by Ryan Block, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 12:21PM So we dropped by our old friend Peter Rojas’s place (you know, the guy who started this site) — turns out that since he’s a music executive and stuff now, he got himself hooked up with a prototype limited edition Joy Division Zune. (Yeah, the irony in that isn’t lost on us.) From the absurdly elaborate pivoting, platform-raising box, to the black fabric wrap (which looked blue to our camera), to the faux-LP liner, to Peter Saville’s signature etched in foam, they clearly did Joy Division justice on this one. (Read the full post about ‘Joy Division Zune hands-on’…)
It is a well known fact never to leave your dog unattended whenever you take it out for a walk, but sometimes even the most vigilant of us could lose our concentration during crucial moments, resulting in a pooch who desires to forge its own destiny outside the comforts of its kennel back home. Tracking down a wayward dog can be a pretty tricky thing, what more in a vast city. The Garmin DC30 GPS dog collar (spotted by us at CES07) will definitely provide you with the relevant peace of mind, capable of tracking up to 10 dogs simultaneously. It can last anywhere between 17 and 36 hours on a single charge, and will retail for $199.99 individually or $649.99 as part of an Astro 220 combo. (Read the full post about ‘Garmin DC30 GPS Dog Collar’…)
This is the Image Fulgurator, half guerilla art stunt and half homemade gadget awesomeness. Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the photos of strangers, but remain invisible to their eyes. How? It’s simple. The device has a slave unit on top which is triggered when it sees a flash fire. This triggers his own flash, which fires through the back of the camera, through a film slide containing his slogan and then on and out through the lens at the front. This works because a camera is prety mucha projector in reverse. (Read the full post about ‘Gun Camera Adds Graffiti to Other People’s Photos’…)
A Japanese company, Sun Denshi, today announced their intention to bring a little more life to Nintendo’s WiiWare service with a completely unconventional new strategy. They intend to bring Japanese manga to the service through a (presumably) new viewer application.
The first comic available will be an original by Reiji Matsumoto, creator of the Space Battleship Yamato series, with more on the way. The idea is to eventually showcase other manga, books, and even games. The service will be run by a new devision of the company, known as Sunsoft Books.
This is a great idea that will definitely be popular in Japan.
(Read the full post about ‘Manga coming to Japanese WiiWare’…)
The Dual Music Player concept brings together the old and the new, where you get a fold-out CD player that is capable of playing back MP3 files as well. It works with Bluetooth earsets for a truly wireless experience, and can be opened up to cater for CDs, effectively making this the smallest CD player ever created if it was actually manufactured. I wonder what the battery life is like on this thing though. If it packs quite a punch, might as well go nuts and throw in a taser function. Tags: M4A, gadgets, digital, dvr (Read the full post about ‘Dual Music Player Concept’…)
Inkel of Korea has a couple of new stereo systems that take the rather unconventional route of allowing one to record audio CD contents straight onto a USB flash drive, without the need for conversion software whatsoever. Perfect for folks who want to rip off songs without going through the hassle. Features of these stereo systems include :- CD player USB 2.0 port Integrated AM/FM tuner 5-band graphic equalizer WMA/MP3 compatibility 2 x 60W output powerThey will retail for approximately €150 each. Great for people who want to transfer their entire CD collection onto the computer. Tags: tech, M4A, hdtv, design (Read the full post about ‘Inkel Stereo System’…)
I remember back in the days where ATI’s All-in-Wonder cards were real value-for-money, and here we are today with AMD resurrecting that very same line with the $199 ATI All-in-Wonder HD. This is a PCI Express 2.0 card that aims to merge both PC gaming and HDTV worlds together, featuring mouth watering specifications such as :- DirectX 10.1 support 725MHz engine clock 600MHz memory clock MPEG2/VC-1/H.264 video decoder acceleration Dual-link DVI port HDMI jack Do keep a keen eye out for this as it hits the US later in July. Tags: hi fi, mobiles, home cinema, tech (Read the full post about ‘AMD ATI All-in-Wonder HD’…)
Dell has released a new Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX upgrade kit that targets existing XPS M1730 laptop owners who have yet to discover the joys of souped up GPUs. This video card upgrade can be purchased from the official Dell site and self-installed if you have the stomach for it, but for those who are not so confident about their own skills, they can always opt for the installation service. The stand-alone 8800M GTX SLI (dual) kit comes with 1GB DDR3 memory and will retail for $1,099.99.
(Read the full post about ‘Dell Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX Upgrade Kit’…)
by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 12:15AM As expected, T-Mobile has taken the wraps off its very own version of Motorola’s ROKR E8, a glossy black candybar offering a 2 megapixel camera, 2GB of internal storage (plus a microSD slot that’ll swallow up to 8GB more), stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, and that so-called “morphing” keypad that selectively renders keys invisible depending on the mode you’re using. It’s missing 3G, but that’s one feature T-Mobile customers are all too well acquainted to missing out on — and considering that the just-announced flagship ZN5 doesn’t even do any WCDMA, it shouldn’t come as any surprise. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile announces Motorola ROKR E8′…)
by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 4:12AMSony just released a rambling update to it corporate strategy through fiscal year 2010. An interesting read for fans and competitors alike as Sony lays bare initiatives intent on moving Sony from recovery to the “leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment.” Most notable in the near-term however, is word from Kazuo Hirai, chieftain of Sony Computer Entertainment, that Sony will make a movie download service available to US playstation 3 owners this summer, Japan and Europe at later dates — details coming “next month,” presumably at E3. Moreover, Sony expects its gaming business to achieve profitability by March 2009, the end of the current fiscal year. (Read the full post about ‘Sony’s PS3 movie download service rolling out Stateside this summer’…)
