Author: Duncan Geere
Lightbulb/speaker mashups suddenly all over the web
Okay, ‘all over the web’ is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but just the other day, we spotted the Soundbulb over at Yanko Design. Today, I spotted this concept Bulb-Sound-Speaker over at Crunchgear. Two lamp-speakers in a week? I’m calling that a trend. Before the end of the month, we’ll be swimming in the things.
Silliness aside, it’s quite a cool concept, and could prove useful in public places – restaurants, elevators, etc. Of the two, only the Soundbulb works as a light as well, but they both rely on Bluetooth to ferry the music around the place wirelessly. Would I use one of these? No. Do I think they’d sell? Most definitely.
(via Yanko Design and Crunchgear)
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Military-grade hardware: the Stinger 553 SFF PC
Have you got a dusty, vibration-filled, humid place that you desperately need to put a PC in? Me too! That’s why I’m going to be buying the Stinger 553 SFF PC, from CodaOctopus Colmek. It’s based around an Intel Atom processor, and packs 2GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and eight USB ports.
I doubt it’ll cope with Far Cry 2, despite probably being able to survive all the stresses of the game if it were reality. It conforms to MIL-STD-810F and MIL-STD-461E environmental standards and MIL-STD0704E power supply voltage standards, whatever that means, and measures just 5″ x 5″ x 3″, so it’s a tiny wee thing. No price, heh, but with an aluminium alloy chassis, I doubt this thing will be cheap.
Stinger 553 (via Engadget)
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VIDEO: Tmsuk T-34 security robot hits the net
Yet more proof that the Japanese rule the world when it comes to hilarious and slightly sweet robots. The latest purports to be a security robot, but I suspect that you’re more likely to be incapacitated with laughter at this dinky machine than genuinely caught.
It travels at 10kph, has microphones and body heat sensors, and it’s controlled by an external operator. It’ll catch your thief, but you’ll need a real person on the scene before the person can make it out of the net. It’ll be available in a couple of years, and will cost ¥800,000 (£6,700 or so). For a video of it in action, click over the jump.
Small queue forms for the Tube (the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, that is)
Despite being slap-bang in the middle of the target market for the Nokia 5800, there’s something about it that just doesn’t hit the spot for me. It might be the sluggish performance, it might be the the lack of keyboard, it might be the lack of internal storage. It just seems defiantly last-generation with a touchscreen slapped on, which is why I’m holding out for the N97.
Some people aren’t though, because the launch of the Nokia 5800 was this morning in Regent Street and Heathrow terminal five. It wasn’t iPhone-worthy, but a respectable hundred people or so showed up at the Regent Street branch.
If you didn’t fancy queuing in the rain, but you still want one, then you can get it from Simply Electronics for £350 or so, unlocked. Alternatively, Phones4U are offering it free on an £35 a month, 18-month-long, contract with Orange, or there’s a £20 a month, 18-month, contract with Vodafone.
(via the Inquirer)
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SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: Emtec S800 HDD Movie Cube
Over Christmas I ate a lot of turkey, drank a lot of wine, and fiddled endlessly with this – the Emtec S800 movie cube. I’ll break it to you now – it’s not a cube – but it is a great little home entertainment set-top-box that lets you stream video over a network and record television.
Not one for the technophobic amongst you, but if you like tinkering with your AV setup then it comes highly recommended. It costs £230 and the company claims it’s available now from Dixons, but I certainly can’t see it on the site, or anywhere else for that matter. If you know where you can buy it in the UK, drop us a line in the comments.
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YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF THE WEEK: Unbelievable spinning wrestler, and Bush's top 10 moments
This is turning into a great week for web video. On top of the awesome trebuchet we featured yesterday, I couldn’t pick today between the amazing Mexican wrestler, Mascarita Dorada, above and a farewell compilation of George W Bush’s 10 best moments from the David Letterman show in the States. You can see that just over the jump. Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
Bush's Googlebomb hits Obama
Remember when bloggers, a few years back, “googlebombed” former US President George W Bush by linking his official biography to the phrase “miserable failure”? Well, along with the war in Iraq and a devastated economy, poor Obama looks to be inheriting Bush’s googlebomb, too.
Searches for “miserable failure” on Yahoo! and Live Search both bring up Obama’s bio. Google has successfully killed the bomb on its own search engine, however. In the meantime, one enterprising blogger has started a campaign to link the words “Cheerful Achievement” to Obama’s biography. Sounds good. Sign me up.
Cheerful Achievement (via SEO & Web Marketing News)
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How to hack roadsigns to display whatever you like
You know those signs that litter the hard shoulder of motorways, warning oncoming motorists about ice, or telling them to slow down? Well, if you fancy some fun early one morning, how about hacking one to display something different?
It’s startlingly easy, as this tutorial from iHacked demonstrates. It even gives a password reset method, if the workers have changed the default configuration. What would you change it to say? Suggestions in the comments.
Inside Programmable Road Signs
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Facebook now double the size of MySpace worldwide
“The times, they are a-changin'”, as Bob Dylan once said. We’ve had plenty of ‘X overtakes Y’ news lately, and the latest is that Facebook is now double the size of MySpace worldwide. It represents a powerful victory for usability and good design over the infamous “MySpace page”, which became synonymous with the web’s – how shall I put this – more ‘homely’ side.
I just logged in to MySpace for the first time in about six months, and had to enter *three* different captchas before I could even log in. I guess that means they’re taking the spammer threat seriously, but my god, what a barrier to logging in…
s-Jays from Jays Headphones – in-ear noise isolators with added bass
Jays Headphones, from Sweden, is currently shouting about its s-Jays headphones. I was quite a big fan of the c-Jays that I tested out recently (video coming soon), but those were over-the-head, whereas these are noise isolating in-ears.
They’ve got some technology that Jays is calling SIREN, which is a tubeless, round balanced armature, promising a good dynamic range and decent bass, which can be rare on cheap earbuds.
They come with plenty of accessories, including a splitter, embiggener, and an airline adaptor, as well as a nice carrycase. They’ll set you back £60, and are available right now. Looks like a decent upgrade if you’re currently running a cheap pair of earphones.
Jays Headphones
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