

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is going "greener" -- with energy-saving lights replacing old-fashioned bulbs on the towering evergreen this year.
Via CNN


NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is going "greener" -- with energy-saving lights replacing old-fashioned bulbs on the towering evergreen this year.
First introduced in 2005, the Rip Saw is about to hit the market with a $200,000 price tag. The custom-built UGV can hit 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, go 80 mph, and can maneuver over any surface or terrain a tank can. And the video is pretty good; watch as it drives through a barn as if it were the cardboard boxen your handset came in. The privately-funded Rip Saw was first built by the Howe brothers for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Though the Rip Saw didn't win, its video certainly turned some heads, enough to find funding to build more than one. I normally don't get too excited about military shit like this, but any machine that can obliterate an wood shack with ease and turn donuts on snow wins my heart. Check out the 2005 teaser vid to see what i mean. [Howe and Howe via Red Ferret via Geekologie]
A brand new device for music sharing. It wouldn't be any surprise if we weren't talking about Ipod's. Apple is all about set to using only one library, only compatible with Itunes and all that, could this device change all of that? No info on the device is specified yet, just a mere price is listed on the home site $99.95. So if it's a rumor or not, and if it's useful or not, no idea, we'll just have to wait and see.
Google is slowly but surely taking over almost everything, Who would have guessed they would even be present in gas stations, free maps for the road, and other helpful solutions. I wonder where does the Google supremacy end? If I'm not mistaken in the states there's a law which says that no one can hold supremacy in one's field. That is the reason why Microsoft has been in and out of courts with the US Government for so many years, yet I haven't heard on any action being taken on Google.Ok, we're number one, so give us a competitor.
By a recent study by the CultOfMac they concluded that 1 out of 5 New York University students would trade in their vote for a new Ipod Touch.
So it seems that samsung has been on a roll lately with an announcement on November 10 concerning the launch of the 64Gb chip, and now they've pumped it up to a stunning 127Gb. The secret to such a capacious offering is a new manufacturing process dubbed self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT), which has enabled the firm to create the "world's first" 64Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chip using 30-nanometer process technology.
Regular readers will know how I feel about the frivolous decoration of gadgets, from junky fake jewels to Rain Forest killing tchotchkes. However, a few things redeem this gold plated iPhone from Britain. First, the supplier is called Goldstriker, a name worthy of a stuntman or pornstar. Second, it really doesn't look too bad. If gold plating could be understated, this would be it. Wired: Continue reading "Bling! Gold Plated iPhone Hits UK" »
As someone who sits at home in front of a computer all day every day, I can — like Richard to Tommy in Tommy Boy — actually hear myself getting fatter. So the thought of sitting all day every day in an apparatus that forces me to expend energy in order to provide power to my lifeline to the outside world and device by which I earn money for food, shelter, and clothing is intriguing to me.
Such is the "pedal-powered laptop" being developed by a group of MIT students. I live near MIT and every time I’m over near the campus, I like to look at all the people and try to figure out who’s legitimately an insane homeless person and who’s a genius that’s been working on a project like this and hasn’t slept or showered in a week. If you’re one of the latter, nice work!
The students "predicted that a bicyclist should be able to produce up to 75 watts continuously–far more than the 30 watts needed to power the laptop."
Students get charge out of pedal power [MIT News]
Source: CrunchGear
High-end lensmaker Carl Zeiss has introduced several new lenses optimized to grab light from the infrared end of the spectrum. The Planar T 85mm f/1.4 and Distagon 25mm f/2.8 ZF-IR lenses are intended for forensic and scientific applications. But anyone who's done a little experimentation with infrared photography knows there's plenty of fun to be had if you drop that prejudice in favor of the visible part of the light spectrum
Zeiss announces infrared-optimized lenses [Adorama]
Source: Wired
While the tech demos are always sure to draw a crowd, Microsoft's Surface is still having trouble making it past the prototype stage. Originally slated to show up in a few commercial venues this year, applications of the tech have been pushed back to next spring at the earliest. Microsoft has plans to build devices for Sheraton hotels, Harrah's casinos and T-Mobile retail spots, but CNET reports that all the custom software needed and a lack of a one-size-fits-all solution for customers has Microsoft struggling to ship anything just yet. That said, there's still plenty of interest in Surface -- Microsoft says it's received 2,000+ inquiries from companies around the world and in many industries -- and while initial versions of the tabletop device are going to range from $5,000 to $10,000, Microsoft hopes to have a consumer-affordable version in three to five years.
