Saturday, July 5, 2008
Gadgets
Lightning Review: Lego Egg Timer
10:00AM Jesus Diaz | The Gadget: Lego Egg Timer. The Price: US$7.99 The Verdict: It’s cute. It’s makes a wonderful tic-tac noise. It helps you do roasted lamb and chicken and Beef Wellington and cakes. It’s Lego. Really, it can’t get any better than that. I only wish it could do more than one hour. More »
Entertainment
A Documentary on ShowBiz Pizza’s Rocka-fire Explosion Animatronic Band
6:45AM Brian Lam | Faithful readers will know I am not even close to finished exploiting my painful job experiences at the Chuck E. Cheese in the Bergen Mall for Gizmodo fodder. God I hate that place. When I was growing up, the cooler place to be with way better pizza and far better games was ShowBiz Pizza. ShowBiz also had another advantage: this terrifying but captivating animitronic musical band called Rocka-fire Explosion, which is the subject of this documentary. I am watching it, and lighting a candle in remembrance. And Fuck Chuck E. Cheese. [Youtube via BoingBoing's David P.] More »
Science
Danish Isle Runs Completely on Renewable Energy, Is Greenest Guinea Pig Ever
6:30AM Adrian Covert | In this week’s New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about the Danish isle of Samsø, which over the past 10 years, has gone from exclusively using fossil fuel energy sources, to living exclusively off renewable energy. Using a combination of onshore and offshore turbines, private mini-turbines, solar panels, straw-burning furnaces and biofuels, the 4,300-resident island has become a sort of a sandbox for green experimentation. More »
Gadgets
‘Dear Cupertino’ Apple Site Reduces Bad Rumours Back To Desperate Wishes
6:15AM Brian Lam | The majority of Apple rumours ignored by the veterans at sites like Macrumors and Apple Insider are non-sourced, usually building up from the updrafts of the blog/analyst/network news circle jerk vortex. This new site, with almost no content right now, has a great idea: Drop the pretense of claiming to know what Apple is working on, forum mongers, and write them in their true form as desperate pleas for Crazy Apple Gear. Given that the nice domain name, also feel free to drop suggestions and open letters for the City and Mayor of Cupertino in here, too. Maybe an Apple-designed swing set off of N Stelling Road or something. [DearCupertino] More »
Weapons
Giz Service Announcement: Aim Fireworks Into the Air, Not At Your Mum
6:00AM Benny Goldman | Well, we hope you’ve had a good day off, a great BBQ and plenty of watermelon. Also, we hope that you didn’t blow up your face. We’ll leave you with one last Consumer Product Safety Commission clip that proves, once and for all, that it is NOT okay to point fireworks at friends and family members. They may end up in a storm of smoke and fire. Happy 4th everybody! [CPSC] More »
Design
Numeric Keypad Chairs Provide Computational Comfort
5:30AM Adrian Covert | These numeric keypad chairs are pretty amazing in a nerd chic sort of way. If you tried cramming these into your 700-square-foot bachelor pad, you’d look like the biggest tool alive. But in a place with a million square feet and that white, minimalist vibe, they’d be pretty amazing. These appear to be concepts, but the obscure Japanese site they came from makes it hard to tell. [PantoGraph via misterstarfish via Technabob] More »
Computers
Dell to Ship All Computers, Rubber Chickens in Apple Manila Cases
5:00AM Jesus Diaz | Laredo, Texas (Agencies) – Surprising everyone but industry guru Gene Munster, Dell has announced a partnership with Apple Inc. that will see the former licensing the latter’s exclusive Manila Case technology to ship all their computer products and accessories, like their Dell Rubber Chickens and Dell Texas-Style BBQ Ribs. “It was bound to happen,” said Munster in a telephone interview from his room at the Cupertino Inn, which he uses as a base to stalk Steve Jobs. More »
Phones
BlackBerry Kickstart Flip Phone Only US$49
4:45AM Matt Buchanan | The BlackBerry Kickstart is by far not RIM’s best looking phone. But it is a real live BlackBerry and it will run a mere 50 US bucks when it launches on T-Mobile in September. More »
Science
NASA’s Bad-Ass Manned Moon Rover Prototypes
4:30AM Brian Lam | To mark the new mission to the Moon, here’s a collection of wonderful manned lunar rovers from the future and past from Apollo days gone by. I wish I knew more about these vehicles but Big Picture’s source linking policy is kind of bizarre to me. [Big Picture] More »
Screens
