Saturday, January 31, 2004

Is that a raygun in your pocket...

... or are you just happy to see Matsushita's new "intelligent screwdriver", that allows you to record acceleration and torque profiles as macros (e.g. start slow, speed up in the middle, then slow down at the very end), so you can replay them with the touch of a button. The drill can also learn to replicate the speed ranges you use the most.

The $700 price tag probably won't even make the weekend warriors blink when they drive up to the testosterone megamall in their SUVs to do their duty as consumers, but I think it's a pretty fair bet that the professionals won't be buying it, given that it looks like a Flash Gordon raygun. Sheesh, you'd get your ass kicked if you pulled that thing out on the job site.

Flash! Aaaa-aaaaaaahhhh!