31
Jul/090
Jul/090
FCC queries AT&T, Apple on Google Voice iPhone app rejection
Yeah, we’re pretty much all peeved by Apple suddenly ejecting all traces of Google Voice from the app store, but now it looks to have drawn the ire of the Federal Communications Commission, as well. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the agency has sent out three letters, one each to [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
LEDSAUR Tyrannosaurus Rex desk lamp makes chewing through paperwork less monotonous
We’ll be straight with you: it was pretty much love at first sight for us and dinosaur bones, and while we’ve always harbored a secret desire to someday acquire a real T-Rex fossil for our private collection, the LEDSAUR is probably our best shot at anything even close to that. Besides taking on that [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
PS3 manufacturing costs down 70 percent? Strange, it doesn’t feel that way
We understand that Sony has a long way to go in making up the losses it’s incurred by selling the PS3 at a loss — even if it was commanding the highest price in the industry the whole while — but if this latest word on manufacturing costs is correct, we’d say Sony has some [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Video: Arduino-based ‘insecure, egotistical’ robot band
One part gadget, one part art project, and 100% awesome, the Cybraphon is a MacBook powered, Arduino-based mechanical band housed in an antique wardrobe. Including an organ, cymbals, a motor-driven Indian Shruti box (played with 13 robotic servos, no less), and a gramophone, it relies on infrared motion detectors to sense when it has an [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Movie Gadget Friday: Strange Days
Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.
On our last episode of Movie Gadget Friday, we rode around the robotics-dependent world of Runaway. Traversing from robots-gone-wrong to “wire-tripping”-technology-junkies, this week jacks-in to the cyberpunk streets of LA in Strange Days. While lacking in [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Take Back the Beep: how to disable voicemail instructions on Sprint (updated!)
While we wait for all the carriers to get on board with nixing their endless, unhelpful voicemail pre-beep messages, we’ve already got instructions from Sprint on how to disable it for your own particular voicemail box on that network.
It’s pretty easy:
Call your voicemail
At the menu, press 3 for personal options
Press 2 for greeting
Press 1 to [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Reminder: vote for your favorite Kindle design by Monday!
Our Kindle contest that we’re running in cooperation with our good friends at Adafruit Industries and Amazon has drawn to an epic conclusion, and there’s simply no other way to put it — we’re blown away. We received literally dozens upon dozens of incredible, art gallery-worthy entries and it was all but impossible to narrow [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Microsoft announces pricing for Windows 7 family pack, upgrading
Micosoft’s announced some Windows 7 pricing today, starting with a “family pack” option, which will allow users to upgrade three PCs to the Home Premium edition of the operating system for $149. The upgrade from XP or Vista to Home Premium for individual users, as previously announced, is $119. The company’s also announced the Microsoft [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Nokia 5800i XpressMusic hits the FCC: it’s like the 5800, only less so
Over the years we’ve found that usually, when a company takes a model number and slaps an extra letter on the end of it, there’s some sort of feature or update they’re highlighting. iPhone 3GS? That one’s easy: “speed.” But if we’re reading this FCC business correctly, Nokia’s new 5800i XpressMusic handset apparently differs little [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
A Pack of Wild Canadians Claims They Can Deliver Nuclear Fusion on the Cheap [Future Tech]
Vancouver-based startup General Fusion has been running around claiming they can build a nuclear fusion reactor in the next 10 years for under a billion dollars. And some anonymous futurists just gave them 9 million dollars for their troubles.
Seeing that current nuclear fusion projects are expected to cost around 14 billion dollars (ITER project) and [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
FCC’s Now Investigating Apple For Google Voice Shenanigans [IPhone]
YES. The FCC is now looking into Apple’s chickenshit shenanigans with Google Voice, asking whether AT&T was involved, why it was rejected and what the hell’s going on with this Google Voice thing.
The request is part of a broader-ranging inquiry by the commission on exclusive deals between cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers for hot [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Laptop Lojack Vulnerability Exposed, Affecting 60 Percent of New Notebooks [Security]
A pair of computer security researchers have discovered a BIOS vulnerability caused by the Computrace Laptop Lojack software, serving as a rootkit to potentially let malware nest and thrive in an estimated 60% of newish laptops.
The research team of Alfredo Ortega and Anibal Sacco say that when malware infects a system BIOS, it is able [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Parent Of The Year Arrested After Dragging Kid Through Verizon Store On a Leash [Crime]
Not surprisingly Melissa Catherine Smith-Means of Alabama (oh…Alabama) was arrested a few months ago for this incident in a Verizon store. Who knew someone would have a camera in a cellphone store?
After being arrested she told the police “My young ‘un loves being dragged around on a leash. It’s how I was brought [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Job Openings: Gawker Tech [Announcements]
Got a list of things you think need fixin’ on our sites? Well so do we, actually! And we’re looking for a little help with it. Gawker Media is currently seeking a QA Analyst to join our Tech team. Job responsibilities include monitoring site performance, managing bug reporting and resolution, and conducting both manual and [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Homemade Asus Eee Keyboard Has No Screen, Plenty of Heart [Mods]
The Eee keyboard, as cool as it is, sure is taking its time, you know, coming out. One especially anxious Russian modder got bored of waiting around, so he just broke down an Eee PC 900 and made his own.
It’s a meticulous, charming mod, complete with woodwork, which is why we can forgive some of [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
The Week In iPhone Apps: Self-Improvement, Bat Boy, and Strippers [IPhone Apps]
This week in the App Store it may as well’ve been 1991: We’ve got Lollapalooza! Monkey Island! Novel self-help strategies! Glittery-clothed strippers! And last but not nearly least, everyone’s favorite defunct supermarket tabloid! The Golden Age of culture, people.
Weekly World News: Now is neither the time nor place to get into my deep appreciation of [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
BlackBerry App World 1.1 Brings Archived Apps and Advanced Sorting, Whoopee [BlackBerry]
The newest update to BlackBerry’s App World, version 1.1, launched today, and it’s pretty minor but certainly welcome. Apps can now be adequately sorted by free, paid, and other rubrics, and can be archived onto either internal or external memory.
BlackBerry users have long been frustrated with the requirement that apps be stored on the oft-inadequate [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
Top 9 Stories of the Week [Sponsored Roundup]
1. 65 Poorly Designed and Totally Impractical Gadgets 2. Prankster Gets Verizon’s CEO Private Address, Visits Him to Discuss Privacy 3. How Modern Processors Are Made 4. “You Want Me to Walk On the Freakin’ Moon Wearing What?!” 5. The Week In iPhone Apps: Augmented Everything 6. Living With the Pre: 23 Things Palm Could Improve By Software 7. HTC Hero [...]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
The Onkyo ND-S1 iPod Dock is Speakerless But Abounds With Outputs [IPod Docks]
Onkyo’s Japan-only (for now) dock lacks speakers but makes up for it with optical/coaxial digital audio outputs, regular old composite video output and a USB connection for syncing with iTunes. It’s meant for higher end AV systems. [AVWatch via Engadget]
31
Jul/090
Jul/090
HP debuts 2709m 27-inch 16:9 display
HP’s just announced its new 27-inch, 16:9 display, the 2709m. This giant puts out a native 1080p picture, and boasts two HDMI inputs, one DVI and one VGA port. With a 30,000:1 contrast ratio, we can expect the display to be nice and vivid, and it’s got two built-in 2-watt speakers, and a reported response [...]
Gallery