Sick of losing your car in the parking lot?  Or how ’bout where you left that pot of gold in the Caribbean?  Using GPS and digital compass technology, the Bushnell BackTrack GPS Navigation System marks any location with the touch of a button, and guides you back to the exact same spot every time. An easy-to-follow arrow points the way to your pre-set location.  The treasure map where “X” marks the spot just became extinct.

• Perfect for mall or stadium parking lots
• Conveniently fits in your purse or pocket, making it ideal for everyday use
• Stores up to three locations at once
• Operates on two AAA batteries (not included)

$59 - Bushnell 36-0050 BackTrack GPS Navigation System

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Mounted under a cabinet in a kitchen or office, this compact media center lets you enjoy TV programs, DVD movies, music CDs, and AM/FM radio without creating countertop clutter. The 9″ diagonal screen flips down and can be swiveled 270 to achieve the preferred viewing angle; its 16:9 aspect ratio makes it ideal for watching movies. Its TFT active matrix LCD (the same as those used in flat panel televisions) produces sharp, detailed images with rich color in widescreen or standard 4:3 formats. It has a digital/analog television tuner, receives 135 cable channels, and it can be used as a stereo system, playing CDs as well as tuning in AM/FM radio stations. Plugs into AC and mounts easily with included hardware. Remote uses two AAA batteries (included) and has a magnet for attaching to a refrigerator.

Hammacher is currently making the Under Cabinet TV With DVD Player available for $299.95.

[ Under Cabinet TV With DVD Player copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Handpresso is a portable espresso maker. It can be used anywhere, anytime so those espresso-lovers out there no longer have to go to coffee shops that might be blocks away from their present location. Handpresso is guaranteed to make quality espresso with delicious aroma and perfect cream.

When it comes to storage, Handpresso can be stored in a drawer, it can be hung with your other kitchenwares in the garden outside your home or it can be packed in a bag which can be carried anywhere.

To operate the Handpresso, all you need to do is pump the handle of the small coffee machine up to 16 bars of pressure indicated at the handy built-in pressure gauge. Then, you just have to add hot water to the espresso maker’s mini reservoir and slip in the compatible coffee pod. After you have done all that, you can start indulging with your favorite espresso.

How do you produce a TV show from a sailboat?
One of the things about the Feasting shows in general is that they have a very small crew, and we are moving with very little space. We are extremely packed and technology dense. We had two 50-foot catamarans—it sounds fun but it wasn’t that fun.

So you shoot and edit as you go?
This year we decided to go completely tapeless: Panasonic P2 cards on 200s. We’re downloading them into our portable Avid edit system. We take as much audio equipment as we take video equipment. The funny thing is, professional audio hasn’t gotten a whole lot smaller. Although hi-def cameras have gotten smaller, lenses have gotten better and battery time has gotten better, audio is still the tricky part of the process for field reporting.

I see you were also using a little Panasonic?
I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in the US to get Panasonic’s HDC-HS100 AVCHD camcorder. It’s got a nice little Leica lens on it. We take everything through a DaVinci color correction system. Once we do that, you really can’t tell the difference between my little camera and the big cameras—it’s all 1080i. We have some scenes that were 100% shot with just my camera.

How did you connect to the internet?
It’s kinda funny, the entire time that I was in the islands, I had perfect e-mail with my iPhone. The entire time. I think there was once, during a midnight crossing, the Anegada Passage, where I lost internet for about half an hour. The rest of the time, I was getting e-mail through either EDGE or something else [probably GPRS].

I did not even take a computer with me on that trip. I decided I just didn’t want to see a computer for a while. And at the time, I figured you know, computers, boats, water, scuba diving. I thought about taking the ToughBook along, and then I thought about taking the Asus because that’s a great little box. Then I thought, the hell with it. I took a few pads of paper, some pens and my iPhone.

