Rob Beschizza

Colors! turns Nintendo DS into pocket Wacom Cintiq

Colors! is the Nintendo DS app that most powerfully makes the point that homebrew is not just a wheedling cipher for piracy. Developed by Jens Andersson, it offers hard and soft brushes, pressure sensitivity, a 512x384-resolution canvas, and can send paintings as PNG files via email. It has a Corel Painter-style hue-circle, saturation-triangle palette.

Wired's How-To Wiki has a tutorial on how to work with it to produce stunning works of art; pictured above is a reproduction of a Rembrandt self-portrait by Jason R. Dunn.

Forthcoming versions of the app will have undo, a levels tool and collaborative painting.

Download Page [Collecting Smiles]
How to [Wired via Gizmodo]
Gallery of Colors! paintings [Brombra.net]

Joel Johnson

Photojojo Mac keyboard editor hotkey stickers overlays

Photojojo is selling these rubber, stick-on overlays for Mac laptop and desktop keyboards with hotkey information for Photoshop, Aperture, or Final Cut Pro. They make new keyboards look like the dedicated editing suite keyboards of yore. They're $30 for laptop versions, $40 for desktop — a lot of scratch for fancy stickers.

Update: Amit from Photojojo corrects me:

One quick note: They're not actually stickers! They're thin, flexible rubber overlaps, custom-fitted to each of five or so different kinds of Mac keyboards. They don't stick on (they're no adhesive) but they stay on because they're molded to fit the keyboard shape. They're also washable and keep crud from getting under your keys.

Product Page [Photojojo]

Rob Beschizza

An hour with the Datto 100 NAS

The Datto 100 and 500 are NAS devices, with 100GB and 500GB of storage respectively, that sit on your home network and, with a $10 monthly subscription, backup their contents to Datto's online storage service.

The instructions are straightforward: register at the official homepage, then with the box itself on its web-based administration panel. Once done, simply set up your network file shares, accessible via local IP address or by redirection to same from the official homepage—and the users who may access them.

When tested, setup failed at the point where the box asks for an admin user to be set up. This required a remote reset. Recovery involved accessing Datto's website and having it remotely add a "recover user," then logging into the box with its credentials, creating a new user and assigning it "web access" privileges.

Once up and running, it's easy to add SMB shares, create new users and assign them to specific shares. Users must have passwords, but shares can be made guest-accessible.

You can instruct the Datto to immediately backup to the online storage; pause ongoing backups; and configure schedules along with speed limits (e.g. upload at the default 96kbps during the day, but give it your full pipe late at night).

Resetting the datto box takes about 2 minutes — this is triggered for certain configuration changes like setting the Windows workgroup.

Other features include read-only FTP access over the internet, email alerts for device failure, low disk space, excessive backup times (triggered if it will take more than 30 days to complete a si ngle operation!), and if there are any network problems.

The box itself is small and neat, with no-nonsense industrial design. About 7 inches by 5, and about 2.5" deep, it has an odd fanless cooling grille looking into the PCB within.

More on the Datto after a few days of use.

John Brownlee

Dr. Ashen reviews the R-Zone

Everyone's favorite reviewer of cheap video game tat, Dr. Ashen, has done a video retro-review of the R-Zone Pocket Extreme, a bizarre attempt at ripping off the VirtualBoy "excreted from Tiger Electronics' corporate anus" in the 90's.

R-Zone Pocket Extreme Pocket Game Review [YouTube]

John Brownlee

Retrofuturistic PC case mod is straight from Vault 13

MAKE spotted this fantastic case mod, turning an original 1957 Setchell-Carlson P-62 Portable television into a Fallout-style computer. The keyboard and mouse are big aesthetic failures, but that monitor's just gorgeous: it screams Vault 13.

'Computervision' PC mod [MAKE]

John Brownlee

Pixelated couch distresses poor hungover blogger who needs a hug

I'm off to a late start this morning, since I'm hungover. I did wake up around 10am with the best of intentions, but the first thing I spotted in the feeds was this pixelated couch, which was enough to make me unspool my guts into the toilet and then spend the next few hours in bed, trying to suppress my mutineer limbic system. Having won a partial victory in that battle, I have to say, I still find the couch a bit unsettling: it looks like where they found Mario's smeared, bloated corpse after eboy took turns raping him to death.

Pixel Couch [Cool Hunter via Gearfuse]

Rob Beschizza

Friday linkswap: Rock Paper Shotgun

Its tasteful color scheme says it all: RPS is a megalith of good taste in a world gone pink, green and cornflower blue. Its utterances shoot forth like the baleful glares of a reawakened god: no, ladies and gentlemen, it is not the nineties, and there is not time for Klax.

The Trouble with Demos
Games demos suck. Instead of crafting an exciting overview of a new title, developers typically just dump out the first level or two.Alec Meer slams efforts which amount to "all tutorial and no trousers," and points to what a demo needs to get a gamer in on the game: an introduction to its world, the illusion of openness, and a movie trailer's "hyper-edited" frenzy.

Dinosaurs!
They've been hitting the fumes again, posting multiple examples of games that feature dinosaurs. See Dino Run, Petroglider, Ketpack Brontosaurus and Offroad Velocirapter Safari.

RPS: The Game
In which the origins of the world's best PC gaming blog are illustrated through the medium of an official game

Rock Paper Scissors originates as an early attempt to simulate the Prussian/Hungarian conflict of 1842, where the Prussians armed their grand imperial forces with Rocks. However, a Russian-funded Hungarian counter-attack with Paper lead to the complete rout of the Prussian forces and the later capituation of Prussia to the Parisian commune. Scissors was added later for game-balance purposes, in a move which offends historical purists to this day.

Commmenter Bob Ince responds: "Doesn’t work with a joypad. Doesn’t take advantage of DirectX 10.1 features. YOU ARE KILLING PC GAMING."

Future of the PC: “the de facto single format”
Jim Rossignol finds an interview in which Atari founder Nolan Bushnell is said to remark that the PC is the future of gaming. He agrees, pointing out that either PCs will either supplant consoles under the TV, or consoles will expand until they do everything a PC does.

"When I suggest this future people generally dismiss it as a 1950s-style technofuture dream: one box fits all? Never! But it’s not quite like that. One box scales to all."

Also, buy Jim's book. Joel says it's good.

Rob Beschizza

$47,200 GSM bathtub for people who want to subscribe to cleanliness

Lest you feel bathtubs are beyond the remit of a gadget blog, know this: the Red Diamond bathtub from WaterGamesTechnologies has two waterproof televisions, a GSM module to allow remote control from anywhere on Planet Earth, a temperature panel and a crowd of whirlpool pumps. One can even set how frequently it disinfects itself: perfect for after a nice Craigslist-organized hot-tub soirée.

In predictably tasteless fashion, the tub, designed by Aldo Puglielli, comes in whore red and has a champagne holder studded with Swarovski crystals.

Product Page [WGT via BornRich]

Rob Beschizza

USB Flash drive in a clothes peg

It's the case now that you could put a USB thumbdrive in almost anything: just grab a Microvault Tiny and jam it in there. This clothes pin one, however, has superior potential for use in a derivative spy comedy.

Product Page [Spinacz via Oh Gizmo!]

Rob Beschizza

From Schlub to Superhero in only 5 gadget purchases

Wired's Charlie Sorrel transforms from chairbound technology writer to enterprising hero in just a few hundred (or thousand) dollars.

Some super heroes are born with special powers (Superman), some are transformed by a tragic and improbable scientific accidents (Spiderman, Hulk) and some just kick butt with their amazing gadget hacking skills (Batman, MacGyver). You'll need precisely one guess to know which we prefer.

The piece says it will offer five gadgets, but only four are forthcoming. Suggestions for fifth gadget: high-tech lair, belt of many pouches, and one of those 3.5" floppy disks that lets you hack into any 1990s movie computer.

Brooklyn has a store that can help.

Five Gadgets That Will Make You a Superhero [Wired: Gadget Lab]

Rob Beschizza

M-Audio Microtrack II "changed my life"

Emily Scarlet Kramer at Cool Hunting, in her review of M-Audio's Microtrack II, says that it "changed my life for the better." A straightforward, no-nonsense high-quality portable digital recorder, it records to WAV or MP3 and can easily be configured to pick up exactly what you want it to...

Sound quality is superior for a small on-the-go recorder and its simple and straightforward interface makes it easy to use. Cutting back on the oftentimes superfluous knobs in favor of a few straightforward buttons makes for a quick learning curve. ... I'm most impressed with the MicroTrack's range. A tiny plug-in T-mic is able to pick up the most discrete library voice, but the ability to adjust levels allows me to record even the loudest dance music.

At $300, it's still a lot more expensive than even fancy voice recorders, but reasonable given its features. Any other suggestions for a capable entry-level mobile recorder?

