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On last night's Colbert Report, Stephen gave advice to George Bush on how to go "completely nutball" so Sen. McCain can distance himself from the extremely unpopular president on the campaign trail. Not only did he tell Bush to wear a tinfoil jockstrap, he said the prez should buy a Zune. Really? Sure it's market share is 4%, but what about the new software? [Colbert Report]
Chris James' R2-D2 won four Make Magazine editors' choice ribbons at Maker Faire and it's easy to see why: not only does it have every detail from the original—except having a little person inside—but this one is even more charming, capable of singing the Star Wars theme, and Indiana Jones sound bites. It only needs to have a built-in projector to be absolutely perfect. We asked Chris about the obvious next step: installing sensory inputs and artificial intelligence to make it truly autonomous. His take—and another video of R2 dancing with kids at Maker Faire—after the jump.
Pioneer's got new Elite 7.1 receivers, the high end SC-07 and SC-05, and the lesser VSX-03TXH and VSX-01TXH. The SC-07 has a Burr Brown Sampling Rate Converter (SRC) to upscale audio to 192 kHz 24-bit res, and dual HDMI outputs for multiroom output. The SC-07 and SC-05 also work with Pioneer's new Blu-ray player to activate the "Precision Quartz Locking System (PQLS) that synchronises data between the Blu-ray Disc player and the receiver, providing listeners with the ultimate precision in CD playback." I kid you not, Pioneer is working on making CDs the yesterday technology of tomorrow! All four receivers do new lossless formats ("DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution, Dolby® TrueHD and Dolby® Digital Plus" ) and room tuning.
Today Pioneer is revealing its official 2008 Kuro TV lineup for the US. As we expected from European announcements, it includes second-generation Kuro plasmas—thinner, with five-times-deeper black levels than the first critically acclaimed Kuro plasma—and a Kuro-branded LCOS projector originally developed by JVC. What's missing here are the smaller-sized Kuro LCDs that Pioneer is offering European flat-panel shoppers. Here's the full product rundown, plus the reason for the missing LCD piece of the puzzle:
When the other Blu-ray heavies Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are in various stages of introducing Ethernet-equipped BD-Live players (aka BD Profile 2.0), Pioneer comes out with two players, the US$600 BDP-51FD and the US$800 Elite BDP-05FD, that meet just the 1.1 spec, for picture-in-picture BonusView content. We heard about it via a reliable leak, but now we've got models, pricing and another interesting confirmation: Pioneer's Blu-ray marketing manager Chris Walker tells us that the company will launch a BD-Live player, in fact, a "super-duper flagship-status piece," this fall (AU Spring).
Seriously. I don't care how high-tech this mechanical horse—which apparently allows you to "simulate" horse riding—may be, but really, if I like to ride, I want to do it outside, on a real horse, experiencing the thrill, and feeling the wind on my face. And if I was a pro, I would like to practice on a real horse. In other words: there's only one kind of riding to be done indoors. And this ultra-expensive US$10,000 contraption is not it. Update: we found a video of it—and yes, it's actually sadder than we imagined.
[Born Rich via Ridemaster—Music: Miwaku no Horse Riding (Go Go Cactus Man) - from Cowboy Beebop]
We're almost afraid to post this "Will It Blend" Wiimote edition video, as it's sure to reignite the wildfire of giggling commenters who scan every post to be the first to drop that trademark line. Maybe, due to the comment publishing lag, we'll even see two Will It Blends in a row, the ultimate Will It Blend faux pas. Three is not unheard of, but as we all know, whenever three douchebag comments hit at once we risk a black hole opening after the jump and sucking any scant intelligence not already lost to whippets and mobile phone tumors.
Brando's designers, holed up in their top-secret gizmo design bunker, must've been watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E as they dreamed up this Bluetooth device. It's a pendant-style headset, with built-in speaker and microphone, crammed into a pen-shaped stylus. So you can hang it round your neck and use an earpiece, prod at your PDA with it or, most satisfyingly, hold it to your head and gabble into it, making passers-by think you're barking mad a secret agent. It's got Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, a 10 metre range and a USB-charging Li-polymer battery that's good for three hours talk time and 90 hours standby. Sadly it omits a ballpoint function, and an amnesia pill concealed in the cap, but it's available now for just US$30. [Brando]
Our obsession with Tetris is probably only matched by LEGO, Star Wars, and Futurama. However, this video of three synchronised bottle-blowers interpreting Korobeiniki—the famous Tetris theme song—shows that a) our fetishes are really not that bad, b) we are too lazy, c) we don't have as much free time as we would like to do silly things like these (and others), or d) all of the above. Seriously, these guys are so good that we want to take them out for drinks. And use the bottle to blow the Mario theme. [Snotr]
I have to admit that I can't resist curves, electricity, and getting off the rails. And I like slot cars too, which is why I can't wait to get my hands all over this US$65 Carrera Speed Racer slot racing set, a 6.3 metre track full of loops, flyovers and the Mach 5 and Racer X cars with LED lights. [Toyology]
Philips Xenium phones are generally known for their long-life battery performances but if these photos are in fact real, then the designers are venturing into new iPhone, Diamond touchscreen territory. PC World China is saying that the upcoming Xenium x800 will have an "e2e" screen— that's an edge-to-edge touchscreen, apparently. From the photos it looks like it's got an orientation sensor, Wi-Fi, a browser, a curved design and a bevelled metal edge. Sounds a little familiar? Check out the photos yourselves.
