It may be a celebration of un-augmented human potential, but the Olympic Games are bristling with more technology than a conference hall full of Linux nerds.

Let's start with the video tech. The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be broadcast with some of the the most high-quality, in-your-face technology to date, including advanced digital camcorders worth up to $90,000 apiece. Some innovative cameras are designed to get shots from inside the action -- alongside divers as they splash into the water and right behind runners in the field, for instance. And various gadgets are being utilized to maintain reliable, high-quality broadcast signals.

Dozens of tech companies are swarming the stadium with their gear, and we had a chance to speak to a few of them. Here's a sampling of gadgets that will appear at the event.

Sony's XD CAM HD PDW700 Camcorder ($29,800)
Various media reporters, including Telemundo, will be broadcasting the opening ceremony with Sony's high-end, high-definition digital camcorder. This thing is a monster. It's equipped with three 2/3-inch CCDs to capture stunning detail at 50 Mb/s. To ensure consistent, clean footage, the PDW700 records on optical discs containing a whopping 50GB each; the disc drive is also shock and dust resistant. There's a host of other advanced features on the PDW700, too -- color-correction filters, a slow, 16-frame shutter speed, a digital signal processor to maximize image quality. Good God.

Sony's HDC-3300 Studio Camera ($85,000)

The HDC-3300 sports many of the features of the HDPDW700, but this behemoth's specialty is super slow motion.  Previously used to shoot Daytona races, the HDC-3300 is the only camera on the market capable of shooting full high-definition (1920 by 1080) at 150i/180i, or three times the normal frame rate. Slow-motion replays will be more entertaining than ever. 

Garrett Brown's DiveCam, MobyCam and FlyCam

Garrett Brown's high-definition DiveCam is puny enough to slide down a plastic tube and hit the water at the exact same time as Olympic divers; immediately afterward the miniature MobyCam will chase after them -- giving you an idea of just how terrifyingly competitive the sport can be. He also created the ultralight Flycam, which will fly diagonally over the entire length of the rowing/canoeing venue, as well as over the Opening and Closing ceremonies. Sports watching doesn't get more interactive than that. Brown, renowned for his Steadycam invention in the past, designed the DiveCam on the back of a napkin. Damn, that's cool.

Panasonic's DVCPRO-HD AJ-HDX900 Camcorder ($26,500)

Similar to Sony's PDW700, Panasonic's camcorder is equipped with three 2/3-inch CCDs. It records at an impressive 100Mb/s, and it boasts shooting in 11 different formats giving video producers ultimate flexibility. It also features a CineGamma mode that emulates the look of real film.

Panasonic's Astrovision Large Screen Display System

And we mean large -- about 15-by-20 feet -- with an astounding resolution of 363 pixels per square foot. Of course these screens are capable of displaying high-definition (720P/1080i) and DVI. And they utilize Panasonic's dot-control technology to erase jagged edges and blurry colors. (Photo at top of the story.)

Tektronix's WFM7120 Monitors, WVR7120 Rasterizers and TG700 Signal Generators

NBC purchased this system of devices from Tektronix to ensure the highest quality broadcasting is delivered. Working together, the products measure, test and monitor broadcast signals of the opening ceremony and eventually the games.

(Photos courtesy of Tektronix, Panasonic, Sony and Garrett Brown)       

Alcatel's latest clamshell cell phone to be launched is the OTE 227 Butterfly that will be available on Orange on an exclusive basis. This pay-as-you-go package would mean the handset itself retails for a mere £9.99 - talk about being really cheap! Guess this is perfect for first timers or folks who want a no-frills phone that does the job of communicating with another friend in the simplest manner possible. Features include a puny 1.5" TFT 65K color display, 325 hours’ standby battery life and 10 hours’ talk time.

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By Luke Anderson

Digital picture frames are nothing new, however, the guys over at RedPost are taking the idea a little bit further than most companies. Rather than selling a puny 7-inch screen with an SD card slot, they’ve got their RedPost Sign (beta) which has a lot more to offer. First, it has a nice 19-inch screen, which not only is great for viewing pictures but also makes it great as signage for business purposes. On the inside you’ll find a tiny PC with a 1.5GHz VIA C7 CPU and 1GB of RAM running a custom Linux distro. Now that’s my kind of picture frame.

