Our friends over at NextFab Studios (the folks responsible for that epic mustache trophy at our Halloween party w/ Indy Hall) are running one hell of an awesome contest. Sure, we giveaway a lot of gadget swag, but this amazing set of speakers from NextFab are pretty special. See, they’re handmade.

Crafted by University of the Arts alum Jesse Gerard and his company Carrot Grant, these Symphony Cricket speakers are handcrafted by him and his creative team. They normally retail for about $400, and NextFab is giving you a chance to score a set for free.

All you have to do is give NextFab Studios’ Facebook page a like. Seriously, that’s it. They’re trying to build their community to over 1,000 fans. You can get more information here.

What are you waiting for? Go like ‘em! You’ve got til December 15th at midnight, but come on. You really don’t need that much time, do you?

Love camping? Live in Philadelphia? Then you might want to check out this Kickstarter, launched by a group of Philadelphia-based camping lovers, notably product designers Ben Ashpole and Jay Olman.

Meet the Pocket Grill, the world’s most compact, full-size camping grill that can, as you can imagine, fit right in your pocket. And just like most cookware you’d take on a camping trip, this little guy is made out of stainless steel.

Their goal is a lofty one, set at $40,000. But with the sort of perks these guys are dishing out, I can definitely see them reaching it. Donate a mere $40, and you’ll get a grill in the mail when they go into production. Kick in an extra $10, and they’ll throw in a cookbook made just for the Pocket Grill.

So! Hit up the Kickstarter, check out their official website, and follow them on Twitter for updates regarding the product. Best of luck, guys!

The Pocket Grill
www.kck.st/qrLcLq
www.pocketgrill.com

It’s Saturday and you and your loved ones are home with nothing to do. It’s a beautiful summer day and it seems like a shame to waste it. Whatever will you do?

Well, thanks to the crew at The Weekend Map, you never have to ask yourself that question again. They have just launched the Philadelphia version of the interactive weekend planner; you just go to the site and decide what you want to look for in your area. Looking for a Farmers Market to buy some local veggies? Done. What if you want to check out some Jazz in Northern Liberties? The Map can do that. Maybe you’re in search of a yoga group to join in the morning? No problem. Just click on the pop up symbol on the interactive map and it will give you all the necessary information so that you are never bored on a weekend again.

Now, the Map is still in Beta, so things are a bit glitchy at this point. But once everything loads the Map serves as a one stop shop to plan a weekend in or around Philadelphia. Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean. It just might make me go outside and get some sun every once in awhile.

The Weekend Map – Philadelphia
www.theweekendmap.com/philadelphia

The kind folks over at Cadence Watch Company were nice enough to offer to send me their 4-bit binary watch to review here on Geekadelphia. I was actually in the market for a new watch to wear to work, so I jumped at the opportunity. I have to admit when I checked out the pictures online of the watch; I dug the subtle elegant geekiness of it. Being a designer/IT person, I am very particular about not only the functionality of my gadgets but how they look as well.

The watch retails for about $90. The first thing you notice about the watch, other than the eye-catching packaging, is it definitely feels substantial and solid in your hands. It has a genuine leather strap and a very simple design aesthetic, which makes it a watch you can wear out with friends and to work the next day. The watch is also waterproof and glows in the dark, which are both big pluses in my book.

I have been wearing the watch for about 2 weeks now and in my daily routines, it has been bumped, jostled, doused with water; and it has not only stood the test, but caused some interesting conversations as well. I was worried at first about the overall build of the watch, but its very well constructed and is a pretty solid little time piece. I have to admit I am now a fan of Cadence watches and if you’re looking for new watch, I highly suggest it.

Although the name might be a mouthful, the Mophie Juice Pack Air is certainly not a handful. This little gadget will protect your 4th Gen iPod Touch while at the same time providing twice as much time playfully slicing fruit out of the air like a ninja or knocking down some porker’s home.

This sleek case not only protects your precious Apple product, but gives it almost twice the amount of play time. It will keep your iPod playing music at the party for 34 hours after everyone else’s Touch has been gasping desperately for an outlet.

