Disclosure: I own a bunch of shares in Xerox, as a gift from my grandfather when he used to work there. For quite some time, that didn't mean much: their share price had been hovering in the single digits for a few years, going as low as almost $4. They've been trending back up in the past few years, though, despite being a company founded largely upon the uses of paper.
Still, doesn't mean they can't innovate. For example, I totally dig the new concept for erasable paper that they've come up with. The company estimates that something like 40% of paper in an office is used for a day or less. So they set out to develop compounds where the ink disappears in about 24 hours, allowing you to reuse the same piece of paper over and over again. Of course, it's just a prototype, and you'll probably need a special printer to dispense the compounds. But it's clever and it helps the environment, so I'm for it. Plus, it'll be great for practical jokes.
When I used to work in an office, we'd do inane things like printing out emails and webpages for people to look at. Sometimes I think about the amount of trees we could have saved and I weep softly into my pillow. Thank you, Xerox. Thank you.
[via Gizmodo]
I'm a fan of the guys and gals over at Ars Technica; for one thing, they're incomparably thorough when it comes to reviewing the latest projects; for another, they're knowledgeable about the topics they discuss; and for a third, they're damn funny to boot. So when they popped out a review of Nintendo's Wii, Gadgetbox's #1 fetish object, was there any chance I wouldn't link to it? No, not much.
The Wii ends up scoring an 8, with particular likes being the clean design, the low price, and, of course, the innovative and intuitive controls. The cons? Graphics that don't look as good as its competitor, lack of HDTV integration, and not-yet-present online features.
To put it in perspective, the Xbox 360 garnered a 9 for its Premium system and a 6 for its Core bundle from Ars last year. Of the two, you'll certainly have an easier time picking up the 360 today, but I think we'll be seeing some more Wiis before the holiday season is out.
And of course, our own Derik has a Wii, but has yet to enlighten us with gory details. Oh, Deriiiiik...
Update: And, of course, like many things that seem too ridiculous to be true, this is actually satire. My apologies for misleading you, but honestly, anybody out there think the MPAA is really too crazy to try this?
Motion Picture Asses of America, unite. If the MPAA gets its way, you might soon be shoveling money directly into their pockets. Concerned about the proliferation of home theaters in living rooms across America, the MPAA is trying to convince our esteemed Congress to pass a bill which would require home theater owners to pay a registration fee of $50 or risk fines of up to $500,000. For what offense? For showing DVDs, of course. Here's MPAA chief Dan Glickman (above), whose brain has clearly had its insanity dial cranked:
"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. "Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn't always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise."You have got to be fracking kidding me.
If you're wondering what constitutes a home theater, the MPAA would like the definition to include any setup with a screen larger than 29", stereo sound, "at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon." You know what, MPAA? Bite me. I would sooner remove all comfortable furniture in my house than pay you any sort of fee. This law gets passed and I swear I will never buy another DVD ever again. Even though my TV's only 27". Solidarity, baby.
[via Slashdot]
Well, hello there Gadgetboxers. It's been a while, eh? Bout a week, by my reckoning. I could tell you that I'd be kidnapped by militant turkeys, determined to eradicate the barbaric practice of humans eating their kin every fourth November Thursday, but it's simply not true: They were really just demanding ranasom from my employers. However, my utter worthlessness meant that the only thing they got was a barrage of hysterical laughing from my superiors, so it's back to a life of blogging for me.
Turkey insurgency (inturkegency?) wasn't the only highlight of the last week. The Copyright Office of the US Library of Congress recommended, as they do every three years, a list of exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and this crop is a winner. For one thing, they said that college professors ought to be able to bypass DVD copy protection to show clips in their classes. But the big one is for consumers to be able to unlock their cellphones and take them to different networks.
Of course, it's not quite as easy as all that. Gearlog has a sum-up of the exemption where they explain that the ruling really only benefits those on the T-Mobile and Cingular networks, who can now take phones back and forth between the two (a feature they allowed in some cases prior). Sprint and Verizon customers are out of luck, as access is controlled not by those companies' handsets but by their network. And, of course, you can't move from Cingular/T-Mobile to Sprint/Verizon because they use incompatible technologies.
While we're certainly thankful for what the Library of Congress did do, it's worth noting that they refused several other permissions that many consider within the realms of fair use: ripping DVDs to watch on your iPod, watching DVDs on Linux (which requires breaking the encryption), and bypassing the region coding on DVDs all still remain technically illegal under the DMCA. Oh, well, see you in three years.
Friction slowing you down? Can't quite frag those opponents like you used to? Then perhaps you need Crazy PC's $74.99 Hover Mouse. Unlike most conventional pointing devices, which require interaction with a mousepad, Hover Mouse gently floats a centimeter above the pad, using "patent-pending electromagnetic hovering technology."
Besides its crazy floating skills, the Hover Mouse has a 6000 dpi optical engine, three buttons, an "attractive" aluminum finish, and glowing blue LEDs. Wait, glowing? Man, I'm totally there.
I'm perhaps a little skeptical of how well this Hover Mouse, well, hovers, but I'll try anything once.
[via Ubergizmo]
I heard about this Ecosol Powerstick at the CES event in New York, but I didn't see it on the mini show floor. The idea is cool; like the rechargeable USB batteries, you can pop the Powerstick into any USB port; it'll charge up, and store that energy until one of your other myriad electronic devices starts to run dry. Then just hook that up to the Powerstick and give yourself a bit of a boost.
Ecosol boasts that the Powerstick can store enough energy to fully charge a Blackberry. Of course, you'll need adapters to connect the Powerstick to your peripherals, but Ecosol has several available for the most common cellphone and other device manufacturers.
But the coolest feature of the Powerstick is the integrated LCD readout on the side that tells you how much charge is still available. Pricing doesn't seem to have been released yet, but we'll keep an eye firmly in that direction.
[via Shiny Shiny]
My cousin and his wife have two little girls, one just turned two, and the other is just under three months old. Though they're both cute as buttons, what I find amazing is the sheer amount of technology that goes into children's products. Take, for example, this $6.99 Rubber Duck Thermometer that I saw in their bathroom.
Ducks are amazing: they guard our homes, clean our keyboards, and now ensure that our baby's bath water is at a pleasantly warm (but not hot!) temperature. In addition to that, they provide hours of bathtime fun! What can't ducks do?
Sling Media might be the name to beat in video placeshifting, but the competition's starting to heat up. Sony's Location Free TV has been in the offing for some time, and now Avid subsidiary Pinnacle is entering the fray with their Pinnacle PCTV To Go. It'll sell for about $250 and allow you, as the Slingbox does, to watch your TV in other locations via your computer. Of course, it also integrates with DVRs to let you access your recorded content remotely.
While Pinnacle is touting Windows Media Center integration, it doesn't look like there's Mac support. Not terribly surprising, given that Sling has just released their OS X client as a beta. Hopefully they'll get their Mac on and give us a little choice in the market.
[via Gizmos for Geeks]
