Hmmm, what uses will people find for a license plate holder that displays scrollable messages? You can enter up to 120 characters into one message, and the plate holder stores up to 5 messages.

Programming the plate is easy to do even while you are in the car by using the wireless remote. There’s no display on the remote itself, so it may be hard to see what words you’re spelling out.

Available now for $49.99.

License Plate Flash Frame [perpetual kid via Oh gizmo!]
From Gizmodo

Your small business looking for a good portable speakerphone to use with Skype? Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal got the US Robotics Speakerphone we told you about a while back. He says the setup’s a breeze (plugs into USB port, no power adapter or software drivers) and audio quality is high:

I called Bill Campbell on Skype; certainly at my end his voice was of sufficient volume and clear. Noting the full duplex nature of the device, Bill reports that at his end there was no “barrel effect.” Convenient volume and mute buttons allow you to manage your conversation without accessing the computer application. As the final measure we were able to carry on a normal conversation with no impediment caused by the technology.

The USR Speakerphone’s currently available online from anywhere between $40 to $65, a nice low price that makes it a good affordable option for business travelers, or even families that use Skype to call Grampa so the kids make it into the will.

US Robotics Speakerphone: a Wish Answered [Skype Journal]
from Gizmodo

Dave of Dave’s Insanity Sauce fame has released a hot sauce that comes in an adjustable bottle. It actually works by having two compartments, one with hot sauce and one with mild sauce. Twist the nozzle at the top to determine what hot sauce mixture you want, kind of like a spicy fuel mechanic. Your wife’s bland cooking has never tasted so good.

The World’s First Adjustable Heat Sauce [coolest gadgets]
From Gizmodo

The ballsy blokes suspected to have stolen two of Becks‘ BMW X5s did so by using software on a laptop to hack into the car’s computer. Once in, they opened the doors, started the ignition, and drove away with the feeling you only get when you steal from a guy who can afford it—not that we know what that feels like, or condone theft in any way.

The software, which takes 20 minutes to get past the car’s built in protection, is going real popular real fast as carmakers are starting to rely solely on software to protect their autos.

However, we suspect the thieves were actually in there looking for Posh and Beck’s “home videos”, and when they couldn’t find it the first time they tried their luck again. You know where to reach us!

Gone in 20 Minutes: using laptops to steal cars [Leftlane News]
from Gizmodo

Okay, so it’s not the biggest pinhole camera ever, but the crew behind the Camera Truck deserves kudos nonetheless for making a truck into a very large pinhole camera (their negatives are 1.30m x 3m, 4,500ish times the size of conventional negatives) and then spending a month driving it around the Iberian peninsula taking photos. They shot about 80 photos, twenty of which will be showing in Spain’s prestigious PhotoEspaña photography festival in June and July.

cameratruck.net [via MAKE Blog]
from Gizmodo

Ruh roh, just when you knew for a fact you were all settled in with the latest generation of video interconnects for your laptops and peripherals, then VESA comes along and gets three of the most influential companies in the PC business, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, to rally behind its new video interface: DisplayPort. Ok, so it’s not that new (we wrote about it last year), but it looks like it’s finally ready to rumble starting May 8th. We called up VESA to get the skinny on the port, and they were kind enough to hit us up with that graphic and the following deets: it’ll not be backward compatible with with DVI / VGA (ouch), it’ll have wire-line encryption developed by Philips — that’s not compatible with HDCP (double ouch), but has a very small plug and scales well (eh). So why create DisplayPort when we’ve all already settled into DVI / HDMI with or without HDCP for plugging in our plasma or LCD TVs or monitors? Well, because VESA wanted the market to have a unified, license-free video interconnect standard that did a few things current systems don’t do, like have a standard low power, low pin count, low profile connector for use on portable device internals and external monitors alike, or scale indefinitely to resolutions, color depths, and refresh rates possibly yet unthought of by systems integrators. Ok, fair enough, but where were these guys in 2001, huh? You know how we feel about nascent standards trying to butt in once we’ve all finally gotten settled on something decent.

More info from VESA
From Engadget

 

The freaktastic, not-so-altruistic battle between Negroponte, AMD, VIA and Intel to bring low-cost PCs to developing nations just hotted-up with the formal unveiling of the Eduwise by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at the World Congress on Information Technology. The $400 device announced a few months ago in Brazil, sports “light-blue accents” and “snaps shut like a purse” — perfect for students and teachers on a tight-budget with a sense of flair — runs Windows or Linux, and ships pre-loaded with special software allowing students and teachers to interact through shared presentations and test administration over the Eduwise’s built-in WiFi. The Eduwise will be available “next year” via the usual outlet of PC manufacturers who’ll no doubt tweak this reference design a bit. Of course, Intel had to take the spotlight opp to blast a shot across the bow of the $100 OLPC with Otellini saying, “nobody wants to cross the digital divide using yesterday’s technology.” Yeah, nor should they have to harvest a kidney to avoid crossing the classroom for a little one-on-one, eh? Man, we haven’t seen this much selfish generosity since Atlas shrugged.

[Via Sagags]
more info
from Engadget