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First Look at The Sharper Image’s New Direction: Cheap iPod Docks

We reported last month that The Sharper Image would be rebranding itself as a gadget maker here at CES, and now we have our first hands-on with their cheap iPod docks. Welcome to the future! https://gizmodo.com/sharper-image-to-relaunch-at-ces-2009-5108452 Yes, now instead of a store in the mall to buy your stepdad a spatula mixed with a thermometer,…

I would urge interested readers to hunt down Robert Silverberg’s beautifully written short story “Lion Time in Timbuctoo”. It has a 20th Century CE dominated by Muslim Turks, Africans, Incas, Aztecs, and various Asian powers due to the Black Plague killing three-quarters of the European population rather than the 1/4 or 1/3 that died in…

Chart Reveals Future of the Air Force Lies in the Blogosphere

As part of a new campaign to interact with bloggers, the Air Force has issued this complicated flow-chart to teach officers how to comment on blog posts. Wired’s Noah Shachtman has a great post on this over at Danger Room, explaining how it fits into the Air Force’s broader strategy to engage with people online…

Pandora iPhone App Hits 2.0, Gets Even Snazzier

Pandora’s personalized internet radio player is one of our favorite iPhone apps-and tonight it got better, adding a snazzy Coverflow-like song history, bookmark previewing, in-line artist bios and a playback progress bar (finally). https://gizmodo.com/gizmodos-20-essential-iphone-apps-5084887 You can also take your track-based stations (previously only generated via artist and e-mail them to friends, just like the artist…

Eee Keyboard: An Entire Touchscreen Home Theater PC

We spotted some Asus keyboards last week, but none were nearly as potentially awesome as the official Eee Keyboard. Featuring wireless HDMI, it’s a “fully functional PC” with full QWERTY and a mini secondary touchscreen. Asus was vague as to if/when we’ll actually see the Eee Keyboard come to market (though we’re pretty sure it’s…

Build Your Own Giant Atari Joystick Lamp

Who hasn’t dreamed about owning a giant Atari joystick lamp? Seriously, its right up there with winning the lottery. The good news is that you can make it happen with a little hard work. This DIY project seems a bit time consuming—so you really have to want it. However, the man behind it was able…

Fastmac’s Mac-Specific Blu-ray External Drive Is Slim and $99

The boys at Crunchgear spotted an intriguing portable Mac-intended “Blu-ray SuperDrive” from Fastmac-and while it’s not swathed in unibody aluminum, it looks like a pretty good get for $99. Updated: It’ll also write DVDs (at 8x)-no BD writing though. Crunch says it requires an external power brick, which kind of nullifies the “portable” aspect. Still,…

You’ve Got Mail From Half-Digested Children

Poor little kiddies have been gobbled up by artist Alex Pardee’s nightmarish monsters, and will be in an adorably gruesome and intricate art show this week. Check out our haunting gallery. We got a special sneak peek at Chadam artist Alex Pardee’s latest show, “Letters From Digested Children.” Its creepy brilliance all hinges on the…

WowWee Spyball Looks Like Death Star Torture Ball, But Transforms and Shoots Upskirt Pics

Like the Rovio, WowWee’s Spyball is a Wi-Fi-enabled spycam robot. But it transforms from sorta conspicuous ball to spycam for surreptitious shots. You can connect ad-hoc via Wi-Fi or over the internet. https://gizmodo.com/wowwee-rovio-everything-the-aibo-should-be-341107 The Spyball™ spy-cam is a remote controlled, Wi-Fi enabled, transforming robotic ball that introduces an element of play to telepresence functionality. Affordable,…

WowWee Cinemin Pico Projectors Are Tiny and Cheap

WowWee’s Cinemin pico projectors fit any situation you’d be pico projecting in. The Swivel is a candybar that angles 90 degrees; the Stick’s tinier and takes SD cards, and the Station’s an iPod dock station. They’re also legitimately attractive pieces of hardware, rare for kit that’s supposed to be “affordable.” And, wait, WowWee makes stuff…

WowWee Joebot Has Joementum, But Roborover Is a Late Bloomer

WowWee actually imbues its new robots with some personality: Joebot is dancing rhythm robot that responds to beats (he beatboxes!), while the Roborover explorer starts out shy and gets bolder over time. Cute. HONG KONG – January 6, 2009 – WowWee, an Optimal Group company (NASDAQ:OPMR), announced its newest line of innovations scheduled for release…

Asus T91: Your 1-inch Thick Convertible Eee PC

The Asus T91 is an intriguing netbook from Asus. Just 2lbs in weight, it features an 8.9″ convertible touchscreen display and Atom processor. Pricing/availability are yet unannounced.

She Won’t Date You Because She’s Monogamous with Her Pink Spider Robot

The only come-hither looks this lady has are reserved for her spider robot, who is her lover and life companion. Who wouldn’t want to marry a pink spider bot, anyway? Aimé Jalon is a concept designer based in France who has worked on several videogames, and also does a lot of concept art in his…

Our Galaxy’s Core Is Seething with Stars

When you imagine the center of our galaxy, you think of a howling void (with that famous super-massive black hole at its center.) But this picture, the sharpest yet, shows a center teeming with stars. The key to obtaining such a sharp image was combining the Hubble Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer…

Apple Keynote Beer Goggles to Become Obligatory in 2009

This one slipped even below Jim Goldman’s rumor radar: The Apple Keynote Beer Goggles. Judging from today’s snoringfest, I won’t be surprised if they make them obligatory for every event in 2009. https://gizmodo.com/rumor-smash-no-zune-phone-at-ces-5107042 Many people are bashing the Philnote because it was a bore and there were no new new NEW toys. In reality, the…

Asus S121 Netbook Packs a 512GB SSD (Optional)

According to Asus, their S121 12-inch netbook we saw last week features a 512GB SSD and 8 hours of battery life. https://gizmodo.com/spied-asus-s121-joins-the-12-inch-netbook-crowd-5119825 The 512GB option is predictably priced at “quite a bit,” but no specific numbers were given. The system will be available later this month.

Did You Enjoy The Keynote Any Less Without Steve Jobs?

Aside from the actual speculated products, the big news surrounding the Apple Macworld keynote was that Steve Jobs would be out sick. But as I refreshed the Gizmodo liveblog, I wondered, did it matter? I’m a sucker for any Apple keynote, whether I’m in the stands with the press or F5’ing away at my browser…

Watch the Entire Macworld 2009 Event

Our liveblog is good, but nothing beats seeing the last Macworld keynote with your own eyes. Fortunately, Apple has posted the entire event online in QuickTime. [Apple] https://gizmodo.com/macworld-2009-keynote-liveblog-archive-5123052

Is Short Science Fiction Moving To Original Anthologies?

Are magazines no longer going to be the source of the best short science fiction? Maybe. Two pieces of news make me wonder. First of all, Gardner Dozois just announced the table of contents of the next Year’s Best SF anthology, and it seems to include a lot of stuff from original anthologies like Eclipse…

Phobos High Performance Gaming PC Comes With Concierge Service

We were intrigued by the teaser shot of BFG’s Phobos gaming rig and its touchscreen interface—but now the details have revealed a lot more to be excited about. https://gizmodo.com/bfg-techs-case-mounted-touchscreen-offers-control-over-5113597 First off, the specs are what you might expect: 3.2GHz Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processors, two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 graphics cards, PhysX, 6GB…