Apple iPhone 5 Launch Event

Apple has distributed invites to various press organizations of its launch event on September 12th in San Francisco, where the next-generation iPhone could be officially unveiled.

There are also rumors of a follow-up event in October, when Apple will supposedly introduce its miniature 7-inch iPad.

Even the name of the next iPhone remains a secret until now. It could beiPhone 5, “the new iPhone,” or something else. The keynote speech kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, which will be covered live by various sources. More here.

Samsung Galaxy Note II With Dual-SIM Capabilities Gets Spotted in the Wild

The distinct Galaxy Note II pictured above, which, by the looks it, comes pre-loaded with dual-SIM capabilities, and thus makes this particular unit slightly different. Although details are still very scarce at the moment, rumor has it the dual-SIM Note will only be available in China and, aside from the slot additions, all other features the famed phablet offers appear to be exactly the same. Feel free to check out the source  for more pics, but don't expect anything too exciting or out of the ordinary -- unless, of course, extra SIM slots are your thing. More here.

These Cute Bendy Flashlights Look Like They Belong in WALL-E

You may have seen bendy lights before, but none with personality like these. It's almost as if they're an extra set of friendly, robot eyes helping you work. They look just like a cross betweenWall-E and Eve, right?

Each Flexi Flash Flashlight packs LED lights as its pair of little eyes, and has a 7" prehensile tail for wrapping around handlebars or toolbox handles or whatever's close at hand. They come in orange, pink, and blue, and are only $12 over at Modern Tribe. Pick one up, give it a name and write it into some WALL-E fan fiction. Or not. Totally your call. More here.

uTorrent Beta App Arrives on Android

Fans of the torrent-juggling desktop client can now get their downloads direct to their mobile device, because uTorrent's launched a beta app for any Android device running version 2.1 or higher. It's currently free, with RSS support, fully adjustable upload and download speeds and the ability to play games in the background as you wait for your files. There's currently no limit on download sizes either -- just so long as you can stomach the data charges. More here.

Use This Magnetic Project Mat and Never Get Screwed By Losing Screws

The most annoying part of any DIY project is trying to keep a handle on all the little screws. If you've found yourself fishing under the couch for errant parts one too many times, this Magnetic Project Mat might be just what you need.

Adorned with a grid, this mat lets you organize your screws, set them down, and be sure they'll stay where they belong, even in cases of table-bumping or mild earthquakes. On top of that, the surface is dry-erase friendly, so if you feel the need to subdivide sections, or add labels to keep track of which screws are which, you can go right ahead.

While it's magnetized enough to hold your screws, it's not strong enough to really mess up any of your electronics, at least not anything sufficiently modern. The mat's just slightly smaller than your average sheet of paper at 8" x 10" and is available for $15 over at ThinkGeek. If you're sick of losing nuts and getting screwed (or losing screws and going nuts) it might be worth your while. More here.

Future Computers Will Not Only Be Cooled by Water, They’ll Compute With Water

Aside from a clump of dirt, water might seem like one of the least technological things to ever exist ever. But researchers have found a way to use water droplets in such a way that they can represent 0s and 1s on a logic board and help to perform computing functions.

According to LiveScience, the trick involves using a superhydrophobic surface that tilts every time a drop of water hits it. Scientists have calibrated the rig so that they can guide the drops to a specific destination on the board which will then register its position.

Using the tracks, the researchers demonstrated that water droplets could be turned into technology, "superhydrophobic droplet logic." For example, a memory device was built where water droplets act as bits of digital information. Furthermore, devices for elementary Boolean logic operations were demonstrated. These simple devices are building blocks for computing.

Adding intrigue to the endeavour is that those water droplets could hypothetically carry a chemical compound which could potentially react with the surface (currently comprised of copper coated in silver and a fluorinated compound), which could have interesting applications for building micro chemical reactors. But for now, let's just enjoy the fact that we could have water-powered computers, yeah? More here.

Organic Food Might Not Actually Be Better For You

There's a chance we've been deluded by the marketing of organic food; a new study by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have found that it might not actually be better for you.

Their study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at 200 other peer-reviewed studies that analyzed the difference in health benefits between organic and regular food and the people who partake and found that there wasn't much evidence backing the advantages of either camp. The studies they looked at ran the gamut—one weighed how pregnant women eating organic might lead to certain conditions like allergies in eczema in their children. Another checked organic meat's effectiveness in shielding you from a bacterial food-borne illness called Campylobacter. A third compared plots of tomatoes grown conventionally to those grown organically to see if the latter produced plants packed with more nutrients. In this case it did show a few benefits of organic food, but it was only specific to one vegetable. And it was not conclusive enough to say that overall there is an absolutely compelling reason to eat organic.

