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Scan Bar Codes To Search Consumer Reviews In Store With SearchReviews

In the same space as Buzzillions and Viewpoints, a new consumer review aggregator SearchReviews unveils itself today, allowing users to tailor searches to its over 40 million consumer reviews for over 4 million products from 1,011 retailers like ebay, Sephora, Walmart, Amazon and Zappos. User reviews are increasingly becoming akin to a form of UGC advertising and SearchReviews is attempting to take advantage of this by launching what is by far the largest searchable review hub available to consumers.

SearchReviews is also available on iPhone and Android, allowing customers to access information about products in store with the scan of a barcode in addition to manual search. Curious in-store searchers can scan a code and/or look for the name of a product or service like a Canon Printer and drill down even further into specific attributes like star rating, source, location and specific key words with a tag cloud. You might find yourself confused without these further refinements as the quantity of reviews greatly outweighs the quality.

Says founder Ankesh Kumar on the ambitious goal of being a one-stop shop for reviews, “A little prepurchase research goes a long way as it brings all available reviews together in one place, so consumers don’t have to wander from site to site or sort through a jumble of irrelevant information.”

Sometimes SearchReviews can seem like a jumble itself: The app is missing some crucial elements including geolocation and the ability to search by date and specific store. Also reviews like the following for the iPhone weren’t particularly useful on the web version. I’m hoping that these kinks can be worked out in subsequent updates as the ultimate utility of being able to pull up customer reviews is huge .

SearchReviews is aiming adding 2 million reviews each week and hopes to hit 100 million reviews in 2011. The company is bootstrapped with $350K in funding from Kumar who demonstrates how it works below.

CrunchBase Information

SearchReviews

Information provided by CrunchBase

M16 Golf Ball Launcher

Have a really bad golf game? Can’t quite get your drives down where you want them? Well, if you have a spare M16 laying around you can launch your golf balls much farther than you ever could with a driver.

The $20 add-on to the barrel of an M16, M4 or AR-15 allows you to chuck golf balls at incredible speeds. By loading the magazine with blanks, gasses from the blanks will shoot the golf ball out of the end like a cannon. The ball is good for as much as 400 yards and you can shoot the thing about 200 yards with 5-10 feet of drop.

I like to golf myself but am more of a traditionalist; Alcohol on the golf course and semi automatic weapons just don’t seem like a good idea to me.

[Link to ARR-225]

M16 Golf Ball Launcher originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/14.

Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger

Sure, you could build your own solar powered battery charger, but that’s only good when the sun is shining. If your conscious about our environment the Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger allows your to charge up your USB gadgets with an incredible small impact to the environment. Plus, no need for the sun, just some H2O.

Drop a tablespoon of water into the fuel cell and your good to go. The Powertrekk will charge up anything that can be charged via USB. It’s not the smallest charger out there, but it is one of the greenest we have seen.

Currently there is no price or retail locations announced, but check out their site for updates.

[Link to Powertrekk]

Powertrekk Fuel Cell Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13.

Angry Birds Bento Box

I love Angry Birds just as much as the next guy, but Angry Birds sushi, I think not. But if you consider yourself the uber-fan and already have all of the plush toys and a real life Angry Birds set in your backyard then you must try the Angry Birds bento box. I hear it’s tasty

The edible creation was made by the guys at mymealbox. They guarantee us that no birds or pigs were harmed in the production of these bento boxes.

Now all you need is to create a slingshot for the birds and have someone launch them into your mouth. Just make sure they have some good aim.

Angry Birds Bento Box originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13.

DIY: Solar Battery Charger

Here is a super easy and super cheap way to build a solar battery charger. You will need nothing more than 2 solar panels, a battery holder and a blocking diode.

The project is dirt cheap, usually running you no more than 3 or 4 bucks and is a great way to experiment with solar power. The unit will trickle charge your NiMH rechargeable batteries and can usually charge 2 AA’s fully with about one full day’s worth of sunlight. With some tweaking you could add a USB port to the design so you can keep your iPhone or other gadget that uses a USB connection fully charged all the time.

