by Ryan Block, posted May 30th 2008 at 7:24PM It struck us the other day as we were going over some back posts that since the launch of the ASUS Eee PC (and the numerous products that have followed, from the MSI Wind to the HP Mini-Note), to the best of our knowledge we’ve all yet to have any normalized, agreed-upon name for these kinds of devices. Yes, they’re technically “ultraportables” (which we usually define as being any relatively small laptop and under four pounds), but to say an Eee PC is in the same class as, say, the Lenovo X300, the VAIO TZ, or the macbook air would be kind of misleading.We’ve heard “low-cost ultraportable” and “laptop-lite” used to describe these kinds of machines, but it seems best to let you decide: leave your best suggestion for what we all should all call this emerging product category, and we’ll put it up to vote next week. (Read the full post about ‘Eee PC-like ultraportables - name that product category’…)
by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 30th 2008 at 7:06PM In a move of unsurprising proportions, StyleTap announced today that it will be bringing its Palm OS emulator to the iphone and ipod touch… officially. This basically means that every one of those precious Palm apps you couldn’t live without will now be easily accessible via Apple’s devices, thus seriously threatening the argument for keeping your Treo 600. Gregory Sokoloff, CEO of the company, said that the response to a video posted in February of a demo version of the software convinced them to take the plunge. Palm, now might be a good time to stun us with your new OS.Read PermalinkEmail this17 CommentsFiled under: cellphones, HandheldsTags: hdtv, laptops, dap, home theater (Read the full post about ‘StyleTap’s Palm OS emulator officially coming to iPhone and iPod touch’…)
by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 3:25PM Nothing too notable here — just that Toshiba is apparently fixing to unveil a brand new DVD player in the age of Blu-ray that will be “capable of producing high-resolution images from regular DVDs.” As you’re laughing heartily, ponder this: are we looking at a simple upconverting DVD player? Or will that Cell-based SpursEngine chip bring “super-resolution” to a standalone deck? (Read the full post about ‘Toshiba knows no shame, plans to release super-resolution DVD player’…)
Earlier this week, some Swedish dude got a lot of notoriety for pretending to "draw" a planet-sized self-portrait using GPS tracking. Today, we bring you a Finnish guy who is doing it for real, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. Antti Laitinen has used a GPS to "draw" his face across maps of various European forests and cities. He started by tracing his portrait on a map. Then, with a GPS recorder in his pack, he started trying to walk the line he drew, using just a map and a compass to get his bearings. (The GPS was just for recording his path.) When he was done, he uploaded the GPS path to his computer. The result: A self-portrait of the artist as a drunken psychotic. But hey, GPS lines are a little wobbly. (Read the full post about ‘No-B.S. GPS Art: From Geocaching to Geodrawing’…)
I couldn’t resist reporting on this one. After all, I love the Wii, and everyone loves Asus. Asus recently demonstrated a pair of controllers at a recent tech fair in Taipei, and it caused a stir amongst gadget blogs everywhere. The purpose of these remotes appear to be advanced gaming controllers. I have included a video of it in action at the end of this article. The controllers bear a strong resemblance to a certain Nunchuck belonging to a certain console system whose last name rhymes with Mii. I suppose that there could be material for a lawsuit here from Nintendo. Yet unlike the controller for the Wii, the Asus controller uses two Nunchucks, and they are not wired together. (Read the full post about ‘Asus New Controllers have a design Wii are all familiar with’…)
by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 12:53PMNot much else to say beyond the title of this one — MWeston has recently confirmed over at the GP32X boards that Bluetooth will indeed be included on the forthcoming Pandora mega-emulator. He noted that BT was added because of an exceptional deal they landed and to “make competing devices look that much less interesting.” Right, so what exactly is this bundle of awesomeness competing against exactly? (Read the full post about ‘Bluetooth a confirmed addition to Pandora’…)
There is nothing quite like spending a quiet afternoon on a comfortable chair, surfing on your favorite websites. This makes the Surf Chair very suitable for such activities, allowing you to just laze while enjoying the latest webcomics or movie reviews without a care in the world. The monitor, while not the largest in the world, is suspended in front of the user and can be adjusted to suit your viewing angle. It would have been nice to see some sort of folding tray attached to this workstation, but I guess the designer didn’t want to run the risk of having you spill some drinks on it by accident. Tags: speakers, buyers guides, gaming, gadgets (Read the full post about ‘Surf Chair for the Lazy’…)
by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 1:24PM It’s not the first time we’ve seen a controller hacked for use with the PSP, but this mod by Acidmods member Blizzrad takes things a bit further than most, with it relying entirely on hardware modifications in order to work, meaning it can be done on any PSP regardless of the firmware. It’s also one of the cleanest-looking mods we’ve seen to date, with the only evidence of tampering on the PSP itself being a discreetly placed controller connector right above the power switch. Of course, that also means it’s considerably more difficult for most of us to do ourselves, but we can at least get a glimpse of what’s possible courtesy of the video after the break. (Read the full post about ‘PSP hacked for use with DualShock controller’…)
The first line of the email read: Hi Charlie, Are you looking for a safe place to store your adult DVD collection? How could I resist? (And how did this get through my spam filter?) The Disc Manager 100 is a carousel storage device for optical media of all kinds (despite the tagline “Finally a safe way to store, and a convenient way to access your adult DVDs”, it will actually handle any CD or DVD). Search software keeps a database so you can find files. The “secure” part just means that you can passwoord protect this directory. The USB bus-powered box doesn’t actually play the disc, it only stores and ejects them. (Read the full post about ‘Mechanized Secrecy Hides Your Adult Movie Collection’…)
by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 11:47AM We got a chance to spend a bit of time with WowWee’s Tri-Bot way back at CES earlier this year, but the folks at RobotsRule recently got a chance to put the bot through all its paces in advance of its summer release, and they’ve now churned out a fairly thorough review. On the whole, they seem to have been mightily impressed by the bot, and they think it’ll appeal just as much to more DIY-minded folks as it will to kids, thanks in no small part to its unique wheel base and tilt sensor-equipped remote control. (Read the full post about ‘WowWee’s Tri-Bot gets an early review’…)
