Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Screens
Dolby Volume: Solving the Problem of Annoyingly Loud TV Content
11:13PM Wilson Rothman | Toshiba TVs (in Japan) will be the first to feature good old Dubbly’s newest technology, Dolby Volume, a smart system aimed at leveling off eardrum-shattering sources and content—hopefully eradicating the twin evils of loud-arse TV commercials and poorly-mastered MP3s. Here’s how it works: More »
Gadgets
JWD Media-Playing Alarm With Radio, Chumby for Cheapos?
11:04PM Gizmodo US Edition | This little box from JWD does pack in a fair number of functions: 2-inch 220 x 176 TFT screen, built-in lithium battery, speakers, 1GB of memory, MP3, WMA and MP4 playback, FM radio and alarm clock. It can even record the radio or a line-in audio source, and has an SD slot for expansion. It doesn’t have a touchscreen or Wi-Fi, but this Chumbyesque device is at least fairly reasonably priced: US$88 for one, with discounts if you buy in bulk. [Shopkami via Chipchick] More »
Gadgets
Frack-Me Shoes Come With a Stair Counter, but No Stabilisers
10:50PM Addy Dugdale | Costume National, purveyors of sleek, minimal-yet-glam clothes for people like me, has the perfect argument for not mixing clothes and technology, if you get my drift. A pair of the fuckiest fuck-me booties does not need to come with a stair counter screwed onto the ankle—a smaller (obviously) version of those machines that, I believe, exist in the gym. You do not do stairs in these shoes. You do your man in these shoes—maybe on the stairs, but believe me, no climbing is involved. They’ll be out in September. [Fashion and Runway and WWD] More »
Home
Ultimate Hidden Staircase Ideal for Wannabe Bond Villains
9:40PM Addy Dugdale | Giz is a big fan of the secret passageway, but this sub-staircase version really is the mutt’s nuts. A cross between a drawbridge, a private jet and something that, to kids, is straight out of Indiana Jones and the Duplex of Suburbia, the concealed hidey-hole is just one of a series of designs from Creative Home Engineering, a firm that puts hidden doors just about everywhere you wouldn’t think of looking. Prices range from US$5,000 to a cool quarter of a million. [Creative Home Engineering via BallerHouse] More »
Gadgets
Casio Updates Baby-G With Colours, Tilt-to-Zoom Display
8:36PM Gizmodo US Edition | Just the other day Casio came up with some colourful retrotastic G-shocks, and now the Baby-G is getting a colour treatment, with a neat zooming display. The BG-2000/2001 series come in white, yellow and orange with shiny wrist bands and complimentary coloured LCDs that you can customise in five styles. There’s also that auto-zoom function that enlarges the digits when you tilt your wrist to read the time. They’re shock-resistant, 100m water resistant, with world time and five independent alarms and have auto EL backlighting (LED for the yellow version). No word on pricing yet. [Casio and Fareastgizmos] More »
Gadgets
Yamaha Keyboard-Notebook Combo Concept For On-the-Go Ivory-Ticklers
8:30PM Addy Dugdale | Milan’s Salone di Mobile always has a bunch of concept gadgets designed by tech companies, and this is one of Yamaha’s efforts. It’s a keyboard-in-a-folder, and is the perfect tool for busy musicians and composers. Travellers stuck in the same train carriage as someone carrying this should thank their lucky stars that Yamaha didn’t make a version for drummers. [Yamaha Global Gateway via Yanko] More »
Peripherals
i-Bean Head Mounted Video System Puts a Display on Your Glasses
8:25PM Haroon Malik | Haven’t you always wanted your Armani shades to have an inbuilt TV display, of 21-inch effective size at 1-metre distance? Well, thank the heavens for the i-Bean, as it will grab onto any of your shades with sucker mounts and do exactly that. Sure, it may weigh you down an extra 10g, and will set you back US$385, but think about the geek chic factor. The i-Bean comes equipped with a TV tuner that can operate with either 3 AAA batteries or via AC power, so you can now have Desperate Housewives on the bus, which is no way as cool as it sounds. [Red Ferret] More »
Design
Concept Dishwasher Looks Nice, May Turn Your Kitchen into a Rainforest
7:40PM Addy Dugdale | Spring segueing into summer means degree shows, when students show off their, frankly, outtahere-lunatic creations. So, without further ado, let’s go to the Centre de Design at the University of Quebec in Montreal, where we have an innovative wall-hung dishwasher, or dishwasheur, as it’s probably called. More »
Hardware
Synology’s New RAID NAS Servers Claimed as Fastest Non-PC NAS
6:15PM Gizmodo US Edition | Synology’s new SATA NAS servers offer up to 4TB storage capacity and Synology is claiming they’re the fastest non-PC RAID 5 NAS servers there are. The desktop Disk Station DS508 takes five hot-swappable drives, while the rack-style Rack Station RS408 fits in four drives for up to 3TB RAID 5 capacity. More »
Toys
