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Classic Mac Becomes Sweet Jukebox
Posted by Mark Wilson at 11:37 PM on October 18, 2007
One industrious modder decided that the bet use for his newly acquired Mac Classic was to make it into this personal jukebox. After ripping out the CRT monitor, he was able to squeeze in a new LCD display, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini, extra 750GB drive and power supply. The only external modifications included expanding the disc drive for CDs/DVDs and adding a tiny opening for an IR receiver. OS X was modified to automatically load FrontRow upon booting, completing retro functional sweetness. Bonus pic:
Panasonic's newest iris-scanner, BM-ET200, shoots laser beams into your eyes from 20 inches away as you stare into a green light on its face. It can identify an individual out of a database of 10,000 users in just 0.3 seconds. Not only that, but if you walk up to it with a slouch, the $2,500 scanner will say, out loud, "Stand up straight!" So maybe not exactly like your dear old grandma, but close. [
What, is this International Doorbell Week? The techno-doorbell scene continues its explosive growth and innovation, and following those two more-sophisticated MP3 doorbells we showed you earlier this week, this Chinese Recordable Parrot Wireless Doorbell approaches the realm of the absurd. This cheapshit $22 plastic bird is not like those doorbells, such as the 
The Air Force has announced that in addition to their 
Sometimes a product comes along and bites you on the arse in such a way that you don't know whether to laugh, cry, or take out a loan. This gold-plated kitchen bitch — a snip at 1500 quid (that's over $3,000, exchange-rate fans) is a live enzyme "nutrition extractor" that also works well at extracting money from your bank account and rationality from your person. It also turns the phrase "carat juice" from a spelling mistake into a sad yet viable proposition.
The LavaGlow wireless controller is a new PS3 peripheral going for pizazz. Filled with liquid—not real lava as advertised—LEDs glow to successfully simulate hot magma in your hands (the controller comes in red, white and blue, so you might also be holding a blizzard and...uhh...tidal wave). Yes, this may be the worst peripheral we've seen in some time. But our real issue is that it doesn't operate on the PS3s open Bluetooth channel, instead opting for 2.4Hz RF. Yes, prepare for dongles and yet another cheap peripheral maker screwing many consumers without them even realizing life could be better. Now you're playing with lava! [
Although we were highly impressed with the $4500 Canon EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR camera when we first saw it last winter, the high-end super camera turned out to have a goofy problem: Its autofocus didn't work in bright sunlight. Canon has reportedly agreed to fix the camera's AI servo autofocus defect, and if you're one of the unfortunate early adopters of that mofo cam, you can call 800 828-4040, give your serial number to one of the Canon reps, and they'll call you when they have the parts and you'll get your camera fixed right up, maybe even in the next couple of weeks. So much for being an early adopter. [
Samsung announced a Full HD 1080p "IDTV F8 television featuring Motion Plus technology" just to annoy us with another silly acronym and technology name. What is IDTV? It means integrated digital television, a TV that comes with built-in MPEG4 AVC decoder and digital TV tuner. And Motion Plus? A processor that creates middle frames "anticipating the action" which, according to Samsung, offers smoother motion for Bruce Willis movies and sports like football, basketball and curling. It will be out everywhere but in the US for $5,699 (40"), $7,399 (46") and $10,399 52") at the end of October. [
A month ago we ran 
The 30-inch ultra-high-rez (2560x1600) monitor derby heats up even more now with Eizo jumping in with its SX3031W-H display, to be released first in Japan December 19th and maybe even making its way to US shores before too long. If so, it'll have to compete against 30-inchers at that same resolution from Apple ($1,799), Dell ($1,274), HP ($1400) and that whopper we showed you from Gateway ($1,700) a couple of weeks ago. 
As you can see, there's still some little itty bitty rough spots in the iPod touch. We know there is 
Addy and I are going to the Maldives next week to scuba dive, and we are already packing stuff for it. Dive computers, underwater cameras, waterproof GPS and even one of these Klikk thingies, an almost-flat camera stand that can rotate up and down 18 degrees. There are two models to support different compacts 
Today Western Digital announced that it has achieved 520 Gb/in2 areal density in an actual demonstration using its own perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR)/tunneling magneto-resistive (TuMR) head technology. For those of you who are counting, that makes it the highest density ever reached using continuous media. A density of this magnitude produces a 3.5-inch hard drive storing 640 GB-per-platter and single hard drive capacities as large as 3 TB. Compare that to the current leading density of around 200 Gb/in2 being shipped high volume products like WD's 
I dream of a day that I can dock my iPod with anything, (although I think that the release of the 
Because BlackBerries and Sidekicks aren't quite secure enough for the NSA—the government agency that knows you called the Nintendo tip hotline way too many times in the late '80s—they're ordering up a bunch of General Dynamics Sectera Edge smartphones. 
