Monday, December 17, 2007
Gadgets
London Cab Driver Takes on Sat-Nav—and Beats It By 27 Minutes
11:25PM Addy Dugdale | The BBC pitted the wits of a black cab driver against the latest GPS technology in an effort to find out whether man or gadget rules the mean streets of rush-hour London. And, in a result that will not surprise TomTom-challenged Londoners one bit, although the TomTom GO 720 won the first round, Andy the cabbie completely p0wned the Sat-Nav. More info below. More »
Phones
10:47PM Gizmodo US Edition | According to Wired’s sources, while all developers will get the iPhone SDK in February, some “big ones” may already have it in their hands now, readying applications to “whet developers’ appetites” (as if they needed any whetting) and tell Gizmodo to TFSU. [Wired] More »
Robots
Make Your Own Cheapo Android, Comes Complete with Jealousy Software
10:17PM Addy Dugdale | This one is going out for all the lonely people this Christmas time. Using a styrofoam head and a few other ingredients, such as a webcam, microphone, speakers, LCD screen and LED lights, you can make this rather scary-looking android to keep you company at home, scaring off all your lady-friends in the process. All this for an outlay of just $35, eh? [Instructables] More »
Gadgets
Teeny-Tiny Advent Calendar Has No Nano-Chocolates
10:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | What do you do if you’ve got the resources of a university nanotechnology group and time on your hands in the run-up to Christmas? Build the world’s tiniest Advent Calendar, of course. The 8.4 x 12.4-micron calendar was carved into a layer of acrylic on a gallium-arsenide wafer after normal clean-room business was done for the day. “We just wanted to have a nice picture of Christmas on our home page,” claims the team. More info after the jump. More »
Phones
Au Claims Its W61SH Widescreen Mobile has a 2000:1 Contrast Ratio, We Say, ‘Blimey It’s Pink’
9:14PM Addy Dugdale | Au, the people who brought us the rather sexy Infobar 2 has brought out a high-res widescreen phone in Japan that it claims has a 2000:1 contrast ratio. Manufactured by Sharp, the hot-pink number has a 2.8-inch Acquos screen, 240 x 400 resolution and this rather crazy 2000:1 contrast claim. More »
Computers
Toshiba Releases First HD DVD-RW Laptop in Japan for Christmas
8:45PM Addy Dugdale | Toshiba has upgraded its 17-inch Qosmio G40 laptop and its smaller brother, the 15-inch F40. The two laptops, the G40/97E and the smaller F40/88EBL now sport HD DVD-RW drives as opposed to HD DVD-R, and will be released in Japan on December 21. While the G40 has a 400GB hard drive and Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2 GHz) CPU, the F40 has 200GB and a Core 2 Duo T7250 (2 GHz) CPU. The G40 also has a Maxx-Audio four-speaker system from Harmon-Kardon and an integrated subwoofer. Price is approximately $4,122 for the G40 and $3,091 for the F40. [Impress] More »
Software
Open Source locoGPS Module Coming to iPhone
4:30PM Adrian Covert | Part Foundry is currently working on a dongle that will bring the long-desired GPS feature to the iPhone. Branded as locoGPS, the device promises true GPS backed by open source software, but if the teaser video is any indication, it may not be the GPS experience you’re expecting. The photo you see above is only a concept design. In its current stage of development, the locoGPS is a rough piece of hardware that uses a slightly confusing toggle process to get GPS working on any Jailbroken iPhone (they are also in the testing phases for an iPod touch solution). More »
Gadgets
Dash Express GPS Video and Deets: True Traffic Reporting and Custom Maps for $599
4:00PM Wilson Rothman | The big news today is that the eagerly anticipated Dash Express is available for pre-order for $US599 with three months of free two-way GPRS information and traffic service. After that, the service will cost $10 to $13 monthly on top of that. Pricey to be sure, but the newly unveiled features solidify the Dash’s reputation as a turn-by-turn GPS navigator unlike anything seen before: More »
Entertainment
The New Dark Knight Trailer
1:44PM Mark Wilson | Some of you may have already seen this new trailer for The Dark Knight (Batman Begins II) in theatres this weekend, but it’s just hit the web. Here it is for your “behind closed doors” enjoyment. There’s a ton of new footage of the BatChopper (which is looking even better on film than what we’ve seen before). Also, what’s with that location of the Batmobile? Is that the new Batcave? More »
Gadgets