You also carry GPS everywhere, right?
As a motorcyclist, as a hiker and as a pilot, I’m pretty sold on Garmin. In the first Feasting on Asphalt, I had a touchscreen weatherproof version of the StreetPilot for my motorcycle that even worked with gloves on. I just really love how their interfaces work. You don’t even need manuals for most of their stuff, the stuff is so intuitive.

In New York, I use Google Maps with my iPhone, because I know where I am—I don’t need GPS. If I was going some place where I needed GPS, I’d use my Garmin Colorado [shown in top pic], which I really really like. It’s a really great marine box. It’s splashproof, but it comes loaded with all the marine functions, so it’s really easy to do marine chart info if you get the right cards for it. You can sail the world with one.

So it was your navi on land and sea?
Everywhere. We basically documented the entire Feasting on Waves journey in the Colorado. Every place we went, we popped a waypoint. It’s got so many easy functions for calculating distance it made navigating around the island easier. Even islands that didn’t have roads at all, we could get good topographic information.

Do you adhere to the old sailor’s adage that you should never have just one form of navigation?
Abso-stinking-lutely. When I fly, I may have full GPS on the plane, but I got a full set of charts too, and I keep the charts out while I’m flying to make sure I know where I am. In this day and age, if I have a major power outage, I just whip out my handheld, the 496, a spectacular handheld aviation GPS. But there could be a catastrophic satellite failure, different things could happen that could make GPS unusable—I guess.

I think your unit would fail before the satellite did.
Something could happen to satellites, you never know. So I always want to know where I am on paper, too.

And on the island, what was your backup?
There were a lot of times where I didn’t have a backup. On islands, I sometimes didn’t have anything else, because there aren't reliable paper maps for those places. The only time I wasn’t using Garmin to navigate was when we were underwater—I don’t think they have an underwater unit yet. We did a fair amount of scuba diving, and you’re still on your own under water. You still gotta use a compass.

I think you just invented something.
Underwater GPS would be spectacular. I don’t know how deep you can go with that technology without having serious problems. Even 50 to 70 feet would be useful. I wonder why they haven’t done that yet. I’ll ask Garmin when I can get that. For rec diving, having that kind of application would be fantastic.

Note: I asked Garmin why there wasn't a scuba GPS, and I got a quick reply: "The reason for no scuba GPS is simple... the signal is deflected by water."

So how do you keep everything charged up?
That’s a problem. Especially on the boats, it was really difficult. We got down there and realized that the power systems on the boats which were all 220V—the power wasn’t clean enough for our editing computers. On St. Martin, we had to go buy a Honda generator to run on the back of the boat to give us good steady clean 120V.

The Colorado runs on AAs, so I took a batch of rechargeable AAs. I ran the recharger for that in the cabin where I also charged my iPhone and my little camera batteries. I had to have three chargers. My other camera only runs on regular batteries, not rechargeables.

What kind of camera is it?
It’s an old metal Canon EF—about 30 years old. I also carry a 35mm Leica point-and-shoot with a fixed 40mm lens. I was shooting slide film in the Canon and print film in the Leica.

So you’re not shooting digital?
Not on this. I wanted Ektochrome—nothing looks like Ektochrome. I’m old school that way. I have a pretty decent Canon digital, and a Leica digital as well, but I didn’t want to have to deal with the chargers, and I wanted super robust technology, so I went film. I like film. You can’t beat it. I spent most of my career as a cinematographer before I went to culinary school, so I just got a thing about film emulsions. It’s still the way I think. I just don’t appreciate digital photography as much as I should.

I know, I know—we managed to get through an entire discussion about a food show without talking about the freakin' food. Good thing there are already clips of the show (alas, non-embeddable) up at Food Network's website, so take a look. The awesome photographs of Alton were shot—digitally—by Marion Laney, ForgottenGulf.com.

Source: Luxury Launches

There are often times that I find myself in need of a salaried snooze. In such cases, my pillow of choice tends to be a rolled up hand towel on my desk - try it sometime it is awesome. The Napbook case, however, is a different kind of awesome , looks a whole lot more comfortable, a little bit stylish and has the secondary capability of being able to carry your laptop, cables and miscellaneous junk around.

