Adam Savage's New Gig...Verizon LTE Gets Ready To Rumble...Sony Ericsson Satio Hits FCC (Minus Super Hot Model)...The Ballsiest Go-Kart Ever...
Our friend Adam Savage at MythBusters literally bought into a recent internet meme when he scored himself a 1981 IBM gigabyte hard drive. Get this, it weighs 75lbs. and originally cost as much as Magnum's Ferrari. So, Adam, how much did you pay for it? And, more importantly, what in God's name do you plan to do with it? [Twitter; Twitpic]
Verizon reported that it had successfully lit up its 700MHz LTE network in Boston and Seattle—10 cell sites a piece—to test some real-world situations including streaming video, file uploads and downloads, web browsing and VoIP calls. This has no bearing on you or me as phone users, and it doesn't change Verizon's promise of 30 LTE markets in 2010, but it's nice to know that when it does happen, at least those of us in Boston or Seattle are gonna get a piece of the action sooner rather than later. Jealous much, NYC? [from Verizon press release]
The Sony Ericsson Satio may well turn out to be a nice phone, but the FCC picture of it is the equivalent of those caught-off-guard celebrity hangover shots on the cover of Enquirer. It's certainly a stark contrast to the blatant appeal to sexy sexy time that was Satio's initial introduction to the US. Remember her? [Engadget Mobile]
I don't know what's crazier, this prototype go-kart with a Honda CBR900rr (893cc) engine from J&D Fabrications, or the guy driving it with no helmet. Let's just hope he's taking good care of his organs. [YouTube]
Some dedicated Palm Pre fanboys/Pre Central readers did a bit of snooping around and found a model number for a North American, GSM Palm Pre in the certification database for Wi-Fi.org. Intrigue!
The model number on this new Pre on the Wi-Fi.org site reads P100UNA (where as the Euro GSM version reads P100UEU and the CDMA version reads P100EWW). There are also references in the Bluetooth Gadget Guide and TUVdotCOM to back this up.
Engadget seems to have the right idea in guessing that this phone is first heading to Bell and our friendly neighbors to the north (that's Canada, for the directionally challenged). Why, you ask? Because Bell is in the process of switching from a CDMA network to a GSM one, and Sprint is the still the exclusive carrier of the Pre in the US for at least the rest of the year. Then again, maybe Palm is just really, REALLY excited about early 2010. [Wi-Fi.org (PDF) via PreCentral via Engadget
A handful of stats students at the University of Ottawa decided to create a working mathematical model for zombie outbreaks, and possible ways of thwarting the attack. What did they learn? We're screwed. Kind of.
First, some background. They based their methodology around three groups: zombies, those susceptible to zombie attacks, and those who are unaffected (dead zombies). They based their model around zombies who infect humans with saliva via bites, and walk in slow, irregular strides. They also allowed a 24 hour incubation period from the moment of infection to complete zombification.
What did they learn? Well if left unaddressed, a zombie attack on a sizable city would wipe out the population in a matter of 4-8 hours. If you tried to quarantine the zombies, it would essentially have no effect on the outcome because the zombies would inevitably escape, or infect the humans attempting to quarantine zombies. And if you tried to generate a zombie antidote, you'd still lose a lot of people in the process of creating the antidote, and it wouldn't revert the zombies back to a dead state, which means they could possibly infect people in other areas.
The best solution? The only hope of wiping out a possible zombie invasion is to attack the undead in focused, strategic attacks that progressively increase in intensity. This will help address the growing number of undead in the process. But even then it would prove difficult to emerge victorious, as it would take 10 days worth of heavy fighting to quell the outbreak.
But luckily, you don't have to worry about any of this because some sap mathematically proved it would be impossible for zombies to exist (along with vampires). Something about how they would feast themselves into oblivion. [University of Ottawa (PDF) via io9]
If you havent noticed over the last year, Incase have been knocking their messenger/laptop/skateboarding bags out of the park with products that are equally techie and stylish. Their new DSLR bags are no exception.
A cursory scan of camera bags on Amazon will reveal that they all pretty much look like crap from a design standpoint. Yes, they get the job done, but if you're more of a hobbyist and not so much of a photo pro, you still might want to attempt to blend in with the rest of society. Which is why Carrying Case and Sling Pack bags are refreshing—to the naked eye, they more or less just look like normal bags.
The Carrying Case is meant for a single camera and lens, plus a couple of small accessories. The Sling Pack has room for additional lenses and flashes, and as the name imples, fits like a messenger bag. Both bags are professional-grade water resistant products that will sell for $60 (Carrying Case) and $80 (Sling Pack). [Incase via Uncrate]
Apparently, the Japanese do. Because that's exactly where the Japan Texture cases from SoftBank BB are going on sale. But really, this is ridiculous—these things don't even have diamonds on them.
The Japan Texture line of cases are all handcrafted and have referential nods to significant moments and concepts in Japanese history and culture. That's wonderful. But no moment in any nation's history is worth a $1000 friggin' dollars. [Softbank via Crunchgear]
Just a quick bit out of Hollywood: Universal confirmed that a Battlestar Galactica movie is on the way and will be Produced and Directed by Valkyrie chief Bryan Singer. The movie will not pick up where the SyFy TV Show left off, but rather fall in line more with the original series from the 1970s. Original creator Glen Larson will join Singer is a producer. [EW via Slashdot]
Don't kill the messenger here, but there was a poll conducted which says that 99% of iPhone 3GS owners are happy with their purchase compared to a smaller (but still really high) 87% of Palm Pre owners.
Moreover, the study said that of the 99% of iPhone users that were happy, 82% of them were very satisfied. For the 87% of content Pre owners, just 45% were very satisfied. Users in both polls enjoyed the touchscreen, lauded user friendliness and beamoaned battery life. But there are caveats.
The survey, conducted by RBC Capital and ChangeWave Research, polled 200 iPhone Users compared to just 40 Pre users. This means a dissatisfied Pre user could have a greater effect on the outcome. Secondly, this is still the highest customer satisfaction survey for Palm, so disgruntled Pretards should turn that frown upside down. [Wired]
A panel of space experts assembled by President Obama were expected to inform the White House today that unless they can round up some more cash, they won't have the funds to make it back to the Moon before 2020.
