Our friend the animated USB dog has returned, this time with more of a healthy G- rather than a rampant R-rating. Just plug him in, and watch him do sit-ups all day long. It may inspire you to head down to your gym, or perhaps find a bar because the sight of all that abdominal exercise has made you thirsty. Available for about US$14. [TFTS]
Designer Nuno Teixeira has redesigned the iMac, giving it a curved screen, second display at the back (not sure what that's good for—educating the mice who live behind the skirting board in the office, perhaps?) and a second webcam. Apparently, he was inspired by the wraparound Cinerama screens from the '50s. [Yanko]
I nearly labelled this four-port USB hub with digital alarm and seven-colour moodlight "just another boring Brando USB gadget." But on second thought, I decided I actually like it: if you're going to have a USB hub on your desk, why not combine it with some multicoloured LED goodness? Brighten up your dreary cubicle with some rainbow ambience, that's what I say! Okay, the clock part is dumb, since who has a PC that doesn't already display the time? But we can overlook that design error, can't we Brando-fans? This 76 x 76 x 25mm wonder is available for US$16. [Geekalerts]
Yamaha has brought out its 63 Series, five receivers for Home Theatre setups ranging in price from the US$229 RX-V363 to the RX-V863, which costs just under a grand. All of them (the other three are the RX-V463, the RX-V563 and the RX-V663) are iPod- and Bluetooth-compatible, and some of them have on-screen menu display, subwoofer inputs and Yamaha's YPAO automatic speaker setup. Full specs and prices are below the gallery.
Have you been waiting for a Sony Vaio range that will allow custom font selection for keyboard lettering? Well, the new Graphic Splash Expressions Collection is here to answer your prayers. Yes, you can finally choose the font of the keyboard lettering when you order—we're so excited. The lappies are available in various designs, including Leaf and Victorian Lace in either black, blue or pink colours. The entry level configuration includes Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, Windows Vista OS, wireless and Bluetooth, all for US$1279. Excuse us whilst we fall asleep. [Popgadget]
Sega Toy's new Body Trainer is a "medical entertainment" product, we kid you not, designed to guide you through your exercise regime. Taking account of your age, weight and so on, it advises you with spoken prompts along the lines of "Let's start warming up." It actually measures your heart rate with an earlobe clip, so it can tailor its advice and can even detect if you're slacking— you wont get a crazed Army drill instructor-style insult from it though, just a wimpy "please exercise a little bit harder."
I don't know about you, but any trailer that starts with the greatest gadget genius of all time having a morning whiskey on the rocks, while travelling through the desert in a Humvee to the beat of AC/DC's Back In Black, says to me: BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER. Which is precisely what you can see in the new Iron Man full trailer, along with everything you would expect Robert Downey Jr's perfect Tony Stark to do, from tinkering with his armor while mixing cocktails to playing with a multitouch holographic display to crashing through his amazing mansion on the edge of a cliff (Bruce Wayne is a wimp) to kissing the redheaded goddess that is Gwyneth Paltrow playing Virginia "Pepper" Potts, his personal assistant. Best quotes ever and poll, after the jump.
Looks like Microsoft is trying another push to get Vista Ultimate running as your OS of choice. The top-end operating system will receive a price cut from US$399 to US$319, while the upgrade version will now retail at US$219, a savings of US$40 on the original price. Vista Home Premium will also be dropped in price, from US$159 to US$129. If you were holding out, now seems like a good time as any to take the Vista plunge, or stick with XP SP3 because it kicks Vista-ass. Your call. Note: the Digg badge on this post corresponds to the original news' Digg. [News.com]
There won't be a soft transition to Blu-ray for Paramount—they're dropping their whole HD DVD release slate right this second. Their last two movies on the dead format hit Tuesday, even though we won't see Blu titles from them until this winter—that's months of lost $$$.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:03 PM on February 29, 2008
In a world where luxury phones generally means diamond encrusted or gold plated, it's refreshing to see a rather plain block of anodised aluminium in the form of the Mobiado Stealth. Wait a minute – what the hell are we saying?
The Stealth is a Tri-band GSM phone from fashionista Mobiado. Its front is made from a single piece of aluminium with a single piece sapphire screen and sapphire crystal buttons. The design is meant to reflect that of stealth bombers – hence the black shading and radar deflection.
There's support for up to 2GB of expandable MicroSD memory, push-to-talk, Bluetooth, USB, 2-megapixel camera and stereo speakers for "surround sound" using the built-in music player.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 1:38 PM on February 29, 2008
Posted by Nick Broughall at 1:13 PM on February 29, 2008
Sound and Vision has done their homework and finagled five tips that will help you get Uncle Sam to pony up for your home theater gear. Now, I'm no expert on these matters, but the advice seems to be viable—although making it happen is going to require a bit of work on your part.
AU: Not specifically relevant for Australians, but might be worth a read if you can make it work for you.
