Author: Kat Hannaford

Google may’ve delayed the launch of two Samsung and Motorola Android phones last week, but if you speak to the Chinese government, they have no problems with Google (their free-speaking arch-nemesis) offering their wares in the country. [Reuters]

Most of Gizmodo is comprised of whippersnappers who can only just remember the Bigtrak from the ’80s, so we asked an actual, genuine, grey-haired old man* to tell us his thoughts upon hearing it’s to make a comeback this year.

Back in 1980, Bigtrak’s chunky all-terrain monster truck looked like the most exciting toy on six wheels, especially with its futuristic programmable navigation system, but it was a fad that passed faster than a Sinclair C5.

Forget remote control, you had to laboriously punch in the direction and distance you wanted it to go before it would do anything. Few kids really got their heads around how to program it and fewer still could actually afford one on 1980s-level pocket money.

Our school bought a Bigtrak and Trailer—its only accessory—as a teaching aid and the novelty soon wore off. As my dad was headmaster of the school, it’s now sitting in my parent’s attic, gathering dust and eBay value. 30 years on, it seems I’ve got the last laugh against my schoolyard enemies.

With the seriously scaled-down reissue about to go on sale, interest in the hulking originals will be sky high, but I’d love to get one of the new smaller models when they go on sale.

*genuine grey-haired old man being my fiance. Sorry, Jim! [Pocket Lint via Wired]

You can add the Nook and Nexus One to the roll-call of Colorware patients from today, with the usual assortment of colorful paints being applied.

If you can bear to part with your Nexus One for three weeks, send it in and pay $175 for the paintjob, or purchase a brand new one—with paintjob—for $800. The Nook is priced at $125 for a three-week splattering of paint on your very own ereader, or for a brand new one it’s $400. I could spend hours just imagining picking out the colors on the Nexus One I don’t actually own. [Colorware Nook, Colorware Nexus One]

When you’re flying 90 odd-hrs just to get to Auckland, you’d be wanting to charge your iPod or laptop at least once. Air New Zealand‘s done a major overhaul of its Boeing 777 plane, with sockets and USB ports galore.

It’s not just for the suit-clad first class and business class passengers either. 11 Skycouches that turn into flat beds for two will make those weeks in the air fly past quickly, with the other seats providing extra leg room and comfort. But that’s not the best bit—the power sockets, iPod connectors and USB ports on each seat will blow people’s minds. You know, for that full 3-month long flight to Wellington. [Gadling via Engadget]

In the town where I was born, lived a man who drank a lot of tea, and he told us of his life, in the land of tea-infusing submarines. [Monkey-Business via Swiss Miss]

Whoa, whoever said Palm didn’t have any decent games will definitely be eating their hat for dinner tonight. Assassin’s Creed: Altaïr’s Chronicles has just hit the Palm Pre app store, last seen on the DS, iPhone and Symbian phones.

The prequel to the first Assassin’s Creed is a couple of years old now, but still worth checking out as it’s probably one of the biggest names to hit the Pre (apart from Doom and Quake, which aren’t exactly official). I say Pre, and not webOS—sadly, the Pixi and Pixi Plus are too underpowered. Available now for $6.99. [PreCentral]

Sony’s dildo-esque motion controller was rumored to be called the Gem, but a domain registration of playstationarc.com by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc suggests otherwise. [VGChartz via Spong]

One of the first questions I asked HTC when I saw the HD2 was “will it come with Android?” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a WinMo user from way back, but with that 4.3-inch screen, it’s perfect for Google’s OS.

If these leaked photos of the HTC Supersonic are anything to go by, then it seems HTC has enough sense to do a similarly-specced phone, but with Android. Like the HD2, the screen is 4.3-inches, and internally there’s meant to be a 1GHz Snapdragon chip, and a 5.0-megapixel camera. The extremely blurry photos turned up on the Android Mobile OS site, with the sneaky-snapper claiming it’ll be carried by Sprint and will be a WiMAX device, but curiously it’ll only be running Android 2.1, though HTC’s brilliant Sense skin will be prominent on it.

