Mmmm, there’s nothing like some shots of a slim new PC to get our gadget senses all tingly, and Dell’s done just that via a new video. Posted on its Facebook page today, Round Rock’s latest laptop — which likely claims XPS lineage — is looking lean and clean, with a couple of USB 3.0 ports and lattice-work speaker grilles. There’s not much more to say, so we’ll let the vid speak for itself. Enjoy.
Update: Michael Dell did it again! We just caught the CEO tweeting “Dell XPS 15z Coming soon!” and linking to the same video after the break. Looks like someone doesn’t get the idea behind teasers. To be fair, though, you can actually see the moniker at about 8 seconds into the clip.
In its latest measure, Sony is offering Sony Online customers a month of free service, plus ID theft monitoring and in-game perks to make up for the outage related to the security breach. Is that enough?
This article was written on May 25, 2007 by CyberNet.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) has decided to sue video sites, including YouTube and Break.com, for posting footage of a crash that happened on May 10, 2007. The crash is very intense as a car travels southbound on the New Jersey Turnpike at very high speeds, and then crashes into the Great Egg Harbor Toll Plaza. The car then bursts into flames killing the 52–year-old driver.
I hadn’t seen the video before I heard this announcement of the lawsuit, and searching for someone that still had it posted was quite a headache! All of the sites have removed it (as expected), but searching a little deeper led me to Blinx who listed some MySpace postings of the video (here and here).
YouTube removed the video “because it violated our terms of services. Because our removal also complied with our obligations under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, we see no legal basis for a claim,” according to a spokesperson at YouTube. It also doesn’t make sense to me why they are getting sued if it was promptly removed, but I guess it is all part of the crazy world we live in.
I have taken a still image of the accident in case those videos get pulled as well. It will spoil the video, so I only recommend looking at the image if the videos don’t work. Of course, I also point out some things that you may not have noticed:
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This week’s Gadget Lab Podcast is packed with Android announcements, hackable hardware and a teensy new smartphone you may dig (if you can fit your thumbs on it).
Staff writer Mike Isaac went to Google’s annual I/O developer conference this week, and came back with a ton of Google news, not to mention an armload of free swag. Mike joins senior editor Dylan Tweney to talk about what he saw, including a taste of the new version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.
They also show off the limited-edition Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 given out to I/O attendees, some of which are already going for big bucks on eBay. Our verdict: It seems an awful lot like an Android-powered iPad.
Next, the crew looks at Google’s new Accessory Developer Kit (or ADK), which you can use to make stuff that will interact with your Android device. Just imagine: One day you may be able to make sure your front door is locked from the comfort of your smartphone. Is there no bottom to man’s level of laziness?
And this week, we got to play with Samsung’s version of Google’s Chromebook (although we couldn’t take it home). It’s an updateD version of the CR-48 web-only notebook released in beta last year. Though the Chromebook isn’t out yet, we liked what we saw.
Finally, Gadget Lab intern Christina Bonnington stops by to give her take on the Veer, HP’s latest smartphone release on AT&T’s network.
This week’s Gadget Lab Podcast is packed with Android announcements, hackable hardware and a teensy new smartphone you may dig (if you can fit your thumbs on it).
Staff writer Mike Isaac went to Google’s annual I/O developer conference this week, and came back with a ton of Google news, not to mention an armload of free swag. Mike joins senior editor Dylan Tweney to talk about what he saw, including a taste of the new version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.
Next, the crew looks at Google’s new Accessory Developer Kit (or ADK), which you can use to make stuff that will interact with your Android device. Just imagine: one day you may be able to make sure your front door is locked from the comfort of your smartphone. Is there no bottom to man’s level of laziness?
And this week, we got to play with Samsung’s version of Google’s Chromebook (although we couldn’t take it home). It’s an update version of the CR-48 web-only notebook released in beta last year. Though the Chromebook isn’t out yet, we liked what we saw.
