Name the Thing Contest - 44

 
Congratulations to the last contest winner.
The prize this week is a new product that we just added to the store. These LED mounting adapter boards let you solder to a small circuit board instead of soldering directly to LED and resistor leads.
This contest will run for one week (March 29 - April 3, 2008) . [...]

Apple looking to put handwriting recognition into the iPhone?

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs

We know Apple's had its Inkwell handwriting recognition software in OS X for years now, so we might have otherwise just totally glossed over this Handwriting Recognition Engineer job listing on Apple's site. Except for the part that reads: "The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone." They always love to throw those little tidbits in there, don't they?

[Via Macrumors]

 

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Movie Gadget Friday: 2010: The Year We Make Contact

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets, Robots

Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.

Last week on Movie Gadget Friday we kicked off our two-part series in honor of the late Arthur C. Clarke with 2001: A Space Odyssey. This week continues our tribute as we look into some of the support systems on board Discovery 1 and the Leonov in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. While we hear Dave Bowman proclaim "My God, it's full of stars", we can't help but dig through this film full of gadgets.

HAL 9000 and SAL 9000
Designed as an artificial emotional intelligence machine, the HAL 9000 and SAL 9000 require human interaction for enhanced performance. Represented by a blue camera eye and female voice, SAL 9000 served as a guide to monitoring potential reactions by the previously disabled HAL 9000. Both machines incorporate keyboard and audio input to communicate with intelligent carbon-based lifeforms (read: us). The HAL 9000 is adept at facial, vocal, and vital sign recognition and makes decisions based on a strict understanding of logic. HAL maintains numerous responsibilities while acting as the brain and central nervous system of Discovery 1. Though HAL appears to be programmed to protect the crew, there are obvious and inherent flaws in his logic programming, resulting in -- spoiler alert -- in committing homicide to resolve conflicting commands. More after the jump.

Continue reading Movie Gadget Friday: 2010: The Year We Make Contact

 

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HD DVD Promotion Group officially dissolves in a high-res burst of tears

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Well, it's no surprise that it was going to happen, but the HD DVD Promotion Group officially dissolved today, leaving behind nothing but this terse message directing us to individual "selling agencies." And so, with literally nothing left of HD DVD, we formally close the sad chapter of consumer electronics history known as the HD Format War, remembering those times when HD DVD rode high, with low prices, more features and less restrictive rights management as its rallying cries, and the rantings of Michael Bay still only the delusional fantasies of a fool. May the resistance live on, and our PS3s always be reminded of a time when their ascension was not guaranteed. Red's dead, baby.

 

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Former Xbox Europe VP says consoles will be dead in 5-10 years

Filed under: Gaming

The last time we heard someone proclaim the death of the game console, it was EA's head of international distribution saying that an open gaming platform distributed within cable and satellite set-top boxes would take over within 15 years -- a prediction at which we laughed pretty heartily, given that most cable companies can't even manage to get a functional DVR out the door. So it's fairly surprising to hear the former VP of Xbox Europe make the exact same prediction, and bump up the timeline pretty dramatically: Sandy Duncan, who was with MS for 15 years, recently said that dedicated game devices "will die in the next five to 10 years," and that "most of this stuff will be 'virtualized' as web services by your content provider." Of course, Duncan's now with YoYo Games, which is a web-based gaming company, so he might be a little biased, but there's truth in his statement that the console gaming market is risky and that launch costs of new hardware are incredibly high. Still, as Duncan should know first-hand, it's an investment that can definitely pay off, and we think consumers are always going to demand choice and quality -- two things that aren't exactly synonymous with cable and satellite hardware.

[Via GameDaily]

 

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How would you change Apple's Time Capsule?

Filed under: Features, Wireless, Storage

Now that Time Machine's all buddy-buddy with AirPort Extreme's AirDisk feature, we can see the demand for Time Capsule sinking considerably. Still, Apple's own NAS drive / WLAN router combo has likely found its way into quite a few households, and now that you've had a chance to back up your life a couple times over, we're interested to see how you'd tweak things. Are you really pleased with the interface? Are transfers snappy enough? Want a little more freedom with how you're able to configure things? Would you rather it not function as a substitute for a portable stove? Let's be honest -- Time Capsule's a pricey piece of kit for what you get, so feel free to let Cupertino know exactly what's keeping you from being absolutely satisfied in every respect.

 

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D-Link DSM-750 wireless Media Center Extender finally shipping

Filed under: Home Entertainment

We first saw D-Link's DSM-750 MediaLounge Wireless Media Player at CES way back in 2007, and the company "officially" launched the 802.11n unit in September of that year -- but the scheduled November 2007 retail date came and went, and the four of you queuing up to drop $349 on an unheralded Media Center extender were left to sadly contemplate the crushing banality of your existence. Well, buck up, boy-o, because it looks like D-Link's realized that it's actually supposed to sell the DSM-750, and it's also gone and dropped the price down a whole $20, to $329. Sure, you can operate the thing in either MCE or MediaLounge mode, but you're still limited to 1080i output (even over HDMI), and at that price, it's pretty hard to see why you wouldn't just nab an Xbox 360 Arcade to do the same thing -- you're getting far more functionality for the money, even if you have to spring for wireless and the remote. Still, we're glad this thing is finally here -- those four dudes were getting awfully weepy.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

 

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