Joel Johnson

Even in the 19th Century, Japanese Sounded Like the Future

I'm working through John Brooks' "Telephone: The First Hundred Years," pulling out information about the early structure of the Bell system for my Better Bell Chart, and thought this was great.

Page 52, describing some of the first public demonstrations of Bell and Watson's telephone prototypes:

The demonstration that seems most to have astonished the people of Boston occurred in January 1877, when a Japanese student of Bell's and two of his countrymen who were Harvard students tried Bell's equipment at Exeter Place and found that it worked. Yankee Boston was thereby convinced that the telephone was no trick—it could speak Japanese.

Joel Johnson

Dueling Telepresence Bots: Erector Spykee and iRobot ConnectR

Yesterday, iRobot showed off two of its latest robots. The first, a $100 gutter cleaning robot called the "Looj" was leaked last month. The second, called the "ConnectR," is a $500 telepresence robot designed to allow a person to communicate with their family, pet, or perhaps thieves. It includes a built-in movable camera as well as speakers and microphones.

Also on display was the Erector Spykee, a treaded, humanoid robot with very similar functionality. When I wrote about the Spykee, I mentioned how it might be nice to give a friend access to the Spykee to let them wander around the house while you chatted as an adjunct to a traditional voice conversation.

So why is it that giving control of a Spykee to a friend seems appealing, while giving them access to the toilet-bowl-shaped ConnectR is not? I see two possible factors at work: The Spykee is humanoid and has a distinct first-impression visual personality. Letting a friend remotely incarnate in the Spykee seems non-threatening and even humorous. The ConnectR, on the other hand, looks impersonal and inhuman—a mobile surveillance platform and nothing more. I'd almost think that my instinct would be the opposite, that by being more generic the ConnectR would be a blank slate.

The other reason could be the way that iRobot presented the ConnectR at its unveiling, displaying it in a sterile home, punctuated by the strange turns of phrase from iRobot CEO Colin Angle's speech, such as the suggestion of engaging a young boy with action figures in "fantasy play." Perhaps the ConnectR feels less human than the Spykee because its creators seem disconnected and—yup—robotic.

The Spykee will be available this Christmas. The ConnectR will be available next year, although a few will be sold in an early $200 beta pilot program.

ConnectR Product Page [iRobot]

Joel Johnson

Real-Life Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2) Cosplay/Booth Babes

I took a short jaunt through the Digital Life Expo yesterday, held at the Javits Center in Manhattan. A short jaunt was all one really needed; it seemed even smaller than last year. As expected, there weren't really many stand-out products, but I did notice this pair of booth babes dressed as Alyx Vance from the Half-Life 2 series.

Notably, the creators of Half-Life 2 have mentioned in the past how the Alyx Vance character was given a variety of ethnic characteristics, the better to make her subconsciously sympathetic to a wide variety of players. That women of almost any racial make-up could convincingly look the part in real life was probably an unforeseen side-effect.

I love the Alyx character for two reasons: She's one of the most convincing and emotionally resonant characters in any videogame ever*; she's dressed fittingly for alien invasion, in a warm (if stylish!) jacket and blue jeans.

* See: The introduction of Dog; the joke she plays on you in the dark in Episode 1.

Joel Johnson

Hiding Information in an Image's Histogram

Here's a clever little trick for Photoshop nerds: Ironic Sans presented the image on the left as a puzzle for their readers. Turns out the histogram (on the right) displays the skyline of New York City.

Yes, I felt a little guilty resizing it with bicubic instead of nearest neighbor, but otherwise the fonts looked screwy.

Idea: The Histogram as the Image [IronicSans.com via Daring Fireball]

Joel Johnson

Aptera Three-Wheeled Electric Car May Reach Production

The design of the upcoming Aptera car will provoke binary reactions—I for one think it's lovely. And unlike a lot of crazy electric cars, chances are decent that the Aptera will be produced. You can reserve one now for a fully-refundable $500 that goes towards the purchase price, which varies depending on your choice of all-electric or gas/electric hybrid, but still remains under $30k.

I want one badly, coupled with a natty suit and a tour through the leaf-strewn roads of New England. (And yes, this would be the post where you guys thrash me for wanting to buy something wholly new and wildly unnecessary since I live in New York and don't need a car. But look at her. Space egg calls to me.)

Aptera Electric/Hybrid Car On Pre-Order for $500 [Oh!Gizmo]

Joel Johnson

Sandia's Adorable Mini-Robots

These "Mini-Robots" developed at Sandia National Labs are powered by three watch batteries, use a tank-like track for locomotion, and can be built to include microphones, cameras, or heat and chemical sensors. The bodies are chassis are built from a rapid-prototyping rig. They are available in Regular and Cool Ranch.

BotJunkie has a video of the little stinkahs in action.

Sandia Mini-Robot Turns On Dime, Parks On Nickel [BotJunkie.com]

Joel Johnson

The Tiny New Novatel USB727 EV-DO Interface

This new EV-DO interfaces from Novatel—this is the Sprint model, but Verizon got one, too—replace the bulbous lumps precipitously dangling from a laptop's USB port with slim little things no bigger than the average flash drive. And then to make it better, they add a microSD slot for an optional 4GB of memory, just for kicks. I think EV-DO and its other high-speed wireless counterparts to be one of the wonders of the modern computing age, but this is the first USB solution that I would consider using instead of a PCMCIA or ExpressCard version.

The U727 will be available for $280, or less with a new subscription.

Press Release [Sprint.com]

Joel Johnson

Atari 2600 (VCS) 30-Year Anniversary

Image: Early prototype of the Atari CX2600 Video Computer System

Retro Thing has been celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the Atari 2600 this week with a series of articles looking back at its often not-so-illustrious history.

Rob Fulop was a 1981 Atari staffer who managed to shoehorn the game mechanic of Missile Command into the meager computing resources of the 2600.  The game became a killer app, selling 2.5 million copies - shattering all previous sales records.  Fulop hoped that his bosses would show their appreciation via a fat Christmas bonus envelope, or perhaps the keys to a new car.  After all, his programming chops made Atari millions.

Fulop's Christmas bonus was the same as every other Atari employee received in that year of historic profits; a gift certificate for a free Armor Star turkey.  After framing his turkey ticket (it hangs on his office wall to this day), he helped form Imagic; the second independent publisher of Atari games.  Two of his games have become Atari classics; Cosmic Ark & Demon Attack.  After a period of phenomenal growth, his company went down in the video game crash of the mid 80's and Activision picked up the rights to their 24 classic games.

Video Game Tag Index [RetroThing.com]

Joel Johnson

74-Minute Album Released on Floppy Disk

Music Thing has the goods on the latest album from Batch Totem, released exclusively on 3.5-inch floppy disk:

The audio is encoded in the GSM 6.10 WAV format [used to compress speech in GSM mobile phones] at various bitrates the disk holds 74 minutes of audio, that can be played on a computer with standard audio-players like Winamp, Windows Media Player and Itunes without any external codec installed." The music has been created specially for the format, (or as he put is "composed directly in the spectral domain") He says: "On certain tracks the amplitude and low bitrates produce 'ghost' frequencies according to the Nyquist theorem, and the algorithm of the audio codec meaning that very high frequencies and white noise can occur at very low bitrates. Using listening equipment with a subwoofer is recommended."

There's even a free sample track that I look forward to listening to once my brain chemistry finds a place where low bit-rate music sounds appealing.

Dude releases 74-minute album on a single floppy disk [Music Thing]

Joel Johnson

"Excess Disguised as Less"

Print's Akiko Busch reflects on the tendency to hide extravagance in "minimalism," hiding complex and expensive new projects behind a mask of simplicity.

To minimize surface clutter, everything was sheathed in lacquered white fiberboard. Even the refrigerator and dishwasher were behind flat cabinet doors.
This clean aesthetic was, in fact, a blatant subversion of the very idea of minimalism--a study in extravagance disguised as pure economy. Twice the amount of surfacing material had been used on the appliances than was needed, and twice the amount of effort would be required to open them every time they were used.

Busch again:

Take the VivaTerra catalog, which comes from an eco-friendly retailer that donates a dollar per $75 order to the Trust for Public Land. But the friend of mine who gets its catalog has received two in the past month, and wouldn't it make more sense anyway, she asks, to donate her $225 to the Trust rather than spend that amount on a handbag made from candy wrappers "headed for landfill"?

Probably not!

Excess Disguised as Less [BusinessWeek.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• 200 Verbatim CD-R Discs for $29 after $11 rebate. Not a crazy good deal, but some people prefer name brand discs. [Nifty News]

• HP Pavilion m8100y Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz Desktop PC with HDTV Tuner for $650, shipped. Hefty home theater PC that would easily pull double duty as a game rig with the addition of a decent 3D card. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Refurbished Dyson DC15 The Ball All Floors Bagless Upright Vacuum for $295, shipped.

Joel Johnson

eCost Bungles Customer Service on Refurbished Westinghouse HDTV

Adam writes:

I know that you guys are conscious of providing accurate and good info, particularly when it involves your readers purchasing products recommended by the Gadgets section. Back in late August, I purchased a 37 inch HD Westinghouse video monitor as a result of the heads up on Gadgets, to replace my 19 inch old timey tv. The new monitor arrived, but without a manual and speakers and god knows what else...

I called the company to get the missing stuff, but they instructed me to return it all, after they send me a "return label" by snail mail. It never came. It's been a month of endless, frustrating calls. They will never put on a manager or supervisor. And they won't reply to emails except with form letters.

I now suspect that they will never send this return label, and I'm stuck with a fully paid-for partial device. Just don't know what to do to handle this. Do you have any suggestions?

The TV is a refurbished set, but eCost's product page clearly lists "2 Detachable 20 Watt Speakers" as one of the bullet point features. When you buy a refurbished product, it's reasonable to expect some things to be different—minor scuffs, generic packaging—but unless it is specifically noted, you should expect all the same accessories that were included in the original, especially if they are specifically listed. Otherwise it would be an "open box."

(The lack of manual is sort of a borderline thing. I'd expect a manual with most refurbs, but I wouldn't be surprised not to get one.)

This is a real bummer for me. I'm a fan of Westinghouse's inexpensive LCD TVs and have had generally good luck buying refurbished items. (All my Macs except the most recent one I bought have been refurbs.) I'm about to head out to the Create Digital Music/Etsy/MAKE event, but we can dig into it tomorrow and see why eCost wants you to ship back a whole HDTV just so they can send you the missing pair of speakers.

Joel Johnson

Siemens Long Slot "Executive" Toaster

The guard on the top of this "Executive Edition" toaster from Siemens—for that upwardly mobile middle manager for whom only the finest toasts will do—allows it to push bread up farther than normal toasters, preventing those awful times when you have to reach in to the grill to fetch an errant piece. Single-slot, but it's a big one.

Germany-only for now; it runs about €35.

Product Page (German) [Siemens-Hausgeraete.de via Appliancist.com]

Joel Johnson

Oobject's DIY Lamp Collection

Today's Oobject collection is "DIY Lamps." I especially love the one that's currently at number two, made entirely of latex gloves. (And a lamp, of course.)

19 great diy lighting ideas [Oobject]

Joel Johnson

Modular "Mother" Radio from 1948

There's a little bit of everything in this scan from a 1948 Popular Science article, whether you're a fan of user-serviceable modular electronics or just misogynist condescension. Titled "Mother Could Fix This Radio," it shows off the first production model radio from Cosmo Electronics Corporation in New York City, built to allow each of the five different parts of the radio to be replaced with easy color-coded "tubes." (I think it's interesting that the physical form of vacuum tubes implied modernity at the time, although maybe that's just a reflection of the way that made the most sense to organize all the parts.)

I've written for both of the Popular * at one point. I get a kick out of thinking I could pitch an article titled "Even Vagina-Saddled Womb Beasts Could Buy This HDTV!" and then point furiously to their own back-issues as they escort me out of the lobby.

Mother Could Fix This Radio [Modern Mechanix]

Joel Johnson

Lame Graffiti Train Model Simulates Creativity for Non-Creatives

The "Graffiti Your Own Train" from Suck.uk is a clean white train car designed to be covered with included graffiti decals. Which makes it lame, of course—cutting and pasting someone else's wyldstylez onto a toy train isn't a "blank canvas for your creativity." Of course what would be truly creative would be to paint actual tiny graffiti on the side of a toy train, but you could just run to the hobby shop and buy any ol' box car for that.

Come to think of it, that could be a nice cottage industry for someone: selling authentically tagged train cars to model railroaders.

Product Page [Suck.uk via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

Sharp Solar Shingles

If the ungainliness of solar panels have been holding you back from installing some rooftop modules on your home—or you have a home-owners association that prevent you from going green in any way that might affect surrounding property values—these panels from Sharp fit in alongside traditional shingles for a more integrated look. Of course, you won't be able to adjust your panels to take best advantage of varying angles throughout the year, but for some aesthetics trump efficiency.

Using the "EZ Calculator" on Sharp's site, a modest system would cost about $27k to install but only cost around $10k after rebates and tax credits.

Product Page [Solar.SharpUSA.com via LuxuryHousingTrends.com via Oh!Gizmo]

Joel Johnson

It's the Little Things

Today's announcement of Microsoft's beta streaming internet TV platform was a yawner for me—I'm fine with television over the internet, but TV is in the fractured age that music downloads were in for the last five years—but then I saw this: "full episodes of TV shows such as 'Arrested Development.'"

Hey, brother!

Joel Johnson

CrustaStun: Restaurant-Grade Crustacean Electrocuter

Most chefs kill lobster in one of two ways: they either put them in a pot of water then bring it to a boil, causing the steam to escape from the carapace with a horrible keen, or they give them a healthy hack with a knife, bisecting the tiny, primitive brain stem. Some people find both of these methods to be inhumane, which is ridiculous, because lobster are essentially large bugs. I have immense respect for phylum arthropoda, but they're nature's robots. In her wisdom, she made the mechanized terrors full of sweet, delicate meat.

(I espouse a Third Way to clean them, involving twisting their tails from their still-living bodies and then using bits of their own antenna to clean them. Seriously.)

But for those who can't conceptualize consciousness evolving on a sliding scale, there's the "CrustaStun," a two-thousand dollar device for restaurants that will electrocute any lobster placed in its briny death chamber in just five seconds.

Don't miss the "Continuous Flow Stunner" for meat packing facilities, should you need to implement humane genocide on an industrial scale.

Product Page [CrustaStun.com via Shiny Shiny]

Joel Johnson

Armor and Dresses from Plastic Bottles

Commissioned by a large soft drink manufacturer (I presume Coca-Cola, but I don't know), Artist Kosuke Tsumura created sets of armor and dresses out of plastic PET bottles, sewn together with transparant nylon thread. As Pink Tentacle points out, it may not be the strongest armor ever assembled, but it will last for many generations.

PET Bottle Armor [FinalHome.com]
PET Bottle Bustle Style [FinalHome.com]

[via Pink Tentacle]

Joel Johnson

Pedometer for Hamster Wheels

The "Mini Animan" is pedometer for hamsters, designed to clip onto their wheel to measure rodent revolutions per minute. Although it was discovered by the glowing Lisa Katayama on Tokyo Mango, her site about Japanese ephemera, it wouldn't surprise me if someone had made a similar product in the West.

The Hamster Wheel Pedometer [TokyoMango.com]

Joel Johnson

BasicKnives by Caroline Noordijk

Concept designs generally come in two flavors: Creative but overwrought (like this digital lap drum); or clever tweaks to simple solutions. These BasicKnives, by designer Caroline Noordijk, fall blessedly in the latter category, integrating commonly-used kitchen utensils into the unused portions of standard chef's and paring knives.

The only one that doesn't look immediately practical is the built-in grater—I've slashed myself far too many times before when using just a grater alone. I can only imagine the lost fingertips that would occur while trying to grate something as small and slippery as a clove of garlic.

The vegetable peeler and citrus zester, though? Make it happen!

Do It All Knife [YankoDesign.com]

Joel Johnson

Michelin XDA5 Tires Extend Big-Rig Tread Life

Michelin's XDA5 tires are being promoted as "self-healing" or "regenerating," but that's a bit generous. Instead the tires reveal new grooves and tread was they wear down, extending the usable life of tires by 30% before they must be retreaded.

The XDA5 series is designed for big rigs and over over-the-road haulers; you won't be using these on your Prius for a while. (Unless you're building a Monster Prius.)

Press Release [TheAutoChannel.com via InventorSpot.com via Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

Sony NW-A910 TV Walkman Records Its Own Content

Sony's latest Walkman NW-A910 not only plays video on its 2.4-inch screen, but can record digital over-the-air broadcasts with its internal PVR software. (And claims to squeeze a near-miraculous 100 hours of video into 16GB of flash memory—that must be some serious compression.)

It's Japan only for the foreseeable future, but I am linking it primarily because I like things that have antennas.

Product Page (Machine Translated) [Sony.jp]

Around the gadget mines: Gadget Lab; Gizmodo; Engadget

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Magellan eXplorist 100 GPS for $59, shipped. A simple handheld GPS unit. [Dealnews]

• Refurb TomTom Go 510 In-Car GPS for $200, shipped. About $100-200 off the price of a new model. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Vivitar 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Zoom for $125, shipped.

Joel Johnson

Ultreo Ultrasound Toothbrush Review (Verdict: Not Recommended)

The Ultreo ultrasound toothbrush is positioned against the popular Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush. Unlike its rival, the Ultreo actually uses ultrasonic waves to loosen plaque and kill bacteria. The Sonicare, on the other hand, simply moves its bristles at a very quick pace.

I've been using an Ultreo for a few weeks in addition to my Sonicare Elite—"in addition to" because I have yet to discover how to get the same feeling of clean I get from my Sonicare with the Ultreo.

It could be because my mouth is too small. The Ultreo's brush head has a tiny ultrasound transducer inside which provides the cleaning action. It doesn't make for a huge brush head, but because the Ultreo's ultrasound only works when it is vibrating bubbles from your saliva, toothpaste, and water, I suspect that at certain teeth I'm not able to get the head at just the right angle while maintaining some "mouth juice" in between it and my teeth.

It's not been for lack of trying. The Ultreo, like the Sonicare, gives chirps every thirty seconds after its been turned on, marking out two minutes for you to brush all four quadrants of your mouth. I'd usually go rinse my mouth out, run my tongue along my teeth to find any rough spots, then give it another go. In a few spots I'd hold the Ultreo directly to the tooth and wait for its ultrasonic waves to shear off my tooth scum—no dice.

The "waveguide" portion of the head, which is used to channel the ultrasonic waves into the bubbles to produces the cleaning action, tends to squeak against my teeth when brushing if I'm not too careful.

The Ultreo is sold in a simple but attractive package, including a charger and a basic mobile case, but I can't recommend it over the Sonicare Elite series brushes. If you happen to be one of those who find the Sonicare too harsh or have problems with receding gums, the Ultreo might be a better option; its brushing action is far more gentle.

One final thing: Ultreo claims that its $160 brush will whiten teeth over time. I actually did see a noticeable amount of whitening over the first week, when I used the Ultreo exclusively. That's worth something, although perhaps not $160.

The Ultreo is available primarily from dentists but is also sold at Amazon.

Product Page [Ultreo.com]

Joel Johnson

Crown7 Nicotine Delivery Systems

I've smoked cigarettes for about a decade. There is much to recommend the habit—the instant air of rakishness a cigarette provides; the burst of nauseating head rush; the oily, smelly residue that covers my hair, clothes, teeth, and eyes—but I think it's about time to give it up. (My plan is to have a plan by the time I'm thirty, which is five months away.)

The patch has worked okay in the past. It's not breaking the addiction that's difficult for me, but the loss of a treasured habit, especially when I'm drinking, has eroded my long-term willpower in the past.

I haven't considered any of the electronic nicotine delivery systems in the past, because the ones I've seen before tend to look goofy and exhaling a puff of nicotine-laced water vapor isn't the same as letting that sweet cancer cloud waft from my nostrils. But perhaps I should give them a shot. At the least, it would give me something to keep my hands occupied during the transition period.

Crown7 manufacturers three products, all of which appear to share similar internals, but are contained within sleek plastic cases that reflect your nicotine vector of choice: cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Each unit comes with rechargeable lithium batteries, a case and pocket holder, and two replacement filter cartridges. Each cartridge can deliver the equivalent of about two packs of cigarettes and are quite reasonable at $2 apiece.

Of course buying into the system in the first place is the issue—the cigarette model costs $100. That's a good chunk, but considering the price of smokes in New York, it's less than the price of a couple of cartons. (Although these days I tend to roll my own.)

Has anyone had any luck with these? I'm sure they work fine—it's not terribly hard to heat up water vapor—but I'm curious if the action of "smoking" one is at all satisfying.

Cigarette Starter Kit Page [Crown7 via Gizmag]

Joel Johnson

"Cleantech" Investments on the Rise

Katie Fehrenbacher sums up some of the more interesting bits from an Ernst & Young/Dow Jones VentureOne report released today. In part:

• In the U.S., solar investments are dominant, and accounted for 15 of 26 deals and $305 million of the $458 million raised in the energy generation segment.

• In the U.S., median cleantech valuations reached $30 million in the first half of this year -- up from $15.8 million in 2001.

• European investments had 19 deals and $80 million invested in the first six months of 2007. Biofuels are dominating, while wind power made up "a fair share" of the total amount invested.

A Global Cleantech Boom In The First Half Of 2007 [Earth2Tech.com]

Joel Johnson

Gateway One Computer Images Leaked

Although it's not supposed to be revealed until tomorrow, shots of the new Gateway One computer, an all-in-one computer vaguely like an Apple iMac, have leaked onto the net. Features-wise it's a fairly typical machine, with a 19-inch screen, slot-loading drive, and FireWire in a case less than three inches thick. I think it's rather attractive.

Joel Johnson

Bobby Darrin's Custom-Made Mellotron on eBay

Robert writes:

> I just came across an eBay listing for a Mellotron (actually it's the even rarer Chamberlin variant) that was allegedly built for Bobby Darrin and used on his recording of "Mack the Knife". The Mellotron used a row of tape loops with pre-recorded sounds (say, that of a violin), one for each note. It's considered to be the first sampling keyboard.

It's currently going for just over two grand.

CHAMBERLIN M-300 VINTAGE SYNTH MELLOTRON KEYBOARD RARE! [eBay]

Joel Johnson

Surrounded by Bad, Broken Gadgets

The Red Ferret Journal is challenging everyone to list all the gadgets they have in their lives that don't work as they hoped or expected. Here's mine, culled from things that are just at arm's length:

• D-Link DGL-3420 Wi-Fi Bridge – Stopped working after I updated the firmware on my D-Link DGL-4300 router. Status: Unusable on my network.

• Dell 2001FP Monitor – While Dell replaced this broken monitor under warranty, I still have to ship it back to them. Not complaining, just saying. Status: Borked.

• eVGA GeForce 7900GT Video Card – Endless video errors forced me to replace this card. Waiting on RMA. Status: Busted.

• Epson CX7800 All-In-One Printer – Dust and pet hair inside the printer—despite that I always closed it up between uses—have rendered the print head irreparably crappy. Status: Only good as a scanner.

• Netgear HDX101 Powerline Ethernet Adapter – Died just after warranty expired. Died when I removed it from the socket. Status: Trash.

• Microsoft Xbox 360 – Works just great, but is as loud as a vacuum cleaner when in use. Status: Waiting for RROD.

All in all I'm actually pretty surprised—I'm not doing as badly as I might have thought. That said, I'm not counting any of the literally dozens of gadgets that sit in Tupperware tubs in my basement or have been donated or thrown away. I don't like keeping broken things around me, because they make me sad.

Red has followed up his much larger list with a "Gadget Manifesto," a salient list of all the crimes perpetrated against gadget buyers by gadget manufacturers. Too many products. Planned obsolescence. Shoddy build quality. Unengaged customer service. Devaluation of trusted brands.

Every issue is one that gadget owners have been saddled with before. I'm still not sure what we as the nerdy edge of the market can do to fix the problems, but it's obvious most of the manufacturers aren't going to do it on their own.

The Gadget Manifesto - or 25 reasons why we're getting tired of trashy Far East manufacturing... [RedFerret.net]

Joel Johnson

KDDI au Infobar 2: Swanky Japanese Phone

Au, the "stylish" division of Japan's KDDI wireless phone carrier, has updated their popular Infobar phones. The original Infobar was one of my favorite phone designs ever, especially the red model, which looks like it's wearing a natty plaid cardigan. The new models are more bulbous than their predecessors and include the requisite updated hardware inside.

Don't bother asking if you can import or unlock one, though, as the radios inside are not compatible with any other nation's cellular networks.

Even if you think the phones are frighteningly ugly, you have to concede that it would be nice if more electronics manufacturers would make an attempt at making truly stylish products instead of black lumps with chrome bits, followed shortly by a pink model.

KDDI Announces Infobar 2 [Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Networked Infantry Systems Slowly Improving

Danger Room explains how the military's "Land Warrior" soldier-based network program, once written off as a cumbersome boondoggle, is now seeing some support from those to whom it matters the most: the soldiers.

A red dot suddenly pops up on Moore's monocle screen: 3rd platoon has found a pair of improvised bombs -- black boxes, filled with homemade explosives. Other troops will circumvent the scene.

As the other platoons move south to north, green lights blink on Moore's map. Each of these "digital chem lights" represents a house checked and cleared. It keeps different groups of soldiers from kicking down the same set of doors twice.

A year ago, these chem lights weren't even part of the Land Warrior code. But after a suggestion from a Manchu soldier, the digital markers were added -- and quickly became the system's most popular feature. During air assaults on Baquba, to the northeast, troops were regularly dropped a quarter or half-kilometer from their original objective; the chem lights allowed them to converge on the spot where they were supposed to go. In the middle of one mission, a trail of green lights was used to mark a new objective -- and show the easiest way to get to the place.

The lesson seems to be that the only real way to develop these enhanced soldiering systems is in the field, where those actually using the system will be able to quickly determine what's worthwhile and what is risking their survival.

Those helmets really are ridiculous, though. They can't make that stuff any smaller?

Soldier of the Future Goes to War

Joel Johnson

Cy-Fi: Wireless iPod Speakers for Bicycles

The cy-fi is a $150 wireless speaker set that allows you to listen to your iPod on your bicycle without blocking yourself out from the world around you. The speakers mount on your handlebars. Although I can't find anything that confirms this specifically, it looks as if they point up towards the rider's head, not just out; perhaps that's such an obvious thing to do it doesn't bear mentioning.

