Filed under: Cellphones

MetroPCS may not have the largest wireless footprint in the States, but they did take a jab at the larger two CDMA carriers by announcing their intention to take on any Verizon and Sprint customers ready to jump ship — as well as any “compatible” devices they may want to bring along with them. Sprint already supposedly does this (although we’ve still yet to hear of it actually really happening), but the specifics of MetroPCS’s MetroFlash seem equally unclear. It doesn’t sound like they’ll reprogram just any CDMA device that walks through their doors, though, just the ones they’ve had a chance to test on their network. Definitely kills the buzz (and the number of devices that can be ported), but a little open is still kind of better than totally closed, right?

[Via Seattle P-I and Mobility Site]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Analysts love to come up with all sorts of conjecture based on history, numbers, and general guesswork. In this case, FBR Research analyst Craig Berger has a few predictions to give us regarding the future of Apple’s iPod and iPhone lines. We’ll keep them short and sweet here and leave the static mulling to you. First, he expects an updated, lower-priced iPod nano in the near future along with product refreshes for both the iPod classic and touch. That sounds about right, as Apple is almost due for updates of those products anyway. As far as Apple’s production rate, he says Apple has increased iPod production around 15 percent and sees Apple shipping 15 million iPhone 3G by the end of the year (he’s a big fan of the number “15″). Nothing really surprising here, but if all this pans out, Apple will dig deeper into the smart phone market while tightening its stranglehold on the PMP landscape.

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Filed under: Audio/Video

Leave it to space nerds with money to come up with the world’s highest resolution visualization system. NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames has created the 128-screen hyperwall-2, a mega display capable of rendering one quarter billion pixels.

Hyperwall-2 measures 23- x 10-feet of LCD goodness, and is powered by 128 GPUs and 1,024 processor cores with 74 teraflops of peak processing power. To top things off, 475 terabytes of storage keep the system rolling. All in all, hyperwall-2 has more than 100 times the processing power of its poor predecessor, hyperwall, from 2002. The elder hyperwall was unavailable for comment and is most likely on an alcoholic bender somewhere, complaining about “kids these days.” [Source: NASA]

[Thanks, james]

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Filed under: Celebrities, eBay

Remember when eBay was all about getting tickets to sold-out Radiohead concerts and Superbowls and stuff? Now you can get lots of gross and unnecessary things on there, like this Kate Moss hair extension, which the supermodel “shed” in Germany while fleeing the paparazzi. The victorious hair-finder, (fashion equivalent of the guy who catches a fly ball in his beer at a Yankees game) is auctioning off the lock for an anti-drug charity, ironically.

The organization is called Keine Macht den Drogen (No Power to Drugs) and sounds like the Weimar equivalent of D.A.R.E. We hope the hair money goes toward the purchase of thousands of KMDD t-shirts and will keep the German youth from one day losing their own hair and teeth.

“I hope Kate doesn’t mind. I did not have time to ask her…” says hair-auctioneer John Farr. Of course she won’t, John. It’s for the kids. [Source: The Local]

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Art school student Freddie Yauner’s CO2-powered Highest Popping Toaster in the World concept is great and all (it’s even supposedly Guinness World Record-certified), but a clock that aims to tell time to one millionth of a second is what it takes to turn our geeky, schedule-obsessed hearts to mush. Since no display can refresh a million times a second (and no eye can comprehend that kind of data), Yauner’s concept lets you peer into the moment by hitting pause.

Just note that by the time you let go the clock will have already advanced by another several million microseconds, prompting an almost Heisenbergian cycle of observation in its owner. Videos of the toaster and clock after the break. [Source: Freddie Yauner via Coolest Gadgets]

Continue reading Fastest Clock in the World Tells Time to the Microsecond

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Filed under: Computers

Zappos.com, online retailer extraordinaire of shoes — and now gadgets — recently made headlines for innovative hiring practices. After a week on the job, new employees are given the chance to leave the company with a $1,000 bonus if they feel that Zappos isn’t the place for them. The company appears to be looking to the future with its recent hiring decision.

