Our Favorite Gadgets

The gadgets that really grabbed us. We would buy them all, if we could only afford it. Feel free to buy them and send them to us...

Philips DECT Digital Baby Monitor

Having suffered through two kids worth of basic, no-frills baby monitors, I now greatly appreciate the features that Philips have built into their new DECT digital baby monitors. DECT stands for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication, and it's basically the same technology built into high-quality digital cordless phones. Unlike the older-style baby monitors I had to use before, this one has zero interference from nearby monitors or other devices in or around the home. It's also a totally private connection -- the neighbors can no longer listen in.

Recently featured in Time Magazine, the Philips DECT Baby Monitor features a two-way intercom so you can communicate with your child directly from the handset, an integrated thermometer reads ambient room temperature and displays it on the handset and base, 5 different lullabies are controllable from the handset, a nighlight is controllable from the handset, and rechargeable batteries with up to 12 hours operation between charges.

Also included are a belt clip, neck cord, zippered travel bag, and a lifetime guarantee.

CEIVA Digital Photo Frame

CEIVA offers the world's only connected digital photo frames. With a digital photo frame, you can display photos from your digital camera as if they were regular photos, except that the frame can bring your pictures to life in a full-color slideshow.

CEIVA frames can receive photos through the internet (no computer required) directly from friends and family anywhere in the world. New photos can also be sent directly to the frame from camera phones.

CEIVA Digital Photo Frames are on sale now with a number of special offers to choose from.

Aero-Garden Kit

This is the perfect gift for cooks or gardeners or yourself, no green thumb required. It's a counter-top herb garden, with the perfect balance of organic nutrients, oxygen, lighting and automation technology. No messy soil is needed. It comes complete with everything including seed pods and nutrients.

Digital Picture Frame

Why stare at the same photo all the time? This 8" digital picture frame has 64 MB of built-in memory allowing you to store up to 100 6-megapixel photos. It can be positioned in six different ways for optimum landscape and portrait viewing, and is wall-mountable. Built-in speakers can play music while it plays a slideshow of your photos (remote included). New photos can be loaded via USB 1.0 or 2.0, or via various digital camera flash memory card formats.

Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotic Building System

This all-new Lego Mindstorms pack has a new NXT Intelligent Brick with a 32-bit microprocessor and more memory. The kit features 3 servo motors with built-in rotation sensors for precise control, and over 500 Lego Technic elements. The computer software features intuitive drag-and-drop programming.

Levitron Omega Levitating Spinning Top

The American Association of Physics Teachers called the original Levitron "the best new science toy in a generation." This, the latest version, is so much more than a spinning top. As it spins (using only your finger-power, no batteries are required), it levitates above a magnetic pad, high enough for you to pass your hand under it, and is great fun for kids and adults alike.

Handheld GPS, MP3, Translator, Converter, and Audio Book Player

Does it shine your shoes? No, but this amazing wireless device combines a GPS, MP3 player, audio book player, picture viewer, world clock, currency and measurement converters and a calculator in a device that fits in the palm of your hand and weighs less than 6 oz. Don't leave home without it.

The Tumbling Vacuum Marinator

Why wait to marinate?

Winner of Popular Science Magazine's Best of What's New Award in Home Technology, this marinator creates a vacuum inside the barrel that causes the food's fibers to stretch and become porous, while paddles inside of the rotating barrel flip and coat the food with marinade.

Unlike conventional techniques that only flavor the surface and require 24 hours of marinating for thick cuts of meat, the automated marinator infuses restaurant-quality flavor and succulence into a 5-lb. brisket in less than 20 minutes, while using half the amount of marinade required for pan or bag soaking.

The World's Smallest Indoor Remote Control Helicopter

Last year I bought myself an indoor RC helicopter, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Now I wish I had this one instead. It's the smallest, most stable, and lightest remote control helicopter available. It has two contra-rotating coaxial rotors that use gyroscopic inertia to keep the copter balanced and two micro-motors that spin the rotors at varying speeds, resulting in precise and effortless movement up to a range of 50'. Did I mention how small it is?

