Hardware Beyond the Hype
The Xbox 360 is barely out of the box and hackers are already gearing up to accomplish the inevitable: porting Linux to the next-gen game console. That’s what the Free60 project is all about, it’s a wiki-format site for collecting efforts to get the open source OS working on the new system.
Wanna take bets on how long it’ll be before this feat is accomplished?
[Via /.]
Not since the d20 dice tattoo have we been so tempted to fly our geek colors as with these 20-sided fuzzy dice for your car (or for hanging from the cube farm mirror you have on your monitor so that dweeb from sales can’t sneak up on you). These are definitely going in the Street Tech Holiday Gift Guide (coming soon). US$10, from ThinkGeek.
According to a piece on MacDevCenter.com, it’s actually possible to connect a video iPod to an A/V TV input with a conventional A/V Red/White/Yellow cable. All you need is such a cable with a 1/8″ plug on the other side . The trick is that you need to switch the Yellow plug (normally video) with the Red plug (normally audio-right). Did Apple switch these connections just so you’d think you had to buy their special proprietary cable? Bad Apple!
So the Xbox 360 launched last night amidst great fanfare. There were the now-routine site of people suffering outside Walmarts and Gamestops around the country (get a clue people: if you’re a gamer, move to Florida for console launches!).
ST Labs was of course on the list to get a half-dozen review units, but, er, Microsoft got the address wrong and the Xboxi were delivered to the Pizza Hut down the street instead. They refuse to let us have them until we pay off our $1847.65 tab.
So are there any readers out there who would like to submit a quick and dirty review? Best review to come in before Thursday gets published, and we’ll put together a package of cool swag for the winner too.
Okay, multitools may have official jumped the shark with the introduction of Stanley’s Wristwatch Tools. Actually, they’re not really multitools at all, each watch bears a different tool: a flashlight, a tape measure, a hex wrench, screwdriver, etc. Maybe they SHOULD make a multitool version. It’d certainly be less silly than a watch with a single tool. When your watch is a screw driver, every component looks like a screw (or something like that). Our favorite is the watchtop vice, ’cause you never know when you’re going to need a handy pair of thumbscrews.
Only available in Japan so far, no word on US availability or pricing.
[Via CoolHunting]
The AP reported yesterday that TiVo will be releasing an update in early 2006 which will allow videos exported through their TiVo2Go service to be converted for import into iPods and PSPs. More information after the jump.
[via PVRblog and TiVo’s own blog]
SNL had a hysterical sketch last night where Steve Jobs (played by Chris Parnell) announces a series of iPods, each smaller and more powerful than the last, until he gets to the “invisia” (unseen in his hand) which can hold “eight million songs and every photo ever taken.”
You can see video of the skit here.
Turns out the Korean robot with the severed head of Alberto Einstein (sorta) is no joke. He made the rounds of the APEC Summit as reported earlier. We know Al was short, but that short? It’s enough to give a cyborg a complex.
More photos of the bot, most from before it got the Albert head plant, can be found at the Lab’s website.
[Via Robots.Net]
Giant Robot, known for their zuparcuul Creative Communist T-shirts, has introduced a new version: the Che Doctorow.
The “Che Guevara-inspired shirt, featuring BoingBoing editor and EFF people’s hero Cory Doctorow,” is available in classic copyleftist olive-drab, though kids will have to settle for ‘prairie dust,’ ’cause apparently, there’s been a run on freedom-fighter tees for the kids.
Price is US$8, with a buck from each purchase going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
[Editorial Disclosure: The designer of this shirt works for Street Tech, but isn’t making a dime.]