Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
How many times have I been weighing flour when all I wanted was to hear the soulful vocal stylings of Miley Cyrus? Luckily, manufacturer Rihanna is working on this $100 kitchen scale due out next year, complete with an iPod dock and 2W speaker (the speaker is hidden under the glass platform). Your iPod shows…
Today is the day, people! The day that your Xbox 360 will start showing you new dashboard panels so you can awkwardly Twitter from your console and listen to Last.fm radio, that is! And a few more things. The update should propagate sometime today—UPDATE: It’s live!—but if your Xbox hasn’t given you the good news…
These staffers at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, CA might seem really excited, but the clearly rehearsed dance routine comes across more like some kind of Stockholm syndrome. I’ve heard the Microsoft Store pays well and all, but seriously, what a dick move for making employees do this. That’s what Disney World, Cruise Lines,…
Go give woot! your money. It’s a woot-off, also known as a more randomized, ever so warmer Black Friday sale. Sorry mom, you’re officially getting a blender. I spent all my money before the iPod popped up. Damn woot. [woot!]
You didn’t think a little data loss was going to stop Sidekick, did you? Sales of the unexpectedly risky handsets have resumed, at discounted $50 and $150 prices for the 2008 and 2009 models, which is still too high. [Engadget]
If the Gerbil Shirt ever made it beyond the patent stage, how many of us would be living down that high school yearbook photo? The Gerbil Shirt wraps your torso in plastic tube passageways, making your bod a super highway of fun for Binky and Bart. The interior surfaces are textured for traction and have…
I first saw this 1950s projector when I was a kid. He was evil, he killed that Old Dude, but at the end the Goodguys blew up his Badass Star. It comes without its black cape and lightsaber, but works. The Stereo Realist Model 81 3-D Slide Projector was manufactured in 1950 by the David…
The first Flash 10.1 desktop player beta has arrived, and AnandTech has put the new GPU-accelerated video playback to the test. And while the OS X version currently lacks graphics acceleration, Flash 10.1 still serves up improvements on the Mac. https://gizmodo.com/adobe-flash-10-1-and-air-2-0-betas-released-life-is-be-5406280 I took the same [480p Hulu] Office clip I’d been using for all of…
Appears that Sony Ericsson have made inroads optimizing the X10 Android phone for its 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The pre-pro handset shown earlier this month ran the Rachael interface in slow-motion, but this new prototype looks much more responsive. https://gizmodo.com/watch-the-xperia-x10s-rachael-interface-in-action-5395865 The Timescape social networking app and Mediascape multimedia manager finally look like something you might want…
Musing on his blog, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has thrown out a crazy idea for Microsoft. Instead of spending billions promoting Bing, what if they paid the top 1000 sites a million bucks to de-list from Google? Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while…
New data from SquareTrade (one of the bigger warranty providers) says Asus and Toshiba have the least hardware malfunctions over 3 years, while one-in-four HP laptops are projected to experience problems. Oh, and crappy netbooks are worst of all. They say that sub-$400 netbooks are 20 percent more likely to fail in the first year.…
Facebook is goddamn everywhere. It’s on my phone, my computer, my Xbox 360, even my alarm clock. And now, the PS3 3.10 update allows it to take root in the PS3, just like we thought. https://gizmodo.com/leaked-shots-playstation-3-to-get-facebook-in-next-upd-5402929 The update is actually pretty cool, as far as such things go, peppering status updates with Trophy information, purchases,…
Paul Allen, known both as the co-founder of Microsoft and for his multitude of philanthropic pursuits, has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer. We don’t know much about his prognosis, though a letter from his sister says he’s “feeling OK.” Allen came down with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma back in 1983 and beat it,…
After the HTC Droid Eris, a rebadged Hero, debuted on Verizon for $100, Sprint’s Hero couldn’t well sit at $180 and expect to sell—and now Best Buy has stepped up, selling the Hero at $100 with contract. [Engadget] https://gizmodo.com/droid-eris-review-5401220
Holy crap, you guys, bomb proof wallpaper. This stuff is strong enough to keep very heavy flying objects from breaking walls—in this video, a wrecking ball. The X-Flex wallpaper is really a layer of Kevlar-type material, in between sheets of “elastic polymer wrap,” which provides both flex and strength so that the projectile doesn’t knock…
HotHardware took a look at this consumer-focused PCI-Express SSD from Fusion-io, and found that while it’s pretty damn expensive at $900 for 80GB, it’s blazingly fast, hitting 700MB/s read and 300MB/s write speeds. Unfortunately, in addition to the expense, it can’t be used as a bootable drive quite yet, although Fusion-io claims that feature is…
The first betas of Adobe Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0—delivering full GPU acceleration of H.264 for buttery smooth HD Flash video playback and multitouch gesture support—are out. You should get them now. https://gizmodo.com/flash-10-1-full-flash-for-everyone-but-iphone-actuall-5374115 This is, to be clear, just the desktop version of Flash 10.1—the full-fledged Flash for Android, webOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile is…
Analysts Talk Apple Tablet, Make Ever More Predictions…Mad Catz Brings Cheaper Xbox 360 Wi-Fi Adapter, Still About $50 Too Expensive…Sony Reader Firmware Upgrade Is Surprisingly Difficult…B&N Giftcards Will Work for Nook Ebook Purchases, Soon… Analysts Talk Apple Tablet, Make Ever More Predictions CNN Money rounded up a bunch of analysts to basically talk about how…
There are reports that BlackBerry Internet Service, which is sort of a portal monitored by RIM (so it’s not carrier-specific) through which BlackBerry data runs, is down worldwide. That could affect email, BlackBerry Messenger, web browsing and maps, to start. According to comments on various messageboards, BlackBerry data is either out or patchy at least…
I haven’t made the jump to setting up network-attached storage. But with the Addonics Mini NAS being the size of a VHS, it’s hard to keep resist giving up a small corner of my desk. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-choose-the-best-network-storage-for-a-mac-pc-hom-5067201 While the Mini NAS truly is small, it’s got plenty of features in that one pound package. It supports…
