Monday, December 15, 2008
Peripherals
OCZ Pushing Out a Line of Crafty, Power-Grubbing eSATA Thumb Drives
11:58PM John Herrman | The external SATA standard is still a comparatively rare and inconsistent one, but OCZ has designed the Throttle, an eSATA flash drive with a clever compatibility trick up its slee—err, cap. More »
Games
PS Home Hacked, But the Door Was Wide Open
11:40PM Mark Wilson | It’s technically an “Open Beta,” but PlayStation Home features major security vulnerabilities that hackers have already exploited. The first, seen here in blurry video, allows you to play, say, Pineapple Express on Home screens. More »
Networks
Google Wants to Install Servers at ISPs, Not So Sure About That ‘Net Neutrality’ Thing After All
10:49PM John Herrman | The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has approached ISPs with a plan to install servers within their networks, providing a “fast lane” for the famous supporters of net neutrality Updated 1:30p EST More »
Design
Dubai Hotelier Hasn’t Heard of Flip-Flops, Plans to Refrigerate Entire Beach
9:55PM John Herrman | There’s nothing like a good bit of Dubai excess, but this just isn’t impressive enough to justify the profligacy: the Palazzo Versace hotel is building a beach with refrigerated sand. More »
Gadgets
The History of Apple, As Seen Through the Glazed Eyes of the Patent Office
9:17PM John Herrman | Technologizer has meticulously reconstructed Apple’s history in the form of sweet, formerly tantalising patent filings. More »
Computers
MSI Encourages Hackintosh, Leaks OS X Wi-Fi Drivers for the Wind
8:30PM John Herrman | Seeing that the need for a warranty-voiding Wi-Fi module switch was the only thing keeping users from easily making convincing mini-MacBooks, MSI has semi-released OS X wireless drivers for the Wind. More »
Software
New ‘Nova’ Palm OS Confirmed for CES 2009
5:50PM Brian Lam | A scheduled Businessweek feature broke at midnight about Palm OS, and the subhead confirms that it will be shown at CES. The facts are thin, but they’re below. More »
Entertainment
3:30PM Nick Broughall | There may not be any mention of it anywhere on the official site (or anywhere else, for that matter), but what’s the bet that Hoyts’ decision to upgrade three of its cinemas to play back IMAX-quality film was partially inspired by the success of The Dark Knight’s IMAX scenes? I mean, come on – one of the biggest films ever made uses IMAX cameras and then six months later Hoyts are making over their cinemas? It can’t be a coincidence.
The three cinemas getting made over for IMAX goodness – Entertainment Quarter at Fox Studios in Sydney, Highpoint in Melbourne and Carousel in Perth – will all be bringing the IMAX experience on Boxing Day with the release of Keanu Reeves’ latest, The Day the Earth Stood Still. On top of that, the Hoyts cinemas will be showing typical IMAX documentaries, plus a selection of 3D entertainment, complete with stupid glasses.
But if they really want to show off, they’ll show The Dark Knight again…
[Hoyts] More »
Hoyts Bringing IMAX To Its Theatres
3:30PM Nick Broughall | There may not be any mention of it anywhere on the official site (or anywhere else, for that matter), but what’s the bet that Hoyts’ decision to upgrade three of its cinemas to play back IMAX-quality film was partially inspired by the success of The Dark Knight’s IMAX scenes? I mean, come on – one of the biggest films ever made uses IMAX cameras and then six months later Hoyts are making over their cinemas? It can’t be a coincidence.
The three cinemas getting made over for IMAX goodness – Entertainment Quarter at Fox Studios in Sydney, Highpoint in Melbourne and Carousel in Perth – will all be bringing the IMAX experience on Boxing Day with the release of Keanu Reeves’ latest, The Day the Earth Stood Still. On top of that, the Hoyts cinemas will be showing typical IMAX documentaries, plus a selection of 3D entertainment, complete with stupid glasses.
But if they really want to show off, they’ll show The Dark Knight again…
[Hoyts] More »
Design
1:30PM Nick Broughall | It may not look it, but the poker table you see in the image above is a high-tech marvel of DIY electronics. Built over the course of about three months and costing about seven grand to make, Andrew Milner’s poker table includes wireless RFID technology inside, RFID tags on a deck of cards, some HD cameras and some self-coded software to output a professional, automated HD video stream of a Texas Hold’em game that can be broadcast either to a TV in his house or over the internet. While having RFID tags on all the cards may sound like an unwieldy solution, the chips are flexible and thin, and don’t effect the shuffling or handling of the cards in any way.
We’ve got a video of the table in action after the jump, as well as a brief interview with Andrew himself. More »
Aussie DIY Poker Table Uses RFID To Let You Watch The Action In HD
1:30PM Nick Broughall | It may not look it, but the poker table you see in the image above is a high-tech marvel of DIY electronics. Built over the course of about three months and costing about seven grand to make, Andrew Milner’s poker table includes wireless RFID technology inside, RFID tags on a deck of cards, some HD cameras and some self-coded software to output a professional, automated HD video stream of a Texas Hold’em game that can be broadcast either to a TV in his house or over the internet. While having RFID tags on all the cards may sound like an unwieldy solution, the chips are flexible and thin, and don’t effect the shuffling or handling of the cards in any way.
We’ve got a video of the table in action after the jump, as well as a brief interview with Andrew himself. More »
Cameras
