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Walt Disney Calls BS on "Baby Einstein Melts Your Baby's Mind" Study
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 11:46 PM on August 14, 2007
Reporting scientific research in the mainstream media is generally difficult—results have to summarized and simplified for non-scientist folk, and more often than not, wind up sensationalized to make for better headlines. Walt Disney's claiming that's exactly what happened with the widely reported (and mocked) results of the Baby Einstein study. I'm not a scientist, so I'll leave it to their respective lawyers to decide who's right and who's wrong. Press release after the jump.
According to the usual suspects, now you can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. Testers say it will give you full calling, SMS and GPRS data capabilities with any network and no extra hardware needed, since it only requires you to modify the $80 blank SIM using your own iPhone.
Fujitsu just began shipping the LifeBook T2010, one of the lightest widescreen convertible laptop tablets yet, weighing just 3.52 pounds. It's put together in that same kooky form factor as its 
Logic3 has beaten everyone else to the punch with its i-Station Traveller for iPhone. Just 6.7 inches across, the system can go lengthways as well as widthways. Four-watt output, 35 mm neodymium drivers, and compatible with other media players, the i-Station Traveller costs £29.99 ($60). Another pic and press release after the jump.
Back in May there was a sighting of an interesting new phone on the FCC website. Now, a Russian cellphone retailer has passed on some more details of the Samsung F310, also called the B&O Serenata.
The Toy is a Bluetooth-enabled vibrator that converts texts from a loved one into a sequence of different vibrations. There's 45 different patterns that correspond to letters and numbers, and each text is converted into a string of these patterns - that gives you 7,200 variations to play with. It only responds to tagged messages, so there's no danger of a text from your mom scarring you for life.
Yes, we got new impressive models from Samsung. And the YP-P2 —the flash-based multimedia player these sexy cyborg ninja killers are carrying— is not bad either: glossy thin design, beautiful interface running on a big touch-screen, iPhone-style home button, music. video, radio, pictures and even Bluetooth, as you will see in the video demostration after the jump.
Nokia has announced today that 46 million of their batteries are at risk of overheating, offering to replace them free of charge. There is a chance that a short circuit could occur during charging, and apparently 100 cases have already been reported. The batteries in question were all made by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006, and are all of model number BL-5C. [
Less than two months ago, the Motorola-sponsored M-Lab opened its doors at Wannado City, a career park for kids in Florida. Once through the doors, kids are given a white coat and transformed into M-ventors to work on a complex technological problem. Designed by Gensler architects, the M-Lab has more than a touch of Kubrick's space oeuvre about its seven chambers. [
Researchers in Japan have started using 3D printers to create replacement facial bones for patients. The new bones are made of alpha-tricalcium phosphate, which we're told is strong enough for bones, as long as they're not weight-bearing. Now, my limited medical knowledge may come from watching ER, but it seems obvious to me that the doctors should be using Adamantium. [
Right now it's a bit hot for one of these, but we salute Lady Linoleum, who made this Darth Vader helmet out of eight Guinness cans and some black wool.
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Sony Ericsson's K770i Cyber-shot cellphone has been announced today: it's only 14.5 mm thick, has a 3.2-megapixel camera with Photo fix function and is expected to launch in Europe sometime in the last quarter of this year. Hopefully it will make the jump to the US soon. Full specs and press release after the jump.
Everybody's favorite Logitech gripe is, in so many words, "Screw the proprietary RF, where's my bleedin' Bluetooth mouse?" Today, in the wee hours of the morning, it seems that wish has been granted. The V470 Cordless Laser Mouse for laptops uses Bluetooth 1.2, and can run on Bluetooth-enabled computers without any proprietary RF dongle. Not only that, it's just $50, operates for up to 4 months on storebought batteries, and has an on-off switch so it doesn't try to mouse its way through your laptop bag when you're off duty. And did I mention it was a very 1970s shade of metallic blue?
