Photosynthesis Solar Tree Concept Is the World's Best Looking Solar Gadget Charger
Great concept from designer Vivien Muller for a modular, Lego-like little bonsai tree with 54 mini photovoltaic panels as leaves to soak up juice from the sun and charge your gadgets. Adapters get tucked away beneath a nice little tray, and your gadgets lay on top, basking in the shade. Vivien can you make this, please? I can't keep a real plant alive worth a damn, but this I think could place in the windowsill and be just fine with. More shots of the detachable pieces follow.
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The iPhone 3G's Problem May Have Been Found and Fixed
While Apple and AT&T have both been pretty quiet about what could be going wrong with the iPhone 3G, a new source from inside AT&T has finally broken the silence on the "bug fixes" offered in the latest firmware 2.0.2. So was it fixing the iPhone or the iPhone's network? Well, sorta both.
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Use Photoshop to Create Some Really Awkward Gadget Cross-Promotions
Sometimes, two companies decide that it would be advantageous to them both to release a product together. Sometimes it works well, like when Nike and Apple teamed up. Sometimes, it's a bit more awkward. For this week's Photoshop Contest, I want to see some really awkward cross-promotions. You know, like a Jimmy Dean Sausage Nintendo DS Lite.
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Leaked Apple Patent Filing is Full of New Multitouch Tech For a Mac Tablet
Appleinsider has gotten their hands on a large patent filing from Apple that we haven't seen before, and it's loaded with plans for how a multitouch interface would work on a tablet Mac running full-blown OS X. It covers how small interface buttons will be handled, iPhone-like scrolling through lists, details on a full multi-touch keyboard, and a nifty pop-up scroll wheel. And on top of all that, it seems like it'll even work if you have freaky alien fingers! Let's take a closer look.
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Miss IFA Shows Us Her Jewels, and Her Philips and Swarovski Crystals Too
Ah Miss IFA, Miss IFA... Miss IFA with your—fake—red hair, Miss IFA with your—real—long legs, Miss IFA with your really big Philips and Swarovski Active Crystals... how much do we love thee? Let me count the ways. More »Pro Gamers Are Doping Too
Not able to let cyclists and sprinters have all the performance-enhancing fun, pro gamers are apparently equally avid dopers, according to an interview Game Player Australia has with Alex Walker, the director of an upcoming World Cyber Games tournament. They stick him the hard question—what is the WCG doing to combat the growing problem of pro gamers gaining advantage by popping some uppers or hitting the bong prior to fragging? His answer: Um, what? More »Xbox 360 Goes Coin-Op
While the Xbox 360 arcade is ironically the least expensive version of 360, The Arcade Station T2 is the probably the most expensive...and it actually belongs in an arcade. Essentially an arcade cabinet housing an Xbox 360, the Arcade Station T2 features two controllers, memory card slots and system link gaming (which we're assuming means local multiplayer, not full LIVE access). Potentially bundled games could include Halo 3, FIFA 08, Assassins Creed and Devil May Cry 4, but players won't need to shove in more quarters every time Master Chief gets teabagged. This will be a pay-for-time unit. Bonus pic: More »Philips 8mm-Thin 32-inch TV Is Nice But Still a Prototype
Philips is working on their own ultra-thin backlighting technology. But compared to the absolutely stunning Sony ZX1 9.9mm-thin TV, the Philips 8mm 32-inch model is a) just too small and b) just a prototype. However, it looks like it uses a similar LED-in-the-corner backlighting technology. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]Samsung BD-P2500 Blu-ray Player Is Today and Future Proof
With Samsung's BD-P2500, we see that Blu-ray players are finally shedding that first-gen baby weight. Sized to fit in a normal dress, Samsung's latest supports all current Blu-ray spec right out of the box and is prepared for expansion through its ethernet, 1GB of onboard memory and USB. In terms of audio, the system can handle Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus™, Dolby TrueHD, and dts-HD HR all without an external decoder. And for $500, the BD-P2500 is offering far more features than the recently announced Yamaha player at less than half the price.
