Jack Loftus

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Posts by Jack Loftus

Your Move, Captain Sullenberger [Airplanes]

November 22, 2009 - 17:00

Tags: Airplanes, Gadgets, Planes, sullenberger
Posted in Gadgets | No comments

Hudson River water landings? Those are so yesterday, man. Somewhere in the Congo today there’s a pilot who, after a slight, um, miscalculation, crash landed his plane into a lava field.

Now, we can make light of this incident because all 117 passengers and crew walked away from the crash largely unharmed. The only real casualty was the captain’s ego, although I think he’s probably the talk of the terminal this morning. I mean come on—lava!

And check out this crazy quote from MSNBC:

The plane was flying from Kinshasa to Goma, and passengers had warned the crew that there were heavy clouds, Radio Okapi said.

Since when do the passengers do in-flight risk assessments for the crew? [MSNBC via Geekologie]

Engineer Builds $10 DIY Cellphone Microscope [Microscopes]

November 9, 2009 - 12:00

Tags: Cellphones, DIY, Gadgets, Hacks, Microscopes, Phones
Posted in Coolhunting, Gadgets, Innovation & Technology, Mobile | No comments

Cellphones are handy in a pinch. They make emergency calls, serve as a late night texting platform, and now in developing areas where money is tight and malaria runs rampant, they can serve as a microscope.

The DIY design is the brainchild of Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. He did it all with some software he wrote and about $10 in off-the-shelf parts, reports the New York Times.

There’s actually no lens to speak of, as the magnification is handled entirely by software, holograms and electronics. This, Ozcan says, is what’s at the heart of the device’s portability and affordability. Better still, this means that a future system based on this design could have the ability to diagnose and research even better than a traditional microscope in the field. Said Bahram Jalali, an applied physicist and professor of electrical engineering at U.C.L.A in an interview with the New York Times, the beauty of the design is in its lack of mechanical scanning.

“Instead you capture holograms of all the cells on the slide digitally at the same time,” he said to the Times. This makes it possible to “immediately see pathogens among a vast population of healthy cells.” [New York Times]

Anyone Have a Spare $10 Million Racing Yacht Mast Lying Around? [Sailing]

November 8, 2009 - 23:30

Tags: BMW Oracle, Boats, Gadgets, Larry Ellison, Masts, Mysteries, Oracle, Racing, Sailing, yachting
Posted in Rumors | No comments

A quick glimpse into the life of a software billionaire: When Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing yacht snapped its $10 million mast this week, the ship’s helmsman (not Ellison) described the event as a “minor setback.”

That’s $10 million for a mast. Granted, it’s part of a massive structure that’s twice the size of a 747’s wing, but that’s still $10 million for a mast. The Ellison-owned team has two more in reserve, so it’s understandable how the helmsman can call the harrowing event “minor” when speaking to we plebeians.

The cause of the mishap is unknown. Weather and stray surfing gadget blog editors have been ruled out, and the team hopes to figure out the real cause and get back to training so they can meet and defeat Alinghi of Switzerland on Feb. 8. [NBC Bay Area]

SNEGENES P Combo Mod Comes with Plenty of Junk in the Trunk [Hacks]

November 8, 2009 - 22:30

Tags: Gadgets, Genesis, Hacks, Mods, Nes, nintendo, Portables, sega, Snes
Posted in Coolhunting, Gadgets | No comments

From the front this threesome looks pretty hot. Clear case with bright LEDs, original SNES buttons, and the ability to play three great systems on to go. All great. But what’s going on in the back?

A lot, apparently. To actually play games on this SNEGENES P portable, you have to jam actual cartridges into the back of the portable.

It’s not an issue for collectors, obviously, but in this day and age of cheap emulators it seems a bit excessive. Let’s see a lite version.

Note: The modder recorded the demo video incorrectly. This system doesn’t actually play games in reverse. [Ben Heck Forums via Technabob]

Media Vehicle Provides Marshmallow-Shaped Mobile Virtual Reality Experience [Virtual Reality]

October 26, 2009 - 10:15

Tags: 3D, japan, Media vehicle, Projectors, Virtual reality
Posted in Coolhunting | 1 comment

Today I saw the future, and it was a virtual reality marshmallow chair.

Or maybe, a la the Matrix, we’re all sitting in big fluffy white virtual reality marshmallow chairs right now.

You see, this… thing is a “media vehicle” that uses a projector and a spherical internal screen to surround the occupant with imagery and sound. The five wheels move the user about in real and virtual space. Small framed people only, however, as CrunchGear writer Serkan Toto said he was too large to take it for a spin. [CrunchGear]

Dishwasher Robot Ensures Our Future Selves Will Have Zero Personal Responsibility [Robots]

October 18, 2009 - 23:00

Tags: Dishes, Dishwasher, Panasonic, Robots
Posted in Innovation & Technology | No comments

My elaborate plan to take out years worth of repressed childhood dish washing memories on my own children some day has hit a Panasonic robot-sized snafu.

You see, in the future, when we’re flying around in cars and Will Smith is saving us from over-protective robots, the dishes will wash themselves.

Case in point, in the video this robot/video camera contraption has magic hands that grip, wash, dump out and otherwise do all the things I had planned on forcing my kids to do after dinner in the future.

Panasonic is also working on a robot load lifter that converts into a motorized wheelchair, which will be perfect for all those elderly folks in the future who double as deliverymen. [Impress via Engadget]

Verizon Levels Guns At Apple, Not AT&T, With Droid Phone Blitz [Android]

October 18, 2009 - 17:50

Tags: android, Apple, att, Cellphones, iphone, Os, Phones, Verizon, Videos
Posted in Mobile, News, Events & trends | No comments

This 30-second Droid spot started airing last night during the ALCS. Dan may not like it, but even so there’s no denying that Verizon, in the words of Matt Buchanan, went totally balls in with an Android phone.

An Android 2.0 Motorola phone, to be precise, which we’ll officially get to see sometime in November.

Until then, we can feast on rumors and speculation, revel in the broadside Verizon fired against Apple (not AT&T, it should be noted), and of course dissect the actual marketing itself, as was done at Daring Fireball.

Notes Fireball, the entire site is in flash (clever!), the commercials will be in heavy rotation during today’s football games (watch!), and, most importantly, that the small print says “Droid is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd., licensed to Verizon” (what?!).

All interesting stuff, yes, but is it weird that the biggest bit of news out of all this, to me, is that George Lucas controls the word droid? [Verizon, Daring Fireball]