Whoever Had the Idea to Make Bread Knives That Look Like the Alps Is a Genius

Commemorate your recent European travels and turn any loaf of bread into a pile of shredded crumbs with this trio of knives that feature serrated edges mirroring the silhouettes of the Alps. Pricing and availability haven't been locked down yet, but the famous peaks include the Zurich Panorama, the Lake of Constance Panorama, and the Berner Alps Panorama. They're all about form, not function, so make sure you have a way to display them instead of burying the set in a knife block. More here.

This Fork Yells at You When You Overeat

Forget smartphones, 2013 is the year of the smartfork. A company called HAPILABS has just introduced their tech-laden HAPIfork. What’s the point in squeezing a bunch of microchips into a utensil, you ask? Why, to keep a watch over you as you shovel food in your mouth, of course.

This fork checks how fast and how much you are eating. If it starts to think you are overdoing it, it’ll let you know by administering a vibrating jolt. It’s like having a really mean, four-tined friend with you at the dinner table. It’ll then shoot that information to your phone so you can never forget what a glutton you were. Cool!

In all seriousness, wrapping your brain around portion control can be tricky so if this fork wants to help with that, more power to it. HAPIfork will launch in 2014 at a suggested price of around $100. More here.

Here’s Your iPhone 5 Battery Case

Mophie tends to be the first to market but it looks like iBattz might squeak one in first. With two 2200mAh batteries, both the Mojo Refuel and rugged Moro Armor can recharge your iPhone 5 up to three times, says the company.

The Refuel is expected to be available next month for $89.90, while the Armor will be available in March for $99.90.

A third case, the AquaSeal Hi5 is waterproof and comes with a detachable 2500mAh battery. No word on pricing or date. More here.

This Wireless Blender Is Your First Step to a Cord-Free Kitchen

Magnets can do more than just heat your meals—they can power the rest of your cooking gadgets as well.

The Haier Cordless Blender is the first such device to part ways with power outlets. Instead, you install a power transmitter (read: induction coil) in your kitchen counter top and place the blender on that. More here.

This Is the Most Embarrassing Furniture Ever

If you really hate your guests, looks no further than Jay Watson Design's thermochromic furniture. Before they sit down it looks like any normal old table and bench—but when they rise, their sweaty ass will leave a large bright patch that would make any man blush.

Made of solid oak, its surface is coated with thermochromic paint, so that when it's exposed to heat its color changes temporarily. Yes, just like those Hypercolor shirts you wish you could forget. At $1,850 it might be a little expensive for a practical joke—but then maybe you liked your Hypercolor all those years ago? More here.

Kingston’s HyperX Predator Flash Drive Is the Easiest Way To Misplace a Terabyte Of Data

Last year at CES Victorinox surprised everyone with a one terabyte flash drive that the company estimated would sell for almost $3,000. It sounded too good to be true, and given there's been no sign of it since last January, it apparently was. So can Kingston fill the void left in our hearts with its new HyperX Predator one terabyte USB 3 flash drive? Let's hope so.

With promised read and write speeds topping out at 240MB/s and 160MB/s respectively, filling the HyperX Predator with your data won't be a week-long chore. And availability is promised to be as soon as the first quarter of 2013, although pricing info hasn't been revealed just yet. But with the company's 512 gigabyte model coming in at $1,750, you can safely expect it cost a small fortune. More here.

USB 3.0 Is Going To Double Speeds

USB data transfer is about to get a hell of a lot faster. The USB Promoter Group is rolling out SuperSpeed USB, a supplement to USB 3.0 due out later this year that should surge your speeds two-fold.

SuperSpeed USB is supposed to give you 10 Gbps USB data rate, which is the same as Thunderbolt. It's also expected to feature better data encoding for transfers, more efficiency power efficient ports, and best of all, compatibility with existing devices. Later this year when you download a movie or a CD, it could take much less time thanks to the new standard. More here.

The Messier You Are, the Harder This Dust-Detecting Samsung Vacuum Sucks

Samsung shows it's still in the housecleaning game with a trio of new stealthy vacs, including the champagne-tinted SC96 which uses a multi-chamber design that's promised to deliver longer suction while being a lot quieter than its predecessors.

The sound dampening is made possible through a customized airflow design which keeps the rushing wind to a dull roar, but the vacuum is also able to automatically adjust its suction level on the fly thanks to sensors that detect the amount of dust and dirt that's being drawn in. So if you're a neat freak, you'll be rewarded with a whisper-quiet cleaning routine. And if you're a real-life version of pig pen, the $450 SC96 will ramp up the suction in an attempt to tackle your mess. More here.

