Sure, you could just buy bottled water whenever you travel overseas to avoid the pleasure of spending your holidays bent over the porcelain because you brushed your teeth in the hotel’s bacteria-laden water supply. Or you can go the high-tech route.
The SteriPen JourneyLCD (which doesn’t at all sound like a permanent male contraception device) uses high-frequency ultra-violet light to kill off all those nasty bugs in your water. It can take a little bit of time to clean all the water, but thankfully the device features an LCD screen which comes up with a smiley face when your water is safe to drink.
Costing just US$130, and weighing about 140 grams, the SteriPen isn’t meant to replace filtration – if your water isn’t clear to begin with, the UV light won’t help much. But it does make it easy to ensure that your overseas holiday doesn’t involve a heap of snapshots of you with your pants down, crying like a baby.
We saw last week how Sony wanted to give you (or US customers, anyway) the option of dressing up your Vaio laptop in god-awful bright, lively colours.
Well, Australian customers now get a similar choice, except instead of “Leaf” or “Victorian Lace”, we get the very Crocodile Dundee-like “Lizard skin” finish as an option on Sony’s CR series of Vaio laptops.
The Lizard skin finish (which probably isn’t made out of real lizard skin) joins the other colour options of gold, red, indigo blue, black white and pink.
I wonder what made them opt for fake “lizard skin” over fake “snake skin”. I would have thought snakes would have been much more appealing. Maybe there’s some sort of awesome aphrodisiac qualities in fake lizard skin that Sony isn’t really promoting? If there was, I would totally get one. Otherwise I’m going to stick with my Mac…
[Sony]
Core, an iPhone Hacker with mad hacking skills, has managed to port to the iPhone a functioning P2P client based on Transmission, which is a popular torrent app for Macs. This is the first time P2P torrent software has run natively on the iPhone, and the prospect has us in tizzy fits of excitement.
Congratulations are in order for all of the Aussie entrants shortlisted in the inaugural Sony World Photography Awards. The SWPA aims to provide an unprecedented international platform in the culturally diverse field of photography and to continuously unearth the images of the future while giving tribute to the vision of the past. The competition was open to both Amateurs and Professionals for a variety of categories, ranging from architecture to science, music to photojournalism.
Giz would like to give a shout out to Evan Robinson, shortlisted in the Amateur Science category, and Professional entrants Penny Bradfield (Music/Performance), Paul Sleeman (Nude), and Steve Christo, David Gray and Ezra Shaw for their outstanding entries in the Sport category.
We all want to see a compatriot take out the $25,000 cash prize for Photograph of the Year and would totally rig the competition. But alas, the best we can do is wish them the best of luck and pray to Apollo/ Helios/your deity of choice that their works of art will take them over the line.
The shortlist was compiled by the World Photographic Academy, a judging panel of over one hundred of the industry’s elite, from a total of 25,934 amateur photograph entries and 44,641 professional photograph entries. Shortlisted entries will have the opportunity to have their work displayed with internationally distinguished photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, David Seymour and Robert Capa, in an exhibition curated by Magnum Photos.
Three finalists (tba) will be nominated in each Professional category, with all nominated finalists receiving free accommodation in Cannes along with VIP tickets to the SWPA formal events. The winners from each Amateur category (tba) will be exhibited in Cannes with the overall winner receiving a flight to and accommodation in Cannes for the Awards presentation.
So many people forget that there’s much more to Hi-Def than just picture quality. The ability to listen to the movie’s soundtrack in lossless 7.1 surround sound is just as important, unless you happen to be slightly deaf, I guess.
So now that Blu-ray has trounced HD DVD, expect to see more surround sound packages like this one from Pioneer. As part of the LX range of products, which includes the best plasma TV ever, the HTP-LX70 is designed to compliment Pioneer’s top tier products.
It will decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD codecs hassle-free, and thanks to its three HDMI inputs, will scale video to 1080p on its way to your TV. Each of the speakers pumps out 50W, and the unit is also compatible with Pioneer’s iPod dock.
The setup will set you back $2,999, which isn’t bad considering it gives you pretty much everything you need to enjoy lossless surround sound. Now all you need is a full-profile Blu-ray player to go with it.
[Pioneer]
Intel has decided to simplify their low-power 45nm chipsets for ultraportables with sexier, more car-like names. The technology formerly known as Silverthorne and Diamondville, from this day forward, shall be known as “Atom.” And Menlow products shall be known as “Centrino Atom.”
After Paramount’s remaining HD DVD schedule (to be generous) came out, we hit up Universal to see what their roadmap looked like. Unfortunately, it looks to be just as barren. Here’s the response we got: We have Atonement available on HD DVD March 18th—we have not announced anything additional.
Iron Man New Full Trailer Shows Why It’s Going To be The Best Hi-Tech Superhero Movie EverThe preview trailer didn’t do much for me, but this one has me quite excited.
SkyWalker 12-Foot Tall Bicycle Probably Requires Jedi AbilitiesI think what we’ve failed to find out here is why?
Time Capsule ArrivesBacking up gets the Apple makeover.
iPhone SDK Detail Rumours: No Accessory Support, iTunes-centricFine by me. Just launch the thing in Australia so I can enjoy them!
XPeria X1 Delayed Until 2009I blame Windows Mobile.
This image from a Circuit City advertisement seems to show the iPod nano dressed up in yet another sickening colour—this time deep purple. The advertisement was spotted in a circular today, but we have not seen it for ourselves. Has anyone glimpsed a shot of the picture in question? And do we really need purple to add to the list of nauseating colours the iPod nano already comes in? We’ll let you know as soon as we hear any official word on the potential update. [Connection Podcast]
