Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
AT&T is nixing the agreement they’ve had with Dish TV since 2003 to sell their satellite TV service as part of a triple play bundle with internet and voice. Some are speculating it’s because AT&T is simply down on satellite TV (it’s got its own U-verse IPTV thing after all), but more likely it’s pitting…
Asus is jumping on the bandwagon led by Panasonic and HP and releasing the B51, a super strong ruggedized laptop. The B51 is Mil-Spec 810F tough, can survive three-foot drops and has a keyboard drainage system in case you can’t keep your OJ in a glass. The heavy (7-lb.!) lappie runs Vista, has a Core…
The NASA 2009 Astronaut Candidate Class recruitment-for the first mission to the Moon in four decades-may be over, but if you didn’t send your résumé, don’t worry: you can still be a space couch potato and look at the pretty images and videos, like this newly-released NASA simulation showing how the whole thing is going…
Sony’s latest PlayStation 3 firmware update 2.4 brought what the fanboys have been crying about since the console’s inception-in-game access to the console’s Cross Media Bar (XMB). But I’ll tell you something, in-game XMB is fine and dandy, yes, but there were more pressing issues that Sony should have fixed first. In fact, I count…
Italian artist BLU is famous for painting politically and socially charged street murals, but his recent project involving street animation may be his most visually stunning. Called MUTO, the video is a series of digital stills assembled from sequential paintings on the streets/walls of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s been floating around a bit, but if…
Meet STARMAC, the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control. Possibly the cleverest remote control mini-helicopter you’ve ever seen, packed with GPS, sensors and computer power. It’s a research quad-rotor that the Stanford team is using to develop algorithms for future aircraft like it. The algorithms the team develops will allow hovering ‘bots like…
Remember Viacom suing YouTube and Google for one BILLION dollars eons ago? That’s still going on! And while a judge ruled yesterday that while Google doesn’t have to reveal its secret search sauce to the multimedia giantface, he did grant Viacom’s request for YouTube to turn over records of “every video watch by YouTube users,”…
Mazel tov, Mozilla, for claiming the Guinness world record for most downloaded software in a 24-hour period after 8 million of your minions snagged Firefox 3 on launch day. It’s not that big of a feat considering you took the record from absolutely no one, but you sure set the bar pretty high for anyone…
Google has just released a new version of their maps application that supports voice recognition search on the BlackBerry Pearl. That means Pearl users can load Google Maps, hold a side button, say “pizza, i said PIZZA…PEE ZZ UH” and have the application magically find tacos in your immediate vicinity. This upgrade doesn’t look to…
This week at Uncrate: We hit the road and the seas in the Terra Wind Amphibious RV, go green with the Greasecar Vegetable Oil Conversion System, and light up our worlds with the Dear Ingo Lamp. We also go exploring in the Eco-Explorer Boat, cool off with the DeLonghi Portable Air Conditioner, and kick back…
“Hello?” “Hi.” “Who is this?” “Mom, it’s your son.” “Oh…I thought this was going to be a joke or something.” [sourcingmap via Crunchgear]
If you enjoyed Kubrick’s 2001 and Bushnell’s 2600, then this shirt cannot be missed. And let me be the first to say, $12 to watch a bunch of monkeys reach for a joystick is an absolute steal. Hell, $12 to watch monkeys pretty much do anything is a decent value. [Etsy via Technabob]
Hello. Kitty. Antivirus. Software. [Kitty Hell]
For those who don’t like the floating steering wheel of Mario Kart Wii (because it lacks the realism of driving around a banana-spewing bulletmobile), this wheel mount by JTT isn’t a bad solution. Using a suction cup to attach the wheel to any flat surface, the top tilts 120-degrees so you can compete old-lady or…
Did you know that science has made it possible to turn milk into a plastic by solidifying the casein it contains? Well, you do now. But I bet you’d never think of using the technique to turn human breast milk into a “jewel” of sorts, and then use that to make a necklace. But that’s…
This transparent, glowing USB speaker is either missing one glowing arm to make it look like a flux capacitor, or has one arm too many to be the light on top of the TARDIS. It’s weird. But if you’re into EL-wire PC case modding, then I suppose this blue LED-lit USB speaker from Brando might…
This is the All Star Tailgating Trailer. Or as I like to call it, the The Get-Drunk-n-Stuffed Out of the Stadium Party BBQ Trailer. This thing-which you can order with custom paint, I’ll take naked women in naughty positions and flames on a black background, thank you very much-has all the stuff you need to…
Scientists at University of Pennsylvania have been tinkering with germanium-tellurium nanowires and have figured out how to make them store data in three states. Yup, that’s 0,1 and 2… binary seems passé now doesn’t it? According to the team, storing trits instead of bits “could allow for a huge increase in the memory density of…
It doesn’t take long for kids to learn that when it comes to Tic Tac Toe “the only winning move is not to play.” But there’s something iconic about the game that means it keeps coming back. And designer Shahar Peleg has crafted such an unusual version I’d be tempted to pop it on my…
At Impress they’ve posted a review of a recent show titled Anima Machines by artist Choe U Ram that contains some of the most bizarre robotic exhibits you can imagine. Choe’s work includes things like sophisticated glowing robotic flowers that respond to each other’s behavior, and whirling bladed sculptures that look organic in their complexity…