This eatmefresh cereal bowl is probably the best non-gadgety way we can think of for keeping your cereal nice and solid despite being submerged in milk. The trick is the shelf at the bottom that blocks up to 70% of the cereal from being in contact with the cow juice, allowing you to scoop down and eat only the soaked bits while keeping the other parts rigid. The result is a good breakfast on your own timetable, instead of rushing to eat it before everything becomes like the place Yoda trained Luke in that one movie. [
Sony appears to be making a consumer-server play, introducing the $400 80GB HDMS-S1D "photo album" for the high-def enjoyment of up to 50,000 still images. You can import photos via Memory Stick slot—but also SD, CF and xD! (Way to go, Sony!) You can connect the HDMS-S1D to your TV via HDMI, and navigate slideshows using its remote control. It has a CD/DVD burner for getting and saving shots. We also see an Ethernet port, so we're going to assume there's at least some way to push photos to it from your PC (or Mac?) In addition to letting you edit, rotate, delete and group photos on screen, there are also some unique automated features:
A PlayStation forum poster claims that a Sony customer service rep told him his broken PS3's warranty was voided because he plugged the console into a surge protector and not a wall socket, and that he'd have to pay $150 to fix it. When reached for comment, Sony said this wasn't the case and that your warranty won't be voided if you use a power strip.
Yes, Toshiba Matsushita has developed a full-color round LCD display. But before you get too excited about the possibilities, keep in mind that the viewable area is only 62mm (2.44″) across with a contrast ratio of 600:1 and a resolution of 240X240. So, at this point it is not quite ready to be part of your desktop PC configuration--but Toshiba believes that it has definite potential for use in vehicle instrument panels. When this technology does come of age though, Apple could be all over it. [
A Kotaku Australia reader shares the government's response to their query on the recent rejection of tax incentives for local games developers. It's almost funny to read that (a) the 'Screen Production Incentive Scheme' doesn't include a major creative industry that produces content for screens, and that (b) reasoning in the response for the rejection is partly explained as being because games aren't film or TV... but if game developers produce some game content for use *in* film or TV, they could be eligible. Am I taking crazy pills or is this some wacky circular logic here??
When we last checked in with iRobot's Warrior it was armless, pokey, weak and not killtastic. Their latest model, the Warrior X700, is the opposite of all of that, with plans for the urban warfare front: It sports a robo-arm that lifts 150 pounds, will tread a four-minute mile, lugs up to 500 pounds and can terminate with extreme prejudice semi-autonomously. It can deploy machine guns or 40mm explosive rounds, with one variant sporting an electronic firing system utilizing a four-pack of small barrels that fire 16 rounds a second with an 800-meter range. At this rate, a real-life robot-controlled Metal Slug is totally on its way by 2028. [
Wireless USB is all well and good if your house is free of things like walls, but for everyone else, this Gefen Fiber Optic USB Extender manages to boost USB connectivity up to 500 meters. You can use it for any device, such as USB hard drives, burners, keyboards, printers, or humping dogs—fiber optics degrade much slower than standard copper cabling. However, this kind of advanced tech won't be able to be picked up at Fry's on your way home from work—it costs $16,000. [
Acme classifies the LPG370TS lunchbox computer as "portable," but when you pack three 17-inch high-res LCD screens into a briefcase style design, chances are you will need to hit the gym or buy a mule to tote this thing around. Still, having the triple screen option is great, and the Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz processor, 2GB RAM, Dual nVidia 8800GTX cards in SLI mode, 8 channel audio, Firewire and Dual Gigabit LAN make for a decent gaming rig—especially if you are into flight sims. No pricing details have been made available. [
Laptop Mag's running a roundup of "the best DSLRs under $800," but all of them actually go for around $500 (w/ lens), Sony's A100