Adding Spinning Dials To a Rubik’s Cube Is Downright Evil

Unless you're some kind of prodigy who can solve one while juggling, making pancakes, and whistling Dixie, the Rubik's cube is already difficult enough. So why on earth would someone go and add a numbered, spinning dial to each side? That's just sadistic.

You could argue that Brando's $80 Roulette Wheel IQ Cube is actually a simpler version of the standard Rubik's Cube since it only features four segments per side. But it's the addition of that dial that takes the difficulty level from child's play to Mensa challenge. However, no matter how scrambled it might become, as long as these manufacturers keep cheaping out and using decals instead of paint, it's just a couple of hours of peeling and re-sticking to easily 'solve' it again. More here.

Clip-On Recorder Simplifies Everything But the Legality Of Recording a Phone Call

Recording a conversation on your smartphone isn't as easy as you think it would be. Varying state-by-state laws make the legality a bit of a gray area, and if you don't have access to the free Google Voice service, you're going to have pay a monthly fee to capture a call. Or, put up with the U2 Mobile Recorder hanging off your handset.

In a round-about way the $134 U2 Mobile Recorder simplifies the act of recording a call on your iPhone or Android-based device. You just plug it into the top-mounted headphone jack of any phone except the iPhone 5, and hit record. Four gigs of non-expandable storage should be able to hold up to 144 hours of conversations, and a USB port allows the recordings to be dumped off to your PC. It's also got its own headphone jack for immediately transcribing a conversation, and on a single charge it can record or play back for about 20 hours. Which is perfect for even the most long-winded of snitches. More here.

Electronic Sensor Tattoos Can Now Be Printed Directly Onto Human Skin

Thanks to the same people that brought us the stick-on electric tattoo and stretchable battery, we're now looking at a future of electronic sensors that can be printed directly onto human skin.

At least for now, it seems like the sensors will be mainly used for medical purposes; they'll be able to monitor skin hydration, temperature, and any electric signals from muscle and brain activity. And unlike their stick-on precursor, these skin-printed tattoos don't use the easily-washed-off polymer backing, which as it turns out, wasn't even necessary in the first place.

Instead, the Rogers research group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that, by printing the electronic mesh directly onto skin, the sensor (which is held together and remains flexible thanks to special serpentine wires) becomes 1/30 the size and even conforms better to that body's natural bumps and curves. With the help of a "very robust" spray-on bandage, that sucker has a good two weeks before it begins to flake off. Of course, a longer shelf-life would require embedding the device underneath the top layer of skin, just like a real tattoo. In which case—uh oh—I'm pretty sure I know how that movie ends.

Still, with these advances and the current massive interest in wearable, body-monitoring tech, it's only a matter of time before health-tracking diehards demand taking wearable to within. What's more, these sensors could even be hooked up to interact with any number of external devices. The possibilities are truly exciting, and in a certain light, mildly terrifying. But whether we're ready for it not, the future, it seems, is here. More here.

A Snail USB Drive Is the Most Adorable USB Drive

The 8BG drive is $22. At first glance, you don't even really expect it to be a tech accessory. It's all one piece—the mouth of the critter is the cap on the drive, so you don't need to worry about losing the top, which always seems to get away. It's functional, and more importantly, very adorable. More here.

How Your Blender Uses Physics to Make a Smoothie

4-In-1 Measuring Spoon Leaves You One Thing To Wash

On one hand, the Dash 4-in-1 measuring spoon from Umbra reduces drawer clutter, leaves you with just a single tool to wash, and looks pretty snazzy in the process with its avocado finish. On the other hand, if you've multiple ingredients to measure, particularly wet ones, at some point you're going to probably end up getting your hands dirty touching this. Then again, at $8 a pop you can always just buy two. More here.

The Science of Aging

Carry a Tiny Supernova In Your Pocket With the Ultra-Bright LED Lenser F1

You might think all flashlights are created equal, but don't tell that to a flashaholic. There are large online communities of flashlight aficionados who take their illumination very seriously, and there's a good chance even they'll be impressed by LED Lenser's new F1 which manages to squeeze a whopping 400 lumens from a single CR123 battery.

