Thursday, October 30, 2008
Computers
HP Wants To Sell You a Carrier-Subsidised Netbook For Cheap With 3G Data
11:40PM John Mahoney | We’ve seen netbooks bundled with a mobile data service contract popping up in other parts of the world, but a report today by the WSJ finds HP considering the same tactic here in the US, where it hasn’t been done effectively yet. This would let you buy a Mini 1000 or any other HP netbook at a steep (hopefully), smartphone-esque discount on carriers that may include AT&T and Verizon. More »
Entertainment
Xbox 360 Netflix HD Won’t Work On Non-HDCP Digital Connections, But Component Works Fine
11:20PM John Herrman | Microsoft and Netflix are requiring that users of their swell little HD streaming service are connected to HDCP-compatible display. This potentially limits access for people who connect to older LCD screens via DVI. UPDATE: It should be noted, however, that component cables work fine in our testing. From what we can tell, the problem is isolated to digital connections only. [Format War Central] More »
Gadgets
Rusty Old Tanks Become Red-Hot Fire Extiguisher Speakers
11:00PM Mark Wilson | It wasn’t a mod we would have ever imagined, but what’s seen cannot be unseen. These gorgeous fire extinguisher speakers were painstakingly fabricated through lots of patient cutting and welding. The result is a seamless, industrial metal design that you can’t pick up at Walmart, or even your local speaker boutique. While we’re not skilled enough with our hands to fully appreciate the work, we’ve assembled a photo step-by-step that starts with some crummy, rusted tanks and ends with shiny custom speakers: More »
Online
NASA-TV Streams HD Film to Celebrate 50 Years in Space
10:45PM Kit Eaton | 50 years ago this month NASA rocketed into existence, and to celebrate this fact NASA-TV is streaming its special retrospective show “50 Years of Exploration: The Golden Anniversary of NASA” in HD format today at 1pm and 8pm EDT (and again tomorrow at 10am and 2pm). Check it out: it’s presented by none other than Neil Armstrong, and it’ll remind you how frickin’ astonishing the achievements of the Agency are, despite its recent rockety woes. [NASA-TV] More »
Gadgets
Sauna Gondola Car is Perfect Mix of Snow, Skiing and Nudity
10:15PM Kit Eaton | Screw jacuzzi-ing on top of Mont Blanc, or shrinking your unmentionables in a freezing ice sauna, this is the best kind of winter sport relaxation: a ski gondola has been converted into a sauna. Ohboy yes, you can dangle free and naked over a snowy mountain in the Lapland resort of Ylläs. Après-ski? Nah… with passengers like these two it’d be more like instead-of-ski. Much more fun. [TheTelegraph] More »
Vehicles
Broomstick Bike Is Perfect Vehicle for Wannabe Witches
10:00PM Jesus Diaz | A black bike with a broomstick mechanism designed to steer it? It must belong to… a witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! We’ve found a witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! We’ve got a witch! A witch! A witch! Burn her! Burn her! Burn her! We’ve found a witch! We’ve found a witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! We have found a witch. May we burn her? Anyone has a duck? More »
Software
Didiom Streams Your Entire iTunes Library to Your BlackBerry
9:44PM John Herrman | The software relationship between RIM and Apple is growing more and more passionate, with third-party companies stoking the the fire that RIM started with its iTunes pairing program, BlackBerry Media Sync. Like Simplify Media for the iPhone, Didiom is an app for virtually any recent BlackBerry that allows for full streaming of a user’s iTunes music library over the phone’s data connection. The streaming feature looks like it is at least in part a promotional ploy for a built-in upstart music store, but that looks easy enough to ignore. For interface details check out the video above, featuring the same honeyed, suicide-inducing voice as every retail job training video of the last 25 years. [Slashphone] More »
Phones
Nokia N96 Media-Cameraphone Lands at Best Buy For $US800
9:42PM Kit Eaton | News of the European debut and pricing of Nokia’s anticipated N96 slider mobile phone stirred up debate about its cost: but now it’s nearly here in Best Buy and yes, that $US800 price tag is intact. That’s clearly just for the phone, naked and un-contracted to a provider, but it’s a massive amount of cash—half as much again as an unsubsidised Blackberry Bold. If you’re sceptical but want to check out if the beast is worth 800 smackeroos, there’ll be hands-on display units in some stores apparently. [BGR] More »
Gadgets
Cara Lamp is Crystal-Like LED and Silver Circuit-Board Beauty
9:18PM Kit Eaton | Those little interlaced blades of ice you sometimes get on the edge of ultra-cold things in wet air: that’s the image that popped into my head on seeing the Cara lamp. It’s by designer Andreas Ostwald and that fragile crystal-like shape is composed of interlocked flat white circuit boards with silver tracks, sprinkled with 70 white LEDs. How lighting should be to my mind: simple, elegant and stunning. Though presumably it’s designer status gives it a price premium that’ll place it beyond my lustful reach. [Contemporist via LuxuryLaunches] More »
Computers
