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After a little bit of investigative journalism, EEtime is reporting that the $50 retail Xbox 360 wireless controller only costs an estimated $11 to create. Even with a reasonable mark up for marketing, distribution, and, you know, profit, there is still a painful amount of wiggle room, especially for those that hope to play four-player…
ExtremeTech’s ultra-nerdy “LCoS Display Technology Shootout” is finally completed, and while we would hardly suggest casual users go browse it—it’s just too detailed—for those of us who enjoy browsing through paragraphs thick with specifications and technological terms, it’s a winner. And while ExtremeTech’s regular writers are hardly shabby, they called in Dr. Raymond Soneira for…
Here’s a chair from Charlotte Friis Design Studio that’s made out of drawing paper rolled up like a pair of toilet rolls, and as a child uses paper, it’s scrolled from the back roll to the front one on which the child sits. As the child uses more paper, the chair gets taller and taller,…
Akihabara News is reporting some shocking news about the plentiful second-hand market in Japan. Basically it goes like this: if you bought an electronic device before 2001 will be prohibited from being resold through a second-hand market as of April 1, 2006. This could damage the retail-heavy Akihabara district that thrives on the sale of…
This week at Lifehacker: Unlock the power of the scroll wheel and mouse gestures and drive Firefox without taking your hand off the clicker. Fix scratched CDs with toothpaste, Pledge, Pinesol or peanut butter. Get flight status information, horoscopes and drink recipes SMS’ed directly to your phone. Make sure your laptop battery doesn’t poop out…
Though we usually leave the car news to our strapping brother Jalopnik, there is hardly a more gadgety car than the rumored hybrid version of the miniscule Honda Fit. While Honda has publicly denied the story by Japanese daily newspaper Nihon Keizai, the report says that Honda will launch the sub-Civic-sized hybrid by 2007 in…
Space flight is not just for governments any more, and a group from Singapore is getting in on the action, with a bold, fantastic press release about its plans to open a $115 million spaceport complete with astronaut training facilities and suborbital space flights. A partnership between Space Adventures, Ltd. and an unnamed Singapore-based consortium,…
I actually saw this thing a few months ago at big, weird junk store. When you move something about 6 inches from the lid, a magical AI Smart Chip II opens the lid and closes thanks to patented SilenX silent lid closing thing. Then there’s the Eagle Eye sensor that senses your presence and the…
If you’re like me, you want to get as far away as your little bundle of joy as possible. Well, the Child ‘Minder—I suppose it stands for Child Reminder—is here to keep you in line. You hook the little oval part to your car seat or buggy and attach the other bit to your keychain.…
This is just about the coolest way to park your bike ever. You attach it to a big tree—a Bike Tree!—and they are lifted into the air where they’re protected from the elements by some sort of canopy. The project looks as old as my Grandma, but it’s pretty darn cool. They currently have some…
Stefan Eriksson, Gizmondo executive with links to organized crime, crashed his 2003 Ferrari Enzo into a light pole while racing through Malibu, destroying the limited-edition car as thouroughly as he dashed the hopes of thousands of Gizmondo fanboys. Eriksson survived the crash, but the Enzo, one of 399 made, didn’t fare very well. Apparently Eriksson…
Canon launched the Xeed SX6, a projector that will take its place at the top of the Xeed line (known as Realis in the United States). This native SXGA+ (1400×1050) unit has three LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) panels, which means seamless, butta-smooth images without that pesky screen door effect. Canon’s quoting some impressive specs…
Griffin is now shipping TuneFlex, a dock and recharger that mounts the iPod nano on a flexible steel arm, bringing the music player up in your face where you can conveniently control it. We first saw one of these from Belkin at CES, and wondered why no one had thought of it before. You just…
We’re usually pretty soft on Apple even though their cooler-than-thou attitude grates on the hung-over brain now and again. However, they have a worm! And it’s a doozy! Well, not really. Basically, the OSX.Inqtana.A spreads itself through Bluetooth when you restart your PC. This assumes you have lots of Bluetooth-enabled Macs hanging out and it…
A UK design company has at long last developed the Powerdesk, “The world’s first truly effective integration of computer and workstation.” That means put away the Office Depot particle board, ’cause this PC is integrated into the desk it comes with. In reality, it might actually be a nifty idea for a clutter-free existence, albeit…
This is a spotting of a crazy ordering contraption at one of those Taco Bell/KFC hybrids in North Carolina. It seems that paying a high-school kids $6 an hour was too much to handle, now they are putting the burden of ordering onto the customer. This is just a large touch screen where all of…
These little babies made their first appearance at CES back in January and they are finally ready to go, kind of. Amazon is taking pre-orders for an expected March release. This digital audio player really is pretty cool, must be why it carries such a hefty, $399 price tag. It is palm sized and weighs…
This whole biometric protection thing seems to get going a little too far. Take the Ibidentifi for example. This is the average, run-of-the-mill USB fingerprint scanner, but it has a little added twist. If there is ever a situation where you are being forced to unlock your PC via biometics, the Ibidentifi has an “alarm…
(2/21/06) Today we got confirmation of the April release of Sony’s low-priced HDV camcorder, which the company hopes will finally bring HD videography down to earth. We also felt the first rumblings of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Convention and Trade Show coming up in Orlando next week, that annual cacophonous camera conflagration that fills…
Wal-Mart has announced a new partnership with Toshiba to develop and sell the first Restriction on Hazardous Susbstance (RoHS) laptop. RoHS is a directive that forbids the use of a variety of hazardous substances in electronic equipment, including laptops. Green Star, a non-profit organization, is reporting that consumer electronics make up 40 percent of the…