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The Department of Defense office of Research Engineering is putting up $1,000,000 for the team that can come up with the best battery suit for “dismounted warfighters.” These days, in order to complete a four-day mission, soldiers need to pack 20 lbs of batteries to power up all their assorted electronics (which also add weight).…
Tension is bound to flare over the $19 million toilet NASA purchased from Russian aerospace firm RCS Energia, as only half of the International Space Station will enjoy the upgrade—the American side. The toilet justifies its steep price by being able to recycle urine as drinkable water, Waterworld-style. The Russian half of the station is…
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An update to their HMP-X1 model, the HMP-X5 is Hitachi’s newest digital audio player. The design almost looks like a step backwards from their sleeker X1, since the sleek OLED display has been downgraded to a dull monochrome&mash;we’re guessing to increase battery life. But we still dig the 2GB of storage, MP3, WMA and WAV…
Finally, someone has figured out it might be a good idea to have a Blu-ray player that starts playing right when you put the disc inside, and that manufacturer happens to be Sharp with its BD-HP20S. The company wasn’t specific about how fast that “Qucik Start” capability will be, but did say that you’d see…
Now even the turtle is addicted to wireless technologies. Using a solar-powered GPS and WiFi, University of Massachusetts researchers have created TurtleNet: the world’s first all-turtle network. Used to track movement patterns of endangered snapping turtles, TurtleNet relies upon periodic turtle-to-turtle WiFi relays as turtles pass other turtles. Then, when one of these turtles comes…
Admit it—you think that QWERTY sucks and you could do better. Well, now is your opportunity to show the world your coworkers because Fujitsu’s LiberTouch keyboard allows for a complete rearrangement of the key layout. Using a little tool that we’re sure you will lose, keys pop out for repositioning/throwing at people. But an even…
Although these bots have a long way to go before they’re able to beat a human team of soccer players, the RoboCup organizers say their goal is to have a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can beat the world champion soccer team by 2050, so they have plenty of time to practice. Meanwhile,…
In case you didn’t notice, there is an album sale on iTunes. Our own Wilson Rothman snatched Brandi Carlile’s The Story for $6.99 three weeks ago, so it’s hardly news, but just in case you were too busy reading iPhone stories all this time, you can get some cheap stuff there. In the words of…
Nokia has just updated the N800 tablet’s operating system. They added Skype as expected, plus Flash 9 and 8GB memory card support, all while increasing battery life. Not bad at all. https://gizmodo.com/is-that-skype-on-a-nokia-n800-273037
Sadly in Japan only for now, Evergreen has released a barebones MP3 player designed to be stuck into anything you can think about. The Motz Music Box includes a 28×25×18mm base unit with USB port, supports MP3, WMA and OGG file formats and has a nipplestick attached with a short cable. As you will see…
Yesterday there were press reports (some say it was all hype) that the iPhone was sold out everywhere in the US except for Pittsburgh and Tigard, Oregon, but now we’re hearing stocks are being quickly replenished all across the country this morning, where at least 74 stores have already shored up inventories for the weekend,…
This might be a great trick for next Halloween: Make your own egg cannon out of a few simple items you might find around the house including a butane lighter you’d use to fire up the grill. This short step-by-step video even shows you how to prepare eggs for minimum breakage but maximum slimeage.
Dressing up robots to dig holes. That’s more or less what Honda is doing today in Japan with their humanoid robot series, which not only can do Buster-Keaton slapstick shows but also act as human operators in risky situations. However, the important thing is not the robot itself but how they control it. https://gizmodo.com/honda-asimo-vs-slippery-stairs-220771 Their…
This is the lens for Olympus’ new experimental camera and video projector system. The lenses have an “axial symmetrical free curved surface” (no, I am not sure, either) and together with their new system, they can capture and project 360 degree video, which will be as spectacular as probably dizzying. More pics after the jump.…
Oh Smooth-o-rama. This is the wool version of the iPhone, lovingly knitted by some guy’s mom. Big pic and specs after the jump. Body: Unbreakable Screen: Shatterproof Internet Connection: Poor Memory size: 0 GB Sound Quality: Woolly Ringtones: No iPhone: No Google Maps: No Camera: 5 megaknitzels Price: Cheaper than the real thing My Mom…
Writer Mary Robinette Kowal has done a semi-steampunk mod on her laptop, calling it “The Kowal Portable Typewriter and Adding Machine.” And, unlike most mod freaks, she didn’t catalog everything to the minutest detail. I like her “I had a laptop, I made it look more purdy, what more do you want to know?” attitude.…
I can’t make up my mind about the Prism. First up, I HATED it. Now I’m not so sure. Perhaps the phone, also known as the Nokia 7500, looks better in white. I’m not sure whether the lay-dee with the duck-egg blue shadow round one eye (did she slip over in the bathroom and give…
This is Seattle man Jason Megatron Burrows. He used to be known as Jason Michael Burrows, but on July 2, Jason went to the courthouse and stood before the judge, who “ordered and decreed” he change his name to honor his childhood hero, Megatron, thus joining Gizmodo’s other friend Optimus Prime in the pantheon of…
Straight from the product page: “Creative ALchemy (Audigy Edition) restores your Sound Blaster Audigy’s ability to process EAX effects, 3D audio, sampling rate conversion and audio mixing for certain DirectSound3D games in Windows Vista.” That’s right Creative’s extorting charging 10 bucks to fix something that should work in the first place. Their side of the…