I’m about to move home, and this sideboard by designer Sotirios Papadopoulos is going right on my dream-about-it furniture list. “A sideboard?” you say. Well, it’s simple and beautiful, in a very sciencey kind of way. The detailed luna surface is painted with a glowing paint Sotirios invented, called EcoLightInside since it’s apparently eco-friendly. Why’s it a dream-only item? It’s a limited edition of just 24, and while the price is unknown I suspect it’ll be astronomical. Shame: I’d already pictured myself dotting it with markers detailing the Apollo missions. [InventorSpot]
This is the PLC-XW60, the world’s smallest and lightest XGA LCD projector—according to its maker, Sanyo. Weighing in at just 3.6 pounds, the projector can beam a 1024 x 768-resolution, 100-inch image on a wall just nine to 11 feet away and is aimed at teachers and travellers. Find out what else the compact little blighter can do below.
newVideoPlayer("ironmantvspotz_io9.flv", 463, 387,""); Yeah. New Iron Man trailer. Shorter than the amazing full trailer, but with a few new seconds. Tony “Iron Man, it’s kind of catchy” Stark still looks like a billion dollars. And Virginia “Pepper” Potts looks like a trillion. Iron Monger, however, looks like a gigantabolous vintage Italian espresso machine, as you can see in this new brightly-lit and sharp beautiful shot:
So the Standing Committee of Attorneys General is meeting today, and up for grabs is the long-debated adult R18+ rating for games in Australia. We’ve heard no news from the meeting yet, but my hopes aren’t high.
In spite of some pretty fierce public criticism, the South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson has maintained his opposition to the rating, and given unanimous support is required, we very much doubt that anything is going to change. Still, we’ll keep you posted as news comes out.
Update: Well, nothing conclusive came of the meeting, but it turned out rather better than I’d hoped for. The attorneys general have decided to enter a process of public consultation on the matter, and are expected to have a consultation paper ready for the next SCAG meeting (the Standing Committee meets three times a year). In its coverage of the story, the SMH notes that a 2005 study by Bond University found that 88% of the population think that there should be an R18+ rating, so it would at least seem that the odds of a public consultation leading to a positive decision are pretty good. But you can be sure, however, that some very loud conservative interest groups such as the Australian Family Association will weigh in on the matter as well.
The details on the method of public consultation have yet to be finalised.
Telstra has just signed a deal with channel Seven that will bring the Beijing Olympics to a small screen near year. The Olympics will be available for viewing by owners of 3G mobiles connected to the Next G network, although the pricing for this service has not been revealed.
The images will be live, a direct feed from Seven’s television broadcast.
There is something about aquariums that is just plain cool—and the Moody Acquario is definitely a cool bathtub. While I can see where the designers got the idea, the logic behind the US$14,500 price tag is a little harder to fathom. I mean, the design itself is pretty basic and it doesn’t look all that comfortable to sit in. Plus, you have all of those fish quietly laughing at your whale like physique or less-than-impressive manhood. [Giant.co.uk via Apartment Therapy via Born Rich]
We’ve suspected for some time that we won’t get the iPhone in Australia until a 3G version is released (GPRS being so five years ago here). Now there’s a rumour going around that Apple has already placed an order for 10 million of this next generation 3G iPhone with its manufacturing partners. This order has allegedly been spurred on by the unexpectedly poor sales for the GPRS iPhone in Europe.
Part of AMD’s multi-core Phenom blast today is the Phenom X3 8000, “the world’s only triple-core x86 processor,” which we heard about a few months ago. They’re supposed to bargain chips for budget consumers, but they’re a nicer bargain for AMD, actually, since it lets them dump bug-plagued quad-core Phenomsby disabling a core. But if performance is your top concern, you might want to steer clear of the whole Phenom batch anyway. We’re still waiting for AMD’s 45nm chippies, personally. [Hard OCP, Anandtech]
It’s not quite as funny as MoanMyIP.com, but brrpr.com is still virtually guaranteed to get a laugh in the office, as it burps out your current IP address or any other string of letters you care to turn into burp-speak. [Compiler]
According to Hearing Components, their new Comply NR-10 Earphones can deliver more than 48 decibels of noise reduction using the same technology enjoyed by the US Army and Special Forces. They were also designed to “maximize bass response and deliver superior sound quality.” At US$80, it would seem like a decent value—if they worked. Fortunately, the folks at iLounge took them for a spin and weighed the pros and cons.
