Gizmodo

Sony PCM-M10 Provides Some Pro Features at "Budget" Price [Sony]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:30:00 -0400

The next Cronkrite you certainly aren't, but this $400 "pro-level" PCM-M10 recorder from Sony might give that semi-serious blogger gig you have based in the garage a bit more chutzpah when you're making interviews out in the field.

With the lower price point, the PCM-M10 is now the cheapest flash-based recorder in the Sony lineup. Another first is that the recorder is the first to feature a built-in speaker for playback recordings. One more first? The PCM-M10 is the first player in the line to produce MP3 files. Finally!

In other words, says blogger Brad Linder (who may or may not have interviewed Sony execs with this thing for his overview), this thing has all the same software features as the more expensive PCM-D50, except that reocrder checks in at roughly $600. Oh, and there's the drawbacks to consider too at that price point. Mainly, cheaper materials, Linder says, especially in the area of the headphone jack and some of the plastics.

Still, seems to be quite the rig for the price. But you're still no Cronkite (and neither am I, for that matter). [Brad Linder]

How Do they Make Modern Processors [Science]

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:00:00 -0400

I knew that processors—like castles—are made of sand. But I didn't know they required stuff like ion implantation at more than 185,000mph, electroplating, and the creation of up to 20 metal layers of transistor connections in 500nm.

Thankfully, Intel has put together a slide show to tell how the little things are made, from sand grains to the final packaging, going through all the dicing, the slicing, and the dancing. [Intel via Dark Roasted Blend]

Blastabulous Video of the World's Largest Saturn V Model Launch [Apollo 11]

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:30:00 -0400

We covered the 36-foot Saturn V model launch back in April, but that video was pretty bad. This one—clear as restored Moon landing footage—is thrilling, specially for its deafening noise. Yet another way to celebrate Apollo 11.

Designers Create iQ Font With Tiny Toyota, Custom Software [Fonts]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:00:00 -0400

Designers Pierre And Damien strapped professional race car driver Stef van Campenhoudt in an iQ car, set him loose beneath a camera and custom software built by Zach Lieberman, and then proceeded to create a faster take on fonts. Updated.

The camera tracks four points on the corners of the Toyota iQ by way of colorful stickers. The camera above, mounted to a crane, takes those points and delivers them to software that creates the shapes, punctuation and all-important letters and numbers that make up a font.

You can actually download this font here, although we doubt it will make you type faster or anything. It was only a ~~Smart~~ Toyota, after all (although I was personally amazed this kind of car could drive like that).

Updated: Ugh. That's a Toyota. Sorry to all you Smart car owners out there. [Vimeo - Thanks, Tom]

Rumor: Modu To "Soft Launch" This Wednesday [Cellphones]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:30:00 -0400

The zany modular phone platform known as Modu is allegedly set for a Wednesday launch with a price tag starting around $130.

Unfortunately, Modu founder Dov Moran appears to be backtracking mightily from remarks he made when we first learned about Modu more than a year ago.

If you'll remember, Modu was once billed as a modular phone with dozens of "jackets" that could do everything from GPS to play MP3s. Additional hyperbole included the promise that the phone would be an experience that could turn the "one-size-fits-all" smartphone market "on its ear."

Now, however, Moran is talking only about the low cost, simplistic nature of the modu.

"Don't forget that billions of people are still using 2nd-gen devices and a lot of them don't need much more. People just want a small, light device that's easy to dial and send text messages. If you want an Iphone with a camera that makes coffee and can transform into a kite, and you're ready to pay thousands of Shekels for it - well, you have a big choice to pick from."

Yeah, but wasn't this thing advertised as the phone that could quickly and easily transform into whatever you desired? I kind of got the impression, ironically, that a phone turning into a kite was a Modu trick, not the iPhone. Guess that changed during focus group testing. [Calcalist via Mobo]

Orthodox Jewish Couple Sues Over Motion-Sensing Light [Superstition]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:00:00 -0400

Was that headline mean? I'm sorry, but the silliness of this story, which centers around one couple's quest to annoy/sue the hell out of their entire apartment building, warranted it. The ridiculous story unfolds like this:

On Saturdays, Dr. Dena Coleman and her husband Gordon claim they are imprisoned in their condo because the landlord went and installed a motion-sensing security light to save energy and money. As Orthodox Jews, they say triggering the light violates a Sabbath rule, so they sued. Which rule? The Promethean one:

[The couple] claim they cannot leave their holiday flat on the Sabbath because when they do they automatically trigger the light in the communal hallway - contravening a religious ban on turning on electrical items from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday because it constitutes 'creating fire'. They say their human rights are being breached and are now suing the flats' management company - their neighbours - for failing to accommodate their religion.

