Gizmodo Australia » old school

Joyrider, Possibly the Most Expensive LED Spoke Lights in the World

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:32:25 +0000

Moritz Waldemeyer, London-based shiny, spangly design person, has designed what must be the most expensive pair of spoke lights evah. Auctioned off at the ICA Gala Fundraiser in London last week, the Joyrider LEDs, which put a smile on the wheels of your bike, went for almost US$4,000. Perhaps that’s because they came attached to a couple of vintage-style bikes that Waldemeyer has designed.

The design evokes new rave couture, with its iconic smiley face and the strobe effect, bringing kitsch glamour to the cycling experience. The minimalist components are attached to the spokes of the wheel, emitting a fixed image of a smiley face using LED lights. This effect is achieved through inbuilt microchips that are able to calculate the speed of the wheel in such a way that the smiley face remains stationary while the wheel spins.

New rave couture? Oh, man, that’s just spokally old skool. [Dezeen]

Ancient Gadgets Roundup

Haroon Malik — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This week’s retromodo installation kicks old-skool ass, and it is not because we have found a follow up the Death Ray Machine, or found the father of the first cupholder, oh no. It is mainly because we have left the hard work up to the guys at Wired, and they really have out done themselves. They were not settling for just one seriously retro gadget—they found them all.

We won’t list the lot here, but the best of the bunch include the:

• Antikythera Computer  c. 1st Century B.C. Discovered in 1900, among relics of an ancient shipwreck, the mechanism contained in the device was uncovered in 2006. Though it is unclear how it worked exactly, the navigational tool was thought to be used onboard ships as an early pre-compass type tool.

• The Baghdad Battery  c. 250 AD. Where would we be without portable power? Not in ancient Baghdad for sure. The galvanic cells were discovered in the 1930s, but their use remains a mystery. The terracotta urns had small copper and iron fixtures, and they were filled with an acidic agent that propagated a chemical reaction. The reaction caused a small amount of electricity to flow. It was theorised that they may have been used to electroplate dull metals.

• The Turk 1770. The Turk may well have been the first gadget prank in history, which means it should be contender for first joke post in ancientmodo’s archive. Essentially, the device concealed a chess player within it. When an unsuspecting player tried it out, the pieces would appear to move autonomously, but were in fact being moved by a series of cogs controlled by the hidden chess master. Those ancient pranksters sure were crazy.

To get the full low-down on other great age-old gadgets, including the first true compass, planetarium, watch and GPS (kinda), as well as a few others, hit up Wired’s excellent feature. It is awesome. [Wired]

Mac Classic Devolves to Icon

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:51:38 +0000

There’s little doubt that the Mac Classic is an iconic piece of computing history, but this SattaMac mod is truly, inarguably an icon. Even the most hardened PC users need to grit their teeth and admit, yes, the Mac Classic is an icon. Damn that modder! Damn him!!

From what we can tell, the SattaMac is made from nothing but a Mac Classic and some well-placed black and off-white paint. Granted, it’s not exactly ready for operation. But were you really doing anything with that old machine before? Seriously, we’re coming by and cleaning out your basement. And kicking you out per your mom’s request*.
*We just realised that there probably is some poor, poor reader who really does fulfil the stereotype and live in his mom’s basement. On behalf of Gizmodo, we’d like to apologize** making fun of you at every turn for the last several years.

**By “apologize” we mean we both know that the $170 in your “savings account” doesn’t justify*** this money-saving venture.

***Seriously though, you’re cool. We’ll lay off on the jokes**** for a while.

****Jokes about the basement, not your mom. [flickr via gearfuse]

Included Game&Watch Game Makes Nintendo DS TV Tuner’s Even Cooler

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:38:52 +0000

The Nintendo DS TV Tuner was released yesterday in Japan for about $60 and the people from Impress have got their hands on one. The device will let you watch digital terrestrial television on the DS top screen while giving all sorts of controls on the bottom part. The surprise: it includes the all-time-classic Game&Watch Fire game in the package. Can’t remember Fire or even the Game&Watch? Check the retro godness after the jump:

[Impress PC Watch]

Star Trek Season One HD DVD Reviewed, New CG Spaceships and All

Sean Fallon — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:40:27 +0000

As any hardcore fan of the Trek series will tell you, the smallest adjustments made to the originals are bound to undergo a tremendous amount of scrutiny. That having been said, the first reviews of the new HD DVD release of Star Trek have become available—and by the looks of things there is a lot to like, and a few things that will surely piss off more than a few fanboys—namely redesigned visual effects involving the show intro and the Enterprise.

According to both IGN and HD Disk news, the remastered video and audio is decent, but expect to see some artifacts and noise in certain areas. However, with dated material such as this that should be expected. The real interesting news is that the developers also attempted to blend in newly rendered CG shots of the shows visual effects—like external shots of the Enterprise for example. As you might imagine, these scenes tend to look out of place alongside the older footage.

On the plus side, there are plenty of extras to keep fans happy, like picture-in-picture video commentaries, a documentary outlining the new visual effects, an interactive 3D Enterprise tour that allows viewers to completely explore the inner and outer workings of the ship, as well “Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories” chronicling the experiences of a regular extra on the set.

