Saturday, April 12, 2008

Vehicles

Boeing Dreamliner Turns Into Nightmareliner After New Delay

11:00PM Jesus Diaz | 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. More »
Gadgets

The Last, Best and Bloodiest Reason to Have a Landline Phone

12:00PM Matt Buchanan | After a long week, there’s nothing like dipping our toes in the schadenfreude of watching people beat the shit out of each other with an obsolete gadget. What old and busted gadget would you use to go all American Gladiator on your office? [College Humor] More »
Toys

Star Wars Action Figures Stoke the Steampunk Fire

11:30AM Sean Fallon | You would think that steampunk would have gotten old by now, but when masterful artists like Sillof work their magic on products like Star Wars or Iron Man figures, we just can’t help but get swept up in all the nerdiness. Peruse the gallery to see what I mean. [Sillof's Workshop via Slashfilm] More »
Cameras

Samsung Developing Full-Frame Pro DSLR

10:50AM Matt Buchanan | The new horserace for DSLR cameramakers is in full-frame (equivalent to 35mm) pro cameras, formerly a Canon-dominated market. Nikon’s stunning D3 was its first full-frame DSLR (after years of saying it’s unnecessary) and Sony unveiled its own 25MP whopper in January (they’re trying to quickly build technical prestige). Now Samsung has let on it’s cooking its own full-frame sensor for a pro camera. They’re probably co-developing with Pentax (again) since the exec that slipped the plans re-emphasised their coziness, so we’ll likely see the same sensor in cameras from both makers, with differentiation in the body and software. Digital Camera Review says that the Pentax K20D’s “image quality is among the best I’ve seen in the sub $2,000 price range,” and Pentax usually delivers a nice price-to-performance ratio, so this could make the full-frame DSLR market a lot more interesting. [Amateur Photographer via Electronista]
Phones

World’s First Dual-SIM WIndows Mobile Phone Keeps Girlfriends and Wives Separate

10:00AM Jason Chen | 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. More »
Computers

Shuttle US$99 PC Reviewed (Verdict: Great Value, But the Linux OS Is Bleh)

9:30AM Matt Buchanan | 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. [Tom's Hardware] More »
Gadgets

Cat Desktop Bed Is a Good Idea, But Cats Will Never Go For It

9:00AM Jason Chen | 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.” [The Refined Feline via DVICE via Oh Gizmo via Geekologie via MAKE] More »
Software

Pwnage New Version Imminent via Automatic Update

8:15AM Jesus Diaz | With Apple allegedly gearing up to battle the iPhone Dev Team in the incoming iPhone 1.2.0 firmware, the other side keeps refining and updating their iPhone firmware unlocking and hacking tool,
Gadgets

Scientists Develop Lithium Ion Battery That Won’t Ever Blow Up Your Laptop

8:00AM Matt Buchanan | The problem with the lithium ion batteries powering your iPods and notebooks is that they can be a mite explode-y. But German scientists at Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research have figured out how to replace the liquid electrolyte ka-bloom goo with a non-flammable polymer, which, on top of not blowing up, is a solid material, so it can’t leak either. But, there are two big catches. More »