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April 5th 2004

Mobile Soaps Offer Suffering, Buffering

If watching one-minute clips of melodramatic pap via your phone sounds appealing, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has something for you: Hotel Franklin, the world’s first made-for-mobiles soap opera. We have the sneaking suspicion that this will go the way of some of those first web-only soap operas, which had a difficult time staying afloat even…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

The French Connector

It’s loud, obnoxious, and it’s up for charity auction: the Eurotunnel TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) can be had for the low, low price of 1.85 million dollars, assuming the eBay auction doesn’t go higher. Used in the tremendous underground cross-Channel ‘Chunnel’ project that connected England to France, the 580-tonne (the extra ‘ne’ is for ‘naturally,…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

GPS Mountain Lion Tracking

Scientists have used GPS collars to track the behavior and movements of California’s mountain lions to determine just how closely to human-populated areas they wander. Mountain lions have become a hot topic in California after a cyclist was killed in January of this year. Fortunately, the study has shown that not only do mountain lions…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Leather Daddy Mini-PC

While we’re all for attractive PC cases, this leather model from Freetech seems a little over-the-top. Perhaps if it used a darker leather, like the fine Corinthian we’ve wrapped around our dishwasher and toothbrush. Available in both brown and black, this is—as far as we can determine—a Japanese only release. Read

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Sony CLI PEG-TJ37, In Light Syrup

PC Magazine reviews the Sony CLI PEG-TJ37, a can of mixed fruit without any cherries: it’s as tasty as advertised, but the problematic WiFi issues and lackluster screen make this $300 PDA heavy on the pears. Read [Amazon] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=gizmodo08c-20

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Sony to Extend VAIO Brand

Sony is looking to push their VAIO brand further into the consumer market, adding mobile devices and home entertainment products to their (currently PC-only) brand. Although they haven’t stated what exactly those products will be, there is mention of ‘portable media players’ and ‘home servers.’ Sony’s lumbering giant marketing strategy could use some new direction;…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Logitech Dual (Sucking) Action

Designtechnica has a review of the Logitech Dual Action Controller, but let me save you the click: “…there is absolutely no reason why you should purchase this product.” Although gamepads abound these days on the PC, with both PC-only and console controller converters easy to get, there still is a lack of a solid, go-to…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Old School Sony Walkmans (Walkmen?)

I may be showing my cards a bit to say that one of my favorite sites is PocketCalculatorShow.com, but when someone pointed out their retrospective on the Sony Walkman, I felt duty-bound to share it. I had a couple of Walkmans, but by my time they’d already mostly passed onto their black, rounded-corner plastic phase,…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Bay Area Cool Prodocuts Expo 2004

Jeremy Porter, founder of the 2nd Annual Cool Products Expo (CPE), asked us to invite any Bay Area gadgethead (we’ve got to get some better terms here) interested in checking out some gadgetry to Stanford’s Arrillaga Alumni Center on April 7th (Wednesday). The CPE is a smaller exhibition than some of the bigger commercial ones,…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

JoS MP-300, Like A Mini iPod, Not an iPod mini

The JoS (Jens of Sweden) MP-300 is yet another flash player, but this one stands apart by the sheer number of features, not to mention its ‘baby iPod’ looks. Not only does the MP-300 have a built-in FM receiver, but also manages to cram an FM transmitter inside, while still pulling off 26 hours of…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 5 '04

Playfair Frees iTMS Songs From DRM

Although it’s only for Unix machines at the moment, ‘Playfair’ is a scripted library that strips Apple iTunes Music Store’s DRM ‘Fairplay’ from purchased AAC audio files, allowing you to copy tracks as many times as you want. Playfair is based on a previous M4P to MP4 converter for Windows called, inventively, ‘m4p2mp4.’ [Via, BoingBoing]…

Tech News Joel Apr 5 '04

Sponsor Attack!

Thanks to this week’s fantastic sponsors; we were deep in VC territory, and these guys gave me their last smokes. If you’d like to advertise with us, too, it can be arranged. This week’s sponsors include: • Roku “The world’s coolest music player.” • Mirra Personal Server “Hands-free continuous backup”

Tech News Joel Apr 5 '04

April 2nd 2004

Gaming Laptops Taking Hold

The Times has a story about the influx of laptops in the LAN gaming scene, including some quotes from teenagers who have worked summer jobs washing dishes or running paper routes to pay for theirs, introducing them to both the pain of real work and the ultimate emptiness of recreational activity. Read [via /.]

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

Vibrating Condom Video Shocker

This story just gets hotter! Tumescent reader Bryan “Gang Bang” Chang sends up this very serious Taiwanese news report about the Vibro-Jimmy which somehow involves none-other-than Latin pop sensation Ricky Martin. Has Martin endorsed the product? Is he using his international acclaim to broker negotiations between the conflicting Taiwanese and Japanese condom technologists? Why is…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

Fashion Dame’s Uggo Phone

UK fashion maven Vivienne Westwood (I absolutely adored Command & Conquer, Viv!) has a custom version of the Motorola V600 outfitted in her own (design assistant’s) cheeky style. Pick up one of the 99 limited-editions in Westwood’s Italian or UKian retail stores for about $550. Read

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

Microsoft’s ‘Janus’ Lets Subscription Music Go Portable

Microsoft is quietly developing technology that would allow music downloaded from subscription-based services to be transfered to portable players. Called ‘Janus,’ it’s essentially a secure clock that would be built into compliant devices, disabling the music after the subscription time runs out. The inability to transfer music to portable players has been the greatest weakness…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

I Think These Were In ‘Dune’

Hard hitting newswire Ananova teases us again with a story about a Taiwanese vibrating condom with absolutely no pictures. Apparently, it’s proving quite popular at an inventor’s trade fair in Geneva, which is also showcasing the tactfully named ‘Crazy Assistant,’ a device that “helps disabled people put on underpants, socks and stockings.” Read Update! Turgid…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

NEC’s 30 Second Recharge Battery

It’s skimpy on details, but this wire story on Forbes mentions NEC’s new battery development, called ‘organic radical,’ (original name: healthin’ tubular) that can be recharged in 30 seconds. They don’t know when they will commercialize the battery, which means it’s either expensive as all holy hell or a ‘lab success.’ Still, yes, make this…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

Cinema Disk: Watch TV Anywhere There Is a TV

The Cinema Disk is a clunky looking portable hard drive with an S-Video out and no color screen, making it supremely useful for at least six or seven people. It might be the only portable media player in existence with a built-in fan, although I can forgive them for that if only because their company…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

TDS Recon Rough and Ready Pocket PC

The TDS Recon is a ruggedized Pocket PC that can withstand drops, extreme temperature change, high altitude (outside of a plane, even), and immersion in water. Trusted Reviews smacked one of the rubber-clad PDAs around but couldn’t get the little bastard to die, even after dropping it and dunking it in a sink of dishwater…

Tech News JOEL JOHNSON Apr 2 '04

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