Filed under: Household
We’ve always thought our basement full of old Newtons and Amiga machines was pretty spooky, but we’d admit that we’ve been one-upped by Pennsylvania’s Halloween Park, which built an entire haunted mansion using off-the-shelf HAI home automation equipment. Designed by Digital Panacea, the system is “run by typical motion detectors, contacts, resets, and timers,” which trigger spooky sound effects and mechanical effects, including a leaping ghost nicknamed Dead Fred. That’s way more interesting than the usual home-automation setup, we’d say — any of you planning on re-rigging your systems at home before the kiddies come by?Haunted house run using home automation gear originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/microsoft/MS_placing_I_m_a_PC_recording_booths_outside_Apple_Stores’; The Apple / Microsoft ad war keeps escalating — while Apple continues to insist that John Hodgman is the human representation of all PCs, Microsoft is taking its populist approach to the streets. Very specific streets, actually — it’s placing “I’m a PC” recording booths outside of Apple stores, like the one pictured here in Birmingham, England. The booth is staffed with three ‘Softies who’ll try to sell you on the latest in Windows tech while making nyah-nyah faces at Apple store patrons, and guests are invited to make a short video explaining why they, too, are PCs. Not to be outdone, Apple has pledged to send Justin Long to your house to charmingly condescend to you about his various abilities while still pretending to be your best friend.Microsoft placing “I’m a PC” recording booths outside Apple stores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: CellphonesNokia’s North American N96 has already made an appearance at Best Buy Mobile locations but, if you’re the die hard type that prefers to keep things as Nokia-centric as possible, you’ll no doubt be pleased to know that Nokia’s flagship phone is now also available at Nokia’s two flagship stores in New York and Chicago. You will have to pay a slight premium for all that Nokia-ness, however, with the phone running a hefty $842 (unlocked, of course) at the stores compared to the $800 Best Buy is asking. Those with a bit more will power and slightly less affection for Nokia may want to think twice though, as Amazon now also has the phone listed for just $705.99, albeit with a promised ship date of November 9th.[Via Symbian-Guru.com]North American N96 hits Nokia flagship stores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Gaming, PeripheralsWe keep waiting for “wireless” contact charging pads to blow our minds and revolutionize the way we use gadgets, but perhaps we’re just being idiot optimists. Or perhaps not. We’re seeing great possibilities with this latest implementation of WildCharger’s tech, the TouchCharge Kit from Psyclone for Xbox 360 controllers. The kit includes a rechargeable battery pack with the appropriate contacts and of course the charging pad. If you need to keep four controllers charging simultaneously, the $69-per setup pricetag might put this out of reach, but the Federal Reserve wouldn’t be dropping interest rates right and left if it didn’t want us racking up hundreds of dollars in consumer debt for game peripherals, right? EB Games has this up for pre-order now, should ship on December 15th.[Thanks, Ken C.]Psyclone’s TouchCharge Kit for your 360 controller finally puts WildCharger to good use originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Vicious and Divine’s Laplace webcam had it all… 2 megapixel photo and 1.3 megapixel video resolution, an integrated flash so that it could handle innumerable lighting situations, a folding mechanism that particularly suited it to mounting on laptops or flat panel monitors, plus that compact and sleek design. It was the jet-set of webcams, some might say, but it seemed to lack something — some essential quality of life. Possibly a higher purpose? As it turns out, all it needed was to be absolutely, 100 percent covered — bedazzled, if you dare — in Swarovski crystals. The results are pretty… stunning. And not at all obscene. It comes in both black and clear crystal variations, and €49.99 (about $63) seems a small price to pay for something that’s going to make you the envy of all of your friends — but it seems to be available only in Europe. Your loss, rest-of-the-Earth!Update: According to a commenter, the actual price of this camera is €399, not €49.99. We missed that in our frenzied excitement.

