Vibrators

We've covered a lot of long-distance lovemaking tools before here on Gizmag – from the tragically innocent Haptihug Telecuddle interface, to the slightly more sleeves-up Kissphone, to the remotely-controlled VIVI vibrator setup at the business end. But none have been quite as "meat and potatoes" as the remarkable LovePalz his-n-herz telehumping setup, which interface with a pair of iPhones to allow simultaneous face-to-face and pole-to-hole communication (to coin a phrase) over any distance.  Read More

The thunderous punch of a bass drum is the time-honored foundation on which all of rock 'n' roll is built. That thud that hits you in the chest and moves your whole body … it taps into a deep and primal place in our subconscious. But while the crowd is enjoying the power of the bass drum amplified through huge sub-woofers, the poor drummer himself is usually hearing a poxy, paper-thin, bassless pop from a tiny onstage foldback speaker. Trying desperately to feel the bass, they often turn the onstage monitors up to ear-splitting volumes, but you just can't get that kind of low end out of small speakers. Enter the BC2 (formerly known as the BumChum) from Britain's Porter and Davies - a simple two-part system that takes the bass drum signal and literally shakes the drummer's butt with it through a vibrating stool.  Read More

Absence not only makes the heart grow fonder, it can also make for a pretty unfulfilling sex life. While technology has allowed lovers to bridge the tyranny of distance in terms of sight and sound, getting touchy feely is a different matter. Men and women have been looked after separately with devices like RealTouch and the OhMiBod, but we haven't really seen technology designed to allow couples to engage in remote sex. Hong Kong-based Remote Pleasure is looking to change that with a set of sex toys that can be controlled by your partner over the internet.  Read More

Let's talk for a minute about the female orgasm. For a lucky minority of women, these exist in abundance, ready to be plucked ripe off a well-fruited vine at a moment's notice. If you're one of these girls, you can stop reading now and get back to washing your hair with that herbal goop that makes you bellow like Meg Ryan. If you're at the other end of the scale, where orgasm is a fleeting, furtive animal that must be hunted with patience and skill, then this device might be up your alley … so to speak.  Read More

What will they think of next? I came across the Ample Star Massaging Bicycle Seat by accident in the penny booth section of Asia's largest computer fair, Computex. It's akin to those massagers sold in department stores that are not there to soothe aching muscles so much as facilitate orgasm for females who don't want to have a sex store come up on the credit card statement. The major difference is that this one also serves as a giant flashing taillight, broadcasting your favorite dance rhythms to fellow road users.  Read More

You can’t see it, smell it or taste it but, in high enough concentrations, it can kill you within minutes. It’s carbon monoxide (CO), and it’s America’s leading cause of accidental poisoning, with an estimated 400 deaths and 20,000 emergency ward admissions annually. The Pocket CO, the world’s smallest renewable carbon monoxide detector, will not only immediately alert you to dangerous levels of CO, but also calculate your exposure on a daily basis.  Read More

November 20, 2006 Sexuality is common to us all. Like music, it is a universal language that can overcome all barriers, so, maybe they can be combined? . Developed using a team of 500 beta testers, the Ohmibod is a music-powered vibrator that translates tunes from any MP3 player (actually any audio source so iRiver, Creative, Zune etc will all work too) into vibrations. Offered as an “acsexory” aimed squarely at the world’s largest selling personal entertainment device (the Apple iPod), the aim of the slick marketing exercise is to make vibrators socially acceptable. The timing couldn’t be better as personal entertainment devices are selling at more than 50 million units a year, roughly half of them to women, so the world’s first audio player acsexory might be a killer app in the making. There’s an online Club Vibe (which users can join anonymously), centred on enhancing the OhMiBod experience, and sharing OhMiBod Playlists and experiences. Now we haven’t tried it, but those that have are being very complimentary on the Ohmibod blog Ohmiblog, writing things like, “I’ll never listen to the Black Eyed Peas in the same way again”, and “the perfect travelling companion.” Considering the various forces at play in reaching the desired result, we’d suggest that rather than using music designed with other things in mind, there’s also the prospect of a whole new genre of music designed to create the sustained frequencies and rhythms for a successful outcome. Though OhMiBod is not endorsed by Apple, OhMiBod’s creator, Suki, previously worked in product marketing for the company and it shows. “The idea of approachability was carried through the entire development and design of OhMiBod - its name, packaging and website,” says Suki, whose goal is for women to feel as comfortable buying an OhMiBod as they do buying an iPod.  Read More

February 9, 2006 Je Joue is the world's first programmable vibrator - a non-penetrative vibrator controlled by digital files called Grooves, which instruct its soft massage pad to move in an infinitely variable number of patterns, creating a foreplay-like experience. Accordingly, long-distance lovers can now email their partners a sensual Valentine's Day treat - their own personal 'pleasure programme'. During the development process of JeJoue, the product was tested by 150 women – 90% said they would buy one, 75% said it was better than any other toy, and 24% said it was better than their partner.  Read More

April 22, 2005 Take your eye off the consumer electronics ball for a moment and it has moved a long way. We realised that this week when we saw one of the new Jabra BT800 Bluetooth headsets. Claimed by Jabra to be the most advanced Bluetooth headset in the world right now, it has caller ID display, built-in ring tones, vibrator alert and DSP technology. The Bluetooth headset market exceeded 15 million headsets worldwide in 2004, so it makes sense that headsets incorporate many of the standard features normally accessed through a mobile phone directly into the headset.  Read More