July 2008

Rob Beschizza

New electronic shift system for road bikes coming in 2009

Wired's Eric Hagerman reports on Shimano's planned launch of an electronic gear-shifting system for expensive bicycles:

By replacing the conventional levers that pull wound-steel cables through protective housings with solid-state switches and rubber-coated wires, there's no chance for road gunk to clog things up and interfere with shifting, or, for that matter, your post-ride beer.
The principle of an electronically controlled drive train is to execute perfect shifts every time, thus "reducing mental overhead," in the words of Shimano marketing manager Devin Watson. This is a resource cyclists find in short supply during epic rides.

The system, called Di2, will be available in January, marking the end of a years-long development process. Says one anonymous source: "The shifting is mind-blowing: I mean, you just touch the button, and it shifts."

Photo: Wired

Shimano Shuns Cables for Full Electronic Shifting [Wired]

Rob Beschizza

Comcast extends wrist to receive FCC slap

Tomorrow, FCC commissioners are expected to sanction Comcast for interfering with internet traffic crossing its network. Today, however, commission Chairman Kevin Martin outlined his vision for an open industry, describing an internet in which reasonable network management coexists with a "general" provision to use any device and any software to connect to any legal content.

“That precedent is going to be increasingly applied,” he told Saul Hansell of the New York Times. “We are setting a very high bar on what network operators can do in terms of putting limits on consumers.”

He avoided mention of network neutrality and said that the commission should not publish explicit recommendations. They will, however, deal with complaints — and it's tomorrow's verdict that lurks behind Martin's PR efforts.

The Washington Post writes that three of the five commissioners have signed off on an order finding that Comcast violated federal rules.

Martin, a Republican, and Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, are set to "affirm" the complaint. Republican Robert McDowell indicated he will vote against it, while Republican Deborah Taylor Tate hasn't shown her hand.

Comcast, for its part, denied throttling internet traffic until investigators proved it was doing so, and now asserts that it must "delay" file transfers to ensure there is enough internet bandwidth to go round.

"I continue to believe that it is imperative that all consumers have unfettered access to the Internet," Martin said in a statement Monday. With AT&T recently announcing a flat ban on file sharing on its wireless plans, however, the burden is on the FCC to demonstrate that it can take action. Comcast says that the FCC simply doesn't have the legal authority to make demands of it or any other internet service provider. In one interview with the Financial Times, Martin vigorously denies this.

Nonetheless, it appears that the FCC won't fine the cable giant tomorrow. The Post suggests instead that it will instead try and draw a line in the sand:

The ruling could set a precedent, analysts said, in that it would send a message to other carriers that they must fully disclose how they manage the flow of traffic over their networks and not single out any specific applications for more scrutiny.

It finds Roger Entner of IAG Research willing to utter the sentence of the week: Comcast will get a "slap on the wrist."

"Regulators are poised to slap the corporate wrist of Comcast," writes the LA Times. FCC set to slap Comcast's wrist, writes Richard Koman at ZDNet. Slap. Slap. Slap. It would be improper to not use the word.

It's an outcome that some consider meaningless, a symbolic win for advocates of network neutrality. Or "geeks," as it is put, with many in the mainstream press certain that normal Americans have little to worry about.

Throttling will make gamers "late for their World of Warcraft sessions" writes Elisha Sauers of the Annapolis Capital. Roberto Rocha, of the Montreal Gazette, mocks net neutrality advocates as "utopian" in a story that quotes only critics of it — until the final paragraph. The Wall Street Journal simply views it all as the result of the administration's "bad personnel decision" in appointing Martin. Efforts to prevent Comcast throttling connections, it says, amount to giving regulators "unprecedented control over how consumers use the Web."

If giving consumers uninterrupted internet access can be presented as the government controlling what they do, you might wonder if the Journal thinks its readers were born yesterday — or if they use the internet much. Service providers were not born yesterday, however, and have already moved to head off criticism. Some are testing metered internet plans — currently, most providers offer all-you-can-eat schedules — as the price of free access.

CNet's Don Reisinger asks: "Whatever happened to making customers happy?"

That's the environment we live in today. The days of customer satisfaction have given way to customer distaste. It's as if most of these companies spend more time trying to stop you from using the service than improve it...

Comcast, however, need not trouble itself with such concerns, as its profits are up 8 percent despite a slump in ad revenue. Why? Because it's gobbling internet market share from telephone companies faster than it can swallow, with its army of hard-pressed, independently-contracted installers becoming a legend in tardiness and shoddiness. Today, its shares soared.

Joel Johnson

Chuck Aaron, the only FAA-certified stunt helicopter pilot

The Martin JetPack isn't the only thing being shown off at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh. JS Online profiled Chuck Aaron, the only FAA-certified helicopter stunt pilot. He's showing off his skills this week at the air show.

In the cockpit of the two-seat helicopter, Aaron has affixed a small white card with line drawings of his show, including loops, rolls and other maneuvers.
He starts his show with a maneuver that includes a vertical climb with a 360-degree roll going straight up until he runs out of airspeed and then performs a roll as he falls back toward gravity's grasp.

This stunt pilot isn’t winging it [JSOnline.com]

Update: Cherib found a video. This guy's nuts:

John Brownlee

The Living Lounge Chair

This marvelous chair by JGreen Design, excellently called the Living Lounge Chair, looks like a regular chair frozen in surprise, owner-caught during its secret nocturnal perambulations. Delightfully Mieville-like (Un-Lun-Dun!) and Burroughs-esque (Naked Lunch, passed through the filter of Cronenberg). $7,500, though, puts owning one well beyond my reach; luckily, $100 of blotter acid and a gin chaser will quickly morph my current chaise longue into a shadowy arachnid monstrosity for 1/750th the price.

Living Lounge Chair [Freshome]

Rob Beschizza

An ATM in your living room

At first look, the ATM Bank looks like a toy. You know, the sort of thing best summed up with a remark about training our kids to regard banking as a consumption facilitation service. As it happens, it's pitched as a serious at-home alternative to the real thing!

Wouldn't it be ideal to have a cash machine in your front room? There's nothing worse than having to walk half a mile down the road in grotty weather to pick up your very own money. This nifty mini ATM Machine is the piggy bank of the new millennium. Every time you make a deposit the ATM keeps a running total giving you an account balance you can keep tabs on on a regular basis. Withdrawing money couldn't be easier, just pop the card in the slot, enter your PIN and select the amount you need. The high street in the comfort of your own home and without the 'Sorry- Out of Order' disappointments.

It costs £25 and you don't get a free toaster for opening an account. What's the overdraft policy?

Product Page [Iwantoneofthose via Gearfuse]

Rob Beschizza

AT&T: Use of P2P software is grounds for service termination

AT&T says that the use of peer-to-peer software is grounds for disconnecting customers from its wireless internet service

"Use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user’s service could be terminated," Lobbyist Robert Quinn told an FCC officer at a hearing. From Multichannel:

Quinn said his company does not use "network management tools to block the use of P2P applications by its mobile wireless broadband customers."
Instead, he said the company warns customers in writing that they would jeopardize their relationship with AT&T Wireless if they were caught using banned P2P applications.

"Under these terms of service, which are similar to those of other wireless providers, use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user's service could be terminated," Quinn said.

The statement comes as the FCC is expected to sanction Comcast for the relatively minor transgression of slowing such traffic. It goes beyond mockery or willful disregard: it's a flat declaration that the FCC is completely powerless to enforce principles related to network neutrality.

AT&T Will Disconnect Wireless P2P Users [IP Democracy]
AT&T Bans Wireless P2P [Multichannel]

Rob Beschizza

Sega Toys dreams of hamsters

Guaranteed not to grow giant tumors under their eyes and endure months of pain trapped in a child-administered prison little bigger than a shoebox (How I miss you, Fluffy), Sega Toys' Dream Hamster will cost $11 and last for years and years and years.

The product is apparently aimed not at youngsters but Japanese women between 20 and 40 years old. There are no plans for a U.S. release. Nor will it be a conscious, living being.

Press Release (PDF) [Sega Toys via CrunchGear]

Rob Beschizza

Diamond-studded iPhone offered on Olympic theme

What's the best thing about De Vere's $8,219, diamond-studded iPhone? That the jewelery is limited to the only part of the device that can reasonably set it, its metal trim. One may increase or decrease the number of diamonds, and the price, as desired.

Though De Vere knows that money is no guarantee of good taste, its hands will remain clean: it says it will not arrange the purchase itself. You must get an iPhone yourself and bring it in.

Product Page [De Vere via Crave]

John Brownlee

Modern chopsticks for the digitally imbecilic

I do not admire the elegance, the spirituality, the zen of the chopstick ritual. The fork is the ultimate culmination of food-grabbing technology: it is a chopstick with three smaller chopsticks at the end, and you do not have to learn a Crane-style digital kung fu gesture to use them.

Still, I also love sushi, and when I ask for a fork at a sushi restaurant, I am often treated by my friends like a chest-thumping, mouth-breathing pleb. To plunge those chopsticks through their contemptuous eyes! Instead, I blush, start stuttering and spend the entire meal choking down my own self-loathing. It often tastes like horseradish, seaweed, soy sauce and saki.

So I like these modern chopsticks designed by Lincoln Kayiwa. Even an uncouth moron like me can pick up food with them. They're attractive. And if my friends still give me guff? The perfect eye gougers.

TUKAANI, a modern chopstick by Lincoln Kayiwa [Yanko]

Rob Beschizza

Yahoo gets it right: will refund customers for DRM shutdown

If you bought DRM music from Yahoo, it will give you coupons or refunds if and when it becomes unplayable as a result of it shutting down its activation servers.

Yahoo Music Store closes on Sept. 30. After that date, customers can no longer re-authorize tracks. In the absence of a crack for its encryption system, this ties songs permanently to a single computer. Specifically, it warned uses that following the closure, they "will not be able to transfer songs to another computer or relicense these songs after changing operating systems."

The coupons will be redeemable at Rhapsody, Yahoo's new partner. A spokeswoman claims that only a "small number" of its customers are affected anyway — a quite believable assertion given the roaring success of Yahoo Music.

Microsoft recently agreed to delay killing its own DRM system after its own plans roused a similar teacupful of trouble.

Illo from AFP/YAHOO-HO/Brian Mcguiness photo
Yahoo offers coupons for music that stops working [AP]

Joel Johnson

Torqeedo electric outboard boat motor

Treehugger has a video review of the "Torqeedo" electric outboard motor. It sounds a bit whiny, but certainly no more garish than a gas outboard. Each charge of the Torqeedo's lithium-manganese battery is good for a range of up to 10 miles, depending on speed and model.

It looks like the "Base Travel" variant can be picked up for around $1,200 online.

Testing the Torqeedo Electric Outboard Motor [Treehugger]

Rob Beschizza

Aussies consider auditing music collections for piracy

Australia's government is looking at plans to inspect travelers' gadgets for pirated music at airport checkpoints. Moreover, the proposal is said to be part of broader international treaty discussions. From PC World:

Under the agreement, agents would be able to issue "criminal sanctions" -- fines, or theoretically even jail time -- if they discover pirated tracks on your player. And to think, here you figured the only risk of downloading the latest Hannah Montana tune was complete and utter embarrassment if your friends found out.

As ideas go, it's stupid beyond comprehension: there's no reliable way to know if music was illegally copied. Banning MP3 files is just Napster-era dumbness back for second helpings, given that the music industry itself now knows that DRM is self-defeating. That it's being made an airport security issue is the really knock-eyed part.

Pirated Music Crackdown...at the Airport? [PC World]
Australian Government Proposes Checking MP3 Players at Airports [Gadget Lab]

Joel Johnson

Alton Brown profiled by Chemical & Engineering News

Chemical & Engineering News profiles one of my heros, Mr. Alton Brown, star of Good Eats and my future best friend. Turns out Mr. Brown isn't just a motorcycle enthusiast, but also a scuba diver. (And, of course, a great cook and charming television presenter.) He's a gadget lover, too, and has consulted with General Electric:

Aside from branching out to speak to various scientific communities, Brown’s also been hired by industry as a consultant. His first foray was with General Electric, which asked him to teach their engineers how food cooks because GE thought it would help workers build better appliances. “The industry guys began to realize that if they did understand what goes on inside a cookie when it bakes, maybe it would make a difference in how appliances are designed,” he says. Brown’s advice contributed to GE’s line of Trivection ovens that combine thermal, convection, and microwave energies to cook food faster. He also appears in short videos on the GE appliance website (www.geappliances.com).

An Appetite For Science [Pubs.ACS.org via Serious Eats]

John Brownlee

Slap a speaker onto any wall with Sonic Impact SoundPads

These diminuitive, four-inch soundpads can be slapped to any surface, turning anything you affix them to into a speaker. Obviously, the acoustics will vary depending on whether you smack them onto a wall or door, and I suspect sound quality will be marginally crap.

Still, snazzy. But the concept really falls over because the speakers are wired. You might be able to deal with oomphless sound if you could just easily put these on your ceilings, but you still need to worry about cabling it.

That's a lapsed opportunity, but for $17.99 for a pair, these are cheap enough to pick up in the chance you one day have a use for them.

Sonic Impact SoundPads [Thinkgeek via Technabob]

Joel Johnson

Latest T-Mobile Sidekick reviewed (Verdict: Good as ever, probably last pre-3G model)

There are certainly times when I reflect on BBG's editorial selections and scratch my head a little. By only posting about the things we're actually interested in, we often glom over entire product lines that might otherwise dominate a typical gadget blog's coverage. The Sidekick, for instance: we've written about it once, and only because it had a cool commercial.

Odd. But I blame T-Mobile and Danger for neutering the device, albeit understandably, tossing away the geeky early adopter market when it became clear that the Sidekick was going to be the messaging device of choice for kids and some cliques of young adults. It's not much of a smartphone, but it's a shockingly good instant messaging device. And with T-Mobile going 3G by October (probably), future versions of the Sidekick — especially if they update the browser — might snap back into feature parity with phones from, say, 2006.

Anyway, my buried point: T-Mobile launched a new Sidekick. It's just called the "Sidekick" again, no suffixes or code names. Its primary claim to fame is that its shell can now be swapped with pre-made plastic designs or replaced with personalized skins from Skin-It. And it has Bluetooth. And slightly updated software. Mostly it's just the same, though slightly thinner and still inexpensive, at $150 with a two-year contract.

Perhaps it's iPhone fatigue or rose-tinted memories of the Sidekick's AIM prowress, but I kind of want one.

Sidekick raises bar for entry-level cellphones [USAToday.com]
SIDEKICK UNBOXING- 07.30.08 [NOTCOT]

John Brownlee

Psystar hires Apple-killing attorneys

Conventional wisdom seemed to dictate that as soon as Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar, Psystar was going to start sneezing hemoglobin and teeth. But Psystar's being surprisingly resilient. They've just hired an attorney, and it doesn't appear to be some bargain-basement defender. They got a good one.

The firm they've hired is Carr & Ferrell, who specialize in intellectual property cases. A few years back, they successfully fought Apple off in the Burst.com case, and Apple was forced to settle and pay them $10 million in fees.

In short, Psystar has hired an attorney with a proven track record of beating Apple in court in intellectual property cases. I've been hoping against hope that Psystar had some sort of plan here, and it appears they did indeed. It always looked like Psystar wanted to get sued by Apple, but the more obvious answer was corporate doofusism, as opposed to a conspiracy to test Apple's EULAs and copyright claims in court. Maybe Psystar is as wily as we hoped.

Psystar retains Apple-beating law firm [ZDNet]

John Brownlee

iPhone holster tops up your battery

In general, I am distrustful of the exposed coccyx and sulfurous crevices of those cell phone users who choose, instead of a pocket, to holster their phones on their belts. But this iPhone case seems less like some dweebie road warrior holster and more like a bonafide solution for the iPhone 3G's abysmal battery life: when you slot the iPhone into the holster, it tops up the battery juice.

For $25, that's actually not bad, though the usefulness doesn't totally expunge the fact that cell phone holsters are the pocket protectors of the gadget world.

iPhone battery case: portable, on-the-go recharging [Chinavision]

John Brownlee

Tale of Genji-bot

Created by roboticists from Kyoto University's Robo-Garage, the gorgeously designed Genji Bot has been programmed with but one task: to soothingly recite all 1200 pages of Murasaki Shikibu's 12th century Japanese masterpiece, Tale of the Genji. It will even act out some of the passages.

Unfortunately, it's Japanese only. I'd actually be tempted by this. I've been meaning to read Tale of Genji for awhile and even purchased myself a massively thick, black matter heavy translation. I got about 50 pages in at one point. Now I just use the book to drop on wharf rats. A virtual robot geisha to read Genji to me at night would go far in finally getting me back into the novel.

Murasaki-bot recounts the world's (much debated) oldest novel [DVICE]

John Brownlee

The Gray's Anatomy of Tech Cables

Gizmodo has posted a fantastic guide to your entertainment center or PC's slithering eviscerated bowels: the infinite loops and tangled serpentine mess of cables ubiquitous in the modern technophile's home. You probably won't see anything here you didn't already know about, but that's okay: it's still pretty fun, and could be used in a pinch as a reference if you forgot the name of the bizarre proprietary amphisbaena looping out of your graphics card.

Giz Explains: An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Cable You Need [Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Travelmate portable fireplace

The Travelmate fireplace is shaped like a briefcase to impart the notion of portability, complete with handle. Wherever you need a smokeless fire, the Travelmate is there: the dentist's office; a picnic on an oil-sodden beach; trudging up a craggy castle's approach with your fellow villagers, fashionable pitchfork in hand.

Although the product page does not specify, I suspect the Travelmate uses the same alcohol gel used by other smokeless fireplaces. Magnets hold glass sides in place; remove the glass to light the fire, then replace it for safety's sake.

Unica Home will part with one for just $3,300, plus shipping.

Product Page [Conmoto.com]

Joel Johnson

Morning tech deals highlights

• Wii Cable – Component cable for the Nintendo Wii for $5, shipped. [Slickdeals]

• Video Card – eVGA GeForce 9800GX2 1GB PCI Express dual-GPU video card for $263 after $30 mail-in rebate. Why I haven't yet built that gaming machine I don't know. Video card prices are crazy good right now. [Slickdeals]

• Camera – Canon PowerShot G9 for $396, shipped. About $40 off. [Dealnews]

• Swiss Army Knife – Two different Swiss Army Knives from Victorinox are $20 on Amazon. [Dealnews]

• Video Card – Today's Woot is the Visiontek ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB PCI-E Video Card for $85, shipped.

Joel Johnson

Esquire to geeks: hack our e-paper magazine cover

Update: PT took apart the cover now that it's on the stands and it's not at all what we'd hoped. Pity. [Make]

E-paper cover a "stupid gimmick"? No way, Brian. Esquire's animated 75th anniversary cover is the flashing, squawking future of magazines.

It's pretty easy to see the far future. Cheap, disposable e-paper magazines on subway newsstands and on the racks of your airport's Hudson News. Each one thin, flexible, disposable. Just a couple of pages, with bright, glossy color, wirelessly updated with the latest issues of your favorite rag. Need something to read? Buy a new e-mag — or press a button to refresh your virtually dog-eared copy to this month's edition.

That's about five years away, just like it has been for the last decade.

But deputy editor Peter Griffin can tell you what magazine stands will look like this October, when then the 75th Anniversary issue of Esquire with an e-paper cover will be unloaded from refrigerated vans and slotted into the rack. For the first time ever, one of the magazines will be animated.

It's not too flashy yet. "The order of the words will change," says Griffin. "There will be images that will turn on and off." The images are black-and-white in four shades of grey; a murky newspaper image, at best, but colored by a sheet of transparent, tinted plastic that will be fixed over the top.

It's the same e-paper that's inside Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, except this sheet of e-paper — two, actually; there's a second sheet on the inside cover that advertises the Ford Flex crossover SUV — will cost just a few bucks, not $350.

Esquire can sell the e-paper covers at the standard cover price because of the Ford advertisement, which has "defrayed a lot of the cost," explains Griffin. That's not the cop-out it might at first glance seem: should the Esquire cover make a splash, other advertisers will be willing to underwrite the use of e-paper in other magazines.

As long as they're Hearst magazines, that is. Hearst, Esquire's publisher (and one of my employers; I'm a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics), has brokered a one-year exclusivity with eInk, the e-paper manufacturer.

But on to the question most of the geeks have been asking: Can you rip out the cover and use it for your own projects?

Griffin says it should be possible — "We look forward to seeing what people do it" — although there isn't any discrete input on the custom-designed circuit board that will control the e-paper. The data will be baked into the circuitry. Figuring out how to reprogram the e-paper controller or installing an entirely new one will be up to the hackers.

Good news about the battery, though: it should be trivial to replace.

"The batteries are pretty standard, small batteries," says Griffin, some sort of coin cell battery that can be purchased from a variety of retailers. That means when the soldered-in battery dies after an estimated ninety days, replacing it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

The cover itself isn't going to be completely stiff, having some of the give and bend of real paper.

Griffin says the cover is "like a really heavy magazine stock, but not like cardboard," about three millimeters thick. He thinks they could have gotten it even thinner.

"The thickness in the cover has nothing to do with the circuit or the technology; it's the protection we had to build into magazine for the binding. If we were to create a demonstration cover without worrying about the padding needed for the printing process it would be not much not thicker than a regular magazine cover."

Image: Our mockup of a classic cover using an e-paper cover. The actual 75th anniversary editions have not yet been finalized. And they wouldn't show us the prototypes, the bastards.

Old Media, New Medium
New York offers a technology writer valuable perspective. It's impossible to crow about the death of old media when you're submerged in a sea of smart long-form journalism. (Compare this to San Francisco, where every person is either building a crowd-sourced Web 2.0 application that will obviate traditional journalism — or a journalist reporting about start-ups for an old media outlet.) And I am, as the JPEG goes, From the Internet. I first wrote professionally online; I developed many of my opinions and rhetorical ability online. But as I began to practice journalism, I quickly realized that it would be presumptuous to throw away the collective wisdom of a hundred-and-fifty years of journalists, full-time craftsmen who beat the streets, picked up the phone, and took the time to fully report their stories.

Bear in mind that I am also aware that a lot of real journalism happens online in new media outfits by citizen journalists; I'm also aware that most of the work I do isn't journalism. That's my point, actually: journalism is a process and a craft, one that sometimes the support of a "old" media structure like a magazine or a newspaper to be practiced. Old media outlets offer content that citizen journalists don't always have the luxury to produce. The future of media is a mish-mash of both professional and amateur journalism — a very good thing.

What's dying is paper. And it's about time. Esquire should be lauded for having the grit to put a project like this together; it certainly sounds like it was a real pain in the ass to get right. (And Griffin told me they're still working through prototypes!)

E-paper magazine covers aren't without their downsides — Esquire has essentially just introduced the blink tag to print — but for this short interlude of perhaps a couple of years while e-paper is still too rudimentary to replace glossy magazine paper entirely but cheap enough to be used as chrome in advertisements and covers, I don't see anything wrong with enjoying this rare sight: a brief moment when our sci-fi pop culture future is about to flash plainly into view. – Joel Johnson

Rob Beschizza

Welcome to the mainstream: subnotebook from Sylvania

Sylvania's g netbook MESO is an Intel Atom-brained 9" subnote with an 80GB hard drive, weighing in at 2.2 pounds and running XP or Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Sylvania's a Wal-Mart staple, but there's no plans for it to hit the megabox. The whiff of mainstream success can't be far off for the new category.

It'll come in white, yellow and pink, and hopefully cost under $500.

Update: Fixed some mistakes and dumb assumptions of mine. Thanks, Beth!

Sylvania to enter expanding netbook market [Out of the Box]

John Brownlee

Robot head toilet paper dispensers

Aww, man. How awesome are these robot toilet paper dispensers? But for $49.99 apiece, you'd be better off just building one yourself... the design is certainly simple enough. I'd recommend against the white model: the temptation to paint a Dirty Sanchez on that porcelain robot face would be irresistible.

Robotan Toilet Paper Holders [Audio Cubes via Gearfuse]

John Brownlee

Video: Another thing you can do with a Fun Float

When I wrote about my idyllic boyhood experiences on the summer camp fun float, I somehow let all of the Lord of the Flies testicle crushing distract me from writing about all the other cool things you can do with one. Consider this video an official editorial correction.

[via Gearfuse]

John Brownlee

Zing: Dell's new MP3 player

A piece in today's Wall Street Journal suggests that Dell might be looking to jump back into the MP3 player game with a new DAP running the Zing firmware they acquired last year. You would be able to download MP3s through "Zingspot" over WiFi directly to the device and share the music with PCs and phones. That possibly means DRM, but god knows enough companies seem to have felt the burn on that choice lately: perhaps this would be a good opportunity for Dell to experiment with offering nothing but DRM-free tracks, a la Amazon.

Most of the blogs that are reporting this are being a bit snarky about Dell as a DAP-seller, but my first MP3 player was the old, crunch Dell DJ, which looked like an iPod as envisioned by Soviet-era electronics designers. It was actually a solid piece of hardware, capable of stopping anti-tank ordnance: four years later, it still works flawlessly, and my mother noodles around the garden listening to audio book mysteries on it every day. I wouldn't mind seeing Dell make another stab at this space.

Wall Street Journal on Dell Zing [WSJ]

John Brownlee

Next iPod Nano to have Zune-like dimensions?

iLounge reports the new iPod Nano 4G will totally throw out the squat dwarfism of the current Nano design to fit in 1.5:1 widescreen screen like on an iPhone or Touch. That's a bummer: I actually love the current Nano, finding it a perfect compromise between complete pocketability and a full-featured MP3 player that can handle video.

iPod Nano 4G a Zune-Alike [iLounge]

John Brownlee

The Mojave Experiment

By now you've all heard of the latest push in Microsoft's dead-serious Vista "re-education" campaign. Basically, they took 22 people who had never used Vista and showed them a prototype of the next Windows version, codenamed Mojave... which was really just Vista in disguise.

Here's the smugly congratulatory video. I'm not impressed: showing 22 imbeciles who have managed to avoid even seeing one of the most pervasive and highly publicized operating systems in the world "changing their minds" after a few minutes with Mojave is rotely predictable and means nothing.

I mean, that's the whole point, isn't it? Vista impresses immediately with a few good new features and some excellent Aero bling, but it consistently grates and irritates over time.

Vista's not a terrible OS. It's pretty okay in a lot of ways. But I find something just bile-churning about Microsoft launching a multi-million dollar campaign to downplay Vista's issues and paint the detractors as unreasonable imbeciles and luddites.

John Brownlee

id software going iPhone

The PC Gamer's patron saint of sunken-chested albino nerds, Mr. John Carmack, is now mulling over a title for the iPhone.

"We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone," he says. "I'm not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force."
Anna Kang, president of id Mobile, adds "it would not be a new IP," meaning the game would have roots in id's existing catalog, which includes the "Doom, "Quake" and "Wolfenstein" franchises.

