Monday, October 20, 2008
Gadgets
Colour E-Paper Debuts on Waterproof MP3 Player
11:45PM Kit Eaton | E-ink and e-paper are the display buzzwords of the moment, but generally the devices are mono colored… until now. And though KDDI showed a concept colour e-paper display recently, it looks like the first device to market sporting a coloured e-paper display will be an MP3 player from Freestyle Audio. Qualcomm have come up with the paper, and it works by having multiple layers in the display: light is partially reflected at each layer, and due to wavelength filtering and interference between the light the colours are generated. Choice of colour is achieved by varying the distance between the layers electrostatically. Clever stuff indeed…and of course it’s instantly got us wondering about the possibilities for the Kindle 3. [TechnologyReview] More »
Design
Glittery 1.5 Million Square Metres Dubai Terminal 3 Is Largest In the World
11:30PM Jesus Diaz | At just under 1.5 million square metres, Dubai’s International Airport Terminal 3 has not only became the shiniest airport terminal ever, but it’s also the largest in the world, beating the 984,000 of the previous record holder, the firebreathing Olympic terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport. More »
Random Stuff
Circuit City’s Anti-Death Plan: Amputation
11:15PM Matt Buchanan | Our grim predictions of the imminent epic fail of perpetual consumer electronics big box second-run Circuit City are unfortunately panning out. The WSJ and AP report that their plan to avoid bankruptcy and death is amputation: Shuttering at least 150 stores (one-fifth of their 712 US locations) and cutting “thousands” of employees, which would let them liquidate $US350 million in inventory. Like buzzards circling overhead, we just hope they make it fully intact to deliver those crazy “the economy is shit” Black Friday deals. [Dallas News] More »
Hardware
Intel’s Superfast SSDs Make For Even Speedier RAID 0 Rig
11:00PM John Mahoney | Intel’s solid state drives are real fast–$US600 for 80GB kind of fast. It should come as no surprise, then, that they make a mighty quick RAID 0 setup, which does not provide data redundancy but does give twice the data throughput. Hot Hardware’s numbers were a blazing 396MB/s read and 130MB/s write times (the fastest they’ve ever tested), making this quite a speedy 160GB volume. Head over to Hot Hardware for more numbers. [Hot Hardware] More »
Peripherals
Greenhouse Headphones For the ‘An Angel and Devil Crashed Into My Ears’ Look
10:45PM Kit Eaton | Okay, these headphones from Greenhouse are pretty similar to the weirdo pig ones from a few months ago… but they’re worth it simply because I like the idea of having a mini model Angel and Devil pushed into your ears instead of boring old normal headphones. They’ve got a 5mW output, 20Hz to 20kHz response and are out in Japan in five different colour combos for about $US10. [NewLaunches] More »
Gadgets
Cue Shower-Timer Prompts Women To Health-Check For Breast Cancer
10:15PM Kit Eaton | As well as letting you keep an environmentally-friendly eye on your time in the shower, Cue from Avie Products is specifically designed to remind women to check their breasts each month. Like those cheapo shower radio designs, it suckers on to the wall of your shower cubicle and then each month, seven days after your period, it’ll ping you. It can also cope with reminders for up to four women. So it’s pretty basic, but also sounds pretty darn useful in terms of reminding you to check your health: currently it’s available for just $US25 since it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month—regular pricing is $US30. Update: we contacted Avie, and they’ve confirmed that a less “flowery” version is in the works, to remind men to check for testicular lumps. [Chip Chick via Coolest Gadgets] More »
Software
New ‘I’m a Mac’ Ads Stop Attacking Vista, Start Attacking Microsoft’s Marketing
10:02PM John Herrman | Apple and Microsoft have been having this bizarre pissing match for a few years now, but this new set of ads marks confirms what previous volleys seemed to imply: these companies have no intention of actually talking about their products. Microsoft’s feel-good “I’m Joe the Plumber and I’m a PC” campaign was about as substantive as Apple’s disingenuous and outdated attacks on its opponent’s software, but this new set of ads is really nothing more than a vague indictment of Microsoft’s marketing strategy. Maybe that’ll fly with tech news hounds, but most people who see these on TV won’t even know what they’re talking about, much less care. More »
Phones
More Details on Motorola’s Android Phone: It’ll Be Better, Cheaper than G1
9:39PM Kit Eaton | Details have been dribbling out about Motorola’s upcoming Android cellphone—we already knew it was going to be social-networky—but Businessweek has quizzed Moto and garnered a few more juicy facts. Firstly it’ll have a an “iPhone-like touchscreen,” which is no big surprise, and it’lll have a slide-out QWERTY like the G1. But, most interestingly, it’ll be specced a little higher than the G1 and will come at a lower price point. More »
Design
Cabinet Built From 918 Tapes That Never Thought Things Would End Like This
9:15PM John Herrman | It’s not easy being a tape nowadays. Your only friends are all in jail, everyone inexplicably likes old-farty vinyl more than you, and now people are even using you to build furniture. This is not how it was supposed to go. More »
Science
