Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Thanks to a breakthrough by a British chemist, sticky streets could be a thing of the past. Professor Terence Cosgrove of Bristol University has come up with a chewing gum that dissolves in water and can be removed easily. And it’s all to do with a new polymer, apparently. As well as taking some of…
Click to view The iPhone and iPod touch are presumed to have the same screen quality. But they don’t, according to some testing and reader feedback we did today. The iPod touch’s screen turns black areas somewhat grayish, washed out shadow detail, with absolute blacks appearing shimmery. (The top image is the touch. Look at…
First, they’re peeing on the FCC’s auction rules for the 700mhz spectrum that Google and others want a chunk of to do potentially cool stuff with. They’re suing to overturn the open-access rules that would force buyers of certain slices of the spectrum to allow any safe device to use it. For an encore, after…
A member of GBAtemp forums, samuelv, has whipped up a homebrew app that lets you use VoIP on the DS with an SIP account. Yes, phone calls from your DS. Some of the guys in the forum had a bit of difficulty nailing down the settings, but another user, subb, pretty much lays out most…
I forgot to tell this story. Apparently one exhibitor on an electric motorcycle took his ride out for a spin, and his throttle jammed. That’s bad on any motorcycle cough*joebrown*cough but really bad on an electric drag racer with a zero to sixty time of one second. Creator Bill Dube hit a bus, possibly a…
Click to view Video By Richard Blakeley. One new feature that came with the announcement of the iPod touch was the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Aside from the limited interaction we had with it at the Apple event on September 5, we got our first real crack at it today. All in all, it’s pretty…
London’s interactive bar, TwentyFour, promises one thing — if there’s a lack of feminine eye-candy, you can always pass the time by staring blankly at the ever-changing walls. The bar combines thousands of LED color combinations with walls that are, in fact, projection screens, creating one of the coolest bars I’ve ever seen. Apparently, bar-goers…
Benny the NYC intern and I have found a few things we really like about the iPod touch. Rather than tell you about them, we thought we’d show them to you in a quick video. Needless to say, there are also some things we don’t like about the touch. Stay tuned, because we’ll address all…
Before I catch my flight back to SF, here are a few choice shots of my favorite fun at Wired’s 2007 NextFest down in LA. Notable things include nano ferrite “magnetic fluid” solutions, prototypes of JPL’s Mars rover running over Justin from Justin.tv (above), a giant disco wall that comes to life when your cellphone…
Danforth France sent me this great link to a 1986 news report on the future of Japanese retail. The new mantra of paleo-futurists may become, “Where’s my personal robot shopper?” See also: Online Shopping (1967) Mobile Malls (1981) The Robot Rebellion (1982) Robots: The World of the Future (1979) Robots Will Be Kings (1949) Mammy…
As a proud owner of a Dreamcast, I am a man that can appreciate one with a prototype Zip Drive jammed into it. And now, thanks to the Internet, I can get one — for $10,000 on eBay. Apparently, before the DC’s fatal collapse, Imega Corp. made a 100MB Zip drive attachment that would help…
Running at night is fun, but it’s dangerous if you don’t have a light. If you’re in the woods, you might fall in a hole or twist your ankle on a root, and if you’re on the road you might get hit by a car. Play it safe! This GoMotion Trail Running Vest has a…
Bitmicro Networks has announced the release of the new E-Disk Altima E2A3GL heavy duty SSD flash drive that holds a huge 461GB and is as sturdy as a Russian housewife. The 2.5-inch hard drive has a standard Serial ATA (SATA) interface and is designed to operate in both fairly cold and fairly hot temperatures (-40…
We covered the Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 6 back in July, but this overpriced player does have one thing that possibly makes the $700 worthwhile. It’s a plug-in that allows the BeoPlayer 6 to work with iTunes, something that, well, iPod nanos (which are 1/5 the price and 2x the memory) can do already. But…
Summer might be pretty much over, but that’s not going to stop me from writing about a really sweet summertime item. This PortOPong combines two of summer’s greatest outdoor activities: swimming and beer pong. Simply blow it up, insert your Solo cups, and experience the most drowning-risk-filled game of beer pong you’ve ever played. Look…
Enjoying toast and tea is a luxury for us bloggers, who often dine on flat, room temperature soda and animal crackers in order to save money for heat, power and a 103-inch TV. Nevertheless, if we did enjoy her Majesty’s official libations, it would be with this Toaster Teapot that combines the two. Whether it’s…
Click to view Here’s our hands-on gallery of the iPod touch. It looks the same as it did when we saw it last Wednesday—sexy and thin—but now we have the added bonus of photographing it on our own desks. We also have video of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store after the jump. Stick around for…
Want to exit a presentation with the maximum amount of casualties possible? Check out this MacGyver mouse from Korea, which is actually a mouse, but also holds a numpad on top and a laser pointer on the side. Being thin and square is pretty much one of the worst possible shapes a mouse can be,…
Watch justin live video and chat on Justin.tvWe’re down at Wired’s NextFest with Justin.tv, checking out the robots and cool stuff from the future. Check out the video to see what we’re seeing. Update: Video’s done, but we’ll have more pics and news from NextFest soon.
ThingM’s WineM is one part intelligent wine rack, one part light show. This concept, currently on display at NextFest, works by taking bottles of wine tagged with RFID stickers and placing them onto the rack. Now if you’re having Lamb Shank for dinner and want a decent Shiraz, just input into the computer that you…
