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Museums—especially history museums—often have a hard time keeping incorporating new technology into their staid exhibits. That is, museums that don’t happen to be in Randers, Denmark. You see, in Denmark, even exhibits about the history and translation of 1000-year-old runes can hope for digitally projected augmentation. This runic stone, when approached by a visitor, commences…
I don’t know if there’s a polite way to say this… but it looks like you’re wearing your holiday gluttony. Take a page from Blam’s book and get on a Wii Fit… fatty. [Kotaku]
With increasing competition—most recently from Android and Palm’s promising new WebOS, how is Microsoft planning on helping WinMo survive in the mobile operating system world? By putting it on less devices, naturally. Todd Peters, VP of marketing for the Windows Mobile Division said that while Microsoft was looking into beefing up WinMo’s features, its strategy…
I could only think of one thing when I saw this hands-free cellphone holder called Cell Mate: Ahahaha haha HA! Apparently, they have a booth at CES—worth a Giz visit, methinks. [Craziest Gadgets]
Vocaloid, the super-popular singing synthesizer from Japan has now gotten an update-and it (she) is bilingual! Meet Megurine Luka, who’s “moody and husky” voice is now yours to command in both Japanese and English. https://gizmodo.com/vocaloid-2-the-japanese-anime-song-generator-300318 Vocaloids 1 and 2, featuring much higher-pitched robotic singers became the #1 selling software on Amazon Japan. I think the…
As a break from all this CES news, let’s talk about robots—specifically, which countries are chock full of them. Unsurprisingly, Japan has the densest robot population, with 295 industrial automatons per every 10,000 workers. Perhaps a little more eyebrow-raising is Singapore’s place on the list, which beat out South Korea by five robots per 10K…
The folks at ZPower, who make the silver-zinc batteries that get 40% better run-time than Lithium-Ion, just told us that a major laptop and a major cellphone manufacturer will use the technology this year. https://gizmodo.com/silver-zinc-batteries-coming-in-2009-with-40-better-ru-5060103 Still no details on which manufacturer and cellphone provider will do this, but ZPower did say that they’re going for…
Hey, we’re back at CES. Yesterday was day zero, full of press conferences, but today is the day we all hit the floor. I actually never made it there. Palm dropped their new smartphone and their new operating system on us, and it is maybe the most interesting phone I have seen this decade. Maybe…
Hands-on impressions: ahhhhhhhh. Adam Frucci left, Mark Wilson right, some dude we don’t know in the middle. More:
Today at CES, I met with Steven Sinofsky, Windows 7 development chief, and asked about the unprecedented free-for-all Windows 7 Beta available tomorrow to anyone who’s interested. Is this the “free upgrade” people wanted? When I asked him if it was an unprecedented move, passing out the whole operating system to anyone and everyone who…
Ford Sync 3.0′s lovely Samantha robo-voice can now soothingly guide you to any destination you tell her, incorporating real-time traffic updates to help plan your trip. This is how it works. https://gizmodo.com/ford-sync-upgrade-brings-turn-by-turn-navigation-comin-5125914 As you can see, it’s pretty easy; the system calls up your paired Bluetooth phone and transmits all the data the sytem needs…
Today, with the floor open, is the first real day of CES. By now we’ve seen a good deal of gear from the big companies, and here’s the best so far. https://gizmodo.com/palm-pre-preview-simply-amazing-5126702 Palm Pre : Number one with a bullet. If we told you three months ago that Palm would own CES, would you have…
I love the Palm Pre’s UI. Lots of it is original and revolutionary on a mobile, but some feels borrowed from desktops. Which somehow makes it an amazing phone. Through out the presentation, I couldn’t help but admire how great it is at multitasking. 1. Of course, there are the now-found-everywhere swipe gestures. 2. But…
2008: Verizon’s cookie lady hands out baked treats as readily as Washington Mutual doled out housing loans. 2009: Need to shred your deed and get outta town? Staples says: Easy.
When Peter Kafka asked if the Palm Pre’s price would be less than the iPhone’s $199, Palm CEO Ed Colligan replied, “Why would we do that when we have a significantly better product?” Sincerest apologies to those who had their hopes up for a cheaper, multi-touch smartphone: It looks like the Palm Pre may cost…
At CES, I interviewed Robbie Bach, big boss of Microsoft’s Entertainments and Devices division, asking big questions about Zune, Windows Mobile and Xbox. First up: Why no mobile Xbox to rival Sony and Nintendo?
Want to be able to say “John Mayer” behind the wheel and have the Pandora app on your phone queue up a station of similarly smooth jams automatic-like? That’s where Ford Sync is going. We were able to sit down with Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Director of Product and Biz-Dev for Electronics Douglas VanDagens…
If you are in love with Windows 7 but stuck in Vista land, we pity you, fool! But we have some help: You can ease your pain with this unofficial Windows 7 theme for Vista. https://gizmodo.com/windows-7-beta-now-available-5126074 You just need to head to devianART to grab the theme and follow Lifehacker’s guide to install it. [devianART…
Despite the stupid Pre name, Palm has jumped up $1.15 to $4.45. Doesn’t look like a lot, but that’s 34.85%, which is like a 1,548% in the Investors Confidence Index, and 543% in dog years. Clearly, Wall Street is excited about the Palm Pre. First, it shows that Jon Rubinstein is having some influence in…
SanDisk’s new G3 SSD drives are set to offer read speeds equivalent to a 40,000RPM platter drive at prices that won’t make you queasy. The age of SSD laptops is looking imminent. Coming in 60GB, 120GB and 240GB flavors, the new SSDs offer up speeds of 200MB/s read and 140MB/s write, which is nothing to…