When I first heard about Gateway’s XHD3000 Extreme HD 30-inch monitor, I actually thought, “Here is the one screen to rule them all.” You guys were excited when we told you about it a week ago, but you wanted to know more about how it holds up. It has a few flaws, sure, but given the fact that it has a built-in HQV upscaler and inputs for all of your video sources, it is uniquely advantageous in the gadget-cluttered home.
As CEATEC goes on, the weirder ideas find their way onto the web. Here’s Hitachi’s concept RC device with an intuitive user interface. Below the bump is a pic of the prototype that they’re currently working on.
The Nike Store has just dropped the Nike Amp+ Sport Remote Control. We brought you news of the range of devices a while back, but it looks like the first line of watches has been released without much ado. The new model, paired with the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit and Nike+ Ready shoes, will allow you to hear instant voice feedback of your time, distance, calorific expenditure and pace.
Thanks to the 1.1.1 update, TV out on the iPhone is a reality—you can even preview what you are watching on the iPhone itself. Unfortunately, the cables won’t work with your dock (although this should be corrected with the new Universal Dock) and if you have a hacked iPhone you may be out of luck—but I’m sure you already knew that. [tuaw]
Apple’s new iMac has been plagued by random—but reproducible for some—freezing issues, and it appears that the ATI Radeon HD graphics card and its drivers could be to blame. According to users participating in official apple support discussions (here and here), the iMac continues to run during the freeze, but users are unable to control the programs with mouse clicks or keyboard commands without rebooting. Apple is apparently aware of the issue, but at this point, no official fix has been released. Some users have even reported that the latest round of video driver updates have made the problem worse, although there is no evidence to suggest that the problem is widespread. [Appleinsider and Tech.co.uk]
The days of cut hands and busted scissors at the hands of the ubiquitous no-one’s-getting-the-merchandise-locked-inside-this-sarcophagus plastic anti-theft packaging might be at end courtesy of OpenIt, which are like short pruning shears with orange plier handles, allowing you to cut your way through the shell by brute force.
There’s also a retractable box-cutter built into the handle—supposedly designed in a way you won’t accidentally slice your hand open while freeing an Xbox 360 controller from its confines. It comes in four different colours, and at $11, it’s cheaper than re-appropriating a Craftsman Handi-Cut or the like. [OpenIt via core77]
In an idea that’s pretty much identical to MITs plan to install energy-mooching floors in places like malls and airports, Enviu, a Netherlands-based research group, has proposed creating a nightclub that generates energy from the dancers within. Sections of floor would depress 2 cm when people stepped on them, generating energy to run the lights, smoke machine, and boot-bass subs. Sounds like an invitation to a whole lot of twisted ankles, but that’s just me. A much grosser and less practical idea is using dancers’ sweat to flush toilets in clubs. Splashback just got about 100 times more horrible. Ew. [Popular Mechanics]
People in developing countries may lack luxuries like electricity, but what they lack in modern conveniences they more than make up for in bacteria. Fortunately, a team of students from MIT has put two and two together and developed a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that harnesses electrons released by bacteria feeding on sugars, starches and other organic material. As you might have guessed, the output generated from these “BioVolt” batteries is less than ideal. In fact, you could probably charge your phone faster by shuffling your feet across the carpet. In it’s current state it would take 6 months to charge a phone’s battery, but developers insist that further refinements should increase the output 100 fold. [New Scientist]
This Candle Holdem USB holder is one of those designs that really isn’t necessary, but is so cool we’d go out of our way to make use of them. It’s essentially a key hook set for your USB drives that holds five and lights up when they’re plugged in. Plug in all five and you’ve got a makeshift candleabra, which we first thought were little space invaders. If anyone ever made something like this, we’d be on it faster than Master Chief on Cortana (if she were real). [Yanko Design]
The Gadget: The AT&T Tilt, a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone that has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, GPS navigation, a 3-megapixel camera, and Push-to-Talk along with a slide-out/fold-up keyboard and a 2.8-inch touchscreen. It’s a Windows Mobile phone, yes, but it’s also the Windows Mobile phone with the best GPS package we’ve seen yet.
