I used to travel to Japan quite a bit in the 1980s and early 1990s. The traditional Japanese squat toilet was just a porcelain slot in the floor. Since then, Western-style toilets have become more popular–and the Japanese have used their innovative talents to improve on Western designs with a luxury toilet seat that overcomes many issues that aren’t discussed at the dinner table. (more…)

We ran into this magnificently realistic R2-D2™ droid at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show and were curious about what it does, and then the people at the Nikko booth showed us. This droid wanna-be is a video projector that displays DVD movies on a wall or screen. (more…)

Amazon recently introduced what may be a real gadget breakthrough for electronic books. The Amazon Kindle electronic book was introduced on December 6, 2007. At first, we had our doubts about the ability for this electronic book to succeed where others have not. But after taking a good look at it, it just might be one of the most well thought-out gadgets to be introduced in 2007.
(more…)