Gizmodo: not Apple

Nerds Win: Nexus One Rooted Before It's Even Officially Unveiled

Dan Nosowitz — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:26:23 EST

Even more impressive than the Droid's quick rooting, the Nexus One has been conquered from the inside before Google has even officially announced it.

The guy behind the rooting, a Modaco forum-goer named Paul, successfully rooted the coveted Nexus One and made a custom ROM called Superboot to ease the method for everyone else—not that all that many people can take advantage of it, seeing as how we're still a week away from the phone even being unveiled. This could be good for the Nexus One, given that some signs have been pointing to tighter Google control over the device—but we'll have to wait to try it out until its release. [RedmondPie]

First Cat-to-Human Paw Transplant Deemed a Complete Success

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:20:00 EST

TOKYO (AP) - After several decades of gruesome failures, Japanese researchers have successfully transplanted a kitten's paws to a human body. The test subject, a 29 year old model for Thanko, a gadget seller, has a new lease on life.

"For years I lived with a wretched handicap," [name withheld] explained. "My hands were human-like and only a little bit cute, which is a tough thing for a model."

After fifteen years of transplant lists, fundraisers and miracle cures, she'd almost given up. Then researchers from Tokyo University of Science called and said they'd nearly perfected a new technique of removing a non-anesthetized kitten's paws with a rusty hacksaw and gluing them to the patient's wrists.

"The news was a Godsend," she said.

Given the slightest surgical mistake, a small, defenseless kitten would bleed to death quite slowly and painfully on the operating table. The human subject, however, would be completely unharmed, resting peacefully unaware of any blood or shrieking.

"Let's just say it's good that a humane society leases the space next door," said one scientist. "A really, really big humane society just filled to the brim with unloved strays."

As for the young model, she woke from surgery with a slight hand ache requiring nothing more than a prescription for a minor anti-inflammatory. And according to her official press statement, she couldn't be more pleased:

"Now my hands are very cute!" [Thanko via CrunchGear]

Shooting Challenge: Happy New Year!

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST

We've made it this far through soul-sucking winter, so it's time to celebrate. This week's Shooting Challenge is simple: "Happy New Year" is the theme. And I need your participation!

Last week, we had to can the results because only 3 photos were entered into the contest. 3! (The week before, we had almost 60.) So once again, please help me keep this section going strong—nothing makes me happier than seeing Gizmodo transition to cover not just press releases for gadgets, but the artistic products that said gadgets actually help produce.

The rules:

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.
5. Include 800px image AND something wallpaper sized in email.

Send your best entries by Sunday at 6PM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Happy New Year" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs at 800 pixels wide and larger, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email. [Photo by Bubba Trout]

Do-It-Yourself PC Builder's Guide: How Cheap Is Too Cheap?

Will Smith — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST

We asked Maximum PC's Will Smith to describe the cheapest PC you can build, and he said he'd do it, if only to talk you out of spending so little. Here's what you gain, and lose, by going ultra cheap.

Over at Maximum PC, we just posted a guide that show's you everything you need to know to build the cheapest PC I'd recommend to anyone for use as his or her main PC. It's a surprisingly beefy machine, capable of playing games, ripping DVDs, editing video and photos, and playing 1080p video with nary a dropped frame. For a mere $647, we managed to pack a quad-core CPU, a great video card, 4GB of memory, and Windows 7 Home Premium into a surprisingly fashionable mid-tower. However, if you don't need as well-rounded a general purpose PC, you can go cheaper, especially if you're willing to make some sacrifices. Let's take a look at the parts we used, and then we'll start making cuts.

Let's look at the price chart. If you're not a gamer and aren't using one of the handful of applications that's accelerated by general-purpose GPU-based computing, then there's no good reason to spend 25% of your budget on a videocard that will lie fallow for most everything you do. The Gigabyte motherboard sports integrated graphics that will do everything you need to do, including hardware accelerated decode for video playback. Pulling the videocard brings our total cost down below $500, to $481. Not too shabby, but we can save even more.

If you're not going to be running tons of apps, editing photos, or encoding videos, that quad-core is massive overkill. To save a few bucks, we're going to replace that quad-core Athlon II with a single-core Sempron LE-1250. It costs less than a Blu-ray disc at Best Buy, a mere $32. Unfortunately, that still doesn't get us below $400, so we need to dig deeper.

Since you ditched the quad core CPU, your PC won't be up to running many applications at once, so we can cut back on memory. You can buy a generic 1GB stick for $22 at Newegg, which is the minimum requirement for Windows 7.

Since you won't be creating content, there's absolutely no reason to spend big bucks on a massive 500GB hard drive. In fact, you could probably even get by installing Windows on a decent-sized flash drive, but that's more expensive than what we have in mind. It's tough to beat a more-than-adequate 80GB drive for a mere $35. Oh, and while we're at it, you should ditch the optical drive. Odds are, you won't need it for anything after you set up your machine, and it's easier and faster to install Windows from thumbdrive (which you probably already have anyway).

