Gizmodo: poll

What's the Most Important Gadget Ever Made?

Dan Nosowitz — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:30:00 EDT

From the printing press to the personal computer, the radio to the iPod touch, gadgets have changed how we communicate, learn, absorb entertainment, and laugh at nerds. But which was the biggest game-changer of all?

I'll start things off by paying homage to a gadget that changed the world from the mid-15th century until... well, until just a few months ago. I'm talking about the Gutenberg printing press, without which we'd still have to endure the oft-illegible handwriting found in illuminated manuscripts and science students' notes. We may be experiencing (some would say contributing to) the death of print, but good old Johannes Gutenberg had a great run there for the past few centuries. But it's an easy argument that the personal computer is just as revolutionary a gadget as the printing press, and took root far faster. The clock, bicycle, lightbulb, and beer-filled USB drive are all totally valid answers as well.

For the sake of argument, let's define gadget as either a mechanical or technological device from the modern era. Sorry to the jokers who were going to say "a rock!" or "fire!"

As a side note, the first person to say the iPhone will get a personally written Angry Windows Guy message from me, the only exclusive Windows user left on staff. But what say you, commenters? What is the most important gadget ever made?

Intel Survey: Internet Almost as Important as Sex

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:30:00 EST

Intel released survey results that attempt to measure the place of Internet access in both men's and women's lists of priorities, and found that it's more important than any other nonessential purchase.

This is one of those reasonably meaningless polls that ends up saying what we already knew: people like their Internet access. In this survey of 2,119 adults polled by Harris Interactive, Internet access polled higher than any other source of discretionary spending (things like eating out, shopping, and television subscriptions).

But the real buzz around the survey comes from these numbers: 46% of women and 30% of men would rather give up sex for two weeks than give up Internet access over the same period. Frankly, that's lower than I'd expect: I'm not sure what kind of Casanovas they polled, but I go without sex for two weeks sometimes totally by accident. On the other hand, every time I've gone two weeks without the Internet, it was as some kind of forced vacation and I really felt the pain.

Intel also said that 65% of those polled "cannot live without Internet access," which is kind of an extreme reaction. Does that mean that they'd kill themselves rather than live without it? Or just wish they'd never been born?

What do you guys think? Two weeks without sex, or two weeks without your precious Internet? [New York Times]

What Is Going to Happen at the Apple Let's Rock Event?

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:15:00 EDT

Hoo-kai. We are almost there. The usual suspects are voicing their last minute, most obvious predictions for what is looking like the most boring event in Apple's history ever. At least, since Gil Amelio decided to give an exclusive interview to The Minnesota Carpets Quarterly Journal on the new flooring at One Infinite Loop. New colors, roomier iPod nano this, updated iPod touch that, flashy iTunes visualizer that other thing... Hereto we present you with the things that we think are going to happen today for sure, straight from our Rumor-a-thing machine. Pick yours and vote in our Special Giz Event "Let's Poll!" Poll:

The Apple Store is still up. Maybe there are going to be no new products today. I can already hear Steve:

Welcome to our Let's Rock event... SUCKAS! Hahahaha. You wanted to rock? Well, big news today! Phil, John and myself are going to form a band with John Mayer! And we are going to call ourselves: THE BEATLES! SUE MY ASS PAUL MCCARTNEY! Hit me on three, Phil!

Too bad that won't happen, because that would have been the best event in Apple history. Ever.

Would You Watch Cellphone Ads if it Got You Free or Cheap Service?

Adam Frucci — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:20:00 EDT

The Direct Marketing Association, a lovely group dedicated to forcing ads down your throat, have done a study that found that while a mere 7% of cellphone users are open to receiving ads on their phone, a much more significant 24% say they've responded to such ads on their phone. A whole quarter of the phone population responding to ads? That has advertisers salivating, so you know that phone ads will be the norm soon enough. So, let's say they came up with a deal that paid for half of your bill if you agreed to watch a few ads a day on your phone. Would you do it?

