Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It doesn’t get much hotter than bot-on-bot action (it’s enough to make your circuits fuse), and the eRobotica 2005 PlayBot Calendar aims to please. Each month has a different robot Playmate, with shots ranging from the relatively tame (like this upskirt) to downright bestial, with two Sony AIBO slipping it doggy style. It’s safe for…
Just like the recently-developed HD DVD/DVD dual-disc format from Toshiba, JVC is showing a new prototype triple-layer Blu-Ray/DVD hybrid that puts a 25GB Blu-Ray layer on top of a coventional two-layer 8.5GB DVD disc. Dual format discs are hoped to ease the transition from DVD to whatever format will win the upcoming standards war (probably…
Development of the next round of high-speed wireless data services has officially started, with a new consortium of carriers signing a ‘Super 3G’ agreement. The new system, planned to be at least 10 times as fast as modern 3G services, should first been seen in testing environments in 2007, with commercial deployments to follow. Companies…
The Sumitronics SP-103 MP3 Docking Station is a $300 FM radio designed to capture ‘the latest Top-40 music hits’ and copy them automatically to your USB Host-capable MP3 player. I can only presume by ‘latest Top-40 music hits’ they mean ‘whatever happens to be playing on the radio at any given time,’ but until the…
Once a week, createdigitalmusic‘s Peter Kirn checks in with favorite music equipment picks. This week brings a new keyboard from pioneer Dave Smith; it’s not even out yet, but blinking blue lights, lots of knobs, and the combination of two generations of synthesis technology with both analog and digital circuitry might make even a non-musician…
It’s commonly accepted that the Dutch, despite their many achievements in legalized prostitution and hippie tourism, have been held back from total world domination due to their extremely long driveways, which wear down the nation’s young husbands as they trek two or three miles each morning to place out their garbage cans for collection. Now…
Another day, another artist complaining about the lack of respect/personal interaction from those pesky cell phone users. At least Nick Rodrigues bothered to wear a suit as he showed off his personal cell phone booth, designed to illustrate how disrespectful people are when they dare call their friends and family in public. Remember the good…
Sony’s VAIO X505 laptop may be slightly smaller than the new Samsung Q30, but I know which one I’d rather have: the one that doesn’t require me to carry external Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and memory card reader adapters to squeeze out that slimline package. The Q30 does have an external DVD drive, but considering how infrequently…
These two concept phones from Samsung are likely to be introduced sooner than the Thor concept, as both are slated to run Microsoft’s Pocket PC 2003 SE operating system. The white slider model, code-named “B-Bop,” is a tri-band GSM device with a 2-megapixel camera, music player, and built-in Wi-Fi. The clamshell concept, code-named “Javelin,” is…
A trio of Samsung concept phones have slipped out onto the web which give us a good idea of what to expect from the company in 2005. Code-named “Thor,” this phone includes a 3GB hard drive and an iPod-like jog shuttle for navigation. Said to run the upcoming version of Microsoft’s Smartphone operating system code-named…
Remember when I said TiVoToGo was launching soon? I was mostly right—it launched today. If you have a Series2 TiVo you can go to the website and download the software today to copy shows to your laptop, although the DVD burning software that will facilitate permanent archiving is still not available. (Thanks, Dave!) https://gizmodo.com/tivotogo-any-day-now-i-bet-1-billion-space-dollars-27277 TiVoToGo…
And finally, in December, nothing happens at all. We pretty much just shot up and waited for the looming hammer of Christmas to fall. It was a great year for gear, though, and it was a lot of fun talking about it with you all. We’ve got high hopes for next year, and I can’t…
In November we learned that the Sonos streaming audio system would be delayed until ’05. Despite this, it was on many magazine’s ‘Best of 2004’ lists. https://gizmodo.com/sonos-onos-delayed-until-05-24643 Dynamism started selling sushi-shaped USB flash drives, which were almost as overpriced as real sushi. https://gizmodo.com/dynamism-selling-sushi-usb-24649 A rumor started floating around that PalmOne would build a Windows-based Treo,…
October has the SeaGrand RaveMetal, an flash-based MP3 player that’s built like a cassette tape. I still think that’s brilliant, if not very useful. We also got our first inkling of a flash-based iPod, although it obviously won’t be out before Christmas. https://gizmodo.com/seagrand-ravemetal-the-flash-player-that-eats-like-a-t-22491 Proving that there is a god, but that he is a heartless…
August brought us the Archos Gmini 400, one of the only portable video players worth a damn. https://gizmodo.com/archos-gmini-400-everything-but-a-price-19630 Flexilis’s Bluetooth hackers attacked a cell phone from over a mile away. An exploding bridge failed to kill a CF card. Tony used a jet engine to roast coffee. Someone actually made a $350k amplifier (that doesn’t…
July was when we knew we had really come into our own, as a story about titanium breast implants temporarily put us in the top spot for Google’s results for the term ‘titties.’ Mom could not have been more proud. I also write our most cringe-worthy story about the SmartKlamp circumcision tool—and that’s just from…
June brought the first cellphone worm for Nokia Series 60 phones, a minor threat but a story that will likely be huge in 2005, as more malicious variants appear. We also learned about the $6,700 power cord, and I had to prevent myself from commiting suicide at the news. https://gizmodo.com/first-nokia-series-60-worm-discovered-infects-via-blue-16228 Sony mentions plans for a…
May found us looking across the pond for at least twenty or thirty seconds as a dead woman’s SMS messages helped in the conviction of her murderous husband. http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/dead-womans-text-message-helps-lock-up-murderous-husband-016034.php Poor Joshua Kinberg first tells us about “Bikes Against Bush”, a clever hack that would have been used to spray temporary chalk messages during the 2004…
In April, Sony announced its intentions to produce a hard disk-based music player. At the time, we didn’t know it would be awful. http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/sony-to-make-hard-drive-music-player-015259.php I also got sort of upset when Gametrac changed the name of their still-unreleased handheld gaming system to Gizmondo. I also maybe implied they helped child molesters find children to touch.…
What a year it’s been in gadgetry! Just 12 short months ago, I was blissfully sleeping in, rising only to attend state-mandated skill focus classes. Yet your unwavering appetite for plastic-clad consumer gear pressed me into service, like a fireman who ignores his high score in Bubble Bobble to rescue a burning baby, or the…