Sure it's been the lead story on CNN and a big story on Gawker, but there just wasn't enough DIY mechanics or cellphone-related mayhem for us to pounce on this little gem. As a dad, I don't like seeing shit like this, but knowing there's a happy ending made it a bit easier to view. Oops, did I give too much away? [Gawker]

Hairband balladeers from the roaring '80s will be disappointed to learn that holes in the heart previously only able to be filled by some girl who is already dating some other guy can now be filled by a patch made of stem cells. As for the rest of us, we naturally assumed that if stem cells could give Christopher "Butthole" Reeve real Superman strength and build replica's of Shakey's Pizza, well, of course they can patch heart holes. [PopSci]

By March of next year, many British police officers will be handed a smartphone in order to maintain communication while increasing time in the field. It may work, assuming they block like a million distractions. Frankly, the only reason I wanted to even mention this in Remainders was to remind the world of that stroke of British police genius, Hot Fuzz, through Photoshop. It was that or an image of the gmilfy Prime Suspect herself, Helen Mirren. Did I choose wrong? [BBC via Engadget]

Science produces explanations great and small, and finally got around to one we've been waiting for since Heinrich "Coca" Cola invented the fizzy beverage: Why do we love the carbonation? Everyone used to think it was the exploding carbonation bubbles, but sure enough, it's the carbon dioxide itself—you listening, Al Gore???—that sends a message to open up the sour taste buds, delivering a genuine flavor change. Sure, it's not gadget news, but now, when you head out to the bars, you can order beer in the name of science. [Daily Mail UK]

In 2007, he broke his spine while doing practice jumps for a planned New Years Eve jump. This NYE, he tried again. And while he finished the rotation, he screwed up the landing (as much as you can control the landing in a truck) and ended up rolling down the landing hill.

Give it up, dude. In the end, even if you nail it, it's not even that impressive for you personally. It'd be more impressive that your team was able to engineer a jump that properly flips you up. Simply driving straight at a crazy contraption and then being willing to be badly hurt over and over again don't take that much finesse. Listen to the man upstairs, go be an accountant or something.

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]

This is the last thing we'll post about the AirPort today, we promise. – Jason Chen

On the performance side, 802.11n really does work a lot faster than our old 802.11g D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router. When transferring a 700MB Batman Begins file over 802.11n, 5GHz, WPA2 encryption, we got sustained speeds of 7.3 MB/s to a 100Mbps ethernet-connected machine and 6.0 MB/s to another MacBook connected on N. As a benchmark, we got 9.3 MB/s when we ran it ethernet to ethernet (both 100Mbps).

Compared to our 802.11g router, which got 2.77 MB/s from to an ethernet-connected machine and 1.34 MB/s going g to g (on the same MacBook), it's quite an improvement. So yes, our speed gains aren't quite as much as the 5x Apple's touting (we got between 2.6x and 4.4x), but it's well within the margin of error, also accounting for file transfer overhead.

And we got reception in our office whereas our old G signal died somewhere on the road to the bathroom, about 20 feet away, through two walls. (I am writing this review from the toilet.) Each apartment is different, but my 1000-square foot, 2-bedroom abode was easily blanketed, despite 10 other APs in the area causing interference. YMMV, but the Airport's range lives up to the hype. Through outer walls, pacing out onto my lawn, I hit 100 feet of range, but others have reported 350 feet, line of sight.

Then the issues.

Our old Lexmark printer didn't work with the AirPort Extreme because the USB drivers for it didn't work over the network, and we couldn't find any network-capable drivers for it. This is something you should research in advance if you're looking forward to networking your printer through this thing. Lots of people online had no problems with their printers, presumably ones that they didn't buy for $10. It's Lexmark's fault for not having the drivers, and our fault for having a lousy $10 printer.

And there's no Gigabit Ethernet, which we found a little disappointing since even the Macbook Pros and Mac Pro towers have 1000 base T connections. We talked to one of Apple's engineers on the project as well, and he explained to us the lack of Gigabit Ethernet was because most home users aren't going to be using more than 90Mbps on their N connections to reach the net, and that was good enough for surfing. True, but we're not concerned with surfing limitations as much as we are with files transfers between various machines on our home network. So we don't see ourselves giving up our current Gigabit Ethernet setup any time soon. You may be in this camp as well.

Performance degradation from using G and N machines simultaneously were negligible when just browsing the internet, and our Apple guy said it only affects N machines only for the duration that the G machines are sending data. Not a huge deal unless you're using both to stream files simultaneously, in which case we'd recommend you plug in to Ethernet anyway.

