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The Gawker Book

Hey, Gawker is putting out a book on how to become a wealthy internet blogging tycoon or something like that. [The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media]

Yesterday I erroneously reported that YouTube was planning on adding 30-second bumper ads before their videos next year. I was going off a report from April that I didn’t realize was old, one written before Google announced their plans to use layover ads instead. Google hasn’t changed their plans since then as far as we…

Solar-Powered Air Conditioner is a Great Idea, in Theory

The oddly-named “Psychro-ray” is a solar-powered air conditioner for your car. It’s just a concept, and something tells me that there’s no way solar power alone could power something as power-hungry as an air conditioner with a ” carbon filtration system and electrostatic dust collector,” but hey, I like the way you guys are thinking.…

AT&T’s 3G Network Getting a 6X Kick In the Upload Pantalones

Cellphones on AT&T’s 3G network will be getting a speed bump that could be worth 6x. Right now, AT&T’s HSDPA networks are limited to 130kbps of upload, but when HSUPA (High speed Uplink Packet Access) is pushed live in October/November, the network will be good for 500 to 800kbps with HSUPA devices only. (Who knows…

Glow In The Dark Chess Matches Radioactive Kasparov

Do you like playing chess…in the dark? Daan Van Tulder does, which is why he designed this LED chessboard complete with transparent and translucent pieces; all for the sole purpose of having a fantastic blue light to give your games that much more romantic ambiance. After all, don’t all your chess matches end with you…

Windows Vista Dreamscene Wallpaper Video Tool Finally Available

Windows Dreamscene, the desktop add-on to Windows Vista Ultimate that lets you use videos as a desktop wallpaper, has finally been released. There’ve been some complaints about Microsoft not pushing out DreamScene and 20 language packs by the “end of summer,” which was their previous promise, and this quote from the Vista Ultimate Director doesn’t…

Cure Acne With a Crappy MP3 Player or a Shower, Your Choice

I’m all for gadgets doing more than one thing — cameraphones are great and all — but this pimple-curing MP3 player is kind of ridiculous. It looks like a pretty generic/terrible MP3 player on its own, what with its horrible 128MB of onboard memory, but while you listen to those 10-20 songs it can store…

Cy.Fi Speaker, a Wireless iPod Dock for Your Bike

If you want to wake up the neighbors and bother everyone with your music while you ride your bike, the cy.fi wireless iPod dock is the bike speaker for you. And as a special bonus, it looks like an orangutan’s ass! Working with the old-school iPod nano (and probably working with any iPod with a…

Miniature Shopping Carts Let You Play Bag Lady Barbie

Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a shopping cart-type homeless person? If you did, the Korean store IdeaTopic offeres miniature shopping carts that not only roll around, but fit into each other just like real carts. In fact, if you buy enough, you can even make-believe you’re going on…

Japanese Bread in a Can

On top of corn chowder, and panties, add canned bread to the list of unusual vending machine ammunition. Looks kind of good, and I’m assuming this comes out heated like the cans of tea and coffee. [Core77]

MIT Hackers Prank Harvard Statue With Master Chief Helmet, Assault Rifle

MIT’s known for pranks, or hacks, against rival school Harvard (and sometimes even on their own campus). Their latest hack today enhances the John P. Harvard statue with a battle-ready Master Chief Spartan helmet and assault rifle (with a bullet count of 2E) in honor of Halo day. Other notable, and perhaps more difficult, hacks…

Microsoft Offering Disc Replacements For Scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition

If your Halo 3 Limited Edition discs are scratched—like ours were—you can get a replacement disc by filling out a form and sending your disc back to Microsoft. Of course, this will take up to two weeks for delivery—not counting the time it takes for your disc to get to Microsoft—which may be too long…

NEC Creates Mobile DNA Lab, Baby Daddies Run in Horror

Maybe we’ve been watching too many CSI reruns, but NEC’s mobile DNA lab looks awesome. Not only does it bring portability to DNA analysis, but it even improves upon the typical versions. To complete its barrage of tests takes about 25-minutes &mdash and, by comparison, a typical DNA lab would take an entire day. NEC…

Yoda, Palpatine Statues Fight It Out in Realistic Miniature

Can’t seem to get enough Star Wars? Now here’s a 15-inch altar at which you can worship, with ARTFX Kotobukiya statues of Yoda and Palpatine fighting and shooting sparks out their fingers at each other, and it’ll only cost you $174.99. It’s relatively big, with Palpatine standing 11 inches tall, but whatever that purple shit…

Router Drones to Deliver Wifi From the Sky

Military personnel already use unmanned drones for spying on areas from above, but Wired’s Danger Room reports that soon they’ll also be using them for a less exciting but just as important task: wireless networking. AeroVironment, a company that makes unmanned aerial vehicles, has been working on making router drones, planes that can fly around…

Halo Master Chief Mimobot Thumb Drives (Finish the File Transfer)

Mimoco’s got these Limited Edition Master Chief USB Drives in 1, 2 and 4GB sizes. They’re preloaded with artwork from the upcoming Halo novel and an episode of “This Spartan Life”, they’re pricey at $109 for the larger model, but given the Halo feeding frenzy, they would still sell out of the limited run if…

That Ekon fingerprint reader we tested on Windows now has a Mac version of the software that works with Keychain, locking/unlocking your computer, faster user switching and logging on. [UPek via OhgIzmo] https://gizmodo.com/upek-eikon-fingerprint-reader-hands-on-it-works-with-f-264945

Western Digital follows up last Thursday’s My Book announcement with 1TB My Book Studio edition for Macs with Firewire 400/800, USB 2.0 and eSATA. [Western Digital] https://gizmodo.com/western-digital-releases-new-slimmer-1tb-my-books-301865

Crayola Releases EZ Grip Digital Camera For Budding Upskirtists

Get your child started early on his hobby with the Crayola EZ Grip Camera, a camera that has grips on either side for EZ gripping. Much better than a normal camera, this EZ cam comes with proprietary software with a “write a story” template to create storyboards out of pics your kids shoot, printable frames,…

VAIO NR Has Swank Textured Finish, But It’s Cheapest Sony Laptop Yet

Sony goes for the low end with its VAIO NR Series, and even though the company says these are the cheapest laptops it’s ever rolled out, they’re still graced with a unique textured finish that we haven’t seen on a notebook before. Sony’s not skimping on screen size, with a 15.4-inch display, but the company’s…