Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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Oversized Shower Head Lets You Pretend the Star Trek Transporter Room Has Sprung a Leak
11:25PM Addy Dugdale | Italian bathroom manufacturer Zuchetti has brought out a 20-inch shower head for an altogether phatter bathroom experience. With 400 nozzles, the XL has all sorts of different spray effects and there’s even a model with LED lights, for the full-on Transporter experience. [Trendir via Luxury Launches] More »
Announcements
io9 Launches Today Like Hulk Out of a Phone Cabin
11:11PM Jesus Diaz | Oh, Annalee Annalee, let us count the ways we love you! First, because you are the editor of io9, our new sister blog on science fiction, double feature, oh oh oh. Second, because you bought good old Ferrigno’s Hulk on DVD. Third, because you did a post about a scene on which Banner turns into Hulk after getting excited by a phone company operator in a bad, not-green way (I had wished that so many times myself.) Fourth, because you mentioned “lady trucker friend” and “Lily Tomlin” in the same phrase… I could go on and on, but I won’t waste any more time: Gizmodians, head to io9 for a wonderful world of science fiction, where everyone goes around in tin foil underpants or no underpants at all. [io9] More »
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How To Do Matrix-Like Bullet Time Video at Home
10:15PM Jesus Diaz | Head to Instructables for a tutorial about how to do your own spectacular Matrix-like ghetto Bullet Time videos for those lovely OMG-grandma’s-is-frozen-in-time-and-space moments. Using nothing more than wood, tubes, a whole lot of digital point-n-shots, one external shutter trigger and a box full of relays, you will be able to play Neo in the hood, but without red pills, white rabbits and black shiny latex. Or maybe with all that too. Although Bullet Time is a patented process, nothing stops you from preparing such a device for your own use. It doesn’t have to be as complete as the one in the tutorial and since old digital cameras are a buck-a-piece on eBay, it won’t break the bank. More »
Gadgets
Digital Messaging Light Switch Cover the First of 2008’s WTF Products
10:09PM Addy Dugdale | Parrot’s light switch cover with a built-in speaker to relay the digital message of your choice makes me long for a product Banhammer, a hefty blunt instrument with which I can bludgeon pointless gadgets to death, entertaining myself and sustaining plastic splinters in the process. Record your 20-second message and then flip either light switch to play it back. Costing about $15, the good thing is you get four free screws with it. [WorldStart via OhGizmo!] More »
Vehicles
CarCapsule Will Not Help You Swallow Your Car Whole
9:05PM Haroon Malik | The CarCapsule is rather self explanatory—it’s a capsule for your car. Given the $US269 price point for an 8-foot version, or $US419 for the 22-foot version, we’re guessing you’ll be wanting a pretty nice car that would be worth the fuss of setup, as well as the cost of mass, super tough PVC. If you have a Ferrari, you’re probably wondering how it works. Wonder no more: More »
Gadgets
Helly Hansen Apparel Keeps You Warm When the World Will Not
8:30PM Haroon Malik | Helly Hansen’s Odin project is the name given to their newly completed, technologically advanced apparel system. The range, which will include various garments for extreme climates, incorporates the Odin PCM Soft-shell. The end result of the development is automatic temperature control, and we think that is promising an awful lot. Given our tendency to have reptile like responses to varying weather conditions, a fabric that is able to store heat and only release it when the external temperature falls drastically, sounds like the answer to our clothes based prayers. The Odin PCM Soft-shell fabric promises exactly that. More »
Gadgets
Celestron Digital Microscope Rocks Digital Screen and 2-Megapixel Camera
8:25PM Addy Dugdale | A sub-$US300 microscope with 3.5-inch digital screen and built-in camera is being launched at CES 2008 next week. Celestron’s LCD Digital Microscope has three magnification levels of 4x, 10x, and 40x, as well as a 4x digital zoom and a six position color filter wheel. There’s 128 MB storage memory, plus an SD card slot. Full specs are below. More »
Software
Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 Hits January 15 with $US150 Home Version
7:00PM Wilson Rothman | There’s no better sign of Microsoft’s increasing acceptance of the Mac population than the latest version of Office for Mac 2008, the first Office with native support for Intel-based Macs. Like its Mac-side predecessors, this Office has its own interface and tools, many which aren’t found on the PC. But whatever you use to create your PowerPoint presentation or Word doc, it will be 100% compatible with the 2007 PC Office edition. We’ve known it was coming for a while but now it’s officially en route, hitting most retail outfits on January 15th at three key prices. We’ve been playing with the beta for a few weeks, too, and so far it’s a smooth ride. More »
Phones
Redfly Mobile Companion is the Palm Foleo For Windows Mobiles
4:00PM Jason Chen | Remember the Palm Foleo? This REDFLY Mobile Companion is just like that, except it’s for Windows Mobile phones. The MC looks like a small 8-inch screen laptop (styled in Famicom colours), has a keyboard and touchpad, but weighs 860 grams and measures 9×6x1-inches. The point of this? To hook up to your Windows Mobile phone via USB or Bluetooth in order to “extend the smartphone platform to a larger display, keyboard, and mouse”, essentially what the Foleo was trying to do. More »
Computers