Cy-fi uses wireless technology from Kleer, a product platform I've had my eye on Wired's Eliot van Buskirk first pointed their technology out to me at this year's CES. Kleer is essentially what Bluetooth A2DP should have been: lossless; low-power (1/10th the draw of Bluetooth, they say); small (mostly from the smaller batteries). But the coolest thing about the Kleer products are that they should interoperate between different brands, so this iPod transmitter that is included with the Cy-fi should work with a pair of Kleer-powered headphones from another vendor. (We'll have to see how well that works out after there are more products on the market, of course.)

Because of the wireless connection, the Cy-fi can perform a couple of neat tricks. You can change volume and skip tracks using the speaker controls—no need to remove your iPod from your pocket. You can also link up to four speaker sets into one transmitter, allowing a group of riders to share a simultaneous anthem. A niche use, sure, but slick.

My only reservation is not technological, but social. I live in New York City. Riding a bike with headphones here is asking for a broken bone or worse. But because the city is so crowded, it's unlikely I'll ever be riding in an area without people. I don't want to be the guy riding around blasting his neighbors.

If you're interested in the Cy-fi, you can sign up for a pre-order now, but they won't be shipping until March of next year. It looks cool, but there's no harm in waiting for the reviews.

Product Page [MyCyFi.com via Playlist]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Several toys at Toys 'R' Us are buy two, get one free, including Leap Frog and K'nex. [Bargainist]

• Canon SD800 IS 7.1-megapixel 3.8x zoom camera for $236. Great little camera; very fair price. [Slickdeals]

• 4GB miniSDHC flash memory card for $30, shipped. Another $10 off for new Google Checkout customers. [Dealnews]

• Seagate 500GB Serial ATA II Internal Hard Drive for $100, plus $6.50 shipping (or pick up in-store at Best Buy). [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Philips 23" Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV for $305, shipped.

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• [This is Good] – Amazon launches "early version" of "Amazon MP3," their new download service. [Reuters]

• [This is Bad] – The Amazon MP3s may be watermarked, although not linked to your individual account. [Listening Post]

• [This Might Be Offensive] – Virgin closes its online MP3 download store, abandoning customers who bought the DRM-locked songs. [Epicenter]

• Sling Sling – EchoStar, parent of Dish Network, offers to buy Sling Media for $380 million. [Monkey Bites]

• The Flying Surveilli Bros. – New aerial drones will be able to relay signals to other drones. I'm surprised this doesn't already happen. [Danger Room]

Joel Johnson

Lovely LEGO Silhouette Advertisements

These are four separate full-page LEGO ads from 2006; it's the first time I've seen them. They work better one at a time, I think, but there's a certain something to seeing them all in reduced form here. LEGO and (faux) pixel art go together like chocolate and (faux) peanut butter.

Full-sized ads [TheFWA.com]

Joel Johnson

Japanese Bread-in-a-Can Vending Machine

In Japan you can buy bread in a can from a vending machine. Informed.

Tokyo tinned treats [Tokyo Times via Core77]

Joel Johnson

National "Make Sure Your Friends and Family Are Actually Watching HD Content on Their HDTVs Week" Starts Today (Because I Say So)

From a recent survey of just over a thousand people conducted by Best Buy (which was certainly done for marketing purposes, but is still informative):

• Almost all consumers (89%) feel they don't completely understand HDTV technology-how it works and what it takes to get the full HDTV experience

• While 41% of HDTV owners admit to knowing little to nothing at all about HD, they would not want to admit that to friends and family; Half (52%) of HDTV owners agree it would be difficult to admit their HDTV wasn't set up right after showing off to friends and family

• Half of HDTV owners (50%) admit they are either not watching HD programming, or they aren't sure if they are. Of these respondents, 35% didn't realize they needed to subscribe to HD programming to watch HDTV

• Nearly four in ten consumers (39%) don't identify an HD-ready TV as a necessary component of the HD experience

• 52% of respondents don't realize you need a special HD compatible cable to experience HD programming

Anyway, do your part: make sure everyone you know with an HDTV is actually getting HD content, via their cable or satellite company, over-the-air broadcasts, or HD disc. It will make them happier and make you look smarter.

(Also, that survey quote is from an email, not the link, although the information is the same; that's why it's not a direct quote, should be looking for one.)

Joel Johnson

Radioshift: Time-Shifting Software for Streaming and Terrestrial Radio

"Radioshift" is a Mac-only audio recording tool that works like a DVR for both streaming internet radio stations and—with the addition of the $50 Griffin Radio Shark—AM/FM over-the-air stations. I do most of my radio listening via podcasts, but since not every station has jumped on that wagon, I could see this being a useful tool for filling in the cracks.

Radioshift is $32 after a two-week trial and includes a free content guide with over 50,000 radio stations.

Product Page [Rogue Amoeba via Daring Fireball]

Joel Johnson

Electro Selectro: Blip Magazine Cover by Les Katz

This extremely psychedelic cover from the May, 1983 issue of "Blip," a video games magazine from Marvel Comics, illustrates what happens when you do mushrooms before typing in the BASIC programs printed inside: Alfred E. Neuman sneaks into the periphery of your rapidly dissembling vision and begins to pleasure your girlfriend. Don't do computers, kids!

(Added to the still lackluster "Electro Selectro Flickr pool. On a more positive note, the In the Year 2000 group is still chugging along.)

(Thanks for the image, R. Poole!)

Joel Johnson

Halo 3 x Suicide Girls: Master Chief Pin-Up

Suicide Girls has posted a spread of the model "Alaina" dressed as Master Chief in celebration of today's launch of the Xbox 360 title, Halo 3. Of course, what you see above is all you can see if don't have a Suicide Girls membership, but in some ways it's just good to know it exists. The entire spread is fittingly called, "Finish the Fight."

The idea of Master Chief (or at least one of the Spartans) being a woman isn't new: one of my favorite fan videos ever, "Haloid," imagined a world where Samus Aran from Metroid fought a female Master Chief. (I'm spoiling it just a little, but if you haven't seen it by now...) I've embedded the video below. The video screwed up the layout in Firefox, so here's the link.

But about that there Halo 3! I've got a copy reserved at my local Gamestop that I'm going to go pick up today. (Screw that "waiting at midnight" crap.) None of the other Boingers are really gamers, so I was thinking maybe some of you guys might be interested in a little pick-up game this evening. I'm not ready to jump into the player vs. player battles quite yet, but I'd love a little of that four-player co-op.

My gamertag is "Joelev". If you want to play this evening, give a shout in the comments.

Joel Johnson

The Optimist/Pessimist: Apple's iPhone Unlock Warning

The Story: Apple put out a press release Monday saying that the latest iPhone firmware, to be released this week, may permanently disable iPhones that were unlocked to be used on other carriers.

The Definition: "Unlocking" the iPhone allows it to be used on any GSM phone carrier by switching the SIM card. This is different than "hacking" or "jailbreaking" the iPhone, which allows you to install third-party applications. Apple's warning Monday was about unlocking, not hacking.

The Backlash: Customers freak. Rightfully so, since unlocking phones is not illegal nor a violation of the DMCA.

The Backpedal: Apple vice president Phil Schiller claims that some of the iPhone unlocks have "caused damage to the iPhone software," so no promises can be made to the continued operation of unlocked phones with the updated firmware. He says it has "nothing to do with proactively disabling a phone that is unlocked". * [NYTimes]

The Response:: Hackers remind iPhone users that they can still download and save the current, working firmware version, while questioning what software, exactly, might have been damaged by unlocking the SIM. [Hackint0sh]

The Optimist's Outlook: Some part of the unlocking process overwrote part of the iPhone's memory in such a way that Apple is unable to update the firmware without guaranteeing interoperability.

The Pessimist's Outlook: Apple, having already entwined itself with sanctioned carriers, is making the decision in an effort to protect its bottom line, as Apple receives a cut of iPhone customers' monthly fees only if they are using an official carrier. See also: Apple's lack of an iPhone instant messaging application, forcing users to use SMS instead for an additional fee.

The Odds: 80/20 that Apple are being anti-customer bastards.

The Clincher: If hackers can unlock iPhones running the upcoming firmware, Apple is intentionally putting poisoned messages into the media to ward off those who might choose to do something that is perfectly legal.

* He also said "or hacked," but I think in context it's clear he's only talking about hacks that might unlock the phone for use on other carriers, not third-party applications.

Joel Johnson

Gadget Glyphs Guide

Wired has a short piece up explaining what some of the symbols that appear on your electronics mean. I've reproduced all eight from the article here sans description. If you can tell what all of them are, then you have no need to read the article. Otherwise...

Secrets Revealed! Decode Those Weird Symbols on Consumer Electronics. [Wired]

Joel Johnson

Vox Amplug Headphone Guitar Amps

Vox is releasing a range of modestly-sized guitar headphone amps, each of which are designed to simulate one of three classic amps: the AC30; the Marshall; and the Mesa Boogie (probably). The "cabinet" designs, however, are all based on the AC30.

The copy for the Amplugs is a little over the top, as Music Thing points out:

Incidentally, what is it with copywriters for music gear companies? They claim: "amPlug perfectly reproduces the complex and warm distortion that is distinctive of a vacuum tube... amPlug delivers full-fledged amp sound that will revolutionize your guitar playing." Both of these claims are clearly lies (the 'perfectly reproduces' and the 'revolutionize your guitar playing' bits). What was wrong with: "Sounds OK, looks OK, costs £35, what's not to like?"

Product Page [Voxamps.co.uk via Music Thing]

Joel Johnson

Jamie Oliver Kitchen Survival Kit "Hack the Kit" Contest

The company marketing the Jamie Oliver Survival Kit set of pans is running a contest in which winners of the greatest "hack" will be awarded an electric scooter. It doesn't have to be a cooking-related hack, either. One of the example hacks is turning the pod-like Survival Kit into a remote-controlled go-kart.

By entering the contest and saying you saw the link on Boing Boing Gadgets, at least one of the entrants claiming our affiliation will receive a free Survival Kit. If you won, I'd also win a free scooter, but since that's a little squicky to me, I'll throw in my free scooter if you win. Perhaps the incentive of two scooters instead of one will bring out your fighting spirit. You'll have one for each foot!

Bear in mind, the Survival Kit appears to be a U.K. product for now, so you might have some difficulty securing one if you don't live across the pond. As far as I can tell, though, the contest is open to anyone.

If you could develop a method by which Oliver could use his own kit to reduce the size of his hobbit-like meat hands, I'm sure you'd get some sort of special note of merit.

Contest Page [HackTheKit.co.uk]

Joel Johnson

MicroDot Squared: Tiny Audio Recorder

Like the gum-sized Micro-Camcorder I just linked before, this "MicroDot Squared" Audio Recorder is supremely overpriced. It's almost five-hundred bucks! (But what price to listen to endless hours of silence punctuated by occasional footsteps to provoke irrational but addictive jealousy?)

Besides its size, the MicroDot shares a feature set with most voice recorders: low power consumption; voice-activated recording; programmable recording timer. (Okay, the timer is pretty useful, I'll grant them.) Why they named it after a method of LSD distribution is a mystery. Maybe after too much acid the inventor decided his wife was banging the milk man, despite that she's lactose intolerant, they don't have a milkman, and he's not actually married.

Product Page [PIMall.com via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

Lo-Fi "Diana" Camera Reissued as "Diana+"

Originally created by the small Hong Kong firm "Great Wall Plastics Factory" in the '60s, the "Diana" was a cheap, plastic 120 film camera that produced soft, blurry images that added a "dreamy" character. If that sounds a little bit like a Lomo, another equally crappy camera well-loved for its inaccuracies, you won't be surprised to hear that Lomo LC-A, the company who produces remakes of the Soviet-era LOMO KOMPAKT AUTOMAT camera has also decided to build a new Diana, which they're calling the "Diana+".

While modern manufacturing techniques would allow much of the light-leaking issues with the Diana to be fixed, the Diana+ leaves those errors in place to provide a similar experience, as well as new "Pinhole" and "Endless Panorama" modes just to mix it up a bit.

If I sound like I'm dissing the Diana+, I'm not. There's certainly much to recommend the addition of randomness and novelty when creating, or loving the rough edges of primitive technology—I have an affinity for chip music partially because it sounds nothing like the analog noises it was trying to synthesize—but I'm a digital man. No amount of romance is going to get me to develop film, scan it, and upload it. Now if someone would created a cheap Diana+ digital model or maybe a Diana Photoshop filter I'd be set. I have to admit, though, the pictures on the Diana site do make my heart hurt a little bit, like I'm looking at the heirlooms of people long gone.

Oh, sorry, I'm getting windy: the Diana+ is fifty bucks.

Product Page [Lomography.com via Gadget Lab]]

Joel Johnson

'30s Wrist Ice Box Ahead of Its Time

This "Wrist Ice Box" from a 1934 issue of Popular Science isn't as goofy as it may first seem. Noah Shachtman reported in March about a similar project being developed by a Stanford biologist today that uses the same technique to chill soldiers and athletes. (It doesn't use a lump of dry ice, however.)

From Noah's article in Wired:

Grahn takes my hand and slips it into a clear, coffeepot-looking contraption he calls the Glove. Inside is a hemisphere of metal, cool to the touch. He tightens a seal around my wrist; a vacuum begins pulling blood to the surface of my hand, and the cold metal chills my blood before it travels through my veins back to my core. After five minutes, I feel rejuvenated. Never mind the hangover. Never mind Bon Jovi. I keep going for another half hour.

ICEBOX ON WRIST TO COOL THE WHOLE BODY (Sep, 1934) [ModernMechanix.com]

Joel Johnson

Gum-Sized Micro-Camcorder

Any time a gadget is sold as a "spy" device you know you'll be paying a huge premium for something relatively inexpensive. Don't buy this "Micro-Camcorder" from this store, I'm saying—it's not worth $300. But it is a cute little piece of kit, designed to slide inside a standard pack of chewing gum. It only shoots at 15 frames a second, but with a 1GB Micro SD card you can record up to 33 hours of video (although only for 2 hours at a time before you have to recharge the internal, non-removable battery.)

It's basically a cellphone camera without the phone; since phones with the same capability can be had for almost free, wait for this one to show up in a kid's spy toys product line before buying. I seriously doubt there are more than $20 of parts in this thing.

Work warning: The site has a looping video with sound on it.

Catalog Page [SpyGadgets.com]

Joel Johnson

MacDaddy's Million Dollar Fishing Lure

While fishing lures can be beautiful bits of craft, most of the really well made ones sit in frames on walls or attached to fishing hats. You don't just throw those sort of things out into the water, where chances are good they'll end up snagged on roots or in the belly of a feisty trout.

But because man's never seen a lily he couldn't gild, MacDaddy's Finish Lures will sell you solid gold and diamond crusted fishing lures, as well as flies with real jewels attached. They even claim to have created the "Million Dollar Lure," covered with 3 pounds of gold and platinum holding 100 carats of diamonds and rubies. It's obviously just a promotional stunt, but considering it's being used to sell cheaper, but equally wasteful goods, I hope anyone who catches a fish with one of these chokes on a bone.

Company Page [MacDaddysFishingLures.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• 70% Fall Sale at eBags. I've had good luck with eBags; they sell laptop bags and backpacks as well as luggage. [Bargainist]

• Kingston 2GB micro SD flash memory card with full-sized SD adapter for $22, shipped. If you use Google Checkout for the first time, you can get an additional $10 off. [Slickdeals]

• Lego Store has up to a 20% discount on Mindstorms sensors. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot! is a pair of Klipsch Synergy SLX on-wall speakers for $305, shipped. Unlike most Woot deals, the price on these doesn't seem like anything special. Two is greater than one. Go me!

Joel Johnson

U.N. Climate Change Summit Wrap Up

I think between the comments and the posts I've said about all my ignorant ass is going to manage about climate change today, but I wanted to take the time to thank everyone from the United Nations Foundation for inviting us in today and making us feel welcome. While the event itself was maybe a bit slim on useful information, I found the entire process fascinating and ended up meeting more people doing interesting things in one day than I have perhaps ever have. That's huge; I appreciate it.

For you readers, I'll be back on my regular blog horse tomorrow. I appreciate your patience with me blogging about this stuff today and the conversation some of us were able to have. Much of what I learned—or started to learn—today will help inform much of the discussion about gadgetry from here on out.

Joel Johnson

Using Less Power Good; Using None at All Better

The Simple Dollar, while making a point last week about how plugged-in gadgets can cost around $3 a month in unnecessary energy consumption, also suggested buying the Smartstrip LCG4 power strip with auto-shutoff for groups of devices. In turn, Gadget Lab asked if it's worth paying $40 for a strip that saves less than that in a year.

There is no clear answer; that there is no clear answer is one of my primary concerns about the best way the gadgets industry can help minimize power use. The last thing we need to address climate change are loads of new gadgets being produced, using up hydrocarbons for plastic and rare (and often poisonous) metals for the sole purpose of saving a few bucks in energy costs over a product's lifecycle. Better to just pay the extra power costs, even with their associated carbon cost. Better we focus on cleaner methods of power generation than replace loads of fully functional products.

(I'm also loathe, as a rule, to suggest items that have a "convenience sphere" of less area than a room. Is it really so hard, as you're getting up to go elsewhere, to reach down and flip a switch? I know it's not as easy as using a remote, but come on.)

It's this wariness (and cheapness) that worry when speakers here at the U.N. talk about the green economy being good for business. In some ways it will be, but just as Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, said in a press conference an hour ago when talking about fossil fuels, we will have to "capture the true cost" of these materials in their retail prices. That means we will have to accept more expensive products to do our part; can we trust the companies selling those products to be responsible with the extra money without oversight? Will these tarrifs be self-imposed by all countries unilaterally?

Where business will have great opportunities are in developing economies. The last thing the first world needs are more things, frankly. (And that I make my living indexing those things we don't need—a plastic pusherman—is something of which I am aware; that said, ain't nothing wrong with window shopping, except when it implants a festering seed of irrational desire.) By using our technological prowess to help poorer nations build sustainable solutions for energy generation and waste management, we can not only take a stiff slug of fortifying capitalism, but also use it to help those countries that are often most affected by global warming but have done the least to contribute to it.

It's hard not to hear about lakes in Africa drying up, in part because of rising temperatures, and look at all the stupid crap I own and wonder what part of my lifestyle has cost someone else part of theirs.

Joel Johnson

Bush Skipping Climate Change Summit...Mostly

From the AFP:

WHILE dozens of world leaders have gathered at the United Nations for talks on how to fight global warming, US President George Bush is skipping all events except for a final dinner.

His focus is on his own gathering of leaders in Washington this week, a meeting with the same stated goal -- a reduction in the emissions blamed for climate change -- but a fundamentally different idea of how to achieve it.

Mr Bush's aides say the parallel meeting does not compete with the UN process. They say Mr Bush hopes to persuade the nations that produce 90 per cent of the world's emissions to come to a consensus that would allow each, including the US, to set its own policy rather than having limits imposed by an international treaty.

The United States chose not to accept the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Joel Johnson

How Should the U.N. Talk to Blogs?

Image: The audio console in a U.N. press room. The big cup with the wire is the headphone. It doesn't have much to do with what's below, but is where I'm sitting now.

The U.N. would like to pretend it doesn't understand blogging. Last night, over drinks and dinner, members of U.N. organizations asked us about blogging and internet publishing, stressing their desire to participate in the conversation, but only if it didn't waste their time. "How do we tell who is legit and who is a looney?" asked Stephane Dujarric, Deputy Communications Director, Office of the Secretary General. Pretty much all the bloggers assembled reminded him that without actually getting to know the writers in question, you really don't—just like with mainstream outlets.

But Dujarric knew the answer before he asked the question, I suspect. It's clear that the U.N. would like to use blogs and other internet publications to promote their messages—and they're pretty good messages!—but they also don't seem to want to be bothered to actually participate online, rightfully afraid that their limited time and resources would be diverted from the traditional media outlets that have served them so well for so long.

After Nick Nuttall, spokesperson for the United Nations Environment Program, blustered that the assembled bloggers didn't seem as passionate about the issue of climate change as he'd prefer, many bloggers blustered right back, saying that they did care, but that they didn't really feel like the High-Level Event—essentially a meeting to prepare for a meeting—was going to have much effect, especially on our own American politicians. (Almost all the bloggers assembled live and work in the U.S.)

What the bloggers might not have caught as they argued was Nuttall tipping back in his chair to wink to his compatriots at the end of the table, pleased at how successfully he'd riled the bloggers. Nuttall and Dujarric, both former working journalists, know how to get what they want—it's easy to get blog coverage, especially if you give bloggers press access; we're often desperate to prove that we're cut of the same cloth as other journalists—but it's a cheap trick. (Even if it is working, obviously.)

The U.N., like so many other large organizations, wants to be talked about, but isn't sure it wants to actually do much talking.

---

Other blips of note from the dinner: Nuttall questioning why a blogger who said he would appreciate direct contact from the U.N. didn't contact the U.N. first, instead. A fair response, but again antithetical to the "How do we work with these here blorgs?"

Yvo de Boer, executive director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), saying that he is "not a huge fan of Star Trek." Don't expect the U.N. to change to the United Federation of Planets while he's around.

Also, de Boer, a Vienna-born, dyed-in-the-wool diplomat, smokes hand-rolled Drum cigarettes. Take note for your next diplomat impersonation.

Taiwanese journalists are the only ones whose national press accreditation is not acknowledged by the U.N. in deference to China.

During the High-Level Event (which I swear keeps making it feel like there is a comet heading straight for Milwaukee) "lunch" will be referred to as "lunchtime," in deference to those observing Ramadan.

The High-Level Event is a preparatory summit, the largest yet of its kind about climate change, for an upcoming event in Bali later this year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is here to give a speech about climate change. (I've got the transcript right here. It's nothing special. Sadly we're off in the press room, so we don't get to see the Governor in person.)

I've already met tons of smart, engaged people who, despite any pessimism I may have about the U.N.'s approach to bloggers, have already helped me check my head about the importance of the issue.

The United Nations Foundation has a blog where both original and linked content of the High-Level Event will be assembled.

Almost all the U.N.ers use Blackberries.

Joel Johnson

Blogging the U.N. High-Level Event on Climate Change

Boing Boing Gadgets will be a bit off the rails this morning, as I am at the United Nations to report on the TK, a gathering of some eighty-odd heads of state who have come together to build political momentum for the upcoming successor to the Kyoto Treaty, to be proposed late this year in Bali.

Expect updates about the summit throughout the day. We'll return to regularly scheduled gadget nerdery Tuesday.

Although my level of access is said to be "unfettered," I'm unsure to whom I'll have access. If you have any questions you'd like for me to pass on to a for-the-moment nameless head of state about climate change—specifically climate change and technology, which will be my broad focus—post them up and I'll do my best to connect your questions with someone capable of a worthwhile answer. (A "minister from Tuvalu" was a possible example, so if you have any questions about getting those .tv domains...)

High-Level Event on Climate Change [UN.org]

Joel Johnson

Official LEGO Star Wars AT-AT Walker

Piping hot from the LEGO newsletter comes the latest Star Wars model available now for pre-order: a minifig-scale AT-AT walker, complete with tiny Luke Skywalker and motorized walking action.

How is that I hate Star Wars but still swoon over LEGO Star Wars stuff? It's two-fisted and unfair.

It'll be shipping later this year for $130.

Catalog Page [Shop.LEGO.com]

Joel Johnson

Taito's Japan-Only Paddle Controller for Nintendo DS

I blew a few quarters on Arkanoid at Barcade last night, so perhaps I'm a wee bit saturated in nostalgia at the moment, but nonetheless: this paddle controller from Taito, which plugs into the bottom of the Nintendo DS for use in games like Arkanoid and Space Invaders Extreme, sounds great. Sure, you could fake it really well with the DS's touchscreen, but read out what Chris Kohler, who got a hands-on, had to say:

it's fantastic. It's not just a little plastic dial. It's sitting on ball bearings or something, and it's got momentum and a little bit of kickback to it. That means that it spins incredibly smoothly -- if you spin it and let go, it'll keep whizzing for a good five seconds or so. The response time is perfect.

Hands-On: Why Taito's DS Paddle Controller Rocks So Hard [Game|Life]

Joel Johnson

Run Athletics Legacy x Nintendo Sneakers (Plus Party)

Run Athletics (a shoe company) and Nintendo have teamed up to release this pair of sneakers emblazoned with the Mario Bros. "M" on the tongue and a Power Star motif on the side. I see no price. (Probably a couple hundred, but I'm just guessing.)

Nintendo is throwing a launch party for the shoes at New York's Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Place. (Or "10 Rock," as absolutely no one in New York calls it.) Although I'm sure the September 25th party will fill up as soon as the Nintendorks catch wind, for now it looks like you can RSVP for the event with just an email.

Pity about their fuck-ugliness. Maybe white laces would help?

Run Athletics Legacy x Nintendo Launch Party [FreshnessMag.com]

Joel Johnson

Satisfaction: Community Customer Service

Although not a gadget, per se, the new online community customer service platform "Satisfaction" could be a welcome balm to the travails of gadget ownership. In most ways, Satisfaction is just a web forum for customer questions and complaints—nothing too transformative there. And while Satisfaction employees have jumped into the fray to try to own discussions (in a positive way) and provide support, the real power of the service comes when official representatives from the companies log in, as well, their answers given a special mark of officiality, but are placed in-line with everyone else's.

Because Satisfaction is "neutral ground," the control of the customer service conversation swings back toward the users. Technologically, Satisfaction doesn't do anything your average forum or social network does, but with an intention towards luring in official responders from a variety of companies, it has a chance to be an important part of the customer service process. It's a chicken-and-egg thing, for sure, but they've got a few of the Web 2.0 companies like Twitter and Digg on board already, as well some that sell real world products.

I once had a similar idea for telephone customer support, creating a branded third-party group of highly trained agents who could be trusted to always get the job done no matter what product or service they supported, but the obvious training and setup costs never made sense. Satisfaction is a better idea, if it works: bring the official experts to the customers and record the conversation in public.

Product Page [GetSatisfaction.com]

Bonus Link: Crowdsourcing Customer Service [BusinessWeek]

Joel Johnson

Furutech DFV-1 LP Vinyl Album Flattener

Vinyl warps. Even if you treat your LPs with utmost care, it's common to find used albums too warped to get needle to groove. The Furutech DFV-1 LP Flattener works as a giant waffle iron for vinyl, delicately heating an LP just enough to get it flat without disturbing the audio grooves on the sides, then quickly cooling it to lock the new shape in place.