Move Over GPS, a New Positioning System Has You in Its Sights

GPS is now so widespread that we take it for granted. But it's not always perfect—so what if a new technology could achieve more than those triangulated military satellites in the sky?

In fact, a team of researchers has been mulling exactly that, and come up with a new positioning technology called Locata. New Scientist explains:

Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to project a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as out, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cellphone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

You see, GPS often struggles with indoor environments and big cities: towering concrete buildings make it hard to get a signal, and tight road and pedestrian networks mean inaccuracy is problematic. By contrast, Locata already has accuracy of 18 centimeters along any axis, and claims to be able to get that number down to 5. Crazy.

The technology is, however, still in its early days, and it would take some impressive performance and marketing if it's ever to supersede GPS. Chances are, then, that it would work alongside GPS, creating a hybrid system which combines the best features of both technologies. In fact, such a thing already exists: Leica is trialling a briefcase-size Jigsaw Positioning Systemwhich is being used to guide drilling in the gold mines in Western Australia. How quickly that can translate into a consumer product, though, remains to be seen. More here.

This Is Supposedly a Photo of a Photo of Samsung’s Galaxy S IV

So this really horribly shot picture is supposedly a press photo of the Galaxy S IV. There's a small chance it's Samsung's next smartphone, but to be quite honest, it looks like someone snapped a picture of something that was Photoshopped.

But in the off chance it actually is the S IV, what are we actually looking at? The bezel is slimmer, the home button is gone, and the phone looks thinner overall. SamMobile, the source of the photo, also claimed the new phone will have a 5-inch display, 13-megapixel camera, and Jelly Bean out of the box. Obviously Samsung is going to release a follow up to the S III—it's a good phone and it continues to sell well.  More here.

Best Buy Lost $65K In One Day Trying to Price Match Walmart’s iPhone Discount

Best Buy dropped the price of the 16GB iPhone 5 to $150 last month, and Walmart bested that with a $127 iPhone. Now Best Buy says lost a whole $65,000 on this one product in just one day because it was forced go meet that lower price.

In a recent WSJ article, Best Buy alleges that Walmart's offer wasn't made in good faith; it didn't, Best Buy claims, have enough stock to meet the obvious demand. So when people came running from allegedly empty handed Walmart to the electronics retailer to claim their new Apple phone, Best Buy had to match the price, which made the store lose out on that extra $23 per phone. Walmart says Best Buy is just jealous, and claims it had 98 percent availability at all of its locations. But the whole thing really isn't that surprising, because this is exactly the kind of move you'd expect from Walmart. More here.

Relax Your Body and Melt Your Mind In This Möbius Chair

It might provide a place to rest your legs, but this United Colors for Benetton chair designed and built by Pereira Miguel Architects will give your brain a good workout as you try and and comprehend where its curvy frame begins and ends.

It's technically not a true möbius strip, though, lacking the requisite twist that would give the bent plywood frame a continuous single side. But the effect is convincing enough. The use of rope webbing instead of a cushion also provides a lovely hammock-like effect, not too mention a means for crumbs, remotes, and lost currency to simply fall through to the floor. More here.

Can Chainmail Sneakers Possibly Be Comfy?

In medieval times when everyone was taking swings at everyone else with swords, chainmail was pretty much a wardrobe requisite. These days the threat of sword attacks are few and far between, but a German company called Gost thinks there's still a place for chainmail in modern society. At least for athletes who've embraced the whole barefoot running trend.

Made from actual interlinked rings of stainless steel, the PaleoBarefoots promise the same near barefoot experience as other minimalist running shoes, but with increased protection and better breathability. But, you're still paying for shoes—around $250 to be exact—made of cold stainless steel that will most certainly not be as light as your New Balances. Is this company onto something here? Were our forefathers right about chainmail? Or are these just an easy way to get a discounted admission to a renaissance fair as a simple period costume? More here.

Easy-Going Emergency Flashlight Accepts Whatever Batteries You’ve Got

After the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last year, local companies have been working hard to create products that will be useful in an emergency. Including big corporations like Panasonic, which has created a brilliant LED flashlight that will run on almost any battery you've got on hand.

AAA, AA, C, or D-sized batteries can all be accommodated at the same time, and while the flashlight's LED bulb won't be blinding when relying on a single AAA, it will still provide ample light to get around.

To keep the Any Battery Light cheap—just $24 when it goes on sale in January—the flashlight's lacking the requisite hardware to use the different-sized batteries all at the same time. Instead, a rotating power switch lets you choose which battery you want to use. But with every battery slot filled, Panasonic claims the flashlight will run for up to 86 hours straight, making it a must-have for any emergency kit. More here.

