A simple way to add lights to your Spykee / Rovio?

I’ve had an interesting idea for mounting lighting on my Spykee…

The problem is not how to fit a light, but how to control it by turning it on and off when you need to. So I came up with this idea:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SpotOn-Light-White-pack/dp/B000PVX678/ref=tag_tdp_sv_edpp_i

Basically, it’s a motion-sensitive, battery-powered night light. You’re supposed to mount it in places like cupboards, so that when you open the door, the light comes on.

However – in this case, the motion will be provided by the environment around the Spykee, as it moves. Hopefully, I can stick a couple of these on the front, and although it’s dark when I connect, as soon as it starts driving, the lights should come on.

I have one at home already, so I’ll give it a go this weekend and provide feedback on whether it works. Definitely no warranty invalidation with this one.

Coffee gadget that really works: Aeropress Review

I’m a gadget addict, of course, but the thing I get really excited about are gadgets that really work, or are genuinely useful. Few and far between. Like my personal ‘mash-up’ of a SE HBH-610 with a HBH-65 earloop, which I lost last week.

However, this is one of those glorious things. The Aeropress lets you make real coffee. Lots of things let you do that, of course. The thing is whether they let you make coffee easily enough, and quickly enough, and without much cleaning up, that you’re actually going to do it on a regular basis.

My Firebox review was thus:

I never bother with ‘real’ coffee – I can never be bothered to clean my espresso maker, and so only really keep ground coffee for dinner parties, which then has gone off by the time I use it. I bought the AeroPress to see if I could rectify that. And it really has! Once you remove all the bumpf, you can simply screw on the filter, chuck a couple of teaspoons of ground coffee in, pour hot water, stir, squeeze over a cup, and that’s it: fresh americano!

As for the important bit – cleaning – you simply unscrew the plastic filter, push the plunger all the way down to expel the microfilter and grounds into a bin, hold the end of the plunger under a tap, and chuck back in a drawer. It really does take a minute, end-to-end, and the coffee really is good! My miniature espresso maker is now firmly relegated to ornamental status.

It’s all true.

And yes, it does look like a Swedish Penis Enlarger. But the coffee’s still good.

Still no Sign of Spykee

The Meccano Spykee, Spyke, or Skype (if you typo it, like I do), promised mid-2007, is still a distant speck on the horizon… Play.com have an estimated release of 30/07/08 – and they probably meant 31/07, but forgot July has 31 days.

Anyway, I digress. If you’ve been eagerly awaiting this robot for the past year or so, then Meccano are able to help… with the Spykee Micro!

True, you can’t control it from the Internet, WiFi, Spyke, auto-recharge it… or anything else, really… but on the upside, it is only £19.99, and available from next week from Play.com (promise!).

Or, you can wait for the real thing.

For a lot longer.