The UK Guardian says the report was apparently surprising to some inside NASA, who thought the project was more or less on track. Nine billion dollars have already been sunk into the Ares I rocket, which now risks becoming the most expensive pile of scrap metal ever seen. And thanks to a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit, the chance of that extra funding coming from the government seems unlikely.
This also throws a bit of a wrench in the plans of the Constellation project, which aims to put someone on Mars by the middle part of the century. But again, without funding and the additional voyages (like that to the moon), the 81 billion dollar project will suffer some epic setbacks. This could not have been what Dubya envisioned when he commissioned the project in 2004 (WE WERE SUPPOSED TO FIND LITTLE GREEN ALIENS!) [Guardian via Slashdot]
MSI's C-Series notebooks are getting an upgrade with the new CX600, CX700, CR600-017 and CR700 models. The 600 models are fairly light at 5.4 pounds, the 700 models are slightly beefier tipping the scales at a bit over 6 pounds.
Both the 600 and 700 models have 16:9 widescreens with 16" and 17" displays respectively. The CX600 and CX700 notebooks both contain the ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 discrete graphics card while the CR600 and CR700 models pack NVIDIA's GeForce 8200M GPU. Folks looking to future proof their purchase can opt for the CR600-017 which boasts an ungraded processor and a Blu-Ray drive, the new C-Series notebooks start at $549.99. [I4U and Hot Hardware]
Two words. One number. Mass Effect 2. There are pictures. Of aliens. And humans. Walking together. Sometimes fighting. Sometimes loving.
New Mass Effect 2 Screenshots, WallpaperMass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Mass Effect 2! Korean Girls, Meet Giant Sand PlayStations Sega Will Celebrate Dreamcast's 10th Anniversary Quietly
If you're gonna hang out on the beaches of Rio, you wanna look your best, because everyone there is basically a model. The Museum of Image and Sound, designed by Diller Scofidio+Renfro looks like it just rolled out of bed.
Luckily, this is a building and not a person (in case you didn't notice). As such, the frumpy, wrinkled, bed-headed look is pretty awesome, even if it seems a bit out of place next to slightly less modern apartment buildings. Dezeen says the Museum of Image and Sound is expected to have seven levels more or less, with space for galleries, conference rooms, auditorium and food+drink. Oh yeah, there will also be an outdoor movie theater on the ROOF. Yes.
Construction will be finished sometime in 2011—at which time I will be purchasing a flight direct to Rio. Be sure to check out more photos over at [Dezeen].
According to the the description, the man in this video is an engineering student in Pakistan. Anyone remember that old Far Side comic?
This is kind of like that, only dumber. Why he was trying to bull rush the door is anyone's guess, but for the sake of mankind I can only hope this guy doesn't graduate. [Digg]
Sid Meiers does a thing; Duke Nukem makes an appearance, exactly as you remember him; social conspiracies are aired; eBay!; and a thing called "e-mail." All this and more in your unusually 90s-centric weekly app dump, after the jump.
Civilization Revolution: Real-time strategy doesn't really suit the iPhone—it can be a little frantic, and controls aren't perfect. So how about an iPhone adaptation of one of the greatest turn-based strategy games of all time? $10 is right at the acceptable ceiling for non-professional iPhone apps, but this is real, true-to-form Sid Meier stuff, right here.
Duke Nukem 3D: Oh, by the way, everyone who likes strategy games is a nerd, right guys? Because real men play DUKE NUKEM', with the boobs, and the cursing! This is a fairly direct port of the classic game, but with crappier—though not terrible, for the iPhone—controls, and sadly, no iPod Touch 1G compatibility. Three dollars for a reasonably long, surprisingly playable game.
eBay: eBay has updated their app to support two pretty awesome things: Push notifications, to tell you when you've been bidsniped, because that's pretty much all that shopping on eBay is about nowadays, and PayPal payment support, so you don't have to log onto a PC every time you want to seal a deal. Still free, OBO. (via)
reMail 2: iPhone mail search is fine. reMail iPhone mail search is actually good, if it works for you. Two things: there's no Exchange support (sorry suits!), and there's only support for one account at a time. But within that one IMAP or POP account, reMail archives all your message text as far back as you want, letting you search full text—not just subjects—without a network connection. The five dollar price is a little shameful, though.
Pastie: Lets you make a list of preset text snippets that you can quickly send as emails or texts, rather than having to type out a unique message. It's a timesaver if you're the kind of person who responds to everything instantly and succinctly, or if you just like having a large clipboard on your phone, but beware: it doesn't work on iPod Touches, at all. (via)
My Gay Agenda: Are you gay? Do you have a well-formed sense of irony? Would you like to spend three dollars to make everyone is totally aware of these two facts? Great! Though in all seriousness, this faux-pernicious calendar/to-do list is pretty funny, and a portion of the proceeds go to charity.
This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a swell weekend everybody.
Deviantartist imrik made a pack of wallpapers for the Zune HD, but he also included a few wallpapers of the Zune HD for your desktop. If you like-a quality wallpaper, you'll like-a this. [Deviant Art]
Almost 20 years later, the Genesis still represents my favorite childhood Christmas.
I want to recount the story for you here—I really do. The feeling of running down the stairs that morning, tearing into a tower of gifts balanced on one of the tall, pink chairs of our formal living room. I want to tell you about almost opening a small, rectangular box just two gifts into the unwrapping (one with an eerie resemblance to the size and shape of a Sega Genesis game box), before my parents recommended I work my way through the the pile in a different direction to save the pièce de résistance for last.
But to tell this story again, the pinnacle of my Christmas experience, one properly softened by a Vaseline-coated lens while simultaneously sparkling with double starburst filters, feels disingenuous.
You see, I wrote it all down on paper once before. I was 10, putting me in fifth grade. Still obsessed with my Genesis, this tale of Christmas morning 1992 (late adopter) would be the perfect narrative for the English portion of Mrs. Lustig's class. And I have little doubt that my adultish perspective—one that has difficulty tuning out today's culture for a time when kids only got gifts for big holidays, one that is so spoiled it can call in any toy at any time from any company—has clouded the importance of that Sega Genesis to me. I'll simply never recapture the unbridled love placed on paper via number 2 pencil with this clunky Macbook keyboard I'm typing on now. And an LCD does so little justice to childhood memories when compared to a piece of looseleaf, pulled without regard from a spiral notebook.
The Sega Genesis was my Red Ryder BB gun. It offered me the elation of its receipt, the disappointment of Tazmania and the eventual perspective that memories will forever be altered by the ones that follow. I'm not sure I'll ever relive a moment quite like ripping through paper to find, in complete shock, that I'd gotten exactly what I'd wanted that Christmas. But there's always next year.
Netbooks are selling well, but the Japanese know exactly how to market to the person who doesn't want a Netbook, but does want something with Rilakkuma, a Japanese cartoon bear, on the back.
It's a limited edition netbook from Bandai Namco and is loaded up with Rilakkuma wallpapers. You get 1 gig of RAM, Windows XP, five hours battery and a carry case for $800. Pretty steep for a netbook, but c'mon that's a BEAR FACE. [Lalabitmarket via Tokyo Mango via Boing Boing Gadgets]
As a consumer, there is nothing I like more than having the option to customize a product to fit my needs. Lecia is taking this concept to extreme levels with their new a la carte ordering system.
Choose a LEICA MP or M7 other than the standard model, and from the modular component system select the details that match your needs and wishes in terms of style, functionality, and practicality. Options include: lens cap color; leather trim; viewfinder frame-lines; controls; personalized engraving. With over 4000 combination options, even unusual wishes can be met. The Configurator lets you try out your ideas before turning them into reality.
The possibilities are almost overwhelming—but in the end you could create a camera that is personal and truly one of a kind. [Leica via CLDFX via Design You Trust via Core77]
In the not too distant future, LED handrails could make every stairwell seem like you are about to enter someplace indecent.
Despite what the aesthetics might suggest, something like this could be invaluable for commuters, people with poor eyesight, and fans of Tron. [Toxel via Designlaunches via Boing Boing Gadgets]
After Discovery's Shark Week, paranoia is at an all-time high. Don't let the fear of a shark attack prevent you from enjoying the beach this summer. These products can help give you a false sense of security peace of mind.
The WASP knife is more compact and versatile than a spear gun or rifle, but it just might be even more deadly. Should you find yourself in the company of an aggressive shark, a stab from this knife will inject compressed gas into the victim which will expand, freeze and explode internal organs. [Link] For years, surfers have sworn by the Shark Shield as an effective method of deterring sharks. The unit attaches to a surfboard and supposedly emits low grade electrical signals that screw with a shark's muscles. However, in at least one case, the effectiveness of the device has come into serious question. [Shark Shield via Link] One of the latest methods of repelling sharks comes in the form of these alloy ingots. Specifically designed to protect sharks from being killed by fishing gear, this alloy emits a mild electric current when exposed to salt water. After a few days, the metal will transform into a harmless white precipate that will fall to the ocean floor. Nothing is 100% effective, but fisherman claim that it has reduced the catch of slow-moving sharks by as much as 64%. [Repel Sharks] If you are a fisherman in search for a decent fly wheel, keep in mind that one of Abel's reels managed to haul in a 150-pound great white off the coast of California. [Link] Remember that old Batman movie where Adam West blew up a shark with some Bat Spray? As completely ridiculous as that was, a similar product actually exists in the form of this RS-A-1 canister. When dropped, the can will sink and then slowly rise as it emits a cloud of chemical repellent. Designed to affect a shark's sense of smell, the manufacturer claims it will buy you around 15 minutes of protection. [Repel Sharks] What's up spaceman? Neptunic suits look like something a 1960's test pilot would wear, but they are actually designed for underwater use. Made from a liquid crystal polymer fiber, the suits are extremely bite resistant. [Netptunic]
Future Darwin Award nominee or desperate genius? Maybe both. But shoving things into what looks like a UK 220V outlet is probably not going to end well. Just ask the guy in this retro UK electrical hazards PSA:
Our good friend Dave Kay at AudioJunkies has put together an all new edition of the world's sexiest speakers for 2009—and it basically defines gadget porn for the audiophile.
The image above pretty much tells the whole story. It's an Olympus Sound System—tweeters, midranges, mid-woofers, and subwoofers are arranged in individual columns and each channel is comprised of 30 individual drivers and six amplifiers. The price? Only $325,000 per pair. Check out AudioJunkies for 14 more selections that you would probably have to sell your house to afford. [AudioJunkies]
Points in favor of realness: the photos aren't blurry; we've got multiple shots of the camera hardware; the photos match previous rumors about camera placement. Points against realness: they came from a radio show; and the iPod is totally destroyed.
Click above image for super-huge version
Of all the places you could send a sensitive Apple leak—with photographs—one repair technician, who claims to be showing us the next iPod Touch, complete with camera, chose "MAXIM Radio with Covino and Rich," a media outlet that by definition cannot show people images, and where the term "dudebros" is thrown around with some frequency. But anyway! Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. Here's what they say their tipster told them:
-to show it's real. If you look at the board, it states Apple 2009 very clear. The 2nd gen AKA iPod touch out now, has 2008 on it. They haven't revised the 2008 touch. I will compare them in pic in a sec.
-BTW, these phones NEVER leave Apple and this one left but it was a durability test phone, (ed note: ???) so that's why the screen is all gridded off and cracked.
-The side by side picture is the inside of the current gen vs the 3rd gen (one coming out in September).
-I acquired this from a guy that I buy parts phones and iPods from. I believe he's a recycler in ***********, so what most likely happened is that Apple threw this away and he some how got it and sold it for parts."
This is strange for as many reasons as it is fascinating—if this is some radio stunt, it's a pretty thorough one. The lens is convincingly seated and iPhone-like from the outside, and the camera sensor mount—that black box you can see in the disassembled photos—looks just like the casings you see under countless cellphones' battery covers.
But there's plenty to be uneasy about. The iPod is utterly smashed, and the technician's story as to why that is, and how he got the device in the first place, is extremely fishy, to be generous. Also, the fact that it's broken is awfully convenient—that means that the tipster can't be asked to demonstrate the possibly home-installed iPod camera, because the device is clearly smashed. Drilling a convincing lens into a dummy iPod is totally plausible; doing the same on a working unit and snapping photos with it? Not so much. It's all a little tough to swallow, but again, hard to ignore. While we're waiting for Apple not to send a takedown notice, let's speculate! I'm not convinced, just impressed—what do you brodudes guys think?
