Official LEGO Minifigs Get the USB Legs They’ve Always Dreamed Of

USB sticks and LEGO minifigs have finally tied the knot, never to be separated again, til death do them part. They run a reasonable $25 for 2GB capacity, and you'll never have one of these two things without wanting both of them in one adorable keychain item ever again.

Whoa! Your New iPad Will Stick To Your Fridge

Provided your new iPad is attached to its magnetical Smart Cover, it'll cling on to your refrigerator like a spider monkey to a tree branch. Or like something magnetic to something metal. It's true! It seems like it's all being held up by the magnets on the flap of the Smart Cover—I could definitely use it as a reference while cooking (read: doing FaceTime with my Mom while she tells me how to cook) without being too worried about slippage. Disclaimer: don't do this at home, because maybe your refrigerator isn't as magnet-friendly.

 

 

Google Earth Showing New Satellite Images of Japan

You're probably going to want to polish up and open Google Earth. Google has been processing new updated satellite images of Japan and they're constantly trying to find more as fast as possible. They're on top of Kushiro, Tokyo, Kamaishi, Fukushima (before outer structure collapse) and Yokohama right now.

I Just Bought a Bottle of Ketchup on Facebook

While I was punching in my credit card details on Facebook for a bottle of Heinz ketchup with balsamic vinegar (I'm a sucker for anything limited edition...and ketchup), it occurred to me just how strange it was to be buying anything—let alone a condiment!—on Facebook. But that's the world we live in now.

Have you ever bought anything on Facebook? As more and more people are using sites like Groupon, and taking advantage of companies' offers after following them on Twitter, it makes a lot of sense for brands to take to Facebook to properly "own" their promotions. Everything about the sale of the bottle of ketchup (which is only available to UK fans of Heinz, I'm afraid) was done on Facebook—and crucially, they included the option to share the deal with my Facebook friends.

Spamming my friends' feeds is something I wouldn't normally do—but why do we (and I say "we," because I'm seeing it regularly in my webetiquette-savvy friends) feel that sharing details of a promotion is ok? We're literally falling for the trap. We're endorsing and advertising Heinz, one of the biggest companies around. A company that needs no help selling products. If this limited edition bottle of ketchup was being sold in a supermarket, it would inevitably sell just fine, without any promotion on the social media channels.

It's a clever move of Heinz's (and its PR/marketing team), and we're going to be seeing a lot more of it in the future, whether we like it or not. You'll have to literally hide under a rock (or disconnect your router) to not notice these well-targeted plays at our pursestrings. Please "fan" my product—and welcome to the digital supermarket.

 

 

Olympus’ TOUGH TG-810 Camera Feels the Brute Force of 100kg Blows

Could you withstand a force of 100kg? Olympus is claiming its TOUGH TG-810 camera can. Naturally, I'd like to see video evidence of that (wouldn't we all?), but all we have for now is Olympus' word. What we can probably take them on is the three-sensor GPS, electronic compass and inbuilt manometer (ladies, that's not what you think it is—it's actually a pressure-measuring tool).

In regards to optics, the camera has a 14MP sensor, with a 5x wide zoom on the lens. ISO rangeis 80 - 1600, and it can record video at 720p. Further pushing the envelope on its "all adventurer" schtick, it also has four underwater scene modes. "Capturing escapee genitals from bathing suits" probably isn't one of them.

You'll be able to pick it up sometime this month for €299 in Europe, or $400 in the US.

 

 

You’d Be Hard-Pressed to Find a Cheaper Ring-Flash Than This $40 One

Looking a whole heap more professional than a DIY ring-flash, Photojojo's $40 flash is light in two ways: it weighs just 700 grams, and uses the light from your existing flashgun to illuminate your photos evenly, and strongly.

It doesn't have its own lights like expensive ring-flashes, but if you're not willing to fork out double or even triple the price of Photojojo's F160, then it's a nice compromise. 

 

 

Walk to the Beat of These Sneaker Speakers

Shoes with speakers have been heard before, but not like this. This set of sneaker speakers uses the iconic Air Force One as the housing and comes complete with a full range speaker, tweeter, amp and volume controls. The wood base that the urrforce ones stand on actually makes the set look tasteful. It was handmade by Alex Nash  for the Havana Club as an art project.

