The Swiss are interesting. For a new hotel, some eggheads got together and created a six-room building that features a domed roof on each suite. Your room will also include a powerful telescope and photography equipment so that you can take shots of your favorite stars and clusters. Interesting.
It’s called the AAV Lue-Stailas, which is Swiss for “house of space nerds”, and will open soon, though costs are still under wraps. Still, it beats the fortune you need to get into space now, and the photographs will look good on your geeky, geeky wall.
I saw this in the SkyMall catalog a few days ago while flying and I thought it was ridiculous. I saw it again randomly on the Internet and decided you guys needed to see it. I’m like that.
It’s a low-quality hearing aid disguised as a Bluetooth headset. But that’s not the interesting part. It’s being marketed as being a headset that will improve your image! Want to look younger? Add this to the side of your head! You’ll look like a douche, sure, but a younger douche. Presto!
To any oldsters reading this: Do not do this. Get the little in-ear hearing aids and keep your self respect.
Just because you’re unlucky doesn’t mean you’re inept with technology. Take, for example, this story. A woman goes to her local police station to complain that a creep was stalking her, calling and sending her phone videos of himself masturbating. This creep had bad luck, though, and actually sent her just such a video as she was in the police station making a statement. When her phone beeped, she showed it to the police, who promptly arrested the man.
He’s pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and using a telecommunications device to harrass and was fined $3000.
This should be a lesson in cellphone etiquette, and we feel bad for the poor lady whom wasn’t named. We hope her next phone call fares better.
While I personally think USB 2.0 is reasonably fast way to transfer data, some of you are more impatient than I am. I can load a film onto my iPod Touch in a matter or seconds, but some of you want it more instantly, and you’re about to get your way. Intel is leading the development of the spec with HP and Microsoft. The reason it’s not here yet is grousing on the part of AMD and Nvidia, who quietly claim that Intel is locking them out of development of the spec, thereby locking USB 3 to Intel-only chipsets.
This isn’t the case, says Intel, and it has publicly stated now that it’s making things as open for its competitors as possible.
The Intel host controller spec is expected to be unveiled to the industry as soon as possible, in the second half of the year. The impatience of our fellow chipset-makers (as described in the press) to leverage Intel’s investment and begin to design great USB 3.0 supporting devices of their own is however very encouraging and should aid a fast USB 3.0 adoption ramp.
Oh, snap. Zip, thump. Now let’s try to get it out in 2009, please, Intel?
Remember the girl in the “why you should buy your girlfriend a Wii Fit” video? Turns out her name is Lauren Bernat, she’s 25, and she was super pissed at her boyfriend (sorry, fellas) for posting the video on YouTube.
Now, of course, she’s something of a micro-celebrity, enjoying the 15 minutes of fame that only a perfect ass like that can generate. The Mail caught up with Lauren and has a nice little personality piece on her. Have a read, you should know more about the girl you’re dreaming about than the color of her underwear. Or maybe I’m just old fashioned.
This is interesting to say the least. Roi over at the ol’ mothership has a nice piece up about CamSpace, an online gaming community that’s set to throw its doors open to the public. The idea is to use webcams as gaming input devices, making for a Wii-like experience without the need for a $250 console.
It appears to work, though I haven’t tried it myself. The idea isn’t anything new, I’ve played camera-based games on my Treo for a couple of years now, and it works pretty well. Early word on CamSpace, though, is that they’ve got new tracking software that is far more accurate that what we’ve seen before.
It looks fun, and I can’t wait to play golf this way. My MacBook’s iSight camera just got useful.
What do you do with an old floppy drive and a disk? Why you make it into a musical instrument, forcing the motor or the drive to play the Imperial March from Star Wars.
I’m not sure how this was done, but I love it very much.
If you’re one of the dozens of Americans thinking about finally upgrading to a digital TV when the Big Switch comes in February of next year, you might want to consider a conversion kit. They’re cheap, and the government is giving a $40 coupon to those looking to switch over. And if you’re wondering if your current TV is compatible, it is. In fact, this enterprising UK man upgraded a 51-year-old set that’s been in his family since it was first purchased in 1957.
