Gizmodo Australia » Ben Longo

VinylDisc: Hey You Got Vinyl on My CD

Ben Longo — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:30:56 +0000

The concept behind VinylDisc is valid, that there are people out there who want to hear their music in pristine digital sound, yet are still drawn to the eclectic analogue nature of Vinyl, yet want it all on one disc. And they’ve even found a band who wants to try it out. British rockers, Fightstar, will be the first band to use the odd format. However, the downer is that the vinyl side only holds 3-minutes worth of audio. 3-minutes! So lets get this straight, we get another new format with two outdated audio sources, and they still have the cajones to tell me that the cool part only holds 3 minutes? Next! [Digital Trends via Ubergizmo]

Impact Jackets (AKA Wearable Airbags) Finally Make it to the US, and are Immediately “Tested”

Ben Longo — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:20:10 +0000

Impact Jackets, originally designed to save Japanese construction workers from long falls by inflating prior to impact, have finally made it to the United States. Only instead of construction workers, it’s our motorcyclist that seem to be reaping the benefits. And it didn’t take too long to see some results.Joeseph McPhatter of Baltimore, MD recently was cruising along when he was abruptly cut off and wrecked his motorcycle. Upon crashing, McPhatter was launched over 100-ft at a rate of 140-mph and instantly became the Impact Jackets first “real world” motorcycle crash test. Medics claim that if McPhatter hadn’t been wearing the Impact Jacket, his injuries, which amounted to a few sore ribs, would have been severely worse-if not fatal. Thanks, Impact Jacket! [Baltimore Sun via Core77]

Independence, the iPhone jailbreak, activation …

Ben Longo — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:15:31 +0000

Independence, the iPhone jailbreak, activation and SSH installation app, has been updated to 1.2.2, and now supports iPhones running the infamous firmware version 1.1.1. [TUAW]

U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi Lets You Reach Out and Touch a Virtual Friend

Ben Longo — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:30:29 +0000

U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi is a system that lets you both see and touch a virtual humanoid. Developed by Michihiko Shoji, it works by combining a head mounted display with a creepy green sensor-laden robot. As you interact with the bot, not only will it react accordingly, but you’ll be able to see the virtual buddy via the HMD instead of just the weird green person in front of you. Oddly enough, Shoji believes that one of the best applications for this technology could be with arcade games. We don’t even want to think of what kind of creepy arcade game would require a tangible humanoid robot. [Robot Watch via Pink Tentacle]

Lava Buns Warm Your Tooshie for Six Hours

Ben Longo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:20:52 +0000

For those of us who lack, how do you say “internal buttocks insulation,” we now have a new way to fight those cold metal bleachers during football season that will actually last the entire game—Lava Buns. Just place the Lava Buns pad in the microwave for a measly three minutes, and you’ve got yourself six full hours of rectum-roasting fun. And it doesn’t end there, for those of you in the sun belt it can also be left in the freezer to be used as an anal-air conditioner. Finally butts everywhere can sit comfortably no matter the temperature. [Product Dose]

Mechanical Patent Dispute Could Result in Hard Drive Ban

Ben Longo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:10:30 +0000

Hot on the heels of yesterdays potential Australian plasma ban, comes news of the U.S. possibly banning many popular hard drives due to a patent dispute. The issue involves a patent for “dissipative ceramic bonding tips”, also known as wire bonding tips which Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, HP, and Dell either use in their own foreign manufacturing process or sell products that were built, in countries other than the U.S., using them. According to Ars Technica, the problem at hand resides under Section 337 of the Tariff Act. Section 337 bans all product importation when they infringe upon U.S. patents. Which if the International Trade Commission judge sides with the patent holder, the aforementioned companies will be subject to. Although this will only be a problem for the companies if the court sides in favour of the patent holders, Steven and Mary Reiber. Even then, they can still appeal that ruling as well, and if history gives us any clues (Remember Qualcomm?), then the hard drive manufacturers just might get off this time. Otherwise Samsung looks like it will be getting a lot of new business[Ars Technica]

’80s Stereo Turned Into a HTPC

Ben Longo — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:00:17 +0000

With everyone trying to slap more chrome and neon on to their custom PC creations it’s nice to see someone going old school for a change. This enormous stereo form the ’80s has been modded and prodded into a decently capable HTPC complete with built-in 15-in LCD, Hauppauge TV tuner, 1.83GHz Athlon XP 2500+ processor and 500GB of hard drive space. The best part is that the buttons on front aren’t just for show. The volume control still works as does the power button, and the tuning knob scrubs vertically while the function knob scrolls horizontally. [The Lost Pixel via Make Magazine]

Australia to Ban All Plasmas & Some LCDs? (AU: Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.)

Ben Longo — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:00:08 +0000

And it looks like it just might happen, which would spell bad news for the gadget gurus down under. If a revised Australian energy rating guide gets passed, then all current plasma televisions would be banned from sale by 2011. That’s right, all plasmas and even many power-hungry LCDs would be taken off store shelves due to their high energy consumption. But listen to this, it gets worse.

AU: No, it doesn’t get worse. This simply won’t happen. The report goes way too far right now, and the Environment Minister has already stated (late yesterday) that he supports industry initiatives to improve TV power consumption (which are already doing quite well at reducing both general and stand-by consumption). Sorry we missed this story yesterday in all the tech issues, but I’ll have more analysis of why this minor scare from the report is only good news – as well as the nature of such standards, and possible bans, in a time when you can buy green power. -SB

Tim O’Keefe, Australia’s Digital Suppliers Industry Forum coordinator, believes that due to the country’s/continent’s small purchasing power, the energy requirements imposed will not be met by TV manufacturers. Well here’s to hoping that the manufacturers hear the energy-conscious cry of Australia, and produce some more energy-efficient TVs.[ABC via The Raw Feed]

DirecTV Sat-Go Gets a $500 Price Drop

Ben Longo — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:20:32 +0000

For those of you who wanted the Sat-GO, DirecTV’s briefcase shaped TV that can pull in satellite broadcasts, but weren’t willing to pay the exorbitant $1499 price tag, good news! DirecTV dropped the price of their Sat-Go portable satellite system by $500, to the still relatively expensive price of $999. But hey, $500 is still $500. And Now you will be able to go out and enjoy the great outdoors without missing any NFL action next weekend. [Product Page via Zatz Not Funny]

Slight MacBook Upgrade in November?

Ben Longo — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:20:21 +0000

In the face of ultra-thin MacBook rumors, Think Secret is claiming that a modest processor bump for the MacBook will be the only hardware refresh for the rest of the year. Keep in mind, however, that Think Secret only says there won’t be any more hardware updates. They don’t say anything about new hardware announcements. Still, a MacBook speed upgrade seems odd since Apple doesn’t like to mix processor speeds between consumer and pro lines.With the MacBook already topping out at 2.16 GHz (which is only 40 MHz slower than the low-end 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro), an update could cause some confusion. Especially if it includes a switch to the Santa Rosa chipset. So could there be a MacBook/Pro/Slim (arrange those as you see fit) still in the cards or even a Mac Mini successor? [Think Secret]