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Hitachi and Seiyu develop light bulb with replaceable arc tube

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 7:02PM


While the rest of the world goes off to win the hearts of environmentalists (and laypeople, too) with LED light bulbs, Hitachi Lighting and Seiyu are taking the road (way) less traveled. Reportedly, the duo has collaborated in order to pop out a "bulb-shaped fluorescent lamp that can be separated into a lighting circuit unit and an arc tube unit." What this means is that the lighting circuit can be used repeatedly (up to 30,000 hours) while the arc tube simply gets replaced every 10,000 hours. The pair is hoping that the bulbs will take the place of traditional 60-watt incandescents, and considering that these only draw around 13-watts each, it's fairly easy to see how Mother Earth would just love you for making the switch. As for pricing, we're hearing that these will sell for around ¥1,500 ($14) apiece when they launch this October in Japan, so don't plan on recouping your investment in energy savings right away or anything.

Is the BlackBerry KickStart getting a $50 price tag on T-Mobile?

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 5:47PM


We could tell by looking that RIM wouldn't think of charging too many hundies for its still unannounced BlackBerry KickStart, but $49.99? CrackBerry has it that said flip phone will be selling at T-Mobile for a penny under $50 on a two-year contract, which certainly seems smart given the competition. 'Course, we've nothing to substantiate this with just yet, but take one more look at that chubby side and tell us this thing deserves a triple digit price tag. That's right, you can't.

Gateway's 17-inch P-6831FX gaming laptop gets reviewed

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 4:46PM


Given that Gateway just pushed out a round of updates including the relatively ginormous P Series, we reckon it was only logical to expect a review shortly. To be frank, the P-6831FX critiqued over at HotHardware is far from being the most potent machine with a 17-inch panel, but unlike many of its luxurious competitors, this one is actually affordable. So, how much gaming joy can $1,349.99 bring you? Quite a bit when the 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS and 3GB of RAM are included. Reviewers found gaming performance to be downright remarkable, though the 1.67GHz CPU did hamper it a bit in other areas. It should be noted that the unit now arrives with a slightly faster CPU among other minor extras, so if it was good then, we're guessing it's a runaway winner now.

Ovei home theater pod: not for claustrophobic, poor people

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 6:02AM


As with quite a few things unveiled at CEDIA Expos, the Ovei is also aimed squarely at folks with wallets so fat they can hardly contain themselves. This home cinema pod made its most recent debut at the CEDIA UK show, where the creators explained that users could slip into the air-conditioned capsule and control their home theater and / or gaming experience via the built-in touchscreen. We are told that it was designed by Lee McCormack and engineered by McLaren Applied Technologies, but aside from that, pretty much everything else remains a mystery. The Ovei can be ordered up now for around £50,000 (that's 100,000 of those depreciating greenbacks), but if you get 'em to toss in some foot pedals and a steering wheel (or whatever else you dream up), count on that figure heading north in a hurry.

[Via KanYeWest Blog]

Read - Ovei pod details
Read - Ovei pod live shots, video

Roku serves up Netflix Player source code

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 11:28PM


Hope you're not too sleepy, you hacker you, 'cause we've got a juicy one coming your way. No sooner did we find that the Netflix Player would be streaming content from other players in the industry later this year than Roku opens up the source code vault. You heard right -- the GPL code has now been posted for the world to see, meaning that there's just one link standing between you and umpteen delicious tarballs. Mmm, tarballs.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

GoLive2 reveals wireless Stix, we can't quite pinpoint the inspiration

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 10:01PM


Oh, that's right -- the Wiimote! For the second time in as many months we've got ourselves a bona fide Wiimote wannabe, except for the PC. GoLive2's Stix collection (200 / 400) are wireless motion-sensing controllers designed to play PC and internet-based games, with Games for Windows titles and "thounsands of free web-based games" called out in particular. According to Brian Zheng, the president of Plahut, Stix will "completely change the way people experience online and PC gaming," though we definitely have our reservations about that. The Stix 200 will supposedly be compatible with just 2D games, while the Stix 400 gets down with 3D titles; pricing has yet to be disclosed, but feel free to waste your time check these out in August.

[Via I4U News]

USB drive goes missing with Japan-US troop deployment maps

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 9:03PM


Before you start having a complete panic attack, let us inform you that this whole fiasco actually took place last year, but as these things have a way of going, it's just now coming to light. Reportedly, a 33-year-old captain in the Ground Self-Defense Force ganked a USB flash drive (along with ¥2,000 [$19] and a ¥10,000 [$94] airline coupon) and proceeded to "dump it." Aside from the laughably small amount of cash and prizes this guy accepted, the unfortunate part of all this is what resided on the flash drive: troop deployment maps used in Japan-US military exercises. Worse still, we get the idea that said USB key is still out there somewhere undiscovered (or unrevealed), so if you happen upon one with all sorts of undecipherable schematics on there, now you know what's up.

