Styled in shiny, first-gen iPod white, this mosquito repeller from Brando has a built-in flashlight to give the electronic bird to mosquitos and, aspazzarently, dragon flies. Do these electronic anti-mozzie devices work? Not on me, mate, I get bitten to buggery no matter what I use—even that stuff that smells like nuclear paint stripper. Brando’s version will cost you $24. [Brando]
A half-way house between a digital watch and those crazy do-it-all multimedia watches, the digital photo frame watch may actually appeal to more people. The built-in memory can store 60 photos and it can superimpose the time in analogue or digital format over the top. And that’s all it does: simple. It charges through USB, lasting about 8 hours —its main drawback, perhaps— and is Mac and PC compatible. In leather and stainless steel, it’ll set you back $US99.95. [EverythingUSB]
Ah, the Asus Eee PC, the little computer that can be modded to do anything, from stealing all your money in an ATM to grabbing all your money on the internet. This one will snatch $3,200 from your account if you want to buy it on eBay, with all the mods except for the 3G card: a 32GB Patriot XT solid state drive (in addition to the included 8GB), a touchscreen and a bunch of other things, an Air Play card to transmit all your sound to any FM radio. Complete specs after the jump.
Just the other day we were showing you the very iMac-esque Fujitsu all-in-one desktop PC, and now there’s news that TG Sambo are making their own similar machine dubbed Lluon. It’s got a built-in 22-inch screen and right-mounted DVD-drive, and the usual array of ports and sockets shared between the rear and side. It looks a little fatter than an iMac, though we’ve got no real details other than the photos to go from. Available at first in Korea, it’s going to be released in the US through Best Buy. [AVING] galleryPost('tgsambo', 3, '');
Hide the china, bananas, children—whatever. I guess it doesn’t really matter, because for the first time ever an orangutan was spotted in the wild using a gadget to hunt. In this case the tool was a spear, and the intrepid primate apparently picked up the skill by watching locals fish with spears along the Gohong River in Borneo, on the island of Kaja.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has come up with a fantastic use for disused subway cars—they’re dumping them off the coast to create new coral reefs. Results have already been positive, with parts of the ocean floor benefiting from more sea grasses, sponges and blue mussels.
Natural reefs are constantly under threat, but new, synthetic reefs can help with the deficit, and by providing a solid surface for reefs to grow, a great benefit can be given to the ecosystem that lies beneath. Currently, the rejuvenated reef consists of some 700 sunken subway cars, and that number continues to grow. Now, divers, don’t get all excited—it’s not a new park for you to mess about in, it’s a coral reef, so stay out. [Inhabitat; Thanks, Nancy!]
Bad news, bargain hunters; Nintendo has gone on record saying there are no imminent price cuts for the Nintendo Wii or DS. Satoru Iwata, the company’s president, said he did not believe in the “model” of price slashing, as it tends to leave early adopters feeling a little disheartened. Though we do agree, surely early adopters are well out of their honeymoon phase by now? With Nintendo’s profits soaring to new heights, they’re not exactly looking for a quick dollar, so perhaps the move makes a little sense. Still, Nintendo is not expecting to make as much cash on DS hardware sales in the coming year, which means there are a few more eggs in a Wii basket somewhere. The exact DS stats breakdown like this:
The big N anticipates it will shift 28.0 million DS units from now till March 2009, which is a reduction in the numbers sold in the previous year, where 30.3 millions units made their way to sweaty palms everywhere. Personally, I think Nintendo have their figures wrong; it’ll be 28,000,001 units, as I left my DS on a flight I took yesterday. Life sucks. [Associated Press]
Brando has given the quirky R&D team the week off. In the meantime, they’ve actually got the innovative group into replace them, and the new clan has come up with something that’s actually useful—a three socket USB hub, with a USB charging cable. The two nice features here are 1). The price point of $12 and 2). The fact that there is no need for an external power supply. Instead, the hub will connect to both USB ports on your laptop and draw enough power to charge up a device via USB mini cable, whilst simultaneously offering up 3 non-powered ports. So, you lose two ports, but gain three and one power positive cable—Kreb’s cycle, eat your heart out. [Brando via Gadgetell]
newVideoPlayer("psystarPC_gawker.flv", 463, 387,""); It’s alive. Reader Patrick (Whiskeyfrown) is lucky enough to be using one of the few Psystar Open Computing machines that have made it into the wild, and he was generous enough to make a video showing the machine (including the connections in the back to the monitor to show that it’s legit). The thing boots up and runs pretty damn fast, says Patrick, but Software Update won’t recognise it so you won’t be able to patch. System Profiler thinks that it’s a Mac Pro. More images coming soon. [Thanks Patrick!]
So TiVo’s coming. We all know that. Some of us even tried to beta test the thing. And despite reports that Seven were giving up on it before it even launched, we now know that we will definitely see it on our shelves before the Beijing Olympics kick off in August.
How do we know? A story today in the Financial Review. And while the news that “we will definitely get it some time before August” is a little bit disappointing, the AR story did have some nuggets that are worth passing on, like the fact that Channel 7 wanted to charge between $10 and $12 a month subscription on top of a $500 up front.
Fortunately, that ain’t going to happen, as discussions with retailers like Harvey Norman made them realise that people aren’t that stupid. Hence the slashing of the subscription fee and the renegotiating with TiVo in the US, who were going to get a cut of every subscription.
The box is probably still going to sell for around $500 though, which isn’t half bad. Seven have also decided not to charge customers for software upgrades in the first three years.
In any case, when the box does launch, it’s going to be an interesting battle for our HD-loving eyeballs this winter with Foxtel’s iQ2 box.
[AFR]