Product Page [M-Audio]
M-Audio MicroTrack II [Cool Hunting]

Rob Beschizza

Computer desk is exactly that

XYZ's computer desk is unusual among its peers, in that it's a computer and a desk.

We enjoy the design of the Apple computer range, though on a functional level, PC is preferred. So we designed a desk/computer as beautiful as a Mac but easily upgradeable like a PC. All computer components and cable management is contained within the thickness of the desk, and when upgrading is required, the desk lid simply flips open. CDRW/DVD, USB and Hot Keys are located on the side of the desk.

From the look of that art, I'm quite sure it doesn't actually exist. You could make your own, however, with one of Home Depot's basic hollow doors. They're very light, don't have any irritating pre-cut holes, and have a pleasing smooth, unfinished appearance that can stand alone, IKEA-style, or be stained or painted. Just make sure you have adequate cooling in there, chaps.

Product Page [DDDXYZ via BornRich]

Rob Beschizza

Telescope cane and USB-drive hip flask

Here's two for steampunks, inconspicuous time-travelers and pimps: a cane with a concealed telescope, and a hip flask containing a USB hard drive instead of whisky.

Iomega's leathery eGo hard drive is $142.50 and has 250GB of space. According to the specs, it requires a single USB port—many similar drives require two due to SATA's power requirements.

The Hammacher Schlemmer cane comes in at a surprisingly cheap $90. Cut from a 37-inch shaft of African rosewood, it offers only 3X magnification, but infinite magnification of your geek élan.

Walking Stick with Built-in Telescope: for the Victorian Perv in You [Gizmodo]
Iomega's Leather Bound Hard Drive Resembles Hip Flask [Gadget Lab]

Rob Beschizza

Bird Electron's kinky tight leather envelope for MacBook Air

Bird Electron's leather sleeve for the MacBook Air is a pleasing mix of simplicity and saucy, based as it is on the interoffice paper envelope used in Apple's ads.

Now, the real reason for this post: are there any nice leather bags for the 17" MacBook Pro that are not (a) just a sleeve, or (b) an enormous piece of luggage with more pouches than a Rob Liefeld superhero?

A New Leather MacBook Air Case from Bird Electron [Akibahara News]

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: Cargo Cult of Mac

Source [esse est percipi via Ffffound]

Rob Beschizza

Lifelock CEO: Those claiming my identity's been stolen are wrong

Lifelock CEO Todd Davis was on the Today Show this morning. He's just said that people who claim his identity has been repeatedly stolen are lying. Davis advertises his own social security number as evidence of his firm's identity-protecting services, but last week reports emerged that disgruntled customers were suing Lifelock for false advertising.

"They're not. Those are attempts," Davis said, responding to a list of driving license applications offered by Matt Lauer. "These are some of the 87 people who tried to use my identity ... and were turned away."

The segment's intro narrative said, however, that at least one person had successfully stolen Davis's identity. This would make the CEO one of about 100 customers who the company has failed.

Rob Beschizza

Cellranger: easy USB-powered cellular signal booster

Cellphone signal boosters are typically static, expensive, bulky things; Cellranger is an attempt at getting this class of device into the pocket (or at least the rucksack) and hooking it up to mobile power sources such as cigarette lighters and USB.

It doesn't need to be attached to the target device: it passively boosts whatever it gets to the immediate surroundings.

My experience of such devices is that they work as ways to push signals into dead-zones. You'll still be limited to whatever download speeds and call quality you get in your general location, but you can now bounce them into that 6ft lead-lined sarcophagus you're using as a office. Given its short range, it's worth bearing in mind that it won't help the uplink from your phone to the tower.

To be launched on May 28, the Cellranger is GSM-only and will cost $150.

Product Page [Getcellranger. Thanks, ministryoftruth5!]

Joel Johnson

Video: He-Man and the Hulk sell motorcycles in Brazil

He-Man and Skeletor sell Honda Motorcycles from the Mearim Motos dealership in Brazil. How could this be better?

If they hired a crazy kid to paint his body like the Hulk but he ends up looking more like a young Blanka.

(Thanks, Slickardo Ricardo!)

Joel Johnson

BBQ Donut is a boat with a grill, not nature's perfect snack

The "BBQ Donut" is a round pontoon boat with a grill in the middle, made mobile with a small outboard motor. Tool around a lake while grilling, suggests its manufacturer, enjoying music from its optional soundsystem. I can't imagine spending more than a few minutes in one before I'd go stir crazy.

I do like the idea of a grill on a boat, however, nestled next to a cooler full of lemon and butter. Who wants to eat hot dogs when you've got a fishing pole or spear gun?

Company Page (Flash with music) [BBQDonut.de via Serious Eats]

Rob Beschizza

Andrew Kellett, "world's dumbest criminal," can't keep activities off YouTube

Techdirt rightly points out that attempts to stop criminals uploading their activities to YouTube are stupid: why deprive prosecutors of such easily-gathered evidence? There must be something to it, however, as Leeds' city council has gone out of its way to ban the city's "dumbest criminal" from doing precisely that.

Andrew Kellett, 23, was branded the city's "dumbest criminal" by Leeds City Council after posting more than 80 videos showing himself and others committing a range of offences.

The videos included leaving a petrol station apparently without paying, trespassing and shouting abuse, dangerous driving and racing at high speeds, as well as taking class A drugs.

Naturally, he filmed himself being awarded a suspended sentence at the local Magistrates' court.

It's not like there aren't a million other ways to get attention for one's misbehavior. Surely being able to nail criminals more easily in court would outweigh any benefit gained from nannying them off the Internet.

Britain's 'dumbest criminal' is banned from boasting about his offences on the internet [Daily Heil via TechDirt]

John Brownlee

The Flatmobile: if not the world's flattest car, at least the world's flattest Batmobile

Only 19" tall, the Flatmobile proclaims itself to be the world's flattest car: a Batmobile pancaked by a steamroller.

The Flatmobile is powered by a jet engine (based on a gas turbine jet engine and a Holset 685 turbocharger from a Volvo FL10 truck) which, thanks to having its own custom afterburner, is capable of delivering 90lbs of thrust powering the Flatmobile to speeds in excess of 100mph.

Flatmobile Jet Powered Car Set To Claim World's Lowest Vehicle Record [Nexus 404]

John Brownlee

Ego's purse-like fashion laptops

The Ego Lifestyle is a luxury laptop designed to simulate the look of a hand bag when closed. It certainly looks swank: the handmade leather skins are easily swapped from alligator to leopard print according to your ensemble, for example. And even the specs are pretty nice: there's a real machine here. The price, however, is jaw dropping: over $4,000 for the basic model. But let's face it... when the official website constantly bombards you with glamor shots of millionaire fashionistas carrying their purse-like luxury laptops while Indian bellhops struggle behind them to lug 200 pounds of luggage up to the penthouse suite, you know they're marketing exclusively to twats.

Ego Lifestyle Notebooks [Official Site]

Rob Beschizza

Skooba, Targus among first TSA-approved laptop bags

Having to take laptops out of bags for the x-ray machines at airport security is a pain, especially if you tend to have funny laptops that set off tedious "Oh, that's a funny laptop" conversations whenever you get them out. Skooba Design and Targus will be among the first to make TSA-approved bags, permitted to run through the screening machine with the lappy still inside. From USA Today:

"A policy likely to take effect in a few months ... [for the] new "checkpoint-friendly" cases, which passengers would have to buy if they want to take advantage of the new TSA policy. Travelers could still use old cases but would have to continue removing laptops at checkpoints."

Skooba says it's currently working on product demos, and hopes to have products available soon. In fact, the TSA has received 52 proposals since announcing the new policy. Yay! A whole new consumer product category invested entirely in the eternal continuation of a state of war.

UPDATE: Skooba's Michael Hess writes to remind consumers that internet photoshops aren't real:

"Believe it or not, we have already received a few calls and notes both asking if we had that bag and also some expressing annoyance that we do! Obviously we don't can't be "responsible" or liable for that message or the mocked-up product (though I think it is very funny) or mislead any consumers, so if you can somehow address that, we'd appreciate it. Wish I didn't have to ask, but you know how these things go."

No problem, Michael! Perhaps you should consider making a special edition. After the TSA approves your new bag, that is.

Have laptop, will breeze through security [USA Today]

John Brownlee

Tom Chick on Wii Fit (Verdict: wretched for fitness)

Within the narrow confines of the legendary 7-9 video game review scale, Nintendo's Wii Fit is getting middling scores, with most reviewers doing their best to dance around the fact that it is not a serious fitness solution. But over at Quarter to Three, stalwart game critic Tom Chick has quickly summarized a lot of Wii Fit's faults, confirming a lot of my pre-launch suspicions...

I'm a week into using it daily, and I think it's absolutely wretched. For one thing, it's not really built for guys like me who are already somewhat active. Wii Fit won't let you start anywhere other than the bottom level...

