OK, so we suck at bringing you a show every week. But we promise that when we do, they’ll be as explosive and ridiculous as this one right here! We revisit the idea of multitasking, but this time, we focus on functional clothing. That and we insult you a whole lot. Thou wimpled plume-plucked pignut!

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EPISODE 180

Ping, a social networking garment

Hoodie buddy with built-in headphones

Sleeper hoodie

Beer opener dog collar (thanks Rodney)

How one soldier can carry a whole power plant on his back

…

Originally posted at Gadgettes, the blog

The Dog-e-Minder is a simple little gadget that records when you last fed, walked, or medicated your dog. You could use it for another non-dog pet if you wanted to totally break the rules. Similarly, you could use it to record other recurring events in your pet’s life, but the buttons are clearly labeled for walking, feeding, and medicating.

• Records when your dog was last fed, last walked, and last received their medication
• Perform a task and save the date and time by holding in the corresponding button
• Press corresponding button once to retrieve the last time each task was completed
• Acts as a dog ID when at idle, backlit screen displays pet name and owners contact phone number
• Attaches to dog collar or key chain for easy access
• Durable waterproof casing is available in 4 stylish colors (pink, red, blue, black)

So you want a Dog-e-Minder? All you need to do is share a photo of your dog — or other pet — with us! Post a link in our comments, send us an email to contest@crunchgear.com with the subject line “Scoop the Poop”, or post a link to Twitter with the hashtag #scoopthepoop! We’ll pick ten random winners on Monday afternoon.

The idea that St. Bernards roam snowy mountains with miniature barrels of hooch strapped to their collars in search of trapped hikers is another one of those ‘facts’ I learned from cartoons. But discovering that you can actually buy those mini barrels, compete with miniature spigots, is the only proof I’ll ever need. Made from American White Oak and wrapped in 6 metal bands with your choice of finish, the barrels come attached to a leather collar that can be trimmed as needed to fit smaller dogs (making for an even more entertaining sight gag) and are available in 1/2 liter or 1 liter capacities for $49.95 and $56.95 respectively.

[ St. Bernard Dog Collar Barrel ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

Thanks to TiVo, we have a pretty good idea of what the most popular commercials from last night’s Super Bow. Survey says: that Doritos commercial with the little kid telling his mom’s date to keep his hands off his mother (fat chance!) and off his Doritos. America is a peculiar little country, isn’t it, cheese-flavored chips and light beer as far as the eye can see.

How does TiVo know this? Because for every second you watch TV, data is sent to TiVo HQ, and the company is able to parse the data to see, for example, what commercial did people choose to see again and again. All of this information is anonymous, so please put away your tin foil hat.

Other big commercials include:

• The Snickers one with Betty White

• The Focus on the Family one (the “anti-abortion” commercial)

• The Doritos one with the guy and the dog collar thing

• The Intel one with the sad robot (I marked out at all the Intel ones because I bought a Core i7 860 in December and overclocked it to 3.8GHz~!)

That’ll do. At the Super Bowl party I attended, the most popular commercial was the one with the stuffed animals partying in Las Vegas, the Kia one. But the big take-away was, “meh, these commercials are whack.”

What commercials did y’all like? Like I said, my group was sorta underwhelmed by them.

Plenty of people have resorted to spray bottles or squirt guns to curtail canine barking, so this seems like a natural extension of that.

Oh wait. You can’t slide this $50 apparatus onto your dog’s existing collar and it uses special “unscented water-based solution” instead of plain old tap water.

And the battery only lasts four weeks? And the spray refill costs $10?? And a new battery costs $5??? And shipping costs $8???? I just talked myself right into a $1 squirt gun.

Still, though. Cool idea if you’ve got the money to spend on stuff like this.

The Bark Deterring Spray Collar [Hammacher Schlemmer]

By Evan Ackerman

Want to know where the whole dog versus cat thing got started? I’ll tell you: allergies. Dogs are allergic to cats. Think about it, it makes so much sense, especially for us humans who also have cat allergies. Allergies turn you in to a crazy feral beast who sneezes. The solution to this, obviously, is to get your dog a personal ionic air purifier, which will virtually guarantee harmony with all other animal species. But wait, there’s more.

In addition to cleaning the air that your pet breathes in, the purifier will also “instantly neutralize smells,” a feature which I’m sure all dogs will appreciate. And if they’d rather not have one of their senses denozzified, you can pop in preloaded “scent cartridges” which are “available in many different scents to relax, calm, soothe & energize your pets.” Brilliant, brilliant I say.

The mini wearable ionizer air purifier for pets is a fabulous value at only $17.20.

[ Uxsight ] VIA [ Techchee ]

Merry Christmas, Nikola Tesla-style
Bark4Beer: Dog collar with bottle opener
Maine may add warning labels to cellphones
Hidden gadget charging station could save marriages
NZXT launches new Hades gaming case

If you have a dog and you’ve thrown a party, you know that dogs generally add a bit of fun to the mix at the beginning of the party but by the end, they’ve mostly eaten food off the coffee table, scared the bejesus out of the three guests who have an irrational fear of dogs, and had a few “accidents” in high-traffic areas like hallways and doorways.

You can definitely add some value to your house pet with this collar that features a built-in bottle opener. It’s retractable and it only costs $15 – not a whole lot to think about there, it’s pretty much an impulse buy. If you can teach your dog to fetch beers, too, well then you’ve set yourself up for a long, stress-free life. Man’s best friend, indeed.

Bark4Beer [Product Page via Craziest Gadgets]

I can’t imagine wanting to record my day-to-day activities, let alone ever watch them again. But then, my days sort of blend into one another, staring at my monitor for hour after hour as the world buzzes around me. If you live an exciting life of action and adventure, and want to relive the moments or impress your family and friends, you can order a 1GB uCorder for $99 in Canadian dollars. That’s practically free, isn’t it?

The uCorder announcement claims that this is “the world’s first wearable camcorder!” Clearly the uCorder folks aren’t reading CrunchGear as compulsively as you are, else they’d remember the VIEVU. Oooh, burn!