Hasta La Gadget!

As a youngster, I was once given a one-year subscription to the National Geographic. Like most people, I looked at the (wonderful) pictures and promised myself I would read the articles later. A promise which was, of course, never kept (although I did often sneak a peek at the pictures of the women of tribes which have less strict rules on clothing than us).

The trouble with the Nat Geo was that, to me at least, it seemed like a chapter of an encyclopedia, not a magazine. Now you can actually use it that way, with a new hard-drive which puts every copy, ever, in one easy-to-search place. For $200, the National Geographic will sell you a 160GB hard drive, 60GB of which consists of scans of the entire back catalog, including the ads (sometimes the best part of looking back in time).

The browsing interface looks pretty, well, pretty, and owes a lot to OS X’s cover flow. You can search text, articles and photos, and of course just lose hours browsing 120 yeas of the iconic mag. The biggest surprise to us is that the entire library takes up just 60GB, just 500MB per year. The collection has been available on DVD for some time now, but that is obviously a disk-swapping, battery-draining pain compared to a nice compact USB HD. Better, you can have it personalized, with the name of your chosen giftee printed onto the case of the drive itself.

The Complete National Geographic on 160-GB Hard Drive [National Geographic]

This label could point to a new 8GB iPhone 3GS, a replacement for the current $200 iPhone 3G. The picture was snapped by a German T-Mobile customer, David, and posted to the Apfeltalk forums.

David was supposed to receive a refurbished 8BG iPhone 3G, the cheapest model in the iPhone lineup. He got the handset he was expecting, but the packaging (pictured below), including this sticker, claimed otherwise.

We’re not surprised. The 3GS surely costs less to make now than at its introduction, and the 8GB 3G must be Apple’s top-seller, the phone that brought the iPhone into reach for just about anyone (in the US, at least. The 3GS is available for as little as nothing in some countries). At some point, maintaining two separate product lines must be more expensive than just upgrading the low-end model.

Whatever happens, the new, low-key Apple is unlikely to make an announcement. Expect the new compass and video-equipped handset to just show up on the Apple Store one day.

The Phantom: iPhone 3G [S] 8GB [Apfeltalk via Electronista]

Screenshots sent to Gizmodo from an anonymous source reveal the possible price and tariff details of the Nexus One Google phone, along with some extra hardware details.

The Google-designed handset is expected to be launched at an invitation-only Android-themed special event on Tuesday January 5th. If these leaked pictures are correct, then the Nexus One will retail for $530 unlocked, ready to be used with any GSM carrier. Those wanting to buy the handset subsidized will pay $180 and have to sign up for a two year contract. There appears to be only one plan available for these customers, and that is the T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan, which gives you 500 minutes, free weekend and in-network calls and unlimited SMS, MMS and data. That bring the total cost over two years to $2,100.

The screenshots also offer a teaser about hardware accessories. There will be a dock for an extra $40 to allow you to “Charge your phone while streaming music and backing up your data” and a car docking station ($50): “Nexus One is dock-aware and will optimize its display for navigation and hands-free use.”

According to Gizmodo, you will be able to buy up to five handsets per Google account, Google will actually ship the handset to countries outside the US. As the handset is unlocked, there seems no reason not to ship it to countries that use the GSM standard, and that price starts to look very attractive next to even the subsidized iPhone when converted from US dollars into stronger currencies.

It doesn’t look like Google or T-Mobile stand to lose much on this deal. If you decide you don’t like the (subsidized) Nexus One, you can cancel within 120 days. The early-termination fee will be a staggering $350.

Leaked Nexus One Documents: $530 Unlocked, $180 With T-Mobile [Gizmodo]

Screenshots: Gizmodo

See Also:

• Google Nexus One Phone Likely to Launch Jan. 5
• Nexus One Hardware Details Revealed
• Google Phone's Existence Confirmed; It's Unlocked, Thinner Than …

The HypnosEye cellphone projector is the lowest tech solution you’ll find to the problem of throwing your cellphone’s video onto a nearby wall. It is also the only gadget in history that sports an “adjustment cushion”.

First, here’s what the HypnosEye doesn’t do. It doesn’t hook up to your iPhone’s dock, or your portable media player’s video-out. It doesn’t use lasers or LEDs or spinning mirrors to cast project the image. And most of all, it will never, ever fit in your pocket. What it does do is cast a rather dim image onto a very nearby wall, without batteries or lights of any kind. Here it is in action:

The magic lantern is a polycarbonate and ABS box which has a slot in the base for an iPhone, or anything else that will fit in there. Mirrors inside bend the light from the screen and beam it out through a lens on the front, and focus is achieved by sliding the front section of the unit back and forth. The kit even comes with a tiny 14-inch-wide screen and stand.

It’s a fun gimmick, marred by its relatively high price of $117. For less than double that, you can pick up a real pico projector, and project a proper, bright image of, say, the Death Star onto your bedroom ceiling as you fall sound asleep in your Tauntaun sleeping bag.

And that adjustment cushion? It just tilts the front of the projector up at an angle. That is all.

HypnosEye Projector and Screen Set [Japan Trend Shop via Oh Gizmo!]

We tell ya — Ben Heck‘s apprentices are the best. One techknott has just finished up his latest creation, a WVI (wireless visual interface) for Sony’s PlayStation 3 console. The purpose? To transmit signals to and from the PS3 by way of this handy handheld. A 1.2GHz wireless transmitter is used to get the controller commands to the PS3, and the same is used in reverse to get the video signals from the console to the homegrown device. The device itself utilizes a 5-inch LCD, 4,500mAh Li-ion battery (complete with a LED capacity meter), an AV input, headphone jack, USB port and a button for every last DualShock command. Hop on past the break for a video, and head to the source if you’re interested in making an offer for it. Yeah, we said it — dude’s going to be selling this!

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

Continue reading Modder crafts handheld wireless visual interface for PS3, makes us want

Modder crafts handheld wireless visual interface for PS3, makes us want originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Ben Heck Forums  | Email this | Comments