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Posted Tweet (#2814328264) to Boing Boing Gadgets
I think it might be more fair to call this "1970s teenager's bedroom" a "1970s dork's bedroom". Radio/Love Shack. Link...
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Posted Tweet (#2617104245) to Boing Boing Gadgets
Kid-sized versions of modernist furniture. Link...
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Posted A couple of neat tools for making cheap camcorders produce awesome footage to Boing Boing Gadgets
There's nothing wrong with being a critic. We serve a purpose, perhaps even a necessary one, but we'd be bootless without the work of others. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be working on now that I'm less-than-fully employed. But I'm leaning toward taking a creative sabbatical, enjoying the last couple of months of summer to absorb—and hopefully create—a little bit of culture. I'm looking forward to decoupling myself from the internet and creating things that others can criticize. One of the things I'm already working on is video. You always hear about how it's easier than ever to make professional-level video on the cheap—and that's as half-true now more than ever. The tools are certainly cheaper; the skills are just as expensive and precious as they ever were. But man, what tools! For less than a thousand dollars, you can buy an inexpensive HD camcorder like my HV20 and a basic editing suite like Sony Vegas. Learning a few basic things about exposure, keeping the camera steady, color correction, and simple editing should only take a few days, especially when you can so inexpensively learn by doing. (I've been shocked at what a difference color correcting makes, and it applies just as easily to footage shot in HD as it does to simple VGA grabs from cellphones.) Anyway, I'm excited, and I wanted to show you a couple of cool things that are somewhere past the basic DIY world, but not into the full-blown professional world—and the results they can bring....
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Posted Albert Hofmann's letter to Steve Jobs to Boing Boing Gadgets
Ryan Grim hangs a short overview of psychedelic use among computing luminaries around a letter from LSD-discoverer Albert Hofmann's letter to Steve Jobs, asking for the Apple founder's support of Dr. Peter Gasser's MAPS study project:Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple computers and your personal spiritual quest. I'm interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.Grim's book, This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America, is on sale now. Image: Dylan Roscover...
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Posted Tweet (#2553792362) to Boing Boing Gadgets
CNN profiles "Eggheads", fans of the Big Green Egg grill and smoker. Link...
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Posted Core77 made a bicycle: The Dutch Master to Boing Boing Gadgets
And a lovely bike it is:The Dutch Master features stem and pedals from Brooklyn Machine Works, maker of high-end, indestructible parts. The Brooks saddle and the Dapper Dan grips, both leather, provide unparalleled feel and an authentic patina. The BMX Crankset is complemented by front and rear drum breaks from Sturmey Archer, and the shock-absorbing Schwalbe "Fat Frank" cruiser tires provide smooth-rolling, urban-friendly traction and durability. The wheels are hand-built in Brooklyn with Swiss DT spokes, and the rear wheel is equipped with bike pegs, so that you can carry (at least) one of your posse home at the end of the night.Each of the 25 limited edition bikes will sell for $1560.00. Don't leave 'em on the street, folks!...
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Posted Seth Raphael, MIT-trained magician to Boing Boing Gadgets
Seth Raphael is a Portland magician who will be doing a full-blown version of his "technology or magic?" show at the Hollywood Theater this Saturday, July 11th at 7:15PM. This is a warm-up for a performance at the TED conference, so get him before the malarial venture capitalists get to him first. Tickets are $10.MagicSeth's groundbreaking magic features a psychic website, a card trick done over instant messenger, and a time machine. His performance pushes the boundaries of magic and technology, discarding the silk handkerchiefs of his predecessors and embracing the machines that fill our daily life....
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Posted Tweet (#2533137173) to Boing Boing Gadgets
D.C. Police chief calls citizens who use iPhone apps to avoid speed traps and traffic cameras "cowardly". Link...
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Posted Video Review: Vita-Mix 5200 Blender to Boing Boing Gadgets
Make no mistake: A Vita-Mix 5200 blender is overkill for the home kitchen. It's $450, to start. And its laudable blending ability doesn't even make itself apparent unless you're blending quite a bit of food at once. But over the course of the last month, I've yet to find food it can't turn into a healthful slop—eventually. (You can buy a smaller blending carafe that makes it more suitable for home use, but that'll set you back nearly another $100.)...