As much as I hate ads and I hate being inundated with them on a daily basis, if it meant saving $50 a month, I would be all over it. On the other hand, if they tried to send ads to my phone without it saving me any money, I'd be livid. I pay too much for it to be forced to watch ads to further line the pockets of the people I'm already keeping in business.

What do you think?

[NY Times]

Quick Poll: Videos

Jason Chen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:29:00 EDT

We're trying to figure out what's better for our readers in terms of video placing. Do you prefer us putting videos directly on the front page so you don't have to click into a post to watch, or do you prefer we tuck them after the jump so it doesn't slow down pageloads for people who might not be interested in that particular video? Quick vote.

Is Iron Man the Best Superhero Movie Ever?

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:00:00 EDT

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.) Brian agreed in his review. 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.

Iron Man to Be Released Today at 8PM

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:19:14 EDT

In case you didn't know, Iron Man—probably the most gadgety movie ever this side of James Bond—is arriving in theaters today, May 1st, at 8PM. Not tomorrow at 12AM, but this evening. Yesterday, all our West Coast editors had the opportunity to see it at the TechCrunch screening. I caught Jason just before he went to sleep in his crotchless pajamas, and I asked him if it was truly pantsworthy, like we predicted after the trailer. He said "yes, better than Spiderman and X-Men." Oh boy. [Superhero Hype—Thanks Lindsay]

What Kind of Geek are You?

AddyDugdale — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Wired has done a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to spotting geeks. Third from the right is gadget geek, who apparently "writes ferocious comments on Giz" (FIRST! and Will It Blend? are not examples of ferocious comments, before you ask.) James Chiang's fabulous photo just begs the question, however: What kind of geek are you?

I'm Mr T, you pantyhose suckas! [Wired]

Man Makes Canoe with Seven Thousand Chopsticks

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:15:39 EDT

Shuhei Ogawara spent two years of his life collecting 7,382 wood disposable chopsticks from his office cafeteria, glued them together in three months, and applied a polyester coat to build this 13-foot long, 66-pound canoe. This is heavier than a regular canoe, so he still doesn't know if it's going to float or not. What do you think?

We don't really care if it floats or not, quite frankly. We think it's cool enough as it is. With his patience, the next thing Mr. Shuhei would most probably build will be a 1:1 72,800-tonne replica of the battleship Yamato, complete with four 19.7-foot propellers and nine 18.1-inch cannons, all made from gluing about 15.2 million soy sauce containers, 26.3 million empty bento boxes, and an undetermined amount of old mochi for coating. [Pink Tentacle]

John Mayer Gets Apple Reply after Bug Report Jibba-Jabba

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:40:00 EDT

It looks like writing "John Mayer here" really works to get Apple's attention when you report a problem. According to Steve Jobs' fab guitarist, they got back to him directly only four days after he sent the bug report ramblings:

...four days later, I received an e-mail from my manager saying that Apple was at my service. Word of my problem initially made it's way to Apple not by way of my public profile, but by a technician receiving the report as they would anyone else's and passing it along internally until word reached my friends at the company.

Well, John, sorry to bust the bubble, but if you start your bug reports saying you are John Mayer, of course your manager is going to get a mail from Apple. The support guy who took care of Mayer had this to say:

"We take crash reports seriously on our side, because for us it's just like being able to talk directly with the customer while the problem is happening. The information that we get from the automated system is perfect for helping us solve the problem, and obviously the customers comments can take it one step further."

We bet that Apple takes reports seriously, but have you ever got anyone from Apple—or any other company—sending you an email from a bug report? [John Mayer —thanks Robbie]

Guest Editor's Answer: Mr. T has sent hundreds of bug reports about Safari breaking down and never got ANYTHING back from those Apple suckas! Here's my latest report:

Hello suckas! Mr. T here. I was trying to do some of editing today for this tech site and the crazy Safari crashed! I pity the fool who goes out tryin' a' take over da world with their browser, then runs home cryin' to his momma! So listen to me, suckas! You're going to fix this! Or I'm gonna kill that crazy Jobs! Sincerely, Mr. T

And then I added a picture of genitals drawn in ASCII code!