UPDATE: FWIW, here's a response to our post from their spokesintern, or someone:
I assure you, this is NOT a radio stunt. Or, at least, not on our end.
And the guy who gave them to us has been reliable with tech in the past. I sent them to you guys (after I watermarked them, of course) only because I didn't know what else to do with them.
To be fair, any fakery probably would've been down to the sender, not our sat-rad middlemen. UPDATE 2: So, some folks are calling Photoshop on this one, based on an enlarged photo and what looks like some nasty JPEG compression. We have the original in very high resolution, which you can see cropped here, or by clicking our top image, and which shows none of the artifacts. It does, however, show kind of a rough cut on the hole, which is +1 for the homemade prank theory. Carry on. UPDATE 3: Oh, and this:
We've got great deals for things that are sure to keep you entertained, be sure to check out the Battlestar Galactica: Season One download. As always, have an awesome and safe weekend.
In the US, we're supposed to be the worldwide masters of consumerism. But as pointed out by Pop Mech, our Energy Star guidelines are not just inaccurate, they fail to compare one product to any other product. There's no context.
Meanwhile, take a trip pretty much anywhere else in the world and things change:
Looking at an EU dishwasher label...The machine is rated not only on total energy and water consumption, but also on cleaning performance, drying performance, size and noise. At a glance, consumers get a sense of how this dishwasher stacks up against every other dishwasher on the market....The American EnergyGuide label lists the manufacturer-submitted annual kilowatt-hours consumption estimate, compares that to the other manufacturer-submitted estimates, then crunches those numbers with another set of assumptions to project how much money it might cost to operate the machine for a year. It's up to the shopper standing on the dishwasher aisle to figure out whether 100 or 1000 kilowatt-hours per year is a reasonable cost for clean plates.
Basically, the rest of the world gets a free issue of Consumer Reports on the label of every appliance they're about to buy. We're left needing a subscription. [Popular Mechanics]
Our old friend Joel Johnson took an iPhone on a trip the other day...down to 50 feet underwater on a dive on California's Channel Islands, using H2O Audio's iDive300 Case and speakers.
Scuba diving is about minimizing distraction, but you wouldn't know it from looking at a scuba diver. Ignore the standard equipment, the buoyancy compensator, the regulator that seems at first a limitation but soon a comfort, the huge tanks of compressed air. Divers are rarely content with just the essentials. Soon every spare D-ring holds a new contrivance. Lights to counteract the red-sapping murk. Spare air in cans of dubious capacity. Swinging knives that swell from utility to shark-dueling length.
So why would you want to add an iPod? Because, like all those seemingly superfluous bits of tinsel, sometimes music is exactly the tool a diver needs to make a mundane dive as otherworldly as the very first splash in the water.
H2O Audio makes iPod cases, more or less. And unless you spent first-grade science period inattentively carving carnivorous plants into your notebook, you can probably guess the mythical element in which those cases are designed to operate. (Hint: It's fire.)
Most of their product line is really more splashproof than waterproof. That's not an indictment—I strapped one of H2O Audio's Amphibx iPhone armbands around the tan biceps of a Bulgarian kiteboarding instructor in Hattaras just a week ago; a 15-foot depth rating was plenty to make him smile.
But 15 feet underwater for a scuba diver barely registers. (At 15 feet, I'm hardly done panicking about the fact that I'm breathing out of a rubber trachea.) Most recreational, consumer underwater gear will get you to around 30 feet, just under one atmosphere of hydrostatic pressure, twice the pressure one feels at sea level. If you're lucky you'll see a rating for something around 130 feet—four atmospheres, and beyond the limits of recreational diving.
That's why it's all the more impressive that H2O Audio's iDive300 works all the way down to 300 feet—over twice as deep as I've ever been, or ever will be.
That makes the iDive 300, which would just fit into an empty carton of cigarettes, useful to even those deep divers who have to take long nitrogen decompression stops, giving them something to do while resting on ascent lines, sometimes for hours, as the nitrogen leeches from their blood and is exhaled. Listening to music or watching movies is more feasible than smoking that carton, though Lord knows I've tried.
For the recreational diver, though, the iDive 300 adds more complexity. The positively buoyant case strains against its lanyard, popping into your face at inopportune times, or, as I discovered after strapping it to a D-ring low on my vest, bobbing up between your crotch, making a simple volume adjustment maneuver into an especially awkward moment for your dive buddy as he watches you probe between your legs, searching for something you can't quite grasp.
You could mitigate this by strapping weights on the iDive 300, slipping it into the pockets of a BC with weight, or lashing it onto an arm. It's a big hunk of extra equipment—large enough that every diver will want to find their own method to stash or secure it.
The iDive 300 is large because of the extra electronics onboard. This isn't just a simple Lexan case. A circuit board runs the entire length of the bottom half, wedding the standard Apple iPod connector to a set of spring-loaded controls that run along the spine like trumpet valves, as well as a chamber for the three AAA batteries necessary to power the underwater speakers—an iPod's headphone jack won't make nearly enough juice to power the integrated clip-on headphones, especially deep underwater where the pressure makes the speakers work all that much harder to vibrate.
And they're definitely speakers—silver-dollar-sized with no padding, large holes to let out the sound, connected to the case by integrated rubber cords about four feet long that can't be detached. A plastic clip is screwed on to the side of each, designed to allow the speakers to be threaded through the straps of your mask; I chose to slip them inside my hood—clips and all—once I was underwater.
I didn't have to just jump in with the cords and speakers flying, thanks to the considerate dive operator running the liveaboard dive boat off Catalina in California's Channel Islands. Instead of making us jump off the boat with all our attendant gear, one of the deck hands would lower our cameras and other delicate gear down to us on a line after we were in the water. Like all sensitive dive gear that must maintain a seal, you'd want to be very careful about catapulting in with the iDive 300 simply clipped onto your body.
If you can stomach the rollicking seas, a liveaboard is a wonderful way to dive: Full red moons oozing into a starless night; divers in dry suit underwear on the deck enjoying an adult slumber party; beautiful galley girls with long legs and marble-mouthed accents; tan, lean crew in folded down wetsuits and broad grass coolie hats; rocks jutting up along the coast painted white with gull shit; shivering divers crawling onto deck to gulp steaming coffee in full sun; tales of a boat named "Fujimo" (as in "Fuck You, Jane, I'm Moving Out"); long flies with wings like post hole diggers; a 10th-grade English teacher wearing sweatpants with "Soul Mate" stenciled on the ass.
