Insatiable demand by U.S. retailers on the eve of the biggest gaming launch ever -- the long-awaited U.S. debut of the Sony PlayStation Portable later this month -- is driving PSP sales in the rest of the world underground. Europeans have been forced to pay nearly triple the price for "grey market" PSPs with Japanese-language menus. The European ship date has been pushed from March to June. Canadians who pre-ordered PSPs are being told that those orders cannot be fulfilled. And even in Japan, where the PSP first went on sale in December, the gaming systems are nearly impossible to find.
Google Labs created what it called the Google X interface -- a Google home page inspired by the Mac OS X user interface. It was alive for one day, then vanished. However, a French company called Ablaze has apparently preserved it. Merci, dudes! Here it is. Update: But wait! There's more!
The Scandinavian design firm Wallenius Wilhelmsen has designed an environmentally friendly, zero-emissions cargo ship that combines solar, wind and wave power, and also uses hydrogen. It's actually a sail boat, and the "sails" are covered by solar panels. Here's the unexpected part: The ship is designed to carry 160,000 cars a year. (It seems to me that a regular cargo ship that sank with a hull full of cars would do more for the environment than this thing successfully making its deliveries.)
Despite the fact that the recession hit harder in Silicon Valley than anywhere else in the country and despite the high unemployment rate, the median price of area home prices rose 20% to $632,000 for Santa Clara county and 16% to $711,000 for San Mateo county. Now is a great time to NOT buy a house here.
Fire the baby-sitter. NEC is rolling out a new version of its PaPeRo home robot -- a version designed to take care of children. It talks and listens and responds, makes cell calls, dances, sings -- it's your basic teenager.
USB Memory Drives Reach New Low: Tempura Now Available
Sushi-shaped memory drives were apparently such a good idea, a company is now selling tempura memory drives (as well as another Japanese dish called takoyaki and a Chinese foodstuff called Shumai). (props to Akihabara News)
Germany's Ludwig-Maximilians University demonstrated a prototype eye-controlled video camera at CeBit. It could be used for a variety of purposes, including market research, psychological research and looking completely dorky. (props to c|net)
Tablet PCs Gone Wild! New Toshiba Prototype Goes Topless
Toshiba unveiled last week at CeBIT a new 1.2 pound concept for a Tablet PC called the Toshiba Dynabook SS SX. Rather than having laptop innards that twist around and form the bottom of a tablet, the top half (which includes its 12.1-inch touchscreen TFT LCD) actually comes off for use as a thinner tablet. It stays in touch with its more intelligent half via Wi-Fi. (props to Tech Digest)
Don't Try This At Home: Guy Gives iPod 3.5-Inch Hard Drive
A tinkering iPod enthusiast named Collin Allen accidentally wrecked the hard drive in his iPod, so he decided to hook it up to a 3.5-inch PC hard drive. Here is his story. (props to Cult of Mac)
Sony Ericsson is rumored to be working on a cell phone that changes its themes (wallpaper, etc.) based on your surroundings. It learns about your surroundings by taking pictures and having its software analyze them. (props to Engadget)
Proof You Can Buy Anything Online: A Haunted Nintendo NES
Now you can buy that haunted Nintendo NES game system you always wanted. Ghosts in the machine reveal themselves sometimes through voices, sometimes by interrupting your game. It comes with "2 original controllers, the original Zapper Gun, a copy of the Super Mario Bros. Duck Hunt game, along with its original AC-adaptor which came with black electric tape wrapped around it."
Here's an Apple rumor that's sure to upset the natural balance of the universe. The rumormongering chatter online says Apple may soon release a mouse with -- horror! -- two buttons!
A small handful of companies is secretly working on bringing unexpected materials to computer gear. A unit of Dow Chemical called Inclosia Solutions is working on systems for covering notebook computers with leather, chrome, wood and denim using a process called "Exo overmolding" -- the same process used to appoint Microsoft's leather IntelliMouse with fine Corinthian leather.
Teens in the U.K. are being scared witless about the dangers of drugs and alcohol by being forced to "take care" of a robot baby that behaves like a child born of an alcoholic or drug-addicted mother. The robots are sickly and underweight and exhibit all the symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome and other drug-related disorders. And, according to the BBC, "the dolls can't be turned off."
Religious Nut Issues Press Release to Promote Webcam Death
Based on the deeply felt religious belief that there's no such thing as bad publicity, "Yshua Lord of Host 666Israel, the man who tattooed the infamous "666" on his forehead and has prophesied the slaughter and destruction of every Christian man, woman and child" has issued a press release on MarketWire to promote his death, which will take place in front of his home web cam. The purpose of this is so people can "witness how a righteous man faces his own death" for a one-time fee of just $3.
A company called GuideTek is showing a prototype cell phone for toddlers at CeBIT called the i-Care Baby Bear cell phone. It has no screen, four speed-dial buttons and GPS, so the parents can track the user as he crawls around the yard. (megaprops to TECH DIGEST)
Taiwanese Music Player Looks Nothing Like iPod Shuffle
A music player called the "Super Shuffle" from a Taiwanese company called Luxpro looks nothing like the Apple iPod Shuffle. At all. Totally different. No resemblance.
Microsoft recently demonstrated technology inspired by the "Harry Potter" series: A "Family-Awareness Clock" whose hands show the location of each member of a family. Their locations are determined by portable GPS gadgets. It's just a prototype.
Net-Detective.com now offers "Red Alerts" -- e-mails that warn you when sexual predators have moved into your neighborhood. Anyone who pays their one-time $29 fee can see Sexual Offender maps that show where all convicted perverts live within a given zip code. Sexual predator tracking is nice, but here's the Big Brother part: The company claims detailed information on 211,400,000 U.S. residents (90% of the population). Anyone can perform realtime background checks using this database. Checks include criminal records checks, asset searches and credit reports as well as the location of military, hospital, birth and adoption records. There. Don't you feel safer now?
