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Not the best use for an iPhone SDK but, for some reason, we find this funny. Beware, installing Adobe Photoshop in your iPhone will void your warranty, aspazzarently. [YouTube]
Sales of next-gen high-def disc players won't kick into high gear for another 18 months, says a fresh report from Forrester Research, not until they reach the $200 price point. The study didn't say whose players, though. What was once an easy call—Blu-ray by Christmas 2007—has gotten murkier, and in the most recent rounds, HD DVD has been bitchslapping Blu-ray up and down the ring.
Amazon's MP3 store is now in public beta, so you can all have a fiddle around with the DRM-free service &mdash like I just did. First observations:
We bought iPhones here on Day One, and were delighted to see the offer of a $100 store credit from Apple when the company cut the price of that product by $200. But there was a rude awaking here at the Giz when we ordered up some stuff and included a $25 iTunes gift card in the mix. It turns out that Apple is not letting you use these gift cards toward a store credit. Sure, the info about this is buried deep inside the Apple Store's legal mumbo jumbo, but you'd think the company would have made the info more prominent. That's why we're telling you here. Gee thanks, Apple. Read the fine print, everyone. Caveat emptor.[Apple]
The ParaScope Urban Combat Sight is a specialized device that acts like a periscope to allow aiming and firing around obstacles and corners, without having to put your life on the line or firing John McClane-style "Hail Mary" passes. It can be connected to any existing scope, "projecting the target image, with the targeting laser dot, back through it at any angle" and according to the Marines who have tried, it works great. In other words: peeping toms of the world, this thing is a must.[Defense Tech]
Here's a full-frontal of one of Toshiba's Gigashot A100 Full HD camcorders. The A100F has a 1.8-inch HDD with capacity of 100GB, while her younger sister, the A40F has, yep, 40GB on hers. But they both give you 1920 × 1080 resolution in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. They're out in Japan mid-November, a month after the less sexy Gigashot K hits the shops. More pics and specs below.
Sony's pocket-sized U series Vaio has been updated, replacing the previous CPU, an Intel Core 2 Solo U2100 at 1.06 GHz with a Core Solo U1400 at 1.2 GHz. What else? Oh yeah, they've boosted the HD:
The next-generation Vaio G is out in Japan next month, boasting a Core 2 Duo CPU, SSD and a drip-proof keyboard, which shuts down the system if it detects a spillage, while diverting the water away from the important stuff. You can see how that works in the gallery below, while the gen on the G2 is after the jump.
It's not the first time we've seen Samsung's Armani phone, but its official unveiling happened in Milan yesterday, following Giorgio's runway show. The credit-card-sized phone is 10.5 mm wide, has haptic feedback and will be on sale in Europe from November. An Armani-Samsung Casa LCD TV is to follow in January. Stats, pricing and more pics and pricing of the cell are below.
Sony's latest range of Vaio PCs, the L-Type, look to be a pretty sexy proposition. Top dog is the LT, with a 22-inch screen that you can wall mount and watch digital and analogue TV on. The LM is 19 inches and does digital TV, while the LJ is a 15.4-inch desktop model with a neat flippy keyboard. They're out in Japan on October 6 and you'll find a bit more beef on them below the gallery.
If you have $1.5 million spare change you can buy this Titan 1 nuclear missile base on eBay today. Located in central Washington, the 57-acre Larsen Air Force Base Titan ICBM launching complex 1A —complete with 16 underground buildings including three 160-feet missile silos— is ready for your post-Cold-War Jack-Bauer-induced delusional paranoia, War Games reenactments and family protection against drone wars. Awesome full specs and photographic interior tour right after the jump.
Sling Media, the company that brought you the Slingbox and SlingPlayer software, has been bought by EchoStar. The corporation, which owns the DISH pay-TV network, has valued Sling Media at $380 million, and the sale should take place before the end of the year. Full press release is below.
AU: A change in management could, hopefully, mean a fresh expansion of the device into new territories. Well, we don't get these boxes now, so any angle I can think of for a possible local launch sounds good to me.
