According to Merriam Webster, fulguration means “the act or process of flashing like lightning” and that’s kind of the principle behind artist Julius von Bismarck’s device. It’s a reactive flash image-projector…or, to put it another way, a real-world hack of other people’s photos. Sounds sinister, looks sinister…works great. Adapted from a flash gun and an old SLR, it senses the flash of someone’s camera, and then quickly illuminates itself, projecting images or text onto the object that was being snapped. The video of bemused tourists in Berlin, peering in confusion at the screen of their digicams is priceless.
The PS3 firmware update you’ve really, really been waiting for–2.40, which brings in XMB access and achievements–you’re gonna have to wait a little longer for. Like, ’til E3. CVG says that Sony’s holding the update back for its address at E3 in about three weeks. But, to tide you over, they’ve got the supposed full list of features being added.
Let’s just put this out there: LG’s Dare is (or will be) the best touchscreen phone in Verizon’s lineup. It’s not quite as feature rich as the Instinct, but it corrects a lot of the Voyager’s flaws, from the touchscreen to the music player, as you can see in our video walkthrough.
It appears that the rumours were right, kinda fake telecom provider Virgin Mobile will buy kinda fake telecom provider Helio. Once the acquisition is complete, Virgin Mobile will consume Helio and hopefully become stronger from the nourishment, but the trendy Helio logo will be gone forever. Since both companies run on Sprint’s network, it shouldn’t be that big a deal from a technical “will my phone still work??” standpoint. Although Helio was extremely progressive in features and pioneered “all in” plans. We don’t know if Virgin is interested in giving users the world like Helio did in the financially challenging MVNO space. [Yahoo and Electronista]
Details on Mistubishi’s LaserVue, the rear-projection 1080p televison that uses frickin’ laser beams to display exceptionally rich colour, are pouring out. The TV set will come in 65″ and 73″ varities when it ships in Q3 this year. It’s 10″ deep, thin by historical standards, but still somewhat thick for today’s tastes, but the 120Hz set consumes a fraction of the power of LCDs and plasmas and is 3D-capable out of the box. No word on price. [Mitsubishi] galleryPost("mitsulaservue", 3, "");
If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of the HP TouchSmart IQ504–an all-in-one 22″ touchscreen PC with a Core 2 Duo processor, integrated graphics and an impressive 4GB of RAM–it’s shipping now off of HP’s site and retailers like Circuit City. If only we didn’t suffer from greasy hand syndrome, that US$1,249.99 pricetag would be at least a little tempting. [HP]
According to Softbank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, the iPhone 3G will sell out completely within hours of its debut in Japan, despite its contract-binding US$214 (8GB) and US$316 (16GB) price. I wonder if it will be the same in the rest of the world. Apparently, the rumours are that the iPhone 3G will start selling first thing in the morning in the UK and the US, although there are no official times yet. [Impress via Tokyomango, BGR]
From the same T3 concept design stable that brought us the 2010 Wiimote yesterday comes this piece of pure gadget fantasy. Ramming an XBox 360 and a Zunephone into a slender, shiny little package is always going to be a great idea… and would undoubtedly sell like hotcakes. But considering there’s no real Zune phone, and you can now buy bigger cases for the ’360 rather than smaller, this is going to stay in fantasy land for a long while. [T3 via Yanko]
Available for both iPod classic and nano, Marubeni Infotech’s wooden docks are coming out in Japan next month. In two finishes: American Walnut; and Scandinavian Birch, (*thwack!*) they have a USB connection and two piddly little 1W channels. Costing US$100 and US$90 respectively, they’re kinda cool, if you’re allergic to plastic. Bonus shot after the jump.
According to a sources inside the Cupertino’s iPhone software development effort, it is “highly probable” that the iPhone 2.0 Golden Master will be done this Friday. The final version could arrive to developer hands two weeks before the introduction of the new iPhone 3G and well in time for the promised July 11 release to the public. Update: for some reason, this morning I saw the original “end of June” release date and copy and pasted that as the release date link, rather than the obvious July 11. My apologies. J.
