Next Fest!

Wow. Gadgets have always fascinated me, but for the most part, they end up being things that interest me, but I'd never justify buying or using it! Some of these things I could see using (and some, not so much; like the Hug Shirt? Interesting idea, but I couldn't imagine having to be away from my S.O. long enough to need that, let alone on such a regular basis to warrant it!).

The light up purse, or "suntrap handbag" is a pretty neat idea. As a guy, I've always been secretly jealous that girls get purses; I have to jam all my crap into my pockets, resulting in jeans that look like parachute pants.. I really like the power strip that shows how much juice your devices are using; this would be particularly useful if you have a place like mine where there's few outlets in a room, and most of them are horribly, inconveniently located, and all run on the same circuit. Who knew TVs and Famicoms used so much power!

The virtusphere looks kind of interesting; but maybe from the picture I'm misjudging how you can jump and roll without getting injured? Does the thing roll like one of those balls from American Gladiators? That Police 911 and Boxing game that used the "movement detection" technology were pretty fascinating, but I've hurt myself playing Ms. Pac-Man before, so I don't know exactly how people won't hurt themselves in this contraption.

The LifeStraw seems like a very cool innovation; sort of an in-line water filter of sorts. That could be pretty revolutionary for people who refuse to drink tap or fridge water, and in countries (or cities in the US!) where water is atroucious and dangerous. Maybe if they can produce it in a slightly smaller version (I dig those MTV pants the kid in the background is wearing in this picture).

I still find it amusing that there's so many gadgets that are deemed the "such and such of the future!" I'm always wary about this, seeing films from many years ago showing the kitchens, cars, cities of the future. "We'll be flying in our cars in '74!" I think it's fantastic that there's such evolution and achievement with technology, but a lot of this stuff proclaiming how we'll be in the next ten years never really seems to pan out, in a lot of these cases (in some cases though they are correct!)

What gadgets did you all find to be the most interesting, revolutionary or useful?