Tech news

Nokia Kills The N-Gage – Are You Shocked?

N-Gage

You might want to sit down before you read this. Nokia has announced that they will be stopping all support for it’s plagued portable gaming platform, the N-Gage. Yes, I know, you might be saying “Dude, didn’t Nokia stop supporting this thing like years ago?”.

The move really isn’t a huge shock, the platform has been begging to be put out of it’s misery for a few years now. Although Nokia has officially announced that no further games will be published for the unit, it also said that it will continue to sell currently available games in the Ovi Store until September 2010.

Although purchased games will alway continue to work on the unit, any of the connected community features will also cease in 2010.

On a side note, anyone wanna buy a slightly used N-Gage? Cheap.

Nokia Kills The N-Gage – Are You Shocked? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/31.

XBMC on ARM

Beagle Board

The most awesome guys over at the XBMC project have posted a teaser showing how far along the have come on the ARM port of their media player (Check the video after the break). You can clearly see the package boot up and even play back HD video. There looks like there is still some tweaking to be done on image rendering, but it looks like it’s almost there.

The hardware they used is a Beagleboard which runs a 600 MHz ARM processor, puts out HD via a DVI port, has OpenGL acceleration and best of all, sells for about $150. You can easily connect the 3″ x 3″ (wow, that’s insanely small for an HD media device) to a network by using a USB WiFi dongle.

The port is still a ways away from being stable, but from all of the work they have been doing there shouldn’t be too much more of a wait.

[Link to XBMC on ARM]

XBMC on ARM originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/31.

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car

iPhone Remote Control

You knew it was bound to happen. With the iPhone already having apps to control everything from your iTunes to a remote computer you knew that someone would come up with an app to control a car.

The Spirit of Berlin team have developed an iPhone app that remotely controls a minivan. They developed the app for the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge, so the likelihood of you getting the app from the app store is slim to none.

The iPhone connects with the driving circuitry via WiFi and offers a button for gas and brake as well as a wheel to turn the vehicle. The camera mounted on the front of the minivan transmits video to the iPhone in real-time.

In the video below you can see the operator in the camera’s view on the iPhone. It seems that the top speed of the van is limited (thank God!). This is every big kids dream, a real live RC of an actual car, problem is that this can be extremely dangerous. Plus, WiFi? I hope that their is some sort of kill switch if the van goes out of range or else there can be some serious consequences. Check out the video after the break.

[Link to iPhone RC]

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/31.

In Case You Missed It: Week 43 Round Up

Week 43 Round Up

In case you missed anything last week; we have everything from Metallica on your iPhone right through to a $1200 Mouse. Enjoy

Gadgets

Remote Controlled Tissue Box
Electronic Guitar Shirt
Sucker Alert: $1200 Mouse
Sucker Alert: Wattgate 381 “Audio Grade” Socket

Gaming

Nokia Kills The N-Gage – Are You Shocked?
Nintendo DSi Get’s Bigger
Quickdev16: SNES Developers Cart
Soccer Hero

Hacking and Security

Use Your iPhone To Control Your Car
Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock
Crush Your Cans With Electricity
3D Video With One Camera
DIY: Tesla “Spooky Spirit” Radio
Phaser Boasts 300mW Laser
iPhone App To Crack Combination Locks

Mac

Tap Tap Revenge Metallica For The iPhone

XBMC on ARM
Install 59 Apps Quickly And Easily
Water Drops At 2000 FPS

In Case You Missed It: Week 43 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/01.

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Build An Annoying Beeping Thing

Annoying Beeping Thing

I’m always up for a good practical joke, especially the kind that involves electronics and can drive people mad. Get your soldering guns out kids, this is a good one.

The Annoying Beeping Thing is a simple circuit board that is powered by a single 9-volt battery and outputs a high-pitched whining sound through a tiny speaker or piezo buzzer.

As you can see from the pictures above it’s hidden inside of a transformed but this thing is so tiny that you can practically hide it anywhere. Make sure you don’t let the joke run on too long as it might really get on someone’s nerve who might not think it’s all that funny. Check out the video after the break of it’s construction and to hear it in action.

[Via Make]

Build An Annoying Beeping Thing originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/02.

Batteries For The Web 2.0 Generation

Volta Batteries

Seriously, why has no other company come up with the idea of creating sexy looking batteries? We have gradients on every web 2.0 website out there, why not some colour on our batteries too?

Well first off, most devices that use batteries keep them hidden so nobody will ever see the flashy looking skin to your powercell and secondly, does it really matter? DC power is DC power. It’s doesn’t matter if it comes from a black and copper Duracell or a Volta.

[Link to Volta Battery Packaging]

Batteries For The Web 2.0 Generation originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/03.

Remote Controlled Tissue Box

Yes, you read it right, a remote controlled tissue box. You never know when you might need to blow your nose and feel way to lazy to get up and get the tissue box that’s like 2 feet away. Actually, now that I come to think of it, how many people actually keep their tissue boxes on the floor? I mean wouldn’t this thing need to be rugged if you say, keep your tissue box on a end table or on the coffee table? I’m just asking here.

If you do keep your tissue box on the floor and are interested in purchasing this remote controlled unit it costs $25, it has a maximum range of 8m and it’s 250×65x123mm so make sure your kleenex box fits inside. Oh yeah, and it’s only available in Japan.

Remote Controlled Tissue Box originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/30.

