Deluxe Prism Glasses

I have a theory that breathing the re-circulated air while flying on a plane makes items in the SkyMall catalog seem more useful than they really are. Take these Deluxe Prism Glasses for example. I really have no idea what makes them ‘deluxe’ but they’re designed to fit over your regular glasses and allow you to read a book or watch TV while lying flat on your back.

But besides facilitating the super-lazy who can’t even be bothered to sit up the glasses are apparently quite useful for people who’ve had to endure MRI scans. Read More »

Hidden Flight Simulator in Google Earth

Here is another good reason to upgrade to the latest version (v4.2) of Google Earth. Drop what you are doing now, open the program and press Ctrl + A (or Ctrl + Alt + A) to launch the hidden Flight Simulator program.

It’s based on Google Earth’s image streaming and you can fly around the area currently showing, choose from a number of preset locations or takeoff and land from a selection of airports around the world.

You have a choice of two aircraft, an F16 fighter or a slightly more sedate Cirrus SR22 single engine aircraft. Read More »

iPod touch owners get cheap Wi-Fi

The Cloud is offering a new service called Cloud Unlimited Music, which offers unlimited Wi-Fi access for only £3.99 a month - but only if you own an iPod touch.

All other devices will still be charged at the usual rate of £6.99 per month. Despite the discounted price, the offer is completely independent of Apple - no subsidy is being offered by the iPod’s manufacturer. The deal also includes full internet access, unlike the recent Starbucks deal, which saw users restricted to the iTunes music store.

“We believe this is a significant step forward in making music, podcasts and video available when, and wherever, people really want it,” says Owen Geddes, Group Director. Read More »

Hollywood discovers movie fingerprinting star

Hollywood has picked a winner in its competition to develop an effective but unobtrusive system for fingerprinting digital movies.

The contest, organised by Movie Labs, the R&D arm of the MPAA, asked each fingerprinting system to identify 1,000 movie files by their “fingerprints”, patterns of data unique to each movie.

The files varied in quality, from HD through internet downloads to bootlegs recorded on camcorders. Three of the 12 systems managed to identify more than 90% of the files with no false positives. Read More »

How to fix Apple TV

It’s been online for a few days now, but I just spotted (via PaidContent) Fortune’s article entitled The iFlop (sub-head: “Steve Jobs tried to design–and dictate–the future of television. Here’s how he failed.”) Author Scott Woolley calls the Apple TV “a flat-out” failure, claiming that it’s sold less than 250,000 units in six months. Among the supposed sins of the product: the lack of a built-in DVR and a “parochial and proprietary approach” to online video content. Read More »

USB 3.0 on 2008

Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires.

Intel is working fellow USB 3.0 Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors to release the USB 3.0 specification in the first half of 2008, said Pat Gelsinger, general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, in a speech here at the Intel Developer Forum.

In an interview after the speech, Gelsinger said there’s typically a one- to two-year lag between the release of the specification and the availability of the technology, so USB 3.0 products should likely arrive in 2009 or 2010. Read More »

HD Video With a Small Camcorder

Consumers are racing to replace their aging televisions with high-definition TVs. Trouble is, many are still using devices and services that can’t fill those HDTVs with enough visual information to make them look their best.

Sony hopes to smooth the transition with the introduction of the HDR-CX7 Handycam ($1,199), a tightly designed video camera that can record images at high definition.

Even if you think it’s overkill for the kid’s soccer game or the family picnic, you’ll appreciate the crisp resolution as opposed to spreading standard-definition images over your big HD screen.

I used the new Sony camera for a few weeks and liked some things, but despised others. Read More »

Cell Phone Jammer Is Awesome, Affordable

The Palm Phone Jammer is a cell phone jammer than can effectively shut down GSM 850-, 900-, 1,800-, and 1,900-MHz cell phone calls in a 30 foot radius. Oh happy day! The unit costs a paltry $166, which is a steal. My old cell phone jammer looked a lot like me waving a gun and yelling obscenities, so this might not only jam calls, but lower my blood pressure. Two birds stoned at once. Although gun waving is fun. I doubt you’re going to get anyone to shit their pants with this thing.

One Laptop Per Child Goes Public

The laudable One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, which as we reported a few months ago is distributing its rugged XO laptop, eventually costing $100 to build, to children in poor countries. Apparently the take up hasn’t been as quick as the developers had hoped, which may be why the OLPC foundation is doing a bit of a U-Turn and offering the green machine to the public.

The offer, called ‘Give 1 Get 1’ is you buy two machines, for $400, OLPC donates one to a child in another country and you get the other one for your child. Originally OLPC said the XO wouldn’t be available to the public, despite the considerable interest shown in the Linux-based machine, Read More »

Military Robotic Dogs

There’s quite a long way to go till we will have robotic wives and husbands around the house; so, for the moment, it seems that our dogs in the near future might just be … made of metal (or plastic). If not around the house, at least in the conflict areas. The four-legged dog robots are now the size of a Chihuahua, but could facilitate many military tasks.

The robot called LittleDog could ultimately lead to more complex robotic assistants for troops, like automated “pack-mules” carrying heavy loads over a tough terrain. Scientists are focusing on developing it for even faster and more animal-like movements over uneven terrain. Read More »