The Remote Control Night Vision Spy Car

I can't tell you how many times I've thought "What if I could mount a video-camera on the front of an RC car and drive it around while seeing what the camera sees". Ok, I'll tell you - quite a few, because I'm an RC junkie.

This remote control car not only lets you see what the car sees, it does it with a night-vision camera that sends images wirelessly to a remote headset with an eyepiece and LCD, allowing you to see what the car sees in the dark! Kids will absolutely love this. If they can ever pry it away from dad, that is.

The Ultimate Wine Fridge

This wine fridge not only keeps 8 bottles of wine at the perfect serving temperature, it even pours the wine. That's right, it dispenses a glass at a time from 4 different bottles, using inert nitrogen gas to push the wine out, controlling oxidation and maximizing the life of the opened bottles. With an insulated solid mahogany-framed glass door, two-stage pressure regulator, and interior lighting, this handcrafted dispenser is sure to be the "Wow!" item of your next dinner party. Expensive? Yes, but you can't put a price on cool.

Your Own Personal UFO

Ok, it's not quite big enough to lift you off the ground, but it'll beat the crap out of all those cheap indoor RC helicopters. This flying craft has four motors, a carbon-fiber frame, 300' range, and a built-in gyroscope to make flying easy.

iPod Alarm Clock Radio

Now you can use your iPod at your bedside, either for waking you up with music from the iPod (even has a snooze button!), or for the all-important bedroom mood-music. The iPod Alarm Clock Radio has built-in iPod dock, allowing you to charge your iPod while you listen or sleep, and it also features more mundane clock radio features like a buzzer and AM/FM radio.

Upside-Down Tomato Garden

Tomato plant vines sprawl as they grow, requiring time and attention to keep them properly staked above ground. This planter takes the toil out of growing tomatoes by elevating the planting bed and allowing vines to grow downward from holes in the bottom. The hanging vines need almost no attention and ensure that tomatoes ripen in the air where they won’t rot. Complementary plants like parsley, rosemary and peppers can be planted on the top. Great for balconies.

Closet Organizing Trouser Rack

Taking up only an 18-inch width in your closet, this pant rack keeps twenty pairs of slacks neatly hung and readily accessible. It easily mounts to a closet wall or door and has a 10-gauge steel support bracket to hold 20 solid birch wood dowels that let you hang trousers flush against the wall, then swing them out individually, up to 180 degrees, for easy selection. Can also hold ties. (Just dare them to look in your closet.)

Progression Wake Up Clock

More gentle than the jarring noise of traditional alarms, this clock uses a gradual increase in ambient light, stimulating aromas, and peaceful sounds from nature to awaken sleepers. Thirty minutes before wake-up, the clock’s light begins to glow softly, subtly brightening over the next half hour. As the light increases, the warmth from the lamp releases faint aromatherapy scents into the air. Fifteen minutes before wake up time, the clock’s speaker generates soft nature sounds, and at the set wake up time a buzzer sounds to finish the cycle. Sound selection includes Nightfall, Thunder Storm, Zen Melody, Mountain Stream, Songbirds, and Ocean Surf. Four packets of aroma beads (Energy, Morning Café, Stress Relief, Lavendar) are provided or use your own oils. As a sleep aid, the clock operates in reverse, gradually diminishing light, scent, and sound for relaxed sleep.

Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

Winner of the 2002 Silver Award from the Parents Choice Foundation, this experiment kit gives kids a fun, hands-on way to discover fuel cells, one of the most significant technologies of the 21st Century. It involves 30 distinct experiments, including a car that uses solar power and a fuel cell to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis, and then runs on the resulting energy. Kit contains all necessary parts and tools, and a lab manual. (Car insurance not included but it's cheap.)

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