TokyoFlash—always guaranteed to surprise us with impossible-to read watch designs— has just stumped up it’s newest offering, which this time looks like some kind of organic cell pattern. It’s dubbed “Infection”… and you can just imagine the advertising tag can’t you? Yep: “No one is immune to infection.” The time is revealed by 12 red, 11 yellow and four green LEDs, and you can choose to animate the display or just show the right time. The curved stainless-steel and leather watch is water-resistant to 3ATM and is available now for around US$135. [TokyoFlash via Geekalerts]
Demonstrating that fab things come in small packages is this Sony lay-dee, who’s proffering one of the five golf ball-sized speakers of the HT-IS100 home theatre sound system for your loving eyes to inspect. It’s a 5.1-channel, three-HDMI input system and will be released in Japan on July 15 at a cost of around US$870. Full details and a couple more pics below. AU: This is getting a July release in Oz for $1199 RRP
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a process in which you run an electromagnet over parts of the brain, which essentially turns them off. You may have LOL’d at the idea of Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo erasing Jim Carrey’s brain while dancing around in their underwear, but this brain altering technology is no joke. While effects don’t appear to be permanent or long-standing, doctors and researchers think it could show how the brain recovers from traumas such as stroke. Though the technology might run a teensy-weensy risk of causing epilepsy, that’s all. The video below shows grown men reciting nursery rhymes and turning into stuttering messes. [Daily Telegraph via Medgadget via io9]
At SID 2008 this week AUO announced the launch of curved displays, LCD panels that are just over a half millimeter thick and TFT multi-touch panels. The curved displays are said to be the first built on glass substrate (honestly, that’s way over my head, but I’m sure a few of you will care). Because the display has a curve radius of 100mm, it requires a special thinning technology. But mostly, I like this thing because it just looks cool.
While working on the W890i review, I came across a video of Brian using a Sony Ericsson W880i and found the icons to be extremely familiar. A few seconds later, I realised they bear a striking resemblance to those found on the recently announced BlackBerry Bold. And not that it’s a huge deal or anything, but after BlackBerry’s CEO insisted on it being three years in the making and not a response to anything, I find it a bit odd that the Bold shares commonalities with two phones released in 2007. [BlackBerry Bold on Giz]
Remember the Xbox Live Anywhere service that Microsoft demoed two years ago? It was pretty neat, the idea being that all your devices can be tied into the Live network we know and love. But it more or less fell off the radar earth, until today at the Electronic Gaming Summit, when Microsoft’s Jeff Bell said it was still alive: “Live anywhere is not abandoned, it’s just not easy to do.” Hopefully that’s not the last we hear of it for another year. [Kotaku]
We know that Greenpeace don’t really like games consoles. We know that they don’t care much for Nintendo too. But it looks like they now have a good reason to hate on the gaming consoles after they pulled the controllers apart and found toxic chemicals inside.
Although they recognised that each of the consoles had avoided or reduced certain individual hazardous materials, they still found traces of hazardous compounds like bromine and phthalates.
Disturbingly, some of the compounds in your Xbox 360 and PS3 are known to “interfere with sexual development in mammals: including humans and, especially, males.” Which is surely going to become the number one excuse for gamers who don’t have girlfriends.
While none of the toxic chemicals found inside your console is ever going to make you sick, it’s not going to help the environment when you trash it for the next generation consoles.
Hit the link for the full report from Greenpeace.
Imagine if airplanes could miraculously heal cracks or holes in the skin during flight. Obviously, that would go a long way in boosting airline safety, not to mention the confidence of passengers. Interestingly enough, researchers in Britain are attempting to make this dream a reality using a technique that utilises composite materials that “bleed” when damaged—creating a “scab” of sorts that mimics our own natural healing process.
Instead of blowing out all the stops with a big mama pajama queen of all Blu-ray players, Denon appears to be playing the Pioneer card by launching the $750 DVD-1800BD player. It’s lower in price than its US$1,200-and-up predecessors, and only meets the mandatory 1.1 spec (that is, picture-in-picture but no Ethernet) rather than full-blown but optional 2.0. You know, it’s probably not a coincidence that Denon is moving this way, since it has to be buying the core player from Pioneer or another major Blu-ray partner, so they’re probably all on the same development timeframe. Also, no word from Denon on that “universal” HD DVD/BD player—we’re gonna guess that it’s a dead dream at this point. Jump for detailed press release of the DVD-1800BD.
There is no doubt about it—space saving design is a big selling point these days. Take this ironing board ladder for instance. It combines the functionality of a step ladder and an ironing board in a single unit that can fold away for easy storage. It seems like a great idea, but there is something about the unnatural combination of functions that seems a little ominous to me. I mean, it only takes one idiot to find a way to kill themselves misusing something like this. Available for US$99. [Tiny Living via BookofJoe]