 

 

Try and Solve This 17×17x17 Rubiks Cube if You Dare

Unofficially, this is theworld's largest cube puzzle. I get a headache just thinking about how one would go about solving this functioning 17x17x17 behemoth.

Comprised of 1539 pieces and roughly 5.5-inches-long in each direction, creator Oskar van Deventer fabricated each individual part using a 3D printer, then he dyed and sorted each piece before assembling it into what your see here. The dyeing and sorting took 10 hours, while the assembling took another five. Hello, tedium!

If you'd like to dye, sort and assemble one yourself, you can spend roughly $2000 in partshere. If you want a finished product, you can check it here.

 

 

Lady Gaga - Born This Way - I Love Her

This Fully Waterproof Headlamp Will Make an Adventurer Out of Anyone

Up 100 lumens of illumination, distance and strobe modes, red LEDs to preserve night vision, and a fully waterproof body. Yes, the Black DiamondStorm is an oddly appealing sounding headlight.

It's so appealing in fact, that I'm almost tempted to order one for $40 and find a cave to explore right now.

 

 

How to Piss People Off In One Easy Step

Step one: Alter benches in New Zealand so that they press advertising messages about short shorts into the back of a person's bare thighs. You're done. 

 

 

Bendable Graphene Batteries

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) may be on the cusp of creating something special: Bendable batteries that could have better performance than their stiff, inflexible cousins.

Made from graphene, these batteries would do well paired up with the flexible OLED displays.

In fact, coincidentally enough, the KAIST team is also attempting to apply their bendable graphene battery technique to OLED displays and solar cells. The future, how bendy it's become!

 

 

This Umbrella Gives You Goggles to Look Through It

Sure, it may look goofy to have a window pane cutout of goggles on your umbrella but think about the times when rain and neckbreaking wind hook up to create horizontal water bullets aimed for your face. With the Goggle Umbrellas, you have protection! And it's not as gossip girly as clear bubble umbrellas. $44 for a set of two.

 

 

This Daft Punk Coke Better Not Taste Funky

According to Hypebeast, Coke and Daft Punk are uniting in the form of these gold and silver Daft Coke bottles. The shiny sodas will be distributed at the kinds of clubs starting this March, and will also be distributed through colette in Paris.
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Man’s Gold Tooth Deflects Bullet

For those who believe that gold grills are purely decorative, I present to you the case of this unnamed man who was shot in the mouth by his brother, only to be saved by his expensive teeth:

These two began to struggle, and the gun went off, hitting the victim in the mouth. He ran to a friend's house for help, and the paramedics who treated him told investigators that the small-caliber bullet apparently bounced off the victim's gold tooth, leaving only some gum damage from the impact and a cut to his upper lip from the ricochet.

The defense rests, with a broad, glittering smile.

 

 

 

Touch-Sensitive Buttons Might Escape to the MacBook’s Exterior

The latest Apple patent indicates future MacBooks will have touch-sensitive technology on their external casing. Apple dreamed up some grand ideas as to how this might be used Media playback controls? On/off button? iPhone sync? Possibly, but judging from this diagram shown, it mostly just looks like an elegant battery indicator.

 

 

$200 Handheld Scanner Detects Cancer in Just One Hour

You can just imagine how agonizing the wait for cancer scan results must be. Scientists have shortened the time dramatically with this hugely-accurate bedside-scanner, which requires just a needle-full of tissue sample—and an iPhone app to read the results on.

The scientists, from Harvard University andMassachusetts Institute of Technology, developed the nuclear magnetic resonancescanner which uses antibodies and magnetic particles to identify cancerous cells. So far, the results have been impressively accurate at 96 per cent.

The usual method of diagnosing cancer only has an 84 per cent accuracy rate, which is mindbogglingly scary. Those poor people who get misdiagnosed—either with positive or negative readings! No-one can imagine the pain they must go through.

But suddenly, we're entering a period where cancer can be detected using a few components and an iPhone. An iPhone, which didn't even exist five years ago. Of course, in an ideal world cancer wouldn't exist—but if we can hammer the cost down and make this technology readily available to everyone, regular home-tests would save a lot of heartache for everyone involved.

 

 

Electric Bikes Are Now Wireless, and Can Charge Gadgets via USB

The Shadow Ebike is the first electric bike that houses its Daymak Drive controller in the front wheel, alongside a lithium-ion battery, motor, USB port, charging port and LED power display.

Why would you need a USB port, I hear you ask? Why, so you can charge gadgets. The wheel stores electricity, generated from activity. So, the more you cycle, the more you can charge your cellphone once you stop.

You can choose between a 250W motor, or something with a bit more grunt in it, at 350W. The battery, on the other hand, is a 36V 10AH lithium-ion one, which takes up to five hours to recharge, and is good for up to 25 miles.

The only problem I can see with Daymak's Shadow Ebike is the price: a rather steep $1,999. Not to mention the rather "safe" color.

Apple Patent Reveals iPhone 5 With NFC Icon

 Apple patent application is showing an e-wallet icon. The other icons may be in order, but that e-wallet icon could be a little joke at the tech-blogging world's expense—or a deft clue at what to expect come June.

 

 

It’s a Good Thing the World’s Thinnest Phone Has a Gorilla Glass Screen - The NEC Medias

It'll run on Android 2.2 when it goes on sale mid-March with the NTT Docomo carrier, and will no doubt be a hit with Japanese girls (and slender businessmen who don't want to ruin the line of their suits.)

It's just 7.7mm thick, other components that have been crammed into the 105g body include a 4-inch Gorilla Glass LCD screen with 854 x 480 resolution; a 5.1MP camera; 1Seg TV tuner; NFC tech, and the usual other sensors and connections.

Live outside of Japan? It's back to the Galaxy S II for you.

The Only Folding Credit Card Knife I Want in My Wallet

The Creditor, as its called, was designed by knife-maker John Kubasek and recently won an award for Most Innovative Knife Design. It's made of carbon fiber, D2 tool steel, and titanium and weighs just 40 grams. It has a detachable money clip—with the clip, it's the thickness of three credit cards; without it, it's as thick as just one.

They Won’t Know That Tiny Toy Cam On Their Desk is Actually Recording Them

Slide a microSD card into the $95 Mame-Cam from Japanese purveyors-of-USB-craziness Thanko, and be on your way taking sneaky pics and vid on the sly. Video is shot in VGA res at 30fps, and the battery is good for 36 minutes' shooting. You can find it here.

Nokia Giving Developers Free E7 And Nokia WP7 Handsets

Nokia's fighting an uphill battle to retain its community of developers as it switches focus to Windows Phone and Microsoft's Windows Phone Developer Tools from what was a joint Symbian / MeeGo smartphone strategy unified under the Qt development framework. Launchpad members will receive about $1,000 in free hardware in the form of Nokia's new flagship E7 QWERTY slider and a "Nokia WP7 device" just as soon as it's available.

Nokia's also tossing in a few other incentives like free access to the next Nokia World / Nokia Developer Summit, three months free tech support for all Nokia technologies (limited to 10 tickets), a free User Experience evaluation for one app, business development assistance, and help publishing apps on the Ovi store. How to become a developer.

Samsung: "No Need" For 3D Cell Phones, But Good Luck With Them Anyway

Samsung's head of product management in its UK mobile division has gone on record as saying the company has no plans to battle rival LG in the 3D cell phone sector. There's no point or demand and it makes phones needlessly thicker. That's the summary. Here are his actual words:

"We are world leaders in 3D, but we haven't seen a need for 3D on mobiles as yet ... we just don't see [3D] is needed yet—good luck to the innovators though, it will be interesting to see if it works, and if it does you'll see a response from Samsung quickly"

  

NEC Busts Out An Android Netbook, The LifeTouch Note

NEC has debuted its first Android netbook, the humbly-named LifeTouch Note, in Japan. Spec-wise, the Note runs Android 2.2, has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, up to 8GB of memory, a 7-inch backlit (800 x 480 resolution) resistive touchscreen LCD, GPS, WiFi, SD and SDHC slots, and a 2 megapixel webcam. There will also be a 3G variety for a little extra cash, of course. Other than that, there's no word of when this will be available in Japan, but we do know that it start at around $540.

