Feeling musically inclined, but haven’t the time or knowledge to write sheet music? Now you can produce your own sonic creations simply by doodling on a piece of paper.
Designed by Adafruit (in collaboration with Jay Silver), Drawdio is an analog synthesizer circuit that straps to any soft-leaded pencil, and lets you crank out electronic sounds while you sketch. The kit takes advantage of the conductive properties of the graphite in the pencil lead, and produces a veritable cacophony of sounds as you put pencil to paper.
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So maybe you can’t call those otherworldly bleeps, beeps and squeaks “music”, but with enough practice you might be able to carry a basic tune… or you could give one of these a try the next time you have to fill in all those perfect little circles on your SAT or GMAT exam. I’m sure the test administrator would love that.
Adafruit sells the Drawdio kit for $19.50 (USD), including the circuit board, all necessary hardware and a 2B pencil. You’ll need basic soldering skills to put Drawdio together, so don’t expect it to work without some experience building electronic kits.
Written by technabob on December 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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It’s that time again. Technabob is looking for a few good writers to expand its coverage of all things geeky, gadgety and gamey. If you’re fanatical about video games, gadgets, electronics, hack & mods, or generally offbeat tech stuff, you could be just the guy or gal we’re looking for.
You’ll need to be able to source your own stories, and be able to write with wit, sass, attitude or at least be slightly charming. You’ve also got to be consistent. I’m looking for people who can write 7 to 10 posts a week, maybe more if the readers fall in love with what you have to say. A solid grip on the English language is also a must. You should also have at least some experience using blog software such as Wordpress, Blogger or Movable Type - and basic image cropping and sizing in Photoshop or other image editing tools is required.
Now before you get dollar signs in your eyes, I’ll tell you that blogging for Technabob won’t make you a millionaire. But it’s a great opportunity to expose your literary talents to hundreds of thousands of readers each month.
Want to give it a shot? Pick a topic that you think will appeal to Technabob readers, and send along at least two appropriate writing samples to tips@technabob.com. Be sure to include your contact information, and a brief note on why you’d be the perfect addition to the Technabob crew.
I look forward to reading your submissions.
Written by technabob on November 7th, 2008 with no comments.
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I thought that buying prepackaged goods was supposed to make life easier, but I guess I was wrong. However those who are completely obsessed with DIY will probably appreciate this and find it fun. The Falter 2D pen makes you work to have your pen and write with it.
The DIY assembly kit even comes with a flat piece of iron that you’ll fold into your pen holder. At $39, you could probably save yourself some trouble and just lift a pen from the next cubicle. Leave 5 bucks if you feel bad you’ll still be better off. Apparently the Falter is handmade in Italy. Just not completed. That’s up to you. Me, I have enough to do already.
[Randomgoodstuff]
Written by Conner Flynn on August 25th, 2008 with no comments.
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Imagine yourself a modern day Mozart. The only place you can clear your mind is out in the wilderness somewhere. You have the beginnings of a masterpiece in your head, but the problem is you have nothing to jot it down on. If you had the Compose Music Tablet, you could take it anywhere and get it all down. It’s only a concept for now, but surely creative types would be willing to pay for the convenience.
The pen is also a mic that you can sing into and then dock in the tablet to hear what you’ve got. You can also write music directly on the display and it holds a built-in library of classic tracks for the entire orchestra. Before you know it, you’ll be singing in a venue other then your shower.
[Gizmowatch]
Written by Conner Flynn on August 19th, 2008 with no comments.
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Who says your mouse pad has to just help your mouse move smoothly across your desktop? These clever paper mouse pads help you keep track of everything from your daily to-do list to making note of your many moods.
The most practical of the bunch is the Information Central pad, which helps you track things to do, people to call/e-mail, and other miscellaneous to-dos.
A little more whimsical option is the Daily Mood Tracker mouse pad, which keeps your mood swings in check from day-to-day. Now you can finally figure out if you really are an A-hole on Mondays and everyone’s best bud on Fridays. I get bad memories just thinking about having to fill in all those standardized test-like bubbles - and I forgot my No. 2 pencil, so I can’t erase!
Last, but not least is the Random Dawdle, which gives you a place to scribble down miscellaneous ideas, websites, drawings and other random stuff. I’m not sure what the point of the dotted-outline letters are, but I figure that just contributes to the randomness.
All pads ship with 60 tear-off sheets, giving you about 2 months of everyday use before you need to invest in a new mouse pad. You can grab all three designs over at Perpetual Kid for $9.99 a pad.
Written by technabob on August 7th, 2008 with no comments.
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Here’s a cool repurposing idea. It’s not very environmentally friendly, but it’s still awesome. You can reuse CDs as records. A guy named Aleks Kolkowski was at the UK’s Futuresonic festival last week and he brought his vintage record-cutting machine to carve sound tracks into old CDs and DVDs.
All people needed to do was bring an old disc and a sound file and he’d “overwrite” the CD with a track that can be played on a turntable. Pretty cool. Kinda pointless, sure, but it gives old turntables something to do.
[Futuresonic] VIA [Dailydiy]
Written by Conner Flynn on May 9th, 2008 with no comments.
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Who needs one of those new-fangled e-lec-tronic GPS navigation contraptions, when you can accomplish the same degree of directional guidance with a little old-fashioned paper and ink?
Whether you’re ready to head out on a cross-country road trip, or just around the corner to the grocery, all you need to do is surf over to to Google Maps, print out the directions, transcribe them onto this GPS-enabled pad, then hit the road.
The Paper GPS notepad lets you write up to ten turn-by-turn directions per page, including little arrows you can circle for turns, and boxes for how many miles you need to travel. When you’re all done, you can check off whether you made it to your destination, or got hopelessly lost. Given the fact that my Magellan GPS told me it was 370 miles from Milwaukee to Chicago, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.
The Paper GPS is available from Perpetual Kid for just $6.50 per pad.
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Written by technabob on April 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Working in the online biz, I just can’t seem to get away from e-mail. All day and all night, the messages flow. I get hundreds each and every day (and that’s before the spam). I can only imagine how big that stack of would be if the messages were written on good old paper.
Now you too can put down your laptops, Blackberries and iPhones and go old school with these fun paper e-mail pads. Simply fill in your To:, Date:, Time: and Subject: fields to get your message started. When you’re ready to send it along, simply fold it into a paper airplane and throw it across the office to your intended target. Got lots of recipients? Just fill in the CC: or BCC: fields, then lather, rinse and repeat.
Each pad comes with 50 sheets, and will set you back $3.99 — or about 8 cents per e-mail — such a deal. Available now from ThinkGeek.
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Written by technabob on April 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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