Alarm Clock Calls Your Friends if You Don’t Get up
There seems to be a trend in the alarm clock industry to inflict increasingly outlandish tortures on the heavy sleeper, or the plain lazy-bones. Our favorites so far are a clock that donates your money to charity each time you…

There seems to be a trend in the alarm clock industry to inflict increasingly outlandish tortures on the heavy sleeper, or the plain lazy-bones. Our favorites so far are a clock that donates your money to charity every time you hit the snooze button, and a device which sends a screaming helicopter careening about the room at wake-up time.

The aptly named Tyrant alarm goes one step further, visiting upon the incorrigible slumberer the double incentives of cash and embarrassment. If you fail to rise when summoned by this evil white block, it will take over your cellphone and start to dial random numbers from your address book, presumably narrowcasting your snores to the various ladies (or gents) in your life.

Of course, you could deal with this the same way as you do your existing cellphone alarm: Hurl the phone across the room and, gently letting your eyelids succumb once again to gravity, listen to the satisfying smash of plastic on plaster.

Here at Gadget Lab, we’ve been toying with a more effective approach to getting our recalcitrant bloggers out of bed in the mornings. An alarm which tilts the bed back, pulls the sheet tight over your face and drips water steadily onto your terrified visage as you gasp for breath, the prospect of a day’s blogging seeming sweet in comparison to impending death. It’s called the WaterBoarder.

Product page [Alice Wang via Oh Gizmo]

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Nikon Announces New Top-End Speedlight
In addition to the new D700 announced today, Nikon has also shown us the new SB-900 flash, which will replace the old flagship model, the SB-800. So what’s new? The SB-900 is slightly less powerful (a guide number of 34…

In addition to the new D700 announced this day, Nikon has also shown us the new SB-900 flash, which will replace the old flagship model, the SB-800.

So what’s new? The SB-900 is slightly less powerful (a guide number of 34 instead of 38), but has an extended zoom range, able to cover 17-200 mm without a diffuser panel (and 14mm with the panel). You can also select the shapes of the light; center-weighted, standard and “even” (which gives a flat edge-to-edge light). It will also spin through 180º in either direction in addition to the tilt function.

Nikon states that recycle (recharge) times are quicker, although the SB-900 uses four AA batteries, one less than its predecessor. Most unusual is a gel auto-detection feature: when used with a D700 or D3, the flash will tell the camera the color of any colored gel attached and the camera will adjust white balance automatically. We’re not sure if it does this by actually looking at the gel or if you’ll have to use special Nikon-only filters. We hope not, but we wouldn’t be surprised.

Another small tweak, most useful for the manual flashers and Strobists out there, is the addition of a dial to adjust the output power. This should make things a lot quicker. It’s an incremental upgrade rather than a radical new product. But then, it’s a flash, so what do you anticipate? SB-800 owners need not rush out to purchase replacements. If you’re in the market, though, it’ll cost you $500.

Product page [Nikon via Photography Bay]

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Hello. Kitty. Antivirus. Software. [Kitty Hell]

Via [gizmodo]

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From the department of “things that should be slung in a burlap sack and drowned” comes VideosTone, a video ringtone application for current, jailbroken iPhones. Hong Kong based company iFonetec (see the carrier on the screenshot? Chinese. Nice unlocking, guys)…

From the department of “things that should be slung in a burlap sack and drowned” comes VideosTone, a video ringtone application for current, jailbroken iPhones. Hong Kong based company iFonetec (see the carrier on the screenshot? Chinese. Nice unlocking, guys) has inflicted this horror upon us, even though thankfully it’s a little tricky to implement.

You install the application from the ifonetec repository (http://app.ifonetec.com). That part is easy. But you need to get the videos onto the phone. If the words /var/mobile/Media/VideoTone/Video/ mean anything to you, you’re good to go. But please. No Crazy Frog, or you’ll end up at the bottom of the lake, too.

Product page [iFonetec via ModMyiPhone]

Via [wired.com]

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Is ViewSonic’s New 26″ Display Too Cheap to be Good?
ViewSonic has announced a new monster sized 26″ LCD monitor, and it’s cheap enough to make us worry. The $530 display will show 1080p images (the resolution is 1920×1200 pixels), offers a contrast ratio of 6000:1 and has HDMI, VGA…

ViewSonic has announced a new monster sized 26″ LCD monitor, and it’s cheap enough to make us worry. The $530 display will show 1080p images (the resolution is 1920×1200 pixels), offers a contrast ratio of 6000:1 and has HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs.

The problem? I no longer trust cheap monitors. I bought a cheap-o 22″ Acer AL2218W a few months ago, and it’s a piece of junk. Out of the box I had a bright blue stuck pixel, the fluorescent backlight bleeds white and makes the corners glow and the picture, next to that of my MacBook, is dull and flat. This isn’t to knock Acer. It’s a complaint about cheap LCD panels.

And the cheap ViewSonic adds in another worry: built in, 2.5 watt speakers. All these spec-sheet extras usually point to one thing: a poor quality core product. Still, I could well be wrong as I haven’t even seen one yet. 26″ is a good sized screen, and if you’re using it to view movies from a cross the room, even my imagined problems won’t be noticed.

Press release [ViewSonic via Crave]

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DXG’s New HD Mini-camcorder Aims For Tiny Pockets
It was only a matter of time before eager manufacturers jumped into the cheap mini camcorder market established by the Flip and formed a lineup of capable clones. Here’s the first to take a swing: DXG’s 567V mini. The DXG-567V…

It was only a matter of time before eager manufacturers jumped into the cheap mini camcorder market established by the Flip and formed a lineup of capable clones. Here’s the first to take a swing: DXG’s 567V mini.

The DXG-567V looks like an iPod and features a UI that is supposed to alleviate one of the main problems we found with the Flip camera: Unintuitive and over-sensitive buttons leading to unwanted recording choices.

In addition, the cam will have 32GB of internal flash memory, and you can add a 8GB SD card for another memory boost.

Just like the popular Flip Ultra and Mino camcorders, this mini cam (should we call them cammies?), is also built to upload quickly to video sharing sites like YouTube, and has a slightly better resolution cap: HD at 1280×720/30 frames per second, d1 at 720×480/30fps, and CIF at 320X240 (versus the Flips’ 640 x 480/30 fps).

One weird caveat: The DXG 567v will only work for Windows Vista and XP operating systems.

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Meet the manikins (not to be confused with mankinis), medical dummies (spelled “manikin”, apparently) used to train future doctors on how to do the bare minimum to keep you alive that the HMO will pay for. There are all types, from the sexy Overweight CPR manikin to the Deluxe Child Crisis manikin. My favorite is the Multi Man CPR manikin, because it reminds me of last weekend. Vote on your favorite, then report back here and we’ll compare notes. Next week we’ll feature Manikin II: On The Move. [Medical Mainikins on Oobject]

Via [gizmodo]

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We were excited for the merger talks between Blockbuster Video and Circuit City, as that union could create a probable entertainment behemoth, and we don’t mean like Paula Abdul. Sadly word is coming down that Blockbuster is pulling its offer for Circuit off the table. Apparently it was ultimately decided that the match wasn’t a good fit for Blockbuster’s shareholders, so the plans have been scrapped. What could have been an awesome two-front retailer now means Blockbuster has to find new ways to catch up with Netflix, and Circuit City has to keep its head above water without any help. Bets on what happens next? [Forbes]

Via [gizmodo]

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When we covered Japanese age-detecting cigarette vending machines back in may, one Gadget Lab reader, named Monjombo, left this comment: So if I hold up a picture of Sean Connery, I won’t be able to hack this? Well, Monjombo. It…

When we covered Japanese age-detecting cigarette vending machines back in may, one Gadget Lab reader, named Monjombo, left this comment:

So if I hold up a picture of Sean Connery, I won’t be able to hack this?

Well, Monjombo. It turns out that, yes, you could. A reporter for Sankei Sports tried fooling the machines with photographs. One was a 6″ wide “photo of a man who looked to be in his 50s” — probably not Sean Connery, but it worked. So did a 3″ picture of a woman in her 30s.

Fujitaka, the company behind the detection software, admits that pics can sometimes fool its machines, and is working on a fix. According to Pink Tentacle, it will be “a more advanced system that will make sure each face belongs to a real human”.

How it will achieve this is left unsaid, but to stop a flat pic fooling it each time, we’d guess that some sort of movement detector could be used, or perhaps a small needle should shoot out, scooping out a section of the customer’s face and testing it to determine their humanity. As a bonus, it could also test for mouth cancer. Surely any real smoker would happily put up with such humiliation in order to get their fix.

Magazine photos fool age-verification cameras [Pink Tentacle]

Via [wired.com]

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Nikon Reveals Rumored D700 at Last
It’s here, and it’s exactly what we expected it to be. Nikon’s new semi high end DSLR, the D700, falls somewhere between the flagship D3 and the D300. There’s a lot of stuff packed into the magnesium case, so we’ll…

It’s here, and it’s exactly what we expected it to be. Nikon’s new semi high end DSLR, the D700, falls somewhere between the flagship D3 and the D300.

There’s a lot of stuff packed into the magnesium case, so we’ll focus on the main points, plus a few surprises. The D700 has the same 12.1 Megapixel, full-frame (36 mm x 23.9 mm) CMOS sensor that has made the D3 such a hit. Low light sensitivity is the thing here: the D700 has an ISO range of 200 to 6400, and you can drop it into a special mode that goes all the way up to ISO 25600.

The D700 also gets a live view, just like each compact camera out there, although the press release doesn’t mention a live histogram. This has two modes: The Handheld mode uses the normal focus points (all 51 of them) and the Tripod mode uses focal plane contrast detection for focus. The assumption is that if you’re using a tripod, you’ve a little extra time for this slower but more accurate method.

Talking of focus, the D700 will let you fine tune the focal point of a lens, so if you find you have “back focussing” issues you can fix them and forget about it.

You’ll also find a new Kevlar/carbon fiber shutter, an EXPEED processor with four levels of Active D Lighting and a built in flash with a wireless controller. The price, when the camera makes it into stores later this month, will be $3000. More photos below.

Product page [Nikon via Nikon Rumors]

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