Hasta La Gadget!

So, Apple’s talked about putting the iPhone on Verizon, Verizon wants the phone… why can’t we get these two crazy kids together? Well, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg touched on that topic in a talk to investors at the Goldman Sachs conference today. “We don’t feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it when we get there, but we have to earn it,” Seidenberg said, walking a fine line between complimenting the phone and making it clear that Verizon still has a good lineup. Ivan also mixed in a basketball analogy to sweeten the deal: “This is like the Knicks getting Carmelo Anthony. Like it would be very good if the Knicks got Carmelo Anthony. But they have to play the game whether they get Carmelo Anthony, right?” Ivan hinted heavily that Verizon’s forthcoming 4G LTE network could be the golden ticket, and while this isn’t a new theory, it’s unclear (and a little disconcerting) if he’s just as in the dark as we are as to whether or not Apple will come around once LTE is up and running. Still, he put on a brave face: “At some point, Apple will get with the program.” Our suggestion? Bake Steve a cake. Couldn’t hurt!

Verizon CEO talks (more) about iPhone: ‘we have to earn it’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You like your TV, but do you really like your TV? Integra has introduced a new line of home theater receivers and separate AV components at the 2010 CEDIA Expo in Atlanta. The top model is the DTR-80.2 high-end receiver, shown here, followed by the DTR-70.2 receiver and the DHC-80.2 AV preamp controller. All three are 9.2-channel systems, THX Ultra2 Plus certified, and network capable. Plus, all three include Audyssys’s new MultEQ XT32 premium room correction technology and Audysssy Sub EQ HT to properly integrate the sound of dual subwoofers.

At the same time, Integra introduced the DHC-40.2, a mid-priced AV preamp controller, and the DTR-40.2 and DTR-50.2 AV receivers. These are 7.2 channel systems with THX Select 2 Plus certification, network capabilities, and Audyssey MultEQ. Look for the entire lineup now from Integra installers.

Attendees at Photokina in Cologne, Germany, got a first look at the LaCie 324i, the latest addition to the company’s line of professional displays. This is a 24-inch monitor with a 10-bit P-IPS LCD panel. Meant for creative professionals, it offers a high level of color accuracy with a wide gamut spectrum (rated 102 percent NTSC and 98 percent AdobeRGB), as well as backlight stabilization.

The 324i comes with a hood and a blue eye colorometer. The panel prevents glare, so design professionals don’t need to worry about unwanted reflections. The panel has a native resolution of 1920×1200 pixels, and pivots easily between portrait and landscape modes. The multifunction stand lets you raise, lower, tilt, or pivot the display. It’s available from the LaCie store online for a starting price of $1,249.00.

It’s safe to assume, I think, that Steve Jobs has a pretty nice little nest egg set up for himself. And it’s not just because of all of that sweet Apple and Pixar money. I’m guessing that the Apple CEO doesn’t have all that many expenses for a rich guy.

I mean, for one thing, he’s got access to all of the computers, music players, and phones a guy could want (he probably gets a pretty good discount from AT&T, as well). Also, his wardrobe expenses are no doubt fairly low. What’s he got to buy, like 10, 15 black turtlenecks a year?

Still, even with all of these factors in place, Jobs has been passed up by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Forbes’s annual rich people list, the Forbes 400. Zuckerberg and Jobs now rank numbers 35 and 43, with estimated values of $6.9 and $6.1 billion, respectively.

Not that it was a bad year for Apple’s head, by any stretched–his net worth actually jumped $1 billion since last year.

Zuckerberg, for his part, recently announced that he will be donating $100 million to schools in Newark, NJ. All in all, thinks seem to be looking up for Facebook’s 26-year-old CEO. Not like they-decided-to-cancel-that-movie-about-me good. But still, pretty good.

You’re a kid, and therefore you like to shoot things. But what if the catapult and the air-rifle just aren’t cutting it anymore? Then you, like Jason (aka Larsplatoon) make your own coil-gun.

The styling is straight out of a video-game, but inside the engineering is very real, and very lethal. A coil-gun uses a magnetic field to accelerate a bullet up to projectile speed. Jason’s uses a bank of recycled rechargeable laptop batteries to provide the juice, and various bits of circuitry to step up the voltage, prevent overloading and charge the array of capacitors. These capacitors are what you see in the cylinders at the back.

To use, flip the switch, hit the charge button and wait 30 seconds for the capacitors to fill up. Slot in the slug and take aim, and pull the trigger to fire. One charge is good for around 15 shots. As you see in the video, it looks like a lot of fun, but it’s no .457 Magnum. Jason’s gun will put holes in his various toys (and what looks like his mother’s toaster oven) but the fact that just a couple of cardboard boxes are need to protect the fence is a giveaway.

The gun uses 1.25kJ of energy to fire the bullet into the model-airplane (shooting commences at around the 2:50 mark), TV-remote or Mom’s best glassware, but doesn’t have enough force to kill anyone. If you want to do that, you’d do better converting this into a taser and sending the stored potential of those four 3900uF, 400-volt straight down a wire into some poor-schmuck’s body.

The project took Jason two years to complete. We say it was worth every geeky, blood-crazed moment. If I’d had the skills to put one of these together back in school, then those bullying jocks would have, well, they’d all have had broken TV-remotes, that’s for sure.

Portable 1.25kJ coilgun finally done [4HV]

Portable 1.25kJ Coilgun [Larsplatoon / YouTube via Hacked Gadgets]

See Also:

• Wii-Controlling Heckler and Koch Machine Gun
• 20-Pound Aluminum Rubber-Band Gun Takes Things a Little Too …
• Suicidal Bluetooth Headset Looks Like Gun

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