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laptop chargers

FastMac U-Charge is the First Universal External Apple Laptop Battery Charger

We've reviewed MacBook and MacBook Pro battery chargers before, but the problem with that is that they aren't compatible between different laptop types. Not so with FastMac's U-Charge. Their external battery charger lets you juice up MacBook Pro (15 and 17-inch), MacBook, PowerBook G4, iBook, and even PowerBook G3 batteries externally all from the same unit.

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1:50 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Jason Chen
126 views, 1 comment

Latest by GeekyNerdGuy: You know what would be more useful? If someone would come up with an iPhone mod that replaces the back cover with one that allows you to swap batteries. Have I been on this rant before? more »

watch1-300.jpg Watches

Four More Casio G-Shocks Round Out 25th Anniversary Collection

Four new G-Shocks that weren't seen at this week's 25th anniversary party are now being shown off. On top is the GW225E-7, the cream of this crop. It's ISO 200 meter water resistant and built for divers. It has a timer that logs dives, and memory storage for vital stats like blood type, diver certification card and passport number. It also has a solar battery, but no Multi-Band, and it costs $350. Check out the rest after the jump. More »

1:47 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Benny Goldman
180 views, 2 comments

Latest by SigmundTheSeaMonster: I still remember, taking my G-Shock apart for a timebomb...um...I...was..building... more »

shinoda_plasma.jpg Displays

125-Inch, 1-mm-Thick, 8-Pound Flexible Display Unveiled

Shinoda Plasma, a large-screen display manufacturer in Japan, has just unveiled a flexible, 1mm-thick, 125-inch prototype display that can be used as either a curved or wrap-around screen. The resolution isn't all that impressive at 960x360, but it could be used for advertising where the viewer will be suitably far away. As they improve the tech, however, it could be seen in homes as either a really fancy info display or even a piece of digital art. It weighs a mere 8 pounds, which is a good ten times less than a normal plasma display, and could easily be installed in the home. That is, if it was reasonably priced, which this most definitely isn't. But you can definitely see the potential there. Stay tuned. [Pink Tentacle]

1:30 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Adam Frucci
479 views, 6 comments

Latest by itchytooth: I want to play Mario Kart on that. And then throw up. more »

bbthundar.jpg BlackBerry

Wall Street Journal: Touchscreen Blackberry Thunder Due by September, Exclusive to Verizon

The Wall Street Journal confirms all of the details unearthed a few days ago about Blackberry's touchscreen Apple killah: Dubbed Thunder, it's only got four physical keys and it'll be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone abroad. They also toss in a launch date—Q3 of this year, meaning September at the latest, practically right on the heels of the Blackberry Bold. Looks like RIM is seriously stepping up its game—whether or not it's 'cause of the iPhone, we like it. [WSJ]

1:10 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By matt buchanan
1,150 views, 15 comments

Latest by DeadWriter: @shamoononon: All of the public phones in my city are Verizon, and I feel the same. I love my wireless carrier, so much so that even though I need a new phone and would like my next phone to be an more »

challengex600.jpg Cars

Giz Test Drive: Student-Built Challenge X Fuel-Cell Car in NYC

GM lugged 17 environmentally friendly cars to New York—fittingly, to Tavern on the Green. The rain-soaked occasion was a display of Challenge X contenders, nearly identical 2005 Chevy Equinoxes modded by teams from schools across the US and Canada to be environmentally friendly, fuel efficient and/or low in emissions. University of Waterloo's hydrogen powered, zero-emissions, electric SUV earned the most awe from the crowd for its ambitious yet completely safe, student-built fuel-cell power plant. More »

12:50 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Benny Goldman
815 views, 16 comments

Latest by aurf: I don't get it. Did GM not realize the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell version was being released to some drivers for testing and is freaking bad ass already? [www.chevrolet.com] Or did these Waterloo kids help create the one they are going to more »

appsHyper_mochld.gif not so Digital Cameras

Grass Photography Grows Your Snapshots

Photosynthetic photography is by no means a new technique, but it's certainly new to us. By placing a "canvas" of grass in a darkroom and shining light on it that first passes through a film negative, artist/scientists have been able to tweak the chlorophyll levels of blades of grass and create living photographs. Their permanence is fleeting, but the effect is quite remarkable. This piece is Mother and Child, hit the jump for Sunbathers. More »