 

 

Batman, Robin, Joker and Catwoman Shrunken Down to USB Collectables

Do you like Batman? Robin? What about USB sticks? Well, now you can have both in one awesome package. These newly released jump-drives arrived at the International Toy Fair -- they're actually quite detailed in design. The flash drives will cost you a pretty penny if you want more storage -- a 2GB dongle is $20 while the 16GB version is $60. If you're a DC Comics junkie and think that the company has sold out, ask yourself this: why so serious?

This Is The First And Only iPhone 4 Case To Meet Military Specifications

If you want to protect your shiny iPhone 4 from the harshest conditions known to man, you may not have a better option than the Ballistic HC.

The $50 case went through a myriad of tests for drop damage, vibration, extreme temperatures, humidity and dust to gain certification. It also has connector seals, water-resistant meshes and tough lenses to make sure that dust, dirt and other harmful materials don't damage your phone.

The cases are available for both iPhone 4s, some Blackberry Curve models and the HTC Evo. 

 

 

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac OS Goes Gold, Hits The Mac App Store

It's been available since October in beta form, but Microsoft has just turned its Windows Phone 7 Connector product to a shiny shade of gold, giving Mac owners a solid (if not Zune-free) option for hooking up their Windows Phones without firing up Boot Camp. There aren't any new features in the latest build worth noting, so you'll get the same options as before: media synchronization, iTunes compatibility, and support for Windows Phone firmware updates, it's now in the Mac App Store.

Fuel Cells Get Stronger, Potentially Cheaper With Graphene, ITO

As the sustainable Juggernaut of fuel cell vehicles (FCV) powers ever forward, a group of scientists are cooking up ways to make the alternative energy source more durable and even cheaper. By combininggraphene -- think pencil lead -- and indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles, the team produced a catalytic material that is both stronger and more chemically active than the usual catalytic combo. Fuel cells typically use a chemical catalyst like platinum, sitting atop a base of black carbon or metal oxides, to break down oxygen and hydrogen gases, creating water in the process -- thing is, carbon is easily eroded by the resulting water, and metal oxides, while more stable, are less conductive. 

Using graphene -- which because of its porousness erodes less quickly -- in combination with the stable ITO and platinum nanoparticles, researchers have created what could be referred to as a super fuel cell -- a stronger, longer lasting, and potentially cheaper version of the alternative energy source. Unfortunately, without enoughhydrogen filling stations, these super fuel cells won't come to anyone's rescue anytime soon.

 

 

Intel Core i7-990X Stealthily Hits Shelves, Origin PC Overclocks One To A Lap-melting 4.6GHz

These days it's less about the megahertz and more about the cores, but custom PC maker Origin isn't leaving either benchmark untouched. It's taken the as-yet-unannounced six-core, 3.46GHz Intel Core i7-990X processor and pushed it up to 4.6GHz -- a full 200 hertz more than the company's previous hotness, a 4.4GHZ Core i7-980X. 

The 990X is now available in the company's desktops as well as theEON-17 laptop -- which is honestly pushing the boundaries of lapablity. You'll find the Core i7-990X at the likes of Mwave and Newegg for what sure is a perfectly reasonable $1,050 right now.

Qualcomm's Ultrasonic Pen Demo Transcribes From Paper To Device

The pen can be equipped with an actual ink pen or a simple nub, and there's a battery-powered transceiver inside. Using standard, off-the-shelf microphones on a mobile device, your future phone or tablet could pick up vibrations from the pen with a radius of around 30 centimeters.

Underlying Epos software is used to convert vibration and coordinate information into text, and from there, any 'ole text app can be used to field the results. It's a fairly impressive feat, and there's some pretty obvious usage case scenarios here -- this could easily reinvent the art of note taking in class, where those who prefer to jot down reminders on paper will be able to log those same bullet points on their laptop as they scribble.