Iron Man New Full Trailer Shows Why It's Going to be the Best Hi-Tech Superhero Movie Ever

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:20:38 EST

I don't know about you, but any trailer that starts with the greatest gadget genius of all time having a morning whisky on the rocks, while traveling through the desert in a Humvee to the beat of AC/DC's Back In Black, says to me: BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER. Which is precisely what you can see in the new Iron Man full trailer, along with everything you would expect Robert Downey Jr's perfect Tony Stark to do, from tinkering with his armor while mixing cocktails to playing with a multitouch holographic display to crashing through his amazing mansion on the edge of a cliff (Bruce Wayne is a wimp) to kissing the redheaded goddess that is Gwyneth Paltrow playing Virginia "Pepper" Potts, his personal assistant. Best quotes ever and poll, after the jump.

Tony Stark (to army driver): "Good God, you are a woman."

Tony Stark: "Yeah. I can fly."

Computer: "Sir, the upgrade is complete" (talking about the new armor) Tony Stark: "Tell you what. Put a little hot rod red in there."

Tony Stark (to Virginia Potts, while fitting his armor): "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you caught me doing."

JasonPoll concept courtesy of Jason Chen (who is a Batman fan; nobody is perfect.) [IGN]

Proof of New Macbooks?

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:45:35 EST

Remember those rumors that AppleInsider was claiming a few hours ago? It came from an unfamiliar source, but while we're wildly guessing, here's an image of those updated model numbers with prices in the sub-$2000 range, far more appropriate for the Macbook standard than the pro:

According to this source, these are not the MacBook Pros you are looking for:

I just printed the inventory at FutureShop, the store I work at, and found new MacBooks... NOT MacBook Pros. The items are APPLE MACB MB402LL/A and MB403LL/A. I saw this posted in other places, but the prices is what will interest you. They're listed at 1149.99 and 1349.99. These are Canadian prices, mind you, so I imagine they'll be less in the states. Take a look at the picture, the two I'm mentioning are at the bottom.

Of course, Obi Kenobi here could have printed this out off Excel. But Macrumors recently got a separate source showing similarly low prices attached to the new model numbers.

Knight Rider iPhone-Inspired Interior Officially Revealed

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:20:33 EST

The new KITT's dashboard has been officially revealed, confirming the previously leaked image (in high resolution after the jump, along with a gratuitous—but necessary—photo of the new car and the Hoff at the Playboy Mansion) and Knight Rider's producer David Bartis' words about the interior design's similarities with the iPhone:

You look at the iPhone and you go—thats the coolest phone out there. It's just a flat screen that you can touch and access anything. So the iPhone interface was actually a big inspiration for the way the interior of this car would look because its very simple, it's very streamlined, it's very clean.

Looks like Bartis is right: aluminum on leather, check. Touchscreen, check. Glossy surfaces, check. Simplicity, check. Almost no knobs, except the new driver, who makes the Hoff looks like Olivier, Marlon Brando, Pacino and DeNiro combined, check. Voice spectrometer that look like an iTunes's visualizer? Check. Apple Bluetooth keyboard? Not checked, but looks like it. What do you think? Is it really iPhone-inspired?

[Net Car Show, Knight Rider Online, Shadow Flight and io9]

LEGO Monty Python Beats LEGO Star Wars, With a Stick

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:39:11 EST

With the amazing LEGO Steam Wars contest over, here's a new contest on LEGO Castle-based vignette story telling. One of the first entries is an instant classic: the "Bring out your dead!" skit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (video after the jump.) The obvious question, which may tear apart the site apart and probably destroy the whole time-space continuum too, is: LEGO Monty Python or LEGO Star Wars?

If you are a LEGO fan, don't forget to participate in the Classic Castle contest (hopefully with more Python-related moments.) [Brothers Brick]

What in the Name of Bender's Shiny Metal Ass Is This?

