The Zone

WoW!  Canon has introduced their new midrange and super Pro DSLRs for the photography world to drool at. The 40D replaces the aging 50D (natrually) while the 1Ds Mark III brings the DIGIC III to a 21.1 world dominated by the likes of Hasselblad and Vivitar and other similarly exotic-named manufacturers. Enjoy the juicy pics below (yeah, we know we have a gadget fetish, at least I do!)

Canon USA's press releases are here for the 40D and here for the 1Ds Mark III

Just came back from a very eye-opening Media Prima (the company that owns TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9) media introduction of thier Network Media Portals and I must say, I'm impressed with the amount of work that's gone into the website. For one, users can now watch EVERYTHING that was shown on TV a couple of hours after the program has been aired in a quality that's better than your average VCD up to a week from its screening date.

Secondly, you can check out the content from the Media Prima archives (stuff like Majalah Tiga and the likes) all the way back to when they first started which is a total of 40000 screen hours - all from RM1 per download/RM15 per 150 downloads without ads!

Talk about unlimited reruns of fresh new shows for free! To date, only the 8TV portal is "near 100% up" as the team sorts out the bugs, but we're already enjoying our Ho Chiak  reruns!! Check out the whole lineup come September 9th, I know I will! XD

Charming. That's one of the words that can describe this Air Ray from Festo. A remote-controlled robot that floats through the means of helium indigestion, the Air Ray spookily reminds us of one of those Metal Gears in MGS. Scary? it does cross the uncanny valley for me. Hit the link to catch a video of it in action!

 Video here

[via Gizmodo] 

Again, this may be old news but we couldn't resist. It's two different videos of the same prisoners in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines doing Michael Jackson's Thriller dance and that dance from the popular anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Incredible. We never knew prison was so much fun.  

Words not needed really. Just watch.

Google has lovingly bundled in a flight simulator easter egg with their new 4.02 version of the ever-loved Google Earth. We seriously didn't know about this until reports of an easter egg surfaced over the Merdeka weekend. Upon pressing Ctrl+Alt+A (not Ctrl+Alt+Del!!!), you'll unlock the flight simulator shortcut under the 'Tools' tab. Here are the shortcuts to the controls, and while they aren't the most realistic controls around, it is still daunting for people who love an automatic transmission, not to mention that the planes behave like they're on steroids as they are as jittery as hell to maneuver!!

This is what happened when we were looking for the Twin Towers - we crashed out in the Straits of Melacca instead!!

All will be revealed today... 

A special prize to the first person to answer correctly. The answer after the jump.

We really didn't know this, but Samsung has made the SGH-P520 its Armani flagship phone, the rival to the LG Prada. Boasting a 3 Megapixel camera, 50MB of internal memory, 3G connectivity and a slim form factor that rivals some of its Ultra edition lines, we really have to see the Armani version before commenting

Hello everyone and welcome to the news.....and in today's news, a Mr. Dylan Stephen Jayne has sued Google, the search engine (in case you didn't know) for a paltry sum of USD$5 billion. He sued Googledue to this, "I, Dylan Stephen Jayne, plaintiff, has [sic] a social security number that when the social security number is turned upside down in its entirety it is a scrambled code that does spell the name Google®."

Great. The five-page handwritten claim, the first page is what you see here, describes in entirety why he should get the $5 Bil and why other news outlets should not report on the outrageous court case, if there ever was one!

[via Digg]

Think your granny has the ability to kick some alien butt? Wait till you see this Japanese oba-san racking up acheivement points in Halo 3. In Japan. Where the Halo 3 launch was meh. Unusual achivement, though! Gambateneh oba-san!

When you think the Japanese are not crazy enough over their hobbies, this piece of news shows you how fandom can get you in trouble. Six bureaucrats from Japan's Agricultral Ministry were reprimanded for editing the Wikipedia entry on Gundams at work. One of them has 260 articles to his name. 260 wikis!!

"The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam," said ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura. LOL for us.

In other happenings, there's a new WiFi shirt available for you mobile warriors that goes blink blink whenever you wander towards a WiFi access point. The cooler thing is that the WiFi logo itself is detachable and stuck on to other good things such as your backpack, your car, dog/cat, kid..... It works with Wireless-B and G networks as well!

In the beginning...there was the Cube...sorry...we meant the Dot Com. Then the Dot EU made its entry last year for the European market. Now with the rise of Asia, the Dot Asia makes its debut!

The mad rush for securing new Web domain names with the new .asia now begins! 

Source : Physics Organisation

If you're looking forward to play the latest games from FatCatLim's Orange Box but lack the processing requirements of Valve's latest package, fear not because you can be saved by = HL2: Portal in 2D Flash!!!! Check out the screens below if you don't believe them!

Instant LOL, more screens after the jump!

In a shocking discovery a couple of days back, we found out that The Sims and Spore (we're still waiting for it!!) creator Will Wright was the winner of the 1980 US  Express run from NY to LA. Much like the Gumball 3000 road rally you kids get to see on TV nowadays, back then it was as crazy as it was illegal - you'll need police scanners, radar jammers and the likes of Valentine One. Who thought gamers were always geeks? he drove an RX-7 for crying out loud! :P

 See more stories at Wired

Poor Kotakuites Brian and gang have been so successful, they're being copied in a new Simpsons 'blog'. Check the screenshot below to see 'moetaku' in all its wonderful glory - I wonder when we would be our turn?

Check out the pic after the jump for Kotaku's response