12:30 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Mark Wilson
3,674 views, 32 comments

d5084352l.jpg telephone directory

First-Ever Phone Directory and Instruction Manual to Be Auctioned

This is the world's first phone directory—and it's going up for sale next month in New York at Christie's auctioneers. The Telephone Directory, Volume 1, Number 1, for New Haven, Connecticut, aptly enough, is, at 20 pages, more of a pamphlet than the kind of thing that big strong men rip in half to make the ladies swoon (and us geeks shrug and say, "SFW?") But the funniest thing about The Telephone Directory (apart from the estimated price) is the first eight pages—which are instructions on how to use the telephone. More »

12:10 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Addy Dugdale
2,420 views, 30 comments

Latest by OMG! Ponies!: @Git Em SteveDave: Actually, the dialing format was how the area codes were assigned. 212 takes the shortest amount of time to dial on rotary; 213 the second shortest. Hence, their assignment to New York and Los Angeles, being the more »

multitouch goodness

Full-Screen Multitouch Mac OS X Is Here (But Not from Apple)

It's not from Apple, but it gives a pretty good idea of what to expect from them, specially knowing that only one guy—Christian Moore—got this system running at full speed on a simple Intel-based MacBook. His Lux free open framework enables true multitouch interaction in Mac OS X. In fact, he says it can work under any platform and even a web browser, enabling complex user interfaces and object manipulation comparable to Jeff Han's magic walls or Microsoft Surface anywhere. We talked with Moore about how it works and what to expect from it. More »

Feature

11:50 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Jesus Diaz
8,721 views, 29 comments

Latest by kahri: @tehronin: nope. they all like Coldplay. (which BTW is how I know they're gay) more »

Canon_Rebate_2008.jpg Dealzmodo

Canon Giving Instant Rebates Up to $300 on DSLRs, Lenses

From Sunday, May 18 to Saturday, July 19, Canon tells us it will give customers instant rebates—that is, the good kind, not that mail-in crap—on higher-end DSLRs and lenses. We're talking up to $125 off some serious glass, plus $200 off the EOS 40D and $300 off of the EOS 5D. (Maybe they're making room for its successor?) Check out the full lineup of rebates below. More »

11:30 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Wilson Rothman
4,858 views, 23 comments

rock.jpg Gaming

Rock Revolution Drum Kit Confirms Absurd Arms Race

First we had Rock Band and their 5-button drum kit. Then we had the announcement of Activision's Rock Band clone (Guitar Hero IV) and its 6-button drum kit. Now, not to be outdone, we have word of Konami's Rock Revolution and its 7-button drum kit. And yes, it's all way too eerily reminiscent of "7-minute abs." More »

11:10 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Mark Wilson
2,896 views, 40 comments

msgps3.jpg Gaming

Details of North American MGS4 PS3 Bundle Come to Light

Get your wallets ready, fanboys: the details for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Edition PS3 have been announced. What do you get for your $600? Well, first and foremost you get a gunmetal 40GB PS3 with a new Dualshock 3 controller. You get the limited edition version of the game as well, and you also get a Blu-ray with two hours of bonus content about the making of the game. More »

10:50 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Adam Frucci
3,301 views, 33 comments

IBMpvMagnify1.jpg Solar Power

IBM Boosts Solar Cell Efficiency Using Magnifying Trick

IBM's researchers have been busily beavering away trying to improve solar power technology, and they've just come up with a neat solution that uses a surprisingly simple technique: concentrator photovoltaics. In much the same way as kids use magnifying glasses to focus the sun on things to burn them (we all did that, didn't we?) the IBM boffins combined a large lens and a photovoltaic cell to focus a record-breaking 230 watts solar energy per square centimeter. That ends up producing about 70 watts of useful electric power, effectively creating a solar cell about five times more powerful than the cells commonly used in solar farms. More »

10:15 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Kit Eaton
3,557 views, 41 comments

Latest by cbdsteve: Check out the picture of the Stirling Engine on Wikipedia: more »

