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Filed under: GPS, Transportation

If you’ve balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda’s Accord during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and while it didn’t sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin’. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs…

[Via Autoblog]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Storage

We’re not sure this is still relevant — the patent was filed in May of 2006 — but the USPTO has just published a patent application from Apple detailing a number of different 8cm to 12cm optical disk adapters. The application, credited to Tony Fadell, chief of the iPod division, says that since most software doesn’t take up all of the available storage on a disk, it would be cheaper and simpler to use the 8cm disks when appropriate — but that having to ship a standard adapter for slot-loading drives reduce any costs, because they’re the same size as 12cm disks. The solution is to make the adapters smaller when they’re not in use, and the filing goes on to detail several different folding and multi-part takes on the idea. Considering that such an adapter would make things slightly more complicated for the vast majority of Apple’s all-slot-loading installed base, we can’t see these ever actually shipping, but it’s still an interesting idea.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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This isn’t the first time someone has offered a bounty to hack the Linux-based Neuros OSD, but if successful, this hack could have some very interesting implications. The goal is to get the Neuros to piggyback on the TiVo’s recording schedule and make MPEG-4 recordings that can be simultaneously transferred onto a portable device like a laptop or an iPhone. There are two segments to the bounty, with a cash reward that totals $3500. It sounds pretty cool, but whether it can be done is up to you. [DVRupgrade]

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Filed under: Portable Audio

As far as we know, Evergreen’s Business Card MP3 Player doesn’t come pre-loaded with Flight of the Conchords’ most relevant jam, but you can’t deny it’d be a great fit. This all-white, ultra-simplistic DAP checks in at 86- x 55- x 6-millimeters, weighs just 36-grams and includes 1GB of storage space. You’ll also find a flip-out USB 2.0 connector, internal speaker and some sort of recording function. Slip one into your tight leather jacket pocket for a steep $126.19 — it should make sorting the recycling much less tedious.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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This is not the first time we have come across a wristband that alerts you to incoming calls. Some of you may recall the BlueQ from earlier this year. It worked–but not all that well. Could this device, dubbed the LM957, be a better alternative? According to the product site, the LM957 will not only discreetly alert you to an incoming call, it will also let you know when you have wandered more than 15 feet away from your phone.

We are not sure how it compares to the BlueQ in terms of functionality, but it sure as hell looks better. Even if it does work, I wouldn’t be all that interested unless there was a watch involved. Available for £23.50 or $48. [Product Page]

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According to the Health Care System Foundation, a lack of diet and exercise combined with a sedentary lifestyle (that includes playing an upside-down Xbox 360) leads to childhood obesity and an untimely death. Yeah, the kid is definitely fat –but if I were his parents I would be more worried about the fact that he is playing games with a controller that isn’t plugged in. Could it be that an abundance of fat and Xbox 360 playing leads to insanity? [Kotaku]

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The Great Pepsi MP3 Giveaway returns, but this time with…Amazon? Yup. Starting Superbowl Sunday (Feb. 3), Pepsi’s stuffing 5 billion bottles of Coke soda with download codes, but you need five of ‘em to get a free song. That’s right, there will be no casual Pepsi drinkers getting free songs on Pepsi/Amazon’s dime–which is about 40 cents a track, down from the 65-70 cents Amazon usually places in labels’ pockets. Consequently, not all of them may participate, which is lame-o on their part.

It’s a promotion people, come on–it helped put iTunes on the map back in 2004 and it might help Amazon’s MP3 store gain some much needed visibility. What’s interesting is that Billboard says this contest might serve as a tipping point to push Sony BMG into selling songs in the MP3 format–right now, Universal and EMI are the only two major labels doing so. If the contest isn’t an adequate carrot, Wal-Mart might be providing the stick, since it’s rumored to be threatening to drop Sony and Warner’s catalog if they don’t supply its online store with the MP3 format.

Given the fear labels have of the iTunes monopoly, you’d think they’d jump at a player-neutral format, and moreover, the chance to promote alternate players in the online music market. I, however, am not jumping at the chance to drink Pepsi. Blech. [Billboard via Paid Content, Flickr]

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Soccer may not be the most popular sport in the US–but don’t tell that to millions of minivan-driving suburban mothers. Chances are, the kids they are constantly hauling back and forth to practice would love this soccer ball remote. Not only will it handle your TV, DVD and satellite controls, it is also a full-size, functional ball. So you can kick it around, do headers and let the TV channels fall where they may. I just hope you are a fan of English soccer. Available for around $41. [Product Page]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Barely a fortnight after Apple began talking with China Mobile about getting the iPhone into the ginormous Chinese market, it seems that negotiations are off — or still on, or something. Yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported that China Mobile’s CEO felt that the “iPhone model was not suitable for China,” but unnamed reporters suggested that the real reason behind the call-off was the inability for both entities to agree on — surprise, surprise — a revenue sharing model. Today, however, a report over at Bloomberg notes that Apple has in fact not ended discussions with China Mobile, and moreover, it was said to have “denied newspaper reports” claiming otherwise. ‘Course, we’ve got two sides of the story here, and while Apple may feel that there’s still room to negotiate, China Mobile may see things quite differently. Time will tell, we guess.

[Via Macworld]
Read - Nanfang Daily report
Read - Bloomberg report

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Networking

Remember that blisteringly fast channel bonding modem Comcast showed off earlier this year? Turns out that the firm’s CEO is apparently aiming to roll out internet services that can reach up to 160Mbps down / 120Mbps up sometime in 2008. As in, next year. In a recent interview with Fortune, Brian Roberts stated that service based on DOCSIS 3.0 technology would start “rolling out” sometime in 2008, and casually noted that it should provide “more than enough bandwidth to do multiplayer online gaming.” Additionally, Cable Digital News explains that the firm has plans to cover some 20-percent of its footprint with the uber-quick service before 2009, and while we’re left to guess what areas will be covered, we’d bet locales fetching FiOS could entertain some competition. Granted, we’ve still got aways to go before we can go toe-to-toe with a certain Swede, but we’ll take any progress we can get.

[Via ArsTechnica, image courtesy of AFP / BBC]
Read - Fortune interviews Comcast CEO Brian Roberts
Read - Comcast closes in on 100Mbit/s

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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