Thursday, October 9, 2008
Design
Lunchboxes Create the Illusion of Fine PB&J Dining
11:40PM Mark Wilson | Our childhood died when we realised that our precious GI Joe lunchbox would no longer impress our friends but get us laughed at and called a baby. As we carried our brown paper bag in shame, one graphic designer mused a solution. Her lunchboxes, seen here, hold food with style, folding out to reveal a facade of dining on fine porcelain plates or even just simple plastic dishes on the beach. More »
Entertainment
Discovery Channel’s Time Warp: Slo-Mo Videos of Crazy Sh*t Go Primetime
11:20PM John Mahoney | Overheard in a recent Discovery Channel producer’s meeting: “Hey–here’s a crazy idea: you know how videos of things happening in slow motion tend to blow up the internet? Let’s make that into a whole show. And in HD to boot. Face punches, raw chicken exploding, champagne blowing its top (the more latent sexuality the better!)–that kind of thing. We’ll start it off next week, and yeah, we’ll put some pretty great interactive slo-mo videos on our website that can be controlled frame-by-frame. I don’t know about you guys but I’m sold!” [Discovery Channel] More »
Design
Venus Crystal Chair, Probably Manufactured on Krypton
11:00PM Mark Wilson | Tokujin Yoshioka likes chairs as much as the next chair designer, but he’s not accustomed to using standard building materials. His latest project, the Venus Chair, is not built but grown. He shapes a sponge-like substrate called polyester elastomer into a sort of chair skeleton and then submerges it into a tank to grow crystals inside and out. The result is fit for Superman, except he’d never fit in this tiny scale model. He’d need something more like this full-blown La-Z-Boy version: More »
Games
PSP Getting Dual Shock 3 Support Through ‘PSP Plus’
10:40PM Mark Wilson | We’ve seen the patents and the rumours that the Sony PlayStation Portable would begin accepting the Dual Shock 3 controller. Heck, we’ve even seen those too impatient to wait who’ve modded the experience on their own. But finally, Sony has announced a new feature called PSP Plus that will allow you to play PSP (2000 or 3000 models) with your Dual Shock 3 (or SIXAXIS?) controller. But there are a few catches… More »
Games
Gadgets
Eye-Fi Software Update Adds Support for Twitter, RSS
10:20PM John Herrman | Eye-Fi keeps kicking arse with their wireless SD cards, adding feed publishing capabilities through Twitter and RSS in a free software update. It was only a few weeks ago that another downloadable upgrade boosted download speeds and threw in MobileMe support, adding to an already massive list of support photo sharing sites. Owners should get an Eye-Fi Manager Software update pushed through automatically, and new customers can now find the cards on the Eye-Fi website. Note to other hardware manufacturers: DO MORE STUFF LIKE THIS. [Eye-Fi via Crave] More »
Science
Origami Space Shuttles Unveiled, Kids Around the World Hold Their Breath
10:00PM Jesus Diaz | This has to be the dream of every kid and adult on Earth: Make a paper plane and throw it from orbit. Well, there’s one lucky Japanese astronaut who is going to get nine of them, a paper space shuttle fleet which will go up to the International Space Station. Then, they will be dropped from orbit into a 400km, two-day flight to the ground. If you are thinking that these origami spacecrafts won’t be able to resist the re-entry, think again: They can sustain Mach 7 speeds (8,500kph) and 200-degree Celsius temperatures. More »
Computers
Asus Planning to Release Touchscreen Eee PC Within Six Months
9:10PM John Herrman | Asustek executive Samson Hu has confirmed his company’s plans to release a touchscreen Eee PC variant for sale by Q1 of 2009. It’s not known whether the devices will look like the touch panel Eee mods that have been floating around or take the shape of a tablet, but we’ll see in January when the first models are shown at CES. That’s not all though — further announcements indicated that the Eee line is changing is some more subtle ways. More »
Computers
New Apple Notebooks May Start At $US800, Made From Actual Bricks
8:31PM John Herrman | Amidst a flurry of alleged pictures and some wise words of caution, another Mac notebook rumour has surfaced: the Inquisitr claims that, according to their source, Apple’s new line of notebooks will start at $US800 and come in twelve configurations. To put that into perspective, the current range is made up of eight price points, the lowest being $US1099. A $US300 drop in MacBook prices or the likely possibility of an entirely new model are both tantalising, but some are finding reason to be suspicious: More »
Software