Finally, Gadget Lab intern Christina Bonnington stops by to give her take on HP’s latest smartphone release on AT&T’s network, the Veer.
Samsung’s Droid Charge debuts on Verizon on Saturday, May 14. Photo courtesy Verizon
The Verizon Wireless 4G network has been lauded as lightning-fast. Now, the company is launching a second phone that will work with its speeds.
The Samsung-built Droid Charge will launch on Verizon on Saturday, joining the Thunderbolt, HTC’s flagship device. In our tests, the Thunderbolt delivered some of the highest data-transfer speeds we’ve seen.
But Verizon’s 4G network recently went down across the country, which raises the question: Is the company ready for another 4G phone?
For a period of more than 30 hours from April 26 through 28, Verizon customers experienced nationwide downtime on the company’s 4G LTE network. Those using Thunderbolt smartphones were the first to spot the problem, as they were only able to receive 3G or even 2G connections. Since 4G only handles data transfer, voice and text messaging services were not affected.
The Droid Charge was originally slated for release the same weekend as the outage. Samsung’s addition to the Droid brand is only the second phone to run on Verizon’s 4G network, giving those that don’t want to buy the Thunderbolt a bit of choice.
Aside from the manufacturer, however, the phones differ little in hardware specs. Both have 4.3-inch displays, front- and back-facing cameras with the same resolutions (1.3 and 8 megapixels, respectively), and the ability to act as a 4G mobile hotspot. But as the 4G network was still down the morning of April 28, the phone’s release was pushed back.
Verizon acknowledged the downtime in a Twitter status update, claiming it was “working with engineers” to get 4G back up to speed. By the second day, Verizon restored 4G service in its areas of coverage.
Verizon has continually refused to explain the network outages. When Wired.com asked for specific reasons for why the network went down last month, a Verizon spokesperson declined to answer.
4G data-transfer capability and coverage are a relatively new phenomenon. Sprint launched the first 4G phone on its Wi-Max network in June 2010 with HTC’s Evo 4G. Verizon’s 4G network debuted in December of last year.
“Our philosophy has always been the same,” said Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney in an interview. “When phones are ready to deliver customers an excellent experience, we’ll launch them.”
But it looks like the hardware has been ready to go for a while. Out of the 10 San Francisco Bay Area Verizon retailers Wired.com contacted, six said they already had Droid Charge handsets in stock for some time, but were not able to sell them until today. (Two stores did not answer, one hadn’t received phones, and one received its first shipment yesterday.) One store claims it received its shipment “about two weeks ago,” approximately the same time as Verizon’s 4G network outage.
It’s a similar case in other parts of the country as well. A store in the Boston suburban area also had phones in stock, but hasn’t been able to sell them, according to a report from Computerworld.
Two Verizon employees from separate Bay Area stores told Wired.com the delay had to do with “4G network problems.”
Speaking at a Sony Ericsson business forum in Palo Alto this week, executive director of LTE technologies Brian Higgins said the company had learned lessons from the experience, and that Verizon was going to “make some adjustments.” Higgins wouldn’t elaborate any further.
Whatever adjustments the company has to make, we’ll have to wait and see how Verizon’s 4G network handles the influx of new device activations.
Samsung’s Droid Charge debuts on Verizon Saturday, May 14. Photo courtesy of Verizon
The Verizon Wireless 4G network has been lauded as lightning fast. Now, the company is launching a second phone that will work with its speeds.
The Samsung-built Droid Charge will launch on Verizon on Saturday, joining the Thunderbolt, HTC’s flagship device. In our tests, the Thunderbolt delivered some of the highest data transfer speeds we’ve seen.
But Verizon’s 4G network recently went down across the country, which raises the question: Is the company ready for another 4G phone?
For a period of over 30 hours between April 26 through 28, Verizon customers experienced nationwide downtime on the company’s 4G LTE network. Those using Thunderbolt smartphones were the first to spot the problem, as they were only able to receive 3G or even 2G connections. Since 4G only handles data transfer, voice and text messaging services were not affected.