It’s likely the oldest set ever to be converted. While we think you’d be happier with a widescreen flat panel set, there’s something charming about these old console-style sets, but they’re no good for Halo 3.
Snow Leopard, or OS X 10.6, went out to developers at WWDC yesterday, and one glaring aspect that worries some is the fact that 10.6 is made specifically for Intel-based Macs, meaning that G5 won’t run it. In fact all PowerPC-based Macs are left out in the cold.
This was bound to happen, though, as Apple’s switch to Intel processors has been complete for many months now, but this makes it official. And realistically, would any G4 or G5-based machine run 10.6 well enough to even warrant the effort? I’ve got a dual-proc 2GHz G5 that barely runs 10.5, so I wouldn’t even try Snow Leopard, but some of you are gluttons for punishment.
Sprint users are getting new plans, or so says the Internet. The carrier is restructuring its plans to be simpler and make more sense.
Basic plans will give you 450 or 900 minutes for either $40 or $60. $10 gets you the same plans with texting allotments. Or you can pay $90 for 900 minutes and unlimited texting, talking, and data, or get the $99 plan that has unlimited everything. Pretty simple, really.
There are a few other ala carte add ons, so you’ll still want to go through and figure out what you need, but gone are the days of multiple plans that are about the same thing with different prices.
Phone Arena has more details if you need them, or you can just wait till Sunday and have a look at Sprint’s site to get signed up.
Your Roomba’s getting a new big brother, though this one’s not for the living room. The company behind the robotic vacuum cleaners announced today a new product called a Seaglider, which is an autonomous submersible robot designed for a number of underwater uses.
The robot has a range of hundreds of miles and can stay at sea for months at a time if need be. This way it can collect all kinds of data for a longer period of time than if it had a human inside, meaning more accurate numbers. Scienticians love that stuff.
No word yet on how the finished machine looks, but we’re hoping that when Skynet goes live these destroyer divers will be on our side.
Maybe only music nerds will understand why this is significant, but it’s pretty amazing.
Moog, the company known for making some of the most innovative musical products every, especially synthesizers, has turned its sites towards guitars. This video shows some legendary musicians loving on the the first Moog Guitar. What’s cool is, like original Moog products, it’s analog. It’s not a synth, the magic works on the strings themselves, putting guitarists more in touch with their instruments.
I need to try one of these out.
I live in a building that has a contract with Comcast and refuses to allow its residents to use satellite dishes, which I guess is fine. I think they’re ugly, and the industry has done little to disguise them. In fact, during a recent Best Buy trip I noticed one carrier is now branding its customers’ dishes. Gauche.
But one company is trying to improve the looks of the dish with a new antenna called the Squish. It’s a flat panel reflector that sits flush with the side of your house, with the actual receiver hidden by something else like plants.
It’s still not perfect but it definitely beats having a birdbath and microphone pointing up in the air contraption bolted next to your bathroom window. Just sayin’.
If you’re looking for a more full-featured laptop than the MacBook Air, the mythical Lenovo X200 might be for you, and now we’ve got updated specs — and a photo — for you to view.
The machine’s been rumored for awhile, but this leak confirms many of the things we’ve heard about this tiny laptop, including the apparent addition of a tablet model. Sweet.
What do you get in the small case? How does a Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz, integrated WiMAX, GPS, Bluetooth, fingerprint scanner, and a forward-facing 1.3-Megapixel camera sound? Oh, and it burns DVDs.
Get this thing running OS X and I’m first in line.
If you’re not iPhone 3G fatigued, as I know I am, then you might want to have a gander at the recently unveiled official FCC filing of the new iPhone.
There’s nothing there that we hadn’t seen before, but many of you love FCC and patent filings. That is because you’re nerds, and we’re okay with that.
Are you ready for July 11? We know you are.
Afraid we may have missed something in our coverage of today’s WWDC keynote? Want to see what it’s like to be a cutting edge liveblogger? Or do you just want to relive the history? No matter which is for you, we’ve got you covered. Click the play button above to see the entire event from start to finish.
