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CoolPix S52 and S52c: Nikon Updates Its Most Popular Point-and-Shoots

After making waves in the DSLR world, Nikon renewed its push in the point-and-shoot market with the slender feature-loaded camera you see before you. It’s had slightly different model names over the past two years, but its newest incarnation, the $250 9-megapixel 3X-optical-zoom-equipped S52, is pretty slick. You get: • 2000 ISO in “high sensitivity”…

what is this the talk to myself box?

Dell Tries to Mend Fences With a Laptop Full of Pubes

Yes I know it is juvenile, but if Dell sent you a replacement laptop full of pubes wouldn’t you be pissed? According to one Consumerist reader, that is just what happened after a Dell technician helped him fry an old laptop after instructing him to use it as a test unit for a malfunctioning adapter.…

Canon’s Digital Rebel XSi Gets an April 27th Release Date

According to the product page on Amazon, Canon’s Digital Rebel XSi entry level DLSR will be available for $899.95 starting on April 27th. So save up your cash—fast. [Amazon] https://gizmodo.com/first-canon-eos-digital-rebel-xsi-hands-on-your-xti-is-350944

Mobile Firefox Is Six Times Faster Than Nokia’s Browser on the N810

Anyone worried about Firefox’s penchant for leaving a massive memory footprint when it makes the move to mobile can breathe a little bit easier. The hard optimization tweaks made during Firefox 3’s development cycle have paid off: Benchmarks on Nokia’s N810 show that the latest Mobile Firefox build is six times faster than the built-in…

Do You Have a Home Theater System? Was It Professionally Installed?

After hearing about Kevin Rose cheaping out on a home theater system, I started wondering what percentage of average folk have a setup in their own home. Then I remembered research that suggested as many as 50% of home theater buyers don’t set up their rear surround speakers. So the question here is two-fold: do…

Laurie Anderson’s Petrochemical Arms

One of the weirdest moments in pop music has to be the brief, early-1980s rise to fame of radical alterna-electro-artist Laurie Anderson. Her eight-and-a-half minute song “O Superman” (whose complete video you can see here) caught on in England and then spread to the U.S. With her androgynously-modded voice, multi-media performance style, and mad-scientist hair,…

NapTV: Where the Hell Was This in Kindergarten?

When I was in kindergarten I had a beach blanket, a cot and a bitch named Rose that would circle around us slapping a meter stick in her hand. Where was my NapTV chair with a built-in television? Perhaps my experience wouldn’t have been nearly as scarring had I been able to watch TV while…

Remington Clipper Advances the Hair Clipper

As a guy who’s no stranger to buzz cuts (I even tested the Flowbee once) I can say that this Remington ShortCut seems like quite a nice invention. It’s got one of five length settings, plus is self-curved for your round noggin. The shape of the thing makes it easier to hold, like a brush,…

Fashion Model Clobbers Ninjas — But What Is It About?

I’ve watched this trailer for Scarlet, a new TV miniseries, three or four times without actually understanding what the show is. She’s a fashion model and a movie star, and some old guy screams into the telephone that she’s going to change television forever. And meanwhile, she beats up ninjas, does the Batman power-grapple thing,…

FCC Prepping Nationwide Text Message Alert System

According to both CNN and USA Today, the FCC is expected to announce a nationwide system that sends major alerts to cellphones via text message. Rumor has it that these messages will initially be limited to the English language in 90 words or less and would warn users about events like terrorist attacks, major weather…

Dyson 2008 Award Winner Rake n Take: For Picking Up Leaves or Dirty Laundry

You’d expect first place in the 2008 Dyson awards to go something totally insane, like a vacuum that cleans your carpet and your colon simultaneously. But it actually went to this deceptively simple gadget designed by Ryan Jansen, the Rake n Take, which takes a lot of the suck out of raking leaves. Pulling up…

2063 A.D. Book (1963)

Due to popular demand, I have uploaded a free PDF of the book 2063 A.D. in its entirety. To purchase a print copy of the book you can find it at my Lulu storefront. For those just joining us, 2063 A.D. was a book published in 1963 by General Dynamics Astronautics. The book asked politicians,…

Face to Face Tandem Bike Makes First Dates Last Dates

Not content with looking like a dumbass on a regular tandem bike, Taiwanese inventor Chen Yugang decided to kick it up a notch and develop a bike that is as dangerous as it is ridiculous. Apparently, his new design can be ridden face to face, conventionally or (and here is the real kicker) back to…

The Future Of Space Exploration?

Black smoke belches out of a grinding old engine as it hauls Russia’s latest Soyuz space capsule across a Kazakh wasteland, while armed guards keep watch. This mixture of high and low technology is probably the future of space exploration, as resources get scarcer and more small governments and independent operators get into the space…

Verizon Restores Voicemail of Man’s Deceased Wife in a Story That is Touchingly Creepy

In what has to be the saddest cellphone-related story ever, an 80-year-old man spent a part of every day listening to a voicemail recording of his deceased wife saying her name, “Catherine Whiting.” Ever since her death in 2005, listening to the recording offered the man a small amount of comfort. However, when his service…

62 Percent of Pill-Popping Scientists Use Ritalin

Today, the results are in for a survey conducted by the scientific journal Nature on “enhancement” drug use among its readers. Turns out 1 in 5 of the 1400 respondents have taken drugs to enhance their performance (i.e., recreationally) rather than to cure a problem. The most popular of these drugs was speedy Ritalin: 62…

Iron Man Toys: Guns and Action Figures…Made of Plastic

Die cast metal. That was a stamp of approval all premium toys in the 80s received. But not now. And if there is a modern set of toys that deserves to be metal, its the official line of Hasbro made IRON Man toys: an action figure, nerf machine gun and mask/repulsor glove combo. He’s not…

Nintendo Probably Didn’t Take Wii Fit Idea From Jackie Chan

Although Nintendo didn’t take much inspiration from Jackie Chan and his crazy 2005 J-Mat Fitness, you can’t help but see some similarities between it and Wii Fit. You probably never heard of this Jackie Chan sellout workout machine because it costs $90 and needed another $80 XaviXPORT console to use. We’re kind of sorry we…

The Future of Broadband: We’re Totally Screwed

As turtle-tastic as broadband is in the US compared to Asia, other than Time Warner’s experiment to charge by the byte, at least consumption-based billing has mostly been a problem for Canadians. Until now. Justin from Bend, Oregon just sent us his ISP’s new pricing plan, which makes Time Warner’s look supremely generous: $55 a…