Tell us, readers — haven’t you dreamt deeply about shoving your hand into a toasty, moist hamburger at work in order to warm your digits without cranking the thermostat and irritating the Antarctica-born top brass? And tell us, haven’t you always wanted a USB hub that doubled as an airplane toy? And honestly, don’t even try to act like you’ve never longed for a fine-toothed comb that would stick out from your MacBook Pro whilst waiting at an airport. Amazingly, all of these radical fantasies can now be your own personal reality, as an unknown amount of faceless companies have inexplicably produced these very items and listed them for sale. Sure, the recession may be “over,” but “hope” is still a long, long way from being found.

Read – iPhone chocolate case
Read – Crab earphones
Read – 4-port USB Aeroplane hub
Read – Hamburger USB warmer pad
Read – Monkey USB warmer pad
Read – Metallic car USB flash drive
Read – Fine-toothed comb USB drive

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Crapgadget: ‘All hope just might be lost’ edition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crapgadget: ‘All hope just might be lost’ edition

We’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the DS Lite will be old ancient news by the time Easy Piano hit the market, but those who’ve learned to be content in life (and have somehow managed to resist the urge to snap up a DSi in place of their older handheld), have probably been hunting for this date. Valcon Games has just announced that its piano-teaching title (and the highly comical / interesting 13-key accessory) will be landing in North America in “early 2010,” but it didn’t go so far as to fess up to an MSRP. Not like it matters — you know you’re totally lining up to snag this during a midnight launch, regardless of how many heirlooms are forced onto Craigslist.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Easy Piano bringing keys to the DS Lite in ‘early 2010′ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Easy Piano bringing keys to the DS Lite in ‘early 2010′

Bose unleashed its giant iPod dock, the SoundDock 10, back in August — all 18 pounds of it. Well, iLounge has gotten their hands on one of these $600 beasts, and they’ve given it a nice once over. The SoundDock 10 has a nice solid build, and they grade the overall sound quality as decent… which probably isn’t comforting to hear, considering the price, but they do say that it certainly outperforms its cheaper peers. They note the inclusion of extra ports — an unusual and welcomed addition to a Bose unit — though they also note the continued absence of video support in the dock. If you’re in the market for a serious dock for your player, hit up the read link for the full review.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Bose SoundDock 10 gets reviewed, probably not worth the pricetag originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bose SoundDock 10 gets reviewed, probably not worth the pricetag

Astronomers are rejoicing that they’ve found the best place on earth for astronomical observation. The only problem? It also happens to be the “very worst place on the surface of the planet for humans.” Whoops. Send in the Robots.

Dubbed Ridge A, this magical spot in Antarctica provides such a clear view of the heavens that a “modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.” Scientists will be using the knowledge gained from the first Antarctic robotic viewing station, the PLATeau Observatory, to set up another ‘bot operated observatory station in this dry and cold place:

The simple observatory is, in the words of University of Arizona astronomer Craig Kulesa, a steel shipping container that scientists “cut in half and insulated the crap out of.”

Well, not everything has to be high tech, right? Hacked together or not, the robot-manned observatories are significant not only of the data they provide, but also because of the savings in comparison to a space mission for the same photos:

Getting a kilogram of anything into orbit costs thousands of dollars. The cost of getting a kilogram to Ridge A is about $10.

This means that the National Science Foundation is getting a heck of a lot of research done without the benefits of a NASA-sized budget. Not to mention that robots are far cooler than rockets anyway. [Wired]

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Astronomers Send Robots to Stargaze in Very Worst Place on Earth for Humans [Robots]

Department for Business Innovation and Skills promises broadband cutoffs

The UK government has announced tougher plans for combating illegal filesharing, in the wake of criticism over the Digital Britain report, which rights holders saw as too weak.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills issued an explanatory statement this morning, saying that it’s looking at suspending the broadband accounts of persistent file-sharers. That’s significant, because the Digital Britain report stopped short of recommending that course of action.

The report says that the proposals “would involve an obligation on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take action against individual, repeat infringers – for example by blocking access to download sites, reducing broadband speeds, or by temporarily suspending the individual’s Internet account”.

The reason for the U-turn is due to deadlines that have been seen as unworkable – the government set a goal to reduce filesharing by 70% by 2010. The originally planned process to work out more sophisticated “technical measures” would have meant that action wouldn’t have been able to be taken until 2012.

Meanwhile, the campaigns officer of the UK’s Pirate Party, Philip Hunt, said in a post on his personal blog: “If Labour had any sense, what they would do is scrap this unworkable and unpopular plan, and instead put Tom Watson in charge of Digital Britain”, as well as quoting a commenter on his site as saying: “I ever cease to be amazed at how persistent Labour is at choosing policies that are both unworkable and unpopular. Truly impressive”.

The consultation on filesharing has been extended until the end of September, giving ISPs and copyright holders more time to get their views in over the legislation.

Read

Related links:

• News – Filesharing banned in Antarctica
• Link – Government Statement (link not working at time of writing)
• Link – Calabamat
• Via – Music Ally

Tags:
Software Online ISPs Movie downloads Music downloads

Government announces filesharing crackdown originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:33:45 +0100

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NEWS: Government announces filesharing crackdown

For fear of viruses and bandwidth concerns

The icy wastes of Antarctica, like Hull, are a little less free today, as employees of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) have been banned from using any P2P filesharing programs.

There’s only so much bandwidth available that goes to the South Pole, and USAP is worried that it’ll get swamped by people trying to download the latest episode of The Wire, or by malicious software taking over computers and flooding the pipes.

Online gaming has also been banned, so inhabitants won’t be able to hit World of Warcraft if they start getting lonely. You’d expect pings down there to be too poor for gaming anyway, though.

We’ve contacted the British Antarctic Survey to find out what its policy for filesharing is in its Halley, Sky-Blu, Fossil Bluff and Rothera bases on the continent. We’ll update this post if they reply.

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Related links:

• News – Hull ISP cutting off filesharing customers
• Via – Sophos
• And – @pdouglas

Tags:
Software Online ISPs Movie downloads Music downloads

Filesharing banned in Antarctica originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:15:55 +0100

Continue reading from the original source:
NEWS: Filesharing banned in Antarctica

For fear of viruses and bandwidth concerns

The icy wastes of Antarctica, like Hull, are a little less free today, as employees of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) have been banned from using any P2P filesharing programs.

There’s only so much bandwidth available that goes to the South Pole, and USAP is worried that it’ll get swamped by people trying to download the latest episode of The Wire, or by malicious software taking over computers and flooding the pipes.

Online gaming has also been banned, so inhabitants won’t be able to hit World of Warcraft if they start getting lonely. You’d expect pings down there to be too poor for gaming anyway, though.

We’ve contacted the British Antarctic Survey to find out what its policy for filesharing is in its Halley, Sky-Blu, Fossil Bluff and Rothera bases on the continent. We’ll update this post if they reply.

Read

Related links:

• News – Hull ISP cutting off filesharing customers
• Via – Sophos
• And – @pdouglas

Tags:
Software Online ISPs Movie downloads Music downloads

Filesharing banned in Antarctica originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:15:55 +0100

Continue reading from the original source:
NEWS: Filesharing banned in Antarctica