Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Air Catapult Launches Man Into the Sky, Requires Parachute to Land
11:50PM Jesus Diaz | This crazy giant catapult, probably built by Will E. Coyote out of two construction cranes and ACME industrial-grade rubber bands, is designed to send a man into space with no security cables or net. As you will see in the video, after surviving the bazillion-G-force launch in one piece, he has to open a parachute to return safely to land. After seeing this 125 times today, I’m convinced this guy should have been the pilot of the X-Wing rocket. [LiveLeak] More »
Philips SA9345 Flash-Based Media Player With Smooth Looks, Touch Controls
11:50PM Charlie White | Phillips adds yet another flash MP3 player to the veritable sea of choices, releasing the Philips SA9345 that holds either two or four gigs of your favourite MP3, WMA or WMV files. Its main selling point is its slim and diminutive form factor, at a third of an inch thick and just over 3.5 inches tall, but Philips certainly isn’t bragging about that 1.8-inch 320×240 LCD screen, which you might want to employ a microscope to look at. We like those touch-sensitive controls, but we’re not too crazy about the $264 price for the 4GB player. If a measly 2GB doesn’t bother you, the price lowers to $202. Nice design, but it’s hard for us to get too excited about this one. [Philips] More »
Fujitsu LifeBook V1010, Cheap and Decent
11:40PM Mark Wilson | If you are looking for a decent sub-$1000 laptop, it’s tempting to settle on a brand you aren’t crazy about to save the cash. That’s why we noticed the new Fujitsu Lifebook V1010. Starting at $799, the V1010 features a 15.4-inch display (1280×800 rez), Intel Dual Core 1.86GHz processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory and 120GB 5400rpm HD. And for another $100, you can upgrade to a Core 2 Duo processor and snag another gigabyte of RAM. At 6.2lbs, it won’t be light in the bag, but it’s a small price if you prefer to shop by brand instead of by bargain bin. [fujitsu] More »
Yahoo Music Exec to Record Industry: We’re Done With DRM Forever
11:32PM Adam Frucci | The Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Music, Ian Rodgers, gave a presentation to some members of the music industry last Friday at Digital Media Forum in LA. The bottom line for him? DRM is dead, and if the RIAA insists on using it, they’ll be out a partner in Yahoo. Rodgers, who ran Winamp back when Napster first hit and initially proposed selling MP3s on that service only to get laughed out of the room, has been on the front lines of the online music business pretty much since the beginning. His talk is a fascinating, down-to-earth, and on-point dissection of why the RIAA is so, so wrong. More »
Turn a Monitor Into an All-In-One with VIA’s Fanless Ultrathin vm7700 VMPC
11:12PM Wilson Rothman | Say you’ve got an old LCD that you’re just dying to keep—here’s your chance to turn it into an all-in-one. The 1″-thick VIA vm7700 has four screwholes in the back corresponding with the VESA-standard mounting bracket on the back of most monitors. Screw it on, and voila, you’ve got some invisible PC power. Here’s what to expect under the hood: More »
Girl Finds Rocks Where Her iPod Should Be, TWICE
11:01PM Mark Wilson | For her birthday, a 14-year-old girl from Texas wanted an iPod. So her mother took her to the Target in Fort Worth to buy her one. After surely promising to not load the device with “devil music,” the family purchased the new $350 iPod. And then they opened it. And it was full of rocks. (And not pretty rocks like we used to make this article look better.) Ahh, but they lied, you say? They went home, took the iPod, grabbed some rocks, refilled the box, high-fived like mofos and cashed in? Not the case. Because when the family returned to Target, they were forced to take in-store credit and so they had to head to another Target to buy another iPod (because apparently the Fort Worth Target store carries one iPod at all times). At the second store, the girl bought another iPod and opened it in front of store employees. What did they find? More rocks. Lesson of the day? Buy your gadgets online and save tax. [startelegram via ars] More »
And the Nobel Prize Goes To…The Hard Drive Guys
10:41PM Mark Wilson | Scientists Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg have been announced as winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, specifically for their work in “giant magnetoresistance,” the phenomenon in which small changes in magnetism can lead to large levels of electrical resistance. Still bored by giant magnetoresistance? As explained by another professor: Without it you would not be able to store more than one song on your iPod! Yeah, GMR is the science behind hard drives. It’s too bad these scientists had to wait for the iPod to become popular for recognition, when we’d already been exploiting their advancements in the areas of computers and computers that store porn for so long now. Congrats you two. [bbc] More »Ground-Based Missile Defense More Effective than Jack Bauer, Boeing Says
10:30PM Jesus Diaz | After the X-Wing rocket aficionados, here’s some cool and real rocket action: this video shows Boeing’s successful test of their Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system. They launched a long-range ballistic missile from Alaska to destroy it minutes later using an interceptor missile from Vandenberg AFB in California. It’s the second test of this kind, but according to Boeing, this one gives them “greater confidence” that the system will “defend the nation:” More »
TongueSucker Makes CPR a Whole Lot Easier for Rookie First Aiders
9:13PM Addy Dugdale | Designed by students at the Royal College of Art in London, Tongue Sucker is a simple gadget to help people untrained in first-aid administer CPR during emergencies, as well as solving the hygiene problem for people unwilling to get up close and personal with a stranger in order to save his or her life. The idea, which prevents an unconscious patient from blocking their airway with their tongue, is as simple as its name: More »
