With everybody and their dog having a cellphone nowadays, it takes a bit of effort to make your portable telephonic communication device stand out. Samsung and Bang & Olufsen have teamed up to fight crime offer a rather unique take on the cellphone that they call Serene.
It's a clamshell-design phone that features a screen on one half and a circular button arrangement on the bottom, with a scroll wheel in the middle. The iPod has, of course, taught us all to love/worship/obey the scroll wheel, so that's probably a good choice, but there are strangely no pictures of anybody using the phone on B&O's website. To me, it looks like an uncomfortable handset to hold; plus, the circular arrangement of numeric keys might be intuitive for someone used to rotary phones, but is probably going to take some relearning for anybody used to the traditional 123 keypad layout.
Then again, maybe the reason there aren't any pictures of people using it is because it retails for $1,275. Yeah, that might be it.
[via Gearlog]
If you played with LEGOs as a kid, then you invariably had a few bricks that had acquired permanent little pieces of gunk stuck in hard to reach spaces, like in between the little pegs on top, or deep inside. Cleaning them out was a pain, because you needed something slightly tougher than a Q-tip, but less powerful than dishwasher, which could reach high enough levels to melt the bricks.
Appliance-maker Bosch has solved this eternal dilemma with a LEGO-branded dishwasher. Not only does the device stay cool enough to keep your bricks from looking like they've been caught in some hideous experiment, but it even has a special tray for the LEGOs themselves (though you might have to pay extra for the adorable kid with the fauxhawk). Really, it has the potential to make everybody happy. Especially those of us who have been eating for years off of our specially-constructed LEGO dishes. Handwashing just wasn't cutting it anymore.
[via Gizmodo]
Hard to believe it's been 30 years of public key cryptography. Codes and ciphers have been one of my interests since I was a mere young'un, and electronic crypto is the most recent offshoot of that. I can talk Diffie-Hellman key exchanges and RSA with the best of 'em.
I'm a little bummed that I missed the 30th anniversary bash at the Computer History Museum the other night, featuring luminaries such as Diffie and Hellman, former RSA Security CEO Jim Bidzos, and Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie. The panel discussed cryptography over the years, with arguably the most contentious portion of the evening being commentary by former NSA technical director Brian Snow about the government's more recent stances on cryptography.
Most of the people who buy things online nowadays probably don't understand the importance of public key cryptography, or how e-commerce wouldn't even exist without it. Many see the little key or padlock icon and understand that it's safe to send their credit card information—they don't need to understand the details, but it's fascinating nonetheless. If you are interested, I highly recommend Steven Levy's Crypto or—if you're a more general codes and ciphers fan—Simon Singh's The Code Book. Fiction fans, look no further than Neal Stephenson's fantastic Cryptonomicon.
[via Slashdot]
What's better than outfitting your computer with a wireless network finder and a USB flash drive? Outfitting your computer with a wireless network finder and a USB flash drive in one. Vunex's WiFiWalker folds both functions into a device about the size of an iPod shuffle. The small screen even seems to tell you the network's SSID and whether or not it's open.
We've got nothing yet on pricing, availability, or capacity on the flash drive, and yet I'm still all a'tingle. The combination is a natural (like chocolate and peanut butter).After all, it can't be any more expensive than the Chewbacca drive—and he may be my co-pilot, but can that furabll find Wi-Fi networks? I think not.
[via Digital World]
We always cover the latest advances in toasting technology here at Gadgetbox. The reason is simple: we're not allowed to eat anything else by our devious masters. It's dry toast day in, day out. We thought about imprinting our message for help using our toaster printer, or at least, asking for some jam.
That's why I'm working on hooking us up with Siemens's aluminum two-slice toaster designed by the slick fellows at Porsche. Not only does its browning level go to 11, but it automatically adjusts to the thickness of your bread. The included quartz heating element is among the most efficient on the market, and it'll also remembers the last setting you used to toast your bread.
Is all of this worth the £118.50 pricetag? Well, perhaps not to me, but I'm sure my bosses can foot the bill. After all, if I'm deprived of my toast, I'll be forced back into hunting the resident dust bunnies. There's good eatin' on them.
Who says geeks can't be good looking? Male model and bird-magnet Fabio spoke the other day at a Geek Squad event. Turns out that the man with the flowing golden locks is an old school geek, who used to own an Amiga, is a Mac fan, and even knows how to solder. The man's a keeper, ladies (or gents)!
The former "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spokesman also weighed in Format War '06, saying that he's not a fan of either Blu-Ray or HD DVD. Check the link above for more pics of Fabio geeking it up.
I'm just sad that this undermines my shot at hottest geek of the year. Oh well, perhaps I'll still make it in the calendar.
We know that Sony hasn't had the best year. Between the PlayStation 3 problems, Blu-Ray player delays and exploding batteries, they've been beset with problems.
Turns out all these troubles have had a rather major effect on Sony's bottom line this past quarter. Their profits dropped 94% since the same quarter last year. The culprits for the lowered profits were the recall of 9.6 million laptop batteries and increased research and development costs for the PlayStation 3. Sales for the PlayStation 2 and PSP were basically flat, and video game revenue dropped 21%.
Can Blu-Ray and the PlayStation 3 turn Sony's fortunes around? Then again, if those two technologies fail, will they drop Sony even further into the hole?
[via Joystiq]
You know what? The most useful feature on my computer isn't email, or video games, or even web browsing. It's the ability to get a weather forecast whenever I want. I've gone back and forth on a number of solutions for giving me the current temperature and the forecast. But what if I didn't need a computer at all?
Oregon Scientific's Weather Forecaster could help me reduce my dependence on my laptop. This charming little device not only tells you the current time, but it also reports the current indoor temperature and weather conditions. It even glows in a corresponding color: blue for rain; red for fire and brimstone. Oh yeah, and it has clock and alarm functionality. Approximately $56.
[via Ubergizmo]
