Sony Admits Screwing Up With DRM, Offers Replacements November 15, 2005
READ MORE Home Entertainment
Sony knows they screwed up finally and is now admitting their DRM allows hackers to penetrate your system and royally screw you over. So now Sony has killed it’s DRM program in the meantime and is pulling most DRM-protected CDs off the shelves. However, Sony is going to be a gentleman this time around and is offering to replace CDs affected by the XCP copy-protection software that’s embedded in the CDs if you bought some. But how can you tell if you bought one of 2.1 million CDs sold with the evil-DRM? Easy. A list was put together of 47 CDs that include the protection. So play it safe kids, and go stick it to Sony by demanding new CDs.
CDs affected by the DRM [Idiot Abroad]
Sony backs out of rootkit anti-piracy scheme [vnunet.com]
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USMC’s Big-Bada-Boom November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
The Marines have begun using a weapon that is easily capable of turning buildings—and humans—into bits of rubble. This is called the SHAW-NE (shoulder mounted assault weapon – novel explosion) and it uses a thermobaric mixture that produces a shockwave in the air easily crushing walls and sending entire buildings collapsing to the ground. Supposedly this weapon is capable of going through brick walls but reports are coming in that this projectile is being fired through windows or preexisting holes.
“Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes. The economic cost of house replacement is not comparable to American lives…all battalions adopted blast techniques appropriate to entering a bunker, assuming you did not know if the bunker was manned.”
Mmmm. War-like.
Marines quiet about brutal new weapon [DefenseTech]
Nissan Wingroad Rider Super Ultra Gets iPod Compatibility November 15, 2005
READ MORE Portable Media
What better way to trick out a high-performance vehicle than to make it compatible with the most popular music player in the WORLD? Yep, not only is the Nissan Wingroad Rider Super Ultra really hot, it’s got an iPod port. But that’s not all. It also has a sick navigation system with a 7” LCD, DVD / MD / CD reader, and 30-GB HDD for storing your tunes. When you connect an iPod to it, you are given a nice interface and can transfer tunes back and forth. The iPod is also charged by connecting it to the car, so you’ll never run out of juice. Zing!
Nissan Wingload Rider and iPod [New Launches]
Kotaku Gets An Xbox 360 November 15, 2005
READ MORE Consoles
So the balstards dudes over at Kotaku got their Xbox 360 in the mail and we’re jealous. The Xbox 360 came with a shiny metal briefcase full of goodies and a debug unit. Yes, the power brick is the size of a small child. The 360 a great unit though and the games are fantastic (duh). The connectivity also works like a charm and when the PSP was plugged in you could view all the sexy multimedia stored on it. The 360 also works perfectly as a media center. The 360 will search for computers on your home network and will seek out music and movies located on shared folders so you can play them back through the 360. It also grants you three wishes but be careful—if you wish your dead friend back to life, he might appear on your doorstep as a zombie. So far it’s been a great gaming experience. Be sure to check out Kotaku’s full coverage of putting the 360 through every test imaginable.
Xbox 360 In The House (For Reals) [Kotaku]
Pre-Order Xbox 360 Games [Amazon]
Intel Macs To Arrive In January Of 2006? November 15, 2005
READ MORE PC
More Mac rumor madness for you kids. Now people are saying that Apple will have an Intel-based Macintosh by January, 2006. The big Intel deal is supposed to be announced during MacWorld in January, which makes sense to us. The original guesstimate was that Intel-based Macs wouldn’t hit stores until June, 2006, but that seems a bit too late to analysts for a launch. Another question that could be posed: Will Mac OS X Intel go on sale around this time? Technically one could make an image of the Intel-Mac’s hard disk and could copy that on to a non-Apple Intel box. Again, this isn’t confirmed, but everything seems to be set for a January release date.
New Intel Apple to arrive in January [The Inquirer]
Single Cookie Jar November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
This is perfect for the shut-in in your life. It’s an art project, really, but it is a commentary on the blah-de-blah of the blah-blah-blah and the singular nature of the bloo-blah-blah. In reality, it’s a very small cookie kit cast in ceramic and it makes just one tiny cookie. You could see it as a scathing call to arms for the bloo bloo blah to blah blah establishment, but whatever.
