Super-Skinny AOC V17 17-Inch HD Monitor Has Equally Diminutive Price Tag [Monitors]

Can’t vouch for general build or image quality on this AOC 17-inch panel, but the 12mm-thin housing is a great look for $200. The V17 has a resolution of 1440 x 900 with a contrast ratio of 5,000:1 and a 10ms response time. Good deal for a cheap desktop display that can also double as a bedroom HD monitor. AOC says end of 2008 for availability. [Slash Gear]

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Microsoft’s new ads: Seinfeld and Gates out, Hodgman lookalike in

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

According to a report from in the New York Times, the next phase of Microsoft’s latest ad campaign is set to begin — sans Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Apparently, the new ads do away with the unusual (and somewhat ill-received) banter and “real life” experiences of the two celebrities, and trade them for an earnest embrace of… Apple’s “PC” character. Apparently, one of the new ads even begins with a John Hodgman lookalike stating, “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” Beyond the flip on a rival’s depiction of its brand, the campaign will feature cameos from Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra, Pharrell Williams, and even Gates — though Seinfeld doesn’t make the cut. While we’re curious to see what the company cooks up in the new ads, it does strike us as somewhat odd that the supposed narrative Microsoft was establishing with Gates and Seinfeld has abruptly been abandoned in favor of these new spots. Is this a decision which was made long ago, or did the largely negative / confused reaction to the last set of ads force the company’s hand? We only have its official statement to go on: “We will be executing the second phase of our advertising campaign tomorrow, as planned from the start.”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Microsoft Almost Bought Nintendo, And More Revelations by Peter Moore [Microsoft]

When Peter Moore, ex Microsoft VP in charge of the Xbox division walked onto the stage at E3 (now working for EA), you could literally feel the energy of the room pick up. Journalists and fans alike were more entertained seeing this balding guy presenting some sports game rehashes than they were during big budget Nintendo or Sony keynotes alike. It was like the silver screen presence of an aging John Wayne, the Duke, entering with a confident swagger that just made people smile and feel alright.

Anyway, the Guardian recently completed a multi-part interview with the man himself that’s a very entertaining and worthwhile read, especially if you’re interested in the behind the scenes of companies like Microsoft and hardware like the Sega Dreamcast. But it was one passage in particular that caught our eye as particularly noteworthy in which Moore explains that Microsoft considered buying Nintendo.

Was Ballmer interested in what you’d achieved at Sega or in your attitude as a businessman?
He wanted my attitude, he didn’t care what I’d achieved at Sega, he wanted to know how I was going to win for Microsoft, how we were going to take on Sony, how would we compete with – or acquire – Nintendo. Those were the conversations in those days. It was a classic build or buy conversation. Xbox had launched but it was an aggressive black box for shooters, and how do we evolve that, how do we build the next Xbox, how do we get after Sony? Interestingly, we were just completely fixated on Sony – Nintendo didn’t even come into the conversation.

Hit the link to read the rest of the excellent interview. [guardian via Kotaku and image]

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Lessev Gadget Charging Station Is Simple, Begs for DIY Rip-Off [Gadget Organizer]

Universal chargers/cable organizers are not new, not one jot, but there are two things about the Lessev that I like. Firstly, it’s simple, fairly elegant, and looks like a practical solution: pop your charger connectors through its perforated lid, gadgets on top, and connect up to a power strip inside. Secondly, it’s begging for me to zip to the nearest Ikea, buy a cheapo plastic-lidded storage box and knock together my own DIY version. Sure, it won’t be made of ABS resin, but I could do it for way less than Lessev’s $79 price. [Kilian-Nakamura via Randomgoodstuff]

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HP intros HDX16 / HDX18 entertainment notebooks

Filed under: Laptops

Whoa, boy — HP just went loony on us tonight, and in the midst of everything else, we found a new pair of HDX notebooks. Kicking things off is the X16, which boasts a woefully under-pixelated 16-inch 1,366 x 768 resolution display, a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU, NVIDIA’s 512MB GeForce 9600 GT, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 320GB 5,400RPM hard drive, dual-layer SuperMulti optical drive and built-in WiFi / Bluetooth. As for the beastly X18, you’ll find a lot of the same kit internally, but the 18-inch 1,920 x 1,080 display is one we can really salivate over; additionally, this one ups the ante with twin 250GB HDDs and a Blu-ray reader. Each unit includes the essentials: an Ethernet port, multicard reader, integrated Altec Lansing speakers, ExpressCard slot, four USB 2.0 sockets, audio in / out, HDMI / VGA and a 4-pin FireWire connector. Both units should ship later this month starting at $1,249 and $1549, respectively.

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Automated Litter Box Powered by Mac Mini [Mods]

You might call it overkill, but one modder decided to do a little work to his stock litter box. He equipped it with a ventilation system that’s triggered by a motion detector. Five minutes after the cat uses the facilities, the fan kicks on for fifteen minutes (as prompted by the Mac Mini home automation system that the litter box is connected to). The result? Less cat smell, but his guests still talk about his strange cat obsession on the way home from the party. [Treehugger Forums via BBGadgets]

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Verizon May Offer Contract-Free Service on September 21st [Verizon]

According to an inside source at BGR, Verizon is looking to offer a contract-free service starting on September 21st. Unlike their EasyPay plan, pre-payment is not a requirement. Therefore, users could terminate their service without penalty and make upgrades freely as long as they pay full, unsubsidized prices for phones (or bring in their own devices) and are willing to pay the activation fee (no exceptions). It is just a rumor at this point, but does a contract-free Verizon plan with no equipment discounts and mandatory activation fees sound appealing to you? [BGR]

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VMware Fusion 2.0 for Macs, Virtualization With 100 New Features [VMWare]

To those who’d rather run two OSes at once than dual boot with Boot Camp, VMware has released the 2.0 version of Fusion. It includes over 100 new features, including the option to load Windows programs without a Windows desktop, a Time Machinesque backup utility, and completely mirrored file sharing independent of OS. There’s also support for 32-bit and 64-bit OSes, 4-core systems, Bluetooth, DirectX 9.0c and up to 10 displays. Yeah, we pretty much just pasted specs there. But boy, were we excited doing it. [VMware via TGDaily]

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Filed under: Household, Robots

This is Robot Partner 2.0 by Slovenian artist Stefan Doepner. Recently exhibited at the 2008 ARS Electronica Festival, Robot Partner is billed as a robotic “living table installation.” The table can clumsily shuffle objects around itself using an undisclosed technology (magnets, perhaps?) and is intended to showcase the “absurdity” of “service-automation.” We’re not entirely sure what that means, but you can see for yourself after the break.

[Via Make]

Continue reading Robot Partner 2.0 shuffles objects around the table so you don’t have to

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Via [Engadget]

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