What we do know is that organic food tends to have fewer pesticides. But that little difference might not even matter. And different fruits and vegetables are by their very nature going to have varying levels of vitamins and nutrients. Eating organic isn't necessarily going to make you Popeye. You will certainly be spending more of your income on fancy Whole Foods fare, however. More here.

Dedicated Pepper Prep Tool Rescues Utterly Incompetent Chefs

The Pepper Prepper, a plastic implement designed to make decapitating and cleaning peppers just slightly easier than with a sharp paring knife. One end features a spinning blade for making a precision hole in the top, while the other sports a scraping tool designed to easily rid the innards of its bitter pith. But as some Amazon commenters have pointed out, the $8 tool only really works with larger peppers, and even then it's only the scraping tool that seems to shine. But if easier prep puts delicious stuffed peppers and chile relleno on the menu every night, how could one every complain? More here.

Sony’s Monster 4k TV Costs More than a Car

Do you want the gargantuan, gorgeous 84-inch 4k TV Sony recently tempted us with? So do we. But are you willing to sell an organ for it? Official pricing is out now!

Sony's mega-high-res beast will set you back a whopping-but-sadly-expected $25,000 when it hits stores in November—and you can pre-order starting tomorrow. Or you can pay your rent for a few years, or take a trip around the world. Or do all of the above.

So, yes, it'll take several years before this beautiful tech is something you can afford to actually put in your home.

Stunning Aquarium Bed Redefines Sleeping With the Fishes

Forget about the race car or canopy bed you dreamed about as a child. This custom-made aquarium headboard makes your boring old Serta setup just about the most amazing place you can rest your head at night. And possibly the most distracting.

The 650-gallon tank spans the top of the bed, and rests on a pair of matching tables on either side. The folks at Acrylic Tank Manufacturers, who created this masterpiece, have cleverly integrated a set of bedside lamps into the tank itself. But for $11,500, let's hope there's some way to completely darken the tank. Otherwise you could be wide awake all night finding Nemo right in your face. More here.

This Giant Sharpener Could Be the Safest Way To Peel Your Vegetables

School supplies like scissors, compasses, even binders, all have the potential for injury. But have you ever heard of someone hurting themselves with a pencil sharpener? Probably not, which is why this Karoto carrot/cucumber/other elongated vegetable peeler is a stroke of genius.

It's essentially nothing more than the sharpener you used to hone your colored pencils back in grade school, but scaled up considerably so it can handle foods. All it takes is a few twists to produce a lovely garnish for a salad or other dishes. And since your hands and fingers are kept well clear of the blade while using it, you'd have to be really trying hard to injure yourself with this thing. So for $15, you'll be saving yourself a small fortune in bandaids. More here.

Harman Kardon’s Iconic Soundsticks Go Wireless

Ever since they first arrived in 2001, Harman Kardon's soundsticks always stuck a harmonious chord in balancing price, looks and performance. Designed by Jonny Ive himself, the first Soundsticks were inducted into MoMA's permanent collection. And now, they've gone wireless.

For the most part, the speakers are the same: 10 watts in each satellite and 20 watts going into the subwoofer. But now it has Bluetooth baked in, and though that may not offer quite the same audio fidelity as a wired connection, it does mean a cleaner appearance for those more concerned with aesthetics. But that convenience comes at an added cost. Instead of the $200 pricetag of the Soundsticks III (which can be had even cheaper on the street), expect to pay $230. More here.

The iPhone 5 Is Coming on September 12

If you're holding out on buying an iPhone until the new one is out, mark down Apple's just-announced September 12 event on your calendar: that could be the day the phone is revealed. Posted by The Loop, the invite says the event will begin at 10 AM PDT at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

If you wanna read into the teaser image Apple sent out, the shadow of the 12 is a 5, implying that they just might actually call the next iPhone the iPhone 5. If you haven't been keeping up,rumors have suggested the iPhone 5 will have a new two-tone unibody design, a smaller, redesigned dock connector, 4G LTE and a larger 4-inch display using Sharp's IGZO technology. There's also a possibility the phone could have NFC technology baked in, along with redesigned earbuds.

iPods are typically a hallmark of the September Apple event, and though they're not the relevant, must-have gadgets they used to be, it's always worth keeping an eye open for those. There are also rumors that Apple could trot out a smaller, 7.85-inch iPad mini as well, but there have been a wave of rumors suggesting that may not happen until October. And of course, there's the ever-mythical iTV that could magically appear anytime between now and never. More here.

BlackBerry 10 L-Series All-Touchscreen Phone Caught on Camera

If you can't wait until next year to see the future for RIM, N4BB has obtained what it claims is a picture on the BlackBerry 10 L-Series, aka London. The screenshot shows a launcher pane full of app icons including BBM, Facebook, Maps and StoryMaker, which could be an iMovie-style video editor. Other leaks, including one from a video posted by BlackberryItalia.it, indicate it could pack a removable 1800mAh LS1 battery and will be gunmetal colored. More here.