 

 

Disposable 'Fleshkus' Drives Ensure Your Memories Some Day Hit The Dump

We're a little less of a disposable society than we used to be, but that's not to say we wouldn't embrace an opportunity to get back into our formerly carefree and wasteful ways. This concept spotted over at Art Lebedev, designed by Alexei Lyapunov and Lena Ehrlich, could get us there, eight or 16GB thumb drivesprinted on cardboard and produced so inexpensively that you can simply tear one off, scribble on it, then give away to friends to share files -- just a concept at this point, but this vision of tomorrow seems awfully likely to us.

One of Apple’s iPhone 5 Prototypes Has A Hardware Keyboard?

Apple leaks say that there are three different prototypes being tested for the next iPhone. The weirdest one seems to be one that looks like an iPhone 4, but has a case that slides out to reveal a hardware keyboard. The slide-out mechanism sounds similar to the Keyboard Buddy, is pretty unlikely, since Apple has pushed the touchscreen-only train so hard the past few years.

The other two prototypes are said to be exteriorly similar to the current-gen, maybe just 1/3 smaller. If the rumors are right, we shouldn't expect a huge aesthetic change, just improvements like an 8-megapixel camera and an upgraded battery.

It's also interesting to note that there are three different prototypes at this stage of the game (February). It could be that Apple still hasn't made up their mind about which unit to release. If this were April and closer to when they needed to test the final design more thoroughly, we'd guess that two of those three prototypes are just decoys, made to throw people off from what the real iPhone is, to avoid what happened with the iPhone 4 last year. Perhaps that's what's happening already?

Sonim XP3300 Force Claims Insane Ruggedness, Longest Talk Time In The World

The Force has a unique claim: it alleges to offer the longest talk time of any cellphone in the world at 20 to 24 hours, which can be traded in for 20 to 24 hours of continuous GPS tracking, along with 800 hours of standby. Sonim hangs on to its ruggedness chops by casting the Force in a fiberglass shell with 1.5 millimeters of Gorilla Glass over the display, all adding up to an IP-68-rated device that can withstand a two-meter drop onto concrete, two meters of submersion in wastewater (yes, not water, but wastewater), and temperatures ranging from 20 below zero to 55 degrees Celsius (-4 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit). Pricing and availability are yet to be announced.

 

 

Power Gadgets Using Nothing But Water

PowerTrekk hasn't revealed the price of its portable fuel cell/battery back combo charger, but if it's fair I might just have to scoop one up for my next camping trip. Let's hope I never get into the difficult quandary of deciding what to do with my last tablespoon of water—power my gadgets up, or drink to survive.

Connect devices such as your phone, camera, or gaming device by USB to the PowerTrekk, and it uses the PowerPukk packs and water to power them up. Obviously you don't need to rely on the sun here, making it a good choice for below-ground explorers.  

 

 

Nokia: 'Our first priority is beating Android'

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on stage at MWC in Barcelona had a few choice things to say about the recent announcement that Nokia will partner with Microsoft to create devices which run Windows Phone software. Elop told the crowd assembled there that Nokia's "first priority is beating Android," and he also took a moment to let everyone know that Nokia is not interested in being the only company producing Windows Phones -- countering some recent exclusivity chatter.  

 

 

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro

Sony Ericsson has just announced the mammoth Xperia Pro Android phone -- a slider device with a full QWERTY keyboard.

The device sports a 3.7-inch, 854 x 480 display (which uses uses the company's Bravia graphics engine technology), runs atop a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, and is sporting SE's customized build of Gingerbread (Android 2.3). The phone has an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera, and will be available in silver, red, and black.

Microsoft Rolls Out Long, Long-Awaited Windows Update to Disable AutoRun for USB Drives

It's already changed the behavior in Windows 7, and Microsoft has now finally rolled out an update for earlier versions of Windows that prevents a program from executing automatically when a USB drive is plugged into a PC. That behavior has been blamed for the spread of malware in recent years -- including the infamous Conficker worm -- and Microsoft had actually already made it possible to disable the functionality back in November of 2009, albeit only through an update available from its Download Center website. It's now finally pushed the update out through the Windows Update channel, though, which should cause it to be much more broadly deployed (particularly in large organizations). 

Microsoft has decided to simply make it an "important, non-security update" rather than a mandatory update, as it doesn't technically see AutoRun as a "vulnerability" -- it was by design, after all. That means you'll have to look for the option in Windows Update and check it off to install it -- if you choose, you can also re-enable it at anytime with a patch.