The Droid Charge was originally slated for release the same weekend as the outage. Samsung’s addition to the Droid brand is only the second phone to run on Verizon’s 4G network, giving those that don’t want to buy the Thunderbolt a bit of choice. Aside from the manufacturer, however, the phones differ little in hardware specs. Both have 4.3-inch displays, front and back-facing cameras with the same resolutions (1.3 and 8 megapixels, respectively), and the ability to act as a 4G mobile hotspot. But as the 4G network was still down the morning of the 28th, the phone’s release was pushed back.
Verizon acknowledged the downtime in a Twitter status update, claiming it was “working with engineers” to get 4G back up to speed. By the second day, Verizon restored 4G service in its areas of coverage.
Verizon has continually refused to explain the network’s outages. When Wired.com asked for specific reasoning on why the network went down last month, a Verizon spokesperson declined to answer.
4G data transfer capability and coverage is a relatively new phenomenon. Sprint launched the first 4G phone on its Wi-Max network in June of 2010 with HTC’s Evo 4G. Verizon’s 4G network debuted in December of last year. AT&T and T-Mobile both lay claim to the 4G moniker on each carrier’s respective HSPA+ networks, though issues around what constitutes as “4G” still remain. As of early May, Verizon states 4G coverage is available in “45 markets” across the United States.
“Our philosophy has always been the same,” said Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney in an interview. “When phones are ready to deliver customers an excellent experience, we’ll launch them.”
But it looks like the hardware has been ready to go for awhile. Out of the ten San Francisco Bay Area Verizon retailers Wired.com contacted, six said they already had Droid Charge handsets in stock for some time, but were not able to sell them until today. (Two stores did not answer, one hadn’t received phones, and one received its first shipment yesterday.) One store claims it received its shipment “about two weeks ago,” approximately the same time as Verizon’s 4G network outage.
It’s a similar case in other parts of the country as well. A store in the Boston suburban area also had phones in stock, but hasn’t been able to sell them, according to a report from Computerworld.
Two Verizon employees from separate Bay Area stores told Wired.com the delay had to do with “4G network problems.”
Speaking at a Sony Ericsson business forum in Palo Alto this week, executive director of LTE technologies Brian Higgins said the company had learned lessons from the experience, and that Verizon was going to “make some adjustments.” Higgins wouldn’t elaborate any further.
Whatever adjustments the company has to make, we’ll have to wait and see how Verizon’s 4G network handles the influx of new device activations.
We’re just getting into the swing of spring, flowers blooming and skeeters biting, but already it’s been a great year for Samsung — if we ignore the whole lawsuit thing. Just a few weeks ago the company delivered to us our highest scoring Android phone yet, the Galaxy S II and, while that handset has not appeared on American shores, we were graced with the Droid Charge, which offers LTE speed, strong battery life, and an on-contract price that slightly exceeds its design.
Not so with the company’s latest assault on American carriers. It’s the Infuse 4G, it’s $199 on-contract, and it has a decidedly high-end feel. It even looks a little like the S II — if you squint. This is its own phone, though, a giant 4.5-inch screen setting it apart from its predecessors, and a giant battery inside giving it plenty of life. But is it really as good as it looks?
Rusty Oliver adjusts the propane flowing through two parallel, flaming metal tubes. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
SEATTLE — Rusty Oliver sets things on fire.
During our visit to his workspace, the aptly-named Hazardfactory, he demonstrated how two long propane-filled tubes can act as a kind of fiery audio EQ meter. He created a fierce ball of flame in the middle of a hoop-shaped sculpture he calls “The Singularity.” He showed off flame-throwing rayguns (sadly not currently in operation) and talked about how he was organizing a league to play one of his favorite sports, flaming tetherball.
