Automated fast food

Forget the sluggish Slow Food movement. True geeks are in a rush to spend their cash on the latest electronics, not snobby epicure. So when we spotted a fast food restaurant that's automated, our heartbeat sped up.

Kitchen Mogu Mogu is a Singapore-based Japanese fast food restaurant that styles itself after similar dining concepts in Japan. In fact, it feels like buying from a vending machine, only in this case, it's hot Japanese grub, not ice sodas.

The transaction is easy. Tap the touchscreen for your orders and make your payment. You can choose to pay using cash (notes and coins) or ez-link (a Singapore wireless card payment system). Next, you just have to pick up your order at the next counter.

Sometimes it makes sense to take away the human equation. I remember the number of times I had to repeat my order or hold my tongue when my double beef patty was miraculously transformed into a soggy fish sandwich.

So should your next order at Kitchen Mogu Mogu turn awry, you only have yourself to blame. But if you crave a human touch, the restaurant has a sweet young girl on hand to coach the butter-fingered, or if you need to scream at something other than a machine.

New year, new cameras, no?

In 2008, Sony Europe was first off the starting line with the Cyber-shot S730, a 7.2-megapixel shooter with a 2.4-inch LCD. Its design is typical of Sony's snapshooters, cleanly minimal with no particular wow feature.

Since the 3x optical lens is no Carl Zeiss and with the role of image stabilizer residing with a high light sensitivity (ISO 1,250), it's clear to see that the S730 is really more of an entry compact than anything else.

The Cyber-shot 730 will be available in Europe by mid-January. No word on Asia at press time.

All I want for Christmas… are boots

Over at Singapore's Night Safari, Christmas came a little earlier in the form of oversized GORE-TEX boots. Commissioned by the Singapore Zoological Gardens and created by W.L. Gore & Associates (creators of the GORE-TEX fabric), these outsized footwear were perfect for the elephants who were recovering from foot injuries.

“The best solution we could think of was some type of protective boot that was durable enough for elephant wear-and-tear and possibly also waterproof." Said Dr Sonja Luz, a veterinarian at Singapore Zoological Gardens.

Developed over a 12 month period, these boots are perfectly suited for an elephant's stump of a foot. Though zoo officials confessed that despite the different fasteners (zippers, metal laces, Velcro) that were devised to ward off an elephant's meddling, most are at best a temporary challenge to the average elephant.

So designers had to create a shoe that's comfortable enough such that an elephant would not be tempted to take it off.

Cinderella's glass slipper it is not, but as a kicker of a shoe, it sure boots out the competition in terms of size.

HD Photo plug-ins for Photoshop released from Redmond

Microsoft is really throwing the gauntlet down and by how things are progressing, it's a well-aimed one.

With the announcement of official plug-ins (for Vista, XP and OSX) for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3, arguably the kingpins of image editing software, HD Photo has gained more traction.

HD Photo is Microsoft's supposed gift to the photographic world. It is designed to be used as a new industry standard for compressed image file formats.

According to this blog, while it is not officially supported, older versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have limited compatibility with these plug-ins.

For download information, check this link.

Via Bill Crow's HD Photo Blog

A printer that serves two audiences

Because Fuji Xerox Printers is better known in office circles than in the home, we didn't think we'd have much to write about its new DocuPrint C1110B laser printer. After all, most of its stuff are specific for a demanding office environment. The C1110B can output at 12ppm (color), start up in 16 seconds and kick one page out the barrel in 12. It also has a decently deep media tray that can store half a ream's worth of A4-sized paper (250 sheets) and deal with an assortment of paper weights.

Then we saw the price.

At S$449, it's cheap… for a Fuji Xerox. And if you are of a mind, paying out S$150 more lets you upgrade to the C1110 (without the "B"). The B-less version includes 640MB memory, Ethernet connectivity and compatibility with more print languages. Of course, laser toners don't come cheap though. A black toner would set you back by S$100 and it's S$130 for cyan, magenta and yellow.

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