A Timelord game of Monopoly is all over the place. When you can travel to properties throughout time and space, the game can get pretty confusing figuring out who bought what, in what time period. It’s frustrating. This is why they no longer play the game.
But they use some pretty cool tokens. Like these from Etsy seller Donald James, who made these Doctor Who Monopoly player tokens, hand-casting them from pewter. Whip these out during your next game of Monopoly and watch everyone drool. If you don’t like Doctor Who, Donald also makes Iron Man, Transformers and Portal tokens.
For only $10(USD) you get your choice of a TARDIS, K-9 or a Dalek. He needs to make more of these. We need to have a bow-tie and a Cyberman. How about a Sonic Screwdriver at least? I know, I’m never satisfied.
Apple’s new Mac Pro may be a lesson in rethinking workstation component layouts, but wouldn’t it be better if you could actually see all that clever construction through a custom glass sleeve? Designer and 3D artist Martin Hajek thought so, and so cooked up some renders of the Mac Pro 2013 with its metal casing replaced, not only with glass – and reminiscent of the G4 Cube Steve Wozniak is so enamored with – but with perforated aluminum and even some sleek metallic finishes.
The new Mac Pro isn’t a stranger to tubular glass casings: after all, Apple used them to show off the pre-production hardware at WWDC 2013. In Hajek’s concepts, however, the glass sleeve is a lot more form-fitting, effectively replacing the glossy aluminum casing that Apple has designed.
Glass, of course, isn’t going to do much for the Mac Pro 2013′s cooling requirements. Apple has outfitted the new workstation with a single, large fan, that spins horizontally on top of the circular housing. That pulls cool air up, from the bottom of the Mac, and across the triangular “cooling stack” in the center, against which the two graphics cards and the mainboard are all fixed.
However, where aluminum would allow some of the heat to radiate out from the new Mac Pro, a glass case would act more like a thermos flask, trapping it inside. Given there are already questions from some quarters about whether the single fan will be enough to cool the Xenon E processor and dual-GPUs, it’s probably too much to ask for an effective aftermarket glass casing.
Still, most would probably agree that the Mac Pro looks pretty slick dressed in glass, at least before the dust bunnies move in. Hajek also has some more straightforward designs, including some colored anodized aluminum ones that we can imagine ColorWare delivering on.
The new Mac Pro 2013 is set to launch later in 2013; there’s more on the design and the thermal system in our SlashGear 101.
Remember the days before portable media players sported touchscreens? You’ll soon be able to relive that golden era with Cowon‘s iAUDIO 9+, a diminutive PMP that’s launching July 12th in Japan. The device features a 2-inch QVGA (320 x 240-pixel) display mounted above a capacitive touchpad and comes in three capacities (and two colors) — 8GB (white) for 11,800 Yen ($118), 16GB (black) for 13,800 Yen ($138) and 32GB (black) for 16,800 Yen ($168). It boasts a 30mW headphone amp, video connectivity (with an optional cable) and even a microphone and FM radio (to record voice and broadcasts). The unit measures 95 x 43 x 8.9mm (3.74 x 1.69 x 0.35 inches), and weighs just 40g (1.41oz). Battery life is rated at 29 hours for audio playback and seven hours for video content. Rounding things up are 48 (!) EQ presets and support for a plethora of formats (including such rarities as FLAC and OGG) along with USB mass storage.
Fourth of July weekend is all about barbecues, swimming, and fun in the sun. (Oh yeah, and America.) But being in the sun isn’t so great for your skin—especially if you’re running a little short on the melanin. Stand tall, …
Google Glass is still a pre-release product that’s fairly rough around the edges, compared to a lot of shipping consumer hardware, but new clues (via Slashgear) from the latest firmware update suggest that there are a number of practical additions coming to the device. Those include a Glass app store dubbed “Boutique,” which would be a welcome addition for app discovery, as well as a locking mechanism that would let it be locked down when not in use using a swipe gesture code combo.
