No matter how good the music is, musicians look kinda lame tapping out little beats on tiny samplers on stage. What is emphatically not lame though is pounding them on 16 giant pressure-sensitive pads with this 340kg sampler rig. It was built for the Warped-tour band Family Force 5 by a musician named bwack, and it packs a 22″ monitor, 10 control knobs, two pizza-sized pitch wheels and a Mac running Ableton to control the whole game. Check it out onstage at the Warped tour below. Giganto-rock!
NetShare is one app we never thought would make it onto the official iPhone App Store. All it does is set up a SOCKS5 proxy for you to get your laptop/computer online through use of the 3G/EDGE connection. Does it work? Yes. Yes it does. EDGE works just fine, although Mahoney says it’s slow as balls. 3G impressions in a sec. Be careful of how much bandwidth you’re using, since your provider probably makes a frowny face at you using their network to power your laptop, however “unlimited” your plan may be. [NetShare - Thanks Matthew and Ryan!]
Gear and derailleur mechanisms in high-end bikes are among the more impressive feats of engineering around, which makes bike madman Eric Hagerman’s report in Wired on Shimano’s new ultra high-end all-electric gear shifters pretty interesting. While other companies have dabbled in replacing rickety lever and cable shifters with all-electric mechanisms, Shimano has taken the tech much further than most. And while it may sound like bike-dude geekery at best, hearing the pros talk about the difference makes it sound like an amazing rig to try.
Wow, it’s been a bit of an iPhone-filled morning so far today, what with Virgin and Three unleashing iPhone plans and Telstra upgrading their own data packs. The end result though is that there are now a heap of options for the winner of our iPhone competition, which was run in conjunction with iWorld Australia.
The winner will be receiving his very own unlocked 16GB black iPhone 3G, plus a DLO Powerpack – the accessory he chose on the way to winning. And now, without any more procrastination, the winner is…
As a tall guy I can appreciate that designer Nicholas Lee Dunderdale incorporated an adjustable roof into his 3-wheeled Kassou concept car. The rubber “neck” can be raised or lowered depending on the passenger’s need for headroom or better aerodynamics. But, to be honest, this thing looks like some sort of crazy science experiment. Like an unholy mixture of a giraffe, bat and a vacuum that surely goes against the laws of nature. I mean, what are those wings for anyway? Despite its odd appearance, the Kassou actually earned second place in the Car Design News Contest for 2008–although I wouldn’t expect to see it on the street anytime soon. [Car Design News via The Design Blog via Gearfuse]
You know that sweaty guy who always comes into work smelling like an armpit? Yeah, you know who I’m talking about–and if you don’t, “that guy” is probably you. Thanks to AOKI, you won’t have to tolerate the funny looks, wrinkled noses and giggle-laden whispers of your co-workers any longer. The translation is shaky, but their new line of deodorising suits claim to absorb sweat, suck out odour and provide antibacterial protection using the power of silver ions. They also run about US$370 on sale. Unfortunately, if you don’t live in Japan you will just have to continue being the smelly office outcast. [Rakuten via Crunchgear]
Trying to put pressure on their competition, or feeling the pressure from increasing Samsung and LG market share, Nokia has reduced many handset prices by 10%–mostly music and media phones–but also making discounts across the whole portfolio. Analyst and Sean Connery-fan David Hallden calls the move a Crazy Ivan:
We confirmed that it was happening the other day, but you can now officially purchase an iPhone on Virgin, with a data plan worthy of the device.
To refresh your memory, Virgin are offering the phone in two flavours, both on 24 month contracts. The first costs $70 per month, includes 1GB of data, $520 worth of calls (with free calls to Virgin mobiles), free Voicemail, free text to virgin mobiles and call rates of 40c per 30 seconds (plus 40c flagfall) and 25c text messaging. And tha includes an 8GB iPhone.
The $100 per month plan gives you 5GB of data (which is probably more than you’ll ever need), plus all the same call rates, and a 16GB iPhone thrown in for good measure. If you want a 16GB on the $70 plan, it’s an extra $4 per month.
Considering that Virgin runs on the Optus network and runs rings around their data pricing, this could be the best option for all those data-hungry users out there. And Telstra’s tweaked their pricing now as well, although it still doesn’t come close to this.
But, as with all the networks, stocks are limited, so first in best dressed!
Despite the fact that they launched a petition to Apple to get the iPhone for their customers, 3 still can’t sell you an iPhone. But thanks to Optus letting you unlock their pre-paid iPhones, we know that you can get an iPhone working on 3′s network anyway, no hacking required.
So, in what can only be considered a brilliant move (under the circumstances) they’ve launched plans specifically for the iPhone – where you supply the iPhone.
What’s more, they’ll actually pay you for your iPhone. That’s right! 3 will actually offset some of the cost of buying a pre-paid Optus iPhone outright and unlocking it so you can use it on 3.
So, you can spend $809 (8GB) or $949 (16GB) to get an unlocked iPhone, and when you take it to 3, they’ll give you $300. The catch, of course, is that you need to sign up to a 24 month contract.
Reader Henry found this “mobile office” in New York last night, which is probably one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. It consists of a desk, a keyboard, a desktop, a CRT, a lamp, a printer and flowers, all mounted on the passenger side of a convertible. Wha?
