Gizmodo

Japan is weird sometimes

Tutukki Box Is Like an LCD Truck Stop Bathroom For Your Finger

Insert your finger into the Tutukki Bako (Tutukki Box) and you probably won't feel much. Unless you look at the screen, you wouldn't know that you were clumsily stoking a tiny panda, a small, terrified man or even a woman's understandably unhappy face with an inappropriate-looking appendage. This lovely toy will superimpose a live digital representation of your digit on a couple of equally unsettling scenes and costs about $30, though it's only available in Japan for now (and probably forever). I'm not sure what need or desire this fulfills, but if anyone knows please feel free not to let me know. Bonus screens after the jump. [Crunchgear] More »

7:15 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By John Herrman
20 views, Comment

Blu-Ray

Disney Sucks the Magic Out of Films With 120 Pages of Blu-Ray Legalese

Sleeping Beauty is Disney's first classic animated film to make its way to Blu-ray, and it's loaded with legitimately compelling BD-Live extra features. Format War Central tried to check these out, but got smacked with a 57 page EULA followed by a 63 page Privacy Policy before they could view any of them. Also upsetting: the new ending, in which Princess Aurora, upon waking up from Phillip's kiss resolves to become a copyright lawyer for a large electronics company. [Format War Central]

6:30 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By John Herrman
404 views, 2 comments

Latest by mikecoscia: Does it show up every time you play the disc or is just a one time thing? more »

Apple

ThinkSecret Creator Returns to the Internet, Still Talking About Apple

Remember Nicholas Ciarelli, the precocious tween who started a successful Apple rumor blog, only to have it shuttered by the company's legal team? He's now posting on the DailyBeast, and he's got some interesting things to say about his favorite plaintiff: namely that since the negative PR resulting from Ciarelli's case, Apple seems to have realized the buzz-building value of early leaks and non-response to rumors. Nicholas might still be pretty young, but he's also still right. It's definitely worth a read. [DailyBeast]

6:00 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By John Herrman
515 views, Comment

Nintendo Wii

Wii Ski and Snowboard Uses Balance Board, Looks Amazing


It isn't the first balance board-enabled ski game for the Wii, but it sure looks like it'll be the best. With the weird and richly varied balance board hacks cropping up all over the place, it's good — though late — for Nintendo to finally demonstrate a game that looks worthy of the device. [Kotaku]

5:30 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By John Herrman
775 views, 2 comments

Latest by ShikhaTriarius: Yes. Finally something that takes natural advantage of the Fit's promise. I know this seems like a good snowboarding sim, more »

BlackBerry

BlackBerry Storm Emulator Available For Download

Considering the heaps of information available about BlackBerry's new touchscreen phone, including our full hands-on report, there will be little surprise left for consumers when the devices actually ship. Using BlackBerry's new Storm emulation software, released along with a suite of new development tools for the BlackBerry OS, you can take your dinner-spoiling habits one step further and actually use the device right now, albeit on your computer screen. As with the online G1 emulator some capabilities are disabled, but the software should give you a pretty close approximation of using the Storm will actually be like. UPDATE: It works, though it's Windows-only. [BlackBerry via Slashphone]

5:00 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By John Herrman
928 views, 1 comment

Latest by smackswell: If the emulator has that ugly Verizon theme, I'm not interested. more »

3D Lasers

3D Translucent Laser Display Will Turn Windows Into Billboards

Sony has teamed up with the Max-Planck Institute in Germany to create a flexible, translucent display that creates 3D multi-color images from laser beams. The all-organic screen uses a chemical reaction called photoexcitation to render images, where energy moves from the lasers to the screen and “turns on” the photons to emit light. More »

3:15 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By Elaine Chow
2,022 views, 5 comments

Latest by sharpfang: How is it 3D? more »

iBlackBerry

BlackBerry Storm Tech Manual Offers Proof of iPhone Inspiration

It's probably not a surprise that RIM definitely had iPhones on the brain while creating the new (and pretty awesome) BlackBerry Storm—but who knew they'd make it this obvious. In the vodaphone technical specifications manual, the company's Storm is sporting a very familiar OS, and it's definitely not the regular BlackBerry's. Hmmmm. [BlackBerry UK]

