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Tilting Vase Lets You Know When It Needs Water

If you have trouble remembering when to water your plants, you might be interested in this self-tilting vase design concept that gets horizontal when its plant gets thirsty. Once it’s properly hydrated, this pewter container stands up—albeit at a somewhat tilted angle—held up by the weight of the water within. Simple, yet elegant. [Yanko Design]

Certain Aluminum Apple Keyboard Function Keys Not Working For You?

If you recently purchased one of those new slim aluminum Apple keyboards, you might have noticed that a couple of the fancy function keys on top (where the F-keys are) didn’t work. Namely, the F3 and F4 keys, which activate the Exposé and the Dashboard functions. Even using OS X’s built-in keyboard shortcut remapping tool…

Towering Luckey Climbers Playgrounds Make Me Wish I Was a Kid Again

Luckey and Luckey make some of the sweetest “playgrounds” I’ve ever seen, multi-story contraptions with tons of netting and platforms that jut out, allowing the tykes to climb up and around all over the place. They look like some fancy architecture or a sculpture as much as they look like objects for kids to climb…

Tuesday’s Best Stories

So, what was up yesterday? We had RC aircraft executing the perfect take-off, exploding jetliners causing havoc in China, news of a new-gen DeLorean, and USB Mini Coopers. Also up were beer taps, iPhone hacks and sexy LG camera phones with stupid names. Did you miss ’em? No worries, just click on the links right…

(UPDATE) iPod Nano Spy Shots Show Fat, Big-Screened Nano

[Update: Apple asked us to take down their art, so it looks it may be absolutely real. The horror.] 9 to 5 Mac has a couple follow-up spy shots of the iPod nano resdesign we posted about last weekend. If these are real, then it confirms the fat nanos that have a giant screen on…

Laptop Confidential II Finalists Selected

If you’ve been following our Laptop Confidential II video contest, you might have already picked out your favorite film noir mini movie created by our talented Gizmodo readers. Entries are now closed, and we’ve narrowed it down to the top nine submissions. Take a look at top nine videos here, and get ready for the…

Michael Bay Backs Down On HD DVD Exclusivity Rants

Either someone from Paramount’s threatened Michael Bay with something horrible, or someone from the HD DVD camp kidnapped his dog, because Bay’s just gone back on his earlier stance at the recent decision to dump Blu-ray. Here’s what his latest post on his forum says: https://gizmodo.com/michael-bay-angry-at-paramounts-dumping-of-blu-ray-291749 Last night at dinner I was having dinner with…

Samsung Applies for Self-Cradling Cellphone Patent

Here’s a clever idea that Samsung submitted to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: a cellphone that holds itself up with a convenient self-contained stand attached to its back. Sure, there are lots of cases that do this sort of thing, but this one folds into the phone in a unique way, using a part…

Caption This Insane, Mime-Filled, Ukranian Samsung PR Stunt

Apparently, this is what passes for a publicity stunt in the Ukraine. It’s a globe made out of Samsung cellphones, both old and new, being held up by a giant hand and surrounded by… mimes? And it’s all set up in a mall in Kiev? OK then. Looks like a caption contest to me. Readers?…

Weirdest Guns Ever Amuse and Scare the Hell Out of Me

This terrifying revolver-knife straight from Resident Evil is real and ready to hunt zombies, like all the weird guns in this gallery. My favorites: the three-barrel pirate gun for my Guybrush Threepwood moments, the Thunder for my Lieut. Cobretti moments and the old-style black handgun with ultra-big knife —for when I have to shave, John…

New Panasonic LCD Projection TVs Use Mysterious “LIFI” Long-Life Quick-Start Lightbulb

Panasonic just announced a lineup of microdisplay LCD rear-projection TVs that answer two of the main problems with the category: Its light source won’t burn out or lose brightness like some projection bulbs do, and it gets bright quicker, so the picture is visible in about 15 seconds, rather than 60 seconds on other projection…

USB-Powered CD Destroyer Mauls a Disc in Five Seconds

Keep that schoolmarm from perusing your porn with this USB-powered CD destroyer from Brando. In just five seconds, this hungry beast renders any CD or DVD unreadable, grinding in devastating circular scratches and resulting in a strangely beautiful coaster that reminds us of a Spirograph. https://gizmodo.com/carnival-ride-paints-art-peaks-forever-267452 It even includes a leather case for destroying CDs…

How To Do a Red Smoke Hand Grenade at Home

Click to view Here’s a two-part video that will teach you how to easily do a massive smoke hand grenade using sugar, baking soda, organic dye and saltpeter, all common elements that anyone could buy. The first part above shows you how to do the grenade itself, while the second part after the jump show…

Mitsubishi LVP-HC6000 1080p Projector, Cheap and Quiet

Mitsubishi jumped into the circa-$3000 1080p projector game today, rolling out its LVP-HC6000 that adds a couple of tricks to the Epson Powerlite and Panasonic PT-AE100U projectors against which it might compete. Although it has a face only a mother could love, the image it projects on the screen will be probably be a lot…

YouTube To Run Ads on Top of Clips

The good news is, YouTube isn’t going to put those ridiculous bumper ads in front of clips you request—turns out 70% of people close the window and run screaming when they see those. The bad news is this: Today, YouTube starts overlaying 10-second ads on top of videos. You’ll be able to click the X…

New Samsung LCD TVs Do 1080p24 and Connect the Web

Samsung is warming up their engines as IFA2007 approaches with these two new PAVV 40 and 46-inch Full HD LCD televisions. Their 120Hz engine supports 1080 progressive playback at 60, 120 and 24 frames per second and 25,000:1 contrast ratio for extra movie-like feeling, as well as their System Link technology —which apparently allows it…

iZip Express Cycle Transforms Weak Legs into Armstrongs

The iZip is a hybrid electric bicycle from Currie Technologies with a small electric motor that amplifies your pedaling efforts. This means that speeds of up to 25 mph are easily attainable without you having to break into a sweat—or shave your legs. The motor is powered by a lithium-ion battery, which is rechargeable. On…

Zune for $149.99 (+$5 shipping) on Woot!

Fab28, Smeg’s Hippest Retro Refrigerator is Heading Stateside

After almost a decade of waiting, Smeg’s Fab28 fridge is heading our way. It comes in all sorts of colors, and has 9.22 cubic feet of space. Available in the UK as a giant Union Jack, what’s the betting that if it’s a success, the Fab28 will come in a Stars ‘n Stripes version? Full…

Google Conquers the Stars After Fully Invading Earth

After taking over planet Earth Google is all over the stars like James T. Kirk on blonde alien chicks: They just added a new option to watch the skies in Google Earth. We tried it and it’s quite good, even if some of the photos don’t smoothly blend into each other. The search works great…