hype

Computers

Fujitsu Building Fastest Gaming Rig On The Planet With ‘German Ultra Clocking’

5:20AM Adam Frucci | Fujitsu is using quite a bit of bluster to drum up hype for its new gaming rig, which they claim will be the fastest on the whole planet thanks to something called “German ultra clocking.” It’s built in Germany, people! More »
Vehicles

Fastskinz Car Wraps Confuse Passing Golfers as They Save You Gas

4:00AM Jack Loftus | Another day, another dubious method for saving gas. Today it’s FastSkinz, the dimpled car wrap that promises a gas mileage boost. We think it’ll attract golf swings and dents from confused, drunken golfers. More »
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Hype Bubbling Back Up for EEStor’s State-of-the-Art-Defying Battery Killer

11:45PM Matt Buchanan | The hype for EEStor’s mythical battery-killing, capacitor-based technology that we’ve been hearing about for a while keeps coming, re-ringing promises of, for instance, a five-minute plug-in time for a car to make a 500-mile trip. Naturally, details on how EEStor has managed to accomplish a feat academics have been taking whacks at for years—sufficient insulation to create ultracapacitors that don’t take up ultra-amounts of space—are scant, descriptions liberally laced with the word “proprietary.” Forgive the lack of cheerleading, but we’ve witnessed similarly paradigm-breaking promises of so-good-it’s-like-magic energy generation fall short literally moments before they were supposed to change the world. The situations aren’t so dissimilar—small company claims to miraculously surpass all past and current efforts (by “400-fold,” based on the numbers they’re giving, according to one scientist) but offers no hard details to back it up. This is partially understandable—trade secrets and whatnot—but where’s the beef? True, EEStor has serious backing and asserts real results on the ground by year’s end in the form of one of ZENN Motor’s cars. But until we hop a ride and peek under the hood, we won’t be letting going of our AAs or Li-ions just yet. Engineers in the audience, what’s your take? Are we in for a ride or being taken for one? [AP, Ars] More »
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Media Hype: Families STALKED WITH PHONES!!

5:20AM Seamus Byrne | We’re not trying to say that the Today Show/traditional media is fearmongering with this “cellphones are stalking the crap out of this family” story, but we had to change our underwear twice while watching this minute and a half clip. If you take the video at face value, some “hackers” have taken over the family’s cellphones and are using it to record conversations and take illicit pictures of the victims. They’re also breaking into voicemail and leaving threats about raping and killing the daughter. This happens even if the family changes cellphones, apparently, so whoever’s doing this is a hardcore hax0r the likes we haven’t seen since the first Scream movie. – Jason Chen Today Show More »