Among the guests, there’s such Aussie tech stalwarts as freelance extraordinaires David Flynn and Simon Sharwood, Geare editor Jez Ford and former PC Authority editor Tim Dean, plus Good Game host Bajo, Hyper Editor Daniel Wilks and Byteside dude Ben Mansill on the games shows.

[Byteside]

The November 24 show should be a good one, with a retrospective look back at the last decade of gadgets and games. The Christmas show, which will happen at the Hotel CBD rather than the Shelbourne on December 8, will be a Christmas bonanza, with the coolest tech for the holiday gift-giving season. Should be a lot of fun on both counts, so if you’re in Sydney, make sure you RSVP and check it out (and say G’day if you see your friendly Giz editor there).

[Byteside]

Jason’s favourite Asian child, Kylie from the Windows commercials, just brought out Steve, and he bribed her with a pink laptop.

Also, Steve is a Windows 7 PC, effectively immediately.

We’re still here, BTW — Microsoft’s just been walking through Windows 7 features you guys have seen a million years ago while I shoot tons of photos of Steve with awkward facial expressions.

New CBS streaming video integrated with Windows Media Center. No real details, but you don’t need a TV tuner. So I guess that’s CBS’s answer to Hulu?

Amazon multitouch Kindle app for Windows 7 — full colour photos, pinch zooming to enlarge text, looks awesome. Could be a much-needed killer app for Windows 7 tablets. Maybe.

Streaming to 16 different screens from one Windows 7 PC using Play-To feature is actually kind of impressive.

Oh my, so many kinds of PCs. So many.

Apparently, there are so many PCs, Steve needs somebody else to explain them all to him.

And, that’s it!

The Astrum 2009, Astronomy and Instruments’ exhibition is running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 and just seeing some of the pictures in io9’s makes me want to book a trip to Vatican City and stroll through space history. [io9]

Image by AFP/Getty.

Some people use their Kindles to read books. Others get Kindles to spend hours practising crazy moves with them, like this reader today at the Gizmodo Gallery. Watch him spin the Kindle like a Michael Jordan would spin a basketball.

The cafe will open for a few weeks starting on October 22nd. Patrons will be treated to, well…treats along with the opportunity to play around with various Microsoft products—although nothing but food will actually be sold there. So we get Microsoft stores and they get a cafe. Do you think the cafe concept would fly in Australia? [TechCrunch]

The gang and I had pulled two all nighters setting up. The later it got, the less patient we were with each other. There was plenty of shouting. The pancake machine and coke machine fought each other for amperage. Minutes were melting away as fast as our resolve was in the hot, improperly ventilated room.

Then the party started. Upcycle was 99% done with setup, but some pieces were all not together yet. We were missing some signs on devices, so they appeared mysteriously, without context and without description of how precious some of them were. It was kind of cool, since I’d took the most valuable off platform, since our security ropes were not yet installed. At that point, Nick Denton, owner of Gizmodo, told some guests to feel free to touch some. I groaned a little groan, but thought nothing left on display wasn’t attached or replaceable. Then someone posed for a photo with a Taser and it went off. I mean, the flying modules weren’t loaded, but apparently this particular model had a built in stun gun. And it was sent to us loaded and charged. Electrons arced dangerously next to someone’s chest. I snatched it away and sent it to lock down before someone got hurt.

Then we dropped a scoop: An internal leaked video from Microsoft, detailing how their unseen and unreleased tablet will work. As the video played on the 103-inch Panasonic, the post hit the site. I introduced the crowd to Chris Mascari, Director and unsung hero of gallery and Chris introduced Arc Attack. As their song of lighting and geek tunes played, I recalled an earlier incident that could have knocked the power out on the block. Their 240 volt came from a freshly run line, directly to the power box off the street, hacked together by reader Phil. The issue with running it straight from there, however, is if the transformer box shorts, the block could go black. Good thing, then, the Arkeg game/beer machine was using a garbage can full of ice water to cool its drinks right next to the live, black cables as thick as a baby’s wrist. We mopped up, drink in hand, and with no hands left to use to cross our fingers.

