Time -- Engadget

Machined Gear Clock makes watching the time pass a true joy (video)

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2009 at 3:58AM

We've seen no shortage of homegrown clocks in our day, and while most are cute for their time, few are worthy of being lauded in this manner. Alan Parekh's Gear Clock is a delightful mishmash of machined gears, thrown together in a fashion that resulted in an actual time-telling gizmo. Hop on past the break to watch this thing spin, but be sure to hold the mute button for the lead-in. Clearly 'Sound Check' wasn't activated.

Continue reading Machined Gear Clock makes watching the time pass a true joy (video)

Time looking to kick out the e-readers after all?

by Laura June posted Sep 11th 2009 at 10:37AM

Hey -- this one makes sense, so we shouldn't be too surprised, but it turns out that Time, Inc. is seriously looking into getting into the e-reader business, according to a leaked presentation from June of this year. The slides, which are entitled "New Platforms & Business Models for Publishers," also contained notes which had been updated as late as this past August, indicating that Time has plans to launch a product as soon as the end of this year. Though Time had said back in March that it had "no interest" in getting into the e-reader biz, it's not terribly shocking to hear that they were either fibbing or changed their minds, considering how the market's been heating up lately, combined with the deaths of many, many print mags. NBC contacted Dawn Bridges -- a spokesperson for Time -- about the story, who said the company is "speaking with a number of hardware and software companies as well as other content companies about various projects." Vague enough for you?

[Via Gizmodo]

Arduino binary clock doesn't care to be useful, just wants to be admired

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 20th 2009 at 5:38AM

If there's one thing we love about DIY projects, it's the feeling that the outcome is more than the mere sum of its parts. This here binary clock is a prime example, being composed of scrap plastic, some dirt-cheap parts and a homemade Arduino board. And yet, after a few licks of polish and the inevitable LEDs, it looks like a true monument to geekdom, which is only amplified by the fact you can't even use the thing without being familiar with binary code. But then again, if utility was a standard by which we judged homebrewed projects, we'd have a lot less to talk about.

[Via Make]

Ora ilLegale clock tips to compensate for daylight savings time

by Darren Murph posted Apr 18th 2009 at 9:12AM

Genius. Pure genius. In order to save us all from smashing buttons on our digital alarm clocks or stripping the gears in our analog ones, designer Denis Guidone has dreamed up this masterpiece. The Ora ilLegale clock boasts no numbers and is obviously missing a significant portion of its base; these two factoids enable it to become the easiest clock to adjust to changes in daylight savings... well, ever. The best part? We're told that it'll actually hit production soon, though there's no indiciation of just how pricey it'll be. Not like it matters -- you're totally buying one, and you know it.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

Gurus develop way to shrink atomic clock... with lasers

by Darren Murph posted Mar 15th 2009 at 2:35PM

The world's most accurate clocks got even more accurate just a few years back, but now a team from the University of Nevada in Reno is looking to make the atomic clock way, way smaller. Housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, these so-called "fountain clocks" send out clouds of caesium atoms through a vacuum chamber in a magnetic field; from there, microwaves in the chamber excite the atoms and then emit light as they drop to a lower hyperfine state. All that rocket science aside, the real point here is that all that magic requires a chassis about the size of a modern day refrigerator. Andrei Derevianko and Kyle Beloy have conjured up the idea of "trapping atoms in place using lasers," which would obviously require far less space for the time telling to happen. Just think -- a chicken in every pot and an atomic clock on every wrist.

[Image courtesy of PSU]

This afternoon, party like it's 1234567890 Unix time

by Ross Miller posted Feb 13th 2009 at 5:41AM

Number aficionados, you probably already know what happens today. As of 6:31:30PM ET this afternoon it will officially be 1234567890 Unix time, which started at zero and has been counting seconds since the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. We suggest you put on your best watch or other geek chic and enjoy that one fateful second of sequential bliss -- as the story goes, 1234567891, party over, oops, out of time. In case you've got other plans and can't celebrate the milestone, we'll see you December 22, 2282 at 3:13:30PM ET for the merriment of 9876543210.

[Via Wired]

Tokyoflash's Heko watch: the perfect gift for fashionable cryptologists

by Ross Miller posted Feb 3rd 2009 at 12:04PM

We've always been a fan of watches with unconventional ways of telling time, and Tokyoflash's Heko is no exception. The top and bottom rows each have four LEDs aligned for their analogous analog positions -- 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 -- and two lights in between to indicate one-hour / 15-minute intervals, respectively. The four diodes in the middle are used when the minutes aren't a multiple of five. For example, in the picture above we've got (from left to right) 1:37, 1:43, and 10:13. More instructions are available on the product page. Made from solid stainless steel and weighing in at 140 grams, it's available for 9,800 yen ($109) and comes with white, blue or multi-colored LEDs.

Gallery: Tokyoflash's Heko watch: the perfect gift for fashionable cryptologists

iHome's iH15W iPod stereo changes colors, could become annoying

by Darren Murph posted Dec 8th 2008 at 3:36PM

Generally speaking, iHome produces fairly respectable kit. Sure, it's almost all involved directly with Apple's iPod or some random alarm clock (or a mixture of the two), but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with offering up a narrow range of products. To that end, we present the iH15W, an iPod-friendly stereo box that actually changes colors on a whim. The LED-infused cube houses two Reson8 speakers, an iPod dock, a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary port and two convenient carry handles. If you can honestly say you prefer your boombox to change hues along with your mood, you can plunk down $59.99 right now and get sassy.

