It looks like President-Elect Obama isn’t going to give up his beloved BlackBerry this January without some sort of fight. In an interview with Barbara Walters, he revealed that he was working to find a solution to that whole surrender-your-cellphones-and-email-accounts at the door policy.
Samsung has five new large-sized touchscreen LCDs out that could bring something similar to CNN’s Magic Wall into your own home (or mall, or airport). Branded under the TS series, the five LCDs range between 32-inches to 82-inches and can be linked together to create one massive wall of touchy goodness. While they’re made to be used as point-of-sale terminals or information LCDs, who’s to say we couldn’t find something more creative to do if we got our grubby hands on them? [Akihabra News]
It’s nice to know that even as most of us scramble to keep our jobs and pay off our massive credit card debts, there are others out there who can still afford to give the very best to those they love most–their dogs. A Great Dane owner in the U.K. recently spent roughly $US380,000 to outfit her dog house with essential luxuries like a spa and a 52-inch plasma TV.
Wow, it’s like the longer you wait, the better the deals for the Peek email-on-the-go handheld get. First, there was the price drop to $80; then, unlimited texting. Now the company is offering to pay you entire November iPhone or G1 bill (up to $US150), if you buy two peeks (one for you, and one for a friend) at getpeek.com before Monday, December 1. That means those of you with astronomically high phone bills could technically get two of them for a Hamilton. (AU: Obviously US only, but a novel marketing idea that I thought you guys might like to know about…)[Peek]
Arrr. There be gadgety plunder in this here story. According to legend, a company from the United Kingdom be using MP3 players to deter pirates from stealing their ships and making their cap’n walk the plank. Gone be the days of a grand old sword fight between seamen and pirates, it seems. Instead, the seamen be usin’ something by the name of LRAD, which be standin’ for “Long Range Acoustic Device”, which blasts out warnin’ messages at the Jolly Roger. And while it won’t be sendin’ you down to see Davey Jones, it will be causin’ ya a great deal of pain if ya be gettin’ to within a couple of hundred metres of the seaman’s ship. Arrr. If ya be gettin’ any closer than that, you be losin’ your hearin’ for good. An’ no self-respectin’ pirate be wantin’ that, now, do they?
If ya be doubtin’ the power of the humble MP3 player, know dis: the LRAD anti-piracy device be used last week against some Somali pirates off the coast of Yemen. Got within’ 600 metres or so, they did, before they pointed there guns in the air and attacked another ship. Now I know what ye be thinkin’: How do I get me hands on one of them there LRAD devices. Well, you can be hirin’ a team of ex-military goons to be usin it for you for 14,000 pounds for three days. But that be plenty of time to plunder plenty of ships, methinks. Arrr.
[Agence France-Presse via PopSci]
We’ve seen our fair share of phony iPhones here before, but this is the first time I’ve seen a company take a more ingenious approach to copycatting and, I dare say, I wouldn’t mind if the real iPhone took a page out of this guy’s book one day. I introduce you to the iPhone Flip.
Giz US is going crazy at the moment with Black Friday, a day where retailers across the country slash prices letting consumers make some pretty big savings. I’ve been holding off on publishing most of it because, well, retailers just don’t do it here in Australia – our big sales generally happen on Boxing Day.
Well, Apple is bucking the trend, with a teaser ad up on their online store promising some big sales tomorrow. No idea what is actually going to be on sale, or how big a discount you might be able to pick up, but when it comes to Apple, any discount is a discount worth getting. Am I right?
The worst part about having part of your car repainted is that if it’s more than a few years old, you can generally tell where the car was touched up because the paint match wasn’t perfect. Sometimes it’s because factory paint was used, but the paint on your car has faded over time. Other times it’s because they don’t make your car’s colour anymore, and paint matching becomes an artform. But now, as The Economist writes, a European-funded collaboration between three companies has yielded the BYK-mac, a device you hold over any car’s paint, and it will tell you exactly how to recreate colour from scratch.
newVideoPlayer("/iphonespeed_giz.flv", 506, 300,"");After banning an Apple iPhone ad earlier this year, the British Advertising Standards Authority has pulled out another one that glossed over how “really really” fast the new iPhone 3G is. PC Pro went to try how “fast” is “really fast” and recorded the same ad with a real iPhone, in real time, putting their video and Apple’s TV commercial side to side.
Finally people (like me) stuck in areas where Telstra is the only option for ADSL2+ broadband will get another alternative, with Internode announcing yesterday that they’ll be reselling Telstra’s wholesale offering. This adds about 900 local exchanges to the 110 that Internode run their own equipment on, plus the 350 that they wholesale from Optus. Hopefully their won’t be any price increase for using Telstra’s wholesale service, but in any case, Internode’s offering is almost certain to be better than what the Big T is offering anyway.
