RSS Feeds
Vehicles
Boeing Dreamliner Turns Into Nightmareliner After New Delay
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 11:00 PM on April 12, 2008
We have been following the Boeing's 787 Dreamliner for a long time. It's a beautiful aircraft, which allegedly provides with a much-better flying experience—less noise, bigger windows, more space, and better fuel efficiency—thanks to its new construction processes and technologies. However, a new delay in its LEGO-like manufacturing process shows that Boeing is having very serious difficulties with its mass production, which will put them a whooping 18 months behind their original schedule.
We have been
You would think that 
PC Mag has put together a list of 10 movie inspired gadgets that may or may not have been the inspiration for some modern day devices. While some of the associations may be thin at best, there are definitely some plausible connections there. Still, a flashlight ain't no lightsaber and an all-terrain skateboard ain't no Back to the Future hoverboard. Fortunately, there is 
The new horserace for DSLR cameramakers is in full-frame (
Dual-SIM phones that let you have your phone be simultaneously on two GSM networks are nothing new, but until now they've been on regular phones. This makes no sense. Who needs two phones? Businessmen. And businessmen need phones that scream "I AM A BUSINESSMAN!" Few do that better than Windows Mobile, and these W1000 and G1000 Windows Mobile phones from HKC accomplish the job quite nicely.
A US$99 PC obviously isn't going to deliver a blockbuster experience, but Shuttle's toaster-sized KPC actually has the hardware to get the lightweight job done: 1.8GHz Celeron processor, 512MB RAM and an 80GB hard drive, all of which is expandable. Overall, Tom's Hardware thought the cheap-o box delivered "surprisingly good" performance and value, except for the default OS Foresight Linux—its user-unfriendliness and bugs are the KPC's biggest problems. But, the Windows XP install "worked flawlessly" in case you've got an extra copy lying around and want a low-power mini-PC. [
Our resident cat expert, Mark Wilson, tells me that cats will never go for this desktop cat bed. It's not that it's a bad idea—a clamp-on bed so your cat can sit close to your hands, but not close enough to mash keys on your keyboard—but it's just impractical. Mark claims his cat loves jumping in his arm, his hands and his stomach whenever he's doing work. This bed would just give the cat a little perch to leap off. Just look at the cat's eye language. It's saying, "watch out bitch, here I come." [
With Apple allegedly gearing up to 
The problem with the lithium ion batteries powering your iPods and notebooks is that they can be 
Got a fat arse? Sorry to hear it. If jogging and salads aren't for you, here's a "Easy Beautiful Butt Cushion" from Japan, one that promises to slim down that behind of yours without any of that pesky effort. Does it vibrate? Force you to sit in some uncomfortable position? Is it stuffed full of magic beans? And I have no clue what that hole in the middle is for, but as it's designed for people who take laziness to the next level, I don't really want to think about it. [
Apple may have strayed away from design that looks like a table lamp, but Touch Interactive is having none of that. Their Hybrid DVD Player and Display unit has the same weiner tip base as the old iMac, but instead of a levered arm attached to the display, this goes straight up and out. We may not have much use for an all-in-one DVD player unit around our houses, but dentist's offices, rich people's kitchens and sperm banks have much different needs than we do. [
Apparently there are nerds in space, too. This was spotted in variable star V838 Monocerotis of the constellation Monoceros and, holy moley, it looks like the Firefox logo! Whatever. I'll be impressed when we see a celestial body that looks like an iPod. [
Our Deep Throat at the Pentagon's parking lot has sent us an update with new pictures and the reason why the DARPA Challenge cars have taken over the military installation today: 
Playing a Neo Geo fighter on the Wii just isn't the same unless you've got one of those four-button gamepads you used to find in the arcades. That's why we must insist that you buy one of these Neo Geo Stick 2 from Play Asia for US$59, connect it to your Wii, and beat the crap out of your little brother with Mai. Your little brother may be 33 now and you may be 38, but that shouldn't change anything except the stakes. Winner pays the other guy's mortgage for a month. [
Two years after initially 
Hirokazu Hamamura, the head of gigantic Japanese gaming mag Famitsu's parent company, made a prediction that Nintendo will unveil the next-generation DS at E3 2008 this summer. Normally we wouldn't think anything of some businessman making predictions, but if anyone knows what's going on with Nintendo, it's Famitsu (the gaming industry and gaming press are really tight over there). Kotaku says it took two years between the transition from DS to DS Lite, so a summer DS Lite to DS EXTREME transition might be possible. Our prediction is that they'll do away with the GBA port altogether, saving space and hardware costs. [
Do you want to prove to your office mates that you've got an acerbic wit and great sense of irony? This Paper E-Mail isn't the way to do it. Sure, it's clever to write notes to Bob that look like emails (cc: your mom!), but is it really clever? Is it US$3.99 clever? Perhaps. Is it US$3.99 plus shipping clever? Perhaps not. Either way, you only get 50 chances per pack to impress. [
The truth is out! Windows Vista's User Account Control makes you want to put your computer through a wall because that's what Microsoft wanted. David Cross, a product manager who designed UAC (sadly, not 
Cornell researchers are working on a way to make hovering vehicles a reality. By pairing superconductors with permanent magnets, they've figured out a way to get objects to hover with complete stability without any power necessary.
I imagine Dutch designer Sander Bokkinga stumbling around his garage when he had the artistic idea to make his Bok range of furniture. Everyone has strings of cable and old hosepipe lying around, but it takes some lateral thinking to stiffen it and tie it up to turn it into chairs, stools and lamps. They're all waterproof too, so can be used inside and out. Neat— though we do wonder about their comfiness. The collection is on show at the upcoming Milan Design Week. [
Here are new pictures and diagrams of the awesome 
Don't have 12 minutes and/or the ability to boil water? Someone has gone and done the impossible work of hard-boiling eggs—and sticking them in a bag—for you. Sure, they cost 400% more than regular eggs, come in a recession dozen (9 or 10 to a bag), and were given a glowing review of tasting "stale, rubbery, and hard", but hey, it's a time-saver. [
The European Space Agency has just released images showing all the satellites and human-made debris now orbiting space as a result of 51 years of launching stuff since Sputnik. That's about 6,000 satellites up there—of which only 800 remain operational—plus thousands of other objects from launches and accidents. According to their mindblowing simulations things are getting a lot worse:
We have good news and bad news. The good news is that IBM is exploiting electrons to create memory with 100x the data density we see today. In terms of iPod, that's 500,000 songs. The bad news is that the technology won't be ready for 7+ years. Here's how it works:
The European Parliament voted on anti-piracy bill that would boot persistent "file-sharers" off of the net, at the last minute shooting down that particular measure. More importantly, it added an amendment that said the European Union and its member countries should "avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of internet access." The vote royally pissed off the EU's RIAA-equivalent, the IFPI. Even still, the vote itself may not result in any kind of safe haven for, uh, P2P "enthusiasts":
It looks like Microsoft is planning to take a page from Apple's playbook, with rumours of plans to open a number of retail stores dedicated exclusively to Microsoft products. It's not clear what that will entail exactly, but I'm guessing there will be a big focus on Vista.
When most of us think balloons, we think, "I never should have had children." But these solar balloons are a lot more promising than their carnival counterparts. Constructed of photovoltaic fabric, the soft tank is filled with helium and tethered by power wire above a home, saving space on the ground while optimising sun exposure. But it's not just the physical footprint that makes the technology so appealing. It's the price per watt.