At the moment this thing is only available in Iceland, I kid you not, but there are plans to take it to the rest of the world where you can be sure that it is going to be a hit. [Crave via Oh Gizmo]

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Google made headlines by launching Chrome, its shiny new browser. We dig it, though we're wondering if Google really does. The company-turned-verb isn't the only one confused, either: check out Microsoft's bewildering push for Vista using shoes and churros. We also saw two contenders to the iThrone: one a solid phone by Nokia, the other, a plain ol' scooter. Yeah, think Vespas.

Check out more goodies from this week:

Post-game report: Live NFL football on the Web
The NFL finally manages to make first down on the net.

Dell Studio Hybrid hands-on: the perfect home theater PC?
The PC-savvy and the uninitiated should definitely give the Studio Hybrid a look.

Orator Briefcase PA System
Anyone can make speeches anytime, anywhere. Oh, great…

Japanese homes from the future: 'Un Sui'
Does your house look like a sci-fi movie set? This one does.

Most powerful magnet ever being built in Florida
Your fridge magnets suck.

Neuton CE 6.2 electric mower
It mows, munches and mulches through your lawn — and your carbon footprint.

Government Facility or Secret Lair? Tokyo's Tower of Wind
A high tech, secret tunnel in the middle of the water? Suspicious.

Belkin Leather Folio Case for iPod touch (Persimmon Orange/Bone White)

Recently, two Apple customers have said they received e-mails from Jobs: A MacRumors reader claimed Jobs replied to his letter concerning iPhone 3G network issues, and a Gizmodo reader said Jobs wrote him an e-mail hinting at plans to offer an iPhone tethering option. For reference purposes, we also looked at a third e-mail purportedly sent by Jobs regarding the iPod touch.

Though the purported e-mails are terse, they reveal information about what's coming for Apple -- which is unusual, since Apple religiously operates in secrecy. Many blogs and news outlets picked up these e-mails and spread around the "facts" as if they came directly from Jobs himself.

The MacRumors e-mail about a fix coming for iPhone 3G to resolve its network issues sparked widespread speculation that the handset was responsible for connectivity problems. As time passed, however, more and more evidence suggests that the 3G networks themselves are more closely tied to network-related problems than the phone.

We compared the three customer-reported e-mails with e-mails verified to be real: Steve Jobs' open letter to iPhone customers, his internal e-mail to Apple staff regarding MobileMe and another internal e-mail he sent to Apple staffers about outperforming Dell.

Which Versus That

MacRumors' purported e-mail from Jobs about iPhone 3G connectivity the contains an obvious grammatical error. It says:

"We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon. Steve"

According to Wired.com copy chief Tony Long, the usage of "which" is grammatically incorrect; "that" would be the correct word.

Compare this to the e-mail Jobs sent to Apple staff regarding the MobileMe launch, in which he used "that" correctly:

One step that I can share with you today is that the MobileMe team will now report to Eddy Cue, who will lead all of our internet services – iTunes, the App Store and, starting today, MobileMe.

Unnecessary Commas

The MacRumors email also includes a comma after the word "shipped." Though this is not an absolute mistake, it's an informal and unnecessary comma that only exists to create a pause in the sentence. The sentence would be grammatically stronger had it used the word "we" before "hope."

An unnecessary comma also appears in the customer-reported e-mail on Gizmodo after the word "agree." It says:

"We agree, and are discussing it with ATT. Steve"

By contrast, Jobs doesn't have a problem with unnecessary commas in his open letter to iPhone customers. Notice how in the sentence starting with "Details" there is no unnecessary comma after the word "out":

"Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned. We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple."

Independent Clauses

Also, in Jobs' iPhone open letter, notice how in the sentence starting with "We apologize," he properly uses "we" to make the second clause of that sentence an independent clause.

This in contrast to the two customer-reported emails, which both included an unnecessary comma after the "and." If Jobs had been consistent with the customer-reported emails, his note would have read, "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple."

