2008 June 20 | tech gadget update

Jun 20 2008

Lego Airbus A380 Is Biggest Lego Airplane in the World [LEGO]

Posted by: admin in General Gadgets News

Behold the biggest Lego airplane in the world, made after the largest passenger airplane in the world, the Airbus A380. Made at a 1:25 scale-9.5-foot long, 10.5-foot wingspan, 3.2-foot tall—the Lego A380 uses 220 pounds (100kg) of bricks. That’s a mindblowing 75,000 pieces in eight colours—15 Lego Millennium Falcons. With that amount of bricks, and knowing how long my Falcon is taking, I’m not surprised that it took 600 hours for the entire team of professional Legoland model builders to assemble this beast. [Giz’s Lego Trip]

Jun 20 2008

Knight Rider Themed GPS Features Authentic Voice of KITT [GPS]

Posted by: admin in General Gadgets News

I already have a GPS unit but I’ll be dammed if I’m not throwing it out because the guys at Mio have come up with a Knight Rider branded GPS unit with voice prompts by the one and only William Daniels. Apparently, you will recognize his familiar voice as soon as you fire it up and hear “Hello Michael, where do you want to go today?” As an added touch, the display is also flanked by a series of red LEDs that mimic KITTs hood-mounted lights. Further details are scarce, but we do know the Mio Knight Rider GPS will retail for $299 when it is finally released. [Autoblog Thanks Dan!]

Jun 20 2008

This Just In: iTunes is a popular music store

Posted by: admin in Life Gadgets

Apple has now sold over five billion songs from its iTunes music store. The program has been around since early 2001. Earlier this year, iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the most popular place to purchase music. Apple still hasn’t figured out how to sell Drakkar Noir for under $40 through its store but, still, five billion […]

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Apple has now sold over five billion songs from its iTunes music store. The program has been around since early 2001. Earlier this year, iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the most popular place to buy music. Apple still hasn’t figured out how to sell Drakkar Noir for under $40 through its store but, still, five billion songs is impressive.

It’ll be interesting to see how long iTunes will be able to retain this title, with competitors like Amazon’s MP3 store gaining traction. In fact, Amazon just unveiled special deals — today’s deal is Coldplay’s Parachutes album for $1.99 – and has embraced variable pricing (popular tracks cost more, allowing certain tracks and albums like the ones found in the “deals” section to cost less), something Apple’s refused to do thus far. Still, five billion songs is nothing to sneeze at.

Via [crunchgear]

Jun 20 2008

Gmod Fully Working Real Gyroscope

Posted by: admin in Video

This Gyroscope works just like one in the real world. I used no stabilising thrusters to keep it in place. Just thrusters to keep it spinning. A gyroscope works by spinning. The centrifugal force of the spinning keeps the disk in its original position. (The same thing happens when riding a bike) it is also very hard to change the position of a spinning gyroscope. To your self and exa…

Jun 20 2008

Microsoft Screws Customers Less, Keeps MSN Music Servers Open Late [Drm]

Posted by: admin in General Gadgets News

Microsoft will extend the life of its MSN Music servers—that authorize its old purchased music for new Computers or players—to at least 2011, after originally scheduling them for shutdown later this year. After “careful consideration”, it decided it was a good idea to hold off on screwing the poor folks who purchased songs smothered in PlaysForSure (HA!) DRM. Microsoft advocates burning your songs to CD to avoid being caught in this DRM death hole; we state you should poke around the web—there are plenty of ways to strip DRM without burning a CD. [Digital Home Thoughts]

Jun 20 2008

Space Wedding Doesn’t Include 62.1-Mile High Club Membership [Suborbital W

Posted by: admin in General Gadgets News

Soon, all those silly individuals who like to marry underwater, on top of mountains, jumping off planes, or even in church, will have another way to get into this futile and utterly-frustrating experience that some people like to call “marriage,” but that I would like to call The China Syndrome. Space will now be the ultimate frontier for grooms and brides in 2011, when Rocketplane Kistler Japan and wedding planner First Advantage start to sell their one-hour ceremony to marry in zero gravity, at 62.1 miles above the planet’s surface.

The companies plan to use the Rocketplane XP suborbital spaceplane for this, at the cost of $2.2 million per wedding. It’s not that pricey, taking into account that this will buy you a live broadcast of the marriage, a reception for your guests on the ground, original space wedding dress (whatever that means), transportation to the launch site, accommodations, four days of rehearsal and the obligatory photo and video album to show to your friends that your marriage started high before free-falling in flames onto the ground.

Alternatively, you can save yourself $2.2 million, plus the money of the divorce or the vacation in Bermuda.

We used to argue and fight, we finally decided, we either take a vacation on Bermuda or get a divorce, one of the two things, and we discussed it very maturely, and we decided on the divorce, ’cause we felt we’d a limited amount of money to spend, y’know. A vacation in Bermuda is over in two weeks, but a divorce is something that you’d always have. — Woody Allen

[Space Wedding via Pink Tentacle]