Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Sunny Bains’s overview of liquid oil-and-water camera lenses in this month’s Wired is up on the web. If you’ve been following the technology there’s probably not a lot of information, but it’s something I like to keep in the front of my brain—the promise of durable, portable, low-power optical zoom lenses in everything is just…
Pantech & Curitel have announced the ‘Power-Pixel’ series phones, the PG-3000 [pictured] and GF-500. The PG3000 is a dual-band slider that’s as brick-like as they come, while the GF500 is a tri-band, flip-phone model. Both include a 1.3-megapixel camera, which while decent, is hardly approaching ‘power.’ Nevertheless, these aren’t flagship phones for the company, but…
Boxwave is selling a new FlexiSkin for the PSP for $25 which mostly covers the unit, leaving the UMD door and possibly the screen unprotected. What are the best cases you’ve found for your PSP so far? I’m still fairly sold on the Logitech, although so far the bundled neoprene case has actually been doing…
Tetsuya Mizuguchi (aka ‘Miz’) is the creator of Rez and Lumines, arguably the first hit game for the Sony PSP. He’s started up a new blog on 1UP and it just so happens that his first post is very ‘What’s in My Gadget Bag’-like. None of the gear is too mind-boggling, but it’s still fun…
Shakeutron will never judge you. Shakeutron is here to help. Shakeutron would like to buy you a nice steak dinner. Shakeutron did not mean to offend you. Shakeutron would like you to come back. Shakeutron cries 1.5 gallons of tears. (Thanks, baud boy!) Update: Josh Ellingson writes, “This is something I made a little while…
While we re on the topic of Panasonic, I ll also mention two other new home theater products from the company. The SC-HT06 is a 2.1ch audio system with Dolby Virtual Speaker (DVS) technology. This is to fool you into thinking you have a real surround sound setup. The amplifier is provides a total 300W…
Panasonic has introduced three new plasma and six new LCD TVs in Japan, all of which are in the VIERA line. Scheduled to be released on May 1st, the plasmas will be available in 50, 42 and 37 inch sizes, and the LCDs in 32, 26, 23 and 19 inch sizes. The most expensive set…
We’ve launched a new site, called Sploid. Edited by Choire “Boo Boo Bear Prime” Sicha, Henry “Once Intern, Now Man” Seltzer, and Ken “Yeah, I Actually Don’t Know This Guy” Layne, Sploid is like a Gawker blog but even lazier, as up-to-the-second news headlines are snarkily regurgitated in easy-to-read font sizes and just a dabbling…
Product Highlights • Hitachi Promises 1 TB HDD [Techtree] • Microsoft’s New Smart Phone Interface: Your Thumb [TechWeb] Business • RIM edges into Q4 loss [TheRegister] • PalmSource sees red as device sales decline [TheRegister] Reviews • Cooler Master Aquagate raises swimming pool question [TheInquirer] • Apex Digital E2go MP-2000 Portable Media Player [MobileTechReview] •…
This might be new or it might be old, but it’s the first I’ve seen of it. Canford UK sells this 19-inch rack-mountable wine rack, suitable for 3U hosted server solutions or home audio installations—because there’s no place better to store wine than sandwiched between racks of hot servers. (Thanks, Honda!) Catalog Page [CanfordUK]
Samsung has launched the SPH-G1000 and SCH-G100 gaming phones in its native Korea, featuring a dedicated gaming joypad and buttons and built-in vibration capability. These aren’t likely intended to be serious threats to dedicated mobile gaming hardware like the PSP or DS, but that doesn’t really matter anyway, since they’ll likely not be released outside…
Another day, another Windows Treo rumor. This one is somewhat legit, but still, salt liberally: Which is fascinating… but can it explain the embarrassing scenes in the Landmark Hotel, London, where a Very Senior Orange Person produced his Treo 650, and switched it on, and carelessly allowed all others at the table to see that…
If you play guitar, get ready to drool over the slickest electronics you’ll ever handle with your shoes. Guitar effects boxes are nothing new, but the sound is usually decidedly low-fi. Not so with TC Electronic’s G-System, which packs TC’s high-end effects, analog looping, amp switching, floor control, and other extras into a gorgeous case.…
Prepare for speculation a-go-go: Apple just licensed a chipset that is capable of not only music and video, but 3D graphics and image capturing with resolutions up to 8-megapixel. Silicon Valley Watcher is reporting that Apple has contracted to use a chipset from UK company Alphamosaic. And not only is the chipset powerful, it can…
If the Mac mini is going to work as a commodity PC, it needs to be sold in commodity stores. That’s probably the only real reason that the announcement that Best Buy is going to sell the Mac mini is notable at all (although it’d be even more notable if, say, Wal-Mart got on board).…
JVC knows how to make fancy looking speakers. The new “SX-WD10” and “SX-DW505” do that, too. There must be something about wood and speakers that people like. But what’s this? “Copper Clad Aluminum?” It seems to me speaker manufacturers just sit around and come up with the most exotic materials they possibly can, and claim…
MVK has a new line of hard drive enclosures for the security folk, called the “impact Encrypted HDD Enclosure” line. Available in 40 bit and 128 bit encryption models, each enclosure includes three “security keys” necessary to access the data on the hard drive that is enclosed. I’ll also guess and say that they require…
People are always asking me, “Why do I need a headphone amplifier?” The answer is simple: to drive your pair of giant headphones, of course. These ‘Big Headphones’ are just a design project, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build them yourself. If someone tries to steal your iPod on the subway, you can comedically…
We mentioned this last night, but if you had any doubts at the time, Sony’s NW-HD5 is now official. It features direct MP3 playback, a replaceable battery, and a function to search for tracks/albums by name, called “Initial Search.” This is the Japanese product announcement, and they put it at 35,000 yen; a little bit…
The Strip Bracelet is single length of silver, stamped with the logo of its designer. It arrives flat in a felt case and you bend it yourself to fit your wrist. It might possible be the laziest product design I’ve ever seen. The next model will require you to mine your own silver. Strip Bracelet…