Shown off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in February, the Samsung i200 was launched today, with a view to going on sale in Europe next month. Boasting HSDPA and EDGE/GPRS, the tri-band slider has a two-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, MP3 player, 25MB built-in memory and a micro SD card slot, and mobile printing. Full press release, and a bonus pic, after the jump.
Canon's new dye-sublimation photo printer is a departure from the boring old box designs: it's basically a bucket, and is aimed at kids. The bucket part unclips, and is supposed to store wires and accessories rather than sand and a collection of worms. The printer itself is designed for easy operation, with big buttons, a 2.5-inch TFT and accepting all varieties of SD card, MMC and MemoryStick and xD too.
Fujitsu might have been the first to introduce a 2.5" 7200rpm hard drive with 320GB capacity, but Hitachi is hot on their trail. Today, Hitachi announced that they too have a quick lil'-drive, the Travelstar 7K320. The HDD will support the same SATA 3Gbps interface as the Fujitsu, but will supposedly use less power. With only a 1.8 watt read/write power draw and a 0.8 watt low power idle, Hitachi claims the 7200rpm 7K320 power consumption is on par with their 5400rpm models. So if you were set on getting a faster 2.5" 320GB HD for your notebook, Hitachi's version should be available in a few weeks with a US$219 price tag. Press release after the jump.
You might not know this, but 120GB hard drives don't actually cost US$180. Unless they're for the Xbox 360. The teardown fanatics at iSuppli attempted to find some method to this madness. As you can guess, the numbers don't quite add up to US$180, but it actually gets a lot closer than you'd think.
Other than Time Warner's single-city foray into monthly data caps, consumption-based billing has mostly been little ISPs with little monopolies, and given the market, we thought it'd stay that way. Broadband Reports is, uh, reporting that now Comcast is mulling monthly caps (which Comcast's PR guy confirms, though not the details)—something like 250GB, and then US$1.50 for every GB over that. According to their source, the idea has "a lot of momentum" and it'll start rolling out in the next two months. The other part is that they're going to start ramping up DMCA notices to pirate assholes, with a total disconnect if you've gotten four letters in a 12-month period.
Malcolm Gladwell (smart guy, puffy hair) has a feature in this week's
The New Yorker about the history of simultaneous invention, the best example being Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Grey both patenting the telephone on the same day. There are many other examples, leading to the conclusion that "scientific discoveries must, in some sense, be inevitable. They must be in the air, products of the intellectual climate of a specific time and place." The story is put into modern perspective by including scenes drawn from meetings of members of the company called Intellectual Ventures. The founding member, Nathan Myhrvold, also founded Microsoft's R&D labs. His idea for IV was to see if "the kind of insight that leads to invention could be engineered." The whole point being the creation of powerful ideas. Bill Gates, who works with them on H.I.V prevention, is quoted:
Besides supporting the latest iPhone OS version, beta 5 doesn't do a whole lot else besides throwing in small tweaks to the UI, tweaks to the developers tools and some bug fixes. No big feature addition like last time, but you gotta update if you're making iPhone apps. You just gotta! There probably won't be very many more of these before the next iPhone's out.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:58 AM on May 7, 2008
Cameraphone photography always reminds me of that Arrested
Development episode where they find "proof" of WMDs, only to discover that it's
actually just a close up of Tobias' junk taken from George Senior's mobile. I mean,
so many photos come out looking nothing like what you see in the frame - and
that's on the higher-end, 5-megapixel models.
So what kind of photos can we expect now that Samsung's dropping their G800 phone - which comes with 5-megapixels, 3x optical zoom (yeah, we said optical), xenon flash, face detection, digital image stabiliser, red-eye reduction, panorama, mosaic and macro shot modes, and a lens cover? Hopefully not scrotum shots that look like scrotums - that's probably just too much detail.
Aside from photography, the G800 offers quad-band HSDPA
(7.2Mbps), a large 2.4-inch QVGA screen , plus easy connection to social
networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for uploading your pics and
video (it also does MPEG4,
H.263 video). There's even a mobile blogging client on board for potential Giz
writers to practice with, and you get a bonus 2GB MicroSD card in the box.
