It seems you can’t walk into a TV retailer this holiday season and not walk out with something extra. Toshiba’s the latest to join the craze, but rather than throwing a games console at you, they want you to have a new netbook.
That’s right, Toshiba will give you one of their new NB100 netbook if you buy one of their XV500 series LCD TVs, which come in 37, 42 and 46-inch screen sizes. The offer is valid between December 1 2008 and January 15 2009, but you must claim your netbook by January 29 next year to be eligible, and the offer’s only valid while stocks last.
Considering the NB100 is worth $799 RRP, this is the best value offer we’ve seen so far when it comes to TV bonuses. The question now is: “Will this sway you to buy a Toshiba TV?”
[Toshiba]
During my visit to Hong Kong, Brian showed me to a local design store called G.O.D. (Goods Of Desire), which kind of reminded me of a China kitsch-themed Urban Outfitters. When I get a chance to go back there, I’m definitely saving up some money for these laser mice, a Microsoft Arc and G.O.D. mashup. Man, could you even tell computer mice were in the picture? Fooled me at first glance!
Having a decent set of headphones is a must-purchase accessory when you buy a new MP3 player, but unless you’re entire music collection is in lossless Flac files or you have a home theatre setup worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, the latest AKG K702 headphones are probably slightly overkill for you. At $1,099, they’re targetted specifically at the high-end audiophile market, with a bandwidth from 10Hz to 39,800Hz and weighing in at 235 grams, they probably perform absolutely superbly, but most of us will never know.
Ever wonder what happens to old subway cars when subway lines upgrade to newer trains? In Beijing at least, the ones used pre-Olympics have been shipped to Sichuan and converted into temporary winter shelters. Ten DK-16 trains, each with six cars, are now in Guangyuan, a city north of Sichuan’s capital Chengdu.
One of the things that is holding back the Chumby in Australia, and something that will influence the review I’m working on, is the lack of Australian content. Almost every single widget available for the malleable internet companion is from the US, and while that means that you can have some cool content (you can stream Pandora radio through Chumby, even though you’re in Australia), it is kind of frustrating that there’s a dedicated widget for Gizmodo US, but I have to just use the RSS reader for Gizmodo Australia…
Fortunately, Internode has recognised this problem and is running a comp for developers to come up with local applications for the device. Even if you don’t own a Chumby, you can still test out your app at Chumby.com, making you eligible for the comp.
A Japanese company, Sosu, has recently revealed “healthy cigarettes,” a rechargeable battery-powered device that emits flavoured steam, complete with glowing LED lights. Unfortunately these cigarettes won’t actually help with those nicotine–you know, the addictive part–cravings.
The Gizmodo Gallery, which starts this week in NYC, is going to have voodoo. See, Blendtec, the guys responsible for those catchy videos of gadgets being destroyed aren’t just giving us one to give away as a door prize, but they’re setting us up with a demo model we can use to pulp our own gadgets with.
Good OS, who provided the $US200 Wal-mart PCs with gOS, will release a cloud-based version of the OS, the pragmatically named Cloud. Cloud runs a hybrid browser/linux kernel, offering quick startups and minimal lag.
It is astounding just how out of touch the music industry appears to be with the average consumer. When they’re not suing customers for copyright infringement, they’re trying to push another physical format down our throats – this time it’s albums on a USB stick.
The tech is known as DDA, and it comes with “online extras” to go with the physical product. Albums are identified by a card attached by a piece of string. On top of that, each stick comes with the proprietary DDA media player you’ll need to activate files from the USB, although the music can be transferred into iTunes easily and comes in both MP3 and WMA formats for your portable music player of choice.They’ll be available through HMV, Sanity and Virgin music stores.
For those of us who don’t remember life before the NES, Boing Boing uncovered a collection of vintage instruction manuals, ads, hang tags and more, which give us a glimpse of gadgets from the past.
