Eyejabber » Cool Gadgets

The Royal Keyboard

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:30:43 +0000

While looking for a new keyboard, something along the lines of the Optimus Maximus, I recently found out about a gentleman who is making the best keyboard. Ever. Remember dreading going to typing class in High School? Remember the Home Row and all of the pain in your hands after class if your school didn’t have an IBM Selectric or something similar?

I don’t, which is one of the reasons Jack Zylkin’s newest commercial project has intrigued me. Do you have an old typewriter that has a basket of type bars? Perfect, you can set it up and enable it to act as a USB keyboard.

The project, and it is a project, comes in three flavors: a DIY Kit, a Custom order, and a completed unit. The first choice involves you working on your typewriter and setting it up with Mr. Zylkin’s interface board while the other options involve him doing the same and you receiving a completed unit.

The DIY version is just that. You receive the parts and it’s expected that you are proficient with a soldering iron and third hand. You will solder all of the parts, file the type bars and install the interface board on your typewriter. This kit is by far the cheapest at $75 and allows the modder complete control of how the build will be accomplished. Since you are in control, it also allows you tweak the hardware to your heart’s content while installing.

Next up we have the “Custom” order. This involves you sourcing your own typewriter, shipping it off to Mr. Zylkin’s lab and his merry band of elves (read: him) doing the conversion for you. Once he’s completed the conversion, it will be tested and shipped back to you for your use. This runs $200 for his services and somewhere around an arm and a leg to ship and insure the unit from your locality to Philly. If you’re attached to a particular typewriter (a Royal 10, for instance) and don’t want to do the install and tweaking, this is a great option for you.

Last up Mr. Zylkin offers a pre-converted typewriter. This one’s ready to rock and roll when you receive it from Philly, so if you just want the novelty of the unit with no labor involved, it’s a great option for you. The downside is that it will cost you $250 and up. He will entertain requests for a particular model, so this is a pretty viable option for everybody.

Visit USB Typewriter to see a video of the conversion in action as an interface to an iPad. Pretty slick, if you ask me. Mr. Zylkin’s Etsy shop has all of the options currently available.

We at Eyejabber will be following this one, as we have some Luddites on staff. They will be making a purchase of the unit and will keep readers posted, with pictures, of the progress made.

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Vivos Doomsday Bunker

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:28:16 +0000

A California company called Vivos offers the chance to go underground when the world ends in 2012

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 04.09.2010 at 4:30 pm

Doom Bunker Come on guys, there’s plenty of room Vivos

A doomsday bunker envisioned by California company Vivos can offer you, your family, and 4,000 other people the chance to escape the end of the world in a network of 20 underground shelters. Surely even the skeptics can’t resist the allure of scary music played over scenes of comfortable underground habitation, as NPR’s All Tech Considered reports.

The company claims to be a privately-funded venture with no religious affiliations, except perhaps to the gods of commerce. It certainly takes an agnostic view by listing all the possible reasons why you might want to pony up and help build those $10 million bunkers, including predictions by Nostradamus, the Mayans, the Hopi, and the Bible.

That’s not to say that we don’t like our apocalypse-survival equipment, but Vivos goes all out by promising a survival shelter stocked with power generation, water wells, filtration systems, sewage disposal, a year’s supply of food, security devices and medical equipment.

Of course, you’ll need all that if you believe disaster may strike at any moment because of a polar shift, super volcano eruptions, solar flares, nuclear war, and “even the return of Planet X (known as Niburu or Nemesis),” Vivos cheerfully states.

Did we mention that there’s a 2012 countdown clock on the company website?

We do have to appreciate the small touches, such as the Vivos logo on one of the communal dining room screens, because nothing cheers up post-apocalyptic survivors like a friendly reminder of the corporation that they paid to save them. Let’s just hope the grateful customers don’t get jealous of whatever mineshaft space Vivos has saved for itself, and go out looking to close the mineshaft gap.

via popsci.com

Does the price include a Pipboy 3000?

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Toys or business cards?

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:17:06 +0000

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. Bryce Bell over at Cardnetics is making a business out of creating cards that also turn into little toys and gadgets. He’s currently producing one card and has a 2nd one as a prototype.

The Cardapult

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNh_2hykfA

The Penny Shooter

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KNZZ9qDJtQ

Just be careful that you don’t accidentally cause your school, work, airport terminal, or church to be locked down with your new toy/weapon.

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