retroremakes
March 1st, 2010, 21:05
In today's Remainders: wishful thinking. Nikon fans hope they've stumbled on a viral campaign for new cameras; magazine companies hope their slick new ads will keep you buying magazines; Mitsumi hopes its miracle chip can improve crappy TVs, and more.
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_nikoncards.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/nikoncards.jpg)Follow the Signs
Camera geeks are getting excited over some mysterious cards that have been showing up in their mailboxes. First I'll explain what's on the cards and then I'll explain what people are surmising, just because it'll be funnier that way. The first card was all black, with the number "8" on one side inside a burst of yellow, with the words "I am" on the back. The next day, a similar card with the number "7" was mailed out, with the words "I am fun" on the back. Now for the theories: yellow and black being Nikon's colors, people are thinking that this might be some sort of cloak and dagger lead up to the unveiling of Nikon's first micro four thirds camera, or perhaps NIkon's rumored EVIL line of gear. The could be reading into the cards a little too much, but when you extend the daily countdown it ends on March 8, the same day a Nikon press event is scheduled in the UK. At least this rumor has a definite expiration date. [Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/01/mysterious-yellow-and-black-cards-lead-to-wild-nikon-speculation/)]
Lifting Spirits
There's only one thing that's better than a cat elevator, and that's a cat elevator that is entirely operated by the cat itself. Though you have to wonder if this type of cat-tech retards the development of their natural abilities to leap from crazy heights and not be injured. Because if anything that's a super power we need to be cultivating, not discouraging. [Neatorama (http://www.neatorama.com/2010/02/28/cat-lift/)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_mitsumi.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/mitsumi.jpg)DoubtsCast
We'd love for a Mitsumi's new TV-enhancing miracle chip to be real, but we find it very hard to believe that any chip is improving LCD black levels as well as is shown in this photograph. The company claims they hope to commercialize the chip this year, but I wouldn't hold your breath—or hold on to your crappy LCD TV—waiting for it. [CrunchGear (http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/01/new-chip-to-boost-image-quality-of-cheap-tvs/)]
Punk'd
What was Eric Schmidt up to back in 1986, before he became the overlord of the internet-age empire we know today as Google? Getting pranked by his employees, of course. For April Fools Day '86, his Sun Microsystems underlings put a Volkswagen Beetle in his office, to which the bespectacled Schmidt probably responded by slapping his knee and snorting out a "Gee golly!" In any event, the video is a nice trip back to the mid-80s, a time before pranks were invariably cruel and back when the economy was so good that extra cars were always just kicking waiting to be disassembled and reassembled in someone's office. Ah, sweet nostalgia. [TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/28/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-circa-1986/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_ledtable.jpgLight On Ideas
I love LEDs and I love cool furniture design, but this LED table sort of makes my blood boil. It costs $24,000. It shows just about zero imagination when it comes to implementing the lights. It has to be plugged in at all times. A waste of money, a waste of energy, a waste of LEDs! Did I mention it costs $24,000? Forget that noise, just make your own. (http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-LED-table/) [UberGizmo (http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/03/led_table_will_set_you_back_a_pretty_penny.html)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_newspaper.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/newspaper.jpg)Pew Pew
A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that more Americans get their news from the internet than from print media. No surprise there—if anything it's surprising it didn't happen sooner—and the internet is still behind national and local TV when it comes to how Americans stay up to date, so don't get too worried about the internet subsuming everything in it's path. Not yet anyway. Still, this is one step closer to the future we envision in which Gizmodo is the the nation's primary source for all news, gadget and otherwise. (One surprising bit from the study: 21% of internet news-gatherers get their information from a single site. So, seriously, get ready for the Gizmodo News Network.) [Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/02/internet-overtakes-print-in-news-consumption-among-americans.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_print.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/print.jpg)Print Rules
Five huge print publishers—Time and Conde Nast among them—have banded together on a $90 million crusade to remind us why magazines rock so much and why we should shell out $3, $4, $5, $6 a month to buy them. "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines," reads one of the campaign's ads that's going to run in ESPN The Magazine. Sure, whatever, we might be swimming in magazines, but the magazines themselves are drowning. Drowning so bad that they don't know which way is up and it seems like a good idea to throw tens of millions of dollars into a lame ad campaign. Drowning so bad that they think it's a good idea to try to put their customers' internet consumption and magazine consumption at odds when they could be working on models that combined the two and made everyone happy. Drowning so bad that they're trying to convince people that growing 11% over the last 12 years since Google came on the scene is some kind of great accomplishment. Just make sure the New Yorker looks really good on the iPad and we'll forget this campaign ever happened, OK? [WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703940704575090120113003314-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwODEyNDgyWj.html)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_linux.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/linux.jpg)Screen Shots Fired
Some fat-fingered Dell employee accidentally made a typo when entering a new Ubuntu netbook into the system, resulting in this price of $100,278. That's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is type particular type of ****-up—the accidental astronomical price—and if we will find anything quite so amusing. I've heard some people say that the Aristocrats is the funniest joke ever told, but surely the accidental astronomical price is better. Knock knock. Who's there? A hundred thousand dollar. A hundred thousand dollar what? A hundred thousand dollar netbook from Dell. Oh that's good! OK, maybe that's going too far—I like a good goofy pricing error now and again—but the internet is treasure trove of typos. Maybe it's time for us to branch out. [CrunchGear (http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/01/dells-linux-tax-is-outrageous/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/TBCor2eR2mY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TBCor2eR2mY/)
