Both the proof-of-concept video and the above illustration are by Japanese design house PROTOTYPE. Their giant hive display can begin a chain reaction when someone touches one iPod, or it's even possible to "drop" some items between iPods (I don't read that as full drag and drop capability).

Unfortunately, I have many more posts to write today, so I can't calculate the size of a 16x9 display made up of the 50 million or so iPhone/iPod touch handsets out there. But I'm sure that someone in the comments simultaneously loves math and hates their job enough to make this numeric factoid enter our existence. [Mongoose via technabob]

iStartedSomething has videos showing the prototype in action, and it looks like it's got quite some potential, whether genuinely useful for manipulating data or for just plain fun. I can't wait until displays like this come out so that I can control my computer by staring it down after some foolish hand waving. [iStartedSomething via Slashgear]

It's not a novel idea to crush cans to 40% of their volume in order to recycle them, nor is it news that there's a gadget for it. What is of interest about this can crushing gadget is that it's automated and oriented toward households. Check out the video for a peek at the (rather durable looking) inner workings and you won't be surprised that it's great on battery life, too. Unlike my iPhone since a certain update. [Yanko Design]

The eniCycle's electric-powered 1000 watt motor kicks into gear as you lean forward—similar to riding a Segway. The gyroscopes help you stay upright while measuring your vertical angle 100 times a second.

So far Polutnik has built two prototypes, and is looking for big business to help him sell the thing. I hope he does. [Enicycle via Core77 via DVICE]

The RX-5 is packing a 5MP Carl Zeiss camera, a full QWERTY in the style of the N97 or Sony's XPERIA series, and a bunch of other interesting features:

* Screen resolution of 800 by 480 pixels.

* Support for both chambers. * Support for both Chambers. The most advanced auto could count, flash, and a resolution of 2608 by 1966 pixels, about 5 megapixels The most advanced auto could count, flash, and a resolution of 2608 by 1966 pixels, about 5 megapixels

* FM transmitter and receiver * FM transmitter and receiver

* Accelerometer * Accelerometer

* WiFi b and g standards under * WiFi b and g standards under

* Internal Memory 128 megabytes DDR manufactured by Samsung * Internal Memory 128 megabytes DDR manufactured by Samsung

* Keyboard is similar to the N810, with a few extra keys * Keyboard is similar to the N810, with a few extra keys

* Chipset OMAP3 ARM Texas Instruments, with support for frequency scaling * Chipset OMAP3 ARM Texas Instruments, with support for frequency scaling

* Linux Operating System based on Maema 5 * Linux Operating System based on Maema 5

Looks interesting, but we're not sure it'll help drag Nokia out of their design rut. Frankly, we'd be a lot more excited about a revamped Symbian than another new slider, but we'll take what we can get. [Kaskus Forums via Engadget]

The sharp, colorful packaging isn't quite what people will see on launch day, but it's close. Enter the demo guy again, who says it's "almost launch day packaging." Presumably this means Michael Arrington still has to bless each unit or anoint them with oils before they're shipped out the door.

And lastly, while it is billed as such, this video is not a true unboxing, as the CrunchPad in this video is covered from head to toe in filthy fingerprints. This one's been sleeping around already. Harlot. [YouTube via CrunchPad Fans - Thanks, Trooper]

The question is, do these actually work, or is it just a bizarre casing for the real hardware housed inside? Furthermore, if it was a real product, would you actually want one? [Pete Verrando via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Conductive plates may be a concept at the moment, but all of the elements are available to make it a reality. On the downside, cleaning up the plates may pose a problem, not to mention cords dangling from the kitchen table. However, as wireless power systems come of age, I can see how we would be able to cook entire meals on our plates and keep the food warm without the need for separate appliances. [Designboom via Make via DVICE]

JVC is claiming the world's lightest 32-inch LCD TV here, and by the looks of this somewhat sparse press release, they're achieving that with a modular design (meaning, as many components as possible offloaded to a companion box), and a "new optical system" covering the backlight. They're also pushing the green message with "50% less materials and 10% fewer LCD module parts." We'll have more from Vegas in just a matter of days. Yikes, is it really that soon? [JVC Japan (translated)]

JVC Develops Next-Generation Super-Thin LCD Technology
Super Thin and Light at .28 inch (7mm) and 11lbs (5kg)
Energy Efficient LCD Makes Possible Flexible Visual Environments

Tokyo, Japan, January 5, 2009 - Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) is pleased to
announce that it has developed next-generation super-thin LCD technology for 32-inch television
displays. The significant reduction in thickness and weight allow greater flexibility in the design
and layout of commercial and household visual environments.