Of the 35 other owners in the complex, not a single one of them supports the Colemans' lawsuit or their suggested fix, which entails forcing the management company to install a custom override switch. Oh, and management and the other tenants must pay back all the legal costs too.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that this is just the couple's holiday flat.

The case is scheduled for later this year. May the management install even more motion-sensing lights in that span. [Daily Mail - Thanks, Sctoland]

Motivational Music In a Dangerous Land [Image Cache]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:30:00 -0400

For every ten stories about Iraq "reductions," there might be one about Afghanistan—and it's definitely not about reductions. That said, I'm glad one of my favorite blogs, The Big Picture, decided to do two posts on Afghanistan this week.

[Big Picture]

"You Want Me to Walk On the Freakin' Moon Wearing What?!" [Space]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:00:00 -0400

These shots of gear from the first Apollo moon mission show just how far we have—and haven't—come in the 40 years since man first walked on the moon.

The suits shown here are part of a collection of Apollo-era artifacts on display right now at the National Air and Space Museum.

The exhibit is part of a 40th anniversary celebration for the event that attention-seeking idiots say never happened so that they can get a few extra clicks and adSense dollars on their crock conspiracy theory web site. Tons more pics over at io9. Can we go back now, please? [io9]

Rumor: Verizon's Upcoming Cellphone List Features Big Names, Ugly Phones [Rumor]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:30:00 -0400

Curious about what Verizon might have up its sleeve in terms of upcoming smartphones and what not? Well, if you can stomach a rumor or ten there's a list that's making the rounds today:

- LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 (touchscreen)
- BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 - October/November
- Nokia Shade 2705 - Replaces the Mirage 2605
- Nokia Twist 7705 - The swivel phone from earlier this year?
- Palm Treo 800W
- Motorola Entice W766 (Replaces the W755)
- Samsung Rogue U960 (Replaces the Glyde U940, August)
- Samsung U450 - Verizon Mobile TV-compatible
- Samsung Strut U440 - QWERTY
- Samsung Omnia-II i920 (Holiday 2009)

Again, all rumor, although that ugly looking swivel phone was previously mentioned in the same sentence as "summer 2009." [BGR]

Clean, White OLED Light Coming to an Office Park Near You [Oled]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0400

White, environmentally sound and cool to the touch OLED lights could very well be the future of mundane office environment lighting, but for now they're just meant to be man handled by four geeks at a table.

Still, Office Space comparisons aside, for me the simple dimming of the four-square OLED, and the fact that these lights won't rape and pillage the environment like those nasty mercury-containing fluorescents we see everywhere today, were cool enough to warrant the wait.

Unfortunately, just like OLED HDTV screens, these lights are starting small and expensive (the prototype shown here is just 24-inches). Hopefully the $2 million Department of Energy grant awarded to manufacturer UDC in July 2008 (it's their prototype) will hasten the process, if only slightly. [YouTube via OLED Info]

HANNSpree Animal TVs Might Give Toddlers the Wrong Idea [TVs]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:30:00 -0400

As if zoos didn't have enough problems these days, now they have to compete with the inevitable flood of disappointed children who, upon entering a zoo for the first in their lives, become utterly confused about the lack of televisions.

There are no prices available for this line of televisions, although we can tell you that, in addition to the panda, there are giraffe, elephant and polar bear models.

The sad thing, now that I think about it, is that for those last two models, that may be the only tomorrow's youth gets to experience a polar bear or elephant. [Pocket Lint via Born Rich]

Vintage Desk Coughs Up Vintage General Electric Abacus [Retromodo]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0400

Those young whipper snappers back in 1979 couldn't hold a candle to this archaic computational device, the abacus. Gizmodo 600 BC, anyone?

Reader Robin says this little guy was hiding out in the drawer of a recent vintage purchase:

My wife, Deborah, recently bought a secretary style vintage desk from an estate seller. In one of the drawers along with some staples & glue was this little abacus. It's about 2 x 4 inches. Thought you might enjoy seeing this - no clue of it's history or age & I don't see anything about it searching google.

