Nov 28

Nikon D3x Specs Leaked: A Mighty Flagship Cometh [Nikon]

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The long rumored, medium-format-friendly D3x is profiled in detail in an upcoming issue of Nikon Pro, and Nikon Rumors published the pages themselves and a rundown of details, including 5fps 24.5-megapixel shooting, 51-point autofocus and a 922,000-dot LCD screen for Live View. Here’s the basic spec rundown:

• World’s highes-res SLR with Live View
• 51-point MultiCAM3500FX autofocus system
• Scene Recognition System
• Expeed 16-bit processing to handle detail on the 75MB image files
• 3-inch, 922,000-dot LCD
• 35.9mm x 24mm FX format sensor (If you can’t think in metric, that’s 1.4″ x 0.94″)
• Weather-resistant magnesium body
• Designed for medium-format shooting
• ISO range of 100-1600 with a Lo1 (equivalent to ISO 50) with boosts up to ISO 6400
• 24.5-megapixel shooting at up to 5fps; cropped 10-megapixel shooting at up to 7fps
• 12ms start-up time; 41ms shutter-release lag time
• Writes files to dual CF slots at 35MB/s
• USB 2.0, HDMI and AV-out jacks, with 10-pin terminal for GPS and other accessories
• Same lithium-ion battery as D3

Believe it or not, there’s even more data over on Nikon Rumors, plus some very interesting pictures, so go have a look. [Nikon Rumors]


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Nov 28

Doorbusting at Long Island Walmart leads to worker’s death

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Remember that completely insane crime wave that hit when Sony’s hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 finally rushed onto the scene in very limited numbers? Yeah, well that side of humanity is rearing its ugly head again, as an employee perished when legions of crazed Black Friday shoppers blazed through the doors of a Long Island Walmart. The worker was an overnight store clerk who was simply trying to hold back the crowds before the doors officially opened at 5:00AM. According to Jimmy Overby, another employee at the store: “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me.” Words to the wise: either do your Black Friday shopping from the safety of your own home, or be careful, cool, calm and collected when you venture out.

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Doorbusting at Long Island Walmart leads to worker’s death originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 28

Laser-Cut Apple Apple Mac Mini Pie Probably Runs On Vanilla OS X Ice Cream [Apple Apple Pie]

Posted in: Today's Chili

I know. Apple pie is probably the last thing you want to hear about after yesterday’s stuffing, but bear with me on this one, because it is absolutely worth the nausea. In fact, it has made me hungry again. Evil Mad Scientist’s Lenore M. Edman wanted to do an Apple Apple Mac mini pie, and while her idea is nothing new, her implementation literally breaks the mold: She used a 45 watt carbon-dioxide laser to cut a lattice across the Apple logo. Why?

That’s why. The open Apple logo gets deformed while cooking in the oven. So she thought her pie needed an engineering twist to be perfect.

Using a lattice across the shape keeps it from deforming too much as it bakes. You can cut out the logo with a hobby knife or a carefully formed cookie cutter. We went alpha-geek on it and put it in the 45 watt carbon-dioxide laser.

As you can see, it worked perfectly. I wonder if Phil will let people etch their pastries at the Gizmodo Gallery. [Evil Mad Scientist — Pictures by Lenore M. Edman — Thanks Lola]


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Nov 28

Black Friday Giveaways (part 2): 2GB Eye-Fi Explore card

Posted in: Today's Chili

Enjoy taking photos? Want to get them out onto the internets or into inboxes quickly? Then perhaps you need to win this Eye-Fi Explore card. With 2GB of juicy storage, you’ll be able to keep all sorts of painful memories laying around. Ready to nab it? Here’s how it works.

We’ll put up a gadget on the site, and you can only enter it until the next gadget lands (usually within a couple of hours). If you miss your shot, sorry, we’re moving on to the next gadget. Good luck! Oh, and don’t forget the rules. (Yeah, there are always rules.)

  • Leave a comment below. That’s it! Who loves you, baby.
  • You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) You can enter different giveaways in today’s Black Friday giveaways, but you can only enter this one once.
  • If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  • Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers or US contest laws if you have to be mad.
  • Winners will be chosen randomly.
  • Entries can be submitted until the next contest goes up. After that we’re all done. Good luck!
  • Full rules can be found here.

Last round’s winner: Jack H! (Remember, winners are selected at random.)

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Black Friday Giveaways (part 2): 2GB Eye-Fi Explore card originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 28

Minority Report Style Crime Detection Installed In… Portsmouth

Posted in: Today's Chili

CCTV.jpg

Ok, that headline may be a little misleading. The South Coast hasn’t upgraded its crime labs with Tom Cruise and pals waving their arms in front of interactive holograms, but there is a new CCTV technology in place to try and help pre-empt crime.

142 cameras have been upgraded with software called Perceptrak, designed by Smart CCTV Ltd. and programmed to recognise suspect behaviour like people loitering for too long, cars going too fast or groups gathering in drug-dealing ‘hotspots’.

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Nov 28

WalMart Worker Trampled to Death by Deal-Crazed Black Friday Shoppers [Black Friday]

Posted in: Today's Chili

OK, Black Friday has officially gotten out of hand. A 34-year-old WalMart employee was trying to hold back the crowds at a Long Island store this morning at 5am, when they took the doors off their hinges and stormed the store. The man fell down and was trampled by over 200 people as he gasped for air. It’s sad and despicable, and it’s equally the fault of the dehumanized shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at.