It's true that CR123 batteries aren't as easy to find in stores as regular old AAs, but it's a fair trade-off. What you sacrifice in convenience, you gain in longer runtimes and greater illumination. CR123 batteries use a lithium-cell inside instead of alkaline, and output three volts instead of the 1.5 volts from a AA battery. So it allows flashlights like the F1 to blast an impressive 400 lumens while still boasting excellent battery life.

Of course you don't have to run the F1 at full power. You can extend its battery life even further by dimming its LED bulb to its lowest setting. But if you're going to drop $80 on it, you might as well go big or go home. More here.

Flexible Flat-Pack Furniture That Actually Looks Pretty Comfy

What you gain in convenience when opting for flat-pack furniture from stores like Ikea, you lose in comfort. But with a clever enough design, it turns out that your flat-pack seating can actually look comfortable and inviting—as South Africa-based Wintec's Stratflex line demonstrates.

At first glance it's hard to believe these contoured curvaceous pieces actually came from a box. But thanks to the use of strips of flexible polymer embedded in the various panels, when disassembled all of the various components will lie completely flat. And by incorporating grids of the flexible polymer into the surfaces where people sit, the seats are actually just as easy on your butt as they are on your eyes. Now if they only didn't range in price from $185 for a simple chair, to $1,500 for a three-person love seat. More here.

The World’s Smallest Automatic Umbrella

The Weather Channel reporters, with all their talk of Doppler radars and satellites and fear mongering weather graphics, are, in the end, just a bunch of liars. They may say you're in for sunny skies, but just hours later you'll find yourself beneath a torrential downpour, umbrella-less and unprepared. Hammacher Schlemmer has finally found a solution to the unreliable virus that is The Weather Channel in the form of the pocketable, keep-it-with-you-at-all-times World's Smallest Automatic Umbrella.

Measuring in at a mere 8 inches long when fully closed, the teeny tiny umbrella can actually open up to a full 40 inches in diameter, shielding you from whatever the heavens hurl your way. And from the look of its guts, small doesn't have to mean flimsy; it's packing a steel shaft, ribs, and stretchers that have—supposedly—been tested to withstand winds better than other, even larger compact umbrellas. Although, given some of the crap out there masquerading as rain protection, that may not be saying much. Still, $30 isn't bad for a fully automatic, pocket-sized umbrella that you can keep on your person at essentially all times. More here.

Rats Communicate With Each Other By Sniffing

Next time you see animals sniffing in each other's presence, there might be more happening than you expect. New research suggests that a humble intake of breath actually allows rats to communicate with each other.

In a series of experiments, carried out at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, researchers used radio telemetry recordings of nasal respiration to identify how rats reacted when others sniffed in their direction.

The results, published in Current Biology, suggest that when rats of a higher status sniff in the direction of other rats, subordinates decrease their breathing rate. The researchers claim it's akin to the rats saying "don't mind me." Daniel Wesson, the lead researcher, explains:

"We know that rats and other animals can communicate through vocalizations, physical contact, odors, and also visual displays. To find that there was an undiscovered form of communication these animals had been using right in front of us this whole time was truly a neat experience."

In fact, when smaller rats failed to lower their breathing rate, dominant rats would often attack them! All of which suggests that there is far, far more to the simple sniffing that animals do than we may have previously thought—and that might help us understand the complex communication systems used by animals more clearly. Dr Doolittle would be proud. More here.

A Graphene Antenna Could Give Us Wireless Terabit Uploads in One Second

Wireless uploads of big files take for-ev-er. But researchers at Georgia Tech Universityhave plans for an antenna made of crazy thin graphene that would let you transfer a whole terabit of data in just one second.

Within a couple of feet, researchers could move a terabit per second, but in theory, from a closer range, you could move as much as 100 terabits a second. That's about 100 high-def movies in less time than it takes you make a cup of coffee. Graphene, you crazy.

MIT Technology Review explains how the antenna would be made:

Graphene could be shaped into narrow strips of between 10 and 100 nanometers wide and one micrometer long, allowing it to transmit and receive at the terahertz frequency, which roughly corresponds to those size scales. Electromagnetic waves in the terahertz frequency would then interact with plasmonic waves-oscillations of electrons at the surface of the graphene strip-to send and receive information.

