Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Peripherals
USB Modular Hub from, Surprise, Brando
11:37PM Addy Dugdale | Yesterday, Brando chose not to release any new products. I wonder why—maybe they thought someone might not like it. It’s a four-way USB hub that also brings colour to your desk. I say a pot of paint does just the same (give Brando five years and they’ll probably come up with USB paint). All this USB nonsense begs one question, though:
Games
Samsung Unveils…Second Life
11:19PM Mark Wilson | Since it’s April 2nd, we guess this news is legit. Samsung has announced that they’ve developed a Second Life client for their mobile phones, allowing their users to jack…in anywhere in the world. And while at least a little technically impressive, we’re wondering what drove Samsung to support a game that’s been noted to have an extremely small user base. While millions have registered, those who actually “play” Second Life are few and far between (only about 250,000 accounts). Samsung, when people said “wow” to your idea, you probably should have double-checked their punctuation. [koreatimes] More »
Design
Range Kitchen Concept, for Mobile Cooking at Home
10:56PM Gizmodo US Edition | Ok, tackling the standard kitchen design for improved eco-friendliness or chicness makes sense, but for portability, like this Whirlpool Range concept? Nope… don’t see it. I mean designer Weston Boege has made it look all very nice, with those curvaceous lines and wooden accents. And his design squeezes in a small oven and stove-top gas burners, along with track-style wheels for mobility. But I’m not sure I’d ever want to trundle one gas bottle-laden component about the house so that I could cook near the dining table or outdoors. Surely that’s what barbecues and zipping out to a Japanese restaurant for some at-table theatre cooking is all about? [Born Rich] More »
Gadgets
IdeaPad U8 from Lenovo Has Intel’s Atom, GPS, EDGE
10:22PM Addy Dugdale | This is the IdeaPad U8 from Lenovo. With Intel’s Atom chip inside it, the Mobile Internet Device has an optical mouse to let you fiddle one-handed, supports 3G and EDGE, has GPS, a 4.8-inch touchscreen, a Paul Smith-esque striped back (hope that stays) and an annoying ambient bongo player (either that goes or I do.) Video after the jump. More »
Hardware
Intel Reveals All About Atom Processor Range
10:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | The detailed specs on Intel’s upcoming small’n'cheap Atom processor are now up for grabs. From data released at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, it looks like the first Atom releases will be five different CPUs, destined for a range of portable or “net-top” machines. Each chip has 512kB of on-board L2 caching and supports SSE3 instructions, but will have different processor core speeds and frontside bus speeds. Prices will run from US$45 for the cheapest to US$160 for the fastest CPU. For the processor fanatics among you, details below. More »
Design
Toast One Cures Burnt-Hand-Grabbing-Toast-Itis
9:07PM Haroon Malik | The Toast One is so simple; it’s a toaster that flips upside down to release the crunchy goodness straight onto your plate. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? Sure, Jesus may be right in raising alarm about the dramatic increase of crumb concentration in your life, but the dangerous dance of the knife-fork quick grab will long be forgotten, and who’d pass up that opportunity? More »
Gadgets
Bluelounge Sanctuary Charging Station Has All The Wires You Need
8:06PM Gizmodo US Edition | We’ve seen neat and tidy ways to stick all your charging gadgets in one place before, but the new Sanctuary charger takes the biscuit by having all the wires and plugs you may need already built in. Ok, so it’s actually got a power source with 11 different types of plug plus a USB socket under its lid, but that means it’s apparently compatible with over 1,500 gizmos. Add in the fact that its looks are actually not bad, and you’ve got a winner. With one drawback: all that adapter-plug goodness means it costs US$129.95. So you’ll really have to want cable tidiness to buy this. [Bluelounge via Geeky gadgets]
Phones
World’s Largest Mobile Phone is a Day Late, Misses Joke Deadline
7:35PM Haroon Malik | Mr Tan from Songyuan city, China, claims to have built the world’s largest mobile phone. The mobile phone stands 3-ft high and weighs in at 21kg and is 620 times bigger than his own, normal-sized mobile phone, which he used as a model for the gigantic, pointless and generally fantastic handset.
Phones
Video: Samsung Instinct Lets You Browse Web Pages with Tilt Navigation (Plus, It’s Under US$300)
3:05PM Matt Buchanan | Samsung Instinct, second pass, this time in a room with real lighting! Besides learning that it’ll come out for under US$300, we took another look at the web browser, which we weren’t super impressed with earlier, partially because its slick, headlining interface feature—panning through a website by tilting the phone up or down—was brokified. Turns out, the dark discotheque room is what nuked it, since it made it impossible for the camera to detect any movement. More »
Phones
