I should be so lucky.
I have only kayaked once. I really liked it even though Eliot did all the work. It’s a great way to get close to nature, just you and a body of water. Many of my friends in Miami kayak all the time, but they admit it’s always a schlep to tow their boats to the bay.
Tonight Oru Kayak presented a solution on Shark Tank. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Oru Kayak designs origami kayaks. They fold out of a compact case. The video above gives a great demonstration of what I am talking about. There is nothing like the Oru kayaks on the market.
The Oru Kayak is light and compact. It’s on display at the San Franscisco Museum of Modern Art. I want to buy one. The Oru website says “it’s stable enough for beginners and fast and sporty enough for expert kayakers. Oru Kayaks transform from a box to boat in just a few minutes.”
FEATURES
-Comfortable foam seat and fully-adjustable backrest
-Easy-to-close watertight seams
-2 rubber deck straps for extra gear
-Easy-to-adjust footrest
-Reinforced cockpit for easy entry
-Pair of bulkheads for extra rigidity
-Simple and intuitive strap and buckle closure system
-Fits standard spray skirts (size medium)
SPECIFICATIONS
LENGTH: 12′ [3.7 M]
WIDTH: 25″ [63 CM]
WEIGHT: 26 LBS [12 KG]
BOX LENGTH: 32″ [81 CM]
BOX WIDTH: 13″ [33 CM]
BOX HEIGHT: 29″ [73 CM]
The Oru Kayak retails at $1,195.00. Pricey but convenient. I’ll let you know if we get a pair.
I used to love sending greeting cards. I would look forward to going to the stationery store once a month to buy the next batch. I was always so proud of myself that I never forgot someone’s special occasion.
Then one day I went to visit a friend and spotted the card I sent him in the waste paper basket. It wasn’t even 24 hours after his birthday. I never said a word but the trips to the stationery store was never the same. I was spending 50 bucks or more a month to let loved ones know we cared and it didn’t have the impact I thought it would.
I realized my expectations were out of whack and the $50 could be spent better somewhere else. I thought I got over my desire to send out paper cards until I learned about a new app from the New York Times that would handle everything for me at better pricing,
All I have to do is download an app called Felt. It lets me send a handwritten, sealed, stamped and mailed card from my iPad. I write the message and the address. Then I pay $3.99 a card, or $2.99 each for a pack of 10. The recipient gets a paper card like the good old days.
There are other apps that do similar things, so if you know of any let us know. I may want do the monthly thing just one more time.
I’m not sure if you caught this on the news last night but the John Hancock Center in Chicago just opened a new attraction 94-stories up that is a technological marvel. Having said that, the new feature, called “The Tilt” would give me a heart attack if I got close to it. “The Tilt” is a big glass box of windows that can fit up to eight people as it tilts downward 1,000 feet above Mag Mile.
If you watch the video above, you will see exactly how it works. I get the willies just thinking of myself tilting out of a building. Can’t do it. Don’t want to do it.
The video explains how a bank of glass and steel bays pivots outward and tilts downward 30 degrees for about 30 seconds.
I marvel at family and friends who have no fears and just want to enjoy the experience. What are they thinking?
Every once in a while I come across a product or a service that makes me think “why didn’t I think of that?” TaskRabbit is one of those ideas that really seems like it came from my brain. I am always fantasizing about a community where everyone chips in doing the chores they are best at. My talent would be barking orders so that everyone met their deadlines.
I would like to meet the person who developed TaskRabbit. I think the online concept is genius. It just seems very natural to me to outsource small jobs and tasks to others in their neighborhood who are more qualified, It’s all very civilized. “Needy folks name a task they want done, quotes the price they are willing to pay, and a network of pre-approved TaskRabbits bid to complete the job”
TaskRabbit was founded by Leah Busque in 2008 and reportedly received $37.5 million in funding. She came up with the idea when she needed someone else to run an errand. Busque bought the domain name RunMyErrand.com, then later changed it to TaskRabbit. She quit her job as a software engineer at IBM and launched the site in Boston, with 100 people participating. Today the company is functioning in many cities in the United States.
Let me know if you tried this service. Dying to know how well it works.
I’m about to show you the first video camera that creates 360-degree panoramic views with 4K resolution. If you thought the still cameras that feature 360-degrees shots were awesome, wait till you see this. You feel like you are totally in the driver’s seat.
Click here to see a video demonstration.
