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Yesterday the Japanese announced the first space beer. Now the British are claiming the first teddy bear astronauts, who were photographed in space from a home-made vessel with two digital cameras, a flight computer, GPS, and radio.
These watches from Tokyo Street take three novel approaches to telling time: one draws a target, the other makes a graph, and the last displays ants. Glowing, inscrutable little ants.
Netflix's Silverlight-based Watch Instantly feature for Macs is out of beta, and activated for all subscribers. The catalog still isn't complete and the six machine limit stands, but good news is good news. [Netflix —Thanks, Ben!]
Each release of Windows treats us to a new boot screen. XP had its endless progress bar, and Vista added its emblem. Windows 7, though, gets a glowing Microsoft blob.
Are you obsessed with Sputnik, the Space Race, Google architecture and radioactive powers for superheroes? Look out, it seems like your fetish is about to get a name: "Atompunk."
Sometimes, things as mundane as tool kits can look like great works of art. This piano repair box, perfected by Henry Studley, does a great job of fixing up instruments, but it's careful placement of knicknacks also makes it beautiful.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 4:00 PM on December 4, 2008
I generally don't buy music online - I'm still a purist at heart who likes to own all my music on CDs. If I was planning on spending some online dollars on some tunes though, I'd be all over this deal from BigPond - essentially they're offering 50% off the price of a $50 or $100 BigPond Music gift card. You can't pick them up online, which means you actually have to go to the shops, but considering BigPond sell a good chunk of their music (from all the majors) in non-DRM'd MP3 format, it's easy to buy the music from BigPond then transfer it over to iTunes (or other music management software for the half-dozen Apple haters out there). Deal runs until December 31st, so maybe it's that perfect last-minute Xmas gift for that hard to please colleague?
[BigPond Music via Lifehacker]
Japan mobile phone app maker J-Magic has released a useful update to its celebrity look-a-like app, "Kao Cheki." Called "Shoubu Co-de Cheki," it offers fashion advice based on mobile snapshots of your face. Anyone want to make this for the iPhone?
Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:45 PM on December 4, 2008
Sydneysiders bitter about the fact that the Game On gaming expo seemed to bunny hop right over the nation's largest city can feel some relief today with the opening of the "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" exhibition at the Powerhouse museum. The exhibit brings together props and costumes from all six of the Star Wars films, and combines them with interviews from key people involved in the production of the films. But then it combines all of that with an intelligent look at the science in the sci-fi, by showcasing just where we are today in creating some of the technologies of a Galaxy far, far away.
The surge of systems devised to re-capture bodily output continues, this time with a nano-piezo technology that could use sound waves to charge mobile phones. But how long must you talk before you can... talk? Science Daily reports that Tahir Cagin, a professor in the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M, has merged the really old science of piezoelectrics with the very new science of nanotechnology to discover that a technique for harvesting energy actually gets way more efficient at the nano level. Specifically, when a piezoelectric film used to convert vibrations into energy is reduced to around 21 nanometers in thickness, it's suddenly twice as good at converting the energy. There's not a lot of detail on the uses for this technology just yet, and—like other vibration-power systems—the earliest uses would probably be in very low energy applications such as sensors. But the article does suggest this could have "potentially profound effects for low-powered electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, personal communicators and a host of other computer-related devices," though I wonder if that wasn't just thrown in to make people like me excited about it. It worked. I am. [Science Daily via TreeHugger]
Posted by Nick Broughall at 1:11 PM on December 4, 2008
It seems that more and more smartphone manufacturers are cottoning on to the fact that Windows Mobile is a dog to use. The latest company to join the "sticking a better UI over the top of Windows Mobile" brigade is i-mate, who are now offering a free download on their site to cover up the notoriously frustrating mobile OS. The skin is powered by Vito Winterface, so it's nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, but it still offers an extra layer for i-mate users.
The original Horizon H-Racer hydrogen fuel-cell toy just got an update: Before, you could fill it with water and let 'er rip. Now, you can actually steer the bastard.
Fujistu-Siemens has released their Amilo GraphicBooster. It seems like a rather good idea. A powerful graphics card and two-USB port that you can have permanently attached to three displays. It look amazing in action.
According to our recent poll, only 12% of respondents blame Walmart for the tragic death of a 34 year old employee in the Black Friday rush. But when it comes to lawsuits, money talks.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:28 AM on December 4, 2008
A lot of geeks tend to avoid sport - God knows I find cricket to be the single most tedious program on summer TV. But if you do belong to that rare breed of gadget fan who enjoys all types of sports, you may be interested to hear that BigPond has launched a 24/7 sport TV channel for both NextG customers and online. You won't necessarily get full matches though, with the channel offering news, results and highlights, from a selection of sports including cricket (yawn), tennis, golf, A-League, English Premiere League football, ESPN programming plus other results from around the globe. The service, called BigPond Sport Summer, will set you back $9.95 a month or $3.95 a day for NextG customers, or can be viewed for free online at bigpondsport.com (so long as you use a Windows-based PC, that is). Sadly, there won't be any real geeky sports, like robot wars or chess tournaments, but who knows what the future holds, right?