It's $1,500, but at this point there's really no price vinyl devotees aren't willing to pay to keep their precious albums in working order.

Product Page [Furutech.com via Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

Fuji Xerox's Translating Photocopier

Fuji Xerox is showing off this prototype photocopier that can translate text from scanned pages on the fly. The unit translates from one language to another while maintaining the original layout of the page, including paragraphs and illustrations.

Machine translation tends to be a mess in the best cases, so while it's a clever trick, it won't ever be more useful than equivalent software solutions.

Photocopier translates Japanese to English at touch of button [DigitalWorldTokyo.com via Uberreview]

Joel Johnson

Kineticel Concept: Battery Chargers in Human Powered Objects

Yael Miller's "Kineticel" concept proposes to put small piezoelectric chargers inside common household furniture and appliances, trading a little extra effort in your endeavor for freeish power. Kineticel chargers in a set of dumbbells could make electricity while you're working out, while a baby jumper could harness the power of your little man-grub's playtime jittering. (Finally, a way to extract energy out of babies besides eating them!)

It's all an on-paper concept right now, but I like that the idea is built around battery chargers instead of batteries. The trick would be to discover the materials and environmental cost of adding chargers to relatively simple items in the first place.

Kinetic Energy - Making Energy More Efficient [ReubenMiller.typepad.com via Oh Gizmo!]

Joel Johnson

Phone Manufacturers Settle on Micro-USB Charging Standard

Image: Mobileburn

Here's some fantastic news: The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) group has decided to standardize on micro-USB as the charging interface for mobile phones, putting an end to the needless waste created by needing separate chargers for each device. The OMTP includes Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Nokia—that's a majority of the GSM phone market right there, which will hopefully force any stragglers to join up. (Although I don't think we'll be seeing Apple ditching their plug for the iPhone any time soon.)

Most interesting to me was how environmental legislation in the EU may have been a factor in making the choice:

However, [telecom analyst Dean Bubley] also suggested that having a standard connector might be in manufacturers' best interests due to environmental reasons. The EU's WEEE directive makes manufacturers responsible for some of the costs associated with recycling their equipment, and a broadly applied standard could remove the need for a new charger to be distributed with every phone or accessory.

"This is cheaper to the manufacturer, and also results in a smaller, less heavy box, which reduces on shipping costs, storage costs, warehouse costs and so on," Bubley said. "It has got to have beneficial effects for everyone."

Pros seem to outdo cons in new phone charger standard [News.com]

Joel Johnson

The Bevy: Bottle-Opening iPod Shuffle Keychain

This keychain-borne iPod Shuffle case, called "The Bevy" includes an integrated bottle open positioned just over the hole for the controls. You might thing it likely to scuff up your Shuffle just looking at it, but the Bevy doesn't actually work until you remove the iPod first. You can wind your headphones around the outside when they're not in use.

The only problem seems to be that it's not actually on sale yet.

Catalog Page [Firebox via Coolest-Gadgets]

Update: Reader "Anonymous" points out the Bevy is also available on Amazon. And he or she is correct! (It's $15.)

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Today's Woot!: A White Zune for $135, shipped.

• 6-Foot DVI-to-HDMI cable for $6.85, shipped. Good for TVs that have more DVI inputs than HDMI. [Dealnews]

• Huge Amazon Toys & Games Sale, up to 75% off many items. Perhaps a good time to stash away a robot dinosaur for Xmas gifts. [Dealnews]

• Free exhibit hall pass to Macworld SF 2008. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Leaked Verizon "Can You Hear Me Now?" Style Book is Hilarious

My friends at Consumerist have uncovered the Verizon style/branding guidelines for the "Can You Hear Me Now? Good!" character and they're a trove of unintentional brainwashed humor:

Test man is:

25-35 years old
Entertaining
The embodiment of Verizon Wireless employees
Relentless in his mission
Friendly
Every day guy
A bit quirky
A little obsessive and compulsive
Likeable character
Appealing to all ethnicities

Test Man is not:

Annoying
Goofy
Easily distracted
Aloof
Stupid
Too "pretty"

Verizon's Style Book For Deploying "Can You Hear Me Now" Guy [Consumerist]

Joel Johnson

Video: War Robot Destroyed by IED

An iRobot Packbot EOD investigates a roadside IED in Iraq, only to catch a faceful of explode. Better bots than boys, for sure. [via Danger Room]

Joel Johnson

HomeHero Fire Extinguisher

The "HomeHero" fire extinguisher forgoes the traditional red for a sleek white in an attempt, they attest, to encourage keeping it out on the counter, close at hand. I can't help but wonder if most people, conditioned to look for the red, might not see the HomeHero in a panic.

No price yet, but it appears to be part of a full line of home fire prevention products.

Product Page [HomeHero.net via Oh Gizmo via Crib Candy]

Joel Johnson

Texas Instruments Shows Off Cell Phone Projector Prototype

Although it's not yet ready for production, it's great to see that in-device projectors are still being put together in the labs. And even shown off from time to time, like this one that Engadget coaxed out of Texas Instruments last night. That its projected image looks sort of crummy isn't the big deal (and they say they have an LED-based model in the lab that is even brighter) but that the prototypes are easily the size of a normal phone.

Of course, battery life will be an issue, especially for a feature that has few critical applications, but won't it be neat to be able to watch movies from your phone on a decent sized screen or show off your photo galleries without getting in a huddle?

Hands-on with Texas Instruments' cellphone projector [Engadget]

Joel Johnson

Apple's Hubris

Mac software developer Wil Shipley writes about recent mistakes Apple has made, screwing over customers for no other reason than to make money—and he's not talking about the iPhone price drop.

These are EXACTLY the compromises Sony has been making for years -- and because Sony's music and movie arms have been telling the Sony hardware arm to never do anything new or interesting without building in a ton of customer-unfriendly restrictions, Sony is now completely in the toilet. They have gone from an incredibly respected brand to a complete joke. Every time they introduce some new, crippled standard the industry kind of looks away in embarrassment, like Sony is the oafish guy at the party who is parked in front of the meatballs tray eating directly from the dish.

iPhone & iPod: contain or disengage [WilShipley.com]

Joel Johnson

Hands-Free Binocular Glasses

My grandfather, down in his garage workshop cranking out "Lemonade Loaders" to be sold via mail-order to TRS-80 owners with finicky tape drives, often wore a flip-up magnifying glass. So much so that it's one of the primary ways I remember him, with his silky threads of hair poking over the top. But where he didn't wear them was in public, because he wasn't an asshole, and Burning Man had not yet been invented.

Technically these are binoculars, not magnifying glasses, but Hammacher Schlemmer will sell you those, too, should you pony up the $120. I'm sure there is a specific scenario where these would be more useful than a pair of traditional binoculars—low-rent television sci-fi prop?—but they look like they'd make a person really pukey.

Catalog Page [Hammacher.com via Coolest-Gadgets]

Joel Johnson

World's *est: Symmetricom SA.3Xm Atomic Clock

Measuring just two-by-two-inches square and less than an inch thick, the SA.3Xm atomic clock from Symmetricom is said to be the world's smallest, five times smaller than other rubidium oscillators. It looks like a hunk of radioactive cheese.

Product Page [Symmetricom.com via Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Pottery Barn's Simple Speaker Shelf

How good this "Ultimate Display Speaker Shelf" sounds is anybody's guess, but it's only eighty bucks and looks better than every other iPod dock on the market. A winner!

Catalog Page [PBTeen.com via Geeksugar]

Joel Johnson

A Short Note Regarding Commenting

According to the engineering level, comment accounts on both Boing Boing and Boing Boing Gadgets should work in the unified manner which you may rightfully have expected in the first place: One account, one login, posting access on both sites.

Joel Johnson

Alex Grey's Video Feedback Machine

Scott O. Moore, in a review of the DVD "Worldspirit" by Alex Grey, describes the basic mechanics behind video feedback installations, the results from one of which is featured on the disc and excerpted on video above:

I knew a crazy prankster years ago who had a video feedback rig set up in his living room. He had a projection screen, a projector in a mount, and a video camera rigged up underneath the projector, so that the image that the camera was delivering to the projector was the same image that the projector was projecting - that's the feedback loop. But this prankster had built a mechanized rig for the camera that allowed us to utilize a remote control to move the camera forward and backward on a track, tilt it up and down, and spin it clockwise and counterclockwise. A separate remote allowed us to manipulate the projector's color and tint settings. With these two remotes, you could essentially explore waves of video feedback for hours upon hours. And when people chose to stand in front of the screen and interact with it, their own images would cycle into the feedback and if the camera rotated properly, you could see mirror images of these dancers, or upside down dancers interacting with their right side up counterparts. It was magic.

DVD review: 'Worldspirit' by Alex Grey [DoseNation.com]

Joel Johnson

Hussein Chalayan's Amazing Transforming Dresses

Hussein Chalayan's latest collection of dresses incorporate servos and pulleys to transform the shape of the clothing in subtle, ethereal ways. There's no real practicality to these bits, just able showmanship and technical chops. There is nudity in the last few seconds of the clip, but as it is in the service of perhaps the best piece in the show, pop your head out of the cubicle and make sure you're clear. It's worth it. (But really, when isn't nudity worth it?)

[via Brandish]

Joel Johnson

DYMO Disc Painter: Full-Color CD and DVD Printing

Last evening was the "Holiday Spectacular," a press-only meet-and-greet event for consumer tech folks, primarily existing as a place to schmooze over free booze with your other journo friends, avoid the Creepy Bat-Santas among the rest*, and flirt with cute PR girls who are paid to laugh at your jokes. I hate these events in theory, but find myself irresistibly drawn to them, if only to bask in a momentary fantasy land where I can be cooler than almost everyone in the room by simply refusing to wear a string of plastic Mardi Gras beads.

Most of the products on display at these things aren't new; that's okay, since the majority of the press there are from mainstream, non-tech-oriented outlets. They rightly don't care if something's been on the shelves for a while. But for the cream scrapers, it's common to find absolutely zero new products worth talking about, leaving one free to chat to PR people and wheedle out rumors like, "there's a 75% chance an upcoming version of the Microsoft Zune will support wireless headphones." A wisp, I know, but you take what you can get.

My point, now that I've completely overcharged it, is that this "Disc Painter" printer from DYMO was actually pretty great, capable of printing near-professional-looking graphics on any given printable CD or DVD in just a couple of minutes using their "RadialPrint" spinning technology. It'll be out next month for $280 and will come with enough ink to print about a hundred discs. The ink replacement, in typical printer company fashion, will be available only from DYMO for $30 a pop, per color.

That means I won't be buying one of these until the cost of the printer is cheaper than the cost of a set of replacement ink. That day will come sooner than later, I suspect.

They really did print nice discs, though. As my videographer friend Richard remarked, a nicely-printed disc is about the only thing that was keeping his DVD submissions from looking completely professional, making the Disc Painter the "last piece" in his rig.

Teaser Page [Global.Dymo.com]

* And boy are there a bunch of creepy tech journos; we are a race whose inevitable end seems to be a deflated morlock posture weighed down by too-large pockets filled with gizmos, with wild ivory hair and skin to match.

Joel Johnson

HumanCar Imagine: Street Legal Rowboat

Autopia has been given these concept photos of the production model of the "Imagine" from HumanCar, a sort of modern version of the old pump-action railroad cart* designed for use on roads, bolstered by some electric motors in case its riders didn't eat their breakfast. The Imagine uses the same basic chassis as the first "FM-4" model of the HumanCar, which is powered by the rowing of its four passengers and steered by leaning.

The whole system looks a little awkward to me, but there are some videos up on HumanCar's site that show them cooking down twisty mountain roads, so I guess it can't be as unwieldy as it might first appear.

And before you slag them for making something with no headlights, no enclosed cabin, etc., remember that these aren't designed to be a total car replacement, but a green option for people moving, short commutes, and the like.

HumanCar Imagine Comes Ever Closer to Reality [Autopia]

* There's a proper name for those railroad carts, isn't there?

Joel Johnson

Flying Witch Arcade Game Prototype with Broom

Laughing at machine-translated Japanese is a guilty pleasure—I'm sure the original Japanese is perfectly well-written—assuaged only by my hope that somewhere in Japan is a person laughing at a picture of an American with a tattoo of the characters for "tuna hero."

Gizmodo Japan's description of a flying witch arcade game, complete with rideable broom:

In the witch the sky of the necessity the broom type controller which it flies.
The taiwan game manufacturer "MEGA NET&TECH" developed, it was arcade edition of "[parase] D [runpe]". Still, development midway, it is with sample only.
If the sponsor is attached, also the day when it is seen with the Gaea plug of neighborhood is close whether?!
As for play animated picture in tomorrow rise stripe shank.
　
(Normal mountain hardness)

[TGS2007] Broom type controller of magic (Machine Translated) [Gizmodo.jp]

Joel Johnson

"Free Ride" Pen by Jean Pierre Lepine

There are times when I post a concept design to provoke yowls of indignation from some of you, if only so I might sidle in and put a cool hand to your brow. I remind you that strange designs are a good thing, the better to let imagination scamper across the infinite white lightbox of possibility. "It's strange, dear, but you'll someday understand," I coo. "Let them run free. They're in a better place."

Which is to say, were I to fully murder the metaphor, this "Free Ride" pen by Jean Pierre Lepine, available for actual retail purchase, is the dead puppy just buried under the shed, shambling wetly down the upstairs hall.

Catalog Page [JoonPens.com via Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

One of Us: Stephen Fry Blogs About Smartphones

In a pleasing but entirely surprising turn, it appears loved British comic actor Stephen Fry is blogging—about smartphones. It's not like the only people who are allowed to wax rhapsodic about the Psion 3's ARM processor are tech writers, but it's just a bit shocking to realize someone in the real world is still a major nerd.

My obsession with SmartPhones began many, many years ago. Certainly well before such devices existed in the real world. From the first Sharp contact-and-calendar "electronic organisers" , through the early Psions, the sadly missed AgendA (see above: no QWERTY there, more a kind of weird courtroom stenographer's chord-based input pad: never have I been able to write faster than with that splendid object - I had another device using the same input system called, I think, Qinky, which connected to the Centronix port of a BBC Micro), to the opening salvo of Palm Pilots, Apple's Newton and the arrival of Handspring. If they existed I had to have them. Had to. Some could be used with a phone: they might generate dial-tones for example, or somehow, like the later Psions, come with the optional extra of an infrared modem that could shake hands with a Nokia mobile phone and put one on the path to something approaching what today we might call a SmartPhone experience. Those infrared modem scripts still lurk in the system preference and plugin files of even the most up-to-the-minute computer, like a Kodak Instamatic in the back of a drawer. Obsolete, but too charming to throw away. And you never know - one day you might just need them ...

Device and Desires [StephenFry.com via Gadget Lab]

Update: Okay, so I'm still sitting here reading this instead of working, but man, what a treat. This piece is like a mental massage for me. Check this out:

We spend our lives inside the virtual environment of digital platforms - why should a faceless, graceless, styleless nerd or a greedy hog of a corporate twat deny us simplicity, beauty, grace, fun, sexiness, delight, imagination and creative energy in our digital lives?

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Samsung 50" 720P DLP + Xbox 360 + Halo 3 + 1600 Xbox Points for $1085, plus shipping, at Best Buy. Do more research, but that seems like a lot of stuff for not so much money should you want to dive in with both feet in the Xbox experience. Also looks like they have Wii in stock. [Slickdeals]

• 4 CTA-brand rechargeable AA 2700MAH batteries with charger for $17, shipped. After yesterday's AAs from a lantern battery post I'm feeling a moral duty to promote some rechargeables. [TechBargains]

• Several name-brand Bluetooth headsets for around $20, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Logitech Premium USB Headset with Mic for $13, shipped, after $15 mail-in rebate. Nothing fancy; just a decent, cheap USB headset. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Canon Powershot G9 Camera Reviewed (Verdict: A Fiddler's Dream)

Wired reviewed the new Canon Powershot G9, a 12.1-megapixel snapper that attempts—successfully, it seems—to bridge the space between point-and-shoots and SLRs, at least as far as manual controls go. I've already got a DSLR that I haul around a lot, but I can't help but be intrigued, if only because I could ruin the portability of the G9 by putting my giant Canon flash in the G9's hotshoe.

From the review:

But there's a price to be paid for more than a dozen buttons, dials, and toggles in addition to deep, complex menus. We spent an entire three-day weekend fiddling, tweaking and analyzing every aspect of the G9. It's worth it. Stills and video are razor sharp and color-rich. The fast focus picks up multiple faces easily while image stabilization eliminates all but the most violent jitters. The flash is surprisingly robust and also balances daylight very nicely.

Review: Canon Powershot G9 -- Small. Powerful. Perfect. [Gadget Lab] (Thanks, John S., for bringing the G9 to my attention!)

Joel Johnson

Stanley Multi-Functional Ruler Pen

The Stanley multi-function pen has a black ballpoint, a 0.7 lead mechanical pencil, an orange highlighter, and a stylus for PDAs crammed inside its tape-measure-inspired body, for which you'll pay a punitive $60 should you need something to brag about to the other foremen.

Catalog Page [The disappointingly, misleadingly named BoysToMenGifts.com via Uncrate]

Previously: Fisher Contractor Tool Space Pen [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Roddler Custom Strollers

The "Roddler" from Kid Kustoms are custom-built strollers that can be fully optimized for brat hauling, with over-the-hub fenders and fancy paint jobs. You can even choose fancy materials for the inner lining, including alligator and stingray leather, the better to indoctrinate the child for a lifetime of dominating those more helpless than he.

Prices start at $2,500, but careen wildly upward. Food stamps not accepted.

Product Page [KidKustoms.com via Serious Wheels via Jalopnik]

Joel Johnson

Ute Tribe's Mechanoluminescent Proto-Gadget

From Wikipedia:

The Uncompahgre Ute Indians from Central Colorado are one of the first documented groups of people in the world known to utilize the effect of mechanoluminescence through the use of quartz crystals to generate light, likely hundreds of years before the modern world recognized the phenomenon. The Ute constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together produced flashes of light which partly shone through the translucent buffalo hide. These rattles were believed to call spirits into Ute Ceremonies, and were considered extremely powerful religious objects.

Also:

Anthropologist Hermann Baumann documented male-to-female transsexual priestesses among the Ute, although two-spirit expression has been discouraged by Christian influence.

Xeni Jardin

Endangered languages and gadgets that record them

[Xeni] -- Spotted in a NYT piece today about the preservation of endangered languages: the same trusty digital recording device I use out in the field to record stuff for NPR, and for Boing Boing podcasts. Link to BB item.

Joel Johnson

Extract 32 AA Batteries from 1 Six-Volt Lantern Battery

The latest "take part one battery to yield many more smaller batteries" trick is up on Lifehacker, showing how to get 32 AA batteries from a single 6-volt lantern cell. What I'm wondering is how much charge is in each of those batteries compared to a brand name AA cell like Duracell. If anyone gives this a shot—be careful!—and wants to throw a voltmeter on some of the AAs, that would be swell. [Lifehacker]

Joel Johnson

The Device: Homebrew Homebrew Beer Maker

Take a look at "The Device"—this is what a real all-in-one beer making and serving machine looks like, no matter what sort of lies those "Brew in your fridge!" contraptions may sell you. A custom-built machine by John Carnett, The Device has equipment for automating all three stages of the homebrew process, from boiling the wort, fermenting (with the all-too-critical temperature control), as well as a kegging system with a cold plate chiller that serves up the beer on tap at the optimal temperature for each style.

The Device cost $4,300 to build, but really does look to do it all. The video on Pop Sci shows the first stage of boiling and chilling the wort, but that's the easy part, really. I'd like to know more about that cold plate-equipped tap.

The Ultimate All-in-One Beer Brewing Machine [PopSci.com via Core77]

Joel Johnson

Ponoko: Mail-Order Custom Furniture Market

I've had the Ponoko website up in my RSS reader all morning, trying to decide if it's as fundamentally amazing as I think it may be. Here's their schtick: Upload a plan to their site (usually an EPS, I think); they'll cut the shape out of wood or acrylic and ship it to you; they'll also ship the pieces of your product to anyone you want, allowing people to sell their product designs through Ponoko without ever touching the product itself.

Now obviously, there as some fundamental limitations for now, specifically the fact that the products are constructed mostly from slot-and-tab design; we're talking laser cutting here, not 3D printing or CNCing. But you can do a lot with slot-and-tab, as some of the products in the Ponoko showroom will attest.

Of course, these sort of customized platforms are great, but they've hardly revolutionized their respective industries—most people buy t-shirts at Wal-Mart, not Threadless; more people will get their end tables at Ikea than Ponoko—but for those of us that get a kick out of buying products that are just one step removed from their designer, it's pretty neat. It also makes it possible to creating your own custom furniture without getting sawdust all over your house.

Cost varies depending on materials and shipping, but to give you some idea, this table is $500.

Company Page [Ponoko.com via MAKE]

Joel Johnson

Belkin TuneScan FM Transmitter for iPod

FM transmitters are useful buggers for car trips, even if they are an evil made necessary only by car stereo manufacturers' still amazing reticence to add a nickel miniJack input to their stereos. (Although to be fair, that is an increasingly common option in new cars.) The primary problem with FM transmitters—okay, secondary, since the poor audio quality of FM versus a direct line is certainly primary—is the hassle of finding a clear station on which to transmit. This is especially frustrating on road trips, as it's all too common to find an open frequency that, just a few miles down the road, turns into a garbled mash of your music and any given radio station.

The Belkin TuneBase FM dock takes a little of the sting out with the inclusion of "CleanScan," a function which travels up and down the FM band until it finds an open frequency and locks on, displaying the channel on its LCD screen. (Tuning to the station on the car radio is still your job, of course.) Considering how dangerous it can be to fiddle with the mess of audio cables in a car, every step that can be smoothed out is welcome.

What isn't welcome is the price, which like most other name-brand FM transmitters is insultingly high. Ninety bucks for an FM transmitter, even with a charger and integrated iPod dock, is seriously bullshit. I bristle at paying the $30-40 an FM transmitter costs in local electronics stores, especially when I know a perfectly functional version can be found for under twenty bucks online.

Product Page [Belkin]

Joel Johnson

Oobject Top Ray Gun Collection

Today's collection on Oobject, the "Top X" ranking site for gadgets and gear, is ray-guns! I can't say that I liked the top three as much as the next three, which is why I picked them out here, although the the #2 ray gun, a custom-built steel jobber, looks solid and clean.

The steampunk models are great, of course, but it's hard to beat the Superman Krypto gun. It's either a gun being sold by a man invulnerable to bullets or one of the only weapons that could actually kill Supes. Either way: hilarious.

Stunning Ray Guns [Oobject]

Joel Johnson

"Snail" Espresso Machine Prototype

I can't begin to suggest that this "Snail" coffee maker makes a decent cup—it uses those goddamned coffee pods, for one—but it is certainly attractive. Of course, there's no reason the Snail, still in prototype, couldn't be tooled to use real, packed coffee ground by a proper grinder.

The Snail is one of several interestingly-designed coffee makers on display at the German site "Room 69," which despite its name appears to be only about design.

Coffee Makers [Room69.org via Oh Gizmo! via Design Spotter]

Joel Johnson

USB 3.0 On Its Way

USB 3.0 will include an optical cable for increased bandwidth capabilities—up to 5Gbit per second, if things go according to plan—but will remain backwards compatible with previous USB plugs. According to the release, it will be available someday.

Press Release [Intel.com]

Joel Johnson

iSlide Skateboard Segway Hybrid Concept

Although just a student concept for now, the "iSlide" concept by Ofir Tal combines the gyroscopic self-balancing of the Segway with the size and nimbleness of a skateboard.

[iSlide] utilizes a hydrogen fuel cell and onboard gyroscope to attain speeds of around 15 kph. Described as a mix of snowboarding and skateboarding, the iSlide's motion is controlled by leaning forwards (to accelerate) and backwards (to slow down).

Nevertheless, the likelihood of someone seeing me on the iSlide is about ten times greater than seeing me on a Segway, which puts it just over the "only if I were really drunk" mark but just shy of the "trying to impress a girl" threshold. ("Really drunk trying to impress a girl" does not factor in this scale, as that is a Boolean value.)

iSlide: Segway meets skateboard in radical urban transport concept [Gizmag]

Joel Johnson

Watches Made from Meteorite

Watchismo has assembled a collection of some of the most exclusive watches in the world, those crafted from meteorite metal. As gaudy and flagrantly tacky as they are, I have to admit that if I were going to drop several hundred thousand dollars on a watch, there's nothing that would imply I am more like a god than my fellow man than keeping a little bauble from heaven on my wrist. I tried to tell people my calculator watch channeled the spirit of the tinker deity "Casious," but nobody bought it.

The Time that fell to Earth - Meteorite Watches [Watchismo.Blogspot.com]

Joel Johnson

Working Pop-Up Lamp Book by Tekeshi Ishiguru

For some reason I can't find a price on the Artecnica catalog page for these "Book of Lights" pop-up lamps from Takeshi Ishiguru, but I'm sure they're well out of my price range anyway. Nevertheless, as I share the nearly universal affinity for pop-up books, I am desirous of them all the same. The lamps actually work, powered by an LED (that needs an external adapter).

Catalog Page [ArtecnicaInc.com via Treehugger via Shedworking]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Refurbished iRobot Roomba 4199 for $90, shipped. These things love to eat pet hair. They do need regular maintenence from you, be warned, should you not enjoy digging out dust and hair from robots. [Bargainist]

• 50% Video Game Accessories Sale, Also Buy 2 Get 1 Free on Xbox 360 and PS3 games at Toys 'R' Us. A bit convoluted, but some good deals in there if you're already in the market. [Slickdeals]

• Rosewill 45-Piece Computer Tool Kit for $10, shipped, after rebate. Worth it just for those little three-pronged grabby things alone. Hours of entertainment. [Dealnews]

• 14-LED Aluminum Flashlight for $7, shipped. Nothing fancy, but it's cheap. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Refurbished Sandisk Sansa e270 6GB Media Player for $85, shipped.

Joel Johnson

Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet UMPC Reviewed (Verdict: Needs EV-DO)

Laptop magazine has a pair of interesting reviews online today, one of the miniscule Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet UMPC (which, if it had built-in EV-DO, would probably be mine); and a spin with the production model of the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop.