Why was there no line set up? Why didn’t they let in a reasonable amount of people at a time? What kind of method is it to just allow hundreds of people to cram up against the doors, waiting for them to open? They may have wanted some photo op of people surging through the doors, but they willfully created a very dangerous situation.

Can you imagine if, say, the Apple store did this when the iPhone was launched? Or when the Wii was launched? When a large amount of people are expected for a retail event, organization is needed, otherwise it creates a dangerous situation. This man’s death is on WalMart’s hands.

As for the people who did the trampling, well, I hope their cheap crap was worth it. They’ll have to live with the human costs of their deals for the rest of their lives. [NY Daily News]

More Advice for the Black Friday Fray:
• The aforementioned Ultimate Survival Guide.
• 5 Gadgets You Can’t Skimp On (And How to Save Money Buying Them)
• Best of Black Friday Deals Complete Roundup“>All the best deals in one place
• Plus these late breaking ones from Cupertino: Apple Black Friday Deals Include Some Decent Third-Party Discounts
• Warnings: 7 Crappy Black Friday “Deals” That Aren’t Really
• How To Choose an HDTV on Black Friday (or Any Day)
• How to set up that new HDTV you just got.

Photochop Contest:
• Brutally Honest Black Friday Ads Showcase Retailers on the Brink

Why You Might Want to Avoid Shopping on Black Friday, altogether:
• 10 Reasons We’re Doomed: Black Friday Edition
• WalMart Worker Trampled to Death by Deal-Crazed Black Friday Shoppers

[Complete Black Friday Gadget Coverage at Giz]


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Nov 28

Windows 7 WARP system to allow for DirectX 10 CPU acceleration

Posted in: Today's Chili

We’ve already heard that Microsoft plans to make use of GPU acceleration in Windows 7, but it looks like the company is also going to be doing its part for the GPU-less out there, with the OS’s new so-called WARP system promising to allow for DirectX 10 acceleration using nothing more than a plain old CPU. Among other things, that’s apparently being done to avoid a recurrence of the Vista-capable debacle that happened last time around, when some systems that were said to be capable of running the OS were, in fact, anything but. According to Microsoft, WARP (or Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) will work with as little as an 800MHz CPU, although it says it’ll work better on multi-core processors with SSE 4.1. To really put it to the test, Microsoft apparently even went so far as to run a few Crysis benchmarks with the system, and managed to clock in a blistering 7.36 fps frame rate at 800 x 600 on a Core i7-equipped PC, which is actually slightly better than what Intel’s current integrated graphics were able to eke out.

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Windows 7 WARP system to allow for DirectX 10 CPU acceleration originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 28

Motorola Alexander and Attila spotted, but not clearly

Posted in: Today's Chili

This is really just confirmation of existence more than anything, given that we’ve already seen purported shots of both the Attila and Alexander before, but at least we’re assured that these forthcoming Motorola smartphones are more than just subjects of one’s Photoshopping escapades. The image you see above is accompanied by no additional information whatsoever, but we must say, these look strangely seductive in greyscale. Could these really be the first truly black-and-white handsets? Do it Moto, we dare you.

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Motorola Alexander and Attila spotted, but not clearly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 28

PlayStation Home Coming This Year, Kind Of [Playstation]

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PlayStation Home has long lost its lurid appeal, our relationship with it having transgressed from potential infatuation to being stood up at Applebee’s, sucking down some purple margarita that we’re beginning to suspect might be void of both alcohol and dignity. Regardless, PS Home director Jack Buster assures the world that the service will hit in 2008.

Like we’ve said, we’re excited about moving PlayStation Home into its Open Beta stage this year. Once we make the move to Open Beta, everyone will have access to PlayStation Home.

So we’ll have PS Home in 2008, but in potentially not quite cooked Open Beta form, we just may not want it all that much. [IGN via Kotaku]


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Nov 28

Samsung’s X360 ultraportable reviewed: cheaper than competition, but not as good

Posted in: Today's Chili
Samsung's X360 ultraportable reviewed: cheaper than competition, but not as good

If Apple’s Macbook Air is the poster-child for “form-over-function,” and Lenovo’s X300 its utilitarian cousin, Samsung’s X360 falls somewhere in between on the 13.3-inch wafter-thin ultraportable family tree, serving as another solid, though somewhat underwhelming choice according to TrustedReviews‘ full write-up. It’s not as thin as the Air, but is slightly lighter while still feeling reasonably durable, and with a full complement of ports certainly has the edge in terms of utility. It also manages to be a bit more visually appealing than the X300, is blessed with a “superb” keyboard (which we liked, too), and the five hours of battery life in real-world usage impresses as well. But, it’s hampered by a disappointing 1280 x 800 glossy screen and an under-performing 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU. The thing is popping up at online retailers a bit cheaper than we’d expected (we found one for about $150 lower than Samsung’s indicated $1,899 MSRP), but, in the US at least, might just be priced a little too close to its proven competitors to make it a serious contender over here.

[Thanks, Simon W]

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Samsung’s X360 ultraportable reviewed: cheaper than competition, but not as good originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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