Archive for January 19th, 2008
Q: What could possibly be better than making out with Catwoman? A: Making out with Catwoman in a Batcave inspired home theater. Although the guys at Elite HTS may not be able to help you pinpoint Catwoman, they have done a hell of a job at recreating the Batcave for your movie viewing/making out pleasure. We don’t have any details at present, hell, we don’t even know if there is a screen behind that huge, make-me-moist Batman shield, but who cares? Just look at it; it’s perfection itself. Jump in for another beautifully batty image.
This effort makes our previous favorite Batcave look like a tragic mess, and although we are so excited, we are, at present, spontaneously generating 2.5A of electric current from our toes, we are also saddened immensely. Why so? Well, the chances of us ever having the Batcave home theater are slimmer then us falling asleep, waking up as Will Smith and then filming The Pursuit of Happyness only to have it trash talked by film critics the world over. The chances are very slim. Oh, the torment. [Elite HTS (click through to gallery), via Slippery Brick]




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In case you haven’t noticed
yet, there’s an eject button at the top right corner of the
MacBook Air keyboard. There’s no disc drive, but you push it,
something pops out. Somewhere. Click. Schwing. Poop.
Some people say this key ejects the optional SuperDrive, but after
countless—or maybe just three—days of in-deep
investigation in cocktail bars and going through the trashcans
outside Jonathan Ive’s house, we’ve compiled a list of potential
actions:
• Ejects random F-15 Eagle National Guard pilot currently flying over the US.
• Activates road speed bump.
• Launches Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles while playing War Games with demented mainframes.
• Don’t make war, make love and launch giant dildos instead. (NSFW)
• Fires up the farter-burner in jet-propelled toilet.
• Ejects Blu-ray and HD DVD players and turn TVs off at boring consumer electronics conventions.
• Launches space fighters in the middle of the desert. Then press again to see them self-destruct mid-flight.
• Kicks bad Imperial fake rock bands off the stage.
• Remotely makes Steve Jobs said “Boom!” at will during keynotes and events.
• Launches squirrels into oblivion.
• Activates self-destruction function in Manila envelope.
• Triggers portable secret RDF unit, making everyone 1.5 miles around you to fall in love and go to the store to buy one.
• Provoques fanboy orgasm. (NSFW)
• Provoques Slut Machine an orgasm. (NSFW)
• Provoques Slut Machine’s fanboys an orgasm. (NSFW)
• Forces internal battery to self-destruct, eliminating the need to change it.
The SuperDrive eject thing? It’s just a smoke screen I tell you, a smoke screen! So there you go, another rumor debunked. Got any other action? Post it in the comments. [Gizmodo Macbook Air coverage]
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Orange has unveiled a gesture based interaction screen that has been produced by a UK agency on their behalf. The agency, known as The Alternative, said it was the first time such a display had been on show to the general public. The purpose of the technology is mainly as an advertising opportunity for Orange, but selecting your favorite music clips have never been so fun. Check out the clip to see what all the fuss is about.
The futuristic device makes the touch UI revolution look like something from the era of the Flinstones. The gesture controls work by implementing a large projection screen and a “highly advanced piece of motion capture technology.” What exactly is going on behind the scenes is not clear, but you can be assured I shall be going along for a hands-on waiving session soon. With tiny projectors in the making, it can’t be too long before the gesture controlled iPhone comes out. Steve, that would be the best keynote, ever…you can’t stop us from dreaming. [New Launches]




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A gazillion readers asked for it, so here it is: if you are reading Gizmodo now in the iPhone, you can bookmark us in your home screen and you will get a shiny Giz icon to add to your Springboard, for you to tickle every time you need a Giz fix.
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Get a load of this: the cockpit-like Acabion GTBO features a a 750bhp, turbocharged Hayabusa engine that is capable of hurling the bike down the road at 340mph with a 30 second 0-300mph acceleration time—and, amazingly, that speed is capped. If all of that wasn’t eye popping enough, the bike is also fuel efficient. It can get 100mpg at 100mph and 25 at 250.
Designer Peter Maskus is releasing the Acabion to the public in extremely limited quantities, although the price is a little steep at €1.87million or around $2.7 million US. Plus, you have to wait for 3 years while the bike is built. Its probably just as well though. I mean,where would you drive it? And even if you could, the odds seem pretty high that you would end up as a stain on the road should you ever decide to open it up. More photos at Jalopnik. [Acabion via Hell for Leather via Jalopnik]




