Thursday, October 23, 2008
Cameras
Redrock’s Cinematising Kit to Turn Video DSLRs Into Proper Movie Cams
11:45PM Kit Eaton | Sure, the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D90’s HD video capability is pretty amazing, but since the camera chassis and lenses are a typical DSLR shape, they lack many things in terms of utility for serious movie-makers. And that’s where Redrock’s “cinematising” kit comes in. More »
Gadgets
Belkin’s Flywire Wireless HDMI Delayed
11:30PM Mark Wilson | Announced at CES 2008, the wireless HDMI streaming Belkin Flywire was supposed to be market-ready by CES 2009. But unfortunately, Belkin has delayed the release until April at the earliest. In the meantime, we’re thankful that HDMI is already just a one-cord affair. More »
Games
Logitech Premiere Edition Guitar Is Such, Such Guitar Hero Overkill
11:10PM Mark Wilson | The Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller, Premiere Edition shows that even a keyboard and mouse manufacturer is ready to challenge Fender in the world of high end game guitars. The $US250 PS2/PS3 accessory features a premium build including a genuine wood neck, rosewood fingerboard and metal frets. More »
Vehicles
Rocket Car Will Hit 1600kph in 40 Seconds, Empty Bowels in About 5
10:50PM John Herrman | Britain’s Minister of Science Lord Drayson is announcing today the commencement of the Bloodhound rocket car project, which will propel current land speed record-holder and RAF Pilot Andy Green to speed of over 1600kph. This is another step in the sporadically intense fight for the fastest car in the world, but the Minister has a half-hilarious, half-reasonable excuse for it: it’ll get British students interested in taking advanced science classes. Nobody really cares about stuff like that because, well, 1600kph. More »
Games
Coffee Table Makes Retro Gaming a Contemporary Experience
10:30PM Mark Wilson | Half MAME cabinet, half pretentious furniture, this new coffee table by Surface Tension mixes worlds to adultise your gaming habit. Available in walnut or oak, the table features a 19-inch LCD, Shuttle PC with dual core CPU, integrated USB and HDMI outputs, 100W of speakers and two sets of high quality buttons and joysticks. With this hardware configuration, you can play games on the table or output the experience to your HDTV. More »
Cameras
Brando’s ID Pass Spycam is For, Uh… Industrial Espionage?
10:00PM Kit Eaton | I know spy tech is interesting stuff, but this ID-pass holder spycam from Brando has me pondering. I mean… it’s all very clever and such, able to record 1.2-megapixel photos, audio and CIF-resolution video onto its 4GB internal storage and is USB rechargeable. But its likely use is for genuine industrial espionage, which really isn’t very nice. Or am I being overly sensitive? Still, it’s a meaty $US174, so you’re going to have to really want to snoop on your office operations, and bore a hole in your genuine ID before you stick it on the top of this. [Brando via i4u] More »
Software
Microsoft Cracking Down On Pirated Software in China, Probably Starting WWIII
9:20PM John Herrman | Microsoft has expanded its latest WGA initiative — you know, the one that turns your computer off or screen black every hour — to China. An guess what! Since the majority of Chinese computer users run unauthorised copies of Windows, they’re kind of upset. Of course, there are plenty of good discussions to be had about how measures like this could affect Microsoft’s image and limit computer access in poorer parts of the world, but one awesome Chinese blogger/aspiring economist sees things differently: More »
Gadgets
Apple Patent Forsees Gadget RF Connectivity Everywhere, From Shirts to Cars
8:44PM Kit Eaton | Apple’s just filed a patent titled “Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof” which is speculative, but basically offers us a sniff of how the future of gadget interconnectivity might be. Apple imagines small, intelligent and efficient RF transmitter-receivers that can handshake and pass data between gadgets and which are embedded everywhere, literally from your socks upwards. More »
Science
Scientist’s Flying Plasmonic Lens Could Make Chips Ten Times Denser
8:05PM Kit Eaton | Optical lithography is the secret sauce in the fabbing technology that makes the chips inside your computer, and a clever bunch at the University of California, Berkeley have worked out a new adaptation of the tech to produce chips that could be ten times more detailed. It basically combines a hard-disk-alike spinning platter and scanning head with a metal lens to focus UV light onto smaller spots: by rotating a chemically treated silicon wafer beneath the head, you can achieve far more precise chips than using a photo mask.
Gadgets
