Acer announced today another product in its hook-up with Ferrari: a pocket PC with GPS that includes the latest Navteq maps, and a feature called Powerful Trip Planning, that even shows you Ferrari Points of Interest, like Ferrari dealers and museums. Full specs below. More »
Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Nokia have agreed to use micro USB as a charging-plug standard for phones. Your days of buying a bagful of accessories every time you switch phones have come to an end. Well, not quite. You will still have to toss out all your mini USB chargers, as this decision in truth indicates a rejection of that budding de facto standard. Yep, all the carriers and accessories makers will have one last chance to profit before the standard is in place. [News.com via BoingBoing]
AU: I think this is actually the best choice, because micro USB is suitable for devices like small Bluetooth headsets too. So all your accessories and phones will charge off one charger – perfect. And I already have more than one mini-to-micro USB adapter, so it isn’t like mini USB chargers will be out the door. They’ll easily adapt to the new task. Great to see a standard on the way! -SB
We told you the other day about Dan Rather’s TV blather about how the Boeing 787 Dreamliner “could be unsafe” because of its carbon composite airframe, but now there are lots of experts disagreeing with that report. Aaron Rowe at Wired Science calls it “a cheap shot at Boeing,” and chides the mainstream news media for following along like sheep without questioning Rather’s assertions. In Rowe’s scathing and carefully reasoned article, he pretty much exposes Rather’s claims as nothing but scaremongering poppycock. More »
After the iMac revamp, the fantabulous and always-about-to-happen slim aluminium MacBooks may be around the corner. That if you believe 9to5Mac.com, of iPod nano spyshots and touch rumour fame, the new models could be much slimmer, lighter and probably with an even smaller footprint than current ones —which incidentally is what you always would expect for the next generation. The coolest stuff, however, could be in the trackpad. More »
A few days ago, veteran Mac software developer and Apple community gadfly Wil Shipley published a tirade against Steve Jobs and Apple for limiting development on products like iPod and iPhone. He says what motivates the company now is not quality assurance, the usual excuse, but profiteering: More »
newVideoPlayer("broomstick_gawker.flv", 475, 376);Here’s the broomstick arcade machine again, now in some spellbinding hot witch video action. Although the pottertastic nature of the game is too niche, the controls look even better live: watch as she throws spells drawing signs in the game touch-sensitive screen while riding the broomstick. Maybe it’s just me, but I find the combination quite cool and, somehow, disturbingly arousing. [Gizmodo Japan] More »
The HomeHero is a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm system that uses wirelessly interconnected nodes. The network can automatically warn anyone around the house, using both beeping and bilingual voice alerts that will tell you about the nature of the event, being it fire, carbon monoxide on the loose or fusion reactor core meltdown, so you can run out of your house feeling like Ellen Ripley. And, unlike other alarms, the units and the matching fire extinguisher looks great. Full specs after the jump. More »
After getting bombarded at IFA with all kinds of boring TV stands and LCD screen mounting kits, the Bonaldo Swivel TV Stand looks like it belongs in a modern art museum. Available in black or white, the circular shape has space for the flat panel and one AV unit, swiveling on top of it’s chrome base. [Trendir] More »
New from Samsung is the CX940UX, a 19-inch monitor that you can connect to your PC via USB. From the Syncmaster range, it’s got all sorts of tricks up its sleeve, such as being able to control up to six further monitors linked to your computer. You can forget about needing extra graphics cards or new drivers to manage the multiple screens too, as Samsung claims the CX940UX can do it all itself. There’s also a couple of USB ports, so you can use it as a mini hub. Clever, Samsung, very clever. [Samsung] More »
