It’s been a good while since we’ve seen an unboxing as thorough as this, even if the quality of the recording could be better. The chaps over at Wow Pow have sourced one of them dual-screen Kohjinsha DZ netbooks, which have had us intrigued since we saw them at CEATEC earlier this year. What we find from their cardboard adventuring is that the DZ comes with a LiteOn charger, a 6-cell 5,200mAh battery with endurance rated at four hours (though they’ve suggested that might be for only one screen), a 1Seg tuner that works only in Japan, and a multitouch trackpad. Powered by a 1.6GHz AMD Neo and 4 gigs of RAM, this machine definitely wants to escape the netbook tag, and its neat inclusion of an internal USB port intended for wireless connectivity dongles gives it another unorthodox selling point. Go beyond the break to see its de-boxing.
Every decade has its photo-cliches. Back in the 80s we had the tobacco-grad, which would turn skies a smoky orange-brown. We also had the starburst filter which would add a cheesy sparkle to any highlights, just like the visual “ting!” in a toothpaste ad. The 90s got by almost unscathed, although we had to put up with the ring-flash every time we opened a fashion magazine.
And the oughts get bokeh. We are obsessed with the shape of the out-of-focus highlights in our photos, and we all shoot with our lenses wide open in order to get them. The natural (and rather tacky) next step has been taken in the form of the Bokeh Masters Kit, a set of laser-cut templates which sit over your lens and turn the bokeh highlights into heart shapes, arrows or – weirdly – envelopes.
The “Bokehtinator” works by shaping the aperture through which the light enters the lens. Bokeh can be “tuned” by lens makers by altering the shape of the aperture blades inside the lens. The Bokehtinator does the same thing, only it does it while secured to the outside of the lens by a rubber band. The perforated plastic plates slip into this holder and add all manner of naff shapes to your pictures.
A demo kit, with five shapes, will cost $15, or you can opt for the Advanced kit, with 20 shapes (butterflies! smileys!) for $25. The Master kit is the same as the Advanced, and cost the same $25, but throws in a wallet and five blank disks to cut to your own designs.
Not sure if you want something like this? It’s actually dead easy to try yourself. Just grab a piece of black paper and a sharp craft-knife.
Ah, the MIT Media Lab, home to Big Bird’s illegitimate progeny, augmented reality projects aplenty, and now three-dimensional gestural computing. The new bi-directional display being demoed by the Cambridge-based boffins performs both multitouch functions that we’re familiar with and hand movement recognition in the space in front of the screen — which we’re also familiar with, but mostly from the movies. The gestural motion tracking is done via embedded optical sensors behind the display, which are allowed to see what you’re doing by the LCD alternating rapidly (invisible to the human eye, but probably not to human pedantry) between what it’s displaying to the viewer and a pattern for the camera array. This differs from projects like Natal, which have the camera offset from the display and therefore cannot work at short distances, but if you want even more detail, you’ll find it in the informative video after the break.
Apple may have its own in-store, handheld “cash” registers using modified iPod Touches, but what if you, too, want a slick and small credit-card payment system? Sure, you could get one of those chunky, cellular card-readers on loan from the credit card company. Or you could get a dongle for your iPhone.
That’s what VeriFone’s new Payware Mobile is for. The card-reading case hugs the iPhone and an accompanying application runs the transaction. Swipe, sign the screen with a stylus and then send the information in to, well, wherever these numbers are sent. We imagine something like the underground bank staffed by goblins from the Harry Potter books, only with the goblins in cubicles, and endless streams of data instead of actual gold.
So how do you get this device for your own home/store/restaurant/magic wand shop? You need to sign up for a two-year contract with Payware, whereupon the card reader will be tossed in for free. It’s only available for pre-order right now, but we fully expect to see similar solutions from other vendors, not least the Square iPhone Payment System from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.
Look, we don’t enjoy being angry all the time. But dammit, just look at this TV will you? Now imagine staring at that bow and whisker adorned 13.3-inch LCD TV for hours on end just like the neglected child who’ll receive it on Christmas Eve. Not that the specs matter but this
¥49,800 (about $565) set bungs a 1,280×800 pixel, LED-backlit panel into that mass of plastic sporting a weak 55-degree vertical viewing angle and 100-degree left-to-right. Brightness is measured at 275nits with a contrast ratio of just 500:1. Hey, at least the remote control features a “kitty button” that brings up the mouthless-puss‘ staid visage when pressed. Check it with the display turned off after the break. Or is that the backside? Unfortunately, after you’ve seen an internet goat, you can’t stop seeing ’em. Hello Kitty, indeed.
Joining Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group (Stephanie Meyer, James Patterson) in delaying e-books months after their hardcover releases? HarperCollins, home to Neil Gaiman and the Lemony Snicket series. Beginning in 2010, five to ten books released each month will be given a physical head start lasting anywhere from four weeks to six months. Similar justification as before, the prevailing worry is that the cheaper digital copies so early in a title’s release will make for “fewer literary choices for customers” because publishers won’t be as willing to take a risk on new writers. It’s not necessarily the most sound of arguments, but still we can imagine some short term harm to the e-book industry. Question is, how long can these arbitrary delays last?