[Via ChipChick]

Peek's email device tops voting for Time's gadget of the year, not that it matters

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 3rd 2008 at 5:27AM

We're not going to jump up on our "new media" pedestal and claim that Time Magazine is irrelevant or anything, but man, stick to what you know. Time's gadget of the year list includes some commendable choices to be certain -- but seriously, not a single industry re-defining netbook, multi-million selling iPhone 3G, or 1080p-capable EOS 5D Mark II DSLR in a top 10 list of 2008 gadgets? Puhlease. Seems that voting is still open -- while you can't change the list you can certainly have your say as to whether Peek's eMail-only handheld should be voted above T-Mobile's Android-powered G1 (by a margin of more than 5 to 1) as the best gadget of 2008.

[Thanks, Horatio]

Stephen Hawking unveils the most morbid, amazing $1.8m clock you'll ever see

by Darren Murph posted Sep 21st 2008 at 1:11AM

We'll warn you in advance, this is only for those who dig the weird, all things Stephen Hawking or clock-making in general. This £1 million ($1.83 million) timepiece took seven years to completely construct, and the initiative was led by inventor John Taylor who designed it in tribute to John Harrison (only the world's greatest clockmaker, it's said). The bizarre Corpus Clock visually explains that it relies on grasshopper escapement to function, and to let you know that time can never be regained once lost, that beast on top actually gobbles down time every 60th second. Oh, and every hour, on the hour, the sound of a "chain dropping into a wooden coffin" is played to really pound home the "time is a destroyer" concept. Thanks for the reminder, Dr. Grim.

[Via Switched]

Stonehenge robotic clock: telling time never looked so fun

by Darren Murph posted Aug 4th 2008 at 11:28AM

From the same brilliant mind that brought you the RoboStool comes something a bit less useful but equally mesmerizing. Put simply, Norris Labs' Stonehenge is a robotic time teller which rearranges placards in order to express the current time. The concoction utilizes a CrustCrawler Smart Arm and a Parallax Propeller chip along with 14 cards to display the current time, though it does operate, um, a bit slowly. Ah well, it's not like you're in any hurry to see what this thing can do, right? Oh, wait... you are? Head on past the break for a quick look.

[Via OhGizmo]

Continue reading Stonehenge robotic clock: telling time never looked so fun

Casio gets fancy with LED-infused Tough Movement

by Darren Murph posted Jul 31st 2008 at 4:16PM

Automatic movement? Sweeping hands? Pish posh. Casio's looking to impress a few watch aficionados itself with the all new Tough Movement. Designed to slip inside its Oceanus and G-Shock series of timepieces, the new movement "features a high shock resistance and a hand position correction function using LED." During the 55th minute of each hour, the movement receives time calibration signals from six bases located throughout the world; if the hands are off at all, it automatically corrects things to ensure that you're never a moment off. Reportedly, the first wristwatch to utilize the technology will be the GS-1200, which is currently slated to hit Japan this September for a stiff ¥42,000 ($390).

[Via OhGizmo]

Hans Tan's LED clock spells out time in text

by Darren Murph posted Apr 28th 2008 at 6:19PM

Those tried-and-true hands definitely get the job done, but glancing over to find out what time of the day it is should be an adventure. Singaporean Hans Tan has crafted quite the atypical timepiece with his Idea of a Clock (revision 2), which utilizes a LED bulletin board to spell out the time in text rather than using symbols, numbers or long sticks. Best of all, those interested in making the act of watching time go by somewhat enjoyable can order one from the artist himself, but considering the limited edition nature of the piece, we wouldn't waste too much time waffling over pulling the trigger.

[Via technabob]

iPhone a shoo-in for TIME's Person of the Year?

by Evan Blass posted Dec 12th 2007 at 3:31PM

We tend not to make a lot of predictions around here, but we've totally got odds on TIME magazine's pick for 2007 Person of the Year (and not just because we're owned by the same parent-company). Since TIME already named the iPhone both Invention of the Year and, more recently, Gadget of the Year (along with devoting a fawning cover story to it), it seems to us that the obvious path of least resistance for jaded journalists eager to start their holiday vacations is to screw over Gore and go for another easy-bake geek pleaser. Plus, what better symbol to convey the restrictions on political freedoms still so prevalent in the 21st century than the current poster child for walled gardens? Granted, it hasn't been since 1982 that a piece of electronic equipment took home this prestigious honor (renamed Machine of the Year in deference to the PC), but after lowering its standards so drastically last year by choosing you of all people, well, TIME has shown that almost anything has a shot.

Time names iPhone "Invention Of the Year"

by Paul Miller posted Nov 1st 2007 at 11:06AM

Apple's "love it," "hate it" or "hack it to pieces" iPhone is Time's "Invention Of the Year," following up last year's YouTube win. Nothing more to say about this thing that hasn't been said a million times, but don't worry, Time is careful to retread it all just in case you've been in a coma since January.