Samsung Offers Free Flip Covers and TecTiles for GS III and Note II Device Registrations

If you just received a Galaxy S III or a Note II this holiday season, you could do yourself a favor and register it on Samsung's Facebook page to get even more goodies from Santa Sammy. What do you get in exchange for handing over some personal details and giving the Korean company access to your timeline? Why, a free flip cover and six TecTiles, which usually go for about $15 for a pack of five. More here.

How To Set Off New Years Fireworks Without Losing a Hand

Every occasion is a good occasion for fireworks—The 4th of July, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Guy Fawkes Day, Chinese New Year, your birthday, your anniversary, a home run, a touchdown, graduation, Tuesday... Unfortunately, such an abundance of occasions also resulted in more than 8,000 fireworks-related injuries in 2011. Four of them fatal. Here's how to properly handle your celebratory explosives without hosting the after party in the ER.

Only purchase fireworks from reputable, licensed retailers as they, by default, carry products that meet government safety standards. Per the US Consumer Product Safety Commission,

CPSC staff received reports of four fireworks-related deaths during 2011. In the first incident, a 31-year-old male died of substantial head and chest trauma caused by an illegal 1.3G aerial firework device.1 In the second incident, a 47-year-old male perished when a 1.3G illegal 3-inch display firework device exploded in his face. In the third incident, a 41-year-old male was decapitated by an illegal firework device. A 51-year-old male died of severe head and face injuries caused by a homemade firework device in the fourth incident.

Also avoid buying last season's close-outs, no matter how big the discount. Older fireworks are more likely to ignite improperly (read: in your hand), if they do so at all.

As such, you should try to store your fireworks somewhere cool and dry and preferably not near other fireworks. The elevated temperatures inside, say, a car trunk in July or next to your home furnace, could potentially cause spontaneous ignition. And if one firework goes off in a big box of fireworks, all of them will go off, so be smart and store them in smaller piles around the house.

Exposure to small amounts of moisture, on the other hand, can prevent a firework from fully igniting. If you do find yourself faced with a half-exploded firework, don't go near it and certainly don't be "that guy"—the one that tries to relight it and blows his face off in the delayed explosion. Instead, douse it with water to ensure its dead, then retrieve it.

Also, do not carry fireworks in your pockets. They are surprisingly fragile devices that can easily be damaged while tumbling about with your keys and loose change. What's more, the static electricity you generate just by walking around could cause a spark. And despite what MTV says, having a firework conflagrate against your leg is neither fun nor profitable.

So, where to set up. Well, somewhere open and nonflammable should suffice, perhaps on a green lawn or spacious concrete driveway—basically anywhere that won't immediately go up like Southern California in August if it's showered in sparks. The site should be as level as possible and, if your locality allows for small rockets, equipped with a short length of pipe half-sunken into the ground to act as a stable launch platform.

Despite all your best laid plans, somebody is invariably going to get hurt, hopefully only superficially. Make sure you've got a proper first aid kid—clean water, bandages, and ice—on hand, as well as someone sober to drive to the ER if necessary. Minor burns (first and second degree injuries under 3 inches in diameter) should be placed under cool running water for 15 minutes, then loosely wrapped in medical gauze. Apply aloe vera or hydrocortisone cream to the afflicted area and take a couple of aspirin for the pain. Any burns over 3 inches or on the face, eye, groin, buttocks, hands, feet, or joints dictate a trip to the hospital or a call to 911 depending on the severity of the damage. More here.

The End of an Age: Hackulous Shuts Down Installous

Today’s news will undoubtedly lead to many cheers and snickers within Apple’s security team, as long-time piracy app collective Hackulous has announced the shut down of its site and most popular piracy tools, Installous and AppSync.

Hackulous has not made clear exactly why its services have shut down, but a statement on its site blames a lackluster forum community and the inability to keep it effectively moderated. The statement reads as follows:

Goodnight, sweet prince.

We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down. After many years, our community has become stagnant and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff. We’re incredibly thankful for the support we’ve had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence. With lots of love, Hackulous TeamGoodnight, sweet prince. We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down. After many years, our community has become stagnant and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff. We’re incredibly thankful for the support we’ve had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence.

With lots of love, Hackulous Team

This is not the end of piracy on iOS however, because while Installous may no longer be available from Hackulous themself, the app — or similar apps — will surely live on. The demand for apps that do what Installous did will continue, and a developer somewhere will almost certainly take advantage of this situation to release utilities that serve a similar purpose.

