Author: Navneet Alang

Chiptunes – that genre of music that takes classic tracks and then covers them using 8-bit video game sounds – has always been a bit controversial. Some geeks love the retro-tech aesthetic, while others find it sacrilege to take the treasured music of their youth and turn into bleeps and blips. Well, if you’ve never heard of it before, now’s your time to judege, as someone named ‘rainwarrior’ has created an 8-bit cover of Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. It’s a discombobulating experience, but if you too grew up playing Nintendo, Sega Master System – maybe even Turbografx 16 – you might find the use…

3D Printing has always been a bit of a confusing concept. It’s always seemed a bit befuddling to think that 3D objects – things you can pick up and hold and use – could be printed in the same way that a document or photo are. All that said – who cares? Look! Shiny jewelery! The Goncalo Campos Camion collection is a set of stainless-steel pieces that have been created using a 3D printer. The jewelery is quite unique in that the printing process leaves a rough, distinctive texture on the steel, which also means that it’s not only pretty, but very tough too. The pieces display a spare design, and seem perfect…

Those of you are fans of both letter-writing and Samuel Beckett-like absurdity are really going to like this: Google Envelopes is a concept that would allow you to send snail mail from within GMail. Designed by Rahul Mahtani & Yofred Moik, the idea is to put an extra button into GMail that would let you send an actual printed letter from within the email service. What’s more, the envelope will be printed with a route from Google Maps, tracing how the letter got to you, which is charming personalized touch. While the idea is definitely impractical, it does remind one of how much effort used to go…

Have you ever been suckered into buying a high-end digital cable? Don’t be ashamed – we’re geeks, right? We want only the best. But, you now have no reason – like no reason at all – to ever consider spending more than $10 on a cable to connect your Blu-Ray player, cable box or PS3 or Xbox 360 to your TV. The helpful folks over at Wallstats.com have created a handy little graphic flowchart that lets you know not only why never to buy the fancy HDMI cables certain companies sell (*cough* Monster *cough*) but also why doing so robs starving children of food. Sorta’. The basic gist of the argument is that digital…

Well it’s difficult to imagine what might go wrong this idea. Unvarnished, which today launched into a private beta, is a new service that lets people leave anonymous reviews of you. Yep. Anonymous reviews. About you! Fun! In theory, the site is meant to be a sort-of open version of Linked-In where anyone can post a review of you (in whatever capacity) and you, if you like, can claim your profile. Site founder Pete Kasanjy argues that anonymity is crucial to the system because, instead of the glowing recommendations of Linked-In, you’ll get real, honest feedback on a person. With the need to appear…

While it’s true that there are legitimate uses for Bittorrent, let’s be honest: most of us use it solely for downloading movies or the latest episode of Grey’s Anato– erm, I mean, Mad Men.  And it seems that point hasn’t been lost on a U.S. judge,  who has ordered that popular Bittorrent search site Isohunt remove any access to content that might infringe on copyright. The site, which tells your Bittorrent software where to find all those files, gets about 30 million site views a month. But with all infringing content banished, this move means that Isohunt has effectively been shut down, joining…

In the tech world – especially when it comes to Apple -  it’s a known fact that America gets everything first. But fear not people of other countries! It looks like that at the end of April, you too will have iPads to put next to your black and white TVs – or maybe even carry one in your horse and buggy! Canadian Apple Tablet blog iPad in Canada have gotten word that the weekend of April 24th is a ‘blackout wekeend’ for Apple Store employees – which basically means they can’t request any days off during that period. It’s the kind of ‘from-up-on-high’ order that accompanies all major Apple product releases….

A few years ago, when Facebook broke out of its college ghetto into the mainstream, many people welcomed it with open arms. At the time, it seemed like such a helpful, innocuous thing – it was easy to use and offered a neat, simple way for people to share things with each other. And it’s true: Facebook is a great way for people unfamiliar with the web to get acquainted with it. While uploading photos, videos and one’s general thoughts were once the domain of those a bit more nerdy, Facebook made it simple for anyone to experience the web’s power for both expression and connection. As time went on though,…

iPhones? Wii’s? Bet you think those are pretty fancy, right? Well, when it comes to sheer wow factor, those technologies have little on Skinput, which lets you control things by simply pressing different parts of your skin. Your skin! The system, which was developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, turns the human body into an interface. But rather than using electrical impulses, which is how the iPhone and other touch screens work, it actually measures the movement of sound made by tapping different parts of the arm or hand. But in addition to measuring acoustic waves, the…

As soon as Blu-Ray high-definition films became available, geeks the world over waited with bated breath for one group of films: Lord of the Rings. Then, those geeks were smacked smartly in the face. Why? Because after already releasing both the theatrical and extended cuts separately on DVD, in a clear attempt at a money-grab, Warner Bros. decided to release the theatrical cuts on Blu-Ray now, but save the extended high-def versions for later, when The Hobbit movie is released. Awesome, right? Well, now it seems that dedicated fans have been spat on again, as an astute member of AVS Forums has…