Joel, Author at Gizmodo | Page 101 of 253

Gizmodo in Japan: Concerning Gadgets

We’re well on our way, flying over Canada—my first time over that great country up North—and my first time, with the exception of a four hour cruise into international waters on a Floridian gaming ship, out of the country. I’ve had my first bit of panic at missing bits I forgot to pack, left my…

Tech News Joel

USB Mince Pie

Despite my dapper sense of dress and my long, personal history of colonial wars for empire, I am not British. That leaves me with only the vaguest sense of cultural relevance when it comes to the significance of the Christmas Mince Pie. Perhaps it is like our mythic Fruit Cake, often spoken of in jocular…

Tech News Joel

Skulls Trojan for Symbian

Looks like somebody finally made a malicious trojan for cellphones—specifically phones running Symbian. Called the ‘SymbOS/Skulls’ trojan, it is often advertised as an ‘Extended Theme Manager’ by ‘Tee-222.’ If you install the program, your phone will often stop booting up and when it does, most of your program icons are swapped with skills (I suspect…

Tech News Joel

ZigaUSA Media Tablet

The Ziga USA Media Tablet sure is an odd product. It’s built around an 8.4-inch 800 by 600 pixel LCD and runs Windows CE, but it also has a built-in DVD drive and MPEG 2 hardware decoding on board. So it’s a slate-style DVD player, but also a Pocket PC. Oh, and get this—you can…

Tech News Joel

Dolphin Nets World’s First Artifical Fin

A dolphin in a Japanese aquarium has received the world’s first artificial fin—not counting scuba gear, mind you—to replace one that was amputated due to disease. Developed by Bridgestone tires for about $95,000, the rubber fin allows the 34-year-old dolphin ‘Fuji’ to swim and even jump. Bridgestone developed many different versions of the fin before…

Tech News Joel

Eliica: 230mph Electric Car

What has eight-wheels, goes 230mph, and takes ten hours to recharge? Okay, yes, DildonoTron 9000—besides that. The Eliica electric car designed by Hiroshi Shimizu, is what, and Auto Express got to take one out for a ride. It’s as ugly as sin, but it’ll do 0 to 60 in just four seconds, powered by separate…

Tech News Joel

(Almost) Morning Bits

Product Highlights • Apple Cinema Displays have faulty LCD panels [TheInquirer] • Creative Zen Micro Launch (Singapore) [HardwareZone] • CTL Launches Nexus 2200 22? LCD HDTV/Monitor [ChaitGear] • Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes Podcast [MalcolmAdams] • Someone Gets a Treo 650 from Sprint [Treonauts] Reviews • palmOne Tungsten T5 – Palm OS PDA [TrustedReviews] • Bluetake…

Tech News Joel

Rumor: T-Mobile and Sprint Launching Ringback Tones

Everybody is a lot more excited about these ringback tones than I expected. I’m sort of dreading them, myself, as I’ll now be forced to endure everyone’s humorous or nostalgic choices of music as I try to call them. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to hang up on them faster, preventing…

Tech News Joel

Hitachi’s Tabletop Display

Hitachi has developed a new display that is embedded in a table-top. The touch-sensitive unit can be drawn on and can even respond to gestures, so that drawing a circle around something, for instance, could trigger a zoom in on an image, or inscribing the sacred pentagram could automatically call your principal and tell him…

Tech News Joel

ATRON Shapeshifting Robot

This new robot was shown off in Japan yesterday by Danish researcher Hautop Lund. The ATRON is designed to be completely modular, able to reconfigure itself into one of 100 different shapes with corresponding motions, from snake-like slithering to walking to rolling. Each link communicates with the others via an infrared link and is self-powered—they…

Tech News Joel

Sprint Treo 650 Reviewed

It’s not going to tell Treo fans anything they didn’t already know, but this review on USA Today is the first review of the Treo 650 I’ve seen. Ed Baig gives it good marks, bagging on the obvious shortcomings, like the lack of on-board memory and the so-so camera. If this review is any indication,…

