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Posted Apr 9th 2008 6:22AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Robots
The Elvinator Project is just one of many attempts to recreate The King as a robotic being, but based on the video posted after the jump, we’re really wondering if this isn’t Elvis reincarnated. From what we can glean, the idea here was to create a masterfully sculpted rendition of Big El that sung and conversed with mere mortals, but there’s just something absurdly creepy about seeing him carry on without a face. Oh, and Mr. Presley — your lip syncing could use some serious work.
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In case you were up late at night wondering what a profile of the continental US’s carbon output was like, wonder no more. The Vulcan Project measures CO2 levels at finer time and distance scales than have been documented in the past. Here is one such map that has come out of this project.
They also have a ton more data and analysis in various formats on their site and even a video that they stuck up on YouTube.
via Wired.com
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Behind its rather un-catchy name, the Egoman MP810RSTD-43 offers more than just your average media file playing capabilities. Aside from supporting a wide array of music file formats like MP3, WMA, WAV, and FLAC, it will also play WVI and RMVB files at 30 fps, as well as photos in JPG, BMP, GIF formats. And you can be certain you’ll have a good view of your photos on its 4.3-inch screen, because it supports a 480 x 272-pixel resolution and up to 16 million colors (clue: that’s more than what you’ll find in a rainbow). And if you get tired of watching your movies on its screen, then simply hook it up to your telly to give your clips some maximum exposure. There are no details on pricing yet but I’m sure the digital voice recording feature, support for e-books and built-in FM tuner won’t do this product harm overall.
Via [PMP Today]
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Posted Apr 8th 2008 4:17PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
If you have a hankering for making pretty pretty pictures with your music, Yamaha’s finally going to fill that urge with a US launch of its Tenori-on music maker. The handheld device is sort of a Lite Brite for music, with 256 push-button LEDs for sequencing music and adjusting tones. The concept was first unveiled way back in 2005, but we’re glad to see it come full circle and land in America. Yamaha will be hosting launch events in New York and San Francisco on April 16th and 18th, respectively.
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Picture this: A mugger points a gun at a lady and gives her the “your money or your life” line. The lady opens her purse, and takes out her lipstick, presumably to get to her billfold. She then gives the mugger a real shock as her lipstick delivers him a charge of 350,000 volts!
Welcome to the age of the Lipstick Stun Gun. Not only can this 3-inch device deliver all that aforementioned voltage, but it comes in many shades and colors. Now a lady can feel safe and fashion-conscious at the same time. Perhaps the latest fad amongst females will be Lipstick Stun Gun parties instead of Taser Parties.
The kit comes with some accessories, including a safety pin, lanyard, and a charger. The Lipstick Stun Gun can also be used as a flashlight, which could come in handy for all sorts of situations.
This is actually just one of the great self-defense devices available at the Defense Devices website. The company’s slogan, “Self Defense that Makes Sense”, is definite truth in advertising. After all, putting a stun gun on lipstick is pretty obvious, really. It sounds like something that Q would give Jane Blonde, the female version of 007. That is, unless Q preferred the Pink Stinger tampon for that mission.
If the Lipstick Stun Gun is something that would make a great addition to you or your loved one’s purse, you should be able to get it at the Defense Devices site for about $49.95.
Source
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It turns out that last week when Bill Gates was quoted as saying that the release for Windows 7 would come “sometime in the next year or so” he was not entirely accurate.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson, Windows 7 is still in the “planning stages” and is on track for a January 2010 release. Further comments speculated that Bill Gates may have been referring to early trial versions, but not the general release.
So it looks like Windows 7 is going to remain on the original schedule, which means all you Vista haters will have to continue to use XP for a little while longer or just learn to deal.
Read [Information Week]
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Pacemaker Portable DJ
I’ve been a recreational DJ ever since I was 15 and discovered my first 12-inch. These days when I play out, I tend to switch back and forth between records and MP3s, but I’ve always preferred spinning vinyl to tapping on my laptop for two reasons: 1) you can manipulate the speed and sound much better on turntables than a computer and 2) being huddled in front of a Mac tinkering with Traktor all night isn’t my idea of a good time.