With no jailbreak currently available for iPhone 5, the platform that Installous depends on — jailbreaking — could have been a possible cause of its demise. It goes without saying that the ability to illegally pirate apps was — and continues to be — a driving force behind the want to jailbreak, and with no such jailbreak available on the latest iOS devices, many people have no access to Installous.

Whatever the case, today’s news can only be good for developers and Apple alike. Piracy is one of the biggest problems hampering the Android ecosystem, and it appears that both waning jailbreak interest in general, as well as Apple’s security efforts, have today proven successful. Here’s to hoping developers will continue making creative and amazing apps for iOS, especially in light of the news that one of their biggest enemies will be today close its doors. More here.

Would You Want To Use Your NFC-Enabled Phone As Car Keys?

Normally you hear about NFC in some kind of "mobile payments" context, but that's not the only place it could shake things up. Hyundai is working on some new prototype tech that could have you using your NFC smartphone as the keys to your car.

Hyundai's Connectivity Concept, which won't actually go into production until around 2015, aims to harness the power of your NFC phone to make it way cooler than your keys ever were. Not only could the phone unlock your car and start it, but it could also save a sort of user profile, flipping to the right radio station or streaming music while adjusting the seat and mirrors for you as soon as you slam it into the dashboard dock.

Of course, as cool as that all is, there are security concerns. but issues like having phone theft rapidly turn into car theft could (mostly) be avoided with a user PIN or other measures. Most other concerns are just about as valid for NFC keys as well. Still, there's something that just seems weird about unlocking, and moreover starting your car with your phone. It'll still be while until any sort of implementation, but would you feel comfortable giving that kind of power to your trusty handset? More here.

HTC HD2 Runs Windows RT, Postpones Trip to Afterlife yet Again

HTC's HD2 may have begun life as just another Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, but its surprisingly hardy internals enable it to run almost any mobile OS going. The latest software to appear on the three-year-old device is Windows RT, which was jammed onto the system by a developer called Cotulla -- who previously put Windows Phone 7 on the same unit. While it's not that comfortable to use on the HD2's 4.3-inch screen, some superheroes are now scouring eBay for a similarly immortal smartphone. More here.

The Secret Origins of the Chicken Nugget

Contrary to popular belief, McDonalds was only the first entity to commercially sell nuggets, not invent them. Robert C. Baker is actually credited with the nugget's inception 18 years before McDonald's head chef Rene Arend reportedly devised them in 1977. It's okay if you've never heard of Baker, not many people have.

Baker was "a person of his time," Baker's oldest son Dale told Slate. "He grew up in the Depression, not having enough food to eat. When he'd buy a dinner, he would want to get the most calories for the price. He wanted to be sure the farmers would get the best prices for their birds."

To that end, Baker leveraged his professorship in Poultry Science at Cornell University and the help of a cadre of grad students to revolutionize how we eat chicken products. Nuggets were only one of the 50-plus food items he and his students devised, including chicken hot dogs, burger patties, and meatballs.

The foods they invented, which they detailed in widely distributed bulletins for anyone to copy and refine, launched what the industry now calls "further processed" poultry. Convenient and appealing, further-processed products transformed the market for chicken, pushing consumption from 34 pounds per person in 1965 to 84 pounds last year. But pressure from that new demand transformed the industry as well, turning it from a loose confederation of many family farms into a small set of massive conglomerates with questionable labor and environmental records.

Check out the rest of Baker's tantalizing story and how his contributions to modern cuisine were wiped from culinary history books over at Slate.

Bangkok Is Basically the Most Popular Location on Instagram

If you've ever looked at Instagram's explore tab, then you've undoubtedly seen a bevy of most liked photos originating from kids in Thailand. And as it turns out, the most popular location to tag Instagram photos this year came from the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. After that it was some mall in Bangkok, followed by: Disneyland, Times Square, AT&T Park, LAX, Dodger Stadium, the Eiffel Tower, the Staples Center and the pier in Santa Monica. Kudos to you, Thailand. You're the kings and queens of Instagram. More here.

How You Can Save Snapchat Videos Forever After You’ve Watched Them

Snapchat, the sexting app of choice recently cloned by Facebook, might not be as private as you think. BuzzFeed reports that video files sent using the app are actually not deleted from the phone immediately—meaning they can be copied onto a computer and watched over and over.

BuzzFeed describes the simple process required to find the files. Simply take an iPhone and plug it into your computer, use a third-party file browsing app like iFunBox to navigate its file system, and head straight for the Snapchat/tmp folder. Bingo! Re-watch all that video, copy it to your computer, whatever—unlike grabbing a screenshot, the Snapchat user who sent the video won't be notified of the privacy intrusion.

