Gizmodo Australia » giant

Panasonic’s Giant Remote Actually Works

Nick Broughall — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:23:22 +0000

Panasonic had a big event today, and Giz AU was there. I’ll tell you all about the new range of plasmas they were showing off tomorrow, but thought I’d show you this awesome giant remote control. The best part about it? It was actually used to control the TV behind it.Apparently Panasonic uses these giant remotes for point of sales in Japan. Not sure if giant robots or Godzillas control them , but they’re pretty awesome nonetheless.
Update: Here’s a short clip…

Bang & Olufsen’s 4-103 BeoVision Plasma Is Alive, Costs More Than 35,000 Big Macs

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:20:00 +0000

At over $US135,000, Bang & Olufsen’s BeoVision 103-inch plasma set costs nearly triple Panasonic’s 103-inch baby or just as much as the 150-inch plasma champion of the world. Why?

Besides the fact it’s from the B&O, when you turn the monster on, it comes alive, the stand elevating itself to your viewing level as the ten-inch loudspeaker emerges from the bottom the of the frame. It turns and tilts too. Also, every 120 hours it re-calibrates itself. Now that is luxury.

Hoarding your money only makes the recession worse, so as long as you’re not an AIG executive, what are you waiting for? Oh yeah, July, when it goes on sale. [Flat Panels HD via CE Pro]

Giant iPhone Display Runs OS X (This Time, At Least)

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Eagle-eyed reader Phelipe Hamoui snapped these shots of the giant iPhone display in Hong Kong running Mac OS X. This marks a nice change from that embarrassing little slip-up that revealed a U.S. display was running (gasp upon gasp!) Windows XP. So take a deep breath, Mac Army. Everything’s gonna be okay. [- Thanks, Phelipe!]

Miele’s New Giant Fridge Can Double as a Morgue

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0000

I don’t know if these fridges are the norm in the US, but it seems to me like Miele’s latest giganormous fridge from their Master Cool line–shown here at IFA 2008–has to be the biggest fridge ever available to megalomaniac consumers and potential serial killers. They should christen it The Walk-In Fridge, because this thing is so big that you can fit a cow inside. So huge in fact that I won’t be able to put it in my apartment’s living room. Actually, I think can put my entire living room and bedroom inside during the summer months. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

Four-Foot SNES Controller Actually Works (For Shaquille O’Neal)

John Herrman — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Taking inspiration as well as construction cues from the massive NES controller table built in May, SCAD Inc., which I will charitably call a garage-based novelty enlargement collective, set out to build a giant-sized SNES controller, complete with functioning buttons. A few months later the build is complete, and it looks, well, huge.

The angular, simply-shaped NES controller lent itself well to humongonisation, but the rounded sides and shoulder buttons made the SNES a formidable challenge to accurately build at such a large scale. The SCAD guys sure as hell pulled it off though, getting everything from the curvature of the L and R buttons to the fonts used on the control labels almost perfectly right. The body of the controller is cut from wood, and the buttons are connected directly to the guts of a standard SNES controller, preserving the now hilariously small-looking cable and connector. Matt LaBoone, the primary builder of the project, says that videos (hopefully including some gameplay action) are forthcoming. For now check out the full log of the building process at the SCAD Inc. site. [SCAD Inc.]

Is This the World’s Greatest Gaming Rig?

Mark Wilson — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:00:00 +0000

We were jealous when our own Adam Frucci loaded up Gears of War on a 103-inch plasma. But the rig we’re showing you today makes Frucci look homeless (which, little known fact, he actually happens to be). Installed in a government office and then misused for one hell of an evening of WoW and Bioshock , the unspecified PC system drives 27 67″ HD monitors (40 feet wide and 15 feet high) that equate to a resolution of 12600 x 3150. Too bad it’ll be misused from here on out by authorities, probably left off other than the case of an epidemic when, according to government mandate, they have to pull up a North American map covered in exponentially growing red dots. [Kotaku]

Awesome Adults Build Giant Indoor Water Slide For Kids

Matt Hickey — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:40:00 +0000

A part of the American Dream is to be able to retire comfortably in your favourite area, say on a lake, with a large home. But not everyone dreams the same, some people love giant water slides, and this family went a little nuts and installed one inside their house for the kids. Not for the adults, mind you, the kids. It’s thirty inches in diameter and totals thirty feet long, all indoors. It’s built to wrap around the used parts of the house so you’d never notice. This is pretty damn cool and makes me resent my parents even more for never doing anything remotely this cool, ever. [The Craig Caboodle]

Giant Walk-on Keyboard For Typing, not Making Tunes Big-Style

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:16:00 +0000

Maurin Donneaud has created this giant walk-on rug computer keyboard, going for stomp-sensitive design rather than touch. It’s a home-made affair, with foam separating the conducting-fabric contacts inside until you press down, and is powered by an Arduino board. So, while it won’t let you bash out tunes like Tom Hanks in Big it will let you stamp out emails to your pals— all that leaping around would probably be fairly good exercise. At last: a way to keep your fave Giz Editors in good shape. [Hacakaday]

Lego Master Working on 100,000 Piece, 21-Foot Battleship Yamato Model

Adam Frucci — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:45:00 +0000

Japanese Lego builder Jun Brick (think that’s his real name?) has been hard at work at a 1:40 model of the famous Battleship Yamato for over a year. This gargantuan model puts the Millennium Falcon to shame, stretching out for over 20 feet and using a whopping 100,000 pieces. He posts a metric ton of photos on his site as he works on it, giving us a really cool look at each step of the process and just how much work goes into building a model of this size. Impressive, to say the least. [Jun Brick via Boing Boing Gadgets]

The Most Powerful Turbofan Engine in the World Up Close and Personal

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:30:47 +0000

Witness the mother of all big mechanical toys: the GE90-115B turbofan engine, the most powerful gas turbine engine in the world with a 127,500-pound maximum takeoff thrust, even if it’s rated at a maximum 115,000 lb. It may not look big on video, but with a 128-inch fan tip diameter, up close and personal this thing is amazingly huge. Surprisingly, you won’t find this engine on the Airbus A380: it was specifically designed to power the Boeing 777.