Monthly Archives: December 2009

Factron Simplex case tries to make iPhone camera more versatile

by andy
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Factron Simplex case tries to make iPhone camera more versatile

The iPhone is a brilliant cellphone, but its camera has always been a major let down. Though Apple improved things a little on the 3GS, upping the megapixel count to three and including autofocus, it’s still a rather lacklustre bit of kit, particularly when you look at other mobile phone manufacturers packing five or even eight megapixel cameras with decent lenses, flash and other effects. The Factron Simplex case isn’t the first add-on hardware to try to extend the functionality of the iPhone’s camera, but it’s the most advanced I’ve seen yet. Given that no serious photographer is ever going to use the iPhone (or any cellphone, let’s be real), Read more »

iPod with Everything: Electrolux's vacuum cleaner concept with iPod dock

by andy
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iPod with Everything: Electrolux's vacuum cleaner concept with iPod dock

Is “iPodification” a word? Clearly not, as there’s a big red line under it in my text editor, but I think it has to be one for next year’s update of the Oxford English Dictionary, because it seems that you can stick an iPod on just about everything these days. Take an everyday object and iPodify it by sticking an iPod-friendly dock on it. Electrolux wants to iPodify one of its own products: a vacuum cleaner. My first impression is a definite WTF because vacuuming is not generally known as a quiet activity. Yet the home appliance giant reckons it has created a cleaner that is “as silent as normal Read more »

A Decade of Zombies IV: Epidemic Rooted in Society

by Jayvee Fernandez
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A Decade of Zombies IV: Epidemic Rooted in Society

This is Part IV of a series titled ‘A Decade of Zombies.’ Part III is here. “Most people would rather die than think.” – Bertrand Russell The “infection” is a social commentary. When Peter Jackson released King Kong, the reference to the giant ape coming from a place called Skull Island traces its roots back to one of the Australian director’s earlier films, Dead / Alive where a strain of disease that can only be carried by a specific type of monkey causes the zombification of a small town. Although this formula of an unknown tropical disease is more akin to the Haitian roots of zombies, the “infected” of the Read more »

MSN on iPhone? Use a generic IM app and keep Microsoft off your handset!

by andy
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MSN on iPhone? Use a generic IM app and keep Microsoft off your handset!

I hold my hands up and admit it: I don’t keep Microsoft software on my Mac. I succumbed for a short while and used a crappy outdated version of Microsoft Office on an old iBook I’d inherited, but other than that I’m MS free. I’m glad Microsoft shunned the Mac when it comes to browsers — the last version of Internet Explorer I used on a Mac was so appalling it made me cry. Depending on what mood I’m in when people send me Excel and Word documents, I’ll either tell them to send a PDF or I’ll just open it up in Google Docs. My Mac has no trace Read more »

This Clock is Powered by Human Hands

by J. Angelo Racoma
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I must admit I’m a watch geek (more on this later). I’m mostly fond of mechanical watches and chronographs. But here’s something that would surely fancy the mind of anyone interested in timepieces: a human powered clock. Part of Marteen Baas’ Real Time project, the clock shows you a human hand erasing and redrawing the clock’s hands every minute. In the case of digital clocks, the person draws each digit as minutes and hours pass by. I would surely want a clock as novel as having an actual human turning the hands every minute of the day. Forget manually winding your watch every morning. How about manually changing the minute Read more »

WordPress.com has added the snow effect so it must be cool

by andy
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WordPress.com has added the snow effect so it must be cool

I haven’t quite caught on to the Christmas spirit just yet (I’m working on it, but the mild temperatures and the fact there are still roses growing in my British garden doesn’t help) so perhaps there’s a bit of Bah-Humbug about this post. WordPress.com (the free hosted version of the WordPress blogging platform — you knew that) has decided that the new snow effect is cool enough to add to its front page. Having suffered a range of CPU-killing websites over the years — on both dinosaur computers (my fault) and high-spec ones (website owners fault) — I’m wary of the following statement on WordPress.com’s announcement: Older computers may run Read more »

Ape updates Facebook in captivity, takes photos, has lots of fans

by Jayvee Fernandez
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Ape updates Facebook in captivity, takes photos, has lots of fans

That’s a self portrait above from Nonja, an ape raised by a stock broker in 1976 and now resides in the Schönbrunn Zoo. Her daily routine is pretty much the same as any orangutan: eating, sleeping, gallyvanting, playing with the kids (sometimes spitting water at them from the cage), and updating her Facebook wall with photos of her latest escapades including movie night with the girls, shopping sprees, and drunken stupors. Nonja is part of Samsung’s latest viral campaign. There’s not much to it really. All they did was give her a Samsung ST1000, a point and shoot camera with WiFi connectivity. All she really does is click down on Read more »

A Decade of Zombies III: Order amidst Chaos

by Jayvee Fernandez
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A Decade of Zombies III: Order amidst Chaos

This is Part III of a series titled ‘A Decade of Zombies.’ Part II is here. Perhaps the canon of modern day zombie subculture would be two works of literature by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks’ son). In 2003 he released the Zombie Survival Guide (a copy of which I keep in the glove compartment of my car) and later on, a more epic World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006 // big screen in 2010). In World War Z, Brooks takes on the role of a post-apocalyptic UN agent trying to piece together the memorials of key players in the third world war. This was a Read more »

Britain to get 50p broadband tax

by andy
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Britain to get 50p broadband tax

British netizens who are already paying through the nose for broadband will no doubt be irritated to learn that a new “broadband tax” will be introduced in the next budget. Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced that the 50p per month tax will be added to the bill of every household with a fixed line telephone. Given that many broadband users have to keep a landline in order to use the Net, even if they don’t make phone calls with it, this will be sure to raise a fairly substantial revenue. The £6 (about $10) per year tax will be used to fund “super fast broadband”, particularly in rural areas which Read more »