Called Centr, the camera was developed by a group of former iPhone camera engineers. Now they are raising money on Kickstarter to bring their invention to market.
Look how small and cute it is. It fits in the palm of your hands. It is slated to retail at $400 but you could get it for $299 on Kickstarter if you act fast.
As strange as it may seem, 32,000 cyclists passed by our apartment building this morning as they participated in the annual Five Boro Bike Tour. My building is a few doors down from the entrance to the 59th Street bridge. Bikers started nearby as they rode through all five boroughs –Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, totally free of traffic.
Very few people know about this, but next year this tour might be totally different. There is a new Kickstarter project now underway that is trying to bring bike riding into the age of smartphones. Vanhawks, the bike’s manufacturer, wants to raise a little over $100,000 to fund Valour, a bike that can track your rides, give you directions, and even alert you to passing cars or bumps in the road.
Bike riding just went from being a sport where you were basically on your own, to one of being totally connected. Participants in New York City’s Bike Tour next year will be a lot more knowledgable about the path they are exploring if they decide to buy a “Valour.”
The “Valour” should be ready this October from $999.00 to $1,200.00, depending on various upgrades.
Here’s a prediction. Five years from now, many Americans will not be using toilet paper to wipe their rear ends. When I first heard about this, I was grossed out. Several friends of mine in Miami bought expensive self- cleaning toilets a few years ago for thousands of dollars just to get a better wipe. They have never stopped raving about the spa toilets since.
I just couldn’t imagine how these new types of toilets worked. I would ask my friends all kinds of stupid questions and I would only get reassurances that it was better than toilet paper.
Apparently, I’m going to find out. The Brondell FreshSpa has just been introduced at $60. The new gadget attaches itself to an existing toilet so that it can turn itself into a hygienic bidet in minutes. Instead of spending thousands of dollars, many more of us will opt for the one well under $100 for the same spa experience.
The FreshSpa website says the “bidet provides personalized wash settings for maximum comfort. The easy to use controls allow for adjustable water pressure – from a gentle wash to a concentrated stream while the wash nozzle has 3 separate angled positions ensuring accurate coverage for all types of users.”
The Brondell FreshSpa’s website also said the bidet dramatically reduces the amount of toilet paper we all use. It could be as high as a 75 to 100% reduction in toilet paper. That has a significant environmental impact. There is good news on the water front. The Brondell bidet attachments and bidet seats also use less water than the toilet paper production process. The unit is available online at http://www.Brondell.com and most Home Depot stores.
The WOW factor? 34 million rolls of toilet paper are used in the United States each day and each roll is 1.5 pounds of wood—so 54 million trees per year are cut down to keep up with the need for toilet paper.
For that reason alone many of us will be upgrading to self-cleaning toilets. Have a good spritz!
I want to thank Peter Weedfald, my former boss at Samsung, who introduced me to the Toon Camera app. It turned my world into a fun living cartoon.
You can turn all of your pictures and videos into a cartoon just by selecting them from your camera roll when you are in the Toon app. You can choose from pencil, stipple, or ink effects.
By the way, you can share your Toon Camera shots with folks on other social networks.
I am having so much fun converting most of my files into Toon Camera. It’s a whole new perspective on the world.
Take a look!
I just finished reading an online story in the Miami Herald about how one of my favorite restaurants in Miami recently got robbed. A group of thieves stole a very pricey piece of art from Wynwood Kitchen and Bar. The metallic deer sculpture, valued at $10,000, was created by noted contemporary American artist Ron English.
I was amazed that the robbery was actually captured on video. That video was posted on YouTube and the Miami Herald picked it up from YouTube. I snatched it from the newspaper to deliver it to you.
This whole process felt very surreal. What was even more bizarre was watching the robbery in action. I was almost too scared to take in the whole thing at one time. I found myself looking away because I was afraid something worse was going to happen. The minute I finished watching the whole segment, I knew I had to share it with you. To read more about the robbery click here.
Wynwood Kitchen and Bar, a Latin American tapas restaurant, features a garden area called Wynwood Walls. Both locations are Miami’s epicenter for cutting-edge museum quality contemporary murals. The open-air art park was launched by the late Tony Goldman of Goldman Properties during Art Basel 2009. Goldman also created the SoHo District of Manhattan.
It hurts watching art being vandalized. There has to be more art and tech partnerships in the future in order to avoid this.
DigiDame 