Yet thirty divers plus crew on an 85-foot boat can make a man antsy: the pervasive overtone of urine like a seaborne nursing home; charmless, cantankerous Jimmy Buffet fans who use bravado and volume in lieu of wit, inexplicably crowning "Margaritaville" as "real music" but honking beardful laments about the corniness of Captain & Tennille; every spare inch filled with piles of gear, cameras and knives and lights and spare cans of air and extra sets of wet suits in case dry suits flood; shamefully little alcohol.
By the time I tested the iDive 300 on my second full day of diving, I was ready for a transcendent experience. The giant kelp forests were fascinating on the first day—as a tropical diver I'd never experienced anything like them—but the dives were quickly becoming unremarkable, and a cold lassitude had already begun to infect my dives. Splash in, drop to forty, watch the legally unmolestable garibaldi wave their sexy orange caudal peduncles in my face, bop around the rocks and through the kelp, rinse, repeat.
I affected an air of what I hoped would be perceived the other divers as seasoning before I jumped in with the iDive 300.
"Seems like a pain in the ass to me," I groused. "Just one more thing to break." The other divers on deck responded in kind, mostly preoccupied with their own pre-flight checklists. "Don't know why you'd want to even listen to music, really," I said to their backs.
And I was right—it was a huge pain in the ass. At least at first, with the headphone cords whipping around my head very much like kelp; the case itself trying to spring to the surface, twisting the screen of my iPhone upside down; the music at once blaring and then fading to muddled distortion as my middle ear pressure equalized. (Truth be told, I could never quite figure out why the volume would vary so much, as it would often fluctuate even while I remained at a consistent depth. There's something about the way the speakers make pressure and sound that I don't quite understand.)
Worse, the music I had chosen, a sort of dancey indie rock thing, was driving me crazy, not unlike the way favorite songs can raise hackles when you're on a road trip or slightly high.
My brief review of the controls on the surface was enough to make it possible for me to scan through my iPhone's music selection and find something else while my dive buddy patiently waited. Pressing the "Mode" button at the top flips between, well, modes. When there's an iPhone inside the iDive 300, modes are basically just different sections on the iPod and—for some reason, because you can't actually view any—Photos.
There was a weird guilt in changing my music selection at first: partially because I did not yet trust the integrity of the iDive 300, so every button press felt like an opportunity to send water flooding around my overpriced iPhone that I couldn't really afford to replace; it also felt bad to be wasting air sitting at the bottom just trying to find something to play.
But then I found the right album.
Silent Shout, by weirdo-fashion-electro brother-and-sister producers The Knife—metallic panoramic sweeps and spare dewdrop synths meted out with haunted Swedish meticulousness. In an instant my miserable one-man undersea dance party metamorphosed into an investigation of an orange, impish forest. No longer feeling as if a band were chiding me for not dancing while I was trying to keep my attention focused on not breathing water, my awareness spread wide into the water like dye, the music slipped into soundtrack, and I was parting kelp curtains to enter backlit algae cathedrals and bending my androgyne form into gloomed dells like a Miyazaki spirit.
So it works, if you get all the kinks worked out.
The iDive 300 won't be added to my standard diving rig. The less gear the better—and simply by dint of what it is, the iDive 300 adds a lot of complexity that I can't imagine will be welcome on every dive. (My second dive with the iDive 300, listening to an episode of The Bugle, was a bit of a drag. No fault of Zaltzman and Oliver, of course—they're simply an above-sea-level indulgence.)
Still, for generous divers, passing the $350 iDive 300 around for specialty dives would be a noble act. Every diver should try listening to music underwater at least once.
Sturdy, simple design
Only iPod case rated for such extreme depths
Offers an experience beyond that of most dive gear
Expensive (costs more than an iPhone)
So large that it can get in your way
Headphone cables add two more wavy bits around your mask and regulator
This is Amy Barzdukas, a general manager in charge of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. And she may be smiling in the photo, but nowadays she's bitching a lot. The reason? Firefox's one billion downloads claim:
As with any marketing statement, I'd encourage people to be somewhat sceptical about large number claims. It's an interesting number and I have not seen the math [but] how many internet connected users are there? 1.1 billion, 1.5 billion, something in that area.
She described the number as "interesting math," even while that 1 billion figure include every download and update since Firefox launched since 2004. Repeated downloads too. And people having multiple computers.
Knowing that, it doesn't seem that crazy to me. What do you think about Amy's claims? And about Firefox figure? [The Guardian]
As annoying as it is, life sometimes gets in the way of your 24-hour Twitter vigil. That is why you can employ the Guardian Robot to stand watch for you. He will notify you of good tweets and bad 24/7.
Meet the Guardian Robot: This friendly little fellow stands on your desk and monitors your Twitter feed for "happy" and "sad" posts by your friends on your Twitter feed. But unlike conventional alert systems, this robot encourages you to interact with the posts it finds.
For example, when it finds a "happy" post, the Guardian Robot raises its head and arm in triumph. It holds the pose until you give it a "high five" by pushing the switch in its raised hand. Once you do that, the robot pass the high five on to your buddy via a reply Tweet.
Likewise, when the Guardian Robot comes across a sad Tweet, it lowers its head in despair. You cheer it up by giving it a hug, which it will forward on with another reply Tweet.
Jesus, this robot is needy. Still, it might be nice too have a Twitter secretary of sorts, filtering through a sea of meaningless tweets about going to the bathroom, eating something with bacon in it...etc. Designer Ken Lim has provided enough information on the build so that you might be able to make one yourself—but even if you don't know your way around an Arduino you can still interact with the Guardian robot by chatting with him on his own Twitter page (#ineedahug and #highfive commands). You can also check out his reaction live on the Ustream video above. [Guardian via Boing Boing Gadgets]
Interesting but ultimately unhelpful clue: It was created by a man who went by the name Brother Henry O. Studley.
In case the antique aesthetic and outdated honorific didn't give it away, this is a very old piece of hardware. Or rather, a very old collection of hardware: Filled edge to edge with handcrafted woodworking tools, this ornate box is a toolchest, lovingly assembled and carried by Mr. Studley when he was working as a piano repair man, of all things, around the turn of the 20th century.