Hong Kong based WinWin Industry has just recently unveiled a product that combines a digital picture frame, webcam, and an alarm clock with temperature and calendar functions in a single, semi-portable device. It also features 8MB of memory, a built-in rechargeable battery, a 1.44-inch screen and a 300K pixel camera resolution.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 12:35 PM on February 29, 2008
The judge on the class action lawsuit against Microsoft for those Vista handi-capable stickers unsealed a bunch of super-juicy internal emails exchanged between Microsoft higher-ups (including Ballmer) on Vista's suckiness. They weren't oblivious to the fact that "Vista capable" machines were horrible—but they let it slide, according to exec John Kalkman:
"To help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with 915 graphics embedded."They even screwed HP to make Intel happy.
Pioneer is ending its production of 42-inch plasma displays, as the company hopes to focus all its attention on producing 50-inch models instead. Specifically, Pioneer will be closing the Kagoshima plant in Japan by March 2009, when it will then be put up for sale. So, if you're interested in a factory producing 42-inch displays, you're in luck. Pioneer will continue selling the smaller units, but will purchase parts from Hitachi to meet the demand for sub 50-inch plasmas.
Update: Pioneer has released an official statement, which also ties in to the rumours of them releasing LCD TVs. They say:
On Feb. 23, 2008, the Asahi newspaper carried out an article regarding Pioneer's plasma display business, in particular the news that Pioneer would be ceasing production of its 42 inch plasma TV.So I guess we'll see what's happening on the 7th March. I just hope they don't to withdraw from Australia...[Reuters]Please note that this article was not based on any announcement from Pioneer or an interview with the Asahi newspaper. Instead, this article was formed on the basis of the journalist's speculation.Following this news, there has already been plenty of international and local media innuendo as to what Sudo will announce on March 7th
Pioneer Corp has announced that on March 7th President Sudo will address the international media with a promising global announcement on the future of the business.
While its common in our industry for the media to speculate on upcoming global announcements, Pioneer has no further comment or announcement until March 7th.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:46 AM on February 29, 2008
When asked whether or not he viewed the upcoming PSP phone as a threat to the N-Gage, Nokia games head honcho Jaakko Kaidesoja responded thusly:
"I'm not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy."Is that the real question—or is it whether or not Nokia can do anything right and finally get a gaming platform off the ground? [Pocket Gamer]
The new Macbook Pro is not much of a bump up from its predecessors, but it is a step in the right direction. The addition of Multi-Touch is a great new feature, even on a touchpad that's smaller than the one on the Air. However, the Penryn-powered processor in this MBP is running at roughly the same speed as the last generation's chips, GHz to GHz, and give no good reason to upgrade from machines that are less than a year old. The most interesting point here is the boost in efficiency the now-pervasive LED backlighting and 45nm Penryn chips bring to the MacBook Pro, which together give an hour extra battery life over older models with CCFL screens and 65nm CPU technology. That makes this the most efficient Macbook Pro yet.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 10:41 AM on February 29, 2008
It just doesn't make sense. Ireland is getting the iPhone, courtesy of O2, as of March 14. That's two weeks away today.
For those of you not up to date with your geography and population statistics, According to Google, Ireland has an estimated population of 4,109,086 as at July 2007. Australia, on the other hand, has an estimated population of 20,434,176. That's roughly five times the population of Ireland, which in my head equates to roughly five times the number of iPhones Apple could sell if they hurried up and released the iPhone in Australia.
I know that it's all connected to the exclusive deal O2 had with Apple in the UK, but come on – I'm sick of waiting! Release it in Australia already, Apple!
<Ubergizmo>
Smart Target's Kiddo Kidkeeper Proximity alarm helps bring peace of mind to the parents of adventurous children using a wearable wireless transmitter. When a child has wandered out of a pre-set range, the transmitter will trigger a visual and audible alarm on the parent's receiver, prompting them to reel the kid back in.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 10:18 AM on February 29, 2008
The default Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headsets already look quite stylish for a Bluetooth headset, but these Yves Behar-created limited edition sets beat his originals by quite a bit. The white, brown and black headsets are smooth, unlike the pock-marked original design, and represent trash talk, sweet talk and dirty talk, respectively. We can't quite make out what the picture for sweet talk is supposed to be, but the dirty and trash talk are obvious. If we didn't already own a Jawbone for our in-the-car conversations, we'd nab one of these ASAP. [Fuse Project via Josh Spear via Yanko]
Sneakers hanging from telephone lines has long been an iconic image of urban life—which is why it inspired designers Peter Pracilio and Oscar Lopez to develop this Shoe Chandelier. Why they chose to make a light out of it is unclear, but it has a very compelling weirdness about it. The good news is that all signs point to this design becoming a real world product (in both chandelier and tabletop versions) sometime in the near future. Additional pic after the break.
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I don't know about you, but any trailer that starts with the greatest gadget genius of all time having a morning whiskey on the rocks, while travelling through the desert in a Humvee to the beat of AC/DC's Back In Black, says to me: BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER. Which is precisely what you can see in the new Iron Man full trailer, along with everything you would expect Robert Downey Jr's perfect 