Today Epson rolled out its entry level line of printers with a few surprises: the $149 CX9400Fax, a super-valued all-in-one with a truly functional fax, a fast-as-hell $90 printer called the Stylus C120, and two more multifunctions (without fax), the $70 CX7400 and the $100 CX8400.
All-in-ones are plummeting in price. I remember when you couldn't get anything decent for under $300, right about the time when fax features started vanishing, so it was crazy when Epson described the Stylus CX9400Fax—including the all-important auto document feeder for multi-page faxes—priced at $149. It's not the Claria inks that I prefer for photo printing, that you find in Epson printers that begin with R, but the DuraBrite inks in the C series now have the advantage of being smear-proof on any kind of paper, including plain old plain.
Hate it when your arm is sticking out in your self photos? Afraid of having your narcissistic tendencies exposed? You might want to take a look at the Xshot. The XShot attaches to the tripod slot on your camera, extends out over 3 feet and tilts up and down so that you can snap photos of yourself easier. When it's not in use, the Xshot collapses down to 9-inches so that its somewhat portable. You do, however, have to use the self-timer on your camera and adjust it before the timer runs out. It's available now for $24.95. [
OK, we're calling it: this is the year of the sound bar, those long, slender speaker boxes that you see freakin' everywhere. (Today alone we mentioned three companies introducing a total of six new models!) When our very own Brian Lam was at CES this past January, he heard the editor-in-chief of a top home Audiophile/Videophile magazine tell one of his lead sound gear writers "audio is just dead." That kind of talk is not unexpected—it's about as shocking as a French wine critic calling Australian shiraz "the end of civilization." We all know sound bars have a place, but what have they done to 5.1? As you may have noticed, not all sound bars are surround bars. Here's the breakdown of most currently available models:
Generally we try to be pretty skeptical of R/C cars, what with so many of them being completely worthless, but the Tri-clops is anything but. We got our hands on this little beast earlier today, and it literally attacked us. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, first off it has three arms complete with omni-directional wheels that allow it to strafe back and forth, and there's even a berserker mode which sends the Tri-clops into a frantic spin that terrorized Gizmodo HQ. But that was only the beginning.
Springtime's Bike Dispenser allows you to rent a RFID-equipped bike from one vending machine, ride it to your destination, drop it off at another vending machine, and walk away. The Dutch company won an award at the 2007 Spark Design & Architecture Awards for their idea, which is perfectly suited for an urban environment. Unfortunately, the bikes won't do much for your cool factor. [
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT have developed a battery that uses carbon nanotubes and paper to make a flexible battery that can be cut by scissor and could eventually be printed. The energy density is fair, at about 110mAh/gram, and small prototypes are powerful enough to power small fans. But the flexibility is still the main selling point. Which means these won't make portable CE devices that use molding lithium polymer batteries, like iPods, any smaller. [
1.3 MP ain't bad, but if you're giving a cameraphone a huge telescoping lens with it with a 3x zoom optical, you might want to aim for a higher pixel count. China only, and thankfully, only $130. UPDATE: Forehead slap. Obviously, this is not a DSLR, mechanically speaking. [
Along with that news is the Disney Flix Video Cam that includes Disney Director software, packed with storyboards, sound effects, character voices, and music, guaranteeing your rug rats are able to cobble together movies of at least the same quality as the straight-to-video kind of Cinderella IV or whatever.
