Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It’s been muttered about since the first of the year, but now it’s official and in full effect: TiVo gets the Rhapsody Music Service, and users get a month-long free trial without providing a credit card, or even signing up. It’s just one click. (Okay, like two.) It’s a match-up of make-life-easier products, albeit two…
Quick Apple hack updates: The iPod touch is reported to have reached a read milestone for the filesystem. The iPhone’s 1.1.1 firmware has a few apps ported to it, but it’s still not easy for general consumption. We’ll do full posts when more easily implemented hacks are finished. [TUAW]
Blank CDs are on their way out as a day to day storage medium, and by the looks of things they don’t make for a very comfortable chair either. The inexplicably titled “Panda Chair” was designed by Belen Hermosa using hundreds of disks lined in rows. It may be uncomfortable, but I suppose lying on…
The Quantum Leap meets Early Edition flavor of NBC’s Journeyman makes it a pretty fantastic show with just two episodes in the can and the third airing tonight. But what’s with the blatant iPhone product placement? It’s almost a character in itself, allowing the guy to Google Finder-spydeR stuff on the go, check to see…
If you need a little extra incentive to wake up in the morning, the Mr. Clock Radio may be just what you need. He can wake your lazy ass up in one of 30 different ways—from gentle coaxing to flat-out drill sergeant-style orders. He can even tell fortunes, read the time aloud, wink and blink,…
Rather than take a long and tangled miniUSB to USB cable with you wherever you go, this swiveling Dockey condenses it all into a small, keyfob-sized connector. It’s essentially just the two ends—USB and miniUSB—attached to a swiveling joint that lets you position your phone, PMP, or Bluetooth headset at just the right position to…
The first renderings of the final hardware cases for Bug Labs open source gadget platform are up on their website. As you can see it’s really coming along since the last time we got a look at it. It’s looking halfway decent now, although a little clunkier than I would have expected. It will be…
Microsoft has teamed up with voice recognition software firm Nuance to develop its own hands-free text software for use with Microsoft Sync. The software would allow users to dictate SMS messages and possibly emails later on down the line. This would undoubtedly result in far less cellphone-related accidents, not to mention instances where I flip…
We saw the large version of Hitachi’s remote control last week, but they’ve got a smaller, sleeker and sexier version that comes in many different colors, including leopard print. The main focus of this one, like the other one, is the gigantic trackball in the middle, with the “back” button being the only other button…
This Indian Jones themed home theater doesn’t have a list of super-impressive AV gear. But it does have a model of the monkey, gold idol, and 1/2 scale ark from Raiders, and replicas from Last Crusade like the Grail, and a set of Indy-ish jacket, hat, whip, and torches. Better than the Star Wars theater?…
Click to viewYou might have seen the liftoff, but here’s a video of the day we spent in the desert, awaiting the first (and explosively final) launch of the 1/2 scaled rocket-powered X-Wing fighter. I cried a little when it went down. (Turn up the volume, there’s some good dialog drowned out by the din…
Hear that? It’s the RIAA quaking in their diamond-coated boots as yet another A-list band gives labels the finger: Pretty hate machine Trent Reznor announced today that “as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label.” Instead of futzing through the hapless middleman of…
The Sprint CEO troubles have come to a head as CEO, Chairman and President Gary Forsee resigns. Too bad he didn’t forsee some better business decisions. [PC World] https://gizmodo.com/apparently-things-arent-so-dandy-over-in-sprint-nextel-307694
Sure, it costs $30 a GB, but Fusion-io’s new ioDrive flash card promises ridiculous 800MB/sec (Read) and 600MB/sec (Write) sustained data transfer rates. That would mean performance on par with DRAM, which would be about a thousand times faster than any existing disk drive. Basically, it’s like packing an enterprise SAN into a PCI express…
Blackberries aren’t just the communications tool of choice for dudes that wear suits to work, but apparently are also the favorite device of Canadian gang-bangers. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you are that there are gangs in Canada, but doesn’t it make sense that Canadian gangs would be tech-savvy and polite enough to communicate via…
If you have an iPod or any portable media player that uses the media transfer protocol, or MTP), you might be interested in the CastGrabber, a charger that can download podcasts and place them directly on the player without using a PC. It even works with iTunes. As long as there’s a network into which…
Here’s a design concept by Jin-Sook Kim lets you take out your frustrations while attempting to illuminate your environment. That’s because this Punch the !ighting device makes you beat the shit out of it before it’ll give up even the slightest bit of light. It must be a satisfying feeling, though, to see an actual positive…
According to Erica at TUAW, the 1.1.1 iPhone Firmware has references to com.apple.mobile.nike, which leads us to assume that the iPhone and Nike+ Sport Kit is going to work together soon. https://gizmodo.com/hackers-break-into-the-latest-iphone-firmware-again-308235 In fact, this Nike reference was found in LingoToAccessoryMap.plist, so according to Erica, it’s “definitely going to be a supported accessory”. Looks like…
If you find yourself giving presentations in closet-sized rooms, this Hitachi CP-A100 short-throw projector might be just the one you’re looking for. We’ve seen short-throw projectors before, but none have been capable of tossing a 60-inch image on a wall when you’re only 1.4 feet away. Its image is probably not too bad-looking, either, because…
In case any of you still thought the Optimus Maximus was all a big alien autopsy-esque hoax, the fact that the preliminary version of the keyboard just passed FCC testing should be enough to put your doubts on hold. The current status, non FCC-wise, has their OLEDs approved for mass production back in September and…