Mac users love giant local storage drives, and Iomega knows it, designing the UltraMax Mac Pro-inspired baby HDD towers to accompany the heaviest machinery out of Cupertino. The latest edition is the one on the far left, the single-drive UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive, with one eSATA, two FireWire 800, one FireWire 400 and one USB 2.0 port. The 750GB costs just $319.95; the 500GB costs $219.95. There's also a dual-interface 500GB UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive with just regular FireWire and USB 2.0 for $189.95. The lot will be available in October.
Sebastian Ritzler, a design student in Germany, has created a feature-laden rolling white cane called the Mygo that will make the blind scoff at us eyesies. The Mygo uses a sensor-camera combo to measure the ground below it and give the user real time feedback via a wireless headset. The cane also ends in a small wheel that uses a steering engine that helps the user steer by providing feedback through the grip.
The Mygo is height-adjustable, tough, and waterproof -- in case you're a blind swimmer -- and runs on a lithium-ion battery that will keep it going for around 6 hours. It has yet to go into production but Ritzler is aiming to make it an affordable innovation, something in the $200 range, which, if it works as advertised, is a damn good deal. [BusinessWeek via Wired]
AU: WARNING: The end of this video will be very much considered a spoiler for Halo 3. Whether it is or not? It's complicated (like any good story) and I don't want to say. And yes, I've finished the game (I review games for a newspaper). Trust me, though, this vid will only re-upset those of you who were upset by Brian's first 'unbagging' video. I don't hate Halo / MS fanboys as much as Brian seems to, so I'm being nice and trying to save you a nasty shock.
The other day, I posted a video showing some cool Halo 3 swag Microsoft sent me as part of the press kit. Despite me putting the word "Incredible" in the headline, people thought my video reflected a lack of appreciation for the gear, and I was called many names for it, and even received a death threat. I had no idea that Halo 3 fans were even more passionate than Apple fans. I realise now my video may have been seen as disrespectful, so I want to apologise here, and give you a second video with more detail of the Halo 3 swag unbagging, although its pretty similar to last week's, for those who weren't offended in the first place. Halo 3 fans who I disappointed last week, this video is for you.
The Toshiba T400 Gigabeat player is nothing especially new in the Asian markets but its appearance on Sam's Club's website means the player is finally going to be availabe in the States. Generally, the 4 gigabyte player is underwhelming. It can play MP3s, WMAs, WAV files and has video playback for WMV videos that you can watch at QVGA resolution on the 2.4-inch QVGA screen.
The screen, larger than most other screens in players this size, is the most impressive feature and definitely not too bad on the eyes. If this device reminds you of anything, by the way, it's because Microsoft's Zune was directly taken from Toshiba's hardware, so it'll be interesting to see if anything comes out of that relationship. The device goes on sale September 25th for $113.88. [Sam's Club via InfoWorld]
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 11:22 AM on September 25, 2007
I have to admit that last night on *gulp* Today Tonight there was an interesting spot on Telstra shops recording your live discussions with staff - yep, it isn't just for phone calls anymore. It was focused on the fact you'd be hard pressed to notice the signs in store that point this out. Fact is, there are signs, but they are small. So be warned - ask your Telstra shop attendant not to record you if you're the paranoid type.
What caught my eye was the fact they're using the iRiver S10 to do the dirty work. It's tiny, and it has built-in voice recording. Perfect. If you're looking for a stealthy little audio recorder, you've got the Telstra seal of approval on an S10. If they're sending this audio off to the USA for analysis (and according to TT, they are), it must be delivering fairly good quality too. I'd link to the story if it was on the TT site... but there's obviously no room between the story on Hair Loss Horrors and Two Towns Battle Weight Loss.
