If you’re going to be walking around in a thunderstorm, it might not be a good idea to be wearing an iPod. A 39-year-old dentist from Vancouver had a shocking experience while he was out jogging and listening to his iPod. Lightning struck a tree next to him, and then jumped over to him, throwing him 8 feet and resulting in second degree burns on his chest and left leg. There were also a couple of burns exactly where his iPod wires led up his torso, along either side of his neck and face and then into his ears. Did he live to tell the tale? More »
Here’s a free way to control your PC from an iPhone, thanks to Nate True at cre.ations.net. Using TightVNC, software that lets you remotely control your PC desktop (sorry, it’s not Mac-friendly yet), he’s made a couple of simple changes that let you use the iPhone’s touchscreen interface to control your PC from afar. Here’s how it works: More »
In a breaking development for the cellphone industry, US Rep. Edward J. Markey announced yesterday that the iPhone will become an “expensive paperweight” even if you pay the $175 early termination fee to AT&T. Markey, whose top contributor for the 2004 election in the cellphone carrier business was Sprint (AT&T is also listed), has his knickers in a twist for something that every carrier has been doing for years with all locked phones, exclusive or not.
Further showing his outstanding cellphone know-how, he said the iPhone was like a “Hotel California service. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave—you’re stuck with your iPhone and you can’t take it anywhere.” According to completely unreliable and probably drunk sources, Rep. Markey, is getting ready to announce to the world that water freezes at zero degrees celsius soon. [Boston Herald] More »
Following up on the creepy Baby Hands Hands soap, here’s the Grope On a Rope, a hand soap with an attached rope for the shower. You can actually buy it for $15, but really, somebody has to tell them that for serious shower groping the last thing you need is an extended hand. [Product page] More »
What’s long, white, wiry and fluffy and has a bit of hardware stuck on the end? A tail cam, of course. Available in Japan from Angel Kitty (they are the hot freekz who brought us the French Maid Keyboard) it will cost you $146, but I think that’s a bit expensive, so, after the jump, I’ll tell you how to make your own. More »
Sofmap’s Digital Olive is a kitsch, cutesy MP3 player with removable speakers. Available in Japan from July 24 the battery-run music box comes in four shades and will set you back $50. This what there is – and isn’t…
First of all, there is no built-in memory, just a USB port and an SD card slot. However, you can connect it up to your existing player and run it as a speaker system. It runs both on batteries and off the mains and, once charged, should give you seven hours’ continuous play. There’s a liquid crystal display on the Digital Olive’s main body with a two-color LED, and the whole unit weighs in at 275 grams. More »
An eggcup-like device with bionic legs attached to it has been developed by doctors for a man who was chopped in half by a truck in 1995. The accident left Peng Shulin bedridden for over a decade, but thanks to doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Center in Beijing, the 2’6″ fighter is back on his feet again. More »
Just in time for the return of Harry Potter, Logitech lands its own magic wand, the MX Air mouse. It responds to the Freespace motion control technology when held aloft, especially when aimed at a Media Center PC or other “10-foot” PC application. Gesture controls are included: in a music app, a nudge to the left will turn down volume, a circle to the right will skip to the next track. On the desk, tracks movement via laser like other Logitech rechargeable mice, but it’s missing a scroll wheel. In place of that is—yup, you guessed it—a touch-sensitive scroll panel. galleryPost('LogitechMXAir', 4, 'Logitech MXAir'); More »
These Roller Lights are the equivalent of strap-on wheelies for the disco generation – provided you don’t weigh more than 176 lb. , the two-wheeled toys attach to your shoes and flash away with their three color lights.
Tempting as it would be to announce the birth of the Gizmodo Roller Lights team, I don’t think it will happen*. But since these things are reminiscent of Heelys, those strange trainers-with-casters that make ver yoof of today look like they’re gliding along (as well as making them forget how to walk), and, at around $25, cost a third of the price, they are an alternative. Plus, you can borrow them when he’s at school and you’re late for work.
*If anyone is interested, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Giz tee-shirts, yellow banana hammocks, plus the all important protective gear – I can see us now on America’s Got Talent. More »
Perhaps Gateway is not the PC powerhouse it once was, but its two new laptop lines, the M-Series and T-Series, show that it still has some fight in it. Make no mistake, these machines are HD savvy. They have HDMI outputs, optional discrete ATI graphics, your choice of Blu-ray or HD DVD optical drives and wireless N connectivity. The 15.4″ flagship M-Series, shown in the gallery below, features a 1920 x 1200 screen resolution for true 1080p display. (The similarly styled T-Series comes with a lower-resolution 14.1″ screen, but is in most other ways identical.) The first of them is due to ship later this month in slate grey, pacific blue or crimson red, starting at prices as low as $899. Jump for the detailed press release. galleryPost('GatewayMSeries', 8, 'Gateway M-Series');