...the 'melody road', can be seen above and the grooves are between 6 and 12mm apart: the narrower the interval, the higher the pitch. these stretches of road, each playing a different tune, can currently be found in 3 places in japan - hokkaido, wakayama and gunma - with the optimum musical speed being a depressingly slow 28mph
Gosh, nobody could have predicted this, given how rare intellectual property disputes have become lately: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has sued LG Electronics, claiming that new phone models named Black Label, Strawberry and Black Cherry infringe on the BlackBerry name. RIM earlier settled out of court with Samsung over similar charges relating to its BlackJack wireless thingie.
Motorola reportedly is reconsidering its plans for the new Red Currant and Tangelo models.
RIM sues LG over phone names [Globe and Mail]
Source: Wired
Anuntul celor de la Nissan a starnit interesul aproape tuturor automobilistilor. Acestia vor sa complice putin existenta politiei banuiesc eu, facand posibila schimbarea culorii vopselei masinii, cand aceasta primeste intensitatea potrivita. Oare cum ar fii sa stai seara sa te gandesti ce culoare sa ai maine la masina, sau sa poti sa-ti asortezi masina dupa hainele pe care le porti, sau doar dupa starea de spirit, desi pare prea SF, cei de la Nissan exact asta au reusit. Inventia care pare ceva din filmele SF, foloseste polymeri si feroxizi care devin vizibili la o anumita intensitate. Fara un flux de intensitate, masina revine la culoarea de baza, adica alba. Cei de la Nissan spera ca aceasta tehnologie va fii disponibila pentru productia in masa pana in 2010.
Oare ce va urma in continuare? Night rider, si alte masini care faceau tot felul de chestii in filme se pare ca vor deveni din ce in ce mai reale. Eu unul astept cu nerabdare sa vad toate lucrurile care se vor putea inventa.
defaults write command away, and Volker Weber has got it sorted for us. Just pop open a terminal window and enter:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
We've got a strange feeling that digiframes are going to be relatively hot this holiday season, but maybe the sudden rash of offerings are just coincidentally launching weeks before Black Friday. Regardless of the reasons, EDGE Tech is hitting us up with a 12-inch version of its own, which features a decent 800 x 600 resolution, USB connectivity, support for AVI, BMP, JPEG, MPEG1/2/4, WAV and WMA files, and flash card inputs that play nice with SD, MMC, Memory Stick, MS Pro, CompactFlash and Microdrive. It shouldn't shock you to hear that this piece also handles automatic slideshows and can even sing back via the integrated stereo speakers, and while there's no option for WiFi here, it'll only run you $129.95 after rebate.
It looks like those having regrets about upgrading their iPhone to the 1.1.2 firmware now have a means of bringing their prized device back to the comforts of 1.1.1, although the process is apparently not without its faults. According to the instructions recently posted on the Hackintosh forums, you'll first need to snag a copy of the 1.1.1 ipsw firmware file, then you simply follow three relatively easy steps to dial things back to 1.1.1, after which you'll have to follow a couple of additional steps to re-activate the phone itself. On the downside, it appears that IPSF won't work on an iPhone downgraded using these measures, although an update to fix that particular problem certainly doesn't seem to be out of the question. Hit up the read link below for the complete step-by-step details.
We don't want you to get your hopes all sky high for nothin', so we'll preface this by noting that Gigabyte's Visuals only operates with the firm's Odin GT-series of power supplies. For those still with us, this monitor-mountable gizmo enables users to keep a close eye on the temperature, power and fan speed of their PSU, and it gets all the juice / information it needs via USB. Granted, it's probably overkill for all but the most hardcore of overclockers, but no one here ever said that extravagance was necessarily a bad thing. Look for this one to land anytime for a currently undisclosed price, and hey, maybe next year Gigabyte will open up the compatibility list a bit, eh?
The coolest feature that I've found in the ten minutes I've been playing with it is the ability to save a search result directly to the Contacts application! It automatically fills in all the address fields correctly. I'm a huge fan of that. You can get the install directly on your N95 by going to www.google.com/gmm
in the phone's browser. I have no clue if this works on other devices, or if it works with a Bluetooth GPS unit. Anyone care to test and report back?
