Bike Helmet
This is a bike helmet with a twist. You wear it around your neck, and if you ever have a dramatic fall, this thing can detect your motion, and it apparently inflates a full-on airbag
What? I played so fast. And it's apparently eight times more effective than a traditional bike helmet. I've got eight more gadgets in front of me. And in the exact same way, each of them takes something normal, but does it in a way that you would never expect.
Balmuda Toaster
So for example, this is the $300 Balmuda toaster. And it toasts your bread using water. No, this is not a TikTok life hack gone wrong. This is genius. So it should just be a case of popping the bread inside, adding the water with this adorable little cup, choosing the type of bread that I'm toasting, and then setting the timer. Oh, this is satisfying. Very pleasant bit of engineering. The toaster's then gonna boil that water, turn it into steam, and pass that steam over our bread. The steam then forms like a layer of moisture around it. And because moisture heats up faster than air, this can very quickly toast the bread's surface, forming a crispy layer, and leaving the inside protected and fluffy.
Tap Strap 2
I can't wait to taste this when it's done. And while we wait for it, next up in this almost sci-fi looking package is a keyboard. And you might be thinking, Um, no it isn't. Where are the keys? Right here, my friends. The makers of this product, the TapStrap, basically realized that by adding accelerometers to every one of your fingers, they can detect the position of them, and therefore what you would have wanted to type without even needing to hit an actual key. So I can write my video scripts like this. I can write them like this. I can write them like this. You'll notice a little optical sensor right here. That's your mouse. So just by moving your thumb along a surface, you are moving your cursor. And then the cherry on top.
If I finger guns my iPad, I promise you, this is not a joke, the TapStrap will realize that I want it to become a pointer. It will switch the sensors that it's using to measure movement, and you can now gesture control it. The only problem is that this is literally like learning another language. Like if I want to type an E, that's one tap of my index finger. If I want to type a U, that's one tap of my little finger. If I want to type a minus, that's two taps of all four of my fingers. And then if I want to start typing special characters, the whole hand gets involved. It does have the potential to be a game changer, but me personally, I'm not looking forward to learning 200 new gestures today, but we can get crazier.
Mighty Mug
So when I say the word glass to you, what do you think of? A glass shattering? Someone knocking over a glass and it making a mess everywhere? Probably something along those lines. We actually broke the glass. Do not try this at home. Anyways, this is what inspired the Mighty Mug Company to build a glass that was both unbreakable and unspillable. Their words, not mine. Okay, that actually is quite impressive. But what's arguably more interesting is the fact that when you then want to pick it up, you just, how does that work? Well, the material is Triton plastic, which is completely clear, but apparently as strong as stainless steel. And then the really interesting thing is this base, which is effectively a specialized suction cup. It forms a rubber seal with the surface that it's stuck on, reducing the air pressure under the cup and therefore creating a strong downwards pulling force. All right, I've got my best selection of weapons. Everything is breakable if you try hard enough. Come on, come on.
Oh my God, I'm whacking it. You try. Just try and smack it. Literally go for it. Just knock it. I don't think I've ever had a product that's... I mean, the cup's still fine. And then what happens when you lift it directly upwards is that it has air vents that can detect this and then equalize that air pressure difference to remove the downward pulling force.
Smart Mirror
Right, now that you've got the idea of the video, there's probably no more literal example of thinking smart about a hugely dumb concept than an actual smart mirror.
The idea of a smart mirror is a very sci-fi concept, so I'm very curious what it's gonna do. This is an absolute beast. I'm good. Jim paying off. Wow, so providing you can hide the cable, this is actually a really clean unit. Anyways, the way that a normal one-way mirror works is they tend to have a microscopically smooth layer of metal at the back and then a piece of glass on top of it, which is designed to just not interfere with the light coming to and from it. But for a smart mirror like this one, you need a two-way mirror design, which still has that metal, but instead of having a thick metal sheet at the back, it's more of a thin sheet that has some metallic elements at the front. And that's what allows you to see this 15 or so inch display that's on the bottom half of this mirror, while also being able to see my face. Oh, we have lights. Fun fact, this is why, if you wanted to check whether a mirror is two-sided and you're being watched from the other side, you just put your finger on it. And if there's a gap between your fingernail and the reflected image, it's a normal mirror. But if there isn't, there's a good chance it's a two-way mirror and there is someone on the other side. Anyways, now that we've got the mirror part of it sorted, let's see what the smart part means. It's nice that it's a touchscreen. Wait, is that an after all? No way. It's so weird that this is a mirror. Wow, it's got speakers as well.
- 100,000.
- It goes really loud.
- I didn't think it was possible.
- What's the resolution of our mirror? It's not the most responsive interface I've ever used, but it's a surprisingly clear image, given that it's actually sitting behind a mirror. Oh, we got our Spotify working as well. Nice. Oh, you can mirror your phone too. This is a really tough one.
Because I think it's such a cool piece of kit. And I love the idea of being fully connected while sitting in the bathroom, but you could just take your phone and do things probably faster.
