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My first thoughts on seeing this USB mouse with in-built fan-powered palm cooler and rotary LED message scroller: “Holy moly that’s one craptaculous bit of gadgetry!” But then I reconsidered. First, who wouldn’t like a less sweaty palm when mousing for protracted periods? And second, that message scroller (which even has its own remote control)…
McGill University researchers have discovered a new state of matter to go along with good ol’ solid, liquid, gas, plasma and a handful of quantum states—it’s called a quasi-three-dimensional electron crystal. While the name sounds like something that would sap Superman’s powers, this new state of matter could be used to fabricate modern transistors and…
The latest to join the Netflix streaming crowd, Samsung Blu-Ray player users can now download a free update for Internet movie watching. The first Samsung players that will definitely support Netflix are the BD-P2500 and the BD-P2550. Netflix members can have their PC queues automatically displayed on Samsung’s players for instant viewing. Using the remote…
Japanese textile maker Toray Industries is on the road to mass producing carbon fiber cars, bringing us ever closer to the day when the lightweight automobiles are on the market for more than just really rich racing enthusiasts. The company said it’s developed a new carbon fiber processing method that molds auto platforms in 10…
Wired is having a little art contest to make things from the stuff you get at Starbucks, and to provide some inspiration, they showed off photographer Dan Winters’ amazing TIE fighter sculpture. Everybody’s favorite Galactic Empire spacecraft was made out of nearly 50 Starbucks cups, 216 stirrers, over 60 drink holders and a couple of…
Halloween is fast approaching, so it’s time to start outfitting your house with spooky decor! If you’re feeling particularly courageous this season, why not try your hand at this really neat DIY haunted Ouija board project. After some wood carving, staining and electrical work, you’ll end up with a board that not only moves its…
Eerily similar to the memory-erasing concepts in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, researchers have found a chemical that has proven to target and erase specific long-term memories, which could be useful in treating people with severe phobias or post-traumatic stress disorders. However, although these tests have been producing amazing results in mice brains, human…
Voting from home, over the internet. That’s the dream. It’s when the vast majority of people will finally vote. Hell, even I might register to vote if you could online. But this year, fittingly in the election that the internet has mattered more than ever before, we’re taking a solid (baby) step in that direction.…
Nvidia dropped by today to demo some of the awesome things that the GeForce 9400M in the new MacBooks can do that Intel’s integrated graphics just can’t touch, and to discuss a few technical points. Besides confirming that you’ll see it in other notebooks soon, they definitively answered some lingering questions about the chip’s capabilities:…
John Markoff at the New York Times has updated his article on a potential Apple netbook-following Steve Jobs’ comments-with an interesting piece of news that reminds me of the first days of the JesusPhone, when an unidentified Apple device was detected for the first time in the traffic logs of some web sites. Markoff even…
Right now, the dudes responsible for bailout bills, freedom fries and like, laws I think, carry the standard corporate drone equipment: BlackBerrys. To be precise, House of Representatives members and their staffs have about 8200 BlackBerrys between them. But for a few of the fancier ones, that’s not good enough. They want iPhones. So the…
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled all the 57,000 $55 Rage Wireless Guitars sold to date, all made in China. The reason: A circuit board defect that can cause the AA batteries included to leak acid if they are installed incorrectly. This means the acid may reach consumers flesh and product chemical burns in…
We’ve covered Colorware‘s professional gadget painting in the past—and were more than satisfied after seeing their work close up, but their latest iPod coloring seems to be more than just cosmetic. The iPod Touch 2G color-coats the shiny silver metallic back with a color layer, which most likely handles fingerprints and scratches better than the…
More than 50 years ago, Russian scientists discovered that simple Scotch tape emits x-rays when peeled off glass. New research conducted by colleagues at UCLA has determined that the power that the tape generates is much higher than anyone could have imagined. In fact, they have constructed a machine that generates x-rays by peeling up…
Wish you could use some of your MacBook’s fancier touch gestures, like three-finger swipes, in Firefox? Well you can, with a new experimental build of Firefox 3.1 (pre-beta 2) from Mozilla’s Edward Lee. It uses all of the majors—swipe, twist and pinch—in awesomely intuitive ways. Three-finger swipes left and right go back a page and…
Ah, E3! What was once a complete mess of gigantic, overwhelming booths, loud noises and models in skimpy outfits paid to tolerate the supple paunch of the gaming press has, over the past couple years, turned into a boring series of meetings in inconvenient locations. No longer! On June 2-4 of next year, the gigantic,…
Microsoft reporter queen bee Mary Jo Foley has put together a few signs suggesting that Windows 7 may debut earlier than anyone imagined—in the first half of next year. While it’s been expected that it’ll be released to manufacturing by the end of the year, a few signs point to it being on track to…
A recent survey taken by Nokia claimed that 53% of Americans have taken business calls in the bathroom. Of those surveyed, 60% never shut off their mobile devices. To be honest, I would have thought that second figure would be higher—but all-in-all the results of this survey are no surprise. Most of us feel the…
Comcast has announced that they have upgraded their DOCSIS 3.0 service to offer new high-speed 22Mbps/5Mbps and 50Mbps/10Mbps options. They have also increased the speed along standard tiers: 6Mbps/1Mbps will be upgraded to 12Mbps/2Mbps and 8Mbps/2Mbps will be increased to 16Mbps/2Mbps—both at no cost to subscribers. The “Ultra” 22Mbps plan will run for $63 while…
World, get ready because Bill Gates is returning. His new company is called bgC3. Bill Gates Concept 3? Bill Gates Cartman 3? Big Goose Charbroiled 3? Bad Gastrointestinal Catastrophe 3? We have no idea. The truth is that very little is known about it, except its trademark categories, and the fact that they have a…
