Charcoal grilling undoubtedly tastes better than gas, but coals can be a pain. This Baja BBQ is a solution to the more lazy among us who’d rather not deal with coal chimneys and lighter fluid. Constructed of 100% recycled biodegradable paper pulp, the Baja’s 2 pounds of coals will be perfectly hot after 20 minutes and a match. And the whole thing sounds just eco friendly enough to satiate the yuppies who will be buying the Baja at the “gourmet supermarkets” soon. [Mike and Maaike via core77]
Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless and The FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin are on stage at All Things D. And in an instant, Mossberg is ON KEVIN’S ASS for the US’s slow, expensive broadband! “You’re the chairman of the FCC, how did you allow this to happen?”
Kevin basically responds that there isn’t enough subsidation in the US.
Mossberg moves onto openness of the networks.
Kevin Martin is saying that both consumers and entrepreneurs both want it. So in the last auction, they put a condition in that the spectrum needs to be open to any handset or application. And our willingness to embrace that is important. We’re not completely there yet, so that every major carrier is embracing openness.
Kara: Would you have done this openness thing before Google spoke up?
Verizon: You see in Japan and Korea that what networks can do when open. But in the past, customers wanted to do things like downloading apps to their phones. And that increased as the broadband speeds picked up.
If someone builds a device that isn’t efficient, or uses too much bandwidth, we have to be careful. The shared resource [of the wireless network] is not like a DSL line. (Funny, isn’t that what the net neutrality enemies are saying is a shared resource, too? B.L.)
Mossberg: Will rates be the same for plans using phones that we didn’t buy from you?
Lowell: They will be the same, but the functionalities might be different, because of your handset. (Obviously —B.L.)
Mossberg: So you’re purely a provider of network services then?
Lowell: Yes.
Mossberg: Let’s talk about cancellation fees. How to you justify charging people $175-$200 to cancel plans that have already worked through their subsidation.
Lowell: We don’t do that anymore, as of a year ago. In Italy, they don’t allow subsidization for these reasons. We tier our termination fees so that over time they get lower. And we sell all our phones without any subsidies as an option but 98% of the people choose the contract. If subsidies were outlawed, we’d have no problem and no other carriers would, too.
Kevin: It should be declined over time if its a recovering fixed cost. There should be a reasonable amount of time to take your phone/service home and try it out. There’s a 14-day allowance for this. Some people are wondering what restocking fees should be, too.
I know that I’ve taken some time off from The Tech Bros, but I now have a lot more time to devote to it, and I have some great ideas in mind for building a community. I just want to say that I am here to stay, and I thought that it’d be a great idea to start back off on my step by step guide on how to eliminate Spyware.
The fourth step may sound like common sense but when you think about; how many people wait until their computer is full of Spyware to download removal utilities? Remember what i said before that the longer you wait, the more the Spyware will grow and corrupt more of your files? Well if you download your favorite Spyware removal utilities and put them on a few CD’s, then you won’t have to spend hours trying to download them, when Read the rest of this entry »
If sales figures aren’t enough reason to show that the PSP is really making some progress in Japan against the DS, how about the fact that it was used in an upskirt crime? According to the Japanese police, or JaPoPos, a 59-year-old college administrator was looking up a skirt belonging to a 19-year-old girl on a train line. He was arrested using anti-stalker laws, and if he’s convicted, it’ll probably lead to even better sales of the PSP and the PSP camera peripheral in Japan. [NikkanSports via Livedoor via Kotaku]
Case-mate has announced the release of a “groundbreaking” new product designed to protect your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Classic (60 and 80GB), or Blackberry Curve from scratches using a military-grade Scotchgard film from 3M that was originally designed to protect Apache helicopter blades during Desert Storm. The film is also completely clear, so there are no bulky, ugly cases to contend with. But the real question here is: does it blend? Well, let’s find out:
There’s a car that’s not slated for release until 2009 or 2010. It makes some wild claims. And no one in the media has driven it yet (since it’s still in production). But with those caveats in mind, continue on to drop your jaw at Hybrid Technologies‘ upcoming still-nameless supercar.
