While the highly-regarded Pong clock has long held the crown for most intriguing DIY clock, it looks like the leaderboard could be seeing a change. Frank Techniek's interesting oscilloscope conversion is yet another prime example of turning vintage (or otherwise idiosyncratic) kit into a modern day gadget, and the 20MHz TRIO that once read signal voltages for a living is now enjoying an unusually time consuming (ahem) retirement. Per usual, this expert-minded endeavor involved more circuitry, soldering, resistors, and time off than we have room to explain, but if you're interested in propping one of these up in your den, be sure to hit the read link for the nicely detailed bill of materials and assembly instructions.

[Via MAKE]

So we finally got some solid release deets on BenQ's anticipated BW1000 3-in-1 Blu-ray burner (also known as the "Trio): it'll be coming out in late August, and set you back 799 euros, or a little over $1,000. As you'll recall, that grand is buying you an internal drive that writes to BD-R discs at 2x speed, to DVDs between 4x and 12x, and to CDs at 32x speed, while obviously playing back Blu-ray content at full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution as well. You're also getting the usual suite of features designed to dampen vibration and ensure data integrity, which will come in especially handy for folks who can't afford to be wasting those initially-expensive next-gen discs. Keep in mind, though, that this model won't be the only option available to you by the time it hits stores, so make sure to check out the supported formats and features on competing units from Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic and Philips before you lay down all that cash.

[Via Yahoo]