Nothing quite flavors a meal like the black, peppery-goodness of R2-D2's droppings. The cute little peppermill comes in two colours -- or droid models, I should say -- the white R2-D2 and the black RD-Q5. The R2 works pretty much how you'd expect, just turn his head and the 11 cm droid will grind to your heart's content. Sadly, the peppermill does not move or bleep, but for $19 dollars you can get R2-D2 to defecate pepper on your food, and that, in itself, is worth the investment. [SeamlessTech via TechnaBob]
I love these Star Wars Kubricks because I have a soft spot for cult toy makers that work with big franchises. The characters for this series were taken from Episodes I-III, and feature the likes of Qui Gonn Jinn, naked C-3PO, and Annakin Skywalker before he grew a rat tail and allowed his hormonally raging manhood to overtake his Jedi state of mind. These are expected to come out in March of 2008 for about $96. [Instinctoy via Toys R Evil]
There's nothing quite like a mass of cluttered cables to cause a stress-related premature death -- luckily, the guys over at Instructables have a cheap and easy solution. This involves buying a plastic box and lid from IKEA (it doesn't have to be IKEA, but it's much hipper if it is), buying a drill with a large bit, and then drilling several well-placed holes in both the lid and container.
After your box is made, you trace your various cables and power strips through the appropriate places and voila -- your floor is clean. Granted, this isn't the most revolutionary of inventions, but it's a great, cheap way to organize the horrible tangled mass that is your cable collection. [Instructables via Lifehacker]
Are you wearing a protective exoskeletal suit that's independently mobile or are you happy to see these Metal Gear Solid 4 1/6 size figures? Because if you ask us, there's nothing more bad arse than going to work and finding Old Snake and/or non-pussy Raiden staring you in the face while you sip your first cup of coffee. Nothing except actually being Snake. Too bad these are about $180 each, but totally worth it for Sony to bundle these with every copy of the game since it's the one thing that's going to save their lagging PlayStation 3 sales. [Snake via Raiden via Toys R Evil]
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 9:48 AM on September 25, 2007
We generally try to avoid software talk, but the US flagged the new Elements release and the fact that it is a big bump in quality for the line means I'll give it its dues.
Hitting stores this week for Windows ('early 2008' for Mac), I had a recent briefing on the new Photoshop Elements and it is so good that 98% of users should probably not go anywhere near the full version ever again. Under the hood this is THE SAME engine as CS3, and it actually makes a lot of hardcore tasks easier than CS3. Basically, unless you need CMYK, you should be starting here first. Upgrade pricing to CS3 from Elements is now available, essentially covering the price of Elements so you can safely start here with no price disadvantage and then step up if necessary.
$159 for each standalone, or $235 bundled. A few more deets down below.
Sennheiser's latest Bluetooth headset, the VMX 100, has on-board technology that distinguishes the human voice from background noise in order to provide a clearer outgoing sound during conversations. We're unsure how well the headset will distinguish background noise when the background noise is actually human conversation, but at least it'll have five hours talk time and 100 hours standby. The thing looks absolutely gigantic with the Borg attachment fitting over the ear, but we suppose that's where the voice distinguishing technology lives. [CNET]
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 9:01 AM on September 25, 2007
With finals season reaching their climax, wouldn't you like to really know if you could pull on the strip and kick goals from range to beat the siren and win it for [insert fave team here]? This ball from Discovery may be far from regulation, but its built-in distance meter will have you kicking and throwing (for the NFL fans) harder than ever before. A little bit of catch has never been so competitive. [Discovery Distance Football via Red Ferret via Fosfor]
You heard that the new firmware bricks unlocked iphones? Get this: Apple just confirmed to me that running any third-party app at all voids the warranty, and you won't be covered if your iPhone bricks for whatever reason. The reasoning is that Apple cannot distinguish between other third party apps and those that have been confirmed to combine with the new firmware to cause iPhone Brick-itus. (Apple specifically named iUnlock and the GUI version, AnySIM.) What I don't get is how is running an app on an OS X iPhone more dangerous than running third party apps on a Macbook running OS X? I don't know, I'm not a genius, I just play one in my diorama. I don't think there's a way to track use of unauthorized apps, so before you go in for service, restore your iPhone to a born again software virgin status. There you go, iPhone rebels playing with AppTapp--we are all bandits and too dirty for warranty.