Nintendo DSi Get’s Bigger

Nintendo DSi XL

The Nintendo DSi just got a whole lot bigger. The DSi XL was officially unveiled yesterday by Nintendo. The new handheld is a lot bigger, which is one of the things that fans have been asking for. Instead of dual 3.25-inch displays the bigger brother will now come with 4.2-inch displays. It might not sound like a lot, but if you do the math that’s close to 30% bigger. The unit weighs 314g which is 100g more than the DSi and the overall size is 161 x 91.4 x 21.2 mm.

Besides the size and the new battery that claims to offer 13-17 hours of game play when minimum brightness is used, everything else stays the same. The DSi XL will cost about $220 in Japan where it will be available November 21st. The rest of us shmucks will hopefully see the unit sometime in 2010. It would have been nice to have this unit in time for the holiday season, but like most decisions that Nintendo makes wil releases, North America is always last.

Nintendo DSi Get’s Bigger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/30.

Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock

Mr. Wake

The snooze button on my alarm clock has to be the most worn out button by far. I admit it, I am an alarm clock abuser. I tend to beat the crap out of the time telling device every time that annoying buzzer goes off. Now if I had me Mr. Wake which was designed by Vadim Ryazanov of Let’s Make Robots, I would actually have to get my ass out of bed to silence it.

Mr. Wake’s job is to protect the snooze button from abusers like me. By using a homebrew IR sensor to detect anything near it, the robot takes off if you try to even get close to it. Plus, what can be cooler than having a robot that not only wakes your ass up, but has it’s frame made out of heat formed pens. Awesome. Check out the video after the break of it in action.

Mr. Wake – The Uncatchable Alarm Clock originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/30.

Install 59 Apps Quickly And Easily

With the recent release of Windows 7, many people have to slug their way through installing their applications. This can easily be a tedious and time consuming adventure. Thankfully Ninite does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Ninite allows you to install up to 59 different pieces of software for you, with little or no interaction from you. All you have to do is head on over to the Ninite website, select which programs you want and download the installer. It’ll start the process of loading your machine up with the software. Best of all, it will automatically say “No” to installing any extra toolbars or annoying add-on programs.

[Link to Ninite]

Install 59 Apps Quickly And Easily originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/30.

Crush Your Cans With Electricity

Crushed Cans

Why would you crush your empty pop or beer cans with your foot or even your head when you could lug out a device that’s 30x the size of the can and probably use more electricity than the actual cost of the can? Because you can, that’s why.

By using a high voltage source and some large capacitors you can build your very own electromagnetic can crushing machine. Just remember that this is extremely dangerous. You are talking about an insane amount of electricity that’s flowing here and it will definitely kill you if something goes wrong. If you choose to not heed our warning and want more info on the project then you can visit Bob Davis’s blog, the creator of the device.

Crush Your Cans With Electricity originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/29.

Electronic Guitar Shirt

Electronic Rock Shirt

When only wear a shirt with a picture of your favorite instrument when you can actually play it? The Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt from the clothing masters at ThinkGeek isn’t just a picture of a guitar, it’s actually a real instrument that allows you to play your favorite tunes right on the shirt. The shirt works via touch sensitivity and come with a magnetic pick that even allows you to strum. All sounds that the shirt produces were recorded on a real guitar and you even get a tiny amp that clips on to your belt. Check out the video after the break.

Just don’t fall asleep with the shirt on as it can easily wake you up if you start tossing and turning. Either that or you might stumble on some great new musical style.

[Link to Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt]

Electronic Guitar Shirt originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/29.

Sucker Alert: $1200 Mouse

ID Mouse

Don’t get me wrong, a good solid mouse it a must, especially if your a hardcore gamer, but $1200? I don’t think so. The ID Mouse from Intelligent design looks great and I’m sure it’s comfortable (at $1200 no wonder they won’t send us a review unit), but the last thing I want to do is spend more money on a mouse than I did on the whole fracking computer.

I’d be afraid to actually use this thing. It would sit behind glass, just for show. Plus, look at that finish, imagine all of the finger prints and smudges that would hold. Hey, if you have more money than you know what to do with go nuts, not me, this coming from the same guy who purchased his wife a $900 purse from Coach.

[Link to ID Mouse]

Sucker Alert: $1200 Mouse originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/27.

Water Drops At 2000 FPS

High Speed Water Drops

High speed video can be so much fun. Watching something that we normally take for granted on high speed film can really be amazing. Remember the bullets that were shot at 1,000,000 fps? Normally when we see a bullet being fired it happens in the blink of an eye, but when it’s slowed down you can actually see how the impact happens.

Take this video of a water droplet hitting a container full of water. You can actually see the droplet bouncing thanks to a thin layer of air which separates the drops from the water surface. Check out the video after the break.

Water Drops At 2000 FPS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/27.

3D Video With One Camera

3D video has really started to make a strong comeback. I remember being a kid when the paper glasses with red and blue lenses were all the rage. Technology has changed a lot since then. The cost of creating 3D videos is so expensive that it prohibits the aspiring film maker from considering the option, but if you happen to have a CNC machine that you can access your on your way to brining that dream to life.

Gabriel, the crafty hacker, is using a SketchUp to plot the camera paths, a plugin to export those paths and automatically adjust them for perspective and a CNC machine to preform all of the movement. You take a pass at something for the left eye then the CNC machine takes a second pass at a different perspective for the right eye.

Simple eh, well it does have it’s drawbacks like the inability to shoot anything that’s moving. Although this isn’t the perfect setup, it does show you how creative some people can be. Maybe this would be perfect for stop motion 3D. Check out the two videos after the break. The first is the actually 3D video and the second shows a behind the scene on how the whole rig works.

[Link to 3D with CNC]

3D Video With One Camera originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/28.