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MIT’s Exoskeleton is not Just for Lazy Buggers

Although exoskeletons are nothing new &mdash remember the Bleex? &mdash the Biomechatronics Group from MIT’s Media Lab has come up with a smaller, more discrete number. Although it can only carry 80 pounds (compared to the Bleex’s upper limit of 220 pounds), associate professor Hugh Herr hopes that in the future, exoskeletons will be another…

What Features Do You Want in the TV Set of the Future?

Westinghouse, the company whose PR flacks try to make us think their old TVs are new but we’re not fooled, keeps the press releases coming anyway, and in their latest missive they’ve done a poll, asking people what features they’d most like to see in TV sets of the future. The top answer? Voice recognition.…

Intel quad-core 45nm Yorkfield chip to launch at 3GHz with 1333MHz front side bus, to be about 10% faster than predecessor [Bit-Tech]

Beethoven’s Hair Turned Into Diamond for Sale on eBay

Some crazy ghouls have figured out a macabre marketing concept that they hope rich people with more money than brains will snap up, taking 10 strands of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair and somehow turning them into a trio of half-carat fake diamonds. They extracted the carbon from the composer’s hair, exposed it to temperatures approximating…

Linksys RangePlus Extends your Wireless Network Range

Linksys has new home networking gear out today &mdash including the WRT100, a wireless router that uses MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, and comes with Linksys’ Easy Link Advisors, which apparently “takes the consumer on an uncomplicated, illustrated journey toward secure home network setup.” And there’s more than just a router in the RangePlus…

Dymo DiscPainter Is Next Big Thing in Stoner Entertainment

It’s an inkjet printer for discs, not the most novel niche product. But the long overdue $279 Dymo DiscPainter prints everything radially as it spins, and it has a clear hood so you can watch the action. The result is mesmerizing, surely no accident coming from the makers of the oh-so-huffable Sharpie. [Dymo]

Kick-Ass Death Ray on the Way, Uses Antimatter

Those mad scientists are at it again. David Cassidy and Allen Mills, a couple of propellerheads at the University of California, Riverside are using the stuff of science fiction, antimatter, to create gamma ray lasers they say could be a million times more powerful than the lasers we’re using to watch Blu-ray discs. It’s done…

i-Fly Vamp Ornithopter Is Both Goofy and Frightening

I’m not afraid of bats and low-flying birds, but Interactive Toy’s i-Fly Vamp R/C Ornithopter really creeps me out with all its fluttering and swooping. The toy will retail for $40 to $50 when it comes to the US in November, unfortunately just a tad too late for Halloween. –Video by Richard Blakeley [Interactive Toy]

Western Digital Releases New, Slimmer 1TB My Books

Western Digital has released three new versions of their My Books external 1TB hard drives: the Essential 2.0, Office and Home Editions. The Essential 2.0 is the most basic, with just USB 2.0 and no extra features, but with a shiny sexy look for $350. The Office and Home Editions both come at $380 and…

Steve Jobs just got subpoenaed by the SEC on the subject of stock backdating, but it’s not what you might think: according to reports, he’s only there to testify against Apple former general counsel Nancy Heinen, and is not part of an SEC investigation. [Reuters]

iPod touch Passes Gentle Scratch Test

Look out, iPod touch! There comes a scratch test with a safety pin, a car key and then even a razor blade. But this tester doesn’t seem too hell-bent on damaging his precious touch. Would a jackhammer scratch it? How about a blowtorch? We could run over it for you, guy—that might help. But still,…

Nokia MD-6 Looks Like Lipstick, Feels Like Lighter, Reminds Us of Johnny 5

Nokia recently unveiled the MD-6, the latest in a line of designy low-volume speaker systems, which will cost $80 when it soon hits US soil. It’s a fun design, based on the need to conceal 4 AAA batteries plus the two tiny drivers. I liked the look, but even more, I liked the addictive flip-open…

Floating Solar Island Will Produce Energy While Annoying Plankton and Fish

Ras al-Khaimah &mdash one of the United Arab Emirates, not a relative of Batman’s nemesis &mdash is going to install this floating solar island, which will be 0.62 miles in diameter when completed. Due to the lack of space in land, the micro-state contracted the Neuchâtel’s Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology to design it,…

iPod classic Diagnostic Start Up Reveals Very Little

I unbox the iPod classic, power it up, and voila, I get the strange diagnostic startup screens you see before you. It wasn’t nearly as cool looking as the touch’s factory test mode, and it’s probably out of order in the gallery, but I thought maybe sharing it would fuel some conspiracies, or lay others…

Nokia 6301 Allows Seamless Wi-Fi and GSM Calls

Nokia’s latest cell phone, the 6301, has Unlimited Mobile Access (UMA) technology, which means you can make calls over the Internet via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and revert to GSM when out of range. It’s slim, lightweight, has a two-megapixel camera, MP3 player, FM radio, two-inch screen and a desk stand that makes you look important…

Broom Game Controller for Harry Potter Wannabes

I am not sure how you use this broom joystick or what arcade “from Taiwan game manufacturer MEGA NET&TECH” our Japanese Giz colleagues are talking about, but I’m sure of one thing: The audience will be very limited. To play with this thing, either you have to be a hot witch or you will look…

Transformer Dresses Should Be Mandatory for all Hawt Chicks (NSFW)

We’ve featured avant-garde Brit designer Hussein Chalayan before, but this time he’s really outdone himself with Transformer-style clothing. Either it’s magic, or there’s an invisible perv lifting these ladies’ hemlines &mdash in the case of the last girl, he lifts them so high that her dress disappears into her hat and she gives everyone a…

Apple Doubling iPhone Production, Sources Say

Apple could almost double its iPhone production for the fourth quarter, taking it from 1.54 million to 2.7 million. At least according to TheStreet.com, which claims that this year’s production target will be 4.8 million. With one million already sold, this may be related to the recent price drop and the new European launches. It’s…

Sidekick Getting MySpace App

You whippersnappers won’t have to wait for the Sidekick 4 to get a Hiptop upgrade: Sidekicks are all getting a MySpace app. The app lets you edit your profile, upload photos to their galleries and receive messages and friend requests by push. Why’d they do this? Apparently, 80% of all Sidekick browser clicks belong to…

Mossberg Reviews the iPod touch

Mossy reviews the touch, and finds that the battery life was only 4 hours while playing video, short of our own touch experience that lasted over 6 hours. The money quote is when he calls Apple out for removing features and apps that the iPhone has, unnecessarily: https://gizmodo.com/apple-ipod-touch-review-verdict-good-in-the-face-of-g-300127 …it seems ridiculous to me to sell…