I put this extra battery/protective case through the bootcamp. Give or take a couple hours, the pack does exactly what it says it will do. It keeps your iPod touch playing continuously long into the next day and the day after.

The extra six hours of video time is perfect for those of you taking a plane ride to Australia. I even took the time to give my iPod a good toss down my wooden staircase. Those of you with butter fingers will be happy to know that this case gives you some much needed protection from the occasional drop from the 3rd floor. FYI the iPod touch still works perfectly. (more…)

Note: Author Knows Nothing of Circuits, This Image May Be Wrong

The folks over at The Hacktory are hosting another event with the Prometheus Radio Project, inviting prospective students to learn how to build their very own radio transmitter.

According to the Hacktory, “participants will be soldering parts and tuning up [their] very own FM radio transmitters. At the end [they'll] have a simple low-power transmitter that you can [be] used to broadcast across a room. Beginners are welcome but space is limited.”

For more information on the class, visit The Hacktory’s official website.

Build Your Own FM Transmitter @ the Hacktory
June 18th, 2011, $15

The Hacktory
1524 Brandywine Street (19130)
www.thehacktory.org

The Belkin Conserve Insight is a cool gadget that helps you monitor your electricity usage in your home. “Insight” is the key word here, because in my test spin of the product I’ve been able to glean some interesting anecdotes about the way my precious electronics contribute to the electricity bill each month.

The premise of the product is simple. Take the Insight, plug it in to one of your electronics or appliances. Right away, you get instant feedback on wattage, cost, and CO2 production. Then, go ahead and use it like you would normally. After 45 minutes it comes up with an average across all three measures, and the longer you let it sit the more accurate the reading is.

I’ve often wondered how much my electronics cost me. Here’s a chart that highlights different electronics and states that I used them in, and their corresponding cost per month.

Here are more specific breakdowns about the things I was trying to test…

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The Conserve Socket is a part of Belkin’s eco-friendly product line aimed to reduce energy consumption. How? Well with an easy to set timer, it completely shuts off whatever device is plugged into it once the preset time expires. This durable product can be used throughout the house for multiple devices.

In my experience with the product, which Belkin was kind enough to send over, I’ve found it to be ideal for cell phone chargers, most consumer electronics, space heaters, coffee makers and irons. Clearly labeled buttons, simple packaging and reasonable pricing make it a no brainer for your average technophile.

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The Robolancers Hard at Work

For a long time, science fiction has provided a plethora of famous robots. Cylons, R2D2, and Bender, just to a name a few that I got on this Sporcle quiz before I gave up. Sorry, C3PO.

But what about real-life robots? What’s going on in the world of today? Well, the Robolancers from Central High School hope to tell you all about that in 1st Annual Philly Robotics Expo at Drexel University. The event, taking place on Thursday, April 28th of Philly Tech Week, invites you to “have a blast playing with real robots and learning from the Philadelphia businesspeople, engineers and students who are transforming science fiction into science reality!”

Did you hear that? You get to play with real live robots. AND IT’S FREE. Why are you not already lined up outside of the Drexel Recreation Center? Proceeds from the event get put back into local robotic and engineering programs in Philadelphia, with the goal of one day building a Robo-Mayor Nutter, who uses social networks at high efficiency and legislates with an iron-alloy fist.

Philly Robotics Expo
April 28 2pm – 8pm
Drexel Recreation Center, 3301 Market Street
Free Admission

This post brought to you by OgilvyInteractive. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ah, digital magazines. Seems like a lot of companies are trying to jump into the appzine market, and few are doing it right. I mean, with an application like Flipboard that delivers a magazine-esque experience, why even bother?

Well, in comes The Collection, a new appazine delivering a monthly, pay-per-issue digital mag, brought to you by Ringier, a Swiss-media company founded in the early 1800′s. You heard me. The 1800′s, a fact that astonishes me.

What are they doing different? They’ve put together a unique content management system especially made for The Collection, that lets you experience the content in an entirely new, intuitive way. Photos, videos, text… all delivered interactively.

