It’s been a while since we mentioned the iDog from Tiger/Hasbro, because it was basically a dog that’d had its day: Until now that is, when Tiger have removed one of the toy’s problems by adding cuddliness. It still has a speaker and does the same LED-flashing face and wiggling in reaction to your music, but it’s now got a plush body just like your teddybear, so you can, er… snuggle up to its writhing body? Hmmm. Anyway, the iDog Soft Speaker is out now for about $US35. [Hasbro via Dvice]
San Francisco artist Robert Burden spent a year — a year — painting his man-sized Voltron pièce de résistance, “Defensor Mundi”, and caught the whole process in time-lapse. Sure, the floral theme doesn’t inspire much confidence in Voltron’s RoBeast-slaying abilities, but the music and painting are a treat. [BoingBoing via Make]
Some resourceful folks at the #android IRC channel and RyeBrye, after realizing that the G1′s Synaptics touch screen might be able to handle multiple inputs, say they were able to re-enable some commented-out code in the phone’s touchscreen driver and log some multitouch gestures. The lack of multitouch in the first Android phone was a minor disappointment, albeit an understandable one — encroaching on Apple’s software patent territory probably wasn’t on the top of Google’s to-do list. But this wouldn’t be the first time HTC has released a phone with hidden multitouch, and it is without a doubt the most intriguing.
In what’s bound to be embarrassing for the Chinese space program, the president of high-tech company AMAC International has pleaded guilty to giving China military data about fueling systems for space launch vehicles. Shu Quan-Sheng is a Chinese native who’s a naturalised U.S. citizen. The incident puts a black smear on the country’s otherwise extremely successful space endeavor.
Remember that 108-inch LCD that broke a heap of records and wowed us all a couple of years ago? You know, until Panasonic went and showed of its 150-inch Plasma. Yeah, that one. Well, Sharp firmly believes (for some reason) that despite the current economy, there is still a market in Australia for $169,000 televisions.
Don’t get me wrong: I saw the 108-incher when it came to Australia just after its CES showcase, and it was gorgeous. Picture quality was breathtaking. But is now the right time to be launching a TV that costs as much as a house in some parts of the country? My instinct says no, but there is still a part of me that cries out “yes!”
High Definition Content Protection—the annoying DRM-y thing that’s supposed to stop people from copying hi-def stuff as it travels over a card-display connector— has apparently, and unfortunately, come to Apple’s MacBooks. HDCP is now included on new MacBooks to protect iTunes Store media, though it seems that only some of the content is actually HDCP-aware. A high school teacher was unable to play Hellboy 2 on his classroom’s projector with his new aluminium MacBook, but other purchased media (such as Stargate: Continuum and Heroes episodes) worked just fine. Perfect. Because copyright protection is all about inconveniencing those who actually bought their stuff legally? [Ars Technica]
For the guy who wants a Vudu system but demands a rack-mountable setup, the Vudu XL2 is here to foot the bill in Armani boots. It’s essentially a Vudu XL in a premium aluminium package, storing a terabyte of content while squeezing within one rack unit of space. The catch is that it’s priced at $US1300 and still runs $US40 extra for an IR remote attachment. But hey, it costs to be Mr. I Have a Custom Home Theatre Installer. Read on for the full details.
Without much ado, Microsoft’s released the New Xbox Experience for some of you an entire day and a half earlier than announced. Woohoo. Everyone who applied to the “preview program” for NXE can as of now check out the avatar system, redesigned menus and other knick knacks. Previewers, tell us how it’s going. The rest of us who couldn’t be bothered to fill out Microsoft’s sign-up form will still have to wait until the 19th. [Kotaku]
Good news for all Youtube watchers who have G1s, the people of Adobe have basically confirmed that an Android-based version of Flash will be ready in coming months. Any device with at least 200MHz processors, more than 16MB RAM and a “completely capable web browser” will be able to render web-based flash content. Wonderful! The last thing Googlephone users should miss out on is the ability to watch a dog humping on a baby over and over again. [Adobe via ModmyGphone]
With just a few months before the digital TV conversion renders millions of sets obsolete (well, kind of), a group called the Electronics TakeBack Coalition is trying to shame major companies into some e-waste recycling initiative by giving them report card scores. Of all the companies surveyed, the highest score (B-) went to Sony, which launched the first national takeback program in 2007. More than half of everybody else got a big fat F for having absolutely nothing in place.
