Woodstation acts like a weather station, looks like a dead tree

Usually the intersection of woodcraft and gadgetry consists of little more than taking a piece of gear and putting it in a box. Woodstation may be no different, but at least it does its thing with some style, placing its LED display beneath the surface, allowing it to seemingly display weather data on the wood itself. And if that weren't enough, the device contains a motion sensor (it turns itself on when you enter the room) as well as date, time, and alarm functions. Available in a maple or walnut finish, this bad boy is currently available in the UK for £89.95 (about $147). And unlike the Amazon Kindling, this thing actually works.

[Via Pocket-lint]

[PhotoFre@k @ Jul 16th 2009 11:19PM]

Lol I like the headline.

[Quantumphysics @ Jul 16th 2009 11:53PM]

for a moment, I thought it was an iPhone.

[Sven @ Jul 17th 2009 7:33AM]

had it been an iphone, i'd maybeee consider buying it.

[Newone @ Jul 16th 2009 11:20PM]

" Although the body of the Woodstation is made from wood, the actual surface is a wood-look laminate"

So it isnt woood but paper with woodprint on it with led display behind it encased in plastic. Or as the say in nethack, cheap plastic imitation.

[Fais @ Jul 16th 2009 11:27PM]

No i think it means laminating in the wood work sence (as in a thin layer of wood stuck to something) not a piece of paper encased in plastic! Look it up.

[HaZaRd @ Jul 16th 2009 11:37PM]

Fais is right. Laminate is just a very thin slice of wood that's been polished to a high-gloss finish. It's still wood.

[calgaryalta @ Jul 17th 2009 12:32AM]

in wood working it's a "veneer" that's thin slices of wood glued to a panel or board while a "laminate" is any material constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together such as plastics

[Newone @ Jul 17th 2009 2:57AM]

But in flooring a laminate might not have any wood at all....

And they say "wood-look", not veneer. With even a thin veneer such a line wouldn't be necessarary.

So my point stays, what you see is paper with woodprint.

[Greg @ Jul 16th 2009 11:38PM]

How is this able to tell what the weather is? Does it operate on radio signal like similar things from Oregon Scientific?

I guess what I'm getting to is, will this work in the US?

[windblownmonkey @ Jul 16th 2009 11:50PM]

It uses a barometer and things. Pretty much the same stuff my ma and pap used back in the day. Crude but it works.

[windblownmonkey @ Jul 16th 2009 11:45PM]

It states that the actual surface is a "wood-look laminate". Basically the same stuff you see on the surface of pressboard desks. That just killed it for me.
Still pretty neat, but I won't take it.

[sacapuntas @ Jul 16th 2009 11:51PM]

You could get the station and take the laminate off then overlay a thin wood veneer. The same effect would be accomplished with real wood. It should be fairly easy to do.

[Denver_80203 @ Jul 16th 2009 11:53PM]

outdoor temperature sure would be a lot more helpful. "this is what you feel like now" doesn't really help a whole lot. nor does "this is what it's like if you look out the window."

[Gad Get @ Jul 16th 2009 11:55PM]

Magic wood displays FTW!

[Peter @ Jul 16th 2009 11:56PM]

Why does the maple use U.S.-style dates but the walnut uses the logical-style dates?

[CapWKidd @ Jul 17th 2009 2:51AM]

Are you saying normal, US date format, is not logical??

[LostPhil @ Jul 17th 2009 5:30AM]

Well, since Day-Month-Year has increasing measurements of time, I'd say it's more logical than US style dates with Month-Day-Year. There's no doubt a reason for the difference but isn't logical on the face of it so I agree with him!

[10minutehobo @ Jul 17th 2009 7:09AM]

CapWKidd: The "rest of the world" usually remembers what month it is. They care more about the date.

[Wes Steele @ Jul 17th 2009 12:12PM]

10minutehobo, great logic. Because the "rest of the world" also only uses date in the present format meaning they don't need to know the month. They NEVER have dates describing the past.. because in that case you would need the month.

[10minutehobo @ Jul 17th 2009 3:56PM]

Wes Steele: What?

[jason @ Jul 17th 2009 12:20AM]

At least they didn't call it iWood. This would be cool if it wasn't a $147 weather gadget.

[lawyer bird @ Jul 17th 2009 12:41AM]

The name of this is misleading, I was expecting some sort anti-ED machine

[To: Hell @ Jul 17th 2009 1:10AM]

Since both models are not displying future dates but ones in the past instead i cannot get excited.

[1dd @ Jul 17th 2009 1:13AM]

a perfect gift for the woodchuck to chuck!

[dasmoothride @ Jul 17th 2009 1:36AM]

At first I thought It was an Iphone case haha!

[CapWKidd @ Jul 17th 2009 2:50AM]

I thought the same.... at first glance :)

[Mitch @ Jul 17th 2009 4:43AM]

If the Woodstation is wet, it's raining
If the Woodstation has fallen over, it's windy
If the Woodstation has a shadow, it's sunny
If the Woodstation is gone, it's a hurricane/tornado

[Zoltan Baly @ Jul 17th 2009 5:33AM]

People, the front needs to be plastic. Wood is not transparent enough, even if it is just a thin slice.

I have an earlier version (clock only) from a different maker. It looks like a wooden brick; big red LED display behind a PLASTIC sheet. Bought it around $50 from eBay for my father 3 years ago. He likes it - it is convincing enough for his guests. The shock value is definitely there.

[rederikus @ Jul 17th 2009 6:10AM]

I like this. It's a very cool looking gadget if, a bit pricey.

Watch out for woodworm though.

[jesse.greathouse @ Jul 17th 2009 9:13AM]

I've said this to my wife hundreds of times. You don't need a fancy gadget or a computer program to tell you what the whether is outside. I can see the value in knowing the 5 day forecast but that doesn't require a real time application, that requires you to watch the news or look at a web page once every 5 days.

But gadgets or applications which give you real time applications on current weather status seem useless for 99% of the population for 2 main reasons. First reason is because peoples plans rarely change based on the weather. And if people do change plans because of extreme weather conditions, it's because of a major snowstorm or major raid/wind conditions, neither of which will require the specific annotation of a gadget or application.... "Oh Winds are 80mph, if only they were 79mph we could have had a picnic."

The second reason is that all you have to do in the first place is look out a window or open a door and look outside. If our human senses weren't acute enough to realize when it's hot, mild, snowy or raning outside, with just a momentary visual survey at the weather conditions, then I doubt our species would have survived this long.

[gtaylor99 @ Jul 17th 2009 11:39AM]

You sound like a fun guy....perhaps you should revert to speaking to people in person or sending smoke signals rather than blogging or using a wireless phone.

[jesse.greathouse @ Jul 17th 2009 12:27PM]

@gtaylor99: I don't see the point in using smoke signals or traveling to different locations just to talk to people in person. Obviously there are practical applications of technology, however my point was that real time weather gadgets and applications are superfluous. I think your reply was a failed attempt at being witty, but it did not deliver.

[vance @ Jul 23rd 2009 1:28PM]

i really like the whole wood look and even if you dont use the weather application...? you still have a niffty clock that turns on when you enter the room its the whole consept thats alsome, i wish they sold it in canada and the us because i keep look at the current temp. all the time :/ just me but hey what ever