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Pogue’s back from vacation, and this week, he’s taking a look at high def hard drive camcorders (or, HDHD camcorders), marveling at the gadgets that giving your boring home videos the same picture pizazz as professional HD content. In his words, the picture is “sharp enough to slice a tomato.” And your goofy dad will never tape over old content ever again because he accidentally hit rewind bfore hitting record.
He tests the recently announced HDR-SR7 and the JVC Everio GZ-HD7, ultimately preferring the Sony’s more stabilized shot, better battery life, and more grainy but detailed low light picture. The Everio’s 3 chips, one for red, green, and blue, didn’t do a damn thing for visual quality.
What’s cool is that both cameras can get HD content onto standard def DVDs (even though you can’t play them back in most DVD players). The Sony solution works on Sony Blu-ray players and the PS3. JVC has a proprietary burner that only plays back the JVC discs in HD, for $400. Sounds like a pain in the ass.
Pogue also has a list of his favorite gadgets posted on his blog. Worth a read.
Video review of the cameras, post jump.
These two pieces of clothing have magical properties thanks to nanotechnology: apparently they can help prevent the flu, protect against smog, shield against pollution and attract beautiful women, who will feel an irresistible desire to hug anyone who wears them.
Never mind that this last extraordinary feature will be clearly balanced by the fact that you will be wearing a silver nanoparticle-coated gold-colored dress, with anti-bacterial and anti-stain powers. Or the fact that women may not appreciate your accurate explanation on how your palladium nanoparticle-dipped jacket gives you Deadly Gases Protection: +43.
Although this kind of material is not new, it’s “one of the first times that nanotechnology has entered the fashion world”, according to fiber science assistant professor Juan Hinestroza at Cornell University. “Fashion world” means that, if you came here looking for the hot chicks with golden spandex leggings, you will get to the right place by jumping now.
Although this new patent by Apple may not make it into Leopard, it probably means we’re going to get some new Dashboard features sometime in the near future. If you can remember back to last year’s WWDC, where the multi-desktop “Spaces” feature was demoed, you won’t be that surprised when you see where Apple’s going with this.
The patent shows a cube with Dashboard widgets on each side, being shown as the cube rotates. The cube doesn’t have to be a cube—it can be any 3D shape. This, combined with Spaces, should give the user a feeling of having much more room to maneuver than he actually has.
Other stuff revealed in the patent have to do with Dashboard organization and configuration, so you can take a look at that if you’re a big fan of widgets. Or patent drawings. – Jason Chen
It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Six hundred mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a massive 40-story tall tower out in the Andalusian countryside. Yet as eerie as it looks, this is Europe’s first commercial solar power plant being operated by a company called Solucar. The structure generates 11 Megawatts of electricity—enough power for 6,000 homes. Here’s how it works.
Inspired by a “phenomenon called gamer widowhood where men essentially abandoned their wives to play videos games,” Jenny began work on this design project. It began with a game of Pong where the paddles are controlled by two sensors in a bra (to be groped, obviously). The intimate game controllers have since further developed—the woman’s bra now has six control sensors and the man’s shorts also has six sensors to play different games. Personally, I’d be afraid of either the man or woman getting too into the game and hitting a sensor harder than should be hit. –Travis Hudson
Intimate Game Controllers [WMMNA]
Unlike the Turd Twister and Bathroom Louie, this fecal idea is pretty useful. A Quebec design student has created a concrete bench that heats by pumping water heated by warm sewage through the bench. In Montreal the sewer temperature stays at a toasty 60 degrees Fahrenheit most of the year. This bench uses pumps connected to the sewer pipe to pump water warmed by the sewage through the bench, therefore keeping your bum warm. Ironic? Yes, a little. Hit the jump to see a video explanation (don’t worry, no sewage is shown).
Here’s an unusual angle on timekeeping that tickles our techno-lust for clocks, and this one’s a twisty, affectionately known as the Tubular Time Word Clock. Its two cylindrical segments revolve around, giving you approximate times of day rather than sticking to that pesky precision to which we’ve grown so accustomed.
This is a truly odd design which looks like a pipe coming up out of your desk, but gives you a quick answer when someone asks what time it is: “Well, it’s about three,” you’ll say. We’re thinking it’s about time somebody came up with a unique clock design like this one. Too bad that uniqueness comes with a $160 price tag. – Charlie White
Product Page [Uncommon Goods, via Coolest Gadgets]
Who’d have thought that months after the release of the PlayStation 3, the book of PS3 Melee Watch would get another chapter added to it. A San Francisco man was stabbed to death Monday night when he tried to help two women who were getting their PlayStations stolen by the man they were selling it to. The women chased down the thief, reclaimed the PS3, but the helpful citizen was stabbed in the fight afterwards.
So if you’ve got a PS3 to sell, be careful where you sell it. And bring some large friends for backup. – Jason Chen
Fatal stabbing over Sony PlayStation [SFGate via 1pstart]
How long do you think it takes to clear out an Airbus A380 with 873 people on board in an emergency situation? 10 minutes? 5 minutes, perhaps? Try 77 seconds. That’s what the above video shows, an amazing feat of organized jumping and sliding that clears the entire plane out with amazing speed.
Of course, this plane is just sitting on the ground, and it isn’t on fire, on its side, or in the water, so a real crash would obviously be a tad bit different. But still, it’s somewhat comforting to know that if shit goes down the potential is there to get you out of harms way ASAP. Plus, those slides look kind of fun. –Adam Frucci
Really into DJ-ing? Pacemaker’s pocket-sized DJ lets you practice your song mixing skills on the wheels of molded plastic, all from the comfort of your own pants. The Pacemaker has a 120GB hard drive, USB 2.0 support, a touchpad, and various other DJ-ing functions (including loop-in, loop-out, re-loop, cue point search, and other things we have no idea about).
As for support, you can play back MP3, WAV, AAC, WMA, and FLAC. Not sure if this includes protected AAC from the iTunes store, however. Available this fall. Which means you can finally say there’s party in your pants and everyone’s invited—and mean it.
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– Jason Chen
Product Page [Tonium]
