By Chris Scott Barr

I have a DSLR and enjoy taking pictures now and then, but I’m far from being a professional. Those people always seem to have a million and one accessories to help them get the perfect shot. If you’re one of those people, then you might find interest in this latest gadget from RedRock Micro.

The microRemote is an iPhone holder that will allow you to remotely control your camera from afar, while using the phone to display relevant information. While being able to adjust things such as aperture, and f-stops remotely isn’t exactly new, I’ve not seen anything quite like the DSLR focus controller. The knob you see on the side will actually allow you to adjust the image focus. It’s going to be the closest thing to actually holding your camera, without being anywhere near it. Look for it on sale sometime this summer for a whopping $1,000.

[ RedRock Micro ] VIA [ Dvice ]

Let the record show: I think motion controllers, like the Wii, Sony Move, or Microsoft’s Project Natal, are sorta dumb. They simply don’t seem to be precise enough for my tastes—I’m far too used to a mouse and keyboard to give that up for the “thrill” of flailing my arms in the arm like the robot from Lost In Space. But it wasn’t always like that.

Like many of you, my first experience with a motion-esque controller was in Duck Hunt for the NES. Granted, a light gun isn’t the same as the Wii remote, but it’s the closest thing I get to being “down” with all that jazz.

I asked the two fine gentlemen in the chat room right now, Matt and Doug, the simple question: motion control, yea or nay? Of course they couldn’t me a simple, Fox News-friendly soundbite, but instead chose to nuance their way out of the question. “I like it for sports and shooting games,” said Doug. Meanwhile, Matt also echoed my nostalgia for Duck Hunt. I’ll also add the orignial Time Crisis as a “motion control” game I enjoyed. And I played House of the Dead once in a bowling alley—that was neat.

But things like painting a wall by slinging globs of paint at it? Eh, I could do without it. Motion control seems to devolve into silliness quite rapidly. Remember this?

Oh, look, we’re curling! Woo!

That’s not nearly as fun as cranking up the DPI on a fancy Logitech mouse, then sniping a dumb Heavy in Team Fortress 2 with millimeter precision. Is the Sony Move going to be as accurate? I doubt it. Even if it were, holding my arm in the air for any length of time is far too much to ask. I have little girl arms, and they tire very quickly. It’s far easier to rest my hands on a comfy keyboard, or sitting on the couch playing the rubbish Xbox 360 port of Final Fantasy XIII. (I’m very seriously considering buying a PS3 in the next few months simply to play the “real” version of the game. Getting God of War III and Heavy Rain won’t hurt, either.)

So I don’t know, clearly Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo see motion controllers as a viable option. As an old man afraid of change and inconvenience, I don’t know that I’m too high on it.

If you are a tech lover, there is nothing quite like the launch day of a much hyped new gadget. Expectations run high. And since those expectations are rarely satisfied once you have the special little device in hand, it’s a moment to savor. In the hours before you own it, that device is perfect in every way. It will make you happier, a better person. There are no bugs, there are only features. It is whatever you want it to be.

Launch day of a new cool gadget is the closest thing to being a kid again on Christmas day (or whatever your winter solstice holiday of choice). You’ve anticipated the day. You’ve called in sick to work. And you are standing out in the freezing cold at 7 in the morning, hoping your place in line assures you a device before the carefully-planned sell out occurs. You’ve worked yourself into…a Fever Pitch.

I’ve always been let down with the real world gadget after that high of anticipation. But that’s ok. It’s part of the cycle of tech.

Today is Droid day. In just a few hours Verizon stores will open and the first customers will get their hands on their very own Droid.

And I promise you, if you are one of the people waiting in line, you will have a much lower than average amount of letdown. That’s because, in my humble opinion, the Droid is the coolest mobile phone to exist to date. It is as close as we’ve come to the Platonic ideal of a smartphone. It’s very existence ensures that the next iPhone will be even better than it otherwise would have been. Competition is good.

Yes, this is an unabashed love letter to the Droid. If you want the dispassionate reviews, we’ve got em. And then some. That isn’t what this post is about.

The LHC is recovering from a serious overheating problem, caused by a piece of stale bread dropped by a bird onto an apparently unprotected thermal vent. Impossible, you say?

Not impossible. I used to bulls-eye whomp rats in my T-16 back home.

While it’s not about to be mistaken for a moon any time soon, the Large Hadron Collider probably is the closest thing we’ve got to the Death Star. With miles of passages, the capability to destroy a planet, and a bunch of people dressed in white scooting around inside, it’s actually a pretty good fit. So it’s no surprise that it has the same weakness. Concerned only with interference from cosmic radiation and nearby townspeople, the structure was built underground — but they didn’t count on the possibility of a small one-man fighter armed with the Force a clumsy bird with a bit of baguette making the trench run and hitting it where the least expected it.

The absurdity of this failure (though it apparently won’t affect the re-activation) makes me think that maybe the LHC really is so abhorrent to nature that the universe is contriving to snuff it out.

[via PopSci]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might not be as comprehensive, nor is it narrated by Stephen Fry, but Openmoko’s WikiReader could be the closest thing we have to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy right now. It’s a palm-sized encyclopedia that contains over 3 million English language articles from Wikipedia, available offline.

Thanks to its monochrome touchscreen display that allows you to click on hyperlinks and scroll an article with a finger stroke, the WikiReader will run for months on a set of 2xAAA batteries. And since Wikipedia is constantly being updated, the WikiReader can also be kept up-to-date with quarterly updates that can be downloaded for free from their website, or there’s a $29 yearly subscription plan which provides the updates via microSD cards. $99 available from Amazon today.

[ WikiReader ]