Of course, this is just the preliminary groundwork on a piece of tech that doesn't exactly exist yet. Next the Georgia Tech group will have to figure out manufacturing, and how to make the necessary components—signal generators, amplifiers, and so forth—so the antennas will actually work. But the thought of lightning-fast wireless downloads is enough to be a little excited for the future. More here.

These Klipsch Earphones Are Your Cheap-But-Decent Deal of the Day

If you want decent audio on the go and don't want a pair of clunky over-ear headphones, a great choice is the Klipsch S4i. $45 dollars nets you a pair of black Klipsch S4i earbuds with free shipping. This is the version with a remote and mic, and it usually retails for $60 and up elsewhere, and it's even priced lower than the remoteless version. If you had a feeling your stock earbuds weren't quite cutting it, today's a great day to give the S4i a shot. More here.

Finger-Shaped Tacks: Handy in the Creepiest Way Possible

Do you have piles of miscellaneous papers scattered haphazardly around your home? Are you Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind? If any of the above apply to you, these thumb tacks taken literally may be exactly what you're looking for.

The all-white, phalangeal tacks are a clever, easy way to add some fun to any bulletin board, photo collage, or paranoid barrage of highlighted newspaper clippings. You can even arrange them into a five-finger pattern, giving you your very own hand to sort of kind of hold—no real human required. You can pick these particular ones up for $10 at Handy-Thumbs. More here.

A Map That Shows How Salty the Seas Are

Some briny deeps are brinier than others. The Atlantic Ocean has two huge "deserts" of extra-salty water, the result of little rainfall and lots of evaporation.

These tangy tracts have been revealed by NASA's Aquarius instrument, which is aboard Argentina's Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft and is dedicated to studying the salt content of the oceans.

NASA has just released the first year of data from Aquarius, running from December 2011 to December 2012. In the image above, red and orange areas are very salty, while green and blue areas are less so.

Patterns of salinity are expected to change over the coming decades as the climate shifts, with knock-on effects for major currents and regional sea level rise. More here.

Microsoft Might Owe Denmark More Than $1 Billion in Unpaid Tax

A new report by Denmark's national broadcasting corporation, DR, suggests that Microsoft owes the country over $1 billion in unpaid tax.

The report claims that Ballmer and co owe the Danish Treasury a total of 5.8 billion kroner, a hangover from the 2002 acquisition of Danish financial software company Navision. The OS giant sold rights to some of Navision's software to it Microsoft's Irish subsidiary at a suspiciously low price so that it could transfer valuable assets out of Denmark—where taxes are high.

Now, the Danish Treasury is chasing Microsoft all the way to Redmond to try and claw back billions in taxes and interest. It remains to be seen how successful that will be. More here.

Bring the Drive-Thru to Your Kitchen with this Instant Breakfast Sandwich Tower

Breakfast sandwiches are one of the best ways you can start the day (taste-wise, at least). But they tend to be logistically difficult. Either you've got to take the time to carefully assemble one, or pay some scruffy, minimum-wage employee to make one for you. Hamilton Beach's Breakfast Sandwich Maker merges the best of both worlds.

A cleverly stacked arsenal of cooking-spaces, the Breakfast Sandwich maker makes multi-tasking a priority. The tower of chow cooks your egg in one compartment on the top, warms a slice of pre-cooked meat in the middle, and warms your cheese and other assorted fillings in a spot of the bottom. All between two English muffins for easy removal. And all this in five minutes or less.

Hamiliton Beach is releasing its breakfast baby into the wild later this month for the reasonable price of $30.  More here.

Can This iPhone 5 Case Really Boost Your Wi-Fi Reception?

If you're stuck with a limited iPhone data plan and rely heavily on Wi-Fi to avoid overage charges, spending $50 to vastly improve your reception when leeching from free hotspots might sound like a real bargain. That is, if the Linkase manages to deliver on its promise of boosting Wi-Fi reception by as much as 50 percent.

So how does it work? Well, that's a bit of a gray area that seems to border on snake oil. The case uses a technology called EMW—or electro magnetic waveguide—to boost your iPhone 5's signal snatching capabilities. But from the Linkase's website, that actually seems to be a combination of a case that prevents your fingers from touching and covering the iPhone's antenna, and an additional extending antenna that increases its reception prowess. Given this was the form factor for many handsets before the iPhone arrived, it's not that surprising that it works. But does anyone really want to go back to having something sticking out of their sleek handsets? More here.

