E-Z Life

Filed under: Gaming, Transportation

You know who Microsoft hates? No, not Apple. It really hates DHL. Apparently, the delivery service has hit the folks in Redmond where it hurts: in the Xbox. It seems that 21,600 consoles were totally messed over by “impact damage, wetting, pilfering and shortage” when one of the company’s freight trains derailed en route to Long Beach, California. The big M claims that DHL refuses to compensate for the lost goods, and has filed a complaint at a US District Court in Seattle, calling for $2 million in damages and stating that the shipper “negligently breached its duties as a common carrier, handler, bailee, warehouseman, agent, or in other capabilities.” Harsh words, but really, who’s to blame for this mess? Next time we suggest going with G.O.D.

[Thanks, Andrew S.]

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’re not quite sure what Britney is trying to say here. It would help if she could be more specific about what she thinks of this guy. If only there was a word she could use to describe him, over and over and over. Regardless, she absolutely doesn’t want any pictures snapped of her on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Who knows where those might end up? Full video after the break.

[Thanks, Sam]

Continue reading Screen Grabs: Nokia 5800-branding womanizer snaps pics of Britney Spears

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Filed under: Laptops

Generally speaking, Americans can count on the US price of any particular piece of kit being a fair bit less than the straight pound-to-dollar conversion. Unfortunately, the exchange rate here is nearly on point, with the £299 NC10 10-inch netbook on sale for $480 (give or take a few nickles) in the US of A. Granted, it looks as if it’ll be a fortnight or so at the very least before any Yanks can wrap their grimy paws around the germ-shunning PC, but we’ve already got the e-tailers lining up to hold your place in line. Who knows — maybe our version will come with built-in WiMAX and 12-hours of battery life to really sweeten the deal.

[Via Liliputing, thanks Michael]

Read – Pre-order NC10, option 1
Read – Pre-order NC10, option 2

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Filed under: Household

Maybe the incandescent light bulb has been sitting in its socket-shaped throne for too many years — GE thinks so, anyway. GE R&D guys have produced a machine that prints OLED materials newspaper-style onto 8-inch sheets of metal foil in hopes that the sheets — which can be pinned to just about any surface — will start the process of home lighting biz regime change in 2010. Picture, if you will, wallpaper or window blinds that provide soft, diffused lighting for the living room after dark — no need for special fixtures, just a wall plug. OLED lighting isn’t yet cost-efficient for the average consumer, but GE hopes that will change soon. In the meantime, expect to see these sheets in a trip-out Flaming Lips concert in the somewhat-near future.

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Filed under: Desktops

With all these nettops, netbooks and plain ole motherboards flying every which-away, it’s hard to say if Portwell’s Atom-based nano-ITX board really is the first, but it’s close enough to count in our book. Utilizing all sorts of legerdemain and black magic, the engineers at Portwell were able to craft a Linux-friendly mobo that measures just 4.72- x 4.72- x 0.65-inches and supports Intel’s Silverthorne Atom while including six USB 2.0 ports, embedded audio and a gigabit Ethernet jack. The Nano-8044 can be ordered in two flavors — the Z530, which packs a 1.6GHz CPU, or the Z510, which clocks in at 1.1GHz. As you could likely guess, this one’s aimed primarily at point-of-sale machines, digital signage devices and other commercial applications, and the sub-10-watt power draw should keep energy costs to a minimum. Oh, and it should totally play Doom in a pinch.

[Via LinuxDevices]

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