iPod Speaker Dock Flashlight Mod
READ MORE: DIY, Dock, Flashlight, Mods, Portable Media, Speaker, iPod
Why the hell would anyone want to convert a large flashlight to a speaker dock for the iPod? The real question is why the hell wouldn't you want to do this. Simply replace the lighting part of the flashlight with a 4-inch speaker, wire it up to an amp, plug an iPod in and whammy you have the coolest speaker dock at your campout. I can see the ladies swooning over it now.
RS Mono [Flickr via BoingBoing]
Computex Roundup, Finale
READ MORE: Computex, Gadgets, roundups
Computex finished up this past weekend in Taipei and here are a few more leftover gems that Akihabara News found.
- ASUS Skype Phone AiGuru S1
- AData and its Info SD
- AMEX, Skype Phone
- Winmate Panel PC
DirecTV, Echostar to Introduce Broadband Service
READ MORE: Broadband, DirecTV, Echostar, Internet, Satellite, WildBlue, Wireless
WildBlue Communications has announced a partnership with EchoStar and DirecTV to sell satellite broadband service. WildBlue is generally known for targeting rural areas where tradition cable or DSL broadband access is limited. They currently serve about 60,000 customers throughout the U.S. and will be looking to gain a lot more from DirecTV's 30 million subscribers. No money terms have been arranged yet, but the agreement will make WildBlue the satellite-broadband service provider for DirecTV and EchoStar for five years. Good news for people living in the middle of nowhere. Time to ditch cow tipping for something a bit more educational, like MySpace whoring.
EchoStar, DirecTV to Offer Broadband [Digital Trends]
White MacBook Faster Than More Expensive Black MacBook?
READ MORE: Apple, Benchmarks, MacBook, PCs
Those Apple zealots over at Macworld got their hands on a souped up white MacBook and found some interesting results relating to the MacBooks' performances. While it's true that you can upgrade the white MacBook to make it identical (seemingly) to the black MacBook, which carries the notorious $150 price premium, some of their tests found that the white MacBook outperformed its more expensive brother.
Some further digging around discovered the hard drive of the white MacBook to be the key factor. While both models featured a 2.0-GHz Intel Core Duo processor and 5,400-RPM hard drives, the white MacBook's did a better job in the Compressor MPEG-2 encoding test and in applying an iMovie filter. Switching the black's hard drive with a faster 7,200-RPM hard drive improved its performance, but not entirely, only closing—not eliminating— the performance gap on many of the tests. Check out Macworld for the full test results of all three models of the MacBook (black, 1.83-GHz and 2.0-Ghz white).
The moral of the story? Faster hard drives equal better performance, but, out of the box, the white and black MacBooks are even closer to each other than previosuly thought. Still want to pay $150 for paint?
Black and white differences [Macworld]
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TiVo Sends Cease and Desist to SmugMug for their “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” Feature
READ MORE: Home Entertainment, Law, SmugMug, Thumbs, TiVo
Gene Siskel must be rolling over in his grave, and Roger Ebert must be rolling over in his hospital bed for not trademarking the "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" all those years ago. SmugMug received some nasty correspondence from TiVo asking it to stop using the thumbs up and down icons because TiVo has actually trademarked these two.
We have a feature called PhotoRank that lets anyone (SmugMug customer or not) rank a photo by clicking thumbs up & thumbs down icons.
Apparently, TiVo thinks they own all use of the concept of a thumbs up being positive and a thumbs down being negative. Shaking in my boots (ha!), I went to the USPTO and discovered that they do, indeed, have trademarks on 'Thumbs Up' and 'Thumbs Down'.
Luckily for SmugMug, their trademarks are only for "interactive television and remote controls", so this should soon blow over.
Trademark 1 [USPTO]
Trademark 2 [USPTO]
TiVO owns thumbs [Valleywag]
Snappy Face Recognizer For Computer Authentication
READ MORE: Authentication, Face Recognizer, Peripherals, Snappy, Webcam
Because fingerprint readers are so 2003, the Snappy Face Recognizer uses your unique natural handsomeness as a password to log into your computer. The 1.3 megapixel camera snaps a few shots of you to compare to whenever you try and authenticate on your machine.
