Gadgets Blog

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 27th 2008 at 1:51PM

If you’ll recall, the evolution of homebrew on the Wii started out quite similar to this. First comes the Hello World proof of concept, then comes Pong. It would just be wrong to unfold otherwise, right? Dragula96, the same guru who whipped up the original homebrew hack, has now introduced 2 Player Pong 1.0 — the first notable game to take advantage. Currently, the collisions are “very basic” and further tweaks are necessary before it’s perfect, but it should be stable enough to take you to some sort of blissful state for now.

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Filed under: Gaming

Ubuntu’s founder, Mark Shuttleworth, has proposed a plan to make his distro of Linux just that much more popular. He plans on overtaking Apple’s Mac OSX in the looks and desktop experience departments in order to overtake the art-savvy giant. Sure, these plans do sound a bit confident for where Linux is now, but that almighty force of Linux programmers is really starting to leave an impression on the industry.

Shuttleworth believes the idea that open source operating systems need not only be for the tech savvy and he aims to push for easier, more stable, and more attractive aspects to updates to his operating systems.

With Ubuntu updates popping out about every 6 months now, this dream may not be as much as a reach as it may seem. If there was one Linux distro that had the best chance of changing the software industry, it would definitely be Ubuntu. Shuttleworth has established the goal of “revolutionizing the open source ecosystem” by the summer of 2009 and finally “beating” Apple by 2010.

Read [The Register]

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“You thought the sleeping giant was still sleeping?” Microsoft’s VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing recently said. “Well, we’ve woken up, and it’s time to take our message forward.” And apparently the company is putting their money …LOTS of money… where their mouth is. They have begun an ad campaign in the continuing market struggle with Apple that could feasibly end up running them an incredible $300 million investment. Their campaign claims we just need to learn the facts about Vista.

I’ve heard the tales from both sides of the fence. How Vista is horrible, horrible, horrible. Then again, how Vista is wonderful, oh so beautiful, secure, and simply the best OS ever made. The truth can probably be found somewhere in the middle of the two. The main battle that Microsoft obviously needs to overcome is, why do I want Vista when I’m perfectly content with XP?  And that is the question they are not having much luck answering to most users’ satisfaction.  No matter how beautiful they claim Vista to be.

So, Microsoft went and pulled the power card. No more XP availability. (I can almost hear them saying “so there!”).  OK, well, we still have the users with XP on their machines. I know when I went out recently and bought my new laptop, I was not at all a happy camper to find out I had no choice but to buy one with Vista. My desktop at home does still run good ole XP…nope, I haven’t upgraded. I’m old school. And I can also see some of the problems users run into with Vista on my laptop. This one is by no means a top of the line speed demon. Didn’t need it to be for what I use this one for. So, it has Vista installed, and what I notice is this.  If you want to run Vista, you just better have a good machine; or it runs like a dog. Heck, I remember my old Compaq could run XP and that thing was, let’s just say it wouldn’t impress an ubergeek.  Vista lags. I get very tired of seeing that spinning blue circle and faded out screen when nothing is happening.  I hate that there always seem to be a minimum of 972 processes running (OK, I exaggerate slightly), when I have absolutely nothing open; and yet I don’t have the administrative authority to close them even when using spybot and going into the section that should allow me to do so.

I think Microsoft may be able to win over a few users who were ready and willing regardless to upgrade operating systems, but other than that, I think they just may be wasting their $300 million. I think the most they may be doing with it is getting rid of the “Vista Sucks” ideology that Apple especially was trying to sell and maybe changing it to “Vista is OK if you are willing to upgrade”. But the fact is, not everyone is, and I don’t think there is any way at all they are going to change that fact.

Via [CNet]

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As a result of technology, it’s now possible to sell, purchase services and products online. Internet has gained significant popularity among people and in today’s time, it’s necessary to have a website if you run a business and if you want to make International clients. No matter whether you run the business at small level or corporate level, having a website allows you to spread the word among people from different parts of the world. A number of people use Internet on daily basis and this is the reason why you should consider running a website for your business. Internet marketing can help you to take your revenue and business to the next level.

You may learn the website design process in order to build a website for your business. But, if you’re someone with not much free time then you may consider using a web design company to create a website for your business. Hiring a web design company can cost you some money but you need to understand that a website is needed in order to market the business online.

An important thing to be considered is that you should provide important details on the website so that people can understand your service. You should also provide past references/testimonials along with samples so as to make the visitors understand that you know what you’re offering and have fair experience in it.

