Home Made Trekkie Cinema Room

June 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Startrek Cinema RoomI have seen several pictures of people trying to create their home in to that Star Trek experience. A few months back, some guy in the UK tried to sell his Star Trek Voyager home on eBay for a few hundred K if I remember correctly.

This next Star Trek is a home cinema set up which uses original props from the set. The owner purchased two original bridge consoles at an auction. As can be seen he hasn’t held back at all in creating the full star trek experience. Crazy if you ask me though! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

How far does your WiFi go – 382 Kilometers

June 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment

When I hear people talking about wi-fi and ranges of their routers you usually get to hear a few hundred feet at the most. This has been totally smashed and a record of 382KM was announced. Thats 238 miles (basically from where I am in Leeds and about 33 miles past London. The equipment used was customised with technology from Intel as well as some custom built parts. The parts used were all off the shelf. The guy who made this is also able to get about 3MBps from this connection which is quite amazing.

Problems faced are that wifi signals tend to break off when the range is increased. By focusing the signal you can increase the distance quite a bit. The next problem is obstacles. You need to have line of sight at this kind of distance… but unfortunately the curve of the earth gets in the way as well as the occasional tree, building etc… which is expected over 238 miles. Intel has created a way to steer electrically the signal which increases bandwidth also. I believe this test was performed up a mountain so it could have near line of site.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Hacked Gadgets

A Look Back to 2001 – iPod Announced

June 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment


Here is a video of Steve Jobs announcing the iPod back in 2001. When it was launched it had a 5GB hard drive, was just over 3/4 of an inch thick and could store 1000 songs. Battery life was claimed to be 10 hours of continuous play although I know that my 3rd Gen iPod only could handle a few hours so I am not sure if that was true for the 1st gen.

It is interesting to look back to the start of the iPod and see it announced. I wonder if they knew what kind of a gold mine they were sitting on at the time.

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Wi-Spy Spectrum Analyzer

June 17, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Wi_spy
The Wi-Spy is aimed at those who need to troubleshoot wireless networks. The software that comes with the wi-spy ariel records data so that you can trace interference and work out why your network is not performing as it should. The Wi-Spy works at 2.4GHz and connects right in to your USB port on your laptop or PC. Once connected you can then load up the software and start tracing exactly what is happening on the wifi network.

It will set you back $399.99 and you can pick one up from ThinkGeek.

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Laptops

3G gets Mobile Youtube

June 16, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Mobile Youtube
Youtube has finally hit mobile phones and is named Mobile Youtube which can be found by tapping in m.youtube.com in to your 3G browser. When you first get to that address you are recommended to buy an unlimited plan as data charges could be high with a service running like this.

Gizmodo put together a demonstration which is linked to after the jump. However, if you want to test it out without using a mobile phone then just go to m.youtube.com in your browser to see what is available. You will get an error when trying to load videos through this method, but it will show you what the mobile interface looks like.

One cool thing is that you can see even smaller thumbnails of the videos and skip through different sections such as newly added.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Cool Gadgets, Tech News

Automated Football Table

June 16, 2007 by Leave a Comment


If you enjoy table football but have no one to play against then you need to check out the blog over at foospmp. They are in the process of creating a computer controlled opponent that can beat most players at table football. The video above shows a fairly good game happening and it looks to me like they are doing very well with the AI. The AI is able to have the computer team defend and attack as you can see goals being saved and goals being scored.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets, Cool Gadgets

Receive Text Messages on the GPRS iBall

June 15, 2007 by Leave a Comment

iball-gprs-sms
The GPRS iBall suggests by its name that it has some kind of GPRS abilities. If you guessed this then you are exactly right. In the base of the iBall you can put your SIM card. Each time you receive a text message the iBall displays the text message around the globe in fancy flashing colours. However, I dont yet see a way to send messages so it could be a bit of an eccentric device and not much use unless you have a spare pay as you go SIM card kicking around.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Displays

20x20x20 Rubiks Cube Solved – Kind Of

June 15, 2007 by 3 Comments

20—20x20 Rubiks Cube
If you are a Rubiks cube genius then you should check out the Gabbasoft Cube simulator which allows you to build various sized rubiks cubes to solve. Some guy decided that the usual 3x3x3 was too easy as well as the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5. He decided to do a massive 20x20x20 which I believe took just short of 8000 moves to solve it. To see this in action (with increased speed so you do not fall asleep) then check it out after the jump.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Serious Overclocking by ABIT

June 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

cpu-cooled-with-liquid-nitrogen
If you are not sure what over clocking is then it is speeding up your computer beyond the speed it was designed to run at. For example you could run a 2.4Ghz processor at a higher speed and thus, making your computer run quicker and games run smoother. However, when this happens the processor gets seriously hot and some good cooling is needed to perform over clocking. Depending on how cool you can keep the processor and RAM depends on the outcome. ABIT decided at Computex which was held recently, to over clock one of their processors from 2.93GHz up to 5GHz. That is a HUGE jump and no doubt, will probably burn out the processor with in seconds. But, ABIT had some liquid nitrogen to hand which is ultra cold. Strapping this to the processor they were able to work the processor for a while with out any signs of it over heating.

Now it isnt the greatest over clocking that has happened, but its still quite cool as I have not seen a processor cooled with liquid nitrogen before.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets, Cool Gadgets

Stop Data Theft with the Aegis Bio Drive

June 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Aegis Bio
Data theft can be a real pain, especially if you have confidential details and personal identifiable information stored. Encryption is becoming more popular, but often relies on the PC being used to have encryption software installed to read the data. The Aegis portable bio hard drive is built to tackle this problem. The drive contains encryption software and you unlock it by scanning your thumb or finger print on to the sensor. The encryption is provided by UPEKs Digital ID which is a hardware engine capable of storing all 10 of your finger prints, or 10 separate peoples finger prints should you want more then one person to access the drive.

With having encryption on the drive it allows you to hook it up anywhere and unencrypt when you need the data on any PC. Also it gives piece of mind should it be stolen.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Great Little iAudio 7 DAP Player

June 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Cowan iAudio 7
The iAudio 7 DAP player has been released by Cowon. You may have seen them before with the ever creative iAudio 6 player. The screen is just 1.3 inches making the player very small. The screen can be display 260k colours. It now uses flash memory (8GB) rather then the 0.85 inch disk drive in version 6. Support has been added for FLAC and OGG. What impresses me most, other then the looks of the device, is that it has a lithium polymer battery which will last 60 hours. The DAP can be charged via USB which is great if you are out and about travelling. The iAudio 7 player will set you back $246 for the 8GB flash version.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Ultra Short Focus on the Sanyo LP-XL50 Projector

June 14, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Sanyo LP-XL50
When using a projector in a home cinema or classroom situation you often find that the projector gets in the way when there is just a small group of people. Also, the presenter cannot walk past the projector and screen with out blocking what is on screen. Sanyo have created a projector with a very short focus allowing it to be just 8cm away from the screen. At this short distance it is still capable of projecting an 80 inch screen with an ANSI lumens rating of 2000 which is fantastic. The inputs on the projector are fairly standard which is good. There are 2 VGA inputs, component, S-Video and composite connectors. Also the LCD projector has a built in 2 watt speaker which wont exactly blow you away, but is acceptable for creating some sound.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Displays