The app aims to stay up to date with current events in our ever changing media landscape, which is an impressive statement to say the least, considering how quickly news breaks all over the Internet. But if a media company founded in the 1800′s can still continue to move with the times, I think its safe to assume they’ll achieve this goal.

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Recently,  I had the distinct pleasure of visiting our friends over at Hive 76 for a demonstration and class on 3D printing.

If you are unaware, Hive 76 is a community/space here in Philadelphia for making, creating, hacking, re-purposing. They do a better job of defining themselves here. More on them later.

3D printing is as cool and futuristic as it sounds. In the same way that an inkjet printer runs a cartridge full of printing material (ink) over a surface (paper) repeatedly until an image is produced, a 3D printer “prints” layers and layers of thermoplastics until a physical object is produced. I myself had been a casual observer of the development 3D printing as chronicled over at BoingBoing, and I thought I knew a fair amount about it, but seeing a drawing on paper become a tangible thing in under an hour came pretty close to blowing my mind.

Hive 76′s Makerbot in action

Hive 76 has two 3D printers. The first is a Makerbot, which was the first widely available option. Prior to Makerbot, 3D printing was the realm of large R&D facilities or extremely dedicated (and wealthy) hobbyists. People at Hive 76 have printed some rather notable things (in the realm of 3D printing) on their Makerbot, including the Ban Hammer and what is probably the first ever printed engagement ring.

The coolest thing being printed at Hive76, however, is their second 3D printer. One of the driving forces behind 3D printing (and Hive76, for that matter) is putting creation and creativity in the hands of everyone. Copyright and digital rights management are dirty words, while open source, Linux, and creative commons are all the rage. The Mendel is a 3D printer designed to be self replicating. All of the non-metal, non-electronic parts are printable themselves, so any replacements or upgrades can be printed right at the Hive.

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Last week, I hopped a train to New York City to hang out with Chevrolet and Engadget. Turns out Chevy is rolling out a new in-car entertainment system that harnesses the appeal of smartphone tech, but with a slick and simple interface that appeals to geeks and soccer moms alike. The company announced the development live at Thursday night’s Engadget show at SIR Stage in New York.

We got a chance to get up close and personal with the cars at a media event in the morning, plus a ride in the futuristic prototype vehicle EN-V — like a Segway meets a helicopter cockpit meets a SmartCar. The best part: we scored some snazzy gear to give away. Read on to find out how.

Chevy MyLink is a clear response to connected entertainment systems already on the market, like Ford Sync, Toyota Entune, or even the simplified BMW Mini Connect app for the Mini Cooper. With both the increasing demand for connectivity and a trend in app-based systems, Chevy decided to pull existing applications and combined them into one smooth interface.

Check it out, geeks.

A touchscreen on the dash keeps everything together in a neat homescreen, just like your phone. Flip through apps and functions by touching the screen or from the steering wheel.

• Smartphone integration: MyLink connects with a slew of smartphones, like your iPhone, iPod, Android phone or Blackberry. Stream music wirelessly, make or answer calls, and juice up with the built-in PowerMat charging system.
• Apps, apps, apps: Thumbs up for Pandora! Listen to your favorite streams and vote songs up or down just like online. Use Stitcher to stream your favorite radio shows, news or podcasts. Your songs and playlists (and corresponding album art) will be downloaded, organized and displayed on the touchscreen library thanks to Gracenote.
• Voice recognition: Interact with the car without taking your hands off the wheel using advanced voice recognition provided by Nuance. Make calls, sort through hundreds of albums or get directions with voice commands. If you get really lost, the folks at OnStar can help — they’ve been with GM for 15 years now.

Consumers can scope the hyper-connected “infotainment suite” (their words, not ours) on the 2012 Volt and Equinox in early fall, plus additional models in the coming year, according Mickey Bly, GM’s executive director of vehicle engineering.

Now. Time for the swag. Leave a comment below with your suggestion for the best in-car entertainment system. We’ll pick a winner at random to receive a PowerMat system and a Pandora shirt!

Disclosure: Geekadelphia was not paid for this post and all opinions are our own. However, our blogger did receive free transportation.