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Gearlive is showing off some convincing screenshots of the new iPhone firmware 1.1.3. Arn over at Macrumors thinks they seem like functions Apple would do, even if the features don't line up with previous rumours:
Website XboxFamily.com dropped a rumour this week that peripheral maker Gyration is developing a motion-sensitive add-on for the existing Xbox 360 controller. Microsoft has yet to utter a word regarding this rumour, but could the Big N have finally ruffled Microsoft's feathers? [XboxFamily via Next-Gen via Kotaku]
Wii modchips have been around since the start of the year in one form or another, but some folks at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress just demoed a new Wii hack that lets them have full access to the console, including all the hardware. By using a custom serial interface, they were able to grab access to the encryption and decryption keys during runtime by doing memory dumps. Don't worry about the details if you're not sure what's going on, just know that you're going to be able to run even better homebrew and "backup" Wii games in the near future. [Nintendo Scene via WiiNintendo]
Imagine drinking copious amounts of alcohol, all while staring at this "waterfall" optical glass bar designed by Tokujin Yoshioka. You would be heading to the bathroom every 15 minutes. In reality though, no actual water is used. The effect is created using an optical glass block that is crafted in such a way that it gives the impression of flowing water. An interesting design concept for sure, but if I were a bar owner I would think twice about installing it. Water bills can be a bitch. Additional image after the break.
Our buddy Ramon of modding fame has been busy lately, with the Rockstar Wii mod following up a long procession of mods anybody would be glad to call their own. This latest mod was comissioned specially for Kevin Smith, and features the four main characters from Clerks. Not only is the console itself really "Clerksy", the Nunchucks have "Kevin Smith" and "Silent Bob" engraved on it so his wife knows which controllers are his.
While we're just now struggling to get credit cards that pay wirelessly, Korea's already moved on to the next stage and made their credit card USB-compatible. Not only can you wave this thing in front of a register like Harry Potter trying to Wingardium Leviosa Hermione's dress, you can plug this into your computer to make online purchases as well. It saves you the trouble of either remembering your CC number or fetching your wallet every time you want to buy a copy of, say, an iPhone book on Amazon. Korea: not just the place where red hot world cup ladies come from anymore. [etnews via The Raw Feed]
The Associated Press just reported that the FAA is now banning all Lithium batteries, meaning you can't travel with extra batteries for your laptop or digital camera. Outrage of outrages! The problem is, they're wrong. The FAA is now banning Lithium Metal batteries; the Lithium Ions that power a good chunk of your gadget collection is still A-OK as long as you take them on board in your carry-on and not in checked luggage. You probably don't have many big, non-rechargeable Li-Metal batteries kicking around, and if you do I doubt you're all that worried about traveling with them. Now that that's settled, let's move on with our lives, shall we? [Boing Boing and NY Times]
Not all of us like fitting a DSLR in our pants when we go on vacation, which is why DigitalCameraInfo's best point-and-shoot cameras is useful for just about everyone. They graded on different criteria, with the Fuji F50fd taking the prize in resolution, the Sony T100 in least image noise, the Canon A570IS in color accuracy, the Sony H7 in low light and the Canon S5 IS in video. There's no one camera that dominates more than one spot, so it's mostly up to you and where you'll snap pics to decide which P&S to buy. It's too bad DCI didn't rate how well these cameras can fit into a pocket, which is as important as anything else they tested for. [DigitalCameraInfo]
Toiling away in a cubicle all day can be boring during a slow holiday week, believe me —I know. So it is no surprise that employees will often turn to office toys in an attempt to get to 5pm without doing any actual work. Sounds like a great idea, but you had best stay away from the gadgets below unless you have an extremely cool boss, you are the boss, or you hate your job. Because you cant have any cubicle fun when you are spending your days doing deplorable things in alleys for cash.