Your 3D Printer Could Eat Empty Milk Jugs Instead of Expensive Plastic

Oh 3D printing. You're so glamorous. You're so cool. But, let's be honest, you're soooo expensive. Maybe instead of printing with $30 spools of plastic you could print with empty shampoo bottles and milk jugs. Oh, you can do that? See, this is why everyone loves you.

Researchers at Michigan Technological University have created a plastic extruder, called Filabot, that turns home recyclables into usable filament for 3D printing. Basically the machine takes 4-inch pieces of plastic and shreds them, before melting the plastic and extruding it through changeable nozzles, and shaping it for use in printers. Filabot works with thermoplastics like HDPE, LDPE, ABS, and NYLON, though PVC is out because of, you know, serious toxicity risks and stuff. The group calculated that Filabot uses a tenth of the energy needed to recycle empty bottles to produce its filament.

The first model, the Filabot Reclaimer, is in production now. The unassembled Filabot sold on Kickstarter for $350 so pricing will probably be in that range. This thing could really be worth it for avid 3D printers, and could drive down costs for hackerspaces and other groups. More here.

A Sailboat Napkin Holder Is the Most Clever Napkin Holder

Napkin holders! Oh sure grandma, I'd love to see your collection of antique napkin holders. Okay, yes boring topic, right? Nope, not when your napkin holder turns into a sailboat when you pop actually napkins in it like this one.

This ceramic vessel is all kinds of adorable. And it doesn't scream HEY THIS IS A NAUTICAL THEME. I love it. It's $31, and would probably make a good gift, not just for grandmas. More here.

An Umbrella Made of Cork to Plug Up the Rain

Totally sustainable, naturally impermeable, and protector of drinkables, cork is an incredible thing. But more than being functional, it's all the rage with the kids these days! And we can see why. This newly unveiled cork umbrella from Pelcor is lovely to look at but with the added, smug bonus of knowing your all-natural shield is renewable, too.

And for the burgeoning cork enthusiast, Pelcor has an entire collection of cork-based goods for your perusal. You can check them out right over here.

Reinforce Your Wardrobe With a Industrial-Strength Rebar Hanger

Is all your bad-ass clothing just too much for those flimsy, plastic, run-of-the-mill hangers. Do your pants or shirts, weighted as they are with pounds of pure awesomeness, need something more structurally sound to keep them in order? The "Man Hanger" suits your very strange needs.

Made from real, industrial-grade rebar, hand-bent into shape (somehow), and coated to prevent rust and corrosion, the Man Hanger is a marriage of strength and finesse fit to support those clothes that bring out both your softer side and your inner tough guy. That is, if you have any pants that fit that well.

Granted, "Man Hanger" is a god-awful name, and at $25 one Man Hanger is roughly twice as expensive as 40lbs of actual rebar (including shipping!), but unless you can bend steel, this is your only choice. Do you really need to drop that much on something that belongs in the closet and under clothes? Probably not. But damned if we don't want one. Or 12. More here.

Drink Like a Pixie WIth This Adorable Leaf-Shaped Cup

Unless you're completely snobbish about only consuming bottled water, this cute silicone cup—crafted in the shape of a leaf—will let you enjoy a drink without having to get your mouth anywhere near a tap, faucet, or bubbling spring. And it's just $12 and washable, so you'll never have to feel guilty about asking for a disposable cup again. More here.

$3,000 Gets You Literally the Aston Martin of Strollers

Sometime in the past few years mankind took a small step backwards in our development by allowing super-expensive luxury baby strollers to get popular. So popular, in fact, that now even Aston Martin is getting into the game by teaming up with Silver Cross on this over-the-top way to transport a baby.

Leather trim, aluminum-alloy wheels, air-ride suspension: these are usually features you only find on a luxury sedan, but have now made their way onto a vehicle designed to carry passengers who just randomly throw up all over the place. The Silver Cross Surf, Aston Marin Edition, is perfect for parents who want to ensure their kids grow up with an obnoxious sense of entitlement, and it's available exclusively from none other than Harrod's for just north of $3,000. More here.

