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Lifehacker
Put on your tinfoil hats, because according to the findings of XianLi, one of the members of Hackint0sh, the iPhone spies on you. The evidence in the code shows that the Stocks and Weather applications send your IMEI number—the unique number that identifies your iPhone and is tied to your personal information—to Apple, along with the nature of the information you are looking at:
Information about Asus's new UMPC, the R50A, is out and about. And, if you like these kind of things, the chunky handheld with a 4.8-inch, 1024 x 600 screen boasts both 3 and 3.5G connectivity. And that's not all:
I can't see Aiko, seen here last week at the Ontario Science Center, being the world's favourite fembot — For starters, she's a dowdy dresser. And secondly, she will slap your face if you try and get busy with her breasts without chatting her up first. She's the creation of Le Trung, who has developed the B.R.A.I.N.S (Bio Robot Artificial Intelligence Neural System) software, controlling Aiko's speech, reading, math, vision, colors, hearing, automation and sensors. Her attitude makes a change from the last laydee android we featured on the Giz, who looked like a missing teen forced to do rude things to her kidnappers. Anyway, the poor girl needs a new wardrobe. Anyone like to help her out? [Project Aiko and YouTube via The Raw Feed]
Jean Nouvel unveiled his design for The Tower at 53rd West 53rd Street this weekend. As well as the now-obligatory apartments and seven-star swank-hotel, the 75-story glass-and-steel structure will have three floors dedicated to housing the overflow collection of the neighbouring MoMA. Check the gallery below to see what the skyscraper, whose construction is expected to begin some time next year, is expected to look like.
AMD has just announced their Spider platform, which they claim is the best PC gaming platform out there. Spider combines AMD Phenom quad-core processors, up to four ATI Radeon HD 3800 cards and the AMD 7-Series chipset, with CrossFireX, HyperTransport 3.0, AMD OverDrive, AMD AutoXpress and Nonobtanium-Enhanced Flux Capacitors to provide massive acceleration for high definition 3D graphics. The experts, however, disagree: while strong, especially in the graphics department, the Phenoms are falling short on the frequency front compared to equivalent Intel processors.
iRiver's Mplayer, the Mickey Mouse-themed music player, has been given the bling treatment just in time for Christmas. Just 500 of these glittery rodent-redolent MP3- and WMA-compatible players have been made, and they come with lanyard-style earphones.
There's 1GB storage space, and you skip songs by twisting Mickey's left ear — exactly what I do to my "special friend" when I want him to change the TV channel. Price is 16,800¥, or around $150. [Impress]
Nokmote is a Symbian S60 free program that will allow you to use motion to control the Nokia N95, similar to what you do with a Wiimote. The usual cynics will call it a "gimmick!" Some other will say "silly!" Others will shout "french!" And you will be right, but it looks to work quite well in the two games he tries at the end of the video, specially when he connects the N95 to the television for some tempestastic action. [Nokmote via MobLearn - Thanks Christopher]
The LVT-WD40 is a waterproof portable TV that Sanyo claims is the perfect bedfellow for its waterproof Xactic camcorder. Widescreen, and with 480 x 272 resolution, it will cost 50,000¥ ($450) when it comes out in Japan on Wednesday. File this one under "chocolate teapot", I think. [Impress]
TEAC's One-Step DVD/CD Duplicator will rip your CDs, or DVDs, without the need for a connection to a PC. That is enough information for us to decide we like it; it is simple and it can copyright infringe in around 6 minutes flat, thanks to the 48x CD drive read speed / 16x DVD read speed. Nice—but don't use it to copyright infringe, or you shall be hunted down like a dog and be made to pay like a millionaire pooch.
South Korea's Jump Up Internet Rescue School is the first of its kind, providing rehabilitation to those who cannot escape from the confines of the great interweb. Fittingly, South Korea is the world's foremost internet connected nation, with over 90% of homes having access to cheap, high speed broadband. Worryingly, this has been the reason for the establishment of a rehabilitation centre for those who are addicted; the ready availability of the internet means users have grown seriously dependent on the world wide web's offerings.
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 10:06 AM on November 19, 2007
It bounces, it spins, it see-saws. The Spirohop must, must, MUST come to Australia. Pleeeeease??!
Take your typical see-saw, add the bouncy goodness off the classic spacehopper, and then let the whole thing spin on its axis. If they made these in grown up sizes, I'd be outside playing on one right now instead of in here staring at computer screens.
Cue Demtel voice. How much would you expect to pay? This is listed at £69.99, or about $160. The site says they'll ship international, so even wearing some hefty shipping charges, this ride-on will be such a hit all summer it will be well worth the dosh. [Spirohop via BabyGadget]
We ship 50 to 80 percent of the 300k to 400k tons of electronics that actually make it to recycling each year—out of 2 million tons tossed—overseas. The "recycling" part happens when workers in places China, Nigeria and India bust up old gear with hammers, gas burners or their bare hands to pull out metals, glass and "other recyclables," taking a toxic shower in the process. And the most likely stuff to make its way over there is what's collected at free drives.
