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Sure, its exciting to see flash memory drop in price and increase in capacity, but flash isn’t the end-all-be-all. In fact, we already know what it’ll be replaced by before it’s even become the de facto standard: phase-change memory. And Intel just figured out how to double the capacity of phase-change memory, shortening flash’s lifespan…
Same-day movies on demand isn’t a new offering from cable providers. But Cablevision’s new setup is entirely different, and just a little weird. You pay 10 or 16 or 20 bucks (depending on freshness) to watch the flick the same day it hits DVD, and then Cablevision sends the DVD to you in the mail.…
The official Android developer blog says that a new and improved version of the Android SDK is on the way. According to Quang Nguyen, the new SDK will feature “UI and API enhancements” among other things. It’s good to know Google has its ear to the tech world after reports that the initial SDK was…
Straight from the Department of the Highly Unlikely, the Scotsman (what’s that?) reports that Apple may make a bid for Yahoo, the hottest company on the block. Hey, the Giants won the Super Bowl, I guess anything can happen. [Scotsman via MacRumors] https://gizmodo.com/yahoo-considering-google-alliance-hitlers-pills-352177
Honestly, I still don’t get the appeal of this thing: It’s a computer crammed inside of an HDTV. Woohoo. But Lumenlab’s Q42 is now priced and shipping for those interested in the hot hybrid action: $3850, which isn’t stroke-inducing, but definitely more than buying each separately. But hey, it’s handmade. [Lumenlab via Crave] https://gizmodo.com/lumenlab-q42-the-hybrid-hdtv-and-pc-311392
It’s official: you people have no taste. How else to explain that 20 million digital photo frames are expected to be sold in 2008? Yes, 20,000,000 digital photo frames, the red-headed stepchildren of the consumer electronics world, will soon adorn the walls of McMansions in every backwater suburb in the country. https://gizmodo.com/ten-reasons-were-doomed-ces-edition-342495 There’s no amount…
Click to viewTomorrow is Super Tuesday, meaning that from among the three Republican candidates (four if you count good ol’ Ron Paul), a Republican presidential candidate should emerge. Since we’re most interested in how the candidates stand on technology matters, we’ve presented them below. Now, we’re not going to pretend that this batch is super…
Click to viewThe Super Tuesday primaries are tomorrow. If you’re voting in a Democratic contest, the choice is down to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. If you still haven’t decided who will get your vote, fear not, because we’ve broken down the candidates on the issues that matter most to us: their tech policies. If…
Too busy to drop in on Giz over the weekend? It’s OK, we understand. We get your hectic lifestyle, and we’re prepared to work things out with you. We forgive you. Here’s what you missed: • We learned the Maxblaster kills vampires. • Steve shoved a kid inside a Macbook. • Jedi Ginsu knife. Enough…
These happy characters are Peruvian anti-riot police, who are seen here parading in celebration of Peru’s independence day yesterday. Yes, they are terrifying. This makes Peru the latest entry in a long list of countries I will try to avoid rioting in. I’m still all about rioting in Canada and Sweden, however. [She Muses via…
Benjamin Heckendorn (aka Ben Heck) is known to most of the geek world as a console modding god. And his latest accomplishment, squeezing an Xbox 360 Elite into a laptop, is his best revision yet. Because while he’s made 360 laptops before, this is his first based upon the newer 65nm chipset (plus it features…
Peter Hirschberg has just finished his stunning retro-gaming heaven, a Valhalla for the best arcade video games ever. His Luna City Arcade has 57 fully-restored arcade classics, which span from Asteroids to Zaxxon, plus a whole load of pinballs. Amazingly enough, he does all this on his own dime, for the love of it. This…
Click to viewThis year was a pretty incredible Super Bowl (especially after last year when one Giz staffer’s hometown Bears lost). And while the most exciting 30 seconds this year were definitely late in the fourth quarter, the commercials, as always, held their own competition to captivate the audience. Here are our favorite tech-oriented spots…
Like some kind of tiny parabolic burning mirror that would make Archimedes proud, this solar lighter captures the sun’s rays and focuses them to a central spot that can reach 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Result: an economic, fossil-fuel-free way to light your smelly cigarettes. If that’s not ironic enough, today is World Cancer Day! Let’s just…
A UK Designer has come up with a full-sized wheel that can be completely folded. Duncan Fitzsimmons’ Crossbreed wheel doesn’t have the poor-performance delivered by the tiny wheels on folding bikes and despite sounding pretty dangerous it actually works, as you can see in the video. While the design is innovative, and avoids all the…
After nearly a year of waiting, that master Vista fix known as Service Pack 1 has been released to manufacturing, meaning it will make it to you sometime this month, perhaps on that February 15 date that had been bandied about. https://gizmodo.com/vista-service-pack-1-spotted-but-will-it-ship-262503 This means better stability, faster file handling and improved device compatibility. It also…
As if it hasn’t been a rough enough patch for Yahoo, the company just announced that it would be ditching its iffy attempt at all-you-can-eat DRM music, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and turn what subscribers it does have over to Rhapsody. This is good news for people who may have signed up for Yahoo before reading…
Looks like the Microsoft purchase of Yahoo is going to shake the intartubes no matter what happens at the end. Now Reuters is saying that Yahoo management really “is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft’s bid.” Apparently Google’s head honcho Eric Schmidt called…
LG’s new KF510 slider cellphone is a skinny 0.43 inches deep, with a touchpad control, slide-out conventional keys, and an animation-loaded user interface. The “Touch Lighting Phone” also packs a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, and is metal-framed, with graduated metal paintwork. Available in March, around $330, not much else is known about the phone yet. [GSM…
Tukwila is Intel’s new server-oriented Itanium-family processor, the first in the world to pack two billion transistors. Most of these are used for cache memory, needed to keep its four 2GHz 65-nanometer cores fed at all times with data, instructions and probably giant radioactive lizard meat. I don’t know about what kind of power is…