Combined with an extra microprocessor and some custom scripts, the RGB LED illuminates with a different color depending on whether it's email, an IM or a new tweet awaiting one's perusal. With as much extraneous bundled hardware and software bloats most laptops, you'd think someone like HP or Dell would simply integrate such luminescent feedback into their complete line. You'd think. [justblair via lilliputing via CrunchGear]

A new Innocell extended battery from Seido tops off the 1,150mAh standard battery with 20% more capacity, putting it at 1,350mAh (or what has been calculated at anywhere from 7.25 to 9.5 hours of use). But Seido achieves this feat without changing the stock Pre battery's frame, meaning that the extra juice won't come at the cost of a bulkier phone.

The battery runs $45 and is available now. Live it up, Pre users. Such joyous days are a rarity and should be celebrated with all the vigor of a Hallmark holiday. [Seido via jkontherun via mypre via ubergizmo]

As part of a 260-specimen dinosaur exhibit in Chiba, Japan, visitors will be able to see moving, life-sized dinosaurs right on the museum floor.

Running from July through September, the "Dinosaurs over time!" exhibit uses Canon video scopes to offer a "site-wide view" of 3D CG dinosaurs. Useful for both enhancing the museum-going experience and scaring children away from learning, the result is a "mixed reality" experience (also known as augmented reality) in which the analog and digital worlds combine to begin man's inevitable fall into the purely digital realm.

Sounds fun, but when Japan is crushed by a giant reptilian beast before the country uploads its collective consciousness into the Matrix, I'm gonna be the first to say I told you so. [Museum and Canon via DVICE]

Designed and decorated like gigantic toy cartons complete with the extra little flap thing that allows to box to secure itself to a hook (sorry, packaging terminology is not our specialty), they're just retro enough to make you think that you're going to get a real Transformer (but then you just get a stupid pair of shoes that you're just to old to justify ever wearing off of your own property).

Look for the limited edition Soundwave, Megatron and Bumblebee footwear this July for between $100-120—if you're able to score a pair before they head to eBay. [Kix and the City via StreetLevel via walyou]

Epoch will officially unveil this toy sushi train later this month at the Tokyo Toy Show. Doubtfully slated for a US release (most probably because the train's design wasn't meant to accommodate several pounds of cow meat dipped in butter), the train is a replica of Japan's famously fast N700 series Shinkansen. We're assuming that given the model's plastic construction, Epoch's mini Shinkansen delivers sushi at speeds slower than 186MPH.

But as anyone who's played with a cheap toy train around the holidays can attest, plans for your pricey toro could quickly derail mid-transit, adding a bit of carpet lint and dog hair to your typical wasabi and soy sauce mix. Still, you could do worse than eating off the floor. I mean, once you've taken a ride on the sushi train, you can't just go back to the humdrum life of plates. (Trust me. My quest for unique dining experiences dictates that I only accept food delivered via a Dolly Parton impersonator bungee jumping from a hot air balloon. The thought of anything less makes me want to vomit.) [HobbyMedia]

Design
Note: The R600 has been out for several months, we just tested their updated system with the mega SSD. So if you've read about the build before, you can skip down to our section on performance.

For $3,500 (as tested with 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400, 3GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel 4500MHD graphics, DVD burner, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi n), the Portege may be a bit of a disappointment right out of the box. Yes, it's ridiculously light, starting at 2.46lbs, but that weight comes at a cost of feel. It's plastic, and no amount of metal paint can get around that. But luckily the plastic is fairly smudge-proof and part of a "shock absorbing design" complete with "spill resistant" keyboard. In other words, the system may be more durable than a Macbook, especially with so few moving parts.

The 12.1-inch screen is technically WXGA (widescreen) resolution, though something about the system's shape makes it look more vertical, like a 4:3 screen of yore. This is a minor point, of course, and its non-glossy screen gets just bright enough to use indoors by a window. In full-out sunlight, you can one-button switch the system into "transreflective" mode, essentially using the sun to brighten the screen. High brightness (in standard mode) is still the brightest setting, even under direct sunlight, but the transreflective setting probably uses a lot less power.
Extras, from the effective fingerprint scanner to the eSATA and SD ports, do a lot to sweeten the deal on the small, utilitarian system. And in this era, it's straight up shocking to see an optical bay pop out of a system that's just .77 inches thick.

