Originally this was going to be something about Black Friday sales, but whilst browsing the interweb I came to two conclusions.

1. Nearly every site on the internet advertises Black Friday sales right on their front page.
2. The sites which do directly feature sales, collect the best Black Friday sales from said sites.

So, with approximately 100% of the internet already on top of this Black Friday thing, I thought I’d focus on something that traditionally goes completely ignored on Black Friday.

Safety.

Yes, since today is the day millions of shoppers will be packing stores and attacking their wares without a single regard towards basic decency and safety, why not highlight a product aimed at providing just that?

The turn signal gloves from Zackees are aimed at providing bicyclists and skateboarders a much needed alternative in making their intentions known to pedestrians and motorists around them. It gives the non-motorized street travelers of the world an electronic turn signal of their own, and requires little more than a hand movement in the appropriate direction to activate.

Even better, knowing their product will primarily be bought by hipsters, Zackees paid special attention to the style of the gloves, so wearing a turn signal on your hands looks as un-nerdy as humanly possible.

There’s no guarantee for success in the gadget market, but when you create something that is practical, useful, stylish, clever, and innovative it’s usually a good sign that your product will find an eager market. We’ll see if that holds true when the turn signal gloves start crowdfunding on December 9^th through Kickstarter.

I’ve mentioned a few HUD assisted driving products recently, but I’ve never mentioned my resentment of the fact you can’t really wear any of them, thus depriving me of the chance to live out some “Halo” master chief fantasies while on a commute.

Thankfully the Skully P1 is here to pick up that particular slack in the HUD assisted driving department. It’s a motorcycle helmet with a built in heads up display in the interior of the visor that provides you with blind spot information, GPS, and a host of other driver assistant tools. Among them, the most intriguing has to be a rear view camera angle that allows the rider to get a rare safe look behind them. Adding to the cool yet actually safe features list, is the built-in smartphone integration which lets you field calls and texts as well as control your music while riding through voice commands.

I’m actually disappointed this is only being advertised as useful for motorcycle riders, when its uses in everything from paintball to zombie apocalypses are evident. Perhaps they’re trying to get away from the 80’s sci-fi evil biker image this thing can attract if not carefully handled, but they can’t stop me from wanting this despite my intentions to use this for anything but riding a motorcycle. In fact the only thing likely to stop me is the Skully P1’s price available on request policy which will deter many from living out there sci-fi fantasies through this amazing piece of technology for quite some time.

Have you ever had to pursue an armed and dangerous international criminal while underwater?

Really? Earlier today you say? Well that’s unexpected…and a little impressive.

Well it turns out that situation is a fairly common occurrence for Russian spec ops as well, and in encountering it they’ve determined that most guns absolutely suck at shooting underwater, and that it’s a real pain in the ass to have to carry a separate weapon designed specifically for aquatic battles (I should really watch “Thunderball” again…)

Instead of lamenting the situation though, a Russian arms designer went ahead and solved it with the creation of the ADS, which is billed as the world’s first amphibious assault rifle. By allowing for the gun to fire a smaller, more aquatic friendly round, along with the more traditional magazines, the ADS is able to effectively work both on land, and underwater where it has a range of about 85 feet, and is capable of shooting an impressive 800 rounds per minute. It also has a grenade launcher attachment, and while nothing specific was mentioned regarding its aquatic functionality, as with most grenade launchers it’s safe to assume the specifics are largely irrelevant.

As mentioned, this weapon is mostly intended for use by Russian forces, and is in fact being tested by them now, so it might be a while (if ever) before you’re convincing a very worried fish and game warden that the aquatic assault rifle you’re carrying is just for streamlined hunting and fishing purposes. As per usual though, you can enjoy a YouTube demonstration of the ADS from a Russian news segment on it, which gets bonus points from using one of the songs off of the “Casino” soundtrack for the highlight video.

How old are you really?

No, don’t worry I didn’t find your secret stash of headshots and have questions regarding your listed birthday, I’m just wondering how old you are in your heart, where age really matters. If the answer is somewhere between the ages of 8-10, then I’ve got just the gadget for you.

It’s a Hot Wheels car maker that not only lets you relive the glory days of owning several garages worth of the sweetest micro machines known to man, but allows you to craft unique models as well. All you have to do is create a mold for the car (there are several different mold types available sold seperately through kits) and use the press to form it into an actual Hot Wheel. Add some decals to it, and you’ve got a bad-ass toy car nearly all your own.

Sure its limited and incredibly childish, but sometimes you’ve got to screw it and treat yourself to the toy you’ve always wanted as a child. So whether you’re buying this for your kid, buying this for yourself, or buying it for your kid in the hopes they eventually get tired of it and you have it all to yourself, for $40 it’s a pretty great way to act your inner child age for a while.

Plus it guarantees fun on the Amazon listing, which I’m pretty sure counts as a binding contract.

Sometimes your favorite piece of technology can make you feel like a kid playing with their favorite toy when you’re using it. It’s just an added benefit that your new favorite toy often provides some sort of additional life benefit outside of being fun to play with, making it the technological equivalent of Kix cereal. Kid tested, mother approved.

This new piece of technology in the works at MIT seems to fit that design philosophy. It’s a series of self-assembling cubes that are able to function independently and can quickly form a variety of shapes with almost no human interaction required.

Functioning off of a complex mixture of computer chips, flywheels, and magnets, the basic tech behind these cubes may bring back those childhood toy memories and make you start dreaming of their use in the ultimate “Transformers” toy, but the team behind them are already dreaming up some pretty amazing potential real life uses for them, including uses in quickly repairing structures, or forming must have items in emergencies quickly, such as hospital beds.

The final uses for this invention may be up in the air, but it’s clear that the technology is as good as the developer’s intentions, which usually serves as the basis to great products.

Though hopefully, after these are done saving the world, we can actually get that sweet new “Transformer’s” toy.