According to BuzzFeed, Facebook's new Poke app also stores the files locally in a similar way—at library/caches/fbstore/mediacard—but they are deleted as soon as they're watched. Neither of the apps store photos in the this way. Phew!

While the trick is a lot of work to go to for each and every video, it's an obvious way to incriminate those who send the most inappropriate content. Perhaps more importantly, though, the fact the videos are stored locally after they're viewed in Snapchat clearly runs counter to the whole point of the app. Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel told BuzzFeed that "people who most enjoy using Snapchat are those who embrace the spirit and intent of the service. More here.

China Claims World's Longest High-Speed Rail Line, Takes Travelers 1,428 Miles in a Workday

Russia's protracted attempts at replacing the aging space warhorse that is Soyuz may finally bear fruit. RSC Energia has announced that it has finished the design of a prototype spacecraft under the country's Prospective Piloted Transport System -- the equivalent of the Orion program. 

The as-yet unnamed craft is expected to be ready for testing by 2017, and unlike the current model, will be fully reusable. It's been designed not only as a taxi to take cosmonauts (and the odd multi-billionaire) to the International Space Station, but also ferry crews to the moon. That is, of course, assuming that Elon Muskdoesn't get there first and make the moon his summer home. More here.

Flickr Pro is Free for Three Months

Flickr is getting into the holiday spirit, and capitalizing on Instagram’s ToS snafu, by offering three free months of Flickr Pro to new and existing users. This is actually a pretty great offer, and perfectly timed for those looking for a place to upload their cheery family photos.

There’s been a lot of media attention focused on Instagram’s ToS flipflop this past week, with many users abandoning ship in search of calmer waters. Flickr recently updated its iOS app with filters and everything, so it makes sense the service would take that extra step to attract Instagram expatriates.

A Pro subscription normally goes for $25 a year, which isn’t bad to begin with, but three free months is a pretty solid amount of time to lure new users in. For anyone that’s already paying for the service, payments will get pushed back automatically for three months, so the benefits aren’t aimed at just former Instagramers.

Flickr’s Pro business model worked for the company years and years ago, but the company has seen its popularity fall dramatically with social networks such as Facebook acting as competition for many casual users. Offering up the Pro option at no cost, at least for three months, is a great opportunity for Flickr to recapture some of its heyday, and could potentially lead to lifting some limits on free users, or eliminate the Pro fee altogether. That is assuming a lot of people take advantage of this no-cost offer. More here.

Apple Lands Important SIM Card Connector Patent

Sometimes, a patent grant is less about the technology itself than what it could mean for others. Case in point: a newly granted Apple patent for a "mini-SIM connector." The design complements earlier work and represents a straightforward approach to a SIM slot that prevents damage from inserting the card the wrong way and ejects the card through a plunger system. 

By securing the patent, however, Apple gains a bargaining chip in phone technology disputes, especially for SIM-related tussles; companies are less likely to start a fight if Apple can return fire. The claim doesn't give Apple a lock on subscriber modules by any means, but it could lead to other adopters treading carefully. More here.

Keep Your Feet Dry Year-Round With Stalwart Hunter Boots

If you're trudging through the snow, Hunter Boots are a great way to keep your feet warm and dry.

And in fact, they're really wonderful rubbers for any time of the year. But in the winter you can get a flannel insert for a little extra insulation. They're expensive (around $130 depending where you look) but they're guaranteed. So if they crack, you can send them back to Hunter and they'll fix them. Aside from the quality, they're about as stylish as you can get when the weather is absolute crap. Santa, is it too late to ask for these? More here.

Is This BlackBerry’s QWERTY Savior?

The hole RIM has found itself in is deep, dark, and doused in despair. And as much as the company's gambling on its new BB10 platform to pull itself up, an operating system's only as good as the phones running it. So take a good, hard look at this supposed BlackBerry N-Series device. It could be RIM's best shot at survival.

The full QWERTY keyboard N-Series, and its touchscreen play cousin L-Series, are going to lead RIM's charge back to relevance in just a few short months. And the picture here, posted by CNbeta, shows a device that's at least worth a second look. Competent physical keyboards are few and far between in our capacitive present, and could be the one tent-pole feature RIM can claim true ownership of.

Even if the N-Series passes the looks test, there are still plenty of open questions about BB10, about what kind of guts will power it, about whether RIM can find enough developers to make apps for it. But all great comebacks are made one step at a time. And this seems, at glance, like a decent one. More here.

The Brazilian iPhone Is Actually an Android Device

iPhone is a powerful name. It conjures up a the vision of a meticulously crafted phone, something that's a pleasure to hold and pleasant to look at. Most of all it makes you think of an Apple device. Well in Brazil, that's not necessarily the case. The "iphone" that came out there this week rocks Android 2.3.