Tech News Joel

Motorola A1000 Reviewed

There’s no reason smartphones have to run PalmOS, Windows Mobile, or even Linux or Symbian. There’s nothing stopping a manufacturer from crafting their own stylus-oriented touchscreen OS—it might even be a good idea if they can bring something new to the table. The reason most companies, don’t, though, might be the same reason that Motorola’s…

Tech News Joel

Hotmail Removes Free Outlook Access

Hotmail used to let you access it using Outlook or Outlook Express—that was one of the reasons I used to use them exclusively about four years ago. Now a couple of readers have told me that their free access to Hotmail from Outlook has been suspended, with a message encouraging them to upgrade to MSN…

Tech News Joel

Santa Ifigênia, Grey Market of São Paulo

I’ve been bugging my friend Ricardo Infernauta to take a couple pictures of the grey market electronics district called Santa Ifigênia in his native São Paulo, Brazil for about forever. When he came through, he wasn’t joking about it being a madhouse—it’s like a South American inversion of the cramped but orderly grey market shops…

Tech News Joel

Nokia 9500 Communicator Reviewed

All About Symbian gets the first proper Nokia 9500 Communicator review out the way and it’s a pretty interesting read if you’re a clamshell fan. Nokia isn’t doing anything terribly fancy in this $1,000 phone, but the addition of Wi-Fi and more memory make it looks like a worthwhile upgrade for Nokia 9000 loyalists. On…

Tech News Joel

VTEC V-MMV

I don’t know if VTEC Europe is the same company as our VTEC—and finding out would edge me perilously close to real journalistic effort—but if they are swinging on the same side they’re a company I really like (it’s their incredibly fun-featured kids toys that does it for me, really). That being said, this V-MMV…

Tech News Joel

Day Jobs and Sticking to Them

So I just wanted to thank everybody who sent in tips about gadgets and software for small business owners. There were some really great ideas in there and I hope to compile a few of the best into an article at some point in the near future. I should let you know, though, that I…

Tech News Joel

Smart Home Hacks: IMterview and Book Excerpt

Gordon Meyer’s new book Smart Home Hacks was recently released and we’ve worked out a great deal with O’Reilly to run a chapter excerpt to let you see what you think. (O’Reilly has a few sample hacks from the book online, as well). I chatted Gordon on IM to talk about the book, home automation,…

Tech News Joel

Japanese Product Design Database

I meant to mention this earlier this week and forgot, but a post on Music Thing just reminded me of it. If you get off on Japanese product design as much as I do, you owe yourself a spin through the “Product Design Database,” a showcase of different consumer products from the ’70s, ’80s and…

Tech News Joel

Own a Sprint Treo 650 Tomorrow

Yo, want a Treo 650 tomorrow morning? Users on Treocentral’s forums are reporting they’ve been able to order PalmOne’s new smartphone from Sprint today with overnight delivery. It’s taking almost everything I have not to put in an order myself, but since I’ll only get a day of use out of it before I skip…

Tech News Joel

Joel

Gizmodo in Japan: Concerning Gadgets

USB Mince Pie

Skulls Trojan for Symbian

ZigaUSA Media Tablet

Dolphin Nets World’s First Artifical Fin

Eliica: 230mph Electric Car

(Almost) Morning Bits

Rumor: T-Mobile and Sprint Launching Ringback Tones

Hitachi’s Tabletop Display

ATRON Shapeshifting Robot

Sprint Treo 650 Reviewed

Motorola A1000 Reviewed

Hotmail Removes Free Outlook Access

Santa Ifigênia, Grey Market of São Paulo

Nokia 9500 Communicator Reviewed

VTEC V-MMV

Day Jobs and Sticking to Them

Smart Home Hacks: IMterview and Book Excerpt

Japanese Product Design Database

Own a Sprint Treo 650 Tomorrow

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Amazon Slashes 50% Off Keurig K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker, Now a Budget Alternative to Breville and Nespresso Espresso Machines

Sun’s Latest Outburst Complicates Planned Launch of Artemis 2

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets