Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve always found PDFs to be supremely annoying thanks to Acrobat Reader’s slow, crashy behavior. Now, Gmail is allowing users to skip the Reader altogether.

Now, when you click “View” on an attached PDF, you’ll get to view it inside your browser with no mess. All the pages show up thumbnailed on the right, and you can view the current page in the main pane. It’s quick and easy, as it should be.

Unfortunately, it only works in Gmail. How about a browser plugin so we can avoid Acrobat Reader all the time? [Gmail Blog via Boy Genius]

A man reconstructed the 2000 year old Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient “computer” built by the Greeks to keep track of the moon, the planets and cycles. It’s as amazing now as it was then.

The video shows off how it worked. Turning the dial shifted the moon, the sun and planets around the Earth and let users keep track of where each was supposed to be. Michael Wright and his first working model of the Antikythera Mechanism then go on to show off stuff like keeping track of the Olympics every four years and seeing when there are going to be eclipses. That’s right, they could predict eclipses—which happen on an 18-year cycle—using this device! [Neatorama via Geeksaresexy]

After his parents took away Halo 3, Daniel Petric shot them both, killing his mother, according to the prosecution in this 17-year-old’s murder trial.

Daniel Petric was caught with Halo 3 on his way into the house after sneaking out to buy the game. His father then took it, placing the game in a lockbox—the same lockbox in which he stored his 9mm handgun.

Somehow, Petric retrieved his game and the gun from the lockbox. And according to his father, Petric entered the living room with a chilling request.

Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you.

At that point, he was said to shoot both of his parents in the head, killing his mother.

Petric’s lawyers gave an opening statement mentioning that he’d suffered from a severe staph infection and found himself homebound to games and television for a year.

As of late, video games seem inundated with tragedy. [Cleveland via Kotaku]

Leaving your gadgets on the floor while charging is barbaric (besides, the floor is made of lava). Prop up your precious portables with these handy Socket Deer antlers.

The rubber antlers come affixed to the plate and are available in three different deer types (just in case you had a favorite). The manufacturer also claims that the plates are excellent for light switches—making it an extremely bizarre way to store your keys and accessories. [Nendo via Swissmiss via Make]

Like your PMPs colorful, nondescript and exclusive to Korea? Then Big Beam’s new Ken D player will no doubt be right up your alley. Available in pink and blue in addition to the usual black and white, this lightweight player (in more ways than one) packs a 2.8-inch touchscreen (we’re guessing capacitive), and is available in both 4GB and 8GB versions, each of which boast support for most of the standard file formats and, apparently, not too many other stand-out features worth noting. There’s no word on a price either, but you should be able to find it in at least a few Korean shops if you’re willing to do a bit of digging.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Big Beam kicks out Ken D PMP for Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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