The phone comes from a Brazilian electronics company called Gradiente secured exclusive rights to the "iPhone" name in the country back in 2008, rights that it will continue to hold until 2018. As such, the new Brazilian iPhone is very much the opposite of the one you usually think of. In addition to running Gingerbread, it boasts a 320-by-480 pixel display, a total lack of multi-touch functionality, a 700MHz single-core ARM processor, and 2GB of storage. One more key difference: it has no capital 'P'. Sounds enticing, no? h

According to the Associated Press, Gradiente says they're only using the name now because they were busy trying to "conclude a corporate restructuring process that ended earlier this year." And they have no plans on stopping if they can avoid it. In a statement the firm said:

"In Brazil, Gradiente has the exclusive right to use the iPhone brand. This company will adopt all the measures used by companies around the world to preserve its intellectual property rights."

So far, Gradiente claims to have heard not a peep from the real iPhone people regarding the use of the name, and there's no doubt they'll continue to use it as long as they can, probably hoping their stylization of the name as "iphone" can buy them some time if nothing else. More here.

Is Cloning the Key to Perfect Christmas Trees?

When you think of cloning, you'll probably either think of dolly, or maybe some sort of sci-fi clone army. German scientists, on the other hand, their minds hop to Christmas trees, and the hope that cloning can bring us all perfect ones forever.

Biologist Kurt Zoglauer of Berlin's Humboldt University isn't happy with the current Christmas tree situation. According to him, some 40 percent of trees just don't aren't good enough to cut it, and yet they still occupy their little spots on the farm for at least 10 years, and sometimes more. In a cloning project—one sponsored by the German government, no less—Zoglauer and his team are working on a way to breed and clone particularly robust trees. They aim to start their clone army by 2016. More here.

Apple’s 53.3 Percent Smartphone Market Share in U.S. is Company Record

Apple now has a 53.3 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market, the largest slice of the pie the iPhone maker has ever had, according to new research from Kantar Worldpanel. The data represents a snapshot of the wireless market over the past 12 weeks.

“Apple has reached a major milestone in the US by passing the 50 percent share mark for the first time, with further gains expected to be made during December,” Kantar Worldpanel global consumer insight director Dominic Sunnebo said.

The scene isn’t the same on the other side of the pond, however. Android’s market share increased from 51.8 percent in 2011 to 61 percent in Europe this year. Samsung has the largest grip in the “big five” countries in Europe, with a 44.3 percent share, followed by Apple with a 25.3 percent share. Kantar said HTC, Nokia and Sony are all in a close race for third place. More here.

When DSLR Manufacturers Say Their Cameras Are Freeze-Proofed, This Is What They Mean

High-end cameras are often sold with the proud claim, amongst many others, that they are "freeze-proofed". But is it really that impressive?

Unsurprisingly, freeze-proofing is supposed to guarantee that cameras still work well in temperatures below zero—which is just as well for Swiss photographer Alessandro Della Bellawhen he was photographing the Swiss mountains Piz Corvatsch and Piz Nair. Outside for two long, cold nights, temperatures dropped to -25°C (-13°F) which really put the cameras through their paces.

These pictures show what that kind of abuse does to the outside of a camera. Chilly, huh? But despite looking bad, Alessandro reports that the DSLRs he used on the trip worked perfectly fine. The only problems he had were with lenses and batteries: lenses froze up and had to be thawed out next to an oven in a nearby building, while batteries discharged within just an hour because of the extreme cold temperatures. More here.

Hey Australia, Is the World Over Yet?

In Australia, it's December 21, 6:54AM. If you are in Australia, please reply in the comments promptly. We want to know if the world is over yet there or not. Also, if you have spotted any Nibirus, please tell us at once. Thank you.

3D Printed Interwoven Gears

3D printing has promised us a future where everything will be available on demand, not just media. But in the meantime the technology seems to have found a niche as a way to produce mind-boggling geared creations that appear to skirt the laws of physics and the universe.

If you're calling shenanigans on Henry Segerman's triple-geared creation, you can actually order and try one out for yourself from Shapeways for $40. Or just stomach your cynicism, save yourself some money, and marvel at this video of his creation. More here.

7 Ways the World Really Could End Tomorrow

There's no shortage of Doomsday naysayers. And sure, it's easy to ignore the prophecies of ancient Mayans. But you know what? The world could end any time—including tomorrow.

Here's a rundown of the seven most likely ways our world could crumble right on schedule.