• A new law in New Jersey willl ban internet sex offenders from the web. But then who will read Gizmodo? [The Register]
• AOL will discontinue development of the Netscape browser early next year. RIP Netscape, you were the original IE alternative. [TechCrunch]
• Once upon a time, Google went by the name BackRub. Yuck. [Valleywag]
• A line of Hello Kitty clothing for men will go on sale in Japan next month. If you're looking for me, I'll be scraping my eyes out with rusty nails. [AP]
Unlike yesterday's unquestionably, uh, questionable 64GB and 128GB USB Micro Vaults, this solid-state disk is as real as the subject of any press release. It's a 32GB drive that slides right into that mostly unused little ExpressCard 34 slot on your newish laptop, and could very well make you oh-so-happy by holding, oh, say, your entire OS. How about a speedy flash-based boot up? The US rep says it works with Vista and supports Windows ReadyBoost. He also says that as a low-power drive, it could boost your battery life. The release that you can see below is an announcement for production and not for retail, but we have connected with the company, and in spite of the funky shot above, this appears to be a go.
So, you wasted some hard-earned money on bought an Amazon Kindle. Good for you! Now that you have one, it's time to exploit the crap out of it. I'm talking, of course, about easter eggs, otherwise known as functionality that should be available to everybody in the first place. Yes, there's Google Maps access with triangulation locating! Minesweeper! A picture viewer! And more!
Derrik Wang wants to make sure you never break open your piggy bank just because you're trying to scrounge up some beer money by making his piggy bank nauseatingly authentic. Not only do pig guts spill out when you break open the bank, the insides are rendered with blood as well, making sure you will only ever retrieve the money when it's completely necessary—when you're in the mood for pork. [Yanko Design]
Info is sketchy thus far, but Nikon lovers will be interested to know that the next lower-end digital SLR from the company might be called the D60, and reportedly will make its debut in Spring, 2008.
Most of that assertion about the upcoming DSLR seems to be derived from reading the tea leaves of a Nikon website saying orders for the positively-reviewed D40x (pictured above) have been halted, raising speculation that this is the model that might be replaced by the D60. Either that or Photography Bay is just making things up.
Beyond that, we'd like to know what features might be included in this alleged D60. We're rooting for a Live View viewscreen, for one thing. [Photography Bay]
We seldom find a use for wearing a Bluetooth headset on our ear when we're not making calls, but this Wendy's employee has found one of the only three valid exceptions. It all started when a potential robber went up and asked the two employees at local Wendy's to open up a safe when one of the employee's phones went off.
The robber shouted at the employee not to answer the phone, not knowing that the Bluetooth headset was voice-activated and turned on when shouted at. The person on the other end of the line was able to hear the shouting and call the police, who eventually got the guy to release his hostage (but not before ramming his gun own into his forehead until he bled). Long story short, Bluetooth headsets saved the day. [Dispatch]
If you're too lazy to walk a few steps but still want your dog to get a workout, this Fit Fur Life $US1400 dog treadmill lets you get some vicarious exercise, courtesy of Fido's four feet. We're not quite understanding why this is so expensive (other than its maker calling it "the best dog treadmill in the world"), because we've seen a couple of these treadmills before for much less. We're just wondering, unless your dog is one of those really smart, well-trained and obedient types, how on earth are you going to get him to walk on this thing, especially when you scare the bejeezus out of him by "controlling the terrain?" [Neatorama, via Born Rich]
The cheap and the unlucky who didn't get anything from Apple for Xmas this year (that'd be us) will be happy to know that MacMall is holding a sale on just about all their stock from now until the end... Read More »
A small part of this magic teaspoon's handle is made of Nitinol, a special metal that can remember its shape. That little fact lets you play some crazy tricks, because when you heat it up, it bends to that shape that you bent it into before. So if you put this in your tea, for example, it suddenly and mysteriously starts bending. Run cool water on it, and it moves right back where it was before. This might be great for some of those Uri Geller spoon bending tricks, except this one does all the bending on its own. You better be pretty serious about this, though, because it costs $US50.38. [Grand Illusions, via Red Ferret]
We've been lucky enough to live most of our lives in areas that have central heating, so we don't quite have the experience of having an ugly radiator sitting in our rooms. For those of you who have, this harp radiator is just the thing to make your place that much more classy while at the same time providing a net zero musical gain over having a real radiator. Wait, we take that back—you can beat on this with a hammer and play it like some sort of upright xylophone. A xylophone that has a remote control and color-changing LED, that is. [Carisa via Trendir via dvice]
While sifting through the umpteenth Tech Products of 2007 lists, we stumbled upon this Yahoo! Tech list that contains most of the usual suspects, except one of the entries interested us: Voted one of the 10 worst tech products of 2007 were Pear Audio "Anjou" speaker cables, those pieces of wire that cost $US7,250 and that one reviewer inexplicably called "dancable". Yahoo referred to our report earlier this year that moved James Randi to offer $1 million to anyone who can tell the difference in a double-blind test between those cables and some run-of-the-mill Monster cables. Alas, while there was lots of talk and bluster, it turned out that Pear Cable wouldn't offer its cables for testing, and nobody was fool enough to spend the $7250. Certainly not us. See Yahoo's list on the next page.
