It was a bad sign when the National Debt Clock on Sixth Avenue in NYC ran out of space this past weekend, calling for the screen previously used for the dollar sign to be used for the 1 in 10 trillion. Now, the real estate mogul Seymour Durst who put up the sign back in 1989 has announced that the current clock will be replaced next year with one that can accommodate figures in the quadrillions–that’s 15 zeroes. Hopefully that’ll buy at least two or three more years of worry-free service. Time to have a look at our next great depression gadget guide? [CNN, Photo: Jesper Rautell Balle]
Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the first commercial mobile phone call in history. On October 13th 1983, Ameritech executive Bob Barnett called the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell using the now legendary and bricktastic Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. Here’s our modified mobile phone timeline highlighting this historic event. You can click on it to see the full 2,300 pixel wide version.
The many, many promises that Asus would release a touchscreen Eee by the end of this year have been fulfilled—by pasting an Eee sticker on a touchscreen all-in-one (also promised, though not with touchiness). This all-in-one touchscreen Eee, which you can pre-order in the UK for £399.99, is pretty hobbled: 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and 15-inch screen running Windows XP. I can only imagine how atrocious the touch experience is, but we’ll find out on Nov. 20, or thereabouts, according to Play. And it only kinda apes the old-school iMac aesthetic. [Play via Engadget]
On October 19, NASA will launch the IBEX, or Interstellar Boundary Explorer, into a 210km earth orbit to begin mapping the very edge of our solar system. This region of space, also known by the kick arse scientific name “termination shock,” is rife with mystery. Only the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have ventured there, but they weren’t armed with the right kind of tech to adequately catalog what’s going on at the point where our solar system meets outer space. IBEX is, and from its orbit around our planet it will beam back some of the first detailed measurements of the region.
You don’t even have to ask this English busker/artist/engineer why he made his pedal-driven, guitar-plucking, steampunk-looking musical whatsit, because his reasons are bolted to the side: I built this machine because of unreliable guitarists. It don’t smoke! It don’t drink! And it’s never late.
Bang & Olufsen, maker of very expensive things that use electricity, looks like they might be onto something with their BeoSound 5. With album art and a relatively complex menu displayed on the screen, it would appear that the BeoSound 5 will be a pretty comprehensive (and of course, stylish) control interface for your home media system. Whether it’ll play nice with your network shares and iTunes libraries or be locked down to prohibitively expensive B&O gear is a different story, but if you’re considering kit like this you probably don’t really mind either way. [BeoWorld via Engadget]
The Port Authority has released renderings of the plan for the World Trade Centre Transport hub, and they look fantastic. With an arched, spiny roof and striking curves, the hub — though it will only serve as a train station and vestibule to the new WTC — has more in common with Bilbao’s beautiful international airport than with Grand Central Terminal (they have the same designer, after all). galleryPost('wtchub', 3, '');
LG and Prada have just sent out a pre-announcement for the upcoming Prada II, sequel to the companies’ first touchscreen lovechild that was released well over a year ago. Stand-out features include a 5MP camera, FM radio, 7.2Mbps HSDPA 850/2100 (hey, North American importers) and Wi-Fi. The rest of the tech specifications pretty much match the leaked list, but offer little to distinguish the phone from the growing crowd of pop-out QWERTY touchscreen phones.
You might want to hold off on buying a Blu-ray player for a few weeks, because thankfully, finally, seriously, and almost too-latedly, Blu-ray players will soon drop into truly affordable territory. A source close to Ultimate Electronics has told us to expect the Samsung BD-P1500 — usually about $400 — for $149 on this particularly welcome and poignant Black Friday. Ultimate Electronics is a primarily Midwestern chain, but look to be offering this deal in cooperation with Samsung — in other words, it’s probably not the only place you’ll see stupidly cheap Blu-ray players come November 28th. -Thanks, Carmel and Matt!
AU: Thought this would be interesting to post for you guys, even though I doubt it will translate across the Pacific.
While the vast majority of iPhone customers opt for all-inclusive (but expensive) contracts, those miserly pay as you go customers that depend on the $US20 MEdia Net unlimited data add-on to save money in the long term will be upset to find that, as of November 12th, they won’t have that option. AT&T has decided to end the service, which — though never intended for use with the iPhone — was the sole reason that many people could justify paying the full unsubsidised price, because it was relatively unpopular. The announcement was made in a text sent to MEdia Net users:
