Ok, so this may never make the Top 100 Gadgets of All Time list, but we couldn’t resist including it here anyway.

“Sticking to the underside of the toilet lid, the LavNav switches on and off via a sensor. When you approach in the dark, it turns on, then turns off again as you leave. But it’s not just an ordinary light, not at all. If the toilet seat is up, it lets you know with a green light; if it’s down, the light is red.”
Source: Gadgetryblog

It runs on 2 AA batteries and is priced at a reasonable $19.95, making the LavNav is perfect for anyone who bought a Clapper.

News.com recently reported that billionaire Vegas developer Steve Wynn was planning to unveil not only another mega-casino, but that deep inside the new digs would be hundreds of thousands of little chips - RFID chips that is, inside the chips.

Here’s a bit from the piece:

“In casinos, RFID technology is still relatively rare and in search of a killer application to spur adoption. Yet some tech-savvy casino executives envision RFID transforming the way they operate table games, including blackjack, craps and roulette, over the next four or five years.

“For one thing, there’s the counterfeiting problem, on which there is scant data. The Nevada Gaming Commission gets about a dozen complaints every year related to counterfeit chips, said Keith Copher, the agency’s chief of enforcement. Last year, a casino in Reno quickly lost $26,000 in such a scheme–one of the biggest hits reported to the commission in recent years. And counterfeiting is on the rise at overseas casinos, Copher noted. The RFID technology would let dealers or cashiers see when the value of the chips in front of them don’t match the scanners’ tally.

“However, financial losses due to counterfeit chips are usually minor, and few perpetrators get away with it, Copher said. Perhaps that’s why the Wynn has found a dual purpose for the high-tech chips: The casino is also using the chips to help account for the chips they issue on credit to players, since managing credit risk is a huge part of any big casino’s operations.

“Wynn plans to take note of the serial numbers of the chips they lend and of the name of players who cash them in. The technology could also help casinos catch card players who sneak extra betting chips onto the table after hands are dealt or players who count cards. That’s one reason the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas plans to switch on a new set of RFID-equipped betting chips and tables next month.

“The casino is installing RFID readers and PCs at game tables. With antennas placed under each player’s place at the table, dealers can take a quick inventory of chips that have been wagered at the push of a button. The PCs display all the initial bets, deterring players from sneaking extra chips into their pile after hands are dealt.”

For more up to date info on RFID technology, check out RFID Gazette and VOIP Now.

I’ll admit I am a sucker for round-ups like this one. Mobile PC magazine has a great round-up on the 100 Gadgets of All Time.

From the Sony Sports Walkman

to the Popeil Pocket Fisherman

this great piece has them all, including the Zippo lighter and even the Lite Brite. True, I don’t consider the Tickle Me Elmo doll a “gadget” in the true sense of the word, or the Swingline stapler for that matter, but that’s just splitting hairs. And above all, it sure beats the 100 Most Embarrassing Celebrity Moments countdown on TV.

Here are some highlights:

77. HASBRO LITE-BRITE, 1967
Who knew that all those happy hours spent punching multicolored pins into black paper were actually preparing us for a rewarding career designing web page bullets and desktop icons?

76. HP OMNIBOOK 300, 1993
Hewlett-Packard’s OmniBook 300 weighed 3 pounds and packed a 386 processor and enough battery life to handle most domestic flights, but the real innovation was the “pop-out” mouse that you could pull from the right side of the machine,
attached to a thin strip of plastic. The pop-out mouse died in 1999.

30. JVC HR-3300 VHS VCR, 1976
Early videotape machines developed by Ampex in the 1950s and 1960s were roughly the size of washing machines. It wasn’t until 1976 that home video took off, with JVC and Sony launching the infamous war between VHS and Betamax (not to mention a handful of other long-forgotten formats). VHS grabbed the early advantage thanks to a much lower price ($885 versus $1,300) and longer tapes, and because Sony was distracted by its now-crucial lawsuit, which legalized VCRs. Thanks, JVC, for both revolutionizing entertainment and for saddling us with this awful technology for 20 years.

