Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
We loved the Pleo when we reviewed it a little while back, and now the smallest dinosaur in town has just been updated for more fun times. The 1.0.2 update will allow Pleo to interact with its surroundings more convincingly, wake from rest if a noise is detected and support a new grouped singing function,…
In case you were worried that digital SLRs would remain priced higher than point-and-shoots, Olympus is breaking down the $500 barrier with its, well, $499.99 E-420. (Kinda makes you feel like sparkin’ a doobie, don’t it?) Sure, it’ll cost you an extra hundred to get a 14-42mm starter lens, but this is the beginning of…
According to Flight Global, DARPA is close to awarding a contract to build an unmanned aircraft that can stay in the air for up to 5 years at a time. DARPA describes the “Vulture” project as a “persistent pseudo-satellite capability in an aircraft package.” In other words, the aircraft can hover over a single area,…
After purchasing a $300 hard drive from Best Buy, a customer was understandably shocked when she and her husband opened the box at home to reveal nothing but three bags of dried beans. Naturally, they immediately called Best Buy only to find that they were absolving themselves of all responsibility. After calls to both the…
Just days after becoming official, JKK Mobile has unveiled a short video hands on with the Asus Eee PC 900. It is not definitive by any means, although they were generally impressed. Specifically, they were happy with the larger size and increased resolution (1024 x 600) on the 8.9-inch screen. And the 1GB ram, 1.3…
From afar, Dubai is the most exciting place on earth, almost every day shaping up to be more like the utopic sci-fi fantasy city we had in our heads growing up. Its latest architectural stuntwork/masterpiece is the 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City designed by Rem Koolhaas, an entire self-contained city resting atop an artificial island that mixes…
Logitech has been dying to get into wireless whole-house audio like Sonos and not a whole lot of others. Now that CNet has favorably reviewed the $400 Squeezebox Duet we told you about at CES, it may well have a shot. In living video, our buddy John Falcone explains the Wi-Fi-powered system, and notes that,…
I suppose it goes without saying, but the “Backpack House” concept is probably the most ill conceived design idea ever. Basically, the idea is that the square footage of an apartment can be increased by hanging a 2-ton add on from the roof or the facade of a building. That means that users would have…
Garmin has announced a few upgrades to its popular line of entry-level nuvi 200 GPS devices in the form of the nuvi 255 / 255W and the 205 / 205W. Fans of the series can expect improved mapping and routing features, faster satellite acquisition, navigation by photos, FM traffic updates and content from MSN Direct.…
After a long night at the roadhouse, nothing beats regaining consciousness in the morning to a fresh cup of coffee in a brass knuckle mug (version 1 or version 2), then sitting down in your comfy Brass Knuckle Chair to ice down your wounds and unwind. Careful though, the upholstery is white—so you wouldn’t want…
A month after he personally seized the reins at Motorola’s beleaguered handset division, CEO Greg Brown is already looking to hand off the responsibility—and maybe the flak?—to someone from outside. Maybe a new perspective is what it needs, all those RAZRs start to look the same after a while. Oh wait. [Into Mobile] https://gizmodo.com/motorola-ceo-seizes-control-of-slumping-cellphone-divis-352572
At Microsoft’s Techfest, a researcher was showing off a smart shuffle system that uses tags and meta data like tempo and genre to direct playlist creation in a portable music device. The demo was being done on a first generation Zune. The system is being developed in direct response to the huge number of songs…
We have all seen the futuristic sci fi movies and TV shows with their fancy technology, and the question we all ask ourselves at one point or another is “when are we going to get some of that?” Unfortunately, the answer is “not very soon” when it comes to most of the choices listed below.…
When we last saw the $25,000 all-singing, all-dancing ITC One, the one component it mysteriously lacked was a Blu-ray player, throwing in its lot with an Xbox 360 HD DVD setup. Stepping to the times, it’s been updated to support our new optical overlords with a standalone Blu-ray drive. It’s a little bizarre they didn’t…
Designer Ji-hoon Kim has come up with an ingenuous idea for cleaning up oil spills. Using various features such as boom control modules, solar panels, oil protection boom, communication modules, boom connectors, and propulsion modules the OSP robots work together to surround an oil spill site with an inflatable barrier. Once the site has been…
Logitech’s ClearChat Wireless PC headset might seem unremarkable, but a quick scan of Amazon shows there aren’t really any non-bluetooth wireless stereo headsets on the market. There are plenty of wireless headphones without mics, one speaker 2.4 GHz wireless headsets and corded stereo headsets. But no product has combined the three ideas like the ClearChat…
SanDisk may have a new PMP on the way. An accessory bundle for something called a Sansa Fuze was spotted on maker HandStands’ website earlier—currently the address redirects to generic Sansa accessories. The player pictured in the ad looks like competition for a 3G iPod nano, and will likely include 8-16GB of memory as well…
City dwellers who can’t shake their love for the Great Outdoors will find excitement in the “Urban Skiff.” It’s a portable boat that goes from duffle bag to sad, wilted-looking dinghy in just eight impossible easy steps. Now all you need is a space in your cramped apartment to store a boat-sized bag, means to…
A new iPod controller developed in Japan allows you to control your music via your eyes, as it uses a camera clipped to glasses or a pair of headphones to read how you’re blinking. No, it won’t skip tracks every few seconds whenever you blink, as you need to be pretty deliberate to get it…
Someone called David Yoon has reconverted his Rock Band drum kit into what any student (former or not) will recognize as the One and Only True Form of Drumming: pencil drumming. He replaced “the smallish stock piezo transducers with bigger ones from Radio Shack” and reconverted the pedal with a foam and CD sandwich. This…
