So ugly even its own mother is disgusted, the Alpinist will nevertheless make you love it
This hideous looks like a stoned hippy took to carving his airline seatbelt buckle with a Dremel, but if you’re a climber, you’re probably going to love it anyway. It’s called the Alpinist Case, and it protects your camera from mountains.
The case is machined from aluminum held together with stainless steel screws and filled with low-density foam. Should your camera fall, or get whacked by a passing cliff, then there’s a good chance it will survive.
But protection is pointless if you can’t get the camera out to take photos. To this end, the flip-up, clamp-shut lid can be locked down, but popped open easily. And you hang the case from your belt by a carabiner, so access is easy and fast. You can also leave the lid un-clamped and it will be held closed by magnets.
There are three sizes, from a tiny case for slim point-and-shoots up to a larger one for bigger compacts like the Leica D-Lux. You won’t be carrying an SLR in there, but then you probably don’t want to schlep a big heavy camera up a mountain anyway.
Available now (but on back order until late July), from $60 to $120.
The N9 has arrived. Functional units of Nokia’s long-awaited MeeGo smartphone have finally landed into our eager hands and we’ve got a gallery of images to provide you with below. What we can say from our first experience is that we’re in the presence of a fantastically designed device with a gorgeous AMOLED screen and some highly responsive performance. Hold tight as we’re updating our fuller impressions after the break, where you’ll soon be treated to our first hands-on video with the Nokia N9.
Update: Hands-on video plus a live demonstration of the N9’s ability to pair Bluetooth devices over NFC (very impressive!) can now be found after the break.
It’s not much bigger than many of the wall warts currently filling outlets in your power strip, but this reference design from Sigma Designs could be your next cable box. With HomePlug networking, Z-Wave RF remote control technology and the ability to process multiple 1080p streams at once built in, it only needs to be plugged in to the wall (and connected to a TV via HDMI) to get to work. connect to the network and pull in video from the internet, feeds from an IPTV provider like U-Verse (or Comcast eventually), or multiroom streams from a connected DVR. At its heart is the SMP8670 chip unveiled at CES that’s optimized for XBMC, Adobe AIR and Flash which could make it an ideal extender for someone like TiVo or Boxee, if Sigma can get them to bite on the concept. Until then, all we can show you are a few pics of the bare internals in the gallery and a press release after the break.
The FCC just trumped Cupertino’s plan to sneak out an updated AirPort Extreme wireless base station with the outing of an Apple 3×3 802.11n access point, model A1408. It’s not clear what’s changed over Apple’s existing dual-band router but its arrival in the FCC database coincides nicely with a 9to5Mac rumor calling for the imminent launch of new AirPort Extreme at a lower price point. And hey, if you’re lucky, it’ll also arrive with support for the new three-stream standard for 450Mbps over both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands — but that’s just speculation on our part. We should also point out that the appearance of the AirPort Extreme lends credence to 9to5’s other rumor of cheaper 2TB and 3TB Time Capsules. And guess what? Today’s Tuesday, Apple’s favorite day to launch new gear, so don’t be surprised to see Apple updating its store sooner rather than later.
3DS owners outside of Japan can look forward to missing out on yet another Nintendo sponsored video service — at least for now. With the help of Fuji TV, Nintendo’s Itsu no Ma ni Terebi (or “SpotPass TV”) will bring a number of short format 3D TV programs to the fledgling handheld, including shows featuring cute animals, sumo wrestling idol girls, and daily tips on performing magic tricks. Like its Wii predecessor, this video service is currently a Japan-only affair, but there’s still plenty of summer left for the big-N to make good on its GDC Netflix promise.
