Flaming laptops might be all the rage right now – especially those from Dell and Apple – but Virgin Atlantic is having none of it. The airline has announced that anyone with a Dell or Apple laptop must remove the battery - regardless of whether or not it’s one of Sony’s firecrackers. Here’s part of the company statement:
“As a result of the current problems being experienced by the Apple and Dell Corporations with some of the batteries fitted to some of their laptops, as a safety precaution and with immediate effect, customers wanting to use an Apple or Dell laptop on board can only do so if the battery is removed. Any removed or spare batteries must be individually wrapped/protected and placed in your Carry On Baggage. This is limited to two batteries per passenger.”
Obviously looking to see if the battery says – Made by Sony – is too difficult for its 'highly-trained' staff. Hence, the (fire) blanket ban.
Of course, it could be a sneaky sales ploy since you can circumvent the measure by upgrading from Cattle Class to Upper Class or Premier Economy, which have power supplies.- Martin Lynch
news technology travel laptop
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Those pesky pirates eh? All eye-patches and rum and bootlegged copies of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest down the local pub car park. Well now, there’s a evil plan to stop all of that involving radio transmitter chips.
The chips will be embedded in movie discs and used by studios to track their location, while DVD players (in the future, Jim lad) will be able to read the chip and decide not to play it if it’s in the wrong geographical region. Damn, there goes half my collection already.
The chip will mean players will also refuse to play copied discs (damn - there goes the other half). The Chip-On-Disc (COD) technology is being worked on by U-Tech, part of Ritek, which makes a lot of the discs for the big movie houses.
Still, it’s a little bit like bolting the gate after the man-eating T-Rex has done a runner. There’s also the question about how it will be implemented with HD DVD and Blu-ray – both of which use an anti-piracy technology called AACS?
Methinks, ye olde pirates will control the seas for a few years yet.
news technology movies DVD piracy crime
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If owning a portable media player, wireless modem, phone-fax, numerous external HDDs and a USB card reader hasn’t clogged up your desk then you need one of these.
The BurnAway from Delkin is a multi-function, external DVD burner/card reader/media player that will let you burn content straight from the memory cards to disc. Of course, it comes with the all important sales message ‘no computer needed’ but as we all know, the computer will be needed somewhere along the line. Blind copying from one format to another has never really caught on, especially when it comes to transferring home videos. Still, it’s very portable and a step up from boring old, vanilla DVD burners.
The DVD BurnAway can be used as a stand alone back-up system to copy data from flash memory cards onto DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD-R and CD-RW discs with the push of a button. The BurnAway also has a Disc spanning feature which supports copying to multiple discs if the data on the memory card exceeds the capacity of a single disc, as well as multi-session burning which supports the copying of small files in repeated sessions.
Is it worth £200 though? – Martin Lynch
Via Red Ferret
technology tech storage DVD memory gadgets
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I slept on a ratty old imitation Japanese futon through years of college, and my neck and back still haven't forgotten the spongy cotton bed. I might try one again, but only if it's Panasonic's £1000 Programmable Pleasant Sleep Mattress. Hit the "Good Night" button and the 8 computer controlled airbags rise and fall sequentially over 10 minutes, stretching out your bod. There's even a foot warming function so you can lose the socks at night. Just make sure you don't activate the tentacle penetration mode, or you'll be sorry.–Brian Lam
Panasonic's Programmable Pleasant Sleep Mattress [Tokyo Mango and The Raw Feed]
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The Nissan intelligent transportation system is currently being testing in Japan, and works by letting vehicles talk to other vehicles as well as infrastructure to reduce traffic and accidents. The information exchanged between cars and infrastructure let vehicles have a visual representation of what other vehicles are coming, how fast they're going, and how many cars are in which direction.
The technology also lets cars access "fastest-route" information, calculated by organizing all the data reported from mobile phones, taxi services, and vehicles using this system. How much traffic is on a road is shown via the real time map by thin or thick lines, which then helps your GPS system take the fastest route. Pretty great for when you have to commute back and forth to work—something we're glad to have given up.
