The Leech Plug: The self conscious, tree hugging wall plug.

Unbeknownst to many, even if an electronic is fully charged, it will still draw power from the wall. Now it may not seem like much. And in reality, it isn’t — for a single gadget in a single day. But then take into account how many gadgets there are sitting fully charged in wall outlets across the world. It adds up. What if there were a “smart” plug that would detect a charged battery and released said battery accordingly?

Welcome to the Leech Plug. Designed by RSID student Conor Klein, the Leech Plug get’s it’s name after it’s real world ability to sense when it’s sucked all the power it can cram into the host battery and spit out the plug when the deed is said and done. There isn’t much to say other than sit back and watch the movie below. Prepare to be captivated. An automatically puking wall plug is quite the sight.

Video

http://www.vimeo.com/9392135

USB 3.0 continues it’s war path: Aviator-2 USB 3.0 SSD hits the scene

SSD hard drives are great and all, but there’s still one big roadblock as far as ultimate speed is concerned. Some of the high-end SSD’s easily eclipse the throughput that USB 2.0 can muster. Kind of negates the point of an SSD now doesn’t it? Thankfully, speed have a crutch to fall back on by way of Active Media Products’ “Aviator-2 USB 3.0 SSD. Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities, expect to hit 230MB read times for both and 130/120 MB/s write times for the 64GB and 128GB variants respectively.

They won’t win any speed contests, but the 64GB option at $260 is at least somewhat reasonable. But if you must have more, the 128GB will set you back a fair amount more, to the tune of $450. Still interested?

GadgetVenue

Hate dosing off? The “Anti-Sleep Alarm” is here to help.

While actually giving in to our body’s natural wants such as sleep, we’re keeping the balance beam in an upright and neutral position — generally a good thing to do. But life comes and calls quite often, many times forcing us to put hunger, drowsiness, and other basic human needs on the back burner in order to seal the deal and get the job done.

So here’s the scenario, you’re sitting in your car getting ready for a big meeting that if completed will net your company nice little multi-billion dollar deal. You’re supposed to be going over your notes and preparing yourself for this staple achievement. But instead, you find your self doing the whole bobble head thing, getting dangerously to the steering wheel with each and every bob. If only there were something to keep you awake…

The Anti-Sleep alarm is here to save the day, your career, and maybe even your life. Such devices are nothing groundbreaking as various “anti-sleep” gadgets have come and gone. What makes this particular one so useful is how you wear it. Shaped like a mdoern Bluetooth headset, the Anti-Sleep Alarm fits over your ear and when tipped past a 30°, lets out less than happy tones to snap you back into the real world.

Think such convenience will bankrupt you? How’s $2.90 sound for 10,000 nods worth? Ya, almost too good to be true isn’t it? You be the judge.

[Product Page]
Red Ferret

For those who just can’t be bothered: The LOL Keyboard.

The fast paced way of life demands more and more from us each and every day. It seems society as a whole tries to cram in just one more thing into whatever spare seconds we have. When it gets down to it, some people may not even have time to type out full words and sentences, resorting to characteristic text message language such as LOL and BTW among others. Even then, some people are finding themselves strapped for time. For those individuals, I have the tool just for them — the LOL Keyboard.

Essentially, the LOL Keyboard is nothing more than a keyboard with popular super short hand messages routed to function keys — areas that would normally hold, chat, email, internet keys and the like are now filled with L8R, LOL, THX, and more. Need the full list of shortcuts?

• ASAP, BRB, BTW, CYA, FYI, HOAS, HRU, IMO, LOL, THX, TTYL

Besides the handy function keys, the keyboard can also be switched to and from QWERTY mode and alphabetical mode at the push of a button. I’m sure the teens of the world are all giggly giggly goo right now. Parents? Modern convenience or the ultimate downfall of man and beginning spiral into extinction?

Consumerist > Kotaku

Waze for iPhone updated — Personalized alternative routes & scoreboards now live!

We’ve covered Waze in the past for it’s simple use, nicely done UI, and robust + active user community which makes the user generated GPS application and service a joy to use. If you find your daily commute boring and unlively, I promise that after “Wazing” even one of your trips, you’ll be hooked. Dan from Waze just hit me up with another mail alerting me to a freshly released iPhone update that adds in two big features that should keep hooked users even deeper and newcomers intrigued.