Personally, I love the simple juxtaposition of the label. An abacus, one of the oldest counting tools on the planet, with a General Electric "Computer Department" label on the side? Classic Retromodo. [Thanks, Robin]

Nokia Trademarks "XSeries" Smartphone Line [Nokia]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:30:00 -0400

Trademark crullers over in Finland have unearthed a somewhat obvious but nevertheless interesting find in the Nokia camp this weekend. Mainly, the discovery was made that the "X" line of Nokia smartphones will be soon part of an "XSeries" line.

Wish we had more, but again, these are just trademark filings. [Digitoday (translated)]

Yes, Good Old Retro 1979 Seemed Fun (But It Really Sucked!) [Gizmodo 79]

Brian Lam — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:15:31 -0400

Writing about technology as it was thirty years ago, I realized that 1979 was perhaps the last year before a digital tsunami hit, sweeping clean the analog era that had persisted for decades.

Pretty much every gadget then-from typewriters to phones to music playback devices-was an electro-mechanic artifact of the industrial age. But beginning in the 80s all those tools began their ascent to the digital. Basically, we'd wind up doing everything differently.

Within a couple of years, the music cassettes we listened to turned would become CDs.

The typewriters would become word processors.

The cassette-based telephone answering machines would become digital playback devices.

Our television choices-four or five channels VHF and maybe four or five more UHF-would be bolstered by hundreds of cable channels. We'd get VCR's. And tape our own videos. All of that in early 1980's. Then would come the ubiquity of personal computers. And then the Internet. And cell phones. Are you getting the idea?

It was not just a change in our gadgetry, but also a change in our thinking.

That's why Gizmodo's decision to dive to 1979 was so interesting. Except for those hard at work making the stuff that was about to rock everyone else's world, people lived unaware of the revolution to come. It was a technological equivalent of the denial between the Wars. I was among those clueless; my own sudden and total conversion wouldn't come until 1981, when I embarked on a story about the subculture of computer hackers. I did read about those nutty kids who started Apple, and was vaguely aware that all of that stuff was coming. But I never put the pieces together. In my defense, hardly anyone did, and even the ones on top of things grossly underestimated how crazy things would get.

There's no reason to get nostalgic about 1979-in retrospect, it was terrible not having email, Google, iPods, word processing, Twitter, WOW, Amazon, GPS, Google and websites devoted to unnecessary quotation marks. (Also, the Phillies had never won a world series-how awful was that?) Maybe all these new tools have trashed the minds and attention spans of young people growing. But the minds of baby boomers like me were probably ruined much more by unlimited access to the stupid-making television programming of the early sixties.

After 1979, the bit was flipped, big-time. Thank God.

Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired, most recently writing about Google's ad business and the secret of the CIA sculpture. He's written six books, including Hackers, Artificial Life and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod. In 1979, he had just left his first real job, at a regional magazine called New Jersey Monthly, to become a freelance writer, and had yet to touch a computer.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon [Playstation]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0400

The all-but-forgotten PlayStation Eye, not one to be outshined by its prototype, unnamed motion-sensing PlayStation controller brother, will soon support facial recognition.

Says Sony Europe's Head of Developer Services, Kish Hirani, the Eye will have the ability to "detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you're smiling or not."

And taking a page from Microsoft's Natal platform, Hirani said the Eye will also support "skeleton tracking."

Now, I'll admit, these are cool features, but I do hope the update allows the PlayStation Eye to work in the dark. Facial recognition firmware update or not, for this to work Sony's going to have to figure out a way for this forgotten gadget to function from within the pitch black confines of people's storage closets and attics. [Gamasutra Kotaku]

Sun-Powered DIY Project List to Geek Out the Rest of Your Summer [DIY]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:30:00 -0400

While this Lifehacker list of the top 10 DIY sun-powered projects won't be much help here in Boston (where we literally saw the Sun three times in June), you may find some use for it in your sunny neck of the woods. [Lifehacker]

Australia Helps Get 1984 Back On Your Kindle [Amazon]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:00:00 -0400

Were you screwed over by Amazon this week when they remotely deleted George Orwell's 1984 from your Kindle? Yes? Good news! A simple trip to Australia is all you need to stick it back to the man:

Courtesy of MAKE, we have this interesting "hack" that provides step-by-step instructions for getting 1984 back on your Kindle—timid publishers frightened of New Media be damned.

It's not too complicated a process, other than that expensive plane ticket of course, but there are a few instructions and tools you'll need, so head over to MAKE when you're ready.

