Gadgets 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 3rd 2008 at 4:06PMEven with Express Gate installed, it took ASUS’ Eee Box a good 35 seconds before an application could be used. On this particular Eee PC 1000, it took around half a minute for the entire system to load. The secret? An ultra-speedy 40GB SSD packed within. Hop on past the break for proof of the feat, but don’t blink for an extraordinarily long period of time.

[Thanks, Roman]

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Filed under: Laptops

Offices have a way about making pens disappear.  In my mind of course there is always some chuckling little imp with a gold earing in one of his over sized green ears that is chuckling in the corner with my pen.  The one pen I need to write down some extremely important phone number.  Okay so it’s quite possible that I’m one of the many that would lose their head if it wasn’t attached.  That is just so much less interesting than a mischievous imp.  If you have similar issues be it with absent mindedness or a sneaky little imp, a pen lamp might be the way to keep your pens nearby.

It would leave them in plain sight and make them a part of your décor.  Therefore would make you more likely to put the pen back.  I would probably just end up having a lamp that looked stripped down with only one or two remaining pens.  Then again it takes skill and practice to get to where I’m at.  This lamp was designed by enPieza! Studio.  All of the pens are in working condition and when you lose a bunch you can easily reattach a new one.

Source: ShinyShiny

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 3rd 2008 at 5:06PMAw man, and we had such high hopes that the third time really would be a charm. SpaceX’s third attempt to launch a payload rocket into outer space failed this weekend, with launch control confirming an “anomaly” just five minutes after liftoff. Elon Musk, SpaceX chairman and CEO, did admit that it was “obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this Flight 3 of the Falcon 1,” but he has assured the world that his firm won’t be wasting any time feeling sorry for itself. The Falcon 1 was carrying a minuscule satellite dubbed Trailblazer for the Pentagon’s Operationally Responsive Space Office, though we’ve no idea how costly the loss was. Thankfully, we can all look forward to SpaceX trying again sometime in the future, but unless the tables turn in a hurry, we’d say the odds are still stacked against it.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

The best just keeps getting better. Just announced is the new Sanyo Xacti HD800 HD camcorder to replace the very impressive and popular Xacti HD700. The new Xacti HD800 model features an 8 megapixel 1/2.5-inch CMOS sensor, and is available in more colors than just pink, thankfully also black and gold models. As well as boasting an 8 megapixel sensor for 1280 x 720, 720p HD resolution video the Sanyo Xacti HD800 also new features far improved reduced noise due to a 3D noise reduction filter.

The Xacti HD800 camcorder has SD/SDHC support, 2.7-inch flipout LCD screen, 5x optical zoom and enhanced face tracking features. Also new is improved easy to use drag and drop functions to get the HD AVC/H.264 video files to your PC. Six different recording quality modes are supported, upto 1,280 × 720/30fps/9Mbps HD-SHQ mode, and improved sharpness and color reproduction.

The Sanyo Xacti HD800 sure looks like a super HD camcorder and a winner to use, the “huge step forward in video quality” along with all the other improvements, coupled in a compact, lightweight and affordable HD camcorder.

For many of us, bacon is a staple in our diets, despite what doctors might tell us about the health consequences of eating too much of the delectable pork treat. I think some of the past bacon-themed gadgets we’ve talked about prove that this delicious pig part is a favorite among geeks and gadgeteers alike.

What if us humans were composed of such delicious meat? Would we have human meat farms? We wouldn’t go that far, but indeed, you might find many more incidents of cannibalism and bite injuries. If you’re brave enough to risk being serious cannibal target, and eager to show off your love for a nice plate of bacon and eggs, the Bacon & Eggs Bandages are a tasty way to cover your wounds.

Other than resembling a tasty breakfast, your wound will be kept safe from infection with the eggs and bacon proudly shielding the injury from outside bacteria. The Bacon & Eggs Bangages tin comes packed with seven 3″ long bacon strips, and seven 1-1/2″ fried eggs, allowing you to cover almost any minor wound.

For your own set of tasty breakfast bandages, you’ll only need to shell out a measly $4 for this creative wound dressing. Just keep your eyes open for suspicious looking people who forgot to eat breakfast that morning. That could only lead to unwanted appointments for tetanus shots.

Product Page

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It has just occurred to me, upon seeing this design that I have never seen a novelty mixer.  I mean we have novelty gadgets in general galore.  However, the poor mixers they are stuck with just getting a few bright colors.  Yes, you can get the more expensive ones but they are just better, not novelty or cool.  I know it was exciting when they threw in a pink mixer, but seriously that’s not really thinking outside of the box.  Well the designer Ming Tong has created these cute little guys resembling bunnies.

The shape of most mixers is actually quite perfect to make it look like a rabbit.  So those of you that are good at those type things could easily just paint the bunny face on yours.  This particular concept does have a few extras though.  It features all the usual speed changes as well as preset modes for cakes and milk shakes.  This sadly, is still a concept or I’m sure it’d be somewhere in the archives of Perpetual Kid.

Source: yanko

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Its now official, Microsoft spent $500 million on the purchase of Danger. Of course this does not come as much of a surprise, after all that figure was the exact number that was rumored several months back. However, thanks to Microsoft’s most recent quarterly report this number has been confirmed.

Its always interesting to see just how much a company is purchased for, especially something of this magnitude, more important is just what Microsoft plans to do in order to make this a worthwhile acquisition.

Sadly though, even with all that money spent you would have thought they could have come up with a better name for the latest Sidekick to hit the market, which if you remember was simply called the Sidekick 2008.

Lots of people see the Sidekick as less than a threat and something that is marketed to mostly younger and teenage users, but we have to remember they are a rising part of the mobile industry, it will be interesting to see just what Microsoft/Danger will do in the future to hopefully keep their customers from growing older and looking towards a “real” smartphone.

Read [Yahoo! News]

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 3rd 2008 at 8:39AM
Mmm, touchscreens. Expansive, gorgeous touchscreens. That pretty much sums up our initial impressions after taking one hard look at James Piatt’s Plica concept. As you can tell, this foldable cellie opens up to reveal a pair of touchscreens just begging to be used for web browsing, texting and photo viewing. There’s also a mini-USB port and a headphone jack, though we’d certainly be interested to see how he plans on slipping a battery in there that lasts more than a hour or two. Can we get a major handset manufacturer to look in this direction — pretty please?

[Via gadgetell]

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Filed under: Cellphones

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 3rd 2008 at 10:52AM
It’s hard to say if the pigeon you see above actually understood what he / she was doing, but apparently these birds can be taught to at least play App Store games in a very poor manner. The creature’s owner does note that Mr. Pigeon was pretty awful at racking up high scores on Tap Tap Revenge, but the important thing to realize here is that pigeon pecks do register as presses on the screen. Now that this is all out in the open, we fully expect a follow-up video next week of someone teaching their bird to dial a number on command. Vid’s after the break.

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Filed under: Cellphones

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