iPhone 3GS Jailbreak [Apple]
July 3rd, 2009
Warning: We haven’t tested this because we’re playing with fireworks. [Make It Rain via BBG]
Related External Links
The Pegasus Open 50 Sailing Log: Weather [Summer Funnology]
July 3rd, 2009
Philippe Kahn describes the weather before the race.I took a serious look at the weather. What a mess! In 11 crossings I have never seen such messy weather patterns in the usually very predictable Pacific.
July 1st, 2009
The weather chart says it all. Instead of one beautiful strong, stable high pressure centered somewhere 800 nautical miles from San Francisco, there are now 10 different weather systems playing with each other. Yes, climate is changing! This makes it all the more interesting for the Transpac. We start Sunday the 5th at 1 PM out of Long Beach, California. I’d love to celebrate the 14th of July or Bastille Day in Honolulu watching the sunset by Diamond Head. But a lot has to happen before that!
The Pacific has been highly unusual over the last 30 days. In particular, sea level pressure has averaged below normal off the California coast and much below normal over the central Pacific, northwest of Hawaii. This pattern has resulted in a weak Pacific high, ridged in a north-south orientation.
That means that the wind has been a right-shifter along the California coast and weakened the strong North Westerlies that are typical of the first two days of Transpac. But, things may be changing fast.
My bet is that by the end of the week we will see consolidation of the high given the trends on the 500mb chart and as a consequence a more typical, fairly windy race. But it could go either way!
The Boat will make it to Long Beach this evening. The delivery team is making good progress.
Our goal for this race is the double-handed Transpac record. Last year we established a new double handed record from San Francisco to Hawaii. This year we start from Los Angeles.
Just two of us: Mark Christensen, VP of Engineering and myself, Chief tinkerer at Fullpower and 2250 nautical miles of open ocean between the start and Diamond Head!
Sailing Team:
Philippe Kahn
Mark “Crusty” Christensen
Boat Project management:
David Giles, Zan Drejes, Bruce Mahoney,
Onshore Pegasus Racing team:
Zan Dredjes, David Gilles, Bruce Mahoney, Mark Golsh, Jana Madrigali, Seth Larkin
Online Presence:
Caleb Dolister, Peter Spaulding, Arthur Kinsolving, Joe Dolister
Sailor’s food:
Bonnie Willis
July 2nd,2009
Now we are running routes and the different forecasting models are very different as you can see from the chart. Wildly different. In fact I don’t believe any of them. The great news is that the weather on the Pacific is settling. The upper level blockages are dissipating and we may be in for a more classic July North-East Pacific weather pattern.
I have to confess that I have been arguing with myself as to the playlists for the soundtrack during the next 8 days. Lots of deBussy, ravel, Faure and of course Iz!
The boat will make it to Long Beach today and I will post some pictures soon.
Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He’ll share his Transpac sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Openಲ.
[Pegasus on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
Related External Links
Giz Service Announcement: Aim Fireworks Into the Air, Not At Your Mom [July 4th]
July 3rd, 2009
Pegasus Open 50 Tour: This is How a Race Sailboat Works (Part 1) [Summer Funnology]
July 3rd, 2009
The official Gizmodo raceboat, the Pegasus Open 50, was originally rigged for reliability for global cruising. Going from CA to HI in a race requires more power. Here’s a tour of the tech in the rigging, hull material and sails.
The video work is less than terrible, sorry, but hey, its a sailboat. I’m just trying to help you get your sea legs
Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He’ll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50.
[Pegasus on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
iPhone 3GS Jailbreak Purplera1n Released
July 3rd, 2009
If the hacking group called iPhone Dev-Team won’t release their Jailbreak, it seems like someone else will. Developer George Hotz has released the Purplera1n jailbreak software for iPhone 3GS and by all accounts, it seems to work.
This one runs on Windows XP and Vista (Windows 7 and Mac OS aren’t supported, apparently - it’s weird for Windows 7). The jailbreak assumes that your iPhone runs with OS 3.0 (for a 3GS, that should be the case) and that you have the latest version of iTunes (may be do an update check?). The author warns that the Jailbreak is a beta, so do a full backup before running it just to be safe. Obviously, do this at your own peril, as this is clearly not supported by Apple. Good luck.
Links: Purplera1n, 3GS Jailbreak instructions, iPhone OS 3.0 Jailbreak
Maximum PSP Go Processor 44% Faster Than The PSP
July 3rd, 2009
We knew that the PSP Go was faster than the PSP-3000, but “by how much” was still a subject of speculation. It is not anymore as an FCC filing makes the PSP Go speed official. With a 480Mhz frequency, it is 44% faster than the previous 333Mhz PSP chip.