We don’t like to put too much faith in all these grainy leaked pics, but if it’s true, the Supersonic will be my next phone for sure. [Android Mobile OS via Android Community Slashgear]

They made a brief online appearance over the weekend but were promptly yanked off, but now Pentax has made them official—meet the Optio I-10, H90 and E90 cameras.

Pentax is one of those camera brands that you never really consider unless you’re over a certain age and can remember their glory days, but actually, I’ve always been pretty pleased with their compacts. They’re no Panasonic Lumix, but when all three of the below models come in at under $300 and look very different to the rest of the identikit cameras out there, I think they’re worth considering. Until reviews start pouring in, of course.

Top of the pile is the I-10 which has a 12.1-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, and can shoot 720p video at 30fps. The LCD screen measures 2.7-inches, and in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s an inbuilt flash unit and speaker. It’ll cost $299.95 when it becomes available next month, and will be in black or pearl white options.

That electro-orange ’80s model is the H90, and has similar specs to the I-10, but is quite a bit cheaper at $179.95. Of course, you’re compromising on the lens, but with all these ’80s throwbacks rearing their heads recently, you may prefer style over substance. It also comes in a nice black/white colorway, and silver/white, if that orange is too offensive for your little eyes.

The bottom of the pile comes in at $100, and while the zoom isn’t as attractive on the E90 as the first two models, at 3x, the 10-megapixel sensor and 2.7-inch LCD are pretty decent, as is the fact that it takes AA batteries. $100 is next to nothing, but the lack of optical stabilization may put you off. [Pentax]

So you always wanted to be a scientist…except you aren’t. Never fear! The iMicroscope iPhone app is here. When used with a microscope (surely you’ve got one of those kicking around?) you can take ultra-precise scientific photos.

Whatever you put on the microscope slide—my hot tip is a slice of watermelon, or a strand of hair—you’ll be able to see just fine through the viewfinder of the device. But what if you want a photo of it in all its magnified glory? You download iMicroscope (for $2.99) and take a photo down the eye of the viewfinder, with the app then requiring you to insert the level of magnification you were looking at, for example 40x.

After that, the image is displayed, letting you zoom in and out, with a scale bar down the bottom for reference. You can email the image, or save it to your camera roll—and when you go back to it later, it will auto-format to the magnification you last viewed it in.

Check out the video below for a demo on how it’s done, by the suitably nerdy and squeaky-voiced developer. Ahh, scientists. [iMicroscope via Technabob]

When Mark reviewed the Nokia Booklet 3G last November, he unfortunately didn’t have 40 of them so couldn’t play a giant game of Guess Who by himself. But the guys at WOMWorld/Nokia did, making a hilarious video in the process.

Are you the blue website with the red hat and an eyeglass? [Recombu]

Fighting back against the downloaders, a new music file format by the name of MusicDNA has been introduced by the people who created the MP3, which will bundle a heap of bonus content with the music file.

When downloading a song or album in the MusicDNA format, the buyer will also recent videos of concerts, album artwork and sleeve notes, blog posts and tweets from the band, and concert/merchandise information. It’s all about giving the buyer a greater incentive to download legally, just like Apple’s iTunes LP which was announced last year—though I’ve never met a single person who’s actually paid money for some pretty digital pictures before.

The MusicDNA team has already signed deals with indie labels, so bands such as Radiohead and the Arctic Monkeys will soon be offering downloads in the format, though for how much, nobody seems to know. We’ll start seeing a lot more about MusicDNA, with the launch expected to be spring time—but will a few videos and tweets make you give up BitTorrent for good? Nah, didn’t think so. [The Guardian]

We already know of Acer’s intentions to claim dominance of the Chrome OS arena, but they’re so confident of Google’s success that at least 10 per cent of their netbooks will be pre-loaded with the platform, according to their president.

In an interview, Jim Wong, the president of Acer’s IT Products department, revealed that they’re also working on a tablet and—not beating around the bush by any means—said that the Apple tablet will “provide inspiration” for them. The tablet will work in “the Windows world or in Google’s defined OS space,” Acer’s Chairman J.T. Wang added.

