By STAN HORACZEK
Last updated: 2:56 am
July 6, 2008
Posted: 2:00 am
July 6, 2008
Ultimate garden gadget, self-powered luggage, an electo-broom, happy hard drives and a personal driving spy.
Live Luggage Power-Assisted Rolling Suitcase
$1,365; us.LiveLuggage.com
Rolling suitcases have been saving the shoulders of frequent flyers for years, but Live Luggage has designed a bag that makes toting your cruise-wear almost effortless. Built into the wheels on this full-size case are battery-powered flat motors, which work in unison with force sensors and tilt switches to make it like a Segway scooter for your clothes. The adjustable "anti-gravity" handle puts 85 percent of the weight on the wheels, which reduces stress on your arm, while the unique ID system helps locate your bag if it gets lost, which should help significantly reduce another kind of stress.
Maxtor Basics Portable Hard Drives
$129-$179; BestBuy.com
Tech fiends usually prowl for products with bells and whistles, but when it comes to storage, simplicity and security are of the utmost importance. Maxtor offers both a 250 GB and a roomier 320 GB model of their colorful Basics drive. Both draw power from your computer's USB ports, which means no annoying power cable cluttering up your travel bag. They come in three different colors: topaz, cobalt and granite. Or, as you may know them, light blue, dark blue and gray, respectively.
Dirt Devil AccuCharge Energy Star Stick Vacuum
$69; DirtDevil.com
Vacuums are among the biggest home electricity hogs, but Dirt Devil's AccuCharge system is so efficient that it has gained an Energy Star approval rating from the Environmental Protection Agency. The AccuCharge system provides longer battery life and shorter charge times, while still delivering suction comparable to that of less eco-friendly models. When it's plugged in, a chip keeps track of how much juice is in the battery. When it's close to full, it significantly reduces the amount of electricity it draws, which helps keep the environment as clean as your carpets.
RoadScan Drive Recorder
$299; AutoCamcorder.com
Much like the black boxes that ride along on airplanes, this easily concealed camera is designed to track accurately the events surrounding a car crash. The RoadScan mounts behind the rearview mirror and constantly records as you drive. Once it senses that you've had an accident, it saves 14 seconds of video from before the crash and six seconds after, plus a chart of the vehicle's deceleration. Once dumped to a PC, all that data can become vital evidence for determining who is at fault. The internal storage capacity is enough to store data for up to 10 accidents.
Plantsense
$59; Plantsense.com
Like a USB-powered green thumb, Plantsense arrives to make us all look like master gardeners. The device itself, little bigger than a thumb drive, gets plugged directly into the soil you want to cultivate. It collects environmental data and then connects to your computer to figure out what kind of plants will grow well there. It can even tell you how to save plants struggling to stay alive. The program is still in beta, but those willing to test it and give feedback about the device get access to an extensive online plant library that will finally help you figure out the difference between hydrangeas and chrysanthemums.
