Hardware posts

The Sony PS3 is highly regarded in the gaming world. Heck, it is even looked upon favorably by the U.S. Military as a number-crunching beast. But it is also innovative in that it allows other operating systems like Linux to be installed. Unfortunately, Sony has decided to kill off that feature for the sake of security. You’d think that Sony would realize that if a user was willing to go as far as to install a Linux operating system on their PS3 that they would be well aware that things could go wrong — system security could be compromised. After all, any script kiddy could hack into any one of Sony’s laptops…

Yesterday The Apple Blog announced that the new iPad was going to be offering 30,000 free eBooks. The thing is, the free books are all hosted at Project Gutenberg (and have been for years) so any device with a web browser can access these eBooks, even a Blackberry. The headline, “iPad to Offer 30,000 Free e-Books at Launch” actually downplays their generosity. In point of fact, you can go read the 30,000 books RIGHT NOW on whatever machine you are reading this article! Apple’s offer is so downright selfless that you don’t even need to buy the iPad, you can still get the 30,000 books anway by clicking…

Customers of AT&T will soon be able to buy into an option that makes the phone work the way it’s supposed to, for the one-time low price of $150. It’s called the Microcell–just set up this little baby wherever you happen to be–it supports up to 4 phones at a time and it taps into an existing DSL or Cable connection, becoming its own AT&T mini-tower. (DSL or cable connection not included, AT&T subscription also not included). This has been in limited rollout for a few months in Raleigh, NC and one or two other cities, but it’s being made available nationally now, and you can almost hear the…

For some time now there has been talk of Google just going out and building experimental fiber optic networks in the US to test out the infrastructure, and the response has been extraordinary. Including cities renaming themselves to Google to draw the company’s attention. Other mayors have swam with sharks and dove into frozen lakes. Personally, I think we could use more guys like these in the federal government. Google’s official blog announced last night that the deadline for applying to get the free ultra-fast internet is now over. As of that time, last night at 5:26 PM, they had received nearly…

Pictured above, an unmanned drone taken from the military blog Armybase.us. Washington’s unmanned drone airplanes will not just be Washington’s anymore. Robert Gates, the U.S. Defense Secretary announced plans to start selling and giving them to other countries, including Pakistan. In the past they had been sold only to Italy and Great Britain. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Canada, and Spain have also shown interest, as well as a whole host of other countries to whom nobody would ever sell them. Never mind The Missile Control Regime pact from 1987, which makes the sale of autonomous fliers…

Yesterday was a day for robots; today is a day for things that don’t need to exist. A team of students a the University of Tromsø, Norway, have gone to the trouble of creating the means to play Quake, with their hands, on a wall. This is by no means not awesome, but one has to wonder why. One really, really has to wonder why. Alright, so really it’s just a proof of concept – there are plenty of reasons for displays this large to exise, and the video below proves that gigapixel photo navigation on a wall like this all but promises to make ‘travel’ a thing of the past.

 Even now, the word is fading from…

Flexible displays might be on the way and widely used sooner than we think. 

Recently, HP unveiled a new idea in a demo of its flexible display technology. CTO Phil McKinney rolled up one of HP’s flexible displays…and it was immediately destroyed. “You’re probably good for about half a dozen times before the material will just fail,” explained McKinney. Uh, Phil? That doesn’t sound like progress. But that’s not the point. The displays aren’t meant to be rolled up – at least, not after the manufacturing process. What HP’s real goal is, is to produce a new, cost-effective…

A true gentleman – a man who respects the finer things – realizes the value of slowing it down. Taking time out. Maybe have the manservant fix a beverage. Maybe take the Segway out to the patio. Maybe type an email. Maybe type it slowly. For this gentleman, designer Erik Campbell has developed a keyboard. What Campbell has designed is a jellyfish new take on the concept of the ‘chorded’ keyboard – chorded referring to music. Like you strum guitar strings in concert with each other, so too do you press the five buttons on Campbell’s keyboard to produce different characters. Frankly, I found 150…

In light of the coming arrival of Apple’s magic tablet, you might wonder what reason anyone would have left for an eReader. It’s tough to imagine anyone preferring their dull, greyscale screens – that Nicholas Baker once called a “four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon” – to the glossy LCD of an iPad. After all, when you think of the comparisons between them, it isn’t just the screen that makes the iPad looks so impressive next to an Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. The iPad is obviously full-color and is capable of not only showing video but playing music too. It surfs the web, it downloads apps,…

Apple’s top of the charts when it comes to touchscreen quality, according to this study by MOTO Labs. It’s about accuracy, but there are many more metrics – pressure sensitivity, performance around the edges and waviness of the lines drawn. It’s also not about hardware – some of the phones tested use the same components. The firmware, software and calibration all play a strong part too….