Thursday, January 10, 2008
Software
US: Mac Office 2008 Now Available for Pre-Order
10:16PM Jesus Diaz | The all-new, fully Intel-native and long awaited Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X, is finally available for order at the Apple Store. While it won’t ship until next week, during MacWorld, you can get reserve your copy now. [AppleStore - Thanks Jorge] More »
Screens
Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen is Pure Magic
10:00PM Charlie White | Good lord, look at this Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen that’s motorised. Carry it around with you, make it rise with its magic motors, and impress all those superficial suits on your next presentation road trip. Or, keep it right at home, take off that easily-removed handle, and it looks like it’s a permanent installation. Available by June, your choice of either an 84″ or a 100″ diagonal screen will set you back $US2000. Screen sizes up to 150″ are planned. More »
Gadgets
Steampunk LEGO TIE Fighter vs X-Wing Shows Fascinating Vision
9:36PM Jesus Diaz | This TIE Fighter, and the X-Wing after the jump, is what happens when you put together Star Wars, LEGO and steampunk in the title of a contest. That and a collective geekgasm. Truth is, as fun as the official Star Wars LEGO models are, home-made models like this steampunk TIE Fighter have a charm that the former can’t achieve. The most amazing thing, however, is the source of inspiration for some of these: More »
Gadgets
Reactrix WAVEscape Feels Like Invisible Wii, Is Nearly As Fun
4:00PM Wilson Rothman | In Samsung’s booth there’s a 57″ display with a Star Trek-like visor above it. The visor, called WAVEscape by Reactrix, contains a camera that can track your motion and distinguish it from the person next to you and all of the other people in the room, allowing you to use natural motions to interact with things on the screen: spin a globe, spike a volleyball and yes, punch a panda. Come on, you know you would if you could. Video by Curtis Walker [Reactrix] More »
Gadgets
Eyes On the Mitsubishi HC4900U, Cheapest 1080p Projector in the World
1:02PM Charlie White | How much 1080p projector can you get for $US1,995? We took a close look at the Mitsubishi HC4900U, selling for $US2495 with a $US500 rebate until the end of this month (but company reps whisper that might go on indefinitely), and are happy to report that you get your money’s worth with the lowest-priced 1080p projector in the world. Let’s tote up the good and the bad. More »
The CES 50-Babe Battle: Booth Babes vs. Regular Babes
12:32PM Adrian Covert | I am not a fan of Booth Babes. That’s not to say that I’m not a fan of the female form, but I find being tricked into liking some mediocre gadget because a girl in a bikini top is standing next to it pretty insulting. And I feel bad for them, standing on the show floor for 15 hours a day, forcing smiles and being stared at like just another big TV on the wall. I do like pretty girls who have more going for them than being pretty, however, and there were plenty of them here at CES as well. The ones who came to CES to do non-booth-babe jobs, I guess. So what do you think, dear readers? Do you like straight-up eye candy or do you like a little more substance? We’ve had Nick McGlynn trolling the show floor all week getting photographic evidence of both booth babes and regular babes. Who wins in this oh-so-shallow battle of the galleries? More »
Entertainment
Rumour Smashed: Microsoft Is NOT Considering Blu-ray Support
11:46AM Matt Buchanan | With the HD DVD ship sinking fast in the fickle minds of press and public, the assumption is that everyone left on board is lining up to jump. Reuters had a story that played like Microsoft—one of HD DVD’s biggest backers—is on the verge of doing so, based on a quote from Albert Pennello, marketing manager for Xbox hardware. Let us count the ways he told us in a sitdown that the story was wrong, and when HD DVD really is buried in Microsoft’s mind. 1. The “headline misconstrued the context of what I said.” 2. Microsoft is “not thinking about it.” 3. It is “fairly definitive” Microsoft is not doing it. 4. Microsoft has “no plans” to build anything Blu-ray. 5. Microsoft is “totally committed to HD DVD.” More »
Gadgets
iBuddy Brings Cyberspace IM Emotes into Meatspace
10:54AM Jason Chen | The Availbot was a neat prototype, but this i-Buddy we just saw takes instant message emote representation to the next level. It’s a little MSN guy with MSN-ish wings that hooks up via USB to your computer. When one of your pre-specified MSN buddies signs on, the little monarch man blinks its lights, flaps its wings or twists its body in a way that can only be described as incredibly spastic. Best of all, it can recognize up to eight different emotes and act accordingly, meaning you can gauge your sig-other’s mood at you ignoring her IMs all the way from across the room because you are tired and at CES and don’t have time to talk. More »
Gadgets
Hands-On Proposal Part II: The Ring Mouse
10:44AM Mark Wilson | Things didn’t go so well yesterday, but today is a new day! And while perusing the International Pavilion, I came across the Ring Mouse. Impressions: Even on one knee, the Ring Mouse is both surprisingly comfortable and convenient (it’s more than a novelty, for sure). The trackball is extremely sensitive, but we’d love to see a buttonless TouchPad version of the device. The Verdict: Let’s just say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. More »
Screens
