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http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/dell-laptop -explodes-in-flames-182257.php

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/sony -librie-ebook-hacks-115752.php

Firmwarez are available for the librie, so maybe you can find one with just the features you want.

Personnally, I will be holding my breath for the Secong Generation devices, like this one : http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/tag/sharps-shows-pr ototype-color-ebook-17256.php

1 mm thick, color paper, made by sharp, should be available in 2007... We still must have a look at the drm limitations if any, but the product do look superior !

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/sony -librie-ebook-hacks-115752.php

Firmwarez are available for the librie, so maybe you can find one with just the features you want.

Personnally, I will be holding my breath for the Secong Generation devices, like this one : http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/tag/sharps-shows-pr ototype-color-ebook-17256.php

1 mm thick, color paper, made by sharp, should be available in 2007... We still must have a look at the drm limitations if any, but the product do look superior !

It appears they want to make the money back selling the games. Gizmodo are reporting a projected increase in game prices to as much as $100 a game - the reason: Increased Dev Costs. So yeah, buy a PS3, but mortgage your house to get some games.

why take the water away, they are already getting there own wheels
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/terranaut-vehic le-lets-fish-explore-on-land-202040.php

Here's the link.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/ipod-vendin g-machine-133740.php

Yup. This is what MS has to do to get a toe-hold. Sell this unit at a loss in order to gain some market share and then unleash some more competitive models next year. And the year after that. etc.

We've seen this strategy before from Microsoft.

One of our moles on the inside told us Microsoft just had a meeting to determine the price of the 30GB Zune. The final tally: $229.99. Microsoft was going to go $289.99 to undercut the iPod by $10, but since Apple dropped the bombshell that they were lowering prices to $249, Microsoft had to scramble to undercut the lower price as well.

As a result, the Zune might be dropping some pre-loaded content that nobody really cared much for anyway. - Jason Chen

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/zune s-final-price-22999-msrp-202066.php

Down to $229.99 apparently: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/zune s-final-price-22999-msrp-202066.php

... the company will be offering a self-assembly human sized guard robot with automatic laser rifle.

It is not really a security issue but it is a real fire hazard problem. Dell batteries have a documented history (some with pictures or videos) of bursting into flames, and I would not want to be on an airplane at 40,000 feet when somebody's Dell bursts into flame. I know that the recall is only for certain models but it would be too onerous for the flightcrew to sort out which Dells or Apples could become airborn flambeaus.

http://wcco.com/consumer/local_story_148150249.htm l
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/dell-laptop -explodes-in-flames-182257.php
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/dell _fire.html

So.. does that mean there could be a hack (or the user is stupid enough to let everyone "see" their files)?

I mean is MS usually leaves all its ports open on its OSes, then by default that means your "beacon" is on to let everyone know you can be hacked!

For the record - a quick skate around google found this list of supported 'add-ons'....

Cars!

Umbrellas!

Underwear!

Warships!

Dildos! (SFW)

When the Zune get's its own warship extension, then i'll start believing it has a chance.

Also, Microsoft's reputation to the public at large, seems to encompass little more than "The company that make my computer crash", whereas Apple actually have a well-earned consumer-friendly image about them. Maybe this will change, but I just can't see it right now.

I found this link: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/borohydride-alkalin e-solutions/ which talks about this process being developed and ready for use at the end of the year. In the article from January 16, 2006 talks about Medis Technologies having a disposable product which is expected to sell for under $20 and will provide ~30 hours of cell phone power or ~60 hours of MP3 player power.

Now, will it have DVR capability?

Seems doubtful. It's a router, not a server. It gets the content from the network, like from your video server on your LAN. Compare to how the AirPort Express works, streaming music through itself. The iTV looks like it has a fancier version of Front Row, which does the remote polling of content. Kind of like how iTunes and iPhoto now work with shared libraries.

I want to know if the component out is YPbPr or RGB. I'm hoping it's not RGB, but the picture of the ports shows them colored that way. Blah.

Via gizmodo http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple-showtime/apple-sh owtime-itv-one-more-thing-photos-200139.php Posted anonymously so I don't get called a karma whore

Apple's customers are like no others--a rich blend of the most sociologically elite [atspace.com] with those seeking elegant [atspace.com], simple computing... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active [atspace.com], exploratory [atspace.com], avant-garde [atspace.com] and early adopters [atspace.com]. The activities they enjoy are unique in the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video [atspace.com] and music [atspace.com] as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows [atspace.com] [and Linux [atspace.com]] users.
                                                                                    â" MetaFacts, Inc. [metafacts.com]

With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [atspace.com] [is] very attractive [ intellectually [atspace.com] as well as physically [atspace.com].]
                                                                                    â" Nielsen/NetRatings (as quoted by C|NET [com.com])

Same as Apple fans.
http://cache.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.g if

Ooh, I know this.

