Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Kind of nice: If you buy 200GB of Google storage for $50, you’ll get a free 4GB Eye-Fi card. Since the card’s $60, you could also look at it as “buy an Eye-Fi card, get 200GB of Google storage.” All in all, it’s pretty simple. Just sign in with your Google account, drop in your…
It still seems strange, on the face of it. iTunes is the ginormousest force in digital music, beaming out billions of bits a day. Apple paid $80 million (maybe) for Lala, a streaming site you’ve never heard of. Why? https://gizmodo.com/apple-is-now-in-the-streaming-music-business-5419424 First, let’s look at what Lala is. (Or was.) It’s three things, really: A CD…
The Mountain Dew scented oil in these NES controller soaps probably won’t attract an ideal mate, and there’s absolutely no way that D-Pad feels good on one’s more sensitive regions. But hey, nostalgia! $34 for 4. [Etsy via ChipChick] https://gizmodo.com/xbox-360-soap-rated-c-for-clean-5180960
Time Warner, Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst and News Corp. have officially joined forces to create a new way to distribute digital versions of magazines. Forgive my skepticism, but I don’t think selling digital magazines will save publishing. First of all, these guys haven’t done anything yet. They’ve just announced their plans to play nice and…
A lot of people spend a lot of time reviewing and comparing apps, so there’s no shortage of critical information to guide your purchases. But what do iPhone and iPod Touch users actually buy? Here’s the leaderboard for 2009. Games The bestseller list is populated by high-profile—either in name or in publisher—listings, none of which…
The Nook launch hasn’t been pretty, and after a series of delays, demo models have been rationed among Barnes and Noble storefronts. Fortunately, you can now use this locator to find a little Nook near you. Perv. [B&N via Slashgear] https://gizmodo.com/the-nook-launch-is-gonna-be-a-flustercuck-5415187
While I prefer to use a long password to protect my computer, I like the idea of being able to use a physical key to lock it. This is precisely what Airlock does, using your iPhone. It works great. Airlock is a system preferences pane. Double-click to install it, associate it with your iPhone or…
Well, friend, why not take this delightful survey. Email the last question to [email protected] to enter. All those Quad Action Percussion Massager requests on your gift list? Check-ski! [Rules.]
Lots of people use Linux. That’s known. But usually those people are computer science majors flipping major corporations the bird (before they sell out to said corporations after graduation), not consumers buying systems with Linux preloaded. According to a new report by Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI, Linux preinstalls represent 32% of the 35…
Over 30 people are currently outfitted with ProDigits, bionic fingers that can actually grab and pick up objects in a way that previous prostheses couldn’t. You’ve got to see these in action. ProDigits can be controlled two ways: by myoelectric sensors that register muscle signals from the palm or the remnant finger, or by a…
140 characters. Automatically translated into Klingon. The future. (Note: technically, you’re limited to 100 characters to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of Klingon phonetics, but explaining that sorta kills the dramatic presentation of this post.) [Tweet in Klingon via Mashable via ShinyShiny]
America is so lame. When you buy a soft drink from a vending machine here, and all you get is diabetes. In Japan, however, you get the whole augmented reality experience. A new kiosk by Toppan Printing Co Ltd, being tested in three of Japan’s supermarkets now, allows shoppers to look up a QR code…
PS3? Wii? Xbox 360? If you were to buy any of these systems for a Japanese child this Christmas, they’d be sorely disappointed. Game consoles are the LAST thing on their list—literally. So what do they want? According to a recent poll (results above/translation below) of Japanese children 12 and under, they really want… 1.…
I want an army of MyDeskFriend Pingo robot penguins. They’ll dance around alerting of Facebook updates, read news, sing songs, and give weather forecasts. We’ll be bestest friends and play together until they decide to kill me. Updated: In-Action Video While we’ve gotten a look at the MyDeskFriend gadgets before, Pingo is the first one…
In with the new, out with the old. Samsung’s throwing out Symbian in exchange for its own platform, Bada, which was first announced last month with some extremely vague details. Today we learned a bit more, so do step inside. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-dumping-symbian-5402202 So yes, we know that Bada means “ocean” in Korean, but what about the…
The open source platform Maemo has returned to town after last being seen in Nokia’s N900, this time spied in a video review of the Optima OP5-E. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-n900-maemo-is-a-phone-makes-the-n97-look-silly-5346818 It’s zappier than we thought it’d be, considering the Chinese/Australian Optima hasn’t done much to warrant our attention so far. The tester puts the OP5-E through its…
It was only last week that JVC dropped three new Everio camcorders on us, after nearly six months of quiet times. Today’s Everio GZ-HD620, which was announced in Japan first, is the world’s smallest HD HDD camcorder. https://gizmodo.com/three-new-jvc-everio-camcorders-still-remember-what-th-5417228 Weighing only 270g, it’s also the lightest. The HDD has 120GB of storage for you to fill…
HTC will be launching the same phone under two names—Bravo in the US, and Passion in Europe, according to new leaks. Only trouble is, it doesn’t look much like the Passion we know and love, does it? https://gizmodo.com/htc-suffers-redface-with-its-first-android-2-0-phone-p-5420423 Despite the difference in appearance, the Bravo/Passion sounds hot to trot, running on lovely, lovely Android 2.0,…
Sony’s making good on their promises, rebranding its “eBook Store” as “Reader Store” (see what they did there? Err…) but more importantly, changing formats from BBeB to ePub, like they said they would. https://gizmodo.com/sony-of-all-companies-to-ditch-proprietary-ebook-form-5336304 The big change happens this Friday, with all books downloadable in the open EPUB format only. The other news is that…
Hey, office drones. The next time you’re pissed and shivering because Jeff in accounting turned the thermostat down to 65 again, just show him this article: Turns out individual climate control units in cubicles can save up to 50% energy. It seems pretty obvious, really: There’s no reason to cool down the hallways, corridors, entrances…