Gizmodo Australia » question

What Do You Want to Ask LEGO?

Gizmodo US Edition — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:37:00 +0000

As you know, I’m in Billund, Denmark, right now. Tomorrow I’ll be talking with the guys who make LEGO, the ultimate geek toy, and I would be able to ask them anything I want. So what would you like to know? What would you like to see? Tell me in the comments or write to my mail directly. [LEGO]

Mobile Phone Call Quality Warning System: Useful or Redundant?

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:57:00 +0000

We were talking today in Campfire—Giz’s virtual office—about Apple’s newly uncovered patent on a system that warns you about bad quality or dropping cellular or Wi-Fi connections “ahead of time.” Jason thought it could be useful to know that, so you could just avoid making the call. I thought that it wouldn’t be useful at all, because if I needed to call, I would call anyway—and if the connection dropped, I would call again. Are we missing something? Do you really want to know the quality of a call beforehand, especially if you are travelling, and said quality is constantly changing as you move? And don’t mobile phones already warn you about dropping calls?

The moment the quality starts going to hell, you know it may drop, so I imagined that if my telephone warned me about it, not only would I not find it useful—as I already knew about it—but I would think it would be totally annoying. Like:

iPhone: “Warning: your call may be about to drop.”
Me: “No fracking kidding!”

What do you think?

[Apple Insider]

Will Mankind Ever Wear Video Glasses?

Mark Wilson — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Video glasses. They should have taken over by now. The technology is good enough and cheap enough for the entire tech-buying world to be watching movies on simulated 40-inch screens (rather than squinting at their phone’s pitiful 2.4-inch display, pretending we can really see the movie). But we’re not. For well over a decade, Man has outright refused to sport a pair of video glasses, as if He feels a revulsion for oversized electronic eyewear from deep within His DNA. But could times change?

Which Couldn’t You Live Without, HD or DVR?

Mark Wilson — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Our memories have grown fuzzy. We can’t remember exactly what watching TV was like 10 years ago, but we’re pretty sure that it involved a 16mm projector, slide rule and a horse that walked in circles around the room (oddly enough, the horse wasn’t actually connected to anything). Now we have a slew of new viewing technologies options, like streaming media, DVRs and high definition broadcast. And today, we’re forcing you to make the Sophie’s Choice of the entertainment centre:

You know the drill. Slap fight in the comments!

What Gadget Can You Not Live Without, Even for a Day?

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:59:00 +0000

According to a survey by IDC and Nortel, for over a third of people, their mobile phone is the most important thing in their pocket—they’d even leave their wallet and keys at home if they could only take one thing with them for 24 hours. If I had to leave the house for a day and could only bring a single “thing” with me, it’d probably be my iPod nano (even over my wallet)—I don’t need to talk to other people, I need to ignore them. But you might be less of a misanthrope than I am—so what’s the most important gadget you carry, the one chunk of shiny plastic and metal you can’t separate yourself from, even for a single day?

[Reuters, Image via Flickr]

Is Iron Man the Best Superhero Movie Ever?

Jesus Diaz — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Many of you have probably seen Iron Man already. Jason saw it on Wednesday and thought it was the best superhero movie this side of Batman Begins (but we all know Jason is a Bruce Wayne fanboy.) But we want your opinion: has Iron Man survived the jump from trailer to full-lenght movie, keeping its predicted status of best superhero movie ever? Your answers after the jump.

Why Do You Think Apple is Good or Evil?

Brian Lam — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:43:00 +0000

We ran this photoshop contest of Steve Jobs, asking for Good and Evil versions of the man. For some reason, we got an overwhelming result of Evil Steve Jobs entries. Actually, they’re almost all evil Steve Jobs photoshops. Is that because it’s more fun to dress him up as Osama than it is to make him Jesus Christ? Or is it because people actually think Apple is evil?

I judge the company by the products, and I use most of em, and am happy with most of them. I also note how swiftly the company responds to public outcry with generally reasonable responses. (SDK, Airport Extreme Time Capsule support, iPhone pricing rebate.) So I consider their actions and products to be generally on the side of good. But clearly, there is something going on there in terms of public perception, Jobs’s reputation as a tough cookie, their closed ecosystems and their recent success.

So, what do you think? Apple: Good or Evil and Why? Or were the photoshoppers just having a bit of fun with Steve?

Should Congress Ban Mobile Phone Calls on US Flights?

Sean Fallon — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:30:00 +0000

Europe may be ok with passengers making in-flight calls on their mobile phones, but at least a few members of Congress have the foresight to see how this situation could become problematic in the US. A new bill has been introduced that promises to ban mobile phone calls on US flights, but not text messaging and web surfing. The bill has yet to be passed, but the question is: Do you support a ban?

[PC Mag]

Do You Have a Home Theatre System? Was It Professionally Installed?

Sean Fallon — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:40:00 +0000

After hearing about Kevin Rose cheaping out on a home theatre system, I started wondering what percentage of average folk have a setup in their own home. Then I remembered research that suggested as many as 50% of home theatre buyers don’t set up their rear surround speakers. So the question here is two-fold: do you have a home theatre system and if so, was it professionally installed?

How Dirty and Gross Is Your Tech Gear?

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:00:38 +0000

I was working on my 24-inch iMac today when I noticed my cursor moving a little bit erratically. I didn’t know what was wrong. The computer is almost new, I haven’t installed anything recently, and the mouse itself looked ok, as you can see in the photo above. Then I turned it around to discover the true meaning of the words disgoostingly grossirrific:

Obviously, the reason my table is so clean is because the mouse has been absorbing all the crap around—hair, dust, sweat and more hair—to form these four disgusting patches interconnected with head hair. Check the gallery for high definition pictures showing all the crap in painful detail.

After cleaning it, the mouse worked perfectly again, so my guess is that some of the hairs were getting in the way of the laser and making the cursor jump. This got me wondering: can anyone else’s mouse be as disgusting as this? What about the rest of their tech gear?

And then I remembered the dead fly inside the clear plastic Apple Cinema Display 22. And the dust and hair inside the original translucent iMacs. And the rotten beigeness and crap on the keyboard of my original Compaq LTE laptop or the stains and ash on Addy’s old Fukitsu (sic) mini-notebook.

The question for you today is: is your keyboard full of hair of dubious origins? Bitten nails perhaps? Any unidentifiable insect inside your box? How dirty and gross is your tech gear?

Send us your vomit-inducing photos to tips@gizmodo.com. We will do a gallery with them and post it (with prior warning, so that anyone of a faint disposition can avoid it like the plague.)