Along with this, there are the already-covered 
Rather than sending your kids outside to exercise, why not just modify their video game addiction so it requires a little bit of physical exertion? That's the idea behind this Jet Ski Simulator video game. Featuring "realistic 16-bit graphics" (ha!), it'll make your chubby little offspring bounce around on the inflatable Jet Ski all day trying to figure out why the hell he can't play his Xbox 360 anymore. This modified Super Nintendo with an inflatable controller will set you back $US70 and the respect of your children. How can you go wrong? [
When I'm out hunting
Microsoft XNA Game Studio, the user-creation tool that allows you to make Xbox Live Arcade-quality games for the Xbox 360, has just been upgraded to 2.0. The most interesting improvements in the new version are the multiplayer networking APIs, which means you can actually create games like Jason Chen's Big Boob Robots that take advantage of Xbox Live's network support. Other than this, it's mostly improvements for developers that aren't that exciting for people who just want to play homebrew games. [
Some have noticed that the Nokia 8600 "Luna" phone is the first (or one of the first) to have a single microUSB cable for charging and data, instead of a proprietary cable that almost all Nokia's have had. (The N95 and N76 have miniUSB cables for Data, but not power.) Sounds like a good idea...for phones in 2003. Today, it just seems necessary to include USB charging in handsets. [
With all the coverage of how the Xbox 360s are failing left and right in the past few months, there hasn't been much coverage of how sturdy the PS3 is. PS3 Vault took a PS3 into harsh environments, continuously using it for 108 hours with various games and Blu-ray movies. Their findings? The PS3 is pretty much indestructible.
Very unconfirmed now, but Archos Lounge is saying the Archos 105 will be coming in September for a tiny $US90 each. The 105 will be a small iPod-sized player (unlike the back-breaking Archos units we're used to) and will have 2GB of memory, a 1.8-inch OLD screen, WMV/MP3 playback and measure 3.3x1.8x0.3 inches. No official word on this, but we'll update if there is. [
What in the hell is China doing these days? First they 
Today, Yamaha introduced a new flagship in its YSP "sound projector" faux-surround bars. The YSP-4000 is a follow-up to the YSP-1100, with a similar setup: 40 individual "beam" drivers that have individual amps, and two midbass speakers. The YSP-4000's main upgrade seems to be HDMI pass-throughs, and analogue/720p/1080i upscaling to wonderful 1080p. 
What's better than waking up to a face full of steam in the morning? A face full of steam and a loud alarm. This steampunk clock was made by a Boing Boing reader out of a 1910 clock case, some parts from Home Depot, and various car wrecks. It looks pretty interesting, but we would have put up a few more lights and pipes to shoot out steam. [
Here's are more photos of the Amp+, one of those Nike iPod watches we saw leaked early this year. The Amp+, a bracelet-type band, gives you normal iPod nano controls along with a scrolling LED that displays information on your Nike+iPod running status. 
[UPDATED: Check Justine's interview after the jump] Following 
Intel and Orange County Choppers combined their mutual know-how and created this monstrosity of a motorcycle—also known as Satan's ride. This isn't the Satan you know, this is the bad-ass futuristic Satan from 2046. The bike has four dual V-twin motors and multiple Intel quad-core processors. What are they for? To power two rearview camera displays, the speedometer, various virtual gauges, a web browser and StreetDeck Infotainment. Jesus is jealous.
Yamaha's YSP line of soundbars are incredible for faux surround. One problem -- they're generally too tall to fit below a TV, unless you wall mounted, which the majority of us don't. The YAS-70 budget soundbar could be their best one ever, if only because it is merely ~3 to 4 inches tall, fitting under any TV. The drawback is that this only has 6 individual beam drivers, so I'm not sure how great the surround will be compared to its predecessors. (But it should be way better than the budget-budget-hobo version 
Epson's latest line of Stylus Pro "Print Engines," better known to us as inkjet printers, have just been announced. The 4880, 7880, 9880 and 11880 all have their share of interesting features, such as the ability to hold a wine bottle's worth of ink in one cartridge.
There are generally two kinds of speakers, the 
Today Boston Acoustics rolls out its TVee Model Two, a "soundbar" that connects directly to the line-output of your TV, plus a subwoofer. Unlike many products that look similar, it doesn't do surround sound, but there are other tricks that do make this 100-watt $400 system unique.
Ars Technica has a lengthy piece that re-sounds the battle cry against AACS, the copy protection scheme for Blu-Ray and HD DVD—specifically, the gimpage it's bringing to both PCs and Macs in order to sat