[LinuxBrit] - Gadgets!

The gadget gallery. I'm crazy about gadgets and toys, so I thought I'd strip off my gadget vest and empty my pockets for the site.

So this is my vest. It's a fishing vest from Walmart :p It's the solution to a problem I started having a while ago carrying all my gadgets around..
This is what's in it on a daily basis:

Also included is the camera I'm using to take these pictures.

HP iPAQ 4150

This replaces the Palm Vx below. I wasn't interested in upgrading from my Palm until a device came along with integrated 802.11b and bluetooth, and this is it. It's actually smaller than my Palm was :p There's a 512Mb SD card stuck in there too.

Socket bluetooth GPS

This is a great little GPS receiver that lets me know where I am, and where I need to go. It's bluetooth so I can use it in my pocket, with my iPAQ or laptop, and with whichever software I choose. I love this device.

iPaq mini keyboard

Handy for rattling off text messages and emails quickly.

Zip-Linq iPaq sync/charge cable

Handy pocketable cable for charging the iPaq via USB. Also used to recharge via my backup batterypack (below), which has a usb output connector.

Canon PowerShot S400

I picked this up last time I was in the US, at a substantial saving. I love it, great pictures, nice user interface and good pictures. Considerably smaller than my old camera too.

iPod 3G 40Gb

I have a love hate relationship with my iPod. It's definitely the best music player I've ever owned, and I use it all the time. It looks great, the scroll wheel is nice, and it sounds pretty good (for most music). It's the fact that it's so close to perfect that makes the bad stuff so bad :/ The battery life is hopeless. I get just about 6 hours out of it most days. There are a couple of annoying firmware bugs. If you turn the EQ on, the battery drains twice as fast and you get a lot of total harmonic distortion. Only song titles are shown in a playlist listing, and they aren't scrolled, so you only see the first few characters of each. So close to being great... but sometimes so annoying :)

Etymotic ER6 Isolator headphones

I've tried so many sets of headphones over the years. In the ER6 I finally found what I've been looking for. They sound terrific, are incredibly responsive, shut out ~20-25Db of ambient noise and don't leak sound back out either, so I don't annoy people sitting near me. The only drawback is that with them on, I can't hear anything but the music, and if I pause the music, I can't hear anything at all :p This is the justification for my pet electronics project at the bottom of this page. A nice summary of what the ER6's can offer can be found here.

cMoy pocket amplifier

Chu Moy (cMoy) hand-made portable pocket headphone amplifier, built to power and improve the potential of my Etymotic earbuds. Note the penguin mint tin casing :)

Creative Muvo TX

Nifty little 256Mb USB storage device - with the added extras of an MP3 player, voice recorder and radio. Very nice little all-in-one gadget, I think.

iTrip FM Audio Transmitter

Handy for the iPod, as it uses the iPod's power supply, and fits with the form factor. I use this a lot in the car now and picked up a cheapo vent-mount for holding the iPod while I drive. I don't carry the TuneCast (below) full time any more, although I'm keeping it - handy for non iPod music sources :)

TuneCast FM Transmitter (hacked)

Gone: (too bulky + needs own batteries, replaced by iTrip above) To conveniently listen to my iPod in the car, I carry this cheapo Belkin FM transmitter which I picked up in the US. It lets me tune my car stereo's radio into my iPod. It's also hacked :P I found the signal strength to be extremely poor unless I was actually holding the device, which indicated a useless ariel. The second, thinner cable protruding from the device in the picture, is an additional ariel I soldered onto the board to supplement the internal one. It works a lot better now.

WiFi Seeker

This is great :p An 802.11b/g wireless network detector. Always interesting to whip it out and scan around :) It scans for networks, finds one, locks on, shows signal strength, and is somewhat directional. Good for seeing if there are networks around, how far they reach, or find reception sweet spots.

LED Flashlight

Obligatory LED Flashlight, because you never know..

Palm Vx

Gone: My trusty Vx, well stocked with ebooks. I've been thinking about upgrading it for years but it's so... trusty! It has an awesome battery life and 8Mb of RAM is more than sufficient to do what I use it for, which is to read books and set the odd appt/alarm.

Sony Ericsson T610

I quite like my T610, although the T630 came out about 2 days after I got it (*sigh). Still, it does the trick. The polyphonic ringtones mean I can annoy my officemates (who are extremely sensitive to annoying phone rings) with the theme music from Super Mario World every time I get a call :p

Jabra BT200

These just got cheap recently because the BT250 came out with twice the battery life. However the BT200 can do 2-3 hours talktime which is more than I'll ever need in one day, and it currently costs half as much!

Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP (and games)

Love my GBA. Another item I picked up last time I was in the US. (We brits get shafted by consumer electronics pricing). I love my GBA. I recently finished Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and am finishing off Advance Wars 2 right now.

Pocket battery pack

I picked this up for emergency backup. It takes 4 AA batteries (I have some NiMHs in there right now) and can output 5V DC via a standard connector or USB, and if needed I can use it to recharge my iPaq, GPS or other gadget on the run.

Pocket battery pack

(Here it is from the other side).

Leatherman micra

I never go anywhere without it. Oh, except airport security, of course.

RSA SecurID

My RSA SecurID dongle for remote access to work.

Shades

We get sun sometimes...

Lighters

Still carrying not one, but two lighters (guess which one was a christmas gift from Paul (pabs)). Not sure why, I don't smoke anymore.. They still might come in handy though!

Chapstick/Nicotine inhaler

Chapstick because I'm a big wuss, Nicotine inhaler because I recently quit smoking, and I like to have this on me in case things get rough and I crave a cig.

Handy wipes!

Don't go anywhere without these!

Wallet

For acquiring above gadgetry..

Trusty pen

I stopped losing pens once I designated a vest pocket to one :p

GBA headphone adaptor, batteries

Batteries are always useful.

Work in progress!

Ok well this is part of something I'm currently attempting to make. However I still need to relearn more electronics before I'll be able to complete it. What I want is a portable, multiple input amplifier.

A little amplification will take some of the stress off my iPod batteries and improve the sound quality. But I also want an input selector switch and a microphone, so that I can switch between the iPod and listening to the outside world without extracting my earphones. If I could make it capable of switching to my phone too, that would be superb.

I know it sounds silly to listen to the outside world through headphones and a mic, but I get constant short interruptions at work with phone calls, people coming over to talk to me etc, and I often need to listen to the outside world when, say, listening to an announcement explaining why my train is being delayed, or while ordering my coffee in the morning, and it would be great not to keep inserting and removing the ER6's. Their super-snug, in-ear fit makes doing so rather irritating after a while.

All the circuit to the left currently does is amplify audio from two microphones (for left and right stereo) into a pair of earphones, but it's a start..