It seems fans of golf take every precaution to not get any exercise at all when playing the “sport”. Caddys to carry your clubs, golf carts to whisk you from here to there—why is Tiger Woods considered an athlete again?

To this end, the Automatic Golf Tee holds 35 balls and automatically feeds balls onto a tee. Lower the arm with the end of your club and a single ball gets placed for you to whack. The only question is, who’s going to fetch the balls once you’ve hit them?

Automatic Golf Tee [Hammacher Schlemmer via Uber Review]
from gizmodo

The controller with a funny name and even funnier appearance made a show at E3 2006, and IGN’s peepers were all over it. The BodieLobus replaces the right analog stick of the Playstation 2 controller with a trackball. By doing so, accuracy in FPS games increased dramatically.

The critical difference I discovered between playing an FPS with the BodieLobus Reflex Control and a standard analog stick is the fact that the BodieLobus’ track ball directly controls the speed of view movement, as opposed to the variable acceleration applied by an analog stick. Moving the track-ball a little moved the view a little, but at the same speed at which I spun the ball, as opposed to a little movement on an analog stick moving the view at a slower pace than a full push to a corner. Once my brain learned not to compensate for an analog stick’s acceleration, I attained a level of accuracy I had never experienced without a mouse and keyboard combination.

Many gamers are skeptical of console FPS games because they are used to using a keyboard and mouse. Something like the BodieLobus may be a nice bridge between the two gaming worlds.

E3 2006: BodieLobus Hands-On Report [IGN]
from gizmodo

 

Apple unveiled its 32-foot glass cube last night at approx 7:50pm EST. Aesthetically, it’s an industrial work of art, featuring a giant backlit Apple logo, glass-enclosed cylindrical elevator, and a spiral glass staircase. Lots of pics after the jump.

“Besides the unusual elevator design, and the staircase that curves downward around it, the cube has another interesting feature — it’s all open to the lower floor,” Allen wrote. “That is, you can walk up to the outside glass of the cube, look through and see right down into the store itself.”

[via AppleInsider - TUAW -Flickr]
From Techeblog

 

The Sony Ericsson Z710 (not to be mistaken with W710) is an entry-level clamshell phone designed for both personal and business use. It features a TFT-LCD display, 10MB of built-in memory, 2.0-megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS, USB 2.0 connectivity, Memory Stick Micro slot, Bluetooth support, and a media player. That’s not all, it comes bundled with a 64MB Memory Stick Micro card for added storage capacity. No word yet on pricing and availability.

It offers many features that today’s business people expect in a phone such as easy synchronisation with a PC to keep calendar and contacts up to date and its sophisticated, yet casual design fits today’s professional lifestyle

[via Slashphone]
From techeblog

You no longer have to guess wheether you’ve left the stove on or left the iron plugged in or left the back door open. With the Home Heartbeat from Eaton, various sensors attached to important items throughout your home will alert your cellphone to its status.

• Water Sensor – Detects flooding
• Open/Closed Sensor – Shows doors, windows, cabinets and drawers
• Power Sensor – Any device in an electric outlet
• Reminder Sensor – Filter changes, lawn watering, any scheduled event

Other non sensor items that can be attached are range extenders for large homes, attention sensors that send instant messages, and a home key for sensor notification just like on a cell phone.

A base station and one sensor starts at $175, and can be configured to send alerts through your PC or Eaton’s processing center.

Complete home automation may be a long way off, but being able to tell whether something’s gone wrong with your home is quite useful.

Home Heartbeat [via CNET via Blurtek]
from Gizmodo

Reader Dv sent us a little tid-bit about Sony and their manueverings with the Alpha DSLR we talked about a while back.

It seems Sony has purchased Japanese lens company Tamron and will be coming out with the Alpha DSLR with 20 Tamron lenses between June 12 and June 15. The Sony Alpha will be in store in July.

There’s also some talk that Sony purchased Ahead software, makers of Nero Burning ROM. This is pure rumor and conjecture, but after they ate up Sonic Foundry’s Acid and Sound Forge, it’s not too far-fetched. What does that mean to us? It means that Sony is ramping up its DSLR business along with its video and still image authoring software arm, taking a stab at the big boys like Adobe and Apple. Stay tuned.

from gizmodo

If you’re looking for car stoked with technology, the Lexus LS 460 has more techno-goodness inside than any other vehicle offered for sale in North America, says the Telematics Research Group (TRG).

What’s the big deal? There’s a 30GB hard drive for both music and navigation, and enough cameras to produce a TV talk show—three of ‘em—to help you to park the thing as well is keep you in your lane. There’s also the obligatory touchscreen voice-activated navigation system, Bluetooth for your phone, live traffic reports and a rockin’ 19-speaker Mark Levinson sound system that can play back MP3s. And then there’s that eight-speed automatic transmission.

You’ll see the LS 460 rolling out this fall, replacing the Lexus LS 430. We’re hearing there’s even a hybrid LS model on the way. Too bad it costs upwards of $60,000 or we’d be blogging from one right now.

Survey Results [Telematics Research Group, via Autoblog]
from gizmodo