And they want to break away from the traditional lock that’s been put on PC manufacturers by Intel and Microsoft:

For Chrome, we’re aggressively pursuing to become one of the first, so there’s a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment…

They’re also going to offer their own app store around June/July for Android and Windows Mobile platforms, and potentially their ereader, which will measure 6-inches and will hit five European countries when it goes on sale this year.

Sounds like Acer is one to watch this year, if only for reported cases of workers fainting from exhaustion. [Bloomberg]

On sale in Korea only (someone pass me the tissues, quick), this LG Serie 1 retro TV may not have 1080 lines of resolution or a contrast ratio to make your knees bend, but it’s very cute, non?

The screen measures just 14-inches diagonally, in a 4:3 ratio, and as you’ve probably noticed, LG’s used a ye olde CRT for the body—no flat panel ’round here. The antennae and chrome legs finish the retro styling off nicely, as does the glossy orange finish—though it’s also available in brown, which would certainly give the M21 a run for its money.

Thankfully it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the similarly-retro styled Brionvega Doney, at 249,000 KRW, or around $216. Better get in touch with a Korean exporting firm. [LG via Retro To Go]

After trying to conceive for four years, mother Lena Bryce fell pregnant two months after downloading an app on her iPhone. Sadly, for story’s sake, it wasn’t an augmented reality app showing men with the highest sperm count.

The Menstrual Calendar iPhone app tells women when they’re most fertile, acting almost as an alarm for shagging time.

Stories of babies born from women impressed by the lightsaber app are unfounded, meaning baby Lola is probably the world’s first to be born thanks to an iPhone app. Or at least, the first baby to be branded with the horrendous moniker of ‘iPhone baby‘ by the British tabloids. [The Sun]

Image Credit: gnta

Writing from the future, Pope Benedict XVI is urging his followers, including priests, to “be present in the world of digital communications,” using “images, videos, animated features, blogs and websites,” all with the aim of converting people to the church.

It’s a long and rambling essay on the importance of using this newfangled form of communication to reach out to those weak to the power of the church, with the Pope showing a healthy grasp of internet slang:

In this way the Word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different “highways” that form “cyberspace”, and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own.

Using a blog is also valuable for time-travelers, as the Pope himself has shown, writing the blog entry on Sunday, the 16th of May 2010, according to the timestamp. [Vatican via Twitter]

We don’t give much thought to deaf users of phones, but Pratt Institute student Suhyun Kim has worked hard on this stunning Visual Sound concept, which converts voice to text and vice versa.

The scroll-like device has a touchscreen for text to be typed in, which then gets converted to voice for the other person on the line, whose audio then turns into text for the deaf user of the phone to read. If the Visual Sound concept ever got put into production, I’ll be one of the first to snag one—not only does it look great, but it might help when phoning from noisy locations, as I’m prone to do. [Yanko Design via Recombu]

The ultimate weapon for that jumping-the-shark moment, when you just can’t control The Rage. [SadandUseless via Geekologie]

Sometime after 1997 when Jobs returned to Apple, he gave this motivational speech defining Apple and their “core beliefs”. While wearing shorts. While we can’t promise he’ll be sporting bare legs this Wednesday, this minute-long clip is powerful stuff.

My favorite quote from the video shows the lack of modesty that Jobs manages to deliver so well:

“What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well.”

But if you’re wanting to create a motivational desktop wallpaper featuring his photo and a choice quote, you can’t go wrong with this little gem:

“Apple at the core, its core value, is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”

[Talkable Likeable]

Ortery’s Photosimile 5000 3D photocopier has taken two years to go on sale since it first surfaced in 2008, providing digital 3D replicas of whatever object you place inside it. Think of the possibilities!

Once the object is placed on the Ortery turntable inside the box, a Canon DSLR takes 360 degree photos, with the four daylight bulbs giving 6500K of illumination—the perfect lighting conditions for the 72 photos taken.

Connected to a PC by USB, the images are saved as GIF or Flash files, and then transferred to the Photosimile software. If all of this is getting you hot under the collar at the thought of such a machine, better schedule a meeting in with your bank manager—it’s $17,000 and has just started shipping. [Ortery via Gizmag via TechRadar]