...Adam Savage's Savage Phone Bill...A Proverbially Dumb Doorknob...Undead Robot Mickey...Cheaper iMacs Imminent...
MythBuster and Giz amigo Adam Savage got back from a trip to Canada, only to discover that AT&T had charged him $11,000 in broadband-modem data fees—equal to 9GB of downloads and uploads—while he was there. Worst of all, they said they'd cut off his phone service until he pays. It's not exactly tech news, and it's already over thanks to a surge of Twitter buzz. Isn't it nice to know AT&T listens to customers...with 54,539 Twitter followers? [Adam Savage's Twitter Feed]
Here's a concept for a doorknob that spots you via infrared and glows softly when you're within 10 feet. Not only do I think it would be hard to build and market for "under $20," you could only sell it to people who have rooms large enough that it's not always glowing, and yet don't have the wherewithal to afford a two-way lightswitch. That's quite the niche market. [Gizmag]
In 1989, my buddy Dave and I wrote a song called "We Shot Mickey Mouse." However, we did not have the sculptural talent or truly twisted minds to go so far as to die-cast a zombified roboticized Mickey Mouse, finish it with chrome, and charge $1000 for it, like KAWS and Hajime Sorayama did. Too bad it's not a real live robot, cuz that would be worth $10K. Regardless, it still sold out immediately. By the by, the artists naturally couldn't use the Disney-TM'd name so they went with "No Future Companion," some sort of statement on the amusement-free wasteland that lies ahead. [KAWS via Like Cool]
Since an Apple-free Remainders is like a sextape starring a horse (something you may think you want to see but seriously you don't want to see), here's a relatively baseless but believable rumor for you to chew on: iMacs, already low-ish in price, are gonna get even lower-ish soon. AppleInsider expects a 7-10% price drop to accompany a fall iMac refresh. [AppleInsider]
Oh, and you want to hear something crass? Somebody claimed to be selling Steve Jobs' white earbuds on eBay. eBay squashed that crap ASAP, but can you believe it? I mean, his surgically extracted liver, stolen from a hospital, sure, but his earbuds??!!?? [TechEBlog]