Steam powered RC vehicles set for world domination
 I-Wei Huang over at Crabfu is tossing some steam power into a crab and other vehicles to put other RC hobbyists to shame. Read more..!
New Trailer for Robotech: Shadow Chronicles
 Production should be complete in a matter of weeks after originally targeting a November date. Despite statements of confidence regarding a distributor made during Summer 2005, as of a few weeks ago they were still in negotiations with at least two recognizable names who have ties to the franchise. If a DVD distribution deal is signed shortly, a release can be expected sometime between May and July of this year. The plot opens with a retelling of the final episode of The New Generation from the point of view of the Robotech Expeditionary Force in Space. From there, it'll go on to a new story and introduce a new yet unrevealed enemy. Caution direct link
Susan Blu (Arcee from Transformers) was originally hired as the voice director and was responsible for the decision not to rehire a number of the original voice actors. In November, she was replaced by veteran voice director Richard Epcar (and who plays the role of Vince Grant) in directing all of the pick-ups.
Here's a breakdown of the characters:
Vince Grant - from the Sentinels.
Louis Nichols - from Southern Cross.
Commander Taylor - Played by Mark Hamill of Star Wars and animated Batman The Animated series’ Joker fame
The Regess - From The New Generation. The originally voice actress was re-cast, but later brought back after fan outcry. Alexandra Kenworthy was now able to reprise her role, something that her son and fellow voice actor Greg Snegoff (Scott Bernard) was pretty sour about.
Marcus Rush - Alpha fighter pilot and the brother of Scott Bernard's dead finance
Marlene, who bought it in the first episode of The New Generation
Alex Romero - Marcus's buddy
Janice - played by Chase Masterson (of Star Trek fame). Re-designed from the Sentinels version Maia - Strongly rumored to be the daughter of Max and Miriya
Jean Grant - Vince Grant's wife, from The Sentinels.
Admiral Rick Hunter - The one and only.
Scott Bernard - Again, the one and only
Ariel - The Invid girl who Scott originally fell in love with and named "Marlene" after his dead fiancé. Since that was pretty creepy, they dropped the "Marlene" name.
General Reinhardt - not much known, but voiced by Dan Worren (Roy Fokker).
Read more..!
Researchers developing transparent OLEDs
 Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are working on the next generation of OLED technology, including the ability to create displays that can become completely transparent and be turned on and off at will. Uses envisioned for the displays include OLED overlays on top of LCDs that could be used to display specific information without interfering with the main picture and automobile windshields with built-in displays that can display information as needed and turn off when not in use. Read more..!
Trash Design Keypad Jewelry
 An Austrian line of jewelry made from cell phone, calculator and remote control buttons from Trash Design, can be ordered at the Secco shop in groups of five. Read more..!
Lamborghini Miura - maybe yes, maybe no
 British magazine Auto Express speculates that a limited production run "now looks likely," at the same time quoting Lamborghini president Stephan Winklemann as saying a Lamborghini luxury SUV, based on Audi's Q7, could be in the offing.
Read more..!
DS lite vs. DS comparison
 The dimensions of the full-sized Nintendo DS are: 5.85x3.33x1.13 inches, giving us a volume of 22.01 cubic inches. The dimensions of the diminutive Nintendo DS lite are: 5.24x2.91x0.85 inches, giving us a volume of 12.96 cubic inches.
While it might not look much smaller than the full-sized DS, the DS lite is in fact over 40% smaller by volume. To give you some context, we'll list the volume of some other devices you might be familiar with:
* Game Boy micro: 5.6 cubic inches
* Game Boy Advance: 17.64 cubic inches
* Game Boy Advance SP: 9.81 cubic inches
* Sony PSP: 17.52 cubic inches
* Atari Lynx Original: 68.53 cubic inches
* Atari Lynx II: 78.62 cubic inches
* Xbox 360 power supply: 51.96 cubic feet inches
Despite the size reduction, it's still 80% of the weight of the full-sized DS.
Read more..!
Alien in the Room Reloaded
 Another Flash-based "click until you figure out how to get out of the room" games, with the new hotness, Alien in the Room Reloaded, where you have to try and escape the mothership. Or some ship, but it's a big one. Not a genre-buster, but the opening puzzle is pretty funny. Don't forget the original Alien in the Room here. Read more..!
Motorola's RAZR V3c in pink
 Get yours now for, more than you should probably be ponying up for a RAZR, be it a V3c or otherwise ($250 with a 2 year, $300 for a 1 year plan). Read more..!