Performance
The R600 runs Vista very fluidly, especially given its stature. Firefox, Windows Media Player, HD content streamed from the web—none of it will leave you waiting. But given the system's Intel 4500MHD GPU, don't get any fantasies of gaming.

Many will expect the computer to boot nearly instantly given the SSD—I've heard this expectation a number of times—but the still takes about a minute to fully load. The bottleneck here is simply not the hard drive.
How does the R600 compare to other light systems like the Macbook Air or Lenovo X301? Just as you'd expect from the specs on paper, it's slower than the Macbook Air. But even with the same processor, it outperforms the X301.

Then you have to check out the speeds on the SSD.
Fast! This isn't some bargain basement drive that Toshiba shoved in a laptop for bragging rights. I mean, a 512GB SSD is clearly for bragging rights, but it's Toshiba's biggest and fastest drive made in-house—way nicer than we see competition from Lenovo and Apple (which we believe to both use earlier gen, Samsung drives).

But what does this speed chart mean in real life? Copying a 700MB file on my Macbook Pro (with a 320GB, 7200 RPM hard drive) took 35 seconds. On the R600, that same copy may have legitimately cracked the 8 second barrier. I'd like to say that I never took the speed for granted, but I totally started taking the speed for granted. Superman doesn't bow down and thank the sun every time he avoids traffic by flying over Metropolis, so why should I be any different?
Toshiba's 6-cell battery is rated internally at 7 hours, 32 minutes. I found that it offers 3 hours and 35 minutes of MPEG4 playback (screen maxed bright, Wi-Fi on, Bluetooth off, performance settings normal). Our test is rigorous, and it's pretty common for laptops to only get about 50% of their rated battery life in our real world use simulation. Of course, the computer could probably eek out another 30 minutes to an hour with less taxing processes and a dimmer screen.

I Might Buy One...In 2011
The key to remember, of course, is that the 128GB R500 ran $3,000 just a year ago. Now, their 512GB R600 is $3,500. Even with the price bump on their top tier system, Toshiba has the right idea here: Push the envelope and force the market to adapt. Keep topping the sundae with cherries and someone will be hungry enough to buy it (meanwhile those of us who aren't will have plenty of dropped cherries to munch on).
Still, I don't know that I'd recommend this fully stuffed R600 with full gusto. It's simply not as beautiful as premium, small-form laptops like the Dell Adamo or Apple's Macbook Air (side by side above), and the prices of flash storage will certainly come down (and quickly at that). But I'm glad Toshiba made the thing because, frankly, somebody needed to load a laptop with a legitimately beastly SSD first.

The huge SSD Is fast

Under 3lbs, less than an inch thick

Substantial ports and extras

For $3,500, it feels a bit like a Pontiac

[Additional benchmarks from AppleInsider and ThinkPad Forums]

Digital Domain was already working on some secondary characters for Transformers 2 while George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic building the main robots like Optimus Prime. Yes, Transformers 2 had such a big budget that DD was hired just to ride shotgun.

One key moment of DD's handiwork depicts the transformation of a girl named Alice—played by actress Isabel Lucas—into a lethal robot. The main shot, seen above, uses digital techniques like advanced particle simulation (physics) to tear 10,000 pieces of skin away from a girl's body—the kind of high-concept graphics that require lots of software know-how, and computers to do incredible amounts of heavy lifting. It was the sort of shot that showcased everything DD could do.

When Michael Bay saw it, he found it lacking.

After watching an early edit of the movie, Bay had decided that although the wide shot of Alice was nice, the film was missing a close-up—he wanted 40 frames of the girl's face as she began transforming.

The close-up wouldn't take as much as the full-body master shot. Instead of 10,000 pieces of skin, only about 50 had to move. But because of time, budget and manpower constraints, this animation had to be done the old-fashioned way—working by hand. It meant that five guys would spend the next three months of their lives on less than two seconds of the finished film.

Computer graphics supervisor Paul George Palop walked me through their process of crafting the "very, very painful" 40 frames.

The goal sounded simple: Transform this closeup of a human into a closeup of a robot. Alice's face would begin to shatter away, revealing a gruesome creature underneath. But to model in 3D over digital film takes some prep work. To make the effect look real, the guys would need to map the 2D film original shot into digital 3D space. Then they could add all the neat robot stuff.

