Gizmodo: germans

Steel 'Velcro' Made By Germans Supports 35 Tons, Heat At Up To 800 Degrees Celsius

Jason Chen — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:30:00 EDT

If your Velcro jacket fasteners were made of this German-engineered steel "Velcro", you'd be able to withstand 35 tons worth of force—provided your skin and bones don't tear first.

The "Velcro", which isn't really Velcro but has one side with spikes and the other with steel brushes, can withstand heat at up to 800 degrees Celsius.

And if you're interested in tearing these Velcro strips vertically (as in straight out instead of horizontally, where it's stronger), it can hold up to 7 tons. So, a 6 ton man or a 6614 pound Hummer H2 could be suspended from a building with no problem. (*Although its not clear how much of this stuff they're talking about to support that much weight, its hard not to be impressed.) [New Scientist via Make]

BMW First Car Company to Implement Microsoft Surface

Jack Loftus — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

By allowing its snooty customers to manipulate the snooty Microsoft Surface interface with their snooty fingers, BMW has officially become the first car maker to offer the touchscreen tech to a worldwide car-buying audience. Impressed? Me neither, but that's just because I'm a low-paid writer who's insanely jealous of anyone driving a car that's hotter than my 2006 Mercury Milan. So, basically everyone.

As you can see in the video, there's nothing ground-breaking here, save for some fancy cars and interactive swatches for interior and exterior colors (the software was developed by Vectorform for BMW, btw). If you're up for a stiff German guy reading off a cue card, though, then by all means clicky clicky. [BMW Blog, Thanks Haratiu!]

Nokia N96 Specs Leaked By Ze Germans

Christopher Mascari — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:11:27 EST

The Germans over at Nokia have posted the N96 specs on Nokia's Germany product page. There are still no official images but the N95 successor has the same obvious specs, 3G, 2.8 inch LCD, WiFi b/g, AGPS, 5MP camera, and MicroSD slot. What's new to this model is the 16GB internal memory, 950 mAh battery, ability to use flash while video recording, microUSB, and Flash Lite 3 enabled web browser.

The size is also new with the N96 being slightly longer and wider but .07 of an inch thinner than the N95. A release date is obviously still unknown and since these specs are on the German Nokia site they could change when the N96 finally hits the states. [Nokia via IntoMobile]

German Chicks in Bikinis Smashing Gadgets

Jason Chen — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:30:24 EDT

You have to have a certain special kind of fetish to enjoy watching German ladies in bikinis destroy gadgets with a scowl on their face, but if anyone fits the bill, we're sure they're in our readership.

These sets of videos belong to Bikinirama, three German ladies that enjoy swimwear and destroying electronics equally. The video above shows them demolishing a PowerBook, but there's monitors, CD players and record players as well. No ball breaking, but that's probably more of a hobby than something they need to be paid for. – Jason Chen

Bikinirama [via Fake Steve via Wired]