Watch this space, also, as I'll be doing a side-by-side comparison vs. Nokia Maps and should have that up next week sometime.
sursa: Symbian-Guru
Inca o inventie aproape total inutila, dar care poate totusi si-ar gasi locul in casele unora dintre voi, care urmeaza o dieta mai stricta, sau care doar vor sa aiba grija de silueta lor.
Noua versiune 1.1.2 va fii lansata maine pe piata mondiala. Dar cred ca sunt putini cei care asteapta cu nerabdare aceasta versiune, tinand cont aceasta versiune e incompatibila cu celebrul jailbreak, care facea posibila rularea de diverse aplicatii pe telefon. Totusi vor fii ceva imbunatatiri minore care vor consta in voice memmos, si ceva functie de posibilitate de manangement al hdd-ului...
The true computing geeks in the house are about to need adult diapers: AMD's launching a dedicated stream processor, the FireStream 9170, and an accompanying SDK today, which will be available in Q108. Granted, this 55nm "world's first Stream GPU with double-precision floating point technology" will run you two grand, but you'll be getting 500 GFLOPS at under 150 watts power draw, but you'll get all the insane math-crunching benefits of stream processing that your current number-crunching rig isn't seeing, despite the eight 8800s you've got jury-rigged into the thing. Press release after the break. Read more about stream processing here (because we're reall in no position to lecture on its benefits).
The Wind Shade Roof is basically a large roof (surprise) decked out with an arsenal of wind turbines that perform the combo power of providing shade and electricity to whatever's below or around it. Michael Jantzen's rendering of his concept shows it employed over a pool in the middle of the desert—where it's powering all of the lights, maintenance, etc.—making for all kinds of cool blues to make a neat idea look pretty sexy too. Also, check out his massive portfolio of future-y convention-busting designs.

The two latest Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson, the W890 and W380, continues their music-focused approach by loading up Walkman Player 3.0, the newest release of their player software. The W890 has features we've seen before, such as FM radio, 3G HSDPA, SensMe tempo and mood detector, Stereo Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera and quad-band GSM. The W380 on the other hand has TrackID (which identifies songs), gesture control (think of a Wiimote), and music controls on the back of the phone. It looks like the W890 is a Europe and Asia-only affair for now, while the W380 is coming soon. Full gallery of these hotness phones after the jump.
The last time we talked about the Bookeen Cybook was in 2004, so we're keen on seeing what new features made it into their Gen3 device. In short, now their eReader can handle 8,000 page turns in a single charge (that's more than all the Harry Potters combined), an SD slot, RSS reading, and MP3 playback for listening to music while reading. It's $350, which isn't cheap compared to even Sony's reader,
Incet incet nu ma mai mira nimic, acuma a aparut un aparat pentru fetite, sper... ca sa poata sa invete si ele de mici cum sa scoti bani cat mai repede de la un bancomat? Totusi nu cred ca vor putea sa scoata bani pe credit, dar daca va introduce banuti ii vor putea scoate dupa ceva timp cu cardul inclus in pachet.
Nokia has been working on a very promising technology, called Haptikos, and it is now coming to fruition after 10 years in the making. The new technology promises a true tactile response for touchscreen text input methods. Though basic vibration methods are currently in place to provide a form of haptic response, Nokia's efforts will literally relay the sensation and sound of a physical keyboard click—right beneath your finger. The Senior Program Manager at Nokia's research lab, Roope Takala, explained how the engineers were able to accomplish the seemingly impossible: "The basic technology is not that difficult...we inserted two small piezo sensor pads under the screen and engineered in a 0.1mm movement in the screen itself. What's taken the time has been fine tuning the movement and response to mimic exactly the sensation of pressing a real key."As mentioned, the new system needs fine tuning to get everything spot on, but the guys over at Red Ferret gave it a try as it stands currently. Here's what they said:
"...it was hard to remember that you were using a touchscreen keyboard."That assertion makes our hairs stand on end. If true, the implications are seriously vast. The Nokia S60 shall be the first device to support the technology under its hood, but it is unknown when it shall be released. We wait patiently, with our legs crossed and our hearts longing. Oh Nokia, will thou teach the torches to burn bright? We hope so. [Red Ferret]
Listen up, Japanese teens: vending machine maker Fujitaka Co. is on to your sneaky cigarette-buying ways, and has created a machine that uses a camera and face recognition software to try and stop you. The machine takes your picture when you press the "Adult Recognition" button, and analyzes your face for wrinkles and sagging. If it thinks you aren't saggy enough, you must insert your license for age verification. In a test of 500 people, the machine spotted adults with 90% accuracy. Looks like the big kid with the crustache sitting at the back of your math class is about to be your new best friend; at least until you smoke enough to get wrinkled and buy cigarettes on your own. [Textually via The Raw Feed].