First, the DD team cut out all of the background and extraneous objects (including Shia LaBeouf's head), isolating the female figure. It's the first step of a classic technique known as rotoscoping, a trick that predates Disney, in which animators overlay cartoon characters and other animation on top of live action backgrounds. (Now that CG has blended humans and cartoons, it's probably safe to say that there isn't an FX-heavy movie made now that doesn't involve some kind of rotoscoping.)

With the basic 2D work done, DD used a laser scan of Lucas' figure to create a perfect 3D map. The rotoscope plate was then laid over this map, allowing the animators to work with real image depth and geometry. We don't have that exact shot, so we stole a still from the later wide shot to make the point. On the right, you have the 3D body scan model. On the left, you can see the 3D applied to the 2D figure.

One artist worked solely on the little skin plates that cracked away around Alice's mouth. Each of these 50 or so pieces was hand-animated, frame by frame, to create the short effect. But to enhance the illusion of movement, artists applied extra texture to the tiles along with some displacement mapping to each tile's edge, which essentially complicates the square shape into an array of small triangles. (See how they look all jagged in the version on the right?) One the 3D-animated shapes were laid out, they had to be naturally lit, lest the girl's skin look unnatural before she transformed completely into a metal monster.

In the meantime, the exact movements of the human Alice head needed to be applied to the newly animated robot Alice head, so that any movement from the former could be copied instantly in the latter.

Finally, all of the pieces were composited, rendered and placed on a newly drawn background. You'll notice that beyond the obvious visual effects, artists beefed up Alice's figure a bit. They rebuilt the end of her left arm and, while they were at it, added a bit more lift in the back of her hair. Even with a blockbuster megamovie deadline, there's always time for last-minute styling.

After all of this meticulous work—three months of effort from digital effects masters—audiences everywhere got a bonus 40 frames of remarkable robotic transformation. Ironically, one of the movie's chief complaints would be its length.

The Pre will first be available in the UK, Ireland and Germany where it will be carried exclusively by O2. Then in Spain, the awesomely-named Movistar will pick up the handset by this holiday season.

Of course, this means that you'll probably be able to import a Pre to run on AT&T. But chances are, if you're suffering through AT&T's lousy service already, it's only because you sold your soul for an iPhone. [Palm via Engadget]

Developed by researchers from Israel's Technion University, what makes the robot feasible is that it isn't self-propelled, saving size and engineering complication. Instead, the bot takes advantage of a magnetic field from outside the body, meaning that doctors can not only guide but also propel the the vein crawler forward at 9mm/second. And the robot shouldn't run out of power mid-procedure, stalling it in your body as it drifts for your brain.

When the robot needs to park, those little arms can spring out *shiver* and grab onto vessel walls *shiver*shiver*shiver*shiver*shiver*shiver*shiver*.

Now researchers are looking at beefing up the bot, adding extra tools and even a camera to the mix. And as scary as a robot-filmed reality show starring my aorta may be, it sounds a lot better than having several layers of flesh peeled away via scalpel. [The Inquirer via Newlaunches]

Go to the brand new iSaw website and you'll discover the engineering mastery that goes into such a nonexistent but lethal USB device, including "Instant plug 'n' play. Zero startup time. [And] Patent-pending technology [that] allows for an unparalleled distribution of power." You'll also note that the 3/8" saw chain is meticulously labeled as part no. 31170—an important point for industrial users.

I actually "pre-ordered" the $59.95+shipping iSaw, which only required a social security number along with three credit cards and a cosigner. Luckily, I received order confirmation immediately:

Congratulations! You will soon be the proud owner of an i.Saw.

We have taken note of your no-obligation pre-order. You will be contacted as soon as the i.Saw is ready. Payment will only be required just before shipment.

Please tell your friends about the world's first USB powered chainsaw.

At your service,
i.Saw Team

Until my saw comes in, I'll enjoy the complimentary iSaw wallpaper available on their site. After my saw comes in, I'm gonna rule this place. [iSaw via Gadget Lab]

A breakthrough in solar that involves putting 'nanopillars' on aluminum foil could improve the efficiency of manufacturing solar by as much as 300%. That could drop costs way down, if they can get the technology out of the lab.

Microsoft has tossed its home energy management software, dubbed Hohm, into the beta ring for you to take your swing. All feedback is appreciated as they build a better tool to help you analyse your energy use, and give you recommendations on saving money and energy.

Greenpeace wags its finger at HP, Lenovo and Dell, and praises other companies in its most recent report on the greenest gadget manufacturers.

