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The United Arab Emirates keep building their Blade Runner-ish cities in the middle of the desert, with buildings like the Ras Al-Khaimah Gateway, a 2.9 million square feet hotel, conference and exhibition complex that looks like some kind of alien mothership from outer space. Construction will start later this year and Norwegian architects Snøhetta say…
For $259, this Cica lamp must be some kind of limited edition, designer-signed, hand-blown Pyrex glass light that looks like a broken lightbulb, with a high-powered LED that makes the whole thing glow like a Terry Gilliam movie prop. Looks like it, and it’s beautiful, but for that price I think I would get a…
This is the Scope Clock, from designer David Forbes, and if you’re into retro-tech chic gadgets, this thing will beat any nixie clock hands down. Just look at it: a cathode ray tube encased in acrylic, with GPS time automagically captured for accuracy, and the ability to display digital or analog clock faces. It’s fabulous,…
The latest entry into the UMPC market first stirred-up by the Eee PC is this new ultra-light from Raon Digital. It’s beefy inside despite its tiny size, packing a dual-core CPU—AMD Turion—which, according to the makers, is a first. It looks barely bigger across than its 7-inch screen (with 1024 x 600 pixels), but squeezes…
Samsung has added to its line of wireless speakers with the new YA-SBR510. There’s sparse info, but it looks to be a bigger, newer version of the BS900 we showed you last year. It’s got both Bluetooth and line-in connectivity so you can play music from almost any source. There’s also the YA-SD210 cradle, much…
Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700 is a 17-inch behemoth that’s the first notebook ever with a built-in Wacom digitizer. Designed for professional use in industries such as graphic design, photography and CAD, the digital tablet lets you manipulate images in programs like Photoshop without any extra gear. In addition, the 8-lb notebook features a professional grade, WUXGA…
ATI’s Nvidia-slaying Radeon HD 4870 X2, previewed last month, will get official tomorrow at SIGGRAPH says the WSJ, who notes that some reviewers are calling it the most powerful card around. It’s an interesting test of ATI’s graphics card strategy: Cheaper, less power-hungry GPUs that can be easily strapped together (like the dual-GPU 4870 X2)…
If you thought the post office was slow, get a load of this Real Snail Mail project. Created by the aptly titled Boredom Research team for the SIGGRAPH 2008 Slow Art Exhibition, this snail mail service uses live snails to deliver your email messages via RFID chips planted on the shell. When you compose an…
Oncore’s just released a six-bay MacBook and iBook charger which, as its name implies, can charge six batteries at the same time. Or rather three batteries at the same time, since it’s divided up into three sets of two charging bays. Each bay can charge one while holding onto the other for when the first…
Zune Guy says he’s leaving the Zune because Microsoft is leaving it to die on the vine (or wherever MP3 players hang). But that’s just not true! They’re actually verrrry busy poking Hollywood types to get exclusive original video just for the Zune. It’s not just any video they’re looking for, though, but video that…
Aahhggg hooking up new A/V gear: the beautifully colored plug porn, just ready to accept fresh, pure cable connections. So satisfying, so fulfilling. Now you can spread that love all around with this new tee from Threadless-“A/V” designed by fellow hookup enthusiast Olly Moss. Olly, I don’t know you, but I think we would get…
Heroes Season 2 was mostly garbage. So I was kind of glad the writer’s strike gave them the chance to reboot and blow past the rest of the season, thereby preserving my final, dangly shreds of interest (though I worry about this season’s rumored multi-verse). Anyways! One deleted scene reveals Hiro’s dad’s (George Takei) power:…
I have done a number of iPhone case reviews in my day, and every time I do I find myself wondering-who uses these things anyway? As far as day to day usage is concerned, it seems that most of these cases do nothing more than add unnecessary bulk. And, as OObject has pointed out with…
Did you get an iPhone 3G on launch day? That was a whole 30 days ago, can you believe it? Which means if you’re an unhappy camper, today is the last day you can tell Apple and AT&T to shove it where you really don’t get any 3G reception without getting slapped by early-termination fees.…
A new show on Playboy TV asks the question that is on all our minds day in and day out: What would you choose, a girl or a gadget? Their Gadget or the Girl reality “program” will force contestants to choose between a weekend vacation with a girl of their choice-as in one of the…
That is, if you’re excited about the prospect of talking to a creepy joker-faced white beetle with eye holes as hollow as your soul when you’re around the conference table. The folks at the Nokia Research Center’s Smart Spaces lab are actually intending this design concept for home use, but I can see a lot…
Chris Fox’s Electrolux concept would be the missing piece in any Korean BBQ night out, if by “missing piece” you mean “a slight upgrade to what you currently have.” Instead of one gigantic grill in the middle of the table, this concept links up many different cookers and plates via daisy chain and can all…
OK, so Frank Miller is a famous comic book turned movie guy, who wrote such famous books as 300 and Sin City, the latter of which he turned into a cool movie. Now, the studios have let him off his leash and are letting him make what appears to be an insane disaster of a…
The 2008 Olympics have begun, and now that we’ve had a few days to digest the coverage, we’ve found the best (and worst) things about watching the games online and on your TV. Those of us stuck here in America and not lucky enough to own Vista must deal with NBC’s often delayed event broadcasts.…
With the Olympics in full-swing, and the watersports getting so intense that both balls and boobs are flying (NSFW link), there was no better time for H2O Audio to unveil their new AMPHIBX watersports armband. According to a recent press release, it provides 100% waterproof protection up to depths of 12 feet for both the…
