You might remember Art. Lebedev studios as the designers behind the Optimus mini three and the Upravlator, but if you've followed this Russian-based studio, you know that their Holy Grail was a full 113-key keyboard with full color OLED displays for every key, making it easy to change the look of a key based on the current task. A great idea, but one that seems to have drifted more and more into the realm of vaporware.
First, the 10 launcher keys (pictured) were dropped, turning the keyboard into a standard 103-key device. Fine. Then, it was announced that the key displays would be black and white—not grayscale, mind you, but black and white. Now, Art. Lebedev has released price and availability information on the gadget and, well, the news ain't great for those of you whose salivary glands have been working overtime.
The keyboard will be available for pre-order on December 12th at a reputed price of $1200 which, for those keeping score at home, is around $1150 more than I'd like to spend on a keyboard. Perhaps some day—some glorious sun-dappled afternoon in 2059—this dream will be realized. But it doesn't seem like it will be next year. They're only taking 103 pre-orders, so if you're looking to plunk down your $1200, act fas—oh, who are we kidding?
[via Gizmodo]
One of my roommates has a cat, and this has been my first experience living with a furry little creature. Overall, I find the animal to be pretty friendly and a pleasure to have around (the fact that he's been declawed, and thus can't shred furniture or, er, my leg doesn't hurt).
However, the kitty does have a habit of jumping up on all sorts of furniture, from futons to beds to the kitchen table, some of which we'd like to discourage. I prefer not to have a side of cat hair with my dinner.
I'm not sure I'm willing to invest in the SofaGuard, though. The £18.95 (~$37) pricetag isn't the source of my reluctance though, it's more the manner of Pavlovian conditioning by which they hope to correct the animal's behavior:
As soon as your pet jumps onto the mat, which is fitted with sensors, an audible 105 decibel alarm will go off – a ‘warning’ which will have the little rascal jumping off the sofa in a flash. The alarm will stop as soon as your pet has left the mat. Neither you nor your neighbours will be annoyed by a constant noise.I'm glad that my neighbors and I are not being annoyed by constant noise, but 105 decibels is, according to Wikipedia, louder than a jackhammer at 2 meters. Nothing better than interrupting a good night's sleep than construction work in my living room. Maybe I'll stick with putting the cat back in his room during dinner.
[via Red Ferret]
There's a lot of technology out there for helping you deal with those little creatures that infest your life, demanding attention from you every waking moment, and generally making a mess. Yes, that's right: your offspring. Or, someone else's offspring, if you prefer.
While I don't own a baby of my own, my cousins who live not far from me have two little girls aged two and three months respectively, and these are just two of the seven little kids in our family in the past several years, so I've had a fair amount of experience.
That said, I'm a bit skeptical of the Why Cry Baby Crying Analyzer which claims to analyze "the baby's crying power, frequencies of cry, intervals between crying, and associates the baby's cry with an established pattern programmed into the unit." Your options are Hunger, Boredom, Discomfort, Sleepiness and Stress.
Stress? Man, what do babies have to be stressed about? Do they have deadlines? Bills? Mortgage payments? No, they just have to lie around, eat, play, sleep, and occasionally gurgle. This kind of reminds me of those gizmos that are supposed to translate what your dog is saying when it barks at you. Then again, who am I to argue with a product recommended by the Spanish Association of Midwives.
[via Gearlog]
One thing I love about my new MacBook. The design and spacing of the keys on the keyboard means that it's really easy to prevent dust and guck from getting stuck down there, unlike your average keyboard. Still, if you're not so lucky as to have a MacBook, and you need to do some cleaning in those hard to reach places, the Container Store has you covered with a $4.99 USB-powered keyboard vacuum.
Admittedly, it's not shaped like a duck, but it does come with two separate attachments: a brush and a flexible rubber tip. Cleaning your keyboard has never been so fun or so rewarding. Think of what you might find down there? Change? Missing socks? Your fifth grade science project? Okay, maybe you shouldn't think about what you might find down there.