USB hot plate!

Apparently, this statement was made in error

Here's one FireWire flash drive. Although the speeds might be faster, I like USB better just because *everything* has a USB port nowadays, but many computers (like my Dell desktop and Dell work laptop) lack FireWire ports.

The idea of a home server that doesn't need any computer per se is in its infancy: 160 GB HD, iTunes sharing, BitTorrent client, all self-contained so you can set it and take your laptop with you while your home connection continues to download all your favorite Creative Commons licensed Ogg Tarkin video files. I like it!

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/top/exclusive-micro soft-zune-details-194957.php

The original article claims that the UI is white text on black background. That is incorrect. According to Gizmodo (the source of the photo in the article) the UI is white text on colored back grounds with lots of textures. It's possibly skinnable. It's very reminicent of Media Center's UI.

It also left out a very nice feature:
from the above link: "FM support is fairly complete, with both an FM tuner and an FM transmitter so you can beam the music to your car. The FM transmitter also feeds up Song and Artist information so you can see what's playing from your car stereo (if it supports that feature, like in GM cars). "

That's going to add a lot of value to the player IMHO.

The reason the shot is in black and white is because Microsoft assigned a unique color scheme to every Zune prototype in existence right now--all 150 of them--so any leaks could be traced to the employee who leaked it. We don't want to be jerks and get anybody fired.

I use the following example because it would never work as a terrorist plot but it illustrates my point. Compare the effectiveness of this video of two absolute idiots to the following proceedure from TFA:

TATP is relatively easy to detonate. But you must make enough of it to crash the plane, and you must make it with care to assure potency. One needs quality stuff to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," as Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson put it. While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.

I know that everyone is just having fun at Dell's expense, however, the problem is with the Sony manufactured Li-ion batteries. There have been reports of Apple MacBooks suffering the same fate (Apple also procurs its batteries from Sony http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/who-else-beside s-dell-used-the-sony-batteries-apple-194728.php), however, since they ship far fewer laptops per year than Dell, they have had fewer laptops burst into flames. And then there were the cell phone batteries that were catching fire a few years ago -- http://news.com.com/Cell+phone+batteries+Avoid+get ting+burned/2100-1041_3-5420061.html.

The problem also extends to the shipment of Li-ion batteries. A shipment caught fire on a UPS plane a few months ago - http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/ 17/1857232&from=rss.

The problem is linked to poor quality control and flawed designs.

I know this is off topic, however, this is becoming a serious problem and may lead to further restrictions when traveling on commercial aircraft.

Make sure to give them "dumbed down" tools and only let people who pay you use the results. Call it the "Ricky Rat" Club or something. Prediction: another big xbox flop.

A little over a year ago, one of the people in my group modded an Xbox, installed Avalaunch, and put all sorts of Xbox mod scene apps on the box, like XBMC, RSS readers, etc, along with some "backup" games. :rolleyes: He brought this box along to a meeting with Bill Gates. Bill saw a demo of this, was quite impressed, and asked something along the lines of "How can we engage this community?" - instead of saying something like "How can we squash this?" It's long been on the back of everyone's minds in the Xbox group - how can we get students and hobbyists involved without disrupting the console business model? The good news is that it's still on the radar, we'll see what happens in the future.

Gizmodo had some speculation about the Zune being audio only atleast at launch. If thats founded then I doubt its going to be any kind of threat to the iPod.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/microsoft/zune-will -probably-be-audioonly-at-launch-192166.php
So good for Apple.

That said a lot of my friends HATE the iPod. Two have had the battery die, one has had the HDD crap out and most recently one tried updating the nano's firmware and paperweighted it. I'm sure there are atleast some people who are sick of seeing everyone and their mother sporting white earphones - these will be people who buy the Zune. Maybe my experience is atypical but I seem to e witness to a rather high failure rate for iPods.

But why haven't they bought the iRivers or Creatives or Sansa's you ask? Well I have a niftly iAudio X5L from Cowon (battery life on this thing is pretty upsurb and I can personally vouch for it being atleast 25 hrs even with some Video watching) and when some of them asked me about it we just got into a discussion about the advisability of buying electronics from "unheard of" manufacturers. Yes some of them had not heard of Creative. Then again I don't think any of them ever research any electronic device they buy... and they certainly don't read Slashdot. Microsoft by contrast everyone has heard of. And honestly I don't hear complains about them outside of Slashdot though I have a lot of them myself. So don't count the Zune out yet. The Wifi is a good idea.

