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Gear

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Lifeline Survival Kit

This survival kit might help give you the peace of mind you need if things go wrong. It's compact, light, and contains waterproof matches, aluminum foil, an 80" x 50" emergency blanket, 50 ft. of fishing line with four hooks and sinker weights, a surgical blade, five wound closure strips, a map compass, emergency whistle, three feet of duct tape, and a reusable zipper-lock bag. Luckily this kit contains instructions because it's been a long time since boy scouts. A worthy addition to your go-bag.

Continue reading »

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Pitotubes travel bottles

Since the American TSA cracked down on liquids on airplanes, and other airports followed suit, people have been hoarding small plastic bottles in which to carry shampoo, gel, and such. Unlike in the US or Canada, retailers here don't often offer travel sizes so I often resort to keeping our kids flu medicine bottles. Of course these bottles aren't designed to carry liquids at altitude and often you get a sticky mess inside the clear plastic bag you are often required to carry them in. Plastic bottles I have purchased specifically for this purpose have worn out in a few uses. Luckily, I have found a solution which should appeal to those looking for a long lasting more upscale solution.

Pitotubes, launched by Alisa Driscoll, a former flight attendant, are clear, refillable bottles made from the highest quality PETG (hard) recyclable plastic. They are small enough to meet the carry-on limit but are also durable enough to be placed in checked baggage without concern for leakage. No more leaky mess and no more confiscated tubes.

Pitotubes travel bottles can be purchased individually or as part of a set at the Pitotubes website.

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LaCie DataShare

The LaCie DataShare allows you to easily recycle your old SD and MicroSD cards and turn them into USB Flash Keys. I've used an uglier version made by a local OEM for years and it makes great use of all the data cards I have lying around. LaCie adds an additional, and mostly conceptual, differentiation between public and private data by dividing the reader in two and adding the label public and private. It looks great but it would have been nice if they had taken the concept further by allowing two public keys to mate with each other - one copying files to the other and vice versa. Otherwise a practical tool.

LaCie - LaCie DataShare

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Jet Lag Alarm Clock

Great looking device and wonderful interface but I wonder in an age when everyone carries a mobile phone, with alarm, who would want to carry another device in their luggage?

Designed by Sam Hecht and his co-patriots at industrial facility in the UK, the jet lag alarm clock is a re-interpretation of the good old travel alarm clock. A transcontinental project, the jet lag is produced by IDEA international in Japan. The overall idea was to produce a travel alarm clock where an instruction booklet would be unnecessary. The clock features a lock button to prevent settings from changing in flight, display illumination, and a novel combined alarm/snooze/speaker button- so you can direct your swat to where the sound emanates.

Jet Lag Alarm Clock By Sam Hecht

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Salter Luggage Scale

Salter's convenient luggage scale is small and light enough to fit into your suitcase, saving yourself from any nasty excess baggage charges to and from your destination. Featureing a simple handle grip, sturdy strap, and the ability to measure up to 40kg, this scale should be able to weigh most suitcases. Anything heavier should be in a wooden box. Of course the best solution is one bag travel but many of us can't resist loading up on holiday trinkets.

Salter Luggage Scale

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Bike's for precious cargo

Load up the kids and head to the market. The kg271/BUCKET model will carry your precious cargo and help you complete all your errands in style. The BUCKET comes equipped with a removable seat and two seatbelts.

Love these.
Bicycles for Utility, Cargo and Transportation - Madsen Cycles

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In my bag

I'm always a bit curious about the tools people use to work, where they work, and what they carry to work. Judging by the popularity of these types of groups on flickr other people are too. It's somewhat more common to spill the contents for all to see but I wanted to take this photo quickly to avoid strange looks from my colleagues.

Here is what I was carrying to the job site yesterday (I split time between home office, the road, and company):

• Tom Bihn ID messenger and horizontal braincell
• Aged Powerbook 12" with cords and cables
• 50 sheets of A4 for paper prototyping and idea communication
• Leather bound notebook for meetings and general notes
• Fiber bound notebook which I use for language training
• Tiny moleskin notebook I am trying for capturing ideas
• Muji business card holder
• Uniball eye waterproof markers
• Mitsubishi 4h pencils
• 'This Is Your Brain on Music'

Previously: What's in your bag?

