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Take a potentially lethal power tool (such as a saw), screw with it a bit and then place it on a track against other similarly sharp, high-speed devices. That’s the philosophy behind the Seattle Power Tool Race & Derby. And like any sport we like, it involves no sweat but a touch of danger. Last…
The official PlayStation blog has a posted a FAQ covering most of the lingering questions about the hot hot hot 2.40 firmware update. A couple of the bigger points: The in-game XMB is for PS3 games only-not during BD or PS2 playback. There’s no voice-messaging or private chat, just texting. Only music on the HDD…
Shots of the rumored Asus Eee 904 and 905 leaked, and they look like we expected-big keyboard and a small screen with way too much plastic around it. (If the screen gets too large, they aren’t allowed to use Windows XP.) There’s also a 903 model in the shots, but it just looks like a…
This week at TreeHugger: Tesla Motors, makers of fine electric cars, have a announced along with California’s governor that their next electric car will be called ‘Model S’ and that it will be built in the Bay Area instead of New Mexico. A 375 lbs black bear was shot down with a tranquilizer dart, but…
OpenTable is a great website that lets you reserve tables at restaurants without having to deal with calling and being put on hold and, you know, talking to another human being. You simply choose your restaurant, the date, and the time you want, and it’ll tell you when the closest available reservation is available. Presto,…
Unlike last year, when the iPhone dropped at 6pm, this year the iPhone 3G will be available early: 8am. That’s presumably because they’ll need to sign everyone up for an AT&T account in-store, so it’ll take a lot longer. That means no day of fun in the sun in line; instead, people with a penchant…
The image pretty much says it all, but Sony appears to be working on a gaming device that is all screen and all play. The touchscreen gadget in the patent would have haptic feedback, accelerometers, a microphone, and internet capabilities. Not sure how this fits in with the PSP phone rumors, but its interesting nonetheless.…
T-Mobile is hiking its SMS rate to 20 cents a text (up from 15), effective Aug. 29. Annoying, unless you want to get out of your T-Mobile contract. Raising prices is typically considered a material breach of contract, meaning you can weasel out of it with a bit of elbow grease and persistence (to show…
Kudos to AT&T. They’ve assembled a very useful FAQ page and cut several videos to lay out all the necessities of picking up an iPhone 3G. It includes topics like what you should have on hand if you’re transferring a phone number from another carrier (bring you current wireless bill, they suggest, along with your…
Prince Charles has discovered the perfect use for crappy English wine: He is using it as biofuel for his classic Aston Martin DB6. The Prince converted the 38-year old car to accept ethanol to play his part in reducing carbon emissions in the UK. The wine in question is a white distilled from the excess…
The AMK (that’s Alle Meine Klänge) looks something like the bastard offspring of Lego and a Guitar-Hero controller, with a few extra digital sprinklings thrown in. The idea is that its different modules can be plugged together in many ways to produce music: some have sound effects, others record incoming sounds and replay them and…
By Brilldea, this “living room” has been loaded with LED-backlit paneling to add “ambiance.” In reality, they’ve constructed a sci-fi nightmare suitable for some sort of legitimate sequel to Kubrick’s 2001. It’s a bit freaky, but what’s even more freaky is that we can actually do this stuff. Here’s the video: The money shot is…
It looks like the iPhone gaming scene is getting more solid by the day: Crash Bandicoot is the latest famous franchise that is going to appear at the app store in the form of Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, a racing game that-looking at the demo video-looks smooth and quite impressive running in the iPhone classic.…
OCZ’s new Core Series SSD’s are designed to be large and affordable. So the new 2.5-inch SATA II flash drives are coming in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB sizes at $479, $259 and $169 respectively. They don’t match up to the 200Mbps read speeds Samsung has promised-managing 135Mbs- but that price point is pretty low. And…
Even with man’s advancements in developing increasingly intricate microprocessors and ever taller skyscrapers, there’s one thing we cannot do. We cannot make a completely perfect sphere. Sure, we can get close. But a new problem has provoked a more perfect execution. The kilogram needs to be standardized across many countries as the 120-year-old physical platinum…
Laptops have been banned at the Bhutan parliament because, according to the speaker of their national assembly, “the members can be distracted playing games and viewing pictures.” Apparently, Bhutanese politicians are addicted to computer gaming and “pictures,” whatever that may be. They have protested, arguing that laptops are more convenient than carrying around bundles of…
It’s been a while since we brought you some news from Ultimate Ears (the cat eating through the cable to my UE Super.Fi’s doesn’t count, sadly). But now UE has released its newest offering, and it’s for the kids: the Loud Enough earphones. “They’ve gone barking mad!” you might say, citing expense and the potential…
This helicopter mini-drone has been developed by the Navy to help it counter water-borne threats, despite its provocatively lurid name. Made by Lite Machines, the battery-powered Voyeur weighs just four pounds, stands 27-inches high and is actually designed to be suicidal. It’s meant to hop out of sonobuoy tubes, patrol for threats for a while…
Technically, the trio of new processors from AMD are pretty much the same: they have the same core, and similar feature sets. But while the 9950 Black Edition is a 140W, 2.6GHz overclockable monster (the most power-hungry Phenom AMD has made) the 9350 (2GHz) and 9150 (1.8GHz) are selectively binned and draw just 65W TDP.…
The director of the TSA, Kip Hawley, has spoken to the New York Times and confirmed that X-ray-friendly laptop cases will be accepted by the agency as soon as they hit the shelves, potentially bringing an end to the panic that your laptop will go astray in all the fuss at airport checkpoints. We brought…
