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What’s the biggest difference between Microsoft’s newest mobile operating system and the Google version that it will be competing against (eventually)? Microsoft will charge carriers for its OS, while Google is giving Android away for free. (The other big competitors, Apple and RIM, don’t license their operating systems to third parties.) That’s just silly. Microsoft…
And you thought taking your shoes off was annoying! In the TSA’s never-ending quest to make traveling possibly safer and definitely more annoying, they’re going to start randomly swabbing passengers’ hands at airport checkpoints. Really, this makes a hell of a lot more sense than the shoe-checking and liquid-limiting that makes traveling such a pain…
Just a bit of hardware erotica on the Flip MinoHD: the red circle is the lens, which is being pulled off the CMOS chip (directly below). The 720P chip leaves individual pixels just 2.2 microns to capture their snippets. And here’s another neat shot—the Flip MinoHD’s lens (top) next to a iPod nano 5th Generation…
With the era of the tablet upon us, eBook readers were the gadget du jour in a technological moment that is about to pass, if it hasn’t already. But your kids don’t know that, now do they? The VTech FLiP, an eBook Reader geared towards preschoolers, is definitely a worthy gadget for a budding bookworm…
Despite the apologies and quick-fixes, Google still has a lot of explaining to do about Buzz. And if the FTC decides to hear the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s complaint, we’d get some answers right quick. https://gizmodo.com/google-admits-buzz-testing-sucked-and-they-are-very-v-5473660 EPIC’s 16-page complaint, filed yesterday, cites a dissatisfaction with the measures Google has taken so far to shore up…
I bet the Walkman would have trended, if Twitter was around then. I bet even Betamax would have burbled to the surface. Hell, I bet the first Walkman phone would have trended, back in 2005. So just do… anything. [SonyEricssonNA]
There’s a new power couple in town—Fatman’s Wi-Tube and FatDock. The Wi-Tube valve amplifier can stream music wirelessly from a docked iPod or by the multitude of outputs the FatDock also offers. If you happen to invite a non-Apple-eating friend over for a long night in listening to Roxette’s back catalog, you can connect a…
More vintage Japanese exhibition posters from 1920-1940 can be found here. They’re most definitely a slice of space and time. [PinkTentacle via Core77]
Maybe some tools aren’t old-fashioned. Maybe they’re just perfect. The inevitable tapering toward only the necessary, the honing away of all distraction. The machine at its most simple. After that, what? Easy: mass production. A razor is a wedge, one of physics’ six force-multiplying “simple machines.” Unlike the wedge used to split wood or hold…
It’s about time you got around to digitizing those prized Full House video tapes you have stashed in the attic. Buffalo’s PC-SDVD/U2G dongle is one of the most efficient ways we’ve seen, connecting to your VHS player and PC. It connects to a PC by USB, and the player with either an S-Video or composite…
Samsung’s the biggest TV maker in the world. It beat Sony 4 years ago. But it’s getting even bigger. Soon it will pass 20 percent marketshare, which the WSJ points out is “a threshold not reached by any manufacturer since the earliest days of the industry more than 60 years ago.” Think about that. Also…
If your AC outlet has been wronged by some gadget that sips extra power after charging, you need the Outlet Regulator (though I like my name more), a working concept by student inventor Conor Klein. His device uses a timer circuit and electromechanics to physically unplug an electronic from the wall. Sure, products like the…
I love Scenter, a system that allows you to bring back memories using smells, which is a more evocative agent than sight or sound. There are only two problems with this. First, how the hell could we capture scents from moment in those capsules? Second, that nozzle’s shape disturbs me. [Studio KG]
Google has admitted that their Buzz testing process was equivalent to mine: Click enable, then disable it ninety seconds later. They said to the BBC that their testing sucked donkey balls, which is why many people hate it. The excuse: https://gizmodo.com/f-ck-you-google-5470696 We’re very early in this space. This was one of our first big attempts.…
Right now, the best eBook readers are from the big guys—B&N and Amazon—in terms of both the hardware and the convenience of use. But what it someone else developed a killer feature, like multitouch? What then? The Bookeen Orizon eBook reader, due this May for $250, features a 6-inch, 800×600 display, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,…
Traveling on the Trans Siberian Railway has always appealed to me, but it’s difficult finding a spare eight days to ride the 9,259km long journey. Now I can complete the journey using YouTube and Google Maps…in 150 hours. The website takes the viewer on a journey from the starter point of Moscow to the final…
A Canadian Best Buy spy has sent us an image of some dummy Apple SKUs showing up on their system, and while we can’t confirm it’s legit, it comes rather soon after the last round. https://gizmodo.com/placeholder-skus-show-up-in-best-buys-inventory-in-prep-5472491 Our tipster says he also saw some “fully-speced high end iMacs in inventory that were not in stores yet.”…
MacBooks bought between 2006 and 2007 could be eligible for a free hard drive replacement, with Apple dodging a guilty admission, stating that “a very small percentage…may fail under certain conditions.” UPDATED (with advice from a Mac Genius). If you own a white or black MacBook bought between 2006 and 2007, with either a 1.83GHz,…
Nintendo has seeded the DS2 development kit to a few selected companies, including the hardware itself. According to one developer, Nintendo said the DS2 was the first version and not final, but he is very impressed with the new controls: It’s genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever worked with. I can tell you…
It’ll use up one of your valuable USB ports, and is only compatible with Windows, but a Hanwa USB valve tube that gives you the mighty power of DTS surround sound sensation? Where do I sign up? Even if you’re pretty happy with the audio quality on your PC, the AS301DTS dongle GLOWS BLUE WHEN…