At first, most developers will make sure that their games are compatible with the PSP, so it’s unlikely that they will use the added power for anything affecting the gameplay. However, it’s not impossible to think that some eye-candy could be added when running on the PSP Go. Physics, particles, lighting or reflections would be high on the list… As the user base grows, the PSP Go could become a platform in itself as Sony will want to push their highest margin product. Sony could also subsidize Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker to be a “PSP Go only” title for that reason.
Link: FCC filing
CatGenie Litter Box: The Clean Fresh Smell of Civilization’s Discontents [Review]
July 3rd, 2009
Ever since the Egyptians invented zero, curmudgeons have argued that technology creates as many problems as it solves, but I’ve never encountered a product that does exactlythat, until now. I’m talking about a litter box.
We all know there are plenty of products that cause more problems than they solve. As a professional technologian, my job is to sift through innovations to see which ones make for an improved life, and which ones are too troublesome for their own good.
CatGenie—pardon the pun—gives me pause.
After spending a month with it, I declare that it is the perfect zero-sum innovation. Every single advancement comes with drawbacks. While my wife and I no longer suffer from any of the problems associated with a traditional litter box, we are beset with an abundance of unanticipated others.
CatGenie is one of these SkyMall-type gadgets that bills itself as the “World’s Only Self-Flushing, Self-Washing Cat Box,” tossing in, for good measure, a weighty promise: “Never touch, smell, or buy cat litter again.” You install it easily by splicing the cold water line from underneath your toilet, running a waste tube up around the lip of the same toilet, and plugging the contraption into the wall. You pour in beads that resemble litter enough that cats get the idea, and you click in a replaceable cartridge of cleaning agent.
When the automatic cleaning cycle is engaged, a mechanical scooper removes the poo, and detergent-infused water floods the box and then drains, taking any trace of funk with it. The moistened beads are then blown dry, like Ron Burgundy’s hair, as a sweet floral scent fills the bathroom and any adjacent living quarters. The crap in the toilet is easily flushed away, as long as you remember to do it.
Compared to the alternative of sifting out chunks from a litter box and tying them off in environmentally uncool plastic bags, this is a beautiful promise. Because of the automatic setup, there’s no chance of getting punished by your cat for forgetting to clean a box frequently enough. Everything I described above happens exactly as billed. And even our dumb neurotic brother-and-sister act somehow figured out how to use it very early on. They weren’t even intimidated by the swirling Sarlacc pit that it becomes during cleaning. My key initial fear turned out to be totally baseless.
So why does the thing make me yearn for the days of the scoopable Arm & Hammer, even though PetNovations Ltd says there are 82,940 households already enjoying this contraption?
When I first watched the cleaning cycle, with my gadget-lover’s grin, I marveled at the swirling and churning and slooshing and clacking. I kept marveling for about 15 minutes, by which time my grin had soured, and I was looking at my watch. By minute 25 I stormed out of the bathroom in annoyance, came back at minute 35, shocked that the thing was still doing its business, and then returned again, sometime after it had stopped, roughly 40 minutes after it had begun. CatGenie recommends that for two cats, the process should run two to three times a day. That’s two solid hours of cleaning cycle.
The installation is stupid simple, but you need to be within 8 feet of both a power jack and a toilet (or laundry water line and drain). If you think that’s easy, stick your head in the bathroom—very few have power jacks anywhere near toilets, and I had to run my power cord up along the back of a sink. It’s not a hazard, but it looks like Wilson’s Amateur Home Improvement Show down there.
CatGenie is also massive. Its basin has about half the volume our cats are used to, but because of its wide surrounding lip and the tower of machinery, the system is probably ǹ% larger than a good-sized plastic litter box.
After a few days, we discovered an interesting characteristic of the non-toxic litter beads: They do not absorb odors. Right around 8:30 every morning, our big male cat, Wade, comes trotting up the stairs with a combination guilty/relieved look on his face, and soon after, we are engulfed in a sickening stink. Mind you, the cats’ depository is an entire floor away down the stairs in the guest bathroom. Scooping the offending dung into the toilet would defeat the purpose of owning a robotic litter box. (”Never touch litter again,” they promised.) My sole move is to, yep, run the damn machine.
Only the problem doesn’t go away instantly. In fact, it gets worse before it gets better.