But more to the point, it's terrible for people who actually need help being motivated to stick to a fitness routine, because there are no routines. Wii Fit is little more than a collection of minigames with almost zero regard for a bigger picture. A lot of the stuff is really bad, and the push ups are a perfect example. They're just going to discourage people by trying to cram the balance board gimmick into the exercises. Similarly, their focus on balance -- which is really the only thing the stupid board can measure -- really misses the point. And the stop-start-stop-start of the interface is horrible.

In short, if you're out-of-shape and want to lose some weight? Go to the gym. If you're in shape and want to maintain what you've got? Go to the gym. If you just want another collection of Wii-specific mini-games tangentially related to fitness, a la Wii Sports? Buy Wii Fit, but don't expect anything out of it.

Tom Chick on Wii Fit [Quarter to Three]

Rob Beschizza

Nokia Cocking Up N-Gage Again: Must Buy Games Again When Current Phone Dies

When you upgrade or otherwise replace your Nokia phone, the only way to move your N-Gage games over is to buy them again. From All About N-Gage:

"To combat piracy, the activation code is linked to just one phone. It does this by checking that phone's unique IMEI number (every phone in the world has its own), so if you try to use the same activation code on another phone it won't work.The problems start when you try to upgrade to a new phone. Because it will have a different IMEI number, you cannot use your existing game activation codes on it ... if you sell your old phone, or if it breaks while out of guarantee, you lose your games forever."

When you buy into DRM, you get everything you deserve when the vendor shafts you.

What's most amazing about this is how it punishes Nokia's hardest-core fans, those who buy its top-end handsets and who frequently upgrade. They pulled the N-Gage brand out the toilet for this? The more one tries to understand the corporate psychology behind it, the more inexplicable it gets.

Want to move your N-Gage games? [All About N-Gage via The Guardian and The BBC]

John Brownlee

Indiana Jones Crystal Skull projector

I imagine the sensation of actually going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystall Skull will be very much like the process that I went through when I saw this Indiana Jones licensed Crystal Skull projector: illogical excitement quickly followed by crushing disappointment. In the case of the Crystal Skull projector, I had visions of a home theater system powered by the glowing crystalline brain pan of a mutant extra-terrestrial, perched atop a shrine at the back of my living room. Then I discovered it was just a glorified Viewmaster for kids: it's a slide projector that shows you archeological discoveries of the 20th century, narrated by Harrison Ford impersonator thanks to a bundled audio CD. As for the movie itself, if reviews are anything to go by, my disappointment will come the moment Shia La Bouef begins swinging through the trees of the Amazons like Tarzan, accompanied by a constabulary of CGI monkeys who attack Commies on command.

Crystal Skull Adventure Porjector [Indiana Jones Shop]

John Brownlee

Get started in the DS homebrew scene

Taking part in Nintendo DS homebrew isn't nearly as maddening as the PSP homebrew scene, which still requires Job-like patience and the ability to compile and translate a thousand fragments of Internet-scattered instructions from a vast armada of nigh-illiterate Russian teenagers into a hacked PSP. Unlike a PSP, which requires custom firmware, all a Nintendo DS requires is a flash card. But with a hundred different no-name Chinese manufacturers vying for your money when they're not changing their names or going out of business, it can be hard to get a strong recommendation on exactly which flash card to buy and what you're getting yourself into.

Over at DS Fanboy, they've tried to take some confusion out of the equation with a homebrew guide that gives a summary and run-down of the perks and cons of the various flash cards on the market. The days of running DS homebrew off of a GBA flash cart are long over, thankfully: all of the current flash cards fit into the DS' Slot 1 and most of them seem to allow you to upgrade the storage by plugging in microSD cards.

As for me, I have a DS-X. Two months ago, I wouldn't have recommended it, since a year had passed since the last firmware update, despite customer's constant complaints and the fact that modern commercial DS games could no longer be played on the card due to some Nintendo changing the standard ARM7 code. They finally fixed it, though, so I'll cautiously endorse it: it's a neat card in that you can simply plug a standard USB cable into the card and mount it as a portable hard drive on your computer (most other cards require you to have a flash card reader / writer). Installing a program to it is as simple as copying it to the file. It even continues to work after I dropped it first in a cup of tea and then my toilet (don't ask). But keep in mind before you drop your money that their support is terrible, bordering on nonexistent.

DS Fanboy's (semi) ultimate homebrew guide [DS Fanboy]

Rob Beschizza

$318 wireless networking kit extends WiFi for 5 miles

One problem with trying to extend WiFi range is assembling all the necessary gear to establish a strong directional signal both ways. HD Communications' HD262000 aims to be a simple, all-in-one point-to-point WiFi bridge kit adding up to 5 miles of range to 802.11b/g networks.

The HD26200 is made up of two high performance Ubiquiti network radios with integrated 17dbi dual polarity antennas that are configured in wireless bridge mode. The HD26200 bridge is also powered over ethernet, so no RF cables are required, only an outdoor CAT5 cable to bring both data and power to the radios.

At $318, it's not too expensive, especially given that it runs on PoE and doesn't require one to fiddle around dismantling routers to hook up tiny coax connectors. Unfortunately, it also requires direct line of sight: here's hoping that this is just to get the full advertised range. My own adventures in wireless bridging failed, even over a far smaller distance, thanks to thick brick walls between my router and my target machine.

Press release [HD Communications via Engadget]

Joel Johnson

Unconfessable Ideas: cute Apple-themed shirts and stuff store

"Unconfessable Ideas" is an Italian web shop selling Apple-themed merchandise, generally more subtle than the sort of stuff made by American geek retailers. I'm fond of the "trio" pins which replicate the Close, Minimize, and Expand buttons of the standard OS X window. I'd grab a set of them for € 3.50 right now, but I can't figure out if they ship to the U.S. or not (nor if it's cheap enough to bother).

The "vinyl Mac desktop" is also cute — perfect for inducting children into the cult before they can even comprehend language.

Company Page [UnconfessableIdeas.com]

John Brownlee

Rollable boom box for ghetto blasting on the go

I rather like this rollable MP3 boom box crafted by Israeli designer Inbal Tyagi. Normally, I'd even be inspired to write something about it. But after reading the astute analysis of the device by Atul over at Gizmowatch, I've simply resigned myself to blockquoting another writer's literary genius. After all, how could I possibly top this?

Who shouts coz I am Kazaam when he jumps out of the boom box? The Jennie Shaquille O’Neal was the one who gave me a fair insight into the meaning of the word.

*emphatic nodding* Exactly. It's the effortless insight of a literary maestro with his finger on the pulse of the human condition. I think we all know exactly what Atul's talking about, having struggled but failed our entire lives to translate this exact same emotional vibrato into words. What could I add? It's perfect. 'Nuff said, really.

Boombox on Wheels [Site via Gizmowatch]

Rob Beschizza

Play with a Curta caclulator without spending hundreds on eBay

Jan Meyer's created a Flash simulation of the Curta, a classic mechanical hand-cranked calculator. First sold in 1948, the Curta is pure gadget porn, able to perform all the fundamental arithmetical operations, but still fit in your pocket.

Amid the blasted heath of an irradiated post-oil America, these will revive the forgotten and arcane magic of accountancy.

Image: Dan Rutter

Unfortunately, they haven't been made since 1970, and they're insanely expensive expensive collector's items. Here's a YouTube video that offers instructions on how to use it, shows how tiny it is, and lets you hear the deeply satisfying noise it makes when cranked.

Simulator [Curta.de via jwz]

John Brownlee

Charge any Apple laptop battery with the TruePower U-Charge (MacBook Airs excluded)

One annoyance with carrying around spare laptop batteries is trying to figure out a speedy way of charging the suckers. This is doubly true for Mac laptops, where the only solution is to slot a new battery in and charge it until its full. There's simply never been any other way of doing it until now.

The FastMac TruePower U-Charge offers a solution. With a kit full of tips and connections for Mac batteries both modern and antiquated, you can charge your spare batteries without plugging them into your laptop first... halving the time it takes you to charge more than one battery hours before a flight. I've been looking for something like this for awhile, but I'm not sure it's worth the $70 they are asking. Convenience is only worth so much.

FastMac TruePower U-Charge [Official Site via Engadget]

Joel Johnson

WildCharger gadget charging pad reviewed (Verdict: Works, but still doomed)

Gearlog tried the WildCharger, the almost mythical charging pad that's been coming soon for ages. It works fine, but everyone's biggest fears — no good way to integrate the charge pads into gear — appear to have come true.

And there is the product's Achilles heel. Yes, you'll need a $35 adapter for each of your devices, at least until the magical day when manufacturers start building the tech directly into gadgets. Worse, the company still isn't selling adapters for anything other than the Motorola RAZR V3 phone. The Web site lists other adapters, for somewhat dated products like the Blackberry Pearl and 8800, as "coming soon." Even the iPhone charger they sent us isn't available for sale yet.

