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LA Times on the history of the remote control, and the massive impact it’s had on society and culture since its invention in 1950: Ever notice, for example, that network series rarely have theme songs like in the old days? Thank the remote. Notice that there are no commercials between the end of one network…
First New York City makes it illegal to smoke in bars. Now it looks like those Segway Human Transporters could be next up for banning, at least from the city’s sidewalks. Gothamist notes that the New York state legislature is thinking about making it legal to ride a Segway on sidewalks in every part of…
A free firmware upgrade from U.S. Robotics for its 802.11b wireless networking gear that will bump up their maximum connection speed to 54mbps, which is just as fast as 802.11a or 802.11g. Read
Bob Atkins over at Photo.net asks a very good question: Do you need good lenses with a digital camera? Turns out that with a digital SLR like Canon’s EOS 10D, it almost certainly does. Read [Via PhotographyBlog]
From Sony, the first multi-format home DVD recorder. The RDR-GX7 burns DVDs in both DVD-RW and DVD+RW, and should be out next month. Read
Well just about a million people wrote in today regarding the unveiling of the Tungsten C, Palm’s long-rumored new handheld which comes with integrated WiFi. The Tungsten C has a 400MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, and a built-in keyboard, and if they can get the price below $400 soon (its $499 now), this could be…
The robotic vacuum cleaners keep coming, the latest is the Roboking from LG Electronics. Unlike the Roomba, the Roboking can automatically figure out the best way to clean a room, and once it s finished, return to its charging station. The next version of the Roboking looks even better: it should be able to connect…
Apart from Vertu, which smartly figured out that the rich will pay $20,000 to have a handset that the rest of us can t own, most recent attempts at mixing fashion and cellphones (like the Xelibri from Siemens) have been laughable. Now a company called Inclosia has figured out a way to use any type…
New wireless handheld computer from NTT DoCoMo. The Sigmarion III runs Windows CE, connects to DoCoMo s high-speed 3G Foma network, and has a 400MHz processor, a 5.0-inch, 800×480 pixel touchscreen, a decently-sized keyboard, and slots for both SD and CompactFlash memory cards. Read
BBC article on Bluetooth, its struggles in the face of WiFi’s popularity, and how next year has got to be, after all this time, the year that Bluetooth takes off. Wasn’t that supposed to be this year? Read
Audi s new smart car is wowing people at the 2003 New York International Automobile Show. The $68,000 A8 L s cruise-control will automatically slow the car down if it comes too close to the car ahead of it; you can preset the temperature of the so that the inside of the car will be…
If you really need to get a lot of opinions before you buy, Mobitopia has rounded up over a dozen reviews of the P800 from Sony Ericsson, the hot phone on the moment. Read Amazon – Sony Ericsson P800
Laptops have been getting both bigger and smaller over the past couple of years. There are tons of people who need to have the smallest and lightest laptop possible, but there’s been this counter-trend of what are being called “desknotes”: larger, heavier laptops that have the power of a desktop but that you’d never actually…
Scottish police a blaming a sizeable increase in the number of threats and extortion cases on text messaging, which apparently makes it all too easy to tap out a menacing missive. Read [Via SmartMobs]
A perennially favorite topic here at Gizmodo, Slashdot is soliciting tips on the best way to build your own TiVo. Of course more than a few Slashdotters felt obligated to point out that it’s much, much easier just to buy one. Read
No sooner have one-megapixel cameraphones appeared in Japan than there’s already talk of two megapixel models. Apparently some camera makers are becoming worried that three megapixel cameraphones, which can’t be more than a year or two away, might start to hurt sales of regular digital cameras. Read
From Denon, the first so-called single disc universal player to drop below a thousand bucks. These universal players can handle just about anything that’s shiny and five inches in diameter, including Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio discs, CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-video discs. Read
New line of home wireless networking gear from Motorola. They’re a little late to the game, but their new SBG1000, which combines a cable modem with a WiFi access point, an Ethernet router, and a printer server, and has a few security features that Motorola claims is lacking from its competitors’ wireless equipment. Read
HP’s new eagerly-awaited iPAQ h2200 Pocket PC is rumored to be coming out by the end of May. The h2200 will have built-in Bluetooth, a 64,000 color screen, CompactFlash and SDIO card slots, and either 64 or 128MB of RAM. Read
Amazon sale on Pacific Digital’s 52x24x52 Internal IDE CD burner. They’re $57.99 after the rebate. Amazon