Gadgets

If you’ve ever wished you had a third hand to keep your smart phone or MP3 player within easy reach while both hands are occupied, check out Clingo’s products, which  keep your on-the-go gadgets handy without an extra appendage. Clingo, a division of Allsop Inc., in Bellingham, Wash., makes gadget holders with a  sticky green gel surface that grips devices without leaving residue when the device is peeled off. Among its products are a swiveling universal podium for smart phones ($29.

Coachella drew more than 650,000 people to its grounds in Indio last year and organizers anticipate even more for this year's festivities that start Friday and go on for two weekends. With such a mass of humanity in one place, attendees will need all the help they can get to survive and enjoy the music. Smartphone apps Some say leave the smartphone at home, but ignore that advice; there are too many apps that could help improve your Coachella experience. For starters, you'll want to use Shazam any time you hear a song you like but don't know its name. The app, using the smartphone's mic, listens to the tune and then scours its database to identify the song or the artist.  At night, having a flashlight app will come in handy.

DIGITAL Guess the Movie app, 99 cents, available at the iTunes store NONDIGITAL "The Everything Large-Print Movie Crosswords Book" $15.95, available at Amazon.com and other retailers SPLURGE Dupont James Bond pen set, $4,000-$5,000, available from Bonhams auctioneers starting Dec. 6 BARGAIN Classic movie candy $1.99 and up, available at ...

So what are you doing with all those hard-boiled eggs after Easter? When you're looking for the perfect tool to slice an egg, a knife is the last way to go -- there's too much surface area on the blade to get a clean slice. You're better off using a wire cake or cheese slicer, even dental floss. Or you can just break out an egg slicer. RECIPES: Spring fresh Easter recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen With a curved base to cradle the egg and neatly spaced wire cutters, an egg slicer makes quick work of evenly slicing your egg whether you're going for round or oval slices.

With holiday shopping well underway, the Times technology staff has compiled a list of 10 favorite gadgets of 2009 that might help those who are weighing stocking stuffers for someone else -- or themselves. FOR THE RECORD: Holiday gadgets: An article in the Dec. 1 Business section said the Kindle device restricted readers to books purchased on Amazon.com's online store. Although Kindle readers are unable to read copy-protected digital books borrowed from most public libraries or purchased from booksellers such as Sony Corp.

From roadside emergency beacons to cameras or devices that improve your snapshots, some gadgets are worthy road companions. Here are some that stood out last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. GADGET OnStar "Blue Button" rearview mirror, which offers navigation, emergency assistance and automatic crash response. Available for non-GM and older GM vehicles in spring 2011. OnStar service is activated when a customer subscribes. OnStar mirror is certified for 99% of the top 20 selling non-GM vehicles since 2001 (including many Hondas, Fords, Dodges, Chryslers and Toyotas)

A Los Angeles-based start-up called YBUY has received $1 million in funding for its try-before-you-buy service for gadgets. For $24.95 a month, YBUY lets you try out devices before you choose to purchase them or not. After a month, you can either send the gizmo back for another to try or you can keep it and buy it with the $24.95 knocked off the price of the device. "Wouldn't it be great if consumers could test drive a new high-end electronic device before purchasing, just as they would a car?"

The big problem with 3-D TV, which has been a flop so far despite huge hype, is the glasses. Making sure everyone in the room has a pair to view a show can be expensive and impractical, not to mention socially awkward. But 3-D could be on the verge of a revolution that leaves the eyewear behind. A new generation of glasses-free 3-D gadgets have begun to roll out: •A Nintendo video game console that shows 3-D without glasses arrived in the U.S. last month and is already a hit. •Two smart phones — from LG and HTC — with non-glasses, 3-D screens are due out by the end of the year.

Plenty of awe-inspiring gadgets came out in 2012, but none was more searched for than the iPhone 5. According to the 2012 Yahoo year in review report, the latest Apple smartphone clinched the top spot for 2012's top searched gadgets on Yahoo. The iPhone 5 managed to accomplish that feat despite not going on sale until late September. But of course, news sites all over the world wrote about rumors surrounding the device throughout the year, so the results aren't too surprising.