With Apple about to release the 3G iPhone and Research In Motion having moved on to the Curve and the Bold, WildCharge's "coming soon" section should have come more than a year ago. And there's no mention of adapters for any Windows Mobile device, Microsoft's Zune, or anything from Sony Ericson.

Hands On: WildCharger Charging Pad [Gearlog]

Joel Johnson

Knipex ribbon cable cutting tool

For a brief time in the history of home-built gaming PCs, the "rounded cable" was a premium accessory. The wide, flat ribbon cables that connected hard disk and CD-ROM drives to the motherboard impeded air flow, making it difficult to achieve an ample breeze over your overclocked Athlon. Because they were a speciality part, rounded cables were expensive — especially considering standard IDE cables were usually bundled for free with motherboards — which forced many to put down the Mountain Dew and take up an X-Acto knife to make their own. Soon the market fixed the problem. Rounded cables are now inexpensive — and obviated, since SATA uses a small, thin cable by default.

But out there in the world of computing there are still folks who need to make ribbon cables of their own for custom installations. And as a failed sysadmin myself, I've lost most of my knowledge of Cisco router commands but retained a fetish for cabling tools, like this ribbon cable cutter from Knipex that can slice through the delicate bands without crushing the individual strands. I also like it because the picture has a rainbow.

Street prices are between $60 and $100, which can buy a whole crate of pre-made ribbon cables of various length.

Knipex Ribbon-Cable Cutter [Toolmonger]

John Brownlee

Power On Self Test: 10 minutes per pound

Image: Defective Yeti

Joel Johnson

Video: "ProteinDS" hip-hop scratching software for Nintendo DS

I love any sort of digital music tool that it still takes talent — or at least a serviceable sense of rhythm — to operate.

That reminds me: my Korg DS-10 still hasn't shipped.

[via Create Digital Music]

Joel Johnson

Autoloc Flame Thrower for car exhaust

The Autoloc Flame Thrower clips onto your tail pipe and sparks fuel that should have been ignited and consumed in your engine, sending flames up to 20 feet behind your car. (In my experience, you'll be lucky to get more than a couple of feet of flame, but it's still impressive.)

They're "designed for carbureted vehicles, but can be used on fuel injected vehicles with additional modifications and parts." What they mean is most modern cars aren't coughing out enough gasoline through the tail pipe to fuel a flame so you'll have to do something silly like make your engine less efficient or run in a second line of fuel to get these to work.

A single exhaust system is $125; dual exhaust is $200.

Product Page [TheHoffmanGroup.com via Gearfuse's Ryan Ash via MAKE:]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Digital Cameras – Tons of cameras on sale at Dell Home, including the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Elph (in gold) for $179, shipped. [Slickdeals]

• Pixar DVDs – Amazon is selling several Collector's and Special Edition DVD sets of Pixar movies, including The Incredibles, for $13. [Bargainist]

• Wi-Fi Antenna – Hawking Hi-Gain directional corner antenna for $30, shipped. Claims 2dBi to 15dBi boost. [Dealnews]

• Emergency Light – Life+Gear LifeLight, with signaling siren, compas, lantern, flasher, cell phone charging, AM/FM radio and hand crank for $15. [Dealnews]

• LCD HDTV – Today's Woot! is the Westinghouse 26” Widescreen LCD HDTV (720p native) for $315, shipped.

Rob Beschizza

It Just Works... Right?

Reader Trasel has a great twitter feed tracking his or her switch from Windows to OSX. Some experiences are all-too common to the modern switcher...

Who created this tale about Macs not crashing? Actually, my MacBook seems to crash more often than my old Pentium 4 with 512Gb RAM. 12:43 PM May 12, 2008 from web

Connected a Lexmark Z600 to the MacBook and - guess what? - it asked for new drivers. Windows dèja vu. By the way, Epson printers are shit. 11:17 AM May 13, 2008 from web

I'd have pulled out more, but Twitter's just shat itself again, so no.

It Just Works [Twitter]

John Brownlee

Monkeylectric turns your bike wheels into LED rainbow pinwheels

Fitted into your spokes, the Monkeyllectric will turn your spinning bicycle wheel into an electric kool-aid acid test. It fits the wheels of any bike and, fitted with three AAA batteries, will make your velocipede look like two mirrored ferris wheels insanely spinning out of control. The price is a bit much at $64.99 each but I'll likely buy a couple: my Berlin city bike could use some hallucinogenics.

Monkeylectric [Official Site via Gearfuse]

John Brownlee

16th century, $100k combination toothpick / ear wax spoon

Combed from the black muck of subaqueous depths by scuva diving treasure hunters, this gold toothpick / ear wax scoop dates from the wreck of a Spanish galleon dating back to the late 16th Century. Don't mix up the ends.

Tiny Gold Combined Toothpick and Earwax Spoon [Far East Gizmos]

Joel Johnson

Clip-on electric front wheel for bicycles

Ignore that the "Cyclemotor" electric bike conversion kit looks like a homebrew project — it sort of is. The inventors of the kit, Neodymics, haven't yet gotten the financial backing they need to make something salable. The hope is that commuters will find the ease of the conversion simple enough to use their own bikes, as the kit clips onto the front fork and bolts on a couple of controls to the handles.

There's one charming aspect to the design that I hope remains in a production model: the use of the standard DeWalt power tool battery pack to power the 1HP motor.

Product/Company Page [Neodymics.com via Gadget Lab via Bikehugger]

John Brownlee

Western Digital's My Passport Studio external HDDs

Amongst the editors bullpen of a gadget blog, there can surely be no shorter straw drawn than the requisite, soul-killing USB external hard drive post. Who the hell cares? Just go to Best Buy and pick one up, they're basically all the same.

But Western Digital's My Passport Studio brand of portable hard drives are actually something I can use. Advertised as "Mac-ready storage to go," these diminuitive drives are little larger than a set of car keys and come in sizes up to 320GB. But hey, they managed to fit in both USB and Firewire connections into the thing. Self-powering USB and Firewire connections, no less. And it's even Time Machine ready.

I could actually use this. My first Gen MacBook Pro has a tiny 80GB hard drive. My iTunes library, on the other hand, is 300GB, meaning I never have my music or videos with me when I'm on the road. Amazingly, this might be just what I am looking for. Even better, a chance to burst the hymen of my MBP's dusty, shriveled and completely unused FireWire port. Neat.

My Passport Studio [Western Digital]

Rob Beschizza

Cheaper OLED keyboard coming, thanks to there being no OLEDs on it

A sub-$1,000 keyboard from the makers of the Optimus Maximus is coming, except it won't have OLED displays in the keys. To be named Optimus Popularis, it will presumably target the huge untapped market of people for whom a $150 Logitech DiNovo is too cheap, and the original $1,500+ Maximus too pricey.

Our next big release in the Optimus keyboards family will be Optimus Popularis. Shorter than Maximus, it will not use OLED screens, but will be based on a totally different principle.

11 extra keys are above the F-keys now. Price will be below 1000 US$.

From the mockup, it looks like the cost savings will be achieved by replacing the expensive miniature screens with soap.

Art Lebedev Announces Sub-$1,000 Keyboard [Optimus Project via Wired: Gadget Lab]

Rob Beschizza

Flip Minos to Shoot Movies, Judge the Dead

There shall be a smaller version of Flip Video, the successful miniature camcorder. Revealed in B&H's catalog, it's listed at $180 and comes in black and white, with a release date of June 4.

Mino among sharks: New Flip camcorder coming [Crave]

John Brownlee

ASUS Eee vs. MSI Wind PC: PCMark Fight!

Rob and I have been keeping our eye on the Atom-based MSI Wind, waiting for reviews and hoping this is the subnotebook that finally gets us to drop our dough. At first blush, then, this comparison by Impress is not immediately encouraging... while the Wind scores higher than the Eee overall, the CPU Score is significantly lower than the Eee PC 900, running on a Celeron 900Mhz processor. It means nothing, of course, in the grand scheme of a laptop's performance, but one likes to min-max.

But wait, what's that under OS? Loathsome Vista. Perhaps that's the culprit. It's inclusion in the chart is curious, since I don't believe the Wind ships with Vista, only XP and SuSE. So is this just a typo, an unannounced flavor of the Wind or some fool's lamentable stab at running a bulky, clunky, resource hungry OS on his gimpy subnotebook? Why would you even do that?

Secrets of the Atom cracked, Wind PC Revealed [Engadget]

Joel Johnson

Taking the 'p' out of 'pilots'

Danger Room uses the announcement of the "Advanced Mission Extender Device" [pictured]— a fancy pair of urine-collecting briefs for pilots — to discuss the state of mid-air defueling technology.

Pilot relief isn't just a comfort issue.  "Some pilots do permanent damage to their bladders by holding it in for hours at a time, which can cause incontinence and other problems," the AP notes.  Totally draining yourself -- "tactical dehydration" -- can cause headaches and worse.  "At least twice, F-16s have crashed as their pilots tried to urinate. In 1992, one crashed in Turkey after a belt buckle got wedged between the seat and the control stick, prompting the Air Force to urge pilots not to unbuckle completely."

