30 May, 2008
by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 6:30PM With all this hubbub floating around about the elusive 3G iphone, let us not forget about the latest touchscreen smartphone to land at AT&T: LG’s Vu. After getting official earlier this month, we were able to sit down with the Mobile TV-supporting handset and form a few opinions of our own. Here, however, we’re interested in your take — do you feel the $549.99 (or $299.99 on contract) price tag is reasonable for what you get? Are you pleased with the hardware / software? Are you feeling buyer’s remorse like never before? Go on and spill it, we’re all friends here.PermalinkEmail this24 CommentsFiled under: cellphonesTags: mobile devices, gad (Read the full post about ‘How would you change LG’s Vu?’…)
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30 May, 2008
Maybe because it’s spring, season of green, here in the Northern Hemisphere. Or maybe because of climate change or the parlous state of the world’s finances — unless you’re a citizen of, say, Saudi Arabia. But the sudden interest in ecoproducts and other greenmatter is pretty astonishing. Here’s an entry that could hardly be more homely. Blogger DLTK lists 101 things to do with an empty cardboard toilet paper roll. Most of these are kid items, like making bowling pins for a birthday party game. But a few are suitable for a kid-free household that’s nonetheless undergoing both greenmindedness and frugality. For example, pencil cups. Wreaths (using 14-16 rolls per each, which is a lot of TP for a kid-free household. (Read the full post about ‘Green tech: Recycling empty toilet paper rolls’…)
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30 May, 2008
Earlier this week, some Swedish dude got a lot of notoriety for pretending to "draw" a planet-sized self-portrait using GPS tracking. Today, we bring you a Finnish guy who is doing it for real, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. Antti Laitinen has used a GPS to "draw" his face across maps of various European forests and cities. He started by tracing his portrait on a map. Then, with a GPS recorder in his pack, he started trying to walk the line he drew, using just a map and a compass to get his bearings. (The GPS was just for recording his path.) When he was done, he uploaded the GPS path to his computer. The result: A self-portrait of the artist as a drunken psychotic. But hey, GPS lines are a little wobbly. (Read the full post about ‘No-B.S. GPS Art: From Geocaching to Geodrawing’…)
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30 May, 2008
D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge Extender Go ahead and bash Windows Vista (it’s fun!), but don’t knock its sweet, sweet Media Center app. Bundled with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, MC serves up tunes, photos, videos, DVDs, and, if you BYO tuner, DVR-style TV. Just one problem: Who wants to gather ‘round the warm basking glow of the PC? Ballmer, maybe, but not you. Solution: living room-ready media extenders, which leverage your home network to bridge the gap between PC and TV. The sleek, glossy, component-style DSM-750 rocks Draft-N (802.11n) wireless, so if you pair it with a similarly advanced router, you can cut the Ethernet umbilical cord and still stream high-def content. (Read the full post about ‘Review: D-Link MediaLounge Extender — Like Apple TV For Windows PC’…)
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30 May, 2008
by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 2:19PMWe haven’t heard much about iRiver’s shiny new Spinn PMP since it was unveiled at CES earlier this year, but Crave has now turned up a couple of fresh new details on the device, including word of the all important release date. That’ll apparently come sometime in August (in the UK, at least), although there’s unfortunately still no word on prices. Otherwise, Crave has confirmed that the player will still be arriving in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB varieties, and that it’ll be shipping with built-in DAB radio in the UK, as well as built-in Bluetooth and a dedicated (but unspecified) 3D acceleration chip to spice up the interface a bit. (Read the full post about ‘iRiver Spinn gets a release date, fleshed out details’…)
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30 May, 2008
In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Daniel Dumas, and Jose Fermoso discuss the yet-to-be released Dell mini notebook, unexpectedly revealed by Michael Dell this week at the D6: All Things Digital Conference. While light on actual details, the nice-looking cherry-red design sets the groups’ hearts aflutter (especially Dylan’s) and makes them wonder if other new laptops will follow its stylish design. They follow that by talking about the upcoming Nokia N96 multimedia phone (that includes everything from flash video to an integrated DVB-H receiver for TV-watching), and further expose the artist who falsely claimed to create the biggest drawing in the world through GPS. (Read the full post about ‘Gadget Lab Podcast #31: Dell’s Mini Laptop, Nokia N96, and Fake GPS Art’…)
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30 May, 2008
Finally there is some movement to make those cable set-top boxes a thing of the past. Currently, if you want to be able to receive digital channels from a cable operator in addition to other digital services you are required to have a cable set-top box. There has been some movement on the elimination of set-top boxes in the past, but the solution offered has only allowed for one-way communication meaning that you still needed a set-top box for services such as on-demand movies. Luckily, there has been an agreement reached between Sony Electronics and major U.S. cable operators to offer a “two-way” plug and play solution. (Read the full post about ‘Death to the cable set-top box’…)
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30 May, 2008
This may be quite a leak if it turns out to be true, but take a close look at this photo. Do you see the Apple logo? Recognize the approximate size? Yep, it’s an iphone, but this time in white and very curvy. A couple of Dutch Apple fan sites released this pic and more this week. I’m waiting for Apple’s lawyers to hit the fan and get these taken down; anyone interested in forming a pool? Posted in Phones, Portable Tags: TV, Hi-fi, video game, plasma (Read the full post about ‘White iPhone 3G ?’…)
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30 May, 2008
As you’ve probably heard by now, an anonymous group of hackers took over the domain name of Comcast for a few hours last night. The clever group left the message, “KRYOGENIKS EBK and DEFIANT RoXed COMCAST.” They also left a shout-out for somebody named VIRUS Warlock elu21 coll1er seven, whoever that is. This wasn’t a simple “let’s upload our own stuff to their site” prank, either. Somehow, the group was able to re-direct everything that comcast.net does to their own servers… including people’s e-mail. The hackers appear to have changed the Comcast DNS/WHOIS records which were pointing at a non-Comcast address, which means that they got a hold of it straight from the source, at Network Solutions, Inc.
(Read the full post about ‘Hackers Down Comcast.net — Payback for BitTorrent Woes?’…)
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30 May, 2008
Nike did it with the Nano, now bicycle manufacturer is tinkering with the idea of making your ipod a cycle computer. Bringing much of the same functionality as the Nike+ unit, Cannondale envisions a docking unit on the bike but with some surprises. Yeah, you’ve got a rear view camera on your Escalade, but on your bike? Cannondale’s concept puts rear view on your iPod as well as speed, distance and other basic functions. It seems even a power base (perhaps powered by your cycling) is there as well. (Read the full post about ‘Cannondale wants your iPod to be a cycle computer’…)
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