Bicycles built for two seem like they'd be romantic, but how do you decide who gets to sit in front? It's clearly the better position, as you get a view of the open road rather than of your bikemate's sweaty back. That's why this strange mutant two-person bike makes sense… sort of. I mean, it seems like just riding separate bikes would be easiest, but what do I know? [eBay via Spulch]
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 8:46 AM on September 25, 2007
This is what 1GB of storaged looked like 20 years ago.
'Nuff said.
Lego master builds Halo 3 Master Chief.
In honour of launch day there's some cool Halo stuff today.
800MHz G4 Macs are dead to Leopard.
They are long in the tooth... my 1GHz G4 Powerbook is struggling a bit...
Readers get to play with real AT4 anti-armour bazooka.
Kick ass. And deeply frightening at the same time.
Vox amPlugs for guitarists on the run.
Awesome amp for headphones. What a great idea.
Microsoft offering Vista-to-XP downgrade option to anyone, not just OEMs.
We haven't tested the theory, but CNet Asia has. Ultimate/Business only.
Best. Stylus. Ever.
Seriously, the best ever. Katana stylus for Ninja Gaiden DS.
Star Wars Lego AT-AT motorised for your amusement.
No mods, this is actually a Lego kit.
Anyone catch last night's season premiere of the Simpsons? Notice a little friendly nudging to Apple iPhone users? So did we. [Simpsons]
Walt Mossberg said the defective screens were only an early production problem, I was off to the Apple Store to exchange mine. While we still don't know if the problem has been resolved completely, I can say that my iPod touch has a screen that looks as great as advertised.
I made an appointment with the Genius Bar guys who did some video tests of their own, and came to the same conclusion I did. No questions asked, they took my old iPod touch, handed me a new one, and I was on my way. Pretty painless overall.
The folks over at Loading Ready Run made a fantastic video illustrating why Halo is the future of gaming. After viewing, we have to say we're on board. Kudos. [Loading Ready Run]
Not only are certain Apple stores voiding the warranty on hacked and unlocked iPhones, Apple's just released a statement saying the unlock process coupled with a future iPhone update may make your phones a useless brick. Apple "strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs," because the "permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty." Our advice to users: wait until Firmware version 1.1 is out later this week before you decide to unlock your iPhone. If you've already unlocked your phone, don't update until you know it's safe. Full release after the jump.
UPDATE: But first, the bricking. Was this done on purpose? Lam doesn't think so. Jacqui at Ars believes that the firmware was completed weeks ago, and the bricking is unintentional. It doesn't matter what the intent was: They didn't go out of their way to stop it, which is almost as uncool. Principles aside, this situation won't affect lots of us, since the majority of us don't have a reason to unlock. But bricking it entirely is something they should work really really hard to avoid, even if it costs them some revenue share from AT&T. My main concern is for the safe development of Apps that so far have done nothing but made the iPhone better.
Here's a motorised LEGO AT-AT (All-Terrain Armored Transport) that's cool enough to be worth its $130 price. Notice its rotating laser canons, cockpit that actually opens and most importantly, its lumbering walking style. Hey, there's even a little Luke Skywalker hanging onto a grappling rope underneath. [LEGO, via boingboing Gadgets]
The Gadget: Smartphone Experts' Headphone Adapter for the iPhone.
The Price: $9.99
The Catch: It's probably the shortest adaptor out now (bottom), being neither twisty like the Griffin and Helium Digital, or really long like Belkin's (top). In fact, it's pretty much the only adaptor that's not bendable.