After more than halving the price of our PC, Windows is looking mighty expensive. At $105, the OEM edition of Windows Home Premium is more than a third of the total cost of this machine. It's time to start thinking about Ubuntu, which will get our total price down to a cool $200. But wait, we can go even cheaper.

If you're just going to browse the web on this machine, why spend money on a real CPU? A Foxconn Atom motherboard that comes with the CPU costs a few bucks less than our AMD motherboard alone, so it's time to trim the fat, yet again. Sure, we could spend a few bucks more and get the same CPU in a motherboard equipped with Nvidia's Ion chipset, but EVERYTHING MUST GO!

For a machine with power requirements this meager, there's absolutely no reason to spend 20% of our budget on a quality power supply. Instead, let's get a case that includes an integrated power supply. It may not be reliable, but it sure is cheap!

Now, I'm reasonably certain that there's no way to build a cheaper machine. The only bad news? You just built a nettop.

Don't forget to check out Will's complete guide to the cheapest PC he'd actually recommend you to build.

Will Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of Maximum PC and has been building PCs longer than he cares to admit. He enjoys long walks, Rock Band, and is anxiously awaiting the first great Android Phone and the Apple Tablet.

Top image by Tim Rogers/Flickr, used under CC License

Gadget Deals of the Day

David Chaid — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST

Today's Dealz is bursting at the seams with Direct2Drive's Year End Sale containing excellent titles under $20. Snag a Nikon D3000 to capture photos in 2010, and get some free e-Harmony action lest you ring in another lonely New Year.

Top Deals:
• 15.6" Acer Aspire AS5732Z-4510 Laptop for $399.99 (normally $500).
• Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Lenses + 4GB Card for $589.95 plus free shipping (normally $749)
• Falling Gems (iPhone) for $0 (normally $1.99).

Home Entertainment:
• 55" Vizio VF550M LCD HDTV for $1249.00 plus free shipping (normally $1599).
• 50" Panasonic TC-P50G10 HDTV $1200 plus Free Shipping (normally $1329).
• 46" Panasonic VIERA TC-P46G15 Plasma HDTV w/ Blu-Ray Player for $1079.12 plus free shipping (normally $1499 – use coupon code: BONUSBUY)
• 32" HANNspree LCD HDTV for $349.99 plus free shipping (normally $499).
• Energy Take Classic 5 Pack 5-Ch Speakers for $119.99 plus free shipping (normally $188 - use coupon code EMCMNNX64).
• Pioneer Elite VSX-9040TXH 7.1ch 110W AV Receiver for $498.99 plus free shipping (normally $999).
• Samsung HT-WS1G 2.1ch Home Theater Soundbar System for $199.99 plus free shipping (normally $249)
• Dirty Harry (Blu Ray) for $9.99 (normally $25.87).
• SNL: Complete 4th Season $24 w/ Free Shipping (normally $69).
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Blu Ray) for $9.99 (normally $20.87).
• The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 2 on Blu-ray for $29.99 plus free shipping (normally $44).
• The Office: Season 5 on DVD for $15.99 (normally $26).
• TV Games Retro Arcade Pac Man TV Game for $19.77 (normally $28.74).
• iHome iHC5S Wireless Bluetooth Clock Radio for MP3 Players for $29.99 plus free shipping (normally $59.98).

Hobomodo:
• Falling Gems (iPhone) for $0 (normally $1.99).
• O&O Defrag 10 Professional Download for $0 (use this form).
• Free Aveeno Tote Bag for $0 (use this form).
• Natural Nibbles Dog Treat Samples for $0 (use this form).
• Eagle-Armoury Records 2009 Metal/Hard Rock 10 Track Sampler for $0 (download here).
• eHarmony Communication thru Sunday, Jan 3 for $0.

If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping!

[Thanks TechDealDigger, Dealzon, Logic Buy, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains and TechBargains.]

Russia Considering Mission to Deflect Apophis

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:45:22 EST

Russia's Federal Space Agency may try to deflect Apophis, the 880-megaton asteroid that can bring hell to Earth (for comparison, the total power of the entire deployed US nuclear arsenal is around 1,400 Megatons). There's only one problem.

The possibility of Apophis hitting our home planet problem is extremely remote. When it passed by in 2004, the probability was 2.7%. The next flyby will happen in 2029. Predictions say that there will be no possibility of impact at that time. In 2036, the latest simulations models point out that the probability will 1 in 250,000. Extremely low, but still higher than the odds of being hit by lightning. Furthermore, NASA says that Apophis is not large enough to create a global catastrophe.

Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian's Federal Space Agency, disagrees. He says that a "scientist recently told him" that Apophis may hit Earth in 2032. If that happens, there's a big chance of it hitting Russia, as most of the south of the country is right on the path of impact risk. The mission, according to Perminov, would not use nuclear weapons, just the laws of physics.

I don't know who is right here, but I have mixed feelings. On one side, if the Russians make any mistakes, they may cause a cosmic clusterfuck. On the other, I'm happy that someone is doing something about this. While there is no official announcement about what the project would be, it's nice to see that someone considering building an space interceptor. [Space, Nuclear Stockpile, Wikipedia]

Fox News to FBI Cybersquad: Get In Front Of Some High Tech Looking Stuff...Quick!

Sean Fallon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:40:00 EST

That's not an actual quote of course, but the scene here looks so contrived that it seems plausible. The scary thing is that the Cybersquad is protecting our data with old Dells, Windows XP and "intimidating" Matrix screensavers.

Plus, that 37-inch Westinghouse sitting right on top of the keyboard is a good indicator that the Feds have extremely poor eyesight—so who knows what kind of mistakes are being made. [i.igmur via reddit]

MP3 Players in the Year 2000 Were Not So Good (But We Still Loved Them)

Jason Chen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:20:00 EST

This is the Creative Nomad Jukebox from the year 2000. It may have been shaped like a CD player to mentally ease technophobes, but it actually had a 6GB hard drive on board. And boy did we love it.

That's not to say that this thing was great—because it wasn't; not by today's standards. It had only a USB 1.1 connection, so uploading all 6GB worth of music took hours and hours. Imagine filling up a 1TB hard drive over a USB 2 connection today, if that gives you any idea of how long the process was. Oh, and it cost $420.

But you know what? It actually a pretty decent player for the year 2000. The 6GB is adequate even now (the lowest iPod Nano today has 8GB), and that 8GB of 5-minute skip protection was good enough for continuous music most of the time, except when you were off-roading or running away from cougars.

Hell, because it was so early in the MP3 player era, it even had extraneous features that were eventually ditched for cost cutting reasons because only a small portion of people used it. There was the stereo line input for recording, dual stereo output for 4-point surround sound as well as WAV and WMA support. Creative did do a good job with firmware support after the thing was released, actually adding functionality to the player when they could have just released a new hardware revision.

So yes, the Creative Nomad Jukebox was heavy, and lost in every way to any Android, Windows Mobile or Apple smartphone today in both price and feature set, but it was pretty damn good in the year 2000. [Product Page (Price dropped to $300 by 2001)]

Decades: where we revisit gadgets we loved from the start of the decade and see how they compare to what we use today.

Image Credit Wikipedia

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Extra Application Process Is Way Too 20th Century

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:00:30 EST

Quick, grab the ent-draught and gather 'round, for I have some exciting news from Middle-Earth! Peter Jackson has put out word that extras for The Hobbit are in dire need. But he's doing it old school for some reason.

Director Guillermo del Toro and executive producer and co-writer Peter Jackson are taking applications via snail mail, a casting video must be included, and New Zealand citizens get priority over other nationalities.

I'm well aware that the Hobbit was set sometime between the "Dawn of Færie" and the "Dominion of Men," but surely their application requirements could be more suited to the 21st century? If only so we can chuckle at YouTube entries of curly-haired Kiwis lisping over their lines. We might even spot a new Figwit that way, destined to go on to greats things like Flight of the Conchords. [PopWatch]

Ralph Lauren Ski Jacket Has iPod Controls and Recco Rescue System Aplenty

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:20:10 EST

Dress like the dark horse you are for the ski slopes this season, with Ralph Lauren's RLX Aerotype jacket. The super-resistant double layered snow jacket has iPod controls for listening to, err, Snow Patrol.

Made from a microfiber shell, the cuffs are adjustable and drawcords feature heavily for protecting your body from the chills. A bit of padding is included around the bottom, elbows and shoulder, lest you take a tumble. And if you get lost, the Recco Avalanche Rescue system will ensure you're found in no time at all.

Ralph Lauren's just decreased the price from $1,290 to $779.99, so if you're looking for a safe, resistant jacket for skiing and snowboarding in, this could be the garb for you. [Ralph Lauren via Uncrate]

HTC Russia Claims Only the HD2 Will Get a Windows 7 Upgrade

Sean Fallon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:08:00 EST

HTC Russia claims in a recent twitter post that the HD2 will be the only HTC phone to get an upgrade to WinMo 7. All other phones will remain on Windows 6.5.

Translation:

For Diamond 2 firmware is not planned. Of the existing communicators on the market, only the HD2 firmware to get WM7.

Of course, I really wouldn't qualify this as "official" just yet. [twitter via MobileTechWorld]

One CMYK Spray Can Holds Thousands of Colors

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:40:00 EST

What if, instead of defiling your local school, church or train yard with just a few colors of spray paint, one can contained a near infinite array of expression?

The Color Dial Spray is a refillable spray can design that contains all four base colors of the CMYK spectrum (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black). When the artist rotates hue and brightness dials, the can tweaks the color mix accordingly, making selecting a paint color in real life just as easy as it is in Photoshop.

While perfectly plausible, the Color Dial Spray is still just a concept. But to any fat cat VCs in the audience, COME ON. What better ideas are floating around to sink money into? Social networking? Flying cars? Send these nice people a check. [reddot via Yanko Design]

Problems Tramping? You Need a Separate Sack Suspensory!

John Herrman — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:22:06 EST

So what is tramping? It's a popular 1920s sport in which the player's testicles are launched back into his pelvis like water balloons, "just as nature intended." I think. [Modern Mechanix via Copyranter]

2-Player Tetris Makes My Head Hurt At The Thought

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:00:40 EST

In 25 years, we've seen a lot of bastardizations of Tetris, from ice trays to watches, to furniture and Russian dorm Tetris. But a two-player Tetris table? That sounds tricky.

Basically, one of the players gets to choose the pieces to send down to the other player, making it exceedingly difficult to get the right pieces to fit. Suddenly Tetris got even more frustrating to play. [WalYou]

Innergie mCube Mini Is The World's Smallest Travel Charger For Laptops

Sean Fallon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:58:00 EST

Innergie claims their new mCube Mini is the world's smallest travel charger for laptops. A very good thing, especially if you travel light. I refuse to pack more than one duffel bag no matter how long I'm away.

Specifically designed for cars and airplanes, the mCube Mini can be powered by either a 12V or a 15V outlet and can support netbooks and laptops that need up to 65W of power at 15-21V. It also has a USB port so you can charge other portable gadgets at the same time. Again, it's small—60 x 26 x 18mm to be exact, so it's fairly comparable in size to a typical cellphone. Available now for $70. [Innergie via Slashgear]

Oh Hello, Saturn, You Look So Makey-Outy Today

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:20:00 EST

This is a unique image of Saturn in natural color, exactly what you would have seen if you were riding the Cassini spacecraft—wearing your cowboy hat, knitted astronaut sweater, and Star Trek underpants—on November 4 2009.

The image—released last week—was created by combining three exposures using red, green, and blue spectral filters, which results in a natural view, showing the true color of saturn. Cassini was taken 808,000 miles away, and each pixel in the full resolution image represents 45 miles. [NASA—Full resolution image]

The Crotchbomber Was Just a Lonely Loser Who Needed an Online Friend

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:05:09 EST

What to do when you "do not have friends, have no one to speak to, no one to consult, no support, and feel depressed and lonely"? Easy: First, put a bomb in your underpants. Then, board an airplane.

That's what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab—the crotchbomber—did, and that's what he wrote about himself. He was just a sad lonely loser trying to find an online friend or a wife. Writing under the name Farouk1986, the fortunately-failed terrorist wrote 310 posts in Gawaher's Islamic Forum. His writings, adorned with sad emoticons exactly like the yellow one above, read like this:

First of all, i have no friend. Not because i do not socialise, etc but because either people do not want to get too close to me as they go partying and stuff while i dont, or they are bad people who befriend me and influence me to do bad things. Hence i am in a situation where i do not have a friend, i have no one to speak too, no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed and lonely. i do not know what to do. And then i think this loneliness leads me to other problems. As i get lonely, the natural sexual drive awakens and i struggle to control it, sometimes leading to minor sinful activities like not lowering the gaze.

I'm sorry that you were such a bloody lonely loser, Faruk, but I feel no sympathy for someone who turns his sadness or loneliness into so much hate that he decides to take the live of hundreds of innocent people in an airplane. That's not a nice way to make friends. [Gawaher via Danger Room via Boing Boing]

Correction: I posted the wrong quote following Boing Boing. My apologies for not checking it first. The above is the correct quote. Needless to say, my opinion still stands: Zero sympathy for people who try to mass murder.

AT&T Begs FCC to Phase Out Landlines Completely

Brian Barrett — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:40:00 EST

In a 32-page filing with the FCC last week, AT&T asked that the requirement that it support a landline network be repealed. It's an aggressive bid to get rid of the cumbersome wall jack and move entirely to VoIP.

An all-IP phone network may be inevitable someday, but AT&T is clearly hoping for that day to be as soon as possible. Landlines are less efficient and more expensive to maintain for the carrier, and don't add much consumer benefit either. Unfortunately, AT&T's filing doesn't account for the 20% of Americans who currently use only landline connections, and there's no way the FCC is going to leave one in five taxpayers twisting in the wind. The migration seems to be happening naturally anyway: according to GigaOM, total interstate and intrastate switched access minutes have fallen 42% from 2000 to 2008.

A National Broadband Plan has been a long time in the works, but we're almost there. It'll be interesting to see how much influence Ma Bell can peddle. [GigaOM]

Palm Pre and Pixi "Plus" Coming to Verizon, and Soon

John Herrman — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:12:08 EST

The Palm Pre is coming to Verizon early next year. We know this. But this morning, BGR gives us something new to be excited about: The Pixi's apparently coming to Verizon as well, and both models get a (titular?) upgrade.

Verizon's lineup, according to BGR's tipster, will consist of the Palm Pre Plus (codenam: Russell) and Palm Pixi (codename: Romo), which apparently look exactly like their non-plus predecessors, and will both run the currentl version of webOS, 1.3.5, at launch—a fact that jibes with the previously-announced "early next year" launch time, since Palm's been updating the OS at a steady clip.

So anyway, what's "Plus" about these phones? It could just be change in moniker, engineered by Palm and Verizon to inject a little energy into their existing lineup, but I'd expect something more more substantive: a faster processor, larger battery and in the case of the Pre, reengineered keyboard are all plausible guesses. Whatever it means, please, Palm, please don't tell me your CES keynote is just going to be a glorified carrier announcement. Palm needs new hardware. We need new hardware. Hardware! Ungghhhhhhhh. [BGR]

Kozmo: That Doomed Dotcom-Era Internet Delivery Service Had Me At "Hello!"

Anna Jane Grossman — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST

When it comes to websites, I've had my share of whirlwind romances. CuteOverload and I had a thing; Scrabulous whispered sweet nothings in my ear for most of 2007. But no site ever captured my attention like Kozmo.

Kozmo and its close relative UrbanFetch were online messenger services that would deliver any number of household products, food items, electronics—almost anything you could imagine. A Kozmo messenger in your area was dispatched the instant you made the order. Delivery was free and tipping was discouraged. Genius! Really, it all seemed to good to be true. This, it seemed, was why the Internet was invented.

The Kozmo guys darted around the city on bikes with orange messenger bags. They each had special Kozmo names like Skip or Spike or Mac. There was something romantic about the notion of these young men (and they were mostly men) dipping in and out of dozens of people's lives each day. It made me feel like I was part of something larger than myself—without actually having to leave my apartment. Each time I went online to order order a video or a bag of pretzels, it was as if I was tugging some imaginary string that would bring a cute guy to my door. A cute guy with presents, no less.

Ultimately, Kozmo broke my heart. It ceased operating in April '01. The memories, however, will live forever: The late-night soup and trashy magazines when I had a cold; the time you brought over Annie Hall and a bag of popcorn at 2AM; the many, many Ben & Jerry deliveries. Kozmo, I would rather have shared one lifetime with you than have to face all the ages of this world alone.

Anna Jane Grossman has joined us for a few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) and the creator of ObsoleteTheBook.com, she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane.

N.O.V.A. Micro-Review: Say “Halo” to iPhone's New Shooter

matt cabral — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST

Following their hit military-themed FPS iPhone app Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Gameloft reloads and sets its sites on an all new threat-aliens!-in sci-fi fragger N.O.V.A.

As with their aforementioned Call of Duty clone, Gameloft's latest shooter borrows from the best; while it's unlikely we'll see Master Chief's shiny green armor splash across the iPhone's slick display anytime soon, N.O.V.A. offers the next best thing.

Loved
Hand-held Halo: Give any of N.O.V.A.'s screenshots even a passing glance, and it's immediately obvious where the developers gleaned their inspiration. From its Brute-like baddies to a sidearm that'd look right at home in Master Chief's holster, this one's busting with Halo call-outs. Dig a bit deeper and you'll discover Warthog-wannabe vehicles and an intel-reporting cyber-hottie that shares more than a passing resemblance with a certain blue-beamed babe from Bungie's franchise. Whether you see these similarities as respectful tributes or blatant ripoffs, you'll be hard pressed to deny their appeal; coupled with amazing audio, visuals, animations and effects-weapon reloads are a highlight-they complement one of the platform's most polished and engrossing experiences.

Lock, Load, Touch: Supporting N.O.V.A.'s excellent presentation are rock solid controls that keep things simple, satisfying, and super intuitive. A responsive virtual pad moves your character, while finger-swiping the screen controls the camera and your cross hairs. Additionally, a well balanced aim-assist ensures you'll plug plenty of alien menaces between the eyes without ever feeling like the game's doing it for you. Tossing grenades, using stasis power (Maybe the devs played some Dead Space, too?), and jumping also feel natural and never frustrating. While the Wii still struggles to find the FPS sweet spot with its unconventional controls, it seems the iPhone has already mastered this challenge.

Hated
Head-shot to Originality: From it's generic name, which stands for Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, to its forgettable sci-fi story, N.O.V.A. feels a bit uninspired. Objectives, such as activating computer terminals and clearing rooms of bad guys before proceeding, are things we've been doing for years. And, despite their stunning visuals, the levels continuously sting with deja vu as you trek across catwalks and ride elevators in familiar-feeling space stations. Although its production values are top notch and its gameplay engaging, N.O.V.A. sometimes feels like it fell off the "sc-fi shooter" assembly line.

While N.O.V.A. benefits by cribbing from some of the best console shooters, it also sticks too closely to many of the genre's growing-stale conventions. Still, its excellent gameplay and polished presentation easily make it the premier FPS on the platform, and even a worthy competitor to the PSP's and DS's best shooters. A 13-chapter solo campaign-complete with three difficulty settings-and 4-player Wi-Fi and local multi-player also make it a steal at around seven space bucks.

N.O.V.A. was developed and published by Gameloft for iPhone on December 17th. Retails for $6.99. A code to download the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game's campaign on medium, difficulty and participated in several multi-player matches over Wi-Fi.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

New Form of Touchscreen Displays Pioneered, Extremely Multi-Touch

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:50:09 EST

You've heard of resistive touchscreens, and hopefully you've been fortunate enough to own a capacitive touchscreen phone. But have you heard of Interpolating Force-Sensitive Resistance, or I.F.S.R touchscreen technology? Touchco hopes you soon will.

A bunch of scientists at New York University's Media Research Lab have grouped together to form Touchco, which is working on the aforementioned I.F.S.R technology. They want to create touchscreens which are even more multi-touch enabled than we've seen so far, capable of receiving simultaneous touch inputs. Apparently these touchscreens can be produced very cheaply, with Touchco hoping to sell them for $10 a square foot.

As you can see from the photo above, these touchscreens are very flexible, and don't require much power—making them ideal for ereaders, laptops and netbooks. [NYT Bits blog]

Lego Polaroid Camera Can't Possibly Be More Cute and Lovely

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:37:00 EST

If this Lego Polaroid 1000 instant camera actually worked, I would buy 24. And then I would destroy them to make a giant camera that takes 24 frames per minute. That would have saved instant photography. [Brickshelf via Obsolete]

PS3 Controller Fashioned From Nokia N900

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:18:12 EST

The Nokia n900 is not a cool phone, OK? It's just not. But I admit, it can do some cool stuff, like play Duke Nukem 3D and double as a PS3 controller with the help of BlueMaemo. [MaemoCentral via MAKE]

The Travel Times to Every Spot on the Globe

Mark Wilson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:47:16 EST

This map by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre examines the travel times from any spot on the globe to the nearest city of 50,000 or more inhabitants by land or water. The surprise?

As NewScientist observes, less than 10% of the world is more than two days away from a major city using ground-based travel. That stat only jumps to 20% when scaled to the Amazon, where river and expanding road networks have made even jungle terrain semi-assessable.

Also, nobody fucks with the cold climates.

On one hand, the map is a testament to human advancement and expansion. On the other, well, there are a buncha roads in what was once pristine jungle. (Yeah, I saw Avatar twice.) [Flickr and NewScientist via Neatorama]

Sidecar Made From WWII German Fighter Plane and Yamaha Motorbike Is Crazy-Cool

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:40:23 EST

Made from a WWII German fighter plane and Yamaha Wild Star motorbike, this sidecar bike looks like a less-colorful Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. [Henrik Toth via LikeCool]

Light-Emitting Wallpaper Using OLED Technology Could Light Our Homes By 2012

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:21:01 EST

Traditionally favored by middle-aged women, wallpaper could cut carbon emissions and eliminate the need for light bulbs, with a UK company using OLED technology to create light-emitting wallpaper.

The government-backed Carbon Trust has awarded a £454,000 ($720,000) grant to a company by the name of Lomox, to develop the special wallpaper. Inspired by OLED TVs which use low voltage, Lomox hopes to use some of the same technology for wallpaper that lights up rooms and outdoor areas, believing they can get an affordable product to market by 2012.

Let's just hope they don't stop at Laura Ashley for design influence. [FT]

Image Credit: Country Living

Android 2.1 Ported To G1, Official OTA Download Coming Soon?

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:50:46 EST

The last time we heard about the antiqued G1 being loaded with 2.1 it turned out to be fake, so we're not holding our breath now. Nonetheless, AndroidSpin user Drizzy is claiming success, with the ROM on its way.

Speculation is also pointing at an official over-the-air 2.0 or 2.1 upgrade for the G1, but considering the G1 is over a year old now and not exactly Google's priority these days, don't go holding out for an official one just yet. [AndroidSpin via RedmondPie]

New Slingbox Stuff Next Week Including a Touchscreen Device

Brian Lam — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:34:02 EST

Dave Zatz has an invite to a CES Slingbox event. Neato: New video streaming gear including a touchscreen device.

You'll experience an up close view of Sling's new placeshifting products including WiFi television, ultra-slim Slingboxes, and a next-generation touch screen device.

I just hope it's not mostly echostar-only stuff, since they were acquired. [Zatz]

$191,000 F1 Car Simulator Costs Way More Than a Sportscar

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:31:04 EST

Every little boy wants to race in the F1 at some point, but does he want to spend $191,500 on a simulator? Cruden's Hexatech simulator can be fully customized for the real F1, NASCAR or WRC experience.

All of the features, including the chassis, wheelbase and track, tire and suspension, engine, gearbox, differentials, aero loading, aero draft, steering, brakes and ABS can be adapted for your personal use, with each simulator coming with three 42-inch TV screens for the racing to be projected onto.

Cruden is claiming it'll last 10 - 15 years, which works out to around $19,150 a year—surely you can spare that from your annual salary? [Cruden via Autoblog]

LED Glasses Fool Everyone Into Thinking You're Guzzling Milk

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:08:06 EST

Think those plastic glasses are filled with Daisy's fresh milk? Wrong! The battery-powered white LEDs light up the opaque plastic, fooling everyone into thinking you're drinking nature's own juice. Instead of gin. [Amazon via OhGizmo]

Get Every Issue of the National Geographic Magazine on a HDD For $200

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:57:13 EST

The importance and relevance of the National Geographic magazine can never be argued against, particularly with their nod to the dawn of a new decade in the form of a HDD pre-loaded with every issue ever published.

The 160GB external hard drive has 100GB spare for storing your own travel photos, videos of volcanoes and the like, or perhaps downloading new digital copies of the magazine too, if it goes for another 100 years.

All of the articles, pictures, even adverts are included on the digital copies, and a DVD is also bundled, providing tips, behind-the-scenes videos and interviews. $199.95 may seem like a lot for a HDD, but if you weigh up the cost of what every magazine would've cost you from the past 121 years, you're actually making a saving [National Geographic via Download Squad via Crunchgear]

UPDATE: Or, you could buy each and every issue on a CD, for under $50

Garmin 450T Outdoor GPS Their Best (Without a Silly Camera)

Brian Lam — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:50:24 EST

Garmin's 450T GPS is their highest end without an integrated camera, and so, the best discreet outdoor GPS they make. It has a barometer, altimeter, waterproofness, tilt-compensated compass and a receiver sensitive enough for quick fixes in canyons and forests.

The 450 has a 3-inch, 240 x 400 pixel screen, 850MB of internal memory and a MicroSD slot. It works off AAs but with lithium or NiMH cells you can get 16 hours of life. There's a $400 450 model (lacking the t, which is $500) that misses the full payload of North American topographical maps, covering "major trails, urban and rural roads, interstates, highways, coastlines, rivers and lakes as well as national, state and local parks, forests and wilderness areas".

I'm all about cheap, internet enabled smartphone GPS apps for walking and turn by turn, but for the serious outdoorsman who doesn't want to risk ruining or running down batteries in their phone, and wants a full payload of maps for when the internet goes down over the north side of that big mountain, this $500 outdoor GPS seems like the one to have. But man, think about how much smartphone and GPS app $500 buys you these days. You'd have to be really, really serious about the outdoors these days to get a device like this. I'm personally on the fence.

[Business Wire, Garmin Blog, Garmin]

Garmin® Grows in Outdoor Recreation, Adding New Oregon® Handhelds, Garmin Connect™ Compatibility and Free Custom Maps Utility

OLATHE, Kan.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 touchscreen GPS devices, the newest of Garmin's next-generation outdoor handhelds now compatible with the online community at Garmin Connect as well as Garmin's free Custom Maps utility for transferring paper or digital maps onto your compatible handheld.

"More than ever, Garmin offers intuitive touchscreen options for anyone exploring and enjoying the world around them"

"More than ever, Garmin offers intuitive touchscreen options for anyone exploring and enjoying the world around them," said Dan Bartel, Garmin's vice president of worldwide sales. "Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 provide a bridge between the slimmed-down Dakota™ family and the top-of-line Oregon 550t, all of which work seamlessly with Garmin Custom Maps in planning your adventure and Garmin Connect for reliving the experience and sharing the memories."

Responsive to the touch of a finger, yet resistant to the rigors of nature, Oregon 450t and Oregon 450 simplify navigation through a glove-friendly touchscreen interface. This bright 3" color display is easier than ever to read and use in all conditions. Other key upgrades include user-selectable dashboards, enhanced track navigation, high-speed USB for faster map transfers with your computer, photo navigation and the 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass, which shows your heading even when you're standing still, without the need to hold it level. The new dashboards give users the ability to customize the appearance of various pages on your Oregon, including the geocaching, compass, stopwatch and elevation functions. For hikers, cyclists and trail runners, the enhanced track navigation will prove especially useful. When navigating to a destination on an active track, users will see the changes in elevation ahead of them as well as where they've been. Also, waypoints and other key locations along the active route – such as start, end and high and low elevation points – now appear on the map and active route pages. The new Oregon units also include a barometric altimeter, paperless geocaching and wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints, routes and geocaches with compatible Oregon, Dakota, Colorado® and Foretrex® devices.

Both units boast a worldwide shaded relief basemap, and Oregon 450t adds preloaded 100K topographic maps for the entire United States and state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective. Coverage on the 450t includes major trails, urban and rural roads, interstates, highways, coastlines, rivers and lakes as well as national, state and local parks, forests and wilderness areas. In addition, you can search for points of interest by name or proximity to your location and view descriptive details for terrain contours, topo elevations, summits and geographical points.

Customizing maps for your Garmin outdoor handheld – and downloading your activity afterward - were never easier. Through a few simple steps, Garmin's Custom Maps can bring the details, labels and landmarks of your existing paper or electronic map to a compatible Garmin Oregon, Dakota or Colorado. Compatible with both PC and Mac, this free utility complements the myriad of mapping products already offered for Garmin devices, including City Navigator®, NT for turn-by-turn directions on city streets, Blue Chart® g2, for marine charting, and TOPO U.S. 24K and 100K map software for incredible terrain detail (each sold separately). The power of Custom Maps is exemplified through paper and digital maps labeled for specific events and purposes, such as a college graduation invitation that lists campus buildings; a roadmap of a parade, marathon, 5K or bike race; a park pamphlet showing trailheads; land-management maps of wildlife and game areas; or a historic illustration of an area as it once stood. To walk through the steps, to find and share maps and to join discussions about Garmin Custom Maps, visit www.garmin.com/CustomMaps.

Experiences will live on long after the activity has ended, thanks to Garmin Connect's newly announced compatibility with Garmin outdoor handhelds, adding an expansive new product line to the free-to-join online community of more than 17 million activities – with more than 38,000 new activities per day – for sharing, storing, analyzing and enjoying. Outdoor and fitness enthusiasts alike can share activities on Facebook and Twitter, export to Google Earth or relive the activity in table view, calendar view or on a variety of maps including our new embedded Google Earth view.

Microsoft Job Posting Confirms Xbox LIVE Windows Mobile Phones

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:41:59 EST

I'm surprised it's taken this long, to be honest. Microsoft's posted a job offer, seeking a Principle Program Manager, who can "bring Xbox LIVE enabled games to Windows Mobile."

Based at their Redmond HQ, the right person for the job will "focus specifically on what makes gaming experiences "LIVE Enabled" through aspects such as avatar integration, social interactions, and multi-screen experiences."

I imagine to do all that, they'll be needing some top-notch Windows Mobile handsets, and really the Snapdragon-powered HTC HD2 is the only device on the market so far capable of doing it. Not that it at all resembles a device targeted at Xbox gamers. Give me a Zune phone any day of the week. [Microsoft via Engadget and Kotaku]

Image Credit: T3

Stanley/Brando Watch Has a Built in LED Flashlight

Brian Lam — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:40:11 EST

Joining it's brethren the compass, tape measure and calculator-ruler watch is this flashlight watch. Is it an official Stanley gadget? I dunno. But I still find it inspired: all watches should have built-in LED flashlights.

[Brando]

Full Color Paradigm Shift Ereaders For Under $200 Shown Off Next Week at CES

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:10:38 EST

At what point does a supposed ereader become a tablet? When it has a color screen for viewing photos and YouTube videos? Built-in MP3 player? Someone needs to have a quick word with Paradigm Shift's marketing department.

The company will be announcing two ereaders next week at CES, the 5-inch EER-051 and 7-inch EER-071WF. The first will have all the basic functions with 1GB of flash memory and an SD card slot, and the 7-inch model run on Windows CE, will be fully touchscreen, and Wi-Fi enabled. If you want to watch YouTube videos, chat to friends using E-Buddy and read Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF documents, this is the model for you. Internal memory is 2GB, but a microSD card slot will expand it further.

The 5-inch model will read ANSI, Unicode TXT, DOC, PDF, HTML, FB2, PDB and EPUB ebook formats, with the more capable 7-inch model a few more DRM-addled ebook formats.

Paradigm Shift is obviously keen to keep prices down on these two models, with the 5-inch EER-051 costing $150 (and coming in white, blue, periwinkle, pink, black and silver) and the 7-inch EER-071WF in just black and white for $200, on sale end of February. [Electronista]

Rumor: Two New Motorola Android Phones To Be Announced Next Week

Kat Hannaford — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:55:12 EST

Motorola hasn't exactly been shy with telling people how many Android phones they'll be releasing in 2010, so it's no surprise to hear that they'll be showing off "a pair of new phones" at next week's CES.

We try to not put much weight on analysts' speculations, but Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is confident that Motorola "may announce" two new Android phones, one on AT&T, the second on Verizon. Both will have, according to him, OLED screens and a slide-out QWERTY for the AT&T model, with the same handset shunning MOTOBLUR in favour of the Google Experiences interface.

Could that AT&T model be the Backflip/Enzo we've seen leaked pics of? Though the screen doesn't sound like it's OLED, admittedly. Or perhaps the Sholes or Opus One will make a cameo next week? Stay tuned for our CES coverage, in any case. [Barron's]

Image Credit: Phandroid