Once you have a website for your business, you may spread the word about it and to do so, you may consider using Internet marketing companies and social networking sites. If you provide great services at great prices then you’re most likely to get loaded with lots of work as with a website, you’re targeting people from all around the world.

With today’s technology there are a lot of ways to make sure your pet is well taken care of and safe.  Well this Plexidor is basically an updated version of the classic doggy door.  It works as a garage door would, only instead of hitting a button this has an RFID chip that clips to your pet’s collar.  Then whenever they get close to the door it will slide open.  Which thankfully means that you won’t be stuck up at 7am on a Saturday when they suddenly feel the need to go outside.  Also an extra bonus is that this little door won’t go flying open over a bit of windy weather.

It is made of the material used to make football helmets, which is definitely good when you’re concerned about burglars or small animals.  No one likes to wake up in the morning to a raccoon sitting on the kitchen sink.  The door also has a safety mechanism to make sure that your pets won’t get their tail pinched in the closing door.  The doors range in prices from $129 on up to $800 and come in both white and bronze.

Source: Ubergizmo

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If you’d like the option of a bit more than just plain bread toasted in the morning, you might check out this design.  It actually has a rotary basket built into it, which also means nice hot croissants and other breaded goodness that you can toss into the basket.  With the basket itself, you can set an individual timer as to how long to keep it going.  On the rest of the toaster, since the rotary is on the top, your bread has to go someplace else for your morning toast.

Instead it has two pop out slots built into each side, it would also be great for anyone trying to make two different breakfasts for two different people.  The sellers of this toaster actually boasts that you will save up to 70% of your energy, because with this you don’t have to preheat your oven.  Smaller gadget, it’s going to use less power.  The toaster is currently on the market for  € 59.95.  Which seems like a little much, but having more than one function it does make it at least a little better.

Source: cribcandy

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by Darren Murph, posted Jul 27th 2008 at 11:31AM

Little known tidbit for those not keenly watching the happenings at Infineon: the firm was forced to write down the value of its Qimonda stake by €1 billion ($1.57 billion) in April. Not surprisingly, Infineon’s head honcho is about ready to rid the company of the flagging unit, making quite a few direct statements in a Germany daily saying as much. For starters, CEO Peter Bauer stated that “a complete sale is possible as is a sale of a minority stake,” and he continued by affirming that it was already “speaking to financial investors and other companies in the industry.” Just in case you had any doubts whatsoever that this cat was serious, he proclaimed that “[the firm] was working with utmost urgency on the question how to close the chapter on Qimonda as quickly as possible.” Unrequited love at its finest.

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Filed under: Storage

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 27th 2008 at 8:49AM

Not quite sure why, but we get this whole Get Smart vibe from this thing. IOCELL’s contents phone would probably be more suited for a highly covert spy agency rather than your grandmother’s home, but we suppose even granny could appreciate the built-in hard drive that logs conversations, plays ‘em back and makes remembering things that much easier. Furthermore, the firm asserts that this thing can send completed calls out on the internet should you want to pass along the audio to someone else, and there also appears to be a USB port for possibly offloading those onto flash drives. Heck, it even syncs caller ID information with calls and provides background music during conversations (uh, okay?). Take a wild guess on the price, chances are you’ll be fairly close.

[Via The Red Ferret Journal]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 27th 2008 at 8:49AM

Not quite sure why, but we get this whole Get Smart vibe from this thing. IOCELL’s contents phone would probably be more suited for a highly covert spy agency rather than your grandmother’s home, but we suppose even granny could appreciate the built-in hard drive that logs conversations, plays ‘em back and makes remembering things that much easier. Furthermore, the firm asserts that this thing can send completed calls out on the internet should you want to pass along the audio to someone else, and there also appears to be a USB port for possibly offloading those onto flash drives. Heck, it even syncs caller ID information with calls and provides background music during conversations (uh, okay?). Take a wild guess on the price, chances are you’ll be fairly close.

[Via The Red Ferret Journal]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 27th 2008 at 5:41AM

Not that Samsung is actually looking to pump this out into beauty salons worldwide, but there stands at least a mild chance that sophisticated females shopping for new compacts would also spring for some storage. Joongoo Lee’s Costume is a sleek, deliberately styled 2.5-inch external hard drive that looks entirely at home mixed in with various makeup components. Additionally, the bundled dock is equally sexy, though we can only hope there’s a USB 2.0 port somewhere on this thing. Though this is just a concept, we wouldn’t put it past Samsung to turn into a reality — after all, it did just produce pink and blue BlackJack IIs. Your soft side is showing, Sammy.

[Via PCLaunches]

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Filed under: Storage