By now, so many people had showed up, and having a private list and door man wasn’t a bad idea; the hum of the tesla coils generated more than electricity: they generated interest from strangers off the street. Even without the added traffic, my friends were here. Sonia Zjawinski, Nick Bilton, Jenna Wortham, Sam Grobart and David Carr of the NYTimes made it. Arik Hesseldahl From Biz Week. Brooke Hammerling from Brew PR. Mary Pilon from the WSJ. Nick Douglas from Vice, formerly of VW fame. Bre from Make. Dennis Crowley from Foursquare. Richard Rushfield from Gawker, formerly the LA Times. Richard Blakeley, king of TV B Gone and things that make you look fat. Lockhart Steele, my original managing editor at Gawker Media and real estate and culinary media mogul. Noah Robischon, from Fast Company and second managing editor at Gawker. Sons of Ventura, CA, Brendan Gahan (from Mekanism) and his friend Ian Campbell, son of surfboard making legends at the Campbell Brothers. Elizabeth Spiers! John Mahoney from Giz/PopSci and Seth Porges from Pop Mech. John Biggs from TechCrunch/Crunchgear. Sarah from College Humor (Adam Frucci’s sweetheart)! For starters!

A man at a company asked to put up a poster next to the gadget he lent to the Gallery for display. I said no, because you don’t hang ads up next to art in museums and this was a museum in my mind (however small). He was a little miffed, maybe, but I think he got it by the end of our talk. By being selective here, and only showing the best, everything about the Gallery becomes more powerful.

The heat was building, and it became apparent the gadgets and the people were clearly winning the war against conditioned air. The coke machine was spitting out one drink every five seconds, each bottle a oasis
of sugar and carbonated coldness. (David Carr of the Times wrote a terrific blog post about the night, wishing the AC would have been functional as the rest of the gadgets.)

Arc Attack played its encore, and I was seeing it from the streets, on the outside. Our photographer, Nicky Digital, was ushered in by my boss, Nick Denton, for a closer look. That didn’t go over so well. Joe from Arc Attack, who is master of the coils, shut them down and in a stern voice, lectured Nicky for almost killing himself by walking too close to the coils. “No one comes inside while the tesla coils are on!”

As the last people streamed out the door, I though of how much Gizmodo Gallery is a charity. Not only for the groups we are raising funds for. But for all the help we received in making Gallery happen. Readers Mike and Martin were astoundingly capable with running cable and setting up hardware. And Chris Mascari, Director of the Gallery, went beyond what he needed to to make things happen, bringing in his family, Alyssa and Danny and friends to build furniture, wire LEDs in displays and bring us Pizza when we were hungry. And Panasonic, Toyota, Coke, O2, Lego and all the other companies that went out of their way to help us make this happen. It’s all very humbling. But I’m just glad I didn’t get electrocuted.

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here and see what else we’ll be playing with at the event.

Veteran Australian journalist Ray Martin has his LUMIX Life exhibition on show at the Global Gallery in Paddington, Sydney, at 2pm. Among the images on show are those from hot spots he has covered as a TV journo, including images taken of Aceh, a few days after the devastating tsunami struck on Boxing Day, 2004, and the photo of Paris, above.

Photographers from around the world were encouraged to shoot and upload images at www.lumixlife.com.au and share their story, creativity or passion. A new exhibition, featuring a collection of 10 images, will be hosted every few hours during the gallery’s opening hours. Each exhibition will be displayed on a Panasonic Full High Definition Commercial Plasma Display Panel, to ensure the images are magnificently presented.

Ray Martin is one of 50 photographers whose LUMIX Life exhibitions will be shown over the next month. Photographers were encouraged to shoot and upload their 10 best LUMIX images and share their story, creativity or passion. All exhibitions can also be viewed on the website via webcams that have been set up at the gallery.

The full list of the 50 selected photographers is online on the “Selected Exhibitions” page of LUMIX Life. A detailed daily schedule can be seen on the “Now Showing” page.