Technabob » smart

Keybrid is the Coolest House Key Ever

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:30:30 +0000

I don’t keep any keys on a key ring with my car key. The reason is that I hate keys dangling on my leg when I drive. I always just go into the house using the garage door and my garage door opener. That worked fine until my garage door opener stopped working one day and I couldn’t get in the house. After that little incident, I bought one of those locks that use a pin pad for the front door.

If you don’t want to go that extreme, the Keybrid may be the perfect solution. It’s a key blank that you can have carved at a hardware shop to work on just about any lock out there. The thing has a key ring built into the key so you can clip it to things and I assume you could clip other keys to it as well if you want.

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Right now, you can only get them in silver but next year there will be gold, black, and pink Keybrids too. A single keybrid in SC1 or KW1 styles will cost you $8.99 or you can get both styles for $16.99 and cover 95% of the locks out there.

Smart Speed Bump Rewards Good Driving

Lambert Varias — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:30:51 +0000

A pair of designers, Jae-yun Kim & Jong-Su Lee, have come up with a speed bump that actually knows and rewards you if you’re obeying speed limits. Vehicles who just gun it upon driving over the speed bump will encounter a normal speed bump, but those who do slow down to below 30 km/h (about 19 mi/h) will be given milk & cookies and a pat on the back. No actually the speed bump will flatten, i.e. disappear, for vehicles who have already reduced their speed.

Since it’s more than just a lump of concrete with black and yellow paint, this smart speed bump will surely be more expensive. But personally I think it’s worth it. Even if it doesn’t give pats on the back. Not only will this device motivate people to drive safely, it will also lead to less road accidents, especially in places where it rains or snows a lot.

[via coolest gadgets]

Smart Design Dragon iPod Dock has Tentacles

Technabob — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:53:57 +0000

It seems that just about every day, another company jumps into the fray with another iPod dock, so it’s good to see one that stands out a little bit.

Smart Design’s Dragon I iPod dock has a unique style that certainly isn’t shy. For starters, the sound system has a bold red and black gloss color scheme perfectly suited to the U2 special edition iPod (but should look good with any black iPod.) Then it’s got some crazy “tentacles” which each have a 5-watt speaker at the end of a flexible rod. The design also features a cozy little drawer to store the systems’ compact remote control.

While the Dragon I looks best with an appropriately styled iPod, you can also dock pretty much any MP3 player with a mini stereo connector. It should be available in Europe sometime in April, and willcost