Finally, one ugly "solar" gadget vest pushes us too far. We look at the bigger picture with ridiculous designs, and tell companies why they need to quit dreaming up and manufacturing ugly solar clothing.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

While most of us dump coffee grounds into the garbage (OK, some of us might use them for compost or fertilizer), eco fashion company Singtex has taken three years to patent a process that converts used coffee grounds into yarn. And this yarn can weave shirts that aren't just Starbucks-approved, but that feature fast-drying, anti-odor properties. (S Cafe shirts look like any typical performance sportswear.)

Now if only they managed to infuse the fabric with a little of the coffee's caffeine we'd be onto something. [Singtex via Taiwan News via Greenlaunches]

Pumped through a Wii PC emulator, these images are just upscaled versions of the SMG's existing graphics—in other words, you're not even seeing what advanced hardware/graphics engines can do with additional texture or lighting. But with a boost in sharpness alone (more pixels), the Wii looks simply splendid in HD. Edges are smooth and objects are crisp, which is really all you need with Nintendo's trademark artistic style. Yeah, I hope that analysts predicting a Wii HD aren't totally full of it.
See lots more shots in their native rez at: [NeoGAF via Kotaku]

The Dream Cat Venus is coming to Japan this month for $110. Both touch and sound sensitive, the Venus (no relation to the planet or the feminine razor) reacts to your petting and talking with a proper amount of nudging and purring. And like the Sony Aibo, the Dream Cat can actually "see" through its camera-enabled eyes.

But does this poor robot need to look like the product from a My First Taxidermy kit? Drop the realism for a moment, Sega, and let these helpless kittenbots out of your dungeon in the uncanny valley. Such amoral plush tactics may work fine to tease the buffets of Melmac, but no one wants to see Japan become Melmac...any more than it already has. [Sega Toys (pdf) via CrunchGear]

Using TimeLapse, available for $2 in the App Store, along with a Gorillapod GoGo, available for $30, one iPhone user shot mountain cloud footage that's worthy of the Discovery Channel (standard def broadcast).

The quality is so good that I figured the reflection you can see in the clip revealed that the footage was phone—a mere camera aimed at a TV screen. But upon further examination, it looks to be an iPhone with the GoGo tripod mount reflecting in a window. [via BENM]

Machine sewn from various colors of felt (yet lined in simple black), this $15 Gameboy iPhone case was just listed back on July 2nd but is already "sold out."

Still, the site is probably worth a bookmark if you're interested. As soon as Etsy user toastkawaii's hands stop bleeding from high demand, we're (not) sure she'll restock. [Etsy via iPhone Savior via MAKE]

The arcade's been posted online as a fully explorable panorama. From Crazy Taxi to Guitar Freaks to Han Solo frozen in carbonite to the 360-degree spinning Sega R360 jet fighter cabinet, Jackson amassed a daunting collection of arcade games and general geek paraphernalia—much of which was auctioned off earlier this year.

It's notable that the collection seems to be frozen in time during the mid 90s. That's right around the timeframe of Jackson's notorious $22 million molestation settlement. Though, more fairly, it's also the same era that consoles really started to cut into the arcade experience. [Pinesane via Kotaku]

Loaded with a variety of multicolored LEDs, you can change the hue of the luminotherapy bed with the touch of a remote. The resulting colors, such as pink, blue and green will make your lover glow with all the vibrancy of a Star Trek Original Series alien babe. Well, that, or they'll give you night terrors of being stuck on a Cylon base ship (before they got all lovey hippie on the humans) or a painfully hipster sushi joint. [phillipe boulet via Unplggd]

(The magnetic fields, of course, do eventually drive the wheels forward when the energy is transferred from over superconducting fluid that touches the rims.)

The result is, theoretically, a very smooth and quiet ride with a low environmental impact. We just like the design for its neat, rear-entry cockpit and all of the potential we see in jousting of the future. [ecofriend]

This preview for Robo Geisha captures a world in which geisha are robotic assassins, super villains shoot rockets from wheelchairs, giant robots make buildings bleed and assassins sometimes sustain inconvenient anal injuries by way of panty katana. The film is expected to hit (Japan's?) theaters this fall.