Check out Instructables for a parts list and a complete project breakdown.

DIY: Solar Battery Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/13.

Tiny DreamPlug PC

Shrinking these is all the rage. Why not shrink your PC as well. This wall-wart looking device has a full PC crammed inside of it, not quite a full on gaming machine, but perfect for a small file server.

This all in one wonder will only run you $150 and comes with some surprising specs. A 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva ARM processor, 512MB of DDR-2-800MHz RAM, 1GB of microSD storage for system files, two gigabit ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA 2.0 port, SD card slot, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth and a headphone jack. The company also claims that it can save up to 96% on energy costs compared to a standard desktop PC.

This is perfect for small applications like a file server or for cloud computing expansion. Imagine having a power-bar with a few of these plugged in.

[Link to DreamPlug PC]

Tiny DreamPlug PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11.

eLocity A10 Up For Pre-Order On The 15th

The big brother to the popular eLocity A7, the A10, will be available for pre-order later this month on the 15th.

The A10 will feature a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 512 MB of Ram, 10.1-inch 1366×768 multi touch screen and will ship with Android 2.2 (Froyo). Following in the A7′s footsteps, the A10 will also include HDMI, a USB port, and a microSD slot to extend it’s storage by 32GB if you so choose to buy that big a card.

If it’s anything like the A7 it’s sure to be a hot ticket. As soon as I can get my hands on one i’ll pass on my likes and dislikes as usual.

Pre-orders start on the 15th of this month. They will be available in 3 models: The A10 4GB (A10.004), 32GB (A10.032) and 64GB (A10.064) with the 4GB units starting at the discounted price of $399 for early orders, the 32GB model retailing at $599.99 and the 64GB at $699.99.

Check out elocitynow.com for more info.

eLocity A10 Up For Pre-Order On The 15th originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11.

Sony Gets Geohot’s Hard Drive

Seems like the Sony V. Geohot saga continues. According to Wired, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has order George Hotz to hand his computer over to Sony so that they can search his hard drive. This comes after the court’s previous decision to grant Sony a temporary restraining order against Hotz.

Geohot’s attorney objected to the order saying “by allowing Sony access to Mr. Hotz’s computer they would be able to see the contents of his client’s files”. Judge Illston replied with “That’s the breaks”.

“Here, I find probable cause that your client has got these things on his computer,” Illston said. “It’s a problem when more than one thing is kept on the computer. I’ll make sure the order is and will be that Sony is only entitled to isolate … the information on the computer that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation.”

Sony sure is throwing it’s massive might behind their case against Hotz. One must wonder if they just want to make an example out of him in an attempt to deter other would be hackers from hacking their products. I’m not sure what they expect to achieve; we all know that once something is on the internet it lives forever.

Sony Gets Geohot’s Hard Drive originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/11.

DIY: Boost Your Laptop’s WiFi

Even with the hardware of today you can still experience horrible wireless reception. Dead spots have become all too common and if your wifi access point happens to be on another floor, you know how much of a pain it can be to stream media when your signal sucks.

Sure you could go out and buy some massive transmitter that could cook bacon, but not only is it dangerous it’s also really expensive. By using some velcro, an MC card connector and a Dremel, you can create this Frankenstein of signal boosters for your laptop. You can easily ~~steal~~ borrow the wifi signal from your neighbours place.

If your not crazy about building something like this and want something easier then check out the wifi wok.

[Link to Hook Up]

DIY: Boost Your Laptop’s WiFi originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/10.

Etch-A-Sketch Computer

Who needs a touch screen when you can have you very own etch-a-sketch computer. Modder Martin Raynsford created this etch-a-sketch computer with some MDF and a few bottle caps. There is actually a little more involved than that, but it definitely is a cool mod.

By reusing the X and Y axis rollers, the LED and opto sensor of a trackball mouse the bottle caps can be used to move the mouse. The left and right click sensors were also places behind the bottle cap knobs.