When you read Amazon's Best of 2007 sales, ratings and wishlist figures straight down the line, they look pretty plain, but when you compare, say, Bestselling with Most Loved, though, you learn some funny stuff. Although Apple's MacBook Pro notebook was the most favourably rated computer, Nokia's N800 Internet Tablet outsold it while the cute little Asus Eee PC was most wished for. Only Nintendo swept all slots in its category: the Wii was the bestselling, best reviewed and most wished for product, while Super Mario Galaxy was the most popular gift. Here's our breakdown, followed by the complete list for your perusal:
Out of all the Wii Gun accessories, we can safely say that this is the sharkiest. If you can't tell how this works at a glance, you stick in your Wiimote on the top, then hook up your Nunchuck via the shark's ass. If you can deal with the fact that you're pointing a fish at a screen in a game that doesn't involve fishing or shooting fish in any way, this $US10 shark gun is actually not a bad deal. [Dealextreme via Kotaku]
HP is cranking out some smoking workstations these days, and the latest Intel Xeon quad core processors, affectionately known as the Harpertown chips with 45-nanometer Penryn technology inside, take Windows performance to the next level. HP shipped us the fastest workstation they could muster, with two of those quad core processors for a total of eight cores, along with a 15,000 RPM SAS (Serial-Attached SCSI) drive on two separate disks, one with Windows XP and the other with Windows Vista, plus a 250GB SATA drive for applications. We opened the box, ran a bunch of benchmarks and our jaws promptly dropped. How much workstation can you get for $US8,551? Join us for the smokefest.
Nothing except a 2nd-gen iPhone with GPS and 3G would make us happier than if Steve pulled out this invention at MacWorld 2008 next month. This patent, which details a cashless payment system via the iPhone, will allow people to order stuff on their phones via Wi-Fi, pay for it, and skip everyone in line that doesn't have an iPhone. It's like calling ahead to place an order, except you have to wait at the store and you don't have to talk to anybody. Great for the type of person who enjoys being in the company of other people but not communicating with them in any way. [Forbes - Thanks for the image, Zatz!]
Just when we were thinking there weren't quite enough people who could draw faces, along comes a robot created by researcher Sylvain Calinon that can sketch a workmanlike likeness of someone within its field of vision. See the courteous contraption doing its dirtywork in a video on the next page.
