With the WWDC kickoff only days away and the launch of the 3G iPhone imminent, many hardcore geeks will brave the elements outside of their local Apple store in an attempt to be among the first to score a shiny new phone. If you happen to be one of those geeks, the following tips and gadgets will help you survive the crowds and emerge victorious.
It appears that the design team at Mubai-based Planet 3 Studios have done for the office what the Casulo did for small apartments. That is to say, they have found a way to cram a rooms worth of furniture into a box. At a glance, it appears that their “Out-of-Box” workstation incorporates 2 desks, a decent amount of desktop real estate and a ton of storage space into a fairly compact design that can easily be wheeled from one room to another. The design is still very much a work in progress, but the US$2350 build price suggests that they will become commercially available. A video of the workstation in action is available after the break.
If you are planning to install a flat panel television into a tastefully decorated room, chances are you will want to conceal that sucker along with any speaker setups so as not to detract from all of your well-crafted classiness. VisionArt may have an ideal solution that conceals your equipment behind museum quality art prints when not in use.
Continuing our weirdness from Japan theme, a company called Avex has just released a DVD that teaches men to be more confident by staring at 50 different women for an hour and a half. Most Japanese men do this already, but instead of the women being in various states of undress, these women are just plain staring back at you, right in the eye, in a sort of glowering manner.
When the first iPhone was announced, I thought it looked cool. Very cool. But I just couldn’t bring myself to plunk down a whopping US$600 on a phone that lacked some pretty important features: video recording, picture-messaging, tons of storage, and, most importantly, a 3G connection that would make the awesome mobile Safari browser worthwhile. I assumed that if I just held out for the next generation, I’d — at the very least — get the higher bandwidth, and probably pay less up front for it. Let me tell you, it’s been a hell of a long wait.
You may recognise Hop-On from their wide array of cheap-o disposable mobile phones and budget-friendly mobile devices. The company is looking to build on this reputation by unveiling six new phones including the US$125 HOP 1801 smartphone and the HOP1809 which they claim will be one of the cheapest 3G capable phones you can buy. It will also feature a camera, Bluetooth, and support for MPEG-4 media playback.
A Swiss company named Biotex is planning to integrate wireless biosensors in garments that could help athletes and diabetics assess sodium, potassium and chloride levels in their sweat samples. Unlike existing technology, these sensors would collect data in real time and either store it or deliver it to wireless devices for immediate analysis.
Forbes spotted an interesting pile of unmarked brown boxes at Quanta Computer in Fremont, CA, the company that handles West Coast distribution of Apple’s gear (along with that of plenty of other companies’ stuff). But what’s so interesting is that the boxes right were spotted right beside iMac freight (those white boxes), and they look to be about the same size and shape. So what could be inside? Take a look at more shots to decide for yourself:
Qik’s been doing live video streaming (think live YouTube) from Nokia S60 mobile phones for a few months now, but Mobilecrunch has the scoop that they’re expanding to Windows Mobile phones shortly. The support and partnership will be officially announced next week at Tech-Ed, which will give WM users the ability to stream stuff like concerts and their wives giving birth (it’s happened) direct from their handhelds. Qik’s also thinking about the new iPhone, of course, but that’s pending whatever features get announced next week. [Mobile Crunch via Crunchgear]
Sega Toys knows what Japanese people want: something to complain to that couldn’t possibly think badly of you. It’s called Pekoppa, and it’s got a chip inside that will bend, stretch, and lean the plant according to how you speak to it. According to Sega it’s “a good listener,” will have 200,000 units floating around Japan come September. Do they have dogs in Japan, or have all the North Koreans abducted them all? [Nikkei via Crunchinator]