I’ve actually had the opportunity to test out one of these Signs, and I must say that I never actually thought about purchasing a digital frame until I saw this. One of the first things you have to get past is the fact that it is big and heavy. The frame itself is around 3.5” thick, (4.5” if you count the Wi-Fi antenna sticking out the back) and while I didn’t have a scale handy, I would guess that it would take more than two swallows to carry one of these (even if they were African swallows). The size and weight are due to the fact that they are building them by hand out of industrial materials, and they’re packing a small computer on the inside.

If you’re the kind of person that loves Linux, you’ll love the Sign. Your storage device is actually a flash drive, which not only makes it easy to upgrade, but it makes installing a new OS quite simple. Just pop it into your desktop and install. If you’re more into Windows, you could always put on a copy of TinyXP or something similar to suit your needs. You can read my entire review after the jump.

The Sign ships with a copy of RedPost’s own custom Linux distro dubbed Wicker, which is a modified version of Ubuntu. The OS is stripped down to the bare essentials, with a simple 5-minute configuration process. Once it is booted up, you’re greeted with a page that walks you through each step, which includes selecting the source of your images (Local, Corktop or URL), configuring your network connection (comes with a built-in Wi-Fi card and ethernet jack) and deciding how long to leave each image on the screen. After that, Firefox takes over and begins displaying your images.

What is fun is that since everything is pretty much ran through FireFox, you can surf the web on your sign. What I did was hook up a mouse and set up a few favorites which I could easily browse to with a few clicks. If you happen to use this in a business, then the Sign could serve dual purposes. Simply have it display your signage material, and if you need to show a customer something on your website, simply take Firefox out of full screen mode and type in the URL. It’s really quite simple.

Corktop, which I mentioned earlier, is the actual bread and butter of RedPost. They describe it as being “like the iTunes® of the digital signage world. At it’s most basic, Corktop allows anyone with a web browser to create posters, organize them into playlists, and deliver their playlists to signs. It’s like managing a bunch of bulletin boards through your web browser.” You can read more about the Corktop service on the RedPost site here.

I have to say that the RedPost Sign (beta) is certainly a fun product to use, mostly because it’s rather out of the ordinary, and can be used for a variety of purposes other than simply displaying your pictures. Of course, with a price tag of $599, it would need to have all of these functions. While that price seems a little steep, you have to factor in the price of the tiny PC, and the fact that it has a custom-build housing. Once you add it all up, you probably wouldn’t end up saving a ton of money making one yourself, unless you already had the parts lying around. If you do have the parts, then you’re welcome to download the Wicker OS from RedPost and put it on your new creation.

I don’t think I would recommend this to someone that’s just looking for a digital picture frame. It’s too big, bulky and expensive for that. However, a business owner wanting to maximize their storefront by utilizing electronic signage might really enjoy something like this.

Pros:
+ Large Screen
+ Open Source
+ Many Features
+ Built-in Wireless

Cons:
- Very Heavy
- Expensive

Veiosoft's DataCase, which will be available for purchase July 28 in the App Store, will turn your iPhone into a wireless drive. So long as your computer and your iPhone are connected to the same network, you'll be able to copy files to and from your beloved life-in-your-pocket handset. It's kind of like having an 8GB or 16GB thumb drive -- only wireless -- or a puny Time Capsule.

Whether or not you choose to buy DataCase, the slew of available and forthcoming applications on the iPhone are making the device more attractive than ever. On Monday, Apple reported it sold its 1 millionth iPhone 3G and over 10 million iPhone applications from the App Store -- just days after the combined July 11 iPhone 3G/2.0 launch.

Turn your iPhone into a wireless drive with DataCase [TUAW]

[Photo courtesy Veiosoft]

But first, the basics. The difference between the TV you're used to and this fancy IPFreelyTV stuff is that IPTV is delivered to you like any other data sent over the internet—in data packets. You even plug an Ethernet cable into your receiver box/DVR. Of course, the internet's a messy place with lots of muck bouncing around the pipes and you'd be really pissed if the Yankees game stuttered or crapped out, so this is all running on the telco's "walled garden" network with a fat, dedicated lane for video. (Your internet service, which is bundled since it's running on the same network, runs on a different lane, delineated by quality-of-service, or QoS, protocols.)

Now that that's out of the way, back to why its good for HD. With a standard cable setup, the channels are basically always being piped into your home, whether you're watching or not. To add more channels, they've gotta compress 'em down farther or open the pipe up, especially since HD eats up a lot of bandwidth. Since IPTV is sent in regular ol' data packets and the system is two-way (the nature of internet protocol), they're basically only sending what you ask for, when you ask for it. So theoretically, they could offer way more HD channels than cable, since they're not as limited here. Also, like that mythical Xbox 360 IPTV box, the number of streams you can watch/record simultaneously is basically only limited by your bandwidth.

The two-wayness of the infrastructure is another point of awesomeness. It can be used for actually useful interactivity—one of AT&T's apps for the Olympics can bring in a stats feed you can check out while watching the game. Or regular internet video, like YouTube, can be piped in and integrated with the other video on your box. It's all just regular data over standard internet protocols, so there's a lot of flexibility to do stuff you simply can't with a traditional setup.

The problem is that building the infrastructure necessary for IPTV service is slow and expensive, largely cause it requires a heavy fiber optic component. Verizon runs fiber all the way to your door (which is why it can offer those crazy FiOS internet speeds), while AT&T runs it to the node, which you're then connected to with copper and share with your neighbors (which is why U-Verse internet is slower). So right now, both have puny subscriber numbers—1.2 million FiOS TV customers, and a scant 379,000 on U-Verse TV.

Still, there's a lot of potential in IPTV, even if it's taking forever to get to your doorstep. AT&T actually showed me some of the stuff that could be at your door in the 6-9 months—and beyond—and it's definitely worth getting excited about. We'll be telling you all about it later.

Something we missed, or you still wanna know? Send any questions about IPs, TVs, chewing gum or anything else to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

I kept coming up blank when inspiration hit me.   I reached over to turn on the desk lamp when I realized it WAS on.  Puny, much?  I had my post challenge:  Go on a web search for desk lamps that are great looking but functionable.  I think Barbie has a street lamp that gives off more light than our desk lamp.  

So I began my enlightened search.  The problem was, most desk lamps I found looked more like friends of Wall-E.   You know the ones with the goose necks and hammer heads?   My cat would think it was a tanning bed.  Not quite what I had in mind.  So I searched a little more. 

I found one that was in the shape of a butterfly with little flowers on the wings.  The thought of my husband’s expression when he went to turn it on amused me for a few minutes, but the search most definitely continued.

Goose necks, goose necks, cranes, goose necks, goose necks, cranes (10 to 1 says the contextual ads on this page get all Mother Goose-y)….

I finally found a few that I really liked.  The first one I found was the classy-looking Woodbury Natural Spectrum Desk or Table Lamp (at the top of the post).  I think he’s ridiculously handsome.

From the Website:
Elegant without sacrificing functionality, our Woodbury Natural Spectrum Desk or Table Lamp provides excellent reading and task illumination. Handsome design boasts a hardwood veneer and solid metal construction.Unique double-articulating arm. Energy-efficient Global Cooling bulb reduces greenhouse emissions. Bulb produces 150 watts of indoor lighting from 26 watts of energy. 10,000-hour bulb life, more than 10 times the expected life of traditional bulbs. Electronic ballast with Flicker Elimination Technology provides instant illumination and no-buzz operation. Learn more about Natural Spectrum lighting. Energy-saving bulb included.

 


 
He’s not just handsome, he’s a hard worker as well. I also really like the Tensor B204-19/99 Halogen Desk Lamp (pictured to the right). I love it’s stylishly modern look.

The Tensor Halogen lamp is under $50 online.  I don’t really shop much for lamps, so I wasn’t familiar with their prices.  After spending a mornig with them, however, I realize that for a great looking lamp like this, $40-something is a real bargain.

Click through either link or image to learn more about the lamps shown here - and/or look around at the others.  Eye strain is a serious thing, and for those of us who work in an office (whether at home or not) all day put ourselves at risk if our lighting isn’t what it should be.

Now that my work here is done, I have to run to the store.  I have doughnuts, cereal, oatmeal, and pop tarts to buy.  As God as my witness I’ll never eat chocoalte cardboard again.

The stout orange bots zip around the warehouse, sorting, storing and moving around boxes full of precious, precious shoes. When an order is placed, a robot will go retrieve it from its designated spot and bring it to a person, who will pack it and prep it to be shipped. It makes the whole process faster and more efficient, and you've got to assume that Zappos is passing the savings along to you, the valued customer. Although they did recently stop offering free overnight shipping with every order. I'm on to you, Zappos.

Kiva Systems, via Crave