A Wired writer wanted to test just how effectively the Spot GPS Messenger could save his life. So, in the dark of night, he walked for 8 aimless hours into Tahoe National Forest. Then he pressed Spot’s emergency button. Having covered his tracks carefully and inserted himself as deeply into the forest as he could, it took only 30 minutes for a squad of rescuers, including snowmobiles, skiiers and a snowcat, to find him. Every ten minutes, the Spot GPS device relays its location to 48 different satellites. You can have this data beamed to a website so friends and family can track your trek, but it’s also available, when you hit the 911 button, to the GEOS International Emergency Response Center in Houston, Texas.

Sometimes, and only sometimes, a piece of geek jewelry can rise above being tacky and unwearable to become tacky and borderline wearable. Steve Wozniak’s nixie tube watch is one such example. This ring with working microgears might be another. The Gear Ring, designed by Kinekt Design, is made of stainless steel and is, of course, quite ugly. But seeing the gears rotate as the ring’s outer rim is spun is actually pretty cool. Is it enough to make me consider wearing a gear ring?

We’ve seen no shortage of homegrown clocks in our day , and while most are cute for their time, few are worthy of being lauded in this manner. Alan Parekh’s Gear Clock is a delightful mishmash of machined gears, thrown together in a fashion that resulted in an actual time-telling gizmo. Hop on past the break to watch this thing spin, but be sure to hold the mute button for the lead-in. Clearly ‘Sound Check’ wasn’t activated. Continue reading Machined Gear Clock makes watching the time pass a true joy (video) Filed under: Misc

Now that it’s summer, us cold-weather-city types want to spend every possible waking moment outdoors. But that separation from technology is sometimes just too hard to bear, which is where the Powerbrella comes in. Its solar panels keep your gadgets charged and ready to go. The recyclable Powerbrella features solar panels on the top of the umbrella and outlets on the bottom to gather that beautiful sun and use it to power your gear. We’re not really sure how much juice it could really provide, but it should definitely be enough to power, say, an iPod speaker dock

That’s the slogan from Last Year’s Model . They believe if you buy gadgets that don’t suck, you’ll use them longer and not need to buy new stuff all the time—thereby going green. Seems logical. Joel has a great writeup on Boing Boing Gadgets about the non-new gadgetry he uses on a regular basis that’s a pretty entertaining read. And seeing that I believe you get what you pay for (to an extent), I can’t help but agree. [ Last Year's Model via BBG ]

As sad as it sounds, most of us experience the world through photographs. Now MIT software engineers are taking that idea literally and mapping Flickr photos to regional maps in The World’s Eyes project. By pulling GPS metadata from uploaded photos (and then skinning that data in a neat 3D visualization), users can see how photographers/tourists see a given area. There’s overlap, yes, but that’s entirely the point. It’s a project more about capturing stereotypes (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in NY), than giving a Google Street View objective turn by turn of an area. Add tags like “party” to the mix, and that worldview is altered in very interesting, less predictable ways

The Mythbusters’ passion for explosions got a little out of hand earlier this week when they detonated 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate a mile outside of Esparto, California. Perhaps two miles would have been better. The segment was intended to discover whether it was possible, as the saying goes, to knock someone’s socks off. I don’t know about the socks, but the resulting explosion did manage to break windows throughout Esparto and toss one very suprised woman off her couch. Afterward, she claimed that the experience was “fun, really fun.” What a trooper. At any rate, the Mythbusters crew replaced all the windows that same day and the sentiment around town about the incident seems to be generally positive (despite the fact that no one in the town was informed of the taping beforehand).

Look out, world — a relative no-name has just showed up with a new ultraportable , and it’s darn tough to not pay attention with a specs sheet like this. The Maingear mX-L arrives with a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display (1,280 x 800), a Core 2 Duo CPU, GMA X4500HD graphics, 8GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB Intel X25-M SSD (or a 500GB HDD for those without the cheddar), a dual-layer Blu-ray reader, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, VGA output, three USB 2.0 sockets and a custom etched top that’s totally take-it-or-leave-it. The unit weighs in at 4.4 pounds and gets going at $1,099.99, but don’t expect that measly four-cell Li-ion to last you through a whole transcontinental flight. Gallery: Maingear unloads BD / SSD-equipped mX-L 13.3-inch laptop Filed under: Laptops Maingear unloads BD / SSD-equipped mX-L 13.3-inch laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:48:00 EST.

Usually to meet my top popping OCD, I plow through a 24-pack or two in a single night. But it’s an addiction. Something about the just right amount of resistance, the yeasty mist striking my fingers. It’s a glorious self-contained activity, akin to smoking or popping a zit, and it can be yours for infinite use with this Mugen (Endless) Beer Can from Bandai. Crack a beer without the damage to your liver or social life. Then crack it again

One of our pet peeves with Sony gear has long been the software. Beautiful hardware matched with average to awful software can kill the user experience. Oh sure, there are exceptions in Sony’s broad product portfolio, but interfaces like XMB are bubbles on Sony’s otherwise festering UI sores. Sony knows this, they’ve admitted it with a promise of good things to come — and here’s a good example: Sony’s new X-series Walkman with 3-inch OLED . In the (controlled) promotional video (finally!) found after the break, the X-series Walkman seems to offer a sweet mix of hybrid touchscreen and physical controls conveniently positioned for use. The 3D animations also look fluid without being superfluous