Friday, October 12, 2007
Cameras
Casio Exilim 720, Possessed by Hello Kitty
11:48PM Mark Wilson | Some Casio Exilim 720’s have gotten dressed up by their cruel, older sisters in wuss gear. Rebranded the Hello Kitty Camera, the device still takes 7.2MP pictures, but it’s been covered in pink and stickers and evilness. AND during startup, the camera makes weird, gross Hello Kitty noises and shows weird, gross Hello Kitty pictures. For those into weirdness, the Japan exclusive will run you $400. Go pick one up while your friends plan the intervention/your long-term disappearance. The worldwide propagation of Hello Kitty gear once made no sense to me, until my research uncovered the obvious: there is a gargantuan Hello Kitty queen that needs to be slaughtered. I’m off to the East the find the nest. Who’s with me? [newlaunches] More »
Flytech K790 ‘I Will Cut You’ PC
11:44PM Mark Wilson | The K790 from Flytech is an ultra-rugged compact PC. The 12, 15, 17 or 19-inch touchscreen houses the entire Celeron PC—a la iMac—but that touchscreen is housed in 60mm of stainless steel. Clearly waterproof, the K790 is intended for public use in kiosks, but the high brightness display will make it suitable for your poolside. There’s no word on the price, but durability tends to cost you. Then again, insurance companies must appreciate customers who own PCs that could stop a bullet* without missing a beat. *We at Gizmodo do no condone shooting computers, unless they are old, really crappy ones from Q1 07 or earlier. [aving via bornrich] More »
Ceramic Remote Solves One Problem, Creates Others
11:27PM Wilson Rothman | Designer Yuta Watanabe’s motivation in creating a ceramic concept TV remote was the disdain we usually show our little infrared friends, tossing them around, losing them in seat cushions, leaving them in another room. If the remote was an objet rather than a mere object, we might not be so rough on it. Yes? I say no. I give it a week—maybe two—in this house. But it sure is pretty to look at. [Yanko Design] More »
Vehicles
Terrafugia Transition Flying Car One Giant Step Closer to Reality
11:12PM Charlie White | Remember that Terrafugia Transition flying car we showed you nearly two years ago? Its makers have been busy since then, and might even get the thing flying before the end of next year. More »
Allen Telescope Array Fully Operational; Set To Find Treacherous Space Enemies By 2025
10:25PM Wilson Rothman | Paul Allen’s SETI array was powered up yesterday. Currently with 42 6-meter dishes in operation, the final product will have 350 antennas (antennae?) in total, capable in total of scanning over 1 million star systems in the hope of finding some kind of intelligent life out there. Since the Hat Creek, California telescope station is jointly run by SETI and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at UC Berkeley, it will be used to study other phenomena as well, such as black holes, supernovas (supernovae?) and “exotic astronomical objects.” (Insert yo mama’s butt, US defence expenditures or Google stock price joke here.) [BBC News; photo from Forefront] More »Reverse an Unlocked iPhone to its Virginal State
5:34PM Brian Lam | Here’s a complicated but well documented method for taking an iPhone from a unlocked state to a factory fresh state, so you can go on and upgrade to 1.1.1 if you’ve been testing unlocks. It works by refreshing the baseband firmware to factory default; meanwhile, bricking is supposedly caused by the altered unlocked basebands being only partially overwritten 1.1.1, causing a stew of code. *shrugs*. I haven’t tried this fix yet, so I can’t recommend it one way or another. But if your iPhone is already stuck at the activation screen (what people have been calling bricked), you might as well give it a whirl. What else could go wrong? *ducks*. [Googlecode] More »Hot 360 paint job
1:14PM Seamus Byrne | Street racing games aren’t really my bag, but this Xbox 360 case mod is pretty hot. And it’s all Aussie, done by Daniel Power at Kreative Power, an airbrush artist who works on cars and whatever else deserves the airbrush treatment. This case actually uses auto pearl paints, so it will only look better in the flesh. Snaps to Logan at Kotaku AU flicked this our way. [Juiced 2 Xbox 360 Spray at Kotaku AU] More » “Transparent” Touchscreen Could Put the iPhone to Shame
12:00PM Sean Fallon | The iPhone touch interface is innovative, there is no doubt about that–but it does have some drawbacks. For example, multi-touch is ill suited to fat fingers and the process of navigating obstructs the screen. Wigdor at MERL, and Patrick Baudisch at Microsoft Research are hoping to change all that with a new touch sensitive gadget called LucidTouch that allows users to navigate via sensors on the back of the device instead of the front. This will allow for a firmer grip on the device, better performance, and a clear view of the screen according to researchers. More »
T-Mobile HTC Shadow Spy Shots
10:40AM Jason Chen | The HTC Juno, aka T-Mobile Shadow, looks like it’s definitely going to T-Mobile. Like we said before, there’s the two-letters-per-key SureType keyboard, plus new details like 128MB on-board RAM, 4GB microSD card support, Wi-Fi, Stereo Bluetooth, myFaves 1.5, and a new top-level UI called “Top Screen”. We’re still not sure on the date of launch, but its size—compared to a BB Pearl—seems like it’s quite small for an HTC Windows Mobile smartphone. Thanks tipster! galleryPost('htcshadowspy', 3, 'HTC Shadow'); More »
