The Force Is Strong With This Home Theater

Most of the home theaters we’ve seen offer little more than a large picture and crisp, quality sound. However, it is Monday and as such, an obligatory Star Wars post was bound to show up. Today, we acknowledge Steve Simon’s love for Star Wars and the dedication he (and a few friends) put into this Star Wars-themed home theater system.

It took them about a year and a half to turn Steve’s garage into Chancellor Palpatine’s office, complete with computer-generated imaging that makes it seem like you’re overlooking the Galactic City. It’s just like the movies! Sure, it’s got a 1080p DLP projector and B&W speakers just like many other expensive home theater systems, but it also has a style that would make even Mr. Lucas jealous.

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Sony’s New Blu-ray Recorder Bribes You

If there’s one thing that’ll interest you about Sony’s third generation internal Blu-ray optical drive, the BWU-300S, it’s not the specs. So, what if it can write single and dual layer BD-R discs at up to 8X speed, or if it writes DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X and supports DVD-RAM recording.

No, we don’t care about all of that. We care that this drive comes with a free movie, not the news about no DH DVD playback. So long as it comes with Men In Black on Blu-ray, we’ll buy it. That’s like - a fifteen dollar value. Unbelievable.

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LG’s Latest Portable DVD Player

LG makes every product under the sun. You name it, LG probably mass produces it. LG also enjoys marketing bizarre combination of electronic equipment. Take this 8″ portable DVD player, the LG DP889. Little excessive on the numbers, don’t you think?

Well, this portable DVD player not only works as a normal CD player but it also happens to be a digital photo-frame. Now, when you aren’t watching The Dark Knight on it, you can gawk at family photos as you dream of days past. It’s compatible with a plethora of formats, including DVD video/DVD±R/DVD±RW/Audio CD/CD-R/CD-RW, ensuring nearly any burned disc will work. It’s priced at $200, making it the most diverse digital photo-frame in existence and while, not quite as compact and portable as the Panasonic LF-P968C DVD burner, it’s certainly getting there.

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Watchmen Closeups

Filed under: Design, Internet

Despite the ongoing legal battle between 20th Century FOX and Warner Bros. over Watchmen rights, Warner is still flinging press material left and right. Found in some Brazillian publication called SET, there’s four new close-ups of characters from the movie. Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, The Comedian and the chick who’s fucking Night Owl (sorry, I just finished reading it and already forget half the book) all make an appearance that really gets me hyped for the 2009 release of the movie.

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Is Universal Buggin’?

Nothing is for free in this world. Unless of course you work for Universal and get free screenings. Then of course you try to sell DVDs of your shiesty recordings during the screenings. That’s the reason behind Universal Pictures canceling all non-executive employee screenings until further notice. According to Nikki Finke’s source:

“…some dumb fuck pirated Wanted at one of the lower lot venues.”

A Universal insider claims “some dumb fuck” shat in the apple pie for the rest of the employees and they’ve lost one of their few employee perks because of it. Though Universal itself says that the incident was not the reason that the employee screenings were shut down, it’s a little mysterious when a warning is shown during a screening of Hellboy 2. Verdict: Universal’s buggin’ out.

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Texas Instruments Bringing Projectors to Mobile Phones By Year’s End

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Imagine the possibilities of having a tiny mobile-projector inside your cellphone. You could hold your own intimate private screenings, showcase the bestiality porn you found on IRC last night or broadcast. Really, the possibilities are endless. Thanks to John Van Scoter over at Texas Instruments, we now know that some cellphones will receive a portable projector by the end of 2008.

According to Van Scoter, he believes that by 2010, projectors will be as popular as built-in cameras. Some may even feature DLP technology to enhance the clarity of the movie being played. It’s really only a matter of time before hackers get a hold of some of these projection-enabled devices and use the projectors in another setting or homebrew device.

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Kryptonite Replica Display: Multi-Colored Death

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets

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Christopher Reeves only had two enemies whom attacked his vulnerabilities the worst: Horses and Kryptonite, both for different reasons. Kryptonite was among the only materials known to man which could bring the mighty Superman to his knees (other than Lois Lane, of course.)

Rumor has it that Superman used Kryptonite as an excuse for his super limp noodle. “Are these sheets made of Kryptonite? Because, uh, you know, it sometimes has that effect.”

Designed in special protective casing, the Red, Gold, Blue and Green Kryptonite meteorites are all on display with this replica. Measuring 7.25″ x 10.75″ x 9.5″, the Kryptonite Replica Display is pure poison for anyone from the planet Krypton, but should be fine for us earthlings. Get your own for $275.

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Who You Gonna Call? The Suburu Outback Ecto-1

Filed under: Hacks, Transportation

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Ghostbusters might not be the typical American classic film (especially since the stars of the movie are predominantly Canadian), but certain elements of the picture have built up cult status in the geek community. The Ecto-1 Ghostbusters-mobile is one the props that sticks out in my mind when I think of the movie.

A member from the NASIOC forums (North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club) has posted images of his transformed Suburu Outback, which he has custom honed to resemble the Ecto-1. The creation was made using $200 worth of graphics, while the orange flashing lightbars were $430 each, with the remaining supplies being picked up from Home Depot. (more…)

TV combo and DVD player for the real Pirates

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If you happened to be a fan of the Pirates of Caribbean movie and sick of all those stupid costumes & party balloon packs, you might be interested in this new line of home electronics offered by Runa Japan based on the movie. The retro 14″ CRT TV (with DVD below) is going to look hot in your room, your friends should be really impressed with the compass-like remote controller which looks very user unfriendly, you can also spend money on the steering-wheel looking stand-up DVD player. If you that’s not enough to wow your kids, you can also pick up the CD boombox which looks like a treasure chest.

Expect to see some of these electronics by mid May at downtown Japan. The TV, DVD player and CD boombox are priced at $260, $110 and $70 respectively. –Sam Chan

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Canon disses Sanyo Xacti with TX1

Filed under: Digital Cameras

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When it comes to SD (SDHC) card camcorders, few would deny that the Sanyo Xacti line is indeed one of the most popular products if not the best and most successful in the market. Digital camera giant Canon is planning to take Sanyo down with their new PowerShot TX1, equipped with a similar 7MP CCD sensor and the ability to record HD videos up to 1280×720pixels 30fps. What’s more is that Canon fitted in an optical anti-shake lens with 10x optical zoom, their DIGIC III image processing engine, other proprietary technologies such as face-recognition autofocus. The TX1 is also a lot smaller than the Xacti, measuring 29.0×59.9×88.8mm and weighing 220g. Sanyo must be very worried when Canon quoted the suggested retail price of 500USD (a whooping 300USD less than the Sanyo Xacti HD-2), you would lose the HDMI output and the ability of taking still pictures in the middle of video recording, but who cares, you can do a lot with the 300 bucks you save; besides, we have more faith in Canon optics. We have a picture of the TX1 flipped open after the jump.

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