Virtually every tool in this box has a plasticized, anodized, or even electronic modern counterpart, each one superior in some way to its predecessor, whether by cost, durability, convenience or concept, but uniformly less charming. I mean, look at this. This is a man's livelihood, perfectly assembled, cleaned and organized, in a proud, beautiful wooden box. All I've got is this broken down MacBook, and a shoulder bag. [Phoenix Masonry via MAKE]
You've already seen the player hands-on; the final reveal for the Zune HD was how well it handled when docked on a high-def TV. As you can see in this video, it blows away anything else in its class.
I was trying to figure out what it was about the Zune HD's TV interface that I was enjoying so much, and then I realized: Unlike every other device of its size and capacity, this thing is a true portable media center. It's not as fast as a fully fledged PC running Windows Media Center, but it is zippy as hell for a pocketable, portable player.
Zune HD goes dark when it's docked, like you see in the gallery. This isn't like an iPod—once docked, it's invisible, the power behind what you watch or listen to. The remote is the key. I bopped around, browsing music, scanning for radio stations (that HD has a few meanings, including an HD radio receiver, so you can see the "what's playing" data and everything) and even watching a short full-screen video on this 60-inch Samsung. The demo Zune only had the one video—I can't wait to see what it's like to fill a 32GB one with great movies and TV episodes.
The only noticeable thing missing from the interface was any online connectivity—you can't download movies to a Zune without a PC anyway, but docked, I am not even sure you can stream music (as you can when carrying a Zune in a Wi-Fi environment). More on that when we review it, naturally.
As we showed you months ago, the player itself takes the PMP user interface to a new level. When you select something, all the screen elements move at different vectors, creating at times a 3D effect, as you can catch up close in the video below. (Pardon the glare, but that's one hazard—for better or worse, it's a shiny shiny screen.)
I don't want to say more—this is not a review, and I won't be the reviewer when we do pass judgment—but let me say that, as someone who's never been terribly excited by past Zunes, this one took me pleasantly by surprise.
Drink. Smoke. Fuck. Don't let the perfect writing, production, and acting fool you. That's really what Mad Men—one of the best TV series ever—is all about. And wondrous retro tech too, like you can see in these videos.
Ah, Don Draper, how much I wanted to be like you. A creative mind at a top banana, zowielala company in New York, drinking 12-yo single malt scotch at work, going to great restaurants and fancyschmancy clubs, having love affairs left, right, and center, with your perfectly cut 50s suits.
I need to buy one of those suits.
Mad Men Season 3 starts on August 16. If you haven't seen it yet, you have two days to get up to speed. But if you don't fell like it, you can watch these shorts showing the retro tech in the series, from the passive exercise thingamajig to the first copier, cameras, and lots of old clickityclack electric typewriters with IBM keyboards. [Mad Men—Video compilation by Spencer Lund based on an idea by Joel Johnson]
The cool thing about Mad Men's perfect production and attention to detail is that they get all their stuff right. The other is that you get to see a lot of new products that were invented around that age, like the passive exercise machines you now see in endless infomercials. Even better, you can see their genius as they created the need for those products using their black magic powers.
Here you have an IBM Selectric II typewriter. At the time, its optional correction feature was a godsend for office workers all around the country and the world.
I wonder what they would have said about projectors is cameras back then. Although knowing how cool they were, they probably wouldn't have batted an eyelid, and just came with a cool name for it. And then proceed to use it to record their sex antics.
No solid state flash recording. Just pure, unadulterated, silver-based film goodness with no sound.
Back then, copiers were wonders of technology. They probably invented buttxeroring too.
And finally, a small compilation of various tech objects from the series.
A Portuguese retailer has let slip on two more cases designed for the fifth-gen iPod Nano, and third-gen iPod Touch—and camera placement perfectly matches the Chinese cases Cult of Mac spotted. Update: Pics pulled, cases "available September." Hmmm?
In one of the more interesting pull down notices we've seen in a while, the Portuguese retailer said:
Yesterday a new set of products for iPod in our catalog, we have been asked to remove them. It was then clarified that we were not allowed to publish it. We have immediately accepted to remove that information, and would like to express our sincere apologies to our costumers. We are expecting to make those products available in September.
September eh?
A rumored September keynote (when iPods tend to be announced), apparent iTunes 9 details emerging, mounting case leaks? New iPods are a comin', and it's looking more and more like they'll have cameras. And the tablet? Not until 2010 apparently. Probability Thing-o-Meter back to 70 percent!
Just when you begin to consider the world a cold place where ingenuity couldn't exist without a touchscreen, a Japanese inventor busts out the Shoulderbrella.
Adhering to the end of any stock umbrella, the $25 Shoulderbrella is a flexible, pipe-cleaner-like accessory that wraps around your body to hold your umbrella for you while leaving your two hands free for lugging groceries, holding the hands of children or starting bare-knuckle street fights with those other umbrella jerks who are always poking you in the face. The tables have turned, haven't they Mr. Anatopistic Golf Umbrella? [Shoulderbrella via RedFerret]
This hack, still in volatile pre alpha testing, is based on an onscreen keyboard that the Pre already has—the phone's symbol input panel, for characters that aren't accessible by keyboard shortcuts. By patching the keyboard layout to include "regular" characters, the guys at webOS Internals were able to slap together a simple proof of concept onscreen keyboard, in both portrait and landscape modes, which, as Adrian said before, would make quick, short text input waaay more convenient.
It's too new to recommend installing unless you're versed in the cryptic particulars of Pre homebrew, but given the demand for and simplicity of the hack, it doesn't seem like an easily-installable onscreen keyboard is too far over the horizon. Or, you know, Palm, you could just save us all the trouble. [webOS Internals via PreCentral]
Get your suicide pills ready, because there may not be an Apple tablet in 2009. That's what Apple mavens John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple's "very reliable sources" are saying: No tablet till 2010.
Jim Dalrymple says:
Very reliable sources familiar with the product have said speculation of the tablet being introduced during the September event are flat out wrong. The Apple tablet, they said, would not see the light of day until the first part of 2010.
The event in September will be focused on music, which means we could see new iPods and perhaps some updates to iTunes. The tablet computer will not even be mentioned as part of the event, my sources said.