Have you got a favorite hardware store? We'd like to hear about it, for an upcoming story on the Southland's best loved repositories of thingamabobs, whatzits, gizmos and gadgets. Tell us why you like the place, and what--or who--makes it so special, handy, useful or nostalgic. Please keep letters as brief as possible, and send them to Dick Barnes, Real Estate Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax them to (213) 237-4712, or e-mail to Real.Estate@LATimes.

A whisk is one of those indespensable tools in the kitchen, simple as it may appear -- essentially nothing more than long looped wires joined at the end with a handle. Sometimes called a whip, whisks come in a variety of shapes and sizes to handle the kitchen task at hand. Balloon whisks (pictured on top) have a very large, round head, and are used to whip or beat air into various ingredients, such as egg whites or cream, increasing their volume. Balloon whisks are perfectly suited for combining dry ingredients (such as flour, leavener and spices)

The above contraption may look a little funny, but it can be essential in the kitchen. Meet the heat diffuser. When you have a recipe that requires stove-top cooking over an extremely low and gentle flame, or are using a delicate cooking vessel such as a clay pot, a diffuser is perfect for softening and evenly spreading the heat. And it's great for eliminating hot spots. A heat diffuser (like the much-loved one pictured above from the Test Kitchen) is easy to use: Simply set the diffuser over the burner and place your pot or pan on top, then start cooking.

A German tinkerer has combined his love of Iron Man movies and passion for laser gadgets to build a real-life version of the super hero's robotic arms, and he has sold the laser-firing device for more than $2,660. Patrick Priebe, 29, of Wuppertal, Germany, posted a video of his "Iron Man Laser Gauntlet" on YouTube on Saturday, showing a red and gold full-metal shell gadget for his arm equipped with two 1.2-watt blue lasers and another two 4-milliwatt red lasers. Priebe demonstrates the device and how it works throughout the first half of the video.

LAS VEGAS -- Falls happen, even to the most balanced of us. But what if no one is around to help?  As our parents, grandparents and maybe even some of us age, it's becoming increasingly important and desirable to go about life without limitations but feel like there's a safety net if we should need it. And several tech companies have recognized the need. At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, a couple of the many items focused on continued independence, mobility and security.

LAS VEGAS - At this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, everything is getting a bit "smarter. " Smartphones ushered in the notion that cellphones didn't have to be limited to just making calls, and tablets uprooted the definition of the personal computer. Now, the buzz at the world's largest tech gadget conference has shifted from the devices themselves to the growing crop of accessories and technologies that are piggybacking on their massive popularity. Connectivity is one of the main reasons smartphones and tablets became blockbuster hits among consumers, and tech manufacturers want to bring that feature to other objects - many of them everyday, non-digital household items.

Global spending on consumer electronic devices is projected to hit $1.1 trillion in 2013, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn.  During a media briefing Sunday, Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for CEA, said that figure would represent about 4% growth from 2012. And, fingers crossed, it would reflect a turnaround of sorts from 2012, when spending unexpectedly fell about 1%.  FULL COVERAGE: CES 2013 However, even that modest forecast comes will caveats.

Don't be surprised if one day your refrigerator nags you to lose weight, your phone blocks calls it figures you're too stressed to handle, and your wisecracking car entertains you with pun-filled one liners. Within a decade or two, researchers at Silicon Valley companies and elsewhere predict, consumer gadgets will be functioning like hyper-attentive butlers, anticipating and fulfilling people's needs without having to be told. Life would not only be more convenient, it might even last longer: Devices could monitor people's health and step in when needed to help them get better.

If you hate trying to separate garlic cloves from the peel, then you're going to love the Garlic Smash, the brainchild of Gabby Palatas, who agrees that "garlic is a challenge." With the Garlic Smash--made of a polished and sanitized river rock and a solid maple board--you simply place the garlic on the board and bring down the rock. In one fell swoop you've got a piece of crushed garlic, minus the peel. No cutting, mincing or paring. The Garlic Smash sells for $19.