johnb, Author at Gizmodo

Sapphire HDMI X1600 in the Wild

Just when I got my head around DVI they stick us with an HDMI graphics card. The X1600 has been floating around quite a bit and they’re rarely in stock. It’s a low-profile card so it will fit in a media center, naturally, and its the first card that is fully HDMI/HDCP compliant, which is…

Tech News Johnb

Reader Steve Proposes U-HIP

Sometimes we’re like Simon from Americon Idol, sometimes we’re like that weird lady from I Wish I Was a Millionaire or whatever, and sometimes we’re like the people from American Inventor. Reader Steve noted, quite rightly, that we don’t like UMPCs. He’s proposing a U-HIP, an image of which we see here. We’re not going…

Tech News Johnb

SkypeCast Redux

In an effort to get this SkypeCast thing working correctly before we actually begin bringing live people on—you know, cool people, unlike me just whimpering into a microphone—we’d like to invite you to another attempt at getting this bloody thing to work. Today we’ll be giving out invites as well as a DLO Nanotube courtesy…

Tech News Johnb

AircordAV Wireless 1080p Box

Wireless media streaming has always been a Holy Grail for AV types, and it appears a few folks have gotten pretty close to not choosing poorly. The AircordAV transmits 1080p over 802.11g using a some strange dongles. This looks like vaporware right now—pretty CG-tastic, but it might be worth a look. Or then it might…

Tech News Johnb

Pioneer HTS-GS1 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers for XBox

Pioneer is launching a set of special XBox 360 speakers designed specifically for the console. They come in XBox white and include a heads-up display, remote that controls the speakers and the XBox, and 5.1 surround sound woofers and tweeters. It also has an auto-calibration system for tuning speaker placement and equalizers. The entire set-up…

Tech News Johnb

Chimpy on TV!

Chimpy McChimphead live on Jimmy Kimmel! He’s with some Chimpy handler who might be in the music business, but I’m so excited to see Chimpy getting airplay!

Gadgets Johnb

Pacific Rim Nano Magnesium Shield

The folks at Pacific Rim were quite happy to see us and we’ll be hooking up with them in two weeks to offer a bunch of these in a special magnesium case contest involving the replacement of all of your bones with Adamantium—the first one to survive wins! Anyway, this is a heavy duty metal…

Tech News Johnb

Software Defined Radio: All Your FM Are Belong to Us

The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) project is an open-source software radio system that can grab and decode anything: GPS, FM radio, HDTV, and even the signals sent by garage door openers. Like a radio Lego set, you simply point the software and antenna at a source and it begins grabbing everything within that band.…

Gadgets Johnb

Tuning Fork

The Truth Behind Media Center By Brian L. Clark Each week, I’m “blessed” with numerous research reports, all touting some newly-discovered nugget of information bound to have an impact on the long-term market for hardware or technology services. Generally speaking, these things are nothing more than educated speculation. But every once in a while, one…

Tech News Johnb

Chipper Running on Waste Oil

If Brits can’t get off their duffs to burn off the oil and calories they gain from their chip butties, at least the chipper van can. UK fish and chips joint Sea Cow will be running their van on their own used oil and drive around to multiple music festivals preaching the wonders of biodiesel.…

Gadgets Johnb

Skypecast Time

It’s time for the SkypeCast. Click here to join. First come, first served. If it works out well, or is even remotely fun, we’ll try to do them in some form every week.

Tech News Johnb

Why Vista Will Suck in 20 Bullet Points or Less

I know were getting nasty about Vista—actually, it’s just me, but I speak for the trees, etc.—but this very long article puts that haterage and disappointment into quite a few words. What don’t I like about Vista? Well, it’s just XP with a nicer interface. Microsoft has done this countless times—dumped the same load of…

Tech News Johnb

Seura Televisions in the Wild

We love TV. We love Katie Couric. We love mirrors. How could things get much better than this amazing combo at the Charles hotel? We don’t know. The Charles Hotel is in Harvard Square and apparently installed these special in-mirror televisions for their esteemed guests. This means you can watch Katie while washing, brushing your…

