mount

Turn your tripod into a notebook stand

Japanese peripheral maker Thanko is known for making some useful products such as the Stowaway keyboard replica, but the company is also infamous for developing novelty items like the vibrating bracelet that buzzes when you receive a call on your cell phone. The company's latest innovation, unfortunately, falls into the latter class.

Sporting an aluminum frame with a tripod socket at the bottom, the Desktop PC mount can be attached to any tripod and used to secure a notebook, thus acting like a podium for the budget-conscious. There are two elastic bands and a ledge to secure your laptop … Read more

Garmin debuts new dashboard friction mount

Garmin has released a new, more compact version of its dashboard friction mount for Nuvi portable navigation devices.

Where the old dashboard friction mount consisted of a cluster of beanbags with a rubber base and a fixed mounting arm, the new friction mount uses a flexible rubber pad with a tacky temporary adhesive base that better conforms to dashboard surfaces and, despite weighing less than the old model, holds its position much better. The new friction mount also features a movable mounting arm that folds flat for storage and is adjustable for more precise positioning of your Nuvi device.

Although … Read more

Mounting your GPS device

Any automotive GPS worth its salt will come packaged with some sort of suction cup mount that will let users stick it to a vehicle's windshield. For most users, this is where road ends where GPS device mounting is concerned. But is this the best way to keep your navigation device in place while you drive? And what about that weird plastic disk that was also in the box? Let's take a look at the pros and cons of the different GPS mounting options.

Pay attention, because what you learn here can also be applied to mounting your GPS-enabled smartphone.… Read more

Maplock drives off GPS thieves

GPS sales have risen more than 700 percent in recent years, according to Who-Rae, an Australian company that develops and manufactures a range of consumer products. With increased popularity and usage comes crime, however--GPS are now the most commonly stolen item from vehicles, the company says.

Who-Rae is reacting with Maplock, a security device that latches onto a GPS unit and cables it to the steering wheel.

The Melbourne-based company suggests that suction cup marks or empty mounts left on the windshield are signs that criminals look for, so even if a GPS is removed from the car, thieves will … Read more

Tele Scouter sends translations right to your retina

If Japan-based NEC has its way, people who act as language translators could one day be replaced with head-mounted displays that project translations onto a retinal display. Come again?

The Tele Scouter system is composed of an eyepiece with a front-mounted camera and a mic that picks up conversations and sends the data to a small computer worn on the user's waist.

The computer then transmits information to a remote server, which does the heavy processing work converting the foreign speech to text, translating it, and wirelessly sending it back to the tiny eye display for viewing. That seems … Read more

Turn your point-and-shoot into a helmet cam

I really like Photojojo, and its new collection of photography projects and DIY ideas for cameras is definitely worth checking out, but I don't know that I feel the same about the Happy Helmet Camera Mount.

For $20 ($36 for two), you, or someone you'd like to make fun of, can strap a tripod mount through the vents of a helmet. Press record on your camera and start riding, skating, taking punches.

The only downside I can think of (other than the pointing and staring) is that compact cameras generally do a poor job of handling wind noise … Read more

Backfires, retardant helping to save Mt. Wilson

Mount Wilson's famed observatories and broadcast towers now seem in a better position to survive Los Angeles' Station wildfire, thanks to the ongoing and relentless efforts of firefighters.

Officials on Monday and Tuesday braced for the worst as they expected the wildfire to hit the Mount Wilson Observatory. But by setting a series of backfires and dropping retardant, firefighters kept the flames from spreading as initially feared.

Today's report from the Incident Information Web site offered encouraging news:

"Yesterday the fire continued to move west toward Mount Wilson. Currently there is a large contingent of fire engines, … Read more

LA fire likely to pass across Mount Wilson

The wildfire ravaging Northern Los Angeles County is expected to pass across Mount Wilson, home to TV and radio towers and the famed Wilson Observatory.

Mount Wilson Observatory Director Hal McAlister said Monday in an ongoing blog that the U.S. Forest Service informed him that passage of the fire across Mount Wilson was imminent. The USFS also said firefighters would battle the blaze from the air rather than on the ground.

Firefighers have already been pulled from Red Box, a major staging area about five miles from the observatory.

In his blog late Monday, McAlister reported:

Monday, 31 Aug … Read more

LA fires threaten cell phone, broadcast towers

Intense wildfires in Southern California are dangerously close to facilities atop Mount Wilson, threatening damage to cell phone and TV broadcast towers, as well as a famed observatory.

The blaze, which started August 26, has burned approximately 20,102 acres and as of Sunday was only 5 percent contained, according to the Web site of the California governor's office. Known as the "Station Fire," as it began about one mile above the Angeles Crest Fire Station, the inferno has spread throughout the San Gabriel Mountains in Northern Los Angeles County.

At an altitude of 5,715 feet, … Read more