For US$259, this Cica lamp must be some kind of limited edition, designer-signed, hand-blown Pyrex glass light that looks like a broken lightbulb, with a high-powered LED that makes the whole thing glow like a Terry Gilliam movie prop. Looks like it, and it’s beautiful, but for that price I think I would get a real lightbulb, break it, and solder the LED myself. [GNR8 via Random Good Stuff]
This is the Scope Clock, from designer David Forbes, and if you’re into retro-tech chic gadgets, this thing will beat any nixie clock hands down. Just look at it: a cathode ray tube encased in acrylic, with GPS time automagically captured for accuracy, and the ability to display digital or analogue clock faces. It’s fabulous, and its rear-end is jammed with controls you’d never have thought to see on a clock: an astigmatism knob, anyone? This is the prototype, but there’s a limited-edition version to go on sale soon, at a respectably high US$999. [Cathode Corner via Gizmo Watch via DVice]
The latest entry into the UMPC market first stirred-up by the Eee PC is this new ultra-light from Raon Digital. It’s beefy inside despite its tiny size, packing a dual-core CPU—AMD Turion—which, according to the makers, is a first. It looks barely bigger across than its 7-inch screen (with 1024 x 600 pixels), but squeezes everything else in there too, including an electronic dictionary function, Windows XP OS, Bluetooth and drive options that go from 80GB HDD to 12GB SSD. Full specs below.
Samsung has added to its line of wireless speakers with the new YA-SBR510. There’s sparse info, but it looks to be a bigger, newer version of the BS900 we showed you last year. It’s got both Bluetooth and line-in connectivity so you can play music from almost any source. There’s also the YA-SD210 cradle, much smaller and designed only for Samsung PMPs—the P2, T10 and S3—but also acting as a speaker. The SBR510 is available in Korea at first for around US$220. [Akihabaranews]
According to a report on ZDNet today, analysts from both Gartner and IDC are claiming that Apple’s Australian market share is growing at a rate that far outstrips the competition. And this is despite the fact that Macs cost twice as much as PCs…
Gartner analysts apparently reckon that the house that Jobs built is recording 52% year on year growth, and in the second quarter of 2008 captured 5.3% of the market (compared to 3.8% for the previous year.
But what’s even more interesting is that Analyst group IDC claim that Apple are fast approaching Toshiba and Lenovo, who each claim about 8% market share (although they claim Apple has 6.2% market from Q1 2008).
HP are still the country’s biggest computer maker, with Dell and Acer behind them.
Although nobody outside of Apple probably has any way of knowing, but I wonder just how much of an effect the Sydney Apple Store has had on Mac sales?
[ZDNet AU]
Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700 is a 17-inch behemoth that’s the first notebook ever with a built-in Wacom digitiser. Designed for professional use in industries such as graphic design, photography and CAD, the digital tablet lets you manipulate images in programs like Photoshop without any extra gear. In addition, the 3.6kg notebook features a professional grade, WUXGA screen with 400 nit brightness (it’s actually stunning) and an auto colour-calibration sensor that lets you adjust display settings on the fly. Except for the fact it runs Vista, it’s like the perfect pro photographer’s workstation. galleryPost('lenovow700', 3, '');
For a relatively small market, the Australian satnav scene certainly has a lot of players. Think about it: There’s TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Navman, Pioneer, Uniden, Magellan… plus countless cheap Chinese manufacturers offering sub-$200 devices.
Well, as of today, the market is even slightly more crowded, with Navigon hitting Australian shelves through distributor Navigation Solutions. Typically, the release doesn’t actually mention what models will be on sale, nor how much they’ll cost. It also fails to describe whether any of the models available in Australia will work with the SUNA traffic channel. However, they do mention that the new models (whatever they are) will hit shelves at the end of August, and will use Navteq maps.
Hopefully we’ll find out more soon. In the meantime, press release junkies can find this one – in its entirety – below the fold…
I was fortunate enough to see an advanced screening of Tropic Thunder last night, and it was fantastic. The one thing that really stood out for me though was that Writer/Director/Actor Ben Stiller must be a Gizmodo fan – there were gadget references everywhere.
Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that TiVo plays a big part, as do satellite phones and private jets. Plus there’s a rather lengthy explanation on why Blu-ray won the format war (yep – porn and the PS3), which you wouldn’t normally associate with a movie set in a jungle.
Definitely worth checking out when it launches next week.
When Google launched its StreetView service in Australia last week, I thought it was a fairly cut and dry story – street-level imaging around a large chunk of Australia, which lets you play virtual tourist and waste an afteroon browsing through addresses you know, hoping to spot yourself or some one you know.
How wrong I was.
Since the launch, there have been countless stories focusing on the privacy concerns raised by the introduction of StreetView. And while that’s not a bad thing in itself, in some (if not many) examples, the articles in question seem to be creating more controversy than there actually is.
ATI’s Nvidia-slaying Radeon HD 4870 X2, previewed last month, will get official tomorrow at SIGGRAPH says the WSJ, who notes that some reviewers are calling it the most powerful card around. It’s an interesting test of ATI’s graphics card strategy: Cheaper, less power-hungry GPUs that can be easily strapped together (like the dual-GPU 4870 X2) versus Nvidia’s penchant for obscenely powerful single GPUs. The best part? Whoever you go with, you can’t really go wrong anymore. [