From the U810 review:

The small keyboard takes some getting used to. It's too small for regular typing but too big for thumb typing, which means you need to set the system down and peck with your pointers. We don't mind that for quick e-mails, but we certainly didn't have the patience to type this review on it. The small keyboard is to be expected, but packing as many as three functions on a key is too much. Also, the Tab key is combined with the too-small space bar, and there's no right-Shift key. The function commands are combined with the number keys, and--our biggest gripe--the arrow keys require the function command to work, since they're combined with the period and backslash keys.

(Also, Laptop, my friends. Any ad where guitar players jump out of the side of the screen and walk all over the type is bad ad. Please make those go away so I may continue to look to your content.)

Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC [LaptopMag.com]
Hands-On with One Laptop Per Child's XO Laptop [LaptopMag.com]

Joel Johnson

World's *est: Olympus' Microscopic Questionnaire

Olympus, who also makes lab equipment as well as cameras, recently sent around a set of questionnaires on a glass slide which to be viewed with a microscope to be read. It may be up for the not-so-illustrious honor of being the "World's Smallest Questionnaire."

Olympus Creates World's Smallest Ad [OhGizmo]

Joel Johnson

Official Star Wars Lightsaber Simulation Coming to the Wii

It took about a year longer than it should, but LucasArts today announced the version of the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in coming to the Nintendo Wii—with an exclusive lightsaber-simulating "Duel Mode."

LucasArts today revealed that Star Wars™: The Force Unleashed™ will come to the Wii™ home videogame system from Nintendo next spring, offering owners the unique chance to live out their Jedi fantasies by wielding the Wii Remote™ as a lightsaber while using the Nunchuk™ controller to torment foes with their Force™ powers.

LucasArts Unleashes The Force On The Wii [Kotaku]

Joel Johnson

Tetsuya Nakamura's Technocolor Basins

Tetsuya Nakamura's fiber-reinforced plastic sinks and bathtubs are gorgeous, like hot salt water taffy frozen mid-extrusion. Even more awesome: they appear to be for sale in Japan.

Catalog Page [Tanomi.com via Core77 via Pink Tentacle]

Joel Johnson

Creative Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones Introduced

Creative has announced a new set of headphones, the Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling, uh, Headphones. They're $300, which is a bit ridiculous for a set of non-audiophile cans, but they're marketed to the same business class travelers who blow fat stacks on those Bose units which are also priced beyond what a rational person would spend.

The thing that makes the Aurvana units noteworthy is Creative's addition of its "X-Fi Crystalizer," a bit of real time DSP magic that adds back in some of the high and low frequencies chopped off during the process of MP3 compression, which originally showed up in Creative's aftermarket sound cards for the PC.

I bought an X-Fi for the last computer I built, in search of some mythical 3% more awesome framezzzz in videogames or some crap instead of just using the perfectly capable onboard sound. And you know what? The crystalizer actually does a pretty bang-up job of making my music sound better. Sure, it could probably be done in software, utilizing some of the latent multi-core power at my disposal, but what's the fun in that?

I'm not suggesting you dash out and drop three bills on these immediately, but unlike most overpriced noise canceling units, these actually have a couple of extra tricks in there.

Creative intros Aurvana X-Fi Noise-Canceling Headphones [iLounge]

Joel Johnson

Cane with a Pull-Out Map of Boston

The best part of this cane with a pull-out map of Boston is that it was made by the "In-A-Cane Display Co.," an entire company devoted to a single, retractable purpose.

Easily pulled out from the cane to guide the pedestrian, the spring-loaded map depicts the city, complete with significant buildings and a key at the bottom for modern and historical destinations. Produced at the time of the 1940 American Legion National Convention in Boston, where thousands of members gathered from around the country, the map notes twenty-nine hotels and forty-three historic sites and monuments.

Collection Page [Ideo.CooperHewitt.org via the ever-dashing Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Video: Boston Dynamics LittleDog Robot

The "dog bots" from Boston Dynamics are just amazing pieces of hardware—its "BIGDOG" pack robot is eerie to watch, nimble and resilient—and the LittleDog platform, while seeming more insectoid than canine, still somehow slips up around either edge of the uncanny valley. Its motion is more lifelike than most bots, but unlike a humanoid robot it still looks like it has a firey clockwork soul in there somewhere. And unlike the BIGDOG, which looks like the lower half of a dog knitted into a steel framework and fueled by sloshing ichor, the LittleDog looks more like a tentative crab.

Actually, that's exactly what LittleDog reminds me of: a mechanized version of the headcrab from Half-Life, albeit with an extra set of legs. And less face eating. For now.

LittleDog Navigates Ruff Terrain [BotJunkie]

Joel Johnson

Motorola ROKR E8 Music Phone's Trick Backlit Keypad

As a rule I think Motorola's trying-too-hard product design is eclipsed only by their insultingly unhip commercials, but I've got to hand it to them on the ROKR E8: the backlit keypad, which fades out the numpad and fades in the music controls when you're in the music playing software is pretty rad. I'll be sure to take advantage of that the next time I'm in the subway holding an impromptu rave, since that's who Motorola seems to think their customers want to do.

Motorola lanceert ROKR E8 en RIZR Z10 (Dutch) [GSMHelpDesk.nl via UnwiredView via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Lemon Squeezer Screw

I remain doubtful of the efficiency of this stainless steel screw twist lemon juicer, but it certainly looks neat. I'd worry that I wouldn't be able to get enough juice out when I needed it, while still dealing with a constant slow drip.

Of course I will remain an idle wonderer about such matters, because it sells for a ridiculous $40. Do you know how many lemons you could buy for forty bucks? All of them.

More than one way to juice a lemon [Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

Wes Anderson's AT&T Commercials

Whether you like Wes Anderson or think he's a pretentious twerp—and really, couldn't it be both?—you have to admit the man knows how to put a commercial together. While these new spots for AT&T aren't as tongue-in-cheek as his previous work for American Express, they show tremendous technical chops from his set designs and crew. I don't know what the message is, exactly—AT&T phones work in even the most remote dinner theater playhouses?—but I like it all the same.

Golden Fiddle has collected them all for your viewing, provided you like the one above.

Wes Anderson's AT&T Commercials [GoldenFiddle.com via Kottke]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Fall Guy: Complete Season 1 for $20, shipped. Okay, not a gadget, but how can you pass up Heather Locklear and Lee Majors? [Bargainist]

• Zune 30GB Digital Media Player for $160, shipped. These are only going to get cheaper. [Bargainist]

• TiVo HD Digital Video Recorder for $266, shipped. Don't forget to factor in the guide subscription. [Bargainist]

• Refurbished Westinghouse 37-inch Widescreen HD 1080P Monitor for $663, shipped. A no frills monitor; you'll need a tuner or cable/satellite for a TV signal. [Dealnews]

• Unlocked I-Mate JAQ Smartphone for $150, shipped. A decent, if basic Windows Mobile smartphone that will work on either American GSM network. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• As Effective as the Last One – "Microsoft suffers stunning EU antitrust defeat" [Reuters]

• Bunking with Microsoft – "Toshiba and SanDisk Subpoenaed for Price Fixing" [Gadget Lab]

• Because Sysadmins Like Hot Rods – Columnist asks why data center hardware isn't more power efficient. [Earth2Tech]

• Haggis is the Original Remix – BBC Glasgow is auctioning off their entire studio, with tons of obscure vintage audio gear. [Music Thing]

• Trash Memory – CBS and Cadillac glue 128MB flash drive inside copies of Entertainment Weekly. [Consumerist]

Xeni Jardin

Review: Fuji FinePix F50 SE is a sweet li'l point 'n' shoot

I ran into Scott Beale of Laughing Squid during last week's Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit, and noticed he wasn't lugging around the ginormous SLR camera he's usually spotted with at tech events. Instead, he was carrying a small Fuji device. He shot some fun snaps with it during the conference. Here's a snip from his review:

I’m always on the hunt for the ultimate, point-and-shoot compact camera that I can carry around in my pocket when I don’t want to bring out the big Canon 5D. I’ve owned several Canon PowerShots going all the way back to the S400 and I’ve even had a Panasonic Lumix. All have been fine cameras, but I’ve had my eye on the Fuji FinePix series for a while, especially after hearing how well they do in low light. Well I may have just found my perfect compact camera, the new Fuji FinePix F50 SE.

(...) The Fuji FinePix F50 SE is a 12MP Super CCD camera that is able to go up to 3200 ISO at 6MP and 6400 ISO at 3MP (however always try to stay under 400 ISO), as well as auto ISO which you can limit to 400, 800 and 1600. It has a dual image stabilization system (both mechanical and digital) and a face detection system that even works at an angle (up to 10 faces). It has a full manual mode, aperture priority mode, an natural mode for optimal non-flash shooting and even a natural + flash mode that shoots two photos at once, with and without a flash.

Joel Johnson

Magtable Coffee Table by Satina Turner

Here's a clever bit of design just waiting to show up in your own coffee table post-circular-saw-and-Adderall bender: slots in the top to allow magazines to hang through. Of course, if you don't keep them full of magazines, you'll lose errant snack chips through the grill, which may or may not be a good thing.

It's only $160 at Umbra which isn't bad as furniture goes, but it's nothing fancy, either.

Editorial Control [NYMag.com via Uncrate]

Joel Johnson

Manga Sub-Genre Ahoy!: Mecha Musume

"Mecha Musume" is a term used by Western anime fans to describe anthropomorphic combinations of anime pin-ups and vehicles, although the term itself is actually a brand name used by artist Shimada Humikane to describe his collection of designs, including the animated series "Strike Witches" and his World War II set of designs, in which girls are combined with weapons like M4 Sherman tanks and ME-109 aircraft.

Pre-dating the mecha musume designs are the "Gundam Girls," fan art designs which combined the giant robot Gundam designs with pin-ups into hybrid mechanized suits that are completely out of scale with the original designs. (Although you'd be hard pressed to discern that unless you were familiar with the Gundam series.)

"MC Axis" magazine was launched last year in Japan specifically to cater to the needs of the mecha musume and "moe military" community.

Gundam Girls gallery [AnimeCubed.com]
MC Axis Site [Ikaros.co.jp]
Mecha Musume [Wikipedia]

Joel Johnson

Video: Dwarf Shows Off His Tools for Getting Dressed

A goon from the Something Awful forums nicknamed BSG (also: "The Dwarf Knight") was born with diastrophic dysplasia, a form of Dwarfism. He's posted this great video to YouTube describing the gadgets and contraptions he uses to get dress every morning. It's both fascinating to see the hassle he goes through to perform relatively basic tasks and entertaining to see what a good sense of humor he has about everything.

If you're a goon and have access, BSG's "Ask me about being a Dwarf/Crippled" thread in the Ask/Tell forum is a treat. Something Awful Forum]

Joel Johnson

Sprint Shows Off "Airave" Home Cellular Router

Sprint Nextel has introduced the "Airave," a $50 box that, when activated via a monthly fee, allows you to use your Sprint (but not Nextel) cell phones over Wi-Fi in your home for free. For individuals, the pricing is $15 each month, with "family" service for multiple phones at $30.

T-Mobile recently introduced a similar system called "Hotspot@Home," but unlike T-Mo's version, the Airave works with any phone that Sprint provides instead of only certain clunky models, which greatly increases the usefulness of this sort of a device.

The Airave will be available in two test markets this year, with nationwide roll-out next year. The box uses "femtocells" to operate, essentially tiny cell radios that had been used in the past to extend coverage in areas with murky wireless access but ample wired internet connectivity.

Sprint Nextel to introduce the Airave [News.Yahoo/AP via CrunchGear]

Joel Johnson

Separated at Upload: Tony Snow and Max Headroom

"The Waffler" blog noticed this stunning similarity between outgoing White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and a certain simulated TV personality from the once-near future. They do both luh-luh-luh love the blipvert. [Tony Snow - 20 Minutes Into The Future [Mmm-Waffles.blogspot.com]

Joel Johnson

Project: Build a Better Ma Bell History Chart

I presume many of you have seen this chart showing the AT&T divestiture showing the various companies which sprang from Ma Bell's sundered body, only to coalesce back into a few major corporations. (I believe it's from Freepress, although I'm not positive they created it.) It's a good start, but not as comprehensive as it could be.

Simply for my own edification and entertainment, I'd like to start putting together a chart that shows the entire history of the privatized phone infrastructure in the U.S., from Ma Bell along with the other LECs, RBOCs, and long-distance carriers over the years that have occasionally spun apart, but more frequently glommed together into great telecommunication companies, as well as their logos and iconography.

The Bell System article on Wikipedia has a good place to start, but is missing many of the smaller regional carriers.

I'm happy to make this a collaborative project, but it's really just the sort of collect-them-all thing I usually start and then, in a stunning failure of OCD pretensions, never complete, so I don't want to make a big thing of it. But if you've got any suggestions on the best way to tackle this, specifically good ways to track down all the local phone carriers that existed outside of the Bell system (and may still to this day), I'd love to hear them. The end result would be a chart that documented every local carrier, flowing downward by year, to show various acquisitions, spin-offs, and eventual shut-downs.

Joel Johnson

Star Wars Slot Machine: As If a Million Gamblers Cried Out in Terror

Many Gearlog spies perished to bring you this report of Star Wars-themed penny slot machines in the Las Vegas airport. Even better than playing underneath a glowing Death Star, its lasers set to annihilate your wallet? The game only uses original trilogy characters.

Gamblinglog: New Star Wars Slot Machine [Gearlog]

Joel Johnson

Harddisc-Uhr: Best HDD Clock Yet

Unlike most DIY hard drive clocks which simply use the platters as a backdrop for a standard clock mechanism, the "Harddisc-Uhr" (dig that fancy font!) actually rotates the platter itself to change the hour, while using an arrow attached to the read/write head to indicate the minute.

Project Page (German) [Heise.de via Crunchgear via Hackaday]

Joel Johnson

Sun Lizard Solar-Powered Home Heating and Cooling

The "Sun Lizard" is a self-contained, solar-powered heating and cooling system that brings in cool air in the summer and reheats already warm air in the winter to help manage temperatures without completely shutting off your home from the outside air. Its summer functions don't seem that profound—it's essentially a solar-powered attic fan—but the ability to capture the warm air from your attic and recirculate is clever.

The Sun Lizard is currently available in Australia and starts at $3,500 AU, plus mounting accessories.

Product Page [AlternativeFuels.com.au via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

Reveal Watch by Daniel Will-Harris

Watches are totally unnecessary bits of fashion these days, which some might lament as a passing age, but I find liberating: if you're going to bother with a watch, you can get one that doesn't excel at its primary function in exchange for one that does something interesting. These Reveal Watches by Daniel Will-Harris are actually pretty easy to read as far as modern watches go, as the hour and five minute blocks are uncovered by a rotating dial, blocking all those other distracting numbers.

Both the black and the orange version are available for $80 with leather, or $95 for a metal mesh band.

Product Page [Projects-US.com Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter Reviewed (Verdict: Okay!)

I'll admit I was a bit disappointed to discover the Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter looked like, well, a scooter—the opening bit in this review of the unit by GizMag talked about doing burnouts, which led me to believe it was a full-sized electric sports bike. That said, for a city runabout the Vectrix looks like a decent vehicle, capable of up to 100kph top speed, which will get you motoring on the highway, provided the NiMH batteries are fresh.

The Vectrix also features a rider-controlled regenerative braking system, which allows you to kick back the throttle (on the handle, of course) to slow down the bike while reclaiming a bit of your power back. (A traditional brake is also on hand for faster stops.)

The bike's now available in Australia—that's why GizMag took it for a spin—but it's actually an American company that produces the unit, sourcing Italian chassis components, with assembly in Poland.

First ride: the Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter [GizMag]

Joel Johnson

Daniel Rozen's Interactive Weave and Peg Mirrors

The "Weave Mirror" and "Peg Mirror" projects from Daniel Rozin are both interactive installations that use physical objects as pixels to create a low-rez, real-time display. Weave Mirror uses strips of laminate with varying shades of grey, which it turns to match the grayscale value of its camera, while Peg Mirror turns its 650 wooden dowels that are cut at an angle to produce varying shadows.

Rozin has been building similar projects for a while. His "Wooden Mirror" was first shown in 1999; I remember seeing a video of the project and having my mind completely blown. It was, in retrospect, one of the things that planted the seed for a move to New York in my brain, to see strange artifacts grown in a metal city.

Rozin's interactive mirrors at Bitforms [WMMNA]

Joel Johnson

F.R.E.D., the Forensic Data Recovery Computer

F.R.E.D., the "Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device," is a workstation designed to recover data from a variety of sources, including hard drives and all major flash memory sources. Other models in the series include the "F.R.E.D.D.I.E.," which is a mobile "Diminutive Interrogation Equipment," and "F.R.E.D. SR," which features dual processors.

The price, when compared to the prices of professional data recovery services, isn't half bad: starting at $6k for the F.R.E.D. (with monitor!) with obvious upgrades available. How long until we see F.R.E.D. guest starring on The Wire?

Product Page [DigitalIntelligence.com via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

R/C Laser Combat Cars

These tiny R/C cars are controlled via gamepad-like controllers and feature infrared lasers that can be fired to disable the competing car. To mix it up, each car has a faux "recoil" when the lasers are fired, while a button activates a five-second shield that protects the car from being tagged. And hey: "The manufacturer has confirmed that this item meets U.S. Federal toy safety standards for lead."

$100 at Hammacher Schlemmer, or $20 at Chinatown crap vendor within a few months.

Catalog Page [Hammacher.com via Coolest-Gadgets]

Joel Johnson

Hand-Made Exeluxe Speakers in Guitar Amp Chassis

Reader Ethan Andersen writes in about his "Exeluxe" hand-made speakers, built to resemble old guitar amps, currently available on Etsy:

These are handmade hi-fi bookshelf speakers for your home stereo. The Champinos are a throwback to mid-century guitar amps. On top of the good looks, these little guys sound great too! They are built with high-quality Audax coaxials, 5 1/4" drivers with a 1" dome tweeter. Dimensions are 11.5"x12.5"x7". The wood enclosures come covered with various colors of faux-leather vinyl, as well as several grillcloth options. The handles make them super portable.

Catalog Page [Etsy.com]

Joel Johnson

EarthRoamer XV-JP: Live-Aboard 4x4 Solar and Diesel Jeep

After we posted about the 4x4 Van Conversion, reader "Blip Music" suggested we scope out a company called "EarthRoamer," who specializes in conversions of vehicles for long-term camping and outdoor use. So I did—and now I've got a powerful lust in my heart, having spent several hours this weekend looking over EarthRoamer's products and travel journals.

EarthRoamer makes two models: the XV-LT, a conversion of a Ford F550 truck, which they've been making since at least 2000; and the far more appealing XV-JP, a new model based around the extended-bed Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. While both models achieve the same goal—off-road-capable vehicles that can also provide comfortable living quarters—the XV-JP does it in a package that is far more practically sized, extending only about a foot in height more than a typical jeep.

I was seriously counting pennies for the first hour or so of looking at the the XV-JP until I happened on the price: a painful $77k, or $44k more than the Jeep itself. While that is certainly enough to make a man cry, it does start to make more sense when you recognize the degree of customization that has gone into each vehicle.

Each EarthRoamer XV-JP operates entirely off its diesel engine and integrated solar panel, providing hot water (heated from the engine block), an on-board toilet, a shower, lights, heating and cooling (by fan), and various other amenities, including a refrigerator. The water tanks and batteries are stowed under the frame to help maintain a low center of gravity. The top folds out into a tent with a queen-sized bed. Except for stops to occasionally empty the septic system and top off your water and fuel, you could go weeks without the need for any other modern convenience. Oh, and the whole thing has been blown out with aftermarket parts that can withstand off-road use.

Part of why the XV-JP pushes all my buttons is that it would be the perfect vehicle to use on a trip through Central and South America I've always wanted to take. Toss in a laptop, a DSLR, and a satellite internet connection (since money isn't a limitation, obviously) and I could putter around the jungle in my mobile off-road blogging platform. I am sighing so hard right now!

Product Overview Page [EarthRoamer.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Up to 60% off outlet items at Circuit City. [via Bargainist]

• Sandisk Sansa e280 8GB MP3 Player for $122, shipped. Not the latest model, but a fair price. [TechBargains]

• Shure E2C In-Ear headphones for $40, shipped. Normally $60; a good headphone. [Slickdeals]

• Download the original Command & Conquer Gold for free! Celebrating 12 years of an increasingly irrelevant series! [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Canon PC170 Personal Copier for $95, shipped.

Highest-Rated Coupons from RetailMeNot.com

• 10% off and Free Shipping on orders $25+ at Shaggy Mac: TAKETEN

• $2 off .com registrations at Go Daddy: OYH3

• 20% off on all shirts at Busted Tees: BTLOVESCH

• Bonus yellow duck and car on Second Life. (The future of entertainment!): WAIT76

• $7 off shipping at print-your-own-book shop Blurb:welcomemsg

Joel Johnson

Indiana Jones LEGO Boxes Leaked

Cool Toy Review nabbed these first shots of the Indiana Jones-themed LEGO sets that will be available this year. I know I'm going to be buying at least the one on the top-right. I'm a sucker for LEGO trucks, especially when driven by tiny LEGO Nazis.

Image Page [CoolToyReview.com via Brickset]

Joel Johnson

Apple iPhone Early Adopter Store Credit Live

Punch in your phone number and serial number, Apple will SMS you a code, punch that in, get a code for the credit. Took me about 60 seconds. [Apple]

Joel Johnson

NEW4LR Robot: Teach a New Dog New Tricks

MAKE points out this new "New4LR," or "New Four-Legged Robot," an "open"—but possibly not open source—successor to Sony's now defunct AIBO robot dog project.

The Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany has developed a new four-legged robo-critter they're hoping will be a worthy successor to Sony's defunct AIBO (at least among researchers, hobbyists and the education market). The bot is basically a big, badder 21st century take on AIBO. It works with both Linux and Windows CE, has a color headcam that's 10 times higher-res than AIBO, and uses a 500 MHz AMD-Geode-LX800 32Bit processor with 256 MB (extenable up to 1 GB) DDR-SODIMM main memory on a PC104 board from Digital-Logic. They never use the term "open source," but they say the bot will sport "open, modular and reconfigurable hardware and software structures." They hope to have it on sale by the end of 2007 for around (gulp) US$4800.

AIBO's open-source successor? [MAKEzine.com]

Joel Johnson

Optimus Maximus Keyboard Teaser Shot

One of the people at Art Lebedev, makers of the upcoming "Optimus Maximus" keyboard with embedded OLED screens in each key, has posted this teaser shot of a full-sized version in action. It almost looks like the keys are flipped to random colors instead of having useful images on both, but it's still nifty in a sort of Logan's Run sort of way.

I won't be dropping $1,500 for a keyboard anytime soon, but it's easy to imagine keyboards five or ten years out that use ePaper on the keycaps to switch the labels without having drawing so much power (or putting tons of light in your face).

First Optimus Maximus Arrives at Moscow [Livejournal.com/Optimus Project]

Joel Johnson

Oldsters Help Propel Wii to Number 1

Although stories about senior citizens playing the Nintendo Wii are hardly new, these latest ones from a short piece in The Sun are painfully charming. Watching old folks playing Wii remains one of the most amazing bits of free marketing Nintendo ever devised.

It's working, too: 1UP passes on an FT story that claims that Nintendo, for the first time in 17 years, has taken the worldwide lead in sales of a videogame console.

(This is the place I'd normally complain about the lack of titles for the Wii, but since I've been playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and finding it first rate, besides a few annoying boss battles, I will shut up about the lack of titles until sometime after Super Mario Galaxy is released.)

OAPs say nurse, I need a Wii [TheSun.co.uk]

Joel Johnson

Immobilizer Stun Gun in the Shape of a Phone

The "Immobilizer" is a 900k-volt stun gun in the shape of a cell phone. And a rather modern, convincing one, at that; it even has a faux camera on the back. It also has a built-in 12 LED flashlight, with the button for "LIGHT" just millimeters away from the one labeled "STUN." Don't get confused!

Of course if the Immobilzer was shaped like an even more expensive phone, you could use it to lure in muggers, as well.

It's $85, plus shipping.

Product Page [SecuritySafetySpy.com via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

A Peek Inside the Minds of Rock Band

Damn Wired's Chris Kohler for stealing my story about Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and the upcoming Rock Band. Sure, he actually travelled to Boston to interview the team, wrote up a whole piece showing how much Harmonix loves music, and uncovered great gems like this one about David Bowie, but I had thought about doing the same piece at least once or twice while sitting around sipping beer. Prepare the lawyers, Kohler!

Eric Brosius, Harmonix's senior sound designer, sits in his cramped office discussing one of the perks of his job -- getting to listen to the original unmixed audio tracks of classic songs. He raves about the raw vocals of "Suffragette City" by David Bowie. "There's a part where Bowie goes, 'Aw, hit me!' and you can hear him giggle," Brosius gushes. "That stuff is totally fascinating."

Full-On Rock Band Makes Jamming Follow-Up to Guitar Hero [Wired]

Joel Johnson

Halo "Museum" Commercial Send-Up from Consolevania

Above is the original commercial teaser for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360, referenced by most as "Museum." It's short and worth watching.

Some have criticized it for capitalizing on the emotions we feel for veterans of real wars. Some have criticized it for ostensibly spoiling the game, since the fake veteran wouldn't be alive in the Halo universe had Master Chief (the character you play in the game) had not won. (But I mean, duh, of course you can win.)

But the real reason you need to watch the commercial, if you haven't already, is to gain context for this send-up from the folks at Consolevania. It's brilliantly done and so sadly accurate of the Xbox Live experience.

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Today's Woot: Polk Audio RM8000T/RM50T Tower Speakers (Pair) for $405, shipped. That's about half off the Amazon price. [Woot]

• Logitech Cordless Internet Pro Desktop (Mouse and Keyboard) for $22, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Estes Sky Rangers Blue Angels ROG R/C Airplane for $56, shipped. [Dealnews]

A short list today, but there weren't very many notable deals, and I'd rather put up a short list than one filled with stuff that isn't anything special.

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• They've Got the Touch – The first official review of the iPod Touch is glowing. [PCMag]

• Join Us – "What it's Like to Switch to Ubuntu" [LaptopMag.com]

• S.H.E.E.P. – "Hype Sheet: HP Hollas Back, Girl" [Gizmodo]

• Come On, ePaper – One man's travails with a wi-fi picture frame. [OhGizmo!]

Joel Johnson

Sportsmobile Ultimate Adventure Vehicle: In a Van, Down In the River

The "Sportsmobile Ultimate Adventure Vehicle" is built out from a full-sized Ford van, complete with raised 4x4 chassis and pop-up bed a la the VW Vanagon.

