What Are The Most Stylish Laptops And Ultrabooks?
Laptop Buying Guide 2012: How To Find The Right Laptop For You
Spotify Finally Makes Its Australian Debut
Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time
HTC One XL Review: The Best Is Getting Better
The Lies Everyone Tells On Dating Sites
Engadget’s got a new column called Crapgadget meant to take the piss out of goofy electronics, but I think the examples they’ve picked are gadget-weirdness at its finest and deserve some defense. There’s something inherently entertaining about a USB Microphone disguised as a rose, a rechargeable speaker cube the size of a golf ball; they’re original, test new boundaries in gadget usage, and they’re the epitome of the softer side of usually sterile technology. Plus, like a building block, they take creativity to use. That Rose would be a great gag in a singing video podcast, and that speaker could end up dangling from an iPod Shuffle as a little boombox. Maybe I’m wrong, but you know, like double-oh-negative, I’m just Goony like that. [Rose Mic USB Cube via Engadget]
It’s getting harder and harder to justify paying the price of a car on a home theatre projector when companies like Sony are releasing incredible projectors at budget prices, but we’d certainly take Manatz’s unpriced but high end VP-11S2 1080p DLP projector if it showed up on our doorstep. The first projector on the market to feature Texas Instrument’s DarkChip4 chipset, the unit’s paper specs—800 lumens and 12,000:1 contrast ratio—probably do the image no justice. I mean, the freakin’ color wheel spins at 10,800 RPM in near silence. If that doesn’t get your motor running, I don’t know what will. [marketnews via aboutprojectors]
We had a plan. After years of bitching and moaning about crappy, stock Apple earbuds, we were going to put Apple in their place, and once and for all, prove what a lousy product they were packaging with their iPods—the one kink in their plan of global music player dominance. Obviously, the stock earphones in the iPod would get destroyed versus more expensive competitors like those from Shure, Ultimate Ears or V-Moda. So we ordered a bunch of earbud-style headphones all under $US20 for “testing”. We use those quotes because we really meant “slaughter”. Who would have thought that the disrespected Apple earbuds would hold their own?
We previously told you guys about two new SLRs Pentax were rumoured to be readying. Well, it looks like images of the K200D have hit the old interweb, and although we have no new word on confirmed spec—the original rumour suggested a 10MP Sony Sensor, PRIME 12-bit image processor and a 3-inch LCD—the images look solid. Either that or someone has some super sexy PS skills. However, we are guessing this is the real deal, click through the gallery to see why. [Photography Bay]
When Amtek are not taking the piss out of Gizmodo writers, they are usually busy cranking out tempting UMPCs. Their latest effort, the iTablet T221, packs in some great features, including a 12.1-inch LCD touchscreen (1024 x 768), Intel Core Duo (1.2Ghz), GMA 950 graphic chipset, 60GB HDD, 2GB RAM and supports 802.11a/b/g wireless networks.
The UMPC will run Windows Vista, but there is no pricing or shipping information at present. Naturally, we would be excited, but our morbid obesity is so severe, we can no longer sense our emotions. Yeah Amtek, we know we are fat, but even we have feelings, you know. We’ll go drown our sorrows in a high sugar content soda. [Aving via Mobilewhack]
The SegaToys Brain Checker is a handheld game that allows you to get your gray matter flexing. Given the Japanese content of the source, we are not too sure what the Brain Checker will actually involve, but derivations of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Age games are to be expected. From the screenshots available, the game will involve picture and number based puzzles on a pocket sized LCD screen, which will attempt to get your prefrontal cortex all hot and sweaty.
newVideoPlayer("wiihack_gizmodo.flv", 475, 376); Yesterday we told you about some hardware enthusiasts at the Annual Chaos Communication Congress who announced that they were able to hack the Nintendo Wii using a custom serial interface. Their development will allow for all sorts of fun software, since Wii hacks up to this point haven’t been able to fully utilize Wii hardware, instead settling for watered down Gamecube-specific solutions like Gamecube Linux. Here’s a clip of the announcement from 24C3. Watch the whole thing if your a techie, or just skip to the end for the money shot. [youtube via wiinintendo]
David Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants is—we believe—the first to reach an agreement with the Writers Guild of America for internet royalties. Since The Late Show and The Late Late Show are owned, not by CBS but Letterman’s own company, the show was able to circumvent CBS negotiations altogether and settle with the WGA without setting major broadcast-wide precedents.
Every once in a while when you study those weekly sales charts out of Japan you catch something interesting. And that happened when last week’s numbers came out: the Nintendo DS has overtaken the PS2 in lifetime console sales in Japan.
But when Nintendo sells over 200,000 portable units a week in one country alone, it’s hard to believe that their DSs have not yet assembled into a giant, gajillion-screened monster with a vicious stylus attack that would stop even the likes of Ultraman. Outsell the PS2 in Japan? That’s just another day at the office when you have nuclear laser attacks in the brain. [mediacreate via kotaku] PS, we know that picture is a PSP, not a PS2. But we love the picture and rarely get a chance to dust it off.
A nice pair of reminders that much of what you see at CES is indulgent geek fantasy that might not ever street: The monster 108-inch LCD Sharp showed off at CES 2007—promised to be available this year to customers—is MIA, leading rich people to look for other obscene entertainment options to plow too much money into.
