Gearfuse

Normally, when you think of Vizio, you think of decent plasma and LCD television sets that cost about half the price of a Sony BRAVIA. Now there’s even more incentive to run out and buy a Vizio: web apps. The company announced that it’ll be bringing Facebook, Twitter and plenty of others to its new line of Vizio XVT HDTVs. But that’s not all: Netflix, Amazon VOD, Rhapsody, Vudu, Blockbuster, Revision3, Showtime, Flickr and Pandora will all be available on said HDTV sets. That’s a huge incentive that really blurs the line between computer and TV.

You have to see the remote, though. Hit the jump to view Vizio’s new remote that has a built-in keyboard.
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While I’m not a Yankees fan, one can’t deny the popularity and rich history of one of the most famous baseball teams ever. Their new stadium is still being completed in time for the 2009 season that starts next month and it’s shaping up to be quite the experience. Shown above is the 103-by-58-foot 1080p display that will show fans replays, home runs and a whole lot of advertisements. It has features like picture-in-picture and can show four different video sources at a time.

Additionally, the new Yankee Stadium will feature a stadium-wide LED ribbon created by Daktroniks. It will display game info and light up like a wild rock concert when need be. And did I mention the 550 Sony BRAVIAs scattered around? It’s going to be a good year for baseball fans in New York.
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The LA Times is running a piece about how flat-screen televisions aren’t energy efficient and how California is going to impose rules on energy consumption and all that other hippie shit. I call bullshit. Know why? Because less than 5 years ago, no one had a flat-screen HDTV except the extremely wealthy. Everyone had those old, shitty, big ass CRT television sets. Using Google, I compared a 30-inch Samsung flat-screen display to a 32-inch Samsung CRT. Here’s what I found:

Samsung SyncMaster 305T – 30″ Display
Power Consumption Operational: 130 Watt
Source: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=Samsung+SyncMaster+305T&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&cid=2349199014125518526&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=4&ct=result#ps-sellers

Samsung TXM3298HF – 32″ CRT
Power Consumption Operational: 190 Watt
Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/direct-view-tvs-crt/samsung-txm3298hf/4507-6481_7-20461179.html?tag=mncol;rnav

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a 2-inch margin of error here and a bunch of other shit you could throw at me, but it’s a general fact that those old CRTs are way less efficient than newer, thinner television sets. Perhaps California should try going with the flow instead of fighting the tide.

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I warned you about the Wii. Some of you listened, most did not. Well, I hope all the Wii owners who couldn’t refrain from calling me a PS3/360 fanboy in the comments all crack their LCD screens while playing sub par games. I’ll be a fan of anything and I mean anything as long as it isn’t the Wii. Look who’s laughing now.

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Ford has unveiled its new take on automobile dashboards with what it’s calling the SmartGauge. The LCD gauge will debut in Fords 2010 line of hybrids, the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid. The gauge uses an all-digital screen with lively animations to prompt drivers on good driving habits by displaying a heavily stylized greenery for good behavior. It’s almost as bad as the teddy bear backseat driver.

The gauges are fully customizable, able to display whatever real time data the driver wishes to see. From what I’ve seen in the videos, it looks to be one of the most impressive dashboards ever put in an automobile. It also appears to be way too distracting for drivers, most of which have a bad enough attention span as it is.

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In case you haven’t heard, Apple had a little event over in California today. All new updates to the Macbook, Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

Highlights:

• New glass trackpads with multi-touch
• All new, specially engineered aluminum case design
• DVI ports become DisplayPort
• Macbook gets glass screen, aluminum case; Macbook Pro gets same upgrade
• Dual graphics in MBP – NVidia 9400M (Macbooks get these) and 9600 GT graphics for “turbo mode”
• New $899 24-inch display out. Features three USB ports and integrated mic, iSight, speakers
• Macbooks now cost $1299, Macbook Pro from $1999
• Macbook Air gets 9400 graphics, bigger hard drive with larger SSD available
• Old white Macbooks available for $999
• New gestures for sick new glass trackpad

That’s pretty much it. I suggest later tonight, you head over to Apple.com and play around with the configurations. These are very nice looking laptops and I’d love to get my hands on that new Macbook Pro.

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Call it a radical departure from the usual material on our site but I like the concept of the Temperature Sweater. With an embedded LCD on the sleeve, you’ll know when it’s getting cold enough to wear a sweater. One sleeve displays the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit whilst the other displays Celsius like a true working thermometer. Concept? Sure, but you could easily make one with an hour and an Arduino.

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Netbooks are all the craze these days. Everyone is wondering if Apple is going to hop on the netbook bandwagon and produce a mini MacBook. As of now, no word from Apple regarding that. On the other hand, a member of a German MSI Wind forum just couldn’t wait on Apple. He used a Dremel and six white LCD lights to turn his MSI Wind netbook into a Mac look-a-like.

He even put together a mock commercial of his MacBook mini. You’d think it was an actual Apple product.

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If you have an old Nokia 6100 lying around, put it to good use! Rip it apart, grab that LCD and follow Alex’s instructions on how to turn it into a picture frame that displays photos from Flickr. Don’t use Flickr? Then you’re just not very Huey Lewis & The News.

If DIY projects aren’t your forte, you may want to keep your distance as this one’s a real doozy. The finished product is pretty neat (to an extent), though, so give it a go if you have a free weekend.

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No one is sure why Sangmin Bae designed the Rhythmfish system. Perhaps he got lonely and didn’t have anyone to talk to, so he built this device that records the movement of fish and the currents generated by them. The flow sensors inside the tank collect enough data then translate it into an audiovisual response, which is then displayed through a mounted LCD and speakers.

Sangmin Bae says:

“even if the fish can’t speak and express its feelings in a human way, it has an energy and communication skill in its own way. Vibration is the medium of interaction, and I chose it for its universality in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms.”

While this isn’t true communication with fish, one thing is for certain: You can make a sporadically rockin’ visual coupled with random audio of the same nature. Try getting visuals like that on your Winamp plug-in.
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