Not only is this Zero House by architect Scott Specht completely green, automatic and self-sufficient, but it looks so badass it could've come out A Clockwork Orange. That extra wide roof holds a slew of high-efficiency solar panels that let you say goodbye to electricity bills, powering the whole house and storing up enough extra energy in its batteries to keep everything running for a week, even if every single day is cloudy. That's just the beginning.
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GroundSurf is a three-wheeled skateboard with an unusual twist: You can control it with a Bluetooth mobile. It's driven by an electric motor between the two front wheels, and you can either remotely control its speed with your Bluetooth phone or lean forward to accelerate, backward to slow down or brake. But its designers, Paris-based company Ratleads, say it's not a skateboard at all, but a surfboard.
One of the inventors of GroundSurf, Stephane Pelletier, says GroundSurf gives you "that surf feeling," but on the ground. He explained, "It's been tested and developed with professional surfers. The back is a very specific truck that moves in different dimensional ways. Compared to a skateboard, it's not moving the same way at all. You really have to try it to believe it."
The GroundSurf will first roll out in 2008, distributed by California surf brand Gordon & Smith for retail price of between $1770 in $2040. -Charlie White
[GroundSurf, via BlueTomorrow]
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Presented as a “simpler and more affordable 'Stealth Black' version of the award-winning £300 PXC 450” headphones, the new PXC 350 NoiseGard cans from Sennheiser can hardly be called ‘cheap’.
Weighing in at £230, these are serious headphones for serious music lovers. Not only that, they are designed for travellers, boasting a number of active and passive noise cancelling technologies to keep the real world at bay.
The company says that NoiseGard Advance electronics removes 85% of external noise, like car engines, trains, kids and loud commuters - all the joyful aspects of commuting to work. The new phones also promise to eliminate noise leakage so that your fellow passengers won’t feel the urge to punch you in the head.
The headphones feature Sennheiser’s Adaptive baffle damping for consistently good bass and the two-layer Duofol diaphragms which prevent unwanted resonances to deliver “crisp, crystal-clear sound”.
They run off two AAA batteries and Sennheiser says they are good for 40 hours of listening before you need to swap them out. -Martin Lynch
[Sennheiser]
headphones ipod music
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The silly format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is still alive and well and back in gold old, ‘tit-for-tat’ mode with new sales figures. HD DVD is still winning, according to itself.
According to the European HD DVD Promotional Group, UK HD DVD player owners buy an average 3.7 movies each compared to the 0.8 average for owners of Blu-ray players. That’s four times higher than Blu-ray take-up – if the research is to be believed.
The survey is based on movie sales data gathered by Gfk and shows that across Europe, owners of HD DVD players snap up 3.7 movies each compared to 0.6 by Blu-ray owners. The data, surprisingly, includes PS3 console owners so it makes the gap even more glaring.
The Spanish are the biggest HD DVD movie shoppers, averaging 5.7 movies per player, while those from Benelux and Germany are the weakest at 2.9 movies per HD DVD fan.
The sooner dual-format HD players that don’t cost the Earth arrive, the better.-Martin Lynch
[Tech.co.uk]
HD DVD blu-ray movies
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Despite Carphone Warehouse mucking up the iPhone launch at the weekend, chosen iPhone operator, O2, has reported a bumper weekend.
According to its CEO, Peter Erskine, “tens of thousands” of iPhones sold over the weekend. The telecoms operator said weekend ‘footfall’ figures to its stores trebled, compared to the same weekend last year, and that two thirds of those that bought an iPhone were new to O2 or from rival operators.
Erskine said that O2 managed to outsell Carphone Warehouse, but then it had the advantage of its payment system not crashing as soon as the doors opened to the queuing Apple fanatics. He told reporters:
"The interest level has been absolutely phenomenal, making it the biggest selling phone ever for us, in one weekend. Footfall was three times higher than the same weekend last year.”
So, Carphone Warehouse, how many did you sell?-Martin Lynch
iphone apple mobile phone
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Next time your moody teenager is acting up, don’t take away his console whatever you do.
A 16-old boy in the US was arrested recently after hiring a hitman to kill his parents after they confiscated his Playstation and stopped him watching the telly. Luckily, Mom smelled a rat and set up a sting of her own, getting a cop to go undercover as the hitman.
The kid, Cory Ryder from Maryland, allegedly told the fake hitman: “Two bullets is all it takes.” He was planning to pay for the hit by offering the killer his Dad’s new pick-up truck but now he’s up for charges of attempted murder.
But did he get his PlayStation back?-Martin Lynch
[Freep.com]
console playstation crime
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