The pirate over at Kotaku has just discovered what he's calling the "Best Damn Swag on the Planet," and we're calling "the best stylus ever." It's a stylus for Ninja Gaiden DS, but it's not just any stylus, it's a friggin sword. It even has a little sheath to stick it into! Can you imagine playing Pokemon with that thing? Or whipping it and using it as a stylus in your Windows Mobile phone? "Hey John, give me a sec to check my calendar with my fucking NINJA KATANA." And then you throw the stylus into his eye, officially ending your lunch meeting. [Kotaku]
Why have a standard white iPod/iPhone dock when you can have a colorful LEGO one? This LEGO dock may look solitary sitting there by itself, but it's friggin' LEGO, so you can use it to build a motorcycle, a dinosaur, or a motorcycle in the shape of a dinosaur (that also syncs your iPod). It's $16 from Korea, but if you're like us, you're going to want to buy a bunch and make yourself an iPod LEGO fort. A Korean iPod LEGO fort. With bulgogi. [10x10 via Technabob]
Keeping with our tech-from-20-years-ago theme, we present you with Mister Disc. This "miniature" beauty was a portable LP player created by Audio Technics in 1983. It was even battery powered to ensure "on the go" fun. Although fun could not consist of moving or any vibrations in general, otherwise your music would come to abrupt stop. Maybe this would be a good time to take a couple of minutes and go let your iPod know how much it means to you. [New Launches]
So much for YouTube taking the high ground and not sticking annoying bumper ads in front of their clips … that's pretty much their exact plan for making money in 2008. Hey, they've gotta make back that $1.65 billion somehow, right? The plan as of now is to slap 30-second ads in front of clips. It isn't clear if there'll be shorter ads as well, if the ads will go in front of every clip, or if the ads will be skippable. I can tell you one thing: there ain't no way I'm sitting through 30 torturous seconds of advertising for a 15 second video of a guy lighting his farts on fire. Don't blow it, Google. [DirectTraffic]
While many sites today are claiming that MS is only offering Vista-to-XP downgrade discs to OEMs, CNet Asia found out that Microsoft support will allow anybody with a copy of Vista Ultimate or Business to call and request a downgrade disc themselves, just like it says in the licence terms. So there you have it, any Joe Schmo can pick up a Vista downgrade disc as long as they have a nice enough version of Vista. [CNet]
The Gamercize gaming exercise machine we showed you before has a new version for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii coming out really really soon. The idea is the same as the old version though: your controllers only respond if you're pedaling or cycling, allowing you to exercise and game at the same time. Seeing as we spend about half our lives blogging and the other half playing games, if they can somehow attach these to our keyboards so we have to exercise in order to type, we'd the legs of a horse-baby. [ThinkGeek (last gen) via Wonderland]
The ramen fan is probably as old as some of you readers out there, but we'll call it the 10th anniversary of this thing and give it a go anyway. I enjoy a nice hot cup of cup ramen every morning (not the best ramen, but I'm lazy), so having a fan cool down my noodles is a fantastic idea. Would I pay $5.99 at a cheap Chinatown store for this? Definitely. Would I adapt this to other foods like stews, soup, and even steak? You bet your ass. [Ramen Fan via Digg]
Google's finally put out an iPhone-friendly version of their Google Calendar, allowing you to add, view, but not edit or delete events from your phone. Of course, you could get this kind of functionality by syncing GCal to Calendar or Outlook and then syncing to your iPhone, allowing you to add, edit, and even delete events. But if you're one of those who insist on using only Google Calendar along with your GMail, this seems pretty usable—not to mention fast. [Google Calendar via GMailBlog via MacApper]
This week on the episode 104 of the Coolness Roundup, Stephen and Charlie talk about the hits and misses of the CEDIA home theatre convention, explore iPhone hacking, and Stephen gives us a first look at his new Razr2 phone. [Free Podcast on iTunes or at Coolness Roundup]
Dell's expanding their no crapware option from their high-end XPS systems to their entire Dimension desktop and Inspiron notebook line; meaning you're going to get the option at purchase time to opt-out of pre-installed trialware and shareware that slows down your computer considerably even when it's brand new. The one caveat is that these computers aren't entirely trialware free—it still has antivirus, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Google Tools left behind.
AU: You can now get the no crapware options from Dell Australia on the Vostro business line, and from recent discussions with local Dell reps this is set to expand, just not as quickly as on the US site.