Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Fonera, whose novel routers require you to share your connection in trade for access to other Fonera users’ connections, has updated their hardware: the new Fonera 2 supports USB storage, BitTorrent and 3G dongles. To clarify what that means, a little Fonera refresher: All Fonera routers are open to all Fonera users, meaning that in…
TmoNews has what looks like an internal T-Mobile newsletter outlining 3G expansion plans for a few dozen medium-to-large cities in the coming year. Congrats to Cleveland, Nashville, Tucson and… Brownsville? [TmoNews]
When we called the new iTunes tiered price scheme “Popular Songs Cost More Money” pricing, we had no idea how accurate that was: It’s here, but I’ve yet to find a single $0.69 track. UPDATED. https://gizmodo.com/itunes-popular-songs-cost-more-money-pricing-goes-liv-5185221 Though it may have been naive, the general expectation was that the new $1.29 price point, which would cover…
Though Nintendo’s Wii can’t always be the top seller, the company isn’t hurting for profits. According to a Japanese investor, the cost of manufacturing the Wii is down about 45% thanks to new technology. Since the Wii was turning a profit at the already-inexpensive price of $250, if this rumor is to be believed, Nintendo…
We spotted HP’s sleek, powerful, 12-inch DV2 back at CES, and now it’s finally available for sale for only $749. It’s packing some pretty impressive specs at that price point. https://gizmodo.com/hp-pavilion-dv2-notebook-is-hps-first-12-inch-full-fun-5124141 The DV2, which checks in at under an inch thick and less than 4 pounds, is HP’s best combination of portability, power, and price…
Maximum PC didn’t like the idea of paying $12,000 for a Microsoft Surface. So what did they do? They made their own multitouch table PC for a fraction of the price. Utilizing an array of infrared LEDs around the table, the guts of a PS3 Eye camera, a projector and some acrylic for the multitouch…
Portable computers have looked like hinged books for long enough. The D-Roll concept looks back even further than the codex to the humble scroll for its inspiration. Plus, you can carry it like a purse! D-Roll, which stands for “digital roll,” is a concept from designer Hao Hua. It features one long cylindrical base from…
The Alhambra in Granada is so vast and covered with carved Arabic writing that nobody has ever had the ability to catalog it all. Finally, using modern technology, it’s doable. According to the Guardian and the Independent, experts are hard at work collecting over 10,000 inscriptions that nobody has translated in over 500 years since…
Designed to make “stronger emotional relationships with our belongings,” Shelves for Life is a bookcase-slash-coffin that holds your personal possessions in life and your person—corpse—in death. These plywood, floor-standing shelves are meant to be self-assembled, which makes us wonder: How can you reassemble your shelf to resemble your coffin if you’re already dead? Ideal for…
Google Voice, the recent reincarnation of GrandCentral that gives you voicemail transcription, call control and so much more, is about to hit iPhones by way of an app. https://gizmodo.com/grandcentral-sputters-back-to-life-as-google-voice-add-5168592 The app comes with a dialer, which dials out (from your Google Voice number), and rings your iPhone to connect both sides. It works with a…
If every kid had a Casmobot, there would be way more little boys knocking on your door asking if they could mow your lawn. Which would be amusing, until that cute kid charged you $500. At the University of South Denmark, Kjeld Jensen has developed a robotic lawnmower called the Casmobot which can be controlled…
This $3 monkey luffa has a head full of heat-senstive hair that changes from brown to yellow when it feels your bath is hot enough for you to jump in. [Product Page via Nerd Approved]
Brian Seitz of the Zune team just confirmed on his Twitter that new Zune hardware is coming this year. [Twitter]
While it’s not the grand opening of the Kindle app store or anything, a developer decided to write an app for Kindle 2 that converts .pdf and .epub docs to Kindle’s beloved .mobi format. The developer, Jesse Vincent, swears he didn’t “hack” the new Kindle—rather, he wrote a “package” that happens to run on it.…
What? No way. Something thought to be of an urban legend—or maybe just a story we’d only see on 20/20—a real, normal person has actually found proof of the the ever evasive credit-card skimmer. Consumerist reader, Dan, was at a local WaMu ATM getting cash when he realized something didn’t feel quite right. After examining…
Starting at $35 this summer, Power Play’s Riiflex brings you closer to the body of a god who sits on a couch and works out with 2-pound weights for 15 minutes daily. https://gizmodo.com/riiflex-weights-make-the-wii-fitter-5136528 The Riiflex can be used any game on the Wii or also as an additional accessory with the Wii Fit. It also…
Other bands might have been first, but Trent Reznor is about to blow them all way with NIN’s coming iPhone app, which completely enshrines his place as the Highlander of musicians on the internet. The apps looks like everything that Web 2.0 was promised to be for musicians, wrapped up in an incredibly slick package.…
Our Snowmodo reader meetup was this weekend. Whenever we set one of these events up, there’s always the nagging worry it’ll be dumb and no one will show up. You proved me wrong. Geek readers made their way from the surrounding areas—the temperate climate of the bay, the big little glitter of arid Reno, the…
My iPhone is my alarm clock, so it ends up on the floor, across the room when I wake. But all you have to do to shut this “Magic” Sensor Alarm Clock up is wave. Waving, however, could be a problem for this clock. Because it is buttonless, the only way to control all the…
Designed for a Japanese lighting company, this “Tear Drop” pendant lamp—made out of glass and aluminum—will be displayed at the Milan Design Week this year from April 22-27. [yamagiwa via design boom]