16-year-old Cory Ryder is awaiting trial for hiring a hitman to wack his parents because they took away his Playstation. But the man paid to do the job wasn't a hitman, but an undercover cop...hired by the kid's mother. Ryder caught a ride from his mom's friend to go meet the "hitman," and offered up his stepdad's pickup as payment. He was quickly taken into custody where he is being held for attempted murder. While I'm sure every "parents with too much free time" group will use this to pin all of society's problems on videogames, Ryder's commitment to his PlayStation cannot be questioned. [The Times UK via PS3 Forums]
Aesthetically, Factory Joe's "iPad Touch" tablet mockup doesn't wholly differ from the pretty slick one our own Jesus Diaz conjured with his magic Photoshop fingers, but it does ratchet up the iPhone design elements. Oh, and MacBook Touch is a much better, if less reflective, name in our book. Another shot after the jump or scope the rest over there. [Factory Joe via Gadget Lab]
source: Gizmodo

Google stabili astazi strategia in sectorul telefoniei mobile, care include un software pentru telefoane si o alianta cu mai multi furnizori de servicii wireless si retaileri, au declarat surse apropiate situatiei, citate de Reuters.

USB devices do everything these days, including charge your gadgets with only the power provided by your breathing: specifically, the act of moving one's chest in and out. Just in case you thought this required sticking a gadget down your throat, see the image above and note that it's attached to the outside of the model's chest. The instructions for building your own breathing powered USB charger are over at instructables, and the kit only requires simple equipment like a spare CD drive, some elastic bands, and an electric circuit. You've got all that lying around, ain't ya? Well then, stick it all together and get breathing. Unfortunately, it only produces around 5 volts, so you'll have to breath a lot whole lot to get any meaningful charging time from this invention. And don't even think about attaching it to the cat.
Jaws were dropping all around when our own Adam Frucci brought back video of his harrowing 377-foot-high ride in a glass-bottomed car on the Odaiba Ferris Wheel in Tokyo, but now the Chinese are going to top that wheel with the tallest one in the world. Today, construction began on the Great Wheel of China, a $99 million Ferris wheel that will tower over Beijing at a stupendous 680 feet when construction is complete in 2009. This is not just any Ferris wheel, though. You won't be sitting in swinging and swaying benches on this baby. Each one of its 48 cars is like a gondola, air-conditioned and holding 40 passengers, for a total of 1920 stomachs pressed against the top of their abdominal cavities as the big wheel keeps on turnin'. Nobody's talking about how long it'll take to load this beast. Too bad there was so much bickering over the design of the gigantic wheel, because originally the plan was to complete construction in time for next summer's Beijing Olympics. [MSNBC, via Spluch]
Unless you're living in the UK, it's hard to get your hands dirty with Nokia's new Music Store. Unless you're living under rock, you know that it's Nokia's intention to take the service global as it vies for dominance over digital downloads. Fortunately, a quickie, video review from Nokia's new N81 has been posted by NokNok.tv. They claim that "hunting out tracks is a doddle, as is downloading." A good thing, apparently, judging by the 4 / 5 stars awarded. Check the action after the break.
Although Google's Open Handset Platform may be their "GPhone" for now, they're not denying that they're currently working on an actual Google Phone, something that they'd take a more hands-on approach on for both hardware and software. An internal design, code-named "Dream", could be this phone. The Dream looks like the iPhone, and is 5-inches long, 3-inches wide, touch-sensitive, swivels, and hides a full-sized QWERTY keyboard below. It also switches to landscape mode when it's tilted. On the software side, it's got Google's own YouTube, plus email, text editing, and a virtual machine for handling the browser. HTC's even considering developing a real version of this reference design in the same second half of 2008 that they're going to be releasing their Open Handset Platform phones. [Forbes]
The details on Google's gPhone Open Handset Alliance are coming to light. Here's what we know: