Friday, July 18, 2008
Science
Video of the Moon Passing in Front of the Earth Taken From 50 Million Kilometres Away
11:39PM Adam Frucci | We don’t have too many cameras out there in space past the moon, which is why most of our space shots are either looking outward, such as the shots taken by Hubble, or taken of Earth from the moon or closer. Which is why this video is so astounding. It’s a video of the moon passing directly in front of the Earth, taken by NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft from a whopping 50 million kms away. More »
Design
RGBy Lamp is LED Colour-Changing Toy for Colour Scheme Fanatics
9:43PM Kit Eaton | We showed you the impressive RGBy tabletop last year, but designers Makoto Hirahara and Shinya Matsuyama have gone and commercialised a new chameleon colour-change lamp. The RBGy lamp is a simple battery-powered gizmo that changes colour to match whatever object you’ve got it sitting on. You simply press to capture, and it copies the colour by varying its LED illumination. It’s hard to think of a purpose for it, other than impressing your date by matching the moodlighting to her dress… but there are cheaper ways to impress, given that each 2.75-inch steel and plastic lamp costs US$199. [7Gadgets] More »
Vehicles
Orlens Glider Concept is Green, Recyclable Air Transport of the Future
9:16PM Kit Eaton | This concept glider, dubbed Orlens, is attention-grabbing through its rather beautiful shape alone. But when you look into how it would work, you can see that designer Roland Cernat has put a lot of thought into its greenness. It would be made of entirely recycled materials, and be recyclable itself, would have photovoltaic cells atop the wings for energy for eco-friendly propulsion and have an aerodynamically-efficient body. The body too would be made from a flax-based bio-compound that would be CO2 neutral. It’s pretty much what green personal air-transport of the future should look like, which is why it’s just won Roland the Lucky Strike Junior Designer Competition. Impressive, and I’d love to take it up and give it a spin, were it not just a concept. [Inhabitat] More »
Gadgets
MAKE Makes Call for Makers for October Austin Faire
9:01PM Kit Eaton | We love the whacky creativity of the Maker Faire here at Giz, and all you DIY gadget enthusiasts out there will be pleased to hear MAKE has just put out a call for Makers for the upcoming Austin Faire. You’ve got until September 4th to get your application in, and the faire itself will be happening October 18th and 19th at the Travis County Expo Centre. [MakerFaire via LaughingSquid] More »
Software
iPhone Apps We Like: Pandora
9:00PM Benny Goldman | Pandora for the iPhone is as easy to use as the website. Just type an artist you want to hear, it will build a radio station of similar songs and broadcast them in FMish-quality. The picks are usually accurate, but the science behind picking them is hilarious: The app explained that I have a soft spot for “boastin’ lyrics” and “headnodic beats”. Pandora works well over Wi-Fi, 3G, and even EDGE. More »
Science
Scientists Use Mosquito-Mouth Design for Pain-Free Hypodermic Needle
8:06PM Kit Eaton | Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology and Tokai University have taken the natural features of a mosquito’s mouth, and created a new type of needle that promises pain-free blood sample collection and injections. More »
Press
EU Antitrust Lands Intel with Three New Charges
6:56PM Kit Eaton | The EU antitrust investigation into Intel’s business practices has just got a little nastier for Intel. Three new charges are being levelled against the chip manufacturer, including charges that Intel paid a leading European retailer to sell only PCs powered by Intel, and also paid a “leading” OEM to delay the launch of an AMD-powered product line. Taken together, the charges indicate a “single overall anticompetitive strategy aimed at excluding AMD” according to the European Commission document. This may come as interesting news to AMD’s recently departed CEO. Intel has two weeks to respond. [EU Statement via Ars Technica] More »
Online
AT&T’s Free Wi-Fi Hotspots for iPhones Now Online for Real
6:02PM Kit Eaton | It’s been a saga of the on again, off again, on again, off again type, but it looks like AT&T’s free Wi-Fi hotspot access is live at last. 17,000 sites across the US are available to iPhone users, including the fabled Starbucks sites. According to AT&T’s website, which also offers a hotspot locator tool, AT&T knows “Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network.” Interesting… after all the shenanigans, it looks more like AT&T thinks Wi-Fi is just “lukewarm”, or maybe “tepid.” But at least it’s finally come good. UPDATE: Well it looks like Wi-Fi isn’t here quite yet. AT&T posted the info by accident and made a fail. [AT&T via MacRumors] More »
Games
4:16PM Nick Broughall | The guys over at Kotaku have all the goss from a private Sony briefing at E3 dedicated to PAL regions, and some interesting nuggets have managed to find their way online. Firstly, despite the fact that we were told by Sony locally that they couldn’t announce the price and date of the 80GB PS3 console to replace the 40GB version, Sony Europe were telling people that it would hit all PAL territories on August 27. That means a new 80GB PS3 model will be available at the end of next month. They did announce European pricing, but not for AU, so at least Sony Australia has a chance to surprise us all with a nice price cut (please).
