Tuesday, May 22, 2007

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MagicMouse Puts 3D Control on Your Finger

11:42PM May 22, 2007 | Charlie White

Put this MagicMouse on your finger, and make your PC’s cursor move around as if by some miraculous force. It works with five carefully positioned ultrasonic microphones, picking up signals from the ring and judging its position in 3D space. Move your hand closer or farther away from the screen and you zoom in, or move your hand back and forth and the cursor follows it.

What team of scientists invented this thing?

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Kodak and Motorola to Debut 5MP Cameraphone

11:30PM May 22, 2007 | Louis Ramirez

Motorola has been on a mobile kick as of late and for their next project, they’ve teamed up with Kodak to use their CMOS sensor in a Motorola-Kodak cameraphone that’ll sport a 5-megapixel camera.

Not many details are known about the phone, although we do know it’ll debut just in time for the holidays. Only time will tell if it’ll be able to take on Sony Ericsson and its Cybershots (which happen to be my favourite cameraphones). – Louis Ramirez

Kodak’s CMOS Camera Will Be 5-megapixel [News.com]

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Fototron2000 Robot Artist Paints With LEDs, Spits Out Polaroids

11:04PM May 22, 2007 | Charlie White

newVideoPlayer("fotron2000_gawker.flv", 475, 376); This is not your father’s photo booth. Step into the Fototron2000 with its robot artist lurking within, and you may never look at yourself the same way again. The techno-beast’s arm has LEDs at the end of it, and while you stand there it paints you with the LED light. Then its computer artist brain extracts the brightness contours of its images and does a long exposure of these edges on Polaroid film.

The result is a wild-looking photo that you can take along with you. Check out the gallery below to see what this baby can do. – Charlie White, videography by Richard Blakeley

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Fotron2000, A robotic sketch artist/photobooth [Fototron2000]

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The Irregular Rubik’s Cube

11:00PM May 22, 2007 | Jason Chen

Going the complete opposite direction from the Idiot’s Cube, this irregular cube is a Rubik’s cube that you need to solve with both colour and shape. Called the Irregular IQ Cube, this strange geometric shape is supposed to end up like a standard Rubik’s Cube when solved, but looks like a kid’s science project when not. For only $US8.50, you too can have a cube that rolls off your table every day to remind you that you should have studied harder in school.

See it in action after the jump.

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IBM’s New CPU Hits 4.7GHz without Breaking a Sweat

10:54PM May 22, 2007 | Louis Ramirez

While Intel and AMD continue to duke it out on the CPU front, the guys at IBM have unveiled a new dual-core processor that can hit 4.7GHz without sucking up so much power. As an added “up yours” to Apple, the new processor, dubbed the Power6, was described as being fast enough to “download the entire iTunes catalog” in a single minute. The CPU will be used mainly for high-end servers. Perhaps someone at Apple right now is smacking their forehead as they yell out “doh!” – Louis Ramirez

Press Release [via AppleInsider]

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Boeing 787 LEGO-like Building Begins, Kicks Airbus Nuts

9:15PM May 22, 2007 | Jesus Diaz

Boeing has started building their new flagship: the 787 Dreamliner. The cool thing about the 787 is that it only requires them to put together six big composite parts to build the final airframe and operators don’t have to use huge tools and overhead cranes: all the parts can be slid along on the construction floor and put together like giant LEGO pieces. Check the gallery for pictures of the delivery and assembly of the sections and hit the jump for more details.

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Plane Clean Air Filter will Bring Out the OCD Sufferer in You

8:37PM May 22, 2007 | Addy Dugdale

The Plane Clean Air Filter is the kind of product that makes me think: “Yay! Great idea,” while at the same time wondering whether I am becoming a little too prissy for my own good. How prissy? And how will this gizmo help me? Find out after the (disinfected) jump.

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Sony Ericsson and KDDI Hook Up for the Walkman W52S

7:31PM May 22, 2007 | Addy Dugdale

It looks fugly when shut, but slide open the W52S and all of a sudden it doesn’t look so bad. What is bad, however, is that this phone is part of KDDI’s Au project, a series of collaborations between mobile manufacturers and designers, so don’t expect the W52S to head over from its Japanese home anytime soon. The W52S comes In three colors, Arpeggio Blue, Pizzicato Pink (No! No! NO!) and dull old Silver – admit it, the electric blue is kinda whizz-bang fabulous, isn’t it? It’s out in Japan at the end of this month. Full specs after the jump, and there’s a gallery for you to “Ooh” and “Aah” at right here.

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WD Scorpio: 250GB 2.5-inch HD for Notebooks Now Shipping

7:02PM May 22, 2007 | Addy Dugdale

Western Digital has just announced their new WD Scorpio 250GB, a Serial ATA 2.5-inch hard drive for notebooks which, at 3.94 x 2.75 x 0.354 inch, is the largest smallest shipping HD in the world. The 5400 RPM 12ms read seek time WD Scorpio uses Perpendicular Magnetic Recording and you will find all its features and price after the jump

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Highest Mobile Call Ever Made From Everest

6:31PM May 22, 2007 | Addy Dugdale

A British man has made two phone calls from the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalaya. At 8,848 metres, Rod Baber’s two conversations have gone into the record books as the highest phone call ever made (let me tell you, I’ve made some when I’ve been minging off my mong cheeks and they’re not pretty). Find out without whom, etc etc, after the crevasse.

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