Gadgety News

Now, looking at these headphones from Psyko Audio I can tell that these aren’t for the daily commute - unless you’re one of those irritating people on the tube that insist in sharing their crappy, tinny selection of tunes with everyone in the carriage!

So, what is this thing all about?

Well, most of us enjoy that surround sound vibe and this is the headgear version of 5.1.

As you can see by the second diagram Psyko places the speakers in precise locations apparently to create the correct timing and volume differences to both ears just like sounds in a room around you.

Yup, they’re recreating a room around your head with a stack of speakers wherever they can fit them.

There are little “waveguides” that will some-how direct all the front sounds to flow past the front of your ears, and all the rear sounds to flow past the rear of your ears.

They also let you choose whether you want closed or vented ear cups and they tout the comfort of the headset but I can’t help but think that all those speakers are going to add some bulk.

They cost $300 which is steep for a set of cans but if you were looking to buy a 5.1 system and have no friends to share the audio with then they may just be worth it.

Looking at the testimonials there’s a bunch of gamers that seem to like them and judging by the mic I’m guessing that’s who these things are aimed at.

Yesterday the sound of the Zunepocolypse terrorised thousands of Zune owners.

Tears and the gnashing of teeth sent ripples across the interweblogosphere.

Microsoft blames a leap-year handling bug and that’s why the Zune 30GB failed.

They’ve provided a fix which will sort itself out today - January 1 2009.

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. That being the case, the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.

Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?
It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.

Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?
This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q: What’s the timeline on a fix?
The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?
There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue?
The issue should resolve itself.

Q: Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices?
This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.

Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold?
All 30GB devices are potentially affected.

Well, I’m off to get ready for the partying!

It looks like MMIX is shaping up to be a goodly and interesting one.

So, whilst I am still sober enough to type I thought I’d take this opportunity to wish you a fantastic and prosperous 2009!

If you happen to be going to Vagabonds tonight I’ll either see you at the bar or the dance-floor.

Have fun and make merry and I’ll see you on the other side of the year

Much love.

J

I’ve managed to avoid guessing what all this was about as there has been a multitude of suggestions varying from the possible to the outrageous.

But now there seems to be a more solid announcement.

The odd Zii website that went up a few days ago stating ‘Stemcell Computing’ is reportedly referring to an all new processing chip.

It seems that eipZENter is still being tight-lipped regarding the details but those know-it-alls over at Engadget state that they have been told that it will likely be:

“one of the biggest projects Creative has invested in.”

as well as being told that:

“[Zii] is completely different from the X-Fi audio chip and it will be used in a variety of upcoming products.”

Ok……………..I’m guessing all shall be revealed at CES 2009 then.

After the initial reports that the  Mac mini was being killed off a new version is rumoured to be appearing at MacWorld 2009 according to Gadget Lab:

Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job), could not disclose details about the Mac Mini other than its upcoming announcement at Macworld Expo, which begins Jan. 5.

Wired is backing this info but is unable to bolster it with any other good solid follow-up meat.

A guesstimate on the specs include the likes of an aluminum brick design (in a desktop? why?), DisplayPort, and 4GB of RAM maximum, with 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo.

Have you heard anything about this?

Let me know

Wired

Who wouldn’t want one of these beauties?

The Millennium Falcon sled is essentially a custom saucer sled - so off you go spinning around wildly and  slicing into the ankles of anybody that gets in your way!

It’ll cost you $34.99 which is less than hiring the services of a certain Mr Solo no doubt!

All together now: “Laugh it up fuzz ball!” 

Amazon via Oh Gizmo!

Microsoft Live Labs have just released their first application for Apple’s iPhone  before making it available on Microsoft’s own mobile platform.

Curious…………..

Seadragon Mobile was added to the App Store over the weeked. 

It’s a free image-browsing app that allows users to quickly ‘deep zoom’ online images and is intended to “demonstrate what is possible with a mobile platform”.

Seadragon is the backbone for Microsoft’s Photosynth, which allows users to take a grouping of photographs and stitch them together into a faux 3D environment.

“So where’s the Windows Mobile version of Seadragon?”, all you Windows Mobile users may well ask.

Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, told TechFlash, “The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a [graphics processing unit]. Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do.”

Crave

This is dangerous news for me.

I have been known to waste DAYS on this game on my puter and now there’s news that there’s going to be an iPhone version of Sim City!

Kotaku has spent some time with EA’s latest big project, namely SimCity, they had nothing but great things to say about it.

Here’s some snippets of the more important aspects of their testing:

Whatever you do, though, don’t go thinking this is SimCity Lite. This mobile version is fully featured, with pre-built cities, accountant recommendations, water pipes, natural disasters, etc. The works.