If you're already in Australia and care to embark on this completely free-of-charge literary journey, send us some interesting shots of you giving Big Brother the picture while reading 1984, won't you? [MAKE]

BlackBerry Tour Gently Dissembled, Reassembled Before Your Very Eyes [BlackBerry]

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0400

If you woke up this morning dreaming about some random dude disassembling the new BlackBerry Tour on video while a corny 1990's Will Smith political thriller movie-inspired soundtrack played in the background, know this: It wasn't a dream!

Indeed, it was quite real, and this video is it. I just hope he finishes before time runs out! [YouTube via Engadget]

1979 Rumor: Leaked Docs of "Compact Disc" Audio Format Using LASERS [Giz 79]

Brian Lam — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:00:29 -0400

From 1979: A source "close to the matter" claims this document outlines a future Audio format that would utilize a tapeless design, and *snort* use lasers as some sort of record needle. Sounds like Bullshit to me.

First of all, a laser is going to burn up whatever it touches, so, like, do you listen to it once and then throw it away? That sounds like a great idea if you're one of those guys who made us buy 8 tracks and now want us to repurchase all our favorite songs on cassettes again. I'm not even going to get started on the potential fire hazard here. And last time I checked (the movies) lasers shoot out, they don't shoot back in, so its not like a laser is a good replacement for a record needle. Sure, it wouldn't wear out these magic laser records like vinyl and physical needles do, but that's because said disc would be make believe. And if even real, be on fire.

Sheesh. Nice try, rumor fakers. Never going to fool an expert gadget blogger. [25th anniversary of the CD]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Then and Now: Microsoft [Microsoft]

John Herrman — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0400

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Click for full size

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Cray-1: The Super Computer [Computers]

Wilson Rothman — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:00:04 -0400

Seymour Cray's big super computer was crazy. It's signals between components had to be timed by trimming long cables up to 1/16th of an inch at a time by hand and was basically interwoven with a giant refrigeration system.

Name: Cray-1
Year created: 1976
Creator: Cray Research, Inc.
Cost: $5 million to $10 million
Memory: 4MW semiconductor
Speed: 160 MFLOPS

Building supercomputers was a dream, an aspiration, and a life's pursuit for Seymour Cray, and his work on the computers that bore his name was the culmination of work he had done for the U.S. Navy, for CDC [Control Data Corporation], and finally for his namesake company. When Cray left CDC in 1972, after his work on the 6600, 7600, and minimally the 8600, he took much of the supercomputer fire with him.

While Cray's departure from CDC wasn't overly dramatic, his impact on supercomputing was. Cray artfully designed computers so that each part worked to efficiently speed up the whole, and he usually didn't rely on the newest experimental components, preferring instead to tweak existing technologies for maximum performance. For instance, the Cray-1 was the first Cray machine to use integrated circuits, despite their having been on the market for about a decade. At 160 MFLOPS, the Cray-1 was the fastest machine at the time, and despite what seemed like only a niche market for expensive superfast machines, Cray Research sold more than a hundred of them.

Form and size were always concerns for Cray, as far back as his days developing the CDC 160, which was built into an ordinary desk. There was also a big concern with the heat that could be generated by so many parts being packaged so tightly together, so Cray's designs typically involved unique cooling solutions, whether it be Freon on the Cray-1, or Fluorinert, in which Cray-2's circuit boards were immersed.

Core Memory is a photographic exploration of the Computer History Museum's collection, highlighting some of the most interesting pieces in the history of computers. These excerpts were used with permission of the publisher. Special thanks to Fiona!

The photos in the book were taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum's Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

How They Make the F-35 Lightning II: Inside the Lockheed Martin Factory Video [Airplanes]

Jesus Diaz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:30:00 -0400

If you liked the step-by-step instruction sheet on how to build the F-35 Lightning II fighter, you will love this awesome video on how they make them at the Lockheed Martin factory. [The Dew Line]

Toshiba Even More Officially Gives Up the War, Will Launch Blu-Ray Player [Rumor]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:00:00 -0400

Toshiba, the former leader of Blu-Ray's enemy HD-DVD camp, is admitting defeat in the most final way they can: By launching a Blu-Ray player.

The company's first Blu-Ray/DVD deck should arrive (in Japan first, probably) before Christmas this year, and "sources" say it'll be called the BD-18 (we think. The Google translation is sort of sketchy). We don't know anything else about the alleged player, but we imagine some Toshiba exec is sitting in a bathroom stall, crying quietly and cursing Sony. [Yomiuri via Engadget]

Nokia Trademarks "C-Series" of Devices [Patents]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:30:00 -0400

Nokia's already got the N-Series (entertainment) and the E-Series (business), but what's this new business about a recently-trademarked C-Series?

The patent covers items in the general smartphone category (duh) but we don't know much else right now. Some are suggesting that the C might stand for computer, but we disagree, seeing as how Nokia doesn't name their lines after English words (business does not start with E, and entertainment does not start with N. We're pretty sure). On the other hand, who the hell knows what this means—no hardware patents were filed alongside, so we'll just have to wait and see what Nokia's got up their sleeve. [Puhelinvertailu]

Steve Wozniak, Segway Polo Pioneer, Aims for the Goal [Image Cache]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:45:00 -0400

Here's a photo of Apple Employee #1, Steve Wozniak, as he plays for the Silicon Valley Aftershocks during the Segway Polo World Championships. Woz is one of the most prominent players of this silly and endearing sport. [Christian Science Monitor]

The Network Before the Internet [Network]

Brian Lam — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:00:23 -0400

The network started to breathe in the 70's. Above, the first ethernet cable, found in PARC's labs by Boing Boing Gadgets. Dag Spicer, numero uno Curator at the Computer History Museum, tells us more:

John Shoch and Jon Hupp at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center discovered the computer "worm," a short program that searches a network for idle processors. Initially designed to provide more efficient use of computers and for testing, the worm had the unintended effect of invading networked computers, creating a security threat.

Shoch took the term "worm" from the book "The Shockwave Rider," by John Brunner, in which an omnipotent "tapeworm" program runs loose through a network of computers. Brunner wrote: "No, Mr. Sullivan, we can´t stop it! There´s never been a worm with that tough a head or that long a tail! It´s building itself, don´t you understand? Already it´s passed a billion bits and it´s still growing. It´s the exact inverse of a phage - whatever it takes in, it adds to itself instead of wiping... Yes, sir! I´m quite aware that a worm of that type is theoretically impossible! But the fact stands, he´s done it, and now it´s so goddamn comprehensive that it can´t be killed. Not short of demolishing the net!" (247, Ballantine Books, 1975).

USENET established. USENET was invented as a means for providing mail and file transfers using a communications standard known as UUCP. It was developed as a joint project by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by graduate students Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin. USENET enabled its users to post messages and files that could be accessed and archived. It would go on to become one of the main areas for large-scale interaction for interest groups through the 1990s.

The first Multi-User Domain (or Dungeon), MUD1, is goes on-line. Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw, two students at the University of Essex, write a program that allows many people to play against each other on-line. MUDs become popular with college students as a means of adventure gaming and for socializing. By 1984, there are more than 100 active MUDs and variants around the world.

Dag Spicer is CHM's "Chief Content Officer," and is responsible for creating the intellectual frameworks and interpretive schema of the Museum's various programs and exhibitions. He also leads the Museum's strategic direction relating to its collection of computer artifacts, films, documents, software and ephemera—the largest collection of computers and related materials in the world.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

A Pictorial Guide to Computer Hardware [Guides]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:15:00 -0400

From every kind of memory to A/V input/outputs, processors, and hard drives, this guide shows in easy-to-recognize pictorial form the possible guts in your computer. It's either a really useful quick guide, or the nerdiest poster we've ever seen. [DeviantArt]

The Supersonic Concorde Jet: Can We Go Back to 1979, Please? [Airplanes]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:30:47 -0400

Many of our Gizmodo '79 posts have illustrated just how far we've come in the past three decades, but in one important tech example, 1979 kicks 2009's ass: The Concorde Jet.

The Concorde, first launched in 1977, was a joint British-French governmental venture to create a commercial, passenger supersonic jet. It ran over budget (six times over, actually) and was banned in various spots around the world (including New York City, temporarily) due to concerns over safety and the thundering sonic booms that resulted from the jet's breaking of the sound barrier. It lost a tremendous amount of money for both England and France and ran its final flight in 2003, at that point a bit outdated—the cockpit, while impressively techy in 1979, was full of analog dials and displays that looked silly in the 21st century. Only 20 Concordes were made, and there was no real motivation to update them, due both to a lack of competition and a distinct lack of profitability. Yet it was also an iconic, incredible achievement, capable of flying New York City to Paris in 3.5 hours, and still current holder of a ton of speed records.

