MetaFilter posts tagged with gadget

Antikythera Mechanism revealed

one_bean — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:29:16 -0800

The Antikythera Mechanism has been decoded. Two years ago, it was confirmed that the machine was capable of astronomical calculations. Now it appears there's just one more thing: 3D imaging of the machine made it possible to reconstruct the complete workings, and it turns out it was also capable of tracking the timing of the Olympic games. The findings were reported today in Nature. Previous Apple joke here, an incredibly deep post about it here, and a longer report from the New Yorker.

Inside industrial design

WPW — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:36:40 -0800

The birth of a gadget. [Wired]

Niches of Niches

GuyZero — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:58:17 -0800

Tired of the same old gadget blogs? Try Homotron, the gay gadget blog.

iPhone Disassembled!

Derek — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:28:07 -0800

Destroying a perfectly good cellphone. The inner workings and guts of the biggest new toy this year. Is it more reliable then an iPod? How many screws does it have? Is it powered by nerds wishes and dreams? The answers to these questions are maybe, 16, and you bet your sweet ass.

A collaborative layer over every website

Tlogmer — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 01:38:56 -0800

Shiftspace creates a collaborative layer over any website. (Tools like this have been tried before, but this is the first one with an overt Wikipedia-style public service philosophy.)

Confirmed Sighting of the iPhone in the Wild

EnormousTalkingOnion — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:35:21 -0800

Breaking News: Apple Announces Touchscreen iPhone. In this morning's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, a touchscreen smartphone with only one button. Two years in the making, it runs OS X, works as an iPod, displays video on a 3.5" screen, and has the usual bells and whistles (Bluetooth, e-mail, Google Maps, WiFi, etc.), plus some other slick features like: a proximity sensor that turns the screen off when it's near your ear, an accelerometer that detects whether it's in portrait or landscape, and an ambient light sensor to dim the screen accordingly. I'm not usually a gadget person, but this thing seems pretty damn cool. Now let's just see how much it costs...
More live MacWorld coverage available at: Engadget , MacRumors.

No More Drink-N-Dial

Shane — Mon, 15 May 2006 06:39:13 -0800

You just can't drink and dial. No, really, you can't. Not if you're dialing on this phone (scroll down to "Voice of Reason".). Need more help?: See also...

Celestron SkyScout

dbiedny — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:44:55 -0800

The Celestron SkyScout (Flash page) is an amazingly cool portable device combining an celestial object database with GPS abilities. It's not quite the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but it's definitely one of the most compelling applications I've yet to see of GPS - it takes note of your viewing location, and uses text and audio to guide you around the night sky. Announced at the CES show, there's no pricing info yet, but dang, I want this badly.

Regenerative braking in a shoe

scarabic — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:44:50 -0800

"...this effort has examined devices that can be built into a shoe, (where excess energy is readily harvested) and used for generating electrical power "parasitically" while walking."

Regenerative braking in a shoe for powering small personal electronics, courtesy of MIT's Media Lab. With video. [via Hack A Day]

The Ambient Orb

theplayethic — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 02:29:14 -0800

The Ambient Orb No, not a prog-rock-house fusion band... But a little wireless egg, that sits on your desk, talks to your dataflows, and glows appropriately. Stocks up? Glows green. Lover online? Glows red. You calibrate the frosted glass through "thousands of colours". These design jockeys think it could be cooler though. Already, though, the idea is really mellowing me out. "The Lava Lamp of the 21st Century"...

Tivo thinks I'm gay

Raichle — Tue, 26 Nov 2002 09:47:55 -0800

My Tivo thinks I'm a gay pregnant man! This article documents the struggles that some people have gone to in order to gear Tivo's programming to their interests. As one man said of himself: " [I] often [order] cooking shows, which softens TiVo's view of [me]. "I don't want it thinking I'm an ax murderer,".

planetkyoto — Thu, 09 May 2002 08:20:12 -0800

"Enough with the petting, I'm trying to lick myself here."
Introducing the Bowlingual, the doggie emotion translator. As if dogs are coy and hard to figure out. It just became Friday in Japan.

Spoon — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 00:02:35 -0800

Hmmmmm - Beer.... Genuine need or Science gone mad?

tranquileye — Thu, 03 May 2001 09:44:17 -0800

Every gadget seems to generate a hobbyist underground: CueCat, TiVo, Big Mouth Billy Bass, DVD encryption, DVD region codes, Web appliances, WebTV, and Palm. The main link is to the New York Times; registration required.

mathowie — Fri, 31 Dec 1999 18:11:27 -0800

A portable CD player that plays CDRs with mp3s burned on them. I want one of these *now*! It looks like outpost.com is taking preorders for it, and the price isn't that bad.

mathowie — Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:18:14 -0800

I'm a gadget freak and I've got lights in my house controlled by my computer. But the folks at misterhouse.net have taken it 10 steps further. There's a web interface to all sorts of things, inlcluding the lighting system, the vcr, and reminders of new mail. That's some pretty nifty geek stuff they have going on there.