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We were semi-surprised that the PSP hardware update contained so few external changes, but now that we’ve seen Sony’s plan for the system, it all makes sense. Their ten year shelf-life plan for the PS2 and PS3 apparently also applies to the PSP platform, which according to them, “[does] not have a planned obsolescence strategy.”…
Looking to save water? Say hello to the EcoJohn, a toilet that uses no water. Instead, after you do what you do, you “close the lid and a large, screw-like auger turns and carries the waste to the burn chamber where the propane burner then bakes urine, feces and paper into ashes.” Wow, that’s horrifying!…
This week at Uncrate: We hit the trails in some EarthRoamer Xpedition Vehicles, keep track of the days with the Bubble Calendar, and get wrapped up in the Tentacle Tie. We also get ready for the upcoming NFL season with a New York Jets Brett Favre Jersey, mix perfect drinks for our lady friends using…
Stash it under the belly of the plane for an Indiana-Jones-style getaway once you hit the landing strip, of course. The good folks at MotoPod will mod your light aircraft with one of their aerodynamic moto-carriers, and give you a customized folding motorcycle to cram inside of it for around $10k. Sure it’ll shave a…
The second version of the Slacker portable personalized radio player has appeared on the FCC site. Called the Slacker G2, it can store 4GB of music, and has 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, and FM receiver capabilities. You can check its back after the jump. [FCC]
For some strange reason, an Australian woman thinks that putting for sale a photo of her cheating husband’s lover underpants on eBay-along with a empty condom wrapper-is a perfect way to humiliate them both. But why just a photo? It didn’t make much sense to me until I learnt about eBay’s weird no-secondhand underwear rules.…
Now that Nintendo’s solving their Wiimote control issues, we can finally focus our intentions on superficial improvements. It’s required some major soldering, but one modder has added all sorts of LED-based tweaks to his Wiimote. The first, seen here, Skittles-izes the player indicators by swapping out the now-drab blue LEDs for those of multiple colors.…
Rock Band 2 is still launching for the Xbox 360 on September 14, but it won’t be packaged with any of that nifty hardware. Instead, gamers will have to wait until October 19th (the same time RB2 is coming to all of the other systems) to pick up the $189 bundle packed with all of…
Robert Jacobsen wrote a nice piece of software for everyone with a Lionel set in their garage and released it under an open-source license. Fine and dandy. But after a company jacked his code and released it as a commercial product, Jacobsen understandably got a little pissed and sued. After God knows how many hearings…
This video, shown at SIGGRAPH, demos a re-invention of how to navigate collections of photos. It’s the work of a team from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research, using advanced processing to magically create 3D-like environments to explore photos of places and things. The amazing results will, inevitably, invoke a “that’s like Minority Report”…
As we reported they would last year, Intel has published a draft specification for the next-gen connection system, USB 3.0. The v0.9 eXtensible Host Controller Interface specs are designed to allow hardware developers to steal a march on developing next-gen interfacing gizmos ahead of the final certification of the standard by the USB Promoters Group.…
The iPhone 3G‘s network speed has been coming under fire recently, and Wired has decided to investigate with a global iPhone 3G network speed study. Head on over and add your data to their interactive map. [Wired] https://gizmodo.com/iphone-3gs-sluggish-3g-could-be-caused-by-lousy-chipset-5036104
Ipod-controlling clothes aren’t new, sure, but UK retailer Marks and Spencer is taking a teeny risk with its new line of smart clothing. It’s aimed at school kids, with controls and pockets integrated into standard school uniform blazers and coats. A five function keypad from Fibertronic is inside the lapels, and there’re loops for hiding…
As we reported back in mid July, Sony’s finally bid farewell to the 40GB PS3, leaving just the 80GB versions on sale at Sony Style, ending the on-again, off-again 80GB debate. The $500 Metal Gear Solid 4 80GB bundle is available now, but the simple “core” edition is showing a September 1st availability. It’ll cost…
Samsung’s E200 candybar cellphone is being relaunched in an environmentally-friendlier version at Samsung’s Olympic sales event. The external case of the phone, in appropriate green color, is made of bioplastic (extracted from plant material like corn) instead of polycarbonate plastic, which reduces the CO2 burden of producing the phone. It’s also packaged in an uncoated…
Click to viewThe FCC has come through again, giving up testing info on Sony’s upcoming PSP-3001 redesign. It’s still the same generation PSP and still has most of the same parts (802.11b Wi-Fi) and still plays the same games, so we’re guessing most of the changes will be internal and focused on lowering costs and…
The August, 1918 cover of Hugo Gernsback’s Electrical Experimenter magazine featured the “aerial mono-flyer of the future.” This monorail seems like only a modest improvement in safety over the 1930’s sightseeing death-trap known as the sky toboggan. But the mono-flyer is assuredly a less safe concept than the monorail of William H. Boyes, built around…
When you’re born blind, there are a few things you probably don’t expect to do: become an airline pilot, use a camera and type on the iPhone, to name a few. Chueh Lee, a designer at Samsung in China wants to remedy that second one with his Touch Sight camera design, which instantly creates a…
Planning an expedition to the uninhabitable continent soon? Didn’t think so. But still, this biofuel-powered Concept Ice Vehicle is pretty cool, with a prop in the back and three ski feet to ride on; it even has a spiked front foot for braking action and an ice radar for navigation. The CIV is 4.5 meters…
Well, it’s not an emulator in the strictest sense of the word, but it does play the massive catalog of Infocom Z-Machine interactive text adventure games. If you’re tired of expensive, tilt-happy titles that tire out your pale, strangely thin wrists, you can now slowly piece your way through hours of exhilarating “Open Door” “CANNOT…
