Archive for News

Guy builds a First-Class Pan Am Cabin in his garage

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 27th, 2009

Guy builds a First-Class Pan Am Cabin in his garageAnthony Toth really likes Pan Am. He likes it so much that he built a vintage Pan Am first-class cabin in his garage. It looks awesome and the setup includes almost everything fliers in the late 1970s and 1980s would have found onboard.

You’ve got your red-and-blue reclining seats, original overhead luggage bins and even a curved, red-carpeted staircase. Anthony is a 42-year-old global sales director at United Airlines and he spent more than 20 of those years on his recreation of a Pan Am cabin, which includes a few economy-class seats.

Lashlight Mascara lights up your lashes

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 25th, 2009

Lashlight Mascara lights up your lashesIt’s interesting how technology is finding a place in women’s cosmetics more and more. The Lashlight has a brush-tip that gives you access to even the tiniest lashes and the exclusive light-up LED wand spotlights every lash you might have missed.

I’m assuming this is HUGE OMG news for women. It also features a close-up mirror on the side of the tube for when you need to fix things on the go. But that’s not all. The formula contains millions of microscopic mirrors that bounce light off your lashes to make your eyes look brighter.

BeMoved Coffee Machine makes you work for it

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 25th, 2009

BeMoved Coffee Machine makes you work for itDouwe Egberts wants you to work for your coffee. They think that consumers would like to interact more with machines so they are creating a coffee machine that can interact with consumers through simple games.

BeMoved can be operated using a large touchscreen, or with a motion sensitive camera. Users will be able to drag and drop virtual ingredients into the cup, explore more info about coffee and even check out the news. The weirdest part is that you can play a game where you earn your coffee by jumping. Think of it as a kind of Wii-Fit game that will give you your precious coffee in return for actually burning a calorie or two.

Polaroid to re-launch instant film next year

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 13th, 2009

Polaroid killing off instant film format Seems that Polaroid can’t make up their mind. After killing off their instant cameras along with instant film, they have now decided to get back into the game. At least part of this decision has to do with new management.

Whatever the reasons, they have realized their error and would like it very much if you used their cameras and film. The company is re-launching the One Step Camera and instant film in 2010. That’s not too far off for all of you Polaroid fans. But are you over instant film or do you really want more?

AC/DC Box Set includes a working guitar amp

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 12th, 2009

AC/DC Box Set includes a working guitar ampAC/DC knows how to rock and they have never slowed down. Only a super hard rocking band like them could put out a Box Set like this, which has to be the best Box Set ever. AC/DC’s Backtracks package obviously looks like a guitar amp. But take a closer look.

The top of the box is actually a working 1-watt guitar amplifier. This mini-amp won’t Shake Your Foundations, or even bother the neighbors, but who cares. It’s a real amplifier. You can’t get that on iTunes people. For $199 you get three CDs and two DVDs of rare tracks from the band, a 12-inch vinyl LP, a bunch of memorabilia and a 164-page hardbound book.

Pill bottle caps that call you and remind you to take your meds

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 8th, 2009

Pill bottle caps that call you and remind you to take your medsVitality Inc. wants to sell you a new pill bottle system. The idea is that it will transmit a signal to a base station in your home every time the bottle cap is opened. So if you are not able to open the bottle cap in time, the base station will play sounds to remind you.

Should you go on vacation or are away from home, just set the base station so that it can place a call to your handset as a reminder via AT&T. No word on when we might see this or what it will cost. Do you think something like this will be popular for the elderly?

PhotoSketch turns your drawing into a Photoshop work of art

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on October 6th, 2009

PhotoSketch turns your drawing into a Photoshop work of artSuck at Photoshop? No problem. PhotoSketch is a web program that will let you make a rough, labeled sketch and magically turn it into a Photoshopped image. Your lame skills are no longer a problem.

How does it work? It searches the web for images that correspond to the shape and label you’ve drawn, then it puts them all together into an image. It isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty impressive and is sure to only get better.

Vonage releases Smartphone App for International Calls

Posted in News, Vonage by Darrin Olson on October 5th, 2009

Vonage mobile app for iPhone and BlackberryVonage, a provider of VoIP home phone services, has announced a new mobile application designed specifically for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and RIM’s Blackberry devices providing alternative discounted rates for international calls. The application is a free download available today available from the Vonage site or through the iTunes App Store.