If anyone has any more information on this must-see, Oscar-sure film, please share it in the comments. [Robo-Geisha via CrunchGear]

The Foot Pee! Pack, essentially two ziplock bags intended for your feet, supports an age-old philosophy that one's pee can have benefits to their skin. Now I'm no expert, but I've been accidentally urinating on stuff for years now, and I can't say that my crotch, toes, knees, backyard bushes or bathroom walls look any younger because of it. [Toyko Times via Tokyo Mango]

Also note the products tagline: "Easy & Surprise"

So do what we do: Don't workout. Eat terribly. And only copulate with partners who promise to either ignore Cheetos-induced stretch marks or allow you to wear your RIPT FUSION t-shirt in a jacuzzi.

What's a RIPT FUSION shirt? Well it's "a classic men's undershirt injected with steroids," of course. For just $58, it'll add pecs and abs all while sucking in the flabby parts. But even more critical to society, it'll put geeks on the same playing field as jocks, the lazy on the same playing field as the obnoxiously active.

Even if the Ript Fusion is too gimmicky to make you look good, it could eventually make muscles look bad. And in the long run, that's really just as beneficial. [RIPT via Super Punch]

Scheduled Communications
"A communications device may be programmed to initiate a communications operation when a particular condition is met. The user may set any suitable condition, including for example a date and time, location, event, received or sent communications operation..."
In other words, automatically email grandma on her birthday, or automatically send your wife a text message when you land in another state "I'm sorry honey, I'm seeing someone else...please pack up my clothing neatly and ship it to me."

Intelligent and Customizable Communication
"The communications system can provide intelligent communications between devices, in which the system can identify appropriate communication modes for incoming communications requests based on a user's preferences and availability. The communications system can determine whether a user is participating in an activity. In response to determining that a user is participating in an activity, the communications system can automatically identify one or more preferred communication modes that are available to the user."
In other words, if I'm at the gym (tracked by my location) or running from the cops (tracked by the jostling of my iPhone since my GPS is off), my family and friends can see that I'd prefer text messages instead of calls.

Life Event Based Modes
"One or more event-based modes of operation may be automatically or selectively applied to the device when a new life event is detected...The event-based modes of operation may be used to restrict access to certain applications or functionalities on the device, enforce or restrict certain user interface or other types of settings, and add or remove or rearrange the priority of device assets. The new life events associated with event-based modes of operation may be of various types, including location-based events, environment-based events, calendar-based events, news-based events, and usage-based events."
In other words, if you walk into a movie theater, your phone could automatically deactivate the ringer and text message notifications, plus it might turn off all push notifications to save some battery life while you weren't actively using your iPhone. Combined with a patent above, potential callers could even see that since you were at a movie, maybe they should delay the call, wait for you in the theater's alley and then threaten you, at knife-point, that you never should have taken out a loan you couldn't pay back just to buy a stupid iPhone.

I'll take it all, Apple. Thanks. [Unwired View]

This week at Uncrate: We belly up to the bar with a Newcastle DraughtKeg, cook up some round chunks of goodness in the Meatball Grill Basket, and add a little funk to our barren walls with Frames Wallpaper. We also take a ride on the Piaggio MP3 500 Scooter, get wrapped up in American Apparel Bedding, and hit it long with the Nike SQ Dymo STR8-FIT Driver. Finally, we carry our haul home aboard the Madsen Bucket Cargo Bike, kick it in the Nike Air Zoom Hayward + 3, and feast our senses on the greatness of The Man Wall.

This otherwise standard, boring island's countertop slides out to stretch its surface area while revealing (cold?) storage, a sink and electric burners. Comparing this design to the layout of more than one of my tiny apartments, there's really no contest—this island is simpler, more space efficient and has a lot more eye appeal. I'd far rather work on an island than with my face pressed to cabinets, and there's enough surface area here to match most small kitchens.

Then again, keep in mind that you need to leave the open space for everything to unfold and the island fails to accommodate a simple toaster, blender, or even oven. So maybe existing designs don't have it all wrong even if they aren't quite as chic or idealistic. [Ensci via freshome via dvice]

Starting at $3,000 (and easily reaching $10,000+), the Phobos features a single-pieced aluminum body tastefully coated in black car paint. The DVD drives are slot-loading, the USB/SD card reader pops up from the case and everything is so simple and tucked away that I'd have missed the iPhone doc on top of the case had they not pointed it out.

Its touchscreen LCD, mounted to the front of the monolith, can do everything from boot the system to one-touch tweak its performance settings thanks to the fact that it runs its own processor and custom Linux OS.

