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Sure, the Burj Dubai tower looks amazingly tall, but it’s final height— currently projected to be 2,300 feet— is less than half that of a new building planned for Saudi Arabia. It’s going to be 5,250 feet high. Yup, that’s just 30 feet short of a mile tall: taller than anything under construction anywhere, and…
The apparently incombustible Meizu CEO, Jack Wong, has just announced that they are going to add Live Messenger to their M8 cellphone, the rather pathetic and sad motherboard that wants to be an iPhone clone when it grows up (if it ever gets released). In other words: new vaporware announced for vaporware. The usual cynics…
Seems like Sony’s Rolly really is due out soon, and it’ll be available in a black body version with a matching black cradle, as hinted at by the FCC filing. If black’s too boring for you, then you’ll also be able to trick your Rolly out with blue, red or silver replacement “arms”. Maybe they’re…
CTIA comes but twice a year, and it gives the telecoms and phone makers a chance to show off their coolest stuff. Verizon Wireless apparently has its hands full with the whole open-network thing, because instead of unveiling something potentially sweet like the LG VX9700 or VX8560, its lineup of CTIA phones looks pretty ho-hum.…
The 1982 book, The Omni Future Almanac, reports on the debate between those who believe the year 2000 will bring about rapid global warming, and those that believe the earth will be cooling. Some scientists cite 2000 as the approximate year when the carbon dioxide “greenhouse” effect will be recognized as having raised global temperatures…
In honor of the upcoming Tahoe reader meetup on April 5th at Alpine Meadows, I’m going to be doing end of season reviews of some outdoor gadgetry that’s been floating around the cabin. First up, these electric socks originally designed to keep North Atlantic fishermen warm. The idea: Wool/Poly blend Socks with wiring and thin…
Officials from the International Swimming Federation (aka FINA) want to speak with Speedo next week about their high-tech swimsuit. Seems the athletes who use the swimsuit are breaking all sorts of records and, with the Olympics coming up, FINA doesn’t want anyone getting an unfair advantage. Unfortunately for FINA, the only real resolutions appear to…
Vivitar is responsible for dirt cheap video cameras and the like. Their latest offering, which hasn’t received a detailed specification list, doesn’t look too bad at all; the DVR565HD will be a SD-card camcorder that will support recording in H.264/MPEG4 high definition at 720p, with a 30fps frame rate. Additionally, the video camera will be…
Microsoft has just inked a deal with Peter Safran, the producer of amazing cinema masterpieces like Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, Meet the Spartans, and the all-time-classic RocketMan, to produce “original” shows for distribution via Xbox 360’s Live service. Like his movies, the 10-minute-max shows will “initially” be scripted (or something like that,) and they will…
In the future we’ll probably play music with our minds, but for now the Beamz Laser Music System uses a series of six lasers which you can break with your hands to play instruments like guitars, violin and (YES!) even a cowbell. There are also 30 preloaded songs and musical genres that can play alongside…
When a British soldier on patrol in Afghanistan set a rigged grenade off by mistake, his first thought was for the safety of his comrades. So, in order to protect them, Lance-Corporal David Croucher dived on the grenade and turned on his side, with only a backpack—containing a first-aid kit, 66-millimeter rocket and radio equipment—and…
A new report from Solutions Research Group hints that the male-dominated era of technology and gadgets may be coming to an end. Some activities, such as using a DVR to record a TV show, or streaming movies or games, are more popular amongst women than men. Gents, has this happened to you? Take the poll,…
Jon Penn isn’t your average 11-year-old school kid. No, Sir. In his spare time, mostly between classes, he manages the entire computing network for his school in Alabama. The network consists of sixty computers and Jon took up the role when the previous administrator upped and left, completely unannounced. Jon has since visited CompUSA and…
A group of hackers has captured the fingerprints of the German Interior Minister as a protest against plans to use biometric data in e-passports. The latest edition of their magazine, Die Datenschleuder, contains a plastic foil that reproduces the whorls and swirls of Wolfgang Schauble’s digit, meaning there are 4,000 copies of the politician’s prints…
An SMS-savvy Finnish Foreign Minister has joined former New York governor Eliot Spitzer in the “thinks with the wrong head” club this week. The 60-year-old Ilkka Kanerva was discovered to have sent more than 200 text messages to an exotic dancer named Johanna Tukiainen, 29. And her sister! Despite the fact that Kanerva’s longtime parter…
If your Internet surfing gets cut constantly because a cow kicked over a lantern and burned down the barn or worse-because you use DSL, help could be on the way. Denver-based Open Range Communications is hoping to eliminate rural DSL Internet surfing with a substantial $267 million loan it received from the Department of Agriculture.…
Until I saw these, I thought that the pantsular affliction of cameltoe was something to be ashamed of. Not in Japan, apparently. These flesh-colored party pants look like the Nurse Ratched of the lingerie world, and it seems like they do to your nether regions what a good bra does to your upper one—lift and…
Today’s Dilbert cartoon reminds me of Addy’s brilliant story about Zoltan, the man who married a robot made with a sex doll, hacked teledildonics, and A.L.I.C.E., the artificial intelligence software that makes her brains. Some people made fun of Zoltan, but this cartoon shows a simple fact: many humans, bosses, employees, spouses, and lovers around…
Our buddies at LaptopMag have just published details about the long-rumored, US bound, Windows XP Eee PC. The Windows XP version will go on sale at Best Buy for $399, and you won’t have to wait too long either, as Asus expects the systems to ship on April 9th. The system that will run the…
The chaps at Phone Arena have managed to gain some leaked press shots of AT&T’s LG Vu, and it is looking tastier than before. The Vu will come in two primary versions; the CU915 will lack a mobile TV antenna, whilst the CU920 will be supplied with mobile TV antenna, which will support AT&T’s new,…
