This project, named “Ringo” has been developed by Ivan Tihienko, of the Bezalel Academy of Arts, in Israel. The concept works with a ring-like interface being projected in front of you while you walk. I think it’s a great idea for controlling your information on the go.

I thought the idea of GPS and the MP3 player being built into the interface is amazing. RSS being a good addition also. However, things like email, that can contain private data, I don’t think would be such a great idea, and could raise privacy concerns by people who only want the recipient to read the email. Apart from that minor gripe, I am just hoping and praying that in the future we can all geek ourselves out with our built-in Ringo interfaces.

There are lots of people saying how this prank prevented people from doing their jobs, blah blah blah. What is for sure though is that this looked like a lot of fun! Stunned faces and perplexed presenters where everywhere when the Gizmodo crew were let loose with “TV-B-Gone” kits from Makezine.

The kit sends a rapid “stand-by” message, like your remote, emulating 46 different makes of TV, one after the other in rapid succession. The video is very funny & makes me want to go out and buy one too! [SHOW ME]

31 hours and 4 minutes since they set off from the east-coast of America, they arrive at the west-coast. How? Because their car is the ultimate geek machine. GPS, police scanners, thermal imaging cameras, laser jammers & LCD displays all make up the ultimate Cannonball Run across The States. The previous record was 32 hours and 7 minutes, which has been beaten by guts, determination and technology. Read the full 6 page article/story on Wired. [SHOW ME]

This great device from ThinkGeek can be used to annoy the hell out people at your workplace - check out the comments from Ask The Admin, they’re almost as good as the device itself! It’s getting me in the mood to play some pranks! [SHOW ME]

From the steampunk workshop comes this neat mod to a standard Dell LCD screen.

With a bit of artistic flair, the monitor is transformed into something you might see in Thief. Also have a look at the guys keyboard too. [SHOW ME]

I found this article via digg. It lists some of the crazier uses for engineering intellect - after all who would need a bra / shopping bag combination? Useful if you have a spare bra, maybe, but why not just carry a spare shopping bag? This question and many others like this are painfully left unanswered.

A few of them are pretty cool. Like the Drive-e-mocion (pictured above) that displays custom messages in your rear window. I’m sure it won’t be long before they’re banned, but in the meantime you could truly express yourself in LEDs to the driver behind! Good or bad, I’ll let you use your own imagination.. [SHOW ME]

Well now you can have it! You can order an official pacman head from clubNamco.com and bask in the ridiculousness of your purchase! Only recommended for extreme old-school gamers!!

[link]

Well that’s what everybody else is saying about the Zune. And looking at the raw specs I’d have to agree. A cheaper alternative to the Video iPod with more features, like WiFi and a package with potentially more colours (which will appeal to the student market, with personalisation) we can expect an interesting battle over the coming months.

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Wow that was a big gap between posts! Sorry about that.. No really I am.. The thing is I’ve had a week off work and things have lapsed a bit while I’ve been trying to relax and >shock< tried to ignore the PC for a bit..!

Anyway, that is the main reason for the delay. The second one is my purchase of a iPod Nano, so I thought I might use this post for my baptism into appledom.

If you're a regular reader you'll know that my previous audio gadget of choice has been a Windows Mobile device (an orange M500 to be exact) and I've used that device for tunes and podcasts and lots of other things, which it is really good at. But that which is always the case, you don't really know how you lived without something until you actually get it, is also the case here. If there is anybody that has any spare cash floating about and have been thinking about getting an iPod, I highly recommend you do! And here's why:

Firstly, I think this might be a bit of a secret in the Microsoft Windows fraternity, but ...iTunes is pretty damn good. There I’ve said it. To hell with the consequences! I’ve been struggling with Winamp, Windows Media Player, various other freeware and shareware alternatives and sure they all have great functionality. However, I’ve always found myself having to use more than one app to get the whole job done. For instance, the radio is excellent in Winamp, but the syncing to devices sucks (unless you have an iPod of course.) Also the syncing is excellent in Windows Media Player but the feel is a bit clunky and you have to pay for the radio! If you want to burn a CD from mp3s in Winamp it only burns at a certain speed. Now this is all with a Windows Mobile device - And I know that iTunes would also still have problems with anything but an iPod so spare me that angle. If you want to adjust EQs for different songs Winamp’s way of “adjust EQ, tick auto load EQ, select presets, save, auto load preset…” is just laughable (this needs to be done everytime you want to tweak something too.) And the EQ within Media Player, although potentially good with some nice effects, falls down because all settings are tied to the player and not the track.

However, in true apple style (so I’m learning) everything within iTunes just seems to work. As long as you know how to use a computer, everything within the player is where you would want it, and everything works predictably too. For instance, when you first fire it up it can search for tunes and categorise them for you. Nothing new there. However it will also convert any wma files you have to mp3 or aac, because iPods don’t support wma files (I’m sure that’s a rant for another occasion!) You can also burn CDs, rip CDs or re-encode songs in good quality without sacrifices. You can select a volume adjustment, or EQ preset without saving everytime. Just select and you’re done. I could go on, but I’ve already seen the size of this post already!! PHEW!

So lastly but not least, the integration with the iPod is absolutely seamless. If you listen to a song on your iPod and rate it while you’re listening, it will update your library automatically when it’s plugged back in - as will the stats regarding how many times you’ve listened to the track and the date. It also knows the difference between a podcast and a song and treats them differently. A podcast will be played once and marked as listened to, and will also not move onto the next podcast in the playlist. Kind of how things should be in my opinion.

OK so I think I’m done. And I know, most of you probably already have iPods, so this post isn’t really for your benefit (although you can exert a certain amount of smugness on the rest of the readership if you desire) - it’s really for those of us that are either thinking of moving over to an iPod or flatly think it’s the wrong thing to do.

Oh yeah, I do have one minor gripe with iTunes. Where are the damn skins guys???

Looking at the complexity of the link, I don’t know how long this is going to be available to visit!

Anyway, here I am sat on my bed, not quite tired enough to go to sleep, doing a bit of surfing on the laptop. And I start to think “…I wonder if something exists to put my laptop on my lap without burning the family jewels?” So I checked out kelkoo which threw up a link to amazon (below.)

It looks like a pretty simple design, although I can’t comment on how good it is (neither can anybody who bought it from amazon either according to the [lack of] reviews.

If anyone’s bought one, let me know how good they are! Anything’s got to be better than stooping over a laptop burning up with a duvet underneath it!

[link]