Smallist

Victor Systems has built this ruggedized Mac Mini for clumsy users. It’s guaranteed to keep that beautiful white finish scratch free. And it’s an attractive sand color with nice big heat sinks on the side. I hope they come out with an iPod case!

The NYT covers electric bikes. At 20 miles per hour without pedaling, light pedaling to increase range and speed, and a few hours to charge, this could be a great way to get around. The Times article starts with the high-end “Optibike“, which costs around $7,000. For those of us with realistic budgets, the eZee bikes seem like a good buy — the folding model might even fit in the smallcave!

Also visit Suitable Transport, a site detailing a Melbourne to Sydney electric bicycle trip. Their bike of choice is the Schwinn World GSE.

Well these solar lights beat the snot out of the old solar walkway lights of yore. Using LED rather than incandescent means they’re about 10 times as efficient, meaning they’ll last all night with a reasonable output. The mini (pictured, and of course my favorite) will go 20 hours on full charge after 8 hours of sunlight. I do wish the company would give output in lumens, but they don’t. A word of warning: I’m fascinated with all things solar lately, so you’ll be seeing a lot of it. And power generation in general too.

Via Cool Tools.

The Morphie Bevy is an iPod Shuffle case for your keychain. Nice, but this goes two steps further: One, it allows you to wrap your earbuds around the outside. And two, in a pinch it will open a bottle of beer for you. It looks like you need to remove the shuffle to open the bottle, but I’d say that’s a small price to pay for consolidating various keychain functions. Now if only a Shuffle could be hacked to open and start your car…

Via Uncrate.

Finally, you can pay fifty grand for a camper! Design Within Reach offers a redesign of the space-age Airstream trailer. But for about half the money, you can get the sleek Airstream Basecamp shown below.

And if modern convenience is no object but money is, there are plenty of originals to be had, for much less.

Via Uncrate.

You know how new PC’s come with a bunch of crap you don’t need? The PC Decrapifier removes it. Of course, one man’s crap is another man’s gold, so it’s courteous enough to show you a list of what it’s about to remove. Their list of crap is impressive. Not sure what Quicken 2006 is doing on there though… is it that bad a program?

Now that the Blackberry Curve is said to have the smallest qwerty keyboard, I suppose I should pay it some notice. Gizmodo has an excellent roundup of reviews. Go buy one now! Get a long contract! Because Zeus knows when a cooler phone will come out.

In all honesty, something like this might be just the thing if the iPhone turns out to be not-so-great, or if the on-screen qwerty is hard to use. I’ve been using a Treo 600 for at least three years now, and I’m ready for something new.

The NYT covers three ultraportable notebooks today. The Vaio TXN15 (center) sports an instant-on operating system if you don’t want to go into Vista, along with fingerprint security and a svelte 2.8 pound weight. But it’s a bit pricey at $2000. The Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 (right) weighs even less, at 2.63 pounds. PCMag review rates the Sony and the Lifebook about equally. Averatec will be offering a no-frills model, the 1579, around May 11th. It’s a little heavier at 3.6 pounds, but the price is much lower than the other two, at $1300.

If you want a little more exercise, the 13" Macbook is roughly the same size, and rates 6 hours of battery life, even if it weighs 5.2 pounds. Of course, if you’re a Mac lover (or hater), there’s no comparison.

You know the old joke: Nasa spends millions of dollars developing a pen that writes upside-down, and the Soviets just use a pencil? Well Arriva has cut the Gordian knot of headphone wires in a very clever way: They just mount the iPod Shuffle between two earpieces. Elegant! Unfortunately, so far it’s vaporware.

Via Engadget.

The Boston Public Library has a new show: Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures. Depicted, “Little Flower Garden”, weighing in at 13×9mm, and thought to be the smallest book in the world until 1900. Some are actually printed with movable type, using a 2-point font in the case of 1898’s Galileo a Madama Cristina de Lorena. Others are handmade. You can see more pictures at the Boston Globe.

Or, you can buy the newly published companion book at Amazon.