Entries from November 2007 ↓

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

If you’ve balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda’s Accord during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and while it didn’t sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin’. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs…
[Via Autoblog]
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 […]

Original post by Darren Murph

Instant Bucket
The Presto Instant Bucket is a truly great invention. It's stored collapsed flat in a handy carrier, and it turns into a self-supporting bucket the moment you fill it!
You can have this for £14.95

Original post by jk

Filed under: Storage

We’re not sure this is still relevant — the patent was filed in May of 2006 — but the USPTO has just published a patent application from Apple detailing a number of different 8cm to 12cm optical disk adapters. The application, credited to Tony Fadell, chief of the iPod division, says that since most software doesn’t take up all of the available storage on a disk, it would be cheaper and simpler to use the 8cm disks when appropriate — but that having to ship a standard adapter for slot-loading drives reduce any costs, because they’re the same size as 12cm disks. The solution is to make the adapters smaller when they’re not in use, and the filing goes on to detail several different folding and multi-part takes on the idea. Considering that such an adapter would make things slightly more complicated for the vast majority of Apple’s […]

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Networking
Remember that blisteringly fast channel bonding modem Comcast showed off earlier this year? Turns out that the firm’s CEO is apparently aiming to roll out internet services that can reach up to 160Mbps down / 120Mbps up sometime in 2008. As in, next year. In a recent interview with Fortune, Brian Roberts stated that service based on DOCSIS 3.0 technology would start “rolling out” sometime in 2008, and casually noted that it should provide “more than enough bandwidth to do multiplayer online gaming.” Additionally, Cable Digital News explains that the firm has plans to cover some 20-percent of its footprint with the uber-quick service before 2009, and while we’re left to guess what areas will be covered, we’d bet locales fetching FiOS could entertain some competition. Granted, we’ve still got aways to go before we can go toe-to-toe with a certain Swede, but we’ll take any progress we […]

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio

As far as we know, Evergreen’s Business Card MP3 Player doesn’t come pre-loaded with Flight of the Conchords’ most relevant jam, but you can’t deny it’d be a great fit. This all-white, ultra-simplistic DAP checks in at 86- x 55- x 6-millimeters, weighs just 36-grams and includes 1GB of storage space. You’ll also find a flip-out USB 2.0 connector, internal speaker and some sort of recording function. Slip one into your tight leather jacket pocket for a steep $126.19 — it should make sorting the recycling much less tedious.
[Via AkihabaraNews]
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Two years after the Xbox 360 kick-started the next-gen console race on a Black Friday week, EA chief John Riccitello says this year’s Black Friday completed the transition to the (now) current-gen consoles:
“It’s been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry…Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something’s changed…Around the world, based on the data I’ve got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.
Really though, part of the reason the transition yawned into a two-year stretch is because Microsoft decided to jump the gun on everyone by about a year. It gave them an edge, true, but it also made the shift seem longer and more difficult than it really was because its own launch window was problem-ridden.
If you take last year’s launch of the Wii and PS3 as the actual starting point, with all three on the market, […]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

Soccer may not be the most popular sport in the US–but don’t tell that to millions of minivan-driving suburban mothers. Chances are, the kids they are constantly hauling back and forth to practice would love this soccer ball remote. Not only will it handle your TV, DVD and satellite controls, it is also a full-size, functional ball. So you can kick it around, do headers and let the TV channels fall where they may. I just hope you are a fan of English soccer. Available for around $41. [Product Page]

Original post by Sean Fallon

This is not the first time we have come across a wristband that alerts you to incoming calls. Some of you may recall the BlueQ from earlier this year. It worked–but not all that well. Could this device, dubbed the LM957, be a better alternative? According to the product site, the LM957 will not only discreetly alert you to an incoming call, it will also let you know when you have wandered more than 15 feet away from your phone.
We are not sure how it compares to the BlueQ in terms of functionality, but it sure as hell looks better. Even if it does work, I wouldn’t be all that interested unless there was a watch involved. Available for £23.50 or $48. [Product Page]

Original post by Sean Fallon

Filed under: Cellphones
Barely a fortnight after Apple began talking with China Mobile about getting the iPhone into the ginormous Chinese market, it seems that negotiations are off — or still on, or something. Yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported that China Mobile’s CEO felt that the “iPhone model was not suitable for China,” but unnamed reporters suggested that the real reason behind the call-off was the inability for both entities to agree on — surprise, surprise — a revenue sharing model. Today, however, a report over at Bloomberg notes that Apple has in fact not ended discussions with China Mobile, and moreover, it was said to have “denied newspaper reports” claiming otherwise. ‘Course, we’ve got two sides of the story here, and while Apple may feel that there’s still room to negotiate, China Mobile may see things quite differently. Time will tell, we guess.
[Via Macworld]Read - Nanfang Daily reportRead - Bloomberg report
 
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Original post by Darren Murph

Comcast is pissed. Per the FCC’s latest vote, it can’t provide cable to more than 30 percent of the country. It has a 27 percent market share right now with 26.2 million subscribers. With the FCC’s 30 percent market cap, it can add fewer than 3 million new subscribers before it hits the wall, pretty much ruling out acquisitions of other cable companies or any major growth.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal to limit the growth of cable providers had been floating around for a bit and was sort of expected not to fly, but two of the four other commissioners have thrown in with him on the vote. It’s possible–if not probable–that the courts could get involved and throw out the decision, which Reuters points out they did six years ago.
The final vote’s expected to go down sometime before Dec. 18–so the two commissioners have time to change their mind–but […]

Original post by Matt Buchanan