The application will allow mobile users to dial international calls as they normally would with no extra steps or special numbers to enter, and those receiving the calls will see the mobile number in their callerID just like a regular international call. In the future Vonage plans on extending the offering to a monthly flat rate, but for now the discounted per-minute charges will apply.

mSpot streams movies to iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on September 30th, 2009

mspotmSpot isn’t new. It has been streaming full-length movies to cellphones for a few years. Now however, the company has a potential customer base of 40 million. Mobile phone users on Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile (including the G1, Pre, iPhone and other smartphones) can go to m.mspot.com to stream movies.

The service is on-demand, so you can also pause and restart them whenever you want. How about that? They have deals with Paramount Studios, Universal and the Weinstein Company, and it looks like more agreements will happen shortly.

Google Launches the Wave Communication Tool

Posted in Google, News by Darrin Olson on September 30th, 2009

Google Wave communication and collaboration toolGoogle has now started public testing by invitation only of Wave, a new online tool for communication and collaboration between people online. Wave has been described by its designer as what email would look like if it was invented today, and contains real-time communication through text, photos, video, maps and more according to Google.

The communication using the Wave tool is live somewhat like an instant messenger allowing users to see others edits as they make them, character by character. Should a users not be online at the same time, the communications will still be available to view at a later date, much like emails waiting in your inbox.

EU to mandate MP3 player volume limits

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on September 28th, 2009

New ZuneHD imagesThe European Commission has set volume limits for MP3 players in all European Union member states. This means that your Zune HD or other mp3 player will not be allowed to output anything louder than 80 decibels under the default settings.

Officials argue that the limits are necessary since devices can play music at levels loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage and they do so without warning listeners. The EU mandate will still allow users to override the settings as long as they’re informed about the possible consequences.

Orange UK to Sell Apple’s iPhone Later This Year

Posted in News by Darrin Olson on September 28th, 2009

Orange to sell the Apple iPhone in the UKFrance Telecom’s Orange announced on Monday that it will start selling the iPhone in the UK later this along with Telefonica’s O2. O2 has previously had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in Britain however the contract is set to expire.

Orange announced that both the 3G and the 3GS versions will be available to UK customers later in the year, but gave no more details of exact dates or expecting pricing for the handset or plans.

Judge Delays Hearing for Google Book Search

Posted in News by Darrin Olson on September 25th, 2009

Google Book SearchA New York District Court judge on Thursday announced the delay of the Google Book Search hearing and instead will hold a status conference on the scheduled October 7th date. Google Book Search is a settlement case that has been pending for more than four years between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. The deal would allow Google to digitize millions of out-of-print, coprighted books and make them available for sale to readers online. The authors and publishers of the books would share in sales and advertising profits.

The delay from judge Denny Chin comes due to a recommendation from the Department of Justice who felt that the settlement proposal violates copyright, class-action and antitrust regulations. Chin stated that the hearing currently “makes no sense…as it does not appear the current settlement will be the operative one.”

Microsoft’s Secret Courier Tablet Info Leaked

Posted in News, Rumors by Darrin Olson on September 23rd, 2009

Microsoft Courier BookletAccording to a recent report from Gizmodo on Tuesday, Microsoft is confirming rumors that it actually does have a new dual-screen tablet in the works, codenamed Courier. According to the article and a short demo video, the Courier is a real thing and is more like a “booklet” than a tablet as it folds together and has two interactive touch screens side-by-side with loads of fast functionality.

The project has apparently been kept under pretty tight wraps with very few, both inside and outside of Microsoft, with knowledge about it. In fact, rumors are that the team working on the project, led by J. Allard (a designer involved in the Zune and the Xbox) has been kept away from the main Redmond campus to help keep it secret.

Toshiba announces first SSD drives using mini-SATA

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on September 21st, 2009

Toshiba announces first SSD drives using mini-SATANetbook SSDs have come in several forms, but finding the right model for your machine is about to get much easier thanks to the SATA-IO working group having just announced a new mini-SATA standard called mSATA that should get it all uniform and reduce it’s footprint some.

Toshiba’s the first now with 32nm drives in 30 and 62GB sizes, but you can expect to see mSATA drives and machines from a bunch of big names in the future. Players like Samsung, Dell, HP, SanDisk, Lenovo, and STEC. We can all hold out hope that standardization will lead to lower prices as well.





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