1. Integrating a new optical system and modular LCD construction, JVC technology has made
possible the company’s thinnest and lightest LCD television display at just .28 inch (7mm) in
depth and 11lbs (5kg) in weight.

2. The technology uses approximately 50% less material resources and approximately 10% fewer
LCD module parts than current comparable JVC displays, while maintaining optical, intensity and
low-heat radiation performance. Notably, use of LED as the light source eliminates the need for
mercury.

3. JVC developed new optical elements to realize this new LCD technology, overcoming
technological restraints on thin displays to deliver an energy-efficient, high-resolution display
exhibiting high contrast and luminance uniformity and a wide color palette.

JVC will be exhibiting a 32-inch LCD TV prototype equipped with the technology at a private
venue in Las Vegas, Nevada from Wednesday, January 7 through Saturday, January 10. The
International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s biggest home electronics exhibition,
is also held at this time.

Click on image above for higher resolution version

This concept started as a Photoshop idea by Giz reader Mat Brady. He wants to get rid of his Nokia N95 but can't get himself to buy an iPhone for the same reason other people don't like the current iPhone. Lack of a physical keyboard, lack of a good camera, and not enough storage.

I've an iPhone 3G. I love it. In fact, now that I'm in Spain and I can't use the 3G-because AT&T will nail me for the data roaming at a buck per megabyte-I miss a lot of things, from Maps to Facebook. But even while I can't live without it, I can see those shortcomings. In fact, I've bitched about the camera and the storage quite a few times. Mat made his concept and called it iPhone Elite: an iPhone with 60GB of storage, true 16:9 aspect ratio, slide-out keyboard, one megapixel front camera for iChat, and a high quality camera, with good lenses, optical zoom, and video capability.

That's good, but we thought it could be a bit better. We fixed the keyboard to make it more rational and compact, losing some unneeded keys. With the space, we added what it's really needed to make the iPhone a true Nintendo DS competitor: A direction pad and two buttons. For the D-Pad, we didn't want to reinvent the wheel and just copied Nintendo's tried-and-proved design.

Is this doable now? Technologically, it is. We've seen designs by HTC that get close to this, although they don't have the software and the final polish that this class of Apple product may have. Would it be more expensive too produce than the current iPhone 3G? Of course. Would we want to pay extra for it? Definitely yes.

Wouldn't you? [Original design by Mat Brady]

Hello there. We're starting to release the details of some of the things we'll be showing off at Gizmodo gallery, and I think for our first, we'll show off one of the most interesting and mysterious: This Frog Design made Apple prototype which I cannot find many official details of.

There are photos of the concept floating around the net with a check writing program on the monochrome stylus touchscreen (1980s PayPal!) but neither Frog nor Apple can or will tell me anything about this curious machine other than it was worked on by Hartmut Esslinger, founder of Frog, and The Steve, as part of the Snow White design language applied to the IIc and original Mac. It was unveiled by Esslinger's son last year, who described the thought process going on between Jobs and his father as not only thinking about the drinking glass, but the very nature of thirst itself. It will be at Gizmodo Gallery this December 4th-7th, in NYC, along with another Apple Prototype which I will save for the exhibit itself. I hope you can come. Till then, if you know anything about this device and can give me some back story, I'd love to hear it. [Gizmodo Gallery]

[Thanks to REED ANNEX and thanks to our benefactor gizmine.com]

Gizmodo Gallery
Reed Annex
151 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

Gizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup
The reader meetup takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called The Annex (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is 152 Orchard Street and we'll be there at 9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th.

Gallery Dates:
December 4th-7th

Times:
12/4 Thursday
12-8

12/5 Friday
12-8

12/6 Saturday
11-8

12/7 Sunday
11-4

[Read more about our Gizmodo Gallery here and see what else we'll be playing with at the event.]

The beauty of this prototype is that it can work inside an MRI thanks to its titanium and stainless steel construction. Everything from biopsy, to diagnosis to cancer-hunting is all completed within the MRI, making for a convenient one stop trip for patients.

The robot kills cancer cells by way of a probe that is inserted into the breast until it reaches the tumor. The probe then burns the cells until they're all dead. Researchers say the robot, if successfully deployed into the medical field, could consolidate three months of hospital trips into a single visit. Better yet, the robot will also be able to access parts of the human body that human surgeons can't, although researchers didn't elaborate much on that point.

Unfortunately, the robot is a prototype, and trials are estimated at four years out, if they happen at all. "We're not just governed by technology," said said Rao Gullapalli, a collaborator on the robot from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. "We're governed by bureaucracy as well." [Diamondback Online via Slashdot]

The beauty of a thermoelectric device is that it has no moving parts, making it extremely durable and easy to produce. The high durability means students were able to install it in flues at the cogeneration plant, where it will capture waste heat and use it to create more energy for the campus air conditioning, heating and electricity. Eventually, the team hopes to install the device in the waste heat nirvana, hot water pipes, which could ramp up that 80% number a few more percentage points.