We wonder why the robot's handlers insisted on using a pen that must be dipped in an ink well. But that's one polite robot, saying thank you to its slavemaster. One thing we can say for its artistic ability: It can certainly draw straight lines for the frame. We'd like to see what an artistic robot will be able to do 10 years from now, though. [Technabob]
While we love touch surfaces in Gizmodo, as people who type hundreds of thousands a word each week we know that there is a limit to them: keyboards. Like this Optimus Tactus, an extruded shape/touch surface/keyboard concept by Art.Lebedev. We really like the soon-to-be-released Optimus keyboard Art but, seriously, how often do you type in your computer? Artists, musicians and video editors would like something like this... however, there are LCD tablet displays and Tablet PCs in the market already and these people are not flying to get them. There is the issue of the price, as well: by the time this could be a commercial reality coming from China via Moscow, touch computing from Apple and Microsoft would be so ubiquitous that it won't make sense anymore. [Art.Lebedev]
When
I learned about Costco's money-for-gadgets recycling program, I
got excited. I calculated estimates for some old gadgets lying
around my apartment, and I started looking forward to the $US122
bonus that would surely come my way in time for the holidays.
Nearly two months later, the estimate has been revised to $US50, and
I'm still waiting for the gift card. I can safely report that the
truth was not nearly as good as the promise. Here's what I've been
through so far:
Those geniuses at DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm, are hard at work on a new nasal spray that could make sleep obsolete. It's called Orexin A, and just a couple snorts of it could allow you to be awake and alert for tens and tens of hours straight with no negative side effects.
There's no shortage of charging stations, but this $US49.95 Five Device Recharging Station that starts shipping next week looks especially orderly with its differently-sized places at the ready for your various devices. There's four AC outlets, and even two USB ports from which you can gather juice. And, it's all shielded from electro-spikes with a built-in surge protector. Put it on a ledge next to the door. This one might be as handy (and quite a but neater) than the Chargepod, and might hold us until we can get our hands on that one of those Wild Charge wireless charging stations after which we've been lusting. [Hammacher Schlemmer, via 7 Gadgets]
Half DJ and musician, half avant-garde artist, all geeky engineer, André Fernandes Avelãs is the daddy of the Headphones art project. On display in Stavanger, Norway, the installation consists of 500 pairs of earbuds tied together electronically and controlled by a mixer to create a controlled cacaphony of mind-altering sound. 960 of the little buds are speakers, collectively pushing buzzing sounds around the room, while the remaining 40 buds act as microphones to fuel the feedback loop. "Another unpredicted but welcomed sound source was some white noise from a fucked-up amplification circuit I built," says Avelãs. After the jump is a photo of the final project; we've asked about getting an audio or video sample to make the experience complete. [Make; André's Flickr Gallery]
Remember the retired Indian Airlines engineer whose stationary airplane parked in his backyard was pulling in the punters? Well, Reuters toodled off to Delhi to clock Bahadur Chand Gupta's Airbus 300 experience for themselves, alongside a bunch of underprivileged kids who are flying for free. Anyone who scoffs at the idea, just check out the testimony of a 16-year-old passenger. "Today, my life's dream is fulfilled." Gupta's wife, who plays flight attendant, and guides the kids down the emergency chute (see? Loads better than flying for real) says of the experience, "Their happiness gives me the utmost pleasure." [LiveLeak]
We don't normally go driving around with helium balloons in our cars, so we weren't aware of this strange phenomenon: The dang things go the wrong way when you accelerate and turn! Besides that, we find something likable about the explainer, Robert Krampf, the friendly scientist who seems like the kind of guy from whom you wouldn't mind receiving a balloon or two. [Experiment of the Week]
While I desperately could use a new car (OK, it's fine and I barely drive, but my ego could certainly use it), I have a hard time buying into any technology in the auto market. Gas prices are only getting worse (as we run out of the stuff) and hybrids are a bandage where we need stitches or maybe an amputation. But for those who missed our original article, the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car drives like a dream, emits nothing but water vapor and can be leased by real people to actually drive. It's a viable product...but only 100 are on the market.
In Japan, even with their 500-foot mechs and supercomputer cellphones, some people are craving Apple's smartphone. One fanboy went so far as to transfigure their Sony Ericsson Walkman W52S slider to...is "resemble" being too generous?...an Apple iPhone. From it's horribly scuffed face to the hammered-on metallic edging, it's confirmed. We need to get Japan some iPhones before this guy cuts his ear on a sharp piece. Here are two more pics for your enjoyment: