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Video: Alice in Wonderland movie from 1903

Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie is getting even us excited. But let’s turn back time 107 years for a second to watch the first Alice in Wonderland movie ever made. This version from 1903 (imdb entry), recently restored by the British Film Institute, isn’t even 10 minutes long, but it’s pretty cool, especially when you consider when the movie was filmed.

Sir Clive Sinclair doesn’t use a computer, exceeds recommended irony levels

Clive Sinclair is a Knight Commander of the British Empire, the inventor of the slimline pocket calculator, the man behind the Sinclair ZX80 that made home computing affordable in the Queen’s isles and also, by his own admittance, a dude who just can’t be bothered to use a computer. Speaking to The Guardian, he glibly confesses that he has his emails read to him (by his manservant, presumably), before launching a broadside against modern computers for being “totally wasteful” with their memory, requiring time to boot up, and having altogether “appalling designs.” Hit the source for the full interview and an expanded history of the man’s achievements, it’s well worth the read.

Sir Clive Sinclair doesn’t use a computer, exceeds recommended irony levels originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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British Library to give away thousands of classics away as e-books

Got a Kindle? Get thee to the British Library! Not only are they giving away a ton of old 19th-century literature in e-book form, but they’re a special “first edition” e-book with the original typeface and illustrations baked in.

The 1800s encompass nearly all of my favorite literature, so this is actually making me want a Kindle pretty bad right now. Original typefaces! O lawd!

Amazon secretly scouting B&M retail locations in England?

Oh c’mon, don’t act so surprised. Amazon started out small selling books and CDs, but as of today, you can purchase just about anything on iconic e-tailer’s website. From lawnmowers to HDTVs to upright freezers, Amazon now sells a wide enough variety of wares to warrant the stocking of standard office envelops and truck-sized brown boxes for shipping purposes. To that end, Times Online is reporting that the outfit may be secretly looking for brick-and-mortar locations to open its first store(s) across the pond. We’re guessing that the first store would land in the heart of London, but the report does state that at least some locations would be on the outskirts of town in order to easy potential parking worries. There’s no doubt that an Amazon B&M location would benefit greatly from the whole “order online, pickup in store” agenda, but can the outfit maintain the leanness that has enabled it to strive in tough times when it starts paying property taxes on more than just warehouses? Guess we’ll see, now won’t we?

Amazon secretly scouting B&M retail locations in England? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony PSPs enlisted as study aids by the Royal Navy

Whoever it was at Sony HQ that decided to pursue “military contracts” as a revenue source, kudos! Mere days after the US Air Force expressed interest in expanding its PS3 supercomputer, we’re hearing glorious Britannia’s Royal Navy has conscripted 230 PSPs into duty as revision aids for its trainee sailors. Loaded with maths and physics materials, the PSPs can be used in a bunk, have familiar controls for the young and mostly male recruits, and are considered pretty tough to break. The underlying reason for this move though is cost cutting: by making the training course more intensive, the Navy is saving on teaching time. Given that the UMD drive won’t come disabled — which is hoped to encourage the sailors to take better care of the device — the future this paints is of marines who’ve spent more time with a freebie handheld console than with a pro instructor. At least they’ll have a great stable of captured monsters to show for it.

[Thanks, pankomputerek]

Sony PSPs enlisted as study aids by the Royal Navy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Top Gear team builds EV, shows how complex car production really is

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/autos/Top_Gear_team_builds_EV_shows_how_complex_car_production_is’; The presenters of Top Gear, among the finer specimens of British television talent (Dr. Gregory House being another), were this past week engaged in designing and building an electric vehicle purportedly intended to compete with the likes of the Chevy Volt. Set a time limit of a mere 18 hours, they produced the marvel of rushed engineering and shoddy workmanship you see above. The Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust (believe us, you’ll have no reason to remember the name) was even put through its paces by Autocar magazine, whose video “review” can be found after the break. We won’t spoil the details for you, but if you want a conclusion, this one’s pretty unequivocal: “there’s a really good chance you could kill yourself” riding in this car.

Continue reading Top Gear team builds EV, shows how complex car production really is

Top Gear team builds EV, shows how complex car production really is originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet

So we know the iPhone has been slumming it and selling itself on Walmart shelves in the US for a while now, but it’s retained a somewhat more dignified cachet over here in Europe. Until today, that is. Just “in time for Christmas,” British retailer Tesco will make it possible for you to buy your socks, no-frills groceries, and shiny smartphone all in the same place. You’ll still be riding O2’s network, thanks to the Tesco Mobile service, but the department store chain is likely to price its contracts more aggressively, as it already has a £30 per month plan that includes unlimited calls, texts, and web surfing. Maybe there’s something to this whole “competition” thing after all then, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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British surgeons using radiation beams to halt macular degeneration

We’ve seen more eyesight restoration efforts than we could easily count, but rather than tooting their horn about some theoretical discovery, boffins at Kings College Hospital in London are actually putting their hard work to use on real, live human brings. The new process, which goes by the name brachytherapy, is a one-off treatment for macular degeneration. In essence, surgeons carefully light up a beam of radiation within the eye for just over three minutes, which kills harmful cells without damaging anything else. A trial is currently underway in order to restore eyesight in some 363 patients, and everything thus far leads us to believe that the process is both safe and effective. As for costs? The procedure currently runs £6,000 ($9,889), but that’s still not awful when you consider that existing treatments involving injections run £800 per month. Hop past the break for a video report.

Continue reading British surgeons using radiation beams to halt macular degeneration

British surgeons using radiation beams to halt macular degeneration originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP’s Pavilion dv3 and dm1 wash ashore on European land

As one of the last two Vista holdouts on HP’s online laptop store (the other being HDX16), we were wondering what was going on with the Pavilion dv3. Well, it’s still not stateside, but Germany and the UK can apparently pick up the Windows 7-equipped touchscreen dv3-2200 now for £799.99 / €899 (somewhere between $1,305 and $1,350, respectively, in comparable US currency), with difference of pricing based on the separate listings. Additionally, we spotted the 11.6-inch dm1-1000 — which was also leaked alongside the dv3 — with a 1.2GHz Celeron processor and that hot new OS from Redmond. We’re sure it’ll come to the US eventually, but for now we’re just gonna have to wait ever, ever so patiently.

[Thanks, Adam and everyone]

Read – Official HP dm1-1000 page
Read – Official HP dv3-2200 page
Read – PC World UK listing for dv3

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s Pavilion dv3 and dm1 wash ashore on European land originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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