Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, March 21, 2008

Gigayacht Actually More Like a Freaking Personal Floating Island [Boats]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/254920568/gigayacht-actually-more-like-a-freaking-personal-floating-island

How big and disgustingly opulent does a yacht have to be to be considered a private island? This big and disgusting. Gizmag has a piece today on Wally's luxury yachts and their 325 foot flagship. While Paul Allen's Octopus is bigger at 410 feet, the Wally Gigayacht can be oufitted, with pools, tennis courts, mini soccer fields, or the garden you see above. And of course, room for 40 crew, 24 guests, a helipad, and two 45-foot speedboats that deploy out the back, powered by the blood of the poor. [Gizmag]

Bout' Time: Sprint's Web-Capable Phones Getting Real Web Browsers [Sprint]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/255113181/bout-time-sprints-web+capable-phones-getting-real-web-browsers

Instead of unreadably cramming the internets into half-assed mobile browsers, Sprint's rolling out a full-fledged browser for "virtually all" of its phones that can do the web dance. They're using Openwave's OpenWeb, which supposedly will make for a more desktop-like and less crap-like internet experience, even on sites not optimized for mobile devices. It'll hit handsets in a couple weeks. [Treo Central]

Intel Sets Low Price for its Atom CPU [Atom]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/254956754/intel-sets-low-price-for-its-atom-cpu

Intel has set a price for its low-cost N270 notebook CPU: a mere $44. Now that actually does seem pretty cheap to us, so perhaps Intel's promise of much cheaper computers in the future will come true. At the same time Intel announced two 65nm Centrino CPUs, both aimed at the entry-level laptop market. The Celeron 585 is a 2.16GHz processor costing $107, and the 575 runs at 2GHz and costs $86. It's just possible Intel's "nettop" design will work out after all.[Digitimes]

Japanese Graves with QR Codes Link to Memorial Websites [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/255101082/japanese-graves-with-qr-codes-link-to-memorial-websites

In Japan, QR codes are everywhere. Little boxes of data that can be turned into web links, they're found on advertisements everywhere, allowing people to get more info by simply pointing their phone at it. Now, QR codes are being found in more unorthodox places: on graves.

Yep, now if you're interested in finding out a bit more about the dead person in question, you can simply point your phone at the grave and be automatically taken to a memorial website. The sites are generally small, simple collections of photos or videos formatted for the small screens of phones. Here's an example of one, although if I had a website address linked to my gravestone it would almost definitely link to this. It's my legacy! [J-Cast via Trends in Japan]

The Many Faces of the Tancher Transformer Concept Phone [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/255153305/the-many-faces-of-the-tancher-transformer-concept-phone

Once again we dip into the bin of impressive but implausible concepts with this Tancher Transformer phone design from Shkinder Maxim. The device can be configured in countless ways to act as a multimedia player and projector with support for holographic image projection and 3-D scanning.

If that wasn't outrageous enough, there are also ideas that involve a built in voice analyzer for lie detection and some drivel about a "present emotions" function that analyzes brain activity to record what you are feeling. Obviously, most of that is completely ridiculous, but the rotating axis design was intriguing enough to score a third place finish at this year's Tancher design awards. [Tancher via Gearfuse]