Technabob » swim

Don These Darkfins and Start Swimming Like a Fish

Hazel Chua — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:40:47 +0000

I grew up listening to several varying versions of Little Red Riding Hood. My favorite part was when (sort of slow-brained) Little Red notices how different her grandmother looks, who’s actually now the sneaky wolf in disguise.

Now here’s something to give your grandparents a scare – when you put on the Darkfin swim gloves. They look a bit ridiculous but I think they could really make a difference in your swimming. (Plus, I just think it’s sort of cool to have webbed appendages.)

The name of these gloves remind me of that masked, caped crusader named Darkwing Duck, for obvious reasons. (Now you have more of an idea when I was born and what era I grew up in.)

The Darkfin gloves are available in a variety of sizes, so even a child can go and start swimming like a fish, if he wants to. They’re made from durable latex so you can be sure that you can swim like a webbed creature for months and even years to come. They’re available from Firebox for $36 a pair.

[via Random Good Stuff]

Rubber Duckie Gets Remote Control

Technabob — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:21:11 +0000

Who says you can’t take your electronic gadgets in the bathtub with you? The latest in rubber duckie technology lets you steer your fine feathered friend around the tub from afar.

Using a wireless RF transmitter, you can make the yellow aquatic bird tool around as you splish-splash in your bath. A pair of motorized propellers moves the little guy through the water, and let you steer duckie to the left, right, forwards or backwards. A quick 5-minute charge will give you about 15-minutes of bathtime fun. And yes, both the duck and controller are waterproof, so there’s no worries about electrocuting yourself.

The R/C Rubber Duck is available from I Want One of Those for £14.99 (appx. $26.98 USD). Quack.

World’s First Waterproof Digital Video Player

Technabob — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:23:27 +0000

If you’re into multi-tasking, specifically swimming and watching movies at the same time, have I got a gadget for you. This new digital media player can not only play your favorite vid clips, it can do it in the pool.

Coming soon from Chinavasion, this waterproof digital video player can handle being submerged in up to about 10-feet of water without skipping a beat. The earphones are also watertight, but only if you keep them in your ears (duh!) The player has a small 1.8-inch color display and comes with software to convert videos from MPEG, WMV, ASF formats. Audio playback is also supported in WAV, WMA and MP3 formats.

The player only ships with 1GB of memory, but since it can only muster 128 x 128 resolution, 15 frame-per-second playback, I think that would still hold a decent amount of video.

Here’s my recommended viewing list: Jaws, The Deep, Pirahna and Open Water.

Remote Controlled Water Cannon Lets You Soak Your Friends

Technabob — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:53:39 +0000

Just in time for those Summer swimming pool excursions comes this great way to add a little life to your aquatic activities.

The water cannon floats around your swimming pool, and can remotely fire 20-foot blasts of water at unsuspecting victims from up to 40-feet away. The cannon is propelled using a system similar to the nozzles that drive tugboats around, so you can maneuver it quickly and easily. It can even do 360-degree spins.

Two versions are available (orange and green), which run on independent radio frequencies, allowing battles between you and a friend.

The remote water cannon is $129.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.