I'm almost certain there's no tablet coming this year. It's a 2010 thing.
Both seem adamant about it. Unlike the usual rumor sites—who are a random hit-or-miss most of the time—Gruber has an almost perfect track record when it comes to breaking news about upcoming Apple products, usually right before an event.
Still, the truth is that very little is known about Apple's super-secret new products outside of a handful in the Cupertino campus. And while that handful may spill at some point, the information is usually vague until very close the release date. In other words: While the sources pointing to a 2009 Apple tablet release may be wrong, Gruber and Dalrymple may be wrong too.
Heck, for all we know, everyone may be wrong, and this whole tablet thing may end being a just a wet dream. Or maybe everyone is partly right, and there will be a September announcement and the tablet will be available sometime in 2010, similarly to what happened with the iPhone. That will give time to iPhone app developers to prepare their software for the new format.
I don't know. I don't give a damn. I just want someone to give me the damn thing already. In the meantime, we are taking the Apple tablet meter 20% down. [Loop Insight and Daring Fireball]
There's no doubt that these renders are hot, but they're presented as photos, which they clearly aren't—not just because of their generally aesthetic, but because of this: That's "lorem ipsum" dummy text, on what's supposed to be either an actual photo or an official render. Also, the "Pro.Three" branding doesn't make sense: HTC's Pro handsets generally have keyboards, and the correct notation, judging by the recently released Pro2, would be Pro3. In other words, these renders, though nice, don't seem to have any connection to HTC, or a real product.
Ai.rs is confident enough in these shots—and their allegedly reconfirmed specs, which include an unlikely capacitive screen—that they've declared all the previous renders fake. Based on what appears to be a fake render. This calls into question all the information they've provided, meaning we know about as much about the Leo now as we did back in June, which is to say, nothing. [Ai.rs]
China's initiative to install the suspiciously opinionated, prudish Green Dam software filter on all new PCs has been chopped off at the knees, so it'll only affect "Internet cafes, schools and other public places." Join me in hollow celebration!
Hollow, because China's still got a national content firewall, which pretty much precludes access to naked folks and Tibet's Wikipedia page, or whatever it is that the government wants blocked. Hollow, because lots of Chinese citizens don't own PCs, and depend on internet cafes for access. Hollow, because it sounds like this drawdown was due to logistical concerns, and doesn't reflect a change of philosophy in the government, which keeps hatching more and more plans to keep "true things" (and evidently, "sexting") from its citizens:
The government recently proposed a requirement that all users of online chat rooms and bulletin boards use their real names when posting comments, a move that would stifle the sometimes-freewheeling debate on many sites. Until now, government censors have played a cat-and-mouse game with anonymous Internet users who posted comments that flout approved positions.
That's mildly terrifying, for Chinese e-people! [NYT]
According to an unconfirmed leak by PocketGamer, Sony will not only price downloadable PSPGo titles at prices competitive with the App Store—the company is actually recruiting iPhone developers to port their games to the Go.
Pocketgamer reports that at least some iPhone developers will have a place in Sony's PSN service where games will go for "1, 2 and 5 Euros" (or $1.50-$7). But It will take some fudging to port their titles from the iPhone's 480x320 display to the Go's 480x272 display.
If the rumor is true, hats off to Sony for updating their PSP business model to stay competitive with the long-convenient cellphone gaming industry. But at the same time, pricing across services could get a bit tricky. And if I'm offered a game at full resolution or an adjusted, lower resolution, I know which one I'm choosing. [PocketGamer via Kotaku]
While the majority Atari 2600 users stuck with the standard, stiff joysticks, the most militant opted for the Terminator Grenade controller.
Despite its unique, burly look, the Terminator was actually a standard, 9-pin controller that supported a variety of systems (including C64 and Vic-20). Today, it's both a fairly rare collectible and the only joystick that we wouldn't recommend carrying through airport security.
Looking back, I swear that I played with one of these controllers as a kid, but then again, it's just as likely the thing was a real grenade. [flickr via technabob]
Last year, DARPA granted aerospace firm, Aeronvironment, a chunk of change and six-months to demonstrate a bird-sized Nano Air Vehicle (NAV). This video shows the result: the "smallest ever free-flying aircraft to hover and climb with flapping wings."
The image above comes from Aeronvironment, and shows what it wants the prototype in the video below to ultimately look like. DARPA's goal is to have a 10 gram aircraft with a 7.5-centimetre wingspan. They want it to get into tight hiding spaces and send back GPS and image data.
Aeronvironment's progress is also notable because such robots previously couldn't carry their own batteries, and had to use guide wires.
"It is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, as well as forward and backward, under remote control," says the company.
Whether you're hunting for jobs at work, or taking some "alone time", the Wi-Spy wireless surveillance system can avoid anyone sneaking up on you. It's also good for stuff that matters, like keeping an eye on your kid's safety.
The $170 system consists of two parts: a rechargeable wireless camera about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and a 2.75-inch wireless receiver/display. Mount the camera, plug-in the monitor up to 30 feet away, and watch the live stream.
Apparently, the camera also has nightvision capabilities (or at the very least works in low-light situations), and can record video to an SD card, which can you then copy over to your computer. [Brick House Security via Gearfuse]
Wow, good try. San Leandro, California police stopped a man after reports he tried to sell an HDTV at a Wal-Mart parking lot. However! It turned out to be a plastic-wrapped glass oven door with Sony and Best Buy stickers.
The man is suspected of trying to charge $100 for what appeared to be a 37-inch flat screen television. He had even stuffed electronic cables and a manual in the back.
San Leandro police Lt. Pete Ballew called it a variation on the old "rocks in a box" scam, in which a box is presented as containing new, expensive electronics for sale but is actually full of rocks.
Most of us would spot the scam a mile away, but it does make you wonder if anyone would fall for it. I certainly know a couple of people (including my Dad) who might. [The Oakland Tribune via Gear Diary via Slashgear]
The Refresh charging station is like a beautifully slimmed down version of Bluelounge's Sanctuary charger, with half the connections: 2x iPod/iPhone, 2x USB, plus single Micro USB and Mini USB plugs.
It can charge two iPod/iPhones simultaneously while also charging a Blackberry and a bluetooth headset for instance. In fact, using the two iPod connectors and two of your own iPod cords, you could even charge four iPod/iPhones at the same time.