It probably won’t get you many girls, but it will raise your geek-cred. Check out Martin’s site for a complete write up on the project.

Etch-A-Sketch Computer originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/09.

Put Windows Phone 7 On Your iPhone, Sort Of

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Are you just itching to put Windows Phone 7 on your iPhone? Me either, but if for some crazy idea you want to make your iPhone look like it’s running Windows Phone 7 you now can.

Take one jailbroken iPhone and Wyndwarrior’s “OS7” and you can give the appearance that your iPhone is running Windows Phone 7. It’s currently under beta and I highly doubt Apple will ever let it step foot in the App Store. If you wish to ~~be mocked by your friends~~ do it yourself, a full write up is available on modmyi.com or here are the basics of getting it going:

1. Install Backboard from Cydia.

2. Make sure you have created a “Default” backup; if not, press the add button in Backboard and give it a name.

3. Go on your device and click on this link: backboard://http://wyndrepo.googlecode.com/files/OS7Beta.zip

4. Press “Yes” and wait for it to download. This may take a few minutes depending on your internet connection.

5. Select OS7 from Backboard. Press Install. Respring.

Put Windows Phone 7 On Your iPhone, Sort Of originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/08.

DIY: Macro Lens

Macro photography can be beautiful. Close up shots of tiny objects, their detail shines through so crisp and vibrant. The problem is that you aren’t going to pull off those incredible shots with your iPhone, you won’t even be able to pull them off with your standard DSLR lens. Special macro lenses can be quite expensive, usually well out of the reach of amateur photo-bugs.

Instructable user Sneipiller has a great write up on how you can build your own macro lens on the super cheap. You won’t actually be building a lens, but a tube extension for you current lens. By extending the focal point of a standard lens you can achieve some great shots like this one:

The project is super easy and all you really need is a tube (like a gift wrapping paper roll), a Dremel, black electrical tape and a hot glue gun. A full write-up on the project is over on Instructables.

DIY: Macro Lens originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/07.

RoboEarth: More Evidence Of Skynet

Remember the SkyNet like hand we featured earlier this week? Well here is more evidence that SkyNet is upon us.

RoboEarth is a project being worked on by Phillips, the University of Eindhoven, Stuttgart, München, Zaragoza & Zurich. Its goal is to have a central location of instructions and navigation for robots. Robots can then download these instructions and execute them. They have managed to get the TechUnited AMIGO robot to download all the information it needed for a specific task and then carry out the task autonomously.

As you can see from the video, the task was quite simple; serving a drink to someone, but, if I remember my Terminator mythology this is exactly how SkyNet started. Yikes!

RoboEarth: More Evidence Of Skynet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/03.

DIY: Infrared Light Converter

Infrared lights can come in handy. Trying to be discreet when shooting video in a dark place is the first example that comes to mind. Purchasing dedicated IR lights can be very expensive. By using some old floppy disks or a roll of film you can convert an average flashlight or incandescent light bulb to be a very powerful infrared light source.

As you can see from the video above, video passes through the given materials almost flawlessly yet any light source passing through it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

You can find a full write up on the experiment and examples of creating your own infrared lights at lucidscience.com

DIY: Infrared Light Converter originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/03.

Wireless Dominoes Fall Without Contact

As a kid I loved creating massive domino chains and knocking them down. I would spend hours laying them out in the living room only to watch them all fall. These “Esper Dominoes” developed by Jarashi Suki and the IAMAS Ubiquitous Interaction Research Group allow for all the same fun, but they use wireless technology to knock the next one down.

As you can see from the video, when one domino falls it wirelessly triggers the next one to do they same. You can build the same old school chain, but they never have to touch each other.

They are currently on display at the Japan Media Arts Festival and I’m afraid to say they might never see the light of day. They were developed over 2 years ago and if they were to have been mass produced and sold, they would have done so already.

[Via Make]

Wireless Dominoes Fall Without Contact originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/02/02.