 

 

For the First Time In Human History We Have a View of the Entire Sun

NASA was only able to directly view the Earth-facing side of the Sun. We could see solar storms as they happened, but not necessarily as they developed. Now, thanks to STEREO, we can see all sides simultaneously.

Our limited view was due to the fact that the Sun's roughly 27-day rotation hid the far side from our current crop of observational instruments, like the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. The SDO and its companion the Michelson Doppler Imager, while invaluable, can only produce a reconstruction of the activity on the far side of the Sun.

In a technologically-dependent world such as ours, this limited view was dangerous. Solar storms and coronal mass ejections, commonplace in our solar system, could easily build on the unmonitored far side of the Sun before launching toward Earth to knock out our satellites and on-world electronics. We could be, and have been, caught unaware.

To better prepare for these storms, NASA launched STEREO in 2006. Short for the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, this pair of spacecraft follows Earth's orbit—one ahead and one behind—to offer unprecedented views of our life-giving Sun. As of today, they've finally reached a point along our orbit that gives a full 360-degree view of the Sun:

The current mission will continue for another eight years before STEREO A and B switch places on the far side of the Sun, and begin again.

 

 

What We All Hate Most About Facebook

It's not the pokes. It's not the event invites. It's not even Farmville. This, friends. This is the real reason we hate Facebook. And I feel totally justified.

The Magnetic Poles Switching Places Will Create Planetary Superstorms?

The latest crazy doomsday theory is upon us, and unlike the two suns story, there isn't even really a grain of truth behind this one. This new theory says that the magnetic poles will shift in the near future (which, in all likelihood, they won't, at least not in human time scales), and that this will change our climate (which maybe it could, but not nearly as much as the drastic change we're already experiencing), all this will somehow create superstorms, and this somehow probably all ties into 2012 somehow.  

 

 

Acer debuts GN245HQ monitor with HDMI 3D support from NVIDIA

Acer's already rolled out a few 3D-capable monitors (among other products), but none quite like it's new GN245HQ model, which the company notes is the "first 3D monitor in the world" to support NVIDIA's HDMI 3D solution. That means you'll be able to view 3D content from a connected set-top box or Blu-ray player in addition to a PC connected via DVI-DL, and do so with the included active shutter glasses that work in conjunction with the monitor's built-in IR emitter.

 As for the monitor itself, you'll get the usual 1920 x 1080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, along with a 2ms response time, a pair of built-in 2W speakers, and LED backlighting that uses two lamps instead of four for a promised 68% savings in power consumption. No official word on a US release just yet, but you can look for this one to hit the UK in mid-March for £419.99 (or about $675).

Samsung Preparing a 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 2 with Honeycomb for this Sunday?

Samsung's MWC 2011 presentation is this Sunday, at 6PM Central European Time (midday for those on the American east coast). It will feature a dual-core evolution to the Galaxy S smartphone and there'll be at least one new tablet on show.

Samsung is stepping right up to Motorola, whose Xoom still looks likely to be the first Honeycomb tablet to ship, and saying it can do better. It might just be able to do it, too, as the new and unnamed Tab is said to be physically smaller than Apple's iPad in spite of having a slightly larger display.

 Somewhat less believable is the mention of a dual-core Qualcomm processor as the thing to power Samsung's new tablet -- can you really see Samsung undermining the future success of its Orion / Exynos chip by using a competitor's hardware? Then again, weirder things have happened.

RIP: Symbian

This slide was just presented by Stephen Elop and Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, at Nokia's Capital Markets Day. Although there's no date listed, it's clear that Symbian -- a "franchise" OS that Nokia will "harvest" -- will be wholly consumed by Windows Phone on Nokia devices just as soon as Nokia and Microsoft can complete the transition. It won't be immediate, but it seems like 2012 will be the year that Nokia pulls the cord on life support. Regardless of the actual date, who in their right minds would invest their development time or consumer dollars in a smartphone OS that has no future within the company? One more slide showing the post-Symbian reductions in R&D spending after the break.

