pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”boris johnson.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/boris%20johnson.jpg” width=”300″ height=”407″ class=”mt-image-left” style=”float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;” //span/p pClownish Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is expected to get a lot bigger tonight as he counts in the New Year in London. /p pAbout 194-feet bigger actually thanks to some projection technology that will see everyone’s favourite political buffoon grow to 200-feet on the side of the Shell building thanks to some projection technology from LG Electronics. /p pIf a 200-foot tall Boris is too scary to contemplate, he will be joined by em”a star studded list of international personalities sharing their message of goodwill in the countdown to 2009″/em. ‘Who’ remains a mystery./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a8323d/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=London’s Mayor Boris Johnson Swells To 200-ft Tonightlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/londons_mayor_boris_johnson_sw.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=London’s Mayor Boris Johnson Swells To 200-ft Tonightlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/londons_mayor_boris_johnson_sw.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588733783/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44577341/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588733783/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44577341/a2.img” border=”0″//a
Argos Selling £98 Blu-ray Player
Posted in: blu-ray, hdtv, Movies, Today's Chilipspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”bush blu-ray player.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/bush%20blu-ray%20player.jpg” width=”588″ height=”221″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //spanbr / Bush is not a name you’d readily think off when it comes to quality Blu-ray devices but they do have one and now, thanks to Argos, you can pick it up for just £98. /p pConsidering that most new entry-level players are still in the £160-200 price range [online], this puts the Bush BD01 way out in front as the cheapest Blu-ray player on sale in the UK. Sadly, it looks it too. /p pIt wasn’t always this cheap though as the player has been reduced from a laughable £300. We’re not sure what it’s like in terms of performance but here are the key features:/pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a808f8/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Argos Selling £98 Blu-ray Playerlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/argos_selling_98_bluray_player.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Argos Selling £98 Blu-ray Playerlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/argos_selling_98_bluray_player.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588731805/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44566776/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588731805/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44566776/a2.img” border=”0″//a
30GB Zunes Failing Everywhere, All At Once
Posted in: Microsoft, Today's Chili, top, zune
Right, so this is a weird one: we’re getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless. Update: The easy official fix here.
The crisis has been dubbed by Zune users ‘Z2K9’, due to the apparently synchronized faceplantings across the country. According to tipster Michael, the Zune users experienced something like this:
Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and… freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them
This report is consistently corroborated by literally hundreds of others across the various Zune support and fan forums.
What hasn’t emerged yet, largely due to the fact that MS’s support lines aren’t yet open for the day, is why these devices are failing. The evidence seems to point to a software glitch, but simple resets aren’t providing any relief. Some reports indicate that only Zunes with the latest firmware are affected, but this hasn’t yet been confirmed.
The proximity of the events to the New Year, which inspired the Y2K9 moniker, provides little more than a colorful backdrop; it’s unlikely that the switching of years in the Zune’s internal calendar has anything to do with the failures (besides, it hasn’t even happened yet).
If not for the uniform representation of events across the internet, I’d be tempted to suspect this as a hoax, but it just doesn’t look that way. The story, assuming the described problem is of the magnitude reported, will probably take a turn for the large when the majority of Zuners start waking up. Let us know about your experiences in the comments. [Zunescene, ZuneBoards, Zune.net—Thanks, Michael, Josh, Ben and others]
Update: We’ve got a DIY fix to revive slain Zunes.
Update: Reader Bill Bradski (Bill Brasky?) has summed up the situation thusly: 
Update 2: Here’s Microsoft’s official response for the time being (it’s clear they just woke up and probably haven’t even flipped on their coffee pots yet):
We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).
