Microsoft will release a limited-edition Joy Division Zune sometime around June 5, coordinated with the launch of a DVD about the band. It is thought that the Joy Division Zune will be designed by Peter Saville, the graphic designer behind both Joy Division album covers, and a big player in the Manchester music scene of the ’80s. While there are not yet any pictures of the artwork available, there is every indication that the design will be something along the lines of that which is on the band’s Unknown Pleasures album. [Wired and Pitchfork—Thanks Scrypt]
newVideoPlayer("microair_giz.flv", 475, 376,""); I don’t know what’s more creepy about this 11-inch remote controlled drone developed by the USAF for reconnaissance missions. Maybe it’s the flexible wings, which close and open like a bat when landing. Perhaps it’s the crawling on the floor, modeled after cockroaches, to reach hidden places to spy. Or most probably is the fact that they are planning to develop a large drone that will carry 50 of these little beasts, ready to burst out of its belly at any time. Whatever it is, I want one. [Flight]
We’ve been talking about pico-projectors for a while, and here’s what’s apparently the World’s first commercially available media player with one built right in: the Sunview PMPP. The LED-lit iView IPL630 unit inside it can project a VGA display up to an impressive-sounding 53 inches, but only a brightness of 9 lux at this size. The rest of the PMP sounds ok: a 3.5-inch LCD, speaker, remote, SD slot and size of around 13.2 x 7.9 x 2.5 cms. Interestingly it runs a Windows CE core, so it should be able to project documents and presentations. How does it look or sound? We don’t know, as it’s only available in limited quantities for now, and there’s no word on prices. [Display Daily]
If you lack the upper arm strength to lug around your laptop, worry no more. Thanko has created a regular looking laptop bag that sports a telescoping mono-wheel. Whether you haul around some ultra-light and super-portable contraption or an 4 kilo gaming beast, Thanko thinks that they have got you covered.
In a cafe deep in the heart of Amerikamura, Osaka, tables of otaku are sitting down to tea and cake with women old enough to be their mothers. Mother Café is an otaku fetishist establishment staffed with women that give off a motherly vibe; maid cafés are so yesterday.
I’ve been playing with the Beta of the new ABC Playback service for about a week now, and thought I’d post some of my thoughts up here for you guys.
Firstly though, the service is still in beta, so some of the things I’ve encountered could be a result of that. I think that there’s a lot of potential here, but there are also a lot of things that will need to happen before the site hits the mainstream.
The price? It’s just $449 for the 19-inch and $599 for the 22-inch. The TV itself is a 1440 x 900 panel, which isn’t the normal size for a HD screen, but is still high-def. The set also includes a HDMI input for your HD device.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the quality won’t match, say, a Sony BRAVIA LCD. But then again, it’s a tiny fraction of the price. I’ve put in a request for a review unit – despite my reservations, part of me thinks this could be the ideal unit for a rumpus room, bedroom or games room. Stay tuned for the review…
[Kogan]
After almost destroying the internet as we know it (ha!), Linksys have decided to embrace nature by revolutionising their product packaging.
Here’s what they’ve done:They’ve ditched the sleeve inside the box that tells you all about the product – all that info is now written on the box itself The size of each product’s box has been reduced (which must mean that the sleeve information is in a tiny font, I guess) All the packaging is going to be recyclable or bio-degradable Everything’s printed on recycled paper with eco-friendly inks made from vegetable and soy (yum!) Plastic bags are being eradicated wherever possible
Apparently all this ecofriendly effort has resulted in more than 40% reduction in waste materials. Which is a lot. If every tech company put in this kind of effort, we could be living in a sparkling utopian vision of the future after all.[Linksys]
Nikon’s flagship full-frame DSLR, the D3, is a lot of things, but a megapixel warrior it is not, shooting a mere 12.1MP to other flagship DSLRs’ 20+. Nikon said it was avoiding the pointless megapixel war. But the latest firmware update for the D3 turns up a string for the “D3x” containing the image sizes “6048×4032 24.4 M” and “5056×4032 20.4 M.” Given that everyone else is speeding along pro DSLRs with 20+ megapixels, the D3x probably exists, and shares common code w/ the D3. Nikon expert Thom Hogan goes further, suggesting the reason it’s in the code is because “there are some D3 bodies out there with the new sensor being tested.” That’s right, the new DSLR king, out there, right now. [DP Review via Gadget Lab]
Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has a pretty interesting rumour on a Zune Marketplace-like service in development code named “Zune Video X”. It’s supposed to take what Microsoft’s learned from their Xbox 360 Live Marketplace endeavor (menus, selling movies, renting movies, organisation, etc) and port it into a Zune ecosystem. The point? “A single hub where Zune users could buy and download music, videos, TV shows and more entertainment content.”