Nothing we have now can touch it. A flight from NYC to Paris today takes over seven hours, compared to the 3.5 it took the Concorde. Plane travel has, for better or for worse, become more about economy than luxury, speed, and style. Sure, a cross-country flight on Southwest will only run you $150, but there's no thrill, no sense of the cutting-edge. The Concorde had those qualities in spades.

While researching the Concorde, I found a lot of interesting sidenotes to the story. For one, many of the same design team that created the Concorde went on to engineer the Airbus, the populist economy plane of our modern, boring times. But funniest to me is the continual hatred the British have of the French, and how it manifested in the forced alliance between the two countries to build the Concorde.

In response to a "perceived slight" by the French President Charles de Gaulle, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan pulled what I now think of as a Bushian move: He changed the spelling of "Concorde" to the more "English" Concord. Even funnier, when the British Minister for Technology, Tony Benn, later changed the spelling back, there was mass nationalistic outrage in England. To diffuse it, Benn had to specify that the reconstituted E on the end of the word stood for "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)." Yeah, right, Benn. I'm sure the E stood for England. Unbelievably, this quelled the Francophobe anger, though Benn would later mutter about how ridiculous the whole mess was in his memoirs.

We'll take our iPhones over 1979's Walkmans, and thank god for internet porn. But just one time, we'd like to break the sound barrier while crossing the Atlantic.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Universal Mirror: Imagine the Exact Opposite of an Invisibility Cloak [Science]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:45:00 -0400

No, the opposite of an invisibility cloak isn't a normal jacket, smartass. This universal mirror uses metamaterials to bounce light back at the same angle from which it came, so no matter where you stand, you can see yourself perfectly.

Normal mirrors reflect light back at a 90-degree angle, but this universal mirror reflects light, including microwaves and lasers, back in the exact same direction from which it originated. It uses metamaterials, structures smaller than the light's wavelength, to force said light to bounce back at this specific angle. Because metamaterials are so difficult to create, this universal mirror is only 1x10 centimeters in size, and can only reflect light with longer wavelengths (like microwaves).

Invisibility cloaks use these same metamaterials to guide light around an object instead of sending it back out, and while the opposite may not seem as cool, it may have just as many uses. It could be used for radar location, deflection laser weaponry and as a general-purpose shield. The tech is still a few years off, but it's very futuristic and interesting stuff. [MSNBC]

Verizon Cuts BlackBerry Storm's Price to $99 [Blackberry Storm]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0400

We're pretty sure the BlackBerry Storm 2's announcement is coming soon, and we just got a little more evidence: The not-so-loved original Storm's price has just been dropped to $99 with a 2-year contract.

If you're sure you need to stick with Verizon, this probably looks enticing, but we'd definitely recommend waiting. The Storm 2 will probably cost in the $150-250 range to compete with the iPhone, Pre, and various Android offerings, and for all we know, it might be great. Even the BlackBerry Tour might be a better option that the original Storm, which isn't the worst phone ever but hasn't exactly been a fan favorite either. [Verizon]

Tandy TRS-80: The Budget Computer [Computers]

Wilson Rothman — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:30:23 -0400

Even back then, there were computers for people who couldn't afford the more expensive stuff. Take this Tandy, which costs little more than a upgraded Netbook today. From Core Memory, photographed by Mark Richards and written by John Alderman.

TRS-80 Model 1 (and Model 100)
Year created: 1977
Creator: Tandy Corporation
Cost: $399 ($599 with monitor)
Memory: 4KB ROM
Processor: Z-80

Despite Apple's marketing message of personal empowerment and freedom, they weren't giving away those Apple IIs. A computer—especially one with a price tag of $1,300 or more—was beyond the comfort range of most people in the country, and few parents considered such a thing necessary to child development. As far as business went, it would be a while before a "killer app"—a must-have application—would be developed for machines available at an affordable price.

The TRS-80 was in part an antidote to this. If parents were convinced of a computer's necessity, but their pocketbooks couldn't support an Apple, then $399, or even $99, was worth considering. For a business that wanted to experiment with computing, that was a reasonable asking price.

The system was developed by the Tandy buyer Don French and Homebrew Computer Club leader Steve Leininger, who was quoted by Creative Computing magazine at the time as saying he had rejected a company plan to sell a computer kit because "too many people can't solder." This was an interesting admission from the company that owned Radio Shack, famous at that time for selling electronics parts to hobbyists. Nevertheless, the TRS-80 was actually rather sophisticated. Four kilobytes of RAM were matched with 4K of ROM holding Radio Shack's proprietary version of BASIC. The silver-and-black color scheme—even more than a beige box—evoked a kind of futuristic proletarian chic. Like other, similar systems, the TRS-80 used a cassette tape player as a storage device.