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Scan Disk card readers

SanDisk’s new card readers feature a glossy black and metallic silver design. Each reader’s tripod base is detachable, creating instant portability.

The new SanDisk ImageMate readers are two of the fastest and most reliable USB readers, capable of transferring 1-gigabyte of data in less than 35 seconds, the ImageMate readers’ space-saving vertical design makes them unobtrusive on your desk, but with such stylish looks they can’t help but stand out.

I was looking on Monday for a card reader and none had the industrial design that these do. Even the ones from Sony were lacking. While not the most exciting purchase you will make this year, these card readers from SanDisk, might be the most beautiful devices you will buy at this price point.

ScanDisk ImageMate memory card readers. Via IDAsia.

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SanDisk Ultra Back-Up Flash Drive

Looks like an ideal mobile back-up device.

With no cables required, or any complicated software to install, the new SanDisk Ultra Backup USB flash drive is a complete backup solution that provides an incredibly easy way to protect digital files. It uses patent-pending backup technology with capacities up to 64GB, large enough to back up average consumer requirements, as well as critical small business files and documents. In addition to one's digital personal life, these products protect critical work files with a dual layer of both password protection and AES hardware encryption.

The entire new SanDisk USB family introduces an iconic new design language developed by global innovation firm frog design.

More info. here and here. Via IDAsia.

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Nightmare pillow

A gift for those with fond memories of the DOS command line. The Dosugus pillow is available from Artlebedev.

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Takaratomy Xiao Instant Digital Camera

This looks like some serious fun. I always loved the immediacy of a polaroid but could never get used to carrying around something so bulky. The Xiao features a 5 megapixel digital camera with a high resolution screen for preview, and a built-in printer for less than a minute of color printing. Like many mobile phones, it adds to the fun by allowing you to choose various templates, borders, and effects when printing.

More here and here. Via Uncrate.

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Blackbird Camera

I have a thing for old vintage cameras but lack the funds and skill to own one. The Blackbird looks like it might be a worthy addition to my all too unused collection of cameras. Designed by Japanese firm Superheadz, the twin-reflex 35mm camera comes in three colors - the orange would be fun.

More info. here

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Eizo 24-inch FlexScan with DisplayPort

Eizo has introduced a new 24-inch LCD monitor, the FlexScan S2432W-H, which is one of its first to rely on the newer DisplayPort video standard. sports both a 1920x1200 resolution and a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. Other specs include a brightness rating of 360cd/m2 and a true black-to-white pixel response time of 16ms, while the neutral (gray-to-gray) response time is 6ms.

If Apples new 24" monitor seem too consumer focused you might want to consider this Flexscan as a match for your MacBook or MacBook Pro. It lacks a couple of the Cinema displays features, a web cam and importantly the glossy display. The later of which has me sold. My current Eizo has served me well and when it comes time for a replacement, this will certainly be at the top of the list.

Via Electronista

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The difficulties in choosing a Mac

Lately Apple seems to make the process of choosing which Mac to purchase more and more difficult. They have this nasty habit of leaving out 1 essential feature in lower priced laptops in order to 'encourage' pros. to buy the more expensive model. Boo hoo.

Today was no different with the revamped MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup.

First it was the lack of a dedicated graphics card in the MacBook. Now that they have fixed that issue (in spades), they cripple an otherwise fine production machine by leaving out a firewire port. I'll do some real world tests to ensure my assumption is correct but I can't see using usb 2.0 for large file transfers or for reading large files from disc.

This was the month I was going to upgrade my studio equipment. It's been 3 years since I purchased my venerable 12" Powerbook and it's starting to show it's age. Replacing my Powerbook and Eizo monitor with a MacBook Pro and similar quality but larger display is not something I can budget this year.

With each successive MacBook crippled in some way, this might be the first time in 10 years that my main studio machine is a desktop. It looks like I see an iMac in my future (still a win for Apple).

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