I love heights. I stare out the window for takeoffs and landings when I’m flying. I walk right up to cliffs edges when I’m bushwalking and look over the drop. If there was a job I could see myself doing other than writing for Giz, it would probably be a stunt pilot. But I would never do this. Ever.
Dinner in the Sky gets you and 21 of your mates or work colleagues, straps you into a swivel chair connected to a big-ass table, then hoists you up 50 metres from the ground while you eat a meal. Just don’t drop a steak knife onto unsuspecting passersby beneath you.
Waiters walk through the middle of the rectangular table to serve you food and wine. Which you’ll need plenty of, considering your chair practically hangs over the open air.
It’s not cheap – the whole thing starts at about 8,500 Euro, excluding VAT (about $14,100), with extras like photographers available. And if you’re going to drop that kind of cash on dinner, you’re going to pay the extra for a photographer, aren’t you?
The website has videos of people crazy enough to try this out, for those of you crazy enough to be interested in something like this.
[Dinner In the Sky - Thanks Ben]
newVideoPlayer("panasonicfreerunners_gizmodo.flv", 463, 387,"");We know most of you guys would prefer hot booth babes filling up our megapixels, but Panasonic’s above all of that sexyist mess. Instead, they gave us some freerunners hopped up on caffeine, rainbows and Abercrombie cologne running and rebounding like ADD children.
Tucked into a dark and tiny corner of the PMA showfloor is a revolution made by a small Korean company called Wooyoun: metal photographs that last for 20,000 years. These images depicting the Democratic US presidential frontrunners (and no Republicans) were chemically etched in a patented, print-like process—probably with stuff that gives improperly masked technicians some horribly debilitating ailment. They’ll last up to 1,000 years under the hot unforgiving sun. Hear that? Screw biodegradability. Put another way, that Hillary card you see in the gallery will outlast her reign by at least 15,000 years.
Digital photo frames were the spammiest product spam at CES, lurking around every corner with their crappiness so I still have a biley taste in my mouth. SmartParts’ efforts to pile crappy function atop crappy function with a built-in photo printer, unsurprisingly just amounts to one big crapgasm. On the front, it looks like any other generic frame, but peer behind its faux-elegant bezel and you’ll see some serious junk in the trunk.
I can’t say for certain how NASA comes up with its designs for lunar rovers, but my guess is that the LEGO Space system plays a big part in it. Today we’re looking at Chariot, a 12-wheeled space SUV designed in 12 short months specifically for a proposed 2020 moon landing.
Microsoft’s Office 2008 suite for Mac hit retail shelves yesterday, offering frustrated Mac users the ability to open up the new XML file types of Office 2007 without having to download an additional patch. But reader Jason has written in to tell us that within the next three weeks, Office 2004 for Mac users will receive an update that will allow the XML files to be opened natively, without the need to upgrade to the new software.
We’re waiting for Microsoft to get back to us to confirm or smash the rumour. But if your sole reason for upgrading to Office 2008 was XML support, then you may want to hold off for a few weeks.
[Office 2008 - Thanks Jason!]
Impressive. I didn’t think GE had it in them to meet the regulars of the camera world with popular features like smile detection, higher ISO support, and even a touchscreen, built-in GPS and blink detection. There are new low end A series, the slim G series, and midrange E series cameras, too. [BW]
Had enough of the heat? How about sitting in a snowy room where it is 10 degrees below zero? Now that is what I call relaxing. As stupid as this concept sounds, the “Snow Room” exists, and it was recently showcased in a Hotel Equipment Fair in Turkey. Plus, it will go on sale to all luxury hotels and spas starting this year.
It may not be the best compact digital video camera out there, but if looking like a mobile were a category that anyone cared about, the DV300T would be on top of the market. The 2-inch LCD screen, the 3.1 megapixel resolution, and the lack of an optical zoom are certainly drawbacks—but you do get 64MB of memory (with SD card expansion), voice recording, MP3 and eBook functionality. Hmmm, wait. That is still pretty lame. However, when a price is released, it should be fairly cheap. That is a plus! [Mustek via OhGizmo]
That very unlikely joint Dell/Google announcement rumour that popped up yesterday? It’s false, says GearLog, who confirmed with Dell that they wouldn’t even BE at 3GSM this year. [Gearlog]