The Single Cookie Jar by Emilie Baltz [Coolhunting]
Product Page [EmilieLucie]
For the drinking impaired November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
Now we all know the dangers of drinking and driving. And for some of us, just simply drinking is a hazard in and of itself. But even worse than waking up in someone's garden wearing a toga, a hot pink cowboy hat, and a splitting headache, is driving home wearing all of those listed above and seeing the dreaded flashing blue lights.
Complete buzz kill.
But how much is too much? Now you can check yourself with the Alcohol Breath Tester. Simply blow in one end, and a flashing red light will tell you if you're over the limit. And even if you don't own a car, and you don't drive, you can bring it to the next party and make lots of friends by offering to test everyone's alcohol level.
This will give you an idea if you're too drunk to drive, but it's NOT EXACT! So if you get pulled over, Gizmodo does not hold any responsibility. So don't blame it on us. No one force fed you that last jelly shot.
For £19.99, or roughly the price of a couple bottles of wine, get it here.
Tiny MiniSD and Pro Duo Card Reader November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets , Robots
If the Terminator ever had a plaything, it would look like the CyberBeast. This ball-creature-toy-thing expands like a peacock to turn into a monster and it can flip itself around the room and over obstacles. It even carries a dangerous payload of fun!
Tyco Shell Shocker RC CyberBeast/CyberBall (Almost Samus) [GadgetMadness]
Roxy Deep Tide Watch - Waving, Not Drowning November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
The surf, Dude, is up. The Roxy Deep Tide Watch gives you tide tables for 200 beaches on 5 continents and even includes a “surf heat timer” which goes off when that impetuous Ryan punches another stoner on the OC. It’s water resistant to 10 ATM and is mostly for girls, but I guess guys can wear the sexy blue strap as well. Priced at £50, it’s coming in on the low-end of these kind of fully-featured surf watches.
roxy deep tide watch [Travelizmo]
Prices for Roxy Deep Tide Watch [Froogle]
Upgrading Your 12-inch Powerbook for Fun and Profit November 15, 2005
READ MORE Laptops , Portable Media
Hardmac ran an interesting upgrade article and one valiant reader took the plunge and cracked the hermetically-sealed titanium beast. After installing a DVD burner, a gigabyte of RAM, and a sassy new hard drive, he pulled the speaker cable out of the thing and had to use a soldering iron to put it back together. Luckily, he now has a tricked out Powerbook rather than a hunk of shiny metal. [Thanks, Daniel]
A step-by-step to turn your iBook12” into a PowerBook12”-killer [HardMac]
Install Post [Mac-Forums]
Viewsonic Goes from Monitors to TVs November 15, 2005
READ MORE Home Entertainment , TV
Viewsonic has been a good old maker of LCD monitors for as long as I can remember, so it’s no big surprise that it has finally decided to throw in a high-definition HDMI multimedia interface and pump out LCD TVs. The 32-, 37- and 4-inch TVs all support digital TV and audio transfers though the same cable and have a screen resolution of 1366×768, a brightness of 500cd/m2 and response time of 8ms. Prices are $740 for the 32-inch, £1,035 for the 37-inch and £1,380 for the 40-inch.
ViewSonic debuts 37-inch and 40-inch LCD TVs [New Launches]
Prices and reviews for ViewSonic LCD TVs [CNET]
Sun T1 Chip To Use Less Electricity November 15, 2005
READ MORE PC
Sun Microsystems has decided to come into the ring swinging with its latest microprocessor called the UltraSparc T1. Codenamed Niagara (boy, that’s ominous huh?), the chip uses around 70 watts of electricity, which is at least 30 percent less than most other microprocessors. It consists of eight processing cores on just one piece of silicon will be the centerpiece of Sun’s upcoming line of servers called Sun Fire (expect these by end of year). And the chip will also be the brain’s behind Sun’s Solaris version of Unix. This is all part of Sun’s master plan to turn up profits. Their revenue declined during the burst of the Dot-Com bubble in 2000, which is when IBM and HP greedily took over the Number 1 and 2 positions for servers.
