International Calls

The biggest shopping day of the year is at hand and manufacturers are trying to spur TV sales by highlighting massive price markdowns online. In the last week, we’ve even seen some of the most discount-averse companies offer eye-opening sales of their best displays.

But with the economic recession on everyone’s mind, is anyone taking advantage of the discounts? Or are there deals out there that are just too good to pass up?

We’ve been watching the early Black Friday deals roll in and we can safely say that if you have the money to spend, you should definitely consider the top crop of displays. The bottom ones, well, not so much, even if it seems like a great deal to buy a massive 67-inch DLP TV for less than $2,000 (yes, we’ve changed our mind on that one).

These recommendations are based not only on the initial large price drops, but also with the understanding that when buying the TVs, you should make sure to get a 30-day price guarantee from the retailer, as we mentioned last week. Follow the (likely) continual price drops over the next month and you’ll be sure to get the best price without leaving your couch.

Check out a screenshot of our top TV deals below, and then check out our Google Docs spreadsheet with the larger list. We based our rankings on overall quality of the display, type (LCDs usally fare better than Plasmas in the near-term), and general savings. If you disagree with the rankings, let us know in the comments.

And if you find any new deals propping up on the net throughout the day (in between the gravy chugging), let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

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Panasonic is calling on the Blu-ray Disc Association to create an interface standard that will force manufacturers to store 3D images within the left- and right-eye two-channel mode on all HD content.

The company is also calling for a new HDMI standard that will make it easier to transfer the left- and right- single-frame data units (unique to 3D feeds) to TV displays that feature the option.

According to the giant Japanese manufacturer, the new standards will prevent patent conflict related to 3D imagery and allow the technology to grow exponentially over the next few years.

Current 3D image encoding uses a two-channel function and that's where Panasonic believes it should stay. The easier the new 3D-enabled TVs can identify image data, equipment and other elements through this standard, the easier it will be to sell the technology to consumers.

But Panasonic doesn't want to enforce a standard for actual 3D displays – too many other companies are trying to outdo each other with different, intriguing techniques in that area.

Mitsubishi's first laser TV uses a 3D IR wireless emitter, where the source device supports checkerboard display formats (a type of complicated calibration). Samsung offers 3D-ready TVs that vibrate the images at 120 frames per second, alternating back and forth at 60 fps in each eye (Panasonic is offering basically the same thing). And Philips is on the verge of releasing their Quad-Full Autostereoscopic real 3D display, which has such a high speed and resolution that it alternates between 46 views at once, pushing 3D into the real world and eliminating the need for silly glasses.

Add Hollywood's (and the public's) increased interest in 3D to the equation, and you have a technology that needs to be supported. Stunted growth due to patent battles and consumer confusion caused the similar battle between HD DVDs and Blu-ray disks to suffer the consequences this year with a less than bountiful bottom line.

After all, a consumer won't buy a 3D Blu-ray movie if it can only be played in one type of television, or if takes two different media players.

Panasonic says that their standard request is built to be accepted easily by the rest of the companies. If it’s accepted by the Blu-ray association, expect to see a 3D storage standard within two years.

Photo: /pitzyper!/Flickr

Source: Tech-On 

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Oil Canvas, an iPhone app released Wednesday, is a neat piece of image-editing software that enables virtual finger painting.

The app allows users to choose a photo from their album to brush and paint with their fingers. You simply need to rub over the image, as the software automatically detects the colors from the base picture, treating it as a canvas.

Different brush sizes are available -- from an extra small stroke to add finesse to an extra large one to smudge over the boring parts (e.g., solid backgrounds). After finishing your painting, you can share it with others in Oil Canvas's PhotoShare community.

In its video demo, the software's developer Big Canvas makes painting on the iPhone look extremely easy. Being a non-artist, I didn't produce very good results; the photo to the right is the best I could do. But it's a free app, so why not give it a dab?

Download Link [iTunes] (Thanks, Nate!)

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We have seen a robot play the flute, violin and other musical instruments. Now a Japanese play is using robots to act alongside human actors.

The play called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker) premiered at Osaka University and is being considered as one of the few examples of robot-human interaction on stage.

The robots were programmed to speak their lines as they moved about on stage. The robot in the play is the 'Wakamaru' from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The Wakamaru was designed primarily to provide care for the disabled and elderly. It runs Linux operating system, has limited speech and speech recognition abilities.

The play itself has a very interesting premise. It's about a young couple with two housekeeping robots. One of the robots complains about its "demeaning" work and that leads to a discussion about the role of robots in human lives.

It's an interesting question and one that is likely to come up more often as use of homes robots become more widespread.

