For that high energy Christmas you’ve always craved, consider replacing your tree with this baby…

…just make sure you live somewhere that’s completely non-conductive.

Via Dvice

If only the iPhone would last all day on one charge.  How awesome would that be?  But style-conscious Apple wants to keep their flagship product slim and sexy, which limits the size of battery they can shoe-horn into it. 

Because they don’t, and because there’s a high demand for longer use between recharges, we have the option of iPhone cases that come with extra power built into them.  They do the trick, but at the cost of increasing the iPhone’s size and weight, and also – in many cases – reducing the signal strength.

This one from Tekkeon, however, does not suffer from loss of signal strength.  I can attest to that personally, as I’ve been using it for about two weeks now.  Signal strength actually seems to be better – probably because the iPhone thinks it’s plugged into external power (which in a way it is) and so doesn’t tone down signal strength as a power saving method.

(This is just a guess, based on my impression of using it.)

They have two versions, one made of faux leather (shown here) and one made from the real thing.  PETA-sympathizers will probably opt for the former, which is just as well because it’s less expensive but gives you the same capabilities.

Let me tell you, having the battery meter show full all day long is awesome.  To me it’s worth the extra size and weight.  Totally.  I use this phone constantly for just about everything, and now I can finally go all day without worrying about running out of power.

The case also doubles as a dock, and comes with a standard mini-USB cable that can be used to charge or data-connect the iPhone.  That in itself is really handy when you’re out and about and want to hook your iPhone up to a USB port but don’t have an Apple cable with you.  Your standard mini-USB cable that comes with some cameras and external hard drives works just fine.

The only control interface on the case is a single light, which changes color depending on what’s going on.  It’s simplistic but it works fine.  Green means your fully charged and ready.  Red means you’re drawing power from the battery, or that it is currently charging.  Dark means the case’s battery is dead and you’re running from the iPhone’s battery.

That’s another cool thing about this case – while the iPhone is running off the case battery, it’s bypassing the iPhone battery.  What typically happens to me is I run all day long, and just at about 5-6 PM the case’s power is depleted and it switches to the iPhone battery, which is still fully charged.

Since getting this case, I have not run my iPhone out of power, even with almost continuous use.

What people do have to keep in mind about the iPhone is that it’s not really a phone.  It’s a powerful miniature computer with telephony built into it.  The device has a powerful processor and a large screen.  It’s going to suck juice, and there’s no way around that.  So you either make it twice as big, which will turn a lot of people off, or you make it esthetically pleasing and then let third-party companies fill the gap.

This gizmo, which I hereby officially proclaim as very groovy, fills that gap perfectly.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s now permanently part of my iPhone.

I love my iPhone, but I also love it when people make fun of it.

Now is a really good time in history to be a nerdy kid, or nerdy kid-at-heart.  Not only have remote control flying toys – specifically helicopters – come of age in sophistication and ease of flying, but they’re also extremely cheap.  That is, at least compared to how expensive they were just a few years ago.

Now instead of costing hundreds of dollars for something that will fly apart if you just look at it wrong, they’re only $30-$60 dollars, are relatively hardy, and you can even fly them around in your house.

Here’s two that I’ve been playing with for the last few weeks:

Think Geek’s Dark Blade ($29):

Air Hogs Havoc Heli ($29):

Basically we’ve arrived at a time where, if you’ve ever secretly lusted after those cool flying R/C toys you’ve seen the serious hobbyists playing with, you now have no excuse not to get one and indulge yourself.

What, you think you’re too old?  That since you’re an adult, you can’t do this?

Stop right there and rethink that.  If you’re not playing, you’re dying.

Let me say that one more time:  If you’re not playing, you’re dying.  It’s a fact that stress is one of the leading root causes of death in this modern world.  You need to unwind, relax, and not take everything so seriously.  And one good way to do that is to release your inner child and buy yourself a toy.

ThinkGeek.com has some of the most advanced designs, but — as I’ve found — the actual quality of the products are somewhat shoddy and if you have a problem with it, their customer service is lacking.

On the other hand, mainstream toy maker Spin Master, who produces the Air Hogs line of R/C toys, has pushed the price point incredibly low while still producing very high quality, durable, and innovative designs you can purchase at your local stores.  The Havoc Heli featured in the above video came from Toys R Us, and I’ve been seriously looking at their other designs in the Target right across the street from where I live.

The lightweight, powerful Li-Po rechargeable batteries and space-age construction materials are what have made these toys possible.  A twenty minute charge will give you about 10 minutes of flying time.  And each 10 minutes of flying will probably add another month to your lifespan, just by the pure fun it gives you.

I have one I fly around my corporate office environment, and while some may roll their eyes at me, most of them grin like a kid and their fingers itch to grab the controls.

I hand it over upon request.

Everyone deserves some fun.

I was a die-hard Canon man until this camera came into my life.

What sold me on the Nikon D5000 was that — right there in the store, standing in a Costco in Warrenville, Illinois — I took test photos with just about every camera they had on display.  All showed nice, crisp photos, some better than others, and then I picked up this bad boy.  Took a shot – the same shot I was taking with all the others – and looked at the screen to see how it turned out.

I exclaimed, out loud in that store, with enough emphasis to startle people standing next to me:  “Whoa!”

I took a couple other pictures with the same reaction, then compared them with the two Canon DSLRs I’d been playing with.

Wow.  The depth of color, the crispness, the sense of presence, it’s unmatched.  The test photos weren’t only better, they were all a whole other level of better.