It's good to see they've thrown in Micro USB, too. That's a nice bit of future-proofing given that most cell phone makers (in Europe at least) will soon be using it universally. You can pick one up in white, black or pink for $90. That isn't exactly cheap, but the Refresh definitely looks like a pretty slick piece of kit. [Bluelounge via Yanko Design]
It won't stop you from overdrinking, but Rotgutonix will test unmixed drinks (or those mixed with water) for the presence of unadulterated alcohol aka rotgut. The concept has a chemical sensor can detect several alcoholic brands in about 20 seconds.
At present, the device is set to analyze the following brands: Johnny Walker, JB, DYC, Pampero, Brugal and Havana club, although in future version we expect that Rotgutonix will be able to analyze the chemical composition of over 20 well-known brands, mainly rum, whisky, gin, and vodka.
The also site says the device is currently "a prototype still in the marketing phase", but we'll look out for it.
We've mentioned Dell's rumored phone could hit China in very near future, and if legit, this info backs up the impression of the device being all-but ready. Specs could include a 3.5-inch display (640x360), GPS, MicroSD slot, and 3Mp camera.
These new pics look pretty real, and match what we've seen before. Seems like the Ophone mini3i (as China Mobile may call it), is looking increasing like a done deal.
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12 * Size: 68.6cc * 103g grams weight * Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm * Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors * OTA capable * Microsoft Exchange support * Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support * 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor * USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR * A-GPS * On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI * MicroSD slot
What I like about this version is that Han Solo shoots first. Seriously, check it out minute 1:10. Oh well, who I am kidding: I just love the acting. [Star Wars Blog]
This 2.0 speaker set (the toaster-looking piece is a volume control, not a subwoofer) may not be the most powerful set at 10W per channel, but they promise excellent conduction (and style) due to the unusual construction of ceramic-wrapped cork.
Made by Joey Roth, the 4-inch drivers are packed in a stylish and unusual cone-like design made of porcelain, cork, and maple wood. They're not being mass-produced, which is probably to be expected, and can be pre-ordered starting in September from the the manufacturer's page. Don't expect them to come cheap—we wouldn't be surprised to see a pricetag nearing $500. [Joey Roth via Crunchgear]
MAKE calls this a huge XY table. Crunchgear thinks it's kind of a mouse-controlled Etch-A-Sketch. All I know is, it uses a mouse, three skateboards and an Arduino microcontroller. But for what purpose?
I suppose it could be used as an inexact Etch-A-Sketch, using three skateboards for linear movement, but it seems like an awful lot of effort (and space—it must take up an entire garage!) for that. So help me out: What could this thing be used for? Should I be scared or excited? [MAKE via Crunchgear]
Verizon and T-Mobile Trick More Customers Into Liking Them Than AT&T and Sprint Do...Optimus Prime, Ice Sculpture...DIY iPhone Flash Wins "Most Flagrant Use of Electrical Tape" Award...iPhone Soap, Now Pizza Scented...
J.D. Power & Associates, the well-respected surveyors of customer satisfaction, announced for the umpteenth time that Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile (along with Verizon's newest subsidiary, Alltel) were better at the customer service game than AT&T, which tailed those three, and Sprint, which brought up the rear. Since these standings don't change much from year to year, and since it's clearly not an indication of a carrier's success or failure, we don't post about it. If we did, commenters would just bitch about how badly the winners suck, too. (Yes, that was an invitation.) [MobileCrunch]
Have you ever dreamed of having an Optimus Prime ice sculpture? Me neither, but somebody in Canada did! Gearfuse had very little to say about the origins of this sculpture, posted on Flickr by (from what I could tell) a Toronto-based recording studio. It clearly does not transform (now that would be a post!), though I admit it might be the classiest way for a grown man to celebrate his love of toy robots. [Gearfuse]
My hat goes off to Andreas Ødegård, mainly for letting me type those sweet Norwegian letters. In addition, though, Ødegård (there we go again) is a DIY gadget nut who fashioned himself an iPhone/iPod Touch flash out of a Cree emitter, an LED of plentiful brightness. The contraption is not the prettiest, covered as it is with electrical tape, and it's a bit misleading, since its 30-pin connector is apparently only there to hold the thing in place—the Cree gets power from a AA battery. Still, it's a noble remainder, especially since Ødegård (wheeeee!) built v1 in under 10 minutes while watching Scrubs. [Andreas Ødegård (that's four!) via Make]
For a while, rationally exotic scents like Mojito and Tropical Mango were enough for users of iPhone-shaped soaps, and people walked down the street knowing that by stroking themselves repeatedly with their favorite fetish item, they were not just clean but arousingly islandish. But for some, that wasn't enough. They wanted pizza-scented iPhone soap, presumably so that they could smell arousingly like parts of North Jersey. And you know what? God love 'em, that's what they got. [Etsy]
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE—High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment—camera has captured one of the most beautiful photographs of Mars to date: An oblique view—at 22 degrees east of straight down—of the Victoria Crater, in the Meridiani Planum region.
Click on the image to enlarge to see all the incredible detail. Warning, it's huge and takes time to load.
According to NASA, this unique angle will give scientist a great opportunity to study the geological layers in this area. It looks like a dried lake to me—of course is not—but that's just my ignorant untrained eye making things up. [NASA]
Holy Mother of Steve McQueen! A crazy, perhaps strayed Google Street View got into the Laguna Seca Racetrack, chasing some badass sport cars. You can travel through the course like with any city street or road. Can you identify them?
A handful of stats students at the University of Ottawa decided to create a 
If you're gonna hang out on the beaches of Rio, you wanna look your best, because everyone there is basically a model. The 
For years, surfers have sworn by the Shark Shield as an effective method of deterring sharks. The unit attaches to a surfboard and supposedly emits low grade electrical signals that screw with a shark's muscles. However, 
If you are a fisherman in search for a decent fly wheel, keep in mind that one of 
Remember that old Batman movie where 
What's up spaceman? Neptunic suits look like something a 1960's test pilot would wear, but they are actually designed for underwater use. Made from a liquid crystal polymer fiber, the suits are extremely bite resistant. [
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Sturdy, simple design
Expensive (costs more than an iPhone)
Users 
China's initiative to install the 
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