• Personalized Alternative Routes: Hate taking the same path twice, like some variety from day-to-day, or need a quick second option because of a weather/road hazard? This feature is for you. After driving a second, third, or *insert number here* route 2-3 times, the Waze application will learn your new route and display it in addition to your normal route with info on each allowing you to make an educated decision as to how you want to go.

• Scoreboard: The scoreboard has been talked about several times now over the last few months. For Waze die hard Waze users, the scoreboard is by far the best new feature, allowing them to finally compare their points against other local Wazers. Nothing makes a boring task more lively and fun like the good ‘ol spirit of competition.

If you haven’t tried Waze yet, now is a better time than ever. The indecisive will find the new alternative routes feature a lifesaver as will the die-hard users with the scoreboard. Is there any reason not to use Waze?

Forecast for Hell: Cold and Icy. Verizon and friends join GSMA. CDMA begins decent into the grave.

GSM or CDMA? It isn’t a hard decision to make, though it’s one that can often lead to heated debates (at least in the states where consumers aren’t very privy to the huge GSM market around the world). For myself, even though I’m on Verizon at the moment, I much prefer GSM and the freedom that popping SIM cards back and forth allowed. That SIM swapping may come into my life once again with me actually having to switch carriers at all as Verizon has officially announced that they’ve joined the GSMA.

What’s the big deal? Well, only that Verizon is again, a CDMA carrier and the GSMA is a GSM focused organization. In case you were wondering, the chosen “4G” technology for CDMA2000 networks was UMB backed by Qualcomm. However, after Qualcomm made the switch to LTE, others followed eventually killing off any hopes of UMB making it into the real world.

With Verizon voicing support for LTE (GSM technology) well back into last year, it was only a matter of time before they became friends with the cool kids and joined the GSMA club. One thing that’s interesting to mention is that with Verizon’s acceptance into the GSMA, has CDMA finally been dealt a final blow? I mean, well over 80% of the world uses GSM technology with the rest making up CDMA. Of that small global CDMA figure, the US makes up one of the largest shares.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how Verizon adopts and adapts the rules of the GSM realm. What I’m most curious about is if and how they will incorporate SIM cards. Common sense says they’d just start moving services over to SIM cards so that the transition to 4G and beyond would be that much easier. Though I can already see the nightmare of moving an entire network from a SIM-less nature to one that is the exact opposite. Above all else, there’s always the fact that Verizon hasn’t ever really been the most customer friendly or “open” network. With the move to GSM comes a much more open philosophy and way of thinking. Is Verizon ready? Are you ready?

In the grander scheme of things, Verizon isn’t the only major CDMA carrier promising LTE adoption as China Telecom and KDDI have also voiced intentions of moving to LTE as well as joining the GSMA. With that said: Will three of the biggest CDMA networks making the move to LTE for 4G (and most likely beyond) be more fallen dominoes in the path to CDMA’s death?

Unwired
GSM World

Porting Android 2.x to Sony Xperia — Psh. Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 — Now we’re talkin’

One of the greatest things about a more open platform for smartphones I believe, is the ability to (if you choose) customize it until you’re hearts content. From personal experience, I swap ROM’s every couple of days on my DROID trying out the updates and newcomers to the custom DROID ROM scene alike. But porting various ROM’s developed for your phone, or at the very least, the phone’s operating system, are rather easy all things considered. Especially so when comparing a simple ROM port from one Android device to the next against porting a full blown desktop OS to a Sony Xperia X1. Oh yeah, it’s real.

As is usually true with all feats of smartphone hackery and digital strength, xda-forums is yet again home to the clever minds behind the Sony Xperia X1 Hardy Heron Edition. A quick glance above clearly shows the Linux OS up and running on the Xperia X1, bringing instant drool to many a geek. With such crazy ports and the obvious differences in each systems supporting hardware, the X1 Hardy Heron is at this point pretty limited in what it can do. But getting it to actually boot and run is the hard part.

Now all this project needs is a few more people that are either unemployed, on vacation, or a combination of the two to bring the functionality up to speed. Feelin’ a little crafty?

Enadget > XDA