Technabob » snail http://technabob.com/blog Cool Gadgets, Gizmos, Games and Geek Stuff Sun, 27 May 2012 20:00:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 One Piece Transponder Snail Voice Recorder: Weirdest Gadget of the Week http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/one-piece-transponder-snail-voice-recorder/ http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/one-piece-transponder-snail-voice-recorder/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:31:59 +0000 Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/?p=47272 One Piece,… its a Japanese manga series that’s been around since way back in 1997. It follows the exploits of a boy named Monkey D. Luffy, who gains elastic powers after chowing down on some mystical fruit. Yeah, weird, I know. It gets]]> For those of you not familiar with One Piece, its a Japanese manga series that’s been around since way back in 1997. It follows the exploits of a boy named Monkey D. Luffy, who gains elastic powers after chowing down on some mystical fruit. Yeah, weird, I know. It gets better. In the One Piece universe, they use something called Den Den Mushi or “transponder snails” as their electronic gadgets. Yep, these gastropods (wow, we got to use the word “gastropod” word twice today) act as everything from telephones to cameras and fax machines in the world of One Piece. So I found it amusing when I came across this bizarre little gadget, a pocket sized voice recorder designed to look like a transponder snail.

transponder snail one piece voice recorder

Yeah, the idea of using a snail to record personal memos is weird to me too. But maybe if you’re a fan of One Piece, it’ll make all kinds of sense to you. Of course, at an imported price of $37.80 (USD) for this thing, you’ll have to be a really, really big fan to bother throwing your hard-earned money at such a ridiculous thing.

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/one-piece-transponder-snail-voice-recorder/feed/ 0 For Gastropods About to Rock…. http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/snail-guitar-weird-musical-instruments/ http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/snail-guitar-weird-musical-instruments/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:42:16 +0000 Shane McGlaun http://technabob.com/blog/?p=47251 If our Bikini Bottom pals SpongeBob and his pet snail Gary were to form a band with Plankton and long hair, this is the guitar they would use. OK, technically the thing isn’t a guitar, it’s an electric ukulele. But hey, you get the picture. The thing was made to order and available for sale on Etsy right now and it is really weird.

snail

The body of the instrument looks like a snail shell, it has four strings, a light wood neck, and the head has snail antennae on it. The construction is from hard maple and soft maple on top and the shell is hand painted.

snail guitar

If you want to rock out in the SpongeBob band, you will need to cough up 800 clams, and only one of them is available right now. The instrument was originally designed for Darby Wilcox of the band O Mello Cello Tree. Anyone know what that is?

[via Etsy]

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2011/01/12/snail-guitar-weird-musical-instruments/feed/ 0 Mail Delivered by Actual Snails http://technabob.com/blog/2006/10/11/mail-delivered-by-actual-snails/ http://technabob.com/blog/2006/10/11/mail-delivered-by-actual-snails/#comments Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:47:04 +0000 Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2006/10/11/mail-delivered-by-actual-snails/ Real Snail Mail is an art and technology project being conducted by the technological artists collective of Boredom Research.

realsnailmail

The project has real snails delivering electronic messages via tiny RFID tags attached to their shells. The messages are delivered literally “at a snails pace.” to their destinations. At the Real Snail Mail website you can send your own message to be queued up for snail delivery. It sits in the queue until a snail comes close to an RFID hotspot. The reader checks the snail’s RFID to decide whether or not it already has a message to deliver. If not, the snail is assigned the next message from the queue. All the way at the other end of the snail pond, there’s another RFID hotspot which delivers messages if and when the snails ever get there.

The installation is on display until October 21st in London at Space Studios along with several other RFID art exhibits.

[via wemakemoneynotart]

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