Read on for full specs.
More »Bloomberg News Accidentally Publishes Draft of Steve Jobs's Obituary
Note to Bloomberg News employees: when you're in the system updating your draft of Steve Jobs's obituary, do NOT press publish. That, though, is exactly what happened late last night, as sleuthed by our buddies over at Gawker. Now, pre-writing obits for prominent figures such as the Steve, in good health and in bad, is totally S.O.P. in the media—so this should not be viewed as yet another non-statement on Jobs's personal health. But unfortunately, we're all going to die (but not all of us will come back more powerful than you can possibly imagine), so reading this and imagining a world without Steve is more an entertaining mind fuck than anything else. And that's just for us—imagine what it must be like to read your own obituary. Read on for an excerpt, with more over at Gawker.
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Philips Cinema One Squeezes Home Theater System into Tiny Round Box
As mentioned in the liveblog, Philips has stumped up a new home theater system that's as small, and almost as round as, a soccer ball—for those of us bored of boring, standard rectangular entertainment gadgets. Though it's tiny, it fits in an iPod dock, a five-channel amp, six speakers and a subwoofer built into the base. It must be pretty cramped inside, since it's just 10.75-inches across, and only 6.75 high. The DVD player can cope with DivX, MPEG-4 and WMV, and upscales to 1080p over HDMI and the CD player can read MP3 discs, and it's got USB-in. If that's whetted your appetite, you'll have to wait as there's no info yet on timing or price. But the press release is below.
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Man Stuff - The Best of Uncrate
This week at Uncrate: We celebrate the remaining days of summer with Leinenkugel's Explorer Pack, gear up for the DNC with some Barack Obama T-Shirts, and get cutting with the Revolution XT Tile Saw. We also jam out to Total Brutal by Austrian Death Machine, strengthen our Force powers with the Marc Ecko Star Wars T-Shirt Collection, and accessorize with some Toy Wheel & Tire Cufflinks. Finally, we sport eco-friendly style with Quiksilver's The Ray, organize the living room with the Taka Trunk, and skip the margarita mix to go straight from the bottle with Maestro Dobel Tequila.Aircell Responds to In-Flight VoIPers: Just Don't Do It
It's a rule as old as time: tell a bunch of geeks they can't do something, and they will find a way. Any way. Thus the Flash-based Phweet trick to get around Aircell and American Airlines' ban on VoIP using their Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi service. Now, Aircell has responded with a light wrist-slapping statement. More »LG X110, A Netbook That's Actually Ready for the Net
While Wi-Fi is nice, what mini-notebooks need to reach their potential (and be more functional than the average smartphone) is 3G data. The LG X110 appears to be a pretty standard 8.9" mini-note, but it's packing HSDPA so you can browse [fill in crude meme of choice] almost anywhere. In addition to the wireless data, it's got the 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM and integrated webcam that we know so well, along with a 160GB hard drive. The LG X110 arrives in Europe this October for a pretty reasonable €399/$589. [Register Hardware]Live from Philips Press Conference at IFA
We are at the Philips press conference and it has started with... a Senseo coffee machine that can make latte macchiatos? Apparently, the new home appliances part of IFA is big. But there's more, here comes their first TV, called Essence.
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Sharp Aquos XS1 is Crazy Concept No More
Sharp showed off an impressively anorexic concept display at IFA last year, and this year they've turned it into production reality. In 52- and 65-inch sizes, the Sharp XS1 LCD TV is a hair less than an inch thick (23mm 0r .9 inches) and displays 1080p, 100Hz (this is Europe) and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. Slated for release in the UK this October, we still don't know the price and/or whether or not chubby Americans will be allowed to be seen in the same room with such a svelte TV.
The company has also just announced the BD-HP21H Blu-ray player and D65 "premium" televisions—also both for Europe. For more info on those models, here's the full release:
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