Intel’s so-called Ultrabooks may be a little way off into the distance at the moment, but the company isn’t making you wait until its Ivy Bridge rollout to get a taste for ultraslim laptops with some real power inside them. A trio of new ultra-low voltage CPUs, each rated with a TDP of just 17W, has been added to the company’s catalog, starting with the top-tier Core i7-2677M, whose pair of cores run at 1.8GHz by default but can be sped up to 2.9GHz when duty calls. Then there’s the i7-2637M, which looks to only differ in clock speeds (1.7GHz default, 2.8GHz under Turbo Boost), and the i5-2557M that makes do with a 3MB L3 cache (1MB less than its i7 brethren) and a 1.7GHz / 2.7GHz speed range. All three 64-bit, 32nm processors also integrate a GPU (350MHz base clock, maxes out at 1.2GHz) within their walls, which is what makes their ascetic power consumption all the more impressive. OEMs should soon start splicing these new options into their next generation laptops, and while the obvious speculation centers around a MacBook Air refresh, CNET tells us the Core i5-2557M has already found a home in ASUS’ upcoming UX21, a (purportedly) sub-$1,000 11.6-inch featherweight contender.
This article was written on April 30, 2008 by CyberNet.
Welcome to Daily Downloads brought to you by CyberNet! Each weekday we bring you software updates for widely used programs, and it’s safe to assume that all the software we list is freeware (we’ll try to note the paid-only programs).
As you browse the Internet during the day, feel free to post the software updates you come across in the comments below so that we can include them the following day!
–Stable Releases–
The software listed here have all been officially released by the developers.
Java for OS X 10.5 [Homepage] [Changelog] Operating System: Mac only Type of Application: Java framework Changes: Adds support for Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_05
Microsoft Messenger 7 [Homepage] [Changelog] Operating System: Mac only Type of Application: Instant messenger for Mac Changes: Bonjour support, audio/video, and more
Miranda 0.7.5 [Homepage] [Changelog] [Mirror] Operating System: Windows only Type of Application: Cross-network instant messenger Changes: Mostly bug fixes
PC De-Crapifier 1.91 [Homepage] [Changelog] [Mirror] Operating System: Windows only Type of Application: Remove bloatware that comes preinstalled on your PC Changes: Focused on removing bloatware from Toshiba laptops including Norton 360, Office 2007 trial, Quickbooks, Naptser, and more
–Pre-Releases (Alpha, Beta, etc…)–
The software listed here are pre-releases that may not be ready for everyday usage.
7-Zip 4.58 [Homepage] [Changelog] [Mirror] Operating System: Windows only Release: Alpha 9 Type of Application: File extraction and compression Changes: Speed optimizations, bug fixes, and more
Google Earth 4.3.7204 [Homepage] [Mirror] [Review] Operating System: Windows; Mac; Linux Release: Beta Type of Application: Map application Changes: N/A
Maxthon 2.1.0.1595 [Homepage] [Changelog] [Mirror] [Review] Operating System: Windows only Release: Beta Type of Application: Web browser Changes: Bug fixes
UpdateStar 2.1.548 [Homepage] [Mirror] [Review] Operating System: Windows only Release: Beta Type of Application: Monitor applications for updates Changes: N/A
Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.0.922 [Homepage] [Mirror] Operating System: Windows only Release: Beta Type of Application: Instant messenger for Windows Changes: N/A
Monsoon Multimedia is again advancing its Vulkano line of set-top boxes with a feature not found on Sling, TiVo or Roku, adding the ability to make DVR recordings directly to iPad, iPhone or Android devices. While users can still watch TV from anywhere in the world using the Vulkano, the new DVR-to-mobile feature is restricted to WiFi and will only work with the Vulkano Flow and eventually the Blast. Sure you could store your shows on a hard drive and move them over or stream later, but this way fans of The Killing on AMC can be disappointed by the season finale later on even while offline. Updates for the platform-appropriate $13 apps should arrive shortly, while Blackberry users are assured the feature is on the way soon for them too.
