Future Bike Design Concept Misses Point

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London, like many large, modern cities, is at a standstill. There are only so many cars and buses that will fit on the roads. The answer? Brand new concept designs of course!

London Garden is a hybrid bike/scooter which folds up to fit into specially designed buses and taxis. Designed by Marten Wallgreen and friends from the RCA, the multi-purpose vehicle is engineered to work in harmony with the city around it. You even pay for you bus ride with the energy stored in the bike, whereupon it becomes the actual seat you sit on inside the bus.

The problem is that the team’s design is complete after stage one: Shut off car access to Central London. Do that and regular bikes can peacefully exist alongside the buses and taxis (it’s London: You can’t ban taxis). Instead of trying to achieve the impossible task of selling everybody the same bike, convincing the bus company to retrofit its vehicles and telling cab-drivers they need to upgrade their cabs yet again, all you need is a pot of paint to make some bike-lanes in the now empty roads.

Still, not everyone agrees with us. The design won the prestigious SeymourPowell award for Future City Mobility. We still think our pot of paint is better, though.

WINNER! (SeymourPowell award) for… [MW Blog via Bicycle Design]


Transformer Cufflinks

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“Transformers, robots in the sky!” as I erroneously sang back in the schoolyard. These Transfomer cufflinks from Etsy maker Finkstudio do not, sadly, soar through the stratosphere, but they do transform from silver plated Decepticon and Autobot trinkets to silver plated Decepticon and Autobot cuff-fastenings. Let’s see the giant Optimun Prime manage that.

At just $20 the pair they’re almost criminally cheap, and this particular design has sold out. Check out Finkstudio’s store, though, and you’ll find all manner of geeky jewellery. Batman cufflinks, anyone?

Product page [Etsy via Geeky Gadgets. Thanks, Roland!]


Rocket Board: The Propellor-Powered Skateboard

Ryan Bavetta’s Rocket Board doesn’t actually use a rocket, but it does look like one. The home-brew prop-powered skateboard carries a 3.7 HP model airplane engine which powers a propellor in a standard house-fan cage. It doesn’t use gasoline or kerosene but proprietary Glow Fuel, a dangerous sounding mix of methanol, nitromethane and oil. The setup is enough to spin the prop at up to 10,000 RPM which, as you can see, can easily shift a person.

What we love best about this video (apart from its entertaining professionalism and the freakin’ rocket board) is that it shows the whole crazy boffin project, from the first test with a household fan and a car battery (FAIL) to the inevitable golden-hour run with POV-cam. Bavetta even built his own skateboard to mount the fan.

Finally, a word to our British readers over 35 years old. This Rocket Board is the exact same thing as you may have seen in Sammy Brewster’s Ski-Board Squad, a comic strip which ran in Buster back in the 1970s about a gang of crime bustin’ kids riding, you guessed it, motor-powered skateboards. Ryan Bavetta, you’re my hero!

Product page [Crazy Builders]


Buffalo adds Ministation Metro to its external HDD lineup

The Ministation Metro, coming in a variety of tastefully named colors, such as Black Crystal, represents a continuation of Buffalo’s recent efforts to beautify its portable hard drive offerings. The drive’s design is highlighted by a handily integrated USB cable that sits flush with the Metro’s externals when not in use. It’s also noteworthy that this latest entry in Buffalo’s Ministation series looks remarkably similar (i.e. identical) to the recently announced HD-PXU2 in Japan. We can only surmise that the company believes the term Metro carries more positive connotations with Western consumers than the otherwise catchy jumble of letters and digits. Capacity choices range all the way up to 500GB, and the new drives are expected to reach American and British shores in August, with a US price somewhere in the vicinity of $200 for the most capacious models.

[Via



Pocket-lint]

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Buffalo adds Ministation Metro to its external HDD lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Orange’s Solar Concept Tent has lots of revolutionary, imaginary features


If the promise of Birkenstock-powered phone chargin’ wasn’t enough to get your ass to Glasto this year (never mind catching Björn Again perform ABBA’s greatest hits on the Pyramid Stage), how about an up-close-and-personal peek at Orange’s Solar Concept Tent? Designed with help from an American firm called Kaleidoscope, this guy is a refresh of the original Orange Solar Tent you might remember from 2003. Featuring photovoltaic fabric panels up top, an LCD display for keeping an eye on battery levels, a wireless charging pouch (like Palm’s Touchstone but, you know, a pouch), a heating element embedded in the tent’s groundsheet, the ability to light up if you should get lost while freaky dancing, and WiFi connectivity, this bad boy could conceivably get even the most nature-phobic Engadget editor out into the wild. That is, if it wasn’t just a concept.