An iPhone remake of the Doom RPG would be great: it really was one of the best games I ever played on my cell phones. More likely is some sort of iPhone port of id mobile's terrible Orcs and Elves series. How bland are those games? The title is not self-parodying, which pretty much says all you need to know.

Doom'ing the iPhone [Forbes]

John Brownlee

WiBrain l1 goes Atom

The WiBrain I1 — from its bizarre name to a design that looks like every disparate element of a usable UMPC UI was just puked up onto a prototype — was a weird device. But Beschizza, UMPC loather though he may be, has always liked them, feeling that it is one of the only UMPCs to... well, less get UMPC usability right than fail to get it disastrously wrong. It's the sort of protruding thumbs up that makes friends of press departments, let me tell you.

Anyway, the moon man MID just got an upgrade, which includes Atom, which means better battery life: your choice of 1.1GHz (Z510) and 1.33GHz (Z520) Atom processors. There's also a WWAN antenna, SD card slot, and Linux and XP versuibse with a 30GB or 60GB hard drive or a 64GB SSD.

No price or date yet, but the original WiBrain was only $699, so it'll probably hover somewhere around there.

WiBrain l1 [Dynamism via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Meridian 810 Reference Video System projector like IMAX at home

The Meridian "810 Reference Video System" can shoot light in high density: 4,096 by 2,400 pixels with a 4,000 lumen lamp. It's essentially the same resolution as a nice 4K digital theater scan, although still not quite up to the relative pixel density of something like IMAX. But in a high-end home theater, slack-jawed and stoned on diacetyl, you'll probably not notice the difference.

The 810 starts at $185,000, not including installation or super-upconverting Blu-ray player.

Meridian 810 Reference Video System: King of all Front Projectors [Gearlog]

Previously • RED Scarlet 3K camcorder, James Cameron on the future of digital cinema, and trying to grok all these pixels

Joel Johnson

One-man Martin JetPack demonstrated, if feebly

The Martin JetPack isn't technically a jetpack — it uses two ducted fan propellers to provide 600 pounds of thrust. Inventor Glenn Martin showed off his device at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, taking the system up to six feet for 45 seconds. He claims the JetPack should be able to reach heights of 6,000 feet for thirty-to-forty minutes, far longer than older single-person flying systems like the Bell Rocket Belt, which used hydrogen peroxide reacting violently against silver-lined gills.

But part-time Mythbuster and full-time Metafilter commenter Adam Savage isn't ready to call it success:

Am I the only one that sees 2 guys guiding this thing? I know I'm not but here's the thing: The bugbear with this type of vehicle isn't getting airborne, it's stability. He says that it can go to 8k feet for 1/2 hour. That's theoretically. I see a device going 1 foot off the ground with 2 big guys guiding it. In fact, I've seen not a single untethered pic.

I'd love it to be true, but I see too many warning flags. Sounds like a money raising stunt. Every time one of these companies is about to run out of money, they hold a "demonstration" and make a prediction that they'll be selling them within some short period of time. I doubt it. Moller's been predicting that people will be flying to work in 10 years, for the last 40 years.

Trek Aerospace spent millions on the stability problem, still are. Until I see this thing fly around a house without a tether and under the control of the driver, it's still snake oil. It's no better than that bloody Moller skycar imho.

Martin plans to sell the JetPack for just under $100,000 after further testing. I wish him the best of luck and offer my fragile, flailing body should he need a civilian test pilot.

Pictured: The £50,000 jet pack that lets you become a real-life James Bond [DailyMail.co.uk]

Video after the jump.

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Nintendo sues DS flash cart makers

Attention, homebrewers and pirates! Nintendo's got your number — or at least that of your suppliers.

Claiming "tremendous" losses, it's suing five companies that make flash-based DS cartridges that facilitate such activities, singling out the R4 Revolution as the flagship in the fleet that it's targeting.

The action was filed July 29 in Tokyo District Court, citing the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act. It seeks to stop export and import of the devices, which allow users to store their own programs – and copies of commercial titles — on flash memory.

In a press release, Nintendo says that it's pursued legal action in 11 countries now, resulting in close to 30,000 "infringing game copying products" being seized. Angry Mario is angry.

Press Release(PDF) [Nintendo via Game|Life]

Joel Johnson

HP suggests $400 repair in lieu of shipping out a floppy

Reed Savory had been really happy with this HP MediaCenter PC — he'd even suggested it to other readers here on BBG – but after getting the runaround from HP's support line, his frown is turning upside...actually, no, it's still a frown. From his report, after bricking his PC during a BIOS update:

And it did exactly what you'd expect at this point - the machine was now officially a paperweight. When I powered the m8000e back on again, I got an "Award BIOS BootBlock Recovery" screen, asking me to insert a diskette or CDROM so the system could recover the BIOS.

And that would all be fine, and I could obviously fix the PC with such a disk, except for the fact that the HP tech tells me there is no such disk. Instead the tech informed me I'll have to box the system up and return it for repair, and since I've just gone out of warranty just barely over two months ago I'll have to pay for parts to "replace the damaged motherboard" and bench charges. So I'm likely looking at a bill of around $400, as opposed to just needing a simple bootable floppy disk.

So in total: an HP provided BIOS update, which HP's own web site recommends to fix the problem I was having, has rendered my PC totally unusable, and HP's answer is to hold the software necessary to fix the problem hostage and insisting that the motherboard is now damaged beyond repair.

The good news is that Reed figured out how to grab an image of the BIOS from another source and update his machine without sending it back to HP. His whole story, including how to do the fix, is after the jump.

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Morning tech deals highlights

• DSLR – Canon EOS Rebel XSi 12.2-megapixel DSLR with kit lens for $710, shipped. That's about $80 off. [Dealnews]

• Woot-Off – The Woot-Off continues!

Meager deals out in dealland today. So it goes.

Rob Beschizza

Today's USB junk one-two: shell speakers and nail memory stick

Surely a talented artist could make something wonderful of this grotesque stocking stuffer's ugly silver finish, if not the quality of its output. It's $12.50 at Gadget4All (via Ubergizmo), which seems a little expensive.

Your options for humorous remarks concerning Plankton's imaginative 1GB USB stick (via technabob) are (a) Hammer Time!, (b) "Plankton nails it with...", or (c), it's price, which is €30 ($45).

Rob Beschizza

Dell Studio Hybrid makes Mac Mini flaws apparent

Should Apple combine the Mac Mini and Apple TV to avoid ceding the living room to competitors?

Cult of Mac today addresses a fact that few have really gotten their heads around in the last 24 hours: Dell just released a stunning little living room computer with Blu-Ray, HDTV and mass-storage options, and it not only nails shut the current-gen Mac Mini's coffin, but makes you wonder if Apple's even capable of responding. Dell. Dell.

Craig Crannel outlines what needs to come out of Cupertino in response:

Rumors always abound regarding future Apple kit, with pie-in-the-sky wishes dashed by the brutal hand of reality upon an Expo or WWDC keynote. My wishes are rather simpler, though: a Mac mini that genuniely makes a play for the living room. Take a leaf out of Dell’s book, Apple, and bundle in that card reader, so people can more easily bung photos on their TV screen. Add that Blu-ray option for people who want to own media rather than rent downloads. And add HDMI video out by default, so people can connect their mini to a new TV without faffing about with additional leads.

Can Apple and the Mac mini learn from Dell’s Studio Hybrid? [CoM]

Rob Beschizza

Does MacBook's rumored glass trackpad mean secondary displays?

If the new MacBook Pro's touchpad will be glass and multitouch, there is an implication of it having a display underneath it, because the current metal touchpads already do multitouch. Here's a photoshop cooked up by 4 Front Multimedia:

Moreoever, this ties in neatly with rumors of Apple finally working on tablet-related stuff — the latter assumption could rest on a misunderstanding of evidence better explained but this somewhat odd new rumor. I think it's a bit too weird, myself — if Apple does anything like this, it will be a more subtle and snazzy affair, like a purely aesthetic e-ink layer beneath the hypothetical glass, or some single-color glowy LED action, like so:

Gizmodo runs through some possible uses for a secondary display on Apple notebooks. Of course, Microsoft's been doing this for years.

Rob Beschizza

Via Nano kicks Intel Atom's ass in tests

Planning to use Atom for a desktop computer? Get real.

HardOCP pitted new low-power chips from Intel and Via in battle, and the latter's Nano outperformed Atom by up to 28 percent under synthetic benchmarks, 37 percent on DivX encoding, 59 percent on MP3 encoding, and attained at least marginal superiority in every single benchmark run. Gamers, particularly, should note that it got almost double the frame rate in Quake 4, though neither impressed on the graphics front — at least using the integrated video included on each CPU's respective Mini-ITX motherboards. HotHardware got similar results.

While Atom was never intended for such heavy use, the amazing part is that Nano's gains are made on just 8 watts difference in power consumption under load, 53W to 45W. Furthermore, the Nano had lower consumption when idle. These figures apply only to desktop-style use (the Atom's forte will be in handheld devices under much different circumstances) but should put the brakes on those planning to use Intel's platform for an everyday-computing application. From Kyle Bennett's conclusion:

I did not expect the Intel Atom to take such an overall beating. ... I have spent a good week or so using both the Atom and Nano in a Windows Vista 32-bit environment, and I can tell you now that I never want to be subjected to Atom on the desktop again.

Via's onto a good thing, it seems: the Nano is pin-compatible with its earlier C7 series, meaning equipment makers can use their old chipsets and motherboards with the new CPU while tooling updated replacements.

Now all it requires is a theme tune.

Atom vs Nano [HardOCP]

Rob Beschizza

Microsoft's multi-touch Sphere plays crazy Pong

Microsoft's touch-sensitive sphere is, at present, mostly just a stream of nonsensical marketing ("we wanted to explore collaborative actions" ... "and you have this notion of pseudoprivacy"), but a couple of minutes in they finally get to putting cool stuff on it, like dynamic world maps and and an omnidirectional view of downtown Seattle. And Pong!

John Timmer at Ars Technica reports that there are no plans to make the $5,000-$10,000 Sphere commercially available. If perhaps the perfect reminder of why companies like Apple don't research things they can't sell, it's still awe-inspiring all the same. A global Missile Command game, like forgotten Psygnosis flop Global Domination, would be perfect.

Previously: One day your computer will be a big ass table.

MS Surface goes spherical, but probably won't go global [Ars]

Rob Beschizza

Sirius-XM stock plunging as merger finalized

Within hours of Sirius and XM's storied merger finally closing, the stock fell 16 percent to $1.58, its lowest in 5 years. In the last 4 days, it's lost 42 percent of its value. Hear that snapping sound? That was the latex glove on the invisible hand.

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: This man's commute is almost as short as mine

Photo: Alim Boeana.
Alim Boena [Flickr Set via Ectoplasmosis]

Rob Beschizza

Hug-hungry robot at London's Science Museum

If you can get to South Ken., check out David McGoran's Heart Robot, which just wants to be hugged, cuddled and stroked. From the Beeb:

It has a beating heart which rises when the body is shaken, but slows down when treated calmly. In addition, Heart's eyes flutter in response to touch. ... [McGoran] believes there could be major implications for social care, with research already taking place into giving elderly care homes robots that express emotions.

The way it flings its palm out to shake hands is cute and quite startling. Question: why sheep?

Also:

The robot that loves to be hugged [BBC]
Hug-Bot [Perry Bible Fellowship] (Thanks, Anonyman!)

Rob Beschizza

Game profits, the bottom line

This image, sourced from more complete figures you can find at Kotaku, amuses and astonishes in equal measure. It refers to publishing only.

I can only imagine the scene at Nintendo whenever they hear its competitors or some analyst declare it the inevitable loser of the console war based on some contrived prognostication or trend: a moment of silence, followed by shrieks of uncontrollable laughter.

Then they go back to snorting gold dust through ivory straws, provided by alien slaves clad in ambergris-infused seal fur thongs.

John Brownlee

Cyborg mutant flashes Madrid with technology

A cyborg mutant roams the streets of Madrid, gynormously flashing his engorged, fluid-filled scrotum upon the mortar work of the Almudena Cathedral, giving priests the vapors and making gargoyles silently weep at the monstrosity of man."It is a means of power," says he.

Penis artist projects his 'power'...on buildings {Metro]

John Brownlee

Color coded cutting boards separate salmonella from sausage

Color coded chopping boards for $79 sit upon your kitchen counter in tabbed array, like file cabinet folders. As a man accumulating all of the accoutrements of a well-requisitioned kitchen, this appeals to me. The old John Brownlee would have gamely sliced fruit on a moldy board covered in the juices of disemboweled chickens, or allowed sliced cheddar to sop into spattered virgin's blood. But the new Brownlee? He'll have none of that. Virgins get their own lily-colored cutting board.

$79 seems a bit much, though... and I have the nagging feeling that I must have seen something similar to this at IKEA.

Color coded cutting boards [Sharesale via Gizmodo]

Joel Johnson

Video: Circuit-bent Pikachu nightmare chorus

Twelve circuit-bent, MIDI-actuated Pikachu toys scream together to form the "Y.M.O" — the Yellow Mouse Orchestra. Pink Tentacle has more if you dare.

Circuit-bent Pikachu instruments [PinkTentacle.com]

Joel Johnson

iTunes, what could you possibly be backing up on my iPhone?

Ever since the 2.0 firmware was released, it takes about twenty or thirty minutes to sync my iPhone to my Mac. Copying over songs, podcasts, and photos seems to take about as long as it ever did, but at the very beginning of the process, a mysterious procedure, described by iTunes as "Backing up 'Joel's iPhone'", goes on for ages. The only thing I can think that might take that long were if iTunes were making an image of my iPhone's entire contents, including the operating system, every single time it syncs.

I can cancel the "Backing up" portion by clicking the small X next to the phrase in iTunes, but it has to be done every time I sync. It's crazy.

John Brownlee

Fossil-iced dinosaur ice cubes

I surely can't be the only one sweltering on a 90 degree day and thinking to myself that I really wish the crystalized fossils of some miniature velociraptors were crackling in my gin and tonic. $14.99? Oh, fine, if you insist. But you'd better throw in some frozen cavemen for free.

Fossiliced [Perpetual Kid via Nerd Approved]

Joel Johnson

Tables that are easy to clear ("For my next trick...")

Dan Lockton has collected a few innovative table designs on his blog, all of which are projects created by student designers. There's some great stuff, like the "Ifiltro" table by Anna Harris, conceived to be used as a entryway table; empty your pockets on the top, where keys and other pocket detritus falls through the slats for safekeeping in a drawer.

Thoughtful Acts [Architectures.DanLockton.co.uk]

Joel Johnson

Train clocks with real Japanese railway livery

These nifty little clocks are painted like real Japanese trains. Cutie Gadget explains:

These trains are the real trains Japan, and there are 6 choices of this train clock: the Sanyo Electric Railway Co., Shintetsu 5000 form, Senboku 5000 high-speed rail system, Hankyu 9300 series, 8000 Keihan train system and Osaka municipal subway system 10.

They're ¥2000 yen apiece, available in Japan.

Product Page [Surutto.com via CutieGadget.com]

Joel Johnson

Amateur historian claims da Vinci swiped helicopter designs from the Chinese

Reuters has a sit down with Gavin Menzies, an amateur historian whose new book 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance claims (among other things) that Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of flying machines were cribbed from two-dimensional drawings presented to Pope Eugenius IV by a Chinese ambassador.

To support his argument, Menzies publishes drawings of siege weapons, mills and pumps from a 1313 Chinese agricultural treatise, the Nung Shu, and from other pre-1430 Chinese books, next to apparently similar illustrations by Leonardo, Di Giorgio and Taccola.
"By comparing Leonardo's drawings with the Nung Shu we have verified that each element of a machine superbly illustrated by Leonardo had previously been illustrated by the Chinese in a much simpler manual," Menzies writes.

Menzies' last book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America, claimed a fleet of Chinese explorers discovered North America long before Columbus did. Some have found these claims to be weak, although it's fairly common knowledge at this point that my Norse forebearers settled North America as early as the 10th century. From Menzies' newest claim, I can only presume Erik the Red reached Newfoundland by wooden helicopter.

Glenn C. Altschuler, Professor of American Studies at Cornell, hasn't seen much rigor in either of Menzies' books. In the Baltimore Sun review of 1434 Altschuler says:
Menzies pursues his subject with missionary zeal - and a will to believe. He is unperturbed by the absence of contemporaneous accounts of the arrival in Italy of a flotilla of hundreds of ships from China. And, unfortunately, he does not employ standards acceptable to professional historians, linguists or life scientists to evaluate the mountain of evidence he has amassed. Because Menzies gives credence to anyone who shares his views, every link in the chain of causation in 1434 is made of papier-mache.

Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci [Reuters.com]

Above left, an image from the Nung Shu of a revolving table that is a rudimentary form of moveable type; Above right, da Vinci's helicopter. They aren't really related, but then I'm no historian. In fairness, the Nung Shu apparently does reference some helicopter designs, but I couldn't find any images of them.

8

Rob Beschizza

Rumor: Cave Story coming to Wii (Update: No)

Cave Story is one of gaming's fondest secrets, a freeware indie game that perfected and polished off an entire genre. But download links are vanishing fast, it seems, and the why of that is an intriguing question. The latest rumor, from Amigaworld: it's about to hit WiiWare!

Cave Story will get a commercial release as a WiiWare game on the Nintendo Wii. ... Pixel asked to remove all ports of Cave Story to other platforms. And thus, Cave Story has been deleted from OS4Depot, and should get deleted from Aminet as well. So if you want to support Pixel, buy the game for your Wii.

Pixel is the author of the game, which he developed over several years to universal acclaim. The downer: this probably dashes my hopes of an Amstrad CPC port.

Update: Commenter Pelrun spots a retraction:

... Amigaworld - they've published a complete retraction.No ports are being withdrawn, besides the Amiga one which has a show-stopper bug which they haven't been able to resolve.

Art: www.born-robotic.net

AmigaOne News : Cave Story finally gets a commercial release. [Amigaworld via Indie Gaming]

6

Rob Beschizza

Designer dog poo bags

Design house Junge Schactel believes that even dog eggs should travel in style.

These 16 dog poo bags are the most hygienic and environmentally-friendly way to dispose of your doggie's leftovers. Colorful and humorous bags - one size, usable for all poo sizes from Chihuahua to Great Dane. The idea way to carry the precious substance to a nearby bin. 100% biodegradable!

Poopoobags.com [Jungeschactel via Notcot]

7

Joel Johnson

Morning tech deals highlights

• MicroATX Case – Antec Mini P180 White Steel MicroATX computer case for $80, shipped. [Slickdeals]

• Hiking GPS – Garmin eTrex Legend Mapping GPS w/MapSource for $100, shipped. [Bargainist]

• Rackmount Case – Tyan Transport cases for Xeon/Opteron, including motherboard and power supply, starting at around $100 shipped. [Dealnews]

• Woot-Off! – Woot-Off! Woot-off!

3

John Brownlee

Thermaltake makes CPU coolers into objets d'art

The Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler goes for $60, with a 12 volt fan and speeds of between 1,300 and 2,000 RPM. But that's not why it gets posted. It gets posted because it looks just like a cyborg's set of coppery accordion lungs.

Thermaltake [Official Site via DVICE]

3

John Brownlee

Pizza cutting scissors profane in the eyes of the Pizza God

Pizza purists will loudly revile the Pizza Pro, a strange merging of a spatula and a pair of scissors, which promises to allow you to cut a perfect slice and serve it with a single hand. It's standard Sky Mall tat — the sort of gizmo that is supposed to get house wives to wonder how they ever lived without a Pizza Pro as they wait on the tarmac — and I find myself torn. On one hand, there's something satisfying when I think about using scissors to cut a gooey mozarella pie. On the other hand, surely this pisses in the eye of the pizza cutting ritual, which demands a rotating cutter. And who eats pizza slices that daintily sized anyway? A slice of pizza should be the size of your head, like an immense wing torn off in spurts of grease from the crusty, bubbling flesh of the one true Pizza God.

Pizza Pro [Sky Mall via Random Good Stuff]

16

John Brownlee

Review: A month with MonkeyLectric LED Light System for Bikes

In Flann O'Brien's surrealist masterpiece The Third Policeman, the anonymous one-legged protagonist (who is also dead, but don't worry too much about that) incites a riot in the Irish countryside amongst his fellow one-legged countrymen. The local constable, thinking quickly, puts the riot down the only way he knows how: he paints his bicycle an impossible color and rides it by the rampaging amputee horde. Consequently, they all go mad.

I've always wanted a bike like that. Perhaps not one that turns onlookers minds into a gelatin-like slurry, but a surrealist bicycle. Because, if you think about it, there is something inherently weird about the bicycle. With its chittering gears, bristling spokes and spinning chains, there is something insect-like about its workings... a mental connection evoked by its best synonym, velocipede... a synonym which seems to share both etymologic and entomologic phylum with the centipede.

I'm not the only one to be fascinated by the bike's innate oddity. Bicycles are often used in art as symbols of the inherently absurd: children's books are filled with magic or living bikes, and the penny-farthing is such a marvelously implausible method of transportation that it is constantly used as the butt of jokes in television shows. The penny-farthing was also the logo of Patrick McGoohan's hallucinatory sci-fi spy series, The Prisoner: the bike, by itself, was a symbol of the surrealness to come.

There are few pleasures in life purer than bicycling around on a bright, brisk day. This is because bikes are already just wonderfully odd inventions... making a bike even stranger is less an act of mechanical eccentricity than an attempt to pass the pleasure of riding one to the people you cycle past, emphasizing to them what they forgot: the bicycle's marvelous strangeness.

I wanted a bike like that. So I started looking for ways to transform my own bike into something weirder. But I have no real mechanical skills, nor could I really afford some custom bizarro mod. There's also the mundanely practical: in Berlin, a bike that you actually intend to ride must either be locked up every day or have its excellence camouflaged from nomadic bicycle thieves. Any bike that looks one of a kind will be stolen, repainted and sold at the Mauer Park flea market within moments.

Ultimately, then, I decided upon the MonkeyLectric m132s LED Light System as my paint coat of impossible color.

The MonkeyLectric is made and sold by known home-brew joygiver Dan Goldwater, the founder of Instructables. The website describes the device drily: "The MonkeyLectric m132s is a revolutionary bike light that keeps you visible - and in style. Its ruggedized design is perfect for daily commuters, urban cyclists, casual evening riders, BMX, festivals - anyone that wants to be visible after dark and not feel like a second class citizen." But the pictures and movies are what do the selling: bicycles with wheels like hallucinatory, out-of-control Ferris Wheels. An electric kool aid acid test contained within your bike's spokes.

I was sold. I got two, one for each wheel.

Turned off, the m132s is decidedly more subtle than the pictures on the MonkeyLectric site make it out to be. In fact, the MonkeyLectric is only a black, weatherproofed circuit board that the official instruction sheets commands you to tie to the inside of your spokes with plastic pulls. The battery case is exposed, and three AAs are actually velcroed in place to power it (a curious design decision, since the batteries are not weatherproof, and seem to easily short out in even a light misting). A straight line of LEDs aligns with a spoke; they can be triggered on-or-off by pushing a number of plastic buttons on the circuit board, each of which push the MonkeyLectric through a random oscillation of colorful blinkings and spun rainbow patterns.

One of the disappoints someone who purchases a MonkeyLectric will have to face is that one m132s is not enough to turn your wheel into a polychromatic spool of LED flame. At least two are needed per wheel to get anything close to the pictures on the website. After installing the MonkeyLectrics on both wheels, I wasn't happy with the results, and instead decided to shift both boards to the front wheel. The end product was exactly what I wanted: as I gave the wheel a test spin, I was confronted with a drum of psycho-photonic cotton candy that cast the courtyard in wonderfully weird, brightly colored gloamings.

It made me giddy. I remember thinking to myself that this was a real gadget. It didn't just temporarily fill a consumeristically produced void in my ego; it caused a genuine emotional reaction, like a pretty girl or a puppy, and that made my heart to quiver with fondness. I got all giggly. I wanted to share it with someone. So I ran upstairs, knocked on my neighbor's door, and asked him if he'd bring his three-year old son outside. I spun the wheel for him: he sighed, giggled, then started wildly laughing and jumping up and down. His pupils glowed like plasma globes. I knew exactly how he felt: I was sharing the MonkeyLectric with the peer of my own inner child.

But what happened next shook me. As I kept on spinning the wheel faster and faster, the kid extended one purply finger and tried to touch the light. He was hypnotized. I reacted quickly, stopping the wheel with my hand before the extended digit could be spit out in meat paste out the other side of the spoke.

Everything was fine. But I was startled. There seemed to be some lesson in this: people react unexpectedly to the unexpected.

The last month has underlined that lesson a dozen times. I'm always happiest with the MonkeyLectrics than when I decide around dusk to take my bike for a spin around the park, and see people stop and point and laugh as I cruise by them, laughing and asking "Wie geht es Ihnen?"

But it's only in these controlled environments of innocence where the MonkeyLectrics actually make me feel happy, make my bicycle seem more magical. Far more common is cycling past the KulturBrauerei as the disco gets out, only to have club-goers scream insults at me, or dangerously try to block me on the bike path, looking for a fight. Berlin drunks are a consistent problem: by being noticable, you make yourself a target, and I've had a couple of beer bottles hurled at me as I've ridden home from the pub, late at night. The police have stopped me, complaining that the MonkeyLectrics are flagrant violations of Germany's rigid bicycle laws. And while I initially shrugged it off, the cops were right: the MonkeyLectrics' visual noise has made me a more visible bicyclist at night, but contrary to the website's claim, it is actually to my peril. Motorists don't know what I am when they see me coming in their mirror. At night, you can't really see, so you drive primarily by identifying standardized patterns of light and extrapolating from them vehicles and obstacles. But when I use the MonkeyLectrics, motorists see the lights, but I don't look like a bicycle: their minds go to ambulances and police. They get spooked. They swerve. American bicyclists may be used to unpredictable drivers threatening life and limb, but Berliners are used to bicycles and are comfortable with accommodating them on the roads. That the MonkeyLectrics were actually causing motorists to drive more dangerously around me was undeniable.

The MonkeyLectrics are still on my bike, of course. I do love them. As trite as it may be to say, by making my bike more strange and special, they make me feel the same way. But ultimately, there's something to the Third Policeman comparison. The MonkeyLectrics do paint my bicycle an impossible color. And it does seem to drive some people quite mad.

MonkeyLectric [Official Site]

21

Rob Beschizza

Dell's Studio Hybrid miniature desktop PCs pack Blu-Ray, TV Tuner and HDMI

Small, gorgeous and cheap, Dell's Studio Hybrid Mini-PC looks like the HTPC I've been waiting for.

