Gizmodo Australia » Charlie White

Handpresso, for a Espresso Caffeine Fix Anywhere

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:55:29 +0000

Most coffee you get on the road tastes like creek mud, so take along this $140 Handpresso, your own portable manual espresso maker that’ll press out some skull-popping brew in no time flat. Let’s see a video of the thing in action:

Just add finely ground burnt coffee beans and hot water, and it won’t be long before your brain starts juking the Watusi like it always does. [Single Serve Espresso]

Photo Light Skateboard Enables 24-Hour SK8 Fanaticism

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:34:29 +0000

Okay SK8rZ, save up your mum’s pennies, because here comes the Photo Light Skateboard, lighting up sidewalks and metal stair railings with enough LEDs to illuminate that Christmas tree sitting on the curb. Between 29 and 54 LEDs draw attention to you, but it’ll cost you $US110 – 200 for the privilege of riding atop all the falderal. [BeSportier]

Tata Nano Isn’t a Music Player or Tits, Nay, It’s a $2500 Car

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:29:15 +0000

The words Tata Nano have nothing to do with tiny music players, but the car going by that name’s price and size are still nearly small enough to dance on the head of a pin. Introduced in India for $US2500, another feature of the car worthy of the word “nano” is probably going to be the amount of time until it needs to go back to the shop, and ultimately the junkyard. But what do you expect from a car with a name that sounds to our ears like a pair of tiny tittles? [Jalopnik]

Retro-Styled Matrix M6001 Watch Takes You Back in Time

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:46:47 +0000

The Matrix M6001 watch reminds us of a perfectly restored 1960 Ford we were riding around in at CES this week, with its shiny dashboard and retro speedometer numerals. Unlike most gimmicky watches from the East, this $US74 one’s easy to decipher. Bonus pic on the next page:

Take your pick of band colours to go with its stainless steel case, and you’re good to go, daddy-o. [Funshop, via BeSportier and Technabob]

You Can Do Better Than This iPhone Window Shot

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:10:23 +0000

We’re all way beyond figuring out how to do this, but certainly some of our readers can do much, much better. Send your most creative iPhone window shot to Tips and the best one gets on the Giz front page next week. Extra consideration given for craziness, originality and the risqué. (Thanks, Trevor!)

Garmin to Roll Out ‘Bobcat’ GPS Software at Macworld

Charlie White — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:57:39 +0000

Garmin’s trying to catch some of the Apple buzz for the upcoming Macworld next week, code-naming its latest software project “Bobcat” and being all secretive about it and stuff. There’s no indication of what the software will do, but all guesses are welcome. We’ll go first: How about some GPS action for the iPhone? No, that was more of a wish, because the Garmin guy mentions “Mac compatible” software on the official Garmin blog. But wait. Isn’t that OS X running on the iPhone? [Garmin]

Top 10 Booths of CES 2008

Charlie White — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:30:33 +0000

Wandering around the CES show floor, you have to laugh when the elaborate multi-million dollar structures designed to convince you of a company’s credibility are called “booths.” Of all we saw here this week, step through the most exquisite, best-designed and overall most awe-inspiring of them all in this top ten gallery of the Best Booths of CES. And yeah, we called them booths, but some might even be elevated to gadget status.

1. Intel’s booth (pictured above), our favourite, spins lappies into a double helix that kicked our asses all the way into the middle of next week.

2. A Disney pirate ship, sitting there on top of the Blu-ray booth? Yep, it was built to promote the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and we even snuck into its insides, which was being used as a break room for bored booth babes. Its realism, created by the same artisans, set designers and carpenters who make Disney World so appealing, was accurate right down to the seagull guano.

3. LG stacks TVs a mile high, showing us even more effectively than last year that life is indeed good.

4. Belkin’s booth looked like it came straight out of Dwell magazine. A booth? No, it was a place that we would have preferred to sleep in, way more than our shitty hotel rooms by a long shot.

5. The Nordic cool of the Philips booth appealed to our aesthetic sensibility, and its thick cushy carpet made sense. Its booth and the occupants therein were all easy on the eyes.

6. These oversized Eneloop batteries, jutting out of the show floor like so many electric phalluses, made us laugh while making us dig the product even more.

7. The giant Samsung booth dominated the show floor, roadblocking the area and offering no exit from its back side. That sucked, but we still liked the power of the thing, and we’re biased because the front showed off our fave TV of the entire show, the 82-inch ultra high definition TV, a 2K masterpiece that’s the world’s largest of its type.

8. As far as waterfalls of TVs go, Sharp does ‘em best, filling the air with its beauteous Aquos displays. Pretty.

9. Sony’s booth felt inviting and relaxing, and there was a separate area for the Sony Pictures division where you could just relax and watch some TV for a while. Naw, we didn’t hang out there much, but we always knew it was there.

10. Gibson had a huge party tent set up in the parking lot, touting its fab new robotic guitars and such. But the kicker was the big-name bands they had playing every night. For example, here’s George Thorogood & the Destroyers. There were also beaucoups celebs hanging around. Overall, it was a no-bullshit approach that was much appreciated.

Aaron Broder, Kid Reporter Blitzes CES, Gets the Scoops

Charlie White — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:37:30 +0000

Meet Aaron Broder, the 14-year-old reporter and member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. He’s covering CES from start to finish. Chaperoned by his mum, the resourceful young man convinced the CES suits to bend the “no one under 16, no exceptions” rule to grant him a press pass. Good move, because after all, there are millions of people his age who are tech experts (and who read Gizmodo), and it’s about time they got some press representation.

Aaron is one of 50 young people chosen to report news from all over the world for website Scholastic News Online and Scholastic’s classroom magazines. Look for Aaron’s take on CES there, as well as his impressions of your humble Gizmodo narrators and our peculiarities. If the next generation of reportage is represented by go-getters like Aaron, the future looks bright. [Scholastic News Online]

Cute Model Demos Starry Night Luxo-Bed

Charlie White — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Come along on a bed tour, where this Starry Night Sleep Technology Bed by Leggett & Platt can run as high as $55,000, depending on how you configure it. Plug in your iPod (it’s not quite ready for the iPhone, even though it will fit), trick it out with 2K watts of subwoofer/fanny-rattling power, or team it up with electronic trickery that even senses when you’re snoring too much or trigger the lights and raises the blinds when you rise in the morning. Also on this video montage of robotic beddom, don’t miss the LCD screen that slides out from under the bed. This one you see here is $20K, perfect for that upwardly mobile bachelor who seems to get laid all the time. We want that mounted under our Starry Night crib, racking up a $US68,000 bed. Or we could just get a big honkin’ Hummer and sleep in that every night.

Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen is Pure Magic

Charlie White — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Good lord, look at this Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen that’s motorised. Carry it around with you, make it rise with its magic motors, and impress all those superficial suits on your next presentation road trip. Or, keep it right at home, take off that easily-removed handle, and it looks like it’s a permanent installation. Available by June, your choice of either an 84″ or a 100″ diagonal screen will set you back $US2000. Screen sizes up to 150″ are planned.