Hasta La Gadget!

When you think of Polaroid, you probably picture the SX-70 OneStep Land Camera above, once the best selling camera in the US. If you had been awake yesterday, you could have bought one. Not any old reproduction, but a factory original, put together from real Polaroid parts by the folks at the Impossible Project, who got bought up the ruins of the Polaroid empire and resurrected it. Or at least brought it coughing and spluttering into life for long enough to figure out its secrets.

The Impossible Project already makes film for your Polaroid, but this SX-70, originally produced from 1977-1982, was a chance to buy history. It sold out within hours of appearing on Photojojo proving that, even at $210 and despite the attempted destruction of the Polaroid brand by its current owners, many of us still have a soft spot for the iconic camera.

The limited edition consisted of 50 hand-numbered camera complete with two packs of PX 100 First Flush Film. Fortunately for those now desperate to do some instant shooting, this film can be had for $21 per pack of eight exposures: all you need to do is visit your local thrift store and grab an old camera.

Impossible Project [Impossible]

Vintage Polaroid SX-70 OneStep Land Camera [Photojojo via Uncrate]

See Also:

• Impossible Project
• Nostalgia in a Box: Polaroid SX-70 Camera
• Polaroid Fans Plan to Restart Instant Film Production
• Polaroid Lives! New Camera Uses Real Instant Film
• Polaroid Resurrects Instant Film Cameras
• ShakeIt Brings Polaroid Pictures to the iPhone
• Beautiful Polaroid Camera Sculpted in Lego

The nPower PEG is exactly the kind of thing that would have airport security asking you some rather awkward questions, and perhaps also earn you some childish snickers. The rather utilitarian phallus is in fact a kinetic energy generator which charges gadgets as it moves.

The PEG (personal energy generator) makes electricity as you move, harvesting your expended energy like the Matrix harvests your battery-like human meat-bag. It is made from titanium, and outputs standard USB power, which can be piped through a variety of different cables into iOS devices, BlackBerries and other cellphones. And that is all we know. The FAQ, the spec page and even the compatibility pages are almost willfully free of real information.

For instance, do you wonder how it works? I did, so I followed the treasure-trail of links to the penultimate teaser:

The science behind our technology is based on the Faraday principle and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. Our technology is scientifically unique enough to receive a patent, yet very simple to use. Read.

Excited, I clicked the read link and found:

An average human walking up a set of stairs will expend around 200 Watts of power. When you recharge your cell phone (including iPhones) the most amount of power it will accept is 2.5 Watts. The nPower® PEG can harvest your walking power and deliver it to your phone to recharge the battery without you knowing that it is working.

Where’s the science? There is no mention of Einstein to be found. Now, I did some science in school, so I can guess that the PEG probably just has a magnet inside, bouncing up and down in a copper coil and generating a current which is then smoothed out to safely enter a UBS-powered device. But if you’re going to drop $150, the price of the PEG, on a mysterious metal tube, it would be nice to know what it has inside. Especially if you are taking it through airport security.

How the nPower PEG “works” [nPower PEG. Thanks, Steve!]

See Also:

• Orbo Strikes Back: Perpetual Motion Machine Demonstrated
• Power From the People: Converting Your Kinetic Energy Into Electricity

It’s early days yet, but NPD claims that revenue from US sales of 3D TVs and standalone 3D-capable Blu-ray players has exceeded $55 million in the first three months of availability. Mind you, this steady growth comes despite the absence of some major players. While that number might sound big, it’s tiny in comparison to the total number of TVs sold each month in the US and, according to our friend Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD, sales are expected to remain small throughout 2010. Regarding those much maligned 3D glasses, only 10% of those surveyed by NPD cited “looking silly” as a main concern. Instead, the biggest concern was not having enough glasses on hand for everyone looking at the set. A concern driven by cost, undoubtedly, and a dearth of survey participants from New York’s trendy Lower East Side.

Disclaimer: NPD’s Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

Continue reading US consumers purchase $55 million worth of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, despite the glasses

US consumers purchase $55 million worth of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, despite the glasses originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last night I went to see Bob Dylan in concert. The audience for the rock legend has probably changed more than Bob himself. I saw a lot of Cuban cigars, dads with binoculars and mumsie types waddling what I expect was meant to be a sexy dance. I also saw a lot of cellphone and camera screens a-glowing in the wind.

Thankfully Bob couldn’t see that the majority of his audience was happier watching him via a tiny LCD, but if he had cared, or wanted to join in, he could have used the Guitar Sidekick, a guitar headstock-mounted holder for smartphones.

The Sidekick clamps onto the strings behind the nut (the bit the strings pass over before running down the fretboard) and your device slides in and can be twisted to sit where you want it. The specs say “smartphone”, the pictures show that it is clearly meant for an iPhone, but you could probably even squeeze an old-school tuner in there.

Now, the Sidekick isn’t just for checking Twitter while you’re on stage trying to keep up with Bob’s creatively arrhythmic solos. It could also be used with any number of smartphone apps, whether for tuning, recording or even displaying musical notation or guitar tabs. You could even use it to remember lyrics, although if you are a 69 year-old with a voice that makes Tom Waits sound like a castrato, you probably don’t need to actually form real words anymore.

The Guitar Sidekick costs $30, and will work with any guitar that has strings. It needs just one more, tiny, feature: an Eric Clapton (or God) attachment for holding burning cigarettes.

Guitar Sidekick [Castiv via Macworld]

We were extremely close to cramping our sarcasm muscle with all the faux excitement we had to drum up for the 3.2-inch Acclaim, but US Cellular has now come back with word that it’ll soon count HTC’s Desire among its roster of phones. The Desire, which is mooted to be coming to other smaller carriers like Cellular South, will debut in August alongside the BlackBerry Bold. We’re more excited, however, to find US Cellular promising it’ll offer “a BlackBerry flip smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard” later this year. That sounds like RIM’s slightly unorthodox 9670 to us, and will probably form the second part of the BB maker’s pledged introduction of two new handsets. US Cellular’s 2010 device lineup refresh will be completed with a pair more Androids, courtesy of LG and Samsung. The former is said to have a “large touch screen and slide-out, ergonomically-designed QWERTY keyboard,” while the latter is only described as “highly-anticipated.” Not too shabby.

Continue reading US Cellular adds HTC Desire and BlackBerry Bold in August, teases BlackBerry 9670 for ‘later this year’

US Cellular adds HTC Desire and BlackBerry Bold in August, teases BlackBerry 9670 for ‘later this year’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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