Every year, ThinkGeek comes out with a bunch of fake products for April Fools. They're the only good tech pranks because they are good—sometimes they are really good—and, more importantly, they often become real products—like the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag or the awesome iCade. More »

So it might not be the best idea to try and pedal your way onto a secure military base, but engineer Brano Meres' experimental X-9 Nighthawk bike frame looks like it would be as invisible to radar as the old F-117 stealth fighter was. More »

Evidently tired of smooth running graphics, lightning fast processing and bags and bags of available memory, programmer Dmitry Grinberg decided to go back to computing basics. And then some. As Linux was developed on a 32-bit machine with 1MB of RAM, this has always been considered the minimum system requirements to run the open source OS. Dmitry, however, put this theory to test, building a barebones set-up with just an 8-bit RISC microcontroller at its heart. Running at a somewhat sedentary 6.5KHz, with only 16KB of SRAM and 128KB of flash storage, these are specs that make most phones look like supercomputers. To get things working, Dmitry had to write an ARM emulator so that the system appeared as having a 32-bit processor with an MMU, and it looks like a 30-pin 16MB SIMM was added, plus as SD card to house the Ubuntu image. Despite all this, he was able to load Ubuntu successfully. Sure, it took four hours, and that's after two hours waiting for the bash command prompt, but hey. Grinberg claims that the system is still useable, with the command line typically responding "within a minute." So Dmitri, if you're reading this on the machine, happy new year! Check the time-lapse video after the break to see it in full, patience testing, action.

Continue reading World's slowest Linux computer, says 'Hello Wor...' (video)

World's slowest Linux computer, says 'Hello Wor...' (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Apr 2012 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For a country who doesn't really do April Fools' Day, you know China means business when it lays the smackdown on its weibo services. Here's the background story: about a week ago there was a rumor on the Chinese web about a military coup on one of the main streets in Beijing, and coincidentally I was in town around the time (for the Windows Phone launch). Funnily enough, I wasn't aware of this at all until my taxi driver in Hong Kong asked me about my visit, as he claimed that the passenger he picked up beforehand was actually a Chinese military officer who had several intense phone calls about said coup.

But of course, nothing actually happened. In fact, the guards at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were pretty relaxed when I visited on that very day. As for the rumormongers, the Chinese government announced through Xinhua that 16 websites have been shut down and six people have been detained, while local microblogging platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been "criticized and punished accordingly," though it didn't elaborate on the details. All we know is that comments under each weibo post are now disabled until local time 8pm on April 3rd, during which these two companies can, in their own words, clean up the mess. Well, at least we now know where to draw the line for China's April Fools'.

Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Companies like Apple have made a push towards minimizing the packaging for their products. But apparently that ethos simply doesn't exist for makers of high-end Vodka, like Belvedere, who packaged its hooch in a box that looks like a photographer's studio flash. More »

If you can't bear the thought of not being part of your child's life for even a second, you can now get your face carved into a stylish baby rattle so they can never escape your presence. More »

Well, it appears that April Fools is in full effect -- at least if you ask Google. Today the company introduced its "latest" build of Google Maps, dubbed Google Maps 8-bit version, tailored specifically for the Nintendo Entertainment System. According to Google, this Dragon Quest spoof version of Maps will come in the form of a special NES cartridge that can connect to the internet via dial-up. This apparently allows most of the heavy lifting to get done on Google's servers, where the maps are rendered to 8-bit form "in real-time." Better yet, it even supports voice search. Naturally, there's no word on a release date, but you can currently check out the "beta" by visiting Google Maps in your browser and selecting "Start Your Quest." That said, that company warns that "your system may not meet the minimum requirements for 8-bit computations" -- something tells us it'll still be less resource-intensive than Crysis, though. We've checked it out and found some goodies, including an alien at Area 51, so let us know what you come across during your journey in the comments.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Google Maps 8-bit version for NES: April Fools arrives a day early in Mountain View