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_nikoncards.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/nikoncards.jpg)Follow the Signs
Camera geeks are getting excited over some mysterious cards that have been showing up in their mailboxes. First I'll explain what's on the cards and then I'll explain what people are surmising, just because it'll be funnier that way. The first card was all black, with the number "8" on one side inside a burst of yellow, with the words "I am" on the back. The next day, a similar card with the number "7" was mailed out, with the words "I am fun" on the back. Now for the theories: yellow and black being Nikon's colors, people are thinking that this might be some sort of cloak and dagger lead up to the unveiling of Nikon's first micro four thirds camera, or perhaps NIkon's rumored EVIL line of gear. The could be reading into the cards a little too much, but when you extend the daily countdown it ends on March 8, the same day a Nikon press event is scheduled in the UK. At least this rumor has a definite expiration date. [Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/01/mysterious-yellow-and-black-cards-lead-to-wild-nikon-speculation/)]
Lifting Spirits
There's only one thing that's better than a cat elevator, and that's a cat elevator that is entirely operated by the cat itself. Though you have to wonder if this type of cat-tech retards the development of their natural abilities to leap from crazy heights and not be injured. Because if anything that's a super power we need to be cultivating, not discouraging. [Neatorama (http://www.neatorama.com/2010/02/28/cat-lift/)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_mitsumi.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/mitsumi.jpg)DoubtsCast
We'd love for a Mitsumi's new TV-enhancing miracle chip to be real, but we find it very hard to believe that any chip is improving LCD black levels as well as is shown in this photograph. The company claims they hope to commercialize the chip this year, but I wouldn't hold your breath—or hold on to your crappy LCD TV—waiting for it. [CrunchGear (http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/01/new-chip-to-boost-image-quality-of-cheap-tvs/)]
Punk'd
What was Eric Schmidt up to back in 1986, before he became the overlord of the internet-age empire we know today as Google? Getting pranked by his employees, of course. For April Fools Day '86, his Sun Microsystems underlings put a Volkswagen Beetle in his office, to which the bespectacled Schmidt probably responded by slapping his knee and snorting out a "Gee golly!" In any event, the video is a nice trip back to the mid-80s, a time before pranks were invariably cruel and back when the economy was so good that extra cars were always just kicking waiting to be disassembled and reassembled in someone's office. Ah, sweet nostalgia. [TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/28/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-circa-1986/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_ledtable.jpgLight On Ideas
I love LEDs and I love cool furniture design, but this LED table sort of makes my blood boil. It costs $24,000. It shows just about zero imagination when it comes to implementing the lights. It has to be plugged in at all times. A waste of money, a waste of energy, a waste of LEDs! Did I mention it costs $24,000? Forget that noise, just make your own. (http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-LED-table/) [UberGizmo (http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/03/led_table_will_set_you_back_a_pretty_penny.html)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_newspaper.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/newspaper.jpg)Pew Pew
A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that more Americans get their news from the internet than from print media. No surprise there—if anything it's surprising it didn't happen sooner—and the internet is still behind national and local TV when it comes to how Americans stay up to date, so don't get too worried about the internet subsuming everything in it's path. Not yet anyway. Still, this is one step closer to the future we envision in which Gizmodo is the the nation's primary source for all news, gadget and otherwise. (One surprising bit from the study: 21% of internet news-gatherers get their information from a single site. So, seriously, get ready for the Gizmodo News Network.) [Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/02/internet-overtakes-print-in-news-consumption-among-americans.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_print.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/print.jpg)Print Rules
Five huge print publishers—Time and Conde Nast among them—have banded together on a $90 million crusade to remind us why magazines rock so much and why we should shell out $3, $4, $5, $6 a month to buy them. "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines," reads one of the campaign's ads that's going to run in ESPN The Magazine. Sure, whatever, we might be swimming in magazines, but the magazines themselves are drowning. Drowning so bad that they don't know which way is up and it seems like a good idea to throw tens of millions of dollars into a lame ad campaign. Drowning so bad that they think it's a good idea to try to put their customers' internet consumption and magazine consumption at odds when they could be working on models that combined the two and made everyone happy. Drowning so bad that they're trying to convince people that growing 11% over the last 12 years since Google came on the scene is some kind of great accomplishment. Just make sure the New Yorker looks really good on the iPad and we'll forget this campaign ever happened, OK? [WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703940704575090120113003314-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwODEyNDgyWj.html)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/500x_linux.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/linux.jpg)Screen Shots Fired
Some fat-fingered Dell employee accidentally made a typo when entering a new Ubuntu netbook into the system, resulting in this price of $100,278. That's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is type particular type of ****-up—the accidental astronomical price—and if we will find anything quite so amusing. I've heard some people say that the Aristocrats is the funniest joke ever told, but surely the accidental astronomical price is better. Knock knock. Who's there? A hundred thousand dollar. A hundred thousand dollar what? A hundred thousand dollar netbook from Dell. Oh that's good! OK, maybe that's going too far—I like a good goofy pricing error now and again—but the internet is treasure trove of typos. Maybe it's time for us to branch out. [CrunchGear (http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/01/dells-linux-tax-is-outrageous/)]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1)http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=TBCor2eR2mY:2qCGR_MJ2XE:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/TBCor2eR2mY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TBCor2eR2mY/)