The early portable TRS-80 Model 100, designed by Kyocera and released in 1983, was evidence that, by that time, beige was winning the color war. Rugged and able to start up immediately, the Model 100 as utilitarian and much-beloved by traveling reporters.

The above photographs were taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum's Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Reading Lamp Is a Book Stand, Light, and Bookmark All in One [Concepts]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:45:00 -0400

This French "Reading Lamp" (clever name) concept turns off when a book is draped over it, and on when it's removed. It doesn't look particularly safe for the spines of prized books, but it sure is pretty. [Core77]

Then and Now: Apple Computers [Apple]

John Herrman — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:00:00 -0400

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Click for full size

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

A Blind Photographer (!) [Photography]

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0400

After professional photographer Alex Dejong lost his sight three years ago, he thought his days of taking and editing photos was over. But the iPhone 3GS's VoiceOver feature, plus a few key apps, has given some of his abilities back.

Dejong's field of vision isn't totally black; he can distinguish light from dark, and had continued to take photos with the help of an editing assistant. But VoiceOver, which reads back anything displayed on the iPhone, has allowed him to use the (low-end, Dejong admits) camera and certain photo editing apps like Camerabag and TiltShift even without sight.

"With the iPhone and a lot of the photography apps that a lot of people are using, I have my entire workflow, and I can do it in five minutes," Dejong said. "In this way, the iPhone is a remarkable gift. I've had it for three weeks now, and it has really opened up my world, apart from the photography."

It's a pretty interesting story, and Wired's account goes into more depth with other blind photography techniques. I'd never really thought about blind photography before, but for someone like Dejong, for whom photography had been a vital part, I can see how VoiceOver and other new tools would be a godsend. [Wired]

Digital Cams Still Haven't Caught Up to Film's Resolution: Does it Matter? [Gizmodo 79]

Brian Lam — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:46:48 -0400

Lenses being equal, a large format 8x10 piece of film can capture the equivalent of 800 Megapixels. Just saying. But does it matter? Discuss!

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

What Is This? [PCs]

Brian Lam — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:31:30 -0400

Q: What classic computer and Apple II competitor opened its steel case up like a car hood? And was named after a domestic rock toy popular at the time?

A: The Commodore Pet

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

In the Future, Metroids Will Provide Our Internet [Concepts]

Adrian Covert — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:00:00 -0400

UK Internet provider TalkTalk asked a team from Goldsmiths, University of London to come up with some concept router designs focused around four areas: signal strength, energy efficiency, home design, and "pure enjoyment."

These are the four routers that spawned from the idea.

• The Route O'Clock concept will tell you how much bandwidth is available depending on the time of day (hence the clock design).
• The Hybrid Router concept turns your router into a mid-century piece of furniture that puts aesthetics over functionality.
• The energy saving router uses keyhooks to determine how many people are in the house. When there are no keys on the hook, it will shut itself down.
• Last is the Jelly Fish router, pictured up top. That thing is meant to be a social hub of sorts, offering a link to the web from each of its eight tentacles, and using a fluorescent glow effect to denote signal strength. It's meant to be the focal point of a room. It also just looks amazing.

TalkTalk is currently conducting a poll to see which router is the fan favorite, and said they might consider producing which ever one takes the vote. [Gizmag]

With Plans to Recast Futurama, Fox Infuriates Fanboys Everywhere [Futurama]

Adrian Covert — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:30:00 -0400

But seriously—why in the hell would you go and do that, Fox?

It's like the time Vince McMahon tried to pawn off a fake Razor Ramon and Diesel on us. Or the time the Fresh Prince's Aunt Viv inexplicably became four shades lighter over the course of a season (Vitiligo?). Or maybe more relevant, the time Cartoon Network aired all those new episodes of Dragonball Z, and Goku sounded like he was severely constipated.

The point is this: if you're bringing the show back for the rabid, already-established fanbase who knows the show best, how are you going to recast all the main voices and think the fans won't care or notice? It wont work. [CrunchGear]

The Week In iPhone Apps: Augmented Everything [IPhone Apps]

John Herrman — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:00:00 -0400

In a very special late night edition of your weekly iPhone apptacular: Apps that make things that are already good—FM radio, video games, shopping, spouses, the city you live in—a little bit better.

