Monday, July 14, 2008
Phones
One Millionth iPhone 3G Sold Already Says Apple, Despite iPocalypse
11:34PM Kit Eaton | The iPhone 3G came, it saw, it faltered quite a bit, then it conquered: the one millionth iPhone 3G was sold on Sunday, according to Apple. “iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve himself, and I don’t think we can really argue with that, since it took 74 days for the original iPhone to do the same thing. Admittedly that was in just a handful of countries, while the 3G was on sale in 21… but hopefully that means the iPocalypse is over. Press release below. More »
Phones
BlackBerry Javelin Photos Leak Out
10:52PM Kit Eaton | A few months ago while talking about the rumoured BlackBerry Niagara we mentioned the Javelin. And now it looks like a RIM insider has managed to sneak a few photos of a prototype copy of the phone. It’s a standard quad-band GSM/EDGE mobile, with 480 x 360 LCD, GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3.2 megapixel camera and it’ll run the 4.6 OS. It’s slated for release “next year” apparently, which sounds like a pretty long way away for something that sounds like a dumbed-down Bold. [BGR via Pocket Lint] galleryPost('bberryJavelin', 3, ''); More »
Phones
iPhone 3G Battery Life Beats the Competition, Apple’s Own Tests
10:20PM Jesus Diaz | The first iPhone 3G battery test results are in, and it seems it beats the competition and Apple’s own benchmarks with an average of 5 hours and 38 minutes talking non-stop on AT&T’s 3G network. The closest competitor–only five minutes short–was the Samsung Instinct. More »
Robots
MechRC Robot Does Evolution of Robotic Dance Vid, Original Put to Shame
9:09PM Kit Eaton | Incredible: what more’s there to say? Incredible. Based on Judson Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance Video,” but way better. We get to see a robot doing Vanilla Ice’s dance moves better than he did. A robot doing the “walk like an Egyptian” dance. The upcoming MechRC robot has been under development for three years and has 17 independently-controlled servos, and built-in audio. And if this video is anything to go by, when it goes on sale in the fall it should make quite a dent in the miniature robot world. [MechRC via RoboSavvy. —Thanks Limor] More »
Gadgets
Precious Metal Cover Makes Jewellery of Apple Bluetooth Headset
8:14PM Kit Eaton | Apple’s Bluetooth headset is already small and stylish, but designer Andi Monn has come up with a way of adding to it that also improves its utility. His headset has “sleds”, which slide over the device and turn it into techy jewellery, of a sort. Plus they let you carry the gizmo around without wearing it in your ear, and thus you avoid looking overly geeky. The headset is held inside magnetically, and the sleds come with a keyring so you can carry it around discretely, if that’s your fancy. However, since they’re available in high-grade brushed steel, .925 Sterling silver (or other precious metals, on request) and cost around US$253, then hiding them in your pocket is probably the last thing you want to do. [Technabob] galleryPost('appleBTjewelry', 3, ''); More »
Toys
Lego Concorde Can Brick the Speed of Sound
7:45PM Jesus Diaz | This Lego Concorde may not be as big as the Lego Airbus A380, the biggest Lego aeroplane in the world, but it’s still huge. It’s not only pretty, but this huge plane can maintain its structural integrity while being swooshed around by Ed Diment. It also allowed me to easily make bad headline puns, which is always a plus. As you can see, its nose and landing gear are fully articulated, like the real one. [Brothers Brick] More »
Vehicles
Air Force Dismantles Crashed C-130 in Military-Style: With Lots of Explosives
7:32PM Kit Eaton | What do you do with a C-130 cargo aircraft that has made a crash-landing in an insecure area of Iraq? If you’re the 447th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron you wire it with explosives and you blow it up. Again and again and again… until it’s in small enough bits to load onto a flatbed and ship back to an air base. Apparently it’s pretty rare for an aircraft to make emergency landings in the field, which is good news. Though if it resulted in more videos like this, we wouldn’t complain. [PointNiner via Danger Room] More »
Gadgets
Caterpillar Watch Crawls ‘Round Your Wrist to Tell Time
6:58PM Kit Eaton | With timepieces embedded into every electronic gizmo nowadays, the humble wristwatch is on its way out, you might think. That’s until you see this bizarrely cool prototype watch from designer Nicolas Lehotzky. Driven by a caterpillar-tread-alike drive, it turns the time-telling process inside out, from a virtual display into a sedate physical crawl around your wrist once every 12 hours. Brilliant! Forget the fact it looks slightly uncomfy… it’s such a neat design I’d practically chop my arm off to own one, though that’d then complicate wearing it. [Gizmag] More »
Robots
Bandai Hex Bug Robotic Crab is Just like Real Thing, With Less Pinching
6:28PM Kit Eaton | Digging around in beach rock pools for crabs was always fun when I was a kid, though it brought the risk of a nip to your fingers if you weren’t careful: not a problem from these robotic crabs. Latest in the Hex Bug line from Bandai, the toys are designed to look, move and behave a little like the real deal. When you turn them on, they scamper sideways, changing direction if you make a noise and then coming to a stop when they find a shadowy spot to hide in. Quite neat really, and the 2.5-inch toy ‘bots will cost just US$25 when they’re out in August. Check out the video to see them in action. More »
Games