Asteroid impact

What did for the dinosaurs could do for us, too. Objects fall to Earth from space every day, but most of them are small enough to burn up on entry to the atmosphere or fall where nobody is around to notice. An asteroid big enough to wipe out civilization on Earth, experts agree, would need to be at least a mile across—and that kind of impact only happens once every 10 million years or less.

For what it's worth, it's thought the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid six miles across. On the off-chance that NASA's failed to spot a rock that size hurtling towards the planet, physcists have worked out that it would be impossible to nuke an Earth-killing asteroid—so it really would be curtains.

Nuclear war

People seem to have forgotten about the nuclear threat since the end of the Cold War—but the risk remains. In 2008, Physics Today published an article that explained the consequences of nuclear war. It concluded that 100 nuclear bombs would bring about a "nuclear winter" featuring the lowest temperatures in 1,000 years, while 1,000 of things would "likely eliminate the majority of the human population."

Now might be good time to point out that more countries than ever have nuclear weapons at their disposal: currently, nine countries are known to have nuclear capabilities, but only five of them are members of the safeguarding Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. With North Koreathrowing rockets into the air like confetti, the nuclear threat is as present as ever.

Volcano eruption

If you thought the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland caused problems, think again. Over two million years ago, a massive volcanic eruption—which happened where Yellowstone National Park now stands—produced 600 cubic miles of dust and ash. For some perspective, that's 10,000 times worse than Eyjafjallajökull. All it would take to bring the planet to its knees would be a couple of such eruptions in close succession. And the next Yellowstone super eruption is closer than you think.

Biological warfare

It might sound like something straight outta Hollywood, but biological warfare poses a very real and dangerous threat. Anthrax may have been wildly hyped in the past, but in reality it remains an effective means of taking out large swathes of the population. Weaponized in the form of aerosol particles of 1.5 to 5 microns, it could cause fatalities in 90 percent of the population. Things don't stop at toxins like anthrax, either; bear in mind that—even though it might take more than a day—an engineered avian flu could kill half the world's humans. A cursory glance at a list of—officially recognised—institutions involved in biological warfare research suggests that this is something that we should definitely be worried about.

Solar storm

Solar storms happen all the time: the sun sends wave upon wave of charged particles through space, and they whizz through our atmosphere at 4 million mph. Large storms result in particularly amazing light shows, comparable to the Northern lights. However, the Earth hasn't experienced a major solar storm since 1859. Then, the storm was intense enough to instantaneously set fire to telegraph lines—but that was before the days of the electricity grid, power in homes and the slew of technology that we all depend on each and every day. These days, a storm like that—or worse—could wreak untold havoc.

A man-made black hole

Ever since the first atomic bomb was developed back in 1945, scientists have wondered whether the raw power of some of the reactions they set in motion could end up causing catastrophic problems. The worry hasn't faded. When Brookhaven National Laboratory prepared to fire up its Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, speculation circulated that the experiments at the facility could create a black hole which would then consume Earth. When the LHC was first switched on, the same rumors resurfaced. Many physicists dismiss the threat offhand—but nobody's really, reallysure that it couldn't happen.

The computer simulation we live in gets rebooted

Perhaps the most creative explanation of how the world could end tomorrow is that we might just be living in a gigantic computer simulation that happens to get switched off. It might sound ridiculous, but scientists still haven't settled, once and for all, whether we're living a life made of code. Sure, people have recently suggested how we could tell if everything around is happening on a sliver of silicon in a giant server room in the sky—but nobody's yet tested the theory. Let's hope nobody hits ESC.

Apple Releases iOS 6.0.2 Update for iPhone 5 and iPad mini, Promises fix for WiFi bug

It doesn't look to bring with it any major changes, but Apple has just released its latest iOS update, which takes things up to version 6.0.2. According to the company, this one primarily addresses a bug that "could impact WiFi." An issue that, incidentally, has been at the center of a number of previous iOS updates. You should be able to find the update now or in the near future in either iTunes or Software Update on your iOS device. More here.

Google Maps Downloaded More Than 10 Million Times in Only 48 Hours

The resurrection of Google Maps for iOS has been a complete and utter success. If there was any question this was going to be a viable alternative to Apple Maps, those doubts have been obliterated—cold hard numbers don’t lie. In just 48 hours after release, the search giant said Google Maps was downloaded more than 10 million times. So much for Apple’s service.

The gigantic figure was amassed in just two short days, which says a lot about consumer interest in Google’s excellent service. With Google Maps being such a runaway success, it’ll be interesting to see how Apple responds. The company can improve its service all it wants, but the spotlight is clearly on Google at the moment. When iOS 7 is introduced, Apple will need to come up with a feature, integration, or something, that makes its own mapping platform a must-use. If not, then Google Maps will continue to rise up, and probably leave Apple Maps lost in the Australian wilderness. More here.

