Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
These two are milking all this “did they, didn’t they” press for all it’s worth, but apparently the latest status is that Woz and Kathy G. aren’t engaged. Is this true, or is this just one of her wonderful “jokes” that propelled her into the Z-list along with Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin? [E!]
This cellphone projector may not be completely original—weve seen the real thing before—but it does look quite cool. The concept has a Windows Mobile phone projecting your computer’s desktop onto a wall so you can make presentations or show off a cool YouTube video. It’s 10 shades of impractical right now, but an interesting concept…
Out of all the furniture we’d safely add the feature of “rocking” to, a bookshelf would be down near the bottom of the list next to ovens, refrigerators and ironing boards. Julian Appelius has the opposite idea, adding a five-degree tilt to the bottom of this Topple bookshelf, which supposedly still keeps books upright as…
Asus has made the specifications for the upcoming Eee PC configurations available, along with pricing. The highlights include a two pound weight, and simple user interface for plenty of web apps (full list below). The best model has 8GB (SSD) with 1GB RAM; the lowlights include a 2GB (SSD) flavor with a paltry 256MB RAM,…
We were starting to get bored with USB hubs and flash card readers, but just when we thought we’d seen them all, along came the Podera Luxe USB Hub and its comely sister, the Luxe memory card reader. There is just something pleasant about this USB hub, even though it only has four ports. Sure,…
The not-so hotly anticipated GooTube antipiracy system has jumped into beta. Creatively dubbed Video Identification, it’s a digital fingerprint setup where uploaded clips are matched against a stock of legit clips provided by their owners—YouTube will then follow whatever course the copyright holder wants, be it leave it or pull it. We’ll have a better…
The four-year extension of the net access tax ban has passed the House, 405-2. But it leaves the door open for taxes on “voice, audio or video programming” delivered through the intertubes, so VoIP and IPTV might be future tax revenue boosters. [CNet] https://gizmodo.com/house-judiciary-votes-to-extend-ban-on-net-access-tax-b-309967
Impact Jackets, originally designed to save Japanese construction workers from long falls by inflating prior to impact, have finally made it to the United States. Only instead of construction workers, it’s our motorcyclists that seem to be reaping the benefits. And it didn’t take too long to see some results. Joeseph McPhatter of Baltimore, MD,…
Jobs confirmed Ars’s scoop that the iTunes+ DRM-free content was being price dropped to $0.99. Nick Wingfield, friend of Rosie O and writer for the WSJ, scored the interview with El Jobso. This is the price the DRM-free tracks should have started at, and I’m glad to see it finally there. [Ars and WSJ] https://gizmodo.com/drm-free-itunes-catalog-to-drop-price-to-99-cents-311175
Out of all the office supplies that could be made into lamps, the paper clip seems the most unusual. However, the way Ben Collette and David Wykes made this bendable paper clip into a lamp makes the whole idea work in a way we wouldn’t expect. Not only is it bendable, it’s posable as well.…
We’ve been fans of Kangaroom’s cord organizers for a while, so their newest Game Console Storage units seems like they’re just the thing to keep your gaming neat and organized without a large entertainment center. Not only does the unit hold one standard-sized console (not sure if the Xbox 360 or PS3 can fit in…
Although bone conduction is nothing new in headphones and Bluetooth headsets, not very many cellphones incorporate it into their feature sets. Pantech’s KDDI A1407PT in Japan does have this bone conduction loudspeaker, and channels sound through your bones from your ear (or just behind your ear), which helps you hear in noisy environments. Other than…
The White Stripes, a.k.a Meg and Jack White, have branched out from the music business to try their hand at the world of Lomography cameras. The result is a pair of branded, limited edition retro Holga and Diana semi-replica cameras that come complete with a cool look and a bunch of extras for photography lovers.…
Discover is reporting on researchers at GFS Projects in England, who have now created an unmanned flying saucer, or depending on your point of view, an unmanned flying lawnmower without wheels or a handle. For now, it’s a way-cool radio controlled aircraft, but maybe someday a real flying saucer could result from this experiment. This…
The iPhone Dev Team just released AnySIM 1.1, the free utility that unlocks iPhones from the not-so-sexy handcuffs of AT&T. The updated version works on firmware version 1.1.1, but doesn’t fix baseband problems caused by updating an unlocked 1.0.2 phone up to 1.1.1. This means that for those people who’ve previously unlocked via AnySIM, you…
Super Potato wasn’t the only place Ashcraft took me in Osaka; no, that was just one small taste of our tour. We explored all of Den Den Town, which is Osaka’s version of Akihabara: a geek center full of electronics, manga, and video game shops. And unlike Akihabara, it hasn’t sold itself out to tourists.…
I don’t know if I buy this, but if it’s real, I’ll be stoked. From BusinessWeek:”Sources familiar with the company’s plans tell BusinessWeek.com that Apple will release a software-development kit for the iPhone in early 2008.” I don’t know. More reasonable speculation from Leander at Cult of Mac and Ars points towards a hybrid app…
This USB Geek mini fridge and heater may look like the USB mini fridge we’ve seen before, but it’s got a whole 100% more functionality—namely, heating. Not only can you keep your already chilled drinks from warming up slightly slower, it does the same thing in reverse for hot drinks. If only all our gadgets…
This Terpstra keyboard must be the strangest one yet, but don’t be getting worried that you’ll need to type on it because it’s a MIDI keyboard for musicians. The gigsters will like it because it’s velocity sensitive, letting keyboard players put more expression into their music just like when they’re playing a piano. Only problem…
Asus’s Eee PC doesn’t have a ton of innovation in it, but it is cheap enough to have lured an unspecified government into buying a million of the little buggers. Meanwhile, Slate reported a little over a month ago that the OLPC only plans on making 120k units this year. Why is the OLPC having…