Discalimer-I'm an Apple hater, forget just the iPod. I hate Microsoft too but (surprise! no really) less. I'd like neither of these companies to win. I think a lot of the smaller players have a better players* and (eventually) customers will wise up to that. More competition! More features! More better!

* A lot fo them really need to work on the interface and the sync up software.

The only laptop fires I've heard about lately were Dells.

That's because Apple-apologist Slashdot rejects all stories about Apple explosions/fires. Here are just a few that are recent:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41783769@N00/
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/apple-powerbook s-eksploderer-too-191968.php

And just for good measure, here's some melting problems:

http://www.248am.com/mark/computers/macbook-pro-ma gsafe-melt-down/
http://www.appledefects.com/?p=74

I know it's not EXACTLY what you had in mind, and I was sure I had already seen this on slashdot as part of the ongoing iAccessories parade, but this pretty much does all the horrible things that you listed above, but at least it isn't disposable...and for some reason it's just as ridiculous. I give you:

iPod Shoulder Bag with Integrated Speakers

If you also buy a Dell you can barbecue dinner as well as cooking breakfast. :-)

Seriously, just about all manufacturers have had problems with heat dissipation in laptops. It's a hard problem to solve.

Check out this or this

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/smartphones/samsung -to-roll-out-sghi310-cellphone-with-8gb-hard-drive -158573.php

Somewhat like the Mona Lisa

See what Gizmodo said in 2004.

• first, it costs $25 to even enable the feature. their ceo says it's to help pay for the licensing costs... i guess, but it's still too pricey for a simple add-on. divide that number by five and i might consider it. especially when i have to buy a separate license for every PC i run the software from. it should be tied to the device's media access key, IMHO.
• you can't convert stuff you've already transferred over from your tivo to the mobile format. i use my PC as a backup for my tivo - as the DVR runs out of room i move stuff over to the PC and stream it from there if i want to watch it. so the ~30 shows sitting on my PC are gone off my tivo and I can't re-transfer them.
• i can't convert-on-demand. i have to go into the preferences and turn on mobile conversion, and then transfer a show from the tivo. wrong, guys, i should be able to right click on a show from the list and convert on the fly.
• i can't convert to both ipod and psp formats at once. true, i'm a gadget nerd and few probably own both devices, but give me the option instead of leaving it out. i don't get why software developers continually forget that more options = happier consumersx.
• the psp has a 480x272 widescreen. i should be able to render my tivo recordings at that resolution, but output from this app is max 320x240. which will look sad and grainy on my psp.
• they still haven't fixed long transfer times. there's no reason at all that it should take an hour to copy a 1GB file from my tivo to my PC on my 100mbit LAN.
• the transfers take a long time, so if my connection dies during a transfer or i lose power, the software should allow resuming of transfers. nope. restart it and walk away for another hour.

Well I did find this flaming Dell.

Here is the flaming ibook.

Interesting enough Marc Ecco's Getting Up is probably the most political AND artistic game in recent memory... yet it's rated "M". It's also banned in Australia due in part to it's political views (hmm...). Jet Set Radio for the Dreamcast and Xbox had a similar theme but was only rated "T"

There are some other games that I'd consider "artistic" such as Rez, or the upcoming Spore. I suppose if you stretched the definition enough you could extend it to Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, or even Parappa the Rapper. Though all of the games I've mentioned were raited below an M with the exception of Getting up... Then again I wonder what Rez would have been raited if people knew it was being used as a sex toy.

Hello, here's a non-linkjacked URL:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/ipod-vending-ma chine-133740.php

Don't expect to see iPod vending machines on street corners anytime soon. This one appeared in an Atlanta airport, where such a machine would make sense. Your everyday air traveller is an affluent entertainment-hungry impulse buyer willing to spend any amount of money to avoid being bored for the next hour or two. Plus, the machine is simply not going to get ripped off in an airport crawling with security.

From the looks of it, this machine isn't even Apple's doing, but rather some company called Zoom Systems.

10. Semi-permanent LCD. Sounds like e-paper / e-ink (or here) to me.

9. Eye-move pc. All the projectors I've seen get pretty toasty, which translates to power usage. In a battery powered device this small (what kind of batteries?), I would think the projected display would be either too small or too dim for use by actual humans for any length of time. This feels like one of those ideas that's waiting for a miraculous invention (by someone else) to appear.