Priceless Picks: Don't let the advertising-crap-app appearance of Priceless Picks turn you off—this free download, branded all over with Mastercard, is great. It combines loads of data collected from a number of sources, including user submissions and Amazon's Mechanical Turk army, to give wide-ranging recommendations for things to do, eat, drink or experience wherever you happen to be. There are other apps that do similar things, yes, but the dataset on this one already seems strong, the scope—not just restaurants, not just a particular company's establishments—is healthy, and the 3D map presentation is fantastically cool, and surprisingly smooth.

Griffin iFM Radio Browser: A lot of people will download this assuming it's a streaming radio app—it's something else entirely, and actually quite exciting: iFM polls your location to come up with a list of local terrestrial radio stations, providing you with access to song titles, album art, artist info and purchase links for whatever's playing on your FM station of choice. Think of it as augmented radio.

It's also one of the earliest examples of accessory integration for OS 3.0, featuring a software interface for Griffin's Navigate inline iPod remote, which has a built-in radio. Free. (The app, not the accessory. Sorry.)

Snore Patrol: Leave this app running overnight and it'll provide a decibel readout of whatever weird nostril/sinus/lung business goes down in the duration. The idea is to present a snoring partner with graphical proof of their terrible flaw, which will in turn guilt them into doing something about it. It's funny, but the pink interface and lady-oriented marketing is disheartening. Women snore too! MUST WE MEN SUFFER IN SILENCE? Your gynocentric passive aggressiveness: Free.

Squash the Street : If the economy's got you down, and you're vaguely upset about some fatcats on Wall Street, or at your banks, or something, why not direct a little bit of your pent-up aggression and/or depression into your iPhone? That's what Squash the Street is for: Pure, possibly misguided venting. Neat 3D-ish graphics give this ultra-timely voodoo doll a bit of longevity. A dollar.

Cyclops: Barcode scanning apps are a no-brainer for modern smartphones: just snap a picture of a product's label, and they'll pull down a plethora of information. That's exactly what Cyclops does. It's not the first, but it's the first designed around the iPhone 3GS's new camera, which has good enough macro skills to make such an app truly useful. Free. [Via TUAW]

iMetal: There are many rules by which app developers live, some written, some not. One of the most powerful is the mandate that no hardware feature on any version of the iPhone shall go unused, or perhaps more accurately, unexploited. The iPhone 3GS utilizes a magnetometer for its compass, meaning that it can detect when certain metals are nearby, and that someone could theoretically make an app that acts as a sort of makeshift metal detector. And since nothing stays theoretical for more than a week in the App Store, someone has: it's called iMetal, and it'll tell you when you're iPhone is next to a giant piece or iron, or hovering somewhere near a neodymium magnet. As an actual metal detector, it's basically useless; as a party trick, it's pretty neat. A dollar.

The Typography Manual: To most, this app will seem esoteric, or at worst, plain boring. To type nerds, however, this is like kerned, serifed manna from heaven. As its name implies, it's something of a typography primer and history lesson, but on top of that, it's a visual glossary, a collection of clever type tools, a directory of keyboard combinations for special symbols, and quite a bit more. Five dollars.

World of Warcraft Mobile Armory: Anyone who doesn't play WoW won't know what this is, and doesn't need to. Anyone who does can download it for free.

This Week's App News On Giz:

• Portal Gets Played On an iPhone, Sort Of

• Comcast's iPhone App Does More Than TV Listings

• Google Now Finds Stuff Nearby Using Your Location in Mobile Safari

• Pizza Hut's iPhone App Makes Pizza Ordering Easier, More Gimmicky

• iPhone Server Farm Puts Old Models To Good Use

• TwitVid for iPhone 3GS: Guess What It Does?

• TomTom's GPS-Enhancing Car Adapter Should Work With The iPod Touch

• Worms For iPhone: Same Game, Worse Controls

• TuneWiki for iPhone Is Now Fully Armed and Operational

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

Full-Size Gundam Get Attacked by Laser During Inaugural Ceremony [Robots]

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:30:00 -0400

I am not a full-size Gundam in Tokyo—although I want to be one when I grow up—but if I were attacked with greeeeeen lasers during my inauguration ceremony, I would get pretty damn pissed off. Then I would destroy everything in sight, and go to have a carrot cake and coffee afterwards. [Mainichi Daily News]