Darpa

50 Years of DARPA: 5 Good Inventions, 5 Lousy Ones

To commemorate the golden jubilee of America's Defense Advance Research Projects Agency—formed these 50 years ago in response to a little traveler called Sputnik—New Scientist has come up with a short list of 10 DARPA inventions: five that changed the world, and five that fell flat: More »

9:45 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Wilson Rothman
12,206 views, 45 comments

Latest by Wilson Rothman: @packetsniffer: OMG, I am a human after all! And to prove it, I will leave the typo in there, so people can celebrate your excellent spotting abilities. (Seriously, thanks. I'm usually pretty anal about spelling, but we do those pics more »

Picture%2034.png Food

I'm No Doctor, But The Health Benefits of Caffeinated Chips Seem Questionable

Pardon me while I pander to a stereotype and assume that you, dear reader, are interested in these caffeinated chips by Engobi. Coming in Xtreme flavors like "Cinnamon Surge" and "Lemon Lift," each bag of this snack has 70% more caffeine than the average energy drink. Using Red Bull as a metric, that puts Enobi chips at 136 milligrams of caffeine—or right on line with a cup of strong coffee. Seeing as most of us can down two or three cups for breakfast, that means all those Engobi-eating, Red Bull-drinking X-gamers have been posing for glamor shots at amateur night. Their cute haircuts, tats and piercings can call us when they switch to diesel. [Engobi via Gearlog]

9:28 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Mark Wilson
2,433 views, 51 comments

Latest by Rabid Penguin: "... caffeine in everything ..." more »

eeepc901s.jpg Rumor

Atom-Based Asus Eee PC 901 Ships June 3 With Bluetooth

Digitimes is reporting that the Atom-based Asus Eee PC 901 that we got a peek at the other day is set to ship on June 3. And it looks like the cosmetic enhancements (like the metal accents) aren't the only bit of newness on board: Apparently, it's got Bluetooth, and the Linux version will come with some new software. Otherwise, the guts are supposedly the same as the 900, and it'll go for somewhere under $650. Hopefully way under that. [Digitimes]

9:27 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By matt buchanan
1,986 views, 19 comments

Latest by sfokevin: Sigh... The whole concept of a nice sub $500 notebook has been lost... more »

p_371G_080505084738.jpg Led

LED Gloves Demonstrate the Future of Tacky Manicures

We don't know what the future holds...(OK, we totally do because Gizmodo owns a time machine on review loan that's embargoed for, somewhat ironically, after the world has ended). But anyway, in the future before the world has ended, expect to see something like these LED gloves that will add a touch of hooker to your otherwise humdrum life (staring at a white wall for eight hours daily while robots take care of our infrastructure). Buy them now before inflation skyrockets the price past $45. [Lux et Deco via technabob]

8:59 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Mark Wilson
1,397 views, 16 comments

Latest by Git Em SteveDave: I find that whenever you stick your hand into something to repair it, it's your hand that blocks the light you need. Perhaps if you went for those strip LEDS, and lined the palm/bottoms of fingers, it could be more »

EPAdress1.jpg air dress

EPA Dress Wrinkles Up to Show it's a Bad Air Day

Currently showing at the 2nd Skin Exhibition at San Francisco's Exploratorium is this piece of smart clothing by designer Stephanie Sandstrom. Inside it hide a bunch of sensors that measure the nearby air quality, along with drivers that can adjust the fabric. The idea is that on bad air days the dress detects the problem, and adjusts itself to look all rumpled and messy, and raising environmental awareness. Does that wrinkling mean it raises the hemline? I'm not sure... but if it did, that might work to take your mind off the damage being done to your health by all those airborne pollutants. [Inhabitat]

8:56 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Kit Eaton
2,009 views, 29 comments

Latest by SigmundTheSeaMonster: She's got her panties all in a bunch! (Canned Fart will appease those panty pervs! Just spray and "Hey!") more »

mimique.jpg Concept

Mimique Cellphone Concept

If anyone ever brings out a phone that looks like this, I'll have 10 of them, thangyewverymuch. A proposal of Californian design studio RKS, the Mimique is all about skins and downloads—a customizable phone with bells on, basically—using, as it does, open source software. I just love that old-school antenna bump and the analog clock. See another picture of it after the jump. More »

8:50 AM on Fri May 16 2008
By Addy Dugdale
3,122 views, 18 comments