Monday, July 7, 2008
Design
E-Ball: the Power-Brick-Friendly Power Strip, From Space
11:45PM Gizmodo US Edition | Who’d have thought that the humble power strip would warrant so much creative design attention? Not me. But I like this e-Ball power strip design from Mashallah design: it’s kind of like the UFO one, designed to deconflict many chunky power bricks, but taken into an extra dimension. In fact, the first thing it reminded me of was the space stations in the amazing old game Elite. But that might be just me. It’s a concept, but begging for someone to make it real. [Interior Design Room] More »
Computers
Could This Be a New MacBook Pro?
11:16PM Mark Wilson | This may or may not be a redesigned MacBook Pro case–we’re calling it a hefty rumour like the Chinese blog that sourced it. The only major difference from current designs that we can honestly see is a series of unexplained circular indentations (possibly just from prototyping) along the Apple logo (which, incidentally, is said to no longer be backlit) and a rectangular indentation on the base. More »
Phones
Samsung M3510 Music Mobile Phone to Have Shake, Tilt Control
11:15PM Gizmodo US Edition | Some information has leaked out about Samsung’s upcoming M3510 music-player mobile phone, and it looks like it’ll have some accelerometer-driven control built-in. A bit like the ShakeSMS app for Nokia phones and the Sansa Shake MP3 player, the M3510 will let you shake it in different directions and turn it around to control the music player and other apps. Other than that it’s a 1cm deep candybar, with 2-inch screen, 2-megapixel camera and FM radio, and it’ll cost somewhere between US$310 and US$390 when it’s released. [Unwiredview]
Games
PlayStation 3 Firmware 2.41 Coming ‘Midweek’
10:48PM Mark Wilson | Sony’s firmware 2.40 for the PS3 was pulled from servers after bricking several systems. Now at least one customer support service is reporting that firmware 2.41 will be released later this week. While Sony has yet to send out an official press release on the topic, it’s looking like those who didn’t download their in-game XMB fix fast enough will indeed get it soon. As for the bricking problem, it can be solved with solutions anywhere from a simple reboot to yanking the hard drive and formatting it on a PC. Oh, and crying to Sony like a baby probably helps, too. [CVG] More »
Games
Politicians Gifted Swank Nintendo DS Lites
10:24PM Mark Wilson | After attending the last G8 summit in Japan, politicians didn’t leave empty-handed or with one of those “your parting gift will be a better, more peaceful world” cop-outs. Oh no, instead they got custom double-lacquered Nintendo DSs depicting a pagoda and breeze of cherry blossoms. And as if that weren’t enough, they received Manga-style caricatures that almost make Condoleezza Rice look personable. Lucky! [MSN via Kotaku] More »
Vehicles
Build Your Own F-35 Lightning II Fighter Jet
10:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | If you want to have your own F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, look no further because Stephen Trimble–from the always-good The Dew Line–has sent us high resolution instructions showing Lockheed Martin’s construction process. Piece by piece, the instructions look straight from the Pentagon’s Lego set. Grab yours after the jump, along with the shopping list with all the materials you need and actual images of some of the steps. More »
Online
How To: Me.com Mail Fully Working, Set It Up Now
9:55PM Gizmodo US Edition | Both sending and receiving of me.com mails is working now. Following a tip by reader Gizmodo reader Tom, we have tested this with our own Mac.com accounts. It works perfectly, both for sending and receiving. Setting it up is very easy: More »
Gadgets
Thingamakit DIY Synthesiser is Horribly, Wonderfully Noisy
9:25PM Gizmodo US Edition | Weird… but I kinda want to hear more. That’s roughly how I’d describe the sound output of the Thingamakit, a strange “noise monster” DIY synthesiser. I like the fact that it uses some sort of optical feedback: adjusting those tentacles affects how the sounds are generated, which then gets fed back to the LEDs in the tentacles. So it’s a pleasingly tactile gizmo, and if you’re really a strange-noise-machine-ophile, you’ll also appreciate that you can buy it as a kit from maker Bleep Labs. [Bleep Labs via Hackaday] More »
Gadgets
Panasonic Pushes Blu-ray Discs to 16 Layers, 400GB Capacity
7:18PM Gizmodo US Edition | Just last month we were reporting 42GB research DVD technology, but Panasonic’s scientists have blown that figure out of the water with a 400GB optical disc. The trick’s been done by making a 16-layer deep Blu-ray disc, and a player with sufficiently clever optics that it can pick up the light scattered by all those layers. The player is also compatible with standard Blu-ray, and for now it’s limited to playback only, designed to demonstrate the technology. But apparently in the future you’ll be able to burn 400GB Blu-ray discs, which is mind boggling. [Impress] More »
Cameras
1:54PM Nick Broughall | You know the Nikon D700 that was announced last week? The mid-range DSLR that has photographers around the world salivating at the prospect of a full-frame sensor in a compact, lightweight body? Well, it’s been priced for Australia – and we’ve been given the short end of the stick.
The camera, which sells for US$2,999 in the States, will set you back $3,999 in Australia. And unless I’m mistaken (and I don’t think that I am), that’s the price for the body-only kit. That’s a mark up of about $880 at the current exchange rate. Consider: with that $880, you could buy the new SB-900 speedlite (worth $749) that Nikon is launching alongside the D700. Kind of makes grey importing all that more attractive, doesn’t it?
Both the D700 and the SB-900 are landing July 25. Now all we need is for Canon to come to the party with the 5D Mark II, and we’ll be in mid-range DSLR heaven.
[Nikon] More »
Nikon D700 DSLR Priced For Australia
1:54PM Nick Broughall | You know the Nikon D700 that was announced last week? The mid-range DSLR that has photographers around the world salivating at the prospect of a full-frame sensor in a compact, lightweight body? Well, it’s been priced for Australia – and we’ve been given the short end of the stick.
The camera, which sells for US$2,999 in the States, will set you back $3,999 in Australia. And unless I’m mistaken (and I don’t think that I am), that’s the price for the body-only kit. That’s a mark up of about $880 at the current exchange rate. Consider: with that $880, you could buy the new SB-900 speedlite (worth $749) that Nikon is launching alongside the D700. Kind of makes grey importing all that more attractive, doesn’t it?
Both the D700 and the SB-900 are landing July 25. Now all we need is for Canon to come to the party with the 5D Mark II, and we’ll be in mid-range DSLR heaven.
[Nikon] More » 