Hybrid Technologies is working on a car coming in two flavors—all electric and hybrid. With the electric, they promise a 150 to 180-mile range per charge. With the lithium-ion hybrid, they promise a 220mpg minimum.
Those specs would be impressive in a golf cart.
But the most compelling part of it all is the alleged performance. Popular Mechanics asked Hybrid Technologies if their car could compete with the Corvette ZR-1 and its crazy V8 that induces mid-600s-scale horsepower. The company responded that they were “way out of the ballpark—it’s gonna be wild.” [Popular Mechanics]
iPhone/iPod touch only: Freeware application iSlsk is a Soulseek peer-to-peer client for the iPhone and iPod touch which can download MP3s from the Soulseek network directly to your device. Once you’ve downloaded a song, iSlsk imports the MP3 directly to your iPod so you can play it alongside all the rest of your music. Sounds too good to be true, right? It almost is. The video after the jump demonstrates just how incredible iSlsk is, and the catch:
Currently all songs iSlsk imports get wiped away when you sync your device with your iTunes library. Despite that one drawback, after installing and trying out iSlsk, you won’t be disappointed.
Your iSlsk downloads continue in the background even when you leave the app, so it’s fully prepared to let you multi-task while you suck down music from Soulseek users. Granted, the clearing of downloads on iTunes sync is a bummer, but if you’re dying to hear a song while you’re away from your computer, iSlsk will do the trick. And if the delete-on-iTunes-sync ever gets fixed, we’re talking all kinds of promise. To install iSlsk, you need to install the Community Sources package on your jailbroken iPhone. (iSlsk is part of the BigBoss repo.) Haven’t jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch yet? Here’s how to get the job done in 45 seconds.
In the weeks and months leading up to Microsoft’s Zune launch last November, many industry insiders wondered aloud if the Seattle software giant would have its thunder stolen by its neighbor, digital retailing giant Amazon.com, which was also planning to battle Apple’s iPod-iTunes juggernaut.
Amazon MP3 beta.
Nearly a year and loads of speculation later, Amazon finally unveiled a beta version of its digital music service, called Amazon MP3.
The new store boasts a catalog of more than 2 million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. The music will be sold DRM-free, meaning that downloads won’t contain technology that will restrict their use or ability to play on any MP3 player, including the iPod. Read the rest of this entry »
Looking to zoom through the oceans in a stylish, but also somewhat environmentally friendly, manner? Check out the Czeers MK1 prototype solar speedboat, a 10-meter long rig that manages to pack in 14 square meters of solar panels to power an 80kw electric motor. The MK1 plows through the water at a breakneck 30 knots, using no oil and producing no fumes or engine noise. Hit the jump for a video of the boat in action.
The boat is made from 100 percent carbon fiber and has an LCD touch-screen control system, leather trimmings and, most importantly, photo voltaic cells on almost all its horizontal services. Czeers is hoping to produce between 4 and 8 boats per year. Pricing is not yet available, but considering that the last version of the MK1 was last shown at the Millionaire Fair, you can probably bet it’s super expensive.
This small grasshopper style robot, created by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, has just set a new record for the highest jump ever done by a robot. It only stands 5 centimeters tall, but successfully jumped more than 27 times it’s height. Thanks to the technology already created from personal beepers, this robot was able to set the new high jump record. This grasshopper bot was powered by the same unit that makes a beeper vibrate. Although the robot cannot yet land back on it’s feet, scientist are still developing it, and hope to one day have solar panels, sensors, and microprocessors in it. The grasshopper robot would be an incredible asset in maneuvering through disaster areas to find survivors without putting any people in harms way. Below is a nice little video showing the grasshopper bot in action. Read the rest of this entry »