This is exactly why I was stoked to road test the Pacemaker, a portable digital DJ-ing device. Developed by European upstart Tonium, the Pacemaker looks like a cross between an iPod and a compass but it operates like a handheld mobile disco. Designed with the hobbyist DJ in mind (Wired definition: anyone wanting to play for a crowd of 200 drunken buds — not 2,000 Ibizan nightclubbers) the Pacemaker features two digital “decks” that let you scratch, bend, and stretch your tunes. Advanced options even exist for altering pitch, levels and BPMs with a tap and glide of the scroll wheel.
Getting started is easy: Siphon selected tracks from your iTunes and spit them into the Pacemaker’s software (which includes a Pro Tools-style program that lets you mix and record tunes on your laptop) and export to the player. Then things start to get tricky. It may be modeled after the idiot-proof ipod, but taking advantage of all the features on the Pacemaker requires an inordinate amount of button pushing (there are nine to contend with) and wheel tapping (merely to load tracks), which doesn’t render it the most user-friendly device — though the instructional videos on YouTube and Pacemaker’s recently-launched social networking site are a huge help. Fiddling around with it while sober requires a certain amount of dexterity — it’s easy to tap the wrong track. Tough to imagine trying to queue up and mix in bar lighting after a few drinks. (And isn’t that the fun part?) Ultimately, it’s a cool toy to play around with but not exactly the life of the party. —Nancy Miller
WIRED Beautifully engineered; looks like the gorgeous byproduct of a mind-meld between Jonathan Ive and Walter de’Silva. 120 GB memory. Battery holds enough juice for five hours of mix-and-play time.
TIRED Doesn’t act like an iPod. Complicated menu and mixing options make the device not very a practical instrument. $800 could buy you a round-trip ticket to Spain, Berlin or some other hotbed of electronic music.
$799, Pacemaker
(Photo by Jon Snyder, Wired.com)
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Wal-mart has announced that it is now offering refunds for HD DVD players purchased on or after November 1 2007. Consumers have until April 30 2008 to return the players with or without the original packaging. Consumers just need to present their proof of purchase to get a refund.
If you are one of those who bought hd dvd players, only to find out later on that movie companies will no longer support it and instead put their videos on Blu-ray discs, now is the chance to get your money back or add a few more bucks to purchase a Blu-ray player instead. Similarly, other big box retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Future Shop all have similar return policies for HD DVD players.
Via [Engadget HD] Read [Wall Street Journal]
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Photographs of Tag Heuer’s previously announced foray into the world of cellphones have surfaced on the internet, and show it to be a rather plain and utilitarian Vertu-alike candybar design.
According to French blog, Le Journal du Geek, the Merediist is a steel and leather box containing the pedestrian feature set expected of a high-priced phone: 2MP camera, music player, 1.9″ screen and a secondary OLED display on the top, presumably to make the tie-in with a watch company a littler tighter. Available in the second quarter of this year, the Merediist will cost between €3400 and €3900 ($5340 and $6125). Despite its absence from the Tag website, this seems to be all but an official release. More pictures below.
Tag Heuer embarks on the phone [Le Journal du Geek via The Register]
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Why it took so long for someone to emblazon a Super Mario Bros. Piranha Plant on the crotch of some underoos, I’ll never know.
From Nintendopedia:
“A Piranha Plant is an enemy in the Mario Series. The enemy is a large plant with a round head and a mouthful of teeth that will pop out of a pipe usually. His first game was in Super Mario Bros. where he would pop out of a pipe, and if Mario was right next to the pipe, he wouldn’t come out. Though they are usually in pipes, they sometimes aren’t, such as in Super Mario Sunshine where all the Piranha Plants are on ground.”
[Etsy via Gonintendo]
