Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Desktops

A 20-year old student in Shanghai’s Yangpu District perished after being “electrocuted by his computer.” Reportedly, the man removed the external case from his desktop to prevent it from overheating in the non-air conditioned room, and when his legs came into contact with the innards, the resulting shock left him deceased. Initial investigations by local police confirmed that he was indeed electrocuted, yet there was no reason given as to why the individual refused to switch on the cooling system.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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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

Andrew Koyfman writes “Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories is falling apart. Top researchers and scientists are being poached by the competitors, including BAE, Adobe, and others. The lab was responsible for much breakthrough research in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics, AI, and machine learning. They were the first group to develop the Diamond Touch table, an early precursor to Microsoft’s Surface Computing. Now it looks like the famous lab will be no more, at least not in their original glory.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Yeah, we know, it’s hard to believe that DirecTV and TiVo are continuing to add features for hardware that is no longer available for purchase and that DirecTV takes every opportunity to replace with it’s own branded DVR. But we can only hope that this is a prelude to a new DirecTV TiVo. In the meantime current owners can expect to get a few of the great features that stand-alone TiVo owners have enjoyed for some time. A full feature list is not included in the announcement, but the few that are include: a deleted items folder, overlap protection, and DirecTV’s remote booking feature — which we assume will require a home phone line or could mean that USB Ethernet support will be added as well. So while these features are certainly not ground breaking, we’re sure they′ll be welcomed additions for the owners of aging DirecTiVo hardware.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ben Drawbaugh

The Webguy writes “Apple has released the first update for the iPhone. Updated components in the v1.0.1 update include Safari, the WebCore, and the WebKit. Quoting from the Apple Knowledge Base, the ‘update is only available through iTunes, and will not appear in your computer’s Software Update application, or on the Apple Support Downloads site.’” One source speculated that Apple wanted to get fixes in users′ hands ahead of the Black Hat conference where details of early iPhone vulnerabilities could be revealed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Over at the Steel Yard blog, Jackson writes:

Camp Metalhead, the Steel Yard’s two week summer youth program, is firing on all cylinders! By the first day, all ten of the students had learned to cut steel using the versatile oxy acetylene torch. A morning trip to our partners over at Mid City Steel and Scrap proved to be well worthwhile. Some of the students even got to operate the fierce TEREX magnetic scrap mover, while the Steel Yard chaperons looked on with jealousy. Stay tuned for more exciting field trips and projects.

Camp Metalhead [photos] - Link

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Filed under: Portable Audio

Tascam’s already busted out a guitar trainer in the form of a digital audio player, but it looks like the rest of the band can now get in some practice as well, with the company now introducing some bass and vocal trainers to go along with it. As with the guitar trainer, these each boast 1GB of internal memory, along with a monochrome 128 x 64 resolution screen and an input for your bass guitar or microphone. That’ll let you play (or sing) along with your favorite tunes, with it also giving you the ability to adjust tempo and perform other effects. No official word on price just yet, but the guitar version sold for ¥20,000, or just under $170.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Cellphones

Boot up iTunes everybody, the Joz wasn’t kidding when he said the first iPhone update is nigh. Apple just pushed out iPhone update 1.0.1. We don’t have specifics about what this thing fixes (the x.0.1 and “bug fixes” doesn’t instill much confidence it’s all about new features), but we’ll be updating as we learn more.

[Thanks, BGR]

Update: Ok, updating took about five or six minutes. Noticing anything specifically? Let us know in comments, we’ll list the fixes here (since Apple wasn’t courteous enough to tell us what, exactly, it repaired in the device).

Ah, Apple’s added the fix / changelog. Noice!

Good news everybody! iFuntastic (v2) still works with the 1.0.1 update! We tested it, and it worked beautifully.

Continue reading Apple iPhone update 1.0.1 released!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Gaming

Though nothing’s quite official yet, it looks like Nintendo of America’s George Harrison is about to step down from his position as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, according to an industry source, and as rumored last month. This could have something to do with NoA’s move to Redwood City and New York, or just be coincidence, but either way it sounds like George is sticking around to help with the sales and marketing transition, and then bidding the big N adieu. The guy has been around since 1992, right after the launch of the SNES, and while he’s never carried the kind of profile as the Regginator of late, it’s hard not to notice the guy, walking around with a name like that. In related news, apparently Nintendo is advertising for job openings that sound eerily similar to Perrin Kaplan and Beth Llewelyn’s, who had also been rumored to leave during the HQ shuffle.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Paul Miller

The latest Exploratorium: Maker Saturday Webcast is up - CandyFab, the sugar printer created by Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman, creates 3D sculpture by stacking 2D images made of sugar. This sweet project ties together many disciplines—motion control, woodworking, microcontroller programming, sewing, reverse engineering, circuit hacking, high-power analog electronics, 3D modeling, and computer programming.

