Sunday, April 20, 2008
Computers
Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness
11:30AM Matt Buchanan | Craving a bit deeper, more meaningful interaction action with your touchscreen gadget, like maybe stretching or squeezing it? Microsoft thought so. Researchers have come up with a prototype of their force-sensing tech that’ll let you apply different kinds of force to a device, like twisting or bending, to do stuff like flip through document pages or swing through applications. More »
Toys
Toy Modder Puts Eclectic Spin On All Your Favourite Action Heroes
10:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Action figure customiser Sillof has made everything from steampunk versions of Ironman to Star Wars characters circa World War II. We’ve featured his sets several times on this site, but what we’ve covered are only bits and pieces of an amazing body of work. The master model maker himself gives us the goods on why, and how, he does what he does after the jump. More »
Phones
Elektrobit Introduces Jack-Of-All-Trades Satellite Phone
9:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Elektrobit is bringing satellite phones to the masses with its new Satellite/Terrestrial Reference PDA Phone. Gone is the bulky antenna sported by satellite phones of yore, replaced with a sleek, qwerty-keyboard PDA look that’s just a touch thicker than a Blackberry 8800. The concept product runs Windows Mobile 6.1 professional and contains a packed feature set—including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, VoIP, a touch screen, and a 3MP camera. More »
Computers
Latest in Psystar Saga: Mac Clones Supposedly Shipping Right Now + New Facility Up Close
8:30AM Matt Buchanan | When we last checked in on super shady Mac cloner Psystar’s gridskipping ways, they’d supposedly somehow managed to land a $6 million pad—a little fishy, given their brief history. A ZDNet reader on the ground got up close, reporting that there’s definite activity at the location, though no hard confirmation it’s Psystar that’s the busy bee. More importantly, Psystar claims they’re “up and running” and have started shipping orders placed the week of April 7, with orders from last week going out on April 21 from their new shop. More »
Games
Experience the Joys of Constant Lag With Xbox Live on Dial-Up
7:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | For you poor, poor souls who own an Xbox 360 but still rely on dial-up for your internet, an intrepid Instructables member has written up a great “How To” on using your phone line to log onto Xbox Live. All you need is a PC running Windows with a working dial-up connection, an ethernet cable and an Xbox360 (duh). Yes! Now even those of us still riding along the 56.6K information dirt trail will be able to download new Rock Band tracks! [Instructables] More »
Software
Sungevity Web App Makes Installing Solar Panels a Piece of Cake
6:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Eco start-up company Sungevity is launching a new web application on Earth Day (three days away, people!) that will take the guess work out of solar panel installations. Enter your address on Sungevity’s website and satellite-imaging software will zoom in on your home, calculate your roof’s dimensions, select the right sized solar arrays and calculate how much money you’ll save on energy costs. More »
Cameras
Canon 5D Mark II Supposedly Surfaces Online, Due in June
5:45AM Matt Buchanan | A screencap supposedly snagged from Canon’s German site spilled some details on Canon’s way anticipated 5D Mark II before it slipped back into the ether. June release, and it rocks a 16-megapixel DIGIC III processor that can fire at 6.5FPS. The blurb calls the Mark II “small, light, robust and weatherproof.” A bit different than the last batch of rumoured specs, and could very possibly be BS, but with the noise steadily growing, we can probably expect something soonish regardless. [Photography Bay] More »
Phones
Roll Out Of Air France’s In-Flight Mobile Phone Service Experiences Turbulence
5:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Air France’s in-flight mobile phone trial has finally taken off, but with bumpy results. The New York Times hitched a ride on the French carrier recently and found several bugs in the system: More »
Games
Bond With Your Family, Build Your Own Arcade Machine
4:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Want to become the coolest parent ever? Turn off the computers, put down the television remote, and do a little DIY with your kids this weekend by building your own arcade machine. While you assemble the pieces, regale little Tommy or Gina with the tales of your Space Invaders past. And when they look up at you, little eyes shining, and ask why you couldn’t just get an emulator, tell them they were both adopted. [IGN via Kotaku] More »
Computers