The communications portion should be in testing until the end of fiscal '07, and the dynamic route finding will be tested 'til end of fiscal '08. After that, it'll probably be a few years before it's deployed in Japan, and a bunch more before we get them here—if we get them at all. – Jason Chen
Nissan test advanced road traffic system aimed at reducing accidents and easing congestion [Gizmag]
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Last night Pimp My Ride tricked out a 1990 Toyota Celica with big wheels, flashy paint, 2 terabytes of space, a 17" Powerbook, iPod nano,7" touch screen, & a Tréo 650. Yawn...what, no WiFi access point? Newbs.
Before this, Shawna owned not even a cellphone. If your hoopty ride doesn't get stolen, good luck trying to learn how to use all those toys while you're weaving on the freeway. Here, I'll just pre-call the ambulance for ya.
Make the jump to see inside the 1 ton iPod dock. We'll admit, the custom mount for the Powerbook ain't bad.
continue reading »
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Three models in '07, one in January at Macworld
• 3-megapixel camera
• 2.2-inch screen
• iTunes integration, no 100 song limit
• Made from off-the-shelf parts
• Previous rumors
– Jason Chen
Sources: Apple phone on track for early '07 [Think Secret]
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No, the screen isn't built in, you dolt. The only things crammed into this box is the 480p res projector, a JVC DVD player, and tiny, impotent 10-watt stereo speakers. We like cubes of convenience, and this one ships with an 80-inch screen that the Moviemate can fill up from a little more than 6 feet away, in either 16:9 or 4:3 ratios. Even from strange angles, thanks to the set's vertical and horizontal lens shift. This update to the Moviemate line adds a VGA input and cables for component video in. Jump to see a side view and to read more...
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This stress reliever from emWave looks even more fake than the one Scientologists use to "gauge" your stress, or whatever it is they do as a first step into getting your money. However, this emWave device monitors your heart rhythms and "confirms when you are in the coherence mode". Oh boy.
The levels of "coherence" detected by this range from red for low coherence (preparing for your murder trial), to blue for medium (mother-in-law's coming to town), to green for high coherence (the feeling you got right after you murdered your mother-in-law).
The point is to exhale and inhale and think of something positive. When the device detects you into the green area, you're set to get back to work! Available now for £100. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Heart Math Store via Gearlog]
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Pretty much everyone within a certain age range has some sort of experience with an NES: either you had one, you wished you had one, or you went to your friend's house every day just to play it. (I fell into the latter category.) Now you can relieve those glory days every time you wake up with this imported NES Alarm Clock. The D-Pad and face buttons are used to change the time alarm mode and time; the alarm sounds come from Super Mario Bros. There's also a built-in mini-game for good measure.
No, it won't change the world, but at least you'll be able to prove your true colors to your siblings or roommates. It's imported, so brush up on your Japanese. Only £15, too. – Nicholas Deleon
Nintendo Controller Alarm Clock [ThinkGeek via CrunchGear]
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The Kensington SX 3000R is the sequel to the SX 2000R iPod Speaker Dock, which we featured as a Dealzmodo a few weeks ago. This 3000R has an FM tuner, remote, NXT SurfaceSound speaker technology, dock that fits all iPods, and goes for £80. We think it may be kind of cool to set up a cheap iPod dock in each room of your house so you can have music everywhere. An inexpensive alternative to actually rigging up speakers in each room that are centrally controlled. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Kensington]
Press Release [Kensington]
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TV
Gizmodo friend and Yoda of Electronics, Sean Captain, wrote an article in the NY Times about how goddamn confusing it is for your mom to figure out what flat TV tech to buy. It's because LCDs are on a rocketship trajectory moving past their shortcomings, like size and contrast. And Plasmas don't burn in, and are a lot sturdier than they used to be.
You'll be surprised to know that brightness doesn't count for shit. As most sets pump more than enough lumens to blow out the picture.
You looking to replace your set? Read on to hear what the AV nerds do to pass judgement on today's TVs...
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Canon's about to release the Ixus i7, a 7.1-megapixel digital camera that comes in an all metal case. The camera will be available in four different colors, blue, gray, sepia (dark brown) and pink. It's able to detect a person's face so as to focus on it, hopefully making it easier for people with shaky hands to take better pictures. That's a feature that's been making its way into Canon's cameras for a while now.
