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Holy crap: a multitouch Twitter app for Surface. The capabilities are a little basic now—only 25 recent tweets are shown in ScatterView, where you can manipulate them—but thinking about the possibilities explode my brain. [Microsoft via Gartenberg]
Needless to say, if this is how you choose to organize your life, it’s time to get some help before it’s too late. [Joe Rockhead via Holycool via Gearfuse] https://gizmodo.com/girl-dies-by-electrocution-while-twitting-in-bathtub-a-5297351
Screens are for suckers. Released in 1978, Parker Brothers‘ Merlin had six “out of this world” games like Tic Tac Toe and Blackjack 13, and its Music Machine game let you use it as an elecronic synthesizer. Even after Nintendo’s Game & Watch arrived in 1980, it continued to sell, eventually topping 5 million units.…
Hey look, Dell’s got an all-business take on all-in-ones. The 19-inch Vostro all-in-one starts at $629 and is designed to save space, but has ancient inputs like parallel and serial ports to connect dusty gear. [Dell via Electronista via Engadget]
We have a glut of 15-16″ laptops, be sure to check-out those deals if you’re shopping for one. There are a bunch of free magazine subscriptions, ESPN looks great— whoever did the marketing for them must be pretty awesome. Computing and Peripherals: • 16″ Acer Aspire AS6920-6898 Core2Duo NoteBook for $599.99 plus free shipping (normally…
It’s the simple things and life that bring the most pleasure. Like watching an industrial concrete crusher apply over 1.4 million pounds of force to a block of concrete. It done crushed it good! Wheeee! [CollegeHumor]
Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born. Click for full size [CT-6000 via the Thompson-Brown Family, Technics SL5300 via VintageTechnics]
At today’s Mobilebeat 2009 Conference, Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra said that web app development is the future of successful mobile platforms. Sounds a lot like Chrome OS on smartphones. https://gizmodo.com/giz-explains-what-the-hells-google-chrome-os-5310406 Gundotra reiterated a lot of what we already know. Google believes the future of the computers lies in the browser, with apps coded…
Don’t forget to enter our Summermodo contest if you want to win a trip to surf with us! Deadline’s today, so get going. [Contest] https://gizmodo.com/summermodo-contest-win-a-trip-to-surf-camp-with-gizmod-5315512
Did you ever read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle? Yeah, things haven’t changed as much as we would like to think. Mrs Trebilcock was inspecting a blender used to mix four tonnes of meat when she crouched beneath the machine to inspect a flap, where the load is discharged, to ensure it was clean. But the…
ActionScript developer James Alliban has himself one of the most impressive business cards you will ever see. It uses augmented reality to generate a 3D video that can be manipulated on screen. https://gizmodo.com/diy-business-card-calipers-give-you-an-edge-or-two-5315491 If you happen to be in the same field as Mr Alliban here, I suggest you step up your game (or replicate…
As I look down underneath my desk at the tangle of wires and plugs I dream of a day when all of our gadgets can be powered wirelessly. Until then, a concept like AllSocket could help reduce clutter. https://gizmodo.com/ecoupled-technology-powers-up-a-blender-wirelessly-5063396 The idea is to replace traditional wall outlets with a modular system that taps into power…
I got up at 5 this morning so I could talk about netbooks on WNYC’s news program The Takeaway, which is a collaboration with the BBC World Service, The New York Times and WGBH Boston. You can listen to the segment here to find out how I really feel about netbooks. [The Takeaway]
Wouldn’t it be great if there was one gadget that did email, text messages, games and music??? [C Scout Japan via Kotaku] https://kotaku.com/emailing-listening-to-music-playing-ds-typical-multi-5315633
I’m listening to “Boys Don’t Cry,” released by The Cure in June 1979. Next is “Comfortably Numb.” Before playlists, we had mixtapes, thanks to the Walkman. What’s on your 1979 mixtape? Remember, you’ve got 45 minutes per side. https://gizmodo.com/the-blank-generation-1979-as-audio-cassette-enabler-5314877 Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog…
OK guys, deep breath. This is a video of Portal being played on an iPhone, and it looks pretty good. But it’s probably not an actual port of Portal. The video says the demo was made using the Unity Engine, which means they took some Portal assets and made a small demo with them. They…
Kane Kramer, an inventor by trade, came up with a gadget and music distribution service almost eerily similar to the iPod-iTunes relationship that predates it by three decades. The guy predicted details down to DRM and flash memory’s dominance. Kramer’s device, the IXI, was flash-based, even though flash memory in 1979 only could have held…
In his third guest installment, the illustrious tech writer Steven Levy explains what it’s like to play arcade Space Invaders while totally shitfaced. When game historians recall the late ’70s wave of video arcade games, they will correctly identify the major time-wasters, which include Asteroids, Breakout, Missile Defense Command and Space Invaders. (Pong was sort…
This concept keyboard plays on our love of, or at least interest in, marketing by replacing all the letters with logos of corporations whose name begins with said letter. I seriously just spend five minutes picking them all out. The idea is that brands are so recognizable that we can exchange them with letters, probably…
Before there were computer hackers, there were phreakers. And before there were Macs, Jobs and Woz kept themselves busy building their own blue boxes (above) which would emulate precise control tones to seize control of the phone system. They were inspired by this Esquire article from 1971 called Secrets of the Little Blue Box, by…