Sportsmobile vans are custom jobbers, which they're more than happy to build out for you (they also do non-offroad customs), but they're also willing to sell you plans for building the same getup yourself, should you prove handy with blowtorch and welder. The idea behind using a van is to convert the interior space into something more livable than a truck, without losing the off-road capabilities like an RV.

Company Page [Sportsmobile.com] (Thanks, Bug!)

Joel Johnson

Time Box Calendar Spool from Biaugust

This "108Time Box" from Biaugust is a single roll of paper containing nine years worth of calendars, each month represented with a different text treatment.

Sadly, it doesn't appear to actually be for sale. It would be the last calendar you didn't need anyway you'd ever need!

Design Page (Flash) [Biaugust.com via Pan-Dan via Core77]

Joel Johnson

Edible Nokia Handset Mooncakes

These Mooncakes, made to be consumed as part of a celebration of a mid-Autumn Chinese festival, appear to be officially-sanctioned swag from Nokia.

Cellphone Mooncakes [Spluch via GeekSugar]

Joel Johnson

Electro-Anachronistic, Neo-Victorian, Gaslightesque, Post-Dickensian, Vernesian, Clockwork, Grunge-a Din, Steampunk Metal Sculpture

Cory had posted a few of these metal sci-fi sculptures on the main page earlier this week—this Stormtrooper, for one—and some of the commentors mentioned that they'd seen lots of similar pieces in shops around Bangkok. While I can't say for certain this shop, called "Yumi's Modals," is the source for all of them, they certainly have a wide array of similar designs, including pieces from Star Wars, Alien, Robocop, Gremlins, and more.

Some of them, like the Spider-Man table and chairs set, are downright creepy. And some of them, of course, aren't anachronistic at all, just made of metal and parts. (Others, like this droid, clearly look as if they could be powered by hateful vapours.)

Company Page [YumiModal.com]

Related: What the Fuck is Steampunk? [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Husqvarna Auto Mower: Another Lawn Care Robot

The Husqvarna Auto Mower is the latest (nearly) fully automated robotic lawnmower to be literally unleashed into yards across America. It works much like robot mowers of the past: slowly and randomly, casually meandering through your yard making constant, quiet snips, then finding its way back to its charging station when done. It's not smart enough to learn the boundaries of your yard on its own, but instead travels until it reaches a wire that must be buried in, or stapled to, the edges of the yard. A PIN code activation may not prevent the unit from being stolen, but will stop any thieves from using the mower in their own yards.

Husqvarna claims the mower will cost between $15 to $25 a year to operate, which is good, as the price is probably in the $1k to $3k range, if the prices of competing mowers are anything to go by.

Product Page [AutoMower.us via Gadget Lab via Uncrate]

Joel Johnson

Smart New Speedometer Concept from Johnson Controls

As Core77 points out, the way this concept dashboard from Johnson Controls presents the speedometer is sort of hurdurrringly obvious:

While the bulk of the dashboard is ho-hum, at least one new detail is worth looking at, the speedometer gauge. While the gauge to the left of it has the conventional center-mounted needle, the large gauge has a "ring pointer," where the pointer is a graphic on a clear, rotating ring. This simple design innovation frees up the center of the dial so you can display more information.

What a difference a gauge makes [Core77]

Joel Johnson

Winamp Lives!

Nullsoft is releasing a new beta version of the venerable Winamp MP3 player today, full of features crafted with an eye towards taking on Apple's iTunes. Eliot Van Buskirk explains on Listening Post:

- The Winamp Remote feature allows you to stream the music and videos on your home computer to any other computer, a Nintendo Wii, or a cellphone, simply by leaving your home computer on and logging in to winamp.com/remote (iTunes, on the other hand, only lets you stream to computers on your local network).  I demoed Winamp Remote on a Wii and found it ran smoothly, with an easy-to-learn interface. ... - A sharing feature lets you email -- or text (!) -- a playlist to anyone you know.  Just create the playlist and enter their email address or (music-capable) cellphone number; they receive an email or text message with a link to the playlist, which then streams from your computer.  Playlists can be as short as one song, giving you a way to text message your friend the Jeffersons theme song just as he's leaving that hot job interview.

Between Winamp 5.5 and Songbird (and nerdier options like Media Monkey), the desktop music library competition may be heating back up.

Winamp's 10th Anniversary Version Edition Will Challenge ITunes [Listening Post]

Joel Johnson

Griffin Technology iPhone Headphone Adapter

Jeff Gates writes:

Joel, I noticed you posted a link for the Belkin iPhone headphone adapter yesterday. I've been in contact with Griffin as I was waiting for theirs. And it's now for sale on their site (starting today!).

They show both the black and white model but they are only selling the black one right now (I've contacted them to make that clear on the site).

Besides, what I'm really looking for is something that adds an extra line with a microphone, so that I can use any set of headphones I wish—iPod headphones don't even stay in my ears when I'm sitting still, let alone moving—along with the phone functions. I'd maybe pay $13 for that.

Here's what I did to my headphones to get them into the iPhone's goofy little headphone jack: trimmed the outside plastic with a box knife, then sealed the whole mess up with a tiny piece of heat shrink tubing.

Product Page [GriffinTechnology.com]

Xeni Jardin

Virgin America announces in-flight, air-to-ground broadband

AirCell also has a deal in the works with American Airlines for air-to-ground wireless, but from what I can suss out in the press release, two things make the VA deal different.

First, every single VA plane will have the connectivity, not just a chosen few. AA may be planning the same, eventually, but VA's committing to it from the start.

But even more interesting -- through "Red," VA will also be offering what amounts to a fleet-wide, airborne social network. Guests on one plane will be able to interact with other guests on that plane -- and with flyers on other planes within the VA fleet -- using Red. As I understand it, they've got some pretty ambitious plans in the works for in-flight interactivity. This could get really interesting.

Snip from joint press release issued just now by AirCell and VA:

Customized for Virgin America, the system is anticipated to allow guests to connect to the internet with the AirCell Broadband Service, using either their Red™ seatback video screens or their own wifi enabled portable gaming devices, laptops, PDAs or Smartphones. As such, in addition to the many entertainment choices currently offered by Red™ guests will be able to check and send web-email from their seatbacks through Red™’s TALK -- the airline’s onboard chat system -- using popular instant messaging services such as MSN®, Google® talk, Yahoo! ® Skype, and AIM®.

“We believe that broadband connectivity on our planes will help enhance the inflight experience for our guests,” said Charles Ogilvie, Virgin America’s Director of Inflight Entertainment & Partnerships. “Whether it’s IMing with your friends, updating your blog, getting a stock quote, sending photos from your trip to friends, watching a movie or sending a work email, we plan to make it all available on a Virgin America plane.”

Previously on Boing Boing:

Joel Johnson

"Life Saver" Water Filtration Bottle

Although the write-up is short on technical details, the "Life Saver" water filtration bottle claims to clean up water in just a few seconds, filtering out any contaminants longer than 15 nanometers, including viruses, without the use of chemicals.

The first wave of bottles sold at the "Soldier Technology Conference" in the UK for £190 a pop which is, well, a ton of money for a water bottle. I look forward to finding out more about how this actually works.

Bottle makes dirty water drinkable [Telegraph.co.uk]

Joel Johnson

Video: Microsoft MS-DOS 5 Promotional Rap Video. Yes, Rap.

A improbably arrhythmic bow-tied professor raps to two preppy saps about the miraculous new features in Microsoft MS-DOS 5 update—it frees up 48k!^*—punctuated by a chorus of three backup soul singers reminding us that "No PC should be without it!" An amazing five whole minutes long, as Professor Rap has a lot of ground to cover, including how much money you'll make selling MS-DOS 5, which is as easy as selling fries with a burger.

Do me a favor and blast this loud and proud in your office today, especially if you're still running some version of MS-DOS. (Thanks, John!)

* QEMM 4 LYFE, bitches.

Joel Johnson

Women's Spatial Acuity Improved By Videogame

In a study The Economist is calling "nurture strikes back," a videogame—Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault, a first-person shooter—has helped improved a set of women's ability to perform in spatial awareness tests, even months after the test was conducted.

As a control, other volunteers were asked to play a decidedly non-action-packed puzzle game, called "Ballance", for a similar time. Both sets were then asked to do the odd-man-out test again.

Among the Ballancers, there was no change in the ability to pick out the unusual. Among those who had played "Medal of Honour", both sexes improved their performances.

That is not surprising, given the different natures of the games. However, the improvement in the women was greater than the improvement in the men--so much so that there was no longer a significant difference between the two. Moreover, that absence of difference was long-lived. When the volunteers were tested again after five months, both the improvement and the lack of difference between the sexes remained.

Psychology and the sexes [Economist]

Joel Johnson

Hennessy Hammocks

Hennessy Hammock has been around for several years, but thanks to a tip from the comments and my absolute lack of desire to do anything online this morning, I spent the better part of an hour browsing the company's website, reading stories from satisfied customers, and daydreaming about taking a backpacking trip out of the city sometime soon. (And in fact, I think I'm going to.)

Like inventor Tom Hennessy, I thought the Army-issue hammock tents where some of the coolest things ever made; unlike Hennessy, I didn't invent an improved version of my own. The Hennessy hammocks feature an open slit at the bottom, making egress simple, while still sealing up when you're fully inside from the way your weight shifts. (Although larger models also shore that seam up with velcro.)

I especially liked reading about some of the little tweaks users of the hammocks have done, like this funnel and bottle contraption that is used to weigh down the rain flaps as well as fill the bottles with rain water.

Prices vary between under $100 to upwards of $500 depending on how well appointed a model may be, from a backpacking model that's just under two pounds to a military-grade model that can support extra stress and weight.

I want one pretty badly, just like I wanted that Army hammock from twenty years ago, but I think I'll resist until I get one more hike in, just to prove that I've got some self-control. Anyone know any good mountains around NYC that have EV-DO?

Company Page [HennessyHammock.com]

Joel Johnson

Not Everyone Loving the New iPod Interface

Some people are really not loving one part of the new iPod Classic and Nano interface: the album art that appears underneath the menus.

The problem is two-fold: The art scrolls ever-so-slightly behind the menu, which some people find distracting; some people are embarrassed that the iPod, which randomly selects album art from your music, will display something you are embarrassed of owning in public.

Kirk McElhearn had the first issue:

Let me explain how this works, for those who do not have new iPods. When you are on the main menu (the top-level menu), or the Music menu (which leads to Playlists, Artists, Albums, etc.), you see album art on the right half of the iPod screen. This is a random cover from your music, and it changes about ever 8 seconds. It also moves around; you know, like those annoying Flash ads on web pages that distract you so you can't read articles?

It's Official: Apple's Stupidest Interface Innovation Ever [McElhearn.com via Daring Fireball]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Free 1.1 Ounce Sample of Folgers Gourmet Selections coffee. I'm sure it's total crap, but hey, free coffee! (With your address and contact info, of course.) [Bargainst]

• Today's Woot!: Razer HP-1 Barracuda 5.1 Channel Gaming Headphones for $65, shipped. [Woot]

• White Sports Cap for iPod Nano for $10, shipped. Should you need a baseball cap with a slot for a 1st or 2nd gen iPod nano—you lost all your pockets in the war, say—then you are now set up. [TechBargains]

• Refurb Apple iPhone 8GB for $350. Let early adopters' loss be your gain. [Dealnews]

• Refurb Philips 2GB GoGear Micro Jukebox MP3 Player for $25, shipped. Perfect for a kid not old enough to trust with something more expensive. [Dealnews]

• Refurb Soyo 32-inch Widescreen LCD TV for $400, shipped. Only 1366 by 768 pixels and with a crap warranty, but it's cheap. [Dealnews]

• Helicopter flight to NYC airports for $100 each way. What's most interesting to me is that it only costs $170 normally to get a helicopter to the airport. It costs like $50 to take a cab! [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Rosy Future – An ad for the Sprint version of the upcoming Centro, Palm's smaller version of the same old thing. [Morning Paper]

• Californian Standoff — Apple takes a no-aggression stance toward third-party iPhone hackers. [Gearlog]

• Really? Mac? — Guitar Hero III coming to both PCs and Macs. [Game|Life]

• Free as in Free – Free tool lets you unlock the iPhone for use on non-AT&T carriers. [FreeiPhoneUnlock.com]

• 6. Because It's Awesome – "Five Reasons You Should Be Playing Peggle" [Game|Life]

• Peripher-hell – Rock Band on the Xbox 360 will not come with a wireless guitar, thanks to Microsoft's stupid tarriff on third-party controllers. [Gaming Today]

• Bleepin' Bleeper – "I Just Spoke to a Robot Telemarketer" Gearlog

Joel Johnson

Toy Octopus Encourages Beach Clean Up

This toy octopus concept from Jaehyung Hong is designed to make cleaning up the beach a playful activity for kids. Once all eight orifices are filled with plastic bottles, the octopus will float.

(I presume there are two more slots on the bottom, or the designer just didn't want to call it a hexopod. Or a sectopod, despite the esteemed history of the term.)

Help An Octopus Find His Legs [Yanko Design]

Joel Johnson

Bauhaus-Inspired Gift Kodak No. 1A

Image: Rick SolowayRick Soloway has just uploaded these images of the gorgeous Gift Kodak No. 1A. He writes:

This is the lovely and hard to find Gift Kodak No. 1A that was made for only one year 1930-31. The Bauhaus-like motif is repeated on the camera and the enamel and metal inlay on the wooden box. While this camera was produced during Walter Dorwin Teague's tenure at Kodak as a consultant/designer, we have not been able to locate drawings or signed designs to confirm this camera as one of his. Definitely maybe. Very hard to find, and very pricey. This camera belongs to a friend of mine with disposable income.

f_kodak_gift [Flickr via m, appeal. via Monoscope]

Joel Johnson

Gothic Castle Decor: Bat Light Fixtures!

While I am not suggestion you purchase these lamps from Rejuvenation, you have to admit they'd go perfectly with those bat-winged ceiling fans.

Price? $1,500 apiece. Better get to turning a rich widow into a helpless ghoul using your pale Carpathian savoir-faire. (You might also use a cone of concentric rings emanating from your eyes or forehead. Or just rob her, sheesh.)

Rejuvenation's Bat Pendant Lights [Apartment Therapy]

Joel Johnson

Palm Treo 500v: New Look, Same Limitations

Although there is very little different under the hood, Palm has officially announced the Treo 500v, a Windows Mobile 6-powered smartphone that will be available on Vodafone in Europe and as-yet-unannounced carriers here in the States. Still no Wi-Fi, because Palm are bastards.

Press Release [Palm.com via Phonescoop]

Joel Johnson

Pure Digital Flip Video Ultra

What's great about the latest model of the Pure Digital's pocket video cameras isn't what they can do today—this latest "Flip Video Ultra" can shoot up to an hour of video on its 2GB of internal flash memory—but what they'll be able to do in a year or two when they'll be in the discount bin: still take decent video with a device that you don't mind losing.

In the meantime, if you've got $180 to spend on a camera, get one that takes miniDV tapes. It might be larger, but the quality will be better; failing that, you'll be able to record for more than an hour at a time. It likely will not be pink and white, mind you.

Pure Digital Technologies introduces new Flip Video Ultra series [Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

Cocoon Tent Concept by John Moriarty

The "Cocoon" outdoor emergency shelter was described by my online acquaintance "jinx" as being, "a pinata for bears." I bet it would be hell on your knees.

Design/Portfolio Page [Coroflot via Oh Gizmo! via ElectroPlankton via PreSurfer via Dump Trumpet via Reuben Miller via CubeMe via Yanko Design]

Joel Johnson

Lenovo's Power-Efficient ThinkCentre A61e Desktop

While the dainty power needs of the new Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e desktop machine are laudable—it can be powered by an optional solar panel alone (although who knows how big it might be)—the press release announcing the desktop PC underlines both how little inexpensive the electricity we pull from the mains really is:

• A user could save, on average, more than $20 a year in energy costs and the equivalent of the carbon dioxide emissions created by two round-trip plane flights from Boston to New York.

• A customer deploying as few as 50 desktops could expect to save more than $1,000 a year in energy costs alone. And it could help avoid more than 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

...

2 Based on Lenovo and TBR calculations using a single AMD Athlon 64 X2-based processor. Based on a 5% per year increase in electricity rates and on a daily PC usage pattern that includes 70% of time spent in sleep state, 5% of time spent in idle and 25% of time spent in an operational state. Average electricity price based on American 2007 average retail price 8.37 cents per kilowatt hour.

Also, while we're on the subject, this line is sort of bullshit:

the ThinkCentre A61e desktop uses up to 90 percent reusable/recyclable materials as well as 90 percent recyclable packaging

Press Release [BusinessWire via Engadget]

Joel Johnson

What the Fuck is Steampunk?

I unabashedly think antiquate-it-yourself faux retro-futurism is cool, from Jet Age, Eames-inspired modernism applied to PC case design^* to the current love/bane of the intertard set, steampunk.

Why there has been an accelerating interest in steampunk seems clear. As Warren Ellis mused:

Is it possible that steampunk is making a comeback as acquiescence to the notion that our more recent apparently plausible models of the future will never come to reality?

But while some people are certainly not fans of steampunk in any of its forms, I've seen a strange backlash against the term burble up over the last couple of months, inscrutably more about steampunk as terminology than the items labeled as steampunk. Some people levy that the term is being tossed around indiscriminately, used to describe things that are simply baroque or old fashioned, but wouldn't actually use steam as a power source.

So if you save the term "steampunk" for only those things that might actually be driven by vapor, what would you call things that might not use steam themselves, but fit cleanly in the same fantastic genre? I considered "clockwork," but that implies gears and springs, which often appear as stylistic chrome, but are rarely functional.

Look at Jake von Slatt's famous Steampunk LCD and Keyboard [pictured above]. It looks like it's made of brass and marble, could easily be imagined on the oaken desk of a zeppelin captain, but doesn't appear to use steam or gears at all, real or imagined. But if it's not steampunk, what is it? "Victorian?" That doesn't imply the alternate timeline that "steampunk" does.

If there's a better term, let's find it. Or maybe I'm wrong about what's causing the bristling in the first place; it's possible that some of you are whimsiless bastards who don't find any appeal in the spats-and-rocket-belt school of daydreaming. Perhaps it's the echoes of "cyberpunk" causing us to cringe in collective embarrassment for our past optimism and questionable, methylamphetamine-inspired clothing choices. I just think steampunk is a neat confluence of trends, taking a bit of post-goth fashion, mixing it with a little DIY juice from the modding scene, and coming up with something that, by being inherently not of our timeline, should be timeless. But apparently is not.

* I haven't actually seen this, but I'd like to; anyone know how to fold plywood?

Joel Johnson

Di Blasi R7E Folding Motorbike

The Di Blasi R7E folding motorbike design has remained mostly unchanged for the last 25 years. While that's a indicator of simple, solid engineering, it also means very few improvements have been made—I'm looking at the 50cc 2-stroke engine, specifically, and its need for a 50:1 ratio of fuel and oil. (Two stroke engines tend to cough out a lot of dirty exhaust, as well as noise.)

But there's no denying it's a cute and clever little runabout, capable of being folded down into a block that takes up less than five cubic feet of storage. It still weighs about 60 pounds, but I bet it's one of the only bikes you can have shipped to your door for under $100.

While they're built in Italy, an American company, Folding Motorbike, Inc., has taken to importing them, although they don't list their prices on their ridiculous flash website, nor do they discuss street legality. Another company is selling them on eBay for three grand, which seems like a lot of money when you can buy a slightly used one in the UK for well under that. Considering how inexpensively one can pick up the far more stylish Honda CT70 Trail Bike on eBay, albeit in various states of disrepair, the ability to fold your little two-stroke down into a block will need to be pretty important. Which is why there is also the R7ES model, I suspect, which replaces the carbon steel frame with one of stainless, the better to resist corrosion when stashed aboard a boat.

Folding Motorbike's Noisy, Gaudy Company Page [FoldingMotorbike.com]
Another, Cheaper American Importer [DiBlasi.com]

Joel Johnson

Aether Glowing Knife Block by Vincent Hudson

A sure winner of the "pretty, but utterly useless" category, this "Aether" knife block concept from Vincent Hudson creates different light effects depending on how many knives are placed in the block. Just don't miss the block and sever the power cord.

Aether Knife Light [YankoDesign.com]

Joel Johnson

Japanese Arcade Game Blamed for Rise in Illegal Stag Beetle Imports

Image: Japanese Stag Beetle Page, Mushiking.com

Although insect collecting is a long-favored hobby in Japan, the card-dispensing arcade game Mushiking ("Insect King") is being blamed for an uptick in illegal importation of the Lucanus cervus akbesianus, an endangered stag beetle from Turkey, precipitating what one group is calling an "entomological holocaust."

Collecting insects is an ancient summer pastime in Japan, but has been given new impetus by Mushiking. The arcade machines dispense a card with a picture of a particular insect and specifications of its fighting abilities. When the card is inserted back into the machine, its owner controls the beetle and can fight against the computer or friends with cards of their own.

Video game puts bounty hunters on the trail that could wipe out the stag beetle [TimesOnline.co.uk via Kotaku]

Joel Johnson

Jakks EyeClops Bionic Eye

There's not much to the Jakks EyeClops Bionic Eye—it's just a 200x microscope camera that outputs to your TV over composite. But its genuine purpose is revealed by this product picture: to give defenseless butterflies debilitating nightmares.

Who... does... The Caterpillar... work for?!

Jakks EyeClops Bionic Eye - television microscope brings your life into focus [RedFerret.net]

Joel Johnson

FlatWorld: Enhanced Military VR Simulator

Crave has a short piece up about "Flatworld," a.ka. the "Infantry Immersive Trainer," the latest in virtual reality mission simulators for the military, this time with an extra emphasis on situational distraction as well as tactics.

The sets are large enough to drive a Humvee through, and will be enhanced with live, role-playing civilians and enemies. Details like flies buzzing around a pool of gore, sobbing widows and a shadow cast by a digital foe who hoses you down with AK fire all give this course the makings of a first-rate theme park. Trainers will eventually be able to tailor the sets and scenarios to specific missions. Imagine being able to rehearse something like the 1970 Son Tay POW camp raid or key fire fights in the 2004 battle of Fallujah.

'FlatWorld' gives Marines a taste of chaos [Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

LEGO: Post-Apocalyptic Mutant Cityscape by Legohaulic

I feel like I have a pretty good pulse on the top LEGO builders putting work online, but I so obviously don't; that would upset me if it didn't mean I was still finding amazing builders like "Legohaulic" every now and again.

Above is his "Post Apoc Diorama," where roving bands of mutants pit mechanized spider tanks against goo-spurting battle wagons for control over a ruined city landscape. It's absolutely organic, amazing work so good I had a hard time picking out the best shots. Don't miss all the detail shots on its Brickshelf page.

It looks like Legohaulic is caught up in the post-apocolyptic vibe lately. (The Old Man Thistle model is hilarious.) But he's still stepping out into other sci-fi and videogame-inspired pieces, like this confident model of the Marcus Fenix character from the Xbox 360 game Gears of War.

Legohaulic's Photostream Flickr]

Joel Johnson

Team Fortress 2 "Meet the *" Trailers

Video: Valve Software, "Meet the Engineer"

Along with an announcement yesterday of a pre-order price for the upcoming "Orange Box" collection of games from Valve software—perhaps one of the best gaming deals of recent memory, including Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, and a 10-level version of Peggle, as well as access to the original Half-Life 2 and HL2: Episode 1 for just $45 when pre-ordered over the digital download service Steam—Valve also released the third in their "Meet the" trailer series for the multiplayer online team shooter, Team Fortress 2.

Even if you aren't convinced that Valve makes some of the most subtle, thoughtful, and well-polished games in the industry—and they do—the trailers they've been releasing describing the character classes in Team Fortress 2 have been top shelf. The art direction, revealed last year, was already shockingly tasteful, inspired heavily by The Incredibles, with more style than any given hyper-realistic "gritty" titles out there. (And if you're going to crib a style, you could do much worse than The Incredibles, which has some of the greatest art direction in cinema, animated or not.) But once we saw that art in motion, it was clear that Valve was continuing to do what so few other game makers can manage, making avatars that are collections of attributes and weapons into full-fledged characters with memorable, accessible personalities.

And remember, these are characters for a multiplayer shooter. Team Fortress 2 doesn't even have a plot.

Even if you don't play games at all, I have no qualms at all about showing you the trailers for this game. Even my non-gamer friends, once I've shown them the first, have been excited when I told them there was a new short to be shared.

(If you'd like to pre-purchase the Orange Box, you can buy it online from Steam, or just wait until it's in the store for a retail copy. It'll also be available for Xbox 360, should your gaming PC rig be sluggish. You can also download HD-quality versions of the clips via Steam.)

Video: "Meet the Heavy"

Video: "Meet the Soldier"

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Actron PocketScan Diagnostic Code Reader for $50, shipped. Plug into your car's ECU to troubleshoot engine problems. [Bargainist]

• Philips DVP3150 DVD/DivX Player for $35, shipped; DVP5982 with 1080p Upscaling for $60, shipped. Two cheap and decent DVD players for watching video files on your TV. [Tech Bargains]

• $10 off $40 or more Duracell batteries, including rechargables. [Dealnews]

• OQO 1.5GHz Ultra Mobile Computer for $1,600. The UMPC before UMPCs existed; still not sure who uses these things. [Dealnews]

• Belkin Headphone Adapter for iPhone for $13, shipped. Or just get an X-acto Knife and trim it off. [Dealnews]

• Toshiba 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $38, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot: HP Photosmart 3210 All in One Printer, Copier, Scanner w/ Bluetooth Adaptor for $105, shipped. [Woot]

Joel Johnson

Saitek Cyborg Gamepad with Flippable Controls

Although its single design innovation probably won't be enough to sway most, the Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad's ability to swap its left-most analog stick and d-pad into the position of prominence is clever. Saitek's decision to make the d-pad look like the mushy, irregular d-pad from the Xbox 360 controller isn't quite so.

The Cyborg P3600 is available direct from Saitek for $35 and is PC-only.

Product Page [SaitekUSA.com via Gadget Lab via Sci-Fi Tech via Crave]

Joel Johnson

GirlTech Digi Makeover

The GirlTech Digi Makeover lets you snap a picture of yourself and then add makeup, hair, clothing and accessories to give yourself an entirely new look. I'm sure the quality of the effects leave much to be desired—and obviously you'd do a sight better in Photoshop on your own—but even if it's pretty awful, this is exactly the sort of throwaway gadget you could take back twenty years in time and really blow some minds.

Of course, it's £50, which seems a bit much, but I bet some kids will have a lot of fun with this once it gets a little less expensive. Then again, as the great Dolly Parton once said, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap.

Catalog Page [RedSave.com via 7Gadgets.com via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

TRON Sequel Given Green, Pulsing Light

It's taken 25 years, but Disney's classic TRON looks like it's a go for sequel. Rather than joining the rest of the internerd in giddy shrieking, I have an honest-to-god question: Has anyone played that TRON 2.0 first person shooter? I heard varying things about it, but I wouldn't mind taking it out for a spin.

When making the original, in order to convince the studio to take a chance on a first-time director, Lisberger shot a test reel, financed by the studio, involving the deadly Frisbee battle. In a case of historical synchronicity, sources said one of the things Kosinski will be doing is working on a sequence involving the movie's Light Cycles to work out his vision for the movie. Sources also said visual effects personnel, for many of whom "Tron" was an inspiration to enter the business, already are jockeying for pole position to work on the sequence.

New 'Tron' races on [HollywoodReporter.com]

Joel Johnson

Toshiba TDP-EX20U: Neat Tricks from a Boring Projector

There's little more boring than business-class front projectors, but every once in a while one burbles to the surface with some legitimately interesting features. The "extreme short projection" features of the Toshiba TDP-EX20U, for example, let it blow out a 60-inch image from three feet away—impressive, especially considering that means it's possible to set it up in front of a presenter for table-top presentations. You can even jack in a USB key with JPEGs and the TDP-EX20U will read them right off the memory, no laptop required.

But if you put the DLP projector on the ceiling in a more permanent installation, the TDP-EX20U can be accessed via Ethernet or Wi-Fi from laptops on the network, streaming projections without physically connecting to the projector itself. (Presumably just slideshows, though, not screen-for-screen duplication.)

And if you're the sort of person for whom "SNMP" makes your beard perk up, the TDP-EX20U also has temperature, fan, and lamp status capability.

It's $1,600 and an awful solution for home theater with its XGA resolution, so don't get confused.

Toshiba Announces Wireless, Portable Projector [ExtremeTech]

Joel Johnson

Erector Spykee: Kit Spy Robot

Erector's new "Spykee" is a remote-controlled robot kit with built-in Wi-Fi, camera and microphone, which pairs with a set of included software to allow it to be controlled from anywhere on the net. (Of course, if someone where to gain unauthorized access, you'd be allowing unfettered access to a motorized spy unit that could case your house from the inside, like the evil, punk rock Johnny Five.)

While the Spykee set can be built into three different robot models and is compatible with other Erector sets, the most intriguing aspect of the $280 kit for me is the telepresence capability: Spykee serves as a fully functional webcam and VOIP speakerphone; it's even Skype compatible. I could easily see giving a friend access to a Spykee in your home via the internet, letting them wander around the house, snooping under your couch, while you sat around chatting.

Spykee isn't officially out until late October, but Amazon is already taking pre-orders.

Catalog Page [Amazon]

Joel Johnson

"Antivirus" Lid Turns Soda Cans into Needle Containers

Business Week has a sizable profile of the "Antivirus" device and its creator, Hân Pham. Pham suffered a bacterial infection from a dirty needle when she was a child, which eventually inspired her to develop a safer method for needle disposal in developing nations. She won an Index award for the design.

After 10 months of work, the result is a device that cannot be opened once it has been attached, thanks to a locking mechanism that suctions the cap firmly onto the can. There's room for 150 to 400 needles, depending on the depth of the container. In production runs of 200,000, each Antivirus cap costs just 83¢.

The cap's yellow color is a nearly universal indicator of biohazardous waste, and the thick, large overhang on its edges protects users' hands from being stuck by the needles being discarded, as well as preventing liquid splashback. Made in collaboration with SP-Moulding, a plastics molding company in Juelsminde, Denmark, the cap is designed to be disposed of with the can, eliminating another danger to handlers. And even small children's fingers cannot pass through the opening meant for needle tips.

Life-Saving Design [BusinessWeek.com via Core77]

Joel Johnson

Slide Projecting Table Lamp

Hammacher Schlemmer is sort of the poor man's Sharper Image—high praise, I know—but every once in a while they buy in bulk a product that might even be construed as "classy." This Slide Projection Lamp, for some reason hand-built in Lyon, France, projects light down from the inside of the shade, through a lens and a slide, then onto your wall. Its shade is even reminiscent of a traditional slide projector's cartridge.

Of course, you usually want the lights off when you're showing slides. It's $250; I'd like to see one of these in person.

Catalog Page [Hammacher.com via OhGizmo!]

Joel Johnson

World's *ist: GeStream Tech's 5.9-Inch Bipedal Robot

Although Tomy's 6.5-inch i-SOBOT was only recently released, an upcoming kit from GeStream Tech is being put out for show that's a whole 0.6 inches shorter, capable of dancing, kicking ping-pong balls, and all the other activities typical for one of these Asian bipedal robots.

When it's released, the GeStream model should cost around $200 for the kit, with assembly required, of course. I can't imagine it'll be very long before these things get down into the three or four inch range, come pre-programmed with a variety of cute moves, and will become extremely popular desk toys.

Malaysia's i-SOBOT Challenger: New World's Smallest (Commercial, Bipedal) Robot? [BotJunkie]

Joel Johnson

Avon Sunfire Tube Amp: Looks Important

We've been meeting here for a while now and I really like you, so I think it's probably important for me to tell you something that you're not going to be happy to hear: tube amps are a joke. Sure, you may think you can tell the "warmth" from a tube model versus one where the sound is generated inside a hunk of silicon, but you really can't. Seriously. Let's double-blind it.

I'll give you this, though: Your amps, like this Avon Sunfire, are really, really pretty. And mine are really, really inexpensive. If only we could meet in the middle!

Product Page [AyonAudio.com via Crave.CNET.com]

Joel Johnson

1930 Windshield Candle

From a scan of a 1930s Popular Science which had such a nice cover illustration I had to include it:

All that is needed to attach the device to the windshield is to moisten the small vacuum cup fastener and press it firmly against the inside of the windshield, setting the candle in an upright position under the windshield wiper. The flame should be about a quarter of an inch away from the glass, and the candle may be adjusted to this distance by merely bending the metal holder. A shield keeps light out of the driver's eyes.

CANDLE KEEPS ICE FROM FORMING ON WINDSHIELD (Dec, 1930) [Modern Mechanix]

Joel Johnson

Sony Reader ePaper Upgraded, Leaked

The next version of the Sony Reader has leaked to the web, bearing the typically sexy Sony moniker of the "PRS-505." While the 505 is primarily a screen update—the new ePaper screen can refresh in almost half the time—the new units also tend to be a little bit thinner and compact.

The rest of the world may not be that interested in eBook tech, but I remain intrigued despite all good advice to the contrary. With Amazon's "Kindle" eBook reader on the horizon, we may end up with a full-fledged race on our hands. One only I will care about.

Of course, the issue with these things tends not to be the hardware, but the cumbersome management of the eBook files themselves. Even if you wanted to buy a DRM-encumbered book from Sony's CONNECT eBook Store, it would still be nice to be able to toss a random mish-mash of plaintext files, PDFs, .doc, HTML—whatever—and have the Reader do a decent job of rendering it sanely. At least this time around Sony appears to be advertising the Reader's ability to work with non-DRM files, as well (at least according to a catalog page that has now been yanked), so there's that.

New Sony Reader coming? [Mobileread via Wowio via Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Airbus A380 Cockpit Pictures

Let us bask for a moment in the majesty of the Airbus A380 cockpit, full as it is of flush flat panels, knobs, and various things to keep the pilots distracted so the autopilot can do its job.

AVING got a chance to tour one of Korean Air's new A380 and has several pictures.

Korean Air to unveil the inside of Airbus A380 - Detailed Image [AVING.net via Red Ferret]

Joel Johnson

Video: Katana vs. Bullet Test

A Japanese television program tested how well a katana stands up to a bullet, as seen in countless action films and anime. Turns out a katana will cut a bullet in half just fine—putting two bits of lead flying into the air instead of just one. Oops!

[via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Buy more than one LEGO Mindstorms NXT sensor, get a discount. [Shop.LEGO.com]

• Free massage chair with HDTV purchase of $1,000 or more at Best Buy. I don't know that I'm actually recommending this, but it's pretty funny. [Bargainist]

• Texas Instruments TI-83 for $50, shipped, after rebate; Ti-84 for $55 in-store, with rebate. [Slickdeals]

• Refurbished iRobot Roomba 4199 for $100, shipped. A basic Roomba, but as often as these things break after eating dirt and hair, I wouldn't pay more than a hundred for one. Even with the hassle, I still use mine a lot. [Tech Bargains]

• How to Get 505 Free Digital Photo Prints. You'll be signing up for lots of new services to do it, so be sure and use a junk email address. [Dealnews]

• Casio CD/DVD Label Thermal Printer for $57, shipped. Wholly unnecessary for most, but for those who burn a lot of discs this is a fair price. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Goodbye, N0R-M4-J34N – Mac serialz site "Mac Serial Junkie" shuts down with one of the most maudlin, ridiculous tales of woe ever. [MacSerialJunkie.com]

• The Curse – Let one man's tale of catastrophic data loss remind you that today is a good day to back up all your stuff. Offsite. [Baratunde.com]

• Robot Downey, Jr. – The Iron Man trailer is finally up. [Apple]

• That's How They Get You – Picture that will probably only entertain me of a young red-tailed hawk eating a squirrel in Prospect Park while a man with an iPod walks obliviously by. [City Birder]

• Lock a'Block – iPhoneSIMfree works. You may now use your iPhone on any GSM network—for a price. [Engadget]

• Below the Fold – "Latest Military Tech: Portable Latrine" [Danger Room]

• Try $100 Refund? – "How TiVo Can Get Its Groove Back" [NewTeeVee]

Joel Johnson

"Cloaca" Art Installation Produces Own Criticism

WMMNA has a write-up of the horrifying "Cloaca" project, developed by Wim Delvoye, a series of machines that, when fed a slurry of acids, bacteria, and enzymes along with food, produce feces.

At first, Delvoye thought that it would never be possible to build up this machine of ultimate absurdity. But he received money from a gallery in Antwerp and dedicated it to the realization of the first Cloaca. The Cloaca Original involved a lot of "bricolage". On a later outing, this time in Düsseldorf, the room-size machine was exhibited in a religious setting. He particularly enjoyed the religious metaphors of the location: the machine was meant to look like a god to whom you would sacrifice food, etc.

And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Because it appears to be shit from a shit machine.

Wim Delvoye´s talk at Ars Electronica [We-Make-Money-Not-Art.com]

Joel Johnson

Unlock RAW (and More) on Low-End Canon Cameras

Linux.com has an intriguing post up about replacing the firmware on low-end Canon cameras that share the "DIGIC II" image processing chip with Canon's higher-end DSLRs with the "CHDK" software that unlocks the RAW format (as well as other high-end features). There are definitely limitations—you have to reload the firmware each time, or "lock" the firmware to an SD card—but considering how much more after-the-fact flexibility shooting in RAW allows, it might be worth dinking around with it.

Of course, the most important part of a camera is the lens, so you won't be out-shooting DSLR cameras.

How to give your low-end Canon digital camera RAW support [Linux.com via Compiler]

Joel Johnson

Video: Fantastic Hearing Aid Packaging from Widex

Core77 highlights this stupendously clever bit of packaging from Goodmorning Technology, used in the package of hearing aids from Widex. As the inner box is removed from the outer sleeve it makes the sound waves appear to move. Even better, it's a real sound wave of Widex's slogan, "High Definition Hearing." Tré slique.

Widex hearing aids packaging by Goodmorning Technology [Core77]

Joel Johnson

Jamie Oliver Kitchen Survival Kit

The Jamie Oliver Survival Kit isn't for those long months under a cold nuclear winter sky; it's a one-stop pots-and-pans solution for anyone deprived of kitchen space, from students to apartment dwellers.

Each set includes a wok, a skillet, and a saucepan, as well as two glass lids and a "universal handle" that clips on and off the rim of each pan. A "thermospot" in the center of each pan lets you know when they've reached a moderate cooking temperature and the entire set stacks together for easy storage.

They're £70 in the UK; like Oliver, they are probably not as ubiquitous in the States.

Jamie Oliver Survival Kit [Coolest-Gadgets.com]

Joel Johnson

Flippin' Nice: Tag Heuer Monaco 69 Watch

The Tag Heuer Monaco 69 watch has a traditional analog face that can be rotated to reveal a digital watch complete with chronograph. Only seven large direct from Tag Heuer, but can be found for a much more reasonable four grand. It's two watches for the price for two hundred!

tag heuer monaco 69 watch hides a secret identity [Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Separated at Birth: Stratosphere Suit and Bioshock Big Daddy

On the left, the "Stratosphere Flying Suit" tested by Lr. Col. Emilio Herrera, Director of the Superior Aerotechnical School of Spain in 1936; on the right, the "Rosie" Big Daddy from 2K Games Boston's Bioshock.

New Stratosphere Flying Suit Tested In Airless Chamber (Oct, 1936) [ModernMechanix.com]

Joel Johnson

NRG Phoenix Fury: Caffeinated Potato Chips

NRG-brand "Phoenix Fury" potato chips are "fused with Taurine, Caffeine and B-Vitamins to deliver a fiery energy kick that will revitalize." Because nothing primes you for serious exertion like some deep-fried starch!

Also, while I am not a trained flavor physician—my PhD is in "chunkiness," a related snack discipline—I am fairly certain I never want to know what "fury" tastes like.

You can mail order NRG chips from manufacturer Golden Flake (the official potato chip of the Talladega SuperSpeedway!) for a surprisingly reasonable $30 for a case of 30 1.75-ounce bags, plus shipping.

Product Page [NRGSnax.com via Dosenation]

Joel Johnson

Armed Robots on the Streets of Iraq

National Defense has a piece about the SWORDS military robots currently in use in Iraq. The SWORDS units are armed, currently with M249 machine guns (although they can be fitted with other gear), but are used primarily for recon.

SWORDS, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other such systems are "tele-robotics," in other words, a human is somewhere else controlling the machine. But autonomy, even for armed robots, is coming, he said. That includes a machine that will hunt, identify, authenticate and possibly kill a target without a human in the decision loop.

Instead of units with 2,000 soldiers and 150 robots, that equation might be turned around within a decade. "Imagine a detachment of 150 humans and 2,000 robots," Canton said. That won't happen overnight, but the technology is advancing quickly, he said.

Gun-Toting Ground Robots See Action in Iraqi Streets [NationalDefenseMagazine.org via Danger Room]

Joel Johnson

Ericsson Tower Tube: Cell Phone Station as Monument

Ericsson is showing off an attractive radio tower concept that not only makes cell phone base stations something akin to sculpture but just happen to produce slightly less CO2 emissions during construction. And because the base stations are completely self-contained inside the 40 meter towers of concrete, no fences are necessary to protect the equipment on the ground—there isn't any. That means the towers will take up less ground space, as well.

While some might argue that these designs make towers more conspicuous, I'd take giant Q-Tips and yogurt-covered twisty pretzels over the steel lattice structures we've been using for the last century. It feels more futurey.

Campaign/Information Page [Ericsson via JustAMP via Engadget]

Joel Johnson

World's *ist: Marc Newson Lockheed Lounge on the Block for $2.4 Mil

Image: Design Museum

According to Core77, Christie's will be auctioning off designer Marc Newson's 1986 "Lockheed Lounge" chair for an estimated price of 2.4 million, making it the most expensive piece ever sold by a living designer. Fittingly, the airplane-inspired chair looks too uncomfortable to ever be sat on.

Once, in Tokyo, a friend prodded me into crashing a launch party for Newson's G-Star clothing line. I stood in the cramped area between reedy models, immaculately preened faux punks, and the usual assortment of hangers-on and proudly—defiantly—sweat on them all.

Industrial design gets expensive [Core77.com]

Joel Johnson

World's *ist: QinteiQ Zephyr Drone Completes 54-Hour Flight

Although the military overtones of the test kept official record keepers from monitoring its test flight, UK defense firm QinetiQ put its unmanned, solar powered drone "Zephyr" into the air over the weekend, where it flew for 54 hours straight. (That would be a world record, if they cared enough to submit it.)

These sort of flyers will be all over the skies in the near future, taking much the same surveillance and communications duties as satellites without the prohibitive cost of orbital launches.

Solar plane en route to everlasting flight [NewScientist.com]

Bonus Link: This is a good of a time as any to mention one of the loveliest trains ever crafted, the Burlington Pioneer Zephyr, a.k.a. "The Silver Streak." [Wikipedia]

Joel Johnson

RipRoar Creation Station: At-Home Greenscreen

The ToyQuest "RipRoar Creation Station" is a VGA-resolution webcam—nothing special there—with a mountable green screen and software package for compositing your own special effects shots. While I'm sure most of these will be used to film battles against lightsaber-wielding dragon robots piloted by zombie pirates (and the ninja princess wizard who leads them), I quietly hope that the Creation Station will fuel the dreams of at least one awkward pre-teen television meteorologist.

The whole kit is a hundred bucks. I'm not entirely sure it's just a straight web cam; there may be some flash memory on board for tetherless recording, too.

Oh, and one button upload to YouTube! I could see a healthy market for this with cornball podcasters.

Product Site (Flash, with noise) [RipRoarMedia.com]
Press Release [ToyQuest.com via Red Ferret Journal]

Joel Johnson

SanDisk Sansa View Announced

SanDisk, maker of one of the best MP3 and media player lines out there, has announced the new Sansa View, with robust video support, expandable memory, and up to 16GB of storage. Priced to move at $200.

Around Gadget Valley: Gearlog; Engadget; Crave; Gizmodo

Joel Johnson

Shopping in 1999 A.D.

From the film 1967 1999 A.D., a short sponsored by the Philco-Ford Corporation, showing what home shopping would be like three decades in the future. Although they missed the frenetic pace of today's online shopping experience—the housewife's browsing looks almost leisurely—they guessed correctly on the abundance flat-panel screens (with multiple monitors, no less), even if they were off by about a decade. Oh course, they didn't quite put together that we'd still be using keyboards for input.

Paleo-Future had another clip from the same film showing recipes and remote monitoring of children.

1999 A.D. (1967) [Paleo-Future]

Joel Johnson

EEStor's "Ultracapacitors": Quick-Charging Battery Replacements

The AP has a decent high-level overview of the "ultracapacitor" technology from EEStor, an as-yet-untested, quick-charging capacitor that its inventors claim will replace batteries entirely.

EEStor's secret ingredient is a material sandwiched between thousands of wafer-thin metal sheets, like a series of foil-and-paper gum wrappers stacked on top of each other. Charged particles stick to the metal sheets and move quickly across EEStor's proprietary material.

...

Previous attempts to improve ultracapacitors have focused on improving the metal sheets by increasing the surface area where charges can attach.

EEStor is instead creating better nonconductive material for use between the metal sheets, using a chemical compound called barium titanate. The question is whether the company can mass-produce it.

Although much of the initial talk about the ultracapacitor technology refers to its use in electric cars, smaller versions could also be used to power quick-charging gadgets like phones and MP3 players.

Battery-like device could power electric cars [CNN]

Joel Johnson

Horntones MP3 Loudspeaker for Cars

If you soon find yourself driving at a reasonable speed down the highway only to catch the impending dopplering stacatto from three-second clips of "Mama Said (Knock You Out)," you may soon share the road with a "Horntones"-equipped vehicle, capable of blasting short MP3 clips from its built-in loudspeaker.

The Horntones FX-550 Player is the heart of the system and is the primary user interface. It has 256 mega-bytes of flash memory to store hundreds of Tones (depending on the length of the audio clips utilized). It features a blue LCD display and has 9 preset buttons. Each button can play a different Tone for the selected Theme. It also has a USB port that is used loading new Themes and Tones. Two negative-trigger inputs are also provided for future use to interface with your extra buttons or other compatible devices.

Product Page [Horntones.com via Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

FishGillz Floating Sunglasses

Although available in only a single generic "sports" frame shape, the FishGillz sunglasses do have the happy tendency to float on water, something that won't seem that important to you until the moment that it is. At $40 they approach my personal upper boundary for something that is ultimately disposable, but having lost a couple of pair in the ocean myself, I could see some salty weekend captain keeping these around his neck attached to a brightly colored cord.

Of course, you could also dunk a couple pair in the sink from the local gas station and see how they do.

Product Page [FishGillzUSA.com via Gizmag]

Joel Johnson

Sony Rolly Continues to Provoke Headscratching

The Sony Rolly MP3 device will be out soonish in Japan, so start rubbing olive oil into your cheeks and chewing raw latex right from the tree to prepare your face for the beatific smirk and painfully clenched body that the tiny rolling speaker provokes in even models paid to appear entertained.

I don't want to penalize a company for doing a project that's just whimsical and for fun, but it's hard not to look at the Sony Rolly MP3 player in this new video and wonder how this little rolling, flapping sound thing made it out of the lab and onto shelves. I think Gadget Lab nails it when they call it a "Big Mouth Billy Bass crossed with a Wii," although I'd lean more heavily on the former than the latter.

Oh, yeah: Sony has announced the Rolly is going to be $350 and come with a meager 1GB of storage.

Product Page (Google Translated from Japanese to English) [Sony.jp/Google via Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Sony VAIO Intel Core Duo 2GB 15-inch Widescreen Laptop for $600 shipped (after $100 MIR). A totally decent laptop for a totally decent price. [Dealnews]

• 8-in-1 USB Memory Card Reader for $5, shipped. It amuses me that do-it-all memory card readers were "fancy" not all that long ago. Dealnews]

• TiVoHD DVR for $279, with shipping. This is the one to buy these days, TiVo-wise. A slight discount, but nothing crazy. [TechBargains]

• Sony 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with Speakers for $170, shipped. Like the laptop above, it's nothing fancy, but it has discrete speakers and an amp, which is always better than the all-in-one jobbers. [Dealnews]

Week's highest-rated coupons from RetailMeNot:

• 10% off at iPod and Mac accessories manufacturer GriffinTechnology.com, Code: RMNSPECIAL
• 10% off at Geeky clothing shop Jinx.com, Code: tweaky
• 5% off at WickedLasers.com, Code: 26844
• 10% off at Roomba-maker iRobot, Code: loy10irbt
• 20% off at gadget sticker company SkinIt.com, Code: bronxbombers

Joel Johnson

Robotech, Voltron Movies on the Way

With the success of Transformers, Hollywood is now thumbing through other popular giant robot cartoons from the '80s with plans to make them into big ol' movies. Voltron has already been acquired and now Spider-Man himself, Tobey Maguire, has announced he's picked up the rights to anime classic Robotech.

A sprawling sci-fi epic, "Robotech" takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion concerns a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source known as "protoculture," and the planet's survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.

Maguire, WB attack the big screen with 'Robotech' [HollywoodReporter.com]

Joel Johnson

Rumor: iPhone Europe Launch November 12th?

MacBidouille.com has a scan of a purported iPhone advertisement from T-Mobile in Germany, showing a 3G-capable iPhone with 16GB of storage. Anything is possible, of course, but how mad will people be if the Euro iPhone has 3G data connection and twice the storage? [MacBidouille] (Thanks, Matt!)

(I think as a matter of course I may just never post rumors at all, but I'm a bit torn. I don't want to get caught up in the rumor echo chamber, but I don't want to not pass on news people may enjoy. What's the right path here?)

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Apple Giveth – Apple locks TV out on new iPods. [iLounge]

• An Audiofile and His Money – Hand-assembled BCD-1 CD player weighs 18 pounds, costs $2,400. [Engadget]

• Are You Not Entertained? – A shot of the Optimus Maximus, the keyboard where every key is a tiny screen, with Photoshop icons. [Optimus Project]

• TiVoToTiVo – TiVoToGo and multi-room viewing are coming to Series 3 and TiVoHD units. This will probably tip me over the edge. Also coming: Watch your PC's videos from your TiVo. [TivoCommunity via Grizmrodro]

• Allow 6 - 8 Lifetimes for Delivery – 1,500 Fry's filled Fry's rebate forms found in the trash. [Consumerist]

Xeni Jardin

New iPod Nano confirmed to be neither chocolate nor butter

I received a review unit from Apple earlier in the day, and brought it along to test it out the best way I knew how: in the hands of friends.

Our waiter said he was astonished at how thin and lightweight it was (6.5 mm!), and he stared at an episode of Flight of the Conchords for so long that other tables began complaining. "The video quality is really amazing," he said, and I agree. The device is small, but that 204 pixel per inch display renders 320x240 res with about 65% more brightness than previous generation iPods.

One female friend at the table, who'd had a few too many of those Musso Martinis, offered to taste-test the hypothesis that the Nano is made of chocolate -- we grabbed the device back just in time.

It is in fact made of anodized aluminum and shiny polished steel, but the translucent color finish (in this case, red) does give it an appealing, candy-like feel.

The UI is a few steps more intuitive than the last nano generation, but I found myself (as did other friends at the table) thumbing at the screen, now acclamated to iPhones. It's not a touchscreen, and it's hard to kill that instinct now.

Coverflow is nice on this tiny device. One male pal at the table flipped through photos for a long time, and liked how bright and crisp they looked, even on the compact display.

I like that I can use my fancy schmanzty Bose headphones with this Nano, unlike the iPhone, which is designed to accept only Apple-issued headphones (or others designed for that non-standard jack depth, and the potential RF interference).

I spoke to an Apple rep yesterday about those pre-launch leaked images of the Nano popping up on various gadget blogs before Wednesday. Apple asked those sites to remove the images, in part because people "wouldn't see the context," as this spokesperson said -- I can see why. Those photos made the new Nano's butt look big. In the photos, the new Nano looks a lot bulkier and wider than earlier generation Nanos, but when you're holding the little bugger in your own hands it feels pleasingly petite.

4GB models are $149, 8GB are $199 (that's the edition where you can choose colors: red, silver, black, blue, green).

Of the three devices launched this week by Apple -- the "Touch," the new Nano, and the "Classic" -- if I were going to go buy one it'd probably be the Classic. 160 gazigamajigabytes! I'd use it on foreign trips to back up sound (if I'm doing field recordings and interviews for NPR), and photos or video. Holds about 200 hours of video, less if it's HD but still -- a bunch of space in what would amount to a very small portable hard drive.