At 7 by 8 1/4 inches, and 2 3/4 inches thick, it's just a little larger than Apple's Mac Mini. The specifications, however, are much flashier, with up to 4GB of RAM, a 320 GB hard drive and a T8100 Core 2 Duo CPU. It's the HDMI-out, however, that makes it a good candidate for the living room, especially with the optional Blu-Ray and TV tuner upgrades.

Green credentials abound: it uses 1 watt in hibernation, 26W asleep, and no more than 44W at full belt. It has an optional bamboo case, should olive, mauve, red, blue, gray or orange plastic be insufficiently ecological.

For $500, the basic price point, you get only a basic machine, without the matching wireless keyboard, WiFi, or any of the add-ins that give it timely punch. Even then, it remains the first ultra-small PC to give the Mac Mini a run on both price and prettiness — many make similar machines, but they're typically quite expensive. Everex's gPC Mini was a recently flawed try.

PC Mag already has a review up: it gave an $874 configuration 3 and a half blobs out of 5, and reports that it's crapware-free.

Dell says it will be offered at www.dell.com/hybrid.

15

Rob Beschizza

Wired's Found gone without a sound?

Wired magazine's Found is no more. A weird extrapolated gadget, photoshopped receipt or fake mag cover ostensibly stolen from the future, it always added a bite-size note of happy futurism to an issue. Metafilter has a compendium of the last few years' entries.

Shades of the Blade Runner curse: pictured is a Sharper Image ad from 2012.

4

Rob Beschizza

Who needs Flash when iPhone game devs now have Torque?

Torque's game development engine is now out for the iPhone, making it easier to develop high-performance titles without advanced coding skills. Both 2D and 3D games are possible with Torque and the included scripting language: it's especially delicious when one considers that the iPhone has similar specs to Sony's PSP.

Garagegames Torque for the iPhone SDK includes a a full-featured WYSIWYG realtime editor, easy integration with many 3D modeling packages, a powerful scripting language and more. All this, and you can develop your game on a PC and test your application on an iPhone emulation of your application using Apple's iPhone Developer SDK.

Hooks are included for multi-touch input and gesture recognition, so it's not just a knee-high port of the original. The PC and Mac versions are $100-150 for indies, depending on the package, but it looks like amateur hour remains a long way off in the iPhone ecosystem. No price is provided, with licensing on a per title basis.

Torque for iPhone [Garage Games via IMG and Tuaw]

7

Rob Beschizza

Roundup of doomed technologies

Cracked counts MP3 players, DVDs and daily newspapers in its salon of technology's walking dead. Click through for it's top choice: it's something readers of our recent feature, Perfectly Pure Gadgets, may well recall. They clearly adopted the same wide interpretation of "technology" that we did!

Zombie Technologies [Cracked]

9

Rob Beschizza

Robot hand plays air piano

This robot hand, a surprise discovery in "What on Earth," a catalog of crap gadgets, plays air piano. Included are recordings of Beethoven's fifth, Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, Chopin's Minute Waltz, and various other novelty doorbell classics. It is $13.

1

Rob Beschizza

Microsoft's PC maker of choice

Take a look at the homepage for Microsoft Office. Look carefully.

Go to school with Office [office.microsoft.com]

15

Rob Beschizza

Glitching Speak & Spell without cracking it open

"I'm gonna show you how to make a Speak & Spell glitch without circuit bending. ... so you can record it going nuts."

The surreal part is that it's a British Speak and Spell, completely baffling even to the British.

Video [Stenophonic via MatrixSynth and Make]

9

Rob Beschizza

Stained glass window depicts EM spectrum

This stained glass representation of the electromagnetic spectrum may be seen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The dangly yellow part represents that band of the spectra which makes people think that non-ionizing radiation gives you cancer.

Deputy Dog has a whole collection of geeky stained glass windows up today, which includes a cute Link by Lynda Macrae, a not so cute Pyramid Head by Deviant Art's Laernath, and the classic pixels of Cologne cathedral.

when geeks and stained glass collide [DD via Make]

1

Rob Beschizza

Comment of the day

From Anon., describing how Yahoo! Music may implement the "case by case" part of its pledge to compensate rights-managed customers left up the creek.

[Application] instructions will be on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

9

Joel Johnson

Video: Honda sells 1984 City car with cyber-bulldogs

There's no one the Japanese trust to suggest small city cruiser automobiles than roaring, stop-motion bulldog cyber-warriors. If only it were being ridden by a tiny goblin familiar in a spacesuit. [via Jalopnik]

2

Joel Johnson

Brando 4-in-1 webcam has a certain something

Crapvendor primo Brando occasionally hits one out of the park. This "4-in-1 USB Webcam" includes a microphone, fan, ring light (with dimmer), and, uh, a webcam, all on practical bendy arms with a minimum of swoopy design cruft. As far as I'm concerned it's a home run because it doesn't try to hide its basic parts, lending it a certain simple majesty.

It's $23 and will probably break before you even plug it in, but we hope against hope.

Product Page [USB.Brando.com.hk via Coolest Gadgets]

2

Joel Johnson

"Shit List" memo pad

Design Warehouse Santa Fe sells this "Shit List," a small memo pad onto which those that have dared cross you can be inscribed along with their transgressions and your "Plan of Attack". We use something similar around BBG to keep track of people who bother adding comments that read "How is this a gadget?" and "TL;DR", except the "Plan of Attack" field is auto-populated with "Snicker at; ignore."

The Shit List is $7 plus shipping.

Product Page [DesignWarehouseSantaFe.com via Uncrate]

10

Rob Beschizza

Yahoo to compensate customers for killing their DRM music collections

Yahoo Music Store customers — angry about the company's plans to kill its DRM system, preventing re-activation of their music collections — will be compensated. From Information Week:

Carrie Davis, spokeswoman for Yahoo Music, confirmed that the digital rights management servers would be taken down, severely limiting the use of the files. However, Yahoo did not intend to abandon its customers.
"You'll be compensated for whatever you paid for the music," Davis told InformationWeek. "We haven't said exactly what we will do, but we will take care of our customers."

It will be on a "case by case" basis.

Also, the FAQ on how it's migrating subscription-based users to Rhapsody is a pleasantly instructive primer on why people don't buy music subscriptions.

Yahoo To Reimburse Customers Of DRM-Protected Music [IW]

12

Joel Johnson

Video: Zune Tattoo Guy's weary goodbye

Yes, he was an idiot to get a tattoo of a product logo, but I really do feel sorry for this guy all the same. He seems to be taking it all pretty hard.

Zune Guy, do yourself a favor a get off the internet for a while. Take a breather.

8

Joel Johnson

Is ZigBee really going to be the "Wi-Fi of home power management"?

The Times takes a look at home power meters, smart systems (typically with LCD displays) that monitor your home's power use and allow you to set up profiles for turning your electronics, lights, and HVAC systems off when they're not in use. This sort of monitoring has been been the domain of home automation systems for quite a while; there's little to indicate these new control boxes will really be all that different than previous home automation systems except for their focus on power savings over gee-whiz automation.

One company, Control4, intends to sell a smart meter controller for $500 in October. (Its interface is pictured above.)

But how do you tie all your home's equipment into these controllers? The Times is talking up the same three wireless home automation systems that have been in the cards for years: ZigBee, Z-Wave, and LonWorks. Despite proclaiming that ZigBee is "on the verge of becoming the Wi-Fi of home power management," I've still seen very few products utilizing any of the wireless home automation protocols actually hit the market. You can buy raw Zigbee components or switches and plugs that use ZigBee from vendors like Control4, but where are the products with integrated ZigBee chipsets?

Finding and Fixing a Home’s Power Hogs [NYTimes.com]

Previously • Tell me about home automation platforms

7

Rob Beschizza

A portrait of the shower radio as a bottle of shampoo

"Various color for your selection."

Product Page [Alibaba via Technabob, ShinyShiny, 7gadgets]

4

Joel Johnson

Jointech J-Pro JL7100 Mini Laptop is a bit crap, but only costs a C-note

This little netbook-a-like from Jointech won't be running a desktop-class operating system with only 64MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM, but with a moderately large keyboard and a stunningly low price — they're shooting for a hundred bucks — its Windows CE 5.0 brains might still be able to work up something usable for basic text entry and modest web browsing. If they can add a flash memory expansion slot and perhaps a Linux version, the little laptop with a 7-inch screen could find its way into a few hearts.

Product Page [Jointech.hk via Engadget]

18

Joel Johnson

How Apple makes journalists part of their PR machine

Dan Lyons' analysis of the Times recent story about Steve Jobs' health — the one with the "This is Steve Jobs. You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong." quote given to Joe Nocera — is a spot-on analysis of the potential pitfalls of Apple's iron-clad approach to public relations:
One of the many ironies and contradictions about Apple is that while the company presents this hip, open, cool image to the world, its PR machine is the most secretive, locked-down, hard-assed and disciplined of any company in tech, including IBM. To get a sense of how weird IBM is, consider that one time, while I was waiting for an elevator with a flack at IBM headquarters in Armonk, I asked, just to pass the time, if the guy ever did any jogging. The guy gave me this panicked look and said, “Why do you want to know?”

...

The unfortunate thing about this arrogance is that no matter how hot a company may be, eventually every company stumbles. Someday Apple will need friends among the hackery. I’m not sure it will have any.

PR Rule #1: People who are telling the truth about themselves do not insist on being ‘off the record’ [Real Dan Lyons]

3

Rob Beschizza

The Oxygen Wonders of Exar

"Oxygen is life," declares Exar in ten languages, next to a blurred picture of a woman prancing through fields of tall grass (echoes of Lucy in the fields), harassed by bubbles of actionscript. Clicking through to the catalog itself, we are assailed by an 11,025 Hz piano, the finest Italian web design, and the products themselves.

Pictured above is the Exar Paradise, which encloses the user in a sphere and gasses them with wellness supplied by pO2rty, its feelgreat portable flavored oxygen generator.

Then there is the standard O2 bar, which has "aromastation colors" and which claims to generate "pure oxygen at 96%." One inhales it through a cannula while listening to nightmarish jazz, for a "pleasure full of benefits."

Clicking on the "O2 smart e O2 fantasy" navigation option gives us an animation of two office workers flying through space with more austere office models, advertised as an "elegant portable oxygen ministation for home, office, professionist." The Oxy regeneration system looks more relaxing, covering the user's face with a giant hemispherical dome called "Mecum," which combines oxyhuffing with "video theraputic visions," while the chair delivers a shiatsu massage to its occupant.

And we're barely scratching the surface here. There's an oxygen bath hot tub , which offers skin "hydroxygenstimulation," and which is one of few sub-sites there to offer the mercy of a "Stop Music" button.

Nor should visitors miss the "Oxy Hair System," which cures hair loss with the power of advantages and compounds, and looks suspiciously like the standard base unit hooked up to an airbrush. Music: accordion, with no off switch.

Product Page [via BornRich]

5

Joel Johnson

Cantor eDeck: wireless gambling with real money

While the Cantor Gaming eDeck isn't much to look at on the outside, I imagine on the inside it's much more impressive: any Wi-Fi-equipped device that lets you gamble with real money, interfacing directly with servers operated by Las Vegas casinos, has to have most of its security hatches battened.

It's not designed for portable gaming for just anyone, though, but instead will be handed out to casino patrons at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. Wouldn't want any patrons to spend a moment away from gambling, even when they're back in their hotel room on the can. (For now, the eDeck only works in the high-stakes gambling lounge while they test it out.)

The first wave of games are traditional casino experiences, but Cantor is working on live-action video poker, sports betting, and even non-traditional gaming that could reward winners with real cash.

Product Page [CantorGaming.com via Thrillist via Oh Gizmo!]

8

Joel Johnson

Morning tech deals highlights

• Video Card – There's a $30 mail-in rebate floating around for Radeon 4750 video cards, bringing the prices down to around $250 for extremely capable video hardware. If I'd yet decided what I was going to do about my gaming machine I'd probably pick one of these up. [Slickdeals]

• Monitor – Hannspree 22-inch LCD monitor with 1,680 x 1,050 resolution for $200. [Dealhack]

• Kitchen TV – GPX 8.1-inch under-cabinet LCD TV for $130 with additional $75 mail-in rebate. [Dealnews]

• Home Theater Speakers – Yamaha 6.1-channel home theater speaker set (no receiver) for $94, shipped [Dealnews]

• Flashlights – Denali Super-Bright 9-LED aluminum flashlight 3-pack for $14 on Amazon. [Dealnews]

• Electric ~~Sports Bra~~ Lawnmower – Today's Woot is the Neuton CE 5.2 Battery-Powered Lawn Mower for $305, shipped.

6

Joel Johnson

Dell is working on another smartphone, unless they aren't

From Om's interview with Michael Dell:
Om: Any plans for mobile phones or smartphones?

Dell: We are certainly looking at the whole smartphone category, but I wouldn’t expect anything anytime soon.

Om: With the emergence of Google’s Android, and with Symbian OS and Microsoft Mobile already on the market, do you think that makes it easier for Dell to get into the phone business?

Dell: What you’ve got [are] industry-standard platforms upon which applications are being built and ecosystems are being created, and that kind of building-block architecture gives us all sorts of opportunities.

Om: You can be a big game-changer in this market, right? You can decide to work with Android or Symbian. Is there a desire on your part to work with one over the other?

Dell: We’re not ready to publicly disclose our plans there…we’re kind of working on that.
Dell needs to stick to their knitting on this one: wait until Android shows it has a future, then start selling a extraordinarily capable phone for a reasonable price, a la the Dell E/Mini Inspiron. There's little need for them to break into the smartphone market again until they do so in a way that plays off their production strengths.

GigaOM Interview: Michael Dell, CEO & Founder of Dell Inc. [Dell.com]

Previously • Dell E becomes the Mini Inspiron, rumorous specs "leaked"

2

Joel Johnson

Power On Self Test: IBM Slides

Nearly every slide was worthy of a POST. [Square America]

6

Rob Beschizza

Gateway shutters online PC store

Before laying off 11,200 staff in March, 2003, Gateway sold PCs though a 300-strong national chain of brick and mortar shops. Five years on, it's finally shuttering its last outlet — Gateway.com's PC store — to focus on sales through other people's. Loyally lowing fans can still get them through Best Buy, Newegg and the other usual suspects.

Gateway ends direct PC sales [Cnet]

11

Joel Johnson

Korg DS-10 synthesizer and sequencer for Nintendo DS first look (Verdict: Looking good!)

BBG reader/sex object Downpressor got his Korg DS-10 cartridge in the mail today, bestowing upon his Nintendo DS the power of synthesized, sequenced bloopage and bleeperts.

He likes it:
This isnt a serious synth, maybe less than the Kaossilator, but its got alot to enjoy. You get six digital simulations of analog synth engines, four devoted to drums, along with a step sequencer to build patterns and chain em into songs. Theres a mixer function with 3 effects, delay, flanger and chorus. Theres a basic mixer for syn1 syn2 and drum sounds 1-4. Swing and BPM are global variables which can not be changed by pattern or within a pattern. There is no sequencing or automation for the mixer but there are pan, mute and solo controls so you could do a real time mix down to your favorite recorder

At first its not obvious how to sequence the "analog" aspects, the syn1/2 kaoss function can control 26 different sound aspects for both the X and Y movements. If you go into the syn1/2 seq page and click the "circle arrow" icon in the upper left a few times, you get to the kaoss x/y pages where you can sequence the sound aspects. The drums and effects are not controllable by the kaoss function though. If you load drum preset into the syn1 and 2 sounds, you can setup the kaoss controls and sequencing for those tracks, build up a few patterns, chain them to a song and feed it into your favorite multi track recorder.

This isnt an all in one production tool, but I think its going to be a nice sketch pad to catch some quick beats, bass lines or melodies that come to mind on the go.

Nuff respect to Korg once again!
Mine's in the mail. Can't wait.

21

John Brownlee

Asus announced "whole-day" batteries for the Eee

According to Digitimes Asus is planning on pushing out an Eee netbook with "whole-day" battery life. The quotes make that sound like a crazy euphemism, but if it's even a third of a day, that could reinvigorate my interest in Eee's oversaturated line of mini-notes. That is one area that the netbook market has failed to deliver: they've got size down, even features, but they just keep on gimping these on the juice. If there's only one netbook on the market with eight hours of battery to it, the other features don't matter: that's the one I'm going to buy.

Also mentioned is internet storage. That's a fantastic idea for this niche. 120GB hard drives in netbooks are stupid.

Asustek to extend battery life and storage capacity [Digitimes]

5

Rob Beschizza

Wonderful abstract art created with RC cars

Ian Cook creates art by having remote-controlled cars dart back and forth, painting a canvas with their ink-soaked wheels.

"I wanted to be an artist from a young age and decided that to be successful I needed something completely unique," said Ian. "I've always been mad about anything with wheels and I figured that using cars to paint cars would capture peoples' imaginations, so I experimented at home by driving some remote control models through paint."

Here's a finished example:

British Artist Paints Using RC Cars As His Brushes [Gizmodo]

4

John Brownlee

Robot sneakers transform in four dimensions... even time!

Transformers sneakers would have gone over well with me as a kid, but even then I would have been honked off by transforming sneakers you couldn't actually wear. That was always the hidden promise of Transformers, after all: a hidden toy that could be snuck into class, its subsumed robotic awesomeness lurking in disguise.

These 4D Transformable Sneakers are therefore depressingly half-assed: they got the transforming right, but cram your feet into them and the only transformation to be done will involve a healthy trotter turned into shredded sinew and exposed musculature.

Surely real Transformer shoes aren't beyond the reach of toy and sneaker designers. Make them platforms. I'm short! I'll wear platforms! T

4D Transformable Shoes [Gadget 4 All via Tech Digest]

5

Joel Johnson

WeDo: LEGO's new robotics system for elementary schools

LEGO has announced a low-end, tethered robotics system called "WeDO" designed to be used in classrooms of elementary-aged children. It won't replace Mindstorms, but instead serve as an intermediate step between the more fully featured robotics platform and regular, non-robotic LEGO.

The WeDo system will be available at the first of the year. Prices have not yet been announced. I wonder if we could get together with LEGO and sponsor a few kits for some Brooklyn schools.

From their press release:
The complete LEGO WeDo package includes:
• 158 brightly colored LEGO elements, including gears, and levers
• One LEGO USB Hub connects directly to a Mac/PC laptop, desktop, OLPC XO or Intel Classmate
computer to allow control of hardware input (tilt and motion sensors) and output (motor),
thereby bringing models to life
• One motor, one motion sensor and one tilt sensor
• Drag‐and‐drop icon‐based software that provides an intuitive and easy‐to‐use programming
environment suitable for beginners and experienced users alike, developed by a leading
provider of engineering hardware and software, National Instruments
• Activity pack CD‐Rom provides up to 24 hours of instruction and includes 12 activities based on
four themes: Amazing Mechanisms, Wild Animals, Play Soccer and Adventure Stories. Running
alongside programming software, activities are introduced via animations. Teacher notes and
glossary are also included.

Press Release and additional info [Lego.com via Bros. Brick]

9

Joel Johnson

Video: Rush plays Rock Band

Swoon.

[via Kotaku]

8

Rob Beschizza

Incubator workstation design stacks neatly

Honfay Lui's "Incubator" workstation offers a seat, a keyboard, a monitor, shelving, and space to put a coffee, a snack and some flair. The idea is to strap in the employees and then slide the entire unit into a sort of giant blade server until 5 p.m. The seat cusion may be removed for use as a flotation device, and reveals a toilet beneath. Tampering with the smoke detector is a federal offense.

Source [Design institution via
Arcade Pod Workstation is for the iPod Generation Office Worker>Born Rich]

14

Rob Beschizza

Yahoo plans to kill DRM servers

At the motherboing, Cory writes to remind us that with DRM music, you get exactly what you pay for: a license to listen than can be revoked at any time, for any reason:

Yahoo Music just announced that it's pulling the plug on its DRM server -- that means that as of September 30, everyone who bought Yahoo Music will lose the ability to recover it from backup or transfer it to a new PC.

Yahoo recommends that customers burn CDs and re-rip the tracks they bought, an act that music industry lawyers claimed is stealing. It will also have most consumers inadvertently double-dipping on compression, a quality no-no that will serve only to further enrage Neil Young.

A question: do you have any sympathy for consumers who wanted to do the right thing, and bought tracks under these schemes? Or are they just learning the lesson they should have understood to begin with?

Yahoo Music shutting down its DRM server, customers lose all their paid-for music the next time they crash or upgrade [BoingBoing]

16

Rob Beschizza

Vista Magazine gets Vista running on a PowerPC Powerbook

In photoshop fantasy land. Is this actually possible with, say, Virtual PC? Call her on her Startac to find out.

Vista Magazine: You Can Drag The Handles Over The Edge You Know [Photoshop Disasters]

4

Joel Johnson

Robotic red snapper probes the Japanese seas

A robotic red snapper has been developed by engineers at the University of Kitakyushu. With a full battery it can bop about in the sea for up to an hour, sensors absorbing data. Despite what the cutaway image might imply, it does not end its dive with two sticks of cartoon dynomite sending it exploding to the surface in little hunks of robot sashimi.

北九州市立大学ひびきのキャンパスで鯛ロボット公開 [Robot.Watch.Impress.co.jp via Pink Tentacle

4

Joel Johnson

Reserve papal mass seats via fax

For Catholics, attending a papal mass in the Vatican is what taking a dip in a Knob Creek vat would be for me: life's ultimate ritual, full of strange chanting, holy liquids, and instant euphoria. Now reserving a seat can be done electronically, although as is typical with the Church, the procedure isn't quite on the cusp of technological innovation: you can download the reservation form on their website, but you still must send it in by fax.

If they start sending out indulgences electronically I may have to invest in a fax machine. Who knows what sort of sins I'll cook up after a few laps in the whisky pool?

Vatican is moving boldly into the 20th century [ReligionBlog.DallasNews.com]

3

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Video Card – Already a good deal at $280, the eVGA geForce GTS 260 SuperClocked Edition video card has an additional $25 code at Newegg and a $30 mail-in rebate, taking it down to $225. [Slickdeals]

• Audio Recorder – Tascam DR-1 portable stereo recorder for $209, shipped, with free 4GB SDHC card. Perfect for reporters and musicians alike. [Dealhack]

• Nokia Tablet – The Nokia N810 is still $308 at CompUSA. That's about $40 off. [Dealnews]

• Laptop Sleeve – Belkin Neoprene 14-15-inch Laptop Sleeve for $10 plus additional $10 rebate. [Dealnews]

• Music – Amazon MP3 is selling DRM-free "Best of Nina Simone" for $4. [Dealnews]

• Inflatable Sofa Bed – Surprisingly okay-looking 5-in-1 Queen Sofa Bed for $61 shipped. [Dealnews]

• HDTV – Today's Woot! is a refurbished Emerson 32" LCD HDTV for $405, shipped.

1

John Brownlee

WIPO vs Narnia

The parents' weepy story: the C.S. Lewis Estate has gone all Aslan on their asses because they purchased the narnia.mibo domain for their Caspian-crazed son, dragging them into court and causing them to rack up heavy legal bills to defend an 11-year old's birthday present. WIPO weighed in and handed the C.S. Lewis Estate back the domain.

The real story seems to make the parents look pretty bad, though:

C.S. Lewis Ltd. first offered to buy the domain from Saville-Smith for £70 (about $140), according to The Scotsman, an offer the family rejected. After several attempts to play nicely, the estate submitted a domain dispute resolution request on May 28, 2008 to WIPO. Since then, both parties have submitted a number of documents arguing that they are the rightful owners to the domain. Saville-Smith told WIPO that, since he has no commercial motive for registering the domain, he should be allowed to keep it. However, a handful of evidence seems to have convinced WIPO that he registered it in bad faith.
For one, Saville-Smith registered 12 other .mobi domains just days after the registration of naria.mobi, including middleearth.mobi, ovaloffice.mobi, pentagon.mobi, primeminister.mobi, and uspresident.mobi. (For those who don't recognize some of these names, Middle Earth is a fictional land where stories by Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien take place, and Spooks is a TV drama on the BBC). Almost all of these pages were parked at Sedo with plenty of clickthrough advertising on them.

I guess I'm more surprised that anyone would go to court to take back a .mobi domain.

WIPO orders Narnia domain transfer, makes 11 year old cry [Ars Technica]

4

John Brownlee

Journey: The MP3 Player

Now this is an MP3 player. A winged scarab, airbrushed flames, preloaded with power ballads and featuring a volume button that only goes up. Fuck yeah.

The ZVUE Premiere Artist Series Journey MP3 Player features a built-in speaker, 1GB of memory, a built-in voice recorder and comes preloaded with Journey's newest album, Revelations, along with 11 classic tunes re-recorded by Steve Perry's ringer replacement, Arnel Pineda.

Yeah, it's a piece of progressive-rock-themed tat, but this actually doesn't look like a bad deal for what you're getting, if you like Journey. Name another $40 Nano-sized DAP that comes with both a built-in speaker and a voice recorder. No fair saying ZVUE's Premier Artist Series Baha Men MP3 Player.

Journey: The MP3 Player Slash Band [Anything But iPod]

4

John Brownlee

Illusory dripping paint table by John Nouanesing

A fantastic dripping concept table by designer John Nouanesing. I'd like mine to look like ectoplasm, please.

John Nouanesing [Artist's Site via core77]

11

John Brownlee

Steve Ballmer talks Microsoft phones, sparks Zunephone rumor

This quote from a recent Steve Ballmer memo is being flung around gadget blogdom as potentially hinting at the reality of the long-rumored Zune Phone:

We’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.

I'm not really buying it. The theme of Ballmer's email is the difference between Microsoft (choice) and Apple (end-to-end). Microsoft certainly does do things end-to-end with the Zune and 360, but this email was ostensibly about choice, and the preceding sentence makes clear that he's talking about how they work with hardware vendors. This seems to be nothing more than a vague promise about continued improvement to Windows Mobile on many different hardware platforms, but has been bizarrely catapulted to Zunish zeitgeist by yesterday's blog meme of mszunefan lasering off his corporate branding tattoos.

Or one, at least, hopes so... Microsoft must, at least, have the sense not to infect a possible iPhone competitor with the disastrous Zune branding.

Update: unwired has another Zunephone rumor, filled with unremarkable predictions like "It will run on Windows Mobile 7."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Full Memo to the Troops about New Reorg [All Things D]

Image: Zunescene

5

John Brownlee

Wordpress for iPhone releases source, potentially violates iPhone NDA?

Popular blogging platform Wordpress might be headed for a showdown with Apple.

The other day, when the Wordpress for iPhone App was released, I was curious about the "Open Source" proclamation at the top of its non-App-Store webpage. I clicked the FAQ and could find nothing more about it though. It seemed a contradiction: iPhone apps are inherently closed source. In fact, open source iTunes apps seem to be prohibited by the SDK NDA. I ultimately just assumed that while Wordpress as a platform was open source, the limited iPhone app was not.

Apparently I was wrong: Wordpress has just released the source code to the app on their SVN server.

