Gadgets

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The creator of the TV-B-Gone, Mitch Altman, has turned his love of open-source electronic mayhem into a one-man business.

His website offers the basic TV-B-Gone, a $20 keychain device with a protruding LED that emits 140 different TV power-off codes, enabling it to shut down 98 percent of all televisions with the press of a single button, Altman says.

"The way I see it, it’s only fair," Altman says of his infrared light-emitting device. "If a TV shines light at me, I’ll shine a light at it. And if it stops shining light at me, I’ll stop shining light at it."

He also sells a $20 TV-B-Gone kit for do-it-yourselfers who want to assemble the parts themselves, and a $50 TV-B-Gone Pro that looks a bit like a chunky iPhone and has a range of 100 meters.

"I used it in the hotel lobby last night," Altman says.

Last week, a federal district court in New York approved a settlement declaring that people who bought certain models of rear-projection DLP TVs from Toshiba between January 1, 2004, and September 18, 2008, are eligible for cash refunds.

The class-action lawsuit, Ersler v. Toshiba of America Inc., had a claim that Toshiba ‘knowingly misrepresented the life span of the bulbs in the lamps contained in the lamp assembly component of its 2004 and 2005 DLP television models.’ If true, this would mean the sale of the TVs had brought about a ‘breach of express and implied warranties,’ and a violation of the State’s consumer Fraud Act.

Those of you who scoff at the idea of "lazy" electric bicycles, think of it this way — anything that gets more people onto a bike is a good thing. At the least, it’ll help the elderly to get around. At best, it might get some people out of cars and make the roads a little safer.

MIT’s GreenWheel is probably the easiest mod we have seen yet that will convert a pedal-bike into a 30mph electric bike. All you need to do is swap out the regular wheel hub, front or back, with the rechargeable motor.

I have always known the person I wanted to be — hanging out in coffee shops, the park or the beach; writing a book, blogging, twittering and facebooking. And as I pictured myself doing all this, there’s one constant accessory by my side: a computer small enough to be my companion.

Netbooks seemed perfect for my aspirations. They are compact enough to slide inside my Brahmin bag, light enough for my 120-pounds frame to carry all day and fit exactly the kind of tasks I had in mind: word processing, e-mail, social networking and surfing.

The Brits are getting shafted again. We’ve reported many times already about the drop in value of the Great British Pound against, well, against pretty much every currency, and the knock-on effect of increased gadget prices.

Now, though, Sigma has bumped a lens price by £8,000, or around $11,400 in today’s money. To be sure, this isn’t a cheap $200 that has suddenly rocketed in price — the 200-500mm f/2.8 APO EX DG HSM was already a stunning $16,000 ($22,800) at launch.

Intel on Wednesday joined Dell in a legal fight over using the word "netbook."

The companies are doing battle with PC manufacturer Psion Teklogix, who claims exclusive ownership of the term because one of its earlier miniature computer models was named NetBook.

"This action arises from the allegations recently launched by [Psion] that it has the exclusive right to use the term ‘netbook,’" the 13-page filing reads [pdf].

The incredible shrinking computer is about to reach a lower limit in size, with a new computer that’s contained entirely within a wall-wart. Any smaller than this, and the computer would disappear inside the electrical outlet.

Called plug computers, Marvell’s new gadgets will resemble cellphone chargers but pack a hefty punch.

Plug computers would draw just about 5W of power, come with a 1.2-GHz CPU, a USB port and internet connectivity. They won’t have a display, but the devices can be used as a home server or a network attached storage for vacation photos and music downloads.

The recent Mac Mini "spy shot" is so effortless and yawn-inducing that it must be a Photoshop job. But does the inverse of that logic lend the above photo more validity?

I smell a contest.

Via Boing Boing Gadgets

I bought a new MacBook. I couldn’t help it. Three days spent in and out of the press room at the MWC in Barcelona meant three days of seeing the tiny 13” package over and over (these unibody MacBooks seem to be popular). Worse, I was seeing the svelte new carcass alongside my old-model MacBook Pro.

It’s a truism of Apple design that every product looks amazing until the next revision is unveiled.

Barcelona — NTT DoCoMo can always be relied upon to do something odd at the Mobile World Congress and, with such a lackluster performance from every other manufacturer, we certainly need the entertainment.

This year the prototype is a phone that snaps in two. It seems little more than a gimmick, but some thought shows that it’s actually a very neat idea. The two halves are held together by magnets and can be joined at either the short or the long edge.