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We’ve shown you staircase bookshelves, elasticated ones, bookchair ones and now there’s this balancing design. There must be something about the form-meets-function nature of a bookshelf that means designers just can’t resist them. In this case, “form” gets an added twist with the addition of a pivot and some sliding weights. So you can have…
In Japan, QR codes are everywhere. Little boxes of data that can be turned into web links, they’re found on advertisements everywhere, allowing people to get more info by simply pointing their phone at it. Now, QR codes are being found in more unorthodox places: on graves. Yep, now if you’re interested in finding out…
What? how the hell do I approve my account?
Whether the Kindle’s perpetual sold out status is the result of honest-to-God feverish demand for the little slab of e-book voodoo or a willfully sub-demand supply, that’s about to change. Jeff Bezos has a little love note on the front page of Amazon saying he’s sowwy they can’t keep up with our blistering desire to…
A phone that can stay on standby for months without needing to be recharged is a pretty cool idea, right? But where would such amazing abilities come from? One would think that if it was possible to do, many major manufacturers would offer that as a feature. But only from one random Chinese company? Well,…
Intel has set a price for its low-cost N270 notebook CPU: a mere $44. Now that actually does seem pretty cheap to us, so perhaps Intel’s promise of much cheaper computers in the future will come true. At the same time Intel announced two 65nm Centrino CPUs, both aimed at the entry-level laptop market. The…
Instead of unreadably cramming the internets into half-assed mobile browsers, Sprint’s rolling out a full-fledged browser for “virtually all” of its phones that can do the web dance. They’re using Openwave’s OpenWeb, which supposedly will make for a more desktop-like and less crap-like internet experience, even on sites not optimized for mobile devices. It’ll hit…
Apparently, when Jesus called Art.Lebedev’s Optimus Tactus keyboard “Optimus Retardus” for its lack of physical keys, the design team listened. Or not. Either way, Lebedev’s latest plan is to indeed make a visual keyboard with just one full-color screen as opposed to many tiny ones. But it will overlay physical transparent keys (like on the…
Hey, more good news on the snowboarding reader meetup beta. The day: April 5th. The place: Alpine Meadows. The Time: 9AM, upstairs in the main lodge cafeteria or something Nokia is coming with a fleet of N95s we can use, and Vudu and JBL are donating a prizes to give away, as are a few…
As well as hanging out with attractive women on the bed, Samsung’s new Hauzen VC-RE70V robot vacuum has some clever tech inside. It actually uses a camera to generate a map of your room, so it knows where it has already cleaned. When it’s low on juice it hunts down its charging base for power,…
One of the FCC’s five commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein, said during a recent symposium on FCC Internet Video Policy that the FCC’s rules shouldn’t permit “illegal acts.” Sure, illegal downloading is a serious problem, especially if you’re a copyright-holding movie studio. But does that mean the FCC is actually against net neutrality, in general? Adelstein half…
Here’s where the West German political elite was planning to spend nuclear winter, drinking Martinis and having toga parties after armageddon, waiting to see who emerged victorious from a worldwide thermonuclear war: a gigantic nuclear bunker with 17 kilometers of tunnels equipped with all kinds of commodities. Judging from the huge subterranean structure’s facilities, filled…
How big and disgustingly opulent does a yacht have to be to be considered a private island? This big and disgusting. Gizmag has a piece today on Wally’s luxury yachts and their 325 foot flagship. While Paul Allen’s Octopus is bigger at 410 feet, the Wally Gigayacht can be oufitted, with pools, tennis courts, mini…
Verizon Wireless just pulled back the curtain on its Open Development “Any App, Any Device” initiative, but the conference itself was developer oriented and heavy on the jargon. Here we boil it down to what really matters: • Can I port a phone from Sprint? • Will I finally get to download third-party apps? •…
As expected, the PS3 will become fully Blu-ray 2.0, or BD-Live, compatible with its next major software update, slated for “late March.” The functionality will give upcoming movies the ability to go online for downloads—games, ringtones and bonus audio and video. No other Blu-ray player on the market has this capability, and only a few…
Mini ITX machines around the size of a Mac mini aren’t rare. But machines like this with stereo speakers built in that look like little precise German lunchboxes of computing power, well, that’s not something you find every day. Precise? Yes, take a look at the front mesh and side grills. The single fan design…
More details of HTC’s Google phone are emerging, it seems. The handset is to be called “Dream”, will be touchscreen and have a large QWERTY keypad. So, what else do we know? And, more importantly, when is it coming out? https://gizmodo.com/google-android-prototype-in-the-wild-334909 Well, the HTC handset is around five inches long and 3 inches wide with…
Ranging between $500 and $1,500, the little fellas of the Guy Robots project are part art, and all junk and heart. According to their creator, they do not walk or talk or give legal advice, won’t harass your pets, emit ozone or pinch. Electro, the ready-for-anything direct current commando bot pictured here, likes folk dancing,…
Playing rubber duck battleships in the bath (you do that, don’t you?) will be more sophisticated now you can remote control your duck. This one has twin propellers, so you can steer him around, backwards and forwards from the waterproof remote. Ok, so it’s not quite so much fun as some bath ducks for adults,…
But I guess that’s the drugs talking. Designed by Nicolloe Alves Rincon with teenage girls in mind, these portable, rechargeable Mude lamps will, I guess, have pride of place at slumber parties. Just like our apocalyptic friends on horseback, four knobs control war, famine, pestilence and death the color and intensity of one of the…