Google Maps 8-bit version for NES: April Fools arrives a day early in Mountain View originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading BMW adds extra sportiness to its i-series lineup, unveils i8 Concept Spyder

BMW adds extra sportiness to its i-series lineup, unveils i8 Concept Spyder originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says artists can only use paints and canvas, or musical instruments, to craft a masterpiece? The folks at Blue Ant Studio deserve a spot in the Louvre for its lightweight but strong Carbo Axe made from titanium and carbon fiber. More »

Who says artists can only use paints and canvas, or musical instruments, to craft a masterpiece? The folks at Blue Ant Studio deserve a spot in the Louvre for its lightweight but strong Carbo Axe made from titanium and carbon fiber. More »

Besides being one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, Arthur C. Clarke had a knack for foreseeing the future—at least in terms of technology. And in this clip from 1974, he predicts both personal computers and the internet. More »

Besides being one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, Arthur C. Clarke had a knack for foreseeing the future—at least in terms of technology. And in this clip from 1974, he predicts both personal computers and the internet. More »

Google's position as the dominant search engine doesn't come without a price. Smaller search sites have already tapped on the EU Commission's door to register their complaints about how they are ranked, and Microsoft has also let its feelings on the matter be known. Now, we can add the Redmond spin-off, Expedia, to that list of sore losers disgruntled firms. The travel search site claims it has specific details outlining how the search giant has violated European anti-competitive laws. A Google spokesperson issued a statement saying "We haven't seen the complaint yet, but we've been working to explain how our business works, cooperating with the European Commission since this investigation began." The EU Competition Commissioner says a decision will be made after Easter, at which point Mountain View will either be charged, or the investigation will be dropped. If only that were the end of its EU troubles.

Expedia adds to Google's EU antitrust woes, decision expected after Easter originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not like we haven't seen this dog-and-pony show before, but Flurry's latest round of analytics -- which measured revenue of 11 million daily active users from mid-January through the end of February 2012 -- shows Amazon's Appstore pulling in a shocking amount of revenue given the short life that it has lived. Apple's strength in sales has been well documented, but the latest report shows that for every $1 generated in the iTunes App Store, $0.89 is being spent in the Amazon Appstore. Looking more broadly, the numbers show that just $0.23 are generated in the Google Play halls for every $1 spent in the App Store, but that's hardly a new phenomenon; the ease of sideloading (amongst other factors) has raised complaints from Android developers for years now. Flurry's conclusion is that Google's core strength simply isn't in running a store -- something it's about to do once more with Android slates -- while both Apple and Amazon excel in doing just that. Curiously, Windows Phone and BlackBerry were left off of this report, but we're hoping to see those cats thrown in the next 'go round. After all, RIM sure seems certain that its developers are making out just fine.

Flurry's analytics: Apple's App Store revenue still leading, but Amazon Appstore close behind originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The lightning rod hasn't exactly needed improvement since its inception by Ben Franklin in 1749, but that isn't stopping a French research team's efforts to replace the charge-catching metal poles with frickin' lasers. More »

Care to take a walk down memory lane by way of the information superhighway? Good, because 21st century digital natives and Luddites alike could stand to benefit from some virtual navel-gazing. In what's essentially a 'look at how far we've come' exhibit, My Life Scoop, Intel's "connected lifestyle" site, has a collection of the more notable experiments that've sprung from our surprising interactions with the internet. Starting from the dial-up days of the mid-90's and working up to the near present, curious users can peep the wacky ways we've used the web as a tool, ranging from a remote community gardening project (The Telegarden) to a stock index that auto-adjusts dress hemlines (Stock Market Skirt) to an interactive, Arcade Fire-soundtracked film made to showcase Google Chrome (The Wilderness Downtown). But don't let us just tell you about these visual delights. Strap on those culture hats and meander through the finer artistic points of our shared online evolution at the source below.

Gallery of high internet art curates for class, forgets to trololol originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Razer confirms plans to release left-handed Naga gaming mouse

Razer confirms plans to release left-handed Naga gaming mouse originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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