It'll be really interesting to see what happens here. Will Apple pull Wordpress' app from the store? Will they C&D Wordpress? If either happens, expect major Internet drama — Wordpress has an army of bloggers at its disposal — and a concrete example of why there's still a reason to have a Jailbroken iPhone and Installer.app.

WordPress for iPhone source now available [Wordpress via The Ukelele Apple Weblog]

3

John Brownlee

The Shining recreated with WowWee robots

The famous Shining tricycle scene re-created with a WowWee tribot and a couple of dismembered Femispapiens.

Regrettably, the clip doesn't contain a robotic interpretation of a man in a bear costume giving an old man a blow job... my favorite scene in The Shining, by far. In the comments, tell me which WowWee-brand robots you'd use to adapt that scene!

1

Rob Beschizza

Craigslist: The Stuff of Nightmares (half a terabyte of foot porn edition)

Listing [Pittsburgh Craigslist] (Thanks for sending this in, D.! I think)

13

Rob Beschizza

Bridgewater Telephone sues to stop city building fiber-to-the-door, even though it won't do it itself

Bridgewater Telephone, in Monticello, Minnesota, is fighting to prevent the build-out of a fiber-optic network in town, even though it refuses to construct one itself. When 74 percent of residents voted to allow the city to upgrade the local infrastructure at taxpayer expense, the telco filed suit to stop it doing so. From Ars:

Bridgewater Telephone argues that the city cannot use tax-exempt bonds to "enter into direct competition with incumbent commercial providers of telephone, Internet, and cable television services." The odd thing about the complaint, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica, is that it makes almost no argument; instead, the company simply quotes a short bit of Minnesota law and essentially says, "See, it's illegal!" without offering an explanation.
The statute in question says that cities can use bonds to fund nursing homes, garbage collection, parks, playgrounds, "homes for the aged," and more, including "any utility or other public convenience from which a revenue is or may be derived." If the judge finds that fiber-to-the-home is a "public convenience," the case seems to be over.

Small beer, big consequences.

Telco wouldn't install fiber network, sued to prevent city from doing so [Ars Technica]

6

Rob Beschizza

Reporter writes goofy column about consoles: bumpkin or brilliant satirist?

Mainstream reporters often get eaten alive by the Internet, which is as dense as it is savagely incisive. This eternal recurrence goes something like this:

1. Write an incendiary column about the future of a technical and unpredictable subject. For example, declare Sony the inevitable winner of the console war, offering as evidence the opinion of your child, who "always tells me the latest trend."

2. Publish a "My Oh My!" letters-to-the-editor follow-up about the criticism and hate mail you get as a result. Pro tip: Anoint the nastiest and stupidest as the "best."

3. Finally, write that the original column was a joke and that the readers cannot understand your subtlety. Alternatively, declare victory.

Jane Wells, welcome to the information superfanboyway!

A brief recap of the story: Sony secures victory in the console war when 16-year-old master Wells switches allegiance to it. His sudden discovery of a months-old saturation-marketed title leads him to an awareness of the "other PlayStation exclusives in the pipeline and the awesomeness of Blu-ray." He then gets swindled by GameSpot, swapping his collection for a PS3 and a single used game.

The best part is that Wells' blog is called "Funny Business :)." The presence of an emoticon in its name perfectly telegraphs its stone-faced opacity. It hovers in that ambiguous netherworld between the jocose and the actually funny (e.g. "Am I the only one who thinks Radovan Karadzic, the "Butcher of Bosnia", now looks like Santa Claus?") — that makes it hard to tell whether she's a brilliant satirist exploring the systematic absurdity of commodity fetishism through the sharp lens of a youngster's callow whims, or a bumpkin.

There must be some kind of test we can apply.

14

Rob Beschizza

Neil Young Late To The Goldrush

Rock veteran Neil Young hates the low-quality digital music files that have proliferated in the last decade. He declares it to be Apple and the iPod's fault.

“Apple has taken a detour down the convenience highway,” Young said during an interview with Time editor-in-chief John Huey. “Quality has taken a complete backseat, if it even gets in the car at all.”

The leap from "low quality files" to "Apple's fault" may seem an oddly targeted attack, especially given that Apple sells digital files at the highest quality levels the music companies will allow. Neil Young is about to release his ouvre as a 10-disk series, to be made available on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray audio disk.

"Blu-ray is the future," Young told Billboard in a recent interview. "It sounds the best... If you were to get a Blu-ray of the 'Archive,' you would get the best."

Here was me thinking that lossless digital audio would sound the same no matter what it's pressed on, but hey, if Blu-Ray makes it more danceable, get Blu-ray.

46

Rob Beschizza

New formats and a measure of freedom for Sony Reader

Sony's e-book reader — the pretty one that isn't as fancy as the Kindle but which doesn't look like a squashed origami hat — is to support the new EPUB format in a coming firmware update. This will mean, ostensibly, that Reader users will be able to get ebooks from more places.

EPUB is a nonproprietary XML-based format created by the International Digital Publishing Forum, whatever the dickens that is. Also announced was superior PDF support.

Sony Reader adds universal format, gets red model [Electronista]

5

Rob Beschizza

Toshiba's handheld prototype is weird and shiny

Toshiba's tiny prototype portable has a slick silver look and specs to relish. From Australian PC Authority:

We're told the device runs Vista, and Intel's Atom processor, and in our brief hand-on play, it ran relatively smoothly, though it was a bit awkward with the virtual keyboard taking up two-thirds of the screen.
The 5.6inch screen prototype has a motherboard half the size of the motherboard on the Portege R500 notebook. Onboard is a 64GB solid state drive, and GPS. Toshiba also said they have found a way to make antennas follow a curved surface.

Like it? Tough. Toshiba's Mark Whittard says it will never go into production.

Toshiba reveals plans for mini-book [Australian PC Authority via Engadget and Ubergizmo]

4

John Brownlee

Idyllic boyhood memories: summertime and the Fun Float

At the age of 10, I was exiled to New Hampshire for a month to attend Camp Berea, an all-boys Christian summer camp. Strongly scented memories percolate from the memory clusters of that period: My father's daily postcards, which were so wryly hysterical that the founder of the camp began to read them out loud to the camp every mail call. A hoard of sweets and lukewarm soda cans, stashed underneath my mattress for comfort on lonely, homesick nights. My best friend, also a John, who looked exactly like a young, androgynous Christina Ricci, thus tickling my own innate, pre-pubertal homoeroticism. Endlessly poring through a care package of comics my parents sent me, which included omnibuses of "Flash Gordon" and "Fearless Fosdick." The terrifying, wide-eyed marionette who was trotted out every night after dinner to compel us in nightmarish falsetto to give ourselves over to the Lord. "Reflection:" a form of punishment for bad behavior in which one was sent into a large room full of mirrors for an hour and forced to consider the infinite reflection of one's own sinful flesh. The time I got lost in the woods, was confronted by a bear and had no choice but to become born again (an offer since rescinded) to escape a mauling. Chopping the tip of my thumb off with a hatchet.

Good times. But the Fun Float will always be my most vibrant childhood memory.

Imagine a gigantic banana-yellow trampoline, floating on a lake. A thousand slippery children climbing all over it, laughing, pushing, hurling each other over the brink with a splash. You have to be a good swimmer to make your way out to it, and even when wistfully stared upon from the shoreline, it is clearly no domain for the meek. It was the Zembla of the Big Kids, the Red Bands... those kids who'd proven themselves able enough swimmers to paddle their way past wading depths... largely through a tortuous rite of passage involving a two mile swim and the ability to touch the hand of a submerged, scuba-ing instructor, sitting Indian style on the lake's slimy bottom.

After two weeks of staring from the shoreline upon the mirage-like Ilium of the Fun Float — a bouncing pleasure palace of raucous delight — I successfully completed these tasks. My arms aching, I swam two miles as a camp counselor paddled his way behind me, encouragingly booming out a recitation of the Trials of Christ — NIV, of course — that echoed boisterously across the lake. Filling my lungs with air, I dived to the lake's cthonic depths and high-fived my swimming instructor among the scum-sucking catfish; popping up to the surface, blood vessels in both of my eyes burst. I'd suffered for the Fun Float. I would be let among the Red Bands.

But as I pulled myself up its slippery skin for the first time, I could immediately see that not everything was as it appeared from the shore. I had imagined it as a peaceful place... a sort of bobbing Neverland of youthful camaraderie. It was not... or, at least, not for fifth graders. For us? A pocket of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Lord of the Flies. Cannibalistic Apocalypse. Jacob's Ladder. Bosch's Hell.

The Fun Float sagged in the middle: a killing pit in which smaller and flabbier kids grabbed their ruptured spleens, vomited lake water and wept for their mommies. And those god-like lake Adonises, the fabled Red Bands, the brothers I had proven worthy of by trial of fire? They were eighth graders, twice my size. And when their eyes fell upon me, they lit up and smacked their lips with malevolent glee. I didn't hear the cries of welcome I expected. All I heard was:

"Hey! New fish! Get him."

The mind races quickly when the body is put in bone-breaking peril. As the nearest advanced upon me and grabbed by my throat — a leering, sun-burnt mutant — I acted out of self-preseving instinct. All of a sudden, my perception on the Fun Float changed: this wasn't like a playground, it was like a prison. The only way to earn the respect of the murderous thugs with whom I was isolated? I needed to take down the biggest, baddest motherfucker in the place... quick, hard and brutally. And, as luck would have it, that motherfucker had already attacked.

So I grabbed him as hard as I could by the testicles and squeezed. No remorse.

Instantly, he let me go, squealing like a castrati. But I couldn't let it go there. I couldn't just win this battle. I had to win all the battles that were to come. I had to break him.

I twisted.

The mutant screamed. His legs went out from under him and he loudly smacked onto the Fun Float's skin, his arms and legs thrashing. Immediately his friends were upon me, lifting me off and hurling me off the Fun Float. But I still didn't let go. Instead, I slammed into the side of the buoying lake trampoline, holding on to my place among the Red Bands with ferocious resolve by my only grip: another Red Band's taint. I would not give up my place upon the Fun Float so easily.

It was chaos. Everyone was screaming. My tormentor — now my helpless victim — screamed for help; the mutant began kicking me in the chest as he was slowly pulled off the Fun Float along with me. But his fellow Red Bands misunderstood his high-pitched yelps for assistance. He wanted them to pry my fingers off. Instead, they grabbed him by the arms and held him fast, just at the point when we might both have slid into the water. Ninety pounds of kicking, screaming fifth-grader fought the force of gravity upon his scrotum.

It was too much for him. With one last sow-like squeal, he passed out. Triumphantly I climbed up his slack, bloated body to take my rightful place as the King of the Red Bands.

But this story does not have a happy ending. It was not to be. I was denied the Fun Float. Camp counselors, hearing a rather one-sided version of the ordeal, demoted me back to the humiliating level of blue band (prerequisite: doggie-style paddling). I spent the next two weeks having the crap beaten out of me every day (punctuated dutifully with a haymaker to the nuts) by fifty outraged eight graders for my trouble.

In retrospect, I might have overreacted.

Buy a Fun Float now for your kids! Starting at only $2000!

Aqua Jump Water Trampoline [Rave Sports]

24

Joel Johnson

The pitfalls of corn plastics

A Consumerist reader noticed that his Primo-brand bottle water, made from plastic derived from corn-based byproducts (and water!), shrank noticeably in the sun. I think that's an acceptable trade-off for non-petroleum-based plastics if you must buy bottled water in the first place. The shrinking shows the biodegrading is working!

The Incredible Shrinking Water Bottle [Consumerist]

14

Joel Johnson

WipEout game too seizure-inducing; sadly redesigned

Surely I am not the only one to think, upon hearing news that the Playstation Network game WipEout HD is being retooled after failing tests that measure its ability to trigger epileptic seizure — "I really, really want to play that version of the game."

Reports CVG
CVG has been told that WipEout "fails the epilepsy tests so much that it has to be re-engineered." All that speed and flashing lights zipping past your eyes must be too much to handle.

WipEout HD delayed for failing epilepsy tests [ComputerAndVideogames.com]

6

Joel Johnson

Perch: ergonomic concept desk for stooped schoolchildren

"Perch" is a conceptual exercise to create better desks for schoolchildren. Simon Dennehy's design tilts the desk up like an easel, provides a trough to easily catch pens and markers (and at lunchtime, can be slopped with food), and even a cupholder at the top for drinks. I appreciate that he's used an institutional orange color, as well, although I wonder if that was on purpose.

Project Page [Perch.ie via Josh Spear]

9

Joel Johnson

Sprint sells its cellular towers (so it can lease them back)

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Jul 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) today announced an agreement to sell approximately 3,300 towers to TowerCo for approximately $670 million in cash. Additionally, the two companies have entered into a long term leasing agreement where TowerCo will provide Sprint Nextel with wireless communications towers to support the company's CDMA, iDEN and WiMAX networks.
First, I'm surprised it only takes 3,300 towers to cover their US market, especially considering that some of those towers may be overlapping CDMA and iDEN cells.
Secondly, doesn't this seem sort of silly? There very well may be a solid cash flow reason to lease these towers instead of owning them, but it just seems so typically Sprint to me: build up a huge project, then sell it or shut it down.

I can imagine a buy back in the future: "As a wireless solutions provider, Sprint Nextel Motorola's world-class tower infrastructure is essential to our core business. The addition of these thousands of towers to our network will make it possible for Sprint Nextel Motorola to implement the latest upgrades to our award-winning wireless network faster than ever."

Press Release [Sprint.com via Phone Scoop]

12

Joel Johnson

Even bacon-themed pap cannot besmirch real bacon's reputation

In the ascending cock-on-cock deli platter of meta-hipness that is an internet sneer-off, a casualty: some have questioned the essential sanguine nature of bacon. And not just bacon the object, but the notion of bacon. Professing a love for bacon is tiresome, they sigh; Bacon is good, but it's not worthy of uncritical memetic sanctity.

There is a crumble of truth to be plucked from their affected audible rattle: like all elevatory seasonings, bacon-as-punchline should be used sparingly, part of a greater whole, not piled incongruously to redeem an otherwise bland concoction. Worse, its commodification, in cheap vinyl bacon wallets or these Chinese BBQ USB drives (which claim to be simply "pork"), turn a love for nature's perfect fruit into a tawdry display sapped of any wonderfulness.

Will a bacon USB drive set a whole room alive with flavor as it grills, coating each nose hair with a greasy fob that keeps you company all day long? Will it lurk like a smokey kiss inside a salad or sandwich? Of course not. To memorialize bacon in plastic is as sensible as making a flash drive shaped like an orgasm.

But let it be heard: to know bacon is to know god. Hacked from the bellies of moderately sentient, crafty beasts, actual bacon stands with both choice cuts and pummeled scraps alike, bent with age and fire.

Seasoning! Entree! Reagent! From the swine's bosom to yours, use it with abandon and passion, a wild affair that takes you to sweaty places you'd never imagined. Bacon is the meat of dreamers.

10

John Brownlee

Half-Elf Tentacle Assault for the Nintendo DS

Coming soon to Akihabara game dealerships: Half-Elf Tentacle Assault for the Nintendo DS. You probably shouldn't expect this States side: Yankee cephalophiles will unfortunately have to pirate this progressive title, which will likely come as no surprise to the game's makers, Team DS-X, who have the name as a popular DS pirate cart.

Click through for the unpixelated version which does — yes — feature a slimy tentacle crammed inside the gooey pudendum of a half-elf. The titular "assault," if you will... although she seems to be enjoying herself.

Rob's non-sequitur chat room comment: "I would like a DS version of that Victorian wives slapping game."

Half-Elf Tentacle Assault [Team DS-X via Kotaku]

6

Rob Beschizza

Zune man annoyed with MS, to get rid of tattoos

Mszunefan will no longer be welcoming us to the social.

The Zune fanatic who inked himself with the music player's logo and motto is sick of them and plans to obscure them with fresh artwork. This from a post he wrote to Zunescene's forums, titled "I am done with the Zune...covering up my tattoos:"

I am done. I have had the Zune since day 1 and have noticed little improvement. I have tried my best to support them every step of the way but the recent Xbox Live announcement at E3 made me lose it. To not include Zune Marketplace or the ability to load videos from Xbox Live to your Zune made me finally give up. I am in the works of figuring the best way to get a new tattoo to cover the logo on my arm. Thanks for all the harsh comments and you will see very little of me anymore.

Dealing with the Zune "spastic swastika" logo should be easy enough, but how do you obscure text?

Forum Post [ZuneScene via Wired: Listening Post]

26

Joel Johnson

Safety first

"Dude, I can't talk, I'm being chased by the police." – Grayson Clevenger, alleged burglar and car thief, speaking to police who called his phone as he drove away. He remains at large. [FoxNews.com via Crime Scene KC]

2

John Brownlee

The Periodic Coffee Table

The Periodic Coffee Table offered by Element Connection for a jaw-dropping £4,750 ($9,463) is a fantastically nerdy idea — a coffee-table display case for samples of all existing stable elements — but they really wussed out on the radioactives, replacing them instead with empty spaces labeled with nuclear decay symbology. Weak sauce. I want to feel my coffee table in my eye teeth.

And, come to think of it, I think I'd rather have a coffee table of fictitious elements anyway: Adamantium, Carbonite, Diamondillium, Froonium, Gundanim Alloy, Unobtanium and Wonderflonium (do not bounce).

The Periodic Coffee Table [Element Collection via Born Rich]

23

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Portable Speakers – Logitech V20 portable digital USB speakers for $10, shipped, after $40 mail-in rebate. [Dealhack]

• Laptop – Sony VAIO notebook computer, Core 2 Duo T5450, 2GB DDR2, Blu-ray drive, GeForce 8400M GT, Vista, 15.4-inch display for $765. In-store pick-up at Circuit City only. [Slickdeals]

• Musical Instruments – Musician's Friend is having a 25th Anniversary Sale with some guitars up to 84% off. [Dealnews]

• iPod – Today's Woot! is a refurbished Apple iPod video (30GB) for $135, shipped.

0

John Brownlee

Photos of labs at night

A gorgeous gallery of labs at night, photographed by Noah Kalina for Seed Magazine. Sub-aqueously darting zebra fish, oneiric LED gloamings, the Nodful hums of the server rack, a single robot shouting "BLEEP BLEEP!" during a dream of electric bleatings.

Labs at Night [Seed via Gadget Lab]

3

John Brownlee

Easy IKEA mod: mixing bowl / butcher block counter

As a guy with just zero technical acumen, I really like these stupidly simple IKEA hacks, like the one where you turn a cheap IKEA table into a MAME cabinet. This one's less geeky, but way more useful: Maker Queen Esoterica (if that even is her real name) modified her IKEA kitchen butcher block counter to include a bowl and a plastic-lined trash bin.

All she did was cut a hole in the counter top and nuzzle the bowl inside what used to be the right-side drawer. Now, when she's chopping things, she can just slide the sliverings with her knife into the mixing pot, keeping her counter clean and maximizing culinary convenience. The inedible leavings get scraped into a front drawer, which is plastic lined.

What I especially like about projects like this is that if you fuck it all up (I will) you're out only 50 bucks or so.

Ikea kitchen hack: in-board bowl [MAKE]

1

Rob Beschizza

Birdsong box automaton on Ebay

This tiny singing mechanical bird box, only 4 1/4 inches long, is for auction on Ebay. From the description:

Singing Bird Box. Maker unknown, [German], first half of 20th Century. Enamel and gilt bronze automaton singing bird box measuring 4 ¼ x 2 ½ x 1 ¾", with floral and lovebird motifs. On sliding the operating lever, lid opens, bird emerges through grill and begins singing, moves its beak and turns its head. Upon finishing its performance the bird disappears through the grill which then closes. Good condition.

It's one of those nasty live auctions, though, designed to get you behaving irrationally. They want $300-$500 for it when it starts.

Auction [Ebay via The Automata Blog]

0

John Brownlee

iPhone 3G to go (PRODUCT) RED

I like my floozies Frank-Miller style: red lipstick, red heels, sheer, skin-tight red dress. I get turned on during the finale of Brian De Palma's Carrie. I am a sucker for gadgets in the Pantone spectrum Beschizza so luridly refers to as "whore red." And I'm a sucker for the (PRODUCT) RED series of Apple products, with part of the proceeds going to fight AIDS in Africa. Sure, there's something a bit morbid about buying an iPod in the precise shade of healthful hemoglobin coveted by some unlucky, HIV-positive Zimbabwean, but it satisfies both my gadget lust, a sliver of my conscience and the monotonous obsession that drove me to paint my kitchen the same color as an end-of-day abattoir... an interior design choice with the unfortunate side effect of making me commonly mistake the bottle of V8 in the fridge for milk and slashing it all over my morning Count Chocula, which isn't really a good gastronomic combination no matter how much you might love each individually... and hey, wasn't that a hell of a sentence: welcome to the end of it.

But I digress. Rumor has it that Apple will be releasing a (PRODUCT) RED iPhone 3G model around Christmas time. I will try to buy it, if I can hold out that long. That is all.

iPhone 3G going RED for the holiday season? [Mac Blogz]

16

Rob Beschizza

Evil Gadgets: Robot phone calling machines attacked in congress

If you thought you were sick of being called by recorded messages during the primaries, just wait 'til the fall. Your man on the hill is Shaun Dakin, the founder of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry, an organization that wants regulators to enforce rules against robot calls.

Sarah Lai Stirland at Wired's Threat Level blog writes:

California's public utilities code says that robocalls are only legal when they're introduced by a live person. But Dakin says that the rules are never enforced, and points to the spate of robocalls conducted by the presidential candidates during this year's primaries as an example. He says that thousands of Californians have already entered themselves on his unofficial registry in the hopes that they won't receive any more automated political calls.

And yet his quest seems fruitless. First amendment rights for machines?

Anti-Robocall Crusader Pushes For a Crackdown on Political Phone Droids [Wired]

3

John Brownlee

Dell E becomes the Mini Inspiron, rumorous specs "leaked"

Brazilian tech rumor site Zumo seem pretty sure they've got the inside scoop on the stats for Dell's new ~~mini-note~~ netbook, the Dell E. The price point of the E has been widely rumored to be $299 and Zumo sticks with that, so what will you be getting for your triplicate of jowled Benjamins?

A lot more than you're getting in most competing netbooks, it seems. Zumo claims that the E will feature a 1.6GHz Intel Atom, 1GB of RAM, an Intel 945 Express Graphics Chipset, 8GB SSD, Wi-Fi, a memory card reader (mais natch) and an implausible 1240x600 (probably 1024x600) resolution. It will also run an unspecified version of Linux... hopefully Ubuntu, but that's just my own speculation-slash-wishful-thinking based on Dell's healthy relationship with Canonical.

Those $299 specs are a backboard breaking slam dunk for Dell in the netbook market if true. But also interesting is that Zumo claims the Dell E is now née: it will be shipped as the Mini Inspiron. Yes, it's a typical Dell name — utterly bereft of imagination — but anything was better than E, short of the Dell Fff.

Dell Mini Inspiron specs [Zumo via Gizmodo]

* - I still rather like the term "mini-notebooks" to refer to Eee-class machines, but the rest of gadget blogdom seems to have gravitated to "netbook" and I've finally been dragged kicking and screaming and sliding floor splinters under my fingernails into the new Newspeak.

7

John Brownlee

Creative Zen Mosaic: Mondrian MP3 Monstrosity

The iPod's design is so iconic, so ineffably tangled with consumer's notions of what an MP3 player should look like, that every competing DAP — desperate not to look like a touchwheel also-ran — ends up looking weird, like a mutant humanoid imagined from a cellular silicon structure. Creative's new Zen Mosaic looks odder than most, though: a Mondrian monstrosity, its branding accurate only if mosaics can be comprised entirely of 20 cheap rubber buttons... only nine of which are functional! A shame, since if that front grid was a single conjoined mosaic of brushed metal, I think this would probably look rather striking.

Features are typical: 1.8-inch display, 2 - 8GB capacities, FM tuner, MP3 / WAV/ WMA / AUdible support. It also apparently includes built-in speakers, which is rather nice. Currently only slated for Singapore, they should creep to American shores at some point, without topping $200.

Creative Zen Mosaic [Creative via Epicenter]

6

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: The Mechanical Wooden Elephant of Nantes

Photo: Nautilus Nantes

The Machines de L’île (Nantes) [Brass Goggles]

6

Rob Beschizza

Battery life on ultramobile computers still hopeless

UMPCPortal is annoyed at the power-related shortcomings of an otherwise saucy handheld computer, Kohjinsha's SC3. As a result, ultramobile supremo Chippy has a poll up asking his readers the following question:

"What's the minimum battery life you consider to be suitable for an Ultra Mobile device in 2008?"

The options are for 2, 3, 4 or 5 hours.

Only 5 hours?

This year was supposed to be the breakthrough in this regard for pocketable computers, and it isn't happening. It's not even close to happening. The SC3 is cutting-edge stuff, and it can't stay awake more than a couple of hours. There's the hardware required to run Vista — or any other desktop-class operating system — and then there are the laws of thermodynamics. Together, they make for unhappy UMPC fans.

If you're wondering, 5 hours is the runaway winner on the poll. Makers: cut the fancy operating systems, cut the performance, and stop trying to make desktop replacements that have to run on 20 watt-hour batteries. Such machines serve no real constituency and solve no real problems: the iPhone, of all things, is the only thing near this segment that gets it right.

OK, so the Everun is pretty neat. And the OQO, too. Sony's Vaio UXes are also lovely. But you know what I mean.

Kohjinsha SC3 UMPC. First impressions. [UMPC portal]

19

Rob Beschizza

The E-Ball PC: Radioactive pokeball thingymajig

PCs tend to be brick-shaped. Apple, NeXT and Cobalt made cubes. If I were Pharaoh, I would make a pyramid PC. Designer Apostol Tnokovski, however, likes balls.

Industrial Design [Apostol Tnokovski]
More info [Device Daily]

19

Joel Johnson

Tell me the best place to buy a gaming PC

My Vista gaming machine shit the bed last night. I've spent a couple of hours trying to track down the problem, but it's clear it's more than just a loose part or an easy fix. Probably a dead motherboard. I swore this would be the last PC I ever built, as I no longer have the mental stamina to handle it all. And I think that is going to go for buying new parts to troubleshoot this machine. I'll tear it down and sell the parts I can confirm are good.

I need a Windows machine, not just for gaming but to test all the Windows software and hardware that comes through. I desperately wanted a Mac Pro — swore it was going to be my next desktop — but I just can't justify spending $3k or so on a machine that will have less gaming performance than a generic PC that costs $1000. (Granted, it has other charms, but I'm not rendering HD video every day or doing other things that might warrant an 8-core system.)

So I'm going pre-built this time. I priced out a Dell XPS. Didn't like what I could get. Using CyberPowerPC.com's configurator I was able to knock together a pretty fantastic desktop PC with more polygon oomph than my now-dead one for about $900 before shipping. I was about to pull the trigger until I realized I'm not really abreast of where to buy pre-built custom machines as I've always built mine from parts.

