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by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 5:18PM
Sure, you’ll be able to pay out the nose for a Vista machine with a XP Professional “downgrade” soon enough, but Dell just pushed back its cutoff for straight-up XP machines. They’ll be selling select Inspiron and XPS desktop with whatever flavor of XP you choose up until June 26th, at precisely 6:59AM EST. Naturally after June 26 you’ll be able to buy a Vista Biz or Ultimate machine and downgrade to XP Pro, but we’ll hope it doesn’t have to come to that. We heard that one guy even got a printer to work with Vista. (Read the full post about ‘Dell pushes back desktop XP cutoff date to June 26′…)

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by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 2:30PM
Brain-computer interfaces have been popping up left and right lately, but the latest system from Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, might be the silliest one we’ve seen so far. While the system doesn’t involve the careful placement of electrodes, it does require you to don a large metal helmet fitted with sensors, which can even detect brain activity through hair — and makes you look like Magneto on a bad day. The system is solid enough to allow test subjects to control an RC car and researchers say the tech is similarly applicable to wheelchairs and prosthetics. (Read the full post about ‘German scientists develop nerdiest brain-computer interface yet’…)

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While the original XO Laptop in green is nice enough looking, there is always something that makes it sound special when its labeled as a limited edition. In this case the latest limited edition is a red model of the XO Laptop. There are reported to only be 100 of these special models made and they are all slated for the developers that are working on the dual boot Windows XP and Sugar Linux systems.

Aside from the red coloring, the models also offer 2GB of flash memory, which is the minimum required for Windows XP to run. No plans have been announced for a future release of this coloring, so chances are you will never see one in the wild, that is unless a developer goes against the path and decides to drop theirs on eBay, but I would not count on that happening.

(Read the full post about ‘OLPC XO Laptop now in limited edition red’…)

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Joining Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines, Delta has become the latest to announce plans to begin accepting a cell phone or PDA as a boarding pass. This new boarding pass policy is currently only available for passengers at LaGuardia International Airport in New York. In addition this option is currently only available for those who are domestic passengers, and once at the airport they can check their bags at the curbside check-in and skip the regular check-in and proceed directly to the screening area. Once at the screening area, the TSA representative will scan the electronic pass and check your ID. Travelers using this method will also be asked to show the phone with the electronic pass at the gate just prior to boarding. (Read the full post about ‘Delta Airlines becomes latest to accept cell phone as boarding pass’…)

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by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 12:40PM
These days, it’s pretty wild and crazy if a PMP manufacturer manages to do anything different than what’s already out there, so we’ve got a soft spot for Shenzhen’s EM-2811, being sold as the “Latte ICE.” Sure, nothing spectacular, and the 1GB-4GB capacity is seriously amature hour, but we like the look of the device, and the interface is pretty strong for a no-name DAP. There’s a miniSD slot to overcome that capacity handicap, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, voice support, AVI / MPEG video playback, and a built-in speaker. Tetris is included, but with the button layout we’re hoping they can finagle a couple emulators on there. (Read the full post about ‘Shenzhen EM-2811 “Latte ICE” is actually kind of neat’…)

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Samsung has unveiled their latest specialty handset, the gold plated edition SGH-D780 DuoS, which is a follow up to the standard (non limited edition) model that was released in May. The SGH-D780 is a dual GSM SIM capable handset that offers the ability to have and use both SIM cards at the same time. The SGH-D780 has triband GSM 900/1800/1900 GPRS/EDGE connectivity and features a 2.1-inch QVGA TFT display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, FM radio and a microSD card slot. The handset also comes with a 1200 mAh battery. The gold plated SGH-D780 DuoS has also become the official handset of the Russian Olympic team.

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(Read the full post about ‘Samsung intro’s the gold-plated SGH-D780 DuoS’…)

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Omar Khan, an 18-year-old student from Coto de Caza, California attempted to pull a move straight from the movie War Games. And I am not referring to the whole “lets play Global Thermonuclear War” incident, but instead the hacking into his schools computer to change his failing grades to passing grades. Mr. Kahn was “allegedly” changing his D’s and F’s to something a little more positive, A’s. Wow, talk about an improvement, you would think he would have settled to at least pass and just move them up to a C in an effort to avoid detection. But instead he went all the way up, because it seems his intention was not only to avoid failing and the potential summer school, but to get into a good college. (Read the full post about ‘Eighteen year old student fails class, hacks school computer, now faces 38 years behind bars’…)

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As part of the recent OTA update for the Sidekick LX, those lucky users were given the ability to record video. But with a little disappointment the quality of those videos is not looking all that great, in fact it seems pretty bad. Of course, I am not sure what quality level we were really expecting, because after all the Sidekick still images have not always been of the highest quality either.

The folks over at Hiptop 3 have a few videos they are showing off, as they explain they opted not to post them on YouTube because they come out even worse than they started, that alone should tell you something. However, the videos are small, coming in at just 176 x 144 pixels and can be considered acceptable.

(Read the full post about ‘Sidekick LX video quality not as nice as hoped’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 7:05AM Now here’s a novel concept. Takara Tomy’s BankQuest is half piggy bank, half old school RPG. Essentially, gamers / penny pinchers can purchase items to help them fend off pixelated ogres and the like by saving more money. The more coinage that gets deposited, the better the journey becomes. So, do you get some kind of prize when you cash it all out to buy your mum something nice, or what?Read PermalinkEmail this7 CommentsFiled under: Misc. gadgets (Read the full post about ‘Takara Tomy’s RPG Piggy Bank: level up by saving up’…)

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So, you’ve holed up in your room for a whole weekend and now feel like you’re a spy yourself. But a spy isn’t a spy without technology to back him/her up. First thing on the list? Spy camera.

You’d want something inconspicuous–an everyday item which no one would suspect. A pen, perhaps. But why go for a pen when you can go for something that looks like a packet of gum? This Mini Gum Camera Recorder is a spy camera with a built-in 2GB memory. It can record in real time 3gp format video with a less than 500KB per minute file size. The device charges via USB, and playback is as easy as plugging it in your mobile phone or PC.

(Read the full post about ‘Mini Gum Camera Recorder for the Spy Wannabe’…)

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