Gadgets Control

There’s a great debate in the Bar-b-que world that meat only tastes better when cooked over an open flame, and even more so when cooked with charcoal (I prefer Applewood, actually). But historically sspeaking, the charcoal grill has been more of an exercise in frustration for backyard warriors only seeking to start the flame, much less cook on it. The 60 second charcoal starter from Hammacher changes all that. It looks more like a lightsaber than a charcoal lighter (although I bet Luke Skywalker could light one lickety split), but instead of light plasma, it uses hot air heated to nearly 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The wand is buryed inside the pile of coal to heat until the briquettes begin to spark. (Read the full post about ‘New BBQ lighter gets coals flaming in seconds’…)

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There’s a great line in Apollo 13 where the character of Gene Kranz yells out “I don’t care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do!” So when some enterprising geek comes along and creates and application that turns an iPhone or iTouch into a piano, how can we not scream “encore!?” Taking advantage of the iphone and iPod Touch’s multi touch interface, the iAno virtual piano application turns a “jailbroken” iPhone into a four octave keyboard with realistic piano sampling sounds. The keys on the keyboard even animate on touch and up to give keys can be pressed at any one time. (Read the full post about ‘New App puts your iPhone in touch with it’s inner virtuoso’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 11:43AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Gaming Select owners of Guitar Hero III for Wii have been moshing uncontrollably as best they can in mono for months on end, but it seems as if Activision has finally got its interconnects sorted and will start issuing replacement discs. According to direct end-user reports and the (admittedly blurry) shots in the gallery below, the firm is now dishing out pre-paid envelopes in which customers have to ship back their faulty GH III disc and wait “3 to 4 weeks” before getting a new, stereo-enabled one free of charge. Live sans your favorite game for a month, or keep rockin’ in the monaural world? (Read the full post about ‘Activision cranks up Wii Guitar Hero III disc replacement program’…)

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In the UK experiments are due to start where mobile (cell) phone calls made in the home will be routed through the users broadband connection rather than through the existing phone network, because of the increasing volume and subsequent strain on the traditional networks. The technology is similar to that used in Wi-Fi and connectivity is based on ‘Femtocells’ which are small pockets of wireless connectivity—just think wireless router. Putting the increased volume into perspective, the growth of video downloads means that a network that would normally handle 500 voice conversations at the same time, would only handle 15 simultaneous downloads. (Read the full post about ‘When is Mobile not Mobile?’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 11:40AM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home Entertainment It didn’t take too terribly long after Warner chose Blu-ray as its new best friend for every single wagon wheel to fall of the HD DVD carriage, and now that the funeral has been set, we’re quite curious as to what the hd dvd early adopters plan on doing. Head over to Engadget HD and let your voice be heard — even if it’s but a whimper.[Image courtesy of Los Angeles Loyolan]Tags: gaming, cable, equipment, mobile devices (Read the full post about ‘So, what are you HD DVD early adopters going to do?’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 10:39AM by Nilay PatelFiled under: LaptopsThe folks over at Laptop already hooked us up with some unboxing pics of Everex’s Cloudbook, and now they’ve posted up some quickie first impressions of the would-be Eee killer — and it looks like Everex could use that extra delay time to polish things up. The Cloudbook’s gOS build was found to be reasonably speedy and the minuscule trackpad designed for thumb usage actually grew on the reviewers, but what really killed the machine was a host of video glitches Everex says are the result of the wrong OS version being installed on the machine. (Read the full post about ‘First impressions of the Cloudbook: rough around the edges’…)

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It’s hard not to see the handwriting on the wall. Literally. But let’s recap. First, it was select studios announcing the dropping of hd dvd and focusing on the better selling Blue Ray Line. Then, it was Best Buy announcing it would only sell Blue Ray. Then, Amazon announced a 50% off clearance on 150 HD DVD movies. Microsoft drops the price of their XBox HD DVD add-on player to $129. But the real killer was when WalMart announced it would drop HD DVD effective in June. So what to do when the war is over? Toshiba finally raises the white flag. The news came from a report by NHK in Japan, which stated that Toshiba plans to withdraw from next generation high-definition DVD production and close plants in Japan. (Read the full post about ‘With Toshiba dropping HD DVD, it’s all over but the shouting’…)

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Griffin EarThumps Headphones - Black EarThumps are earbuds that are designed to isolate your listening experience from outside sound by fitting comfortably inside the ears, to deliver rich, crystal clear audio. Buying an iPod is an investment worth protecting! …one that deserves to reach its full audio potential. Griffin EarThumps deliver clean transparent atmospheric highs, and deep bass. EarThumps increase your iPod listening experience by an order of magnitude and come in either Status Symbol White or Undercover Black, to match the newer iPods. (Read the full post about ‘Griffin EarThumps Headphones - Black’…)

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The AT&T branded Centro has not officially been announced yet, but that is not stopping at least one AT&T retail store from selling the phone anyway. A lucky user over on the Treo Central Forums was able to make the purchase at a Denver retail store. What else is there to do after you purchase an unreleased and unannounced phone, unbox it and post the pictures. We can only assume that the official release will come Tuesday February 19, unless you are also lucky enough to get yours early. As you can also see from the above image, the Centro appears to be running the phone app from the Treo 680. Looking good. Read [Flickr] Via [Treo Central Forums] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘AT&T Palm Centro in the wild’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 9:31AM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Misc. gadgets Sure, it seemed like the Pentagon had things wrapped up when they told us that they’d be aiming their rockets skyward and blasting that pesky zombie-spore and / or Alien-carrying satellite out of the sky. Of course, they failed to tell us the price: sixty million dollars. What seemed at first to be a simple game of Missile Command has become an extensive military operation, involving modified rockets and control systems, hundreds of industry experts and scientists, as well as the Aegis sea-defense cruiser accompanied by two destroyers. The Navy will wait until the space shuttle lands next Wednesday before beginning operations, and they say they’re fully prepared to bring W.O.P.R. (Read the full post about ‘Cost of shooting down a spy satellite: $60m. Look on Alien’s face when the missile hits: priceless.’…)

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