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Posted Review: A week with the Mophie Juice Pack Air extended battery case for iPhone 3G/S to Boing Boing Gadgets
The original "Juice Pack" from Mophie was one of the first cases for the iPhone that included a built-in battery, but it wasn't really much of a case. It went halfway up the back of the phone, leaving a lump not just on the back, but along the bottom as well. All the hassle of a case—with only half the protection. The new model, the Juice Pack Air, keeps the 1200-mAh battery but slips it inside a full plastic case. The chin is less lenoesque, as well. I'd go so far as to say that that in some circumstances it makes the iPhone more comfortable to hold. And I'm someone who almost unilaterally hates iPhone cases. The iPhone is a really nice size, but its width is borderline too big. Without a case it slips into any pocket, including the front of my sexy jeans that I'm now too fat to fit into. (Thanks, Oregon!) A switch on the bottom of the Juice Pack Air turns its internal battery on and off. With it on, the iPhone will think it's constantly being charged up, using up the Air's battery before it uses its own. You'd think you'd want to leave it on all the time then, except that even Mophie acknowledges that there's a slight hit to the battery life compared to waiting until the iPhone is drained and recharging from the Juice Pack. Except for the most fretful, I expect you'd be happier just leaving the Juice Pack on and dealing with a little bit of loss. I charged both the iPhone 3GS and the Juice Pack Air fully and got a full three days of use, including a few minutes of game playing, an hour of audio recording, lots of random web browsing and tweeting, and about two hours of phone calls before I (nearly) ran dry. Bear in mind, though, that the iPhone itself had battery for the better part of the first two days. (Complaints about the iPhone battery life tend to be, in my limited experience, complaints from people who can't discern why playing a 3D game might take more power than, say, listening to music.) As a case, the Juice Pack Air is nothing special. It adds most of its thickness in the back, which actually makes the iPhone feel like an old iPaq or something. It still fits in a front pocket, but it's a bigger lump. Totally manageable, though. Its looks are nothing special, basic black plastic with no texture. A bit cheap feeling, actually, but solid. There are four little LEDs on the back that show the Juice Pack's battery level when you push a button, a la the MacBook. (I wish they were smaller like the MacBook, but it's not a big deal.) One minor kink: the Juice Pack Air plugs into the iPhone's Dock Connector at the bottom, but doesn't have a normal pass-through, but instead uses a microUSB port. For most people that's not a big deal at all—it still charges both the phone and the Juice Pack Air, as well as allows syncing—but if you use any accessories that need to stay plugged into the Dock Connector, you'll have to remove the iPhone from the case. The Juice Pack Air goes for about $75 on the street—not horrible, but there's definitely a premium going on for getting an all-in-one unit. If you just want a spare battery, you can grab a cheapo 1000-mAh battery for ten bucks. (Or a similar 2400-mAh case for $26 that doesn't look to protect quite fully.) I guess what I'm saying is that the Juice Pack Air is probably too expensive—but if you've got your heart set on it, I can attest that it's the first case that I've considered keeping on my iPhone in a long time....
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Posted Tweet (#2517841265) to Boing Boing Gadgets
"Foursquare [for iPhone] can now buzz in your pocket to let you know when friends are nearby." Link...
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Posted Tweet (#2515634741) to Boing Boing Gadgets
VLC 1.0.0 is finally out. Gmail out of beta, too. Dogs and cats, shipping together. Link...
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Posted Trailer: <em>2012: It's a Disaster!</em> to Boing Boing Gadgets
A spot-on parody that does nothing to diminish the fact that I'll be watching this Day 0, high as a DEA surveillance kite. [via io9...