Bottle Blender Mixes Fresh Fruit and Water To Flavor Your Boring H2O

If plain old water doesn't quench your palate, but you don't want to spring for a fancy flavor-enhanced pre-bottled alternative, feast your eyes upon the Aqua Zinger DIY H2O infuser. It lets you imbue your water with everything from fresh fruit essences, to spices, to candy corn.

What's particularly neat is that you don't need to plug the $26 Aqua Zinger in or ever charge a battery. The blending mechanism is completely manual. You just fill the bottom capsule with whatever you'd like your water to taste like, and attach it to the bottle. The act of screwing it onto the Zinger's base pulverizes and blends what's inside, while a fine mesh screen ensures that only your water can flow between the chambers and absorb the flavors. The website suggests such ingredients as cucumber, mint, or lemon and lime. But deep down you know you've always wanted Evian to introduce a Skittles or Starburst option. More here.

Next Apple Earbuds Potentially Sighted in Vietnam, My fix an Iconic Design

The pack-in earbuds for iPhones and iPods have been among the most recognizable of technology symbols for more than a decade just not for their technical merits. They're notorious for slipping out of wearers' ears and having a mediocre sound next to just about anything else you can buy. If Tinhte's own discovery in Vietnam is authentic, Apple might be breaking with another one of its longstanding traditions this year by redesigning those earpieces for the better. Gone are the usual buds that only vaguely aim towards your ear canals. Instead, what's on show has oval tips very loosely resembling those of the Klipsch Image S4 II, and slots in at an angle to fit more directly into the canals -- not to mention more comfortably. More here.

Insanely Designed Level 10 M Mouse Finally Comes to Market

If you're looking for something new in a mouse, something simultaneously awesome and over-designed, something different, your dream mouse may have arrived. The Level 10 M Mouse, a joint project by BMW Designworks and Thermaltake, is finally hitting shelves.

The Level 10 M's empty space-loving design isn't just a visual thing. You can actually adjust the way many of the different pieces sit, tension levels, etc., something invaluable to precision-minded gamers and tinkerers everywhere. Whether you really dig its unconventional style is a personal thing, but you can't say it's boring.

According to a BMW Group press release it started rolling out to online sites and brick and mortar stores alike on August 27th, with a suggested price point of $99. It hasn't shown up on Amazon or at Best Buy just yet, but hopefully that's just a little Labor Day lag. More here.

Second Generation Razer Blade Laptop Sharpens its Edge with GTX 660M, Unannounced Core i7 CPU

The 17-inch behemoths that call themselves gaming notebooks are traditionally quite large, trading extreme performance for substantial bulk. These machines routinely flirt with double digit weigh-ins, and flaunt meaty 1.5-plus inch bezels. They represent a unwieldy reality in portable power that most gamers have learned to expect. Not Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, however -- he's still chasing the dream: thin, powerful and sleek.

Razer's first laptop hit shelves earlier this year, packing a Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M graphics, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and 64GB of fast-booting solid state storage. All this comes in the same aluminum shell as the first Blade, of course, sporting a 17.3-inch high definition display and the firm's exclusive multitouch LCD Switchblade interface. The machine's internal speakers have been upgraded as well, and are said to be 250% louder with no distortion.

The new Blade's sharpened specs will come with a price cut, ringing in at a penny under $2,500 -- and gamers who picked up its predecessor (which will be getting its own price cut, to $2,299), can snag one for $500 less. Pre-orders are slated to start on September 2nd, and should ship within 30 days. More here.

TDK Introduces new Wireless Boombox and two new Weatherproof Speakers

First up is the Boombox Wireless, which is a similar, but updated, design from the original and features not only streaming sans cables via Bluetooth, a rechargeable battery, too. If you don't want to cut the cord completely, there's a 3.5mm aux input, USB slot for charging plus an FM radio and headphone output. Next up is the Wireless Weatherproof Speaker, which despite being described as "rugged" and boasting an IP 64 weather compliant design, looks like any regular device. It, too, has Bluetooth streaming and built-in battery, along with 3.5mm input and built-in microphone.

If these two were all looking a little bit oblong, then the curious Wireless Charging Cube might be for you. Yep, it's Bluetooth streaming again, but also plonk your Qi induction compatible device on top, and it'll juice that while you jam (there's a non wireless charging / charger version also.) How much do these slabs of sound cost? The Boombox is $399, the Wireless Weatherproof is $250 while the Wireless Charging Cube is $399. More here.

