Friday, April 4, 2008
Online
YouTube Living Legends Gives Us Excuse to Talk Rolling Stones Shine a Light
11:00PM Jesus Diaz | At last it’s Friday. And not any Friday. Today is the Friday, the worldwide release of Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light. And like Keith said: you’ve got the sun, you’ve got the moon, and you’ve got the Rolling Stones. All of them probably created at the same point in time. YouTube is riding the Scorsese/Stones shockwave to launch their new YouTube Living Legends, a new channel in which you will be able to ask any question you want to legendary rock stars. I doubt there are any questions left to ask Mick, Keith & Co., but who cares. Screw YouTube. It’s Shine a Light. Go and watch it. Twice. I’ll do that this evening—then go exercise Richards-style: grab a vodka bottle and play air guitar. In the meantime, you can watch Mick and Keith in bloody Stella St. After the jumping, jack flash. More »
Design
Crutch Chair Design Transforms for Impromptu Sitting
10:18PM Gizmodo US Edition | Ever broken a leg? Know how much hassle it is to stumble around in crutches? Designer Yong-Rok Kim’s Crutch Chair is intended to be a partial solution to the problem of knackering yourself out when walking like this. The two halves of his design snap together to form a neat seat-like thing so you can take the weight off your injury. Seems a darn sensible idea. With just one concern: that connection. Will you break your other leg when it gives way as you sit? Death by crutch it shall be! It’s just a concept— we imagine it’d be boring grey or “medical pink” if it were ever made real. [Yanko design] More »
Gadgets
Phone Retailer Talks About Giving Away Free Laptops With Mobile Internet Service
10:09PM Addy Dugdale | Laptops could be the next thing to be given away for free, according to the boss of UK phone giant Carphone Warehouse. Andrew Harrison, the firm’s chief executive, reckons that mobile internet providers will be chucking portables at everyone in an attempt to sign people up to their services. More »
Gadgets
Stylophone, Scourge of Seventies Britain, is Back, Back, BACK!
9:34PM Addy Dugdale | Rather like the kazoo, the Stylophone is what you might term a “musical” “instrument.” The farty-bontempi sound was a feature of school playgrounds up and down the land—and even David Bowie used one on Space Oddity. And then, suddenly, rather like white dog poo, and “I choked Linda Lovelace” T-shirts, the Stylophone disappeared from view. Until now. More »
Home
MartinLogan Spire Speakers— US$8,500 of Electrostatic Sound
8:57PM Gizmodo US Edition | These new electrostatic speakers from MartinLogan have some fancy-sounding tech built in, and are hand built too. There’s the ultra-rigid “AirFrame™” Curvilinear Line Source XStat audio transducer, and a selectable 35Hz equalisation option— to better suit your room acoustics. The cabinets come in a variety of woods including maple, wenge, and rotary-cut bubinga. It’s a shame I’ll never get to hear what the sound quality is like, though: they are US$8,500 a pair. For that you do get 200W of sound with apparently “flawless precision.” And a pair of very good looking floor-standing speakers. Available soon. [MartinLogan via Ecoustics] More »
Gadgets
Samsung Luce Lock is the iPhone of Doorware, Apparently
7:47PM Addy Dugdale | Fans of Jonathan Ive’s work may find the EZON SHS-5200 lock, aka Luce, from Samsung just a little bit crispy. Built to US standards, and with an emergency keyhole, this slimline digital door fastening has been hailed as being better-looking than the iPhone. Made of aluminium, its tempered-glass, touchscreen pad only lights up when you press the start button and there’s a built-in fire alarm that goes off when the temperature hits 55ºC. Given how hot my MacBook gets after a day’s work, that’s a feature that Apple should maybe think about installing in their machines. [AVING] More »
Gadgets
Senslux SLD Desklamps Try to See Off Your Winter Blues, Acne
6:51PM Gizmodo US Edition | Senslux’s new SLD range of desk lamps will light your stuff with LEDs for low power-consumption eco-friendliness, and come in three types. The SG-1500 model appears to be just a plain ol’ desk lamp, but the SF is apparently a “full spectrum” lamp, presumably to give more natural light to combat the dim winter sun. The last, SA model, claims to be a light therapy for acne. Brilliant. Available in Korea for around US$150, not sure if or when they’ll make it over here. [Aving] More »
Peripherals
1:50PM Nick Broughall | It can get a bit lonely, sitting at home by yourself downloading porn watching YouTube writing important documents on your computer.
That’s why somebody somewhere thought it would be a good idea to create a USB-powered peripheral that “lip-syncs” and changes facial expressions to whatever sounds it hears, be it your voice, the music from your PC or your favourite YouTube Video.
It doesn’t require any software on your PC, and goes to sleep if you’re really, really quiet. To wake him up, all you need to do is blow on his face.
If you like the idea of a white box with lights that “mimic” your own lips, you can pick up Tengu from Latestbuy for $59.95.
[Latestbuy]
More »
Tengu Offers Lip-Sync and Facial Expressions Through Lights
1:50PM Nick Broughall | It can get a bit lonely, sitting at home by yourself downloading porn watching YouTube writing important documents on your computer.
That’s why somebody somewhere thought it would be a good idea to create a USB-powered peripheral that “lip-syncs” and changes facial expressions to whatever sounds it hears, be it your voice, the music from your PC or your favourite YouTube Video.
It doesn’t require any software on your PC, and goes to sleep if you’re really, really quiet. To wake him up, all you need to do is blow on his face.
If you like the idea of a white box with lights that “mimic” your own lips, you can pick up Tengu from Latestbuy for $59.95.
[Latestbuy]
More »
Gadgets
Toshiba’s New Light Bulbs Have a 12,000 Hour Life-Span
12:50PM Sean Fallon | Toshiba’s new Neoball-Z Real Pride bulbs are actually fluorescent lamps that ditch the hideous corkscrew shape in favour of a more traditional design. However, the big news is that their life span is rated at 12,000 hours. That’s 1.2 times better than similar existing products and about 12 times better than an incandescent bulb. Power consumption has been rated at a money-saving 10 watts and it will be available in warm white, day white and daylight flavours starting on July 1st. No pricing information has been announced. [Tech On] More »
Phones
