We are now in our fifth year of finding and reporting on all the latest and greatest cool gadgets. In that time technology has certainly moved forward and we’ve had a chance to play with some very cool gear. However the look and feel of the site has stayed pretty much the same and to be honest was looking a bit dated well that changes today.

Welcome to the new and improved Coolest Gadgets, if you are reading this via a news reader please hop on over to the site and let us know what you think. We have plenty of new features and more reader interaction planned over the coming weeks.

Massive thanks to Gary AKA The Floating Frog for creating the new design and not moaning too much at my ever changing requirements.

Please do leave a comment telling us what you think, and if you have a gravatar you’re picture will be on CG. Cheers.

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  Sportpong puts pong on the floor
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  InCharge Battery Station sorts and charges batteries
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  Nubrella: The umbrella of the future?
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  Cordies manage your unruly cables
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  Chatman your friendly kid-friendly internet supervisor
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  And now, R2 would like to introduce…robot astronauts!
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  Fujifilm introduces JZ compact camera
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  Nikon unveils Coolpix S8000
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  RC Hoverpod brings out the kid in you
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  Lace-amatic solves age old conundrum

Yes, you can’t get any more old school with video games than the classic Pong game with the paddles and squared ball. This Sportpong is definitely a more active game than Dance Dance Revolution and WiiSports put together.

You can check out the video after the jump to see how it works, but it has people strapping “paddles” onto their feet that are equipped with special reflectors. From above, projectors beam the image of the bouncing ball, and users must block the ball from hitting the opposite wall, with their feet.

Sounds like a good way to get an old school gamer into shape, doesn’t it? Sportpong feels like a game that people would play at night clubs, and then return home drunk and completely out of breath.

Unfortunately, this Sportpong is not for sale, at least not yet. At this point, it can only be played by contacting the Swiss creators, and scheduling it for special events. I have no idea how much the cost of this is.

Source

Sportpong-Giesserei-14062008 from Sportpong on Vimeo.

Recharging batteries makes it possible to live without constantly shopping for batteries.  However, in reality those dinky chargers are inconvenient and hog precious outlet space.  Which is a serious crime in my house that seems to have a single outlet per room.  Well this design will only cover up one outlet and it will work with multiple battery sizes.

Sure there are plenty of wall chargers that will charge more than one size, but they are usually awkward to get them all to fit.  Plus they only charge a few at a time.  This one you just drop the battery down the middle and it’ll sort the battery out itself.  Currently this battery station is entered in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition and is a finalist.  That unfortunately means that it’s a long way from the production line.

Source:  Gizmowatch

As the Nubrella slogan says: “You’ve Waited Long Enough! Someone has finally changed the design”. Best of all, they added hands free. It isn’t hard to open and close the umbrella either, as you can see from the video after the jump.

Man, who hasn’t had their arm aching from a long walk home from carrying an umbrella. If you could have your hands free, then that means something, especially in the age where we are constantly talking on our mobile phones.

Granted, the design is a trifle odd. I mean, look at the people wearing this thing? It’s like an oversized space helmet, or something. Weird as it is, it can withstand 50mph winds and rip-stop waterproof nylon.

All in all, I would have to say that the Nubrella is a welcome improvement to the present day umbrella. It’s definitely the first one that I’ve seen that can be properly carried on a bicycle, and better than those goofy ones that you can wear on your head like a hat.

There is no word from my source when this will be available nor any hint of a price.

Source

If you’ve yet to find your ideal cable management solution, this is one more option for you.  This would allow for you to keep multiple cords at an easily accessible spot.  Plus like all great solutions, this one is cheap and extremely simple.  In an area that feels heavily complicated and twisted up, it’s nice to have one thing that is straight forward and makes your life easier.

These Cordies come in several different colors.  They have anything from neon colors to neutral colors.  They all have 3 usable slots, but you can actually put more than 3 cables into it.  Just stack the cables on top of each other within the individual loop and you should be covered.  It’s not out just yet, it’ll ship out March 20th of this year, provided that everything goes smoothly.  You can pre-order one now for $12.99 through Quirky.

Source: HolyCool

If you’re feeling a little lonely while you’re surfing the internet or chatting it up with someone online, now you can have a yellow friend to brighten your day.  This little guy is capable of picking up on the tone of your conversation and changes his mood accordingly.  He’ll even go as far as getting involved by telling you how he feels about the discussions that are being exchanged.  Which basically means you’ll have paid your hard earned cash to have a yellow backseat driver while you’re on the internet.  On the up side of things it’d be a sneaky way to keep an eye on what your kids are up to on the internet.