All-in-all it appears that the Trek HD DVD is a worthwhile pickup if you already own a player. However, others may want to wait until a clear winner is chosen in the format wars—because there will surely be other Trek HD upgrades in the future. [IGN and HD Disk News]

Get Your Next PC for $39.95, Right Here

Charlie White — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:15:15 +0000

WTF? It’s a $39.95 PC. Could this be the machine to beat the $200 OLPC at its own game? It’s billed as a “cheap desktop computer,” and then gets worse from there. First of all, it’s a refurbished IBM PC from the late 20th century, probably occupying many a junk heap by now and maybe even some museums. Its shipping and handling costs $24.95. It has a Pentium III running at 933MHz. Oh, and it doesn’t include an operating system, just a Windows 2000 COA (Certificate Of Authenticity). We can go on, but let’s don’t. Our conclusion? It’s way overpriced at $64.90. So line up, suckas. [HCDI Trading]

Xbox Downloads on Xbox 360, And More! (But Not Much)

Mark Wilson — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:12:47 +0000

The contents of the Xbox 360’s fall update have been revealed to the world. Great! So do we get IPTV now? Uhh, no. Maybe the new Zunes are doing something cool with the console? Not that we’ve heard. How about downloading old games? Yes!

When the update hits December 4th, current Xbox 360 owners will be able to download original Xbox games for $15. Initial titles will include Halo, Fahrenheit, Fable, Crimson Skies, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3. There’s not a bad game on that list…hopefully those of us with 20GB hard drives can find the room.

Also, Europe will finally get Video Marketplace downloads, though we’re not certain how localised the content will be (we’re guessing there will be some difference in what’s offered). But in the interest of full disclosure to our fine European readers, we have no sympathy that it’s taken this long considering the endless piles of great tech you get before we do. And no, we are so not even now so don’t even play that card. [kotaku]

Ultimate 1,700+ Piece OCD Video Game Collection Up for Grabs on eBay

Adam Frucci — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:40:00 +0000

Sweet merciful crap. A seriously obsessive gentleman spent 30 years of his life collecting video game consoles and games, and now he’s selling his entire 1,768-piece collection on eBay in one shot, presumably at the command of either the courts or a lady. Just the system list is insane, not to mention the games. Check out these pictures then follow me to after the jump for a sampling of the goods offered.

First of all, the system list:

Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Coleco ColecoVision, Coleco Gemini, Coleco Telstar, Commodore 64/128, GCE Vectrex, Mattel Aquarius, Mattel Intellivision, Mattel Odyssey 2, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Miscellaneous APF TV Fun, Miscellaneous Handheld Games, Miscellaneous PC Games, Miscellaneous SC Eight Thousand, Miscellaneous Sega Pods, Miscellaneous TV Games, NEC Turbo Duo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo NES, Nintendo Nintendo 64, Nintendo Super NES, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Nintendo Wii, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Saturn, SNK Neo Geo, SNK Neo Geo Pocket, Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 2, Texas Instruments TI 99/4A, VM Labs Nuon.

See anything missing in there? Because I don’t. Wait, where’s the TurboGrafix 16? And he calls himself an obsessive collector.

As for games, he has, well, a lot of them, including weird rare stuff like the Christmas version of NiGHTS for Sega Saturn and the Gold Cartridge Micro Machines for NES. Gold Cartridge!!! How can you resist?

You really need to see the full list to really appreciate how bananas this auction is. Right now it’s at $3,383.33, but the Buy It Now price is $10,979.00. Plus free shipping! What could you possibly be waiting for?! [Auction Page and eBay via Geekologie]

Vintage Computer Festival 10.0 Features Old Computers, Older Nerds

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:40:06 +0000

The 10th Vintage Computer Festival took place this past weekend at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, featuring, among other things, “the largest collection of Radio Shack Pocket Computers I’ve ever seen,” says CNet’s Peter Glaskowsky. Highlights in the gallery above include the 1-bit flat-panel Apple IIc—one of just 10,000 ever made—Mac-maker Jef Raskin’s Canon Cat, the ConBrio 200R synthesizer built by Cal Tech students in 1980 and a sh’load of Atari PCs. Hungry for more? Check out CNet’s nerdishly in-depth coverage. [CNet Speeds and Feeds; CNet's photo gallery]

Nintendo’s Unreleased NES Computer Concept

Jason Chen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:40:07 +0000

This isn’t new (obviously), but many of you might not know that back at CES 1985, Nintendo demoed an Advanced Video System that was the spiritual design predecessor to the grey and black NES we all grew up with. This consoleputer was supposed to be entirely wireless and tied together via line-of-sight infrared, and contained a keyboard, joystick, light gun, NES controllers, something that looks like a tape deck, a Klingon Bat’leth, the hopes and dreams of one Japanese salaryman designer that has since offed himself, and design features that were slightly too ahead of its time. Still, if we had this instead of the NES, we’d probably be typing 180wpm instead of the 130wpm we do now. [TechEBlog]