[via BBC]

Photo: The Wakamaru Robot

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Ahhh Thanksgiving, a time for egg nog and egg nog based martinis. But that blasted shaking? Who has time to do that when there's a perfectly good turkey that needs to be horridly burned? Houseware maker Waring thinks they have the answer with its automatic martini maker. Too bad the gadget is, well, pretty much unnecessary.  From Christopher Null's review:

Let's put on our Captain Obvious cape for a moment and deliver this nugget of wisdom: There's no good reason for anyone to buy the Waring Martini Maker. No good reason it should exist at all. For one long minute this device does through electrical what your arms can achieve in a mere 10 seconds... and it does a worse job of it too. But the Waring Martini Maker does exist. And for that reason, we had no choice but to try it out.

$100, waringproducts.com

Read the rest of the review of the Waring Martini Shaker right here.

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Getting your name laser engraved onto a notebook sounds like a cool idea. But you'd look pretty dumb carrying around a Rhodia notebook that quotes some guy named "Buddah" (photo to the right).

Otherwise, Notebook Engraver's offerings look snazzy: The company sells a variety of notebooks from Rhodia, Quo Vadis and Clairefontaine. On the site, you can enter text you'd like custom engraved on the front or the spine ($5 per engraving). And just like that -- Buddah-bing, Buddah-bam -- you've got a slick notebook with your sexy name etched onto it.

Just make sure to check your spelling first.

Product Page [Notebook Engraver via Twitter]   

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Most home robots available currently are designed for one specific use, like the iRobot Roomba for vacuuming, the WowWee Rovio for mobile surveillance or the Scooba for mopping floors.

Now, two students at the Louisiana State University's department of computer science have created a prototype robot that can be fully customizable and used for multiple tasks such as lawn mowing and surveillance among others.

“What is most impressive about this robot is that it is multi-functional and no one else is currently designing multi-functional robots,” said S.S. Iyengar, chair of the computer science department at the university in a statement.

LSU's robot called AgBot is solar powered and can move at up to six miles per hour for at least four hours.The robot comes with Bluetooth and GPS system that makes it easy to navigate.

In its avatar as a lawn care machine, it can be fitted with a seed dispenser and a fertilizer tank.

The robot is also equipped with a night vision camera positioned atop a 360 degree swivel, a high-frequency alarm system and advanced motion detector.

So in its surveillance mode, if the AgBot detects motion it can sound an alarm, photograph the intruder and email the picture.

The ultimate goal for the AgBot is to be completely customizable. With minor adjustments, the robot can support five or six different applications including picking up mail, say the students.

Here's the video showing the AgBot at work.

Photo: Louisiana State University

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Just because game designers are adapting their wares for multimedia phone apps does not mean that the games have to make any sense at all.

But are they good enough to make people act like crazy fools in public? Of course they are. Just take a look at the latest Chokkan (motion) game from Japan, Zuntata, from the old-school game developer Taito.

Zuntata is a downloadable music game built for phones with accelerometers. Using the game’s software, users simulate the playing of music (like in Guitar Hero) by simply strumming their fingers above or near the phone. This facility has led to several inexplicable acts of air guitar abuse being unleashed upon the fair citizens of Japan (see video below).

As far as we can tell, the simple point of the game is to ensure that a user swipes his hand at the same time a note is played. The sensor in the phone detects the accuracy of the strumming at the point the hand crosses the plane of the phone, in addition to the rhythmic motion provided when the player moves the phone with the other hand. The closest the player comes to matching the notes with his hands, the better his score. However, the ad for the game (above) shows the model barely strums near the phone at all.  

The app can also be used to simulate violins, drums, and several other instruments. In addition, several friends can play the same song by synching their profiles -- each user is assigned a specific instrument to force the band to play as one.

According to Taito, one of the game’s favorite options is that any up-and-coming musicians can download their own jingles to their website, but it’s really the catchy, quirky sounds of the publisher's house band and the game’s namesake, Zuntata, that is the most popular.

As Game|Life’s Jean Snow previously mentioned, Taito’s Zuntata band has written some of the best loved soundtracks for Japanese games, like the Bubble Bobble and the Darius series and even the modern version of Space Invaders. Nobody will say the music is good (it’s barely above simple blips), but it’s silly enough to use as an excuse when the other phone options have exhausted.

We’ll wait until a more accurate and true simulation comes to market before we terrorize the streets with our own air jamming.

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The UK's advertising regulator has banned yet another Apple iPhone ad, deeming it misleading.

The Advertising Standards Authority banned the ad after receiving 17 complaints that the commercial was "exaggerating the speed of iPhone 3G."

In the ad, Apple touts the iPhone 3G as being "really fast," showing visuals of zippy browsing and overall performance. However, many dissatisfied customers would beg to differ, describing the handset's 3G browsing speeds as sluggish. This was enough for the ASA to pull the ad, deeming it misleading.