You could probably use the Face Recognizer as a regular webcam when it's not guarding your PC. Then again, with the right software, you could probably use a regular webcam to do authentication too. That is, if you don't suddenly gain 50 lbs and it can no longer recognize you.
Available for $98.
Snappy Face Recogniser [Widget via Ohgizmo]
Matrox TripleHead2Go Hands-On
READ MORE: Hands-On, Matrox, Peripherals, Reviews, TOP, TripleHeadtoGo
We got to try out Matrox's triple head dongle and we can state that a) it works b) it's pretty cool. Until Matrox's DualHead2Go, if you wanted two monitors you had to get a dedicated graphics card and run all sorts of fancy drivers. No, thanks to the TripleHead2Go, if you want to play an immersive game of FreeCell, all you have to do is whip out this small box and plug in your three monitors. Setup, as expected, is essentially painless.
Quixun GrandOpera All-In-One PC
READ MORE: All in One, GrandOpera, PCs, Quixun
Space ninnys—people who hate anything that clutters up their desk—are fans of all-in-one PCs like the iMac for its condensed form factor. The Quixun GrandOpera LCD is the PC world's equivalent with a monitor and a computer all in one.
What's notable about this line is that the PC part of the computer is modular, so you can remove, repair, and upgrade easily. It comes in 32", 37", and 42" models and has an analog TV tuner. The brains of the PC are a bit underpowered though. Inside holds a Celeron M, 1GB of maximum memory, and 100GB of hard disk space and is just begging to be upgraded. The connectivity is a bit better, with four USB 2.0 ports, two composite outputs, two s-video outputs, and gigabit ethernet.
The 32" model costs $1,317, which isn't too bad for a screen of that size.
The quick sun, the liquid crystal TV one somatotype PC which can separate the PC part [PC Watch via Sci Fi Tech]
Whoring For Friends - The Third Kotaku DS Lite Giveaway
READ MORE: Announcements, Contests, DS Lite, Kotaku
Our flat-chested pre-teen sister Kotaku is giving away another DS Lite. Actually, it's a DS Lite plus a bunch of other animal related games (they've recently discovered furries).
Critters pack: Polar White DS Lite, DS Lite case, Pokémon Dash, Pokémon Trozei, Pokémon Sapphire (GBA), Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (GBA), Yoshi Touch & Go.
Get over there and answer their trivia question to enter. Remember, just like voting and fratricide, you can only do it "once".
The Third DS Lite Give-Away [Kotaku]
Panasonic Unveils 3 Entry-Level TVs
READ MORE: HDTVs, Home Entertainment, Panasonic, Viera Link
By no means do we mean entry-level by cost, but by specs. These TVs are part of Panasonic's Viera Link line and the three models have a 4000:1 contrast ratio. The models introduced are the the TH-50PX60 (50 inches, 1366x768 resolution), the TH-42PX60 (42 inches, 1024x768 resolution) and the TH-37PX60 (37 inches, 1024x720 resolution). These TVs start around $2,500 and go upwards of $4,500 depending on model. Upwards of 4 G's for a mediocre-at-best HDTV? Yeah we'll pass, but at least the stand looks nice.
3 new Panasonic Viera Link TV's [Akihabara]
Q Rocks Mario
READ MORE: Cellphones, Mario, Motorola, Nintendo, Q, Smartphones, TOP, emulator
Man, I didn't know Motorola was teaming up with Nintendo! Apparently, the Q can run the Pocket NES emulator, which means this ultra-thin sex kitten just got more ultra-thinish and sex-kittenish.
via MobileMag
Cali Fuel Depot Has All Kinds of Stuff for Burninating
READ MORE: Biofuel, California, Gadgets, Gasoline, biowillie, cars
This is a pretty cool idea. Mike Lewis, owner of the Pearson Ford Fuel Depot, has started selling all sorts of bio-fuels for considerably less than the dead dinosaur kind. They even have BioWillie, the fuel made from Willie Nelson's bowl scrapings.
With offerings like compressed natural gas and E85, Lewis feels like he's basically not throwing his money down a the petro-state rathole and since he's in California, he gets extra karma. The future is here.
