Thursday, February 28, 2008
Gadgets
Night Before Christmas Mobile Light Comes Out 299 Days Early
11:59PM Addy Dugdale | I’m not sure whether this Night Before Christmas mobile night light will work for Tim Burton fans who are scared of the dark. Switch the US$21.99 light on and little silhouettes of Jack Skellington and his chums will glide silently across your bedroom ceiling all night long. The light, which looks like a crystal ball, runs on two AA batteries and is an officially-licensed product from Japan. [ThinkGeek] More »
Design
Wall-Mounted Zuse Toaster Turns—and Burns—Bread into Art
11:32PM Addy Dugdale | Who needs paintings when you have a Zuse? Attach the chrome toaster to the wall, feed a slice of bread through the slot and then, rather like an old-fashioned matrix printer, your toast comes out with a pixellated design burnt on the front, thanks to a library of images saved on its memory chip. The idea comes from Austrian design house Inseq, and it’s concept-only, I’m afraid. [ALBOTAS] More »
Design
Bamboo Cell is Degradable Concept, Pandas’ Phone of Choice
11:16PM Addy Dugdale | Dutch designer Gert-Jan van Breugel has come up with the idea of a degradable mobile. Remove the antenna, battery and print board, chuck the bio-plastic and bamboo body of the phone on the compost heap, and in a few weeks, bamboo seeds inside the phone will grow and turn your former communication device into a bamboo shoot. And when your bamboo gets big enough, you can hack it down, drill some holes in it and pretend to be Pan, prince of the hairy-legged satyrs, communicating with nymphs in your own special way. [Core77] More »
Computers
MacBook Pro First Benchmarks Are a Bit of a Disappointment
10:47PM Jesus Diaz | The first benchmarks on the new Penryn-based MacBooks are in. Primate Labs pitted the Meron-based 2007 models against them using the Geekbench tests, and the MBP 2008 2.4GHz model loses the battle against the MBP 2007 running at the same CPU speed. More »
Random Stuff
Isolation Tank Makes You Hallucinate, Get One Free, Become a Nutcase
10:30PM Jesus Diaz | “Comedian” Joe Rogan has got himself a new 7-foot tall isolation tank, and he is giving away his old one. This was created after the 1980s movie Altered States, in which the protagonist—played by William Hurt in his first role—uses it to get in touch with “ultimate reality.” Isolation tanks deprive you of your physical senses and, according to Rogan, they make you have hallucinations with no secondary effects or addiction. Sounds weird? Yes. That’s why we got deeper into this whole altered states thing. More »
Robots
REEM B Humanoid Service Robot May Give ASIMO A Run (Ok, Stroll) For Its Money
9:02PM Gizmodo US Edition | Spanish company PAL Technology’s ultimate goal is to develop a humanoid service robot, and REEM B is the latest prototype they’ve produced. The robot can navigate autonomously around buildings, identify and interact with people and objects and carry heavy weights. He may not be as nippy or sleek as Honda’s ASIMO—his top speed is just under one mile an hour—but he’s stronger than the latter, as you can see in the video. More »
Screens
Put on Your 3D Glasses for Samsung’s 3D-Ready Plasma TV
9:01PM Addy Dugdale | Korea is first port of call (well, it would be, wouldn’t it?) for these 3D-ready plasmas from Samsung. Available in two sizes: 42 and 50 inches, the PAVV Cannes 450 has a 30,000:1 ratio and 3D content support,, and will work with high-performance PC-supporting 3D software and 3D glasses. And there’s even a super-expensive, HD version, the Cannes 550. More info, plus another shot, below. More »
Computers
Apple Time Capsule Confirmed Shipping Now
9:00PM Jason Chen | Apple’s confirmed with us that Time Capsules are indeed shipping, meaning that you’ll be backing your Macs up wirelessly with Time Machine soon. And by soon, that probably means next week, since they’re only heading out of China this week. [Apple] More »
Screens
1:35PM Nick Broughall | We already know that Pioneer has decided to kill off its 42-inch plasma televisions, but if the rumours being circulated by SmartHouse are true, then we’ll soon see them release a range of LCD TVs.
The move makes sense – plasmas have never competed with LCDs in the smaller screen sizes, and with LCD growing in popularity every year, LCDs have become even cheaper to produce. On top of that, Pioneer’s recent alliance with Sharp (who will provide the LCDs, according to the report) would indicate that Pioneer were looking at expanding their TV lineup.
Pioneer will continue to sell Plasmas in the 50 to 60 inch sizes, and are even planning an 80-inch model, apparently. Hopefully they’ll all incorporate the awesome contrast technologies we saw at CES.
If the rumour is correct, we should expect the announcement to occur on March 7. We’ll keep you posted.
[SmartHouse] More »
Rumour: Pioneer To Sell LCD TVs?
1:35PM Nick Broughall | We already know that Pioneer has decided to kill off its 42-inch plasma televisions, but if the rumours being circulated by SmartHouse are true, then we’ll soon see them release a range of LCD TVs.
The move makes sense – plasmas have never competed with LCDs in the smaller screen sizes, and with LCD growing in popularity every year, LCDs have become even cheaper to produce. On top of that, Pioneer’s recent alliance with Sharp (who will provide the LCDs, according to the report) would indicate that Pioneer were looking at expanding their TV lineup.
Pioneer will continue to sell Plasmas in the 50 to 60 inch sizes, and are even planning an 80-inch model, apparently. Hopefully they’ll all incorporate the awesome contrast technologies we saw at CES.
If the rumour is correct, we should expect the announcement to occur on March 7. We’ll keep you posted.
[SmartHouse] More »
Toys