Zappos tapped into the productive capabilities of robots by hiring a fleet of automated warehouse workers to ‘man’ the stocking and delivery side of the shoe business. They worked with Kiva Systems to install the Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System, which promises to increase speed and efficiency in the Zappos’ warehouse. The building is outfitted with a system of movable shelves, or ‘pods,’ instead of the traditional shelving units.

So how does it work? You log in to Zappos, order your shoes, and a signal is sent via Wi-Fi to the orange bots. Once the message is received, a pod will automatically whip around the warehouse, navigate to the correct pod, pick up your order, and hand it off to a worker to prepare your shiny new kicks for delivery. [Source: c|net]

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Filed under: On the Blogs, Artisan Foods

I’m always so impressed by people who can knit, especially if they’re good at it. I have no patience, so I’m pretty sure I would be a lousy knitter: I’d be trying to rush through and see how much I could get done in a certain amount of time.

If you’re into knitting, either as a participant or fan, and you like food, then you’ll love the work of Ed Bing Lee. Though I’m not quite sure why Inventor Spot did a post on this knitting artist, I’m glad they brought him to my attention. Mr. Lee’s delectables series includes a knitted hamburger, ice cream cone, and key lime pie, among other things.

If you knit food, or just have some images you’d like to share, we always love to see that kind of thing here at Slashfood. Happy weekend!

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Filed under: Vodka, Raves & Reviews, On the Blogs

If you’re a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this post from the A.V.Club. They reviewed three new flavors of vodka from Three Olives brand, and it’s pretty amusing.

The flavors in question are tomato, root beer, and triple shot espresso. Not being a huge vodka fan in the first place, I found this review ,um, not too helpful, but entertaining. In the name of humor, they were a little homophobic, but I tried to remember to take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently, the tomato flavor was the least popular, which sounds reasonable to me. Can anyone find a reason for tomato flavored vodka? It didn’t even get great reviews with bloody mary mix. The root beer flavor was deemed “all right’, but apparently it went well in a root beer float. The triple shot espresso was by far the favorite. A.V.club also tried it with a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino to raves.

If you have your own personal review of these or any flavored vodkas I’d love to read it. Maybe it’d inspire me to try vodka more often.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Remember that touchscreen Motorola Blaze we’d mentioned a while back that was on the hook to get Verizon’s visual voicemail service? It may not be in Verizon stores yet, but it’s all up in Boy Genius Report’s labs with a dark red body, MING attitude, and almost limitless mediocrity on board. The touchscreen apparently requires ridiculous amounts of effort to actuate, and that problem is compounded by a lame on-screen keyboard that makes texting tricky at best. EV-DO Rev. A is cool and all — and the visual voicemail support should be a pretty popular add-on feature — but that giant Motorola logo up front with the red ring and three pounds of chrome leaves the Blaze with a face only a mother could love. Let’s hope Verizon’s positioning this one as its low-end touchscreen offering, because we’re not seeing it cha-chinging many registers otherwise.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’re not sure where our tipster got these pictures (nor are we going to ask), but they appear to be screens from the Treo 800w’s specification and knowledge training documentation. New tidbits include a 333 Mhz processor, 4.4.1 x 2.28 x 0.73-inch dimensions, 320 x 320 pixel screen, and a weight of 4.94 ounces. Windows Mobile 6.1 looks to be in full-force, the camera shoots at 2 MP, and the USB port is 2.0. As for other revealed features, you’re looking at threaded SMS chat, but MMS is mysteriously missing in lieu of Sprint Picture Mail, a trend that continues to confuse us. If all this pans out, look for the 800w to be available on July 13th for $249.99. Hit the continue link to see the rest of the juicy shots and details.

[Thanks, brian]

Continue reading Treo 800w spec sheets and training materials reveal details, lack of MMS

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