It’s spring, which means many of you will be begrudgingly scrubbing your homes from top-to-bottom as part of your yearly spring cleaning ritual. As gearheads, many of you will also be searching for the surest ways to maximize your cleaning efforts — the search will undoubtedly lead many of you to the same destination: Dyson.
The DC18 is the newest product to emerge from the labs of cyclonic vacuum superstar Dyson. Dubbed the Slim, this model offers a major reduction in size while still maintaining many of the features that set a Dyson apart from its competitors.
My first impression of Dyson was one of cautious intrigue, it was after all a product for doing chores — something I attempt to avoid at all costs. But gradually over the course of a few years the apparent engineering marvel won my attention mainly through attrition. And so, when I heard about the Slim I decided that it was finally time to put Dyson to the test. I mean it’s just a vacuum after all, right? Read More
The world’s first open-source car was unveiled this week at the AutoRAI show in Amsterdam. The c,mm,n (or “common”) was developed by three Dutch technical universities: Delft, Eindhoven and Enschede.
The current model features a zero emission hydrogen-powered motor and it seats four (little people by the looks of it). All of the vehicle’s technical data and blueprints are available freely on the Web and anyone is welcome contribute to the design as long as the ideas are openly available.
So if you’re proficient in Dutch and automotive engineering mosey on over to the c,mm,n website and take a gander at the specs.
c,mm,n, the world’s first open-source car [Core77]
When I was at SXSW a few weeks back, the new daylight savings time took place. My Blackjack failed to recognize new switch and I was stuck with the wrong time for the entire week. It was a pain in the ass, but I finally got it fixed when I returned home and patched Windows Mobile.
Well according to some speculation, many older devices could spring forward this Sunday when we reach the old DST date. So if you set your device clocks forward manually or have some old device that automatically recognized DST, you might want to check it to make sure it’s not going to leap another hour into the future.
Daylight saving again? Older devices may spring forward [USA Today]
Robots and the Nintendo Wii make for a fine Friday afternoon. A robot—the WiigoBot—playing the Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, is amazing. Here, the folks from BattleBricks assembled a robot made from legos that bowls a perfect game in Wii Sports. A video of the robot in action is after this here jump.
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Like I mentioned, Panasonic visited Gotham yesterday to show off its plasma TV lineup for the year, including its first 42-inch 1080p model that’ll be available in June for $2,500. (Wow, run-on sentence alert.) Panasonic displayed many of these plasmas at CES earlier in the year, but it doesn’t hurt to get some one-on-one time with them without throngs of people pushing up against me.
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Sidekick ID and it was pretty fugly to begin with, but we didn’t expect it to be this bad. Leaked on the T-Mo Website is a rebate form with some official photos of the ID and it makes me want to purge. There’s a $50 rebate and a supposed April 18 launch.
Colorful Sidekick ID spotted in its full glory: a rebate form [Engadget]
Pioneer is all over plasma TV, and it looks like it’s going to launch its 8th-gen plasmas at an event in Rome this May. Pioneer kept going on and on at CES about how it wanted to make plasma the premier TV technology and this announcement should finally reveal what it’s been up to.
It used to be that I was sorta down on plasma, but companies like Pioneer and Panasonic, which showed off its new line of plasmas yesterday here in New York, have improved the technology to the point where I would buy one. That is, if I had any money to do so. (Plasma is still on the expensive side, you see.)
Incoming: 8th-gen Pioneer plasma TV [Tech.co.uk]
Up till now, the Apple TV’s USB port has been like your appendix: there, but not really doing anything. Incorrigible hackers have now figured out a way to unlock the port, letting the Apple TV use any number of different USB devices (think mice, keyboards, hard drives, etc.) On the other side is a video of Nicholas from The Last King of Scotland playing around with a newly hacked USB port.
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Product Page [via Everything USB]
LG GSA-E40L 18X External DVD Writer with LightScribe [Far East Gizmos]
Product Page [via Digital World Tokyo]
JVC has perhaps the strangest digital audio player right now and it’s currently floating around Japanese bathtubs. The XA-AW33 is a waterproof DAP that’s supposed to cause you to relax. When music bellows out of its mono speaker, it generates water ripples; a blue LED is also said to enhance the calming effect of the DAP. It’s got 265MB of flash and plays MP3s and WMAs. I predict this will do well in the crazy person market, ’cause only such a person would want to soak in a tub with a DAP floating around like an iceberg. At least it’ll calm them down.
Product Page [JVC via Fareastgizmos.com]
The iPhone will come out on June 11. Someone over at CNET had the bright of calling Cingular (well, AT&T) to ask them when the phone would come out, and the voice on the other end of the line revealed the June 11 date. The date makes sense: Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference begins that same day and, well, we (save for Dvorak) know it’s coming out in June at some point.
So this date, if true, leaves us just 10 weeks away from the in-demand phone’s release. Look at that excitement grow.
Apple’s iPhone will be released on June 11 [CNET]
When some companies produce a music player, they continually look to add features based on consumer feedback. Consider Cowon and Archos as two prime examples; they are constantly tweaking the firmware, and both have active online communities that actually seem to influence the future of the product. So WTF with Apple? The company has gotten so focused on taking someone’s great idea and running with it innovating that they wind up virtually abandoning the idea of improving — not just fixing — their products in between major launches.
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Fresh off the assembly line comes the brand new Vyper exo briefcase from Booq, a company whose motto reads, “Empowering the next generation of creative performance.” It’s an ambitious and open-ended goal, that is most appreciated by a very specific demographic (you).
In the interest of full-disclosure, my current day pack is a Vyper XM, so it’s possible that I’m predisposed to a bias toward Booq due to my good fortune with its previous products. The flip-side of that tale is that I’m more critical, because I know its capable of great things. I’m in the manner of thinking the latter is closer to accurate. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at how the Booq Vyper exo held up during my tests.
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Dell gives the go-ahead for Linux [BBC]
, but the makers designed it so the boards can be easily switched out for other attachments. Well those attachments are coming in May for street, offroad, and water.</p>
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Read More we can expect in the 120GB HDD that will be standard on the Elite and as a stand alone add-on. The list is quite extensive and very exciting. Both Elite and stand alone HDD will have a full version of Hexic HD, a slew of dashboard themes and some gamer pics (hopefully they’re cooler). A few other goodies are included as well so hit the jump and find out.<br />
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