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We report on a lot of toilet seats here—even some that approach the crazy $600 price the Pentagon paid for one in 1983—but we’ve never seen a couple of washers that cost almost a cool million dollars. Until now. That’s right, folks, this picture represents $998,798 worth of washers, bought by the U.S. Defense Department…
Sure, you’ve probably seen comparisons of the aluminum Apple keyboard vs. the slightly older Apple keyboard. But have you seen it matched up against an Apple Lisa keyboard? Or how about the IIgs keyboard? Chances are slim, unless you’ve already been to Blake Patterson’s gallery page. [Blakespot via Daring Fireball]
[We Are a Community via NewLaunches]
All you city slickers go on down to the next post, but fellow hillbillies, here’s a nightlight that will make us feel right at home. Reminding you that indoor plumbing is still a luxury for some mountain-dwelling folk, this outhouse nightlight will illuminate your path, no matter how much moonshine you’ve been quaffing. Like most…
Here’s a video of the multi-touch tablet PC prototype that Jazzmutant showed off last week at Siggraph. It’s got the pinch and spread features that Apple popularized on the iPhone, but this can actually take an unlimited number of contact points. You can use as many fingers (or styluses) as you were born with to…
The Skype outage still continues, but Skype says it will probably be back to normal by the end of the day. Some lucky users are already signing back on. [Ars Technica]
Digitimes is claiming that Nintendo is having a problem making good on its promise to ramp up Wii production, something that was set for June, thanks to a shortage of IC chips and PCBs. This means that the global Wii shortage will continue well into the second half of 2007, the holiday season and probably…
What kind of price war is this? Yesterday we saw proof of Netflix cutting a dollar off its three-disc at-a-time plan resulting in a $15.99 monthly tariff, and today a tipster shows us an email from Blockbuster talking about raising prices. But there’s some good news in that email for existing customers. https://gizmodo.com/updated-netflix-lowers-prices-for-dvd-rentals-by-1-290100 The good…
A condom that will make your erection even larger than it already is and last even longer than it already does—ain’t that right, guys?—is on its way. British firm Futura Medical’s CSD500 rubber will be launched by British condom manufacturer Durex under an as-yet undisclosed name sometime next year. And it’s all to do with…
Thirty-nine stories in the air, the glass-enclosed escalator at the Floating Garden Observatory in Osaka’s Umeda Sky Building is…well, our feelings are best summed up by a Frommer’s writer: I’m not afraid of heights, but taking an escalator over thin air in an earthquake-plagued nation certainly caught my attention; it made the “floating” observatory feel…
If you grill using propane fuel, you need The Tank. It prevents that common problem where you suddenly run out of gas in the middle of an intense cooking session—it’s propaneous interruptus. The Tank is a typical 20-lb. propane container with a major difference: It has a gauge on top, an indicator valve that’s accurate…
A dude who goes by the name of “Bruiser” decided he wanted a Slip ‘n Slide for an upcoming party. Like any logical person, he decided to make one using a bulldozer. What he ended up with is a 535-foot death slide into a fecally-tinted pool at the end. Despite the high probability of breaking…
An AT&T call-center employee has taken it upon himself to answer the allegations of the infamous 300-page iPhone bill, apparently in lieu of an official response from the telco. While not “defending” AT&T, he did say this: https://gizmodo.com/the-madness-begins-with-a-300-page-at-t-bill-for-iphone-288887 As of August 10, “summary billing” has been the default format for paper bills, doing away with…
These magazine illusions are easy to make, cheap and fun. You just need your digital camera, any magazine with a life-sized human part printed in a full page and some imagination. Now stop playing Wii and go do something creative. Preferably with a Score cover. [Fubiz]
Getting tired of that old, gray and grungy cellphone of yours? Put away that iPhone envy and go to the Instructables site, which will show you how to kiss that frog with pearly colors and turn it into a handsome prince. But spraying a gleaming coat of paint on a delicate instrument such as a…
The Boblbee Solar is a weatherproof iPod case made for adventurers. Fully droppable and wettable, the Boblbee Solar can take its share of the hard knock life. But its real trick is a curved solar panel, making the most of surface area for a charge cycle that should be about 8 to 10 hours on…
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The home theater version of the world’s favorite astro-mech droid got an upgrade, boosting its DLP projector to 1,024 x 768 pixels and 1,500:1 contrast ratio from the previous 800 x 600 and 1,000:1. Still short from the basic HDTV 720p resolution, but it can do plenty of stuff. https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-projector-shaped-like-r2d2-does-not-project-226868 The DLP unit can project…
Yes, we recommend you pick up the Thomson (TMS) V888 slider—not because it supports a ton of video/file formats including Divx and .pdf. Not because it has a four-inch screen or uses inexpensive flash media for storage. And certainly not because its SNES-like control pad and vague “game emulator.” You should get the V888 because…
Scientists at an Italian university have come up with a pollution-detecting robot that jumps around like a flea. The palm-sized device was developed with its bug-like abilities to enable it to move more quickly over the ground when searching for the source of a noxious leak. Umberto Scarfogliero, one of the men behind the University…