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 9:56 AM on November 19, 2007
One caveat we missed when sharing news of iiNet's naked ADSL2+ release is the inclusion of uploads in the usage limits. This is a nasty trend that is now spreading beyond just Telstra, something we were hoping would decline rather than spread. According to Whirlpool, iiNet feels their caps are higher than otherwise to compensate (we thought the caps could have been better even before hearing this) and no other plans are affected.
iiNet is correct that more serious users are now uploading a lot more than they used to, whether through P2P traffic or offsite storage. But in our books, counting uploads is a double dip - an ISP somewhere else is counting downloads when you are sending uploads, so is it fair to be 'charged' on both streams?
AT&T wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega mentioning in an interview on Friday that they'd talked to Google about joining the OHA and are "analyzing the situation" might seem like grist for the rumour mill (and headlines), but it probably... Read More »
I reviewed the Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 a month ago, and gave it a 'close but no cigar' verdict. It went most of the way to offering a handshake use position, but stopped short when compared to mice like the Evoluent VerticalMouse. After another four weeks of daily usage, I'd like to revisit the review and now say that this 'close' verdict should, for me, now be moved to an 'ouch'.
I have big, but not gargantuan, hands, so this could be a factor, but after more and more use I found my wrist was starting to tell me it wasn't happy with how things were going. A shift back to my standard Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 and my wrist relaxed a little more. That just shouldn't be the case - a 'natural' ergonomic device should be comfortable and intuitive, and no matter how I have tried to adjust the way I position my hand I just couldn't get it into the right position.
Let me note here I'm more of an ergo-nut than your average user. I'm sitting on a Herman Miller Aeron while working at a height-adjustable desk (review later this week) so I'm not pouring all my ergo hopes into one little mouse - so my experience can't be discounted as a result of my general bad posture / position at my desk.
Hey, last Friday we passed the 500 Australian post milestone! Not big by mothership standards, but with the local content edited solo by yours truly that's some pretty good post volume if it was a blog by any other name. We've also passed 3,000 Australian comments in recent weeks. Thanks all round to the Allure crew behind the scenes and the AU readers for helping us as we slowly simmer this baby up to a boil. Here's to 50,000 posts more!
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 8:44 AM on November 19, 2007
Throwzini Knife Block stores cutlery on wheel of death
If the voodoo guy is too morbid, this is for you.
1080p TVs never deliver 1080p motion
But some do better than others.
Most powerful turbofan engine in the world, up close and personal
127,500-pounds of grunt. Take that Russell Crowe!
Killacycle electric bike breaks world record for quarter mile
8 seconds, 168mph (270kph)
Make Rube Goldberg-style marble madness mechanisms
No darts, fans, dominoes, or fuse wires, but still cool.
The pros and cons of LED Christmas lights
Cooler, cheaper, tougher.
Rip Saw UGV Tank fast as a motorcycle, just $200,000
Once upon a time there was a DARPA Challenge vehicle...
Japanese scientists make Terabit/sec optical fibre possible
Labor's FTTN plan looks an even smarter bet now.
There's a lot to digest in Newsweek's seven-page all-out feature. Jeff Bezos sum it up: "This isn't a device, it's a service." Kindle starts shipping tomorrow for $399 and is "a perpetually connected Internet device "running off of EV-DO—it calls the service "Whispernet." It's totally computer independent: You browse for books (88,000 at launch) and buy them in a "one-touch process," it comes with a personal Kindle email address and it can browse the regular internet—keyboard sounds useful now doesn't it?
AU: We'll keep an eye on whether this will be shippable to Australia on launch, or whether you'll need to find alternate means of purchase to get hands on quickly. I know I want one.
Our buddies at IGN have just run a comprehensive review of AG's RiffMaster Guitar Hero controller. The controller is the best looking we have seen, and does a lot to push our rock star credibility that little bit further.
You may recall that glowing Mountain Dew trick we showed you last month, and the debunking that Snopes gave the trick not long after that. Now here's a likable guy who gives us an amusing demo of what a fake that glowing Mountain Dew was, showing us how it just doesn't work. In fact, you don't even need the Mountain Dew at all to make a foamy liquid glow like a lightning bug. He even takes it a step further with an additional ingredient of his own in this entertaining demonstration. [VidZest]
Atiz has developed a device called the BookSnap, which allow you to accurately rip your books to PDF format. The product is aimed at the individual consumer, which is interesting given its $1595 price tag. Nevertheless, the method of its operation is rather clever, but the BookSnap does have one tiny flaw:
A recent lawsuit involving Verizon and Vonage has been settled, and Vonage has been ordered to pay Verizon $120 million due to patent infringements. The fine imposed on Vonage means they are edging closer to bankruptcy, with debts mounting to... Read More »
Those great guys at Rapid Repair have done the dirty and stripped the 8GB of all its sexy clothing. There does not seem an awful lot to take note of, except Microsoft has done a good job, tightly packing in all the Zuney innards. The Rapid Repair peeps were less than thrilled at the implementation of the Zune pad, which is actually much unlike a sanitary pad, as it is effectively irreplaceable. Other than that, it seems like this a standard take down, and there does not seem to be anything unexpected cropping up. Still, if naked Zune shots get you all frisky, hit the link for your fill. Following that, hit the councilor's for some much needed therapy—you weirdo. [Rapid Repair]
