8bitdo makes the only game controllers I like, and they just announced a proper six-button Arcade Stick [Amazon] for October release. It works on Nintendo Switch and Windows, connects via Bluetooth or USB Type-C, and supports custom mapping and macros. The list price is $90, it's 30x20cm, and they make a point of its mounting […]
Viral today is this brief but charming clip of an old Japanese landline phone ringing. It's adorable! Below, evidence that this is or was a normal ring in Japan, for any "Japanese phones had a nice ring" disbelievers out there.
Michael Pick created a fully-functional miniature "iMac", slicing down a Raspberry Pi 4 (with a Dremel!) to fit inside his custom-printed case. He takes us through the process of designing the device and assembling it; the keyboard is the only retail item left unhacked. At that size, you'd never know it was running Twister OS, […]
This BBC report examines the "molka" phenomenon in South Korea (previously at BB): the proliferation of hidden wireless cameras in toilets and hotel rooms, and the culture of blackmail and revenge porn around it. "How many spycams can Stacey Dooley find in a love motel bedroom?" Pornography is illegal in South Korea, and molka has […]
#lackrackNeed a network rack in a pinch? £5. IKEA LACK Rack. pic.twitter.com/Wn257GEqWr — Paul Curry (@cr3) August 14, 2020 I recently saw a Lack Rack—an inexpensive Ikea Lack table put to use rackmounting servers—and now I keep running into them. Pictured above is Paul Curry's £5 example, replete with vinyl wood texture. They need little […]
The a-X sereies of portable workstations resemble the earliest laptops, but are fully contemporary beasts fitted with top-of-the-range AMD Threadripper CPUs, up to 256GB of RAM and dual GPUs. And price tags hovering around $8000. PC Gamer: Picture this: you sit down in a meeting alongside your colleagues. They pull out their Surfaces, iPads, phones, […]
There are many nondescript and mundane tools for data recovery, but the Spider Board is not one of them. It lives up to its name, with 25 leglike needles that, carefully placed on copper traces on a denuded card, suck the data out of them like fly juice. PC-3000 Flash Spider Board Adapter is a […]
Terence Eden found a turntable [Amazon] that cost only £30 (~$40): "I accidentally bought a load of vinyl records. So I decided to buy the cheapest, shittiest, turntable possible," he writes. For firty paands he even gets a USB port to rip the records directly to digital. Is it any good? Not really. It plays […]
Emily Groves' Mew is an interactive furry slab. When you approach it, it begins to purr. When you stroke it, the purring intensifies and miaowing commences. If you stroke it too hard, the miaowing becomes wailing and hissing. Mew was part of a collaborative sound object project between Design Products, Information Experience Design and Visual […]
Quackometer checked out a gadget that purports to "protect" users from 5G. It's probably a scam, as 5G is as safe as any other radio transmission and you don't need protection from it. But what's in the box, exactly? Turns out it's a battery-powered light and a copper tube. Whatever the copper device is doing, […]
My MacBook Pro has 4 USB-C ports, only 2 of my peripherals use USB-C. This hub to the rescue. Three standard USB ports and one USB-C power delivery port pretty much covers me. The HDMI port and card readers may come in useful later. I can't remember the last time I took a CF card […]
Logitech's MX Keys [Amazon] is what it finally took to lure me away from mechanical keyboards. It's a slim yet solidly-constructed full-size model that's similar to and superior to Apple's Magic Keyboard. It's flat, minimalist, heavy, solid and low-profile, with large backlit keys typeset in something similar to Futura Light. The keys are square with […]
Microsoft is to shut shop on the high streets and malls of America, permanently closing its 116 retail stores. Only 10 were overseas; flagship stores in New York City, London, Sydney, and Redmond will be remain as showrooms that do not sell the products. There will be no layoffs, Microsoft reports. Alarm bells rang when […]
Traintrackr is a powered circuit board showing a map of the London Underground, lighting up in real time to show train positions on 333 stations on all 12 main lines. It connects to the tube's API for live location data every second. The board is 400mm x 300mm and sells for £249. (There's also the […]
Apple is to phase out Intel CPUs in favor of its own ARM-based chips, it announced yesterday at the WWDC trade show in California. ARM designs are more energy-efficient and Apple has shown they can deliver performance with recent models of the iPad Pro, which already uses the company's silicon. The big challenge will be […]
The video embedded below shows the Hisense Q5, a new tablet that's reportedly coming out in China this week. It has a reflective LCD display, similar to e-ink (in that it looks and feels much more paper-like than a typical screen) but with much faster refresh rate than you'd get from a Kindle. But it […]
This dongle allegedly converts "household" — i.e. 110v AC power — to 3.5mm. It's misdescribed and is for photographic use (if it were intended to be jammed in the mains, the prongs would have holes) but it makes me think a splendid purpose would be for the gadget mafia to use to issue death threats […]