Swarovski-coated webcam: because everything should be shiny originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
It may be a sad state of affairs but, the fact is, it’s tough for an electronic nose to stand out from the pack these days. This latest effort from some researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology looks to have quite a bit going for it, however, including a collection of eight different types of sensors and 16 “microheaters,” which can be tweaked ever so slightly to effectively create 5,600 virtual sensors or, as the researchers helpfully describe, the “analytical equivalent of a snoot full of sensory neurons.” That, the researchers say, could let the “nose” sniff out everything from nerve agents and environmental contaminants to trace indicators of disease — assuming it ever gets out of the lab, that is, which is something the researchers aren’t making any promises about just yet.[Via MedGadget]
Electronic nose boasts “snoot full of sensory neurons” originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/London_s_new_bomb_proof_trash_cans_will_survive_apocalypse’; London will be the first city to test out new bomb-proof garbage cans, which are also going to multitask as recycling bins with LCDs that stream travel info and news. Security concerns (AKA fear of terrorists dropping bombs in them) have kept rubbish bins out of subway stations and many of the city’s streets since the mid-80’s, causing frustration among citizens, not to mention what amounts to forced littering. The new cans, developed by British company Media Metrica, weigh one ton each, and were tested in the lifeless deserts of New Mexico for five years to ensure they are completely, totally indestructible, can absorb heat from explosives, prevent shrapnel spread, and extinguish “fireballs.” Eh. Put ‘em in New York City — someone will surely figure out how to utterly destroy them in 24 hours or less.London’s new bomb-proof trash cans will survive the apocalypse, keep you updated on stock prices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds
If you can’t stand waiting till Summer 2009, and you don’t live in Japan, it’s your lucky day. We’ve uncovered an unboxing of Nintendo’s new DSi which should thoroughly whet your appetite (though whether that will hold you over for a whole eight months is another story). If you follow the read link you’ll discover a plethora of photos of the packaging and device, including some pretty nice macro shots of all the slots, ports, and LEDs. We’ve included a couple of pics after the break, but if you’re a stickler for details, you’ll want to take a gander at the whole set.[Thanks, Waroxy Future]Continue reading Nintendo’s DSi gets unboxed nice and earlyNintendo’s DSi gets unboxed nice and early originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Any Storm hopeful in the colonies who’s taken a gander at Vodafone’s pricing scheme this week is probably strongly considering packing a couple duffel bags with the bare essentials they need to survive and moving to the UK to strike out on a new life — a life filled with cheap Storms. Not so fast, though — is it conceivable to think that Verizon could go the same route? At first glance, you might think that the Storm’s cachet as RIM’s flashiest, highest-end device to date would be enough to lure in customers by the droves at any price, but with the enormous price pressure placed on the industry by a $199 iPhone 3G in a heavily-overlapping target demo, rumor has it that Big Red’s looking at a severe subsidy to meet or beat its crosstown rival. Analysts are thinking (wishfully, we suspect) that a $99 Storm isn’t entirely out of the question if Verizon wants to sell an insane number of ‘em through the holidays, but just how long would it take to recoup that kind of loss?Verizon considering crazy cheap Storm pricing? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Desktops
Presumably in an (utterly futile) attempt to bring down the power grid all around the Mediterranean, print magazine PC World Greece benchmarked three powerful Nehalem desktop processors — the Core i7 Extreme Edition 965, and the apparently non-extreme Core i7 920 and 940. Names aside, performance from all three was extreme compared to most stuff currently on the market. The data for number nerds: in 3DMark06 the 920 finished ever-so-slightly behind the Core 2 Extreme QX9770’s 4,922 marks with 4,818 while the 940 and the 965 both opened a can of you-know-what at 5,282 and 5,716 respectively. More titillating figures await enthusiasts through the read link, but for you normal folk only concerned that Nehalem wouldn’t be fast enough to justify an upgrade (and you weren’t), rest assured that it triumphed in this no-holds-barred CPU cage match.[Via techPowerUp! Forums, thanks sk]Intel Core i7 benchmarks make Core 2 Extreme look like a washed-up has-been originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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