In addition to increasing the efficiency of the MIT campus, the device could also have an effect on the environment by trapping waste heat before it's ejected into the atmosphere as exhaust. And after that, home heating in general could be revolutionized as consumers install the device in their home furnaces.

Ultimately, said Daniel Kraemer, graduate students in mechanical engineering, this simple device could work anywhere there's excess heat. Gizmodo writers are pretty full of hot air, Kraemer, why don't we start here? [MIT]

[Tech-On]

The team demonstrated their prototype at the recent CHI08 human factors in computing conference. It seems like a natural progression of the ebook device, and has gone down well with test readers. The main complaint seems to be the weight of the prototype makes it tricky to use: and that's something easily fixed in a commercial variant. In fact, if Kindle2 was something like this, I may even be tempted to take my book collection into the digital realm, in the same way as my CDs and DVDs. [NewScientist]

There's the "Klippit" module, which has a single button you press when you find a radio program you like: it gets added as a favorite on your Facebook profile, has an audio snippet recorded, and extra info gets emailed to you. There's the "Volume Voting" module that rates popularity with how much you turn up the sound when your favorite tune comes on. A push-to-talk module lets you have a quick VOIP chat with a friend, perhaps about the program you're listening to, and there's an MP3 recorder-player, and a phone-charging module too.

Designers Schulze and Webb really envisage their device being a physical social hub for your home too: they suggest a key-storage module that sets up the radio to your user profile, and handily stores your keys; and a kids "tear-off" fluffy portable module that stores most-listened to stuff, and glows brightly when the program is due on.

Despite all these extra modules being hypothetical, there's some clever design here exploring social networking, radio-listening habits and the like. But we can't help but think it's based around the wrong sort of technology: isn't radio a bit passé now? Make it internet-radio based, and we'd be very interested indeed. [Schulze and Webb via Like Cool]

• Opening up at 6 a.m. for people to rent stuff on the way to work and not watch it until they go home, thus perhaps losing the desire they had to watch that movie in the first place
• Selling cappuccino or fountain drinks (like at 7-11)
• Giving away free Wi-Fi and Rock Band play sessions on a 62-inch TV.
• "Offering new technology for watching movies, reading books or shooting video at a Blockbuster." We're not sure what this means, but it's probably selling gadgets like Best Buy.

Good idea? Bad idea? It's hard to say right now. On the one hand, Blockbuster employees these days don't actually know anything about movies and don't roam the aisles helping you find something you'd like. They're just there restocking shelves and ringing you up, both jobs that could be done much better by a computer connected to a robotic arm. [Dallas News]

Would this thing fly? Most probably not. Should someone try to make something similar for real? In a word: YES. [Dezeen]

After doing tests with Bluetooth, Postmachina's director, Renato Valdes Olmos, decided to make their own set of wireless protocols in order to swap information—which can then be synced with a computer and imported into various social networking sites like LinkedIn or Twitter. If this Project E can be made robust and foolproof that it will work without even thinking about it, we could see a huge market for it everywhere. But if Postmachina can take this tech and insert it into cellphones, something people already carry on them, that would be a revolution. [Winning By Sharing]

Two cores in back and one in front make up the construction, which runs so hot that it comes with heatsinks, heat pipes and a water block that fits into two 5.25-inch slots. How many Xbox 360s, PS3s and Wiis could you buy for the price of one of these? [Nordic Hardware]

Currently, the XCP is at concept stage, but the final production model is expected to house two quad-core CPUs (3.2GHz) on a motherboard that supports four graphics cards. Nice. We understand that the uber geeks among us are probably sweating profusely in eager anticipation of the XCP. Well, you can stop now, as an expected price tag of $20,000 says this will remain a thing of geek utopia. Yes, elf sex remains therein, too. Sorry. [HEXUS]

Works by integrating an optical fiber system that display image between two glass parts. There are 12 micro lighter fibers, that throw image components to the glass, that offer a quite good luminosity, and keep the mobile phone concept as light as possible. All lights only appear when you open the phone, by pushing removable part on the side of it.

The unit itself is made out of plastic, and incorporates a touchscreen, an accelerometer, as well as 72 touch sensors, and internal Bluetooth. Currently 95 percent accurate, the Bar of Soap's creators tested it in five ways: as a camera, gamepad, PDA, phone and remote control . [MIT via Oh!Gizmo]