[Pinching] in as close as you can on the 2D sprites reveals intricate details, such as smoke emitting from towers, or shading alongside the buildings. Overall, a really nice graphical presentation that compares similarly to SimCity 3000.

If you would like to read all of their opinions click the link below - All it leaves me to say is that SimCity will be released before this year is over.

I apologise now for not answering your calls after then!

Kotaku

Remember when the Met-Office sent the lads to tell us the weather?  They’d be there in their best tweed suits moving magnetic symbols around in an attempt to tell us what the weather will (probably) be doing tomorrow?

Now it’s all svelte young blondes and more computer graphics than your average Hollywood blockbuster!

The top man was Michael Fish of course.  A man who dedicated 30 years of his life to making sure people like us didn’t forget our umbrellas.

Now the man that is the weather legend (bar the slight miscalculation regarding an unforeseen hurricane in ‘89), is yours to stick to your fridge, along with 34 other magnetic retro magnets Fished from the vaults of the BBC. Have a go at doing your own forecast, you’ll be surprised at how accurate it is.

This has to be a great British Christmas gift idea!

Here’s another cryptic release from those strange folks at Violet - you know, those that brought us Mir:ror and the interactive bunny Nabaztag.

I remember the original Dal Lamp that was released 4 or 5 years ago had a rather hefty price-tag so I’m hoping that this new version will be a little more wallet friendly.

The all new dal:dal lamp should be ready for release early next year and, just like the original, will change its colours to relay different information.

Violet says that it, converts the “world’s ebb & flow and endless stream of events into halos of living colours and audio micro-messages.”

No exact release date just yet but, according to GeekLifeBlog, it’ll set you back €59, or about $75 - so they’ve actually knocked off a zero from the end of the price!!!

GeekLifeBlog

Microsoft seem to be working hard to level the playing-field after the Mac/PC ad campaign.

Most of you will have seen those “I’m proud to be a PC” but the latest thing straight outa Redmond is its own clothing line dubbed “Softwear”.

Microsoft has acquired the assistance of Crispin Porter & Bogusky in order to ensure the results actually score on the cool-ometer, and it has also hired rapper Common as a spokesman.

Would you buy one? Personally I’m digging the design but still not convinced.

Boy Genius Report

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan has conjured up a flexible display that allows a smartphone’s screen to double to five inches.

This actually makes the screen size comparable to many netbooks and all-in-all a lot less bulky than the iCEPhone.

The demo device is branded the “Nokia Communicator” and comprises an editing keyboard (lower half) and a wide format display (upper half). The user only would see the top half of the screen — the rest is hiding behind the keyboard and can be pulled out when required.

Looking at the pics it looks like the screen is separated down the middle but apparently that grey line marks the task border which can be shifted up and down the display as the user prefers.

ITRI has partnered with Pilot Fish to produce this demo model and is now seeking world-wide manufacturers to adopt the new technology which they say will be ready in a year.

Could we be seeing an iPhone with a screen that can be pulled out to three times it’s original size in a year or so?

In this, the time of the Crunch, new gadgety toys might be hurting the wallets and purses of the GadgetyNews faithful.

But fear not my intrepid fans of geekahol!

How about displaying some classic ’70s gaming hardware on your desk showing how retro-cool you are? Better still; they’ll cost you next to nowt!

With the help of the company’s colour printer and some of their bestest paper go and fold up an Atari 2600 or trusty commodore.

These patterns by Marshall Alexander feature cool 3D pop-outs and nice old-school-appropriate graphics and typography.

Can’t get cheaper than free can ya?

Foldskool Heroes

Gaia Online released their first “casual MMO”, zOMG!, on open beta a couple of weeks ago apparently and I’ve just got round to having a quick tinker.

First I checked out the promo flick and this did whet my appetite.

The In-game screenshots were ok and promised a cute but playable game - it has to be good, it’s called zOMG! for a start!

The background of the game-world is pretty cool: Basically, the inanimate stuff like alarm clocks and boat anchors have started to come to life. The Gaians call these newly-alive creatures “the Animated”. The worst part is that the Animated seem to really dislike the “naturals” in the world and that means that they generally attack Gaians on sight.

I so wanted this to be as good as the trailers looked but, unfortunately the whole thing was let down by laggy game-play and I soon lost interest in the thing.

It’s a shame as it could’ve been a really slick MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online)  game……but I’m left still unsure of it’s purpose to be honest.  Is it mainly an online community with a game or vice-versa?

Ideas?

If you’re still happily leaving all your gadgety gear on stand-by and you’re comfortable with leaving your amp, power amp, Blu-ray player, etc on while you’re playing Left4Dead on your monster gaming rig perhaps some guilt-therapy is in order.