It's available through Optus, Vodafone and 3 for $799.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:05 AM on May 7, 2008
Not to be a prick, but I'm a better gamer than probably 80 percent of you. At any given first-person shooter, I will probably kill you more than you kill me, and by a decent margin. The point is, I'm good—but I'm no pro. I've actually always been sceptical about "pro" gaming gear, and the sliver of an edge you might gain by paying a lot more. I put complete setups from both SteelSeries and Razer—using my beloved, well-worn five-year-old Logitech gear as a control—through a rigorous multi-day Battlemodo to definitively answer a single, fundamental question: Will pro gaming gear make me a better gamer?
Tim Dubitsky's Hood.e concept was originally intended as a safer way for his nephew to walk to school and listen to music at the same time. Apparently, his route takes him across busy streets which could be dangerous for someone wearing earbuds or headphones. With the speakers embedded in the hood, users can ditch the earbuds and cords while still being able to hear the music and ambient noise. At this point, the Hood.e has not made it past the concept stage, but the idea is definitely a hell of a lot better than some of the other crap out there. [Hood.e via Core77]
Sprint and Clearwire are apparently set to do the almost unthinkable: Get WiMax off the ground. Fortune is reporting that Sprint and Clearwire are expected to announce as early as tomorrow the formation of a massive WiMax joint venture... Read More »
Being the businessman that he is, it wasn't the movie Blade Runner that struck L.A. real estate mogul Sonny Astani, it was the animated billboards depicted in the opening sequence. In fact, the idea has had such a profound effect on him that he plans on making advertising in 2019 Los Angeles a reality ahead of schedule. His plans call for two 14 story animated billboards to be built on condos set for construction downtown.
Clearly super-hero season is full on at this point, and the product is already in stores. Hasbro sent us two pairs of US$20 Hulk Smash electronic action-sensitive talking fists. These are different from the old ones because a) they're made by Hasbro, not Toy Biz b) are cloth, not foam and c) have one speaker, not two. We still have to wait a little over a month for the Hulk movie, though, provided Ed Norton doesn't chain himself to the outgoing prints to keep the world from seeing it. (Yep, that slow-mo comes from the beloved Casio EX-F1.) [Video by Nick McGlynn Hasbro]
Smartphone blog TamsPPC say they received an email from Palm regarding developer submissions for two devices codenamed Zeppelin and Skywriter.They suggest the Skywriter could be a Palm 500-style device with WinMo 6.1, and they posted possible mockup of what appears to be a dev unit. There were no facts provided about the Zeppelin, but TamsPPC included a copy of the email they received and think the phones will hit the market in Q3 2008. Hmmmm... [TamsPPC]
Hey, you there, with the unlocked iPhone. I bet you're feeling pretty good about it, satisfied you're totally getting over on the Death Star. But have you ever thought about the little(r) guy, the outside contractors doing the flooring, you might be screwing over? Cause you are. Synchronoss makes the activation magic happen for the iPhone, as well as a lot of other gadgets. But the millions of unlocked iPhones floating around—a trend they expect to get worse—is costing them a quarter of their revenue, nearly US$30 million. That bit of news today nuked their stock value by 44 percent, meaning you guys are basically killing the company. Do you feel so righteous now? Oh, okay. [Alley Insider]
Once again, the record for the world's largest Lego tower has fallen. Last year, the Lego bricks towered 29.2 metres over Toronto. This year, in celebration of Lego's 50th anniversary, participants at Legoland in Windsor, UK built a tower resembling a Viking longboat mast that managed to hit the 30 metre mark using 500,000 bricks. Hitting the 100 foot mark is definitely a fitting way to celebrate the 50th anniversary—but I can't help but wonder how high they can go next year. [Metro and Daily Mail]
Good news, America! Your faithful scientific elite have isolated a brain enzyme that, when blocked, decreases appetite, promotes weight loss and improves the body's ability to handle blood sugar levels. You'll be fat and diabetic no longer!
If someone had asked me right when I woke up this morning if I expected to see an superbFamily Guy/Matrix trailer mashup—I'd probably have searched YouTube for it later—but I'd have done so quite incredulously. [via newlaunches]
On last night's Colbert Report, Stephen gave advice to George Bush on how to go "completely nutball" so Sen. McCain can distance himself from the 
Chris James' R2-D2 won four Make Magazine editors' choice ribbons at 
Seriously. I don't care how high-tech this mechanical horse—which apparently allows you to "simulate" horse riding—may be, but really, if I like to ride, I want to do it outside, on a real horse, experiencing the thrill, and feeling the wind on my face. And if I was a pro, I would like to practice on a real horse. In other words: there's only one kind of riding to be done indoors. And this ultra-expensive US$10,000 contraption is not it. Update: we found a video of it—and yes, it's actually sadder than we imagined.
Clearly