29. JOSEPH ENTERPRISES THE CLAPPER, 1982
Switches became a thing of the past in 1982, when the first Clappers went on sale, letting you clap your TV, lights, or toaster oven on and off. However, the product jingle may have had a far larger impact on society than the product itself. See if you recognize the song: “Clap on. Clap off. Clap on, clap off — the Clapper!” Now that’s going to be stuck in your head all day.

20. SWISS ARMY KNIFE, 1891
Karl Elsener’s first knife, which was distributed to Swiss enlisted men, featured a blade, a screwdriver, a can opener, and a punch. Today, the company Elsener founded, Victorinox, and its competitor, Wenger, offer dozens of knives featuring up to 33 different tools. Meanwhile, the name has passed into cliche as an apt description of the knife’s versatility.

19. IBM THINKPAD 701C, 1995
Never mind the specs, the crazy “butterfly” keyboard cemented IBM on top of the universe of notebook design. Closed, the machine looks like any notebook with a 10.4-inch screen from its era. Flip it open, and the keyboard expands to full size, making typing a breeze. This clever rig earned the 701C a place in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

18.MOTOROLA DYNATAC 8000X, 1983
Ten years after Motorola researcher Martin Cooper placed the world’s first cellular call, the rest of the world got its shot. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X brought mobile calling to the masses (or about 300,000 very wealthy people) for just $3,995 plus outrageously high usage fees. Fortunately, the 8000X offered only one hour of talk time, so it was difficult to rack up stratospheric bills.

–Read The Whole Thing: 100 Gadgets of All Time

We don’t usually cover medical technology, but to the millions of people suffering with Diabetes and the constant pricking of fingertips to check glucose levels, there is a pretty major breakthrough in sight. A new watch from Glucon monitor blood sugar and display it on the watch using sound waves. Just don’t confuse 220 with 2:20!

“Glucose monitoring device developer Glucon today announced it was granted a US patent for the use of photoacoustic waves originating in the blood vessel to calculate the concentration of glucose in the blood vessel. Glucon’s flagship device, the Glucose Monitoring Watch, will display a continuous reading of the patient’s real time blood glucose level, enabling the patient to take the necessary measures to treat their condition. It will do so by marrying two proven scientific tools - photonics and acoustics. Ultrasound imaging is employed to identify a blood vessel and optical spectroscopy is used to quantify the glucose concentration within the blood vessel.” Source: Globes [Online]

Me Oh My Dept: RealTechNews contributor JOhn Marrin reported the following from NYBusiness.com: “The New York Times Co. has agreed to buy About.com from Primedia Inc. in an all-cash deal valued at about $410 million.

The company says the deal will give it the 12th-largest Internet presence and a platform for future growth on the Web. The Times Co., whose digital properties include NYTimes.com and Boston.com, has a current base of 13 million users, while About.com has 22 million monthly users. About.com has an advertising-supported network of sites run by experts who provide advice on topics ranging from personal finance to consumer electronics. The Times Co. says it expects to operate About.com as a distinct division and expand its content.

Primedia, which is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., bought About.com in October 2000 for $690 million in stock, but was never able to successfully integrate the property with its stable of enthusiast magazines.

The company’s RipGuard DVD, launched this week, is designed to thwart cracking programs that get around the encryption system used in standard DVDs.

Macrovision also claims a related system to be used with RipGuard can foil attempts to make analog copies of DVDs. Such copies are made by connecting a video recorder to a DVD player’s video and audio output jacks, a method that previous DVD copy protection software has failed to prevent fully. DVDs fitted with the new Macrovision technology do not require new software or hardware to be played and should be compatible with nearly all existing DVD players and DVD computer drives, the company says.

Okay, so we all know that work on the better mouse has probably already started just about now as well, right?

In a paper to be published Thursday in the journal Nature, Intel’s Photonics Technology Laboratory reported a way to overcome the primary hurdle to using silicon as a medium for laser light, an effect in which electrons freed by the energy of passing photons absorb the light as it passes through.

Researchers at the world’s largest maker of microchips overcame that problem — called two-photon absorption — by using a technique from the world of semiconductors: it created positive and negative regions around the path of the laser light, which “vacuum” away electrons and provide a clear road for the laser.

Combine that with the research going on with Extreme UV light and now I understand why Intel was so confident it could get through at least 2009 and possibly on to 2012 (perhaps past 32nm) without any problems. Not too shabby.