Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Console modding extraordinaire Ben Heckendorn is up to it again; reminding us that, yes, he is still selling his sexy revision 5.1 Atari handhelds for $350 and a sacrificial 2600. The Atari Rev 5.1 really is his most complete system yet, including built-in paddle controller, difficulty switches and player 2 port for multiplayer games. And…
T3 got their hands on the new European iPhone, and to their delight (and dismay), the phone is pre-installed with firmware 1.1.2—which is newer than the 1.1.1 firmware we currently have in the States. Believe it or not, it’s actually packing some new features. But before you ask, their early testing shows that current Jailbreak…
*You know about OLPC’s Give 1 Get 1 initiative, where buyers will purchase a XO laptop for $399 , and included in the price will be the cost for a second laptop to be donated to a third world child. To back the plan, T-Mobile shall be offering one year’s complimentary Wi-Fi HotSpot access for…
Consumer Reports’ Annual Product Reliability Survey will be featured in their upcoming December issue. Its news? Flat panel displays are far more reliable than their rear-projection counterparts. Just how much more reliable? Around 15% 500%. The study showed that both LCDs and plasma displays needed repairs, on average, only 3% of the time. Meanwhile, rear-projection…
Two 8-year old geniuses have invented wedgie proof underwear—more than a decade too late for us. Simplicity is the key to all great design, as the inventors showed when they presented the Rip Away 1000 on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is the most unlikely platform for the display of the 8-year olds prodigious talents.…
Every week is a crazy, unbelievable Battle Royale between companies, PR, reporters and consumers. Like this one time, a guy at the bar was in line in front of me for the bathroom. Another guy left the bathroom, but the guy in front of me was too engrossed in some conversation he was having to…
Without trying to stuff the ballot box or anything, the 2007 Weblog Awards ballots are now online, with November 8th being the last day you can vote Giz for Best Technology Blog. We’ve been a good little Gizmodo, haven’t we? And you, well, you’re the best little readers, yes you are. Yes you are. If…
The great guys over at Navigadget just heard word of an entry level phone with GPS functionality. The new cellphone, called the Hop1883, will be offered by Hop-On Wireless, and has the classic candy bar form factor. Beyond being cheap and not bad looking (like Lindsay Lohan), the Hop1883 will be tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz, with…
We’d heard of the NY Jedi School before—for those who haven’t, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like—but we’d never seen a class in action until we spotted this clip on ABC. Given that lightsabers don’t actually exist, we were confused just how the…logistics…worked out. Now we know. And yes, it’s every bit as…
A mystery carrier in the UK will soon be partnering with Challenger Mobile to offer free VOIP from normal cellphones without the annoying necessity for a Wi-Fi network. The prospect would allow a mobile phone user to call any country in the world for completely free if the other party supports the techology. So how…
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a method of arranging cells on a microchip using what they call “optical tweezers.” These optical tweezers consist of a fine tuned beam of laser light, which moves cells around on the chip. Scientists say this could have may beneficial applications in the fields of biomedical…
CNet is reporting that as part of Monday’s big press conference, Google will unveil their iPhone killer gPhone OS, tentatively codenamed Android. Sources are calling the OS a “a complete mobile-phone software stack” that will be followed shortly after by a SDK (Translation: this isn’t just an ad system and will have more than a…
We have already declared our love for wooden keyboards, but Geeks.com’s offering has stolen our hearts without defiling our wallets. At only $20 for a mouse and keyboard, made from the original hard stuff, we are not too sure what more you could ask of the fine people at Geeks.com, nay, of life. Though the…
The Gamerator has been the first successful technology to combine our two favorite pastimes: video games and binge drinking. Because while it initially appears to be a drool-worthy 24-inch flat screen MAME arcade cabinet with 180 preloaded titles, the Gamerator’s alter ego is that of a kegerator, keeping a pony keg chilled and on tap…
Drymer has produced a working three wheeled electric bike prototype, and the way electric bikes go, theirs looks pretty snazzy. The three wheeler, named the v0.5, boasts a motor capable of producing 250 watts, which will reach a maximum speed of 25 km/h. If your face tends to melt at such speeds, purchase with caution.…
Well, we didn’t have to wait for anyone to crack open their PS3 to check, because Sony has squashed all rumors that the new $399 40GB PlayStation 3 SKU is featuring 65nm chips (shrunk from their 90nm standard). While we’ll save you the copy and pasted rough auto translation, Sony essentially said that 65nm is…
The Computer Game Museum in Berlin has accomplished two things to make fanboys, such as ourselves, very moist. Firstly, they have created a museum dedicated to computer games and secondly, the institution has produced a mahoosive reconstruction of the classic Donkey Kong game using scaffolding. That is large. Lap it up fellow fanboys, lap it…
If you are planning on showing Gizmodo no love this morning, we shall excuse you if you ditch us for the awesome DARPA Urban Challenge. The DARPA Urban Challenge hopes to pursue technologies that may replace humans on the battlefield. Teams enter an unmanned, robotic and autonomous vehicle, which is released in a mock city…
We’ve had our share of cool water bottles make their way through the site. Now we get BevyTech’s Gadget Bottle, which is just sad. Not only does this seem like a broken cellphone/MP3 player/pill bottle(!?) waiting to happen, but what practical reason is there for affixing a gadget to a water bottle? Granted the knife-bottle…
Microsoft’s HD Photo standard is now officially tapped to become JPEG’s successor by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, but it’ll be known as JPEG XR. https://gizmodo.com/microsofts-hd-photo-standard-which-compresses-more-eas-285014 XR stands for extended range, given the wider color palette and finer gradations it can show. Other benefits include in-camera imaging processing support and, supposedly, better compression. Besides losing…