The lock feature is something Google has discussed in the past as a means for keeping user data private, so that’s not a complete surprise, but we may see it sooner rather than later. The Glass Boutique, which would offer up Glassware software in one central location directly accessible from the device likewise isn’t surprising, either. Still, this is the first time it’s been mentioned, and indications are that it will offer access to both Mirror API titles like those currently available and native SDK apps that run on Glass itself.
New cards are also on the way, which help with media playback. There’s a music player with all the typical playback controls as well as artist and track information, and there’s a note about a video player, too. volume control for the bone-conduction speaker that Google uses to deliver audio without earbuds is also now included in the code, and that feature’s even functional with a little extra hacking.
All of these changes are essentially key elements of existing mobile device platforms, like iOS and Android for smartphones. Which isn’t to downplay them; they should result in big functionality improvements for Glass users when they do arrive. The point is that they illustrate just how far off from being a shipping product Glass still is. Glass is said to be headed for a 2014 release, and even these features are likely just the start of what needs to happen between now and then, so it’s nice to see them appearing even in prototype form.
True fact: Cooking on a gas grill is more convenient than cooking with charcoal. It’s also a lot less special. And, scientifically speaking, it creates less flavorful food. To understand why, you first need to understand that flavor and taste …
He has been stripped and broken, prodded and sampled, scanned and DNA tested. We have filmed him, argued over him, and visited him in our millions. If King Tut was looking for some peace and quiet in the afterlife, he must be sorely disappointed. Read More…
Canon is pretty proud of its new EOS 70D and particularly the DSLR’s innovative Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, so it’s no surprise there’s a demo video showing the clever multi-part pixels at work. The 1080p footage, dubbed “Handmade” by Canon, shows not only exactly what is going on in the camera while it’s recording, but also comes with a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the making-of the whole thing. If you’re considering splashing out on the EOS 70D, it’s a must-see.
Traditional autofocus systems on DSLRs split the incoming light into two paths, one being used to figure out how crisp the image is and what adjustments are needed to the lenses in order to get the subject sharply in focus. Canon, though, wanted to boost the speed and accuracy of that – as well as allow for continuous autofocusing during video recording – and so came up with a new system.
Dual Pixel CMOS AF, as we explained the other day, involves changes at the level of the CMOS sensor itself. Each individual pixel of the 20.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS is in fact made up of two photodiodes, which can be used individually to make the necessary calculations in phase-detection focus mode.
Canon EOS 70D “Handmade” Dual Pixel CMOS AF demo:
However, for shooting, the input from both photodiodes is combined. Canon says the new system is not only faster and more accurate than before, it also considerably maximizes the usefulness of the 3-inch LCD display on the back of the EOS 70D.
In fact, while purists might scoff at anybody using anything other than the regular viewfinder, Canon argues that the LCD has advantages of its own. Now that the delay has been cut down, it should be more useful in low-light scenes since it will likely be clearer than what’s coming through the optical viewfinder.
If the demonstrations convince you, you may need to save up some. The Canon EOS 70D will be $1,199 body-only when it hits store shelves in September.
Canon EOS 70D “Handmade” Dual Pixel CMOS AF background:
Though it may look like a gigantic tablet, Hewlett-Packard’s Slate21 does not include a built-in battery. The company seems to be trumpeting the device as a power-efficient, if underpowered, home PC.
So you happen to be a smartphone user for the past few years already, and have more or less gotten bored of the device, so much so that you are thinking about the possibilities of a new kind of smartphone accessory which would make you a starry-eyed kid once again, with wonder written all over your face. Perhaps there might be something out there in the ever evolving consumer market, and the $149.99 Romo the smartphone robot could very well fit your desires to a ‘T’.
Romo might even end up being your new best friend if you are a social outcast, as Romo will learn and grow up with you the more time you spend with it and interact alongside. Basically, I guess you could call this the geek’s Furby, as the more you make use of him, the faster and more he will be able to learn. Sure, he looks cute as heck – at least getting near Wall-E levels, and is controllable via any Wi-Fi enabled computer or iOS device. The Romo the smartphone robot might be the perfect fodder to help you break down walls if you are not too good with kids, and it also brings your standard video chat sessions to a totally new level. [ Romo the smartphone robot copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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