Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The brand spankin’ new FlowBerry theme is full of icons for the BlackBerry owner who really wants to own an Apple product, like the iPhone or MacBook Pro, but can’t quite commit. As you’ll see from the video, there’s a pseudo Cover Flow quality to the latest effort from bplay, but that’s about it. And,…
Holy shit, the Space X guys just scattered Scotty’s ashes all over the Pacific Ocean. As in, “beam me up, Scotty” actor James Doohan. From Star Trek the Original Series! Turns out Scotty-er, Doohan-was one of the 208 people whose ashes were placed on board the Falcon 1 rocket by Celestis, Inc., a company that…
Fireplaces are great for ambiance, but generally not portable. Kooky German design firm Conmoto, who brought us the bookshelf fireplace back in December, has solved the portable problem with the Travelmate Portable Fireplace. At 55 lbs. it will require a little effort to cart it from room to room, but we think the resulting night…
The $199 Xbox 360 price cut rumor we reported on yesterday got a little more real today after a screenshot surfaced showing the updated SKU for the Arcade model. VGChartz got the scoop, and noticed that the September 7 release date for the updated SKU coincides with some other big Xbox 360 events: the launches…
Country Coach‘s Veranda motor home has a motorized balcony that deploys in 20 seconds with optional BBQ and 37-inch TV. The marketing material insists you’ll be reducing your “footprint on the environment” and suggests that it would be great to fish or play catch from without ever leaving the comfort of your abomination. [Country Coach…
Sure, the kids will have a blast filling their nostrils with various scents while playing PU: The Guessing Game Of Smells, but what about the grown ups? Where is our late-night olfactory adventure, made physical by a $28 game board? While the kids search for the mischievous skunk in P.U., using their noses to hunt…
Maclife suggests ferrite beads as a fix for the GSM buzz emanating from speakers when placed near a busy cellphone. I found some of the snap variety you can order from Radio Shack, but am unsure of this trick working when it comes to situations where the entire length of cable is receiving interference, or…
Last weekend we wrote about MSI’s now available 6-cell battery laptop, the Wind, so it seems only fitting that one week later we bring news of Acer’s new Aspire One battery (also 6-cell). The battery is not available just yet, but a forum member at Liliputing found a picture and a price: $120. As Liliputing…
This video makes the 15-odd years I put toward practicing and performing with a musical instrument to shame, and I’m pretty sure this guy probably set this all up in an afternoon. Sick, nevertheless. [ExciteChina via Random Good Stuff]
When Joachim Schoeneich of Neu Anspach Germany goes shopping for groceries with the fam from now on, he does so in style: with a tank. Or, more accurately, with a $47,376 six-ton British Army Fox FV721 armored reconnaissance vehicle. “We take the tank to go shopping and little trips,” Schoeneich said. “It is a bit…
In an overlooked USA Today article from Friday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and “insider sources” quietly all but confirmed that the company has retained exclusive rights to the iPhone until 2010. The previous exclusivity agreement with Apple had AT&T retaining the rights until 2009. The article implies AT&T managed to negotiate the extension thanks in…
As if fish had it bad enough. They’re trapped in a tiny bowl, dependent on you to toss them a handful of dried shrimp from time to time, and now with this glass LED-illuminated globe bowl they’re going to be forced into an underwater rave every time the lights go off. Still, this little $50…
Let’s say MacGyver, or some other other gadget-loving, outdoorsy nut, finds themselves trapped in the deadly confines of a five-star luxury hotel like the Ritz-Carlton. Room service is unavailable; the concierge could only procure balcony seats for the opera; and the champagne is most definitely Korbel, not Cristal. Would they panic? Of course they wouldn’t,…
A team of MIT engineers is hoping to develop tomorrow’s body armor today with a fish whose family tree stretches back 96 million years. Called the Polypterus senegalus, or “dinosaur eel” to layman schlubs like me, this primitive fish still thrives in the muddy rivers of Africa, and has retained a full-body suit of armored…
Bad news for private space flight aficionados-SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket lifted off live via webcast last night, and then proceded to blow up spectacularly in the sky over the Pacific Ocean. If you were following along on the official SpaceX website, you probably saw this: “20:38 PDT — We have heard from launch control that…
For those of you who enjoy steampunk, story telling and handmade creations, I present to you Klaatu Varata Studios, the workshop of Arkansas artist Dillon Chandler. Check out his Solarian Ray Gun or the Geldar Light Infantry Robot, both of which come with the back story of the Kelevion Universe and the civil war which…
I’m not completely sure what’s going on in this clip or where it’s even from but it contains a) weird and crazy bicycles, b) jazzy music, and c) old timeyness—thus, it rules. I’m pretty sure the language is Czech, so if any of you know Czech, please tell me what they’re saying! My favorite strange…
JD Power and Associates just released the results of its latest camera survey, culling the responses of over 8,000 digital camera buyers between April of 2007 and March of 2008. They split the categories into DSLRs, Point and Shoots, Premium Point and Shoots, and Ultra Slims. Hit the jump to see the list of winners.…
Another contender has stepped into the ring of energy efficient lighting: called ESL (electron-stimulated luminescence), this new type of bulb works by using accelerated electrons to light up a phosphor coating on the inside of a glass bulb. ESLs can turn on instantly, can work with dimmers, and creates a light quality that’s similar to…
Gary McKinnon, the British hacker who broke into military computers looking for evidence of UFOs in the “biggest military hack of all time,” did so using his home computer and a 56k modem. I think we just lost our rights to complain about not having Japan-fast broadband. Using his own computer at home in London,…
