Gadgets
Photos: 30 years of the Sony Walkman 
It's hard to imagine our lives without portable music -- nowadays most of us can fit our entire music collection into an MP3 player the size of a deck of cards. But 30 years ago, as people hefted boom boxes off their shoulders, they oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed in fascination at a little machine called the Walkman.
Originally, portable cassette players were marketed for people who needed to record audio clips for their work, such as journalists and businesspeople, but Sony's Walkman brought the idea of playing cassettes to the masses. Not only did many Walkmans have cassette players, AM/FM dials and dual headphone jacks, they also had cool features such as auto-reverse and record. Continue reading...
Drawbot makes better art than useless fleshbag humans
We don't care how much money you spend on a piece of hoity-toity artwork -- eventually you're going to get sick of looking at it. We all know what keeps things interesting: robots. The chaps at Rhode Island's AS220 Labs art space know this better than most and have created a drawing robot -- a Drawbot, if you will -- that can whip up a new work of art at the push of a button.
The AS220 Drawbot kit includes two wall-mountable DC motors, two string spools, a pen clip and a controller board built around a Sanguino microcontroller. The whole kit comes inside a laser-cut wooden box engraved with the mandala pattern that comes pre-programmed on the Drawbot. Continue reading...
Pet's Eye View Camera: Spycam for mischievous mutts
If you've ever wondered what your pet's getting up to when you're not around, the Pet's Eye View Camera may prove an attractive proposition.
The little USB still camera attaches to your pet's collar and can automatically take pictures at intervals of 1, 5 or 15 minutes. The camera can hold a total of 40 shots at a 640x480-pixel resolution. Unfortunately, it doesn't automatically upload pictures via Wi-Fi to an online account like Flickr, so you can only check out the pictures after the damage has been done. Continue reading...
Arimaz mydeskfriend: Robotic penguin chirps your Facebook messages
We admit we're suckers for cute robots around here, especially ones that are connected to the Internet in some way (remember the Nabaztag?). We were especially excited, then, to find that Arimaz's mydeskfriend is not only a robot that can communicate with your Facebook account but it comes in the form of a tiny robot penguin sporting a charming little hat.
Meant as a 'social-media companion', the penguin can be integrated into your Facebook profile. You can then 'feed' or 'exercise' the penguin via a Facebook gameplay interface to keep it in a happy mood (it has five different moods, each of which is indicated by the colour of the penguin's eyes). You can also let your Facebook friends play with it via the gameplay interface. You can set the penguin so that it will read your Facebook messages to you, alert you when your friends have logged on, poke your friends, and more. Continue reading...
Dell reportedly developing Android-based rival to iPod touch
Dell is developing a pocket-sized Internet device using Google's Android operating system that could take on Apple's iPod touch, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Two people who have seen early prototypes of the device told the newspaper it looks like the touch but is slightly larger. And, like the touch, the device isn't expected to include a phone. The device is considered part of a category of gadgets called 'mobile Internet devices' (MIDs), which are designed to fit into the market between a mobile phone and a laptop or netbook computer.
The device could go on sale as early as the second half of 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal's sources. Continue reading...
Video: Mattel Mindflex brains-on
Mattel is to release a game that lets players navigate a floating foam ball around an obstacle course using mind control.
Mindflex comes in two parts: a plastic obstacle course for a series of small foam balls, and a wireless headset. Control is by brainwave -- the headset measures the level of your concentration, and the more you concentrate the faster a little fan spins that's blowing the ball up in the air, which controls its height.
The goal is to move the little orb around the customisable course as quickly as you can (you control the speed of rotation with a hand-operated knob). Continue reading...
Fight Club's Fincher to direct Facebook film?
David Fincher is in 'advanced talks' to direct the Columbia Pictures movie about the origins of Facebook, according to Variety.
The movie, based on Ben Mezrich's upcoming book The Accidental Billionaires, was written by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. It's being produced, Variety reported on Tuesday, by Scott Rudin and Michael De Luca, along with Dana Brunetti and actor Kevin Spacey. Variety said the movie is called The Social Network. We hear this is a very preliminary working title.
Fincher's past directorial work includes Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Panic Room.
An entertainment industry source told CNET UK sister site CNET News that early casting searches are underway and that the list of young actors being considered to play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg includes both Michael Cera (Superbad, Arrested Development) and Shia LaBeouf (Transformers).
Cera is, according to the source, the top choice because audiences find him particularly likable. Rumours about the plot of The Accidental Billionaires hint that Zuckerberg is going to be portrayed rather unfavourably -- basically, as an obnoxious nerd -- and obnoxious nerds are not the world's biggest box-office selling point. Continue reading...
Steve Jobs liver transplant confirmed by hospital
A hospital in the US has confirmed that Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a liver transplant there two months ago and said he is "recovering well and has an excellent prognosis."
Jobs, who returned to work at Apple's campus on Monday after a six-month medical leave, "received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (model for end-stage liver disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available," according to a statement by Dr. James D. Eason, the program director of the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis. Continue reading...
Bought the album, got the t-shirt: Mos Def album on a shirt
Rapper, actor and former Bill Cosby sidekick Mos Def is to release his latest album on a t-shirt. The Ecstatic will be downloadable with a special code when you buy the garment.
The t-shirt features the album cover on the front, a tracklisting on the back, and a code on the tag to download the actual music. The idea began with a $60 (£36) compilation mix t-shirt by LnA clothing, Downtown Music and Invisble DJ, who are now stitching up The Ecstatic. It'll be available on 7 July for $40 (£25), or you can listen now at myspace.com/mosdef. Continue reading...
ATM WTF: BT Openzone offering Wi-Fi in cash points
"Go to a cash machine / to get a ticket home / message on the screen / says don't make plans, you're broke" sang Staines indie gonks Hard-Fi in their hit song Cash Machine back in 2005. Oddly prophetic, seeing as you'll soon be able to access Wi-Fi via cash points, thanks to a deal between BT Openzone and Cashbox.
Cashbox runs a network of stand-alone automated teller machines across the country. You know the ones: you spot the CASH sign, wander into a newsagent, spend a moment wrestling with your better judgement, then get your readies and pay £1.50 for the privilege. Continue reading...
