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"When on the go power for your gadgets is key, plug into the Solio® Hybrid 1000. This hybrid boasts a powerful solar panel and battery in an incredibly compact and slender case, conveniently geared with a built-in rugged carabiner and cable. The Hybrid 1000 is simple to use. Just clip on, plug in, and charge up!"
For a while now I have been evaluating the Solio H1000 Hybid Solar Charger. While not necessarily the product for everyone, it does have its pros and cons. I decided to run the Solio H1000 through its paces and see what its made of… the good, the bad, and the hacker friendly.
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Hacked Gadgets has been asked to provide a paid non-biased opinion of this technology. LandAirSea Systems has developed a remarkable USB GPS Tracking device. Toss in a few AAA batteries and it is ready to stash in whatever you want to track! It has a magnetic base for easy mounting to the undersides of vehicles but it is small enough to stash in a gym bag or other small items. The device is also water-resistant so there is no worries about damage from puddles or rain. The device is constantly recoding data to its internal storage for retrieval later. The accuracy of the device is 2.5 meters! With accuracy like that you could determine what side of the street it was on… Viewing data from the device is also made easy since it links into Google Maps and provides a highlighted map layout of where the device has been. Once the device has been retrieved from the item you are wanting to track all you need to do is load in the custom software. Plug the device into your USB port and have a look at all the places the device has been, the device is also recording time so you would also know how long the device was not moving and when it was on the go. I could imagine that rental car companies would have good proof of abuse when they suspect that the vehicle was driven off-road. If you think the device is just a gimmick guess again, the video above demonstrates how this device proved that a murderer was not telling the truth about his actions on the night a young girl was murdered. |
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We have all experienced file loss at one time or another. For me it’s usually an accidental deletion of a directory when I am cleaning up old files from my hard drive. Soft Logica has requested Hacked Gadgets to perform an unbiased paid review of their software package called Handy Recovery. If you are working in a Windows environment chances are you could use Handy Recovery to restore some of your data in the future. The software downloaded in a few seconds since it is less than 1MB in size. Anyone that does Windows software development knows that an executable of this size is quite impressive. Installing the program was simple, all it took was a few clicks and about 30 seconds. There is extensive help available however I’m not fond of reading documentation, I would rather click around and just kick the tires. Luckily the interface is intuitive using a few large buttons along the top. One area that could be improved is the hover over tips and the help text at the bottom of the application window. These tips and help text often just repeat the label of the command buttons and provides no additional information. |
UV Sensitive Beads are fun to play around with, it is interesting to see that there is no UV light present in indoor light and there it lots available in natural sun light. There are so many possibilities, bracelets, secret words with letters made of different colored beads, kids guessing games, etc. On the label it shows pictures of blue, orange, yellow, pink and purple beads. But the bag of beads didn’t contain blue and orange beads so don’t expect to get a variety of all colors. Thanks to Edmund Scientific for providing the beads. |
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We can’t see magnetic flux lines but with an inexpensive piece of Magnetic Viewing Paper we can easily visualize what we are missing. I took the motor magnet out of an old 5 1/4 floppy drive and was amazed at the complex magnetic pattern that emerged. It looks like the outer ring of the magnet has magnetic notches that are read by the electronic circuit. I imagine this is used for speed control, although this seems like a very complex method of regulating motor speed. You can also “watch” a relay energize by holding the viewing paper beside a normal relay while energizing the coil. Thanks to Edmund Scientific for providing the cool magnet viewer. This paper is so intriguing because it enables you to view the varying magnetic patterns of individual magnets. Take the obscure and begint “viewing” it like it’s magic. Great for educational demonstrations.” |