Ages ago I admitted to being a floor-lounger, and it looks like Thanko has come up with a solution that’ll let me combine lazing around and blogging for the Giz at the same time. I might rename it from Lazy Geek’s Cushion to “Relaxed Blogger’s Desk” though. Looking a little like a massage table, it’s 78 x 48 cms across, and can be propped up at a variety of angles from flat to about 30 degrees so your arms reach your notebook… and see that little space for your chin? Looks comfy. No info on pricing, but I’d love to import one. I’d just have to persuade my wife that it’s a good idea, and not ugly at all. [Akihabaranews]
Brando’s tube clock with USB connection is, at US$70, possibly the most ‘spenny thing that Brando has ever produced. Six tubes display the hours, minutes and seconds, and it connects via USB to your laptop or computer. Lets not forget that B&W already made a Tube Clock, but it’s three times the price of the Brando and not powered by USB. So way to go Brando for knockin’ this one off. Bonus shot is below.
The Gadget: Kogan’s super-cheap, DVD-playing Pro 22″ LCD TV, a 1440 x 900 panel with side loading DVD player, a built-in digital tuner, plus SUB and memory card slots for DiVX, AVI and.JPG file playback
Last month, Blam gave us a lightning review of the DHT-FS3 soundbar from Denon, and this month, we’re seeing the DHT-FS5 land in Australia. The difference between the two units, aside from the number at the end of the product code, is that the FS5 doesn’t feature an external subwoofer for those lower frequencies.
Considering that Brian’s opinion of the FS3 was that the bass gets a little cloudy at higher volumes, I’m not entirely convinced that ditching the sub would correct this. At the same time though, the people interested in buying a soundbar generally aren’t the hardcore audiophiles who rely on pristine sound with a full range.
The FS5 comes in both black and silver to match your setup and costs $999.
[Denon]
Remember the ZiPhone unlocking tools that performed some fancy-schmancy magic voodoo to unlock the original iPhone so that you could use it down here in Australia? Well, the guy behind that is now hard at work on the iPhone SDK beta 7, working out a way to unlock your iPhone 3G so you won’t have to actually pay for those applications through the App Store.
While he was tinkering, he discovered something very interesting: A list of networks around the world that will support the iPhone 3G. And as per the recent reports we’ve been hearing, Telstra’s there. Unlike those same recent reports, 3 is not.
Of course this is a list that’s currently in the iPhone SDK’s 7th Beta, so it’s far from a definitive list of carriers. But with Telstra there, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t make an announcement soon. Even though there are reports that they dropped the ball when it comes to BigPond content on the device, a conversation I had with a Telstra rep the other day painted a slightly different picture: “There’s still a lot of time between now and July 11″.
[ZiPhone Status Blog - Thanks Adrian!]
MobiFrance got a hands on with the Samsung Omnia i900 at the launch event in Singapore, and as the video shows, there are some nice multimedia features at work with the UI. Homescreen widgets, touch friendly camera interface, clean looking icons, etc. However, the UI also looks a bit clunky with its animations and overall responsiveness. And it seems like the user had to repeatedly tap the same on-screen button/icon to make it work. But if you’re brave enough to trudge through the 10+ minutes of footage, check it out for yourself. [MobiFrance via Pocket PC Thoughts via UberGizmo]
New Zealand’s The Trons is a four piece rock band made up entirely of robots playing real instruments, performing real shows, and – rumour has it – taking advantage of real groupies.
Binaural sound recordings can be creepy enough, but knowing that they may have originated at this Otokinoko ear-mic might just make them unbearable. The concept of binaural microphones is elegantly simple: record sounds from the positions of human ears, creating the illusion of 3d sound at playback. This blue beast makes that concept very explicit, and like the binaural head mic before it, will rarely be able to record anything but people screaming “OH GOD WHAT IS THAT?” in glorious 3d. If that seems like something you might be interested in, the Otokinoko Binaural Mic is available now for US$3,899.
Hagen Dazs is selling a limited edition brand of honey flavored vanilla ice cream and it is the most incredible flavour I have ever experienced. But don’t eat this ice cream for the benefit of your palette. Do it for the bees. Which your mobile phones are allegedly murdering.
The ShareCentral is a 5-port USB hub that allows two computers to share USB devices without a network. Just plug the devices in the US$80 hub, plug the hub into both computers, and you can use your mouse, keyboard, hard drive or whatever on either computer with the flick of a switch. Best of all, it knows which computer is trying to print and automatically swtiches the printer to that machine, like a network device. It also comes in 1- and 2-port varieties, US$40 and US$60 respectively, full release after the jump. [Kensington]