Oh, bonus round: I also asked the Apple folks if they planned on releasing an SDK for iPhone any time soon, given that so many developers were working so feverishly on installable apps. No plans to do so at this time, quoth the spokesperson. They're encouraging people to develop and use Web 2.0 apps instead.

Photos: top, shot at Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard with an iPhone, below on my desk with the same.

Joel Johnson

Eastwood Tilt-A-Car

Having a car lift in your home garage is a dream for many amateur mechanics, but the cost is painfully prohibitive. (Not only for the lift, but for all the additional concrete work that has to be done, not to mention proper, environmentally-sound drainage.)

The Eastwood Tilt-A-Car is a much cheaper option, although it sacrifices much of the convenience of a lift: you'd have to drain all the fluids before cocking a car up on its side. (If only you had a lift!)

Eastwood claims the Tilt-A-Car will tilt a car or truck up to 6,800 pounds all the way to 90 degrees.  Two rocker assemblies attach to the wheel lugs on one side of the vehicle while a threaded lift screw connects to the lugs of a wheel on the opposite side. A 3/8″ corded or cordless drill then lifts the car up by pulling the ends of the threaded rod inward. 

Catalog Page [EastwoodCo.com via Toolmonger]

Joel Johnson

Insect Vacuum for Squishless Pest Removal

Should you feel guilt about smashing nature's tiny, soulless robots—some call them insects—this Japanese-made device uses pneumatics to suck them into a little plastic cage, allowing you to set them free outdoors, where they will wander back into your home.

If you happen to buy this, just do me one favor: leave the spiders. They're a good friend to any home.

Product Page (Japanese) [Netprice.co.jp via Plastic Bamboo via Core77]

Joel Johnson

Inflight USB Power Unit Charges Gadgets from Airline Audio Jacks

The Inflight USB Power Unit pulls power out of your in-seat audio jack and bridges it to a USB connection, allowing you to charge any device that can be charged over USB. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised an audio jack on an airplane would have enough oomph to recharge even small gadgets, but I suppose as long as it's enough power to trip the internal "I'm getting juice" switch, good enough.

The basic model is $35, although they'll sell you ones with custom tips for $10 more. (Just bring your cable from home and get the basic USB model.)

Anyone have one of these who can testify to its effectiveness?

Product Page [InFlightPower.com via Lifehacker via Windows Fanatics]

Joel Johnson

Pants with Integrated Tourniquet

While it's not actually being used in any military clothing yet, it's not difficult to see how the Blackhawk Integrated Tourniquet System (I.T.S.) could find its way into the pants of our fighting men and women. To staunch the flow of blood from a wound, a person would yank the integrated cords positioned over the arteries. There will also be shirts available when the I.T.S. line launches in '08.

Of course, extra weight is the enemy of the infantryman. I wonder if soldiers would feel the extra gear is worth it?

Integrated tourniquet clothing system aims to save lives on the battlefield [Gizmag]

Joel Johnson

Hands-On with the Tenori-On

Game and film composer Gary Kibler shares his experiences with the Yamaha Tenori-On, the $1,200 sound and light grid released in the UK this week.

Regardless, the real story here may not be about the TENORI-ON itself, but more about its artist/inventor Toshio Iwai (seen above). About how one's lifelong artistic vision can sometimes, in what would seem to be incredible odds in a corporate environment, manage to manifest itself and make it onto the world stage as an actual retail product, and not just another one-off museum installation. Can you imagine what it must have been like persuading a huge corporate behemoth like Yamaha into investing who-knows-how-many millions on the making of what's essentially a piece of "interactive music art?" I can't. I have a hard enough time just shilling my little jingles and tunes for loose change to anyone willing to listen.

Hands On Tenori-On: Close Encounters of the Interactive Music Kind [CreateDigitalMusic.com]

Previously:: Grid Sequencers Coming Soon: Tenori-On and Monome [BBG]
Video: Yamaha's Grid Sequencer "Tenori On" Launches in London [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Headscratcher: My LCD Panel Has Gone Screwy

A little personal troubleshooting is going on here at the apartment here today; I thought I might share it with you guys to try to figure out what's going on.

I bought two Dell 2001FP flat-panel monitors a couple of years ago. I recently moved one over to my girlfriend Susie's gaming rig and, as per usual when I try to do something nice, it immediately broke, making me look like a cheap heel. See that mild yellow bar on the right? It would do that from time to time on my PC. But now it's throwing that multi-colored bar in the middle, flip-flapping an inch-and-a-half bar of insanity every couple of seconds.

At first I thought it was the cable. It is not. Then I thought it might be her video card. It is not. It happens with both DVI and VGA connections. Now I'm looking at this as a learning experience, since fixing monitors is basically impossible without a tiny spaceship and an elemental shrink ray.

Here's my guess: The video processing hardware inside is dying, but in such a way that each "strip" is dying independantly. The yellow bar seems to be the same width as the inverted one, about 1.5 inches, and the monitor is about 16 inches wide, so that gives us a nice base 2 number of... 10.666. Okay, so much for that. Any ideas?

Joel Johnson

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Walkthrough: SPOT PLB, Skeletool CF, and More

Equipped.org took a trip to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market '07 and reported back with highlights from the world of camping and survival. (Including, as my friend Fibiger initially pointed out, the carbon fiber version of that upcoming Leatherman Skeletool.)

There's too many cool things to bother excerpting completely, but here's a short list: water purification systems, including a chemical-based one from PUR; LED flashlights; new water bottles; the SPOT satellite messenger system; various knives and survival systems.

They took an extra deep dive into the SPOT Satellite Messenger [pictured], a consumer-grade personal tracker that not only allows you to be located with fidelity up to 20 feet, but allows you to send basic messages about your condition. (Including "I'm okay.") Equipped.org has some reservations about the device on the whole, but it is cheap for this sort of thing at just $150 for the initial unit, plus $100-a-year for the service. Other Personal Locator Beacons have run in the middle hundreds, plus service. (Thanks, Harrkev, for the correction.)

Oh! And because I know how many of you like the Photon LED flashlights:

David tells us that these new Nichia LEDs will be exclusive to Photon initially. As with the last LED upgrade, this one is claimed to once again almost double the light output compared to the existing Photon lights!

Man, there are so many cool things I'd like to keep talking about, like the MSR E-Wing one-person tarp shelter. Go read the write-up!

Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2007 [Equipped.org]

Joel Johnson

MWMIK: Four-Ton British Military Buggy

This new "Mobility Weapon Mounted Installation Kit" (MWMIK) may look like some anachronistic sci-fi movie prop—you know, the kind where it's 1,000 years in the future, but everybody still drives Hummers?—but the four-ton 4x4 is an actual real-life vehicle, intended to be used by the British in Afghanistan. It's certainly got the ability to bring a lot of firepower to the table, including "a .50 calibre machine gun or an automatic grenade launcher and a general purpose machine gun," but if I recall correctly, the current trend in anti-guerilla warfare is to put more armor on your vehicles, not leave them open-topped like a dune buggy.

Apparently the old Land Rovers used by the British troops have been open topped before anyway, so it's not really worse, at least.

Army to use 'Mad Max' 4x4 to fight Taliban [Daily Mail via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Apple as High Roller

Much yapping was made of Apple's decision to lower the price of the iPhone two days ago, then offer a $100 credit to the earliest adopters. Some questioned whether the iPhone was selling well at all, while some early adopters complained they got burned by a price drop that happened only two months after launch.

I have no interest in doing a big think piece about what this or that means, mostly because it's all masturbatory speculation, but I will mention what I think is most interesting about these last few months watching Apple.

The iPhone signifies a new strategy for Apple. They released a glut of information about the device six months before launch, obviously a smart play that built a fever pitch, but diametrically opposed to the way Apple traditionally handles product launches. They priced the iPhone at $600 knowing full well that they would be launching the iPod Touch only a couple of months later. Then Jobs took a step back and offered the $100 credit, which may or may not have been calculated—we'll never know—but is as close to a mea culpa as we've ever seen.

These aren't the moves of the stoic hits factory we all have come to know and love (and loathe). This is a company that is straining at full tilt to capitalize on their unique place in the market, working every engineer they've got to maximum capacity, juking quickly when they once would have silently taken their lumps.

Whether previous sales were a factor in the iPhone price drop is hard to say. But this is the product line-up Apple has been putting together for the last several years, right in front of a Christmas they certainly hope will be their biggest sales quarter yet, with media giants like NBC starting to really get the taste of fear in their mouths. What we're seeing now is an Apple cashing out all their stored up success and making a big play. Apple is going all in.

Joel Johnson

Stephen Hawking LEGO

I didn't realize that LEGO sculpture was a competitive sport, able to be won utterly and without challenge, but apparently I was wrong.

Professor Stephen Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics - Cambridge University. BEST WISHES ON YOUR TRIP TO THE STARS [Brickshelf]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• iRobot Rooma 530 for $212 plus shipping. One of the new Roombas, although you can usually find older models for $100ish. [Bargainst]

• Microsoft Zune 30GB Digital Media Player for $170. New models are on the horizon, so the old models are going. Zune is pretty good, really, if you don't imagine what it could have been if Microsoft had any balls. [Bargainist]

• Lego Death Star II for $253. (Normally $300.) The largest LEGO set ever. I want this so hard, but I am resisting. [Dealnews]

• 2 5-foot HDMI cables for $12, shipped. Never, ever, ever buy cables from a retail electronics store. [Dealnews]

• Westinghouse TX-42F430S 42-inch LCD 1080p TV for $1,080, shipped. (46 for $1,350.) Turn down the backlight for decent black levels; you'll sear your retinas otherwise. [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

Burning Man Art Car for Bilking Moisture Farmers

Marc Merlin has a very nice write-up of his experiences at this year's Burning Man along with a heap of pictures, but I would have been remiss in my nerdly duties if I didn't share this picture he took of a particular art car.

I don't know how you'd otomatopiate Jawas, but let me assure you I tried. Let me give you my best Threepio instead: Oh my!

Burning Man 2007: The Green Man [Marc.Merlins.org]

Joel Johnson

Leatherman Skeletool: Lightest Full-Sized Multi-Tool

My friends at Popular Mechanics got a sneak peak at the upcoming Leatherman Skeletool, a delightfully monikered multi-tool that lives up to its name. Take a look: where all non-essential surfaces, Leatherman has carved out holes in the metal, leaving the Skeletool a light 5 ounces—feather-light enough for even Tim Burton to carry in a moldy silken jacket pocket.

You can even go lighter if you move from the $72 base model to the $96 Skeletool CX, which has carbon fiber handles. (Although I bet the all-metal version looks nicer; there are no carbon fiber pictures yet.)

But the best part fo the curved new Skeletool: The included bottle opener is always accessable, even when the Skeletool is closed.

Leatherman Skeletool: The Lightweight Multi-Tool You'll Actually Use [Popular Mechanics]

Joel Johnson

Confirmation: No Bluetooth in iPod Touch

An Apple spokesperson has confirmed to Boing Boing Gadgets that the upcoming iPod Touch does not include Bluetooth, despite rumors to the contrary today. An image had made the rounds earlier today—the corner with the purported Bluetooth icon in the corner is reproduced here—but Apple has said it is not an official image.

While there wouldn't have been much use for monophonic Bluetooth headsets in the iPod Touch, the lack of Bluetooth precludes the possibility of wireless Bluetooth stereo headsets or microphones that could be used with a future third-party VoIP application.

Update: Some eagle-eyed readers have pointed out that there are Bluetooth icons on images on the Apple.com pages. (See this post's comments.) Since Apple roundly denies there is Bluetooth in the Touch, I think we can chalk it up to a Photoshop blunder. (Once they hit the street and someone tears it apart, we'll know for certain if there's Bluetooth hardware in there or not.)

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Apple Jacked – "Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store."[Apple]

• Send Designers, Guns, and Money – India facing a shortage of designers. [LiveMint.com via Core77]

• Particle Man – The Times profiles Ikea Hacker and MAKE. [NYTimes.com via Core77]

• Nice Intro, Blakeley and/or Wilson – "Justify Your Platform, Gabe Newell" video challenge. [Kotaku]

• So? Well? – Vudu, another magic streaming content box, reviewed. [Crave.CNET.com]

• Shack Attack – Resident genius Brendan Koerner dismantles Radio Shack's latest commercial. [Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Cabinet Jack: Multi-Tool for Cabinet Makers

Toolmonger's got it right about this "Cabinet Jack":

It's refreshing to see a multi-tool that doesn't try to be all things to all people.  Instead, the Cabinet Jack focuses specifically on cabinet making needs, assisting in tasks like cleaning up hinge mortises and ease edges.

A Multi-Tool For Cabinet Makers [Toolmonger]

Joel Johnson

Sony HES-V1000 Home Entertainment Server

I am fully aware this is the sort of unit that looks best in a spartan room with glass walls set smack dab in the middle of the wind-blown Swedish tundra^*, but golly I think the new Sony HES-V1000 Home Entertainment Server looks neat.

The big black tower makes me regret that I've already used my once-a-day reference to the 2001 monolith, but somehow we'll muddle through. The HES-V1000 stores up to 200 discs deep inside, switching them into the built-in Blu-ray player (which supports DVD and CD, of course), or even letting you store video on its 500GB hard drive. (Where that hard drive content comes from I'm not sure; they surely aren't letting you rip DVDs.)

The HES-V1000 uses the "XrossMediaBar," as seen in the Playstation 3 or PSP, when you're controlling it on your TV. But if you'd like to control it by standing over it, perhaps sacrificing an infant or something—it is Sony, after all—then you can also use the backlit touch-sensitive buttons along the top.

It also talks to all the wacky media gadgets that Sony makes that nobody really ever buys, like LocationFree. You can put a HES-V1000 in your media temple for just $3,500 come October.

Update: Gizmodo's Brian Lam says: "I played with the Sony HES-v1000; Doesn't stream anything but audio." Considering I don't even own a Sony audio device, I'll survive. Brian also says it has motorized panels, like every good thing you don't need should.

Press Release [Sony.com]

^{* Alternately: A smeared rainbow of nighttime lights in any given Asian megalopolis.}

Joel Johnson

Alienware Rack-Mount Hanger 18 HD Media Server

CEDIA, one of the major home theater expos, is currently underway, and while most of the stuff shown is your same ol' same ol', a few interesting bits are floating to the surface. This "Hanger18 HD Media Server" from Alienware, for instance: a four terabyte array of hot-swappable hard drives, HD recording up to 1080p, and an internal Blu-ray drive lets this thing do some serious entertainment bit spitting.

To me, though, the most appealing thing about the Hanger 18 is that it's in a rack-mountable case. I've long had a dream of moving all my computing and media devices into a single, throbbing entertainment monolith. Unfortunately, having had some minor experience building rack-mount systems in the past, I'm not quite prepared to put in the extra money, especially when I'd basically be stacking all my stuff on top of each other like it is already.

Prices for the Hanger 18 will probably range in the $2k to $4k range, depending on how you spec it out.

Press Release [Biz.Yahoo.com via Engadget]

Joel Johnson

Wordsearch Wallpaper

This wallpaper by 5.5 Designers is covered in a grid of letters, designed to let you play the grade school favorite "Find the Word" game.

My great-grandfather used to keep a pencil or pen in the pocket of his overalls, leaning over from his chair to scratch notes in the margins of the patterned wallpaper in his home. Used to drive Great-Grandma Lemons crazy, but it was always fun to walk around the house and see what he'd scratched down.

Wallpaper Games by 5.5 Designers [Apartment Therapy]

Joel Johnson

Skull Made from Melted Rawk Cassette Tapes

Image: Andrew Huff

Brian Dettmer created this skull entirely out of melted '80s metal band cassettes. He later built an entire skeleton using the same technique.

There's a metaphor in here somewhere. Home taping is killing tapes?

Cassette Tape Skull (cc Andrew Huff) [Flickr.com]
"briandettmer" tag on Flickr [Flickr.com] (Thanks, DreepDrishcoes!)

Joel Johnson

LuLL Flowering Lamp Concept

It appears to be just a concept for the moment, but I adore this "LULL" lamp that opens and closes like a flower, softly dimming the light before fading out at night, then cracking open along with the dawn. Something about items in our home responding to the outside world really, really appeals to me; I want my home to breathe. (And yes, I know how to make the walls breathe, but that's not a good daily solution.)

Of course, not all children man be as happy as this one to wake to a yawning metal blossom beaming light right into their soul, but if you can't traumatize a child at least once a day, what's the point of having them?

LuLL the Flower Light [Freshome.com via Coolest-Gadgets.com]

Joel Johnson

WAVE Street Surfboard

The "WAVE Street Surfboard" is a frightening two-wheeled device intended to give you several vectors onto which you may through the air towards a wall. Like a skateboard, the WAVE is meant for use on land. Unlike a skateboard, it has only two wheels, the better to make deep slices into turns, more like a surf or snowboard. It also has a thoughtful wide rear and foredeck, the better to place my fat, whimpering ass on as I careen wildly down a hill. There's no way I would ever stand up on that thing.

The reviews on Sports Authority's site are generally positive, although most warn it has a steep (but short) learning curve and a tendency to chew through wheels fairly quickly. The WAVE is available for $100 (plus monthly health insurance payments).

Catalog Page [SportsAuthority.com via Uncrate]

Joel Johnson

HP Back in the Smartphone Game with New iPAQs

HP has brought two new Windows Mobile 6 Professional IPAQs to the table in an attempt to crack back into the smartphone space. The QWERTY-equipped 910 has a square screen, while the 610 has a larger screen, but no keyboard.

Both are sort of sterile-looking devices, which may or may not appeal to you depending on how you feel about the glossy faux metal that covers most Windows Mobile devices these days. Hardware-wise, they're not without oomph—3G, Bluetooth 2, A-GPS, 3 megapixel cameras—but like all hardware with feature sets that are predicated largely by their OS, they're not doing a whole lot of stand-out stuff.

I'm a little surprised they're keeping the "iPAQ" brand. I never thought it screamed modernity.

HP Refreshes iPAQ Lineu [Phonescoop]

Joel Johnson

Bang & Olufsen Beo 5 Remote

Bang & Olufsen may be one of the more interesting electronics companies out there. Not because I think they make great stuff—it's so ridiculously expensive that I never even consider buying it, something which I'm sure breaks their hearts—but because they exist in a rarified stratosphere somehow exempt from traditional good taste and design.

In the strange fairy land of high-end retail, products like the Beo 5 remote control are allowed to flourish, despite glaring deformities like an awkward screen perched on a spindly neck, like a lolling Hapsburg prince too rich to be quietly sequestered but too ugly to be seen.

I do like the round body, though. I bet it's got heft, like a baseball or a hunk of cheese. I bet you could bean a pauper real nice with that.

No price yet. If you have to ask...

Bang & Olufsen shows off Beo 5 remote control [EngadgetHD]

Joel Johnson

Holland Electro Wave: TV and Microwave in One

The Holland Electro Wave TV is exactly what is sounds like: a microwave with a television for a screen. It's just in prototype form now and hopefully it stays that way, at least until they can figure out how to make the contents of the microwave also visible on the screen.

Hey, what if they put in a window?

The Microwave television [Gizmag]

Joel Johnson

Samsung Files Patent for Sentry Robot Turret

Despite the occasional banged drum from people who have watched Robocop too many times, autonomous robots will not be allowed to shoot humans with weapons any time soon. We can't even make convincing artificial intelligence in our video games yet. You expect us to be able to create a bot that can distinguish threat levels from humans with executive certainty? Not happening.

But that doesn't mean we aren't arming our robots. Unwired View uncovered this patent from Samsung for a sentry robot based on tried-and-true designs from near-future videogames everywhere: rotating turret with camera eyes and guns that retract behind armor. It certainly wins a prize for looking lethal.

These kind of sentry machines probably will be created at some point, but for foreseeable future they'll still be overseen by human operators that will be the one to actually pull the trigger. And I'm fine with that.

SAMSUNG ROBOT SENTRY CAN SHOOT YOU ON SIGHT [Unwired View via Crunchgear]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• "Land of the Giants" complete DVD set for $100. [Bargainist]

• 4GB iPhones are still in stock at Apple for the moment, available for $300, plus service contract. (Refurbs should be discounted now, too.) [Apple]

• $20 off $80 or more for Remington shavers, trimmers, croppers, and straighteners at Amazon. [Bargainist]

• Pantech C120 AT&T Prepaid World Phone for $10, shipped. Perfect solution for those who want a phone but no contract. Or international bank thieves planning a caper. [Dealnews]

• Gray Neopreme 15-inch Laptop sleeve for $7, shipped. May not be super-snazzy, but it's cheap! [Dealnews]

Joel Johnson

A Few Minor Updates

Good morning! Sorry for the late start today. I went out to dinner with a friend of mine last night and ended up leaving my camera in the restaurant, which I only discovered by the time I was nearly home, necessitating a return trip.

I've got a couple of updates about the site.

First, comments: At the moment, you have to make two different logins for Boing Boing and Gadgets, which is hurky, but there it is. However, we're expecting to have that cleaned up by the 20th or so. I wish we could do it sooner, but there it is. I appreciate everybody who is already commenting despite having to have two logins!

Second, RSS formatting: For some reason the paragraph tags don't seem to be squirting out correctly in Gadgets' RSS feed, causing the content to be all bunched up in some RSS readers, like Google's. We've had a couple of readers offer some advice about why that may be, but we haven't been able to squash it yet. If I knew some bit of HTML to add to my posts that would make it easier, I would. (Someone suggested ordered lists, but those don't add enough padding in between bullets for my taste.)

Lastly! Our "In the Year 2000" Flickr group has been going great, so it's time to give birth to its sister group, "Electro Selectro." NY2K is about a retro-future that never happened; ElSl is about then-futuristic products that were actually manufactured. Catalog scans, old advertisements, instruction manuals: all the sort of stuff I'd love to see in Electro Selectro.

I imagine the second group won't take off as quickly (although I've added thsoe Oster brochure scans to get us started), but for the subset of we gadget nerds who are entranced by the ephemera that surrounded the gadgets themselves, it could be a good time.

And of course, thanks for reading! Tell your friends and co-workers to stop by! Unless they suck!

Xeni Jardin

Apple launch day funny, 140 characters or less: Jesse Thorn

Twittered Jesse Thorn, from The Sound of Young America.

Xeni Jardin

Xeni on CNN International re: Apple's announcements

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Atlas Glugged – Would you kindly look at this scene from Bioshock rendered in LEGO? [Kotaku]

• Axel Fail – Adding a laser to spinning top? Bad. Making the top play the theme from Beverly Hills Cop? Way worse. [Technabob]

• "Never Rule Out Goblins" – Atomic I/O letters column #73 [Dan's Data]

• Who Blows the Blowers? – Breathalyzer software tested, found to be pretty awful. [DUI Blog]

• Wachowski Siblings – Matrix co-creator Larry Wachowski rumored to complete sex change, now "Lana" [Rated-M.blogspot.com]

And a reminder: If you'd like to contact me directly with a pitch or a gadget-related tip, please feel free to email me directly at joel@boingboing.net. I very nearly always reply!

Joel Johnson

2k Games Continues to Bungle Bioshock Launch

The Bioshock launch on the PC continues to go all screwy, thanks to mentally soft thinking that leaves users feeling like they've just been paid a visit from an icy speculum.

Check out this post and response from a user on the official Bioshock tech support forum. Remember, while this guy is a toolbag, he is a legitimate paying customer:

Nemesisdesignz wrote:
I installed Bioshock on my laptop under one admin user, Everything works fine, but I then tried to switch users on my computer and whenever I launch Bioshock it is asking me to enter my serial again for the game.... IS THIS GONNA CHARGE ME TWO OF MY 5 Activations???? IF SO THAT IS GAY.... I need to know this ASAP before I attempt to play this on my pc under the other user... THis is a bug if the case be....so get yo stuff fixed!

The "activations" he's talking about are the limitations that 2k Games put on Bioshock that prevent you from only installing the game five times, which was later amended to allow unlimited installation instances, provided you uninstalled the game before you reinstalled it. (Hard drive crash? Suck it up!)

Here's the punchline, provided by an official tech support jockey from 2K Games, which was later deleted.

2k Tech JT writes:
The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased the game. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?

Woe is PC gaming!

Talk about SecuROM and activation issues here only please! [forums.2kgames.com]

Joel Johnson

Apple iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, iPod Nano, Classic, and Touch Announced

Today, Apple, a computer and gadgets company based in Cupertino, California, announced new versions of their MP3 player line, the iPod:

• An updated, all-metal iPod nano adds a 2-inch screen that supports video playback and the 3D "Coverflow" album interface, available in 8GB or 16GB of flash memory.

• An updated, all-metal "iPod Classic" model with an internal hard drive with up to 160GB of storage.

• A new "iPod Touch," a touchscreen-based media player with built in Wi-Fi, able to browse the internet with the built-in Safari web browser, as well as purchase DRM music downloads without a computer from the new "iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store."

Apple also announced that downloadable ringtones would be coming to their iPhone smartphone, which has been reduced to a single model: an 8GB iPhone for $400, plus subscription. The new iPod Nano and Classic will be available by the weekend, while the iPod Touch will ship at the end of the month.

Joel Johnson

Apple "Beat Goes On" Event Sabbatical

Boing Boing Gadgets will be enjoying the Apple iPod event, now ongoing, the best way we know how: with a nice cup of brothy soup away from the computer.

Xeni is covering the event from a doctor's office in L.A. and will update later tomorrow. If you must get a faceful of Apple right from the protuberance, MacRumors has a nice index of the places that will be liveblogging it.

Joel Johnson

MADA Caimes Guitar Body Made from Hemp

The MADA Caimes guitar is a semi-acoustic electric guitar made of hemp pulp. Unlike traditional guitar bodies that are carved from a block of solid wood (if you're lucky), the MADA Caimes is formed of a piece from the manufacturer's "Hempstone" materials made entirely of hemp fiber. (It is available in colors other than brown, too.)

Product Page [MadaGuitars.com via Core77]

Joel Johnson

SLP Survival Knife with Flashlight and Firestarter

I have an irrational affection for survival gear, considering I rarely go camping out of sight of a major road. Still, visions of my self ensconced in trunk of an ancient tree in the boreal forest, nestled peacefully in a bed of leaves while reading my Boy Scout Handbook by the light of a gas lantern are inscribed deeply from hours of pre-teen thumbing through survival gear catalogs. Has man yet created something more clever than a foot-and-a-half Rambo knife with a hollow hilt filled with fish hooks, monofilament, and a single band-aid? No. He has not.

