Friday, May 25, 2007
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Joey the Rocker Robot, More Conscious Than Some Humans
11:35PM Seamus Byrne | Meet Joey Chaos, the rocker robot who’s the latest creation of Hanson Robotics. He was introduced at the RoboBusiness Conference and Expo earlier this month, and looks a lot like his older brother Jules we showed you before. Even though Joey has the same type of camera eyes that can track human faces and speech recognition software as his older brother, he somehow seems less human, especially when his interviewer tries a few questions other than “tell me more.” Check out another video of Joey Chaos, after the jump. More »
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Canon and Toshiba Put SEDs on Hold Again
11:30PM Seamus Byrne | Looks like Canon and Toshiba are delaying SEDs yet again. This time around they’re claiming they need more time to figure out how to mass produce the panels at an affordable price. SEDs were at one time a promising technology combining the best elements of a plasma, LCD and CRT at a cheap price, but at this rate, they’ve become a prime example of vapourware. Sorry SED, as much as we tried rooting for you, you just keep letting us down. – Louis Ramirez Toshiba, Canon Delay SED TV Debut Again [Reg Hardware] More »
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DJ4: Two-Source Mixer Has Two Big Knobs, Doesn’t Go Up to 11
9:36PM Seamus Byrne | For some reason, that headline sounds just wrong, but whatever. Here’s the Bird Electoron DJ-4, “the passive type micro mixer of power source unnecessary.” In other words: yes, it’s from Japan and yes, it’s a very simple passive mixer with two mini-stereo inputs and one output. The seller for me is the two big analog knobs: VOLUME and VOLUME. For just $70 you will be able to connect your two MP3 players and touch your own two big knobs until your audience’s ears bleed. Or they throw you into the river inside a sack full of rocks after you play the same Black Eyed Peas track for the 28th time. – Jesus Diaz Bird electron, outdated future mixer of design – Adopting the electricity guitar and the isomorphic volume knob (Thanks Google Translate!) [Impress AV Watch] More »
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Review: Smart AC 120v/USB Inverter For the Car
12:15PM Seamus Byrne | The 12-volt adapter in a car is nice for radar detectors and GPS devices, among other non-cancer-causing activities. But this inverter can use the ciggy adapter to power USB and AC stuff, up to a claimed 120 watts. galleryPost('smartac120', 3, 'Smart AC 120'); It works well, too. More »
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10:56AM Seamus Byrne | We can’t make it down to this one, but if any print and design freaks haven’t heard, today and tomorrow you can still get to PrintEx07. It’s all about the serious graphic design industry action, with a focus on – you guessed it – print.
Darling Harbour, Sydney. Ends 4pm tomorrow. -Seamus Byrne
More »
PrintEx07: Print + Design freaks gather in Sydney
10:56AM Seamus Byrne | We can’t make it down to this one, but if any print and design freaks haven’t heard, today and tomorrow you can still get to PrintEx07. It’s all about the serious graphic design industry action, with a focus on – you guessed it – print.
Darling Harbour, Sydney. Ends 4pm tomorrow. -Seamus Byrne
More »
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10:46AM Seamus Byrne | Word just to hand is that you can now get a regular dose of schadenfreude through Vodafone live!, with ninemsn launching free TV action on the network. Australia’s Funniest Home Videos is the real golden goose here – don’t we all want our fix of home grown unintentional Jackass / YouTube moments wherever we go?
For those with no sense of humour, you can watch Getaway, The Footy Show Comedians (What’s that? Some kind of stand up snippets, I guess), and the 2007 Tropfest films. Not a bad bunch of clips to kill some time in transit.
Maybe AFHV should be best left to the privacy of our homes. Is it really civil to laugh out loud in public at other people’s misfortune, even if it is only a vid on your mobile?-Seamus Byrne
More »
Groin shots ahoy on Vodafone live!
10:46AM Seamus Byrne | Word just to hand is that you can now get a regular dose of schadenfreude through Vodafone live!, with ninemsn launching free TV action on the network. Australia’s Funniest Home Videos is the real golden goose here – don’t we all want our fix of home grown unintentional Jackass / YouTube moments wherever we go?
For those with no sense of humour, you can watch Getaway, The Footy Show Comedians (What’s that? Some kind of stand up snippets, I guess), and the 2007 Tropfest films. Not a bad bunch of clips to kill some time in transit.
Maybe AFHV should be best left to the privacy of our homes. Is it really civil to laugh out loud in public at other people’s misfortune, even if it is only a vid on your mobile?-Seamus Byrne
More »
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Pedal Exerciser Creates Strong Legs and Atrophied Arms
10:43AM Seamus Byrne | Unlike the Geek-a-Cycle, this Pedal Exerciser doesn’t require you to retrofit your current desk—which is quite stylish if we do say so ourselves—into a horrible mid-80s wooden contraption. By putting it under your desk, the stationary pedal machine allows you to work out your legs while you’re working (or playing Warcraft), which gives you many times the exercise you’d normally get while just sitting there. However, it does have a weight limit of 250lbs, so you turbo fatties need to slim down a bit before grabbing one of these. – Jason Chen Product Page [SitinComfort via Lifehacker] More »
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Nokia Phones to Detect Lightning Using FM, GPS Frequencies
10:40AM Seamus Byrne | Just when you thought you had to carry around a tacky pager in order to tell when lightning’s coming, Nokia goes and files a patent to integrate lightning detection into their phones. Not at all useful to bloggers, these lightning detectors (which uses FM and GPS receivers to detect EM waves emitted from lightning) will allow storm chasers, farmers, and Travis Hudson to stay safe in the case of a lightning storm. Or when Captain Marvel is around. Seriously, that guy’s an asshole. – Jason Chen Nokia Phone will Detect Lightning [PCWorld] Image Credit More »
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Quick News: Facebook Goes 3rd Party and More
10:30AM Seamus Byrne | Social networking site, Facebook announced that it will begin to allow anyone to upload user-created applications to the site through the evolution of what they call Facebook Platform. You’ll even be able to grab revenue off of your own ad space. And speaking of user generated content, a U.S. Court ruled that websites can be held responsible for illegal or discriminating content hosted on their site. We just might have opened a big old can of worms. Best Buy has begun testing Geek Squad support centers inside of Fedex/Kinkos. This marks the first time Best Buy has shown interest in moving the company into other locations. A new lawsuit was filed against Microsoft & Wal-Mart. It Claimed that the fire that killed their baby in December 2004, was caused directly by an overheating Xbox 360. Oddly enough the fire took place a full 11 months before the 360 launched. – Ben Longo More »
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