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Johnny Lee’s description of “Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote” may sound boring, but it’s actually a very cool and very innovative use of the Wiimote. Since you can hook the controller up to your computer and accept inputs using the Wiimote library interface, you can use its infrared sensors to detect and track…
Hey folks, our PlayStation 3 Blu-ray contest is still going on, and you can still enter by seeing the rules here. As a reminder, you can also get five free movies with this contest as well, so go ahead and pick out the ones you want just in case you’re the lucky one that wins…
Designed by Mino Kodama, the Expected Curtain is a sort of instant virtual posse, aimed individuals who either have no friends, or who are plagued by stalkers*. Hang the curtain in your window and, while the three shadowy “friends” won’t show up during the day (thus making your neighbors fear you are a work-shy fop…
The $295 Keyport that allows you to combine six keys into one slick-looking device is near the Optimus Keyboard on the scale of totally overpriced things we would really love to have. Their production videos show you at least part of what your three hundred bones go toward: manufacturing. A machine that urinates water onto…
Since anyone who’s going to buy this Tux Droid already has at least three Linux machines in their house, it’s unlikely that they’ll care just how nerdy this thing will make them look—which is great, because this penguin bot is actually pretty neat. The thing’s covered in felt and can communicate with the “USB fish”…
The intelligent lantern could be termed the Swiss Army Knife of flashlights—although the purists among you will probably complain that you can’t file your nails, peel an orange or get a stone out of a horse’s hoof with it. As well as a super-bright beam that can be seen a mile away, the nine-inch outdoor…
Pleo the robot dinosaur showed up on my doorstep Friday afternoon, and I figured it would be nice to take it in and introduce it to my dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs gave Pleo the cold shoulder, and that really pissed Pleo off, sending it into an anger-filled rampage against one of the dogs. Let’s just…
When it comes to MP3 players, most people have the mantra, “Smaller is better.” The Colossal MP3 player throws that idea out the window with a massive form factor and buttons large enough for the biggest hands, modeled (parodied?) after the Toshiba gigabeat. The giant DAP has a built-in speaker, but is otherwise basic, with…
Sanyo has announced two new projectors with two lamps and up to 9,000 lumens, which Sanyo says is the highest throughput in its class. While not as powerful as a Death Star-Class Sony CineAlta SRX, these are powerful enough to serve large venues with a low power consumption. Or be installed in Star Destroyers. The…
The big deal in Japan right now are keitai shousetsu, mobile phone novels that are composed on the phone, released electronically as serials, then compiled into the ancient paper-bound codex we’re still trying to ditch. In the first six months of 2007, half of the top 10 bestselling novels in Japan were originally thumbtyped on…
Click to viewOrigami fans—or just people who like money and have a lot of it lying about—might find Enrique Pardo’s iPhone accessory interesting. The Swiss photographer and graphic designer folded a $100 bill in all sorts of clever ways and turned it into a stand for either jesusPhone or iPod Touch. How-to video is after…
We’re guessing the average Gizmodo reader is as much about the Christmas spirits as the Christmas spirit, and it’s along those lines that we’d like to see your absolute worst (or best) holiday-decorated houses (example on left). Please send any and all pics to tipsATgiz, along with a brief description of location. While there’s no…
The media-sharing/social networking site Imeem has inked a deal with Universal Music, making it the first site of its kind to forge unholy bonds with all of the Big Four. Update: The WSJ’s issued a correction of the original source article. Under the deal, Universal gets a “payment each time a user listens to a…
While we cover more than our share of steampunk gear around here, most of it is painstakingly handcrafted by fetishists artisans with years of experience. So it’s good to see good old, low-cost mass production take over to offer the masses slightly to moderately less awesome products, such as this 640×480 “Driverless Webcam.” It’s not…
One of the most annoying things about Xbox Live is the currency setup. The points aren’t 1-to-1 with real money (like on the Wii where $5=500 points), and you’ve gotta buy ’em in bulk—the bulk aspect made worse by the non-direct setup. There’s a good reason for that, right? Well, Xbox Live’s Aaron Greenberg actually…
The OLPC XO laptops that we’ve heard so much about finally ship today. Those generous enough to both give a laptop and get a laptop this holiday season should receive their system in plenty of time for Christmas (though Hanukkah finds itself shafted again). Formerly scheduled for a December 14 to December 24 delivery, we’re…
A veteran NYPD detective is in danger of losing his job. A murder suspect gets his sentence reduced to a slap on the wrist, even though he was caught on surveillance camera shooting a man in the face in a Bronx elevator. Why? A little red MP3 player that was stashed in the shooter’s pocket…
This week UK energy secretary John Hutton will announce a plan to build enough wind turbines to power nearly half of the UK, with sites along the North Sea, Irish Sea and the coast of Scotland, all by the year 2020. The goal? Produce 33GW worth of electricity (or about 30 times that of some…
Click to viewReports all over the world confirm the worst: the best Windows error ever was just the beginning of a planetary invasion by alien forces using time-space-twisting software code. There’s no other explanation for this gallery of demoniacally absurd errors: https://gizmodo.com/best-windows-error-ever-may-rip-time-space-continuum-d-330648 They are even trying to trick us. What the hell does “Error, the…
University researchers have invented a smart fabric that could help larger ladies in the fight against breast bounce—disappointing the legions of men who love watching girls run for buses in the process. The material, which contains tiny sensors, will be used by bra manufacturers in an attempt to improve the lot of the big-boobed who…
