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When shopping for a new laptop, one of the most difficult decisions is choosing between a graphical powerhouse or one that’s more battery-efficient. Alienware makes that decision easier by releasing a laptop with changeable graphics cards. Sitting at home wanting to frag some kids in Quake 4? Just use the Nvidia graphics. But if you’re…
Saitek is the third company to release one of these keyboard game controllers. The company must have lacked research skills when developing its Pro Gamer Command Unit (PGCU) because this product has the same problems of its predecessors. There are 21 keys total, including an awkwardly-placed “shift” key that gives a second function to all…
Everybody knows it’s a sin to buy an iPod accessory that doesn t match. Save yourself living out eternity in a nice townhouse in Hell by buying this speaker set that will nicely match whatever black iPod version you own. This supports the 3G, 4G, 5G, mini, shuffle and nano iPods. It’s available for $85…
Nike is usually known for its stylish footwear and athletic equipment. What it s not known for, at least not yet, is its wicked-cool kiosks. Japanese pop star Hiroshi Fujiwara recently snapped some shots at the Nike headquarters in Portland and Los Angeles, including the NIKE-ID machine. These futuristic-looking devices let you custom-build your own…
Iqua has released a Bluetooth “headset” that is not really a headset, but a tabletop conference calling system. Plop it down on the coffee table and start the 3-way calling action, because that’s what Iqua has in mind for the UFO. It features a nice LCD that displays the time and date as well as…
Some Finlandianites will be launching the first “smart phone books” in the spring of 2006. This service will work with a variety of cell phones including nine Nokia models, three Ericsson models, two Samsung and pretty much any phone that is Symbian 60-based. Upcodes of the smart phone book can be read with a mobile…
We see that the comments are really borked under the Gift Guide headings. You’re not all screaming at each other. The CSS stylesheet is making us scream in comments. May or may not be fixed, cause it’s kind of funny.
At first thought, a color dictionary seems about as useful as a deer carcass to a vegan chef. In my usual fashion, after further investigation this device proved to be a bit more useful than I initially thought. This device features the Encyclopaedia Britannica with pictures that are viewed on a 4.3″ 480×272 screen. There…
Here’s a nice-looking 3G clamshell phone from Asus, which apart from the little antenna isn’t a bad deal. With two cameras—a 1.3-megapixel in the front and a 2-megapixel in the back—it also has a loudspeaker and a built-in MP3 player. Though you only get 4MB of built-in memory, it does have a miniSD slot and…
Looks like this potato has had a narrow escape from its life of being mashed and ingested. It was 7:30 PM, December 4th, 2005. The second Sunday of advent, in Joshua Tree, California. Personal Chef Karin Winkler started to prepare dinner. While thinking about upcoming Christmas, she was peeling and cutting a potato. Everything appeared…
With a nickname like “The Father of DVD,” I guess Warren Lieberfarb can say pretty much anything he wants about the format these days. And yesterday, he gave a surprising speech in which he blasted Blu-ray. Taking the next-generation DVD battle another step into uglytown, Lieberfarb said Hollywood is acting like a bunch of lemmings,…
Yes, the Wonder Vase lives up to its name. For just $5.95, you’ll get a sheet of paper that when placed in hot water will then automagically bend itself into a stunning vase. Of course, then you have to cool it down in cold water to hold its shape, but once that’s done, you’re good…
Here’s another lawsuit pending from Creative against mighty Apple. Creative says it owns the US patent for music navigation on digital music players, which it started marketing back in 2000 (before the iPod hit the stores). This basically covers the way music tracks are organized and navigated through a hierarchical system using three or more…
Cell phone pictures never really had a place in mainstream society. They were low quality and there were never really pictures to take of stuff worthy of a second look. Well, with the new technology and higher-quality camera phones, now maybe it’s time to put all of those drunken bar pictures on display for all…
We reported the other day about new DRM-encumbered CDs from Sony that posed a security threat to users PCs. While Sony and SunnComm, the company responsible for the DRM, contend that the security risks were addressed with a recent patch, new reports suggest otherwise. Princeton s Ed Felton discovered that the patch itself poses a…
First Sony gets themselves knee-deep in DRM problems, and now Microsoft is the next to piss us off with special DRM protection re: Xbox 360. The 360 is perfectly capable of streaming music from a networked PC, unfortunately there seems to be a little problem when trying to load MP3s onto the hard drive in…
So it appears that both computers and bean enthusiasts can live in peace and harmony. Looks like a dude named Johannes Hjort planted some beans inside his keyboard and watered them. After a few days, the beans started to sprout and grow within the keyboard. Some started to lift the keys up like a creature…
Why aren’t traffic signals solar powered? There must be some good reason—like maybe the idea doesn’t work…? Well, Lintec Corp is marketing solar-powered traffic signs. They are wireless, too, and supposedly save $2,800 on electricity over 10 years. (Which doesn’t sound like much—I will pay more than that for home heating next month with the…
We’ve heard rumours of a delayed PS3 launch, but Sony is still promising Spring as its release target. Seems the next-generation DVD format war has been at the center of delay theories. “The PS3 was touted as being the first high volume Blu-ray player. You want to have an installed base of players if you…
What a difference the Asian market makes. Though Xbox 360 units sold out ridiculously quickly here in the US and in Europe, analysts in Japan are saying that gamers are planning to take a more wait-and-see attitude. Even so, the 360 launches in Japan on Sunday and preorders on the web seem to be looking…