The only rings I've ever liked are nipple rings, The Lord of the Rings, wedding rings--I collect them--and Ringo Starr. I love these silver Lego rings, though. You can customise them putting any brick you want on top.
For some reason, rhythms I produce by nervously tapping my fingers do not translate well to musical instruments. However, this "Jam" concept could help fidgety individuals like myself become musical virtuosos.
This revieLITE iPhone and iPod charger night light is one of the most amazing things I've seen today; and I've seen tens of things today.
I love Logitech mice, so I actually dug their shameless mouse timeline. Even more awesome, though, are these amazing prototypes that never left their lab, like the three-scroll wheel monstrosity and hockey puck above.
Based a a number of complaints posted on the Roku customer forum, it appears that their little $US99 Netflix streaming device has spontaneously suffered from a serious drop in video quality.
Glu Mobile and the iPhone/iPod Touch now give you the chance to pilot your own Batmobile for the low price of $US0.99.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 9:30 AM on December 4, 2008
We knew it was coming, we just didn't know anything about it. Well now we do: Australia's first Android phone (and one of the first in the world) is called the Kogan Agora. A second handset that will launch at the same time goes by the self-explanatory moniker, Agora Pro. Both handsets are available to order now for $299 and $399 respectively, although they won't ship until January 29 2009 to both Australian and international customers.
Spec-wise, there's a 2.5-inch touchscreen LCD sitting right above a full-qwerty keyboard. It's a tri-band HSDPA handset (running on the 850, 1900 and 2100 bands, so fine for NextG) and quadband GSM phone, measures in at 108 mm x 64 mm x 14.8 mm and weighs 130 grams. Inside there's a 624MHz processor (not sure who from), 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM. There's a MicroSD slot, Bluetooth 2.0 and all the Android apps we've been reading about from the US coverage of the G1.
Sure, the Soviets had the first cosmonaut and the Americans won the moon. But leave it to the Japanese to brew the first space beer in history. Called Space Barley, it uses barley grown in the International Space Station.
Posted by Kym Weathersten at 9:15 AM on December 4, 2008
Following hot on the heels of their "Movie Of The Week" service, TiVo announced yesterday they'll be launching broadband radio in conjunction with radio network DMG (aka Nova and Vega). The service looks set for a March launch, with customers to receive the service upgrade free of charge.
Radio and TiVo doesn't seem the most natural of partnerships, since one relies on a screen and the other, well... doesn't. But according to DMG's Cathy O'Connor the fit is a good one, with plans to use the screen first as a menu and ultimately for branding related images.
When asked if there were plans to incorporate more radio stations into their growing empire, TiVo were typically tight lipped. However, they did indicate they were considering generic radio options overseas, with views to possibly launch kids' radio within the service.
Posted by Nick Broughall at 8:41 AM on December 4, 2008
New Xbox 360 Arcades Sports 256MB Internal Storage
Hope you didn't pick up an Xbox Arcade recently...
Santa Claus' Gmail Account Exposed
Ah, Santa. You so crazy.
Move Along, No Triple-Decker Fold-Up Grill To See Here
I for one would like to see this barbecue in the next Transformers movie.
Windows 7 Beta 1 Will Debut on January 13th
I wonder how close that is to MacWorld?
At Giz Gallery: We're Setting Up Right Now
If you're quick, you can watch them set up the New York event via Justin.tv
Giz Explains: Why OS X Shrugs Off Viruses Off Better Than Windows
Start fanboy war... now!
Every year, The Onion sells boxes for fake, horrible-looking products to prank unsuspecting gift-receivers with. They've got two new one's this year: the iFeast and Kleen-Stride.
As you probably know, the BBC and a bunch of publications pounced over a "new" Tech Support Note recommending the use of anti-virus software, accusing Apple of "quietly" changing their tune about the Mac being virus-proof. We discovered this was false. Then Apple removed the notes, saying they were obsolete because Mac OS X is designed with built-in protection. Certainly, Mac OS X's architecture and their out-of-the-box security policies make their OS safer than Windows. Or does it? Despite the technical arguments, do you think Mac OS X needs anti-virus software?
Like Lego or Apple, you knew this was coming to the Gizmodo Gallery: An exclusive iPhonesque-edition of the TV-B-Gone, so you can annoy the hell out of us by turning off our Panasonic 103-inch TV.
Just as we're