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A team of US and UK scientists have invented a portable scanner that may be useful in the hunt for life on Mars. And it sounds a whole lot like a Star Trek tricorder: it uses a beam of ultraviolet laser light and detects fluorescence from organic molecules, so it works remotely and doesn’t damage…
For most of us, the deciding factor against getting satellite radio are those pesky subscription costs. Now Sirius has just signed a deal with Automobili Lamborghini to offer the car customers free lifetime service of Sirius. One word of caution: The deal starts with the 2009 Murciélago. So make sure you don’t buy a 2008…
A brilliant use of old tech, the Tapehead Inspector is a manual tape reader not meant so much for playback of your favorite ’80s power ballad mix, but for new music creation. Constructed by removing the tapehead from an old Walkman, it sounds quite a bit like a mixer as it runs over old tape…
Bow to Walter the Merciless, for he definitely influences the market and can decide if a product is worthy of living or not. At least according to “The Value of Quality: Stock Market Returns to Reviewed Quality of New Products,” a new research paper that has analyzed Mossberg’s product reviews and their effect on companies’…
Today is June 24 and, for Futurama fans, that can only mean one thing: the latest offering from Matt Groening and Co. is out today. Beast With A Billion Backs is a “depraved, yet sensuous” episode that, according to head writer and producer David X. Cohen, refers to as “disturbing.” (Yay!) “There is certainly more…
This concept for a Wiimote of the future is showing over at T3, and yes… I know what you’re thinking. I do. Honest. But my real problem with the design is that it’s for just two years away, and do we really think Nintendo is going to redevelop things so radically by then? I’m sure…
After a long hardware-software partnership, Nokia’s just announced it’s buying out all the remaining shares in Symbian it doesn’t already own. The purchase amounts to a whopping $410 million, and is actually part of a deal between Nokia, AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to form what’s…
I got a sneak peek at Mio’s new Knight Rider GPS, and it’s more fun and cheesy than I expected. As you can see in the video, William Daniels, the original voice of KITT, guides you as you cruise the streets, fighting crime. Flashing red LEDs are synced up to the speech, and the screen…
I own a perfectly conventional analog watch, and though I confess to a penchant for these weird or confusing digital ones, up to now I’d probably not buy one. But this leaked set of images is of a watch I’d actually consider wearing: the Eleeno Cyber. With 12 discrete LCD dials to read the time…
Adding to the rumors we brought you a few months ago, the Sankei Shimbun daily newspaper is reporting that Panasonic is planning on having 37-inch OLED screens on sale within three years. And there’s more: they’ll be setting up a production line in the IPS Alpha Technology factory in Chiba Prefecture, intend to overtake their…
It’s hard not to watch this video of DIY robot Readybot and think "sweet… what’s the next version like?" Looking like everyone’s favorite trashcan-shaped sci-fi droid has collided with a dishwasher, Readybot’s intended to be a home-assistant ‘bot doing a maid’s job, cleaning your house. It may be slow and primitive now, but it looks…
I take a lot of pride in providing material you can’t find anywhere else on the internet. But there’s an easy way to tell when I’m having a busy week: I steal images from the website Plan59. Still beautiful though, ain’t it? This illustration is by Frank Tinsley from 1959. The image appeared as part…
I have to confess that life hasn’t been very good lately. Work around the clock, not enough free time, trying to have kids and crashing badly… all while moving to a country I don’t particularly like, away from my best friends and family. Maybe that’s why visiting Lego’s Memory Lane—the secret vault guarding almost every…
Adrienne So over at Slate has used her natural gifts to come up with the most genius idea yet: an energy-generating bra. Instead of just holding her boobs in place and dispelling that excess kinetic energy into, I don’t know, heat, why not use it to power a gadget? According to a breast specialist, a…
Sometimes it’s nice to just sit and consider exactly why you don’t do so many of the things that you don’t do. (That’s why I don’t tie my nipples to doorknobs! Of course!) This is a useful exercise that the guy behind Portable Gaming Solutions has apparently never tried. As a result, he is offering…
HD DVD was declared dead a long time ago, and the last film to be released to the US on the format will hit (roughly three to five) shelves tomorrow. Disco Pigs was originally released in 2001 and very appropriately stars Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy as friends who were born in the same hospital,…
It’s well known that the biggest bump in the road to developing an awesome all-electric car is the battery. The only ones juicy enough are a) big b) expensive and c) not so durable. Not easy. But science is no match for the American spirit! If elected, John McCain is promising $300 million to whoever…
Destruction therapy has been around for a while now, but is only just starting to hit its stride. On June 21st, a large group of variously frustrated individuals converged on Castejon, Spain to launch the town fiestas with the coordinated destruction of an entire field of appliances and cars. Mainstream medicine has yet to recognize…
A 22-year-old British adventurer by the name of Rhys Jones may have made a name for himself as the youngest person to climb the world’s seven highest summits, but he may end up being known as the youngest lunatic to ever drown in a juice-carton boat on the Mississippi if his plans for this weekend…
EFix has updated their site with some more details on its voodoo USB dongle that’ll supposedly boot, install and run OS X “unmodified,” straight from the DVD on any PC (Intel processors only though). Among the freshly listed goods are “official Apple Updates,” an interactive system boot selector and power management features. https://gizmodo.com/efix-usb-dongle-will-boot-and-install-os-x-on-any-pc-s-5016227 Under the…
