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Over at Phonearena they’ve got their hands on one of those 8-megapixel Samsung M8800 Pixons, and they’ve given it a good preview prodding. In general the phone went down well: though it’s a slightly fat device, the 8-megapixel camera (which shares an identical interface to the Omnia) impressed them particularly in terms of speed, and…
A purported screenshot of a Best Buy sales terminal indicates October 26th as the day that the first Android phone will be showing on shelves at the retailer. This leak follows a similar one from just a few days ago that reveals the BlackBerry Bold will be coming to Best Buy, also on the 26th.…
A bunch of programmer/hackers have come up with a driver solution that’ll get your PS3 Eye off its lazy ass and functioning as a webcam for your PC. Why’s this interesting? Because it’s relatively cheap, and actually pretty high-spec’d: it can deliver VGA video at 60fps over USB2, which makes for neat webcam action. It’s…
Almost reflexively, six studios have filed suit against RealNetworks for their brand-new DVD copying software. RealDVD, as it is (was?) called, was tepidly received on account of crippling DRM which only allows for viewing of a ripped DVD on one PC, precluding the portability that might account for someone wanting to rip a DVD in…
A bit like Dean Kamen’s miraculous water distiller, only not quite so fancy or miraculous, is the WaterMill drinking water collector. It’s basically a clever dehumidifier that collects airborne water and filters and purifies it with an ultraviolet sterilizer, providing you with up to 3.2 gallons of water per day. And before you start thinking…
For those who don’t need a whole keyboard full of OLED buttons, Nikkai is showing off standalone units at CEATEC. The buttons are bulkier than anything on an Art Lebedev product, and seem to have three input states: depressed, tilted left and tilted right (or up and down, depending on orientation) which makes makes for…
Laptopmag went ahead and tested out Xohm WiMax goodness, now that it’s live in Baltimore. They jammed an ExpressCard Xohm into a Sony Vaio laptop, and compared it to a Kyocera EVDO card running on Verizon, at a spot where both signals were strong. The conclusion? Xohm beats EVDO for speed when doing intensive downloading,…
A true “next generation” Nintendo console, tentatively referred to as the Wii HD, will hit the market in 2011, according to the folks at What They Play. The site claimed that Nintendo is currently showing early presentations of Wii 2.0 to the game development community, and that Miyamoto’s new device will be based on completely…
Want to be the scariest ancient history buff in your neighborhood? A couple of timber engineers are selling their re-creation of a Roman ballista, which they made for a Discovery Channel documentary, on eBay. Though the 12-ton, 24 foot-tall war machine needs a little restoration work and doesn’t currently function, the engineers insist that it…
Killing two marketing birds with one stone, Microsoft’s bundling some of its Zunes with various Gears of War 2 (launching soon!) paraphernalia. Each 120GB Zune will sport a laser-etched “Crimson Omen” and come pre-loaded with 244 pieces of media, including the soundtrack, behind-the-scene videos and concept art. The entire package will cost you $280 and…
Research into invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around 2D objects, could end up protecting offshore rigs and vulnerable coastlines from water. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France said that established cloaking principles can be applied to ocean waves, and built a 10cm model to show how carefully placed concentric pillars make…
Podcaster, the app that just won’t quit no matter how many times Apple tries to shut it down, is now up for download on Cydia as version 1.1. People who want Podcaster can now get it through the iPhone app black market, though questions about why it was blocked from legitimate channels are still left…
Picture this: You’re trying to figure out why your grandmother’s computer is running so slow when she mentions that an error message told her to download a $39.95 “fixer-upper,” and you realize that some rat bastard out there tricked the poor old dame into installing spyware. Doesn’t that make you angry? It’s certainly pissed off…
When I see images of Bruce Munro’s Field of Light installation, whatever glumness I might have felt during the day disappears, and that Beatle-esque Lenny Kravitz song of a similar name starts playing in my head. If I had the chance to check out Munro’s light installation, coming to Project Eden in Cornwall, England on…
Ars got their hands on Nero’s freshly-announced LiquidTV/TiVo PC team-up, and thought the TiVo software and Hauppauge TV Tuner hardware was a good experience for $200 ($100 for software only). They looked not only at how the UI functioned in the PC environment, but also at export options, content exchange, and hardware performance. Here’s what…
Yesterday Sony dropped the $400 BDP-S350 Blu-ray player to $300, a fair line to cross. Today Sony made the next logical step, dropping its $500 BDP-S550 to $400. It’s a sizeable price decrease, and it comes well before Thanksgiving, indicating that there could easily be another sweet drop. I’m still more of a fan of…
TDK has announced a new hard drive at CEATEC that manages to fit 260GB of data into a 1.8-inch form factor. Using their prototype TMR head, TDK is able to attain a surface recording density of 803 gigabits per square inch, besting Toshiba’s previous 378 gigabits per square inch. The leap was made possible by…
Today the otherwise preoccupied Senate quickly passed the Webcaster Settlement Act many of you petitioned for, granting Pandora and other net radio services the right to negotiate royalties with the record industry’s SoundExchange coalition for the years 2006 to 2015. OK, that’s a mouthful—what it means is, they will likely not be driven to bankruptcy…
At probably like the worst time ever for your stock to plummet harder than a meteor on a collision course with Bruce Willis, a glitch knocked $200 off of Google’s stock price—that’s half—in the span of four minutes as the markets were closing today. $62 billion. Erased. In four minutes. The glitch has been fixed,…
While I understand why people would want their GPS navigators to give them directions in the voice of KITT or Mr. T, I have no idea who in their right mind would want Kim Cattrall (the old one) from Sex in the City telling them where to go whenever they drive. Not only will her…
