Gizmodo: Spooky

Earliest Audio Recording Resurrected, Scares the Genitals Off Us

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:35:00 EDT

Audio historian David Giovannoni and scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered and brought back to life the first audio recording ever made, 17 years before Edison's patent. The ten-second snippet was made on a phonoautograph, a device that only recorded sounds but didn't play them back, so they had to do some voodoo to resurrect it and play it back. And after you hear it, you will agree on the voodoo part.

The audio recording, a verse of "Au Clair de la Lune" sung by a woman/zombie/spirit/ghostard, was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Scott was a Parisian typesetter and inventor who invented the phonoautograph, and died thinking Edison stole his idea for recording sound (just like he stole and ran Méliès out of the movie business).

However, while the fact is that Edison stole many things, this is not one of them, according to Giovannoni: "Edison is not diminished whatsoever by this discovery." Another scholar, Paul Israel, director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University remarked that "what made Edison different from Scott was that he was trying to reproduce sound and he succeeded."

The phonoautograph is a device that only prints the sound it captures, but it can't reproduce it. Giovannoni and his team had to digitally process the recording, made on April 9, 1860, to create the version you can listen to here. [NYT]

Get Ready for Halloween With Stupid Spooky Furniture

AddyDugdale — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:01:02 EDT

Here's a selection of spooky-ook furniture you can buy if you're opening a haunted fairground attraction*/Madame of the world's least sexy themed brothel*/looking to scare seven shades of shit out of your kids*/on the shortlist to decorate Marilyn Manson's new crib*/a very sad and lonely individual*. Anyway, it's expensive, it's bad taste (that bloodied -baby-cradle combo must really tie the room together**) and it's almost Halloween, so enjoy the gallery below.

*Delete where applicable.
**This is Giz's joke of the month.

[ScareFactory via Shiny Shiny]

Shadow SS Watch Has Two Faces, Frightens Us

Haroon Malik — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:35:10 EDT

The Shadow SS watch is a two-faced little son-of-a-product from a very clever design house indeed. That is because, as your mother told you, appearances can be deceiving. The Shadow SS proves your mother was right, again.

The watch on first inspection may appear to be your average run-of-the-mill, square- faced, metal bracelet, snazzy timekeeper, but the twist comes in when you depress that sneaky LED activation button. This turns the once analog watch into a time whore, simultaneously displaying digital and analog time readouts. The two displays can even be programmed to show different time zones.

This watch reminds us of the Lion King , specifically when the hyenas joined the lions. The two were just not meant to mix and we think there was a very good reason for it. It scares us. Mind you, we are big blogging sissies. If you still want one, cough up your $199 and let us be done with this frightening affair. [Product Page via Technabob]

New Zune Spot Shows off Features in a Graveyard

Jason Chen — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:13:36 EDT

Video: Zune TV SpotWe definitely like this new Zune ad from Microsoft, especially since it's the first new push since launch six months ago. The way they show off the Zune's features like picture viewing, sharing and FM radio is smart.

It may be just us, but does it look like this is a huge graveyard of Zunes? That's kinda creepy, and we're not sure it's the angle Microsoft is going for. Unless of course they're marketing towards the untapped potential of kids who hang out in graveyards and share music. We didn't major in advertising. – Jason Chen

New Zune TV Spot [Zuneinsider]