"To respond, Sun has revamped its products to reflect an industry shift to lower-cost computer servers, namely those using Intel Corp.-compatible chips made by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and is moving to a more subscription-based model for selling its hardware, computer services and business software."
Sun is hoping that their lower use of electricity (which is closer to a light bulb) will help sell the chip and boost the company’s image.
Sun announces new T1 chip; key to turnaround [Reuters]
Flying Robots to Police From Above November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets , Robots
We’ve all seen them in the movies and thought “How Cool”, followed closely by “Honey, where’s my shotgun?” But, according to Drudge, Honeywell in the US is well along the road to building spy drones that will fly through our cities. It’s no looker, but equipped with cameras and various other sensors (iPod locators for enterprising thieves?), the Micro Air Vehicle has already performed more than 200 successful test flights, including one through a fake, urban setting. Battery powered, it can stay aloft for nearly one hour and hit top speeds of around 35 miles per hour. The military are already testing them and, sporting in-built GPS, they can be used for reconnaissance and target acquisition. Civvies Street could see them within 3-4 years where they will used mostly for target practice and looking through naked chicks’ windows.
robots technology surveillance police
RF iPod Wrist Remote November 15, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets , Portable Media
Today seems to be chock full of products similar fashion to this one. This is a good idea, but the design is poorly done. The wristband remote portion appears to be pretty cheap and doesn’t look very iPodish. Although the upside of a product like this is my dream of having an RF iPod remote surgically attached to my body may becoming a reality. Honestly, reaching into my pocket is just too much hassle.
iPod Wristband Remote [Red Ferret]
Microsoft Joins In Sony BMG kicking Contest November 15, 2005
READ MORE Digital Audio , Home Entertainment , PC , Software
Want to know what life as a leper is like? Just ask anyone at music company Sony BMG. The company's devious attempts to hide dangerous digital rights management (DRM) software on users’ PCs has backfired spectacularly. The XCP rootkit software (used to protect CDs from artists like sweet sweet Amerie) is getting kicked from all fronts and now Microsoft - often on the end of a good consumer kicking itself - has sided with us peasants and classified the software as spyware. Updates for its anti-spyware software will now include detection and removal tools for XCP. Sony’s reaction (fictional, of course) so far, chronologically:
Geek: What the fuck is that? Raises the alarm about XCP across Geekdom
Sony: Ignore them, they’ll go away.
World: Oh, my CD burner is not working. I just tried to copy a Sony CD and now my PC is screwed – is there a connection? Publicity on geeky sites rockets and mainstream press catch up, slowly, as usual
Sony: Er, we accept there might be some minor quibbles. Here’s a patch, now piss off.
World: Not good enough. Global outrage ensues
Sony: OK, you smart bastards, here’s a goddamn removal thingie, we hope you choke on it.
World: Too little too late
Microsoft: XCP is spyware – we’ll remove it for you
Sony: OK, scumbags, we’ll do a limited recall of CDs with the XCP software. Happy now?
World: Too little too late – what about those PCs already screwed?
Sony: Silence.
World: How about a global apology and a kiss on our puckered up ass cheeks?
Sony: Silence
Will Sony be taking any ‘real’ responsibility for its actions or be made to pay in any ‘real’ way for what it has done?
Yeah, I think so too.
Rock On! November 15, 2005
READ MORE Digital Audio , Gadgets , Peripherals
Now this is the iPod accessory for true rockers - sorry, couldn't help it. A Japanese company - who else - has really cranked up their creative juices by creating iPod docks from boulders. The aptly named iStones come with a battery charger, USB port and video connector - all well hidden. You can opt for 1.6Kg Wabi ot 2.6Kg Sabi and they look very cool. I covet them. At those weights you will not be chucking them in your bag but we think art has a price. So, sign me up. How much? HOW MUCH? Are you out of your friggin' mind? £1,500 for a rock? A ROCK?
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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