Archive for February 20th, 2009

Mac Plus Emulator now Available for Jailbroken iPhones [IPhone Apps]

February 20, 2009

NOSTALGIA ALERT! There is now an honest-to-goodness Retro MacOS emulator for jailbroken iPhones in the form of Mini vMac, which loads disk images and everything. It’s like getting your first Mac all over again.

The OS, developed by Named Fork, is based around that found on the Mac Plus (v3.0, presumably). If you can stomach the god-awful nu-metal soundtrack (or whatever they’re calling it these days), the video runs through a demo of the different control schemes for using the OS with a touchscreen.

Admittedly, it looks like more work than it probably is, especially since you have to track down and convert the retro software yourself (more info here). But if I can play some Number Crunchers, and maybe a little Lode Runner, I’d gladly suffer some tedium to revisit my childhood technological awakening. [Named Fork via Nowhere Else via CrunchGear]

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Also check out more images at Nowhere Else

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New Mac Mini Caught on Video [Unconfirmed]

February 20, 2009

The Mac mini on video here looks like the new one we saw yesterday with five USB and dual display ports—the one declared fake earlier. This looks pretty convincing. Is it real?

[9to5Mac]

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A Peek at the Oscar Animated Shorts Nominees [Oscars]

February 20, 2009

With the Oscars this weekend and all of their red carpet pageantry, it’s always easy to forget that some of the most innovative art and storytelling is found in the animated shorts.

With all the fun of copyright, we can’t post the shorts for you, but hopefully there’s clips will give you a slightly better background on the shorts than the 3-second blurbs on Oscar night.

newVideoPlayer(“/oscar_lamaison.flv”, 466, 281,”"); La Maison en Petits Cubes
In a world gradually flooding with water, an old man adapts to changing circumstances and looks back on his life.

newVideoPlayer(“/oscar_lavatorylovestory.flv”, 466, 281,”"); Lavatory Lovestory
A lonely lavatory attendant finds a bouquet of flowers in her tip jar.

newVideoPlayer(“/oscar_oktapodi.flv”, 466, 281,”"); Oktapodi
An octopus fights to keep his beloved out of the cooking pot.

newVideoPlayer(“/oscar_presto.flv”, 466, 281,”"); Presto
A carrot triggers a war of wits between a magician and his hungry bunny.

newVideoPlayer(“/oscar_thiswayup.flv”, 466, 281,”"); This Way Up
A series of misfortunes befalls a pair of undertakers on their way to the cemetery.

If you’d like to see thee shorts in full, at least a few will be making their way to iTunes, but also, Magnolia Pictures is running the films in theaters as part of a collection of Oscar-nominated shorts. You can see the city by city schedule here.

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10 Gadget Whiz Kids Under the Age of 16 [Tgif]

February 20, 2009

I’ll admit, it’s depressing when a kid under 16 has achieved more in their life than you have as an adult. However, the achievements of the whiz-kids in this list can also be inspiring.

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[Image via Flickr]

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Intel Claims SSD Slow Down Problem Is Not Indicative of Real-World Usage [Intel]

February 20, 2009

According to reviewers who found that Intel SSD performance dropped significantly over time due to increased fragmentation, Intel said today that they haven’t been able to replicate any of these results in their own labs. They claimed that the reviewer’s usage was not reflective of “real-world” use. Whatever that means, they’re denying the report. [CNET]

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LG Says 12MP Camera Phone Might Come Later This Year [Lg]

February 20, 2009

According to TechRadar, LG says they intend to develop a 12MP camera phone for later this year. The only other 12 megapixel camera slated for market is Sony Ericsson’s Idou, which was announced at MWC.

Jeremy Newing, LG’s head of marketing, said that they “absolutely” intended to go down this road:

However, we obviously can’t afford not to be part of the 12MP cameraphone infrastructure, and we will do that and add differentiation, through things like beauty enhancer and smile shot.

It should be noted, though, that more megapixels isn’t always better. [TechRadar]

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Room to Room Fan Helps Cut Down on Your Energy Bill [Fans]

February 20, 2009

Heating and cooling costs can be a real drain on the bank account, especially when money is tight. This simple $30 door fan helps push warm or cool air into neighboring rooms.

Obviously, it’s just a fan—but the fact that it can be installed in the corner of a doorframe means that it will be out of the way—unless you are tall with poor eyesight and mistake it for a really thick cobweb. [Improvements Catalog via Red Ferret]

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Zipper Blitz [Iotd]

February 20, 2009

A group of hands unintentionally wave hello from a zipper factory in China. See more amazing shots of people at work by hitting the link. UPDATED [The Big Picture and AP]

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Gadget Deals of the Day: Hello, Friday Edition [Dealzmodo]

February 20, 2009

Wow, I don’t think we’ve posted this many deals in one place since Black Friday. It’s pretty ridiculous, actually. But I guess every Friday is black nowadays.

Gaming:
Halo 3 Collectors Edition on Xbox 360 for $39.99 (normally $69.99).
James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace for $26.99 plus free shipping (normally $46.99).
Tomb Raider: Underworld on Xbox 360 for $34.99 plus free shipping (normally $49.99).
Far Cry 2 on PC for $33.99 plus free shipping (normally $49.99).
Far Cry 2 on PS3 for $26.99 plus free shipping (normally $36.99).
Legendary: The Box on PS3 for $27.99 plus free shipping (normally $59.99).
MySims on PC for $7.99 plus free shipping (normally $17.99).
Rainbow Six on PC for $9.99 plus free shipping (normally $19.99).
Guitar Hero Bundle (Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero Aerosmith games) for Wii for $27 (normally $46.99 – use coupon code DEALNEWS. Valid through 2/28).
Xbox 360 Limited Edition Red Accessory Kit for $41.99 plus free shipping (normally $64.99).

Computing and Peripherals:
Seagate Barracuda 1TB Internal Hard Drive for $84.99 plus free shipping (normally $129.99 – use coupon code GTWHM29GJMDTL9).
SimpleTech SimpleDrive 1TB External Hard Drive for $99.99 plus free shipping (normally $169.99).
V7 Series 22” Widescreen Monitor for $149.99 (normally $199.99).
ASUS 22” Widescreen LCD Monitor for $159.99 plus free shipping (normally $189.99 – use this rebate form).
HP dc5000 Intel Pentium 4 3GHz Desktop PC (refurbished) for $109.99 (normally $499.99 – limited, quantity, valid today only). (sold out!)
Logitech MX600 Cordless Laser mouse for $14.99 (normally $49.99 – valid today only).
Personalized Mouse Pad for $2.98 plus free shipping (normally $6.98 – use coupon code MOUSPD298).
Cables Unlimited Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Speakers with REmote Pair for $79.99 plus free shipping (normally $119.99 – use coupon code EMCLNNL29 and this rebate form).

For the Home:
iRobot Dirt Dog Roomba for $94.99 plus free shipping (normally $149.99).

Personal Portables:
Omnitech 4.3” Portable GPS with Text to Speech for $59.99 (normally $89.99 – valid today only).
Garmin Streetpilot GPS with Text to Speech (refurbished) for $72.99 (normally $369.99 – use coupon code REC340).
Kodak EasyShare 7.2MP Digital Camera for $69.99 (normally $89.99).
Aiptek Go-HD High Definition Digital Camcorder for $99.95 plus free shipping (normally $129.99).

Movies:
Marvel Blu-ray 3-Pack (Fantastic Four 1&2/Daredevil) for $54.49 plus free shipping (normally $79.99).
Sci-Fi Superheroes Blu-ray 3-pack (Ghost Rider/Underworld/Resident Evil) for $53.99 plus free shipping (normally $97.86).

Hobomodo:
OneStep Babies’ Baby Blanket and Stuffed Animals for $0 (must be able to confirm your e-mail address, so use your secondary e-mail account).
20 4×6 photo prints for $0 (normally $4 – use coupon code ONEDAY. Valid today only).
20 Page Photo Book for $0 (normally $29.99 – use coupon code PHOTOBOOKS. Valid through 3/10).
100 Business Cards for $0 (must need credit card to prevent fraud, but they will not charge you).
Wine.woot Decal for $0.

[Thank you GamerHotline, DealNews, SlickDeals, TechDealDigger, Fat Wallet and Bargainist.]


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Boy Killed Anally When Office Chair Explodes [Man Vs Machine]

February 20, 2009

Well, stories don’t get much worse than this. A 14-year-old boy in China was killed when his chair exploded, sending chunks of metal into his rectum. The bleeding this caused killed him.

The alleged explosion came from the gas cylinder that was in the base of the chair, the part that allowed the user to adjust the seat up and down. The canister gets compressed when you sit on it, but can it actually create enough energy to make the seat cushion explode like that and kill a man? I doubt it, but this is what people are reporting.

In other news, I am working from a beanbag from now on. Sweet merciful crap. [Anorak via The Daily What]

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