He works with all of your usual messenger programs like Yahoo, Facebook, Myspace and a few others.  He also keeps an eye on the websites that are visited.  He won’t prevent anyone from visiting them, he’ll just frown upon them.  He has moving eyes, arms, ears and an LED emoticon mouth.  He also has over 500 different actions and a total of 25 moods.  It’ll be released in April of this year.

Source: OhGizmo

In fact, there is a video of it after the jump so you can see the robots at work. You may notice that they can do some very precise work of assembling and disassembling, albeit slowly. I guess if time is not an issue, these robots could probably be sent to the space station right away.

Yes, there are probably a lot of bugs to work out before these robots are ready to be sent in orbit. Of course, one can see the need for robot astronauts. Why send a man up there if you can have a robot do the same job? Of course, if the robots break down, then you’d better send a robot to fix the thing.

Yes, this R2 is one amazing robot. And yes, they call this robot R2, just like R2-D2 from Star Wars (minus the D2). Of course, it looks a lot more like C3-PO, really. On second thought, it bears a strong resemblance to Samus Aran, the heroine from the Metroid video game series.

Well, on the video, you may have noticed one of the parting shots was of the R2 robots holding some sort of hand drill that looks like a weapon. Uh-oh! This is how T3 ended, right?

Source

Fujifilm is ready to roll out their new long-zoom category of compact cameras under the JZ line, where it merges style, substance and affordability in a single (and hopefully for them) winning formula. Just take a look at the design and chances are pretty good that you will be pleased with what your eyes see. You can choose from silver and black color choices, accompanied by elegant round edges, a smooth matte finish and measuring only 23mm thin, making the JZ cameras ideal for those who are looking for a pocketable, elegant shooter equipped with a longer zoom to shoot subjects from far away without compromising on image quality.

Accommodating a large 10x optical zoom lens which works in harmony with Fujifilm’s advanced CCD-shift image stabilization, chances are you will be able to achieve focused, blur-free images even at the full zoom range. Apart from that, the versatile 28mm wide-angle lens is perfect for wide landscapes or large group shots, making each shot captured in stunning detail. This range of cameras will also come with stunning High Definition playback regardless of whether you are concerned about stills or movies. Of course, in order to hook this up to your HDTV, you will need to purchase an optional accessory HD Player (known as HDP-L1).

Tracking AF (Auto Focus) also works great when tracking a moving subject automatically when the shutter is pressed down halfway. When you feel that the moment is just right, all you need to do is press the shutter button fully in order to capture the subject perfectly, making it particularly useful whenever you want to shoot an action shot with your subject moving constantly. With data storage being so affordable these days, managing your photo collection could prove to be challenging, which is why Fujifilm has thrown in a new file management Picture Search tool that allows you to find specific photos quickly and easily. Apart from that, you can also search by Scene mode to view all photos with people in, or all photos of landscapes among others. Any takers?

Press Release

Nikon is at it yet again with another digital camera for the masses – the Nikon Coolpix S8000 is the latest in the Coolpix range which proves the age old adage of not judging a book by its cover. After all, it comes with a slim and slender body that is actually capable of holding a powerful and versatile 10x Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens which will no doubt deliver extremely sharp, crisp images regardless of whether you shoot an image from far off or from a close up. In order to remove blur at any focal length, the S8000 is equipped with a 4-way Image Stabilization System and ISO settings to 3200, alongside the ability to record HD movies (720p) at 30 frames per second (fps) with stereo sound. Not only that, you can instantly preview your snapped photos thanks to its 921k pixel Clear Color Display LCD right there and then.

The Coolpix S8000 is a 14.2-megapixel shooter which also comes with a new feature known as Creative Slider, where it will make it a snap to adjust brightness, saturation and color tone in-camera thanks to the Rotary Multi Selector. As for the Advanced Flash Control, this feature allows users to create more natural-looking flash shots by utilizing higher ISO settings and faster shutter speeds in low light as well as apply Multi-area Auto Backlight Compensation for even exposures. Apart from that, the S8000 is also more than capable of snapping fast moving objects thanks to its improved Sport Continuous Mode, enabling high-speed continuous shooting at up to approximately 4 fps for 45 frames (at 3-megapixel resolution), while a fast start-up time and a quick shutter-release time ensures you will never miss a crucial moment. Similar to a fighter jet, the S8000 can also acquire the subject and lock focus using Subject Tracking, although no missiles will be fired, just the shutter button.

Expect to pick up the Coolpix S8000 sometime this month for $299.95 in black, red, bronze and champagne silver colors.

Press Release