[Via The Register, image courtesy of University of Texas]

Leadership crisis facing Samsung, says top executive

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 8:05PM


When Samsung Electronics named Yoon-Woo Lee as vice chairman and CEO a few months back, we were hoping that all that rioting and poster burning would subside. Although we haven't heard of any more breakouts of late, things are apparently still rocky on the inside. Lee Soo-Bin, chairman of Samsung Life Insurance and current representative for the Samsung Group, admitted that "without a captain or rudder, Samsung now faces a complex crisis, with each unit meeting cut-throat competition independently." He continued to say that the group "was able to ride out a previous crisis together thanks to former chairman Lee Kun-Hee's strong leadership and the guidance of the Strategic Planning Office, [but] now it could not do so." From the outside looking in, it's a bit tough to really understand what he's getting at, but whatever the case, those are most definitely not the words you want coming from the mouth a head exec.

ASUS Eee PC 900 gets livened up with touchscreen

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 7:10PM


If you're tired of waiting for ASUS to offer a touchscreen option for the Eee PC 900 (or you're the proud owner of an existing unit), jkkmobile is happy to show you their shortcut to touchy-feely nirvana. As we've seen on all those other Eees, installing the touch panel into the 900 doesn't seem to be extraordinarily difficult for those with a few mods under their belt and a reliable Chinese parts supplier. For those who'd prefer to simply watch from the sidelines, you can peek the video after the break and lots more photos in the read link.

Continue reading ASUS Eee PC 900 gets livened up with touchscreen

Roku's Netflix Player to stream content from other "big name" providers

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 6:03PM


Roku's Netflix Player got off to a hot start after launching just over a month ago, and apparently its creator has big plans for the plainly designed $99 box. According to a recent report over on Forbes, Tim Twerdahl, Roku's vice president of consumer products, has affirmed that a routine software update would be hitting later this year to enable content to be fetched and streamed from other "big name" providers. Regrettably, the conversation ended there, so there's absolutely no telling which "providers" he's referring to. Still, we're certainly intrigued by the idea of this thing becoming more versatile in the coming months, but wouldn't the name have to be tweaked at the very least?

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

Nyko's Media Hub for PS3 inelegantly adds USB ports, multicard reader

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 4:51PM


Nyko's got a knack for delivering some of the ugliest, most preposterous third-party peripherals on the planet, yet -- for whatever reason -- we can't help but love 'em. The latest abomination from the outfit that begins to grow on you almost immediately is the Media Hub for PlayStation 3. For those that went cheap on the 40GB PS3 and missed out on a multicard reader and the full array of USB ports, this here adornment presumably connects to one of those USB sockets and adds three more while tossing in the card reader you've so dearly missed. Thankfully, Nyko's only charging $19.99 for this, so you should be okay even if your ship has yet to come in.

[Via Joystiq]

UMass Mobile Manipulator pushes things around, learns ways of the world

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 2:29PM


Robots teaching robots? Check. Robots teaching humans? Check. Robots learning things on their own accord? Um, terrifying? All kidding aside, the UMass Mobile Manipulator is one smart cookie. Put simply, this intelligent robot pushes objects around in order to identify how they move, and once that's accomplish, it begins "manipulating them to perform tasks." If this sounds awfully similar to something your infant does, that's because the two are indeed very much related. UMan, as it's so eloquently dubbed, packs its own wheels, battery pack, one-meter arm, three-fingered hand and webcam in order to interact with the world, and sure enough, one researcher even mentioned the potential of it learning to operate a pair of scissors. Great, what's next -- a BFG?

[Via CrunchGear]

GEAR4 BlackBox micro uses your table to enrich bass notes

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 1:29PM


GEAR4's BlackBox Bluetooth speaker is splendid for those with ample room in their abode, but where will you turn for lavish sound when space is an issue? Bose? Pish posh. The newly introduced BlackBox micro (sadly) ditches Bluetooth in exchange for a sole 3.5-millimeter auxiliary port, but it does include an integrated SFX gel base in order to use any flat surface to "provide rich bass sounds." Beyond all that fanciful stuff, you'll find another traditional driver kicking out mids and highs, and there's even a USB port for powering it with whatever computer you've got nearby. Look for this one to sneak into stores this August for £20 ($40).

[Via Pocket-lint]

Hope's Aeris bicycle begs to get run over

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 12:27PM

Okay, so maybe Hope's forthcoming Aeris isn't that bad, but it is somewhat hard to believe that sensors were installed in the handlebars to "prevent accidents" if some demented designer didn't fully expect this thing to be a vehicle magnet. Designed for the urban tools hipsters in attendance, this bike is reportedly constructed from Hybrix, a material "supposedly as tough as stainless steel but lighter than aluminum." Beyond that, details are few and far between, but cyclists should be able to find out more when it launches this fall for around five large.

[Via ShinyShiny]

Tyrant alarm clock dials your contacts if you refuse to wake

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 11:35AM

We've seen alarm clocks institute some fairly unorthodox methods of waking users up, but this is exceptionally high on the list of "oh, no they didn'ts." Alice Wang's Tyrant, which we can only assume is a concept, actually dials a random number in one's mobile contact list for every three minutes that the sleeper doesn't address the obnoxiously loud ringing. In other words, unless you pick yourself up out of bed within ten minutes of the alarm going off, you'll have three angry friends wondering why they're getting phone calls from you everyday at O-five-hundred hours. Brilliant. Pure, sadistic, barbarous brilliance.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]
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