Hasta La Gadget!

When we got wind of Cisco’s $590 million acquisition of Flip Video-maker Pure Digital, we immediately came to grips with the fit. After all, Cisco’s been dying to pull another Linksys for some time now, and what better to expand its consumer electronics presence than with a cheap-o camcorder that’s ripe for the addition of WiFi. Bigwig (and Pure Digital founder) Jonathan Kaplan recently sat down to talk about the product’s future, and unsurprisingly, he definitely mentions the integration of Cisco’s “strengths” into the handheld camcorder. Furthermore, he’s hoping that an entity as large as Cisco can get the Flip Video line overseas, and he’s also quite big on “building the brand.” The takeaway? Don’t be alarmed when a WiFi-equipped, streaming-capable successor hits the scene at CES 2010, complete with automatic upload-to-YouTube functionality.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pure Digital founder talks of Flip Video’s future originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is what happens when Nintendo meets the street. Wiispray is a simple mixture of a Wii and Flash — simply shake until the virtual ball has done its mixing and start spraying some electronic graffiti.

Details are thin, but we know that the WiiSpray 2nd edition is a remix of the original 2007 project by Martin Lihs and Frank Matuse of the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar. It looks like the Wiimote itself has a modified control so you can exhaust your finger by pressing down the top of a virtual spray-can, but the coolest part, at least from this chair, is the virtual stencil for making your own instant Banksies. This looks like fantastic fun.

WiiSpray Teaser of Final Presentation [Wiispray via  ★]

The Riiflex has graduated from CAD mock-up to heavy plastic sleeve. Last seen in a rather nasty shade of pixel-green or raster-blue, the dumbbell set is now actually available in meatspace in, well, pixel-green or baby raster-blue. Whoever commissioned the product shots must have told the photographer “Make it look fake. We’re thinking 1980s-style ray-tracing here, m’kay?”

In reality, the Riiflex molds have still not made it to the factory, although there are at least some final specs. The set will come in at either 2lbs or 4lbs (0.9 Kg or 1.81 Kg) and will cost $35 and $40 for pairs (one slides onto the Wiimote and the other onto the nunchuk) They’ll be available in summer to “make exercising and maintaining a healthy lifestyle feel more like entertainment and less like work”. Yes! These dumbbells aren’t so dumb. They even have a mission statement.

To finish, let us leave you with another 1980s-style “Reflex”“, this time from the legendary Duran Duran. This extract from the chorus of the song is curiously appropriate. Perhaps it could be used in a TV ad?

 

So why don’t you use it?

 
 

Try not to bruise it

 
 

Buy time don’t lose it

 
 

The reflex is an only child he’s waiting in the park

 
 

The reflex is in charge of finding treasure in the dark

 
 

And watching over lucky clover isn’t that bizarre

 
 

Every little thing the reflex does

 
 

Leaves you answered with a question mark

Well, it’s fine up to the third line. After that it gets a little surreal, but you get where we’re going.

Product page [Riiflex. Thanks, Paul!]

See Also:

• Riiflex Adds Weight to Wii Workout

In what he’s calling “the single biggest infrastructure decision” in the country’s history,” Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announced an A$43 billion (US $30.6 billion) project to create a nationwide high speed broadband network. The goal’s to get 90 percent of homes and business up to 100Mbps speeds with fiber optic connection, with a less impressive 12Mbps wireless / satellite for the rest. Up to 49 percent of the funds will be from the private sector; the government will initially invest A$4.7b, while A$20b will come from a national infrastructure fund and the sale of bonds. The venture’s expected to take seven to eight years, and Rudd said the government intends to sell off its stake after five years. Sure, it’s not 1Gbps by 2012, but hey, they might end up beating us at the “nationwide broadband” game.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read – Sydney Morning Herald
Read – Reuters

Filed under: Networking

Australia’s A$43 billion broadband project: up to 100Mbps in 90% of homes and businesses originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM and Segway’s joint venture is probably best described as a rickshaw without all the charm. The self-balancing Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (P.U.M.A.) can reach top speeds of 35 MPH, has a lithium battery that lasts up to 35 miles with a single charge, and features vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for potentially reducing the number of accidents. No word on when or if this’ll actually go into production but it’s expected to be priced at just 25% that of a regular automobile. Hit up the read link for more pics, including a concept model that’s just a teensy bit more reasonable. We’ll be at the launch event tomorrow to see it for ourselves and make sure it’s not all some bizarre dream.

Filed under: Transportation

GM and Segway’s P.U.M.A. unveiled and no, this isn’t a joke originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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