Tech News Johnb

The Room Was Almost Spinning… With Sponsors

Our sponsors have a certain style: Dice, Hersheys, Sony, Mobizzo, Rockstar Games, Slingbox, BMW, Kensington, Evian, Mini, Paypal Mobile, Honda, Pioneer, Intel, SmartHome We looked around to find you but you’re not sponsoring us! https://gizmodo.com/preview/advertising-with-gizmodo-8027

Tech News Johnb

May Swag Watch

In accordance with Geneva Convention By-Laws as pertaining to the Electronic Communications Act of 1997, we are required to reveal what riches us punks got from companies eager to get a good mention on Gizmodo (SAMSUNG RUCSKS!S!!). To that end, we present the following list: JohnB Scottevest T-Shirt Samsung t509 Abacus SPOT watch Charlie Adobe…

Tech News Johnb

ThePirateBay Raided

We don’t usually cover content, but this is a sad bit of news. It seems The Pirate Bay, a popular Torrent site, has been raided by the Swedish police. The police came in, armed with HAPRA pine chairs and POOGLE throw pillows (now in blue, red, and lime green! $5.95 each!), and took down all…

Tech News Johnb

Tuning Fork

Plasma, LCD… LED? By Brian L. Clark I’ve been doing a lot of bitching lately—remember, I bitch because I care—so this week I thought I’d look at something that I’m actually kind of excited about: The use of LEDs as a backlighting source for HDTVs. Samsung introduced what they called the first ever LED light-sourced…

Tech News Johnb

Nano-Electronics Steadies Cameraphones

A company called InvenSense has created a nano-gyroscope system for camera phones. Measuring a mere 3.5 millimeters, the chips filter out motion by sensing vibration mechanically. Whereas newer cameras have little piezo switches to detect motion, this mini-gyroscopes are considerably smaller and more impressive. Expect them to appear later this year. Nanotech Gyroscope Steadies Cameraphones…

Tech News Johnb

A MacBook Can Moo, Can You?

Many MacBook owners have complained of their fans “mooing.” One industrious fellow decided to cut open his MacBook to get to the bottom of this mysterious noise. Like Encyclopedia Brown, he basically discovers the obvious: the mooing is caused by the fans cycling up and down to cool the CPU. Apple MacBook “Moooing” sound identified…

Tech News Johnb

Full Disclosure or Why Gizmodo Is OS-Agnostic

It may seem like we’re a bunch of Apple fanboys and, for the most part, we are. However, in the interest of full disclosure and considering we now get to have by-lines, we’ve decided to expose the innermost secrets of the Gizmodo staff… we present the hardware breakdown part 1. Read on to see what…

Tech News Johnb

johnb

Sapphire HDMI X1600 in the Wild

Reader Steve Proposes U-HIP

SkypeCast Redux

AircordAV Wireless 1080p Box

Pioneer HTS-GS1 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers for XBox

Chimpy on TV!

Pacific Rim Nano Magnesium Shield

Software Defined Radio: All Your FM Are Belong to Us

Tuning Fork

Chipper Running on Waste Oil

Skypecast Time

Why Vista Will Suck in 20 Bullet Points or Less

Seura Televisions in the Wild

The Room Was Almost Spinning… With Sponsors

May Swag Watch

ThePirateBay Raided

Tuning Fork

Nano-Electronics Steadies Cameraphones

A MacBook Can Moo, Can You?

Full Disclosure or Why Gizmodo Is OS-Agnostic

Even the ‘Avatar’ Fighting Game Is Disrespecting ‘Legend of Korra’

Bluesky Has a New App, and It’s All About AI

Dammit, Jim, He’s a Doctor *And* an Action Figure!

Whatever Just Happened with ‘Fruit Love Island,’ Nobody Won

AMC Puts a Stake in ‘Talamasca’ After One Season

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

2027 Is Shaping Up to Be a Great Year for Big Sci-Fi RPGs

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

Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, xAI Has Now Shed All 11 of Its Non-Elon Musk Founders

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

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

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees

Dammit, Jim, He’s a Doctor And an Action Figure!