Technabob » disco

Disco Ball Motorcycle Helmet Might Not Keep You Stayin’ Alive in a Crash

Technabob — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:30:55 +0000

While I’m not really sure that covering a bike helmet with razor-sharp glass mirror tiles exactly adds to its safety capabilities, you still have to love the looks of this awesome disco ball helmet.

Instructables contributor Natalina encrusted this helmet with hundreds of tiny mirror squares – just like the ones in an actual mirror ball. Though these ones came with fabric backing to make it a little easier. The mirror tiles perfectly reflect light like the real deal, so she can actually keep it on when she gets off her bike to hit the dance floor.

Natalia says that since she went with the real glass tiles for optimum reflection, but that she wouldn’t recommend using it for actual motorcycle riding though. You could always go with safer acrylic mirrors, but they won’t shine as much. If you’d like to know how to make your own Disco Ball helmet, boogie (oogie oogie) on over to Instructables now.

PiepEgg Cooks Eggs with the Power of Disco

Conner Flynn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:00:25 +0000

Boiled eggs are tricky to cook. You have to time them just right. That’s hard because it’s not as if you can peek inside the shell and check on them. There must be an easier way to boil an egg. If only it involved disco. There is – and it does.

PiepEgg will cook eggs right every time as it sings different songs depending on how done you want your egg. If you want it soft boiled, it will play “Celebration”, medium will get you “That’s the Way(I like it)”, and hard-boiled eggs will play “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life.”

The battery is good for two years, so you should cook many eggs with it until you get sick of disco. It sells for about $25(USD) over at design3000.

Toyota Iq Disco Car: Party in the Intersection!

Technabob — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:48:01 +0000

Designed for the European market, the new Toyota iQ Disco is perfect for impromptu dance parties when you’re stuck in traffic.

The shiny, sparkly car has been outfitted with with mirrored plates strategically placed along its surface. Adding to the disco effect is a professional DJ sound system with a 15-inch bass-reflex subwoofer, 2-channel mixer and a pair of Numark NDX 800 digital MP3/CD/USB media controllers to get your beats on.

Under the hood, the iQ Disco isn’t quite as impressive, sporting a diminutive 1.33-liter, 98 horsepower engine. But who needs power, when you’ve got sound, and a car that looks like a traveling disco ball, right?

[via TopSpeed via Luxurylaunches]

Sega Hitokara Karaoke Disco Ball: Just Add Off-Key Vocals

Technabob — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:00:26 +0000

You’ve gotta hand it to the Japanese. They managed to take the strains of howling, tone deaf, drunken business executives and turn them into a multi-billion dollar yen industry. Now you can bring the Karaoke experience to your living room, complete with a cheezy disco light show. (Minus the drunk business executives).

While it’s far from the only Karaoke system out there, what sets Segatoys’ new Hitokara Home Karaoke system apart from the crowd is the mirrored disco ball that spins and shines as you screech along to your favorite bubble gum pop tunes.

It’s also unique in the way it gets its songs. Instead of playing from a CD or DVD, the Hitokara interfaces with a handful of special Karaoke capable mobile phones so you can download songs from the Hitokara online collection which currently has a whopping 43,000 free tracks. But unless they have Rock You like a Hurricane on there, I’m not buying one. Lyrics appear on your phone as the sound streams out of the Hitokara’s stereo speakers, and the LED-illuminated disco ball spins.

The Hitokara will ship this December for ¥7140 (appx. $75 USD). I doubt you’ll see these anywhere outside of Japan for a while.

Flash Beat Speaker Offers Sound-Sensitive Light Show

Technabob — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:30:18 +0000

Nope, this wild glowy sphere isn’t some sort of newfangled plasma weapon. Actually, what you’re looking at is a combination speaker/light show that’s perfect for your next big dance party.

Inside the transparent red plastic orb of the Zumreed Flash Beat is a downward-firing speaker, surrounded by a rapidly spinning pink light. As your tunes kick in, the light reacts instantaneously to the beat of the music.

And even though it’s under 9-inches tall, it’s powerful enough to fill a large room according to the product description (Caveat Emptor, of course). Just connect the speaker to your iPod or even a video game system, and you’ll have yourself a self-contained audiovisual extravaganza.

Originally available only in Japan, the guys over at Audiocubes have brought in a limited number of these for you to enjoy stateside for $189.99 each.

Rubik’S Cube Disco Light: Your Party Just Got 200% Nerdier

Karen M. — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:03:28 +0000

The Retro Cube Stereo Speaker and Mood Light, in theory, brings the latest in LED and rhyhmic technology to an old familiar shape. In reality, however, it’s more like an unholy marriage between a Rubik’s Cube and the Saturday Night Fever dance floor.

This is a speaker that flashes its LEDs in time with your music, and looks like a fake Rubik’s Cube on a stand. It might look OK during certain (ahem) types of parties, but really, you can’t leave it out all the time, and who has the storage space?

This item can be yours from Perpetual Kid for the utterly insulting and ridiculous price of $49.99, which is about $47.99 more than I would guess it’s worth.

[via ChipChick]

Luxeed LED Keyboard Hits the U.S. (Finally)

Technabob — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:17:25 +0000

One of the most popular posts of all time on Technabob was the wondrous Luxeed multi-color LED keyboard. While it sure looked cool, it was nearly impossible to get outside of its native land of Korea. So I’m thrilled to let you know that they’re finally available in the U.S. (sans the Korean characters).

Thanks to the fine folks over at ThinkGeek, the brightly colored programmable keyboards are ready to make their way onto your desk now. For those of you didn’t read the original post, now is as good a time as any to check out this wild keyboard in action in this video clip from Luxeed.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Each light-up keyboard is powered by 430 individual colored LEDs, all of which can be sequenced using the included Windows software (now in English!) The sky is truly the limit for making your own colorful keyboard creations.

Available in a black or white key models for $199.99 each, you’ll need to drop an additional $34.99 if you want a numeric keypad (no LEDs in that add-on BTW). Sure, it’s no Optimus Maximus, but then again, you could buy 9 Luxeed keyboards for the price of one of Art Lebedev’s wonderkeyboards.

Ready to light up your keyboard? Head on over to ThinkGeek and get yours now.

Saturday Night Speakers Do Disco Stu Proud

Technabob — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:09:14 +0000

I was researching a different story altogether, when I came across these awesome desktop speakers which look like little disco dancers.

At first glance, I actually thought they looked like South Park’s Eric Cartman dressed up like fat Elvis with a jumbo 1970s ‘fro. But maybe that’s just my mind playing weird tricks on me – after all, I’m writing this on only a couple of hours sleep this week.

Apparently, the squishy disco hair serves as a cover for the speaker drivers. I can’t tell you much more, except that they connect to any MP3 player or computer with a standard 3.5mm mini stereo jack, and they can charge via USB.

At this point, I can’t find anyone who’s retailing these disco citizens yet, but if you’re up for picking up a lot of ‘em wholesale, head on over to 50Fifty Concepts and cut yourself a deal to ship in a gross.

LED Gloves Put Lights at Your Fingertips

Technabob — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:35:44 +0000

Just in case you’re still living in the early 1990s and heading out to a rave this weekend, you might want to add these to your outfit before you head out onto the dance floor.

This pair of battery-powered gloves have a set of bright LEDs built into the fingertips. In addition to a brilliant blue always-on mode, the gloves can also be set to epileptic flashing or disco chase-light mode — just in case your illuminated fingertips don’t draw enough attention on their own.

Thankfully, they haven’t yet caught on, but you better not let Kanye West know about these, lest he wear them to his next (oh so humble) award acceptance speech and start some kind of trend.

If you’re really ready to wear these out in public, you can find them from France’s Lux et Deco (get it, L.E.D.?) for €29 (about $45 USD) a pair.

Luxeed LED Rainbow Keyboard: Disco on Your Desk

Technabob — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:05:57 +0000

Is that drab old monochromatic keyboard getting you down? This keyboard from Korea’s Luxeed features color changing LEDs under each and every key.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While it can certainly be used to produce seizure-inducing displays of blinking color, the keyboard comes with software that lets you do more subtle things, like just set the keyboard to a light up with a single hue that strikes your mood, or create intricate patterns of color.

Luxeed’s USB keyboards are available in a white backlit version (KRW 118,800 / $127 USD) and a sleek black backlit version (KRW 125,600 / $134 USD), where the keys stay black and only the letters change colors.

The keyboards have started to trickle out in their native land of Korea, but hopefully somebody will see fit to import these into the U.S. and Europe soon.