Any suggestions? I'm looking for a pretty straight-ahead machine, dual core Intel, probably an ATI 48xx-series card, a modest power supply and as clean and unadorned case as I can possibly find. I'd like to buy from a place that lets me pick out my hardware but can still offer a warranty.

56

Rob Beschizza

Tetris in a box

Chrissie Macdonald's artwork presents a magical mad world of technology that does not operate according to the principles we understand. Cables writhe like cartoon springs and cardboard a/v equipment are among the works to be seen at Macdonald's portfolio. My fave is this Tetris in a box. This is how the Bene Gesserit tests general contractors when going to bid on architecturally tricky new convents.

photography by dominic lee [ChrissieMacdonald via FFFound]

2

Joel Johnson

What the world looks like to a tiny flying ornithopter drone

We've seen tiny little ornithopters before, including this DelFly model from the University of Delft. But what I hadn't seen is a video stream from the little UAV like the one that's inserted picture-in-picture into the above video. It's not the clearest nor steadiest feed I've ever seen, but send out a swarm and stitch them together with a central server and you'd probably be able to canvas an area pretty quickly.

[via New Scientist]

4

Rob Beschizza

Plastic Skeleton's Got The Knack

Brian Dettmer's melty skull sculpture now has a friend – and entire skellington created using the same technique! If you're wondering what is Andrew Huff's photo of it is doing on a tech blog, look closer!

Gallery [Deadhorse via Make]

0

John Brownlee

Ripple Mini Chocolate is Atom-based, Mac Mini-like

If not for that dreadful, two-inch tall logo etched into the front, doing its damnedest to fontographically evoke the logo font of the Apple IIe, the Ripple .mini Chocolate would be a rather attractive solution for light weight computer tasks.

The Korean company has basically taken the look of the Mac Mini and slapped a low-wat 1.6Ghz Atom CPU inside, along with 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a slot-loading optical drive. There's only ethernet, no wifi, but the power supply only chews up 60 watts, but at a price of only $200, it's not a bad deal for an always-on media server or the like.

But yeesh. That Ripple on the front. I sort of admire the incompetent cleverness of the attempt, but this would be a far more plausible Mac Mini knock-off if they hadn't tried to channel a twenty year old Apple logo. Of course, covering it up is a simple matter: that's what the stickers of Porter Joel hands out to all of his friends are for.

Myripple to launch its mini form factor PC 'ripple mini chocolate' [AVING]

11

John Brownlee

Shredmaster Jr. pursues welfare Guitar Hero demographic

How successfully can Guitar Hero be emulated with a cheap plastic plug-and-play guitar and no video game console? Very successfully, if the methodical abortion of fetuses from up to 100 yards away is a criterion for excellence. Otherwise? Not so much, although that does sound exactly like Metallica's "Master of Puppets," doesn't it?

Make sure to watch until the player activates Star Power. To think of all the kids who ask for Guitar Hero for Christmas only to have their oblivious parents piss right in their mouths when they instead unwrap Shredmaster Jr. on Christmas morning. Curiously, though, I'd still rather play this than Guitar Hero: On Tour.

Update: Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is somehow even worse...

16

John Brownlee

Victor's HP-FXC60 ear buds: hey, the music's in my brain!

Victor is hoping to get a leg up on the competition with their new HP-FXC60 ear buds. What makes these so special? The speaker drivers of the ear buds have been miniaturized to such an extent that they can actually slide down your Eustachian tube, bristle the cilia, nudge past the tympanic membrane and wiggle through the cochlea.

Result? You will be able to play music directly in your brain. Make sure to turn the volume up to 11 to finish what you started, boys and girls. Tip your head to the right after playing to drain.

Victor's Earphone Makes Sound Deeper in the Ear [Tech On]

12

John Brownlee

Sculpture of George Lucas frozen in Carbonite

For what he's done to Star Wars, George Lucas met a poetic fate at last weekend's Star Wars Celebration in Japan. The original Star Wars films were preserved like this for decades, until George Lucas unzipped his fly and thawed them out in 1997 to muck around with. Twenty years from now, if we all cross streams, we can probably return the favor.

Bonnie Burton's Star Wars Celebration Japan Flickr Gallery [Flickr via Oh Gizmo!]

8

Joel Johnson

BBtv: Syd Mead with Joel Johnson pt. 3: BLADE RUNNER (Yesssss.)

The 1982 cyberpunk cinema classic Blade Runner remains one of the most influential science fiction movies of all time, and tops many a nerd's favorite films list.

Today on Boing Boing tv, Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson visits the studio of artist and futurist Syd Mead, who designed the film's dystopian look and feel. We learn about the "erotic machine" he dreamed for the replicant Zhora (this breast-shaped dreampod was cut from the script when director Ridley Scott ran out of dough), the 1 2 3 *4* alternate opening scenes designed by Syd (one of them, which involved shoveling dead bodies, was deemed "too Holocaust"), what really lights up those building facades, and many more secrets.

Syd explains he envisioned the world of Blade Runner as a place "you wouldn't want to be for too long," and describes the challenges of designing for "a love story with moralistic underpinnings... if we could actually make people, would we treat them like dishwashers? Just use them up and throw them away?"

Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion, downloadable video, and how to subscribe to the BBtv video podcast.

If you like this BBtv episode, you might want to pick up:

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon]

VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com]

And more Syd Mead books on Amazon.

Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead trilogy:

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2.

(Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.)

0

John Brownlee

For the most emo of holes: Black Q-Tips

What possible explanation could there be for these black Q-tips? That they are from Japan should give you half your answer: if there's anything the Japanese know, it's the fine art of sucking goop out of the ear.

core77's answer to the riddle:

Ear wax is yellowish; the high contrast of a black Q-tip shows you exactly how much you're "getting." My friend assures me I will be amazed (horrified is more like it) after using these.

I struggled for a closing quip, and even went to Wikipedia to learn more about ear wax in the hopes I could come up with one, but nothing immediately presented itself. Therefore, I will leave you with this remarkable factoid: "Many species of whale have an annual buildup of earwax, adding one, two, or four layers (depending upon the species) each year. Similar to the incremental dating method of dendrochronology for trees, the number of layers can be counted to determine the age of the whale after its death."

Weird Japanese products: "Black Magic" Q-Tips [core77]

10

Joel Johnson

Here is your prize: 365 days of free games

Madness. It's afflicted the staff of PC Gamer UK, who've assembled a stonking big "365 days of free games" hogpoddle* — one game for every day, all free, most indie, several quite sparkly. We wallow in an luxurious age of garage band game development distributed to the world in an instant. I've said for the last couple of years that someday I intend to take off a full year of my life, sequester myself in a small cabin, and play every game I've ever missed before. Seeing lists like this should make that feel daunting, but for some reason all it does is make me thrilled to anticipate my Year of Leisure.

365 days of free games [GamesRadar.com via Rock and Paper and/or Shotgun]

* Whenever I link UK sites I like to pretend I know how to use their colloquialisms.

2

Joel Johnson

Machined aluminum LEGO-like brick keychains

Bram Lambrecht is machining these aluminum keychains in the shape of LEGO bricks. They even clip on to official bricks. He sent me one engraved with the Boing Boing logo and it's quite luverly. (I'd show you but for some reason my DSLR isn't talking to my Mac right now.)

The basic brick costs $12; engraved text is $6 more.

Product Page [Shop.BLDesign.org]

3

Joel Johnson

WHDI, another wireless HDMI standard, getting some industry support

Amimon, an Israeli company working on a medium-range wireless television interconnect solution, today announced the formation of a new consortium pledged to back their "WHDI" technology. The group includes Hitachi, Motorola, Sharp, Samsung, and Sony — the last three being heavy hitters in the HDTV display market.

WHDI operates in the 5GHz band and uses its roughly 3Gbit-per-second capability to stream uncompressed 1080p content — compressed. As they explained to me earlier in the year, their protocol attempts to deliver a full, uncompressed datastream if it can; failing that, it prioritizes video information that is most critical to picture fidelity, degrading gracefully as the range increases and the bandwidth decreases. They're shooting for ranges of around 100 feet, with the clearest, uncompressed signal working inside 30.

It all sounds great, but I haven't yet used any hardware. Neither has anyone else, to my knowledge. It's still all in the labs. Getting people like Sharp and Sony on board is a step in the right direction towards getting real products to market.

Belkin has announced a competing, incompatible "FlyWire" wireless HDMI product to be released in October. A press agent for Amimon tells BBG we can expect "chips embedded in products" in 2009.

Press Release [WHDI]

Previously • Belkin FlyWire should be the first wireless HDMI solution to market [BBG]

1

Joel Johnson

USB jewelry that isn't horrid

Tonia Welter and Julia Reymann's USB jewelry achieves what few geeky accouterments have managed before: actually looking classy. Each device, including these cufflinks, has 2GB of storage built-in and are made from high-quality materials like white gold and palladium. Prices aren't listed, but I'm sure they aren't cheap.

Product Page [ToniaWelter.de] (Thanks, Jonathan!)

1

Joel Johnson

"Bomb Defuser" multitool does not yet come with "Female Body Inspector" T-shirt

The "Bomb Defuser" purports to be a multitool designed specifically for dismantling bombs. Unfortunately the $22 tool appears to be the same generic multitool that can be picked up at a variety of crapvendors for $5 or less. Those cheaper ones do not come with the laser-engraved "Bomb Defuser" logo, however, backed by the company's guarantee*: even if your body is strewn about in little barbecued chunks, the logo should remain legible.

Product Page [BombDefuser.com]

* Okay, maybe I'm making the guarantee.

5

John Brownlee

Hitachi flings open the doors of perception, inaugurates nightmarishly trippy Tera Era

Two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine... a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Pumped out of the bloated stomach of Hitachi's PR department after the release of this video, in which a vaguely anthropomorphic albino castrati is schooled on the 1TB "Tera Era" after being sucked into a hallucinogenic electric kool aid acid dimension, filled with singing electric guitars and leering cycloptic suns.

Also of note: Hitachi's teraera08 YouTube profile, which Gizmodo aptly notes "looks like a clown threw up all over it."

The Dawn of the Tera Era [YouTube via Gizmodo]

5

Joel Johnson

Acrylic Cowboy cases put your PC's insides outside

These "Acrylic Cowboy" cases spill the guts of your PC to the world, making it easy to get at your computer's parts and watch it explode when you splash some soda onto it. They're about $100 apiece in Japan, but there's no North American importer at the moment.

I actually love them. I'd need to keep a can of compressed air at the ready at all times, but there's something very hot rod about the whole thing. "Cowboy" is totally right on — these machines ride bareback.

And considering my gaming PC just died a mysterious death last night, portending many angry evenings of troubleshooting, it's not hard to get wistful about how easy it'd be to swap cards in and out if I were running in one of these cases.

Product Page (Machine Translated) [DigitalCowboy.jp via Technabob]

8

John Brownlee

Algebraic wall clock implies its own answers with the time

Though the brain-jelly-beads of my amygdalian abacus have long been evaporated by the heady toll of ether huffing, even I can feel smugly self-congratulatory telling time with the Pop Quiz Wall Clock. No price unfortunately, but it would probably be expressed in a for-me-unsolvable diophantine equation anyway.

Pop Quiz Wall Clock [Official Site via Nerd Approved]

12

Joel Johnson

EdgeStar fan includes swamp cooler, drop-in ice packs

I've left behind air conditioning in my old apartment for only a fan in the new place. (I can handle it, even through these icky heat waves that just broke in New York, but I feel bad for Porter, who has been getting lots of play time with the water hose.) I'm not much of a fan of A/C in the first place. I like being cool, but I hate going in and out of two different temperatures all the time, not to mention paying extra for cooling.

This little fan from EdgeStar caught my eye this morning while I was rounding up the deals. It's just a simple stand fan with an air filter, but at additional filter can be wetted with water to add evaporative cooling (and more air cleaning). And then if you want to go whole hog you can drop in ice packs that you freeze in your home freezer. It's $116 shipped right now from Compact Appliance (dot com) and I'm thinking about getting it. I could use an air cleaner, not to mention something to ward off these last days of summer.

Have any of you used this model or something similar?

Catalog Page [CompactAppliance.com]

20

John Brownlee

Judge orders Nintendo to stop selling patent violating Wii and Gamecube controllers

Nintendo's no stranger to frivolous patents — it does hold one for "handheld software emulation" after all, much to the EFF's chagrin — but they've just fallen afoul of one. U.S. Dictrict Judge Ron Clark has ordered Nintendo to either stop selling their Wii Classic Controllers and Gamecube Controllers or pay money to Anascape Ltd. for violating their analog stick patents.

This is the same Anascape that nailed Sony in 2004 and Microsoft earlier this year for their Playstation and Xbox controllers, which also featured analog thumb sticks... as do basically every modern controller. Curiously, the Wii nunchuck is not considered to be patent violating. The US District judge showed no mercy, completely rejecting Nintendo's request for a new trial. The end result is that Nintendo needs to stop selling all of its controllers with analog thumb sticks today or else post a bond or put royalties into an Anascape escrow account. Nintendo, naturally, aims to appeal.

There's zero chance Nintendo's actually going to pull Wii Classic Controllers off the shelves, so if you want one, you're probably safe. Still, one hopes that this experience will teach Nintendo something about frivolous patentry. Unfortunately, I suspect that lesson will ultimately be, "Make sure we're the ones who hold all the frivolous patents in the first place."

Nintendo Facing Ban on Some Wii, Gamecube Controllers [1UP]

13

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Spaced DVD – Finally, the BBC has released the full DVD collection of Spaced, one of my very dearest television shows ever, on Region 1 DVD for North America. If you are a nerd in your late twenties and up and wondering why they never made a TV show for you, they did — they just made it in England. It's $35 and I can't recommend it enough. [Amazon]

• Amazon Prime – $10 off your next Amazon order if you sign up for Amazon Prime. I'm still sad about Amazon charging me tax. [Slickdeals]

• Powerpack – Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack 600 Jump Starter and Emergency Power Source for $100, shipped. [Dealhack]

• Portable A/C – Now that Summer is half-way done, portable A/C units from Compact Appliance are 10% off. The longer you wait, the better the deal, of course. [Dealhack]

• Control Knob – 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator Personal Edition, a little USB knob for controlling things, is $37, shipped. That's about $20 off. [Dealnews]

• LCD Monitor – Today's Woot! is a refurbished LG 22-inch 2ms Widescreen LCD Monitor for $205, shipped. Wet Hot American Summer desktop image not included.

2

Rob Beschizza

Top X: The best places to buy the worst gadgets

Once a standard-bearer for the technological life, The Sharper Image may soon become a fading memory: its last stores close in the coming weeks. In its wake remains our voracious hunger for crap gadgets, a void that gapes from the brick and mortar of main street to the limitless web that killed it. You've doubtless been wondering where now to find janky gifts for the less interesting males in your family. Whatever your cause, enjoy our essential rundown of the best locations to get the very worst products offered in the post-Ionic world.
READ THE REST

20

Rob Beschizza

Review: A day with D-Link's DSM 330

D-Link's DSM-330 is a cheap, compact and no-nonsense media streaming box that handles DRM-free media collections without impediment, so long as you're prepared to live with the compromises that come with its attractive $180 price tag.

Chief among its virtues are wireless networking (802.11g), 1080i and 720p compatibility, HDMI output (a cable is included free of charge), 5-channel audio and its ability to play MP3, WMA and ACS music files and to display JPEG images. The open plugin framework, which lets anyone pipe in web-based content, is a wonderful surprise, though it makes you wish they'd just included a proper browser to begin with.

The DSM-330 boots quickly, is easy to configure, and has a responsive user interface. Video playback was skip-free, even over WiFi, and its menu arrangment is easy to navigate, though song lists could be more informative. You can even skin it, with a growing variety of themes already available for download.

1080p video will work, unofficially, so long as the bitrate isn't too high.

It's the hookups to Facebook, Google Maps, Reuters News, HD movie trailers and other online content that set it aside, though as with any open ecosystem, many of the apps are shabby or downright inoperable. Of the skimpy selection of official services, it's the selection of casual games, which includes an addictive multiple-hand version of video poker, which shines.

The 330's not without flaws. With no storage of its own, it relies on Windows-only file serving software to host media and to transcode most non-DivX content. It's unable to access standard uPnP or SMB network shares by itself, and a Mac version of the DivX Connected server is yet to be made available. There's no YouTube access, either.

A third-party codec pack to get the server to transcode H.264, Flash, Quicktime and other formats is available here.

The biggest annoyance, however, was the DSM-330's irritating remote. Output is often doubled, repeated indefinitely, or simply random garbage. This frustrates in menu navigation and enrages when entering alphanumerics, such as network passwords. It appears as if the base unit or the remote is overly susceptible to sunlight, fluorescent bulbs and the TV itself. DivX has some tips to work around this issue.

If your media collection is already on a Windows PC you never turn off, and you don't mind that PC having to transcode most file formats on the fly, the DSM-330 won't disappoint. For everyone else, there's still the Netgear EVA8000 and its like, with their XBox-busting price tags.

Product Page [D-Link]

3

Joel Johnson

Evapo-Rust removes rust from almost anything after a good soak

"Evapo-Rust" is a non-toxic, biodegradable, reusable liquid into which most metals, plastics, rubber, wood, glass, or other materials stained or coated with rust may be dipped. In thirty minutes — or up to a day for bigger jobs — your object will emerge rust-free. A gallon goes for a little over $20 on the street and can clean the rust from hundreds of pounds of metal.

Product Page [Evaporust.com via Toolmonger]

16

Joel Johnson

Traveler's travails, including a poor experience with the ATP PhotoFinder

Matt Gross is finishing up his Grand Tour of Europe for the Times and is reflecting on how well his tech has worked on the way. His biggest challenge hasn't been finding an internet connection — it has been finding an internet connection fast enough to upload his video back to the Times' editing servers.

He also has been trying to use the ATP PhotoFinder GPS that is supposed to add geotagging information to all his photos. Unfortunately it's not working so well:
Gently put, it hasn’t worked well. From the white cliffs of Dover to the island of Gozo—where the lack of buildings and trees should’ve made acquiring a satellite signal a piece of cake—the device failed to find anything. And on those rare occasions when it actually picks up the satellite signals, it suddenly shut down, before I’ve had a chance to snap a photo.
In Cyprus, I finally got the device to hold a signal while I took a picture, but when I later checked the coordinates it had picked up, they were off—by miles and miles. My apologies to anyone who purchased one on the Frugal Traveler’s recommendation (especially the young man who brought similar complaints to the party in Rome).

What’s Still in Matt’s Duffel Bag? [Frugal Traveler]

1

Joel Johnson

Brooks Trance 8 trainers with biodegrading midsole

Running shoe manufacturer Brooks is using a new "BioMoGo" foam midsole that when subjected to three specific triggers — low oxygen, certain microbes, and moisture — will biodegrade. That's exactly the environment to be found deep in the mounds of a modern landfill (and not your closet), where the biodegradable midsole will reduce waste bulk over the course of its twenty-year decomposition cycle.

The first shoes to have the BioMoGo midsole will be the $140 Trance 8 running shoes, but Brooks will be transitioning the material to all their products in the near future. Laudably, they've not patented the materials mix of BioMoGo, making it freely available to other shoe manufacturers to use in their own products.

Catalog Page [FootLocker.com via Uncrate]

1

John Brownlee

Vintage typewriter key jewelry

Etsy seller FringeLore makes lovely jewelry with vintage typewriter keys and old cogwork parts. The soul recoils and throws up a bit as it thinks of some beautiful typewriter's tattooed ivory teeth being pried out with a flathead screw driver to make buttons, earrings and necklaces, but the results are undeniably striking.

Romantic Artifacts Necklace [Etsy]

23

John Brownlee

Rumor: MacBook Touch coming by October?

The "new product in the pipeline" Apple hinted at during yesterday's quarterly sales call? Mac Daily News dusts off the standby rumor of an Apple Tablet and props it up with the words of a "reliable tipster."

Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion's haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at "low" price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick shit. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.

I'd love for this to be true, but I'm banking on balderdash. I see a convertible tablet MacBook or MBP coming before a tablet-sized iPhone. Perhaps we'll get both: convertible MacBooks for the higher-end crowd, priced-to-sell MacBook Touches with built-in 3G subsidized by phone companies and priced-to-sell, stealing all the thunder from the cheap web tablet Arrington is going to build out of the wishful thinking of his marketroids and magic-infused unobtanium.

Rumor: Apple's secret product is MacBook touch [Mac Daily News]

Image: mwilkie

13

Joel Johnson

Michael Arrington's $200 web tablet project

Noted hardware engineer Michael Arrington has asked the world to build him a "Macbook Air-thin" web tablet for $200, which he will then offer as an open source reference design. It should run Linux, Firefox, and Skype, he requests. Since only one of those is a company that can be invested in — and has already been purchased by eBay — I must presume that Arrington has funded a small tablet plantation.

We Want A Dead Simple Web Tablet For $200. Help Us Build It. [Techcrunch.com]

1

Joel Johnson

eBay: '70s Braun desk fan

This neat little cylinder is neither robot tampon nor popcorn ejector, but a late modern desk fan from Braun. It's going for $66 plus shipping at the moment.

Vintage EAMES ERA Mid Century Modern BRAUN DESK FAN 70s [eBay]

12

John Brownlee

Hot Hardware reviews OCZ's NIA Brain-Input Controller (Verdict: They like it)

Hot Hardware reviews the OCZ NIA "Brain-Computer Interface." They seem impressed, but after a few weeks, they were still mostly incapable of getting the OCZ to register much besides facial tics, with only sporadic recognition of eye movement and brain states.

Here's a description of what it's like to play Unreal Tournament 3 with your forehead.

Since we received our review sample several weeks ago, we have attempted to spend about 30 minutes gaming with it each day in Unreal Tournament 3 for practice. On the first day, the only thing we were able to do was control the muscle sensor. However, this was enough to allow us to configure the NIA with basic commands and play a few rounds of UT3. Over the first week, we quickly became very proficient with muscle sensor control and gained a limited level of use of the glance sensor. However, Alpha and Beta control still alluded us.
Despite being limited to muscle and glance control, we were able to play UT3 quite proficiently by the end of the first week. Using the default UT3 profile which ships with the NIA, the NIA was used for movement and shooting while the mouse was used for steering. We were able to careen around the maps at a decent pace and we were generally able to get where we wanted in quick order. However, control accuracy was lacking, but that was largely due to a lack of control on our part.

If you think you're going to psychically control your computer, think again: the OCZ only seems to offer the ability to map brain states like "relaxed" and "excited" to set computer commands. Hyperventilate to hit a hot key, in other words.

I think these products are great news for the handicapped, but I always feel like devices like OCZ's are really marketed as snake oil to gamers. In reality, an OCZ NIA will probably make you significantly less precise in controlling your games... and even that slight imprecision implies several months spent training and a great deal of exhaustion

OCZ NIA Brain-Computer Interface [Hot Hardware]

0

Rob Beschizza

Bentley is making a laptop

The very name exudes quality — not just aristocracy, but royalty. Parvenus opt for Rolls Royces, but princes reside in Bentleys. Nothing less will do for the ambassador's receptions. For such elevated gatherings, one must also have appropriate technology, in this day and age. Accordingly, Bentley has made a laptop.

It has Microsoft Vista, a 160GB hard drive, and what T3 describes as a "satisfyingly chunky" handle modeled on those used on its vehicles. It is £10,000.

A certain Nixon quote springs to mind.

T3 Exclusive: Ego for Bentley laptop [T3]

20

Rob Beschizza

Travelers' toys have to be small, light ... and cheap

Reg Hardware's Cliff Joseph offers his roundup of gadgets of use to traveling types. Here's just a few of his choices:

1. Flip Ultra 2. Freeplay solar wind-up radio ... 7. Oregon Scientific Action Cam ATC3K 9. Sennheiser PXC 300 headphones

There are some dumb selections. For example, he includes those nasty vibrating speakers anyone can buy, with their logo on it, by the thousand from Shenzhen. And you'd have to be super-british to care about the Meteotronic weather plaque. But Slingboxes (#10) rule—assuming you can get good internet wherever you're at.

Ten Tech Toys for Travellers [Reg]

0

John Brownlee

Microsoft: Windows Vista as awesome as the Earth is spherical

Vista's new ad campaign attempts to explain why people who think Vista is a shoddy, inferior OS are pre-scientific, monkey-like humanoids, just like the imbecilic 15th century Spaniards who refused to believe that the world was round. The insinuation? Windows Vista is just as awesome as the world is spherical... only flat Earthers would say otherwise!

Hell, we can probably generate the bulk of the art for Microsoft's Vista campaign ourselves. Best Photoshops along this theme in the comments, please. For example, writhing maggots slithering through a piece of fatty, rotting meat. "At one point, everyone believed in Aristotelian abiogenesis. Get the facts about Microsoft Vista."

Update: Here's a "blank" of the image, with the text removed, for easy shoppage. Entries after the jump!

[via Crunch]

READ THE REST

42

Rob Beschizza

Cable companies want us used to metered internet

AT&T and Time Warner Cable are desperate to get us used to metered internet, dressing up their plans in what Om Malik describes as "legal mumbo-jumbo that no human can actually understand."

AT&T Senior VP Robert Quinn got in front of the US regulators and said that the company would offer “non-overlapping tiers of broadband service, rather than its current offerings which go “up to” varying speeds of data transmission.” He went onto add that, “When we provide broadband services based on speed, we will do so in discrete tiers that are disclosed to our end-user customers.”
Translation: We are going to segment and meter the broadband service.

They're already using complicated, cellular-style plans to trick customers into paying for overages in test markets. By offering high speeds with extremely low caps, customers are quickly and quietly forced to start paying $1 for every gig they download. The quintessential example? One trial plan offers a monthly cap of 20GB on a 7mbps plan: you'd exhaust that allowance in only eight hours of maxed-out use at the offered speed.

Here's what I think is the clever part. Consumer activists want bandwidth treated like a utility, so metering it aligns well with a quid-pro-quo that networks might try to present: "You get some kind of net neutrality, but you pay for every single byte of it you get."

However, internet provision is not utility-like in one respect: it's a potentially unlimited resource that will become cheaper and cheaper as time goes by. It is to communications now as fusion power is to energy in science fiction. There is no serious long-term shortage of bandwidth, as internet service providers and their pet analysts assert. By getting us used to metered use now, your local cable monopoly will magic money out of air when "internet" is just a value added to the other services they pipe over the same data line.

AT&T, Time Warner Cable Up The Metered Internet Ante [GigaOm]

17

Rob Beschizza

By our quilts shall ye know us

Product Page [Carolina Patchworks via technabob]

1

John Brownlee

Wordpress for iPhone now available in App Store

Wordpress isn't about to leave its iPhone bloggers out in the cold. My favorite blogging platform has just released the Wordpress for iPhone app, which is now available on the iTunes App Store.

