Computers
Eee PC Has A Kindle Mode?
Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 1:21 PM on February 9, 2008
Got a desire for the sold out Amazon Kindle? If you do your probably out of luck on actually getting one anytime soon. The next best thing might actually be an Eee PC in "Kindle" mode. By using FBReader in fullscreen and portrait mode, an Eeeph forum member turned his Eee into a Kindle imitator. Since FBReader is a free e-book reader for Unix and Windows computers this little Kindle tweak shouldn't be too hard to get you a multi-function e-reader out of the popular Eee PC. [Eeeph via EeeUser]


Polaroid is closing its last remaining film plants in Mass. so the oh so fun instant Polaroids will soon become a thing of the past. Well it's already a thing of the past, but this time it's serious since no more instant film will be produced.
Thinking about getting a pink iPod nano, but want the absolute pinkest piece of iPod money can buy? Balls-out pink lovers should try to scrounge up a 2nd gen nano, while someone looking for a subdued, less intensely pink experience can walk into an Apple Store and buy the latest
If Star Wars took place in Japan and Jedis were ninjas, this is what Stormtroopers would hunt them down in during the Great Jedi Purge. They're obviously smarter than the average clone, too, since they're too dumb and clumsy to wield katana. Created by artist Yoshi Isao and on display at Gift Show 2008 in Tokyo, Giz Japan brings us this follow-up to his rendition of Darth Vader as 


Just like bookmarklets in FireFox, these Springlets for the iPhone let you quickly search a site (IMDB, Google, Wikipedia) by pre-typing in the search term before you load the page itself. This saves you one page load per search from the home page, which at EDGE speeds could mean up about a 30-second time gain. [
Is the
Navistar's new flagship truck, the LoneStar, is a mobile geek mansion: Monsoon stereo system with 11 speakers, subwoofer and amp, a giant desk with swivel chairs, wooden floors, 42-inch mattress and a bunch of other unnecessary creature and gadget comforts, like Bluetooth. Update: Our greasemonkey brothers at Jalopnik sent over about a billion pictures of this Richie Rich big rig. 






I can't say I'm not jealous that Al at Sound and Vision for getting first domestic review of the upcoming Sony 11-inch OLED TV. The set has one of the highest price/size ratios ever, but it also pulls off one of the highest performances of any modern TV, too. Here are the particulars, in case you have an extra US$2500 to blow on a TV that'll look huge in your daughter's doll house.
Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? That's one of many, many questions that arose in my mind when I saw this art exhibit in France that's made up of 10,000 



Who didn't like Super Soakers as a kid? You pump it a lot, it builds pressure, then it shoots liquid. In many ways, they were very similar to humans, which is why Lonnie Johnson, its inventor, is looking for ways to use harvest waste heat from humans to power a tiny Johnson system. The full name is the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy System, and it could be up to 60% efficient (standard car engines are only about 30% efficient) at the right temperature.
Everyone knows how completely horrible the built-in iPhone speakers are for listening to music or talking on speakerphone, which is why this DLO Portable Speaker for iPhone is totally necessary. You can carry it around in a little oval pod when not in use, but when you want to get down with the teleconferencing, just open her up and splay her to either side of your phone. It's even got a little stand to prop up the iPhone, and the whole thing looks quite nice playing back music (it's shielded from the GSM buzz) with its black and silver motif. US$49 gets you one. [
Holland may soon be dotted with floating buildings as Dutch architects plan against global warming. The country is already 20 percent below sea level, and rising water levels are a concern. A flooded river is no threat to a floatable building with airtight foundations, and with slack built into electricity and water cables feeding it, the whole kaboodle can simply bob upwards. The gallery shows some building concepts, dreamed up by a company called Waterstudio, among others. Melting ice caps? Bring'em on. [








Only one consumer desktop—the Energy Star 4.0 Inspiron 531, but still a smattering of business wares, from notebooks to servers. [
9to5 Mac is reporting that Apple will have yet another event on February 26 in order to launch the iPhone and iPod Touch SDK, which will have native apps that reportedly offer Exchange and Lotus Notes support. And the best part is that updated MacBook Pros with Penryn and possibly the MacBook Air trackpad could also debut there.
Here is the new MacBook Pro 2008 in Photoshop mash-up wet dream form. Would we see something like this at the alleged—at least according to the usual rumourologists—special event at the end of February?
We uncovered the
Ewwww! Seriously, who would want to wrap their DS Lite in real snakeskin?
Nobody really knows what the future of human interfaces and gaming will look like, but Andrew Fentem—who went from working on classified missile systems to developing multi-touch human interfaces, kinetic surfaces and motion sensing technologies before almost anyone else in the planet—gave us a fascinating vision on where we are headed in this exclusive interview. Work like his Fentix Cube, a motion- and touch-sensing cube which can play Pac-Man among other games, have all the big companies taking notes. The videos speak for themselves.


Evergreen's new Genius Navigator 365 is described by the English translation of Impress as "a USB gamepad deformed laser mouse", and we couldn't agree more. The mouse is 1600dpi, the gamepad has eight buttons and a D-pad, and it sells for $36 (¥3,499). Be warned, of course, that you get what you pay for. [



A couple of new Blackberry patents have been unearthed that may or may not give us some hints as to what to expect in upcoming models. First up is a design for a phone with a screen that angles up, presumable for watching video when the phone is placed on a flat surface. The second patent is for a new LCD touchscreen technology.