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Posted Review: Six months with the Tom Bihn "Western Flyer" travel bag to Boing Boing Gadgets
For years, my friend Matt Bruggmann has been answering my complaints about travel bags with a single recommendation: "Get a Tom Bihn. Matt would know, too: He's a photographer whose work often takes him around the world to places where he has to bring all his gear with him. Matt's a fan of the Aeronaut, which manages to be just the maximum size a carry-on bag can be, but it seemed just a tad too large for my needs. At worst, I tend to bring along a 15-inch MacBook Pro, a couple of cameras, and a few changes of clothes. (For trips shorter than a week, I just bring clean underwear and socks and a couple of shirts, washing them out to wear with a single pair of pants.) The Aeronaut could probably hold me for over a week, but I rarely make trips for longer than three or four days anymore that aren't road trips. So six months ago I asked Tom Bihn if they'd loan me a Western Flyer, a smaller version of the Aeronaut that shares its bigger brother's most nifty trick: converting from an over-the-shoulder bag to a backpack using integrated straps. It's a hell of a bag. Because it's soft-sided, it lets me overstuff it to its absolute maximum capacity, while the plastic zippers are strong enough to let me close it all up, even when it's about to burst. The ballistic nylon has enough give to allow for a little expansion, but never so much that it can't be closed again. And the nylon is tough—I've skidded it on concrete a couple of times and while the fabric has been gummed up, it's never actually opened up a hole. (I consider battle scars a feature, besides.) The backpack straps fit in a pocket on the backside of the bag. They're thick enough that they take up a little of the room inside the back, laptop-sized pocket of the Western Flyer, but not so much that it's really a factor unless you've got the thing crammed full. You can even fold up a magazine or newspaper and slip it in the backpack pocket if you must, although the open, swooped pocket in the front is actually design for just such a purpose. Handles on the top and the side (or the top and the side if you're wearing it as a backpack) are sewn in as sturdily as you'd expect a company that makes each bag by hand. Surprisingly, with the addition of the $30 "Absolute Shoulder Strap", I rarely have used the bag as a backpack at all—it's plenty comfortable for hauling around airports. But it's been nice to know I have the option if a short stroll turns into a walk. (And while I may not be a war photographer, I tend to take all my stuff with me wherever I go when I'm traveling, too.) It's about as fine of a bag as I've ever used, and I understand now why Matt recommended Tom Bihn unflinchingly. But I've got at least one little flinch: the bag costs $200. Now, I'm happy to say that the Western Flyer feels like a bag that cost two bills, but if you kit the whole thing out with accessories—say the shoulder strap, a detachable "Brain Cell" laptop caddy, and some packing cubes—you're easily looking at a upwards of three hundred dollars for a bag. For some of you that will seem like a reasonable price for a smartly designed American-made bag that I suspect will last you for years; but you can also pick up extremely nice backpacks from the likes of Swissgear and Gravis for just $50 or less. Even if they're not as well crafted, that's a big difference in price. When I moved into the house I'm renting here in Eugene, it felt small. Not too small for me—I just moved from Brooklyn—but definitely not a typical spacious McMansion sort of thing, but a quirky unique floor plan designed by the man as the last house he wanted to live in. (It was too bad I had to murder him to get it, but I like to think we all ended up with what we wanted, in a way.) It wasn't until I lived in the house for a few weeks that I realized that the house wasn't small so much as it was built just big enough to be lived in. The bathroom was pretty big, but there was no bathtub. But next to the shower, below the stairs leading to the tiny bedroom, were hooks for robes. It took me a while, but once I started emulating the way the designer thought I should use the house, I was able to appreciate and even anticipate all the choices he'd made. The Western Flyer is a lot like that. There's not a single part of the bag that feels superfluous once you start using it, no little pockets for the sake of having them, but something that feels like it was designed to be used the way Tom Bihn thinks a bag should be used. (You might also consider the new "Checkpoint Flyer" bag instead of the Western Flyer if you carry a laptop with you through airports often. It has a TSA-approved flap that will let them screen your bag without actually taking the laptop all the way out. It's $20 more.)...
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Posted Tweet (#2500627415) to Boing Boing Gadgets
@mattbuchanan explains sharply why, if the N97 is the best they can do, Nokia is doomed. Link...