The Wordpress for iPhone app is looking pretty full featured. Both Wordpress.com and self-installed Wordpress blogs are supported, along with full tag and category support. Embedded Safari provides true previews, and posts are auto-recovered if your blogging is interrupted by a phone call. It even supports multiple blogs.

Not shabby. Price? Same as Wordpress: totally free.

Wordpress for iPhone [Official Site]

0

Rob Beschizza

Sympathetic magic

Welcome the Suo Xin ZT888: sympathethic chinese apple magic, yours for $115.43. [via Slipperybrick]

Another one from the same manufacturer!

Here's one from the darkest corners of the international house of crap.

The cherry, which is to say the apple, on top!

6

John Brownlee

Open Tech announces Mac clones, sidesteps Psystar's mistakes

Psystar's corpse hasn't even stopped twitching and draining fluids yet, but that's not going to stop Open Tech Computing from releasing their own bare bones Mac clones. But unlike Psystar, it looks like Open Tech won't going to slap a "Kick Me" sign on their groins before thumbing their noses at Apple's legal department. They are playing it a bit smarter.

Open Tech's new hardware includes a tower of eye-glazing specificatio — a 3.40Ghz Dual-Core Intel Pentium D, 500GB of hard drive space, 3GB of DDR2 at 667 Mhz, a CD burner and wifi — all slapped in a forty dollar case. But they are marketing it as a system capable of running any OS, including OS X. The only difference? They won't actually pre-install the OS for you or hack the Leopard updates and re-distribute them, both of which were the truly bone-headed Psystar moves. Instead, they'll simply bundle a copy of OS X with the machine and provide you with instructions on how to install it yourself.

It's a rather ingenious move: a bargain basement PC manufacturer rides the Psystar vs. Apple publicity by announcing their own successor product, which is, in reality, just a bog-standard PC distributed with some printed-out forum posts. It may not save them from a resounding legal haymaker, and they'll certainly be in violation of the DMCA, but at least they aren't total swollen-tongued, sternum-smacking doofuses.

Open Tech Mac Clones [MacNN]

0

Rob Beschizza

Optimus Pultius, numeric keypad of the Gods

Optimus Pultius, from the makers of the $1,536 Optimus Maximum OLED beast-keyboard, presents a less extravagant embodiment of its functionality. As with its big brother, the keys are tiny displays, which change depending on context so that you know exactly what it will do. But with only 15 keys, it'll be more affordable — and portable! From the makers:

Optimus Pultius - a 15-keys addition to any keyboard. To be used with the Maximus or with any other non-display keyboard. Optimus Pultius uses the same principles as Maximus, has the same display keys and the same set of ports on the back (using one instead of two additional USB hub slots).

Availability is set for the end of this year or early next year. Commenter Frijole, first in at at the Optimus Project blog post, speaks for us all: "do want."

New Optimus Family Member [Optimus Project via Gizmodo]

1

Rob Beschizza

SmartMirror combines rear-view mirror with GPS

Azentek's SmartMirror, known as the DS400 in its native Britain, is coming to U.S. roads. Its gimmick is simple and efficient: it puts your sat-nav alongside a rear-view mirror, meaning you can simply replace your existing one instead of cluttering up the dashboard or obscuring your view of the road.

It has bluetooth to hook up to phones; stereo speakers; an SD card slot for adding new data; and a USB port to hook it up to your computer for software updates and the like. With that 4" display, though, you'd better have great eyesight! Oh, yes, and when it appears on Aug. 1., it'll cost a quite ludicrous $800.

DS-400GB is now SmartMirror and headed for U.S. [Navigadget]

6

Rob Beschizza

Apple stock falls despite record quarter and promise of new products

Despite having a record quarter, Apple's stock price took a 10-point hit on earning statings. Why? Because Apple's future projections are characteristically understated and Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer wouldn't answer questions about Steve Jobs' health.

From Wired: Epicenter:

When inquired about Jobs' health during the conference call, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's senior vice president and chief financial officer, declined to disclose details.
"He has no plan to leave Apple," Oppenheimer said. "Steve's health is a private matter."

Andy Hargreaves, consumer electronics analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said the lack of transparency regarding Jobs' health only adds to investors' uncertainty in the company's future.

"Not addressing Steve Jobs' health perpetuates the fear that it's a real problem," Hargreaves said.

The sunny topic continues: "I'm thinking in three months, assuming Steve Jobs doesn't die, people that take advantage of that opportunity [of investing in Apple's stock] will be pretty happy," Hargreaves said.

But there's good news! Apple also promised new gear before the year's end. This is probably new high-end MacBooks, but could point to something saucy like a new AppleTV or the fabled mini tablet.

Apple's Earnings Are Healthy -- But What About Jobs? [Epicenter]

0

Rob Beschizza

Sony-Ericsson goes ultra-thin with new walkman phones

Sony Ericsson says its celebrating the Walkman phone's third birthday with three new GSM handsets. Upstage owners getting tired of their aging, UI-challenged handsets are gonna love these.

The W902 is a sharp-looking candybar, thinner than a pinky. It has a 5-megapixel camera, a free 8GB memory stick for your songs and stuff and a 240x320 pixel 2.2" display. It comes in black, red and green. Fat capabilities in an ultra-thin case pitch this as a model for smartphone-hating minimalists who still want nice toys.

Specwise, the W595 is a step down from the W902, with only a 2GB memory card and a 3.2MP camera, but some trim gives it distinction. It has dual stereo jacks for friends to listen together, and "shake control," which lets you move from song to song by flicking it just so. Sony Ericsson's ad only had girls in it, so take this as the Mazda Miata of the new lineup.

The W302 is touted as an affordable unit that "doesn't compromise." It has a 2MP camera and a 512MB memory stick included. Though the same size as the W902, it's only 78 grams, and the crisp design speaks for itself. Unlike the other models, it doesn't have HSDPA, or even EDGE — but it does have an FM radio!

Coming soon, Sony Ericsson says, is the W980.

8

John Brownlee

Power On Self Test: Statue of Liberty (some assembly required)

2

Joel Johnson

Tell me about making a tiny 900 MHz antenna

I've got a little project I'm working on that needs a tiny 900 MHz antenna, preferably one that could be set into a ring. (On top; I've already discovered that fingers absorb too much signal to work properly when the antenna is wrapped around them.)

I tried taking a 4cm wire and using it as an antenna. (Roughly a quarter-wavelength of 900MHz.) Worked great when it was sticking up, but didn't work well at all when I curled it up into a coil. That's about the limits of my antenna theory, though. Any other ideas? Would a big flat piece of metal work instead of a wire?

More on what I'm actually working on when I get it completed. I want to make it a surprise.

22

John Brownlee

Cassettes still a multi-million dollar industry... in prison

Cassette tapes may be dead. There may be no nostalgists who lyrically pine for the days of tape, no audiophiles who swear by the purity of the format. But tape still has its place in the world. There are perks to the obsolescent format.

For one thing, unlike CDs, the money in cassette tapes is not plummeting because of audio downloads. According to Bob Paris, owner of North Hollywood's Pack Central, a mail-order business exclusively dedicated to selling cassette tapes: . "[Five years ago], people thought I was nuts when I invested tons of money in analog prerecorded music on tape." Now? Paris' business steadily brings in a million dollars a year.

But who is buying Paris' cassettes? America's 2.3 million prisoners. Which brings us to the second advantage of tape over compact disc: a tape can't be broken apart and used as a shiv. Prisoners are allowed to have them. 60% of Paris' business is in cassette tapes.

Paris' excited conclusion: "[By selling cassette tapes] I have dodged every conventional bullet that has hit most music retailers," Paris says. "I don't have to worry about downloading, legal or illegally. The beauty of it is that prisoners don't have Internet access and never will."

I hope the "never will" part isn't true, but the full piece over at The New York Times shows how even a dead format in a dying industry can make a millionaire out of a canny businessman. It also includes a list of Paris' perennial best sellers: Michael Jackson's Thriller and a "best of" compilation by The Stylistics make the grade. A fantastic read.

Music Retailer Thrives Serving Captive Audience [NY Times]

28

Joel Johnson

RFID helps kitchen helper robots help you

The "Assistive Kitchen" robot picks up the dishes and takes them to the wash, thanks in large part to RFID sensors built into the plates and utensils in Stanford's test kitchen. The team building the robot is also trying to teach it to surf the web to pick up new tricks, as well as self-optimize its routines to minimize the amount of running around it would have to do to pick up the dishes. (Pick up all the plates missing from the cabinet before returning to the dishwasher, for instance.)

Robot B21 today — Rosie tomorrow.

Robot chef gets a boost from wireless kitchen [New Scientist] (Thanks, Zoe!)

2

John Brownlee

Great moments in green friendliness: Hewlett-Packard edition

Using sixteen smaller boxes meticulously stacked inside a larger PC-sized cardboard box, HP could have shipped a few thousand dollars worth of premium electronics to customer Stephen Strang. They didn't. Instead, each box was individually wrapped in protective foam and contained HP's License Entitlement Certificate, whatever that is... a document which is comprised of exactly two sheets of A4-sized paper.

That's right: HP's shipping department used seventeen separate boxes to ship a slim sheaf of paper that could have been folded and stuffed into a single manila envelope. Gaia weeps.

HP shatters excessive packaging world record [Register]

11

John Brownlee

Loyd Case on installing solar panels (one month later)

A couple months after Loyd Case from Extreme Tech installed solar panels on the roof of his Californian home, he's gotten his first monthly bill. Case's old electricity bills were routinely in the range of $300 a month. How much was his first solar assisted electricity bill?

Eleven frickin' dollars.

Over the course of a month, Case's system averaged 37.14 Kilowatt hours per day. Loyd goes into minute detail about the figures, and admits that this bill was in the middle of a cloudless summer and will certainly go up in rainier autumnal months. There's also the issue of ongoing maintenance: unlike just sucking in your electricity from the power company, solar panels need to be periodically washed free of dust, leaves and even (in forest fire season) ash. Even so, it seems hard to argue with Case's conclusion:

Given the power bill I've just received, though, I've become a fan of solar power. Sure, it's expensive, but the timing was right, at least here in California. And the money I once paid into electric bills is now going into an asset. So while my cash flow hasn't changed, I certainly feel better about where that cash is going.

We'll see what he has to say for the system in the winter months.

Going Solar Power: One Month Later [Extreme Tech]

14

Joel Johnson

Woz, Empire, and a tale of early Apple copyright violation

Over on Modern Mechanix, commenter Rick Auricchio shares several anecdotes about the early days at Apple, including a little late night copyright violation by Sir Woz himself:
We used to line up a half-dozen of the VCRs and copy tapes. Just plop ‘em on an unused desk, cable ‘em all up, and push all the buttons. This was bad enough, but then Steve Wozniak wanted a tape of the newly-released “The Empire Strikes Back.” He bribed a San Diego projectionist to “borrow” the print from the cinema and drive it to Los Angeles in the dead of night. After several hours in a transfer facility, he had a 3/4″ U-Matic professional copy of the film print, and the projectionist high-tailed it back to the cinema to return the print. That tape also made its way into the copying chain. We were perhaps the first half-dozen people with videotape copies of the film. (I discarded my heavily-letterboxed copy years ago…)

Woz later mentioned that the 4000-foot film reels wouldn’t fit the 3000-foot tables on the transfer machine, so they spent extra time cutting the print into sections that would fit, then spliced it back into its original form. Film companies, however, are very cautious that nobody steals frames from a film, lest they be printed into illegal still photos. The prints were examined to detect frame-stealing. Woz never asked whether the splices got the projectionist into any trouble; an occasional splice could be due to a film break, but not several at regular intervals.

Portable VCR's [Modern Mechanix]

9

Rob Beschizza

Boom Computing

"What's that funny glow outside, dear?"

"Just the Russians, darling. Thankfully, I have my Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer right here. By my estimation, we're in 'damage to vehicles, roofing and exposed joists, moderate risk.' Terribly glad we went for the suburbs, what?"

Boom computing [Nonist via FFFound]

11

Joel Johnson

Faber Imago+ Media Range Hood has a built-in television, computer

Sometimes I try to keep it classy around here, but then there are days like today when you get the first thing that springs from my mind's mouth to your eyes' ears: When it comes to multimedia range hoods Faber's "Imago+ media hood" has turned it fucking up. Sure, they could have just slapped a 19-inch LCD panel in there, but no, they went ahead and added a whole media computer and analog television inputs so you can play Cooking Mama for the Wii while you're stirring a pot of mac-and-cheese. It has a built-in web browser, videoconferencing, and a built-in recipe database. Completely unnecessary, certain to be obviated before any accompanying stove would be, and very neato.

I don't quite understand how you interface with it, though. Touchscreen? All I know is that I want to get one and just run a looping video what appears to be a baby slow-roasting in a microwave.

Imago+ multi media hood [Appliancist.com]

1

Joel Johnson

Scoop Clip scoops from, clips on bags

The "Scoop Clip" is a two-cupped spoon that also doubles as a clip to keep a bag shut tight. (For most of you: coffee; for me: high-quality cocaine-dusted chocolate.)

Unlike most products from The Pampered Chef, it's not horrendously over-engineered or -priced. It's a fiver.

Product Page [PamperedChef.com via Lifehacker via Cool Tools]

7

Joel Johnson

Two things I learned from the New York Times this morning

First, MacRumors.com is huge. "4.4 million people and 40 million page views a month," according to this profile of its founder, Dr. Arnold Kim.

Second, that the 75th anniversary edition of Esquire magazine is going to incorporate an honest-to-god battery-powered ePaper cover. Awesome. Bring on the cheap, reusable ePaper magazines!

6

Joel Johnson

Hand-cranked Fujitsu ME-P3M hard drive degausser

They're right outside the steel door, swinging, bashing, shouting. They found the line from the solar array, cut it right in two, even the second coil that was under six inches of concrete. One, maybe two minutes of light from this cheap plastic torch, its featherweight D-cells rattling around in its thin pink housing.

It's time. No other options. A life's work gone. Sent to the bitstore in the sky. So close. The knowledge to make them, perhaps fix them. Nothing to be done now.

The hard drives come out of the cage in mid-write, heads skittering across platters. Doesn't matter. Can't bother with an overwrite now. Terabytes stacked on terabytes, all into the Fujitsu ME-P3M. The big old machine that Sarah had helped carry down here. Laughing at the hand crank, screwing her face up as she pantomimed. Amazed at the grant for $35,000, but proud that she'd wrangled it. Please be dead, Sarah. Be dead and asleep.

It's harder than it looks, but it starts to turn. Ten or twenty seconds should do it. There's a sort of machine song now, the whirr of the Fujitsu's degausser, the bang of the ram, metal on metal, the small scream of the lock, giving. It's all but dark now. The flashlight illuminates only itself, fading like the data on the hard drives inside as they are elementally scoured in a magnetic gale.

One more drive. Just one more. It's here on the concrete, damp. Where did it go. A fumble, a drop. It's in.

No, I, please no. Just let me finish my. A flash of light, then darkness again. A bag, cloth but feels like plastic, fogging instantly with panted breath. The Fujitsu handle slowing, carried by inertia. Be enough.

24

John Brownlee

Doc sofa bed converts into a bunk bed within seconds

UK furniture designers BonBon have created the Doc, a sofa bed that can fold out into a bunk bed within seconds. There's no price listed on their site, but I've already emailed them: I must have this for my new apartment. Not only is it cool, but it will hopefully discourage coupled house guests from spreading their genetic filth all over my upholstery.

Doc bunk bed sofa [BonBon via Slashgear]

7

John Brownlee

Plex gets even sexier, merges with CenterStage

The Plex project (nee XBMC for OS X) has just gotten a little sexier: they have just announced that they are merging with CenterStage, a Media Center like UI for OS X. It looks fantastic. This is just killing me: I'm setting up my first HTPC in a couple weeks, and while I'm almost definitely going with one of those lovely Acer cheapies, Plex just keeps on getting better and better, tempting me down the foolish Mac Mini route. Can anyone recommend anything this nice for HTPCs running Vista?

CenterStage [Official Site via Gizmodo]

11

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Universal Remote – Logitech Harmony 550 remote for around $50, shipped. Normally they're about $80. [Slickdeals]

• Point-and-Shoot – Canon SD1100 IS 8MP Camera for $208, shipped, from Amazon. Only about $15 off. [Dealhack]

• Earbuds – Acoustic Research In-Ear Noise-Isolating Headphones for $22, shipped. That's about half off, although they dip down into this price range from time to time. [Dealnews]

• Pots and Pans – Edge Cookware 17-Piece Stainless Steel Set for $50, shipped. A decent starter kit. [Dealnews]

• Point-and-Shoot – Today's Woot! is a refurbished Kodak EasyShare Z1275 12MP/720p Digital Camera w/5x Optical Zoom for $85, shipped.

1

John Brownlee

EFF busts another lousy patent: NeoMedia's mobile phone barcodes

If not a fatality or flawless victory, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has at least scored another win for the good guys. The EFF's Patent Busting Project — which hounds the worst those who use nebulously defined and idiotically granted patents to extort fees out of other companies — has won a significant court victory against one of their Top 10 offenders, NeoMedia.

The patent in question is NeoMedia's barcode scanning patent. Stupidly overbroad and made utterly redundant by prior art, NeoMedia's patent covers using your mobile phone as a way to display bar codes, which then can be scanned by a merchant device as a ticket or coupon. Prodded by the EFF, the US Patent Office re-examined NeoMedia's patent... and rejected each and every one of NeoMedia's ninety-five patent claims. This judgment immediately put an extortive lawsuit filed by NeoMedia against a competitor company, Scanbuy, on hold. NeoMedia has some options left open to them, but it's not looking good.

Excellent work, EFF. The US Patent System is a septic tank. The Patent Busting Project has now scored victories against five out of ten of the companies on their most wanted list. I hope Nintendo's "handheld software emulation" patent is the next challenger to be ruthlessly eliminated from the EFF's list.

US Patent Office Rejects All Ninety Five NeoMedia Patent Claims [EFF]

6

John Brownlee

Cybermaid molestation made possible through augmented reality

Finally! An inexpensive technological solution for the otaku compulsively driven towards the molestation of thyroidal, liliputian lolitas. The "Cyber Figure Alice" by Geisha Tokyo Entertainment comes in the form of a tiny "cybercube", which looks something like Apple's minute recreation of the Lament Configuration. Point a webcam at the cube and Alice herself — a demure anime maid of indeterminate pubertal status — is displayed on your computer screen in animated three-dimensions.

Of course, that's not the real fun. Also included in the package are two "cyber sticks" which can be used to manipulate Alice in assorted ways. The ad copy encourages users to "touch her!" and "peep!" but this is all foreplay to the main event: using the tiny USB chopsticks to peel away Alice's frillery, item by item, like layers from sushi.

It certainly has the panache of perversion, but I still think this is pretty neat. I wish someone would apply this same technology to a concept that doesn't involve groping a virtual nine year old. I'm thinking a miniature dinosaur or tiny virtual robot you can feed and play with through your web-cam. Or — genius! — an official tie-in with Spore: create your alien in the Creature Creator. No need to send me a check, EA... just make it happen.

Cyber Maid Augmented Reality [Asiajin via Crunch]

3

John Brownlee

Monty on the Run Spectrum game recreated with a hamster

According to Wikipedia's entry on the ancient Spectrum game Monty on the Run, the titular Monty is a union-busting mouldywurp who must flee Britain and find a way over the treacherous English channel to find criminal safe haven in Cold War Europe. I do not remember this surprisingly intricate plot, but the graphics, gameplay and Rob Hubbard's incredible soundtrack are unforgettable.

More unforgettable, still: this YouTube video of Monty on the Run, recreated with a curious hamster and a maze of pixel-perfect dioramas.

[via MAKE]

4

Rob Beschizza

Rhythmijig, intellibin and Deli'tail among clever gadgets seen at Cambridge design show

It transpires that the Ergopip is just one of a selection of great designs to emerge from the University of Cambridge this month. Manufacturing engineering students there held a design show to introduce their work, and packed it with amazing gadgets.

My three favorites are the PR-Radio, designed from the ground-up to augment the honorable and virtuous work of public relations specialists; the Rhythmijig, an aid for deaf musicians and kids that "transmits a live beat as a tactile stimulus" to anyone who wants to hear something that otherwise could not be heard; and a machine that can French-plait a human's hair without delaminating the subject's dermal layers.

Check out the rest at the engineering department's news page.

0

Rob Beschizza

Ergopip: the pipette for a new generation of squirters

My experience of pipettes is limited to (a) using one to remove the cream from a bottle of milk in science class, (b) using one to drop one chemical onto another in science class, and (c) using it to squirt water at classmates in science class.

For those with more legitimate applications at hand, the University of Cambridge's Ergopip is the upgrade path that we never knew needed to exist. From the Department of Engineering :

A redesign of the precision pipette one of the most commonly used laboratory instruments, to address ergonomic issues. While current models satisfy the need for precision and reliability, their design falls a long way short in terms of ease of use. They are entirely thumb-operated and are known to cause cases of repetitive strain injury. The students have designed a comfortable, easy-to-use pipette, the Ergopip, which distributes workload to the user's fingers and is just as precise and reliable as existing versions.

The design team behind it included Jonathan Fraser, Mark Evans, Shu Sun and Rehana Khanam.

Design page [CAM via Medgadget]

9

Rob Beschizza

$3 iBeer about as drinkable as real-life $3 beer

The photo says it all: a beer animation that swishes around to the whims of your iPhone's accelerometer. Everyone hates it, but I love it. $3.

Product Page [via Gearfuse]

11

Rob Beschizza

Recently at Rock Paper Shotgun

PC gaming is not domed. It is a thrusting obelisk of passion. Rock Paper Shotgun, as the New Balls of PC coverage, knows this. And now, so will you!

The Essential E3
Check out the gents' coverage of the E3 game expo, as it pertains to serious players. Herein it is discovered that Capcom likes a bit of PC and that no-one likes E3 much at all.

Fallout 3
The temptation to write "if you've been living in a cave" is almost overwhelming. It turns out that the V.A.T.S targeting system takes what is indeed Oblivion with Guns and makes it something much, much better: "It is incredible. I refuse to believe anyone is going to play the game using real time combat when V.A.T.S is available. You see, V.A.T.S. turns every battle into an amazing cinematic event, and not in a lame way like a Final Fantasy game," writes Mathew Kumar.

Hellgate: Korea
Flagship, the devs of Hellgate: London and Mythos, apparently used its IP as collateral against an investment/loan/something from Korean megapublisher Hanbitsoft. Flagship met its doom. An incredible fight ensued, in which everyone gets laid off, the two companies disagreed about what on Earth was going on, and Hanbitsoft started issuing increasingly entertaining press releases insisting that it owns all that IP; might own that IP; and, finally, will do everything it damn well can to get its hands on that IP. Kieron Gillen with the latest missive.

The skies are clear
Want to see the first half hour of so of sandboxy Stalker sequel Clear Sky? See it here. Fans of the original will be delighted by how the new look dances like an irradiated mutant fairy atop the flickering gaslights of the first game's bleak, mystical gloom. "OH GOD THE TERRIBLE ACTION MUSIC," notes Jim Rossignol.

1

Rob Beschizza

A cyber-oreo to the first person to get a BBG Monster tat

Engadget reports that its logo has found its way into the options for a tattoo competition. As much as the sleek blue lines of its modernist logotype enchant, the BBG monster is destined for ink, no? But this is just a photoshop. Damn you, reality!

The original photo is from Chad Miller's's flickr photoset.

0

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: The Founders built it to contain Sir Clive's consciousness

Sauce [Rick Dickinson's photoset]

3

Rob Beschizza

Fuel Additive Pill Scammers Feast on Firepower International's Corpse

You may remember Firepower International. It made one of the many fuel-additive pills which claim to improve gas mileage and the condition of your vehicle's engine. Like all such products, it was a swizz: additive pills don't do anything worthwhile, with the claimed scientific evidence turning to vapor when checked out. What made Firepower special was its stunning success in Australia, where politicians, investors, and even a sports team were shafted before Firepower's brass vanished with all their money.

Just as the Aussies have woken up and started sharpening their pitchforks, I receive the following awesome email, from a fuel additive hawker trying to ride Firepower's coat-tails to success! Breathtaking, sure, but it's a sharp reminder of how such things work: If you think that the spectacularly public exposé of a scam stops the scam, you don't know the first thing about scams.

From: alex@xxxxxx
Subject: Rob, regarding your internet critique
Date: July 20, 2008 6:43:34 PM EDT
To: beschizza@gmail.com

Hi Rob,
I just read your critique on the Firepower pill. Although you may be at least partially correct regarding this product, you shouldn´t miss the forest for the trees. Basically, it seems that if there were a product that would improve engine efficiency with resulting greater power, greater gas mileage, longer engine life, and most important greatly reduced contamination, you'd consider it a worthwhile investment.

I looked into firepower because of a lead from Athens where I am engaged currently in opening my network marketing business with another TRUE product and probably the inspiration of this apparent Hong Kong knock-off pill called Firepower. The company from the USA that I am representing is Fuel Freedom International and the product is the MPG-CAP. I am somewhat skeptical of Firepower because nowhere does it mention what it's made of. Our product is EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) approved with REAL tests and information to back it. I along with a whole list of my distributors, clients, techies, mechanics, and chemists can attest to why we are involved with this product and resulting opportunity. And unlike Firepower, our business opportunity is truly international as it's all via internet and distributor sponsored websites. A mere 400,000 distributors WORLDWIDE are not all wrong. If such a "real" product would interest you, just visit my website www.fuerzagas.myffi.biz and select "our products" and then "MPG-CAP". It's a two page read that puts a tremendous oil busting product in a nutshell clear enough to understand... of course there's a lot more going on, but this should suffice. There is much more information for you to get wise on this product and opportunity. And just in case you think I'm kidding about the global opportunity, I'm prospecting you from Ecuador. Where are you? Incidentally, the navy here has already tested some boats on MPG and they are more than satisfied by the results. Apparently,the Admiral may soon become a distributor.

No need to answer this mail unless you're interested in knowing more, but I hope you will come on board with this great opportunity still in a fledgling stage but about to take off.
Alexander XXXXX

15

Rob Beschizza

Sweet Dreams

Funki Porcini, the musician whose album is graced by this fantastic image, has but one page at his label's website. But check the MySpace! Here's a fansite.
Funki Porcini [Scott Hansen via FFFound]

8

Rob Beschizza

Music machines on show in London

London's new Musical Museum contains musical automata and other sonorous machines. Here are a few, courtesy of Pianola Society on YouTube, which has many more similar vids up.

Shown in this clip : Popper "Clarabella" orchestrion, Welte "Mignon" reproducing piano, Hupfeld Animatic S piano with orchestra cabinet, Imhof and Mukle orchestrion, Hupfeld "Sinfonie Jazz" orchestrion, Mills Violano violin player.