AddyDugdale — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:30:56 EST

[Dezeen]

iPhone Smashes Windows Mobile and Motorola in 4Q

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:10:42 EST

Steve Ballmer must be banging his head against the wall after dismissing the idea of the iPhone as "silly" last year: market research firm Canalys has confirmed the trend announced by Jobs at MacWorld, with the iPhone grabbing 28 percent of the U.S. "converged-device" market (aka smartphones) for the fourth quarter, smashing the combined Windows Mobile phones and Motorola. RIM was first with 41 percent, but Canalys thinks the evolution is "striking." Is this beginner's luck or a real success that is here to stay?

Apple's success as a new entrant is striking, but it will face challenges to keep its momentum going, said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham in a statement. Historically, vendors with just one smartphone design, no matter how good, struggle, he said. That means Apple will have to create and refresh a portfolio of devices if it wants to increase its market share, he said.

Worldwide, Nokia takes the first place with 52.8 percent followed by RIM with 11.4 and Apple with 6.5. When you think that Apple is only available in a few countries, this is a particularly stunning feat.

[NYT]

Iron Man Uses Dell Servers, Tony Stark Drinks Too Much Bourbon

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:30:26 EST

Here's a batch of 13 new images from the movie about the greatest gadget tinkerer and playboy of all time: Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. And while all of them are great and make our legs shake in anticipation, there's something wrong going on in there. Let's review:

• Same amazing armors as before, check.
• Random circuitry fiddling, check.
• Playboy sport supercars, check.
• One of said playboy sport supercars, a Cobra of all things, destroyed in goofy accident, check.
• $5,000 Armani suit, check.
• $7,000 Zegna leather jacket, check.
• Obligatory just-out-of-bed hot girl, naked in man's shirt, check.
• Obligatory hot-but-untouchable secretary for underlying sexual tension, check.
• Random casino gaming, check.
• Dell servers...

Dell servers?

Tony, Tony, Tony... really, you, me and the devil in the bottle go a long way back, but come on, off-the-shelf Dell servers? Where are the elegant supercomputers that any playboy should use? Where are the stunning mirrored-surfaced classified computers that only Stark Industries and Nick Fury would use? Even those punks from the X-Men have mind-blowing hardware. You can't have a friggin' flying armor and run it on commodity server racks, mate. Damn marketing.

[Worst Previews]

Sleuthy NYC Couple Use Deckard Technique to Find Aussie Lost-Camera Owner

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:13:03 EST

It was like a real-life scene from Blade Runner, well, except for the pleasure-model skin jobs, the handguns that sound like laser blasters and the whole Harrison Ford thing. An NYC couple stumbles upon a digital camera left in a cab on New Year's Eve, and decide to turn all sleuthy.

They pore over the 300 photos and videos in the memory card—which probably wasn't exactly legal—landing upon a shot of a bunch of people drunk in a bar, wearing nametags. Though the names themselves seemed to lead nowhere, a couple clicks up and to the right, a little zoom and voila! Our heroes could see the bar's name, written on an awning.

Popping over there, they shook down the bartender for information. The barman remembered a party and a particular "big tipper" who, fortunately for the couple, worked at another bar. They met up with her, and it turned out that her sister was amigos with the Australian who lost the camera. (What kind of amigo, I guess we'll never know.) After a few e-mails, the camera is making its way back to the bloke in Australia, who is happy to "know there are some honest people left in the world." [SMH]

Sure, it's a cute story, but the question is this:

The End of an Era: Steve Jobs Says Only One Boom!

AddyDugdale — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:20:23 EST

A lot of you have complained about Steve's "Booms" in the past. Old. Tired, you say, especially in our cartoons. Well, judging by yesterday's keynote, the Apple head man thinks the same. Compare and contrast yesterday's miserly tally of one "Boom!" to last year's bumper crop of 15 B-words. So, what word should El Jobso start repeating like a Tourettes-addled teenager now?

Apple Store Is Gone With the Wind, What Do You Expect Will Come Back?

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:50:04 EST

The Apple Store has been down for a long time now. As far as we can recall, it has never been down so long before a keynote, which may be a sign about what we already said last week: this keynote is going to be huge, even if the announcements could be tiny and paper-thin. While you wait for the keynote to start in our Liveblog, what do you expect to find when the store comes back up? Our poll with the most probable items is still going on: