Author: Brian Lam

Instead of harpooning a whale for samples, wouldn’t it be easier to just collect their snot using an R/C helicopter? More »

Several star commenters have noted recently that the troll factor is rising again. This post is reminder that all comments wasting words and the comment moderator’s time wondering about such issues as “why does gizmodo love/hate/get paid by company XYZ?” may result in zero warnings and then a ban. And whatever happens to your comment account, remember: it’s not my fault if you lose your account because you said something stupid. Black Ninja Monday is when the action goes down, so you’ve got two days to turn things around. The obvious choices: You can have fun in troll hell, or join the ranks of the thoughtful, starred, proud and clever commenters everyone appreciates. Again, Monday: that’s when there’ll be internet blood everywhere. But it won’t be mine. More »

Look. The hype has gotten to all of us. You’re up at some ungodly hour. You said you wouldn’t buy one til the third generation, but now look at your apple.com cart. Let me talk you down; Do what’s right. More »

Laser-powered carbon nanotube speakers! They’ll fit in walls and windows, and can noise-cancel ambient rackets. Or blast some music. More »

Wow. The PS3 is getting HD purchases and rentals from all six major studios. A quick search turns up that Xbox is missing Fox and, duh, Sony.

It’s nice that Sony isn’t handicapping the Playstation 3 in order to protect its blu-ray business.

Sony’s got deals with Fox, Disney, Paramount, Itself, Universal and Warner. I’m impressed. Now I just have to remember my login for PS network.

From Movie Theater to Home Theater: PlayStation(R)Network Delivers High Definition Movies From Six Major Movie Studios in the United States

PlayStation(R)3 Computer Entertainment System First to Have High Definition Movies for Purchase from All Major Studios

FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 9 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will offer high definition (HD) movies for purchase and rental on the PlayStation®Network video delivery service in the United States. PlayStation Network is the first to offer high definition movies for purchase from all of the major movie studios, further establishing PlayStation®3 (PS3®) as the preeminent home entertainment platform for this year’s most popular and critically acclaimed high definition movies.

“Securing high definition content from these studios is another significant milestone further validating PlayStation Network as a complete entertainment network in the home. PlayStation Network is the first and only service to deliver high definition home entertainment from all six major studios, directly to consumers for download,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “PlayStation Network continues to offer the most comprehensive catalogue of HD movies to PlayStation Network members that realize the wide-ranging entertainment power of the PS3 system.”

The PS3 system is the most complete home entertainment solution on the market today, enabling consumers to enjoy high-definition games and movies, as well as listen to music, view photos, browse the Internet and more. Today’s announcement joins one of the industry’s strongest home entertainment brands with the major media companies that produce and distribute a substantial number of films. At launch, the content will be available in the U.S. only, with plans to launch soon in the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain.

New titles available today on PlayStation Network include:
· 20th Century Fox – “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, “Jennifer’s Body” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (on March 23)
· Walt Disney Pictures – Disney Pixar’s “Up”, Jerry Bruckheimer’s “G-Force” and Disney’s “Earth”
· Paramount Pictures – “Star Trek”, “Paranormal Activity” and “Zoolander”
· Sony Pictures – “This Is It”, “2012”, “District 9” and “Zombieland”
· Universal – “Inglourious Basterds”, “Couples Retreat” and “Public Enemies”
· Warner Bros. Digital Distribution – “The Hangover”, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “The Wizard of Oz”

Jalopnik’s gathered up the flying car covers from Popular Science’s complete archives and come out with a brief 77-year history of our flying car fantasies, which shift from cautious to optimistic depending on the tone of the decade. [Jalopnik]

Gizmodo Poland launched today. The guy in charge is Rafal Tomanski, who was a finalist on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Poland, and walked away with the 500k prize after not wanting to risk it all on a single question. He speaks 8 languages and has degrees in Japanese cinema and international relations and has been a freelance writer for a long time. He’s kind of a genius and I’m glad he’s representing us in Poland. [Gizmodo.pl]

You know that Mac vs PC music in EVERY ad? Do you think it sounds like baby music? Because everyone at Gizmodo just got into a huge debate over it and are not talking to each other now. Tiebreaker please?

I’m not saying it’s bad or uncool, other than we all have it stuck in our heads from the repetition. Just that it sounds like, well, the kind of music you play for a baby so they fall asleep. Dreaming of Apple ads.

Joel Johnson, who ran Gizmodo a while before he rejoined us, is my friend and fellow nerd. I love him. When he wrote this dark story about his childhood, I cried. And surprisingly, I thought about gadgets.

Joel’s story is about the sexual abuse he was dealt by his adoptive parent, and how he and his family dealt — or didn’t deal — with it. It’s one of the most powerful and beautifully written things I’ve seen in quite some time, and in one small way relevant to this site’s core topic.

At one point, Joel explains that his stepdad would take him shoplifting for gadgets, teaching him how to peel off the security strips and fill his pockets in an effort to buy off his silence. Joel was the kid with a bag full of Game Boys — and a broken life.

I remember my father, an HP engineer, teaching me about things like soldering irons and RC cars. That was wonderful. Yet I had more electric toys than friends, perhaps because toys made me less nervous. I could control them. And I didn’t have many friends or confidants, so obsessing over my electronic distractions was often a way to fill the emptiness.

I’m not saying all people obsessed with gadgetry have been abused or have had troubled childhoods. And I’m not saying that adult gadgetheads are sad, either. I am very lucky for my life, filled with the things that I love. (Barring, perhaps, CES.) To assume a direct correlation would be presumptuous. But before being so sure, I had to ask myself this question: Do I obsess over gadgets because they let me down and hurt me less often than people do?

Because a gadget-for-gadget’s-sake seems like a waste of time; What could it be but a shallow material replacement for something it could never really replace? Gadgetry sprung from tools designed to help us communicate with other people.

That’s the small gadget related part that I felt when I read Joel’s piece, but there’s really a lot more. The rest isn’t really gadgety but I was moved by it and won’t forget that story, ever. And if you know Joel, or have read his work and feel close to him, you may want to carry on to the link below. But be warned: you will feel the rollercoaster-drop from toes to nose.

Anyhow, this is what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Thought I’d share.
[JoelJohnson]

The W90 is Pentax’s solid successor to the W80. It’s got a new strap and LEDs around the lens for close illumination. It’s also slightly more resistant, rated to 20 feet of water and 4-foot drops.

The new case is nicer than the old, and the innards seem pretty similar to the older model (which I liked). There’s the 12mp sensor, 720p video recording and digital shake reduction as well as a 5x 28-140mm equivalent lens. I liked the old one, so I’ll probably like the new one. (Although perhaps not quite as much as I like the new rugged Lumix TS2.) [Pentax]

After testing a banana tech snowboard last year, Lib/Gnu sent me this Danny Kass banana board. With C2BTX technology, the tips are turned down a bit to help with pop. I love it. You should take it off my hands.

We can’t keep gear we test and they don’t want it back. But also, I look a little bit too much like the guy on the board to keep riding it. It’s the mustache and round head. The board is a 155, I think, has magnetraction (the edges are serrated for better grip on hard or icy surfaces) and its not too stiff, not too soft. The NYTimes(?) and some snowboarding magazines gave it some awards.

The prize is pretty easy to claim. All you have to do is find me riding in Tahoe sometime over the next few weeks, and yell “Banana!Banana!Banana!Banana!Banana!” (Banana 5 times) at me with your fingers in your ears. Hey, what’s a little humiliation in the face of really good free snowboard?

To make it easier to find me, I’ll be tweeting when I ride once in awhile at my twitter account. Follow @blam, @Gizmodo, @libtechnologies and @Gnu_Snowboards, and look for updates from me starting this weekend.

Oh and I look like this.

Patagonia’s Down Sweater is the classic jacket for the cold and dry climate. In Fall comes the special edition with ripstop, water-resistant, nylon half the weight and twice as strong as previous. It’s so thin, feathers show through the shell.

The result of the nylon being lighter brings the total weight of the jacket from 12 ounces to 9 ounces. I’m curious how much lighter these jackets can get without being made of NASA aerogel. And when synthetic fillers will outpace down for performance. Seems like a fine piece of gear, for those who need the extra warmth. (I generally prefer man made filler and more breathable mid layers to deal with perspiration.)

[Patagonia (Although the neat jacket won’t be out til Fall)]

Welcome to the rugged camera game, Sony. Your TX5 impresses me with its deck-of-cards size Zeiss lens, and 14-degree rating, but at 10 feet of waterproofness and 5 feet of shock resistance, you’re a little fragile.

Other cameras, like the just released Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2, are rated to around 30 feet of depth with respectable image quality. And the Casio EX-G1 is practically as small, although not nearly as capable of a camera.

Still, I respect Sony point and shoots, and this one could be one of the most street friendly because of its sensor and some neat software. The camera has a 10.2 megapixel “Exmor R” CMOS low light sensor, has optical stabilization (handy in a rugged camera) and 10 fps burst modes. (We suspect it has similar guts to the WX1.) Another neat trick is the Intelligent Sweep Panorama, which can stitch together up to 100 separate captures by face matching and judging motion, adjusting them for lens warp to make a huge single image. There’s also built in high dynamic range processing which combined bracketed photos. Ideal for capturing detail in sunny or snowy scenes. And smile capture which triggers the shutter when the camera detects a toothy grin or a timer mode that snaps the shot when heads show up in frame. The camera also captures 720p video at 30 frames per second with a special mode that’ll allow for 10 times the lens movement to adjust for shake.

Without having used this camera, I’d say it’s ideal as a good solid slim point and shoot that can occasionally hit the outdoors. It’ll go for $350 this April.

SONY INTRODUCES WATERPROOF DIGITAL STILL CAMERA WITH PERFORMANCE AND STYLE

Model Offers Outstanding Low-Light Performance, High Speed,
Intelligent Sweep Panorama and More

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 17, 2010 – Leading the industry in innovation and design, Sony today unveiled two new Cyber-shot® digital still cameras (models DSC-TX5 and DSC-H55).
Slim enough to fit in your pocket or purse at less than an inch thin — about the size of a deck of cards — the TX5 is the world’s thinnest and smallest certified waterproof (up to 10 feet deep) digital still camera with Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization and touch operation. Additionally, the 10.2 megapixel model is Sony’s first digital still camera with an “Exmor R” CMOS sensor that is also certified to be freeze proof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, shockproof up to about a 5-foot drop and dust proof.
“Only Sony can deliver a technology-packed, ultra slim, fashionable T-series camera that is also durable. Until now, you couldn’t have it all in one camera” said Kelly Davis, director of the Digital Imaging business at Sony Electronics. “It is so versatile because it’s a great camera for both indoor and outdoor usage. You can easily take it from a day at the beach with the kids to a cocktail party with friends. This camera is also great for activities such as snorkeling, snowboarding or boating.”
Waterproof, Freeze Proof, Shockproof and Dust Proof
Waterproof in up to 10 feet of water for an hour, the TX5 lets you take high-quality photos, including panoramic pictures, and 720p high definition videos of your friends, family or pets underwater. From the tropics to the top of the mountain, the camera is also freeze proof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, so you can take pictures of the kids sledding or snowboarding. Not only is it ready for cold weather, but the TX5 is durable enough to withstand an accidental drop from up to approximately 5 feet. Additionally, it is dust proof, so you can take it with you on a camping trip or a mountain bike ride.
The camera features an “Exmor R” sensor and offers 10fps continuous burst shooting for capturing action shots, so you can get great photos of the perfect moment such as when your kids are in mid air while jumping into the pool. Additionally, the sensor provides outstanding low-light performance so you can take high-quality photos even after the sun sets.
In one easy press-and-sweep motion, take panoramic photos of the underwater landscape or breathtaking views from the top of the mountain using the Intelligent Sweep Panorama™ feature. Another benefit of the “Exmor R” sensor, this innovative feature combines separate captures, detects faces and subject motion and intelligently adjusts the width while stitching the images together, resulting in natural looking panoramic photos.
The camera features a three-inch (measured diagonally) Clear Photo LCD Plus™ (230,400 pixel) wide touch screen display that functions-even underwater. You can focus on your subject, operate the menu and share photos and videos with a touch of the screen-wet or dry. Additionally, you can decorate your photos using the paint feature or scroll through images by simply sweeping your finger across the screen.
Shadows and Details Made Easy
In addition to making it easy to capture entire landscapes or tall buildings, the TX5 camera also helps to manage difficult lighting situations. The “Exmor R” CMOS sensor lets you take high-quality photos in low light without a flash. Additionally, the TX5 has a solution for backlight situations.
With in-camera multi-shot Backlight Correction High Dynamic Range (HDR), the camera combines highlight and shadow detail of two separate captures into one remarkably natural looking image-even without a tripod. HDR offers a solution for strong backlight situations which typically result in either dark shadows in the foreground or a washed out background. Sony’s “Exmor R” sensor and BIONZ® processor help to correct these issues.

Tonight’s the Men’s Olympics Snowboarding Halfpipe event. Have you heard of Shaun White’s personal superpipe in which he compressed the training equivalent of years into a day, mastering insane new tricks that I can’t even wrap my brain around?

The 550-foot long half pipe is located 7 miles from Silverton, which is built around Silverton mountain: a ski resort with the most advanced terrain of any resort in America, with no groomed runs, and only one lift chair. It was constructed out of snow from the surrounding inclines, and get this: To pile up the snow—250,000 cubic yards worth—Red Bull took one of their private helicopters around and dropped about 30 satchels of explosives that weighed 25 pounds each into surrounding inclines, triggering slides that would gather up at the bottom. They hired Frank Welsh, the world’s best pipe shaper, to carve out the final shape. Unlike regular resort pipes, which are comprised of man made and natural snow, this pipe’s uniform material meant it didn’t chunk off as others might.

Next, Red Bull constructed a foam pit from 8,000 pounds of steel and about 7,000 foam blocks that Shaun could flip into when trying new rotational combinations like his his Double McTwist. They hauled up the thing on a truck and then when the truck couldn’t get any further, snow cats. At one point the foam threw back some stored energy from his fall and he chipped the bone in his ankle, so it’s not like the danger was completely gone. But a lot of it was. Enough that Shaun would learn new tricks never before performed, in a matter of hours. By his reckoning, it compressed his learning curve “by years”.

Shaun appears to be air lifted to the practice site by private helicopter and shuttled to the top of it by snowmobile, of which I saw a pair.

I saw a clip of Shaun at the Grand Prix the other day and I thought to myself, it’ll take a miracle for anyone to touch this guy at the half pipe today. Sure, luck is a factor, but If there’s anything an olympic halfpipe athlete can do to to make his own luck, it’s to make his own private superpipe in the secret wilds of Colorado.

If you have your doubts, watch him perform his new tricks, which are on the website below. In a way, you’d think he’d want to keep his new tricks secret from his competitors. But like any competition, there’s a pregame mental battle and you can bet the guys in that contest have watched those videos a couple dozen times, each time saying WTF to themselves a couple dozen times. It can’t be good for morale. Unless you’re Shaun White.

[Shaun White]

Love can be difficult. Throwing tech into the mix can complicate things even more.

We’ve got tech that can put us in touch with so many people at once, but can keep us from real intimacy with our closest few: Facebook friends don’t have to meet, tweets don’t require thoughtfulness, movie dates don’t require talking, and sexting obviates touching. But we still need to get down to brass tacks for love and fucking. Uh, so to speak.

The underlying game remains but it seems like we have a lot more interference to deal with.

Of course, it isn’t that one-sided. We’re meeting people we might have never met before, and we’re engaging with them, even superficially, across barriers and distances and with immediacy impossible even a few decades ago.

But my guess is that when we spend all this time at arms length or farther, engaging in little meaningless conversations with the crowd, it’s hard to imagine we’re all as good at the one-on-one time than we might been sometime in the last century. I might even suggest from my pop psychobabble arm chair that gadget geeks who prefer to fiddle with apps at a party instead of conversing with other human beings are at least slightly damaged romantic goods. I’d be speaking about myself. And so would my girlfriend:

When Brian first brought his iPhone home, it was like he’d taken a mistress. All day, all night, he fondled its touchscreen and gawked at its shiny face. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of it for more than five minutes at a time. Like a good Japanese girlfriend, I let him get the lust out of his system instead of trying to stop the inevitable. I pretended not to care while he lay in bed smoothing his finger across the unlock bar, and sat stoically at the other end of the dinner table as he and the iPhone whispered sweet nothings to each other.

Geek-on-geek love isn’t all bad. Nerds use the same websites and gadgets and develop, together, the same affinities and rules of right and wrong. The challenge is, along the worldwide spectrum from geek to non-geek, everyone gets comfortable with these modern tools at different paces. What’s left, and constant, then, is human nature.

For the next few days, counting down to Valentine’s day, we’re exploring love in modern times. Our resident love doctor, Dr. Debby Herbenick, will be sharing wisdom and data to help us understand the new challenges, and we’ll all be publishing various takes on this complicated subject, as well as sharing your experiences as well.

It’s not all bad, in fact, sometimes it’s beautiful, but let’s face it, love is messy enough and adding social networks and smartphones into the mix without any established rules for how or when to use them properly, things can only get messier.

This is where our theme—and our exploration of awkward geek love—begins.

You can read all our Bad Valentine stories here.

Toyota just announced a recall of its 2010 hybrid cars. Four hundred thousand worth. The reason? A change in “brake feeling” caused by faulty antilock braking software. There is no fix for cars on the road yet.

This problem, unrelated to the sticky gas pedal issue that other drivers complained about. But I’m still wondering what exactly is bothering our Prius-loving friend Woz, who claims he has a faulty cruise control issue that is software related, not mechanical.

Remember that old joke about if cars were as crash prone as computers? Yeah, not funny in 2010. [CNN]