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This refreshingly mechanical hand-made robot automaton can be hand-cranked to close its fists, drop its chest plate and unleash a hellfire of rubber bands onto its victims. As exciting as all this devastation may sound, the video clip is ultimately more amusing than frightening, as a man cranks cranks cranks cranks cranks and the automaton…
If you’re picking up a 3GS and like to buy a warranty, Apple will extend coverage to two years for $69. It’s good for if/when the phone spontaneously combusts without human intervention. But what about just dropping the thing? SquareTrade warranties state that should you break your iPhone just because you’re an idiot, they’ll replace…
Oh the genius! Just when I thought George Lucas’ merchandise machinery couldn’t surprise me anymore, it didn’t surprise me again. But at least these 6 x 12 x 7.5-inch hand painted Trash Compactor Bookends made me smile: There goes another $190 for Uncle George. [Star Wars Shop via The Awesomer]
In honor of summer and men who procreate everywhere, Meijer is offering a $100 Blu-ray player through July 31st. Of course, it’s from the not-so-celebrated Curtis Mathes brand. But it supports 1080p playback over HDMI 1.3, optical audio and ethernet. Perusing user comments on Amazon, the big complaints seem to be load times (which you…
For this week’s Photoshop, I want you to design some video games as if they were made in a time before video games existed. That’s a big windows of time, so get creative with it! Send in your best efforts to me at [email protected] with Ancient Video Games in the subject line. Name your files…
AT&T’s contribution to the improved overall speed of the iPhone 3GS—their upgraded 7.2Mbps network—is nearly as important as Apple’s. But 7.2 is just a number, and AT&T’s network is just one of many. Here’s where it actually stands. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-3gs-review-5293388 First, a direct translation: AT&T’s upgraded (or more accurately, upgrading) 3G network claims data download rates…
Why are these people waiting in line for the iPhone 3GS? It’s the same iPhone but faster, there will be plenty available in stores everywhere, and you won’t be any cooler for having it now because nobody will notice. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-3gs-review-5293388 I guess if you’re on the early line for preorders, or if you couldn’t get…
His feathers barely rustle when the wind blows, and his faux zebra hide jacket is matted with an intangible age that the dry cleaner just can’t wash out. Even his famed golden Zelda cartridge is tarnished. The word on the streets is that it’s just plastic, but no one will say it to his face—a…
At just 19mm thick, the Bluedot BSP-S20K speaker can be folded flat and taken wherever the party is. But then again, with a 2×2-watt output isn’t exactly going to be much of a party. The $57 NXT speaker, probably better suited to sitting on your desk, can be powered by three AAA batteries (which can…
If Buffy, Twilight, Trueblood and the collective Anne Rice novels have taught us anything, it’s that women dig vampires. To exploit the phenomenon, stay out of the sun and buy this couch. The Coffin Couch, priced at a moderate $3,500, is the absolute most practical way to pretend that you sleep in the box of…
Bad news: the first app to use in-app pricing in the App Store is a huge ripoff. Gokivo, is a $1 turn-by-turn directions app. Want to actually use it? That’ll be $1/minute, $3/10 minutes or $10/month. Updated. Even worse is that when it was first released, the description included no mention of these charges, tricking…
I want this: A robot monkey that makes me coffee every morning. Then, it will go down to the deli, jumping through the fire escape, pick me up a bagel with pastrami and cream cheese, and climb back up. It’s too bad that this video of Hina—a small robot grinding and making coffee—is staged. It’s…
This is bad. The prisoners have grabbed the keys. Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest producer of video games, is publicly threatening to abandon Sony’s PS3 and PSP platforms. From Activision Blizzard President and CEO Bobby Kotick: I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it…
It looks like a nondescript battery, but this is actually the world’s smallest GPS, GSM and RF tracking device. The recently released CATS.i measures just 45mm x 35mm x 12mm, and makers say it can be used to track cars, pets and even people. Given that they also claim this is the “most covert” tracking…
It’s been a while since a BlackBerry handset really stole the spotlight, with the new—and by all counts nice—BlackBerry Tour getting trampled underfoot by this month’s Palm and Apple news extravaganza. But appearances don’t do this situation justice: RIM is doing very well, reporting a 33% jump in Q2 profit over last year, fueled almost…
We’ve seen other laptop stands with built in fans, but this one promises to only cool your computer’s hot spots. https://gizmodo.com/thankos-usb-powered-laptop-fan-stand-298740 The Minifit XL looks like any other laptop stand until you add the USB powered fan by slotting in to the perforations. Then it delivers a cooling blow to those places your laptop gets…
Announced last year, this technology sounded more than a little bit pie-in-the-sky. A flexible OLED passport? With video capabilities? And it’s powered wirelessly? Yet here it is, captured in full sight, on video. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work perfectly. Alongside a static picture, this e-passport displays a rotating photographic avatar when placed…
Sony has just trotted out the Vaio NW, their new line of Blu-ray equipped, mid-market notebooks, and at 1.2-inches, they are quite slim too. The NW features a 15.5-inch widescreen display (albeit 1366×768), along with a HDMI output connector for plugging it into a TV, so you can enjoy the full 1080p goodness of your…
Remember that iPhone app which let you control your Canon DSLR (while it was connected via USB to a laptop) and even display a Live View feed? Well a new version will also add support for those with a penchant for Nikon cameras. The update, which is due out mid-July, is also said to feature…
Intel researchers are working on wireless power that doesn’t use a conductive pad. Instead, it uses magnets and a tuned directional transfer coil to send music from an iPod a couple of feet to a speaker. Saw it. It works! https://gizmodo.com/intel-says-theyve-taken-a-huge-leap-in-wireless-power-t-5039871 This setup is deceptively simple. There’s an electro-magnetized ring of wire sending 1-watt signal…