And then, while standing next to several large propane tanks and a lot of gas-filled tubing, a visitor who was helping Oliver lit a cigarette.
No big deal, Oliver shrugged. If someone wants to set fire to the occasional cigarette in his shop, he’s OK with that.
This article is the first in a series of profiles about do-it-yourselfers and people who make amazing things.
Oliver, an artist, got into playing with fire after meeting Mark Pauline, the founder of Survival Research Laboratories, a San Francisco-area outfit that stages violent, destructive robot battles.
“It was the first kind of art I found really gripping,” says Oliver.
That was 10 or 15 years ago. Since then he’s made fire arts into a full-time business for himself. At Hazardfactory, a grungy but workmanlike space in Seattle’s industrial South Park district, he makes his artworks and does fabrication projects for clients, including Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve, the videogame publisher.
Oliver presides over the genial mess of his shop in a big leather apron and gloves. He’s got a ruggedly handsome face and the kind of big hands that could easily crush yours in a handshake if you aren’t careful.
When we visited, a few other people were there, sort of helping him and sort of just watching. Oliver teaches welding classes, sponsors power-tool drag-racer-construction workshops, and is organizing that flaming tetherball league.
He also does workshops with teenagers, teaching them how to weld and then setting them loose on a collection of scrap bicycles to see what rideable contraptions they can come up with.
Because Oliver’s sculptures are a little dangerous, he prefers to deliver them as performances rather than permanent installations. Watching him fiddle with the dials on multiple propane canisters, you can see that displaying a sculpture might be tricky.
About “The Singularity,” Oliver says, “I built this for a very specific purpose, which is to see if I could keep a ball of fire static in the middle.”
And he can. The sculpture looks simple: It’s a hoop of copper tubing with nozzles pointed inward toward the center. Propane feeds into it through two separate intakes. After some adjustment, he gets it dialed in.
A blue-white, blazingly hot ball of fire pulsates in the middle of the hoop. Everything else in the room fades into darkness, as we stare into the ever-changing heart of a naked, unchained furnace of flame.
The ball of fire is just a couple feet from our unprotected flesh, warming our faces like a miniature sun. Every time Oliver tweaks the dials, alarming yellow jets of fire bloom upward from the fireball. Somehow the warehouse doesn’t burn down.
He’s not above using fire to startle bystanders. At one recent gathering, Oliver says, he hooked up a propane jet to the bottom of a barbecue where he was cooking hamburgers. Whenever a customer asked for a toasted bun, Oliver would place it over the jet’s nozzle and stomp a foot pedal, triggering the flow of propane. A huge ball of flame would burst out of the grill with a gut-shaking WHOMP! and the bun, now charred to blackness, would go tumbling end over end into the air.
Oliver was also involved in a pilot for a Discovery Channel show called Weaponizers. He and three other builders created fully armed, full-sized, remote-controlled automobiles, which they then pitted against one another in an apparently no-holds-barred desert battle. The first episode of Weaponizers features lots of gratuitous explosions. It’s awesome.
As if fire weren’t enough, one of Oliver’s current projects is an effort to mix flame and high voltage. He starts with two “Rubens’ Tubes,” long perforated pipes through which propane flows, turning into flames at each opening. The pipes are connected to an audio source, and once he dials in the propane flow just right, the flames move in sync with the sound waves, forming a kind of burning EQ meter.
When Oliver runs current through the pipes, it arcs from one to the other and also does something hard to describe to the flames: Their shape changes, they become more compact, and the flames on the top start burning down, toward the lower pipe, instead of going up as flames normally do. Seeing that, you might start to see how electrical fields could be used to put out fires, as Harvard researchers recently demonstrated.
You can get a glimpse of the effect in the video below.
It’s an experiment, Oliver says, but even he isn’t entirely sure what the ultimate outcome will be. Mostly it’s a chance to mess around with dangerous stuff and see if he can produce some cool effects. Getting the best effects, it turns out, takes a lot of messing around.
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