How do you spice up the traditionally unexciting projector market? You take your finest laser projector, with its “infinite focus” skills, pair it with a weapon-styled motion controller, and you offer FPS gamers the opportunity to get out of their seats and perform their murdering sprees as nature intended. So Microvision thinks, and we’ve no doubt that the prototype being demonstrated over at the Intel Extreme Masters will be fulfilling a few fanboy dreams, but we’re more interested in how it all works. If you remember the GameGun (and who could forget that mullet?), this’ll be familiar territory: the projector reacts to movements of the controller so that the game view tracks your real world view, lending the experience a bona fide 3D feel. Microvision won’t spill the full details just yet, but a video demo awaits past the break.
PCWorld: The Gboard is essentially a standard numeric keypad that connects to your PC via USB. The specially labeled keys are programmed with macros that correspond to Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts. So, rather than having to remember that # moves an e-mail to the trash and e archives the current conversation, you can simply hit one of the 19 clearly labeled keys on this keypad.
Because nothing says “I ain’t afraid of no recession” like plopping down an excess amount of Benjamins for a Bluetooth earpiece, Vertu has unveiled its V accessories collection. $780 gets you a Bluetooth 2.1-compliant earpiece with 6 hours of charge time (same one we saw hit the FCC recently, we suspect), $490 for a USB memory card reader that as a consolation prize comes with a 2GB microSD card, and as for the ballpoint pen, asking price is a cool $330. For all three purchases, it’s recommended you purchase the special leather case for protection — and if these gifts are already comfortably in your price range, hey, why not?
There’s hardly a spokesasshole in the world of tech who doesn’t throw around some kind of tagline. And that’s fine because it’s his job, but there’s no reason for you to repeat those taglines. Especially any of these seven.
Droid Does
Verizon’s Droid commercials haven’t been around very long, but I already keep seeing various combination of “iDon’t” and “Droid does” being incorporated into everything from tweets to articles. (Hell, even we couldn’t resist it once or twice.)
I can sort of forgive occurrences of the tagline slipping into reviews or posts about the actual gadget, but several days ago I found myself overhearing a fellow practically reciting the first Droid commercial to mock his buddy’s iPhone preference. I seriously hope that I was in some sort of bizarro coffee shop or that maybe this guy was just an oddity. Please just skip this tagline, because I assure you: That guy sounded like a complete asshole.
There’s an App for That
C’mon. Be honest. How often have you slipped this gem of a tagline into a comment? And how often have you groaned or rolled your eyes because you saw someone else remark that there is in fact an app for that? It was barely funny the first few times, but at this point even your grandma is using it and that oughta tell you something.
And no, changing a word doesn’t make you sound like less of an asshole.
Think Different
Once upon a time, Apple’s “Think Different” commercial made me smile at its cleverness. Then I saw the commercial a second time and I cringed. It’s actually kinda cheesy and the tagline isn’t much better. No matter what the concept behind it is, it basically feels like it’s a nicely cut down version of the trite and overused “think outside of the box” and hearing it used feels just as irritating.
Can You Hear Me Now?
Unless you’re genuinely wondering if the person you’re talking to can hear you, there’s no way to not sound like an asshole when using the “Can you hear me now?” tagline. Not even in an ironic look-at-me-I’m-so-cool-that-I-can-say-this-to-mock-it way.
Besides, while I’m certain that he’s a nice fellow, do you really want to associate yourself with the slightly dorky-looking Verizon Guy?
It Keeps Going, and Going, and Going…
Last weekend I asked a friend how her date went. She remarked that he was like an Energizer bunny. And, as she thought I was confused by the expression, she continued to explain that he “kept going, and going, and going…” and it took me quite some willpower to not break down in tears on the spot. Someone so clever and lovely insisted on using a reference and a tagline so incredibly cliched that I’d initially thought I’d heard wrong. Please. Think of a better description for these things. (Especially since it’s probably inaccurate in that scenario since hardly gentlemen really manage to keep up with that darned bunny rabbit.)
Where Do You Want to Go Today?
Oh, as much as Microsoft’s good old “where do you want to go today?” annoys me, I actually crave to hear it sometimes. Such as in place of that grunt and nod I get from cab drivers. As with the “can you hear me now?” tagline, this one should only be used when you mean it literally and aren’t attempting to make an allusion to the commercial.
Intel Inside
I’ve seen “baby inside,” “beauty inside,” “goddess inside,” “whiskey inside,” and who-knows-what-else inside tshirts, bumper stickers, and undies. Unless I’m seriously mistaken, those are spin-offs to the ancient “Intel inside” and they’re not exactly funny anymore. I doubt that anyone can show me a single example of play on that tagline that won’t make me roll my eyes (but feel free to try). In the meantime: Let’s just not add to the ridiculousness.
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