Monday, April 30, 2007
Twilight Umbrella Lights the Way Between the Raindrops
11:45PM Seamus Byrne | The next time you’re out walking on a dark and rainy night, whip out this Twilight Umbrella and brighten the night with fiber optic lights. You can choose the black umbrella with dozens of little blue fiber optic points of light, or another model that cycles between a variety of colors, instantly attracting the attention of muggers and ne’er-do-wells. On the other hand, making yourself more visible at night in the rain might just keep some errant driver from running you over. Your personal safety and flamboyant nature can be celebrated with just three AAA batteries and around $40. – Charlie White Product Page [ I Want One of Those, via ubergizmo] More »
Orient Express Of The Air: Luxury Stateroom at 35,000 Feet Costs Less Than First Class
11:30PM Seamus Byrne | Jet Airways has decided to turn its flights from London to Delhi into an airborne Orient Express, giving well-heeled travelers their own private luxury stateroom for the nine hour flight. The best news is, it’s $2393 cheaper than a first-class ticket on British Airways. Still, it’ll cost you $4510 for the privilege of hanging out in this 26-square-foot bedroom with sliding doors, but then you get to stretch out on a 7-foot bed, the longest commercial airline bed in the world. What else do you get? galleryPost('luxoplane', 4, 'Private Cabin'); More »
Brionvega Alpha TV is more Future Classic than Retro-Chic
10:35PM Seamus Byrne | Brionvega has been making TVs for over 60 years now and some of its retro models are still available, albeit on the expensive side. The Italian company has just come out with the Alpha TV - which is still at the concept phase, so no prices, sorry - with a smidgen of retro styling (most of which is in the shiny remote control that is chunkier than Burt Reynold’s moustache was - mmmmmm, dreamy) but which, on the whole, is very forward-looking. The Brionvega was designed by V12 design, is available in orange, black and silver, has a built-in DVD player and comes in orange, black and silver. Although they say it’s still just a concept (maaaaaaan), there are hopes that the thing will go on sale around September time. There’s a couple more pics after the jump. More »
Big Brother Nerd solves opening week conundrum
10:29PM Seamus Byrne | Nerd housemate, Jamie, in the latest edition of Big Brother put his leet nerd skillz to work, uncovering the hidden house couple by spotting what only a geek could. When he entered the house as a self-professed ‘nerd’, he was showing all the usual negative traits—overweight, socially awkward… so it was a positive leap when he used some geek-powered investigation skills to uncover the hidden pair. How did he do it? More »
NeuroSky Gamer Headset Reads Brain Waves
10:03PM Seamus Byrne | A US company has come up with a headset that reads your brainwaves - and they plan on marketing it to gamers. NeuroSky’s prototype measures a person’s baseline brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety. So, if you’re playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour and you lose concentration, you could find your shot buried in the rough if you fail to keep your Zen-like concentration. The company has already developed a version based on Star Wars. Don the Darth Vader helmet, which contains a sensor that reads the brain’s signals and, if you concentrate, your light saber remains illuminated. Start thinking about your girlfriend dressed as Princess Leia, with Danish Pastries over her - oops - and you lose the force, Luke. The headset is expected to go into production later this year and could cost as little as $20. – Ad Dugdale [Yahoo via The Raw Feed] More »
Samsung Starts 16Gb Flash NAND Mass Production
9:18PM Seamus Byrne | The giganormous industrial machine and secret inter-dimensional empire, also known as Samsung, has started mass producing 16Gb chips. These are the biggest flash NAND memories ever, just in time to feed that Godzilla monster that lives in Cupertino. According to Samsung, the 51-nanometer wonder supports 30MB/s transfer rates and 4-bit error-correcting code. They will offer software to support its new 4KB page structure and they believe that “demand for 16Gb NAND flash memory is expected to grow rapidly, pushing this new chip into the mainstream market beginning late this year”. After consulting my Kabbalah for Dummies book and my Frosties’ Secret Code Wheel, I believe the secret message there is that we will see a solid-state iPhone-like iPod at MacWorld San Francisco 2008. However, read the complete press release after the jump for your own head-hurts-post-party-weekend-aw-shaddap interpretation. More »
Superslim G4 Optical Mouse folds up into a PCMCIA card
9:11PM Seamus Byrne | This offering from KJ Global makes last year’s slim mouse from Samsung look somewhat elephantine (although I’ll admit that the Samsung one is cuter). The G4 model from KJ Global is just 5mm thick and, when folded, measures 94 by 53 mm. When unfolded, it looks a bit weird, rather like something you’ve just made from origami during a slow work day, but it gives you two buttons and a touch wheel in 10 seconds flat. You can wind the cable inside for storage and it comes in blue, ivory, pink and silver. As for cost, I haven’t got a clue. – Ad Dugdale Product Page [KJGlobal via PC Launches] More »
Fetch Me My Hello Kitty Shotgun, Dolores: Hello Kitty Keyboard
8:36PM Seamus Byrne | I think this one is aimed at only the most hardcore geeks around. In a beautiful shade that can only be described as Pepto Bismol Puke, the Hello Kitty keyboard will bring hours of happiness to your working day. It’s got quick-start buttons for email, Internet and multi-media access, a sleep and wake-up button and color-coded keys to help you learn to type. All this, plus a wrist rest, will set you back $35. Oh, and you can roll it up - after you’ve taken a hammer to it, that is. – Ad Dugdale Product Page [eBay via Shiny Shiny] More »
Giz .au editor wins Best Consumer Tech Journo title
2:30PM Seamus Byrne | At the Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, held Friday night, and up against a field of stellar Australian tech journalists, our illustrious Gizmodo Australia Editor, Seamus Byrne, took out the award for Best Consumer Technology Journalist of 2006.
Stealing the words of the great Ash, Seamus says:
I don’t like to toot my own horn, but… “Toot! Toot!”
Toot Toot indeed!
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CeBIT sneak peek: Netcomm’s NB12WD
12:09PM Seamus Byrne | Got a great tip-off from Netcomm on their update to the orgasmic NB9W ADSL2/2+ router. It’s won badges from PC Authority, CNET, APC, PC User, NetGuide, and PC Powerplay. Man, maybe we need to come up with a badge to splash around the place.
The NB12WD adds support for DECT handsets to the already long list of supported features—WLAN, VoIP w/ QoS support, 4-port Ethernet, etc. So you’ll be able to run all your home phones through this without plugging in lots of phone hubs and things. It does all the hard work so you just need the cordless handsets.
I use one of the NB9W units myself, and it is great. Adding DECT handsets into the mix sounds like a very nice feature update to me. They haven’t mentioned if they’ve added Gigabit Ethernet support, but you’d think they’d say if they were.
More cool stuff on their list of new kit, including standa-alone Skype / DECT phones, and the 200Mbps update to their powerline networking Homeplug. We’ll check it all out when we hit their stand. -Seamus Byrne
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