By now you’ve probably heard all about the Asus EeePC, an awesome $250 UMPC/laptop which is set to take the mobile computing market by storm sometime this year. Well some Russian folk got their hands on a review unit and shortly after snapping a few pics of the exterior tore into the bad boy to have a closer look. The Eee sports a 900mhz Celeron and a generous 512MB of RAM along with a few other goodies such as integrated wireless and a bunch of USB ports.
The translation page is MIA so don’t expect to understand any of it but hit the link anyway to scope out some close-ups and shots of the inside.
After considering the ultra-thin form factor of the new MacBook, the guys over at 9to5mac have concluded that the new model might be shipping without the famous slot loading disc drive. This isn’t supported by any evidence as of yet but there’s been speculation for a while that such a model might be in the works.
All this crazy talk is based on the fact that backup systems have migrated to online services, and most software is installed via USB drives or downloads. Supposedly this would be the only effective way of slimming down the notebook without cutting back on battery life or processing power. This is sounding more and more like Apple’s fabled ultra-portable, we’ll see soon enough.
Check out this bit of vintage portable audio, yeah CG is all about tech news but this is too cool. The Audio Technica AT-727 Sound Burger is a clamp-like 8″ record player which was apparently developed in response to Sony’s popular Walkman cassette player. The design is pretty neat as the majority of the record is free spinning outside of the player, but don’t expect this to work in your pocket. Or on the train. Or anywhere without a completely stable surface really. It’s cool to see how far we’ve come in terms of technology but really, no cover flow or podcast directory would render this thing pretty useless.
IBM is at work developing a type of audible system which will integrate with virtual worlds like Second Life to give descriptions of surroundings and items to the visually impaired. The technology will provide ambient sound such as leaves rustling to indicate the presence of a tree, and with integrated text-to-speech software users can hear the in-game chats.
This is cool and all but we can’t help wondering if the use of such technology for virtual worlds is a bit of a waste, there are important things to do online. You know. Like blogging.
How cool is this, an ordinary looking photocopier can scan material with Japanese text and spit out translations in English or Korean in the same layout. The copier works by being connected to a dedicated translation server online, so it doesn’t do the work by itself. It does however, feature algorithms which can distinguish between drawings or images and text. That algorithm must be pretty good considering Japanese and Korean characters are impossibly complicated. Especially to us Westerners.
The copier is unnamed and the technology is very, very, prototype. So there’s no telling if or when these will hit the market.
If you have ever wanted to send anyone a self destructing micro-cassette or letter, this service is for you. BigString lets you send emails with a set lifespan which can still be erased or amended after hitting the targets inbox, you can even lock them from being saved, printed, or forwarded. I don’t know about you guys but after flipping through the site I’ve imagined at least a dozen Mission Impossible scenarios. Did I mention you can send videos?
The most basic service is free but for an extra $30 a year, you get unlimited storage and the ability to access your account via any POP3 enabled email client.
At first we thought that this might be kind of a shady steal-your-identity type deal, but upon clicking around it seems that the site is pretty much the Indian equivalent of Amazon. The iPhone is still being sold in 4 and 8 Gig capacities with the higher end version clocking in at a hefty $870, this would have been great deal last month what with that kid trading his unlocked JesusPhone for a car and all.
It’s a pretty lengthy process as each phone is first updated to the latest firmware and then unlocked via the software hack but don’t worry, the estimated delivery time is only about ten days. Don’t expect this to last long though as Apple’s legal team is constantly looking for new companies to rough up.
So you just dropped a few hundred on a shiny chrome iPod. You’d expect such a product to come with some sort of pseudo-dock but nay, your precious MP3 player is left to drag around your desk while charging or syncing.
Now, you can always go out and buy a dock that is actually well made but that would mean falling into the social norm of iPod docks. You need something unique. We present to you the Heat & Sip iPod dock: It’s sturdy metal construction, and securely glued syncing cable will keep your iPod well off the table and away from any surrounding obtrusions.
You guys better get on this quick as once that eBay auction is over this is gone forever.
Surprisingly the PSP is pushing more units right now than any other console on the Japanese market. That includes the Ps3, Xbox360, and Wii. The new figures were apparently inspired by the latest iteration of Final Fantasy for the system, and everyone knows that the key to the hearts and pockets of Asian consumers is a damn good RPG. There’s no telling how long this will last but it’s an important step for Sony in keeping the PSP alive. Just goes to show how it really is all about the games.
The VholdR is basically a really sweet looking helmet cam whose sturdy aluminum body will make sure the camera survives even if you don’t. It mounts on your helmet any way you want via their attachment system, and features a special rotating lens which takes all the guesswork out of getting a good angle. The camera comes packaged with a free software suite that includes library, playback, and sharing features. That’s definitely a welcome addition to the pricey $350 camera, and what with all that free time you’ll have after eating dirt it will really come in handy.
This is pretty sweet, Yap lets you send text messages just by talking into your phone. We’ve seen services like this before but the speech interpretation aspect has been porked. No word on how well this works yet but we’re assuming it won’t be that bad. Call it faith. The software also allows you to query web services like Google, Wikipedia, or YouTube with nothing but your voice. No word yet on if/when this will be available to the public or what phones are supported. Stay tuned, TC40 is still in full swing.
