Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Looks like Microsoft is trying another push to get Vista Ultimate running as your OS of choice. The top-end operating system will receive a price cut from $399 to $319, whilst the upgrade version will now retail at $219, a savings of $40 on the original price. Vista Home Premium will also be dropped in…
There won’t be a soft transition to Blu-ray for Paramount—they’re dropping their whole HD DVD release slate right this second. Their last two movies on the dead format hit Tuesday, even though we won’t see Blu titles from them until this summer—that’s months of lost $$$. https://gizmodo.com/shows-over-folks-paramount-officially-goes-blu-359326 Interestingly, Dreamworks’ sole upcoming HD DVD release has…
This image, from a 1911 issue of Life magazine, was drawn by Harry Grant Dart and features the farcical technologies of the future. To see pre-R.U.R. images of personal, robotic servants is extremely rare. Dart never ceases to amaze with his tremendous wit, vivid imagination and biting social/technological commentary. The image can also be found…
Sound and Vision has done their homework and finagled five tips that will help you get Uncle Sam to pony up for your home theater gear. Now, I’m no expert on these matters, but the advice seems to be viable—although making it happen is going to require a bit of work on your part. First…
Hong Kong-based WinWin Industry has recently unveiled a product that combines a digital picture frame, webcam and an alarm clock with temperature and calendar functions in a single, semi-portable device. It also features 8MB of memory, a built-in rechargeable battery, a 1.44-inch screen and a 300K pixel camera resolution. Okay, so it won’t blow you…
The judge on the class action lawsuit against Microsoft for those Vista handi-capable stickers unsealed a bunch of super-juicy internal emails exchanged between Microsoft higher-ups (including Ballmer) on Vista’s suckiness. They weren’t oblivious to the fact that “Vista capable” machines were horrible—but they let it slide, according to exec John Kalkman: https://gizmodo.com/vista-capable-sticker-lawsuit-becomes-class-action-361123 “To help Intel…
When asked whether or not he viewed the upcoming PSP phone as a threat to the N-Gage, Nokia games head honcho Jaakko Kaidesoja responded thusly: https://gizmodo.com/sony-magazine-says-psp-phone-could-come-as-early-as-feb-357193 “I’m not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can…
The TED conference started. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically about smart people from different fields coming in and speaking about whatever they want. That’s it. We’ve covered some of the videos, which are released sometimes years after the original talks, from people like George Dyson, Philippe Starck and others. One of these…
Smart Target’s Kiddo Kidkeeper Proximity alarm helps bring peace of mind to the parents of adventurous children using a wearable wireless transmitter. When a child has wandered out of a pre-set range, the transmitter will trigger a visual and audible alarm on the parent’s receiver, prompting them to reel the kid back in. The device…
The default Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headsets already look quite stylish for a Bluetooth headset, but these Yves Behar-created limited edition sets beat his originals by quite a bit. The white, brown and black headsets are smooth, unlike the pock-marked original design, and represent trash talk, sweet talk and dirty talk, respectively. We can’t quite make…
Sneakers hanging from telephone lines has long been an iconic image of urban life—which is why it inspired designers Peter Pracilio and Oscar Lopez to develop this Shoe Chandelier. Why they chose to make a light out of it is unclear, but it has a very compelling weirdness about it. The good news is that…
While we think you should wait to buy a standalone Blu-ray player until the 2.0 (“full profile”) spec hits to get interactivity and picture-in-picture, there’s no reason to wait for a PC drive, except for the price to drop. Newegg has a 12X Blu-ray drive from Lite-on for a pretty cheapo $130. Just remember you…
Click to viewOn Tuesday we asked you about the one thing you wouldn’t want spilled on your keyboard, and we were surprised how much you had to tell us. We have a brand new Y7 Toughbook laying around the apartment, which Panasonic claims can handle six ounces of liquid poured right into the keyboard. We…
This is a bit of a self-serving question of the day, but here’s something for readers to participate in. What’s the best hard drive deal you can find right now? We’re talking preferably internal and SATA, but if you’ve got a hot Swedish deal for an external USB drive, we’d love to hear about that…
Yes, this is real, and spectacular. The Billboard Liberation Front has launched an “improvement” campaign on AT&T billboards in the SF area “to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants” with their massive warrantless domestic spying program (explained by a cute bear). We’re waiting for some “Yes, the NSA can…
Tributaries has had a rotating power strip on the market before, but this T12 seems like they’re going all out—and by all out, we mean adding two extra ports to the strip. The whole thing comes in at an amazing 12 ports, eight of which rotate at up to 90 degrees so AC adapters don’t…
We can see this USB typing Speedometer being extremely useful for young typists who want to improve their speed, or Brian Lam if he ever wants to type faster than three words per minute, but it’s a USB gadget that plugs into your computer and tells you how fast you’re typing. If you want to…
You saw the 5 takes on the Lenovo X300, the X300 benchmarked vs. the MacBook Air, and even Mossberg’s review, but what does Lenovo think about the comparisons between the two laptops? Well, obviously, they think their machine is better, but the reasons given for why it’s better appeals to Lenovo’s core audience—the traveling corporate…
If you thought plumber’s crack was bad, imagine a gamer in crawling under his desk to turn on his PC. He’ll never have to do that again if he grabs one of these Sharkoon PC Jump Start Buttons, which hook up via USB to his PC and allows him to not only start a computer,…
Diebold, the company run by unscrupulous Republicans that manufactures crappy, easily-hacked voting machines, has done a bang-up job of pretty much destroying many people’s confidence in the legitimacy of the democratic process. No one is better at calling out such depressing aspects of our country with biting humor like The Onion, who here tell us…
