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Click to viewEver since Apple announced that they’re cutting $200 from the iPhone’s price and lowering the iPhone 3G down to $199, people have been rumbling about how the increased AT&T data plan price negates any savings you get up front on the phone. Screams of “IT’S NOT ACTUALLY CHEAPER, APPLE IS FOOLING US” have…
Uber steampunk connoisseur, DRM hater, typist, new father and NY Times Bestselling author Cory Doctorow just received his handmade steampunk keyboard from Datamancer and he loves it. He compares it to a “well-oiled manual” and those IBM clacky keyboards that half of you crazy old bastards seem to really enjoy using to wake up your…
Yeah, yeah, you get it: The new iPhone uses AT&T’s best-in class (in NYC at least), 3G high-speed network, one that’s getting faster and more spread out all the time. But there’s a lot you probably didn’t know about the technology involved: How fast can you really go on the thing? Why did AT&T feel…
Over the last year, artist Chris Burden and his assistants have been painstakingly constructing a gigantic 16,000 pound, 65 foot skyscraper using replicated stainless steel Erector set pieces. The work, entitled “What My Dad Gave Me” was inspired by the tall buildings in Manhattan-which is why the piece was carted from Los Angeles and recently…
Microsoft’s red ring Xbox 360 problems have cost the company about a billion dollars in warranty repairs, but the research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner said that the hardware problems were caused because Microsoft wanted to be cheap. Instead of using an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) vender to make a graphics chip for…
It looks like our initial source was mistaken because the Snow Leopard developer preview build contains a document stating that it’s compatible with Intel only. Sorry PowerPC. But even if Apple were to release a Snow Leopard for the aging platform, there’s no way that developers could take advantage of the software’s real assets-multi-core optimization.…
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this leaked spyshot of the Sony Ericsson “Alicia” Walkman phone seems awfully familiar. Especially with the all black front and that little circle inside of the big circle — where have I seen this before? In any case, The Unofficial Sony E Blog mentions it will…
In Belkin’s new line of iPhone 3G cases, their standout has to be this webbed Micro Grip. Rubberized and poked with holes in all the necessary places, we’re not so sure it’s our cup of tea, but we can’t take our eyes off it either. Still, one thing’s for sure—somewhere in Cupertino, Jonathan Ive is…
We know, in light of a $200 8GB iPhone, a $130 8GB iPod nano (refurbished) seems remarkably less impressive. But as of right now, it’s still a good deal as well as a great little music player. Plus, keep in mind that just yesterday a flight attendant saw my nano on my tray table and…
Remember that incredible Svalbard Global Seed Vault we told you about? It protects the Earth’s plants for when aliens blow up our civilization so that they too can enjoy the natural decadence of fried plantains (that are generously fertilized by our decaying corpses). 60 Minutes got a peek inside the vault, and it’s pretty neat…
With iPhone 3G availability still a month away, inquiring minds can’t help but scour the Apple site for clues. After drooling over the 3G and GPS info, we spotted a less tantalizing update: the included accessories. Where’s the dock, what’s up with this cheaper-looking power adapter, and was it really worth it to include a…
Okay, so I’m going to go out on a limb and call these badly Photoshopped images of a rumored Nikon D10 DSLR faaaaaake (see all that nastiness around the D10 logo?). But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a D10 in the works. For one, there is a hole in their line up between the prosumer…
Those of you complaining about the lack of front camera and videoconferencing in the new iPhone, stop saying words. This July 11 you will be able to buy the Apple Videoconferencing Kit for iPhone 3G at just $29. Press release and an exclusive leaked photo of the user manual—showing how it exactly works—right after the…
It’s not official word from a press release, but Apple’s Australian site is showing the new App store as hitting June 27th-which would point to iPhone 2.0 firmware hitting at the same time. That’s earlier than Jobs’ “early July” designation from the WWDC keynote. But you know, toilets flush differently in Australia and everything, so…
While I’m, of course, a little partial to my own recent Apple keynote mash-up, this clip is an excellent summary of WWDC 2008 in 60 seconds (or just enough time to turn up those speakers while the boss is in the bathroom). I was there and actually remembered some moments I’d forgotten, so it’s probably…
Verizon Wireless is finally fessing up to three LG phones that it will be delivering to customers in June and July: • The Dare, aka VX9700: This has a touchscreen but is slim thanks to the absence of a hidden keyboard (like on the bulkier Glyde and Voyager). • Chocolate 3: A phone we hadn’t…
It looks like hopes for a more robust GPS app for the iPhone 3G, with say, voice turn-by-turn navigation-or just a different way of doing things-might be well and dashed. The SDK agreement has a curious little clause that would seem to ban TomTom (or anyone else) from working their GPS magic: https://gizmodo.com/tomtom-has-navigation-app-already-running-on-the-iphone-5014769 “Applications may…
Robots robots robots… from sexy ones to fighting ones, we love them here at Giz. But this amazing project by Matt Denton over at Robosavvy has me in two minds. It’s a modified DIY hexapod robot with a motorised Dremel-tool nose, and Matt’s written some code that lets the robot move the cutting tool with…
The Good News: Toshiba and Hitachi are both flaunting new technologies to make MRAM (the successor to DRAM) more plausible for public consumption. Plus, the United States and Korea both have begun national-level projects to develop the tech. Why We Care: MRAM uses just 10% of the power of DRAM and offers instant-on computer booting.…
While modders are busily adapting the Eee PC for touchscreen capability, it seems that Asus has been working on an official handwriting recognition add-on. Demoed at last weeks Computex show, the Asus pad accepts English and Chinese (traditional and simplified) characters and simply plugs into the Eee’s USB port. It measures 4.3 x 4.4 x…