[via The Automata Blog]

1

Rob Beschizza

BBC iPlayer now goes to 11

Walter B. writes in:

The newly functioning BBC iPlayer has a max volume of ... 11. Very Spinal Tap.

Alas, this is what I get:

For those that can, however, yay! The taxpayer-funded appropriation of public broadcasting by foreign corporations now has a cooler volume knob.

16

Joel Johnson

Dave Fayram takes a tour of the OpenMoko FreeRunner phone's user interface

It's not pretty. A commenter suggests he install the Qt (Qtopia) interface instead of the GTK. So he does.

A little better, but not a winner.

I understand the desire for an open phone OS. (Less so the desire for an open hardware phone. What am I going to do, upgrade it?) That open phone OS with a great UI is coming. It's probably going to be called Android.

[via ★]

21

Rob Beschizza

Duracell caught fibbing about its batteries

A common tactic among PR people is to pretend that their products are innovative, when they ain't. A common mistake is to send press releases containing such claims to Dan Rutter.

5

Rob Beschizza

Wal-Mart to offer own PC repair squad: The SS

Walmart is to trial an in-store PC and electronics repair service called "Solution Station." It will commence in 15 Dallas-area stores, competing against Geek Squad, Firedog and the like.

Tell your friends and family not to report their computers to the SS. Wal-Mart's no good for anything in this sort of service arena. These guys did $150 worth of damage to my car's undercarriage the one time I went there for an oil change. I'll be damned if I ever let them near a computer.

How quickly will it become known for inflicting further damage on its customers' machines, just like HP's repair division? Support your local certified IT freelancers instead. Why pay to have minimum wagers run scans they don't understand, then send your machine off to the manufacturer for 6 weeks when their magic thumbdrives can't fix the problem?

Wal-Mart Using Dell to Provide 'Solution Stations' [PC Magazine via Consumerist]

13

Rob Beschizza

Windows Vista: headed in the right direction

Another sublime discovery by Photoshop Disasters.

9

Joel Johnson

Band Geek Heroes: T-shirts for every sort of musical dweeb

Jan F. writes:
I was amused when someone told me about the tuba hero shirt, but my jaw dropped when I saw 50 other designs. BandGeekHero.com has an entires site devoted to guitar hero parody shirts and they have every instrument you can think of didgeridoo hero? bagpipe hero? and they're all in color and available in a million sizes and colors. I just received my saxophone hero shirt and it is very, very nice.

Company Store

14

John Brownlee

Analyst: RadioShack to emulate Apple Stores

Forbes reports that RadioShack, in an inspired attempt to evolve from their current retail model (e.g. shoe mall purveyors of third world turdtronics), will "replicate the look and feel" of Apple's retail stores.

The news sent RadioShack shares soaring by nine cents when just the whiff of this rumor breezily squirted out of a Deutsche Bank analyst's word sphincter earlier today. One can well imagine investors' riotous optimism. RadioShack's arsenal of top-of-the-line HAM radios, bolt detectors and answering machines combined with Apple's chic design aesthetic? It's full of stars.

Thumbs up, RadioShack! My only reservation: will I still be asked for my address and phone number by your bed head armada of hipster gadgetistas before they deign to sell me a pack of batteries? You don't want to dilute the proud brand of RadioShack too much. Some traditions should be sacrosanct.

Analyst: RadioShack may test concept; shares up [Forbes]

39

John Brownlee

Nvidia/ATI email read in court all but confirms price fixing

More sleazy dirt coming out of the court today where plaintiffs are pressing an anti-trust action against ATI and Nvidia. Yesterday, the presiding Judge, William Alsup, dismissed the defendants' request that a particular email between two corporate executives be sealed as a "trade secret" with disgust.

Today, it looks like that email's been presented. It's deliciously incriminating. It comes from 2002 and was written by Nvidia senior vice president of marketing, Dan Vivoli, to ATI's president and COO, Dave Orton.

I really think we should work harder together on the marketing front. As you and I have talked about, even though we are competitors, we have the common goal of making our category a well positioned, respected playing field. $5 and $8 stocks are a result of no respect.

Judge Alsup: "That's not good for the defense. A jury would like to see this." Indeed they will.

Damning email revealed in class action suit against Nvidia and AMD [Crunchgear]

Previously: Judge hammers ATI and Nvidia: "This court is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of your companies."

18

Joel Johnson

Video: Mapping Thom Yorke's head into an augmented reality

The folks at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics are having a lot of fun with that Radiohead data that was released. Above, an augmented reality version of Thom Yorke's head mapped onto the album cover displayed on an iPhone. Perfectly useless and delightful!

Some more fun, as sent in by the institute: Yorke's singing head rendered on their Multi-Touch Heyewall 2.0 in a 8160 x 4000 pixel resolution in real-time and his virtual head shot and atomized.

9

John Brownlee

Sesame Street does Feist's iPod Nano song

Nothing can transform an innately lovely song into something cloying, pretentious and loathsome as quickly as that song being showcased in an Apple commercial. Feist's "1, 2, 3, 4" is just such: a once gorgeous, toe-tapping melody driven with infinite repetition through my ear canal and into my brain until it took on the jaw-slackening, headache-inducing quality of home trephination. I'm sure you know what I mean. Apple excels at this.

But Feist just redeemed herself in my eyes. Her appearance on Sesame Street is just adorable. The lyrics of "1, 2, 3, 4" are tweaked simply enough to be about monsters, penguins and vacationing chickens, but Feist still gives it her all. Better yet: she actually looks like she'd rather be dancing and singing with muppets than doing an iPod commercial. And, really, who wouldn't? After watching this, I actually like her song again. Watch for Feist's squeal of delight at the very last second of the video, when she thinks the take's over. If your heart doesn't melt, you're a monster... and not the Muppet kind.

Okay. Fine, Feist. I forgive you for selling out, baby. Now come over here and give me and Grover a snuggle.

Feist on Sesame Street [YouTube]

29

Joel Johnson

iTunes App Store shows strengths, weaknesses of a walled garden

Fraser Speirs, the developer behind the top-shelf iPhone Flickr interface "Exposure", echoes the complaints we've heard from many developers about the iTunes App Store:
Apple requires that every single update to every app go through the same vetting process (although who knows exactly what this involves?). I submitted Exposure 1.0.1 to the App Store last Friday and, five days later, one version is "In Review". The other is still, mysteriously, "waiting for upload", even though I already did.

If Apple can't guarantee a maximum 24 hour review process, they should drop it.
Walled gardens aren't entirely without usefulness. (Yes, I said that.) There's something to be said for being able to buy a bunch of software with a single account. But the approval process to push software to the App Store isn't just slowing down updates for customers, it could also put developers and users at risk. As Speirs explains, if there were a serious security flaw in an iPhone application, an approval process of several days could be a catastrophe.

I really like the App Store, but Apple needs to invert the approval process. If a developer has shown that they've uploaded quality code in the past, they should be able to push updates with a minimum of fuss. If there's a problem later — and it appears the only problems Apple is scanning for are SDK violations — then nuke the program and the developer account.

The DRM-ladened App Store is just one of five reasons the Free Software Foundation doesn't want you to buy an iPhone. Three more points: iPhone uses and endorses DRM; the iPhone doesn't play Ogg Vorbis (really?); the iPhone isn't the only option. I have a few incidental quibbles with most of those but I get where they're coming from.

One complaint, however, is just flat out wrong: "iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge."

First of all, the iPhone OS now prompts you every time it is about to query Core Location for your coordinates. (I actually wish it wouldn't, as I think that hitting a button or opening an application built specifically around location services should be approval enough.) Secondly, iPhone applications don't run in the background, making passive tracking only possible if there were an SDK-violating application available via the iTunes App Store — ironically the walled nature of the DRM-infested App Store makes this rogue tracking software claim even less possible.

As for the iPhone exposing your whereabouts? I kind of think most people knew that already, since that's the whole point of GPS on a phone. And guess what? All cell phones now have GPS or a GPS-like tracking system inside as mandated by the federal government. Most don't give you access to that data like the iPhone does.

I hate the vetting process of the App Store quite a bit, but don't salt a perfectly reasonable argument with factually murky paranoia.

[via ★]

6

Joel Johnson

iPhone 3G dock as evidence of Apple's new love for swoops

I think this image from iLounge showing the last three docks for Apple media players — iPods, the iPod EDGE, and the new iPhone 3G — is a concise indicator of where Apple's industrial design is going. Less basic geometric shapes, more soft arcs.

Apple iPhone 3G Dock [iLounge]

P.S. A full week in and I still don't have a 3G, Brownlee. How do you like them apples?

9

Joel Johnson

Ubisoft distributes cracking group's no-CD patch as official

"Neilthecellist", a user on game publisher Ubisoft's official message boards, took a peek inside the official no-CD patch that had been released for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 and discovered that it had been released before — as an crack from piracy distribution group Reloaded.

A swamp of irony: that the game's DRM caused so many problems for customers that a no-CD patch had to be released in the first place; that Ubisoft had no problem redistributing someone else's code as their own; that Ubisoft had plenty of time to implement a DRM system before the game went on sale but no programming resources to create their own to fix the problems they created for legitimate customers.

In all, though, I think it's a fairly sly way to acknowledge the tacit symbiosis between publishers and cracking groups. Publishers release crippled games; cracking groups fix them. (And then let people download them for free, unfortunately.) I'm doubt that pointing out this relationship was Ubisoft's intention.

R6Vegas2_Fix.zip is the same as the ReLoaded no-dvd crack [Forums.UBI.com]

8

John Brownlee

GPS data shows ticketed teenager wasn't speeding

An 18 year old kid is contesting a speeding ticket in court with the aid of his GPS unit.

The unit in question was an RMT Rover, one of those vehicle tracking dealies (as opposed to the turn-by-turn dashboard models), which looks like it may have been surreptitiously installed in Shaun Malone's car by his parents to keep an eye on him. When he got pulled over by radar-gun touting police officers for supposedly going 62 MPH, 17 MPH over the speed limit, Malone and his parents fought back, citing data from the RMT Rover system that he had been exactly following the 45 MPH speed limit all the way way home. That's not terribly exciting, but the court room drama was: an expert witness called by the police changed his testimony on the stand, claiming that the RMT Rover was "accurate to within a couple of meters and within 1mph." ~~Case dismissed.~~ The case continues, with further expert testimony to come.

I love it. This is the way it shouldwork: police claim you're speeding, and you have verifiable, third-party proof at your finger tips that they are wrong (or you are). Cops have incentives to bust you unjustly: they have ticketing quotas to meet. Likewise, you have reasons to lie: a couple hundred bucks out of pocket. But a GPS unit has no incentive to twist data one way or another.

Update: Received from a Mark Haas:

It appears that Rocky Mountain Trackers posted an uninformed press release claiming victory in the Shaun Malone case in Sonoma County, but independent press reports (I cited one in my comment to the post) clearly note that the next phase of the trial has really just begun and the judge is currently awaiting evidence from another GPS expert in October And so the case can’t have been decided yet. ! RMT has also removed the press release from their web site.

Update (8/1/08): "GPS Tracking," apparently from the company itself, adds the following:

Rocky Mountain Tracking appreciates your interest in this story. However, you have posted a statement at the bottom of the article that is false.

1) Rocky Mountain Tracking has not changed its press release in any way.

2) Rocky Mountain Tracking has not claimed victory in the case.

3) Rocky Mountain Tracking has not posted an uninformed press release.

4) Rocky Mountain Tracking has not removed the press release. The press release remains here where it has always been since the release date:
http://www.rmtracking.com/press.html

5) Rocky Mountain Tracking would like you to correct the false information in the following statement:

"It appears that Rocky Mountain Trackers posted an uninformed press release claiming victory in the Shaun Malone case in Sonoma County, but independent press reports (I cited one in my comment to the post) clearly note that the next phase of the trial has really just begun and the judge is currently awaiting evidence from another GPS expert in October And so the case can’t have been decided yet. ! RMT has also removed the press release from their web site."

Speeding Radar Gun vs. GPS [Hot Hardware]

19

John Brownlee

Creative inexplicably names their new sports MP3 player the Zen Krystal

Buried deep and secretly over at their Hong Kong site, Creative's latest MP3 player, the Zen Krystal, has been unearthed. The branding sends conflicting messages: part nouveau riche pretension, part lipstick-smeared trailer park trollope.

The moniker becomes even more confusing, though, when you learn that the Krystal is meant as a DAP for the jogging crowd. It will feature a pedometer, much like the Nike+ iPod line. Nothing says calorie-sloughing, artery-bursting, bowel-evacuating physical exertion like "Zen Krystal," does it?

Anyway, naming aside, it looks fine. Or, if not fine, typically okay. Tiny, a 0.7" OLED screen, an FM radio and some built-in games you'll never actually play (including the frenetic craps-shooting sim, "Dice Roll"). There's no release date yet, but the price when translated from Hong Kong Dollars to American Cowboyos is around $87.

Creative Zen Krystal [Official Site - Hong Kong via Gizmodo]

5

John Brownlee

LED candelabras

I really like the artful shots of these LED candelabras, designed by Phillipe Boulet. But then there's the price: two hundred to three hundred euros each. And then there's the nagging suspicion that they would only look a little bit tacky balanced atop my toilet bowl. A more tasteful idea would be LED illumination of regular, white candles, burning naturally.

Luminaires [Lux et Deco via technabob]

3

John Brownlee

How the Psystar lawsuit might go very, very wrong... for Apple

The general feeling is that when (or even if) Psystar meets Apple in court, Apple will rip out Psystar's fluid-spurting spine in what in dry legal terminology might be described as a Mortal Kombat style fatality. But CNet's Don Reisinger brings up an excellent point: if Apple fudges their lawsuit even a little, they might open the door on countless other cheap Mac clones flooding the market.

If Apple gets everything it asks for and totally ruins Psystar, it will never need to worry about an unknown firm trying to sell Mac OS X again. The legal battle will be enough to send small companies packing and Apple will make Psystar just another example of what can happen to a small organization when it tries to stand up to a monster.
But if it doesn't get everything it asks for and it's forced to concede some points and the court orders Psystar to pay Apple some sort of licensing fee, Apple will have stepped on a bee's nest.

In one fell swoop, other companies will realize that they will be able to get away with selling Mac OS X on their own brand of computers and use the precedent of the Psystar case to their advantage if and when they face legal action from Apple.

In the process, these companies will crop up and start selling Mac OS X-based computers and instead of trying to deal with one company, Apple will be forced to play games with dozens.

It would be interesting to see how Apple might react to that worst-case scenario. A return to a proprietary CPU architecture, perhaps?

Apple must win its case against Psystar -- or else [CNet]

8

John Brownlee

Duke Nukem Trilogy is the best E3 trailer ever made

Eleven years after first announcing the still-in-development sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms has learned absolutely no lessons whatsoever about announcing products too early. And for that the blogging world thanks them: 3D Realms is like the half-naked fat kid who face plants himself, over and over again, trying to emulate professional wrestlers by leaping off his roof in his underpants.

The trailer they showed at E3 for the supposedly forthcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy takes the cake, though. What do you do when you announce not one but three separate titles and have nothing to show? Four minutes of vintage Bobby Prince, game logos, 90's era stock art and Duke Nukem crotch zooms!

The geniuses over at POETV extend pineal glands backwards in time and listened in on the feverish creative session that gave us this masterpiece:

"Guys! We need a trailer for E3, and all we have are an arrange of grabbag.mid and 11025hz voice clips!"

"No problemo! I got a shitload of images of guys in gas masks!"

This is the Spinal Tap of E3 trailers, only it's totally serious. God bless you, 3D Realms.

43

Joel Johnson

Tap Tap Revenge bests Apple's own Remote for App Store top spot

Tapulous's Bart Decrem just excitedly AIMed me to point out that the company's first iPhone game, Tap Tap Revenge, is now the number one free application downloaded from the iTunes App Store, beating even Apple's own (excellent) Remote app. And that's after a late start, with downloads of TTR starting Friday night. Congrats, developers Nate True and Guy English!

App Store Link to TTR [Phobos.Apple.com]

Previously • Tapulous shows iPhone Apps: Friend Book, Tap Tap Revenge, and Twinkle

2

Joel Johnson

I will now bitch about Twitter in 140 words or less

My replies page (twitter.com/replies) has been down for over a month. "That page doesn't exist!" Reply from Twitter: It's a bug. No duh.

12

Joel Johnson

Courtly Unimog camper

What happens when you combine one of my favorite European all-terrain utility trucks with tasteful design from a pair of Belgian architects? If you guessed "priapistic bruising" you'd be correct. But you'd also get these images of this stately camper vehicle which, when not parked on a hill overlooking an abbey, serves as the couple's bathroom in their garage.

Unimog [OWI.biz via Core77]

Previously • EarthRoamer XV-JP: Live-Aboard 4x4 Solar and Diesel Jeep
• Mercedes-Benz Zetros is a heftier, more defensible Unimog

2

Joel Johnson

EZ Seed Tape makes planting straight rows possible for even the drunkest gardener

"EZ Seed Tape" is simple enough: a strip of biodegradable paper on to which seeds can be adhered. Planting the whole thing in a row not only gets you perfectly spaced rows of plants but does so with a minimum of seed waste.

(The man made out of terra cotta plants probably doesn't have anything to do with the product. I just thought it was cute.)

Each roll of EZ Seed Tape is $7 plus shipping. You could probably get similar results with careful planning of pilot seed holes, but this still seems like it'd save some hassle.

Product Page [Seed-Tape.com via Apartment Therapy New York]

11

John Brownlee

Bioshock Big Daddy scrap metal sculpture

$70 for a Big Daddy made out of old engine parts and scrap metal? Are you kidding me? Sold.

Well, actually, the site says $95. But still!

Big Daddy Scrap Metal [Metal Park via Geekologie]

7

Joel Johnson

The hand-made gadgets of prison inmates

Marc Steinmetz's "Escape Tools" photographs showcase the ingenious hacks of prison inmates made from detritus and scrounged materials. Not all of the items are for escape in the strictest sense. This tube of horseradish paste, for instance, was fashioned into a not-so-crude hash pipe. Harsh.

Escape Tools [MarcSteinmetz.com via MAKE:]

4

John Brownlee

Know nothing analyst proclaims death of the mouse within 5 years, cites Guitar Hero as death certificate

A truly bizarre piece over at the BBC in which one of the mindless, overpaid tape worms of the electronics leviathan (who else? an industry analyst) provocatively opines that we're only three to five years away from the complete eradication of the computer mouse.

Then he contradicts himself in the next sentence:

"The mouse works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it's over," declared analyst Steve Prentice.

Okay, so people will no longer be using a mouse to control their DVD players. An astute analysis worthy of your $500-an-hour fee, Mr. Prentice. Well done. And notebooks have had trackpads for the last decade, and trackpads are only arguably mice. I follow your hyperintelligence-forged chain of logic. But, wait a second... by your own admission, the mouse still works fine for its intended platform: home computers. So are you saying home computers will die within five years?

Well, no, he's not saying that at all. Or, at least, the BBC didn't bother asking him how the mouse can go wholly extinct within half-a-decade when, by Prentice's own admission, it is still the optimal interface for PCs.

I mean, he's got a point: we're going to start seeing more multi-touch capable displays coming out over the next few years. But these aren't likely to replace mice, only creatively supplement them. The mouse: dead? It's not even wheezing yet.

Basically, for the mouse to die, someone either needs to come up with a simpler, more intuitive way to control PCs, or PCs have to die out. And they may, as people become more and more dependent on laptops and mobile phones. But pointing to devices that have never used mice as their primary input control (he even named Guitar Hero!) isn't proof of jack squat.

But this is business as usual in the world of market analysts. As Rob points out, "if analysts were ever right, they wouldn't be analysts. They'd be consultants."

Say goodbye to the computer mouse [BBC via Crunchgear]

11

Joel Johnson

Floating Media Drawer from West Elm

West Elm, sort of a slightly upscale IKEA variant from the same people who own Williams-Sonoma, sells these potentially handy "Floating Drawers" in three different veneers for $130. They're just a single drawer in a self-contained box, but they're simple, attractive, and could be a much better addition to add more storage space instead of buying a whole new desk.

Product Page [WestElm.com via Apartment Therapy]

7

John Brownlee

Antique railroad pocket watch with hidden gun

OhGizmo! unearths this wonderful horological curiosity: a key-wind pocket watch containing a gun barrel capable of firing a .3mm through a man's heart. Confront the perpetually tardy with the time... then put a cap into their brainpan with it.

Rare English Patent Curiosa Railroad Pocket Watch Gun [Littlegun.be via OhGizmo!]

11

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• Tool Drawer – Craftsman 26-inch 12-drawer roll-away combo chest for $160. Best to pick this up in store. [Slickdeals]

• French Presses – 50% or more off of Bodum coffee presses at Amazon. [Dealhack]

• Atari Flashback – Atari Flashback videogame console with 40 built-in classic games for $36, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Kitchen Utensils – 25-piece "Cook's Tool Set" for $6 on Amazon. [Dealnews]

• Video Transfer – Today's Woot! is the Pinnacle Video Transfer for iPod, PSP, or USB Storage Device for $85, shipped.

0

John Brownlee

Designer motorcycle helmets by Jérôme Coste

Some absolutely bitching motorcycle helmets from French designer Jérôme Coste, who became interested in designing protective headgear after suffering his sixth high-speed cranial fracture. The designs are inspired by sci-fi movies, Japanese anime and a dash of Steve McQueen. This is the type of helmet you wear when you get onto a motorcycle, light yourself on fire, give the thumbs up, and proceed to be hoisted down into the sulfur-scented barrel of a gigantic cannon aimed at the other side of a magma-filled gorge.

Motorcycle helmets for the Great Escape [Core77]

8

John Brownlee

Intel's Core 2 Extreme laptop CPU coming out next month

Intel's new quad-core laptop CPUs are set to premiere next month. Official branding? Core 2 Extreme. It's nice to see major CPU manufacturers follow the same paradigm that Kool-Aid, Fruit Roll-Ups and Apple Jacks discarded as "spent" in the early 90's. Dude's up, Intel!

The first chip to sneak past the curtain of secrecy is the 2.54GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9300. It will cost you almost as much as a top-of-the-line current laptop goes for: a sputum-spattering $1,390.

Still, our favorite Gadget Lab gadget lad (and sometimes drinking buddy) Charlie Sorrel has it right: this is probably the chip that Apple will use to launch its new MacBook Pros. To the X-TREEEEEEEEEEEEEME!

Intel's Quad-core Mobile Chip Coming Next Month [Yahoo via Gadget Lab]

12

Rob Beschizza

Judge hammers ATI and Nvidia: "This court is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of your companies."

Plaintiffs have scored a coup in their antitrust action against video card makers ATI and Nvidia, after the presiding judge in their case, William Alsup, excoriated the defendants for trying to keep "trade secrets" sealed – in particular, an email which suggests the two companies fixed prices to one anothers' advantage.

"This court is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of your companies. I am against you hiding information from the public. If we get to summary judgment in this case nothing will be under seal," he said.

More evidence of wildly inflated prices: Nvidia chopped hundreds of dollars off its priciest models just a few days ago. Just imagine what the margins were like!

Plaintiffs Score With E-Mail Evidence in Multidistrict Price-Fixing Case [Law.com via Techdirt]

0

Rob Beschizza

Report: French women bathe with their cell phones at hand

A survey published by mBlox claims that 14 percent of Parisian women take their cell phones to the tub, compared with only 4 percent of men. It's a junk survey, with only 221 respondents, but that's still a huge gap.

About a third of 18-24 year olds in the roundup said they'd get out the shower for a phone call. Mblox's Christophe Collier portrays it as the spontaneity of a new generation:

“Quite apart from the hygiene and safety issues associated with the practice of interrupting the cleansing routine to take a call or text, these findings do reveal the ease and frequency with which the younger generation exchange information in a way that is genuinely non-planned, spontaneous,” added Collier.

If you leave the charger plugged in, it could Alka Seltzer for a new generation, too. Plop, fizz!

See also: How to deal with a soaked mobile phone.

Stats & Research: Allo. Allo. Je Suis Dans Mon Bain. [160characters via Textually]

6

Rob Beschizza

How they sell phones in Japan

Sony Ericsson's W63S: your one-stop shop for blackface, cosplay, fur and sex changes. Via Crunchgear.

1

John Brownlee

EA on iPhone game development: the accelerometer's no good for precision

Those who have played Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone basically all agree that its a cuspid-clamping affair. The merest tilt is enough to send your bubble-contained simian flying into an existentially terrifying purple vapor, Super Monkey Ball's metaphor for chimpanzee death.

So what's the deal? Why is the iPhone's accelerometer so crap at steering? An EA developer put it this way: "Think of it as a loose analog stick...you get lots of random data."

As developers have more time to figure out their various iPhone accelerometer smoothing algorithms, controls should get better (just as they did after the Wii's release), but using the accelerometer to steer or control an on-screen character is just never going to be as responsive or exact as a D-pad.

Which is fine. I think we all knew that: the iPhone is not magic. But I suspect we're going to see a gaming culture on the iPhone based more primarily around multi-touch. It's notable that the iPhone port of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is using the accelerometer only as a means to move your character to set waypoints, where you then fight in a static position using touch gestures. Very on-rails.

It'll be interesting to see how developers approach the iPhone when they have more than a few months to come up with an app: on the surface of things, the iPhone has both the advantages of a Wii and a Nintendo DS as a controller, but the roux is very watery, and there's all sorts of crap floating in it.

The iPhone is more powerful than the DS but sucks as a controller [Gizmodo]

7

John Brownlee

SCEA CEO Jack Tretton on why no one develops for the PSP anymore: Pirates!

Engadget managed to snag Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton by the coattails at E3 and ask him a few questions about Sony's PS3/PSP strategy going forward.

Sony does seem to have shed a lot of the arrogance that caused them to stumble out of the gates with two press-shattered shins with the launch of the PS3. And Horner's being frank about gamer sore points like removing backwards compatibility from the PS3: "I would like to have had it in there, but Sony's collective strategy determined we could afford to lose it. We've now gone down that road, and we're not going back." I admire that. It's sincerely regretful, but also makes clear that they feel it was a smart business decision they aren't going to waffle on: backwards compatibility doesn't really sell consoles, and it's a good choice of features to trim to get prices down.

But this comment about why the PSP doesn't have any damn games on it anymore is just stupid:

What's preventing PSP software sales: Three things. Title ports from PS2 games (people don't want to buy the same title twice), and the PSP's media functions. But Jack put the most emphasis on "piracy in the hundreds of thousands of units are preventing software sales. it's a problem that affects our software sales right now."

So the loss of hundreds of thousands of totally imaginary, theoretical sales are preventing developers from generating hundreds of thousands of real ones? That's not what's going on. If that were true, the DS (which has a far more easy-to-access piracy scene than the still-difficult-to-hack PSP) would be a total ghost town.

