12 Days of Gadgets: Necomimi Brain-Powered Cat Ears

December 21, 2012, 2:06 pm

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…the last gift idea for gadget lovers who don't really merit spending over $100 on.

Today, the weirdest and most memorable of all: the Necomimi Brain-Powered Cat Ears ($100).

It's a headband with fluffy white cat ears attached. They perk up, flop down and otherwise turn, cutely and catlike, in sync with your brainwaves.

That's the promise, anyway. A slightly uncomfortable forehead arm picks up the echoes of your neural activity from the front, and a clip on your earlobe completes the circuit. As your mental activity rises and falls, as your mood changes, the ears take on a life of their own.

There's a good deal of debate online about just how much the ears' motion is, in fact, governed by your brainwaves. There are certainly times when they seem exactly in sync with you, and others when they seem completely random. No question about it: brain-computer interfaces are in their infancy.

But some things the Necomimis do extremely well are get attention, start conversations and make your holiday gift memorable. It doesn't take a lot of brainwaves to realize that.

So there you have it, tech fans: 12 consecutive days' worth of offbeat tech-gadget gifts for your loved ones and pals. Hope your days are merry and bright.

Now go start wrapping.

Pogue\'s 12 Days of Gadgets: The Touchfire iPad Keyboard

December 20, 2012, 3:53 pm

Thumpity thump-thump - that's the sound your fingers make on an iPad screen when they try to type. It's not an efficient process. You sort of have to keep looking down at the glass to see where your fingers are. In short, typing is not, ahem, the iPad's shining moment.

One solution is to buy yourself a real keyboard - a Bluetooth one, for example. But that's an expensive and bulky proposition. It's another whole gadget to carry around.

On this, the 11th Day of Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets (Under $100), may I suggest the Touchfire iPad keyboard?

It's a transparent, flexible, squishable, silicone membrane, weighing less than an ounce. (It got its start on Kickstarter.)

The Touchfire's surface is molded into the shape of keys. You unroll this thing and attach it to your iPad with magnets along the edge. The molded keys align with the on-screen keyboard, and the whole affair makes typing easier and faster. There's no actual key travel, no actual clicking, mind you. But at least your fingers can feel where they're supposed to be.

It flips and folds out of the way when you need access to the screen without the keyboard; you can actually tap and swipe through it, when necessary. It also folds up nicely with Apple's magnetically attached iPad covers.

If your lucky recipient is not a fan of typing on glass, the Touchfire makes a confident step toward keyboarding without adding any bulk.