudio from Belkin’…)

Posted Mar 6th 2008 5:01PM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home Entertainment Remember that gorgeous new DirecTV HD DVR that stirred the pot at CEDIA last September? Sure enough, said box is finally available to the masses. Of course, it will run you $599 to own, but that’s where DBSTalk’s first look comes in — to help you decide, not help you finance it. Those lucky buggers managed to snag one of their very own and test it out, and noted that it came stocked with a 500GB Seagate drive and the same software set as the HR21-200. Also of note, the HDMI socket is v1.2 (with HDCP 1.1), and there’s more ports ’round back than you can shake a stick at. Anxious for more? (Read the full post about ‘DirecTV’s HR21 Pro gets inspected, now available’…)

The Nokia N78 is a candybar phone offering a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera as well as the following features: * integrated FM transmitter * picture geotagging * integrated AGPS * Bluetooth * WiFi Via Engadget. Tags: speakers, cellphone, sat-nav, gadgetry (Read the full post about ‘Nokia N78′…)

Casio has a new point-and-shoot model in the form of the EXILIM EX-Z9 that comes in an array of exciting colors to cater for different tastes and preferences. Some of its features are :- 8.1-megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom 2.6″ lcd monitor Face detection technology 18.6MB of on-board memory SD/SDHC/MMC memory card slotThe Casio EXILIM EX-Z9 will retail for $159.99. Tags: robots, video, MP3, audio (Read the full post about ‘Casio EXILIM EX-Z9′…)

How many of you still remember the good old days where 5.25″ floppy disk drives used to rule the roost? Well, how about taking one of those antique pieces of technology and converting it into a CD-ROM drive? All you need to do is fit a micro ATX motherboard right inside it and modify the floppy drive to accept CDs and you’re good to go. Makes those old XT casings much more useful instead of collecting dust in the attic. Here’s what the creator had to say about his project :-

I gutted this vintage IBM 5160 XT computer.

(Read the full post about ‘Floppy Drive Takes In CDs Now’…)