Benjamin Ellis » Gadgets http://benjaminellis.org Benjamin Not Ben - Jamin on the Net Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:06:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Monkey Power http://benjaminellis.org/2009/12/04/monkey-power/ http://benjaminellis.org/2009/12/04/monkey-power/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:28:32 +0000 Benjamin Ellis http://benjaminellis.org/?p=445 Ok, powermonkey actually. You see it’s become a bit of a standing joke: I call back to base at the end of the day and say “hello, need to update you. Can’t talk for long, battery is flat.”

Sometimes my Nokia N95 battery seems to last forever, other times it just dies – it depends on coverage, what Gravity is doing, and if I’ve been using WiFi. Similarly my iPod touch can last days or suddenly die. NEED POWER. Or rather, I need portable power.

I’ve seen both @ilicco and @documentally using powertraveller products (and they had won a Queen’s award for Enterprise), so when I saw a discount code on Twitter for 20% off I caved in. I also wanted to grab the opportunity to reduce electricity consumption (saving on stand by power is going very well so far), so I went for the powermonkey-eXplorer. It’s basically a booster battery which can be charged by mains, USB or solar power.

It’ll live in my rucksack,  so if my phone or iPod go flat I always have a way to charge them, even on the move. On longer trips I’m hoping I can charge them from the powermonkey and then recharge the powermonkey via it’s solar panel.

The whole experience so far has been great – the powertraveller store is really well laid out and nicely written – got to love the way that “i want some” is in the shop url. I got an email when I placed the order, confirmation of delivery, and an email when it arrived (so I knew before I even got home). All very slick. I’ll see how I get on with it… …In the mean time if you want to see some vintage tech, check out Maggie Philbin’s blog post on Kingswood Warren, ahead of the program on BBC Click.

]]> http://benjaminellis.org/2009/12/04/monkey-power/feed/ 0 BugLabs Uber-Gadget http://benjaminellis.org/2007/12/01/buglabs-uber-gadget/ http://benjaminellis.org/2007/12/01/buglabs-uber-gadget/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2007 11:33:48 +0000 Benjamin Ellis http://benjaminellis.co.uk/?p=7 I first found out about BugLabs via a post on Scoble’s blog. They have a fantastic uber-gadget, which is essentially a submicrocomputer base with USB ports, ethernet and so on, running Linux, into which you can plug various modules. There are about 80 gadgets on their roadmap such as screens, cameras, motion sensors and the like.

You take the base system, then snap on the compentents you need, creating your own unique gadget in real-time. If my eldest son sees this thing, I am in big trouble, he’ll want a dozen and would have ideas for a hundred more modules! There is an SDK to develop apps and BugLabs are driving the growth of a development community around it. The APIs and connections are open, you can download the specs from their site, so anyone can create modules and applications for it.

If you want to see more, here are a set of videos of Scoble interviewing BugLabs CEO and the marketing guy (is than a new industry job title?)

I can see how you could end up with a few hundred of these around the house doing everything from security to environmental monitoring.  Their viral videos and blog are quite cool too!

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