[via Popgadget]
Dan is rather impatiently awaiting my thoughts on the Nintendo Wii I got on launch day. Why haven’t I written anything about it yet? To be quite honest, it’s a lot more fun to play with than to write about. I took a series of pictures as I unpacked mine that are still locked away in my digital camera. I promise to put them up on Flickr soon.
The controller really makes the system. The Wii-mote and Nunchuk make what would be rather lackluster games (such as the ones on the included Wii Sports) into hours of fun. I even got my 70+ year old father to bowl on the system. It took him a little time to get used to it, but after a while, he and I were having a ball. My brother kicked my butt at baseball. The Nintendo Wii is the perfect system for any family. End of story.
I’m actually looking forward to playing with others again. Sure, I’ve been having a ball with Zelda (post forthcoming I promise), but it’s playing with others that really makes the Wii stand out. That and actually making you sweat, a very strange experience I have to say. I’m thinking that if I can round up Scott (from MacUser) and Dan, we’ll go through a couple dozen AA batteries.
Let me know in the comments if you’d like my Wii’s number so you can be my buddy.
You know I'm serious about my toast. You know this. Speaking of which, I'm going to go put a bagel in the toaster oven right now. Alright, done. My issue with my toaster oven—make that all toasting appliances—is that it's really tough to find out when your toast has reached its proper golden brown toasted level. Don't get me started on toast dials with numbers: do I want a 6 or a 5? Does my toaster go to 11? Who knows?
Breville must have been thinking of me when they created their new ikon "lift and look" Toaster. It lets you pop your bread (or bagel) out of the toaster and check its toasting progress without interrupting the whole procedure. Simple but effective. Am I right? It's also made from hand-brushed stainless steel, with a LCD display and defrost and reheat modes, which probably helps explain its $79.99 pricetag. Just remember: perfect toast is priceless.
[via OhGizmo!]
Everybody's getting into the downloadable video market, it seems. Besides Apple and Amazon, it seems that everybody's favorite retailer, Wal-Mart, has decided to jump into the frame (a little movie humor for you there). The chain, which is the largest seller of movies, has taken a slightly different tack: instead of downloading movies from their website, you'll buy a DVD and then, for a few dollars more, you'll be able to download a version that will play on your computer or your handheld device (assuming, of course, it's not an iPod). Portable device copies will cost $1.97; computer copies will cost $2.97; and for the low low price of $3.97 you can have both. Oh, plus that full quality DVD you already shelled out for. Psst, you can probably play that in your computer already, assuming you're one of the millions with a DVD drive.
Wal-Mart's not the only big company eyeing video downloads: rental chain Blockbuster and media conglomerate Time Warner are also testing the waters. Time Warner has dangled the possibility of burnable DVDs from downloads (day and date with DVD releases), which we hope will work better than CinemaNow's très glitchy offering.
You know what? It really isn't that hard to make a reasonable video download service, guys. Someone's bound to get it right eventually. I'm just not convinced that it's going to be any of the companies above.
I've yet to make the HD jump. The center of my home "theater" is a 27" Sony Trinitron that I inherited from my parents (which would make me exempt from the MPAA's home theater registration fee). It's a pretty nice screen for its age (close to ten years) and it came at a hard to beat price (free). But seeing as all three of my closest friends from college own 50" plasma screens, I'm feeling a bit left out in the cold. To be fair, I'm not entirely certain my tiny fake wood media center from Target can support one of these huge screens anyway.
Even though there's no pricing announced yet, somehow I doubt I'll be able to afford either model of Samsung's 50" Plasma with built-in Multi Media Center. Besides the shiny panels with upped contrast ratios, the units feature internal hard drives for storing recorded video. Very snazzy. I'm prepared to drool all over this sucker at CES, which will no doubt get me kicked off the premises. I do it for you, readers. For you.
