Matt Buchanan, Author at Gizmodo

Acelabs S3 Touchscreen PMP Is Handy

Too bad these babies probably aren’t seeing our shores. Acelabs’ do-it-all S3 “Handy” PMP is leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of the generic PMPs we see coming out of Asia, with a 2.8-inch, 260k color QVGA touchscreen, FM radio and transmitter (for jamming wirelessly in your car), voice recording, image/text viewer and support…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Hint of Coming Xvid and Divx Support Slipped Into PS3 Firmware 2.00?

Kotaku’s editor from down under notes an interesting but totally unannounced feature following the update to the PS3’s freshly baked 2.0 firmware. Previously unsupported file formats (specifically Xvid and Divx) are not only detected by the PS3 now, but it magically has thumbnails and running times for the files. They still won’t play, so it…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Video: New Xbox 360 Ring of Death Is Red AND Green for Holiday Cheer

Unfortunately this isn’t a Merry Christmas loopy-loo light show designed to inspire Yuletide joy. Board speculation stakes it as a new error code for 360s stuffed with Falcon guts—whether it’s the same hardware failure deal as before but in prettier, less depressing colors or is an entirely new error is still up in the air,…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Sprint and Clearwire Nix WiMax Partnership

Given the shaky state of the WiMax unit of Sprint, the termination of its joint agreement with Clearwire to bring WiMax coverage to 100 million people comes as something of a surprise. The WSJ’s reporting that the “complexities of the transaction” and booting of Sprint’s CEO made it too hard for the pair to come…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

AT&T Considering Scary, Content-Recognizing Anti-Piracy Filter for Entire Network

Remember YouTube’s content filtering system? AT&T is mulling setting one up across its whole network. BusinessWeek’s reporting AT&T’s in talks with NBC Universal and Disney to possibly use content-recognition tech developed by Vobile—a company they’ve all invested in—to block pirated material from being sent to and fro along its network. https://gizmodo.com/youtube-antipiracy-video-identification-system-enters-b-311557 The setup would work…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Sub Pop Records Opens Corner MP3 Store

The venerable Sub Pop label, which has put out records for everyone from Nirvana to The Shins, is trying their hand at the online music store game—and they’re doing it mostly right. They have over 200 full-length albums up for sale in 192kbps MP3 for $9.90 a pop—stuff from the aforementioned bands, Hot Hot Heat,…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Wii DVD Playback for Japan Delayed, Nintendo Apologizes Super Deeply

Proving the maxim Japan has it better when it comes to gadgets and games, Nintendo had promised the motherland a version of the Wii with DVD playback by the end of this year. The model has yet to materialize, and Nintendo feels really bad about it. Really. Check out their “we’re sorry”: Although we had…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Video: The AT&T Wiretapping Dealio Explained in Two Minutes

This clip, featuring AT&T whisteblower Mark Klein, was thrown together by Senator Chris Dodd’s staff and neatly wraps up the basics of the snooping allegations the EFF’s pursuing against AT&T. He’s apparently rubbing elbows in DC this week to explain the issue to Congressional types. If his spiel gets at all technical, God help him.…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

AMD Launches FireStream 9170, First Stream Processor With Double-Precision Floating Point Technology

AMD’s launching “the world’s first Stream GPU with double-precision floating point technology,” the FireStream 9170, and the AMD FireStream SDK for Stream processors. Running a cool $2000, the 55nm chip pulls less than 150 watts of juice while pumping out 500 GFLOPS of computing power. Also packed onboard is 2GB of GDDR3 memory, which, combo’d…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Tivo PowerWatch Program Sells Detailed User Info to Advertisers

Tivo’s been selling data about people’s viewing habits—what shows and commercials they watch (or skip), when they pause, fast-forward, rewind and so on—to advertisers for around a year. Now they’re adding personal info to the Chex Mix of ratings data they sell: age, income, marital status and ethnicity. https://gizmodo.com/dvrs-screw-up-nielsen-commercials-now-rated-too-308126 The sample size will be 20,000…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

PS3 Firmware 2.00 Is Live (Right Now)

The sort-of awaited 2.00 firmware update for the PS3, featuring remote start, customizable themes and other fancy newness is now live. If you’d like a video demo (for whatever reason) before clicking update, click here. Or you could just go ahead and download it. [Destructoid] https://gizmodo.com/ps3-firmware-2-00-details-unveiled-coming-in-a-few-day-320027

Tech News Matt Buchanan

HP to Outsource Digital Camera Business

Hewlett-Packard’s shifting the focus of its digital photo business from cameras to home printing and online photo services. Future cameras will still bear the HP branding, but they’ll be designed and manufactured by a licensed third party. The HP-but-not camera deal should be set with the ghost producer halfway into 2008—HP will keep selling their…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Sony Ericsson Upgrading PlayNow to Real Live Music Store With 5 Million Tracks From the Big Four

