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Tesla Motors is finally rolling out its long-awaited single-speed transmission for the all-electric Tesla Roadster, which will pare down durability issues while upping torque and range. The new gearbox, made by transmission whiz kids Borg Warner, lets the Roadster hit its promised zero to 60 time of 4.0 seconds while upping travel distance to 244…
Blurring the line between single-lens reflex and standard point-and-shoot digitals, Panasonic introduces its first Micro Four Thirds-standard camera, the Lumix DMC-G1. At its unveiling, it’s the world’s smallest and lightest camera that takes interchangeable lenses. Here are the details on this incredibly cute not-quite-pro, not-quite-‘sumer camera. https://gizmodo.com/olympus-and-panasonic-launch-micro-four-thirds-system-f-5033161 The 12.1-megapixel camera uses a digital Live View…
Not content with deploying their version of Apple’s Genius tech support lackeys, Microsoft is now biting on the iTunes Genius song feature as well and the initial previews make it look… really awesome, actually. Wired got a sneak preview of the Zune 3.0 software, to be released on Sept. 16, and found it much more…
Nothing brightens up a tech geek’s room like an awesome LED cube, and Hack n’ Mod has got a couple of do-it-yourself instructions for building your own glowy box thing. You can get started with a small, less ambitious 3x3x3 cube design, maybe step it up to a 4x4x4 design if you’re more confident, and…
Is Photoshop CS4 coming earlier than predicted? A screengrab of NAPP Newswire shows that something is about to hit on Sept. 23… and that it’s something to do with Adobe’s Creative Suite 4. How disappointing would it be if whatever it is that’s supposed to be “brilliant” turned out to be like… an ad? [-Thanks…
In a recent interview, Zune PR head Adam Sohn told the New York Times that “babies are born every day without an iPod. We will get there.” There being, presumably, more than the measly 2% market share the player holds now. But babies? Really? Microsoft, I think I’ve figured out your problem-you’re going after a…
In case you weren’t paranoid enough knowing that there’s a 14-mile particle accelerator complete with Black Hole Button currently operational on this, your most favorite of planets, here’s a dose of meta-reality that will make your palms even sweatier, a glimpse of live webcams monitoring the LHC Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment. Once you’re sufficiently freaked…
Who doesn’t love a Zip drive? With their sweet 100MB of magnetic memory, they used to save my ass back in the day. (My Performa 6400 even had an internal Zip drive.) And who doesn’t love a marionette? With their beady eyes and history of horror-film animation, they touch the heart of any child from…
I like things that fly, especially when they’re the size of a golf ball. Tomy’s QFO RC toys are part of the Japanese Q series of all things minuscule, and are propelled by a rotor on its underside. The QFO will be available in Japan this month for about $40, but more importantly, I keep…
To match the epic price slash Microsoft inflicted on its Xbox 360s in early September, the company’s now offering the 120GB hard drive accessory for $30 less, dropping the cost from $179 to $149. In case you were still on the fence about buying the system, picking up an Arcade SKU (for just $199) and…
We were so over videos that smash gadgets—it’s douchey, amateur, and nothing we want to condone—until we saw this. This, my friends, has go to be the most “artsy” gadget smash video we’ve ever seen. That’s along the same lines as crowning the tallest dwarf, the fastest minivan or the least slutty member of the…
Remember that first Seinfeld-and-Gates adventure into Shoe Circus, which alluded to something about Windows being “soft and chewy and delicious?” Well, the new Laural and Hardy of ambiguous advertising have a new spot out and it’s… making fun of your average scalloped potato-eating, leather giraffe from Cabo-buying, grumpy Grandma-having Suburban family. The incredibly rich duo…
The surprisingly well-liked cheap Peek email handheld is ready for pre-order on its own site, at $100, plus unlimited use on T-Mobile for $20/month. It may be low-fi, but anything that works consistently well doing a straightforward but important task for a fairly low price has a place at my table. The only catch is—and…
Brando’s Traffic Prompters are cheap at $16 per light and are meant to promote highway safety. You can even combine a red one with a blue atop your car to emphasize your state of emergency. Just don’t be surprised when you’re busted for impersonating a police officer. The powerful magnets at the base of these…
So here’s the idea for the OHM portable device charger—you attach a few neodymium magnets to your back bike rim, place the dynamo on the underside of your seat so it has a direct line with the magnets, and thanks to the process of electromagnetic induction, it will begin collecting power each time the wheel…
Philips is planning on using its technological know-how gained by making some of the best electric toothbrushes out there in making a “massager” called the Warm Intimate Massager designed for couples in the UK. Philips’ consumer business is supposedly not doing so hot, but if anyone can design a £89 ($157) marital aid we hope…
Japanese toy maker Taiyo Corp has unveiled an R/C mini-chopper fitted with a proximity sensor that forces the device to descend when it hovers too close to the ceiling. A feature like that makes sense for novice users, and it appears to have 3-channel control, but beginners probably have more to worry about than just…
If you check out the ratings for V-Moda’s Vibe or Vibe Duo headsets at Amazon or Apple, they’re kinda crappy, bogged down a tons of complaints that they die fast. After an “unacceptable” rate of returns, V-Moda is acknowledging that the jack is behind the genocide and quietly launching a redesigned, reinforced one that’ll hit…
MC Hammer was out of commission for a while there but he appears to be back in big way. First we saw him in a full-on parody for Monday Night Football, and now he has been spotted enjoying the Microsoft Surface at the TechCrunch 50 conference. If I were the one wearing Hammer Pants in…
Remember the two-foot-tall Lego Vestas Windmill? It’s huge and awesome. Well, if you want one, there are currently two available on eBay. That’s the good news! The bad news is that the starting bids are a bananas $1,000 and $1,700. For a Lego set. I know Lego sets are cool and everything, but no Lego…