New Relief for Pilots? It Depends [Danger Room]

9

John Brownlee

Puma Disc Blaze Tetris sneakers are gorgeously awful

Blogs around the Internet are vocally reviling these Tetris-patterned Puma Disc Blaze sneakers. Charlie Sorrel over at Gadget Lab takes a jolt of Substance D to the alliteration gland and calls them "foul, fluorescent footwear." But my first thought when looking at them was that these were exactly the sort of sneakers Joel would like. And man, Joel's penchant for loud, technicolor sneakers must be rubbing off on me (we cuddle) because I have to admit... I kinda sorta like them too.

Puma Disc Blaze 1992 Tetris Pack [Kicks on Fire]

John Brownlee

8GB alien robot USB sticks from Planet Blõôh

Like any orifice, there's countless shapes, colors and varieties of objects you can cram into your USB port, according to your preference. As a cephalophile, I tend to like squid shaped USB drives, myself. But these adorable 8GB Mimobot flash sticks are pretty tempting. They even come with their own sci-fi backstory:

They're bigger... they're badder... they Came From Planet Blõôh! It's the monstrous 8GB MIMOBOT® flash drives, and they're coming to consume a datum near you! Beware, friends, as these over-enhanced denizens of silicone nature can devour nearly twenty thousand photos, two thousand songs, or twenty-five hundred minutes of video! Aaaaaaahhhhh! That's a lot...

"Planet Blõôh" is almost enough to justify $140 bucks. But not quite.

8GB MIMOBOT Drives Available! [Mimoco]

Joel Johnson

Hello Kitty sewing machine has settings for 'Ack!', 'Thbbbt'

Hello Kitty Hell nailed the description of this branded sewing machine: it looks like the love child of Hello Kitty and Bill the Cat.

Hello Kitty Face Sewing Machine [KittyHell.com]

Joel Johnson

Acer Aspire Predator gaming PC has a nifty front panel

One of my first jobs was standing in a Best Buy next to an Acer desktop machine, enticing customers to select the pocked green-and-beige computer instead of the more staid — and more attractive — models from Compaq or Packard Bell. (I think I made $20 a day doing that.)

Now the company, still powerfully still-not-out-of-business, has announced the "Aspire Predator" gaming PC, filled with the latest quad this and SLI that. But its most noteworthy feature is the one that matters the least: it's case design is over-the-top military future machismo.

The entire front panel — which looks like a mecha shin guard — levers up onto the top of the machine on arms, revealing a gilled, glowing, insectoid array of drives and bays. It's from the sci-fi movie prop school of case design and I totally love it.

And I'd totally never, ever buy it. I'm embarrassed enough by my piano black Antec case thrumming under my desk. I can't begin to imagine what decor would go with something like this. Perhaps steel plate?

There's a typically overwrought Flash site selling this thing, but for once it might actually be better than just text; click "Specifications" to see an animation of the front plate opening and tell me that doesn't appeal to the tiny little G.I. Joe accessory designer in you.

Brochure page [Acer.com via PC World]

John Brownlee

Power On Self Test: Spike Likes His Bike

Image: Alex Handy

Rob Beschizza

The application Mail quit unexpectedly

An amusing error: whenever I try to read a particular email, Mail crashes. The mail in question? A post-purchase Apple store survey, highlighted above.

John Brownlee

GRADED: The Worst '10 Worst Consoles' List of All Time

We wish we could have left it well enough alone. Certainly, in the Journalistic Special Olympics of blogging, criticizing another web writer's wordsmithing is a slippery slope ending in a pit full of our own weasel words, forced metaphors, slapdash punctuation and dangling participles.

But there was something wonderful about Ryan Ash's recent list for Gearfuse: The 10 Worst Video Game Consoles Of All Time. Something sublime. Something that nuzzled itself in the hollow of our bile duct and wouldn't stop roiling. In only two thousand words, Ash had perfectly measured the space between the nadir of prosaic achievement and the barrier of entry to Digg-bait style list compiling. Its diameter? A single neutrino.

Who were we — mortal men hewn of flesh and blood, hazy of grammar and flatulent of opinion — to judge one of our peers? But no matter how much we tried... no matter how much we drank... we couldn't let it go. Still, we didn't quite trust ourselves with grading Ryan's list. Out came the phone book, and our old English teacher Mrs. Buttermer was recruited to grade Ryan's essay as if it were a high school book report.

We regret to inform you that, post-grading, neither fared very well. Hit the jump to see the graded list... a document just as much about one writer's flagrant disregard for five hundred years of English-language composition as it is about old Mrs. Buttermer's lubricated slalom out of both sanity and sobriety. Click to enlarge.

Fowler wept.

READ THE REST

John Brownlee

OLPC announces the next XO

There's been a lot of evidence mounting lately that OLPC has been steadily, inexorably losing its mind. At OLPC's Global Country workshop today, founder Nick Negroponte revealed the prospective design of the XO laptop Mark II, cutely deemed the XOXO (or, shorthand, XO-2). Jettisoning the keyboard of the XO, the XOXO will be a dual-screen touch-screen affair, and they are aiming for one-watt power consumption and a $75 price tag. The XOXO seems like a rubber stamp smashed against the forehead of the company: "INSANE."

It's simply a concept design, granted, but OLPC still can't get the XO-1 below $100. The dual-screen set-up is a fantastic idea — it can double as an e-book, especially since it will contain the same display technology as the currently XO, making it ideal for reading in outside conditions — but this hardly looks like technology that will be affordable in 2010. And where's the hand crank? Is it solar powered? How are the hundreds of millions of children living without electricity supposed to charge it?

God speed, OLPC, but this looks like something Apple would release for a retail price of a couple thousand. I believe in your mission, but I simply don't believe you guys can pull this off... at least not in 2010 for $75 (or even twice that). Perhaps you should concentrate on getting the XO-1 under $100 before you start pulling your next-gen designs straight out of Minority Report

First Look: OLPC XO Generation 2.0 [Laptop Mag via Gizmodo]

Image: Gizmodo

Joel Johnson

Bocci 22 power outlets distilled to just four shapes

Although these particular "22" plugs from Bocci are custom made to be recessed into drywall for a shockingly classy presentation of the standard power outlet, there's little reason someone with some dry wall skills and a good eye couldn't do something similar with a standard housing. The perfectly round plugs help quite a bit, of course.

God forbid you ever need to rewire, though.

Bocci 22: The Outlet for Minimalists [Unplggd.com]

Update: Core77 has a nice video showing how it's all made.

Joel Johnson

Book: 'This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities' by Jim Rossignol

Jim Rossignol's This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities is a rumination on the personal, sociological and even political impact of videogames — written, thank god, by a gamer, not an academic. Which is not to say Rossignol's book isn't peppered with its share of bell-ringing insights: that by defusing boredom, games that portray violence may actually prevent real violence; that games can improve not just tactical understand or motor skills, but our sense of humanity — our souls — as surely as any other form of expression; that while almost everyone now games, there will always be "gamers," self-identifying fans whose habits are saturated with their preferred method of play.

The opening chapters of the book are Rossignol's own story, a finance reporter on a grey train through a listless career who found a spark in the arena of online, competitive Quake playing. That obsession led to writing about games — and an escape from drudgery. (And almost certainly an escape from financial stability.)

As a gamer, Rossignol reports from the inside — every gamer is an embedded journalist — detailing epic betrayals in EVE Online (my favorite game to read about but never, ever play) or the jingoist propaganda fields of America's Army. The book's lack of an overarching Gladwellian thesis could be a weakness, but is also a strength: In the welcome post-hyperbolic mode of modern games journalism, the ability to make sweeping proclamations about gaming's hypothetical effect on society fade to more subtle, even murky reports of the real lives, relationships, and opinions forged and shattered by videogames every day. Whether you're a passionate gamer or a dabbler, This Gaming Life serves as an attentive guidebook through some the most interesting landmarks of gaming's recent journey.

This Gaming Life [Amazon Pre-Order]

John Brownlee

The FakeTV: welfare home security gets a $49 upgrade

The FakeTV is an appropriately named $49 anti-burglary boob tube. It does just one thing: it makes it look like someone is basking in the flickering glow of the television at midnight, simulating the stroboscopic effect of a real television but at a fraction of the real electrical cost. The manufacturers swear it will simulate "the light effects of real television programming — scene changes, camera pans, fades, flicks, swells, on-screen motion, and more." Not bad. Now let's hope no burglar ever gets the bright idea to rob your house in the day time.

FakeTV [Official Site]

Rob Beschizza

Amstrad GX4000 returns to haunt list of failed consoles

Gearfuse collects its selection of the worst video game consoles of all time. Its methodology appears to have been to simply select machines that allow for the snark of least resistance, but author Ryan Ash makes at least one splendid choice: Amstrad's GX4000 is a a perfectly obscure example of Why Consoles Fail.

