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Solar powered spotlights seem like a pretty smart idea for areas of the country that have enough light. Think Geek tested it with a south-facing balcony and it was able to get enough sun power to shine both lights at full power for eight hours. That’s pretty impressive, seeing as it’s unlikely that you’d be…
Touchscreens. They’re everywhere, as if electronics makers aren’t cool unless their phones or media players have them, and soon that will be true for laptops as well. Touchscreens aren’t going to completely replace the mouse and keyboard in the next year or two, but we’re hurtling toward a future where they’re the dominant way we…
The headline pretty much says it all. Click through for the finer details. • Go here and take a quick 10 minute survey before next Wednesday (8/20) • After that, you’re entered in a drawing for a $300 Visa Gift Card. • Rules and stuff are here. Easy, huh? [Survey]
Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with the soft serve style of traditional CFLs, but we sort of love the overly cutesy nature of the Bulb 2.0, a compact fluorescent shaped lamp with the faux filament of a traditional incandescent lightbulb. It’s both a nod to Edison in an era when his most famous invention…
Sprint’s plans for the next 16 months or so hit the web today, and they pack news of a new BlackBerry, the 8350i. The stout new BB looks to be based on the Curve, with Wi-Fi and GPS along with Direct Connect push-to-talk support without a massive external antenna, which explains the portliness. Looks like…
Benny says that real geek BDSM lovers use real plastic power cables to do their thing. It may be my inner feminine side, but I prefer a gentler touch, so I would go with this 6-foot-long, 3/8-inch-wide knitted power cord, made of a very soft cotton and acrylic blend. KnitKnit shop says it works great…
Just to clarify, we’re not posting this “5.25 floppy inches” shirt for actual purchase and real world wear. But if you absolutely cannot resist, then go ahead. Just wear it to bed when you’re sleeping alone. That way the precious illusion is maintained that the solitude is optional. [Geek Swag via Gearfuse]
The Space Invaders magnet set-the perfect accompaniment to your refrigerator. But don’t even think about reaching for that milk without a pixel blaster. Oh, you’re out of ammo? Poor baby. Guess you’re ordering a pizza. Dial, bitch. (Or order online, of course.) [Jlist via Random Good Stuff]
After news of possible 3G driver/chipset shortcomings, many international iPhone carriers are bringing out the innocent, puppy-dog-eyed shoulder shrug regarding customer gripes with the iPhone’s 3G performance. Both T-Mobile Netherlands and Vodafone Australia are the latest to go public with their passive-aggressiveness, much to Apple’s delight. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-3gs-sluggish-3g-could-be-caused-by-lousy-chipset-5036104 Posting on its official blog [translated] , T-Mobile…
Here’s the MechRC, a user-friendly, fully-programmable robot that uses a gamepad to control 17 precision servos which provide 180-degrees of movement. It looks Cylon-class badass in this shot, but from a normal angle it’s more a black Optimus Prime than a human-killing bot. The MechRC has an electronic and mechanical expansion system, so you can…
All you need is the Homebrew Channel to add your Wii to the hundreds-long list of devices in your house that can play DVDs. Previous DVD hacks required a modded console, but now you can grab a .DOL file and install a DVD-capable version of mplayer without opening the hood. It should also play video…
It’s rare that we come across a DIY project that we both: a) want to complete and b) feasibly could complete. But this project takes a used pair of wooden cross country skis and through the magic of just two brackets and a few screws, creates a media shelf with some pizazz. Plus, just spit-balling…
If you thought you were going to stop hearing about Bill Gates after his farewell, check out his latest predictions about what’s going to be cooking in the next decade, straight from Microsoft Asia research arm’s 10th Anniversary forum: • The Internet will lead to a software revolution. People often talk about this as the…
These are the walls of a Human-Computer Interaction Institute lab at Carnegie Mellon, and as you can see, they provide plenty of opportunities to create such interactions on the fly when you snag your sweater on some spiky solder leads or that ZIF socket handle. Chris Harrison, a PhD student, bought old motherboards on eBay…
The latest version of Lockheed Martin’s FOPEN system-Foliage Penetrating Synthetic Aperture Radar-will make Predators happy, both the Unmanned Air Vehicles and the human alien hunters. The imaging system, which is part of the US Army’s TRACER-Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar-program gives high-resolution, near-real-time video of any target areas through very dense vegetation, following people…
From Samuel Rhoads-Clarke, KitRadio is part DIY radio, part mini-artwork diorama. It’s designed to teach you about the inner workings of a gizmo that we take for granted as a “black box” item nowadays, or “become familiar with the technology behind the product” as Samuel puts it. To that end, the wooden box and components…
As part of the 2008 World Expo, interactive floor designer Sensacell has built a 250 square foot installation from 1000 of their LED panels. Covered in strong, architectural glass, the floor responds to pressure by lighting up. And while that alone doesn’t sound all that exciting, the system tracks the pressure over time, allowing users…
Here’s something that you might miss among all the crazy junk at SIGGRAPH. It’s an interactive aquatic life table called Oasis, by designer Yunsil Heo, that is completely covered by fancy black sand. Why is it covered, you ask? Well, that’s what makes it interactive. By moving the sand so it will show the LCD…
Though Pico Z toy helicopters and their ilk are fun, they’re bloody difficult to control (even the Tandem Z version) since they lack the control sophistication of bigger models. But Kyosho is trying to sort that out with its upcoming “Minium AD Caliber 120 Readyset” micro-helicopter model, which has a proper cyclic control—the world’s first…
A chair made of torpedo-launcher parts just wouldn’t say “come hither” to techy ladies in the same way as this bed from Motoart. Dubbed Mile High, you can tell it’s aimed at the sexier end of the geek furniture market, partly as it’s marketed with a “a wonderful playground for you and your co-pilot” slogan,…