2:35 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By Elaine Chow
2,419 views, 23 comments

Latest by iGo: Somewhere someone just lost his designing job... I bet RIM suits are already filling up the grave they buried him more »

Asus G71

Asus G71 Gaming Laptop Uses Quad-Core Chip

Asus has updated its G-series gaming laptop line with the G71, a notebook that sports Intel's new QX9300 quad-core processor. The computer comes with a 17-inch Crystal Shine display, an NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT GDDR3 512MB graphics card, and can be customized with up to 4GB of system memory and 1TB of hard disk space. Asus is also throwing in a 2mp integrated webcam and a Eee Stick—some casual gaming dongle that works a little like Sony's Eyetoy. Price and retail date are not yet available. [Akihabara News]

2:05 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By Elaine Chow
1,819 views, 9 comments

Latest by wahrugene: i suggest checking out Sager laptops when it comes to gaming laptops. You can find it at xoticpc.com their performance for more »

Solar

Cylinder Solar Panels Generate More Energy For Less Cost

Solyndra, a California-based solar start up, says it's figured out a way to make solar panels cheaper to install and better at producing energy—rolling them up. The company's solar panels are comprised of rows of cylindrical solar cells deposited on glass tubes, a new type of shape that purportedly lets them absorb more light during the day. More »

1:35 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By Elaine Chow
3,452 views, 4 comments

Latest by whiteknight: Depending on how expensive the new form factor is, I'm very interested! Yes efficiency might go up from the shape, more »

Braaaaains

Zombie Doll Will Eat Your Stuffed Animals' Braaaaaains

This Halloween, instead of candy, why not hand out a couple of these cute zombie plushies? The Dismember-Me Plus can be torn limb from limb and reassembled to your heart's delight. It even comes with a cuddly mini-zombie brain! The adorable undead doll is now available now on Think Geek for $15. After all, being a kid ought not to mean that you shouldn't be reminded that we're all heading towards an apocalyptic future. [Think Geek]

1:00 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By Elaine Chow
1,049 views, 8 comments

Latest by EricAlder: They're fun until you get them in a group... then, WATCH OUT! more »

Blackberry storm hands on

BlackBerry Storm First Hands On

The very first time you touch the BlackBerry Storm—RIM's first all-touchscreen keyboard-free smartphone, just announced for Verizon Wireless—you will be startled. No matter how many times your fingers dance on the screen like you've been trained on every other touchscreen, nothing will happen. At least, not until you push the screen all the way down and you feel a click. Yes, the screen is a giant button, one you have to punch for basically every action, even every letter you type, completely breaking the touchscreen paradigm. Surprisingly, it works.

More »

12:01 AM on Wed Oct 8 2008
By matt buchanan
17,025 views, 67 comments

Latest by aside: Matt, I couldn't understand this part: "Typing with it takes some getting used to, even if you can fly on an iPhone more »

Product Leak

Best Buy Presentation Leaks Cellphone Ship Dates

Oops, someone at Best Buy leaked a presentation that's revealed the ship dates for several upcoming handsets. For instance, the titanium version of the Verizon Blitz, now has a ship date of October 26th (it's only marked as Coming Soon on the Best Buy site. Other cellphones dropping on the 26th include Sprint's HTC Touch Pro and black Samsung M540 Rant, AT&T's BlackBerry Bold 9000 and T-Mobile' BlackBerry Pearl Flip. Oh yes, the BlackBerry Storm's on there as well, with a ship date of November 16th. [BGR via Electronista]

11:45 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Elaine Chow
5,846 views, 9 comments

Latest by NFLBLitze1: thats a fake, look at the storm it has BGRs logo on it for the storms picture FAKEEEEE more »

