Wilson Rothman

Esquire Mag’s Penthouse Bitforms Drone Sculpture

In case you happened to notice that freaky looking thing hanging from the ceiling of the $8.5 million tech pad, it’s an artwork called Drone #4 (2006) by Björn Schülke, from the Bitforms Gallery. After you watch our video, by Nick McGlynn, check out the artist’s other interactive sculptures—I’m not sure if Björn’s target customer…

New Toshiba HD DVD Recorders Also Write HD to Regular DVDs

Panasonic isn’t the only one showing off high-def recording at CEATEC. Toshiba announced three new HD DVD recorders, including the new flagship Vardia RD-X7. All of them can convert MPEG-2 to AVCHD MPEG-4 on the fly, and can store high-def video on DVD-R (2 hrs) and single-layer HD DVD-R (6 hrs) discs. Pricing and availability…

US 3G Costs Nokia N95 a Mere Hour of Battery Life

When you go from the old Nokia N95 to the new US-spec 3G HSDPA version, you lose about an hour of browsing life. That’s due to the larger battery, and the folks at WirelessInfo.com were actually expecting even more of a drain, so this is good news. More: The N95-3 has a 1200mAh battery, which…

An Australian bank is using the price of 4GB iPod nanos in 55 countries as an economic indicator. In Brazil, it costs $369.61; in France it costs $225.82, and in the US it costs $149. Supposedly this shows a weak US dollar; all I see is that Brazilians are getting the shaft. [Reuters]

Hacoa Keyboard Is Wood of Your Own Making

As Giz readers know, a Japanese lacquerware company currently builds $435 wooden computer keyboards, ones that Jesus compared to the unit of the mighty Gandalf himself. Demand, as you might imagine, now exceeds supply. So now manufacturer Hacoa is introducing a do-it-yourself alternative called Ki-Board DIY Kit. https://gizmodo.com/wood-keyboard-and-usb-gadgets-give-gizmodo-writer-excus-267095 The product name is actually a play…

$8.5 Million NYC Esquire North Penthouse Is A Decadent Tech Wonderland (Giant Gallery)

Click to viewWe just visited this ridiculously expensive penthouse at the top of New York’s Central Park, looking down on pretty much everything. Intel decked it out with some serious computing horsepower, and the result has us buzzing. (It’s either the computers or the Lex Luthor-like putting green.) That’s right, if you had $8.5 million,…

Sonos ZoneBridge Would Complete Wireless Network

Today, the FCC leaked some info about the Sonos ZoneBridge, a wireless device with little or no practical details. But people familiar with the system understand that such a product could fill two specific needs: • Since Sonos requires one hard Ethernet connection to a router, the current system requires you to use up one…

Toshiba to Sell Big OLEDs in 2009?

The news is that Toshiba plans to bring an OLED TV to market by 2009. IDG reported it, but the story got better when the Register repeated it, adding that the OLEDs would have 30″ panels. These would be larger than Sony’s white hot 11-incher; larger than the 21″ OLED TVs that Toshiba and Mitsubishi…

AIM 6.5, out today, includes the AIM Tunes plug-in: you’ll be able to listen to any music your online buddies put into playlists, provided of course that the tracks are not locked by DRM. Net radio, we hardly knew ye. [AIM]

Verizon’s LG VX10000 Voyager Revealed and Groped (with Gallery)

Click to viewThough images have leaked here and there, not much was known about the LG VX10000 from Verizon Wireless. Sure, when open, it looks like the QWERTY-obsessed LG enV, but when closed, it’s got way more of a Prada—or dare I say iPhone?—vibe. More details and full gallery after the jump. https://gizmodo.com/first-lg-vx10000-shot-shows-new-env-295702 I’m excited…

Hands On with Verizon’s Cute Lil Samsung Juke

A little larger than a stick of gum, the swivel-flip action Samsung Juke is perhaps the funnest music phone Verizon Wireless has yet ordered up. The $99 phone comes in metallic navy, teal and red. Since it’s 1XRTT only, not 3G EV-DO, it was designed to be all about sideloading your own tunes, rather than…

Hands On with Verizon’s RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130

Verizon Wireless showed me its eagerly anticipated CDMA Pearl today, and the carrier isn’t going heavy handed on this one. Rather than try to VZW the hell out of it, the only software that Verizon will pre-load is VZ Navigator, making use of the 8130’s built-in GPS. Otherwise, as you can see in the gallery,…

Hands On with Verizon’s Janus-Faced LG VX8800 Venus (with Gallery)

You knew there would be a successor to the LG Chocolate by Verizon Wireless (besides Chocolate 2), and Venus was her name. But does she got it? https://gizmodo.com/verizon-wireless-launches-an-all-new-chocolate-by-lg-275141 The Venus is LG’s answer to that slender hot-selling mobile device, the iPhone Nintendo DS. Yep, it’s got a straight-up LCD on top and a smaller touchscreen…

The pink and blue wireless Xbox controllers you may have seen around the ‘net are now on sale, for $49.99, complementing the “chill” and black controllers, not to mention all of the crazy special-edition ones. Something tells me pink ain’t gonna satisfy a true Halo 3 chick like her, though. [Xbox] https://gizmodo.com/master-chief-is-really-a-lesbian-marries-samus-nsfw-303412

Home Theater Mag Calls Pioneer Elite Kuro 110-FD Plasma “Greatest Flat Panel Ever”

Home Theater Magazine‘s Geoff Morrison is calling the Pioneer Elite Kuro 110-FD plasma TV the “greatest flat panel ever.” Here are the highlights: • Black level is “lower than any other flat panel we’ve ever measured.” • “Full-on/full-off contrast ratio…is nearly double that of the next best flat panel.” • Watching Pirates of the Caribbean,…

V-Moda Vibe Duo iPhone Headset Gets a Call Button

V-Moda’s Vibe Duos have been out since July, but even though they had an iPhone-friendly 3.5mm jack and an inline microphone, buyers complained about the lack of a “clicker,” a button to take calls without touching the iPhone. Well, whine and ye shall receive: the new V-Moda Vibe Duo has it, and at no extra…

Anti-Spam Turing Test Is Really Global Human-Powered OCR System

You know the test you have to take on Digg or Facebook, the one that proves you’re a human? You see a hard-to-read word or string of gibberish, and you type in the correct characters. Carnegie Mellon researchers decided to replace randomly generated words with actual words from ancient manuscripts, words that machines are having…

Attention shoppers: Toshiba just announced refreshed specs on four of its Satellite lines, including A205, U305, M205 and P205, along with Qosmio F45. Most are feature bumps like faster processors and bigger hard drives, but the A205 is the first 15.4″ to get an HD DVD-ROM drive. [Toshiba]

RIM Reveals Rumored CDMA BlackBerry Pearl 8130

RIM finally announced the long-rumored CDMA EV-DO-happy BlackBerry Pearl 8130. Details include: • A 3.38-oz body that’s just .55″ thick • 2-megapixel camera with “enhanced flash” • Built-in GPS with BlackBerry Maps and local search • Bluetooth stereo profile a 3.5mm for standard earphones • External microSD/SDHC memory card slot • Sideload music and video…

Digital Card Calculator Spycam Is Sneaky Circa 1985

You’re in a hotel lobby when your mark walks in. You pull out the Digital Card Calculator Camera and pretend to casually crunch sums, while in reality you are snapping Top Secret Digital Photographs. Your target would only know you’re a spy if he/she spots the enormous VGA lens and bezel right next to the…