Here is another security monitor for your home – the RedAlert by Swann which is primarily a motion-sensitive video recorder. It records either JPEG photos or AVI videos when motion is selected. It can record from 1 camera at a time, although you can hook up a wired camera to it as well and switch between that and the included wireless camera. There’s a PIP feature that lets you watch both simultaneously.

The included 128MB SD card can record 250 10 second videos, and the wireless camera can ’see in the dark’ up to 16ft away. Connects to your TV for viewing the photos and video. What’s really missing is a network capability so you can monitor your cameras remotely.

Buy now!
Price: $199.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Another must-have gadget for your kitchen that is very practical and can replace your existing analog, boring tool. The Taylor digital measuring cup measures both dry and liquid ingredients, and displays it on the LCD screen on the handle.

It can convert weight to volume for water, milk, oil, sugar, and flour. It can display both metric and imperial units and weigh in increments of milliliters, cups, fluid ounces, grams, and pounds.

No need to change batteries – a long-life Lithium battery is embedded.

Buy now!
Price: $34.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

We’re kicking off Monday morning with some toilet humor. No, not that kind. Actually, it’s a set of  gadgets for your bathroom. They’re night light accessories for your toilet, so you don’t need to turn on the light in your bathroom if you need to make a pitstop in the middle of the night.

First up is the Flush Light that replaces the flush handle on your toilet with one that has a red LED light and an on/off button. It shuts off automatically after a while.

The next toilet ‘night light’ is the Jonny Glow which is a self-adhesive fluorescent strip that goes at the top of the toilet bowl’s rim. Only problem I have with this one is a cleaning one, although they claim it’s easy to clean. On the other hand, it doesn’t need batteries or button-pressing.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: Flush Light: $11.99, Jonny Glow: $12.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Home security comes to the iPhone from security company, Protection One. eSecure is a Web-based home security system that also features an iPhone app.

The Web app lets you monitor in real-time your cameras at home as well as adjust your home alarm system. There is also an SMS text message-based system for controlling your Protection One alarm system.

The iPhone lets you turn your alarm system on and off and receive alerts. Reminds us a lot of what the remote home automation apps like iLinc can do.

Buy now!

Price: free with Protection One’s eSecure alarm system
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Weather equipment is no longer the purview of meteorologists or restricted to inexpensive, inaccurate devices. Instrument maker Davis makes one such affordable and sophisticated weather station for home use, the Vantage Vue, and I recently had a chance to review it.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another fantastically tiny spy camera that we could add to our round-up list of spycams. This glass-lens spy cam takes 640×480 video at 30 fps and can also act as a web cam if you so desire.

One of its best features has to be the SD card slot that can accept cards up to 16GB which translates into roughly 250 hours of AVI video. Another great feature is the voice-activated recording, so perfect for keeping an eye on your home/office when you’re not there.

Buy now!
Price: $199.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Even if you’re still way too sleepy to see your coffee maker’s buttons, you can still operate and program this coffeemaker just by using your voice. It asks you questions and you respond. For example, say “Set the coffee brewing time” and this smart cookie will prompt you with “Please say the time”.

Of course, there are still buttons in case you want to go ‘old school’. This maker brews up to 10 cups and lets you remove the carafe mid-brew to snag a quick cup. Plastic filter and carafe are dishwasher-safe.

Buy now!

Price: $99.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Futuristic TV shows and movies show modern authentication systems as either retinal (eye) scans, voice scans, but rarely full facial scans. Well, the future is here today. Enter FaceID, a system that scans your face and matches it against one of up to 500 profiles in its internal database.

Not only that, but these are 3D images captured by using multiple cameras, and must be matched by an actual face. In other words, a photo will not suffice. It adjusts for variances in lighting, and claims a 0.0001% margin of error. Surprisingly, this sophisticated gadget carries a price tag under $500.

Buy now!
Price: $419.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Industrial designer and inventor, James Dyson, is at it again. This time, he’s moved away from vacuum cleaners and onto fans. Fans, you ask? Yup, fans, but take a look at the photo. It doesn’t have any blades!

It just looks like a cylinder. What it does is pull in air and amplifies it 15 times. No wonder it’s called an ‘air multiplier’. It’s easy to clean, is safe with kids, has 90º oscillation and tilt.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: starts at $299.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

As you know, we love featuring ‘green’ and/or environmentally related advances in technology, and here’s another. This time, a team in the Department of Materials Science at MIT have devised a roof tile that changes its surface reflectivity depending on the temperature.

In a nutshell, at low temps, it absorbs as much sunshine and heat as it can, while at high temps, it is more reflective. Fantastic. Nicknamed the Thermeleon, these roof tiles could save 20% on cooling costs.

via DMSE MIT