There are problematic selections, however, such the Mattel Intellivision and SNK's Neo-Geo. And then there's the attention-hunting inclusion of Nintendo's Wii. Worse, the Vectrex is in the list. That's just heresy!

A better challenge would be to discover the absolute worst consoles of all time, by scouring junk stores and eBay for genuine trash. I think this is a job for Joel.

The 10 Worst Video Game Consoles Of All Time [Gearfuse]

Rob Beschizza

Napster DRM-free store has 6 million 256kbps tracks

Napster is now DRM-free, with its 6 million tracks costing 99 cents each. This makes it the largest DRM-free MP3 store going. The AP, writing what it thinks it ought to write, says it's a "direct challenge" to iTunes. Eliot van Buskirk has a detailed look at the new service at Wired, but Arrington nails the atmosphere in town with "I am failing to get excited." The one-word version: "Meh."

Let's face it: it's still funny as hell that the music industry, given the chance to own Napster when it was the only online music venue going, chose instead to destroy it.

Joel Johnson

A fashionable solar bag, depending on how you feel about buckles

Designer Ennio Capasa has developed the "Solar Energy Purse," a handbag whose functions will be familiar to we the geeks: it has a solar panel built in which can recharge portable devices using a variety of plugs. And fortunately there's a battery inside, too; I've come to think that practical portable solar needs batteries to really be useful.

Of course, it looks like it was made from cut-up bits from your grandfather's old belts and velour lounge wear, but it's the thought that counts.

Product Page [Blog.CNC-CostumeNational.com via Racked]

Joel Johnson

Own your own pulse jet-powered bicycle for just $650

Tinkerer Robert Maddox has built a pulse jet-powered bicycle — and he'll sell it to you on eBay (sans bike) for just $650. The 140 decibel clatter tube is capable of propelling a bicycle and rider up to 75 MPH.

In the video of Maddox's ride around a track it doesn't look like it goes all that fast, but I bet it feels a lot faster when the ass that's strapped to a roaring pulse jet is yours.

Auction Page [eBay via Bike Radar] (Thanks, Matt!)

Joel Johnson

Video: "Music Vest" commercial

(Thanks, Jenn!)

Rob Beschizza

3G iPhone coming June 9 with immediate worldwide availability

Gizmodo reports that Apple will announce the 3G iPhone on June 9, in the WWDC Keynote. This was expected: what wasn't is the further claim that it'll be made immediately available, worldwide.

"This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers, and other service-based subvention packages."

Breaking: iPhone 3G Launch Date Confirmed [Gizmodo]

Rob Beschizza

Nanosoccer at RoboCup Open this weekend

If the picture looks faintly odd, it's not because it's a render: it's because it was taken by a scanning electron microscope and depicts microscopically-small robots playing Nanosoccer on a field smaller than a grain of rice. This weekend, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will host RoboCup 2008's nanosoccer exhibition right here at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It'll include several events to be battled out by teams from the U.S. Naval Academy, the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and CMU itself.

The 2-Millimeter Dash: Each nanobot chooses the optimal time for a goal-to-goal sprint across the playing field.
-Slalom Drill: Robots race from goal to goal while avoiding “defenders” (polymer posts) that block the path.
-Ball-Handling Drill: Robots “dribble” as many microdisks as possible into a goal within a 3-minute period.

Here's some amazing video of a tiny 'bot 'dribbling' a 'ball'...

Public invited to See Nanosoccer 2008 US RoboCup Open [Medgadget via BotJunkie]

Joel Johnson

Video: The evolution of mobile handsets

If you can handle the cheeseball music — and fortunately, there's no reason to leave it unmuted — this video shows the morphing of cellphone handsets from 1985's Motorola Dynatac up through the iPhone. (Which means it's probably from sometime last year and that's I'm thoroughly behind the curve on this one.)

The evolution of gadget design [New Scientist]

John Brownlee

Gorgeous art deco fan is a missed branding opportunity

It seems every gadget maker who springs for a dash of art deco ornamentation naturally calls it the Fitzgerald or the Gatsby. Thanks to the enforced appreciation of The Great Gatsby in our literacy programs, that's practically the only reference to the 1920's seeped into the national consciousness. It's tiresome.

So here we have the gorgeous Fitzgerald Art Deco Fan, and all I see is a lost opportunity. As gorgeous as this fan is, I'm not likely to pay $270 for one over investing in another air conditioner. But what if they'd been more original with the name? Say, evoking the spirit of art deco with another artist's surname, this time Metropolis' sublime effects expert Eugen Schüfftan? Rechristen this the Schüfffan and the pun alone would get my sale.

"Fitzgerald" Desk/Wall Fan [Horchow via DVICE]

Rob Beschizza

Mobiado Pro 105 ZAF phone almost tasteful

As luxurious phones go, Mobiado's Professional 105 ZAF is surprisingly sleek and design-conscious. It resembles Sony-Ericsson models, right down to the dinky little metal buttons, but with a simpler, less radioactive look.

It's 10.6mm thick and has a 2mp camera, Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM and standard-issue media playback options. But the creators couldn't resist framing it with at least some pointless bling: the front and back panels are made entirely of sapphire, as if it makes a difference!

ZAF comes in silver, black, "black satin," blue, gray or red, and it runs on both GSM and CDMA networks. They're also paranoid about fakes: the product page has instructions on how to authenticate your ZAF. Here's a hint, readers: if you pay $200 for it on eBay, it's fake.

Product Page [Mobiado]

Mobiado Professional 105 ZAF [Unwired View via UberGizmo]

John Brownlee

Macs outperforms Windows in $1,000+ PCs

According to a sales analysis by the NPD Group, Apple's experiencing a meteoric rise in sales among the consumer notebook and PC market.... at least as far as computers costing more than $1000+ are concerned (read: the only computers Apple makes). Over the last year, Apple has grown its MacBook line two times the rest of the market, where as they are up 45%. Overall, in the first quarter of 2008, Apple sold 66% of $1,000+ PCs.

For the usual gang of zealots, this will be proof of Steve Jobs' godhead. For those who dislike Macs, they'll point out that most laptops and PCs cost under $1,000, so this is simply proof that Apples are outrageously expensive compared to the rest of the market. There's some truth to that: Apple's Q1 retail share among all computer makers was only 14%. Apple's numbers are also slightly tarnished by the fact that the analysis doesn't take into account business PC sales... which is huge money that Apple has basically not even remotely been able to touch yet.

So Windows computers still rule, but, it's hard to deny that Apple is on the rise, and there's very big reason for Microsoft to be concerned, especially as Apple stores continue to spread to all major cities (for example, Apple's most recent addition, their largest retail outlet ever located on Boston's Boylston Street)... prompting NPD to opine that Microsoft should set up its own retail stores to directly compete. I imagine a Balmer Bar stretched down to the food court, in which impatient gamers cradle their 360s in their arms like bloodshot, cycloptic children.

Macs Defy Windows' Gravity [Apple Watch]

Joel Johnson

Leftovers compromise: glass containers with plastic lids

With fears that the plastic from which we've been eating and drinking for years may be putting toxic chemicals like Bisphenol A into our bodies, many people are going back to the pre-Tupperware era for their food storage needs, suggests Re-Nest. While some are picking up vintage Pyrex dishes from eBay with glass lids, many who carry leftovers to work for lunch are using these Pyrex dishes with plastic lids that lock on tight. As long as you remove the lids before putting the dishes in the microwave it should be a happy compromise.

I'm partial to one suggestion offered: just put a saucer or plate on top of a bowl. Not good for travel, I suppose, but easy and not at all wasteful.

There's another intangible benefit to using glass instead of plastic: eating your food out of glass makes it feel more like a meal and less of a obligatory midday calorie sludge, increasing satisfaction. (At least for me! Maybe you like eating out of plastic bins scored with the evidence of a thousand forkings prior.)

You could also go for a more traditional bento/tiffin solution, provided you don't mind apportioning the next day's lunch when you're putting up the leftovers.

Rob Beschizza

Giant wooden sphere speakers are surreal, vaguely naughty

After a hard day causing problems with his Myst books, Atrus likes to relax with Sound e-Motion's M100-20 BF, a set of giant wooden balls with speakers in them. The curious design is claimed to "minimize baffle distortions" and offer uniform "polar sound distribution," but it's the looks that people will love.

A meter high and weighing 36kg, these will surely dominate any room they're put in. Isn't there something about them that suggests a miniature table-top pair of computer speakers?

There's no list price — just a contact form — so take this as one of those "if you have to ask" situations.

Product Page [via BornRich]

Rob Beschizza

Rolly's $400 price tag for high rollers only

Sony's cute little troublemaker of a media player, the Rolly, will be $400 here in the States. With 2GB of flash memory and Bluetooth for wireless streaming, its specs don't look too hot for the price, but specs aren't why people want Rollies...