The machine, packed standard with luxuries like dual video cards and SSD boot drives—is actually not meant to be opened by the user. Instead, BFG includes a full professional installation and 6-month on-site tune-up in their pricing for the system. They'll also send pros out to install new components like video cards—upgrades they fairly offer for the difference between the price of your old card and the price of the new card. But the Phobos is still very easy to open (the case slides right up).
Looking under the hood, it becomes obvious that BFG has design a normal tower PC and flipped the whole thing 90-degrees so that its sits on its own ports. The design allows the machine to pull in air from the top and expel air out the bottom. It's a smart idea that apparently cuts down on dust and pet hair inhalation.

The processor is water cooled and the cords neatly arranged. But it's all for bragging rights since BFG doesn't want you hassled with cracking the case anyway.

So the Phobos is nice, but I had two ideas for improvements. If the touchscreen popped out of the case, the system would work far better as an HTPC since you could take the remote to the couch.

BFG's next model should have that.

And the size. The Phobos is huge, easily the biggest tower I've seen in some time.

BFG is working on a lower tier Phobos model with a smaller footprint. (It should be mentioned, however, that such advancements are up to 2 years off. BFG's follow up systems aren't on their way any time soon.)

The company is realistic. BFG knows that most hardcore PC gamers prefer to build their own PCs and that many HTPC users would prefer something small. But they're happy in their service-oriented niche, even if it means selling 500 uber PCs a month. Still, shrink the thing and offer me an innovative PC remote...and maybe we'll talk. [BFG Systems]

20 UK Vue cinemas will offer audiences the opportunity to steer a spaceship through an asteroid belt. Two IR cameras will track the audience (the left half raises their hands to veer left, the right half raises their hands to veer right). None of the experience is prerendered—it's all an interactive video game.

As films go 3D, it'll be interesting to see if theaters (and movie makers) take the opportunity to integrate more interactive elements to the experience. Raising my hand in the air, however, is not how I see myself defeating the Decepticons to rule the Universe. [Register Hardware]

In America, Brad Pitt's cool enough to dump gorgeous stars like Jennifer Aniston and walk away to a small pile of babies. In Japan, he's just sumo champion Musashimaru's butler.

But we must admit, Pitt does a pretty good job as a butler. If the whole movie star thing doesn't work out, we could use someone to hold our cellphone while cradling us tenderly. [via MobileCrunch]

Featuring a fully articulating head, the Zgrip has mounts for an optional LED fill light and higher quality stereo audio recorder. Even with these options, however, it's far too expensive given that there's no true image stabilization going on beyond an easier way to hold the iPhone. If this were a handheld steadicam (allowing you to recreate the Star Wars speeder bike chase), it might be tempting at $300. But as of right now it's really just a very, very nice holder.

In the future, Zacuto will be releasing a non-pro version of the Zgrip that's promised to cost far less money. Good call, Zacuto. [Zacuto]

You hold a button, say a phrase and the software captures the information through speech recognition. The text is then translated into either Arabic or English (in the cloud, we believe) and then read aloud so mispronunciation is not an issue.

Of course, voice recognition is one of those fabled computer advancements that's parked in a perpetual spot "right around the corner," but if this app works even with 85% accuracy, that's close enough for most tourists—even if soldiers could find the mistakes a bit more costly.

It's just too bad that Sakhr probably makes too much money off the US government to ever license the tech for those of us who'd just want to trek through Europe without a pocket dictionary. So let's go to war with France so I can visit the Eiffel Tower! [Fast Company and BusinessWire]

Luckily, as Crunchgear explains, the multitouch trick can be reactivated! You can read the very simple instructions over at their site, then realize that you can actually modify the settings to use gestures beyond the twist (like a three-finger swipe). But until we see incorporation of middle-finger-activated autotrolling, we're holding our excitement at bay. [Crunchgear]

Over at Instructables, there's a step by step on boring a cigar, treating its surface, and then loading it with a fiery LED along with a USB stick. The result is a classy cigar USB dongle that can possibly lead to computer mouth/throat cancer. But don't feel bad for your laptop, it'll turn obsolete well before its needlessly induced nicotine addiction claims its life. So you'll thoughtlessly drop your computer in a retirement home (a landfill disguised as a recycling center) from where it will spend the rest of its days doing its damnedest to poison you back. [Instructables via Geeky Gadgets]