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Posted Goodbye to Boing Boing Gadgets
This is my last week at Boing Boing. I've several projects that I've been dying to do for several years, and as much as working with everyone here is a dream job, there comes a point when you have to take a leap and commit to those ideas. I'm bummed, of course. Working with everyone here has been a real pleasure, and if I have any regret it will be that I won't be working with everyone on a daily basis in the future. Yet I'm proud of what I've accomplished here in the last couple of years, starting two new brands in a very crowded space that I think do something very different than their competitors, and helping to grow Boing Boing into something broader and weirder than it was before. I leave BBG in the ridiculously able hands of Rob Beschizza, who already does the yeoman's work on the site. He'll be leading the BBG and Offworld teams toward greater things, I'm sure, and I look forward to seeing how they evolve without my meddling. And thanks to all of you in the community, even those of you are total cocks: there's nothing I love more than to get into a good scrap in the comments and come out feeling like I've learned something. (Even if the lesson is simply "Man, that guy is a total cock.") I'm going to be sticking around for another week metaphorically cleaning out my desk, finishing up the reviews I have stacked up and handing over my responsibilities. I'm putting this announcement up now so that anyone who needs something from me with regard to Boing Boing has a chance to contact me before I fully disengage. Thanks to Ken Snider, John Edward Campbell, Dean Putney, and Terry Thurlow for all the help you've given behind the scenes; thanks to Brandon West, Lea Franco, David Culberson for helping with links and tips and generally just being model community members. And of course thank you to the Offworld and BBG team of Brandon Boyer, Lisa Katayama, and Steven Leckart—if I can pat myself on the back for anything, it's that I know how to hire people that are more talented than myself. And thank you Xeni, Mark, David, and Cory—best job ever. If you need to get ahold of me for anything, the information at the top of the someday-to-be-updated JoelJohnson.com is always current, and you can certainly follow me on Twitter. And I wouldn't be surprised if I pop up now and again on Boing Boing, as well, if they'll have me....
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Posted Tweet (#2441487329) to Boing Boing Gadgets
Apple issues advisory explaining that electronics don't like heat or cold. Link...
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Posted Solar Gard car window film blocks sunlight, not Wi-Fi to Boing Boing Gadgets
According to a company selling the solution, traditional window film doesn't just block visible and UV rays from the sun, but also catches the 2.4GHz radio waves that carry data in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Solar Gard, a new window film from Bekaert, forgoes the typical metalized particles for a—ahem—"nanotech" formula that provides up to SPF 285 protection from the nasty spectrums, but lets your data pass through unmolested. If you're interested (and want to get some real-world pricing), you can find an installer who uses Solar Gard at the product website....
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Posted Boing Boing Video review: Sigma DP2 camera to Boing Boing Gadgets
Should you buy the Sigma DP2? Only if you're in love with the sensor. While it's definitely a better choice than its predecessor and is not without its manual charms, its high price puts it in range of DSLRs and other cameras that come without as many limitations. Looking through a glass viewfinder is such a treat, though—too bad it doesn't seem to actually line up very well with the actual pictures. If you'd like to download my talking-at-the-camera review that's embedded above, here's a link to a direct MP4 download. Below, a slideshow of unretouched images from the DP2. (They were shot in RAW, but uploaded to Flickr in JPG, as Flickr does not understand Sigma's RAW format.)...
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Posted Tweet (#2439310282) to Boing Boing Gadgets
Treasure World looks delightful, and despite my housebound nature it might encourage me to scan for Wi-Fi. Link...
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Posted Video: Propellerheads "Record" audio suite to Boing Boing Gadgets
Old news to those that make music, perhaps, but new to me: Propellerheads, the people who make the delightful sequencer Reason (which I will someday actually buy instead of using the demo for a few days then getting scared to drop hundreds of dollars) are launching "Record", a companion recording suite that more than addresses what I've always found to be Reason's most glaring oversight: the inability to actually record analog instruments or vocals without another piece of software. Which, I guess, it still does take another piece of software, but at least it's all be part of the same suite now. Since I'm still using Garage Band for most of my projects but have run my head up against its limitations finally, I may have to bite the bullet and get Reason and Record when it comes out of beta. I especially love the part of the above overview video where they essentially teach guitarists how to convince their band vocalist why the software will help them sound more totally rock....
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Posted Felt Playstation is really an iPhone case to Boing Boing Gadgets
An adorable felt PlayStation is really a case for your iPhone, crafted and sold by etsy seller rabbitrampage for just $20. (It's sold out now, but I bet they'll make you another one.) The PS1 controller keychain is sold separately, but is probably essential. [via]...
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Posted Optimus Prime USB Speakers are more than meets the ears to Boing Boing Gadgets
If the horrendous Michael Bay movies haven't already sullied your love of Original Flavor™ Transformers, you'll be able to plop this Optimus Prime head that conceals USB speakers in its flapping ears for $50 in July. Except it's July right now, so I guess they mean more July than now. [via Coolest-Gadgets]...
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