Gadgets –Mega Roundup
Screen Saver 
The Eco Monitor is the first LCD that draws zero watts, as opposed to as many as six, while in "sleep" mode. Instead of using an energy-consuming processor to decide when to wake the display, Fujitsu-Siemens created a circuit that automatically turns on when zapped by an electrical pulse from the keyboard.
Fujitsu-Siemens ScenicView Eco Monitor $620; fujitsu-siemens.com
Flat speaker puts rumble under your seat 
Acoustic Research FPS 10 Subwoofer
Audiovox's 4.5-inch-high sub slips inconspicuously under your couch and fires upward to yield booty-shaking bass in music or re-create ground-
shaking explosions in action movies. It packs the power of a bulky subwoofer into a slim case by using a 10-inch speaker to push air against a second 12-inch cone that's big enough to resonate with the very deepest sounds. $500; audiovox.com
The retrofittable MyTemp system uses a network of wireless thermostats to monitor each room's temperature. To adjust it, balloon-like dampers inflate and deflate to control how much air passes through each vent. You pay to heat or cool only the rooms that need it. From $8,000; homecomfortzones.com
Most black clothing absorbs 90 percent of the sun's heat, but black fabrics that have been treated with Schoeller's Coldblack technology during the dying process actually reflect 80 percent of heat rays (nearly as much as white fabrics) while also offering UPF 30+ protection against harmful ultraviolet rays. The company keeps the technology a closely guarded secret, but the results speak for themselves: Temperature tests at independent labs found that a Coldblack-treated shirt held under infrared lamps stayed 10°F cooler on the interior and 22° cooler on the surface than a regular shirt. Expect to see Coldblack popping up soon in apparel like black Mammut Champ and Westcomb Talus mountaineering pants. schoeller-textiles.com
Sink clogged again? Just turn the knob on the outside of the PermaFlow, and a flexible rubber paddle inside rotates through the trap to push the wad downstream. PermaFlow also helps keep glop from gathering in the first place, with a subtle angle in the incoming pipe that generates turbulence to carry it away. If something does get stuck, turning the paddle to nine o'clock creates a bypass through the top of the circle. Six gaskets protect the seal where the knob enters the trap—a redundancy that kept it watertight in tests for up to 31,000 rotations. From $40; pfwaterworks.net
A Rugged Surveillance Ball that Sees it All 
The GroundBot is a spherical sentry designed to roll up to 6 mph through just about anything—mud, sand, snow and even water. Two gyroscopically steadied wide-angle cameras and a suite of sensors give remote operators a real-time, 360-degree view of the landscape, letting them zoom in on prowlers or detect gas leaks, radioactivity and biohazards. Originally invented by Swedish physicists to explore other planets, the GroundBot features a tough design that requires almost no maintenance and can also be programmed to run autonomously. Its sealed shell protects its interior against grit and allows it to survive steep drops, while a rubber skin dampens vibration and provides traction. To get rolling, the robot simply shifts its weight. Its center of mass is suspended from a pendulum inside the sphere, so motors just push the pendulum to the front, to the back, or to the side. Lithium-ion batteries provide up to 16 hours of spy time. rotundus.se
The FIT-5 anti-fire canister quickly squelches flames when there's no water at hand. Pull the cord, toss it into the fire, and watch it emit a misty cloud of potassium carbonate. The chemical keeps the blaze from spreading and cools a room from 1,000°F to 300° in 10 seconds flat. arasafety.com
The first mouse to work on nearly any surface, including glossy tables and shaggy carpets, does so by taking better pictures of what it's on. The Explorer uses a blue LED, evened out with a diffuser, to create wider, more uniform illumination than either red LEDs or lasers. And whereas most mice snap the shadows of tiny bumps that appear only on mildly textured surfaces, the Explorer's camera sits farther forward to capture the light that reflects off anything. $100; microsoft.com
Why did a giant technology advance appear in an 11-inch screen? OLED circuitry requires a type of glass that isn't produced in large sizes, and applying the material to bigger sheets requires new techniques. Retooling factories will cost a fortune. But companies will spend big money if they see a big market, and selling a real OLED TV, even a small one, has fired up demand. Sony promises 27-inch models soon. You could see sets of 32 inches or more, from several companies, by 2011. $2,500; sonystyle.com
Tales of Testing
One day I walked into work, and my new Lenovo X301 laptop was gone. Good thing it had Phoenix FailSafe, a program that lets you track and control a missing computer. I borrowed a PC to log onto Phoenix's Web site, where I reported my laptop lost and asked to retrieve an important document. Soon I got an e-mail saying that my file awaited me on Phoenix's server—and that my machine was in Queens. Someone had connected it to the Web, unaware of FailSafe, which runs from a chip on the motherboard so that crooks can't erase it. FailSafe had estimated its location from the IP address and sent my file to the server. It even uploaded a webcam photo of the thief, who turned out to be a sly co-worker. (In truth, I'd known that someone would "steal" my laptop for this test, but not who.) So I hit "covert disable" to taunt him with a "system error" screen. FailSafe debuts on Lenovo laptops in early 2009; other brands will follow. Lauren Aaronson, Associate Editor
phoenix.com
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