Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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New Apple MacBook (Verdict: No Santa Rosa?!)
11:49PM Seamus Byrne | Here is the new Apple MacBook (whee!) with the same old design (ooh). They come complete with new Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 2.16GHz, 1GB of RAM, SuperDrive, 802.11n wireless, 200GB HD and the usual arrange of ports, with prices starting at $1,099. The 2.16 machines get 8x SuperDrives with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). Old machines topped at 2.0Ghz, with 6x drives. But no Santa Rosa, like all those PCs we saw unveiled last week. Awwww man! The update is not very impressive. Unfortunately, no sight of new MacBook Pros, LED backlit displays or solid state hard drives for now, much less of the fabled MacBook Mini. On one hand, we miss Boom style laptop launches. On the other, we’re glad to have periodic updates to Mac lineup. Before Intel, Jobs had to forge the updated Power PC chips by hand, with Woz on the cordless phone telling him how to strike his hammer just so. Ah Woz… Product page [Apple] More »
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Wii Combat Pack Supplies Imagination When You Don’t Have Any
11:40PM Seamus Byrne | Fresh out of imagination? Now you can add full realism to your Wii fighting games such as Zelda and Red Steel with this Wii Combat Pack, including a realistic-looking sword, knife and shield into which you place your Wii remote and nunchuck. Its makers insist that its foam material is perfectly safe, but we’re wondering why you can’t just supply your own make-believe weapons in your hands while you look at the screen for more inspiration. Plus, everybody else in the house will think you’re a tool. What next, a helmet, and full battle regalia? So get yourself the ability to hallucinate, or pay for it here for $19. – Charlie White galleryPost('wiipack', 4, 'Wii Combat Pack'); Product Page [Brando] More »
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F-35 Helmet Display System To Scare the Bejeezus Out of Enemies
11:08PM Seamus Byrne | This is the new helmet-mounted display system for the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. The helmet is designed to provide pilots with binocular-wide field-of-view, give night vision abilities and scare enemy pilots at first sight. It was used for the first time last April, making the F-35 the first combat plane without a cockpit-mounted heads-up display in a very long time. Beyond making the pilot look like a spooky insect (comic book nerd moment: the Morpheus helmet from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comes to mind), the F-35 HDMS is loaded with all kinds of amazing goodies, like extreme off-axis targeting and head tracking “providing the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability.” The helmet was developed by Vision Systems International, a company that has other quite weird designs that are already operational, like the DASH and the JHMCS. Technical specs and another image of the F-35 HMDS after the jump. galleryPost('vsihelmets', 6, 'vsihelmets'); More »
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Tablet PC Concept Folds Up and Doubles as Cellphone
10:58PM Seamus Byrne | Design-wise, the Flexi PDA concept may be one of the most interesting Tablet PCs I’ve seen in a while. When its unfolded, it works like a tablet and features its own QWERTY keyboard. Thanks to the handheld’s flexible screen, you can also fold it in half and use as a cellphone. The device, which was designed by Daniel Alexander, is also water-resistant, making it a nice companion for outdoorsy types who want to remain connected without being bogged down by a laptop. Overall, it’s an interesting concept that we hope manufacturers pick up on. – Louis Ramirez Product Page [via Sci-Fi Tech] More »
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Sony gets into Bed with Italian Master Craftsmen – this is the Result
9:53PM Seamus Byrne | Last month’s Salon di Mobile (note to non-Italian speakers: that’s a Furniture Fair, nothing to do with cellphones) in Milan played host to a Sony booth. The reason? The Japanese company has been working on a collaboration with a bunch of master craftsmen from Lombardy, where Sony’s design concepts were made into (beautiful) reality by these Italian furniture makers. The “piece” above is a laser-engraved coffee table with built-in projector and there are another nine in the gallery below, aimed at, say Sony, “creating a pleasant relation among human, product and space.” If you say so, sunshine. From marble-based speakers to leather-upholstered chairs with surround sound, all is here. Enjoy and think of all the big cheeses at Sony, whose homes are now probably full of these one-offs that no one will ever get a sniff at. – Ad Dugdale galleryPost('sonylombard', 10, 'sonylombard'); Sony Design Center in partnership with Master Lombard artisans: Europe [Sony Press Release] More »
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How To: Repel Sharks with Magnets
8:49PM Seamus Byrne | Here’s a cool trick Eric Stroud and and Michael Herrmann discovered: Sharks hate magnets. And the thing is, anyone who is a shark geek and a magnet geek can kind of mentally put it together. With the shark being able to sense weak currents in the water, this has GOT to feel like chewing tinfoil to Jaws. Next up: Magnets sewn into wetsuits. More »
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Why You Always Order Insurance When Shipping an HDTV
11:55AM Seamus Byrne | We know lots of you have TV shipping horror stories. Hell we do too, once we got a review TV that was packaged just like this poor TV. While it was broken, it wasn’t in nearly as bad shape as this guy. No word on if this was packaged by the same people who made the Mommy Furniture.– Ben Longo galleryPost('brokenHDTV', 4, 'Broken HDTV'); How not to ship a plasma TV [Geekologie] More »
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And the Best Ad of the Year Is: A Washing Machine Spot?
11:40AM Seamus Byrne | The best-in-show winner of the Grand Clio (Clios are like the Oscars for advertising) went to this ad for the Aqualtis washer. While it’s clever—and definitely better than Sony’s PS3 spots—I’m not sure it’s better than their paintball Bravia ads, which also got a nod. What were your favorite spots this year? Breathe a word of any Geico caveman ad and you get executed. – Matt Buchanan A dispatch from the Clio awards [Slate] More »
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Apple Bearbricks
11:35AM Seamus Byrne | Check this out. Order a Mac in Japan, get a free Bearbrick. Cool, but not quite topping my favorite Lego/Apple Mashup ever, the 1984 ad diorama in building blocks. – Brian Lam Apple Bearbrick [Plastic Bamboo] More »
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