8. Flash required. The future does not contain Flash... Ignore...

7. ... same

3. ... same

2. ... same

6. Transparent toaster. Oh great. Another highly-specialized kitchen appliance taking up already limited counter space, and consuming another outlet. At least make it where it can do bagles. Until then it goes with the electric hot-dog roaster, the electric fondue maker, and the electric cheese straightener. All I really need is my microwave, and my expresso setup.

5. Foldable display. Take a look at something that's been folded and unfolded a couple thousand times. Like piece of paper money. It gets pretty ugly after a while. toss....

4. Self-cooling [whatever] can. Great. I can't wait to see a couple hundred million of these in the landfill after the next World Cup or Superbowl.

1. Video game urinal. Um. How do the girls play? They can't. Guys win. How do the guys with prostate problems play? They can't. Young guys win. How do the young guys who have can't relax and pee in public play? They can't. Young drunk guys win.

hm. Flashing shoes? Am I supposed to be watching my feet while I run? In the dark? Maybe some safety value.

hm. Solar-powered water bottle. For me, a water bottle hanging off a backpack loop and swinging around while I hike is distracting, annoying, and a loss of energy. And the water heats up.

hm. Intelligent spoon? That's ....um.... useful. How about an Intelligent Urinal game with temp, pH, salinity and (dare I even think it) viscosity sensors?

Show me some gadgets not solely based in, and reliant on, a petro-economy and you'll get my attention. Show me stuff that won't choke the landfill with toxic, non-recyclable waste when it breaks after a year of use. Show me stuff that will remove more waste or greenhouse gases from the environment than it takes to produce it. The future is not looking so bright...

Secondly, these all-in-ones have the disadvantage that corporate environments don't really like them, which seems to be the reason that samsung doesn't want it's own new super-phone be used within their company. (Although I have the idea that this is mostly a PR trick). And why don't they built in a camera in a Blackberry?

Furthermore, the Migo is not a useless phone. You might want to give your 8-year old a way to call you, but you don't want them to call every friend of them all the day long (think of the bill at the end of the month). Ok, so probably I wouldn't buy this one for my kid, but variations of this phone for elderly people are also available, and there are a lot that won't be able to push these little cellphone buttons with their unsteady fingers, and that have troubles reading the display, finding the right menu, etc. (WTH, even I have troubles finding a phonebook entry on some phones, it's really unpleasant).

We never said phone.

Oh, plus a hand from Taiwan's Quanta for devoting substantial resources to the OLPC project. Taiwan's Quanta teams up with MIT for R&D project http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1290/050411quantamit/ Quanta Gets Behind $100 Laptop http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/quanta-gets-beh ind-100-laptop-143304.php

"It's you that focuses your eyes on them, not them that need to focus on you." In Soviet Russia, LCDs focus on you?

Polar and Adidas have had wearable heart rate monitors for ages. What's special about this?

All I'm interested in is who is supporting homebrew NOW!

For handhelds, that would be GamePark Holdings. Unfortunately, if you want to develop and sell games for GP2X, you run into the problem that the GP2X doesn't have enough user base to support the economies of scale of a typical game. PDAs don't count anymore because Microsoft and other PDA OS vendors have gone down the lockout chip route, with network operators having the ability to shut off execution of unsigned apps on their subsidized smartphones, and with little or no "open market" for unsubsidized smartphones or standalone PDAs in North America.

For consoles, that would be Apple. Apple learned from the failed Pippin and made a console that can run programs that run on its other Macintosh computers. This console has about the same footprint as a GameCube, costs roughly 500 to 600 USD, and is called the Mac mini.

I would think it would cost at least $200 dollars.

The actual released specs list only 4 differences:

1. 20GB vs 60GB HDD - the XBox360 is a choice of 0 vs 20GB. How is the XBox360 upgrade genius here?
2. Memory stick, etc - no other console has it or has had it. Not missing much unless/until Sony actually writes software that would use it anyway.
3. no 802.11g - no other console has it, and you can always add it via a gaming adaptor.
4. no HDMI - no other console has this, and it will still support HD output via component.

From TFA: "I don't know what kind of arcane magick will have to be executed to give a crippled PS3 actual functionality." That is just plain stupid. So it's missing HDMI, and that means it's useless??? Besides, BluRay will only refuse to play HD over component if the studio sets that flag on the disc, and Sony has already said they don't have plans to do that with their movies.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/sony -wont-downconvert-bluray-hd-on-old-hdtvs-160358.ph p

Actually, one HDMI issue I am surprised there has been no mention of - Sony was bragging previously about dual 1080p capable HDMI outputs, that seems to have quietly disappeared from even the higher end box...

But Lord Grabiner, QC, for Apple Computer, countered that "only a moron in a hurry" could confuse his client's download system - which, he said, was basically transmitting data - with a record label.