Friday, July 4, 2008

The UBiqWindow: Google Earth Hologram Device You’ll Want

11:30PM Matt Hickey | If you can forgive the crap music, you’ll just love this video of Google Earth mashed up with a hologram machine. This is real, and I want one very, very badly. By combining a 2D mid-air projection system and motion sensors, the device gives you a gesture-based interface for exploring the world. The term “badass” springs to mind. [UBiqWindow via GED via GEB] More »

Nike’s High Tech Team USA Olympic Track Suits Shave Fractions Off Races

11:15PM Brian Lam | This is not a leaked American Gladiators uniform. It’s Nike’s design for the US Olympic Track and Field suits. They’re made from Nike’s proprietarily named (but possibly a poly-nylon blend synthetic) swift materials. Nike claims the socks and arm coverings, with their dimpled surfaces, break up drag to the tune of 12 to 19% in those areas. The suits, Nike claims, can bring a typically sub-10 second run in the 100-meter dash down by .02 seconds. [Gizmag] More »

Best Fireworks Ever Not Happening Today but in Three Days

11:00PM Jesus Diaz | If you think you are going to see some cool fireworks today, just wait three more days. Because we just checked the countdown and that’s when the Large Hadron Collider will be activated in Geneva, Switzerland. Then we all will enjoy the mother of all fireworks. Well, not us, but the aliens, Tom Cruise, Elvis and the rest of what’s left of the Universe. So enjoy your weekend, my friends (you conspiracy morons of the world included) because life is too short, even if the LHC doesn’t destroy the galaxy. [LHC Countdown] More »

HDTVs Have Hidden Feature: Poison Gas

10:30PM Matt Hickey | Did you know that your HDTV has a gas in it that could make you and your family sick and destroy the planet? It’s true, a gas called Nitrogen Trifluoride, and it’s bad stuff. Apparently thousands of times worse for the planet than CO2, it’s a greenhouse compound that could significantly contribute to global warming. And it’s bad to inhale, poisoning your liver and kidneys. It’s not a real issue right now, but when landfills of the future start filling up with older HDTVs, it could be a problem. Luckily by then we’ll have colonised another planet to mess up. [CrunchGear] More »

Fun Times With Hands-Free Driving

10:00PM Jason Chen | We might have come up with a list of ridiculous things you can do while driving with a handsfree Bluetooth set, but some people actually acted it out. And who wants to read when you can just stare? More »

Evolution Of the Super Soaker

11:01AM Matt Hickey | It’s the 4th of July weekend, which means sun for most of us and all kinds of fun outdoor activities, many of them including squirt guns. If you’re hardcore, you use nothing but the Super Soaker, which was first introduced in 1989 and have evolved into personal water cannons that seem capable of blasting holes in concrete. Hyperbole aside, they’ve come a long way, and iSoaker has a very cool interactive, clickable chart showing the evolution of the worlds most popular water gun. Which one was your favourite? [iSoaker] More »

Helio, Sidekick UI Designer Working On New Palm OS

10:13AM Matt Hickey | This is some pretty exciting news for us Palm fans who’ve been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for something new from the handset maker. It turns out Palm has hired Matias Duarte to design the UI for the next Palm OS. You probably haven’t heard of him, but he’s the guy behind the impressive interfaces for the Sidekicks and Helio’s phones. The idea of giving this guy a large install base and a touchscreen to play with is a good one. Palm’s got an uphill battle to take on the iPhone, but this could be how they do it. [Engadget] More »

The eBay War Is Finally Over

9:42AM Nick Broughall | In December, when we look back at everything that happened this year, we’ll remember today as the day that sanity prevailed over corporate greed. For today (well, yesterday technically, but we’re only writing about it today), eBay has withdrawn its efforts to restrict payment options for its users to PayPal and cash on collection. It’s been a long and bloody battle, including companies like the Reserve Bank, Google and hundreds of eBay sellers all voicing their outrage that eBay could even attempt to restrict payment options in the name of “security”. In the end, the ACCC’s pre-announcement that it thought eBay were full of shit going to be anti-competitive with their Paypal-only move was enough for eBay to go back on their decision and pretend it never happened. More »

Motorola’s ‘Napolean’ Q World Phone Gets Leaked: CDMA + GSM Included

9:30AM Matt Hickey | Motorola’s got another Q in the queue in the form of the new Napolean world phone. It’s a CDMA smartphone for Verizon that does double duty with GSM, so you can use it pretty much anywhere. It also includes Wi-Fi if you’re not feeling like using its EV-DO Revision A or EDGE data, runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and includes a fingerprint scanner and a 2-megapixel camera with flash. It sounds like a great phone for world travellers, but probably overkill for anyone else. [BGR] More »