 

 

These Valentine’s Flowers Will Never Wilt

If you're going to be far away from your loved one this Valentine's Day, you could send them real flowers, which will smell good but will inevitably wilt after a few days, or you could send them these beautiful newsprint flowers from itunube, which won't smell like anything in particular but will last forever—well, only as long as the Earth lasts, I suppose—and, better yet, will remind your loved one that you're a little bit differentfrom the average guy, that you think outside of the box, or have a decent sense of design or appreciation for quirk, though come to think of it sending her these beautiful newsprint flowers might set the bar a little too high for future romantic holidays.

 

 

Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available To Download

The Internet Explorer 9 beta pleasantly surprised us with Microsoft's renewed competitiveness in the web browser wars, and the pinnable, hardware-accelerated experience is getting even better today -- you can download the IE9 release candidate right now, which streamlines and beautifies the tabbed browsing layout considerably, adds those previously promised, fully customizable tracking protection lists for privacy and freely toggled ActiveX filters, as well as an updated Javascript engine, geolocation support via HTML5, the ability to pin web apps to the taskbar, and a host of assorted speed and functionality improvements here.

Is This the Future of Cameraphones?

Imagine that instead of a single camera, the module carried an array of 25 micro-cameras. Pelican Imaging promises just that with their camera module, and they think they have what it takes to revolutionize cameraphones.

GigaOM says the secret behind Pelican's technology isn't unlike the HDR feature found on the iPhone. the hardware captures multiple images (or sets of data), and then uses post-processing software to assemble it all into one high-quality photograph. Pelican is less obsessed with cramming more megapixels into the phone, and more interested in finding the best way to pair a sensor with a lens (or lenses, in this case).

Pelican plans to license their technology component manufacturerers and handset makers, similar to what ARM does with their processors. Can't wait to see this pop up in an actual phone.

 

 

Gramophone Style Comes to iPhone

The ArkCanary II is an analog acoustic iPhone speaker, designed rather like an updated antique gramophone. The maker plans to get it to retail for around $13.

Researchers Already Have a Twitter Generator That Predicts How You’ll Tweet

Twitter is great for making friends and sharing links, but researchers are also increasingly using it to study human interactions. This is more difficult than it sounds, since privacy settings and caps on server access can make it hard to gather research data from social networking sites.

Social Network Write Generator (SONG) generates data that closely replicates the behaviour of genuine tweeters. The team gathered 12 million tweets written by 2.4 million people between November 25 and December 4 2008. They cut out the 75% of users who didn't send a single tweet during the 19 day period and filtered for spammers by looking for accounts with a high tweet-to-followers ratio, leaving them with a dataset of around 350,000 users.

Analysing these users revealed a number of properties that the team replicated in SONG. They found that general tweeting levels build up during the day then die down at night, but also fluctuate in a predictable way from second to second and hour to hour.

The researchers also discovered that both the time between an individual's tweets and the variation between prolific tweeters and lurkers - non-active Twitter users - follows a standard mathematical model called the log-normal distribution.

Plugging these findings in to SONG let Erramilli and colleagues run their own version of Twitter on a network of 16 computers. By gradually increasing the number of tweets per second they discovered that CPU overload caused the network to falter at over 100 tweets per second and totally collapse at around 150. Presumably this means Twitter owns more than 16 computers.

The researchers say that this proof-of-concept shows that SONG can be used to accurately model Twitter, though beefier hardware might be necessary to get close to the real thing. They plan to release the code for SONG soon to let other researchers build their own virtual Twitters and model "what-if" scenarios such as high loads caused by trending topics or a sudden rise in popularity in particular geographical regions.

 

 

Verizon iPhone 4 Now Available to Order/Reserve For In-Store Pickup

Apple and Verizon's long-awaited partnership is nearly upon us, folks, and the final piece to the puzzle is general availability of the hallowed iPhone 4. You're now able to order or reserve your own at the online stores of both carrier and phone maker, though shipping dates for early orders are listed at a distant February 18th.

Dell promises a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet later this year

Dell's just announced that it's planning to bring a 10-inchWindows 7 tablet to market later this year. According to the press release, it will be aimed at commercial and enterprise markets. Sound familiar? Yep, it sounds like a HP Slate in the making, but let's hope this one is faster and sticks to its shipping schedule.