Another possible problem with the AE was the inability to change its MAC address, which means people with ISPs that lock on to a particular MAC address will have to call up their provider. But if they already have a wireless router, AirPort Extreme has the ability to be set on "bridge" mode by just clicking a dropdown, and it totally just got out of the way of all DHCP, DNS, and routing. Everything was passed up to the D-Link. Usually doing this on other manufacturer's routers takes tens of minutes of configuration and rebooting, something we're glad to have skipped this time.

Although seemingly pricey at first glance, the AirPort Extreme 802.11n base station falls within the range of similar draft-N routers on the market now. Routers from D-Link, Linksys and Netgear all fall within the $100 to $200 range, and with the exception of Netgear's offerings—which are actually quite stylish—all look like equipment Drew Barrymore's childhood buddy uses to phone home. Not a huge deal since routers are meant to be admired once, placed in a corner, and forgotten about like your college diploma or your surround sound system, but going the extra mile for design like Apple and Netgear counts for something.

So would we recommend this as an N-router? Yes, but with caveats. Its N performance was great—but the lack of Gigabit Ethernet, Xbox 360/VPN issues, and inability to change the MAC address of their router to get online rules this out for certain people. Yet another caveat when buying any draft-N networking equipment, not just Apple's Airport Extreme: When we asked whether this draft-N firmware was going to be upgradeable to the final N spec, Apple said they tried to make it as upgradeable as possible but it was impossible to say until the final draft is released.

Should you buy it? Look at our lousy Venn Diagram below (fixed to make it more clear). If you fall in the middle, then you should be satisfied with Apple's latest release. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Apple]

– Jason Chen

Airport Extreme [Gizmodo]

There is a workaround, however, to use in the meantime while Apple releases a patch. The workaround has you setting the default host and pointing that to your machine you need to VPN from, but it's less than idea if you need to get more than one computer to VPN. Take a look at the support forums for more info. – Jason Chen

VPN and Airport Extreme [Apple via Slashdot]

Apparently the 360's having trouble either with WPA/WPA2 security or routers with N-support, as a few Linksys and D-Link users are also reporting compatibility problems. Microsoft says they may update this in the Spring Dashboard update, but that won't be out for a couple months. For now either stay away from Apple's Extreme if you've got an Xbox 360 or hook it up via Ethernet. – Jason Chen

Apple Support [Apple via TUAW]

Their benchmarks, however, show that the claims of 5x performance and 2x range are actually low! iFixit found a 10x performance increase and a 3x usable range increase using the 802.11n over 802.11g. If you're looking for an unboxing, check that out here as well. – Jason Chen

Airport Extreme 802.11n Disassembly [iFixIt]

An Apple contact confirmed for us that the update is not the AirPort Extreme enabler, and just updates Intel Macs for compatibility with AirPort Extreme base stations. A bit of wishful thinking never hurt anyone, but let's not jump to conclusions unless you have that cool mat from Office Space. – Jason Chen

Firmware Update [Apple]

She adds, "You charge whatever you want. GAAP doesn't even remotely address whether or not you charge for a significant functionality change. GAAP establishes what the proper accounting is, based on what you did or didn't charge for it."

Despite this, Apple still maintains that if they gave away the 802.11n patch for free, their auditors would have required a revenue restatement, which may in turn cause...*yawn* sorry, we just fell asleep writing this sentence. Suffice it to say, Apple still thinks charging you two bones to activate 802.11n is a good idea, even if top tier accountants say they're not obligated to. – Jason Chen

Apple Gets a Bruise by Blaming A $1.99 Fee on Accounting Rules [WSJ - Thanks Kelly]

Thermaltake [Press Release]

– Louis Ramirez
Tank Chair [via Jalopnik]

Press Release [SanDisk]

To allow quick reads for dumping pics into the computer, something the crappy 53-in-1 card readers fail at, SanDisk is releasing its Extreme FireWire reader at the same time. Firewire 800 connections will be able to hit the 40MB/sec, and the Firewire 400s will make do at 20MB/s.

The cards will cost around $200, $400, and $700 dollars for the 2GB, 4GB and 8GB cards, respectively. – Jason Chen

Press Release [SanDisk via Trusted Reviews]

The SC-X210 is an upgrade of their old sports camcorder that cuts the wire between the helmet-cam and the camcorder. The helmet part has a fifteen-foot range from the base camcorder, so you're going to have to still carry both pieces around. Its 1GB of internal memory records up to 34 minutes of MPEG4 video, and can be expanded via SD slot.

There's also 10x optical zoom for when you really want to focus in and get 10 times as extreme. Available in September for $679. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Samsung]

Press Release [Noticias.nfo via SCI FI Tech]