This SLP2 Survival Tool is a worthy challenger, though. A nice little serrated locking blade can be folded inside a titanium handle, which also holds a flashlight, whistle, and fire steel. It's £35 across the pond; Getting one on the North American content might take a little work, but it's nothing a rough-and-tumble surivorman like yourself can't handle.

Catalog Page [IWantOneOfThose.com via UberGizmo via Complex]

Joel Johnson

Doggie Dooley Turns Pet Waste into Lawn Food

The "Doggie Dooley" is a "miniature septic tank" for your dog's special presents. A galvanized steel bucket with a plastic top, the Doogie Dooley is placed in a hole in your yard, filled with waste, water, and a packet of enzymes and bacteria known as the "Digester Powder." The treated liquid will seep out of the Doggie Dooley and into your yard, which it will presumably help, not hinder, the growth of grass.

You have to add another packet of the Digester Powder every six months, but besides that it pretty much takes care of itself. Way more environmentally friendly than wrapping it up in plastic bags and tossing it in the trash. Not bad for thirty-three bucks.

Doggie Dooley Pet Waste Disposal System [Petco]

Joel Johnson

Video: Yamaha's Grid Sequencer "Tenori On" Launches in London

Yamaha's "Tenoni On" button-matrix sequencer launched last night in London and several folks were on hand to play with the unit, write rude phrases in its lights, and generally have a trippy-dippy experience.

Music Thing (celebrating its/his third anniversary!) has a nice collection of videos, including the one embedded above.

Live from the Tenori On launch in London [Music Thing]

Previously: Grid Sequencers Coming Soon: Tenori-On and Monome [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Venturi Fetish Almost on the Street

With a production rate of just five cars a year—making 800 cars a year Tesla look a lot bigger—Monaco-based Venturi is about to release its take on the electric sports bra car, the squickily-named "Fetish."

The Fetish will have a zero-to-60 time of around five seconds and will be available for €450,000—about six times the price of the Tesla.

GreenTech Media has a short feature about Venturi and its CEO, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, as well as a video of the Fetish in action.

Venturi Goes Kinky [GreenTechMedia.com via Earth2Tech]

Joel Johnson

Spy Sunglasses Take Another Stab at Hidden Video

These sunglasses, said to have an embedded camera wired inside, may be the best looking set of surreptitious spy glasses yet. The thick frame sunglasses that are en vogue these days really are perfect for embedding cameras, perhaps even with wireless transmitters. I'd expect no less for the £814 (with VAT) price. Although I suppose if you had a wireless transmitter, you'd have to embed a battery, and even an encephalitic Nicole Richie couldn't pull off glasses that outsized.

Catalog Page [SpyCatcherOnline.co.uk]

Joel Johnson

SteriPEN Reviewed in the Field (Verdict: Still Alive!)

The portable ultraviolet water cleansing SteriPEN isn't a new product, but I've rarely read such a glowing recommendation:

On my trip [to Uganda], often when I asked a waiter for a glass of tap water, my request would elicit a smile or a laugh. In some cases, they simply would not bring me a glass of water. Most of the time, though, I convinced them -- and then, to their amazement, I would take out the SteriPEN, push a button, and stir the water with the glowing purple UV light that always brought stares from other diners. After less than 60 seconds, I would take out the SteriPEN and drink the water, occasionally hearing gasps from other tables.

SteriPEN [KK's Cool Tools] (Thanks, Darren!)

Joel Johnson

Foleo Folded: Palm Kills Ill-Conceived Notebook Before Birth

In theory, the idea behind Palm's Foleo project was sound: making a light, thin device that just big enough for a keyboard and screen that uses a connected smartphone for internet connectivity and storage. Rather than haul around a laptop, the Foleo would be your "laptop away from your laptop," giving you a pleasant interface for dealing with email, light web browsing, and writing.

Of course, it was going to be a dud. And Palm, blindly flailing in the smartphone space, made the correct, if embarrassing choice: they killed it in utero, taking a $10 million hit to profits in the process.

The perfect form factor for a QWERTY device is still an elusive goal, but one worth pursuing. A keyboard just large enough for two-handed touch typing plus a screen large enough to be usable at arm's length would be worth the hassle of carrying it around. Ironically, the Treo coupled with a decent fold-out keyboard was one of the better options for this sort of interaction if you ignored the tiny screen.

The problem is that a small keyboard and screen still needs some processing power of its own as well as a power supply. And the space requirements for a processor, a little ram, and a wireless chipset are far exceeded by those necessary for a screen, a keyboard, and battery. If you're going to add all that in there, there's not much reason to go ahead and throw in full-blown chips, leaving you with a sub-notebook or something like the Asus EEE laptops.

Pretty much everyone in the consumer electronics industry knew this, which is why the Palm Foleo project was greeted with such skepticism. (The other reason was that everyone knows Palm is dying and wants them to focus on making their flagship, the Treo, a killer product again.)

Someday a company will figure out how to stash a useable QWERTY keyboard in a form factor that is as pocketable as a phone. (What I wouldn't give for a nice fold-out keyboard, plus requisite word processing software, for the iPhone.) Despite talk of working on a "Foleo 2," that company will probably not be Palm.

A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers [Blog.Palm.com]

Around Gadgeton: Gadget Lab; TechDirt; Palm Sounds; GigaOM; Gearlog; Epicenter; CrunchGear; PhoneScoop; Crave; PC World

Joel Johnson

Getting Warmer: Using Heat to Guide via GPS

German and Swedish researchers strapped a Peltier device to a woman's elbow, connected it to a GPS unit, and then used five different levels of heat to play a real-life game of "Hotter, Colder." Don't expect this in real phones, well, ever.

The team also suggest other ways of using heat - to signal the importance of incoming calls:
"While your boss or your girlfriend will let the phone heat up remarkably, the device will stay cool when your mother tries to call during a meeting."

GPS phone guides by playing 'hotter, colder' [New Scientist via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Eva Solo Smiley Bowl

Eva Solo makes some lovely household products (including a coffee carafe I've had my eye on for a while) and these new "Smiley" bowls, designed by Claus Jensen & Henrik Holbaek, are no exception. Fill the top depression with nuts or candy while using the wide mouth below for shells or wrappers. (Or vice-versa.)

I am perhaps more impressed than I should be over a bowl, but they have a pleasing shape. (And would be just wide enough to make cleaning easy.)

Eva Solo Smiley Bowl [Yanko Design]

Joel Johnson

Messiah Darklite DVD Remote for Playstation 3

The "Darklite" DVD remote is a surprisingly nice-looking piece of kit, putting the most commonly used functions on the outside while saving secondary buttons for a slide-out keypad. It doesn't even use batteries, instead recharging via USB. (Although I suspect that might mean it chews through a lot of power.) And it's cheap, too, at just $30.

Problem is, it's only for use with the Playstation 3. Foiled!

I don't quite understand how some things can look so nice when coated in "piano black" plastic, while others look so shit. My guess is the lighting for the product shots, cunningly devoid of fingerprints.

Product Page [Play Messiah via CrunchGear]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• KitchenAid 250-Watt Stand Mixer for $100. The shipping is delayed a month, but it's worth the wait. [Slickdeals]

• TomTom One GPS for $160 at Toys 'R' Us. You'll have to leave the house to get one, but at least you'll have a GPS to help you find your way back home. [Slickdeals]

• Canon SD1000 ELPH 7-Megapixel Camera for $184. Using Paypal is part of the 10% off, fair warning. [Bargainist]

• Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar for $27. One of the better MMOs out there, or at least that's what my ex-friends tell me. [Tech Bargains]

• SanDisk 8GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card for $100, plus shipping. Not a crazy deal, but a good $20 cheaper than average. Perfect for high frame rate DSLRs. [Tech Bargains]

• Refurbished Wacom Graphire4 4x5" Pen Tablet for $67, shipped. Every digital artist should try a Wacom tablet at least once. [DealNews]

• Philips Upconverting 1080p DVD/DivX Player for $60, shipped. Not only will it scale up DVDs to 1080p, it also will play MPEG-4, DivX, and more from burned DVDs. [DealNews]

Joel Johnson

Retro Selectro: Card Callmaker Ad (1973)

Cropped image from a 1973 ad for the "Card Callmaker," a device that uses punch cards to store phone numbers for automatic dialing.

Vintage Ad [Flickr] (Thanks, DD!)

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Fun Level: Orange – The best deal in first-person shooting just got a street date: Valve's Orange Box is coming October 12th. [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

• If These Don't Emit, You Must Acquit – Epson's new PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 UB front-projector is have an MSRP of $2,700, making it the cheapest 1080p projector yet. (And retail will probably be cheaper.) [Gizmodo]

• Wii Runs – New Nintendo trademarks in Japan: "Wii Body Controller; Mii Contest Channel; Nintendo Magic; Wii Handle; Soma Bringer." [Kotaku]

• Dial M for Metamucil – "Verizon Wireless offers new $30 senior citizen plan" [CrunchGear]

• Suck It Up, Out – Man breaks stylus in smartphone sheath. AT&T tells him his warranty is voided. [Consumerist]

• Keeping the Ashes Stoked – "Microsoft says a Zune phone 'not unreasonable'" [Reuters]

Joel Johnson

BioPro 190: At-Home Biodiesel Production

Toolmonger has discovered this killer biodiesel machine that's small enough to be used at home and runs on regular household 110-volt power. It costs $7,500 and requires you keep methanol and sulfuric acid on hard (and source oil, of course), but once you get it all cooking you can make up to fifty gallons of high-grade diesel every two days for less than a dollar a gallon.

Biodiesel for Dummies [Toolmonger]

Joel Johnson

The Future of Television: Two Girls Shooting Each Other with Tasers

Fortunately, the girls from Shiny Shiny didn't actually play Taser Tag with real Tasers, but instead with toy "Shocking Guns," which transmit a mild—but still squeal-inducing—shock via a small metal plate on the handle of each gun when your opponent scores a hit.

Shiny Video Review: The Shocking Taser Guns [Shiny Shiny]

Joel Johnson

In the Year 2000: Bell Spaceplane Models

Another clear winner from our "In the Year 2000" Flickr pool, included in a cluster of great photos uploaded by "beamjockey." He explains:

Models of spaceplane designs from Bell Aircraft, perhaps in the 1950s, perhaps related to the BOMI skip-glider proposal. These models are in the fine Niagara Aerospace Museum in Niagara Falls, New York. in which Bell plays a starring role.

I love how abstract the shapes are. I wonder if Bell actually intended to build the spaceplaces with that shape or if they were just getting the general point across.

Bell Spaceplanes Rear View 0354 [Flickr]

Joel Johnson

Bukkake Simulator 3D: Love Death 2 Gameplay Video

First, the NSFW warning: While there is no nudity, overt violence, or swearing (in English, at least) in this video, it is in no shape or form suitable for viewing in a workplace the least bit uptight.

Upon hitting play, you will see a gameplay clip from the upcoming Japanese game, "Love Death 2," in which players travel inside a 3D simulation of a classroom, shooting disturbingly inaccurate simulacrum of ejaculate over a female character, which drapes in unnatural quantity and movement—it's something between ectoplasm and chiffon— over her body. Then, as a single eyebrow strains to pop off your brow and into the air, you will notice the player grab a baseball bat. And the clip ends.

If you want, you can go watch lots more clips of Love Death 2, which someone has uploaded to YouTube. But please don't.

[via (the great new gaming blog) Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Joel Johnson

Quad Shelves by Nauris Kalinauskas

Just like some people can't imagine spending two grand on an HDTV, I can't imagine spending two grand on something made out of wood that doesn't have an outboard motor attached. And in this case, if I really wanted this Quad bookcase by designer Nauris Kalinauskas, I could probably slop together a similar version myself. (Carpentry has become so much easier for me now that I've realized you can build things flat on the floor and then tip them up.)

Still, striking. And ever-so-slightly vertigo-inducing.

Catalog Page [GNR8.biz via Neatorama via Uncrate]

Joel Johnson

Video: Overdrift: Stage 2 Teaser

Oh, happy day! The best multi-dimensional drift racing series on the web is coming back for more dinosaur archeology adventures. (If this video doesn't fill you with abundant glee, you may want to watch the video below. Or you may have really good taste.)

He's got the tools. Now there's just one thing left to do: he's got to drift!

Previously: Video: The Inassailable Awesomeness of Overdrift [BBG]

Joel Johnson

1946 Mathis 333 3-Wheeled Car Prototype

Modern Mechanix provides this scan of a 1946 Popular Science, pointing to this three-wheeled prototype from French auto manufacturer Mathis. A little digging uncovers that a "Mathis 333" prototype was built and shown at the 1946 Paris Motor show, but never entered into production.

Had it been made, the Mathis 33 would have been powered by a 707cc flat twin watercooled engine, including "separate radiators for each cylinder." (That means two whole radiators!)

Sadly, Mathis gave up the ghost in 1950 and the sleek little 333 never made it onto the mean streets of Paris. Fortunately for us, the prototype is still around.

(And yes, I know there have been other three-wheeled cars, like the Reliant Robin, but I like the cut of the 333's jib.)

AUTO IDEAS (Nov, 1946) [ModernMechanix.com]
Mathis 333 Page [3-Wheelers.com]

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Morning Edition

• Doubles as Wings – I'm not sure how to embed this particular flash video of a disappearing door concept car, in which the door slides into the undercarriage, but it's cool, so here's a link. [RonSusser.com]

• When Taste and Money Collide – Water "butts," or drainspout caps, shaped like bottoms and rectums. Horrible. Coolest-Gadgets]

• Rolly Polyphonic – Sony's "Rolly" (roll-e) may be a music-playing "Wii on wheels," claims [Digital-Lifestyles.info]

• Two > Four – Jeff Atwood compares dual- and quad-core processing times. Dual is just about as good as quad for most desktop users. [Coding Horror]

• Flamebait – "According to research group iSuppli, the iPhone outsold all smartphones in the U.S. in July" [iLounge]

Joel Johnson

Bat Winged Ceiling Fan Blades

I'm not a gothy sort, nor given to decorating my apartment in haute selections from the back wall at Hot Topic, but these bat wing fan blades on Etsy make the scaly nubbins on my shoulder blades shiver with excitement. They're just forty bucks, yet no price is too high for something that would make my ceiling so unassailably badass.

Look up. See that fan lazily creaking above your cubicle? The one you should put these fan blades on? Imaging turning that fan to its most powerful setting, standing directly beneath, greasy locks slapping against your doughy forehead, and spinning slowly in a circle giving two upturned birds to every paper pusher in the office.

Also suitable for use in Klingon rumpus rooms.

Bat / Dragon Wing Fan Blades - 5 Blades [Etsy.com via Oh Gizmo]

Joel Johnson

Thinking Aloud: The Google Phone

Google, unlike Apple, is not a hardware company. (Although they make cute machines when they try.) Google isn't even exactly a software company, although they make great web applications. Google is a set of services, stitching data together in useful ways.

As Om alluded to, but I'd like to underline, a phone running a Google-crafted application suite won't be an interesting bit of hardware. And it is unlikely that it will be tailor-fit to bespoke hardware, as rumors of multiple phone models imply. Instead, the Google phone story isn't about a phone at all. It's about a new phone OS.

Considering that people have been predicting a Google OS on PCs for ages, it will be interesting to see them dip their toe in on mobiles first. Would a Google Pack for Windows Mobile be far behind? Or already obviated?

Basically what I'm saying is "Oh, I kind of see what Om probably saw a year ago." But I'm slow and sometimes it helps me to write stuff down.

Joel Johnson

Victorian Wrist-Horn

This wrist-horn is said to have been built in the 1880s for bicycle pilots who needed to warn passers-by that their luxuriant mustache was about to be unfettered to catch a strong Nor'East wind. Wuuuurrrrrrrt! All ahead full, to the Pinstripe Promenade!

No Time For a 19th Century English Bicycle Wrist-Horn & 21st Century Wristcam [Watchismo Times]

Joel Johnson

Nocturnal Electricity to Charge Low-Emission Cars?

A columnist on Maine Today points out a large amount of power that goes wasted each night on the electricity grid that could be better used to power vehicles (or anything else):

Each night across the Northeast, there is a large percentage of renewable power generation capacity that sits idle. This means there is a large amount of unused and under-used capacity in the existing electrical grid.

According to a recent U.S. Department of Energy study, there is so much excess capacity that if every light-duty car and truck in America today used plug-in hybrid technology, 73 percent of them could be plugged in and "fueled" without constructing a single new power plant

[MaineToday.com via GroovyGreen.com]

Joel Johnson

Xbox Live Bans the Word "Linux"

Microsoft has added "linux" to its list of prohibited words that can be used as your publicly-visible motto on Xbox Live, says Xbox 360-fan Gabriel Rivera. I confirmed it—at the time of this writing I could not change my motto to be just the word "linux."

Obviously, it's just a little amusing egg on Microsoft's face this morning, most likely because a single smartass at the company decided to have a little fun, but it does offer a good example of why banned word lists should be made public, if only to keep discussion about the lists on your home turf.

Other words Xbox Live would not let me add to my profile: "gay," "homosexual," "vagina," and "dong." (Rough work, this blogging.) "Gay" and "homosexual" are a disappointment. It would be nice if Microsoft would let a proud queer^* Linux lover self-identify as such if they chose, even if it would be begging for harassment from Xbox Live's constabulary of sugar-crazed homophobes and pre-teen racists shrilly screaming epithets into their voice-chat microphones.

I mean, they do already just for beating them at Puzzle Fighter; imagine what they'd say if they really thought you were gay? Or named "Dong?"

The Word "LINUX" is inappropriate in XBOX Live [RiveraG.com via CrunchGear]

^{* Also banned!}

Joel Johnson

Silhouette Mobile: Portable Wound Scanning Unit

A New Zealand company has developed the "Silhouette Mobile," an infrared scanning device that builds and records a 3D model of a wound to assist in the monitoring of healing wounds. The Silhouette Mobile modules plug into PDAs (probably only Pocket PC-based), then broadcast patients' information back to a central database over Wi-Fi or cellular data networks.

Actually, looking at this again, I'm not sure it actually builds a 3D model, per se, although they do record "surface and depth measurement." At the very least, it takes "photographic images; quantitative measures; other user-entered wound assessment data." Either way, a red scanning beam means Dr. Future is on the case.

Product Page [AranzMedical.com via MedGadget via Oh Gizmo]

Joel Johnson

Blank CD-Rs with Braille Labels

These Japan-only burnable CDs with a raised Braille label are a great first step for blind computer users, but how great would it be if there were a CD burner that burned custom Braille lettering using a technology like LightScribe?

CD-R with Braille [Cool Hunting]

Joel Johnson

Air_ray: Festo's Manta Ray-Inspired R/C Flyer

The "Air_ray" is a gorgeous, one-off helium-filled flying foil manta ray created by Festo.

Propulsion is achieved by a beating wing drive. The servo drive-controlled wing, which can move up and down, utilises the Fin Ray Effect® and is based on alternate pulling and pushing flanks connected via frames. When pressure is exerted on one flank, the geometrical structure curves automatically against the direction of the influencing force. A servo drive pulls the two flanks alternately in the longitudinal direction, thus moving the wing up and down.

The video of the Air_ray in motion is required viewing, especially if you can spot the cleaning lady in the background, whose heart must have skipped a beat when she looked up from her floor buffer to see a six-foot swimming dirigible inside the building's lobby.

There are no plans to recreate a for-purchase version that I can discern, which is a pity.

Product Page [Festo.com via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

ShenZhou-VII: Rocket-Shaped Mobile Phone

You've got to give it to this phone: it's got zazz. With a keypad cribbed from a RAZR inside a body that looks like a bubble-gum dispenser from Spencer Gifts, the "ShenZhou-VII" proves once and for all that cell phones are no longer, in any shape or form, luxury items.

I sort-of-kind-of like it, though. It's got more personality than most of the sleek silver and black futurey phones that all look dated in a couple of years. The ShenZhou-VII already looks old, which means its looks will only improve.

神舟七號　名字有學問 [PhoneDaily.com via PocketPicks.co.uk via Textually]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Craftsman 4.8-Volt Impact Power Driver for $20, plus shipping or in-store pickup. That's a 50% price drop. [Dealnews]

• Tivo HD DVR $279.99, shipped. I have a confession: I've never used a TiVo-branded DVR. [Tech Bargains]

• Unlocked Nokia N95 Smartphone for $610, shipped. I have a hard time paying that much for anything without a keyboard—even a car—but it's up to you. [Dealnews]

• Refurbished Apple iPhone for $400 (4GB) and $500 (8GB). $100 off the iPhone, same warranty. [Dealnews]

• 50 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drives for $54, plus shipping. I am tempted to buy these... and burn them. [Tech Bargains]

Joel Johnson

Rick Rubin, Subscription Music, and Failure

From a great profile of Rick Rubin—now installed as the co-head of Columbia Recrods—in the New York Times Magazine, by Lynn Hirshberg:

From Napster to the iPod, the music business has been wrong about how much it can dictate to its audience. "Steve Jobs understood Napster better than the record business did," David Geffen told me. "IPods made it easy for people to share music, and Apple took a big percentage of the business that once belonged to the record companies. The subscription model is the only way to save the music business. If music is easily available at a price of five or six dollars a month, then nobody will steal it."

It's worth a shot.

Rubin sees no other solution. "Either all the record companies will get together or the industry will fall apart and someone like Microsoft will come in and buy one of the companies at wholesale and do what needs to be done," he said. "The future technology companies will either wait for the record companies to smarten up, or they'll let them sink until they can buy them for 10 cents on the dollar and own the whole thing."

This seems likely.

Given the competition among record companies, the subscription model is bound to be tricky to organize and implement. One problem with iTunes is that, with some exceptions, all the songs are priced equally -- a Justin Timberlake smash costs the same as an Al Jolson classic. Since a listener would, ideally, pay more for a Top 10 hit, that egalitarian system costs record companies potential millions of dollars.

Oh boy.

Subscription models have their problems, including muddled users' rights, but their lack of a system that charges a premium for a popular artist—something that has never happened in the history of the record industry—is not one of them.

The Music Man [NYTimes.com]

Joel Johnson

Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition

• Get Bent – The Tale of the Mechanical Virus [AlwaysBeta]

• Til the Next Episode – Magnetic Refrigerator Needs No Electricity [Denmark.dk]

• I'm Dialing Lucky – Om sniffs out some details about the Google phone, which may or may not exist. [GigaOm]

• Throw It Back – Futuristic "Lobster" watch concept uses modular watch band additions to add functionality, price. [Oh Gizmo]

• iDrive 2.0 – A mostly serious wishlist for the still-mythical "iCar" team-up between Volkswagen and Apple. [LaptopMag.com]

Joel Johnson

Stōk: Coffee Shots in Creamer Tubs

"Stōk" are non-dairy coffee products encased in the familiar creamer cups, each of which adds an additional 40 milligrams of caffeine to your morning wakefulness slurry. They're available in two varieties: "Black Shot," which is presumably just regular coffee-flavoring; and "Sweet Shot," which is, you know, sweet.

While caffeine content in coffee will vary depending on brewing technique, a typical shot of espresso has 100mg of caffeine, making Stōk's "Limit 2/day" warning somewhat unnecessary, if wise in view of future lawsuits.

While you can order Stōk online (200 for $40)I think the real market for these lie in the convenience store, where reportedly they are starting to appear next to traditional creamers and other coffee adulterants for free—at least until unscrupulous caffeine addicts start swiping handfuls at a time. Why pay ridiculous prices for double-strength coffee drinks at coffee shops^* when you can just dose up for the price of a small cup at the gas station?

Catalog Page [StokExpress.com]

^{* Coffee houses that serve quality coffee excepted.}

Joel Johnson

Video: Cingular "Hanging on the Telephone" Commercial

A man get a sweet peck from a beautiful girl, then waits in agony for days for her call, set to a forlorn cover of The Nerves' "Hanging on the Telephone" by Cat Power. In the background the now defunct Cingular things-as-bars campaign is displayed almost subliminally.

I'll cop to being perhaps more sappy about this commercial than most—"Hanging on the Telephone" is one of my favorite songs—but there's something genuine about his obsession, despite the well-trodden subject matter, that gets me every time. To add to the sense of longing, the Cat Power cover was never released, as is rumored to have only been recorded in snippets for the commercial.

Of course, the stupid voiceover spoils it, but it's nice while it lasts. (And no, there's no reason I'm putting this up besides the fact that I think it is a notably competent ad.)

Bonus video: After the jump, The Nerves' original version.

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Video: Motionless Helicopter Rotor Illusion

New Anti-Gravity Helicopter - Watch more free videos

The blades of the Russian MI-24 Hind helicopter in this video are perfectly in sync with the "shutter" of the videocamera filming it, making it appear as if the blades are not moving at all. [via Dan's Data]

Joel Johnson

HUMP NF01, NF02 Reviewed (Verdict: Small USB Speakers That Don't Suck)

Dan Rutter takes a gander at the "HUMP NF01" and "NF02" desktop speakers from Unique Hardware and finds—to everyone's surprise, including his—that the little desktop units and their USB amplifier actually put out a set of decent sound waves for not too much money.

If you don't need little tiny super-portable speakers, you don't need the NF01s. If you still need a USB audio solution, there are umpteen super-cheap "USB sound cards" on eBay. Get one of those, plug it into any old amplifier and garage-sale speakers, and you'll be golden.

If you want pocketable speakers that don't sound like wet mud and/or the audio leaking out of someone else's headphones, though, the NF-series speakers are an absolute revelation, and definitely worth the money.

Unique Hardware NF01 and NF02 USB speakers [Dan's Data]

Joel Johnson

Bosch Pocket Saw

The Bosch Pocket Saw is a simple, cheap portable unit that accepts standard T-shank or reciprocating saw blades—like those that go into the nigh-on-magical Milwaukee Sawzall—when you just need to chew through something without pulling out the power tools. The Pocket Saw comes with a couple of blades, one multi-purpose and one for wood or drywall, and can store more blades in the handle. You can even kick the handle down to a 60° angle to get a little more oomph into your cuts. Not too shabby at all for fifteen bucks.

An Inexpensive -- But Useful -- Pocket Hand Saw [ToolMonger]

Joel Johnson

POWERbreathe: "Dumb-bells for Your Diaphragm"

POWERbreathe is an "inspiratory muscle trainer" designed to increase lung capability by exercising the muscles that control breathing. More or less, you blow into the tube against a spring-loaded valve. They also claim the POWERbreathe can help with asthma, although they caution it won't replace your medicine completely.

I don't see an American retailer off hand (I didn't look too hard), but it appears they're availabl