The "Really Fast" iPhone 3G ad is the second iPhone commercial yanked by the ASA. In August, the ASA pulled an iPhone ad that claimed "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone." The lack of Flash and Java support on the iPhone browser were enough for the ASA to deem the ad misleading.

Since the iPhone 3G launched in July, the prominent complaint about the handset is its performance when compared with the original iPhone. The complaints vary: Some say they can barely stay on 3G before the handset switches over to the slower EDGE network; others report poor reception or frequent dropped calls. Long story short, many aren't finding the iPhone 3G to be much faster than its predecessor, despite Apple's claims that the 3G handset is "twice as fast for half the price.

Despite software updates promising to address spotty network performance, consumers aren't backing down. The issue has given birth to multiple lawsuits clamoring about Apple falsely advertising the speed of the iPhone 3G.

Apple iPhone ad banned over misleading internet speed claims [Guardian]

See also:

• Suit Alleges AT&T, Apple 'Oversold' iPhone, Strained 3G Network
• Wired.com's iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses
• Angry iPhone 3G Customer Sues Apple
• Apple: iPhone Update Improves 3G Network Performance
• Video: AT&T Blames iPhone 3G For Network Issues
• What's Wrong With the 3G in iPhone 3G?
• IPhone 3G Users Heated Over Network Issues

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The orgy of spending that is The Holiday Season begins in the US this weekend. Family, food, gifts, the whole daunting shebang.

Sure, you might enjoy spending the four-day weekend locked up in the house with the in-laws and stuffing yourself with leftovers, but why not escape? Here we give you five suggestions for healthier, cheaper, nerdier and, above all, funner things to do this holiday.

Photo: [177]/Flickr

Get Nerdy in the Kitchen

Face it. You're going to have to cook a turkey, so why not make it fun? Deep frying is dangerous but gives a crispy skin, a Turducken is, well, it starts with the word "turd", so we'll skip that, and you can even chop out the breastbone and flatten the thing for the grill (fast and juicy). There are many alternative turkey methods, but the main thing you need to remember is the temperature.

A probe thermometer is cheap, and it's the only way to know when the bird is done. Turkeys have thin parts, thick parts, flat bits and round bits, so estimating the time you need is wildly inaccurate. An probe plunged carefully into the thickest part of the meat will tell you when the meat is just juicy, but not overdone. When the readout hits 161ºF, pull out the roast and let it rest for 15 minutes and carve. If you have a thermometer with an alarm that can summon you from the den, then that's just gravy.

Make a Camera

You could buy a new Canon 5D MkII, as we suggested earlier today, and escape the family for a day of shooting. Better still, especially if you have kids, is to make a camera. Yesterday we posted a guide to building a giant camera from an old flatbed scanner, a magnifying glass and a stack of black cardboard. This will keep you from getting bored, keep the kids out of trouble and, best of all, you can escape into the den later to "process the images".

Hold a Garage Sale

All that junk you have accumulated over the last year? Get rid of it. While everybody else is out buying yet more plastic crap on Black Friday, you could clear out the cupboards, make little cash and even meet the neighbors. Don't underestimate the feeling of wellbeing you'll have when all the digital detritus has been cleared from your home. I do it roughly once a year and it's both relaxing and satisfying. Bonus: You'll make some cash to spend on newer, faster, better gadgets.

Get Out

Theoretically, once everybody has finished rushing about the country in planes, trains and automobiles, the roads on Thursday should be relatively safe and quiet. This is the perfect time to get on your bike or try out the in-line skates that have been sitting in the basement since last Thanksgiving. You'll work off the post-turkey tryptophan-trance and probably have a lot of fun doing it. Just make sure you don't drink too much first.

Rip Everything

If you're the indoor type, perhaps a spot of organization is in order. If you're a Gadget Lab regular, you may have done this already, but you could spend your spare cycles this weekend by clearing all the plastic disks from your home.

CDs might offer better quality but they're a pain to use. Better to simply copy everything onto a hard drive and hide the coasters in the basement. Your computer will already have software to do this, but here are a few tips:

First, think about making actual, direct, full sized copies of your CDs. Hard drive space is cheap, and you won't have to drag the optical disks out when you decide you didn't encode those MP3s at a high enough bitrate. Once the copying is done, just hook up the disk to your computer, throw the contents into iTunes or Winamp and let it work through the whole lot in one go, turning the music into iPod-friendly, bite-sized MP3s.

DVDs will work, too, but it will take a little longer. Legal concerns aside, the best way to go is Handbrake, a free application for Windows, Mac and Linux that will rip your movies to the size and file format of your choice.

Now you have everything in one place, hopefully ready for the media center Santa is bringing you for Christmas.

Over to you. If you have any more cheap and fun ways to spend the weekend, stick them in the comments.

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