Windell has been employed as a quantum mechanic, photographer, and (atomic) clock maker and, among other pursuits, has built an interactive dining table and hard-drive wind chimes. Lenore, who describes herself as a Pastafarian, enjoys working on bicycles, fabric, and electronics—and making edible origami.

Exploratorium: Maker Saturday Webcasts - [via] Link.

Coming up:

Making Your Own Kind of Music
8/4/2007 1:00 PM PDT

When Ezra Daly couldn’t find a good slap bass guitar for less than $1,000, he looked around for the materials to build his own—and the Frankenbass was born. It was created from a Moto Guzzi motorcycle gas tank, a chrome tailpipe, and scrap mahogany. Ezra will demonstrate the process of making instruments from recycled components and will play the Frankenbass. Nerdcore, hip-hop musician Doc Popular is a circuit-bender who will be performing with toy instruments he has hacked. Doc describes his approach as “anti-theory,” in which he connects wires and sees what happens.

Ezra is a motorcycle luthier who created the Frankenbass on his bedroom floor to debut with a psychobilly band called Buddy’s Riot. Doc Popular (aka Brian Roberts) is a video editor, marketing guru, and third-place world yo-yo champion in 2000.

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

coondoggie writes “Today IBM will announce it is consolidating nearly 4,000 small computer servers in six locations onto about 30 refrigerator-sized mainframes running Linux, saving $250 million in the process. The 4,000 replaced servers will be recycled by IBM Global Asset Recovery Services. The six data centers currently take up over 8 million square feet, or the size of nearly 140 football fields.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_Mac_event_Scheduled_for_8_7′;Looks like those rumors about new Macs (specifically, iMacs) on the 7th were true — we were just invited to an Apple “product presentation for Mac″ at Apple Town Hall in Cupertino next week. The event gets started on the morning of Tuesday, August 7th, and while we weren’t promised an appearance by El Jobso, Apple was, shockingly enough, very open and clear about the fact that this is going to be a press gathering for Mac products (and Mac products only — so stash away those iPhone hopes, fears, and rumors until next Wednesday).

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block

Dave writes -

Last year, I and five friends created this scale version of the popular Brio Labyrinth game for Holocene’s Annual Mini Golf Invitational, where artists are asked to create original mini-golf holes.

Labyrinth: The Mini-golf Version is just like Labyrinth: the Original Laptop Game, except played with a golf ball instead of a ball bearing. “Greens″ surround the mini-golf version and allow you to putt the ball around the game. Of course, if you successfully navigate the maze, you get a hole in one. A LOT of fun.

Our hard work garnered us a prize at the event, “Hole I’d Most Like to Take Home.” Now you can. Just make me an offer I can’t refuse. I will deliver within 10 miles of downtown Portland for an extra $20.

Giant Labyrinth game - Link.

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We’re not sure why Apple chooses to reveal such juicy tidbits to dry, uptight market analyst types before… oh, say us for example, but be that as it may, it seems Apple’s VP of iPod Product Marketing has spilled some tasty beans in a chat with RBC Capital Markets this week. RBC’s research note indicates that an “iPhone update patch is expected shortly,” while “management expressed excitement at plans to increase iPhone value over time via new software features.” We figure that doesn′t mean that this very first update will fulfill all of our wildest dreams for the iPhone’s true potential, but RBC is speculating that patches will eventually add MMS, Leopard-specific integration of some nature, location-based services, and — naturally — new widgets. We don′t suppose this first update could have something to do with a particular vulnerability, could it?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Chris Ziegler

An anonymous reader writes “Michael Geist reports that the Supreme Court of Canada has just issued a new online contracting decision that removes the ability for consumers to challenge mandatory arbitration clauses found in e-commerce contracts. (Decision is here.) The case involved a lawsuit against Dell Computer, which refused to sell hundreds of mistakenly priced computers purchased on their website. Dell tried to sidetrack a class action by claiming that all consumers were required to enter arbitration due to a clause buried in its contract via a hyperlink. Geist explains why the ruling may not be as unfavorable for Canadian consumers as it seems at first, in part because some provinces have already passed laws banning e-commerce sites from blocking class-action suits.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Filed under: Transportation

Two clever Canadian teen-scientists have built a bizarre, eco-friendly electric bike which runs on principals similar to those of the Segway — but looks way cooler. The motorized prototype (called either the “Uno” or “Tango,” depending on who you speak with), sports two wheels side-by-side, sort of like a double unicycle which the rider sits directly above. The bike, based off of the frame design of a Yamaha R6 sport bike, can reach speeds of up to 40 MPH, and uses accelerometer technology to keep its balance. Inventors Ben Gulak and Jason Morrow say that the bike beats out the Segway in terms of speed, and delivers better maneuverability than Bombardier’s Embrio unicycle concept. The whole package is surprisingly powered by amped-up wheelchair motors and 36-volt batteries. Next up, the young men plan to assemble a rag-tag band of colorful characters, get on their bikes, and ride into Neo-Tokyo during a riot.

[Via Ubergizmo]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Joshua Topolsky