Closing Words

Linguistics professor Farrell pointed out that in e-mails confirmed to be from Jobs, the CEO never includes closing words such as "Sincerely" or "Best Regards." However, in a customer-reported e-mail about the iPod touch, Jobs concludes with the closing words "Best, Steve."

Compare this to the internal e-mail Jobs sent to staff about Apple outperforming Dell, which one would imagine could merit the word "Best":

Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.

Fake or Real?

Farrell said Jobs' verified writing shows he has a very good grasp of written English: It is grammatical and well structured.

"The grammar in all the e-mails is competent, native, and standard English," he said.

However, he said the evidence of just three short e-mails was too scant to come to a conclusion.

"I don't see anything obvious that would lead me to believe that the three questionable emails are fake," he said. "I think one would need more evidence. Longer emails or something."

Though this analysis isinconclusive, the e-mail containing the misuse of "which" appears to be the most suspicious.On the other hand, the e-mail from Gizmodo is up for debate: Gizmodo's Mark Wilson believes it's real.

"I'm pretty sure the tip is legit," Wilson wrote in an e-mail. "I know for sure that Jobs really emails customers like this. And the source didn't have that shady, 10-year-old prankster vibe. They shared their
complete email thread including IPs from the correspondence."

Apple and MacRumors did not respond to a request for comment.

(Photo credit: acaben/Flickr)

Stash Reef Sandals

Unless you’re going to the beach with a larger group, you are going to run into a problem: you are in the water, while your stuff is not; how do you make sure it won’t get stolen? The Stash Reef Sandals offer the solution: they have a little “drawer” inside the sole where money, credit cards or keys can be stashed. And who ever heard of flip flop thieves?

The full post can be found on S2999.

Vacuum cleaning robot

Vacuuming must be one of the most boring chores on earth. But get one of these and you’ll never have to do it again.

The full post can be found on Decide What to Buy.

LayZ Inflatable Spa

The LayZ Inflatable Spa is the ultimate must-have luxury gadget. It can be positioned indoors or outdoors and is the perfect thing to pull out for your next party.The spa inflates within 10 minutes and just by plugging it in. The tub features 80 turbo-massage jets and comes in two sizes, a smaller 2-4 person version for those with limited tiled space in their house, and a roomier 6 person tub.

The full post can be found on Gaj-It.

Lensbaby 2.0 and 3G

The Lensbaby 2.0 and 3G are selective focus SLR lenses, which have a flexible “lens barrel” to give you that smooth out of focus effect in portions of your images. Basically, you bend, push and pull the lens to move the “Sweet Spot” where you want it and blur the remaining areas of the image. The Lensbaby 2.0 and 3G are designed to work with a number of cameras, including Canon, Sony and Nikon digital SLRs.

The full post can be found on Photography Bay.

Storefront Rocket Ride

This is the classic rocket ride encountered in front of supermarketsduring the 1960s, recalling a time when a single nickel and imaginationwas the only requirement a child needed. An authentic unit refurbishedto its original state, including the details of its tapered nose cone,bulbous body, and symbols suggestive of space travel.

The full post can be found on Random Good Stuff.

Krysalid’42 Trimaran Offers $600,000 Sail

Featuring a foldable structure that can be unfolded within two minutes; it proposes to offer more room on the bulky (42 foot) bridgedeck tavern to accommodate 6-8 people .

The full post can be found on Elite Choice.

Carry Your Music with You Everywhere You Go with Reppo II

Jonas Saraanen understands that you may be feeling nostalgive about the love-and-peace era but still need you feet firmly on the ground. The Reppo II includes integrated speakers and high quality digital amplifiers in a backpack that you can carry on your back anywhere you want.

The full post can be found on GadgetsBlog.org.

Thanks to all the sites for their submissions now over to you guys for voting (don’t forget to leave a comment with your reason for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher) :

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If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next weeks contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

[ Another $50 Coolest Gadget Contest copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]