Faster, Better, Stronger

HAL Robot Exoskeletons Available for Rent

The day for you to strap yourself into a robotic exoskeleton and fight crime the way your normally flabby limbs would never have let you has come! Cyberdyne, the Japanese company responsible for the HAL (hybrid assistive limb) prototype robot suit, is starting rentals this week. The price for being superhuman: about $2,200. More »

11:10 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Elaine Chow
3,981 views, 25 comments

Latest by mhatti3000: $2200 for how long can you keep. What kind of article says the price of the rent and not the more »

bB

Blackberry Storm Goes Live On Vodafone With 3D Tour, Official Spec Page

Vodafone just launched the Blackberry Storm on their site (HUGE BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT), complete with a 3D image that offers a full view of the phone and a link to the Storm's spec sheet. Other than that, not a whole lot new here, just seems to (more or less) confirm what we already suspected. [Vodafone]

10:22 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Adrian Covert
3,432 views, 17 comments

Latest by Gilbert: iPhone? Blackberry? Extremely peculiar and absolutely hilarious. Someone call Mr. Lyons. more »

PSP

PSP Hack Turns Your Handheld Into a 2nd Computer Screen

You know what was the first thing I thought when I got my hands on a PSP? This screen would make a really great second computer monitor... No, I'm just kidding; never in my life would I think that. But apparently PSP homebrew developer Jochen Schleu did, and worked up a mod that lets you use your PSP as a 960x544 resolution passive display. The program works for both the slim and original versions if they're running on custom firmware, and will hook up to any computer that's running Windows XP. Vista users hoping for some tiny screen goodness are out of luck this time around. [PSP Updates via Kotaku]

10:15 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Elaine Chow
1,820 views, 9 comments

Latest by TheLostVikings: Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have left my PSP back home when I went studying abroad T.T more »

Mind Bullets

Square-Enix Teams Up With NeuroSky For Mind-Controlled Gaming Concept

Square-Enix and NeuroSky will unveil a mind-controlled gaming demo on Thursday at the Tokyo Game Show. The setup works with a Windows PC and the MindSky headset, and runs Square's software created specifically for this demo. The headset fits over your head with earmuffs and has one electrode that monitors brainwaves. The headset itself is compatible with many different platforms, but it isn't specified what level of control your brainwaves have over the game. Neurosky only says the headset it monitors your level of relaxation and concentration. The demo will take place in NeuroSky's booth at TGS. [BusinessWire]

9:30 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Adrian Covert
2,882 views, 13 comments

Latest by MyraJalope: Toss in some video goggles, a worldwide, unstoppable virus and a very stable and impenetrable OS and we can have more »

Gaming

Silverstone Raven Gaming Mouse Has a Tumor on the Side, Can't Possibly Be Comfortable

Silverstone's Raven gaming mouse looks really interesting at first glance, what with the giant, glowing and strangely hypnotic tumor bolted to its side. It appears to be a secondary scroll wheel, which sits next to the usual thumb buttons. And you've got another pair of buttons next to your middle finger. But when you think about the ergonomics, it just don't work. How can it possibly be comfortable to hold with that massive wart bulging out? Check out this top down view to see what I mean. More »

9:00 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By matt buchanan
3,079 views, 17 comments

Latest by strider_mt2k: ALL HAIL HYPNOTUMOR ALL HAIL HYPNOTUMOR more »

Security

Remock Lockey Opens Doors With Its Wireless Mojo

Wireless deadbolts have been on the market for a while now, but the new Remock Lockey seems like a decent solution for doors you want to secure inside a home. The remote controlled lock is placed on the inside of a room and can only be opened with a remote control "key." It runs on store bought batteries, but the system will automatically shut down when the power is low so you don't have to worry about getting locked out. All-in-all it doesn't seem like a bad deal for around $163, especially if you need a serious solution that prevents your Mom from bursting into the room during your "private time." Unfortunately, only Korean teenagers can have this wireless peace of mind at the moment. [Funshop Korea via DVICE]

8:40 PM on Tue Oct 7 2008
By Sean Fallon
1,687 views, 4 comments

Latest by TheMurderer: I might have to reverse-engineer so that when I have kids, I can finally lock them up without fear of more »

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