Latest

Panasonic Drops Sleeker DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Blu-ray Decks

We just saw the DMP-BD50 a few months back, but now at IFA Panasonic has made official two new BD-Live 2.0-compatible players, the BD35 and BD55. The only discernible difference between the two, at the moment, is the BD55 supports analog 7.1 channel audio output. On top of that, they both share a slimmed-down chassis…

Tech News John Mahoney Aug 28 '08

Sony ZX1 9.9mm-Thick TV Gives Me a Large Hadron Collider Right in My Pants

I just had a hands-on and ears-on and pants-in with the Sony KDL-40ZX1, which I declare as the first official superdupercool product to come out at IFA 2008. The 9.9mm screen picture quality is really amazing, crisp, and ultra-light. The design, while it’s not OLED thin, is the best I’ve seen on any TV so…

Television Jesus Diaz Aug 28 '08

Toshiba’s Regza ZF HDTVs Do Their Own Cell-Processor Upscaling

Toshiba’s new Regza ZF HDTVs don’t upscale your DVDs to HD resolution with any old chipset or engine: they do it with a Cell-processor based system. Bonkers! It’s the first TV to upscale with a Cell, and according to its European executive vice president, Toshiba’s future “does not involve Blu-ray disc” but will use this…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Aug 28 '08

Sony’s Thinnest Walkman Player Ever Has Active Noise Cancellation, Song Suggestion Software

Sony’s S-series Walkman is their new high-end digital audio player that is not only their slimmest player to date, but has active noise cancellation and the SensMe music suggestion engine. Sony bundled 13.5mm EX headphones with the S-series players, as well as a pass through cable that connects to an in-flight entertainment system and uses…

Tech News Adrian Covert Aug 28 '08

Sony’s Cybershot T500 Digital Camera Shoots HD Video Too

As we saw in the Sony IFA 2008 Liveblog, these new Sony Cybershot digital 10.1 megapixel cameras also shoot HD video (720p, though that’s not mentioned in the press release.) The T500 has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 5x optical zoom, 3.5-inch touchscreen, eight-person face tracking, and something called “Double Anti-blur” technology which combines…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Aug 28 '08

Live from the Sony Press Conference at IFA

Hookai. I’m lining up to get into Sony’s press conference. They have some things under wraps, including a mega-TV with super-smooth video action and what could be some Walkmen. Hmmm, I love the smell of new plastic in the morning. More info and photos following up shortly. Keep watching this space. We are in, first…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Aug 28 '08

World’s Smallest Blood Glucose Meter Gets FDA Approved: True2Go

Testing your blood glucose levels if you’re a diabetes sufferer may not mean hauling around largeish devices now that the True2Go from Home Diagnostics has won FDA approval. It’s the world’s smallest, “about the size of a quarter”… it’s just about the same size as an iPod shuffle. It’s small enough to twist “on to…

Health Kit Eaton Aug 28 '08

Philips Makes Pronto Home Control Mega-Remote More Mega: TSU9800

It’s been a long while since we mentioned Philips range of Pronto home-control remote systems, but Philips hasn’t forgotten them: it’s been making the mega-remotes even more mega with the upcoming TSU9800. With a bigger touchscreen (6.4-inches, folks), and an dock that also does ambient lighting, it can also be mounted on the wall of…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Aug 28 '08

Sony Shows Bravia TVs with 1,000,000:1 Contrast, Due in October

As well as crazy thinness, Sony’s other upcoming TV releases include crazy contrast: one million to one. The XR1 series of Bravia’s will be 1920 x 1080 pixel full-HD models, featuring tri-color RGB LED backlighting for an improved color gamut, and dynamic switching backlighting tech to generate that enormous contrast ratio (it’s about 3,000:1 in…

Gadgets Kit Eaton Aug 28 '08

Logitech Squeezebox Boom: A Squeezebox Streamer Attached to Quality Speakers

Like a regular Squeezebox, the Squeezebox Boom streams music from a PC or internet radio station over 802.11g. Unlike the classic, it has a pair of 3/4-inch soft dome tweeters and 30inch woofers biamped with 30 watts of juice. FREMONT, Calif. – Aug. 28, 2008 – Today, Logitech (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) unveiled the Logitech®…

Tech News Brian Lam Aug 28 '08

Sony’s KDL-40ZX1, a 40-inch LCD HDTV Only 9.9mm Thin

Sony Japan’s ZX1 series 40-inch display is only 9.9mm thick at its narrowest, and 26 pounds. The display itself has only 1 HDMI port, while a wireless box can send the 120Hz, 1080p display up to 1080i images over a 5GHz channel many suspect is WHDM. That external port box will have 3 HDMI, 2…

Tech News Brian Lam Aug 28 '08

City-In-a-Pyramid Could House a Million Dubaians, Power Itself

A particularly optimistic design firm in Dubai called Timelinks has proposed designs for the Ziggurat, a complete city to be layered inside of a massive pyramid that could serve as home for a million people at a time. Timelinks is currently seeking patents for a variety of technologies that would make such a building possible,…

Tech News John Herrman Aug 27 '08

Cyber-Jekyll the Pickup Artist Wows a Stripper with His Cape

This extremely obscure straight-to-DVD flick called Jekyll has three things going for it: Jekyll is played by the Middleman (yay!); it shares the same name as a really awesome BBC miniseries called Jekyll; and it has an egregiously silly cyber-themed “transformation” scene when geeky Jekyll becomes a gothy, Abraham-Lincoln-style Hyde in a cape. With black…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 27 '08

TouchKit Brings Surface-Like Multitouch to the Nerdy Masses

Touchkit, an open source (software and hardware) multitouch kit designed by NOR_/D, has been announced at a $1580 price point, or roughly 1/8th the cost of Microsoft’s Surface table. That’s not to say that the TouchKit is equivalent or even necessarily a competitor to Microsoft’s offering, but it is theoretically capable of many of the…

Tech News John Herrman Aug 27 '08

Villain Cage Match Day 3: Clash Of The World-Breakers!