See for yourself.  Here’s a few examples of what I’ve taken since then:

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of all the features.  I’ve found that when you put it into black and white mode, you get by default a very nice, high contrast shot – as opposed to the washed out B&W shots I’ve gotten with my other digital cameras, which you then have to photoshop afterwards.

Un-retouched black and white image direct from camera:

Other things I’ve found (but have yet to use) include an intervalometer setting that will allow you to take time lapse shots (which you can put together to make time-lapse movies, or even animation) and a stealth mode that makes the camera very, very quiet.  Couple that quiet feature with the fact that the screen opens and swivels, and allows you to take photos from around corners, and it’s perfect for spies, paparazzi, or perhaps even war correspondents.

For an in depth review of all the features, check it out here:  Nikon D5000 Review at Digital Photography Review

What it boils down to is that Nikon took the guts of their D90 professional camera (the outstanding image sensor and much of the features) and put them in this high-entry-level package.  The disadvantage of this camera is that you must use lenses that have the various motors for the auto-focus and anti-vibration control built into the lens itself, whereas if you go with the pro D90 model, the motors are built into the camera body.  Having them in the camera body gives you a much wider selection of lenses.

This is actually the second Nikon D5000 I’ve had.  Unfortunately there was a recall, and the serial number of my original camera fell into the recall range.  But instead of sending it in to a Nikon repair center, I took advantage of Costco’s 90-day no-questions-asked return policy, got my money back, and bought another one (for $100 less – they were on sale!) and the serial number of the new one was not on the recall list.

That was a happy day.

And, recall or not, this is one groovy camera.

If we actually do develop a true AI that can think for itself and is self-aware, and combine it with the next generation of robotic hardware developed from that shown in the following video…

…the Terminator robot could be a reality.

This is one of the coolest little gadgets I’ve seen in a long time and it doesn’t take any electricity, wiring, or anything to work.

It’s a horn.

That’s right, a horn.  Ancient technology, right?  Channeling and amplifying sound with nothing more than a shaped chamber.  It’s so beautiful an idea they actually made it translucent so that you could see the internal workings for yourself.  Pop your uber-high tech iPhone into this ancient-tech AirCurve acoustic amplifying horn and gain a full 10 decibels from the existing speaker at the bottom of the device, channeled artfully in a curve and out through the trumpet-like opening at the front.

Kudos to Griffin for coming up with something so foolproof that you can’t possibly screw it up without, say, running it over with your car.  And kudos to Griffin for it to actually work and sound good.

It comes with two different soft form-fitting cradles and will accept your existing charge/sync plug through a artful hole in the bottom.

This is one of the grooviest gizmos I’ve seen so far this year.  Here is something that applies the KISS principal perfectly.

It appears Microsoft is catching up to the closed-wall fruit company.

Now this is just too cool.

Take a poor mobility-challenged kid and fit him with one of these suits, and what do you get?

An instant Power Ranger.  Just look at the thing, its right out of a Sci-Fi movie.  Sure, it could have been some utilitarian aluminum tube thing with clamps and soulless motors — but no, they put style into it, flashy blue lights, and made it look like a toy.

Any kid wearing this to school would be the star of the show.

And I think that’s wonderful.

“HAL” stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb, which makes sense, but methinks Cyberdyne just liked the name HAL (as, it seems, do a lot of companies) because of the 2001: A Space Odyssey namesake.  Which is weird, because that HAL went psychotic and murdered nearly everyone on the spacecraft.  Yet, companies love naming their products after it.

Anyone remember Lotus HAL?  No?  Oh well.

Helping disabled people is only one of the multifaceted plans Cyberdyne has for this technology.  They plan to market it — in a sort of true life “super suit” fashion — for heavy labor support and also in rescue situations.

Can you just see that?  Put on the suit, jump into the disaster area, and lift cars off of the trapped families, etc.  Real superheroes.

Um, put me down for one.  I’ll be Captain Geek, CyberKnight.  Available to FEMA and also children’s parties.

More information can be obtained directly from the Cyberdyne site:  What’s HAL?

And need I say it?  This is one groovy gizmo!

I have been dabbling with this Facebook / Twitter phenomenon for a while now, probably not as long as most, but longer than some.  What really pulled it together for me is the free software called “TweetDeck” which is (in a strange, spreadsheet kind of way) the closest thing we have to an actual hive mind.  Especially over the last two weeks, when I am at home and the computer is on – and it is most of the time – I have TweetDeck open full screen as my backdrop to everything else.  Instant Twitter / Facebook updates from just about every friend and family member I have will appear in close to real time.

So I’ll be working on a novel, or an article, or a short story, and then get this trilling sound from TweetDeck announcing a new message.  It gives me a little jolt of pleasure, and I alt-tab over to see who is doing what.  And since it’s usually 140 characters or less, I absorb it in an instant, then happily alt-tab back to what I was doing.

I live alone now, in a new place.  I don’t know many people here yet.  Occasionally I feel lonely.

When TweetDeck is up and running, though, I don’t.

This would probably be interesting fodder for some University psych study.  I can’t be the only one who finds companionship in TweetDeck.  When it’s running I don’t feel alone.

Case in point:  The trill just sounded.  I alt-tabbed over.  My cousin Traci, who was one of my dearest childhood companions, is going to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top tonight.

For some reason, just knowing that makes me happy.

I use TweetDeck on both my computer and my iPhone.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It’s free.  And it’s hereby officially proclaimed groovy.