Beatmania features for America this March
 It's been a long time coming, but Beatmania will be unleashed on American turntable enthusiasts this March for the PS2. The US adaptation of the original Bemani style of game will feature 50 remixes of Karaoke Revolution covers for Western audiences, American-exclusive replay and practice modes, and two difficulty levels for 5- and 7-key play. This game can be tricky, with it's learning curve and its fast piano/scratching gameplay, but we hope this popular Asian series prove to be popular in the states as well. Read more..!
 Find and Run Robot can be considered the "power user" tool in this class of Application Launcher utilities; the sheer number of configuration options is almost mind boggling. Some of the options include heuristic and pattern scoring, so that you can instruct it as to what is more important to you when it attempts to decide what you were looking for by what you typed. Thankfully, it operates very well right out of the box. Read more..!
Pioneer's AS-PS55 waterproof speakers
 Not sure exactly how waterproof the AS-PS55 speakers really are, but anything that facilitates complete aqueous submersion while listening to some beats is great. Read more..!
RGB isn't enough for HD, let's add some more color to LCDs!
 Red, green and blue are OK for color displays, but it's 2006, let's get some Cyan, Magenta and Yellow into the high-def mix. Genoa Color Technologies has done just that with with ColorPeak. They claim that ColorPeak technology can extend the color gamut of an LCD display by up to 35% while upping the brightness up to 40% as evidenced above. ColorPeak appears to be a combination of software algorithms combined with some hardware. The solution is workable up to UXGA, which goes up to 1600 x 1200, so this might initially work on 720p displays only. Read more..!
 Sunrise is an internet utility for your PDA, it utilizes a Mozilla extension that'll allow you to quickly send a page to Sunrise for later offloading to your PDA. There is also some scripting support, from URI rewriting to dynamic document properties. Sunrise also uses Rhino as a scripting engine inside the SDL's you create. While you won't have full JavaScript functionality, it does provide some core objects. There is a handy walkthrough at MobileRead's forums, see the old FAQ here. Sunrise was written by the same person who wrote JPluck, which makes sense, as Sunrise is a Java app and essentially JPluck 2. And supposedly Sunrise is intended to become a commercial app. Read more..!
Stick it to the man with your very own RFID-Zapper
 The RFID-Zapper is a hacked up disposable camera that delivers an EMP of sorts to unsuspecting RFID tags, sending them to that great inventory management system in the sky. Read more..!
Samsung develops super-reflective LCD for outdoor use
 The 1.72-inch display uses silver instead of aluminum as the reflecting metal, relies on a new reflective lens, and uses transflective panel technology, which makes greater use of natural light. Samsung rates the display at 100 nits, with a contrast ratio of 220:1 and 50% color saturation. That doesn't quite put it at the same level as a similar display from BOE-Hydis, which claims a brightness level of 260 nits and a 700:1 contrast ratio, but it's still enough of an improvement to make reading a phone number on a cellphone screen outside an easier task. Read more..!
H&R Block puts tax software on USB thumbdrive
 Yes, it's that time of year again, and chances are you've already started receiving tax documents in the mail. The tax specialists at H&R Block and the memory makers at Kingston think they've found a way to you out, for a mere $49.95 ($39.95 after rebate), they're willing to sell you a 256MB USB thumbdrive preloaded with H&R Block's TaxCut Deluxe software. Why a USB drive, well according to Kingston and Block, it's a "unique way for us to meet our customers’ needs and provide value beyond the tax season." Read more..!
We want the 30-foot robot elephant
 The 30-foot beast was apparently built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne, and was paraded through the streets of Nantes, France. Read more..!
Religious rapper: Christ was a Space Invader
 A song called "Video Games" by the Christian rapper, KJ-52 works religious themes into a rap about video games. Ever ponder, "What would it sound like if Eminem got himself some religion, and then rapped about video games?" We don't have to wonder anymore... we know. Some of the best jams: -"That's why He paid the price for your sins, on top of that he wants to run your life like The Sims."
-"...three days later, go raid the tomb like Lara Croft."
-"They cut him up first like Ninja Gaiden, then beat him down worse than, uh, Double Dragon."
-"Here's a story, ain't Legend of Zelda, it's about Christ, who was a Space Invader."
Read more..!
Netgear's "100Mbps" RangeMax 240 Wireless Router
 TomsNetworking decided to find out if Netgear's new Airgo ACE-based RangeMax 240 Wireless Router has plenty of bandwidth on tap, even in tough to reach spots, but the MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology wasn't the best, at times knocking competing 2.4GHz out of the air. Also, if you connect to the network with a 802.11g or 802.11b card, all users take a hit in speed, and in the price, $330. Read more..!
Mouseless Browsing in Firefox
 Mouseless Browsing is an extension for Firefox that aims, in the words of its developers, to "enable browsing only by using the numpad keys." It does this by displaying uniqued ID numbers next to important elements--links, form fields, and so on--that you can punch in on the numeric keypad. Read more..!
 The eNook is a charging area/work station for your laptop that mounts on the wall. Designed for small spaces, the eNook can be the home for all your gadgets like cell phones and cameras. It can be flipped up to store your laptop safely and in flipped down mode it can be a desk. The fabric-covered back panel also works as a bulletin board. Available in a variety of finishes and fabrics; maple or cherry version with a premium fabric sells for $449. Read more..!
MatrixStream IMX 1020HD STB
 MatrixStream appears to be one of the first to bring a 1080p set-top box to market. Geared towards 1080i and 1080p video over broadband and uses H.264 (or MPEG-4, Part 10) compression to keep the picture quality up and the file size & bandwidth required down. Trials of the new 1080p set-top box start this month and a consumer roll-out is slated for the end of Q1. Grab the 70MB WMV file of the Mac mini-looking device in action here. Read more..!
 Games list, of some other titles which dare to do something different in a game genre that's becoming increasingly pigeonholed. Piratical swashbucklers might want to check out two pirate-themed MMOs, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Puzzle Pirates. Sci-fi junkies are welcomed in space-themed MMOs like Star Wars Galaxies, Anarchy Online, EVE Online and Phantasy Star Online.Cyberpunks abound in The Matrix Online and Neocron, and upcoming title Auto Assault. Social butterflies gravitate towards worlds like Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom, The Sims Online, A Tale in the Desert, Second Life and Habbo Hotel. Heroes and villains can roam the streets in City of Heroes/ Villains. Read more..!
 The GypsyMIDI by Sonalog actually translates your body movement into MIDI input via Sonalog's "eXo-software." One arm will set you back $855, the whole suit dinging your bankbook for $1,675. Read more..!
Sony's HDR-HC3 HD camcorder leaked
 Sony is on the verge of releasing another HD cam, the HDR-HC3, that appears to complement the HDR-HC1. The main differences between the two models seem to be a lower gross pixel count on the the HC3, but higher resolution stills on the new model, along with a higher-res LCD and multi-functional control ring. Read more..!
Homebrew on PSPs running firmware 2.01 through 2.50!
 PSP Updates forum moderator and presumably Sony Enemy #1 Fanjita has posted a version of his eLoader software that works with 2.01 through 2.50 versions of the firmware, and utilizes the same Grand Theft Auto exploit that has been previously used to load homebrew swag. So far only a handful of games and emulators have been tested with the new boot loader, but the list seems to be growing. Read more..!
The University of Nebraska's abdominal bot gastric rover
 The rover is a small RC robot designed to be inserted into a small incision in the abdomen from where it can then crawl around your insides. Two rotating aluminium cylinders have spiral patterns that allow the bot the grip your abdominal walls and move around while a camera captures images allowing surgeons to perform a minimally invasive surgery. Read more..!
Google testing new search results interface?
 The alleged new design has a sidebar on the left that shows the number of search results for Google's various services (Images, News, etc.) as small green bars, with links for Advanced Search, Preferences, and Search History below. The search results are displayed as usual on the rest of the page. Read more..!
IBM files for DVR instant-replay patent
 The application seeks to patent instant replay functions. But not any old instant replay. These are instant replays on a DVR. In a picture-in-picture window. With the data stored in the remote control. Read more..!
TorPark: Anonymous browsing on a USB drive
 TorPark is a portable app to be installed on a USB drive that combines Firefox and Tor, the anonymizing "onion router." Once you have it loaded on your USB drive there's no set-up: just plug it into any Windows PC with an Internet connection and you're off and anonymous. Read more..!
 Australian artist Pierre Proske is working with the Viktoria Institute in Sweden to develop smart magnets. Each magnet is a 16-character LCD display that communicates with other magnets; the displays can identify what part of speech they're showing, and use the information to form poems on their own. And, fortunately, there's a manual override, by just taking them off of the fridge, shuffle them and put them back to have them form a new set of words. Read more..!
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-Lytir1