Apple Will Buy Your Old iPhone for Good Money So You Can Buy a New iPhone 5

A new iPhone is coming and if you want to smartly get rid of your old iPhone before it gets even older, you would want to sell it off for as much as you can get. If that's too much work, go for perhaps the easiest route: sell your old iPhone back to Apple. They're taking old iPhones with open arms.

Apple is accepting old iPhones as part of its Reuse and Recycle Program and the value you get from Cupertino actually isn't too terrible: an excellent condition iPhone 4S 64GB can fetch $345 while a used and slightly scuffed iPhone 4 16GB will still score you $160. All you have to do is send the iPhone with the power cable and Apple will give you a gift certificate which you can promptly use to buy your next iPhone. It's like swapping car leases but for phones. More here.

Did Scientists Just Find a Cure for Malaria?

Researchers at the University of Cape Town in South Africa have developed a pill that can wipe out malaria with a single dose. It's a development that could save millions of lives in Africa alone, not to mention the rest of the world. But there's a teensy weensy little hurdle that must first be overcome: human testing.

Yes, that it hasn't been tested on humans leaves a big question mark, but according to National Geographic, early tests have proven extremely effective.

Unlike conventional multidrug malaria treatments that the malaria parasite has become resistant to, Professor Kelly Chibale and his colleagues now believe that they have discovered a drug that over 18 months of trials "killed these resistant parasites instantly". Animal tests also showed that it was not only safe and effective, but there were no adverse reported side effects. Clinical tests are scheduled for the end of 2013. If this tablet is approved in coming years, this achievement will surely usher in a new age for science in Africa. It will save millions upon millions of lives on the continent, helping avoid at least 24 percent of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

Most medical testing begins with animals, so it's not like there isn't a reason to be optimistic about this pill's effectiveness. And solving the malaria issue in Africa would allow doctors and health care providers to focus on bigger issues facing the continent, such as HIV. More here.

I Want This Gorgeous Mega-Widescreen Monitor Right Now

So far, Sony and Samsung have dominated IFA with a torrent of magical TVs and new phones. But quietly, LG is showing off one of the coolest monitors we've ever seen.

The Verge reports the 2560 x 1080 29-inch EA93 monitor boasts a highly unconventional 21:9 aspect ratio—most wide screens are 16:9. This means more screen real estate for windows aplenty—possibly sparing your desk from an additional monitor. It'd also make for a pretty fantastic Windows 8 display, giving the horizontal-heavy Metro Start Menu plenty of room to luxuriate. A little extra resolution would be nice, though—but maybe we're just spoiled by the Retina MacBook Pro. No word on pricing or availability, but expect it to be a lot of money. More here.

This Keyboard’s Thin Display Keeps Your Eyes Focused on Typing For Better Concentration

The Smartype seems better suited for hunt and peck typists who spend more time staring at their keyboard than their displays. But its creators claim its tiny display will actually make even touch typists more productive by allowing them to concentrate on the keys at hand.

The Smartype display's primary raison is to mirror your computer's screen, but only what you're typing so you don't have to keep looking up while you pound away at the keys. It seems a bit redundant for touch typists who rarely needs to glance at their keys, but if you haven't the mastered the QWERTY keyboard it could theoretically improve your typing speed. More here.

Thermometer Spatula Monitors Food Temps While You Stir

Designed for recipes that are finicky about the temperature of the ingredients—like fudge, candies, and jams—this silicone spatula has an internal temperature probe that helps prevent whatever you're stirring from overheating and burning.

Not surprisingly the Thermospatula is heat-resistant up to 428 degrees fahrenheit and is capable of displaying temperatures in celsius or fahrenheit from -4 to 464 degrees. And so you're not dropping $24 on a one-trick pony, the spatula's temperature probe is removable and can be used by itself as a meat thermometer ensuring your entire meal turns out perfect-not just dessert. More here.

This Kettle Heats Water to the Exact Temperature You Want

If you'd rather enjoy a cup of coffee or a mug of tea as soon as you make it—instead of painstakingly sipping at the scalding beverage until you can tolerate the heat—your plight has officially been resolved. Bonavita's variable temperature kettles let you specify exactly how hot you want your water.

Six preset settings should suffice for most users needing hot water for instant coffee or a recipe. But if you're precisely brewing coffee or steeping tea and require the water temperature to be exact, above 140 degrees fahrenheit you can program a specific temperature that the kettle will target with two degrees of accuracy. And it will automatically hold that exact temperature—which is constantly displayed on an LED screen—for up to an hour. In September the kettles will be available in two flavors: a one liter gooseneck model perfect for fancy tea parties (or preparing pourover coffee), and a more traditional 1.7 liter design which wil both sell for $100, much to the delight of budget-conscious coffee connoisseurs. More here.