According to makers Ariete, the You&Me is the smallest Espresso machine in the world, bringing you your caffeine fix strongly and silently. With a boiler capacity of one-fifth of a liter, maxi-cappuccino device drip and Thermocream System filter, the You&Me is available in Shiny Red, Anthracite and Satin Gray for around $138. [Ariete via Appliancist]
newVideoPlayer("airbus_flyby_gawker.flv", 475, 376); Here’s a portuguese Airbus A310 doing an extremely low flyby at the Evora 2007 Air Show last week. Not only does it show there are commercial pilots as daring as Typhoon and Russian fighter pilots, but confirms they are as crazy too, if not more. One thing is for sure, I would rather fly with one of them than anyone else. [YouTube]
This, my friends, is National’s Ferie facial shaver for ladies, available on Amazon Japan for around $30 bucks. It’s got two interchangeable blades, one for trimming your eyebrows, the other for “downy hair” (as opposed to “uppy hair,” I guess.) I don’t see anything wrong with a quick pluck, so this is not one for me &mdash although I can think of some alternative uses for it:
newVideoPlayer("donkeyass.flv", 475, 286); This is what you get when you mix the five stories of Donkey Kong’s first level, a Jackass bozo and a bunch of barrels: real-life, full-sized, totally-irresistible 8-bit arcade stupidity. And yes, I want to play it too. Like Archimedes said: “Give me enough Guinness and a big hammer and I’ll move the world! And kill that monkey. Or something like that.” I’m missing the oil-dipped fire balls, but nothing is perfect. [Gamebrink - Thanks Jeromy]
Japan is fitting up (ha ha!) for a new type of advertisement called “Anne’s Fitting Show.” According to the guys over at Pink Tentacle, the ad uses a 3D holographic image of Japanese supermodel Anne Watanabe in World’s “Untitled” brand clothing and allows stores to customise between 4 different situations that Anne would dress up for.
The situations — Date, Work, Party and Holiday — will have 12 different arrangements that can be mixed and matched to create the perfect style for each occasion. The futuristic ad has already been placed in the first floor of the Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku and is, supposedly, the first of its kind in the fashion industry. And no, “naked” is not a fashion style — not yet anyway. [SankeiWeb via Pink Tentacle]
CDs are slowly going the way of the VHS tape and the Blaupunkt Melbourne SD27 car receiver/audio player is just further proof of that. The receiver has no CD player at all—instead, it plays MP3s and WMA files, includes an MMC/SD card reader and has an LED display that’ll show all of your ID3 files and folders.
The unit also accepts USB devices and even has optional iPod and Bluetooth interfaces, providing you with almost every possible way to load music onto it. At $160, the sweet little player may as well come with a shovel you can use to bury your beloved CD collection. [Blaupunkt via SciFi]
This is the A-12, a supersonic spy plane that was the precursor of the SR-71 —and according to the CIA, even while they look similar, in some ways it was more advanced than the famous Blackbird. It’s one of the ten 10 survived the 15-plane OXCART program, one of which is in the USS Intrepid in Manhattan. This one was unveiled today by our dear friends at the CIA in an official ceremony at their Langley HQs. The story of this Mach 3.2 technological wonder starts in 1957 and, like all secret flying things full of gadgets, it’s fascinating.
Pioneer has launched the Kuro range of plasmas into the Australian market, and these screens are definitely blacker than any plasma or LCD you’ve seen before. But the keys to the kingdom are a new panel and a new video processing engine, for blacker blacks but also offers a smooth new video processor that delivers better picture across the board. Read on for our take on the Pioneer demo of the new screens, as well as local release timing and price.
Fuji Xerox has developed a new photocopier that can scan a document written in English and then print a copy of it in Japanese or Korean. The photocopier can also do the reverse — translating Japanese or Korean to English — while almost magically maintaining the original layout.
The machine works by networking with a dedicated translation server while simultaneously using various programs to distinguish between actual words and, say, a coffee stain. It’s not available for mass-production just yet but the pessimist in me says it’ll be more useful for a laugh than an actual translation. [DigitalWorldTokyo via UberReview]
Microsoft tells us that the information pointing to a new HD DVD drive in 2008 is a misquote and there is no plan to release a new HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, despite reports to the contrary. Makes sense to me, the current drive is fine, spec wise.
