skateboards
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Elwing adds electric power to a standard-size skateboard
One of the biggest factors holding electric skateboard fans back from picking up a new ride is price, with most decent boards selling for north of $1,000. The high cost of electric motors is still a hurdle, especially for skaters who don't want to compromise on quality, but Elwing's new board is more affordable than most. It's slated to hit the market at $750, but with the help of its newly launched Indiegogo campaign, you could pick one up for $500 or less, if you strike during the early-bird window. There are a few tradeoffs for this price, but some of them may even be to your liking. I recently had a chance to test out Elwing's prototype for a few days and, setting aside issues the company plans to address before final production, the money saved could be worth it -- depending on your needs, of course.
California unbans the use of electric skateboards in bike lanes
In 1977, California banned the use of powered skateboards on state streets; largely because the only reliable source of power back then was noisy two stroke gas engines. However with the development of larger-capacity and quieter lithium-based battery power, skateboards have become about as noisy and polluting as bicycles. That's why, last Sunday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 604, which once again makes riding powered skateboards in the bike lane legal.
Microsoft turns Surface tablet into a skateboard, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky takes it for a spin
Gorilla Glass 2 and a chassis forged from magnesium lend Microsoft's Surface slates some durability, but the firm's decided to prove just how tough its tablets are by turning one into a skateboard. The wheeled slice of Windows 8 is said to have been rolled out during a tour of Redmond's Surface skunkworks, but Windows chief Steven Sinofksy couldn't resist hopping on the board today and tweeting a pair of photos. You can pre-order your deck now, though something tells us this mod isn't covered under Ballmer and Co.'s warranty.
Wiimote and skateboard hacked into a controller, Gator not impressed
Real Virtual Skater is a controller mod that sees a Wiimote liberated from its case and placed inside a box strapped to the underside of a skateboard. Thanks to The Bluetooth, as the player gleams "the cube" (or his "living room", as the case may be) all his movements are used to control his avatar in the magical world of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Just the thing for a kid that already has the board, the Vans, the Jams, a Lance Mountain t-shirt, and a JFA cassette -- but no real desire to leave his parent's basement. Technical details are few, but we do have a chest-pounding video of the thing in action after the break.[Via Feng Gui][Thanks, Pegasus Unicorn]
Skate footage impresses, asks Tony who?
There is some in-game footage of EA's upcoming Skate game up on YouTube, and it looks pretty flippin' sick. Sick in the good sense of the word, you know, to show how hip we are. It's being played on an Xbox 360, and you can color us extremely impressed.The game looks a lot more realistic and graphically intense than anything from the Tony Hawk camp. With eight games under their belt now, that franchise is looking tired (although we love the "Nail the Trick" feature in Tony Hawk's Project 8). Skate looks poised to blow them out of the water and take skating games in a new direction: realism.[Thanks, al52025]