The player spins, rolls and twinkles in what Sony describes as "a unique combination of music, motion and fun." Tiny arms, shoulders and wheels writhe and whir to the beat, but you can also use the included choreography software to specify Rolly's moves for particular songs.

It comes with pre-recorded choreography for Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” and Earth Wind and Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland."

What a weird and wonderful little device; and such a shame that it's so expensive.

Press Release [Sony]

Joel Johnson

Beta passes for Legions on Instant Action for 50 BBG readers

Instant Action has set up a special enticement for Boing Boing Gadgets readers to try out their free web-based 3D gaming service. The first 50 people to send their Instant Action user names to "boing HAT instantaction.com" will get:

• Exclusive Boing Boing Gadgets avatars. (I haven't seen these yet!)

• Some extra bonus tokens for use in the Instant Action store to buy more avatars, etc.

• Access to the Fallen Empire: Legions beta. (!!!)

Maybe once you guys get hooked up with everything today we could play a Legions pick-up game tonight!

Previously • Instant Action, the YouTube of 3D Gaming, coming to OS X soon [BBG]

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• iPod Dock – Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere Speakers for iPod for $65, plus an additional $30 mail-in rebate, shipped. [Dealhack]

• Beef Jerky – The original meat gadget beef jerky is on sale at Amazon. Buy $49 or more, get $20 off Jack Link's jerkies. (Still much cheaper to make at home and more delicious, too.) [Dealnews]

• Photo Paper – Today's Woot! is a three pack of GSI 4×6 High Gloss Digital Photo Paper 10 Sheets for $6, shipped.

John Brownlee

Gary Kasparov and the flying RC penis

International chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov was attacked by a flying penis helicopter during a recent speech in Russia. Alert security dealt with the situation by deftly swatting the cock out of the air long before it could infiltrate Kasparov's oral region or... even worse... hover suggestively around the grandmaster's buttocks.

Gary Kasparov and the Flying Penis [YouTube via POETV]

John Brownlee

Power On Self Test: Fly Me To The Moon In Tennis Shorts and Space Boots

Image: Plan 59

John Brownlee

Atari 7800 lounge at Milwaukee grocery store: the horror, the horror...

Past the dusty racks of Sun Chips and Wise Hot Cheese Popcorn, adjacent to the coffee station and the imposing portrait of notorious Milwauakee mutant HODAG!, the gaming lounge at Koppa's Farwell Foods is a perfect shrine to the early 80's. The flickering Magnavox. The phallic plastic potted plant. The wallpaper pattern... a macroscopic depiction of the chlamydia virus wrought by Jackson Pollack in his own projectile vomit. And the centerpiece: the fabled Atari 7800, a console so antediluvian that any child exiled to the corner by his parents for a game of Dig-Dug would walk away utterly mystified. "I think it's busted. It can only draw, like, 17 pixels at a time. And it smells like cat pee over there."

If you want to bring your kid by for a glimpse at the horrors of retro-gaming, you can check out Koppa's Farwell Foods in Milwaukee at 1490 N. Farwell Ave.

care for a game of jungle hunt before checking out? [Flickr via Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Review: A few days with the Netflix Player by Roku

The "Netflix Player by Roku" is awkwardly named, but there's a reason: while the first streaming media service offered by this little box is from Netflix, more services will likely be added to it in the future. (I'm leading with the most interesting bit to me, although obviously both Roku and Netflix would prefer you focus on what's on deck from the $100 streamer box today.)

There's not much to the lightweight little box: an IR port on the front that, with the included remote, is its only control interface; connections on the back for your TV, including component, composite, HDMI and optical audio out; and an Ethernet jack, should you not find its included 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connection sufficient.

If you've been using Netflix' "Watch Instantly" streaming service from Netflix.com, available free with most of the Netflix DVD rental plans — and I have, prompting me to start thinking set-top boxes aren't as good as web-based service — then you're familiar with the quality and speed of the movies available through the Roku box. It's all the same library. In short, they're good enough. Not quite DVD quality, but watchable even at full-screen on a large display.

That's if you get the full 2.2 megabit bitstream. (The box will tell you if it even needs to rebuffer a stream what bit rate you're getting. Faster, larger, near-HD streams may be coming out from Netflix in the future.) If all goes to plan, movies start playing in about 10 to 15 seconds, just like on the website.

Since fast-forwarding a streaming video is troublesome, the service also sends down keyframes spaced every ten seconds through the film or television show. Hit select at any point and the Roku box will bring up a slideshow, making skipping ahead fairly simple. Fast-forwarding through a whole set of keyframes can still take a while, however.

The box is intimately tied into Netflix.com in ways both handy and annoying. You can't browse through Netflix.com's streaming library from the Roku box; instead you'll select movies from Netflix.com (on your computer's web browser) and add them to your "Instant Queue." The Roku box will slurp those titles — up to 500 — within a few seconds of their addition. It's fairly elegant, but also means you'll have to sit down with a computer to add new movies. (You can remove them from the Roku box list, however.) Since the main reason to buy the Roku box is to watch Netflix Instant movies away from your computer, it's a tiny bit annoying, although amusing similar to the delayed gratification that is the normal Netflix DVD rental system.

One great feature: the Roku box talks to Netflix.com about how much of a movie you've watched. I started watching Before the Devil Knows You're Dead on the Roku, paused it, then fired it up on Netflix.com the next day exactly where I'd left off.

Should you get it? Well, it's only a hundred bucks. On the other hand, it only does Netflix movies. A Windows PC connected to your television — even one of relatively modest power — could stream not only Netflix.com movies, but Youtube or Hulu (or whatever) services as well.

On the other hand, the interface is dead simple to navigate; it passes the "I'd let Brownlee use this" test.

If and when the Roku box serves up other streaming services it'll be a nice little node to stick on your TV to slurp up some free(ish) web media. Until then, it's probably for Netflix.com die-hards only.

Press release after the jump.

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Rob Beschizza

Network Suicide! Sprint rumored to be capping 3G use

Computers, get off the phone internet! Rumors abound that Sprint is to kill its biggest selling point over rival networks: unlimited 3G data plans. From an alleged internal memo, leaked by an anonymous source, a change to the Terms of Service is coming down the pike this summer...

"Sprint reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of data transferred and to deny, terminate, modify, or suspend service if usage exceeds 5GB per month in total or 300MB/month while off-network roaming."

Sprint's fast Evdo Rev. A. network offers DSL/Cable-like bandwidth, with real-world speeds typically peaking at about a megabit and a half. Applying a low cap to this would be a disaster for users like me, who rely on Sprint's 3G network day in, day out.

At 5GB, a user could eat their monthly allocation in a few hours of continuous maxed-out use; spread over a month, that's only about 160MB a day. Compare to this blog's homepage, which currently contains 1.6MB of stuff. Heavy browsing is easily enough, these days, to throw one past the rumored limit: a few YouTubes and maybe 100 homepages a day is all you'll get. For comparison, Comcast's undisclosed cap on its cable internet service is suspected to kick in between 250-300GB a month.

Five GB is no good for use as an everyday connection unless you haven't changed your browsing habits since the last century. If true, Sprint's vision for its 3G network is as something for phones, not computers.

Sprint is NOW LIMITING DATA USAGE [Sprint Users via Phonescoop via Gizmodo]

John Brownlee

Six ton excavator strips a woman (to her negligee, not the bone)

Though work safe, this video is the machine lover's fantasy at its most symbolically archetypal. A pale Italian beauty, biting her lip and trying not to tremble (for that would mean death), is slowly undressed, garment by garment, by a gentleman driving a six metric ton excavator with supernatural precision. In case that sentence wasn't clear enough: he undresses her with the excavator scoop. Simply incredible.

Undressing a woman with an excavator? [Liveleak]

John Brownlee

The Silverlit i-Fairy, a pastel-colored RC butterfly

If Boing Boing Gadgets were ever to have its own version of the unicorn chaser, this Silverlit i-Fairy (£24.99), a remote control butterfly fairy, might well be it. It's like some some lepidopterist was able to capture one of the bio-mechanical specimens that flutter in the faery realm about Joel's head, then successfully bred it.

Silverlit iFairy [Thumbs Up UK via Shiny Shiny]

John Brownlee

Wii Fit now on sale

If you've been eagerly looking forward to Wii Fit's American debut, and happen to be in the area to Rockefeller Center, the Nintendo World store in New York City is now distributing them to a long line of overweight individuals stretched around the corner... curiously enough, starting right at the spot where some jokester has erected a "Free Ranch-Soaked Ribs" placard.

If you're not in New York City, Wii Fit will hit shelves around America tomorrow at a retail price of $90. According to reviews, whether that's worth the money seems to depend on whether or not you prefer a real fitness solution (join a gym) or a reasonably fun game with some incidental fitness benefits.

If you want the former in video game form, check out our recent 25 Years of Exergaming feature, specifically the section about Yourself! Fitness. I can personally vouch for it.

