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Nobody knows exactly what Bill Gates is doing with his new company, bgC3, but rumors are floating around that the Big PC Man himself is shelling out big dinero for his new digs. For his private office, he is supposedly spending over $2.5 million on high-end furniture. That’s not even including the $75,000 coffee bar.…
The U.S. is injecting a good $1.25 million into a new “virtual training ground” for American diplomats who plan on working in China called “The Second China Project.” It’s a pretend city in Linden Lab’s Second Life that purportedly will help almost-expatriots get used to the environment in the world’s most populous nation. While some…
The previously Japan only Mugen Puchi Puchi bubble wrap toy is now available in the US for $5.99. It’s available in four colors: cold sore pink, pea soup green, dying of exposure blue and cadaver grey. It’s fun, yes, but the sound effect unfortunately doesn’t sound all that much like the *POP* of a real…
Google Chrome Beta version 0.3.154.9 isn’t due to drop for a few days, though it can be found over at FileHippo. No major features are introduced here—just security enhancements and bug fixes. But I know some of you love to have the latest and greatest. So enjoy. [FileHippo via Download Squad]
In today’s earnings call, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha made multiple references to Windows Mobile 6.5, explaining that a Moto handset running the software would be released in the second half of 2009. Jha was vague on specifics about WinMo 6.5, but according to PC Mag, he did go on record as saying “I think there…
Today HP, Toshiba, and Dell issued a recall of 100,000 Sony battery packs found in their laptops sold between 2004 and 2006. Only 35,000 battery packs were affected in the U.S, with an additional 65,000 batteries recalled worldwide. Out of the 40 reported incidents, only 19 incidents have been in the U.S., thus affecting a…
RIM excels at many things, but keeping secrets ain’t one of ’em, so we’d eyeballed the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (nee Javelin) quite a bit before this AT&T-branded one dropped in our laps. It’s a Bolder version of the current Curve that improves it in basically every way: Lighter, tighter, but more powerful—and it feels like…
A clever cutout may suffice to scare the kids, but if you want your pumpkin to scare adults, consider putting down the carving set and picking up a soldering iron and a couple of 5×7 LED matrix arrays. Why? Because this tiny pumpkin displays the most frightening face of them all—the twisted horror of a…
You know a marketing exec with a fiercely long commute at UK-based credit card provider Barclaycard must have been daydreaming one day about being whisked back home by a water slide. If I didn’t sit at home working in my underwear this would be my dream too. [Barclaycard via The Raw Feed]
The Pure Gold Pc is a bigger liar than that “Rolex” you got from “Dad.” It’s not gold at all; it’s either ceramic or glass. That means when somebody bites your PC to double check its authenticity, shards will break off, slicing their mouth and tongue in a grotesque “told you so.” But if you’re…
There are skilled locksmiths out there that can reproduce a key from high-resolution images, but new software developed by computer scientists at UC San Diego has simplified the process to a frightening degree. In fact, their “Sneakey” system can reproduce a key with only a grainy cellphone image or, in one case, a picture taken…
Feeling the economic pinch at work? Not to worry—today’s Dealzmodo Roundup is choc-full of office-bound bargains like a Pagepro printer for $330 (down from $1082) and a comfortable-looking Tillman leather executive chair for $190 (down from $280). We even threw in a $170 Sharp Blu-ray player and an $80 iGroove speaker system to help you…
Earlier this month we learned that a California man has decided to sue Microsoft over RRoD issues claiming that the company knew around 50% of the consoles shipped were defective (some claim the figure could be as high as 68 percent.) As you know, Microsoft extended their warranty plan at great expense to help cover…
Oh look, another insane tower planned for Dubai! This one is dubbed the Anara Tower, and while it’s not going to be the tallest in the world (it’ll be about 500 feet shorter than the Burj Dubai at 2,150 feet), it’s still incredible all on its own. The defining element of the Anara Tower has…
Nobody knew if it was the software or the hardware. Why was the PSP 3000, Sony’s supposed best to date with an incredible screen, suffering from interlaced images? Logic Sunrise put both displays under a 40X microscope and saw the problem immediately. Can you tell the difference? Take a mental guess and then check if…
Digital cameras are generally closed platforms, built and programmed under the assumption that they would never be modified. To get more features, you pay more for different firmware, even though the guts are mostly the same. Canon didn’t batten down their hatches quite enough. The result is CHDK, a full-featured OS substitute that runs from…
While we’ve already reviewed what it’s like to stream Netflix movies on the New Xbox Experience, we missed that there were 300 pieces of HD content right below our noses. Since then, we loaded up The Thing in HD and gave Netflix Instant Streaming HD our full once-over.How could we possibly miss the HD content,…
So this week we’ve been getting a nice first look at Windows 7, and it looks to have some pretty great features. But what about the features that Microsoft would never, ever put in their new OS? Those are for us to come up with using our good friend Photoshop, like my example above of…
Frog Design has joined Project Masiluleke, which includes the likes of Nokia, to help raise awareness about HIV and AIDS among South Africans with the use of mobile technology. The program includes interactive texts which provide callback numbers for information on HIV testing, home testing kits with cellphone based guidance and information for those seeking…
Sharp may not do much in terms of ePaper, but they know their way around an LCD. And they’ve just shown off a new type of eight-color LCD that can hold a static image even when the power is cut.The 14.1, 6.1, 2.4 and 1.7-inch displays are believe to use a cholesteric LCD material to…