So let’s say having access to your documents and applications all the time is vital to your work. Carrying a laptop gets annoying and saving individual Word files won’t cut it. Ceedo offers an easy way to carry your apps and docs and use them on any computer with a USB port, best of all no traces of your work are left on the host computer. Which is a good way to hide that “romance” novel you’ve been working on. The software is a reasonable $30 and installs on anything with storage accessible via USB that includes flash drives, cellphones, MP3 players, and portable HDDs.
The Ceedo Programs Directory offers apps which are ready for use with your Ceedo enabled drive. However, if you fail to find that specific version of minesweeper the optional Argo add-on ($30) will install anything you want.
In this wonderful world of tech all you have to do to market a device at a certain group of people is change its color. Pink cellphones are OK, maybe even pink laptops. But really a pink GPS? Is that really necessary? There aren’t any details about this other than that it’s going to happen. But in all honesty we’d rather never see another pink gadget. Ever. At least this comes packed with a bit of good news as the entire C300 series is getting an upgrade sometime this month.
The guys at Gizmodo put together a simple guide on how to use your iPhone as an SSH server and client. The process consists of a few simple steps and isn’t really different from setting it up on a windows mobile based phone. SSH always comes in handy at one point or another and having it on a mobile device can be very convenient. Maybe this will eventually work on the touch? Oh well, a geek can always hope.
Short and Sweet SSH Guide for the iPhone [Gizmodo]
It’s that time again and you’ve got nothing to do. Sure you can be out socializing and meeting new people, or perhaps touring the outback, or anything generally constructive. But no you’re reading CrunchGear instead. It’s OK though because that’s what we’d rather you do. The outback is just a bunch of rocks and sand anyway.
Here are a few cool flash games to help you occupy yourself.
Sunday night usually means that the news has slowed to a crawl and this time it’s no different. At least we can still check out some of the cool gizmos that hackers around the internet are coming up with on a daily basis. The disk reading arm moves left and right to indicate minutes, and the platter spins to show hours. Pretty sweet.
Ugh. More iPod shenanigans. Apparently crooked screens, washed out colors, lack of Bluetooth, disabled Linux compatibility, and a fubar calendar (to name a few) wasn’t enough. If you’ve gotten your hands on a Touch try this out: lock it and then enter the wrong password. Lo’ and and behold your little media player has transformed into a phone. Or not.
Update:
Alright Apple this is getting on my nerves. The iPod Touch also thinks that it is/has a camera. When plugged into a Windows or Mac machine this is the result:
There were other videos a while back comparing the performance of the aging fat PSP against the slim and sexy model however, the barely noticeable difference left us unimpressed. This time around the new iteration of the PSP took the gold with a sick drop in loading times. Maybe there is hope for the handheld after all.
If you haven’t heard about PocketFuzz before, it’s a company which provides a suite of mobile services for quick and up to date artist-fan interaction. Their latest text-to-screen visualizer uses some technomagic to display text and pictures sent from mobile phones. The image can then be projected onto the stage or elsewhere in the concert venue. It’s definitely a neat way to create some sort of interaction between an artist and their audience however, it also provides for an impassable opportunity to come to a concert with a few gigs worth of goatse and hentai on your phone.
A Mr. Kyle Albanese tipped us off about the new rebate form which was just slipped onto AT&T’s servers.
Being the geek I am, I knew the Cingular rebate form ended yesterday and low and behold they upload a brand new rebate form including the following new phones:
Tilt
SMT5700
Pantech Duo
Rim 8820
Moto q9
A737
Curve 8310
A few people have turned on their Nano’s for the first time to be flabbergasted at the one to two millimeter slant on the media players screen. Now you can say we’re nitpicking if you want, but that’s the kind of thing that would annoy us to within millimeters of insanity. Hopefully this is a bad production run and the more cautious buyers will have perfectly straight screens.
So this is a bit uncool of Apple to do. Basically the new firmware asks your computer what kind of software you’re using and prevents syncing on platforms for which iTunes doesn’t exist. A healthy chunk of people use Linux based operating systems on a daily basis and most of them will have absolutely no trouble switching media players if their iPod isn’t compatible with their system. You might be saying to yourself that this is some sort of counter-piracy measure but nay, this has nothing to do with DRM or copyrights. Lame.
Time now for a mind numbing analysis of the ten dimensions. This is pretty insane and if you can understand it past the 3 minute mark you are smarter than I. Off topic but very cool.
No one can withstand the temptation which accompanies a pocket full of quarters and a claw machine in the vicinity. Well we ran out of quarters, and the claw machine didn’t fit in the lime green VW Beetle. This seems to be the next best thing to actually owning your own claw. Some guys in Arizona hooked up seven claw machines to some webcams and the interwebz to bring you good wholesome claw fun from the comfort of your own home. You will need to make an account and sometimes there is a waiting list for machines but once you get it it’s yours for three tries. I can’t get that damn Stewie.
It never takes long for anxious geeks to tear into the latest piece of technology, even one that hasn’t completely made it to stores yet. One thing that is pretty cool is the method which is used to connect the WiFi antenna, instead of crowding the area with wires Apple went with two contacts which touch when the device is closed. The dissection clouded the Bluetooth rumors even further and didn’t really teach us anything we didn’t already know. Oh yeah if you haven’t realized it yet the Touch and iPhone are pretty damn similar.