No. The truth of the matter is that Sony bungled the PSP and there's some behind-the-scenes reason why the summer of 2008 has been almost entirely empty of notable PSP titles. And most of the reason is likely the obvious one: the DS is easier and cheaper to develop for, with a substantially greater install base. But corporate hubris makes piracy easier to blame than (perceived) inferiority.

SCEA CEO Jack Tretton dishes [Engadget]

10

John Brownlee

Looks like a robot, but it ain't a robot t'all!

The Looks Like A Robot Flickr pool doesn't require more description than its title: it's a wonderful showcase of metal man pareidolia. Pictured: Hobart from Planet Tobor.

Image: wryondedwards

Looks Like A Robot [Flickr via BotJunkie via Robot Dreams]

6

Rob Beschizza

Wired reviews Fallout 3. Verdict: Gorgeous but charmless fanfic

Wired's look at Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3 praises its visual flair and combat mechanics, but little else. In a sharply-worded review up at its Game|Life blog, Earnest Cavalli slams it as "almost entirely lacking" the series' iconic charm. And a review it certainly is, with little in the way of hedging to conceal the author's judgment, even of a storyline he saw only half an hour of.

It really feels like someone wrote a fanfic based on the Fallout universe and somehow got the funding to create a game based on it. ... I predict a heavy backlash from long-time fans. At best Fallout 3 will be the blacksheep of the series: An oddity played only for completion's sake by those who absolutely adore the original games.

Grist for the mill for those who want it to fail. For the rest of us, sigh. If nothing else, it's a reply to those who insist that one must play a game to completion before setting the lead. Thirty minutes!

Hands On: Fallout 3 [Wired: Game|Life]

25

Rob Beschizza

"Oh !*#%" flash drive looks like work of world's stupidest thief

It so transpires that a standard USB jack's sheath is large enough to contain plenty of memory—allowing for this amusing thumbdrive, complete with a trailing and torn cable.

Product Page [Worldwide Fred via Gearfuse]

8

Rob Beschizza

Sony invites all-comers to "Graphic Splash" contest

Graphic Splash is Sony's lineup of art-slathered notebooks, and it's the company's single coolest project going. It's teaming up with Microsoft to find new designs for the series, and is inviting "consumers" to send in their creations.

Starting today through Aug. 10, 2008, budding designers can submit their proposed designs online at www.sony.com/mygraphicsplash along with a photo of themselves and a brief message revealing their “style.”

That they can't get through their own pitch without putting "style" in scare quotes betrays a certain cynicism, yes, but they'll be selecting three entries to become real-life limited edition laptops. That's money where its mouth is, even if you won't be getting any.

CALLING ALL FASHIONISTAS: SONY AND MICROSOFT LAUNCH “MY GRAPHIC SPLASH” PC CONTEST [Sony]

4

Rob Beschizza

China struggles to extrude long-anticipated iKnockoff

Ah, Meizu M8. The original iClone, already so late to the party that other imitators have already beat it to the punch. Spotted by Electronista, the official Meizu website says it—or perhaps just more photos of it—shall arrive next month. Here's a machtrans of Meizu supremo J. Wong:

August will be released m8 photos and other information, and the issue of online version. (256MB内存,8GB 2180元/台). Gentie not apply to the online version (128 MB of memory) friends, we will in October as much as possible to provide priority in the test version (256 MB of memory, 8 GB 2180 yuan / Taiwan).

Described by Engadget's Chris Ziegler as one of the most entertaining sagas in the phone biz — though I'm not sure it has an awful lot of competition — this device is a shameless dupe that makes Samsung's Instinct seem the zenith of originality. Electronista again:

Several photos of a working M8 have also appeared and show the device with an interface that has apparently regressed since earlier changes with a look that more closely resembles the iPhone the M8 has been accused of replicating since it was announced by Meizu in early 2007

Machine Trans [Meizu]
Meizu 's iPhone rival shown, due in August? [Electronista via Engadget]

4

Rob Beschizza

When Nerds Attack: the stupidest hacks of all time

San Francisco's government, according to reports, permitted one of its techs to create a network mastered with a single password. Then it permitted the man who knew that password to screw it over. The courts will sort out the truth — Terry Childs, the suspect, is now behind bars after refusing to disclose the password — but this is far from an isolated incident. Wired's Threat Level blog recounts some of the dumbest hacks of all time, a list that includes database deleters, login louts and other offenders.

"At least one can be thankful that when someone in the IT department goes postal, they tend to take down the mail server, not pick up an assault rifle," writes author Ryan Singel.

San Francisco Held Cyber-Hostage? Disgruntled Techies Have Wreaked Worse Havoc [Wired: Threat Level]

3

Rob Beschizza

VHS USB hub. Yes, someone went there.

It even glows. Make your own using the howto at Instructables.

Glowing video tape USB hub [Instructables via Make]

3

Rob Beschizza

Power On Self Test: Mowercycle

Work is a wonderful idea, but not all wonderful ideas will work.

Can I get a CalTrain bike car tag for this? [via Inhabitat]

7

Rob Beschizza

Report: AT&T mall shack distributing anti-iPhone flyers

Gizmodo writes that an AT&T regional manager penned a 5-page screed about the iPhone, exhorting his readers to get a Blackberry or — wait for it — a Windows Mobile-based device.

The reasons given are traditional fare (inaccessible battery, no camera flash, no voice dial, no cut 'n' paste) and includes "no CDMA," an odd complaint from someone who works for AT&T.

Giz has ze document.

NJ Mall AT&T Employees Hand Out Anti-iPhone Propaganda to Customers [Gizmodo via MobileRoar. Tip: Cheers, trigatch4!]

8

Joel Johnson

Jawbone maker giving $20 off if you got a traffic ticket for not using a Bluetooth headset

Aliph make a pretty good Bluetooth headset, I've heard, but I think I respect them just as much for their clever marketing of the Jawbone. First they let CES attendees trade their old Bluetooth headsets for a Jawbone. Now they're giving a $20 discount on the new Jawbone to anyone who was recently gotten a ticket for talking on a cell phone without a headset. Clever. They've even tied their site into what I presume are the public ticketing records for each state to verify that you actually received a citation.

I'm reading a pre-press copy of Tom Vanderbilt's fascinating book "Traffic" about cars and how they shape us individually and as a society. (More on the book soon, including an interview with Mr. Vanderbilt.) One point of interest from the book regarding Bluetooth, however: some studies indicate that even using a Bluetooth headset doesn't greatly diminish accidents. The problem isn't just noodling with the phone controls or looking away from the road, but simply being occupied with anything else but driving.

Still, a headset is better than no headset, I figure.

Jawbone page (there's no direct link) [Jawbone.com]

Previously • Aliph's updated Jawbone Bluetooth headset reviewed (Verdict: Smaller but just as quirky)

6

John Brownlee

The Rag and Bone six-wheel bicycle

Gestating in the oily, embryonic womb of some great velocipedic goddess, the Rag and Bone bicycle looks like it prenatally absorbed three or four of its twins... the steampunkish bicycle analogue to Total Recall's Kuato. I totally dig this.

Rag and Bone [Rat Rod Bikes via MAKE]

11

John Brownlee

NVIDIA tells SEC GPU failures are limited to only a few laptops, not entire line

Contrary to previous rumors popularized by The Inquirer, Nvidia is passionately denying that all their G84 and G86 chips are bad: they are still claiming that the defect only affects an incredibly small number of laptop graphic chips, and have even gone as far as to swear as much to the SEC.

So is Nvidia lying? Probably not, says Ars:

[T]hus far, NVIDIA has done everything right. The company has admitted the existence of a problem to both customers and the SEC, pledged a substantial amount of money to deal with the issue, offered a temporary software solution that might prevent some product failures (even if it amounts to turning up the fan), and has repeatedly stated that it will fix the problem. Furthermore, the company is on record that the issue is confined to certain notebook configurations and did not effect desktop parts at all.
Could NVIDIA be lying? Yes, it could, but there's no concrete evidence to support such a conclusion. The plural of anecdote, however compelling, is not data, and the very nature of conspiracy theories make them exceptionally hard to prove.

Nvidia denies rumors of mass GPU failutres [Ars Technica]

1

Joel Johnson

Nintendo MotionPlus adds gyroscope to Wiimote, extra cost to the full Wii experience

Above, awkward Nintendo executives (including heartthrob Bill Trinen) show off the capabilities of the new MotionPlus-enabled Wiimote in the upcoming game Wii Sports Resort.

The new "MotionPlus" addition to the Wii will allow real 1:1 3D control, facilitating the long-awaited sword fighting games and other pseudo-virtual reality interfaces everyone had hoped the Wii could do in the first place. Kotaku grabbed the press release from InvenSense, the company who is making the guts of the new gyroscopic add-on.
Conventional MEMS gyroscopes, which are the key enabling technology that can sense absolute rotational motion inputs, are typically used in commercial automotive electronic stability control and GPS applications, where their larger size, high power consumption and costs are accommodated. InvenSense has introduced an entirely new class of high performance silicon-based MEMS rate gyroscopes that offers smaller package sizes, lower power consumption, and lower price points suitable for consumer markets. The addition of InvenSense’s multi-axis rate gyroscope solution to the Wii MotionPlus accessory allows high precision 3D tracking of rapid gaming gestures.
But the Wii was already suffering from the most expensive controllers of any current game platform — $60 for a Wiimote and nunchuck — and even with Gizmodo's modest estimation of an additional $15 per MotionPlus sensor (there's going to be one bundled in the upcoming Wii Sports Resort game), the Wii will now likely be the most expensive console on the market once you factor the price of all the peripherals for four players.

A kidney punch of fun to be sure, but I'll be there in line (a week after launch) like everyone else. If for no other reason, I want to see what IOSpirit can do with the MotionPlus controller in Remote Buddy, the OS X control interface that already works with the standard Wiimote.

And actually, now that I think about it, I only have two Wiimotes. It would be nice if Nintendo would simply release a "Wiimote Plus" that has the new gyroscopes built in.

6

Rob Beschizza

Croissant wrist rest is inedible, sources say

Another fine product from the Crapvendor Augustus, Brando. Includes "bread-smell." Yours for $6.

Product Page [Brando via Gearlog]

4

Joel Johnson

Samsung TL9 camera has analog gauges

Samsung's new TL9 point-and-shoot camera replaces the standard digital meters that show battery life and flash memory storage space with two pleasingly analog gauges. I hope this starts a trend!

Samsung fleshes out new digicam line with TL9, SL310W and SL201 [Engadget.com via Music Thing]

12

Rob Beschizza

M-16 nail gun

DeWalt's lineup of quality powertools just got some shock and awe with this brand-colored M16 "nail gun," the spectacular creation of David Wiggins.

I’d just picked up a new (to me) M-16 and was in the process of fixing it up a little. It needed new furniture anyway, so I sourced the safety yellow stock, guard, and grip. Then, I went down to the DeWalt factory service place a few miles from the house to get a sticker. There, I saw they had brand new battery casings, so I picked up one of those too. I got home, found a short magazine , and got to work

The battery-cum-magazine is lovely:

Here's an alternative offered by a commenter at its Toolmonger thread:

DeWalt-16 [Toolmonger via LikeCool and Ubergizmo]

35

Rob Beschizza

Make music on PlayStation Portable with PSPSeq 3

The third edition of PSPSeq, a fully-featured homebrew sequencer app with 16 audio tracks, is now available. You can use your own samples (in WAV format) or use a selection of softsynths to put together your choons. Hack a Day interviewed creator Ethan Bordeaux, who says the inspiration came from an attempt to write procedural music:

myself and some friends designed custom DSP hardware to create autonomous generative music (the project was called Chiclet). I created the synthesis engine running on the DSP. I learned a lot from the project but wanted to make a tool that could contain some of my synthesis and sequencing ideas but in a more user friendly package ... I also considered using the GP2X however the PSP has a lot more horsepower and a larger installed base.

Listen to Keira, a track made on the new edition. Anyone out there remember the days of MED on the Commodore Amiga?

PSPSeq 3.0, PSP sequencer release and interview [HaD]
Product Page [Dspmusic]

4

Rob Beschizza

AT&T: activation woes not our fault

AT&T is blaming iTunes for the problems experienced by iPhone buyers over the weekend, with spokesman Mark Siegel identifying the weakest link in an interview with CIO. com. The software was simply overwhelmed by demand, writes Thomas Wailgum:

It appears that the digital supply chain side of Apple's house was unable to withstand the barrage of activation demands (through the iTunes site) that stormed in from 21 countries. Many frustrated customers had to wait varying lengths of time on Friday to get their new iPhones up and running. "The iTunes software appeared to have been so overwhelmed by demand today that customers were not able to go through that final stage and sync their iPhones," said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. (So far, Apple has not commented on the problems and did not return a message from CIO to talk about its supply chain.)

He goes on to look at "digital supply chains" and what the Apple activation failboat means for them.

How Did Apple's Supply Chain Fare During the iPhone 3G Rollout? [CIO via TUAW]

3

Joel Johnson

Singgih Kartono's Magno (medium) wooden radio available for pre-order

Singgih Kartono's latest wooden radio, the Magno, is available for pre-order from Areaware for $250. Tuning for the radio station by dialing in coordinates is adorable.

The ad copy for both Magno (medium) and the Magno (small) indicates they have "the most current mp3 player compatible electronics," which as far as I can determine means they have a line-in so you could hook up your iPod.

Product Page [Areaware.com via Apartment Therapy]

Previously • Wooden Radio from Scrap Ebony
• Do Kids Still Play with Wooden Toys?

2

Rob Beschizza

New lightweight 13.3 convertible tablets from Fujitsu

Fujitsu's Lifebook T1010 tablet PC and T5010 both have 13.3" displays. They're both lightweight, too, leaving 5lb-ish craters wherever they may land.

While the $1,800 T5010 is a business box aimed at security-minded types — "remote management on a chip" and all that — and those wanting an LED-backlit display, dual-layer DVD burning and a "penabled" stylus display, the T1010 has a sexier glossy silver finish, standard LCD, a touchscreen, and a friendlier $1,100 tag. They'll be available next month.

Press Release [Fujitsu]

3

Joel Johnson

A gallery of unusual alarms

Oobject's gallery of strange burglar alarms is frightening, if only because so many of the older models seem to involve guns. So instead of clockwork muskets that honked your face off with iron shot and sent your tympanic membrane flapping like a loose sail, let's excerpt a more refined alarm: this clockwork doorstop from the 1870s which, if forced, would emit a clarion chime.

"Sir, set sand to your inkworks" it warned, "you are but a moment from the shillelagh."

top 10 unusual burglar alarms [Oobject]

0

Rob Beschizza

Celia Redfly goes where Palm Foleo dared not tread

Pocketnow unboxes Celio's Redfly, a device that acts as a mobile companion to your "small and nimble" Windows mobile device. It is, essentially, a Palm Foleo. Except it isn't.

If it were a cheap subnote, it'd be fodder for a lot more attention: it weighs only 2 pounds, has a plain but minimal look to it, two USB ports and VGA out. It's 9 inches long, has an 800x480 8" screen and an 80-key keyboard, and a claimed 8 hour battery life. But that's it.

A cheap price and 8 hour battery life with almost *any* modern PC functionality is almost a guaranteed sale with me. Unfortunately, it has no OS, no CPU (but I bet it does, really), and no storage — no wonder it has great battery life! It's literally a dumb terminal for a cellphone. For $500.

via Engadget.

0

Rob Beschizza

Dumbell novelty alarm clock

Shape Up is one of those gimmicky alarm clocks that requires that the target execute an unreasonably complicated action. In this case, you have to do 30 reps — I'll bet a dollar that shaking it works — to make it shut up.

Product Page [WF via Gadget Lab]

0

Joel Johnson

'Snack & Stack' utensils for a LEGO luncheon

This silicone "Snack & Stack" cutlery set is the perfect pack-in for a bag lunch, as illustrated by the official product picture of the LEGO-like utensils. There is nothing kids like more than to eat bananas with a knife and spoon.

No price, for it is not yet on sale.

(If you really want your kid to impress his lunchtime pals, spring for a titanium spork.)

snack and stack cutlery is extremely lego-like [Technabob.com]

2

Joel Johnson

BBtv: Joel talks to Syd Mead pt. 2

You can literally seem me squirm with girlish excitement. I'm surprised I didn't do a little clap at the end.

Permalink and comments [TV.BoingBoing.net]

John Brownlee

Erectible bendy straw construction set for milkshake drainage

"Drainnnnnage! Drainage, you boy. Drain dried, I'm so sorry. Hey! If you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw — there it is, that's the straw — my straw reaches ACROSS the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I. Drink. Your. MILKSHAKE! *slurrrrrrrrrp* I drink it all up!"

And from designers Frank Frisari and John McCoy, the ultimate constructible straw set... perfect for draining many milkshakes simultaneously, no matter where they might be, from any room in the house. Only $14.95. As endorsed by Daniel Plainview.

Constructible Drinking Straw [MOMA via Technabob via Cooking Gadgets]

11

Joel Johnson

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

• iPod Touch – Apple has dropped the prices of their refurbished iPod Touch players: $200 for 8GB; $300 for $16GB; $430 for 32GB. [Dealnews]

• Backpack – After a $15 mail-in rebate this Belkin 15-inch laptop backpack can be had for $18, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Solar Charger – Generic solar charger with battery starting at $21, shipped. (Bigger batteries cost more.) [Dealnews]

• Runner's GPS – The Garmin Forerunner 205 personal GPS for $143, shipped. About $50 off. [Dealnews]

• DVD Player – Today's Woot!is the popular Oppo 1080p up-converting DVD player with HDMI for $105, shipped.

0

John Brownlee

Amazon to release two new Kindles by the end of the year?

Crunchgear has posted an intriguing insider rumor on what we might expect from Amazon in the Kindle 2.0, which their source says we should see by October.

According to their source, two new versions of the Kindle will hit Amazon.com by the end of the year. The first will come out in October, which maintains the dimensional blueprint of the screen but shrinks down the chassis and improves the interface. They say it is like going from a first-gen iPod to an iPod Mini. This rumor seems plausible enough. The second is more dicey: a considerably bigger Kindle, 8.5 by 11.5 inches. What? Both will sell in multiple colors.

A design refresh on the Kindle couldn't hurt — as wonderful as it (mostly) is to use, the Kindle's never exactly been sexy, and even some color choices could help that — but where Amazon really needs to improve the Kindle is on the price. If ebooks are ever going to get any real penetration, ebook readers need to be no-brainer buys: under 100 bucks.

It would also be nice for Amazon to finally start rolling Kindles out worldwide. The obstacle's obviously dealing with the cell carriers to get always-on EVDO access, but the Kindle's been out for almost a year now: surely, a deal can be hammered out in Canada and most of Europe. I'd surely pick one up if it came out in Germany... thus neutering my own complaints about price with one savage flick of the castrati knife of consumerist hypocrisy!

Kindle 2.0 Coming Around October 2008 [Crunchgear]

0

John Brownlee

Arrested network admin holds SF city FiberWAN network hostage

An inexplicably motivated San Francisco city computer engineer is in the middle of a bizarre Thermopylaean stand-off against city officials, with his total and complete control of the city's FiberWAN network as his own personal Hot Gates.

According to the SF Gate, Terry Childs — a 43 year old network admin who lives in Pittsburg — created a password that gave him exclusive and total control to the FiberWAN system, which records such data as official city emails, payroll files and law enforcement documents. Childs apparently put together his ace-in-the-hole after he was disciplined a few months ago for poor performance, and was almost fired.

Once suspicion started to mount against Childs, the police were called in and he was asked for the master password. He gave them several dummy codes, then flat-out refused to give police the real one, prompting his arrest. He's facing four felony charges and a $1 million bond.

His motives are inscrutable. City officials are worried that he's going to somehow send the password to a co-conspirator, who will then go on a massive purging sweep of the FiberWAN network, deleting hundreds of thousands of incriminating files and bringing the network to its knees. But except for his own hubris, Childs seems like he has everything to lose by not giving back the password: as a deterrent from being fired, it seems like the scheme has epically failed.

Are we looking at one middle-aged network admin's own personal, Dr. Strangelove-esque Doomsday Device? If so, awesome

S.F. officials locked out of computer network [SF Gate]

14

John Brownlee

Apple I Basic plucked from vintage cassette tape, turned into MP3

They very first piece of commercial Apple software — a primordial flavor of BASIC originally released in 1976 that took thirty seconds to load — has been perfectly and authoritatively extracted from a yellowing audio tape and converted into a 38 second MP3, playable in iTunes. Plucky, hyper-intelligent beardos are now dissecting the file and learning its secrets, but their findings are a bit above my head. You can read them in full at the link below. All I feel worthy of commenting upon is the song itself, which is rather catchy — a Music to Make Love To Your Old Lady By as interpreted by antediluvian 70s cyborgs.

1200 Baud Archeology: Reconstructing Apple BASIC from a Cassette Tape [Pagetable via Crunchgear]

19

John Brownlee

Buy the typewriter on which Douglas Adams wrote Hitchhiker's Guide for $25,257.94

There's something so appropriately surreal and disarming about seeing a literary cultural artifact like the autographed typewriter Douglas Adams used to write The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on a book reseller website and sitting right next to a huge red "Add to Basket" button. But there it is, the original Babelfish that translated Adams' own genius-madness into transmissionable form!

N.V. Books in Great Wolford, Warwickshire is selling Adams' vintage Hermes Standard 8 typewriter for a cool $25,257.94. Or, rather, they are selling a first-edition copy of Hitchhiker's Guide in "fine" condition and generously throwing in the typewriter as extra.

With strange significance, the x key is particularly discolored and worn, which I hope will prompt someone to do a statistical breakdown of the frequency of letter x's in Adams' oeuvre. Also, for authenticity, an "End Apartheid" sticker is slapped on the side, identifying it with almost carbon-dated efficiency as a relic of the late 70s and 80s.

What a beaut. I hope, if someone buys it, it comes loaded with a single sheet of Eaton's Corrosable Bond on which has been roughly typed, "So long, and thanks for all the dough."

The Hitch Hiker's Typewriter for Sale [AbeBooks via Steampunk Workshop]

16

John Brownlee

Russian steampunk ("stimpank!") mouse

Fished from the bottom of a plastic tub of peripherals, a crappy Genius brand mouse is converted to brassy steampunk objet d'art by Russian modders. Don't look for ergonomics here: that mouse would only rest comfortably in the coppery pincer of Tock. Extra points for this picture of a malevolently brooding cat and the forum thread title: "Stimpank mouse = traffic!"

Steampunk Mouse [Modding.ru via MAKE]

3

Charles Shopsin

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Recently on Modern Mechanix we looked at the Heli-Vector, which had everyone asking "Will he blend?", Time Magazine's 1956 round up of the state of factory Automation, a bicycle powered hair salon, a man who claims to own outer space, a UCLA lab where they put people in ovens at over 260° F just to see what happens, an unintentionally ironic Lucky Strikes ad, a bank teller's cage with fourteen ways to foil robbers and a rather bizzare family bicycle/sewing machine.

Also, we learned how to roast weinies when all you have is wood, nails and an outlet, the origins of NASCAR and how to build a pedal powered airplane swing for your back yard. Plus, the birth of the ethanol lobby.

3

Joel Johnson

Tell me about home automation platforms

Having moved into this big multi-story house with my friends, I'm toying with the idea of setting up some home automation stuff to tinker with. Here are my goals:

• RFID dongles to track resident and canine movement
• Video cameras, recording, and streaming to the internet
• Room-to-room videoconferencing
• Snazzy™ Interface
• Other general HA stuff like HVAC control, lights (although I really don't care to retrofit all that stuff)

I've been looking around at different platforms but things seem like they're either partially baked open source projects or really high-end commercial systems that can't be hacked and extended. Am I missing a really robust platform for this sort of thing? Preferably one that runs on OS X or Linux?

29

John Brownlee

Official Fallout 3 trailer

Crunchgear was kind enough to post up the official E3 trailer for Bethesda Software's upcoming retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic sequel, Fallout 3. The opening live-action, 50s-style educational film strip is just a bit too wink-wink for its own good (if Fallout 1 showed us anything, it is that there is great emotional punch to playing the tropes of the era straight), but the end portions show the open-world Mad Max game I've waited my whole life to play.

18

John Brownlee

Optimus Tactus touchscreen keyboard concept art.... now featuring lesbian lolitas

Art Lebedev, makers of the Optimus Keyboard, are now trying to drum up interest for their physically keyless touchscreen concept, the Optimus Tactus. How? By showcasing a passionate tongue-slurping session between world famous Russian catholic school girl nymphets, t.A.T.u... right on the keyboard's concept art itself! Specifically, it's a scene from the video of t.A.T.u's international breakout hit, "Ya Shosla S Uma", released in the States as "All The Things She Said."

Lesbian Lolita porn? On my keyboard? A lone fist is pumped triumphantly at a lightning-streaked sky. When's Think Geek going to start selling these already?

Optimus Tactus [Art Lebedev via Gearfuse]

14

John Brownlee

Apple finally — FINALLY — sues Psystar

No surprise here: Apple just sued Psystar, makers of bargain-basement Mac clones. The lawsuit's charges are predictable: violation of Apple's shrink wrap license and trademark / copyright infringement.

The timing of the lawsuit's interesting: it appears that Apple was waiting for Psystar to distribute a hacked version of Apple's own 10.5.2 update to their customers.

That Psystar will be punched so hard by Apple's lawyers that Psystar's whole family will die is certain. But you have to wonder what Psystar's game plan is. Surely they saw this coming. Surely they were planning on being sued. So what was the overarching scheme?

I imagine a dummy corporation daring Apple to sue them in order to challenge software copyright law in a massively public, high-profile show case. A secret reserve of crackerjack copyright attorneys, waiting to be turned loose from the belly of Psystar's Trojan Horse. But that's just far too exciting to be true. The answer will probably be far less interesting: indiscriminate "wokka wokka" style corporate buffoonery.

Apple finally sues Psystar [Ars Technica]

8

Rob Beschizza

Strange singing wires lash downtown city square

Described as an interactive music installation, Grisha Coleman's Reach, Robot comprises dozens of blue lines strung over PPG Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh. Continually sensing the movement of passers-by, the network is hooked up to a sound system concealed in the plaza's central obelisk.

At a level just subtle enough to register, ambient chimes murmur beneath the hubbub of one of America's busiest town squares.

Here's a short clip of the audio, and Coleman explaining the work...

The thought crossed my mind that when the robots rise, they could take out hundreds of meat units simply by lowering these cables a couple of feet and suddenly pulling them taut across the plaza. ShishifwiwiwiwishIINGGGGG. Splutchsplutchlutch.

9

Rob Beschizza

Mechanical crickets rule mysterious garden

Outside the Mattress Factory art gallery in Pittsburgh, a ruined yard resembles a locale from Ico's sun-washed and abandoned castle. Normally, the space is silent save for water trickling down a stone gulley that