Stemplayer
This next thing, the Stem Player, is absolutely fascinating. So it's a speaker, but you can probably already tell by the way it's presented and the way the thing looks that it's coming at it from a different angle. Funnily enough, this thing is actually a collab between Carno Computing, this really wacky company who creates these interesting life solutions with their products, like the flexible webcam and the DIY headphones. And then Kanye West, who I imagine based on his ridiculous shoe lineup, probably had something to do with this design. Why does it feel like skin? But what this tiny, slightly gross thing allows you to do is to remix any song you play through it on the fly in real time. It actually uses artificial intelligence to break any track you put into it into four parts or stems, like vocals, bass, drums, instrumentals. And then it gives you individual control over each of them. I have the LED lights on the phone. You just slide your finger on these pads and individual parts of the song will change. You can like speed up individual bits and loop certain parts of the track. So for example, this slider here is vocals. So if I drag that in, it gets rid of the vocals. Seeing that happen in real time is kind of crazy. It kind of feels like it's making me the conductor of an orchestra and I can tell individual band members to quieten down. Let's get rid of the instrumental track. And then when you're done listening, but there is one major catch. For this track splitting to work, you have to upload your music onto their site, let it process it, then download it and put it onto the player, which would have been fine back when everyone was storing their MP3s. But I haven't done that for about seven years 'cause my entire library is on Spotify, which this does not support.
Sky Planter
Right, this one is about as low tech as it gets. It's a plant pot, but it's earned its place in this video thanks to a very clever bit of thinking. The idea comes from the fact that most people, like, plant in their home. But then if you're in a London or New York City apartment, you are paid for every square inch of that place and you don't wanna waste it. So why not secure the soil with this collar, flip the whole thing upside down and hang the plant from the far less valuable ceiling space? I know it sounds crazy, but there's actually very little downside. You can water from the base of the plant and they've even built in a porous water reservoir up top, which means that unlike a normal plant pot that you have to water every day, you only have to water this once every couple of weeks. And then depending on how wet the soil is at any given time, more or less of the water will flow in from that reservoir by diffusion. Time to check our water toaster. I feel like I've just treated my bread to a spa. That is a glorious slice of toast. And this is a normal slice of toast from a normal peasant toaster. One of the most obvious differences is the evenness of the toasting. Healthy load of butter on each. All right, normal slice of toast. You can taste this very slight burnt flavor. And the bread is kind of mildly crispy all the way through. Six out of 10. And now, this feels much crustier.
Oh my gosh. I think you could have heard that crunch in the other room. It's a weird description, but you can really feel the structure of the bread. And that sound is something else. Nine out of 10.
C3 Rover
And a sub to the channel would be delectable. Now we get onto the really cool stuff. Simba, what the hell? So fundamentally, this, the C3 Rover, is a cooler. The same type of cooler that you'd buy to chuck a couple of beers in on a hot day. But this one is also a car, which actually brings with it a whole suite of other perks. It's trying to be the type of cooler that you'd want to host a party with. So they made it remote controlled, so that instead of having to actually pass you a drink, like some kind of Neanderthal, I can drive your drink to you. You can't drink and drive. You can't drive your drink. I apologize. Plus the range is 200 feet, which means you'd barely be able to see it by the time you lose connection. It's got LED headlights baked into it to light your party up at night. Can holders on either side. This isn't even sponsored by Huel. And it's also a 20 watt Bluetooth speaker. And it's actually surprisingly full sound, presumably because it's using this massive chamber inside to be able to push out more air. All right, let's see if Milo wants a party.
Oh. This is not bleeding edge tech, don't get me wrong, but it is a really clever way to tie in lots of things that you would naturally want to have together anyway.
Tesla Coil
But this thing is a genuine marvel. We've seen a speaker on a car and a speaker that can remix on the fly, but you've probably never seen a speaker made out of lightning. This is the Tesla Music Coil. And I just want to be very clear here. This is going to play music, but there's no physical speaker here. The music is going to come from the sparks that this box generates. Let's turn it on to lightning mode. Oh my gosh. So right now, what this is doing is creating an extremely high voltage. So high that electrons are just starting to fly off this tip, creating plasma, or what looks to you like lightning. And that plasma is causing vibrations in the air, and therefore this horrifying sound. This does not feel safe. And we can actually turn the power up using this slider here. Oh my gosh. I don't feel safe. But this is where it gets insane. You can flick this tab here to turn it into music mode, which allows it to pair to my phone via Bluetooth. And then when I play a song, it will try to recreate that track using plasma as the instrument. Here goes nothing.
It works! That is one of the coolest things I've seen in my entire life.
I can't believe it works!
I feel like the craziest part of this is that you can actually hear the words. It is recreating the human voice using lightning.
SolidSuit (links at top)
Oh, you know what else thinks different? The RhinoShield SolidSuit phone case. This is very solid flooring. And the case has actually just been upgraded. It's easier to put on and take off. It's easier to clean. It's grippier. You can now get a version with MagSafe compatibility. And this is my favorite thing about RhinoShield cases. It's even more customizable. You can change the buttons. You can change the camera ring. You can choose from what feels like a million different designs, all the way from PewDiePie to Naruto. You can get them for iPhones. You can get them for many Androids. Or if you'd rather actually just stop your phone being dropped in the first place, you can go for the Grip. My girlfriend's actually had one of those on her phone since I gave it to her months ago. She loves it. And then for Black Friday, up until the end of the month, you can use the code " MrFriday" to get an additional 10% off on top of the already up to 60% off that's happening site-wide.