Oh give me a Skype where the Buffalo roam

Can one technically sue a tech company whose product image almost caused a writer to choke? One glimpse of this, and one of our reviewers scarfing down his bun almost gagged. Assuredly not with emotion, but over what goes for innovation these days. Honestly, what will they think of next? Skype in a mouse? Oh wait, done that already.

Still, if you're the kind who likes your Skype integrated into your PC accessory like a keyboard here, no matter how silly and midget-sized the handset looks, and particularly if you have big paws for hands, check this one out from Buffalo.

Crunchgear reports this out in Japan this October for US$65. And if you get tired of holding up this extremely tiny handset to your face for those lengthy long distance chitchats, don’t hang up. Just get a velcros strip and tape it around your head for some handsfree time. It can't look any sillier.

DIY 3D scanning for US$2,495

We've heard of 3D scanners before, but never got to see one in action. Ex-CNET staff Veronica Belmont did. Lucky her. On one of her recent Mahalo Daily episodes, she hosted Dan Gustafson from Next Engine who gave her a demo of 3D scanning and its uses. Basically what the machine does is it triangulates the light against the sensors and measures the speed of light. We can't really make out the rest of the stuff, but the things that they showcased looked pretty awesome.

Just in case you think this is another one of those random, silly stuff that would never make it to the market, you are wrong. You can actually own the Desktop 3D Scanner at a cool US$2,495. Price includes the scanner, ScanStudio CORE, AutoPositioner, PartGripper, PowederPen, PaintPens and a one-year parts and labor warranty.

Hit the read more link for the video interview. They even have a 3D printer toward the end of the interview! Sweet.
Read more »

Litracon--translucent concrete

This isn't a gadget per se, but the potential of it being part of something cool is so great we had to give it some air time. Litracon is concrete that allows light to pass through. That's right, translucent concrete. It was invented by Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi in 2001, and will be in commercial production soon.

Imagine the amazing things architects will be able to do with this. No room for windows? That's fine, sunlight comes through my wall. One word of warning--it may be great to feel like Superman, looking into buildings and all, but designers of bathrooms should stick with the boring, old type of concrete.

Via Toolmonger

AMD's two-fisted ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 card goes official

A week after it was supposed to, AMD announced its Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card today. Roughly US$450 will get you this high-end 3D card, which melds two Radeon HD 3870 chips onto a single 3D card package. The resulting performance is basically the same as two standalone Radeon HD 3870 cards in AMD's multicard ATI Crossfire mode. Various review sites show it competing more or less well against Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra cards, although neither AMD nor Nvidia can claim an across-the-board victory.

Our illustrious colleagues at GameSpot are working diligently on updating their benchmarks for this card after a late-breaking driver update (the reason for the cancellation of last Monday's announcement). We weren't originally going to retest, but for reasons unrelated to the driver, we decided we would. Once we have scores, both CNET and Gamespot will post our respective reviews. In the meantime, Anandtech, ExtremeTech, and PC Perspective have well-done coverage of AMD's new card. And how do those sites find the DirectX 10 performance picture?

It depends on your definition of an acceptable frame rate. On the DX10 version of Company of Heroes, for example, Anandtech shows all cards in this high-end neighborhood performing well. The DX10 implementation in that game is minor, though. In Crysis, the posterchild for next-gen gaming, neither AMD nor Nvidia can muster an average of even 30 frames per second at even a forgiving 1,280 x 1,024. Where we come from, it's 60 frames or nothing for first-person shooters like Crysis. So either Crysis is ahead of its time, or the graphics card vendors have been too slow to adjust. Either way, it's frustrating for gamers that even their multi-thousand-dollar rigs will still likely choke on a game that's been out for three months.

Via CNET Crave

Arms race heats up with 81-card reader

OK, this is the last time we post an item on a multi-card reader. Not because we don't appreciate them, mind you, but because they're just too hard to keep up with. Just last week we pointed to model that can handle 62 formats, and already it's been eclipsed by one that can read 80 of them, with what appears to be a much smaller device. And as if to add insult to injury, Gizmodo says Brando's iMono has a smaller price tag as well--just $17, less than half that of its recent rival.

Via Crave CNET

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