As the detergent floods the basin containing Wade’s leavings, the whole thing becomes a savory poop stew. Even when we run the fan in the bathroom, the smell is unbearable for about 10 minutes, after which it disappears instantly, replaced by the machine’s pleasant perfume.
I kept telling myself that these problems are just growing pains, things to get accustomed to. CatGenie is not as messy as a litter box. There’s none of that residual ammonia smell that you can’t get rid of permanently, and for the most part, none of the crusty extras that come from overzealous (or just misguided) burying. The plastic beads manage to find their way all over the house, and I am embarrassed to confess, our 1.5-year-old kid manages to stick one in her mouth about every two weeks, but they are non-toxic plastic beads after all, and nothing that can’t be vacuumed up.
At least, I once told myself, there are no more plastic bags full of poop and urea headed out to some landfill. I read somewhere once that San Francisco had solved something like 90% of its trash problems, and that the remaining 10% was cat and dog poop in plastic bags. (Not the actual stats, btw.) At least by switching to a bagless litter system like this, I’m being environmentally kosher, right?
Not in the least.
During every cleaning cycle, CatGenie runs a built-in hair dryer over all the beads for about 20 minutes. I plugged in my Kill-a-Watt meter and discovered this demanded a constant and alarming 1160 watts of electricity. For up to an hour per day, I am running the equivalent of four large plasma TVs, just so I don’t have to touch litter.
The costs start to mount. Besides the up-front $300 and the daily running of water and electricity, the $15 cartridge needs to be replaced every 60 cycles—that is, every 20 to 30 days. And the scatter-prone beads need to be replenished every three to six months, at $24 per carton. Like an inkjet printer, the maintenance costs continue forever, making the notion of buying a $7 box of Arm & Hammer every two weeks seem all the more reasonable.
Despite all these negatives, a great debate rages in my household: I would like to return to the olden ways of scoop and bag, and my wife says, “No.” Her argument, a good one, is that the bathroom has never stayed cleaner. Guests have to step around an awfully large contraption, but at least “it doesn’t feel like you’re walking into a barn.”
As Sigmund Freud once explained, moving from the wilderness to the towns didn’t solve humankind’s problems, it just swapped out the rustic difficulties for more urbane ones. His conclusion, though, was that while life still sucks, there’s a reason we don’t move back to caves. After experiencing a more civilized litter box, I can’t revert to scooping poop, but I impatiently await the next evolutionary leap in cat sanitation. [Product Page]
In brief:
After cleaning it’s amazingly fresh
Cats took to it almost from the start
Sounds like the TARDIS when it runs (could be a minus for some but not me)
Easy installation
Can run automatically up to four times per day
Empties into toilet that must be flushed
Non-toxic clean beads get all over house
Beads don’t kill odor
It’s huge and must be stationed near toilet and power plug
Self-cleaning cycle runs over 40 minutes, smelly at the start and hot at the end
Hot-air bead dryer demands 1160 watts of electricity for about 20 minutes
No way to stop cycle once it has started
My Most Memorable Gadgets, By Steve Wozniak [Memorable Gadgets]
July 3rd, 2009
We’re kicking off our series exploring memorable gadgets from memorable people with one of the most influential tech giants: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. – JC
OK…meaningful…here goes…
For that definition, it was probably an electronics learning kit I got for Christmas at about age 8 or 9. As I recall, it didn’t teach electronics formulas or resistor codes, but was full of projects to hook up input devices like switches and output devices like buzzers and lights. It was like learning how to connect all the devices to your hi-fi, or connecting all your peripherals to a computer. It also gave me a good start toward understanding logic rules, like both switches have to be on for the light to shine, or if switch A is on, then switch B selects which light is on.
I call this one the most meaningful, because, pretty clearly to me, it preceded my other important gadgets and inspired me to like gadgets and to understand how to build some. It’s like how the transistor led to the chip, which led to microprocessors, which led to personal computers. Everything goes back to the first invention, in that sense. This electronics kit gave me the understanding that made it easy to progress to large logic devices with multi-pole switches, and some relays, which then progressed to a large tic-tac-toe computer with transistors which progressed to a large adding/subtracting machine with transistors, etc.
The word ‘meaningful’ has the root ‘meaning’ which implies some emotion. In that sense, my first transistor radio, at about age 10, would fit the bill. It gave me portable music that I could listen to all night long as I slept, every night. 20 years later came the walkman, and 20 more years later came the iPod, but the real change in life, the one having the most ‘meaning’, was with the transistor radio.
I always wanted my own computer. With the Apple I, I now had a machine that I could program. I would never run out of things to do in my entire life. So it’s a close runner up to the other two.