Hanger Brush Keeps Your Blazer Looking Spiffy

When most people look at hangers, all they see is a way to hang clothing, or a means to open a locked vehicle. Not designer Tim Parsons. He looked past their use as a tool for grand theft auto and saw a better way to both hand and maintain your stylish blazer.

Not only does the extra-strength Brushanger support even the heaviest of overcoats—keeping the shoulders at the perfect angle while it's hanging in a closet—it also does double duty as a way to maintain the fabric itself. Just fold down the arms and it instantly becomes a horse hair brush perfect for meticulously maintaining your favorite blazer. It seems a tool more apropos for those living a Downton Abbey-like lifestyle, and with a $65 price tag it even seems targeted at wealthy turn-of-the-century British lords. More here.

Your Instagram Data Is Now Officially Facebook Data

A new Instagram privacy policy goes into effect on January 16th, 2013. The service will now be sharing your data with its new owner Facebook.

Basically, Instagram has updated a few of the subhead sections of its policy to reflect the fact that it is a part of Facebook now. Instagram can now share information like cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data,with "with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of." According to the Instagram blog, it's a wonderful thing for you:

Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.

Less spam? Great! Of course, this also means that Instagram is heaping its data over with the privacy nightmare that's Facebook. The data will definitely be used to target better advertising at you on Facebook, and to serve you advertisements on Instagram whenever that starts happening. Here is the relevant section from the new policy:

Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates' own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences).

This was inevitable, but at least now it's official. More here.

The Moon Marks 40 Years Without a Human Visitor, Prepares for Impending Probe Crashes

It's likely not an anniversary anyone thought we would meet after the first moon landing, but today marks 40 years since Gene Cernan left the last footprint on the moon as Apollo 17 ended its mission. That was the last of six manned missions to the lunar surface (nine including those that didn't land), which saw twelve men actually walk on the moon in all. The years since have of course seen continued exploration of the moon through other means, though, and next week will see another major event when NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft conduct a planned crash into a mountain near the lunar north pole. 

Those have been in orbit since January 1st, creating a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field and collecting data that promises to provide more detail than ever about its internal structure and composition. You'll be able to follow along on NASA's website as that happens beginning at 5PM Eastern on Monday, December 17th. More here.

Apple Stock Hits 10 Month Low, Assembly Issues Still a Supply Concern

Apple’s stock is currently trading around $511, the lowest price the company’s shares have been traded at since February of this year. Why? There are concerns that Apple still has supply chain issues related to the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini. It’s also possible that part of the sell off was due to investors taking capital gains ahead of potential tax hikes.

According to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, Apple is still facing “assembly execution issues [that] are taking longer to resolve than expected.” In addition, the firms that supply parts for Apple’s iPhone 5 have reportedly seen “larger order cuts” during the past two days. That’s alarming, because Apple’s iPhone 5 just launched in 33 new countries today and earlier reports suggestedApple’s supply problems had been ironed out.

As a result of the supply issues, Misek now estimates that Apple will sell 48 million iPhone units this quarter, down from his original estimate of 52 million units. More here.

A Tiny Tulip Shaped Humidifier Is the Cutest Humidifier

This is the most adorable little humidifier I've ever seen. The Tulip Stick Ultrasonic Humidifier is shaped like a sweet flower stalk and plugs right into your USB port.

Who knew a humidifier could be this small and pleasant? This $92 product comes in four different colors—pink, yellow, green, and ivory, and it weighs just an ounce. It has a timer, too, in case you only want it to shut off after you fall asleep, for example. More here.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Now Available for Android

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City launched for iOS and Android last week, but Rockstar quickly pulled the Android version due to several launch issues. Fear not, however, because it’s now back in the Google Play store for download. The game, which promises enhanced graphics and a similar experience to the original, is available for $4.99. Be warned, however – the app is 1.4GB in size, so you may need to free up some space before installing. More here.

Swappable Lens Wheel Puts 18 Crappy Filters On Your DSLR

You've been able to turn your iPhone into a low-quality Holga camera for some time now with this case that puts a spinning wheel of filters at your disposal. But DSLR users can now make the images from their thousand dollar cameras look like they were taken by a $30 plastic toy.

Just slap this Holga lens to the front of your shooter, attach one of the two included wheels of colored and distorted filters, and snap away. All in all you get 18 creative options to choose from, so when you post your shots online people won't be fooled into thinking you actually spent money on a nice camera. More here.