What was your favorite part?
Relax, it’s over, we came out of it alright. The iPhone 3G is officialized, and it’s pretty hot. Not just the faster speeds and real GPS, but the forthcoming apps and low price tag make it more a more than drool-worthy piece of hardware.
But what about us jailbreakers? Many of use run our iPhones on T-Mobile and run a plethora of free, non-official apps. The dev teams have done a pretty good job of keeping the iPhone open, allowing for many third party apps to be made available through the installer app. Some of these applications are stellar and will make their way to the official app store. One of the apps shown off at WWDC today was Band, a GarageBand-like app with a great interface for making music. It’s been part of the jailbroken iPhone universe for awhile and now has the official blessing of Steve Jobs, but other apps won’t be so lucky.
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This commercial played during the keynote, and Arrington shot it live on Qik and took down the servers. Bloops! But now you can see it in high quality without getting anyone fired.
This is a little propaganda-like, sure, but it was part of the keynote, and we figured you’d want to see it.
Steve and his friends had a great presentation where we saw new apps for a bevy of developers, most of them pretty good looking.
But the star of the show was the new iPhone 3G, a slimmer, faster version of the handset we all know and love. I talked to Glenn Lurie from AT&T Mobility earlier to clear up a few lingering questions. Sadly, most of what he told me were qualified “no comments”, but we were able to glean a couple nifty tidbits about AT&T’s involvement with the new phone.
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Another day, another blurry screen shot of Apple promotional material featuring a product that might or might not exist in the very, very near future. This one’s the Mac Fusion, apparently a no-frills tiny box aimed at developers. It has a form factor of a Mac Mini cut down to about half the height.
While this certain looks like it could be real, Photoshoppers are getting good. Rumors persist of a new, smaller Mac Mini for the low-end, but the Fusion? Of course we’ve been trying to figure out what Steve’s “One more thing…” this year would be — if there is one — and something like this out of left field would make sense.
Is it real? Is it fake? How will blogging at midnight from an airport hotel when I have to liveblog early in the morning affect my performance? Who the hell knows? It’s still fun to guess.
For a full translation of the above text, hit the jump.
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I usually have at least two cellphones on me at all times. I keep them in my pants pockets generally. Sorry, mom, no grandkids for you.
On the plus side, we’ve just learned a really dope nerd party trick.
UPDATE – Apparently tres fake. The white phone is doing something.
Right now our biggest stories are about the iPhone 2 and how it’s going to revolutionize mobile communications. Apple did it before with the original iPhone, setting the stage for a number of wannabes and imitators. This means the bar for the follow-up handset is high, though Apple is likely able to hit the mark. With its shortcomings, there’s plenty or room for improvement in the iPhone.
That means that all eyes this week will be on the company Steve Jobs founded. But what about the other half of the iPhone equation, AT&T Wireless? Most people forget that a cell phone, as a piece of hardware, is pretty useless without the wireless network to make it work. Sure, you can unlock the iPhone and use it on any GSM network, but as it is most iPhone users stay with AT&T, and it’s not just contractual obligations.
AT&T has quietly been transforming into a much maligned poorly rated carrier into the high-techest carrier in North America, and the iPhone has a lot to do with the transition. But is it all iPhone, or is AT&T just playing it smart?
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Follow me here. There’s a lot of discussion on Digg and other blogs (Hi, Ryan!) saying that these photos of the iPhone 2 are fake, and the part about a Windows XP or Vista requirement is proof. But look again: The Windows stuff is a footnote. And what’s it a footnote to? Look at the images above.
It’s talking about iChat, and says “Now available for iPhone — and Windows,” with a footnote that says “Windows XP SP2 (or higher) or Windows Vista required.”
To me, it’s not saying you need windows to have video chat with an iPhone, it means you’ll need those versions of Windows for the new version of iChat Apple is going to release for PC.
It’s not a stretch: iTunes, Quicktime and now Safari are already on millions of Windows PCs across the world, so Apple adding iChat to the list just makes sense.
Could this be the “One more thing…” on Monday?