[Via Textually]

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Orange’s Solar Concept Tent has lots of revolutionary, imaginary features originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 pre-orders begin, now (update: but not for Europe)

Tomorrow is today which makes it time to get your Windows 7 pre-order in. Amazon issued a big ‘ol press release telling us that it’s now offering the Home Premium Upgrade and Professional Upgrade packages for $49.99 and $99.99 though July 11th, while supplies last — nothing special there as it’s the standard pricing you’ll find at all your favorite on-line retailers. Amazon does promise, however, that you’ll “receive the product” when released to shops on October 22nd. Note a 3 per customer limit so don’t get greedy, ok? It’s not like Microsoft can just press the OS onto another disc or something.

Update: Reduce priced pre-orders for the UK won’t begin until July 15th with prices set at £49 for Windows 7 Home Premium E and £99 for Professional E, both will ship without Internet Explorer.

Update 2: For those wondering about the upgrade prices for Europe… there aren’t any. In the UK, the Home Premium “upgrade” is actually a full-version of the OS and will cost £80 (about $131), Professional “upgrade” will cost £190 (about $312), and Ultimate will cost £200 (about $328) until the end of the year — they’ll cost £150 ($246), £220 ($361), and £230 ($377), respectively, starting January 1, 2010. According to the BBC, Microsoft claims that it can’t offer the lower upgrade pricing ($120, $200, or $220 for Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate in the US) in order to comply with European competition regulations, a claim that EU regulators dismiss. As such, going from Vista to Windows 7 will require a clean install in the EU in order to remove Internet Explorer — no in-place upgrades will be possible according to Microsoft. Look EU, if you’re going to fine Microsoft billions for anti-competitive behavior then you have to expect this kind of tail-between-the-legs retribution, honest or not. You certainly can’t say that Microsoft is using its market dominance to push out the competition when Apple’s Snow Leopard is coming in September for a mere $29. Happy now?

[Thanks, Gavin]

Windows 7 pre-orders begin, now (update: but not for Europe) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3GS exploit confirmed, jailbreak and unlock coming ‘soon’

And so it continues. Geohot has returned with some help from hacking buddies chronic, posixninja, and pod2g with news that the same “24kpwn” exploit used to cracked open the iPod touch 2G will work on the iPhone 3GS. That means a jailbreak and unlock can be launched just as soon as the existing tools are updated for the iPhone 3GS (which won’t be long). As George Hotz laments,

On a personal note, I’m sad. Apple, it took me a week to break through your new defenses. And to let us reuse an exploit like that; 24kpwn was so 5 months ago. Although I imagine it must have been painful watching the devices roll by on the assembly line, knowing they all had a hole in them and you couldn’t fix it.

Oh George.

[Via Dev-Team Blog]

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iPhone 3GS exploit confirmed, jailbreak and unlock coming ‘soon’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Engadget: Best gaming laptop for under $1,500?

Believe it, vaquero — you just happened upon this week’s episode of Ask Engadget, the only time of the week where you get the opportunity to bestow your wealth of gadget knowledge onto a fellow reader in need. Given the open-mindedness of Niko here, we couldn’t help but pass on his inquiry:

“What’s the best gaming laptop for under 1,500 bucks? I had my eye on the P7805u (Gateway), but it seems Best Buy has run out for the time being. Also, as a secondary question, I like the specs on brands such as iBUYPOWER and CyberPower and the like, but are they reliable? I’m a little worried about buying labels that aren’t huge like Dell, Gateway, etc. Thanks!”

So, make sure those of you who’ve avoided the big boys chime in here — who knows, maybe it’s actually better to snag a machine from a lesser-known label. After you’ve contributed, feel free to send in your own question to ask at engadget dawt com.

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Ask Engadget: Best gaming laptop for under $1,500? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chevy Volt’s first pre-production model now on the road, in testing

And with that, the first bona fide pre-production Chevy Voltits own parts and all — has hit the pavement. General Motor’s storied EV will be taken through the ropes to see what needs to be tweaked / modified before it finally goes into full production, which is expected to be at a rate of about ten a week as of mid-July — and if you happen to live near Warren, Michigan, you might just spot one of these early models out on the road. Hard to believe Volt’s defied more than a few odds, but so far, it looks promising. Good on ya, GM.

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Chevy Volt’s first pre-production model now on the road, in testing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC’s Sense UI not coming to any “Google” branded phones

We’ve got some good and bad news… mostly bad, though. First, the good news: HTC is looking into finding a way to bring its new Sense UI — the one featured prominently in the new Hero — to its non-Google branded Android devices, such as Canadian carrier Roger Wireless’ Magic. Unfortunately, and this is the bad news, even that’s not a sure thing, and as you can probably guess from the wording, any phone that’s got the “with Google” branding, like T-Mobile USA’s G1 and myTouch 3G, won’t be getting a chance at all due to the same licensing terms that prevented Microsoft Exchange clients on those same phones. Them’s the breaks, folks, but we’re sure some hacker with enough know-how will bypass the silly restrictions and do it anyway.

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HTC’s Sense UI not coming to any “Google” branded phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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