The BBC is to broadcast programmes from its main BBC1 channel live on the internet. The main BBC website, www.bbc.co.uk is about to be relaunched, and will have a live video stream of its flagship channel. Although two of its digital stations, BBC3 and the BBC News channel are already available online, this is the first of the corporation’s analogue channels to be available.
The Nereus is a kite-powered watercraft which looks like the product of an orgy between a hammerhead, a manta ray, a Japanese bike and a Storm Trooper. Inspired by kite-surfing, the designers of this water pod racer say that it will “achieve relatively high speeds on and under water.” We don’t know how high speed diving can be possible with the sea dragging you, but we know how you make it work.
Not much to say about the Speak-er, a cute concept from Sherwood Forlee, save for the fact that they’d look good on your desk. The designer behind the double-lidded jar, Forlee is obviously full of great ideas. [Yanko]
Spaceboys who have been crossing their legs in sympathy with the can-less astronauts on the Space Station can relax. Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko fixed the toilet after the Discovery space shuttle delivered a new pump to the ISS on Monday. The outer-space loo had been broken for two weeks, and the three-man team had been taking it in turns to swill it out manually with water. “Let’s start using it,” said Russian mission control to Kononenko, adding hopefully, “we’ll keep our fingers crossed.” In other space news, a billion-dollar Japanese science lab was opened on the ISS. Called Kibo, or hope, the 11 metre long lab is one of the largest rooms on the ISS, but will not be up and running until its porch arrives next year. [CNN]
VIA’s new two point oh Mini-ITX design is out, and it comes loaded with multimedia features, from high definition video and Blu-ray disc playback to DirectX 10 support, 6-channel surround sound, and a 16-lane PCI Express—so you can add a top-of-the-line graphics card that is five times the size of the 17 x 17cm Mini-ITX 2.0. The full feature list is exciting for home theatre and DIY enthusiasts everywhere:
For some, it’s more police. For others, it’s better traffic management. For Riverhead Resorts, though, what Long Island needs more than anything else is a 35-story man-made ski resort. As you could easily imagine, a few (read: lots and lots) of people aren’t too happy about the two billion dollar proposal, but the concept is stunning.
The WSJ has an article looking at the struggle Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had in switching around their Junior/Senior relationship.
Tucked away in a quiet corner at Computex, ASUS is showing a nondescript laptop with a built-in pico projector. Tiny projectors have made various appearances at the tech show so far, most recently from Foxconn, but no other company has incorporated them into existing products, or for that matter shown many compelling applications for them other than in bulky and unrealistic mobile phones. ASUS has provided the first example of what could be a fantastic use for this burgeoning new tech.
Casio’s excellent EX-F1 slow motion digital camera has a bit of competition in Sanyo’s Xacti HD1010 camcorder. The 1080i HD cam does face detection for up to 12 people at once, and 300 frame per second slow motion as well as seven frame per second still shooting. YES! IIIIII saaaaaaaaiiiiiiidddd SLOOOOO MOTIOOOOON!
So many products, including the US$100 Roku Netflix box, come with wireless, so it was surprising that the US$300 Vudu broadband video-on-demand box requires a hard Ethernet connection. Today Vudu announces a US$80 Vudu-branded Ethernet-to-802.11g bridge kit built by Asus. I tried it over the weekend, and it worked great.