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It appears that Lenovo have themselves a new ultralight X300 series Thinkpad—and outside of the price and release date, we have all of the specs that you need to know. At a glance, some of the major features include: a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, and Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a 64 GB SSD, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and 4 hours of battery life. Hit the gallery for the full details. [Thanks Tipster!]
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Bug Labs, the open source gadget hardware kit, will go on sale on Monday at around noon EST. But without Wi-Fi. Getting reliable open source Wi-Fi drivers in the base unit has been problematic, so they’re launching without it in a special HiroP unit, named after the main character in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. There is some good news, though.
It will be priced the same, despite having a cool joystick based controller. Later on, a Wi-Fi module, will come for HiroP owners, which can be bought at cost. HiroP buyers will also get a free IO module, the Von Hippel, for their trouble. And those who want to wait for the Wi-Fi enabled pieces can do so later, still able to keep the early adopter discount. [Bug]




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It seems that there are strong opinions on either side regarding the MacBook Air released earlier this week. Naturally this raises some questions—not only about the MacBook itself, but about ultra-light, ultra-thin laptops in general. That having been said, do you prefer laptops with a super-small form factor?
Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.
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Apple Insider’s sources believe that the Macbook Air’s battery, sealed inside the chassis is not soldered anywhere, and is a quick and easy swap with a single screwdriver. Even so, I believe such a move would void your warranty. [AI]




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The Software: The “January Software Upgrade” for the iPod touch, including Mail, Google Maps, Weather, Stocks and Notes. Mind you, this is not to be confused with the totally free 1.1.3 system upgrade, which brings the player up to date on iTunes 7.6 for rentals, etc., but has no apps of its own.
The Price: $19.99 plus tax (so for me, $21.46)
The Verdict: Worth it.
I know, everyone’s mad at Apple for charging $20 for an upgrade that only brings the iPod touch up to speed with the original iPhone (minus the phone, of course), but it seems to me, anyone who paid $399 for a first-gen 16GB touch especially can spring for the extra Jackson. Besides, I think Apple learned a thing or two about overcharging and then regretting it with the iPhone—because of that, the chances are slim that the company will change its mind and turn this into a free download. It would cause additional outrage that Apple doesn’t want.
The good news is that the upgrade works great. We added two accounts to Mail within minutes, sending e-mails with a cute little “Sent from iPod” sig file. The Maps program uses Wi-Fi triangulation to identify the general vicinity and it works within a minute, and completely indoors (obviously). I’m not thrilled with the directions app, and a reliance on Wi-Fi for the map makes it hard to envision using as a real guide in the car, but it’s a good start. Stocks, Weather, Notes and the web clip option in Safari are all what they are, but all in all it’s a welcome improvement over the paltry Calendar, Contacts, Clock and Calculator that were there initially. (Didn’t Apple once rip on PCs for bragging about a Calculator?)
Some things to keep in mind: When you upgrade, remember that it’s two separate iPod touch updates. First, after you’ve upgraded your iTunes to 7.6, connect the touch and click “Check for Updates.” You’ll get 1.1.3, but things won’t look any different than they did before. You then need to go to iTunes, click on the “January Software Upgrade” offer and buy it.
Once purchased, you go to your iPod Summary page and click Sync. If things don’t work out just right, don’t panic (like we did). Instead, uncheck “Manually manage music and videos”—you might get an error message saying it can’t sync all 1 billion of your MP3s, but still, it will sync the new apps and they’ll be visible in seconds. [Apple]




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