Gas station looks at gas-free future [AP]
How To Get Phone Messages on Your iPod
READ MORE: How-to, Phone, Portable Media, Vonage, iPod
The trick with this how-to is to transmit VOIP voicemail messages to an email account and then sync those MP3s to your iPod. Why you would ever want to do this... maybe because you get SO MANY VOICEMAIL MESSAGES YOU CAN"T STAND IT, but that's pretty rare. Anyway, MacMerc has full instructions, so do what you will.
Pro Pod Power Tips: iPod phone Part 2: Get Phone Messages on your iPod [MacMerc]
Asus All-Water-Cooled/All-Dancing Motherboard
READ MORE: ASUS, Motherboards, PCs, TOP
Asus showed off its next-gen motherboards at Computex, including a fully-watercooled model as well as an unusual model with built-in LCD for on-the-fly diagnostics. Once the machine boots, the LCD displays the time (???). They've also changed around their ports to make room for the display and make things generally easier to unplug on the motherboard's IO riser.
Watercooled motherboard from Asus [RegHardware]
ezVision Video iWear From ezGear
READ MORE: Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Portable Media, Simulation, TV, ezGear, iPod
For $400 you can simulate a 50" widescreen TV in the form of glasses that very much resemble those worn by Geordi LaForge. The ezVision Video iWear is compatible with the iPod with Video as well as any other video source that has video outputs. Its powered by a Lithium ion battery that should last eight hours, just enough time to creep everyone out on that cross-country flight you have planned. Just put them on and you'll see a projection of whatever it's plugged into. Integrated headphones let you watch your programs in privacy.
The package includes everything you need to convince yourself that you don't look like a fool while wearing the ezVision Video iWear, including DVD adapters and stylish nose pieces. Dignity not included.
Product Page [ezGear via iLounge]
Get Yourself Some Vista Beta
READ MORE: Beta, Software, Torrent, Vista
Because Microsoft won't Torrent, the Interweb will. Two Vista fans, Chris and Jake, are hosting a copy of Vista Beta. That doesn't mean you can just download it and run. You still need to get a product key and purchase Deep Thought, the planet-sized computer, in order to run its fancy new interface.
Product Page [VistaTorrent]
By the Numbers: 2006 FIFA World Cup
READ MORE: Broadcasting, Gadgets, Home Entertainment, InfoPorn, Numbers, Sports, World Cup
It takes a lot of broadcasting gear to put together the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and we like to count it all up for your extreme gadget-porn entertainment. We gave you the 2006 Super Bowl by the numbers, and many of our dearest readers outside the United States didn't give a rat's ass. So in the interest of world peace and love, here it is—the World Cup, by the numbers:
5,000,000,000: Viewers expected to watch the games
$100,000,000: Estimated cost of voice and data network deployed by Avaya
3,500,000: RFID embedded tickets
45000: Estimated number of network connections for TV production
2200: Hours of feeds produced
2000: Staff of TV productions
2000: Press, commentators
1300: Kilometers of cable for 12 venues
800: Camera positions
750: kilometers of audio/video cables
736: Players
100: Fujinon HD lenses deployed
70: TV studios
64: Number of matches broadcast in HD for 2006 FIFA World Cup
64: Total number of matches played
48: Matches broadcast in HD for previous World Cup (2002)
25: HD cameras used to cover each match (per stadium)
20: Outside broadcast trucks
14: Panels on current FIFA football
12: Cities hosting matches
9: PanAmSats used to send HD signal worldwide
6: Number of television directors
1: Pool feed for broadcasters
FIFA World Cup by the Numbers [Audio Video Producer]
UMPCs Suck Hard
READ MORE: Intel, Laptops, Microsoft, Sucks, UMPC
It's becoming clearer and clearer that the UMPC is just a baby tablet and, like the tablet, will soon end up smeared in blood in an ER rather than smeared with peanut butter on your coffee table.
The folks at the Inquirer headed out to Computex and tried out a few UMPCs and found that the battery life is sub-par, the interface is difficult if useless, and they're really expensive. These three things have been solved before (Nokia 770 anyone?) yet MS, Intel, and the rest of the gang just don't seem to understand the issues involved.
No compromise from me on this, friends. UMPC is dead on the evolutionary vine.
Origami UMPCs are a disaster [TheInquirer]
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