In addition to the trio of new handsets they intro’d today, Sony Ericsson also announced plans for an upgraded PlayNow music service. Launching this spring, it could feature up to 5 million tracks in “MP3 and Windows Media digital rights management, or DRM-enabled formats” from all of the Big Four, though no track price has…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Sony Pulls Out of 32nm Chip Development

Developing 32nm processors with IBM and Toshiba has proved too rich for Sony’s blood—they’re pulling out of the joint R&D, right on the heels of selling their chip-making business to Toshiba a couple of weeks ago. [Reuters] https://gizmodo.com/sony-profits-thanks-to-weak-yen-and-cameras-no-thanks-315169

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Automatic Dog Washer Looks Like Waterboarding for Pets

I don’t understand a word of the video because I don’t understand the language of surrender, but I don’t need to in order to see that the dogs trapped inside of this $30,000 contraption for the four minutes of washing and drying aren’t exactly experiencing jouissance. They’re dogs, not designer jeans, people. And the guy…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

A List of Features You Want in the iPhone That You Probably Won’t Get

Okay, technically it’s a list of features Gadget Lab’s readers want, but you guys probably want them too, right? Stuff like iChat, cut and paste functions and the ever-craved “media disinterest.” Anything you want that didn’t make the list? Better still if it’s genuinely awesome but less likely to happen than Apple joining the Open…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Video: Homebrew AT-ST Walker Bobbles Around Like the Real Thing

The MiniMechadon walker works pretty much as advertised: It walks, awkwardly and prodding, just like the AT-STs you know and love. Cobbled together from a gumbo of parts, circuit boards and brass tubing, it’s not quite as sparse as its film counterpart, what with the disco feet and all, but that’s kind of why we…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

RFID Guardian Firewalls Your Personal RFID Tags

The RFID Guardian is a personal, battery-powered RFID firewall that manages tags “within physical proximity of a person,” blocking them from answering queries—and possibly getting snooped. Better yet, it can clone your chips so you can switch the signal off and on at your command. The latest version is totally open with a wiki, source…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan

Fake Steve Jobs on Android: “It’s Not a Phone, It’s an Alliance”

Fake Steve’s lengthy stream of bile laying waste to the Google Phone isn’t simply pure invective, it’s actually a mostly well-reasoned indictment of coalitions that trumpets the values of “one vision, one man, one genius.” It’s worth reading in its entirety, but this is our favorite quote: The only companies that join consortia are the…

Tech News Matt Buchanan

FCC Chairman Backs Open Handset Alliance

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is a fan of the Open Handset Alliance—not shocking, considering the open device requirement for the 700MHz spectrum auction and the recent end to exclusive apartment contracts for cable providers. [CNET] https://gizmodo.com/fcc-keeps-open-access-provisions-for-700mhz-auction-de-308923

Tech News Matt Buchanan

Matt Buchanan

Acelabs S3 Touchscreen PMP Is Handy

Hint of Coming Xvid and Divx Support Slipped Into PS3 Firmware 2.00?

Video: New Xbox 360 Ring of Death Is Red AND Green for Holiday Cheer

Sprint and Clearwire Nix WiMax Partnership

AT&T Considering Scary, Content-Recognizing Anti-Piracy Filter for Entire Network

Sub Pop Records Opens Corner MP3 Store

Wii DVD Playback for Japan Delayed, Nintendo Apologizes Super Deeply

Video: The AT&T Wiretapping Dealio Explained in Two Minutes

AMD Launches FireStream 9170, First Stream Processor With Double-Precision Floating Point Technology

Tivo PowerWatch Program Sells Detailed User Info to Advertisers

PS3 Firmware 2.00 Is Live (Right Now)

HP to Outsource Digital Camera Business

Sony Ericsson Upgrading PlayNow to Real Live Music Store With 5 Million Tracks From the Big Four

Sony Pulls Out of 32nm Chip Development

Automatic Dog Washer Looks Like Waterboarding for Pets

A List of Features You Want in the iPhone That You Probably Won’t Get

Video: Homebrew AT-ST Walker Bobbles Around Like the Real Thing

RFID Guardian Firewalls Your Personal RFID Tags

Fake Steve Jobs on Android: “It’s Not a Phone, It’s an Alliance”

FCC Chairman Backs Open Handset Alliance

JBL Authentics 500 Retro-Style Home Speaker Hits 40% Off, Now at Its Lowest Price as Amazon’s Spring Sale Clearance Begins

ExpressVPN Spring Sale Special: Up to 73% Off + Free eSIM and Password Manager

You Too Will Learn to Fear the XenoFrog

Amazon Echo Dot Sees Its Last Price Drop in the Spring Sale, Final Hours Tick Down Ahead of an Uncertain Prime Day

Artemis 2 by the Numbers: Breaking Down NASA’s Big Return to the Moon

Apple Removes iPhone Vibe Coding App from App Store

China’s Biggest Social Media Celebrity Is… Kris Jenner?

Up to $1,550 Off on pCloud: Pay Once, Protect Data Forever for World Backup Day

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

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

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