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In a move so not Best Buy-like we had to double check, Best Buy is upgrading backordered Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD players to the newer and more expensive HD-A3 model. This stems from a total sellout at the $99 price point when Best Buy pricematched Wal-Mart’s $99 pre-Black Friday deal with their own sub-$100 player.…
The Model One ATV is an electric, all terrain vehicle outed as the the world’s first “Earth Utility Vehicle.” A creation of Barefoot Motors, the Model One has Mythbuster legend Jamie Hyneman as design engineer. Their goal was to create a vehicle designed to work in nature that would be eco-friendly while still providing needed…
Chemists at UC Berkeley developed a device that detects the amount of biogenic amines in red wine, which are thought to be the culprit for the mind-numbing red wine headache. Though the detector is still in its prototype stages—and is currently the size of a briefcase—it only takes one drop of wine to determine the…
Part of a $1.4 billion counter-sniping package the Pentagon’s asking for, which includes vehicle-mounted and UAV sniper detectors, is a pocket-sized unit that weights only a pound. The Ears 100 by QinetiQ is a pretty sweet piece of tech which “detects the sound of a gunshot, the shock wave of a bullet and the blast…
The Asus Eee PC is one of the most innovative and promising laptops to hit the consumer market in years. With an introductory model priced at a mere $399, Asus is offering an extremely compact, 2lb laptop with a 4GB solid state drive. But most importantly, the Eee isn’t gimped for office tasks or internet…
Data regarding the great Radiohead “pay your own price” experiment for In Rainbows is starting to trickle in, and according to a recent study by internet research firm comScore, only about 38% of those who downloaded the album actually paid. Of those that did pay, Americans averaged $8.05 while fans from other countries averaged only…
Best Buy’s got its own pre-Black Friday sale on November 11 from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and will have a minimum of 30 Wiis in stock in “select stores.” They also have an unspecified 46-inch 1080p Samsung LCD for $1999.
The new Airbox CM3 mobile router allows devices like PDAs, laptops, and gaming consoles to be simultaneously connected to the internet in a moving vehicle via Wi-Fi or one of two Ethernet jacks —no additional software or PCMCIA cards required. When connected to a 3G digital cellular telephone network (generally EV-DO), speeds average out at…
Listen up, Japanese teens: vending machine maker Fujitaka Co. is on to your sneaky cigarette-buying ways, and has created a machine that uses a camera and face recognition software to try and stop you. The machine takes your picture when you press the “Adult Recognition” button, and analyzes your face for wrinkles and sagging. If…
With overall PC shipments in Japan dropping for five consecutive quarters, the AP has the numbers to back up its trend piece declaring the downfall of the PC in favor of a broader range of consumer electronics—phones, consoles, and the like. Anecdotally, this bears out—walking into a Starbucks (or any other loitering spot) in Japan,…
You might have heard about those $99 HD DVD players that were being sold for a moment at Wal-Mart and Best Buy. You’re probably smart enough to realize that Toshiba isn’t making much scratch on these things, but for reference, the first HD-A1 HD DVD player cost Toshiba $674 in parts alone (Says iSuppli, 2006).…
Click to viewThe opening volley of official announcements from Google and the Open Handset Alliance bring good news for people sick of the carrier choke hold. Of course, it’s easy to spot who gets an Android device first: T-Mobile and Sprint. And it’s easy to understand why underdogs like them would be the first two…
The Optimus keyboard team brings good news and bad news today, with word that they’re going to have sub-$500 and sub-$1000 models (not just one $1564 keyboard), but the software will not be ready for launch. That’s not to say that you’ll buy a $500 keyboard that you can’t use; it’s just “functionally limited,” and…
Click to viewYou saw our review of the Windows Home Server DS-520 unit by Norco, but here are some great details we learned firsthand from Microsoft that we couldn’t tell you until today. First off, did you know that they’re planning on writing a children’s book that explains the major functions of Windows Home Server…
The Electric Cruiser by Mademoto provides users with all of the joys of skateboarding and in-line skating with out all of the pesky benefits of exercise. With a monstrous 250W engine under the hood, this bad boy will tug you along at a breathtaking 18 mph (probably less if you are a bit on the…
Take your first look at the new VholdR, a wearable, palm-sized camcorder created especially for shooting extreme video for quick uploading to YouTube. Notice that its lens takes up most of its volume, and its 4.8-ounce weight and 3.7-inch length encourage you take it along. It even includes helmet-mounting hardware for those wild snowboarding and…
We just talked with HTC, a major member in Google’s Open Handset Alliance that’s no stranger to making smartphones. While CEO Peter Chou couldn’t tell us much about the hardware side of the equation—or even the Dream prototype, they could tell us some plans about the new device. First, they’re going to continue their current…
Avnish Gautam has designed an amazing concept bookmark that lights up at night and covers the area you’re reading. The MARK uses flexible OLED technology on a thin piece of plastic to illuminate the reading area to your preferred brightness. I know when I’m reading the Fake Steve Jobs book, the only thing that irritates…
We’ve shown you tiny USB vacuums before, but none were as realistic as this mini-hoover, the $20 USB Mini Vacuum Cleaner. The 8-inch-tall minivac gets its power from a 45-inch USB cable, so you might even be able to pick up a few floor boogers and dust bunnies with it, too. [Whatever Works, via GeekAlerts]…
It turns out, the real J-phone is still waiting for a messiah. According to the NYT, ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Israel have developed a phone that flashes the insignia of a rabbinical council on startup. It can’t send or receive text messages, take pictures or run a WAP browser. If you try to call one…