Oh, brother — yet another high resolution audio format to worry over. Just when you thought you could pick up Denon’s forthcoming universal Blu-ray player and be done with it comes HRx. The format, which is hyped up by Reference Recordings and is literally high-res WAV files toasted onto DVD media, cannot be played back in traditional DVD / DVD-Audio decks. Instead, you’ll need PS Audio’s PerfectWave Transport Memory Player. Until now, folks (all three of them) have simply been ripping the files onto PCs or music servers for playback, but the item you see above will indeed handle CDs and HRx DVDs, the latter of which delivers 24-bit, 176kHz sound. There’s no mention of a price or eventual release date, but something this specialized just can’t be cheap. We mean, it just can’t be.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
PS Audio debuting world’s first HRx disc player at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”lgs 3g touch water phone.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/lgs%203g%20touch%20water%20phone.jpg” width=”588″ height=”391″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pThere’ was a lot of excitement when we covered the first a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/10/25/video_of_worlds_first_phone_wa.html”wearable mobile phone watch/a. James Bond wannabes [us included] drooled happily over the device but it lacked any mainstream support./p pNow, LG is entering the phone-watch space with its 3G Touch Watch device, which it will be teasing folk with at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 in Las Vegas next week. /p pIt’s 13.9mm thick and crams in most of what you’d get on a regular 3G phone along with an in-built camera and video telephony support. /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a7f055/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=[CES Countdown] Wear The Latest LG Phone: The 3G Touch Watchlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_wear_the_latest.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=[CES Countdown] Wear The Latest LG Phone: The 3G Touch Watchlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_wear_the_latest.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588729477/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44560469/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588729477/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44560469/a2.img” border=”0″//a
February 1, 2003 was a Saturday. It was shaping up as a slow news day. Saturdays usually are. At the cable and broadcast network newsrooms the arrival and landing of Shuttle Columbia was just another small story–really not much more than a time filler on that winter’s day.
Of course that’s not what actually happened. A small incident, virtually unnoticed at launch, doomed Columbia’s reentry.
“…a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia’s external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage.”
Though preliminary conclusions were published in 1983in 2003 and the remaining shuttle fleet resumed missions in 2005 it wasn’t until this past Tuesday that we got the full story of the Columbia accident. It is a chilling and often gruesome report told in technical terms, but with little left to the imagination. Because the flight was so well monitored and documented this forensic retelling is factually weighty.
pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”lgs thinnest tv.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/lgs%20thinnest%20tv.jpg” width=”588″ height=”334″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pI’m not sure if having the skinniest LCD TV is as cool as having the biggest TV just yet but, that doesn’t stop TV manufacturers shaving millimetres off their latest tellies in the hope of creating one that you’ll actually have trouble finding./p pLG is hoping to steal the CES 2009 Show for slimmest LCD TV [not OLED] with its LH95, an LED-backlit LCD supermodel which measures a weenie 24.8mm and boasts a whopping claimed contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. Picture processing, like the forthcoming a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/29/samsungs_2009_tvs_leaked_leds.html”Samsung LED LCD TVs/a is at the top end with LG’s 240Hz TrueMotion Drive technology./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a7bfc3/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=[CES Countdown] LG Aims To Have The Skinniest TV At CES 2009link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_lg_aims_to_have.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=[CES Countdown] LG Aims To Have The Skinniest TV At CES 2009link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_lg_aims_to_have.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588725483/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44548035/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588725483/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44548035/a2.img” border=”0″//a
Sprint’s pink Instinct shows up on Best Buy’s site for outrageous price
Posted in: BestBuy, samsung, Sprint, Today's Chili
We’d pegged early January for the release of a pink Samsung Instinct on Sprint’s airwaves, and Best Buy’s doing everything it can to help us hold the line on that with a new “Coming Soon” page advertising just such a product. Unfortunately, they’re asking a whopping $599.99 for the pleasure of being the first kid on your block with this thing, but the off-contract pricing in Best Buy’s system is usually way out of whack — we wouldn’t worry about paying anything close to $200 on contract by the time you actually step into the store.
[Thanks, Emilio]
Filed under: Cellphones
Sprint’s pink Instinct shows up on Best Buy’s site for outrageous price originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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*From the Free MP3 archive* On new tracks like “Liar (It Takes One To Know One),” the punk/pop heroes continue to evolve their means of crossing alternative leanings with arena-ready hooks. Here, their slight–and welcome–subversions include moodier prod on guitars and genuinely achy vocals.
…
Originally posted at Crossfade
Nokia’s 6208c now official, officially in love with stylus input
Posted in: chinese, nokia, Today's Chili
Nokia’s 6208c (or 6208 classic, if you prefer) isn’t arriving as a surprise, though it is quite nice to see it being made completely official. The rather unique handset was designed with the Chinese market in mind, as it boasts an integrated, removable stylus modeled after bamboo slips for inputting Chinese characters via pen. You’ll also notice a stainless steel back cover, 3.2-megapixel camera (with twin LED flash), a 4x digital zoom and a microSD slot for expanding storage. Mum’s the word on pricing, but it should be loosed in “select markets” during the first half of 2009.
Filed under: Cellphones
Nokia’s 6208c now official, officially in love with stylus input originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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