The second life-changing event announced for PAL territories was the pricing for platinum PS3 games – while they’ll cost just US$30 in the states, Australians are looking at $50 per game. Pretty good when you compare it to a full-priced PS3 game, not so good when compared to the US. Obviously there are factors like the size of the market which will push up the price over here, but 20 bucks is a pretty big markup in any event. But hey, isn’t the PS3 region free for games?
[Kotaku]
More »
80GB PS3 Dated For AU, Platinum Titles Priced
4:16PM Nick Broughall | The guys over at Kotaku have all the goss from a private Sony briefing at E3 dedicated to PAL regions, and some interesting nuggets have managed to find their way online. Firstly, despite the fact that we were told by Sony locally that they couldn’t announce the price and date of the 80GB PS3 console to replace the 40GB version, Sony Europe were telling people that it would hit all PAL territories on August 27. That means a new 80GB PS3 model will be available at the end of next month. They did announce European pricing, but not for AU, so at least Sony Australia has a chance to surprise us all with a nice price cut (please).
The second life-changing event announced for PAL territories was the pricing for platinum PS3 games – while they’ll cost just US$30 in the states, Australians are looking at $50 per game. Pretty good when you compare it to a full-priced PS3 game, not so good when compared to the US. Obviously there are factors like the size of the market which will push up the price over here, but 20 bucks is a pretty big markup in any event. But hey, isn’t the PS3 region free for games?
[Kotaku]
More »
Entertainment
1:45PM Nick Broughall | The free-to-air networks this week got together and officially announced that they are planning on bringing the Freeview brand to Australia. Awesome. My hands are fighting back the urge to start clapping as I type this.
For those not in the know, Freeview is a UK branding exercise that covers free-to-air digital television. It essentially offers all the FTA networks digital TV offerings under one easy to remember brand name, essentially so that it can compete better with pay TV.
Considering the success Foxtel is experiencing at the moment, this is actually a good move for the FTA networks. Freeview will act as a standard that various DVR manufacturers will be
able to adopt to ensure that they can provide an accurate EPG for home
entertainment recording. This will allow other PVRs to seriously compete with the likes of TiVo and Foxtel’s iQ2 box.
Freeview will incorporate 15 channels from the FTA networks, including the high-def channels and the upcoming SD multi-channel offerings, and is tasked to drive up the digital offerings available on free-to-air TV.
More »
Freeview Officially Launching In 2009. Yawn.
1:45PM Nick Broughall | The free-to-air networks this week got together and officially announced that they are planning on bringing the Freeview brand to Australia. Awesome. My hands are fighting back the urge to start clapping as I type this.
For those not in the know, Freeview is a UK branding exercise that covers free-to-air digital television. It essentially offers all the FTA networks digital TV offerings under one easy to remember brand name, essentially so that it can compete better with pay TV.
Considering the success Foxtel is experiencing at the moment, this is actually a good move for the FTA networks. Freeview will act as a standard that various DVR manufacturers will be
able to adopt to ensure that they can provide an accurate EPG for home
entertainment recording. This will allow other PVRs to seriously compete with the likes of TiVo and Foxtel’s iQ2 box.
Freeview will incorporate 15 channels from the FTA networks, including the high-def channels and the upcoming SD multi-channel offerings, and is tasked to drive up the digital offerings available on free-to-air TV.
More » 
