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The everyday front-door lock has had a bit of an overhaul with Kwikset’s Smartkey system. First, it’s designed to be unbumpable, so you can feel more secure when you leave your home unoccupied. What’s bumping, you ask, innocently? It’s a way for nefarious types to defeat the lock by quickly shoving in a trick key,…
Hey boys ‘n’ girls, the Apple Store just went down; it’s US only, but we’ll keep you posted on any developments. Whoever guesses what the new addition is wins the “I Was Right About the Apple Store Refresh Today” Award. Check back for an update. Update: The store is back online and it looks like…
The Apple Store is down… They’re updating something. Any ideas on what it is?
The Boston Retinal Implant Project recently developed a bionic eye implant that will restore vision to those affected by degenerative blindness. The device works by being implanted into the back of the eyeball and working as a light transmitter to the brain, where the two are connected by a nerve/wire thinner than a human hair.…
Lionsgate is in the midst of working out an agreement with Apple that will make it the latest movie studio to offer iTunes digital copies on select DVD and Blu-ray titles. In order to get a piece of the action you will have to redeem the copies using a code that will come packaged with…
Art Lebedev and his Lebedevites are hard at work designing a follow-up to the Optimus Mini 3, a smaller, three-buttoned version of the Maximus keyboard we saw at CES. Here’s what they’re thinking: wireless, possibly Bluetooth, maybe AC-powered. People use this to control PowerPoint presentations (good idea, you can see what’s coming up before others…
So a 1TB external drive is nothing new, but it is hard to deny that this thing is pretty…real pretty. LaCie has been getting heavy into the aluminum casings recently, which may play a factor in cooling, but those devices definitely did not bring this kind of cool stealth technology vibe that is so intoxicating.…
Before MySong from Microsoft Research, people without musical talent had to resort to consuming music and not bothering the rest of us with their amateur stylings. No longer. All you have to be able to do is sing a short tune (provided you can sing somewhat on key) and this MySong software will dynamically generate…
We already told you about Intel’s new ultramobile SSDs, but their tiny size means high cost and low capacities, only up to 16GB. That’s why the company promised SATA-II SSDs in the 1.8″ and 2.5″ sizes with capacities up to 160GB, with read and write speeds exceeding Samsung’s 100MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively. Best of all,…
You have already seen the Swiftpoint Slider Mouse, a device that effectively makes your keyboard into one giant mousepad, and now we learn that there is a similar device made primarily for tablet PCs and multi-touch tabletop surfaces. Besides being pointier and cooler looking than the Slider, the Triped aims to “remove barriers to the…
We’re no stranger to maid-inspired casemods and PC accessories, but this Maid PC computer case? It’s the perfect PC case for the kind of guy who wants his PC to look like the belly button to upper thigh area of a maid, but doesn’t want to spend the time and effort it takes to build…
This is a Cowon Q5W PMP that’s been rigged to hook up to an original Playstation controller and run a SNES emulator. On the one hand, it’s sweet to see SNES games being played on a PMP. On the other hand, this is a honking $550+ PMP, so you’d probably be pretty pissed if it…
During my last move I took great pleasure in purging my home of items that were doing nothing but taking up space. There is something very liberating about a style that is minimalist and compact—which is why this Matroshka living concept is so interesting. Taking a page from the Casuo apartment in a box, the…
When I reviewed the Airbook, I noticed that I’d catch myself almost tossing the thing around like a magazine, which it resembled in size. Now Stephen Levy of Newsweek, one of the big four reviewers, has lost his. And he’s theorizing that he might have thrown it out with a stack of old newspapers he…
There are plenty of alarm clocks out there that attempt to “shock” you awake with loud noises or groggily impossible feats of hand-eye coordination—but I think we can all agree that waking up to that would suck really hard. The Seven Alarm clock concept takes a different approach by playing your favorite MP3 (like Shatner’s…
This piece of analog DIY Belt-bucking flies in the face of decades months of geeky digital belt buckle dominance [swongled.com]
Venture Vehicles is developing a road car using tilting technology first explored by Carver Engineering [swongled.com]
Some sharp-eyed folks over at blargKaboom analyzed last week’s SDK event and noticed a search icon in Contacts. Interestingly enough, the icon appears in a screenshot about 9 min and 30 sec in, but not in the actual demo. Hopefully, this feature will be ready by the time the final version rolls out in June,…
Reports of OLPC’s Negroponte looking for a replacement to fill his CEO role were a bit unfounded, as the man himself just claimed that the organization HAS no CEO, and that whatever the replacement does, it won’t be what Negroponte is doing. Negroponte says: https://gizmodo.com/olpc-founder-negroponte-is-getting-the-hell-out-of-dodg-364643 Replacement is not the right word. We have no CEO.…
Boeing Phantom Works, the guys who get to do all the awesome planes and play with the alien ships at Area 51, have modified and successfully tested ScanEagle unmanned air vehicles to “intercept, detect and fly through simulated biological plumes or clouds to collect airborne agents.” This means that the aircraft above will allow troops…