CG magic, a pop idol conspiracy, fan outrage and an ice cream have combined together in one of the most interesting and bizarre marketing campaigns we have come across in a long while. What on the surface looks like a simple interactive advertising campaign, a website from Japanese confectionary brand Glico named “Oshimen Maker,” allows users to create their own AKB48 member (a massively popular comercial female idol group) using CG technology and facial parts from existing AKB48 members. However the campaign has sparked uproar in Japan’s Otaku population as it has clarified growing suspicions that one of the AKB48 members, Eguchi Aimi, was in fact merely an artificial CG character, and if that wasn’t bizarre enough the character itself is created from the facial features of the six more favored existing members!
On its own the web campaign for the new ice cream product, “Aisu no Mi” (Ice Cream Seed), uses clever maneuvering of the combination of one of Japan’s massive idol groups, AKB 48, and its growing popularity which has spread far beyond its otaku fan base. Oshimen Maker uses the eyes, hairstyle, body style, eyebrows, noses, and mouths of the user’s most favored members to create their own unique idol to be submitted online and ranked among the others, almost a crowd sourced pop idol. They can also be shared on Facebook or Twitter, and sent to friends, showing off the digital “perfect idol” that they have just created. The digital members can also be downloaded as a desktop background, as well as being used as profile pictures or avatars.
A number of fans had previously commented that Aimi was in fact “too good to be true,” and her facial expressions were unreal. The launch of the web campaign seems to have backed up the theories that the member was indeed a fictitious creation and has sparked cries of protest and anger. Many fans blamed Glico, after realizing that the name Aimi was a simple abbreviation of their product [Ai]su no [Mi]. If Glico were indeed the mastermind behind the actual Aimi character from the start this is a amazing exercise in branding, where the company have managed to create a “pop idol” out of a product rather than the usual reverse where pop-stars become brands after reaching a certain level of notoriety. It is noticeable that in todays world of marketing on a huge scale, manufactured girl groups can be brands before they are even bands, however this is the first time we have come across an actual product being the pop idol “herself”, and the fact that it was a mystery for so long takes the teaser campaign idea to new levels.
This site has even brought upon feelings of “competition,” with fans claiming that they can create an even “cuter” Eguchi Aimi than their counterparts. It is amusing to see a “race” has developed as otakus rush to their computers to design their ultimate “Aimi” (they call it) and submit it to the ranking candidate list. The brand name has now become synonymous with creating the idea of idol perfection, not sure if this relates to the ice cream product so much but certainly spreads the companies name. As we can see below, not every creation leans towards perfection, and some may be far from it.
While this campaign is intriguing in its own unique way, and despite the voices of opposition, it is fascinating to see the significant support for a non-existent digital idol, as seen in the growing fan base for Hatsune Miku, one of the first CG animated characters to perform at concerts. Taking it one step further than plastic surgery, it brings to us the question of whether this type of marketing concept that hints at Japan moving towards a new era of celebrities. This coupled with personifying products to the point that they are part of real world groups, unaware that fans are actually infatuated with a product builds up communities around the brand on a whole new scale.
We knew that Android 3.2 was little more than a tailor-made edition of Android 3.1 for 7-inch slates, but even after speaking with Huawei, we weren’t exactly sure when it would be rolling out to things other than its own MediaPad. Our pals over at This is my next managed to confirm that it’ll be landing as early as this summer, and for better or worse, it’ll be the last major Android release prior to Ice Cream Sandwich hitting retail devices in Q4. Moreover, it’s bruited that v3.2 will bring support for Qualcomm CPUs as well as NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, which could lead to HTC’s Flyer getting an upgrade of its own. As for more current plans, it seems as if the Motorola Xoom — a slate that was just recently updated to 3.1 — will see another point increase in the coming weeks, which should give us a solid indication of what to expect software-wise with the MediaPad drops a few months later. Speaking of which, both CNET and M.I.C. Gadget were on-hand in Singapore for a look at the show-floor model of that very tablet, and you can feast your eyes on the pictorial proof down in the source links below.
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