Friday, May 16, 2008
Science
50 Years of DARPA: 5 Good Inventions, 5 Lousy Ones
11:45PM Wilson Rothman | To commemorate the golden jubilee of America’s Defence Advance Research Projects Agency—formed these 50 years ago in response to a little traveller called Sputnik—New Scientist has come up with a short list of 10 DARPA inventions: five that changed the world, and five that fell flat: More »
Random Stuff
I’m No Doctor, But The Health Benefits of Caffeinated Chips Seem Questionable
11:28PM Mark Wilson | Pardon me while I pander to a stereotype and assume that you, dear reader, are interested in these caffeinated chips by Engobi. Coming in Xtreme flavours like “Cinnamon Surge” and “Lemon Lift,” each bag of this snack has 70% more caffeine than the average energy drink. Using Red Bull as a metric, that puts Enobi chips at 136 milligrams of caffeine—or right on line with a cup of strong coffee. Seeing as most of us can down two or three cups for breakfast, that means all those Engobi-eating, Red Bull-drinking X-gamers have been posing for glamour shots at amateur night. Their cute haircuts, tats and piercings can call us when they switch to diesel. [Engobi via Gearlog] More »
Computers
Atom-Based Asus Eee PC 901 Ships June 3 With Bluetooth
11:27PM Matt Buchanan | Digitimes is reporting that the Atom-based Asus Eee PC 901 that we got a peek at the other day is set to ship on June 3. And it looks like the cosmetic enhancements (like the metal accents) aren’t the only bit of newness on board: Apparently, it’s got Bluetooth, and the Linux version will come with some new software. Otherwise, the guts are supposedly the same as the 900, and it’ll go for somewhere under US$650. Hopefully way under that. [Digitimes] More »
Gadgets
LED Gloves Demonstrate the Future of Tacky Manicures
10:59PM Mark Wilson | We don’t know what the future holds…(OK, we totally do because Gizmodo owns a time machine on review loan that’s embargoed for, somewhat ironically, after the world has ended). But anyway, in the future before the world has ended, expect to see something like these LED gloves that will add a touch of hooker to your otherwise humdrum life (staring at a white wall for eight hours daily while robots take care of our infrastructure). Buy them now before inflation skyrockets the price past US$45. [Lux et Deco via technabob] More »
Gadgets
EPA Dress Wrinkles Up to Show it’s a Bad Air Day
10:56PM Gizmodo US Edition | Currently showing at the 2nd Skin Exhibition at San Francisco’s Exploratorium is this piece of smart clothing by designer Stephanie Sandstrom. Inside it hide a bunch of sensors that measure the nearby air quality, along with drivers that can adjust the fabric. The idea is that on bad air days the dress detects the problem, and adjusts itself to look all rumpled and messy, and raising environmental awareness. Does that wrinkling mean it raises the hemline? I’m not sure… but if it did, that might work to take your mind off the damage being done to your health by all those airborne pollutants. [Inhabitat] More »
Design
Mimique Mobile Phone Concept
10:50PM Addy Dugdale | If anyone ever brings out a phone that looks like this, I’ll have 10 of them, thangyewverymuch. A proposal of Californian design studio RKS, the Mimique is all about skins and downloads—a customizable phone with bells on, basically—using, as it does, open source software. I just love that old-school antenna bump and the analogue clock. See another picture of it after the jump. More »
Robots
Toyota One-Ups ASIMO’s Conducting Performance with Robot Orchestra
9:01PM Gizmodo US Edition | Honda’s ASIMO may have picked up the baton to conduct an entire orchestra, but Toyota has just outperformed the little guy with its suite of robo-musicians. Dubbed Chuck, Harry, Dave and Ritchie (honestly!) the part-wheeled, part-bipedal quartet recently performed a concert where they actually played a trumpet, tuba, drums, violin and trombone. Their song repertoire included a Glenn Miller piece and a popular Japanese tune— and that makes waving a baton around seem pretty low-tech. Wait ’til you see the video of Ritchie hammering away on his custom drum kit— he’ll have you giggling with robot-appreciation glee. More »
Computers
Samsung’s Display Division Shows Just What it Can Do With AMOLED Notebook
9:00PM Addy Dugdale | Samsung SDI, the Korean manufacturer’s display arm, has been showing off a 12.1-inch laptop with an AMOLED display. With 1280 x 768 resolution, and a weird-arse keyboard, the prototype is being displayed at SID 2008. And what’s going on with on the backside of the screen? I can’t for the life of me figure it out. [OLED Display.net] More »
Games
Wii Chewing Gum Comes in Rabbit, Zelda and Fit Flavours—Okay, Mint
8:45PM Addy Dugdale | Better than chewing on your Wii controller, or have the dog chew on your face (which ours has just done to Jesús, so guess who’s off to see her husband in ER in a minute?) this official Wii chewing gum is a snip at four bucks. Normally, this is where I type something stupid, but it just doesn’t seem appropriate. [GK World via TechnaBob] More »
Phones