Dubbed the Wilting Flower, it’s a visual reminder of how much electricity you’re guzzling.

When you’re being thrifty with the tricity, it’ll be a happy, perky little flower with its petals all open. Awwwww!

But as you suck on those KwH’s it will turn red and, should you continue spanking the units, it will wilt and close up. You will have killed the poor plant BOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!

Not very subtle but - hey, a Yorkshireman invented it so it’s gonna be good!

Doncaster based Carl Smith is the brains behind the thing and it works by chatting wirelessly to a clip that you DIY install onto your electricity meter.

T’owld fella has definitely got summat here (as we say up north). Instead of using a purly, functionally bland screen showing how many watts or pounds are being wasted; this visual version is a lot more, well, graphic.

It’s still just a prototype right now, but there are hopes for a production version that would sell for £60.

Check out Mr Smith’s profile

I don’t know about you but this cold weather makes me want to have a warm lunch - stuff your sarnies!

Thanko have seen the light (perhaps) and has gone and built a useful USB device rather than their usual oddness.

It’s a heated lunchbox.  Simple as that.  It’s powered via USB to keep your food warm while you are commuting or grafting away.

The heater itself is made up of anodized aluminum with a layer of Styrofoam insulation to keep the heat from escaping.

Now, Thanko, you have redeemed yourself - What’s next on the table?

Thanko via Ubergizmo

I play in a variety of bands and projects with an equally ecclectic range of styles.  I could be playing out-and-out pop one day and then a few days later playing Drum and Bass and then covering an Iron Maiden set.

It would be great to have the choice of set-ups, necks and pickups for each gig.

That range of choice has come to fruition; not only for 6-stringers but there’s even a bass option.

Ziv has created a hardware platform called Zoybar for making your own stringed instruments.

Using a few easily-interchangeable parts, you can make anything from a long-necked six-string with custom double pickups to a bass with integrated Kaospad! YAY!

It’s essentially what others might do with pieces of random instruments, but the attachment method for the bits in a Zoybar setup is standard so that they’re swappable, individually upgradeable and so on, without any soldering or drilling to be done.  This is great news for me as my Yamaha RBX (now named the cricket bat) was put through lots of agony with different pick-ups and eventually got de-fretted…it worked but wasn’t pretty.  Don’t think the Ford Escort Yellow helped either.

The set looks damned sweet and will get people that are afraid to ruin customise their instruments via parts-bins a chance to tweak.

For one thing, it can help you with this Zoybar contest, in which you submit a video of your own unique instrument.

Zoybar will be selling kits starting in January.

I’d like to present this article as a HUGE hint at what I want for Christmas

Via CrunchGear

If you happen to be a designer of mobile phones you’re pretty much cornered into a number of ‘must haves’:

1. They have to be pocketable
2. They must look cool when shoved up against your face
3. Even though its small it somehow must have a great display that can hold a bunch of icons and be able to display video

So, how can you shove what in essence has to be the desktop viewing experience into a device small enough to fit the skinniest jeans?

Entree Samsung’s new concept phone that’s being shown off at the FPD International show in Yokohama.

It opens like a book to reveal a flexible OLED big enough to handle all those video flicks that you carry around with you.

Calm yourselves though.  There’s no word on when we’ll actually see such a beast hit production.

Until then - check out this video

Via Engadget

I just love it when somebody looks at something that we take for granted; something that has remained the same for ages - and then re-engineers it.

That’s exactly what those fantastic designers over at Art Lebedev Studios have done.

The Luxofor traffic light concept improves upon that world known spherical lamp deal that seems to have been around for ever.

Lebedev’s team asserts that using square lights backed with bright laser diodes would make better use of the available space and provide a more noticeable signal to drowsy motorists.

I’m also digging what looks to be a countdown timer that lets you know how much time you have left to get across the crossing.

The sound of hands hitting foreheads are echoing around the globe as designers ask themselves “why didn’t I think of that?”.

Electronista

Kingston, the renowned memory maker have just pushed their DataTraveler line a bit further and released the Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB 64GB.

Why bother with a portable hard drive when you could just drop this in your pocket, bag or even attach it to your keys? 

The only downside I can see is that you’re probably more likely to leave all your saved stuff on the pub table or lose it down the back of the sofa.

According to Jaja Lin, Kingston’s Flash business development manager: “The new 64GB DataTraveler 150 takes transportable storage to the next level with big capacity in a small package. As file sizes increase with digital media content such as music and photos, the need for USB Flash drives with high capacities will continue to rise. The DT150 certainly addresses those needs today.”

The Kingston DataTraveler 150 64GB will run on pretty much everything - but should you have any problems each stick comes with a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support.

Look to pay around £120 for this chunk of memory portability