The pink i7 will be available exclusively through John Lewis, some UK-based mail order/online retailer. It's expected to be available in October for around £240. – Nicholas Deleon
John Lewis bags exclusive on Canon's sizzling pink IXUS snapper and Bright new IXUS i7 snappers zoom into view [Gadget Candy]
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According to I4U, Oktoberfest opened up in Munich this weekend. Last time I checked it was September, but whatever. What a better way to show how much of a geek you are while chugging beer than with teched-out lederhose. In addition to making you look like the sexiest overweight, middle-aged man at Oktoberfest, the lederhose also has an integrated 512MB MP3 player with controls built into the fabric of the pants.
A translated German blog says that the lederhose also has "free speech mechanism for mobile phone," whatever the hell that means. These lederhose are made by Lodenfrey. – Travis Hudson
Translated Information Page [Via I4U]
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So, I covered the CEDIA show last week. I tried out this BumBakPak, or BBP, while roaming the show floor and I am surprisingly impressed with the bag overall.
The BBP is a "Urbanomic" (urban and ergonomic) backpack that can wear like a traditional messenger bag over a shoulder or it can easily convert to a more backpack-style bag. Hit the jump to get some more impressions.
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The Power Station Traveller is a little ditty that can charge all of your gadgets through one 12V DC car connection. It is pretty much a power strip of DC connectors. It could be useful if you do a lot of traveling and don't want to juggle the power adapters, or to impress the hookers ladies that you pick up. The Power Station Traveller is available for £20. – Travis Hudson
Product Page [Via Red Ferret]
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More Thanko weirdness for your Monday reading pleasure. Designed for use in your car, the Thanko eDesk clips either to the steering wheel or the back of the front seats and provides a clean working (or eating) area for you while on the road. Granted, placing a laptop that's atop a desk that's connected to your steering wheel while driving is quite possibly the more dangerous thing ever, but life's too short to worry about things like safety all the time. The eDesk is made of environmentally friendly, lightweight aluminum that's easy to carry around. It's also only £15, so putting yourself in mortal danger has never been more affordable! Too bad you can only find it in Japan right now. – Nicholas Deleon
Product Page [Thanko via Popgadget]
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ABBYY is a company that has designed a piece of software that will actually make a phone camera useful. ABBYY developed a program capable of doing OCR, on your mobile, with the help of the integrated camera. After the jump see a video of the software in action. Snap a picture of a business card and the software can automatically input the data into your phone—awesome! – Travis Hudson
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Envive's taking pre-orders for their £1,300 media center monster that eats and shits Mac Minis. The unit has 8 Tuners—only four can be accessed under Windows Media Center—and 4.5TB of RAID storage.
Other specs: Intel Viiv certified Core 2 Duo paltform, 8GB DDR2 RAM, Vista Ultimate Ready, Envive OS (which lets the unit access all 8 tuners), Dolby 7.1 Audio Out, DVD Burner with optional Blu-ray or HD DVD, and a gigabit ethernet port. The unit starts shipping in November for the standard version and a rack-mount version ships in December. – Jason Chen
Envive Announces Pre-order Details on 8 Tuner, 4.5TB E-Center Pro [eHomeUpgrade]
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PC
This pretty little Media Center dresses itself up like an old iMac, putting a transparent glass frame around its 19-inch screen. (It could be plastic, or crystal—we can't tell from our stalking-distance photo.)
I've always thought all monitors deserved a beautiful border like that. Just so I could muddle it up with post it notes, photo-booth stickers, and finger prints.
The as of right now Europe-only PC has a 1680 x 1050 resolution, a Core 2 Duo processor and Motion-Eye webcam and Remote Control.–Brian Lam
UPDATE: Well would you look at that. You can find the same design over at Sony Style under the LS-series designation. Just goes to show you&mdashNever believe what you read on blogs. Thanks John Nye.
Sony Vaio LA-Series [Sci Fi Tech]
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Real Networks, of unfortunate Real Player fame, will be teaming up with SanDisk to release a rebranded Sansa player. SanDisk has decided to jump on the combination mp3 player, music download service bandwagon that is being seen with the Zune and iPod. They are doing so by re-releasing the e200 Sansa this holiday season, bundled with Real Rhapsody and a bunch of Rhapsody music. Do they really stand a chance? – Travis Hudson
RealNetworks, SanDisk to take on iPod [Via dapreview]
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