The gadget that has been the most attractive of attention ever is not my Segway. It’s my nixie tube watch from CathodeCorner. It looks very large to other people and looks very strange. It’s handmade in America too. The nixie tubes run on 140 volts on your wrist. Airport security guards who have seen every kind of watch ever made have a thrilling time with this watch.
I used to fly to Japan regularly to scour new gadgets, and always bought tons of things which were always surprising at the time, but looking back, few have special meaning. The first consumer digital camera, I think the Mavica technology, was meaningful. The first one for computers, not TV’s, was the QuickTake from Apple. But in many ways, no digital camera to this day has been as good as the first Ricoh one.
The HP-35 calculator was also very meaningful in my life, as it led me to an incredible job designing for the follow-on models.
Much thanks to Woz for helping to kick off our series. Coming up soon: Phil Torrone, gadget maker and modder extraordinare.
Image credit: Sony Mav, HP Calculator
Timbuk2’s Hemlock and Q Backpacks Have Swing Around Easy Access to Your Laptop [Bags]
July 3rd, 2009
I haven’t carried a Boy Scout backpack in years, but the laptop feature in Timbuk2’s latest sounds great: The sleeve is sideloading, meaning you can pull out your laptop without busting open your whole bag and spilling crap everywhere.
You’ll actually notice that all of the bags have laptop compartments—that’s because going forward, laptop bags won’t be a separate category for Timbuk2, but a “function” of all of their bags. All of them hold 15 or 17-inch laptops, depending on the size bag you get. Up top, respectively, is Hemlock, Q and Swig. Swig doesn’t have the sideloading awesomeness that Hemlock and Q do, but it’s the first backpack of Timbuk2’s that you can personalize the colors on. Here’s all the details:
Hemlock
Made for the urbanite that needs a pack to schlep around town in style – from the office, to the rock climbing gym, to courtside at the game, the pack features a rolled, expandable top, Swing Around Access™, a side-access compartment designed to fit a 17-inch laptop (15-inch in the small) and signature Timbuk2 D-ring bottle opener. Available in solid, color block and the official camo of the Navy Special Ops and the retail price is $90 for Small and $100 for Medium.Design features include:
* Durable Ballistic nylon
* Waterproof flap liner
* Compression straps
* Accessory attachment loops
* Quick access pockets under front flap
* Padded back panel
* Lightweight Ergonomic Shoulder Straps
* And stash pocket hidden in the back“Q” Computer Backpack
Appropriately named after the gadget inventor of the Bond movies, the “Q” has a place for everything. This packis designed to fit a 15-inch laptop with multiple grab handles for convenience and Swing Around Access™. Available in dark brown/black, army/spinach, rev red/gun metal, and black and the retail price is $100.Design features include:
* Durable Ballistic nylon
* Swing Around™ access
* Padded laptop compartment
* Multiple grab handles
* Lightweight Ergonomic Shoulder Straps
* Pocket for cords and peripherals with outside accessH.A.L.
H.A.L. (Heuristically programmed Algorithmic Computer) is the “Q’s” older brother, named after HAL 9000 of the Space Odyssey saga, which was capable of speech recognition, lip reading, art appreciation as well as maintaining all systems on the ship. Similarly, the H.A.L. almost thinks for its owner and easily runs a mobile office. Designed to fit a 17-inch laptop, the backpack has multiple grab handles and plenty of capacity as well as Swing Around Access™. Available in dark brown and black and the retail price is $120.Design features include:
* Durable Ballistic nylon
* Swing Around™ access
* Padded laptop compartment
* Multiple grab handles
* Lightweight Ergonomic Shoulder Straps
* Pocket for cords and peripherals with outside accessSwig
A messenger-inspired carry-all pack built fordudes AND ladies (Hallelujah!). Two large internal compartments accommodate loads of stuff and the organization panel makes it easy to find your keys. This sleek pack features a front-flap closure that comes in two sizes to fit a 15- or 17-inch laptop with a dedicated padded laptop compartment and the signature Timbuk2 bottle opener. Available in black/gun metal, moss/camo, gun metal/blue, and dark brown/orange and the retail price is $80 for Small and $90 for Medium.Other features include:
* Accessory attachment loops
* Waterproof flap liner
* Quick access pockets under front flap
* Padded back panel
* Lightweight Ergonomic Shoulder Straps
* And stash pocket hidden in the back
* Customizable beginning August 2009 at www.timbuk2.com
[Timbuk2]
Add Us On gdgt [Media]
July 3rd, 2009
The new data and social network type gadget site, 