John Brownlee

A mouse for your ring finger

The Finger Mouse: a big plastic rock of geekish bling that lets you control your pointer from the knuckle. Like a tiny jewel, a small trackball sits in the upper-left quadrant, surrounded on three sides by a scroll button, a left click button and a right click button. ou will require prehensile fingers or opposable joints to operate the finger mouse one-handed, but it's still a rather nifty idea... except it's wired, which wholly eliminates the Finger Mouse's potential killer app of being a slick way to control a Powerpoint presentation from behind the projector. £14.99 will get you one from Maplin.

Wired Optical Ring Mouse [Maplin via Red Ferret]

John Brownlee

The $40,000 car couch

Fred Bailey's custom designed Car Couch, glossily painted in Sunset Orange Pearl. Fitted with propulsion jets, the perfect interior accoutrement for the would-be Jet Screamer who aspires to reach third base with Judy Jetson. It'll set you back nearly $40,000, though... a high price, even to touch a space bopper's cervix.

Fred Bailey's Car Couch [eBay via Born Rich]

Rob Beschizza

Pay $6,850 to make MacBook somewhat uglier

The Monk Bogballe Workstation is an Apple MacBook denuded and placed inside a larger, nastier case. An expansive bezel allows it to resemble a television set from 1987, an illusion only furthered by a display enclosure that is larger than the bottom half of the machine.

Naturally, it comes pre-installed with Windows Vista.

Product Page [Monk Bogballe via Ars Technica and Gadget Lab]

John Brownlee

Finger-stab simulation will make you as cool as Bishop

Finally! A way to practice the age old yet awkwardly titled art of "rapidly stabbing the space between your splayed digits to show off the size of your engorged chutzpah sack" without whittling your fingers down to notched bone in a flying confetti of ribboned flesh, diced muscle and shredded sinew!

"Simon Stabs..." is an interactive game that provides 'harmless' platform differs from a typical knife skill game with a real knife. It consists of two gaming platforms with wooden knives as 'switch' to press six 'buttons' in the space between each finger. The rule of the game is that player should remember sequence of pressing buttons led by flash movie clip on the screen similar to 'simon game'. First player's stabbing several spaces between fingers replays on the other player's screen so that he mimics the sequence and add more on it. Then first player should do the same, then back and forth. Game ends when any mistake occurs.

Simon Stabs [Official Site via MAKE]

Rob Beschizza

One must pay to touch the diamond-encrusted Mercedes

The e-mailed circular blurts it out with all the bug-eyed hysteria of a Muslim Obama chain letter...

"THE CAR COSTS $4.8 MILLION AND IF YOU WANT TO TOUCH IT YOU HAVE TO PAY $1000 IT BELONGS TO PRINCE ALWALEED FROM SAUDI ARABIA remember this when gasoline hits $5.00 a gallon. You paid for this one."

German engineering, Saudi style. More follows after the jump. Apologies and profound commiserations to whoever had to take these photos. Swarovski to dip an S-class in glue and roll it in a tank of crushed glass in 3... 2... 1...

Update: It's a fake, made of Swarovski crystals and with nary a Saudi in sight. [Snopes]

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John Brownlee

ASUS to embed "instant on" Linux distro into every motherboard

ASUS has announced that the Express Gate distro — a version of Linux by DeviceVM shrinky-dinkified into a small BIOS chip to give your PC a fast-boot alternative for non-intesive tasks — will now be installed on all of their motherboards.

Express Gate allows you to boot up your PC within five seconds and access Firefox, Skype and media-playing apps. This quarter, ASUS will release four new Express Gate motherboards: P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe and P5Q-E.

Honestly, I could care less about this on a desktop: who turns them off besides ecologically-conscious hemp-huffing hippies like Joel? The environment? Never heard of it! But a laptop with this would be fantastic.

Asus to embed Linux into all motherboards [ZDNet]

Previously on Boing Boing Gadgets:

• SplashTop Instant-On Web Browsing and Skype

Rob Beschizza

Make your own Intel Atom-based computer

Tranquil PC's D945GCLF Mini-ITX motherboard comes with a baked-in 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 CPU, a GMA 950 video chip and a single DDR2 RAM slot; on the downside is the lack of HDMI, PCI express and gigabit ethernet. At $103, however, it's going to be stiff competition for the VIA-based Mini-ITX boards that are the mainstay of ultrasmall form-factor case modding
loonies.

Product Page [Tranquil PC via Engadget]
Blog post [Tranquil PC]

John Brownlee

Kitty cats meet CAPTCHAs

According to Alan Turing's theorem, Cylon technology is one cracked CAPTCHA algorithm away from genocidal positronic sentience... and Rapidshare's doing its part. Over at Crunch Gear, John Biggs — secret brother, secret lover — spotted this CAPTCHA in which Rapidshare expected him to identify only the letters with hidden kitty cats in them. Curiously, this prompted Biggs to lament: "Basically, you need a doctorate to understand captchas now." As we showed such a preternatural acumen for the study in our kindergartener years, we wish we'd have heard of Biggs' alma mater before now: a transgressive liberal arts post-grad school where philosophy doctorates in fontocryptographical kitty cat identification are so willy-nilly handed out.

Basically, you need a doctorate to understand captchas now [Crunch Gear]

Rob Beschizza

Pyramid Puzzle claims to make you intellectually and emotionally smarter

The best puzzles are either masterpieces of complex workmanship or chunky, brightly-colored toys that can survive a nuclear explosion. Brando's $15 pyramid puzzle combines both characteristics, by the looks of it, wedding Rubik-like tasteless design to LeMarchandine intricacy. Brando claims that playing with it increases both your IQ and "emotional" intelligence quotient—layers of hogwash to match the device's layers of complexity!

One wonders, however, at the portal to Tomy Toytown hell that solving it will expose. It's time to play, Kirsty ... Pop-up Puzzle Pirate!

Product Page [Brando via Gizmodo]

Rob Beschizza

iPhone sullied with Vista skin

With so many iPhone-derived skins knocking around on Windows Mobile handsets, why not? Perhaps the fact that this reversal is so obviously perverse illustrates how damaged the brand is. Cult of Vista, anyone?

Download (requires jailbreak, SSH, Summerboard) [via Technabob and Just Another iPhone Blog]

Rob Beschizza

Logitech ad full of photoshop horror

Gadget layout not advertising-optimal? Just do strange photoshop things with it, and hope no-one notices.

Logitech: Honey Where's The VT Remote? [Photoshop Disasters]

Rob Beschizza

Robot mows lawn, very slowly

As its masters laze in the yard, the tiny Mega-Dynamizer humanoid robot staggers along, pushing a similarly tiny lawnmower. Then it falls over. Then it scratches its arse.

More on Mega-Dynamizer Doing yard Work [Robot Dreams]

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: Pressure suit not required

Source unknown!

Joel Johnson

Money > Sense: Building a $15k "image crunching" computer

The latest "Ask Dan" column at Dan's Data finds our eponymous expert fielding a query from a man looking to spend $15,000 (Canadian) on an machine capable of "crunching as much image data as computationally possible per hour." Dan gives him the straight answer, but I have to ask: Surely a couple of different machines with some high-speed interconnect could do the job more efficiently than one machine kitted out with the most expensive server-class hardware available?

It's hard to make a judgement without knowing the details of the questioner's software architecture, but Dan points out the details:

For most applications, a high-end quad-core LGA775 system (including more sensibly priced Core 2 Quads that've been overclocked to three-point-something gigahertz, which is easy to do) will be indistinguishable from a dual-quad-core Skulltrail system. If you're doing something that's highly multithreaded, though, the system with twice as many cores may perform something approaching twice as well. There are all sorts of serious-server and scientific computation tasks that certainly can take advantage of those extra cores. Some other tasks, like hosting a bunch of game servers (on a LAN or a very fat Internet pipe), or doing some kinds of video effects generation or compression, or just charging up the Folding@Home or distributed.net charts, will also benefit greatly from more than four cores.
By and large, though, four cores really are more than enough for almost everybody these days. And even if you do need eight cores, it's still hard to justify making that eight cores of overpriced Q9775, when almost-as-fast Xeons are so much cheaper.

Ask Dan: The deadly temptation of Skulltrail [DansData.com]

Joel Johnson

Honda makes an exoskeleton that's almost practical

Although full-body exoskeletal robot assistance rigs aren't all that far away, battery limitations are keeping most power suits on the shelves pending research into fusion cores reverse engineered from alien attackers. Until then, Honda's "Experimental Walking Assist Device" scales down its utility but increases its useful operating time, allowing wearers to supplement their walking speed and increase their stride using battery-powered brushless DC motors for up to two hours. Great for the elderly, of course, but also for rental at the bottom of mountaintop scenic outlooks or sales to soccer teams.

If and when it ever goes on sale, of course.

Honda's experimental walking assist device [Gizmag]