Filed under: Gaming, Transportation, Wireless

Looking to collect a little acceleration / braking data on the cheap? Even if you’re just scouting alternative uses for that oh-so-handy Wiimote, a recent project from klee just may suit your fancy. A proud owner of a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta managed to rig up a Wiimote-based tracking system that gathered information on g-forces, acceleration, turning, and overall speed, and thanks to a little Excel computation, the results are neatly graphed once the outing concludes. Of course, you may need a little help in the script writing department, by judging by the looks of things, most everything you need is awaiting you in the read link — you know, except your own Wiimote and a Vee-Dub.

[Thanks, Matt]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Last night we sat down for dinner with a company that, with the use of open source hardware, intends to invert the top down consumer electronics market as we know it — a lofty goal, no doubt. But when Bug Labs (based in New York) introduces their modular gadget kits later this year, end users (read: tech enthusiasts) will be able buy interchangeable electronics components with a common interface capable of mixing, matching, and building custom devices (without having to lift a soldering iron). Sounds kind of out there, but here’s the model:

• Users snag a small Linux-based micro-PC with USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, and plenty of special ports for attaching these functionality modules.
• Users can develop Java apps and load custom software onto the base device to take advantage of expansion modules for any usage scenarios they can dream up.
• Users expand each portable’s capabilities by adding modules, such as a small or large screen, QWERTY keyboard, GPS, camera, speaker, etc.; the user can add whatever is necessary to build the gadget that fits their purpose. (Sorry, no cell radio modules at launch.)
• Each component is accessible and web addressable, meaning users can write and load software to / from their own or other users’ components, as well as share their functionality or data (i.e. user A can use an app to remotely share his / her GPS locator or digital camera with user B).
• Of course, all these hardware component schematics, interface protocols, etc. will be made available online if you want to build your own Bug-based gear.
• Bug Labs might also allow users to submit novel and relatively marketable configurations for mass manufacturing, and serve as a storefront for budding gadget designers using the Bug platform.

Will a DIY open source hardware hacker’s kit ever be enough to enable Joe Blow to develop the next RAZR or iPod? Probably not to start; effective portable electronics requires a very vertical design process, but if CE development is ever going to be democratized the way software development was over 30 years ago, then clear and open source components and systems is the kind of approach that could be capable of doing it.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Features

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

For all the attention on the love-hate relationship between Apple and Microsoft, there’s another software superpower with which Apple is increasingly butting heads. Apple was an early investor in Adobe and an early supporter of PostScript, which drove the first LaserWriters and launched the desktop publishing market. When Steve Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, that company used Display PostScript as the imaging engine for the company’s black boxes.

Photoshop and other members of Adobe’s Creative Suite remain some of the most popular creative tools on the Mac. For years, Photoshop made cameos at Apple keynotes as the company argued the superiority of the PowerPC architecture.

But the relationship has been strained at times as well. After going on lots of minor quests involving the slaying of forest creatures, Adobe released PostScript Level 2. But Apple surprised nearly everyone when it partnered with Microsoft in 1989 to position TrueType and the now-forgotten TrueImage as a rival to Adobe’s technology. Apple would later try again to surpass Adobe’s font technology with QuickDraw GX before adopting PDF as the graphics lingua franca for Mac OS X.

Continue reading Switched On: Apple’s brash Flash clash rehash

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio

It looks like Apple has more than just 3 billion songs sold to celebrate, as it’s now managed to bring longtime hold-outs Led Zepplin into the iTunes fold. The band isn’t quite going all out, however, with it instead simply offering greatest hits of sorts called “Mothership,” which will include ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Dazed and Confused’ and other songs personally selected Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones. Look for it to be available on November 12th. In other iTunes news, Apple appears to have found itself on Eminem’s bad side (again), with the rapper and his music publisher now suing the company over, you guessed it, alleged copyright violations. As The Detroit News reports, Eminem’s music publisher and copyright manager are claiming that they never actually authorized Universal to offer Eminem’s music on iTunes in the first place, and they’re now asking Apple to cease and desist its reproduction and distribution. Not surprisingly Apple doesn’t appear to be quite ready to comply with that, although it’s so far staying mum on the matter.

Read - Reuters, “Apple says iTunes sales top 3 billion songs”
Read - The Observer, “Led Zeppelin join the net generation”
Read - The Detroit News, “Eminem suit targets Apple” [Via AppleInsider]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

And so we’ve come full circle. After accurately predicting that $100 PS3 price drop a few weeks back, Circuit City is back in the rumor game with a flyer that seems to confirm the $50 price cut for the Xbox 360, and even tosses in some info on price breaks for the Elite and Core systems. According to the flyer, on August 12th the 360 Premium will dip to $350, and include a copy of Rockstar’s “Table Tennis,” while the Elite will raid your wallet for $450 — a $30 reduction — and include zero free games. Finally, the Xbox 360 Core will get $20 lopped off, and sell for $280, which might be the end of the road for the stripped down console once stock runs out.

[Thanks, Sam]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots

While these days robotics are no stranger to the battlefield, the UK Ministry of Defence is hoping to take things a step further with its “Grand Challenge” competition, which aims to bring autonomous, information-gathering robots to urban warfare situations. Fourteen teams have been picked as finalists, and the true test will come next summer when the robots roll into Copehill Down, an urban warfare training center built during the Cold War, and duke it out with mock targets. The MoD’s hope is for a robot to be able to identify potential snipers, enemy vehicles and other human threats, with a minimum of human guidance, and then report that information back to ground troops gearing up for an assault. Approaches to the challenge include miniature unmanned planes and copters equipped with high-def cameras, and combination setups that include ground units with radar and thermal detection along with aerial units. Points will be awarded for accuracy of recon and autonomy, and the winning team will receive a fancy trophy and military funding. The robots are in it for the glory and the hefty retirement benefits.

[Via BBC News]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Announcements

We know you’ve been waiting patiently to find out who won the super rare E Ink watch — congratulations to Chris Garman, who’s now the luckiest watch-wearer on his block! To everyone else who gave it a shot, thanks for entering. Oh, and stick close, we’ll have another super rare giveaway shortly.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!