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Tech NewsBuy.com Black Wednesday Deals: Star Wars and Xbox 360 Controllers
Most of Buy.com’s Black Friday deals are crap or cheaper elsewhere—like their Sling Pro package—but we picked out the couple of nuggets for you, and they’re available today. Personal favorite is the Darth Vader/Death Star transformer with the ability to destroy a planet AND the power of the Force going for $40. Also: https://gizmodo.com/darth-vader-brings-the-force-to-the-world-of-transforme-294491 Wireless … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
Amazon to Start Black Friday a Day Early With Huge Savings
Amazon just announced it’s going to jump into Black Friday early, busting out a group of computer peripherals starting tomorrow (Thanksgiving). The online store will offer additional items on Black Friday, and even more on cyber Monday. All the listed items will have free shipping unless otherwise noted, and the price you’ll pay includes savings … Continued
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Tech News
Motorola Fixing Sidekick Slide, Hope to Have it in Stores Next Week (UPDATED, With Official T-Mobile Statement)
As suspected, Motorola has identified an issue with the battery contacts as the source of the problem on the Sidekick Slide and are currently testing an updated model. T-Mobile and Motorola hope to have the Slide back in stores next week. https://gizmodo.com/sidekick-slide-design-flaw-causes-resets-321743 UPDATED T-Mobile USA Statement on Sidekick Slide Motorola has determined that the intermittent … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
10 Movies and HD DVD Player for $199 at Amazon
God bless the Black Friday, as the format war keeps raging on thanks to it: Amazon will give you 10 movies for free when you buy the $199 Toshiba HD-A3 HD DVD player (or the HD-A30 or the HD-A35.) And unlike some other offers with dreadful title selection, there’s good stuff to choose from in … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9Books
Environmentalist Nation Secedes from Union, Institutes 20-Hour Workweek
Written in the 1970s at the height of the last eco-craze, Ernest Callenbach’s classic utopian novel Ecotopia will intrigue anyone who wants to see what a sustainable environmentalist country might look like. Surprisingly prescient, and unafraid to look at the dark side of eco-fanaticism, Callenbach shows us a believable alternate United States whose commitment to … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Wii Photo Channel 1.1 Update Kills MP3 Playback
In case you missed the news, the Wii’s swapping out MP3 support for AAC, killing your custom MP3 soundtracks. This little change is bundled with Photo Channel 1.1. But, it’s optional—not a mandatory system update—so you keep on keepin’ on with MP3 by blowing off the upgrade. The switch is probably due to some licensing … Continued
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Tech News
Gigabyte Releases Second-Generation UMPC
When Gigabyte released their first UMPC, the U60, there was plenty to like, including the split keyboard. With the M704, Gigabyte is essentially releasing a refreshed U60 with a new look, a slightly bigger screen and a beefed-up processor. The second-gen UMPC will have a 1.2 GHz VIA processor, 768 MB of RAM, 40-60 GB … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
Why Giz Isn’t on Kindle’s RSS Feeder, and How to Get Around That
Say you bought a Kindle. If you were to search for Gizmodo in Amazon’s Kindle RSS store, you’d notice we’re not there. That’s not because we don’t like it (although I’m not saying we do like it, either). The reasons are strictly business related, which Gaby Darbyshire, Gizmodo’s business dev smart person, explained to me … Continued
By Brian Lam -
Tech NewsApple
Mugged Hipster iPod touch Commercial
I hope this turns into a real series of ads, if only for the schadenfreude value. It’s pretty great: Annoying guy plays with iPod touch on subway, gets his gear jacked and laments all the "sweet features" he lost, like the calendar for scheduling photo shoots with bands and stuff. Now all he can do … Continued
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io9
Blue Aliens Face Off with Braveheart Bots in New Animated Short
Great battle scenes are few and far between, especially when animated alien-bot wars are what make your blood boil. When you want your alien-bot war, the only thing to do is watch Masks, an short created by Microsoft’s Zune Arts and NYC design studio PandaPanther. It’s packed with horned blue aliens in pumpkin head masks, … Continued
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Tech News
Compact Florescent Light Bulbs, Gone Crazy
Compact fluorescent bulbs get more popular every day because of their energy-saving characteristics, but their conventional corkscrew/spring design leaves something to be desired. Enter Hulger, a bunch of British designers with a bent for the unusual, who have bent those tubes around into crazy configurations, making something that once appeared rather prosaic into an artform. … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
Amazon Kindle Is an Ugly Snowspeeder of Contradictions
Oh, sweet contradiction—Jeff Bezos in open letter to Author’s Guild, 2002: “When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.” Amazon Kindle Terms of Service, 2007: You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, … Continued
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io9Comics
The American Midwest, With Giant Robots
Josh Cotter has just released a trade book of the first four issues of indie comic fave Skyscrapers Of The Midwest. Cotter describes the book as being about “observations of childhood isolation and existence in the American Midwest. With giant robots.” He talks to Tom Spurgeon and Newsarama.com all about it.
By Grae -
Tech News
New Israeli Anti-Hijack Pilot Verification System Cannot Be Bluffed
Soon, pilots from all airlines flying into Israeli airspace will have to enter a numbered sequence to prove they are not terrorist hijackers. The secret code will be generated by the Security Code System, designed by Elbit Systems complete with a credit-card-sized keypad. Authorized pilots everywhere will eventually be issued keypads, 10,000 in all. For … Continued
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io9
Waterworld’s Aquatic Dystopia Is A Design Breakthrough
Waterworld may have drowned at the box office, but this shot of Kevin Costnersailing into the 1,021 ton floating city shows how breathtakingly original and stark its postapocalyptic vision was. Critics mocked Waterworld’s massive $175 million budget, but the truth is, you can see every penny on screen. The makers of Waterworld didn’t just show … Continued
By Charliejane -
Tech News
DIY All-In-One PC Beautiful on the Inside
It’s hideous. But it’s necessary that the DIY crowd has access to an all-in-one case. The Ion V2000 has a 19-inch LCD display, limiting 350-watt power supply, slim-profile optical drive bay, a media reader, two USB ports, a firewire port, and audio ins and outs. [RedFerret]
By Brian Lam -
io9
Disabled People Driving the Next 10 Years of Computer Innovation
Quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister can control her boat using a computer activated by the “sip and puff” interface she has in her mouth. With this rig, she crossed the English channel on her own. Futurist Jamais Cascio, who consults with companies like Mozilla on 10-year innovation plans, told io9 that computers like Lister’s designed for … Continued