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While we’ve heard rumors of Nintendo manufacturing a USB hard drive to compliment the Wii, a new job advertisement adds even more credence to the speculation. Posted three days ago, the ad calls for a “Software/Hardware Tester” who can implement a “test plan for Wii’s USB devices.” So a hard drive is probably on its…
A 59-year-old furniture restorer from Britain has modded his half-century-old television ahead of the digital switchover. Richard Howard spent $225 on a Bush Television Receiver and watched everything on it—including the moon landings—until the late ’80s, when TV pictures changed from the 405-line format to 625 lines. With the analog-to-digital switchover looming, however, Mr Howard…
If you are looking for a self-driving car, now you can buy the ByWire XGV, the modified Ford Escape that got third place at the DARPA Urban Challenge. Torc Technologies—who collaborated with Virginia Tech to develop this smartypants SUV hybrid—is going to sell the car for just $89,000 as a “research platform,” so other researchers…
There’s been a slew of Hewlett Packard products over the past few days and, although this digital picture frame is probably the smallest of the bunch, it’s pretty damn cute. Available in Europe at the moment, the frame has QGVA resolution, is SD-, SDHC- and MMC-compatible, can hold up to 45 pictures, and costs $76.…
Sony has developed a new CMOS technology that may revolutionize consumer video camcorders and cameras: a 5-megapixel, 60 frames per second back-illuminated sensor. As you can see in this test image, the sensor nearly duplicates light sensitivity while reducing the signal-to-noise ratio. The idea is apparently simple, but it dramatically increases the quality of the…
For those of you with desktop PCs crammed to the gills with peripherals, this slot-loading data dock from Brando might be a neat space-saver solution. It takes up just one 3.5-inch drive bay, but has three interchangeable sleds: one for 2.5-inch SATA HDDs, one with a 4-way USB hub and one a multi-type card reader.…
On show at Computex is Honlai’s portable projector for the iPhone. It’s a dock-style gadget that you slot your first-gen iPhone into, beaming a smallish image onto the wall in front of you. This strikes me as such a good idea—it’s currently just a concept—that I really hope Honlai, the brains behind this palm-sized LED…
XM Satellite Radio and EMI Music have settled the lawsuit over the recording of digital songs by XM users. Nobody knows the terms of the deal, but it probably involves virgins and kittens’ blood. [Reuters] https://gizmodo.com/music-publishers-sue-xm-radio-246708
Brando’s Cyber Tap bath-time radio is not massively high-tech, sure, but its cuteness is undeniable. Stick its 4.7-inch sucker onto tiles or glass, adjust FM/AM frequency and twirl the volume tap to boogie away to showertime music. Is the red one more suited to Hot Gossip while the blue one’s best for Coldplay? Who knows,…
The ChocoCase is a sturdy case for iPhone that has an incorporated screen protector. Added to the GizFever catalog on, it says, June 10, there’s one problem that I can see: it’s designed for the almost-obsolete first-gen iPhone. Still, nice idea, even if it costs $30. Personally, I’ll hang on for the ChocoCase manufacturer to…
PopSci got their hands on this 2.5-ton home-built frogtruck, a 260-horsepower treaded monster which is the first-ever amphibious vehicle that can fully retract its drive assembly. The path for the perfect amphibian truck was as hard as the ones this thing can now travel through at 30mph: the mud flats, bogs, ice fields, snow slopes,…
Several all-in-one desktop PCs seem to have taken design inspiration from the iMac recently, but Proview’s upcoming VD1-26W has the added feature of a pen-sensitive screen for freehand writing, drawing and, presumably, mousing. It’s no HP Touchsmart, but is pretty slimline, with connections and ports pushed into a small box on its rear, and has…
Just a few months ago we reported that Toshiba had turned up the spin-speed on its 1.8-inch hard drives to 5400 rpm. And now Toshiba’s squeezed yet more storage onto those tiny spinning platters, beefing the storage capactity up to 160GB. Apparently it’s the industry’s first such drive with a serial ATA interface and it’s…
We knew Snow Leopard wasn’t really going to have any brand new “features”, but nothing says confirmed like actually seeing it for yourself. Orchard Spy has shots of an early build numbered 10A96, probably handed out at WWDC, that shows what you can expect when you eventually upgrade to 10.6 next year. Too bad it’s…
One of the first things we noticed when Steve Jobs came out on stage was that he was noticeably thinner than he was in previous events. We were vaguely concerned since he’s had a recent history of what could be considered pretty severe health problems, but it looks like it’s just a “common bug” says…
While not all of us at Giz (read: none) like the white iPhone 3G, I’m sure some of you might. So feel free to vote for your favorite non-color here. Not like it matters. Hit it, MJ! Link: sevenload.com Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to…
This (most likely doctored) photo of a picturephone in 1939 or 1940 is featured in the book Exit to Tomorrow: World’s Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005. The weird thing is that I haven’t been able to verify the authenticity of this photo outside of this book. In fact, it is rare to find mention of…
BMW has created a concept car called the GINA Light Visionary Model, which takes a seamless, plastic-coated lycra material, and stretches it over a metal frame with moving parts—allowing for the car to have shape-shifting properties. The shape of the body can be changed without tearing or loosening the fabric, and the steering wheel, gauges…
Honda research engineers have given Asimo the ability to understand three voices at once, thanks to an array of eight microphones that can recognize each voice individually. The recognition software, HARK, can process the commands with 70-80 percent accuracy and the microphones are placed all over Asimo’s head and body for spatial recognition purposes. The…
Click to viewWhile yes, the new iPhone 3G‘s speed boost is going to be great for, you know, looking at family photos or checking on your eBay bids. But really, we know what you’re going to use it for and why you’re so excited. So does your boss. Remember that the next time you take…