Some of the universe’s mightiest villains have already perished in our blistering week of cage matches. But the nigh-omnipotent Q and the world-eating Galactus still remain, and the bloodiest, most brutal contests of evil are still ahead. It’s villain against villain, for the ultimate crown of evil. Ultron, we would talk trash with thee!Wow, so…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 27 '08

Tatung Prototype the Nicest VOIP Phone I’ve Seen Yet

The difference between what I would like to look at and what I would like to use makes for a a gap wider than the Grand Canyon, in this case. One button, no tactile feedback and no screen make this VOIP phone prototype little more than an electronic lollipop. But my desire to lick one…

Tech News Brian Lam Aug 27 '08

A Message From Russia: Turtles Are Reluctantly USB Compatible

In what is apparently an advertisement for a Russian mobile internet provider, a creative young HSDPA fan experiments with his modem in ways some might frown upon. The ad doesn’t follow the viral convention of surprising viewers with an unlikely result following from normal circumstances, because the setup – a violent turtle rape – is…

Tech News John Herrman Aug 27 '08

OMG Cute Nanobots On The Middleman!

Monday’s new Middleman may have been the best so far, despite a shocking paucity of Lacey. (With like 1000 Doctor Who references!) Which makes it all the sadder that sources are reporting the show is destined for an “indefinite hiatus.” Phooey. Here’s our belated review of episode 11. Spoilers! OMG spoilers!I actually just got done…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 27 '08

Review Addendum: Using Amazon Kindle on Vacation

Although Wilson tested the Kindle in bed, on the toilet, I had the chance to use it on vacation and found myself reading a great deal more than I usually do. Unlike regular books, which cause me to fall asleep pretty readily after less than 50 pages, I’d finish about 300 pages in a stretch,…

Reviews Brian Lam Aug 27 '08

In Recent Scifi, Intelligent Design Is Truth

Click to view A new crop of science fiction novels focus on what it would mean if Intelligent Design turned out to be the truth. Jay Lake’s Escapement is a perfect example, as is Walter Jon Williams’ Implied Spaces — both are novels about people in clockwork worlds designed by some kind of higher power…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 27 '08

Panasonic Drops Sleeker DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Blu-ray Decks

Sony ZX1 9.9mm-Thick TV Gives Me a Large Hadron Collider Right in My Pants

Toshiba’s Regza ZF HDTVs Do Their Own Cell-Processor Upscaling

Sony’s Thinnest Walkman Player Ever Has Active Noise Cancellation, Song Suggestion Software

Sony’s Cybershot T500 Digital Camera Shoots HD Video Too

Live from the Sony Press Conference at IFA

World’s Smallest Blood Glucose Meter Gets FDA Approved: True2Go

Philips Makes Pronto Home Control Mega-Remote More Mega: TSU9800

Sony Shows Bravia TVs with 1,000,000:1 Contrast, Due in October

Logitech Squeezebox Boom: A Squeezebox Streamer Attached to Quality Speakers

Sony’s KDL-40ZX1, a 40-inch LCD HDTV Only 9.9mm Thin

City-In-a-Pyramid Could House a Million Dubaians, Power Itself

Cyber-Jekyll the Pickup Artist Wows a Stripper with His Cape

TouchKit Brings Surface-Like Multitouch to the Nerdy Masses

Villain Cage Match Day 3: Clash Of The World-Breakers!

Tatung Prototype the Nicest VOIP Phone I’ve Seen Yet

A Message From Russia: Turtles Are Reluctantly USB Compatible

OMG Cute Nanobots On The Middleman!

Review Addendum: Using Amazon Kindle on Vacation

In Recent Scifi, Intelligent Design Is Truth

Latest news

‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games

‘They’ve Had Their Fair Share of Issues’: Uber Wants to Avoid Tech Backlash While Building Its Giant Robotaxi Fleet

Vets Traced a Lemur’s Fatal Herpes Infection Back to a Yoga Class

Dale Dickey on How She Got Through Rosemary’s Big ‘Widow’s Bay’ Scene

The Historic Danube River Drought Is Getting Weird

PIA VPN Summer Sale: $2.19/Month, $254 Off the 2-Year Plan

Google DeepMind Boss Demis Hassabis Steps Down From CEO Role

Archaeologists Thought This Was a Roman Temple. It Might Actually Be a 1,700-Year-Old Library

Latest Reviews

Back to School: The 8 Best Smart Home Devices for Your Dorm Room

You Don’t Want Smart Glasses That Record Everything You Say—Trust Me

SwitchBot Kata Friends AI Pet Review: Useless if You Don’t Pay Up

Insta360 Luna Ultra Review: This Is the Only Gimbal Camera You Need

The Best Gadgets of July 2026

Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC Review: A Huge Boost From Bose

Framework Laptop 13 Pro Review: The Best Modular Laptop Ever Made

Oura Ring 5 Review: The Best Smart Ring Right Now, and It’s Not Close

Let us help you find what you’re looking for...