OLPC should be snagging mad coverage over at Valleywag, they’re generating tabloid headlines like it’s their mission lately (so tame!). The latest: After joining OLPC following its bitch fight with OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte over its Classmate competitor, Intel is now out the door. And it’s apparently because Negroponte has some deep-seeded jealousy issues.
Jalopnik’s got an extensive guide to the ins and outs of talking while driving. The map above covers the basics, but legalese on earpiece and city rules are explained fully over at [Ray Wert's Big Wheels Blog]
As the winner of the U.S. Army’s $286 million “unmanned surge” competition, the PacBot 510 with FasTac Kit designed by iRobot will soon be in charge of protecting the lives of our soldiers on the battlefield. A noble occupation for sure, but it may have missed its calling as a master yoga instructor. Check out some of the poses iRobot engineer John Souliere managed to get this thing into during a demo with Wired. [iRobot and Wired] galleryPost('packbot', 2, '');
Mogo Wireless has announced a new cellular amplifier that helps users avoid bad signals and dropped calls in areas where service is lacking. The device promises a 10x signal boost using a device that can be plugged into a car power supply or into a laptop via USB. There is also an optional 12V to 110 adaptor accessory for home or office use.
Fans of the word “free” who just happen to have a landline and are too lazy to manually dial GOOG-411 will undoubtedly be thrilled with GE’s new lineup of DECT 6.0 phones. Thanks to a partnership between Thomson and Google, over a dozen of these new phones will have one-button access to Google’s free 411 voice-activated business directory. Prices will range from around $US50 to $US100 when the lineup is released this April. [Press Release]
We talked about this briefly in our review of Callpod’s Dragon Bluetooth headset, but the company (who also brought you the Chargepod) is coming out with a conferencing solution as well. Instead of hooking up two Dragon headsets directly to each other, you can connect a bunch of them through a Phoenix, which serves as a teleconferencing base without making everyone crowd around a table with a Polycom on it. In fact, people don’t even have to be in the same room—you could walk to the bathroom and take a leak and nobody would even know. [Callpod]
Mobile phones are everywhere —that is obvious. But many people insist on keeping that landline around for some reason or another (what’s up Mum!). So our burning question to you is: Do you still keep a landline or have you fully embraced the 21st century and ditched it. Inquiring minds need to know.
If you’ve been checking up on us in the past couple of days, you’ll notice that we’ve been doing big dumps of gadget posts all in a row, often from the same company. There’s a reason for that: embargoes.
You see, companies want their CES news to hit all at once—some of them before CES, some of them during CES, and some of them right during their press conferences. So stay tuned in the next couple days as embargoes are up and we’re free to talk about lots and lots of gadgets. You may want to refresh more often than usual.
The Emily Clock from designer Greg Wolos will soon go from concept to reality thanks to a simple twist that allows it to be mounted on a wall so that it can be easily read while lying in bed. Sure, you could criticize by saying that it would be easy to duct tape your current alarm clock to the wall and achieve a similar effect or pick up a projection clock if you happen to sleep on your back. But hey, the guy won a contest with this design—and he will make money off it. That makes it brilliant. [Moco Loco via DVICE]
If you were among those who ponied up the $779 to score a N95 8GB smartphone, you may be pleased to know that the most recent update appears to have improved the S60 browser to integrate Adobe Flash Lite 3. That means users can now enjoy in-line viewing of FLV videos and therefore full access to the YouTube library as it was meant to be seen. Unfortunately, the N95s multimedia keys can not control playback and the device is still friggin’ expensive—but hey, it is something. [Boy Genius]