Charge This $20 Nokia 105 Phone Once Every 35 Days

The phone isn't intended to replace a smartphone. Quite the contrary—it's for emerging markets, aka countries where millions of people don't own phones at all, including China, Nigeria, India, and Indonesia. One charge has endurance for 12 and a half hours of talk time, but otherwise the Nokia 105 is very pared down. It basically just makes calls (over 2G), sends texts, and has a few games. Otherwise, it lacks a camera, has just a 1.4-inch display, and looks much like your very first Nokia brick phone from 10 years ago. But that's exactly what it's supposed to be, and that amount of talk time in a place where you probably don't have access to charge all the time is essential. And if we ever saw it in the US, it would be the ultimate burner phone. More here.

What’s the Best Remedy for the Hiccups?

Drink a glass of water upside down. Hold your breath until just before you pass out. Have someone scare the crap out of you. Everyone swears by a hiccup remedy. What's yours?

Obviously there's no wrong answer here. And it's not like there's any medication you can take when you get the hiccups. But what do you do to get rid of them?

You Can Download Adobe Photoshop Touch for Your iPhone or Android Phone Now

If you've been waiting the cold long year to get Photoshop on your iPhone or Android Phone, the wait is finally over. Photoshop Touch for iPhone and Android is now available for $5.

The phone version of Photoshop Touch has pretty much the same features as the tablet version that launched last year—it's just been repackaged for the smaller screen. So that means along with core Photoshoppin' features like layers, advanced selection tools, adjustments, etc., you'll get the exclusive Photoshop Touch features like high-precision selections using a finger and Camera Fill for blending camera feed with layers too. It's only $5 and available at both the App Store and Google Play.

A Magnetized Bull Nose Keyring Keeps Your Wandering Keys Captive

You might feel like you're always losing your keys. This bull has a magnet in its nose to hold onto them for you.

It mounts directly to the wall and comes with a keychain that you'll want to put your keys on. It's $8, and it shouldn't surprise you that it comes from Gamago, purveyors of all-around creative gifts. More here.

You Can Make Gummy Bear Versions of Yourself

Somewhere in between the honor of getting a bronze statue of yourself and the shame of re-creating your sexual organs in plastic is this awesome gummy bear yourself service. You can basically create a gummy replica of yourself to eat. It looks absolutely delicious.

FabCafe in Japan is offering the service for approximately $65 (6,000 Yen), which sounds like a complete steal to me. It's apparently a 2-part process that requires a 3D body scanner and a lot of gummy colors. FabCafe, which made a chocolate replica for faces, is doing this for Japan's White Day (in Asian countries, White Day is like Valentine's Day but the girls give the gifts to the guys. Awesome). More here.

Silicone Storage Bags Will Make You Wish Every Meal Was Leftovers

Storage containers for leftovers and other foods are usually designed to be cheap and disposable. But it turns out there's a better way. Silicone once again makes our lives easier with thesereusable, sealable storage bags that are safe to microwave, boil, or steam.

So instead of having to transfer last night's meatloaf into a microwave-safe container before reheating, you can simply store it in one of these silicone bags and then jam the entire thing in your magical hotbox for a piping hot lunch. They're also great for cooking, since the self-standing bags ensure liquids don't spill, but are still easy to pour once they're hot. At $20 per bag they're definitely more expensive than a box of Ziplocs, but with proper care they should easily last for thousands of meals. More here.

New YouTube App Code Shows Pay-To-View Is on the Way

According to Android Police, code in the recently updated YouTube app shows that Pay-To-View is in the works. It's just a matter of when.

The code pretty much speaks for itself:

< string name="paid_channel_subscribe_message">You can only subscribe to this paid channel on your computer.< /string>
< string name="paid_channel_unsubscribe_message">You can only unsubscribe from this paid channel on your computer.< /string>

According to previous rumors, the subscriptions should be relatively cheap, $1 to $5 a month. Still, paying anything for something that was previously free can sting, but maybe the pay channels will really bring some high-quality content. We'll have to wait and see, and the wait may not be long. More here.

Mugtails Are an Adorably Anthropomorphic Way To Enjoy Your Coffee

Awww, now isn't this precious? You can throw out all those mugs your kids had made with their pictures on the side because these Mugtails take adorable to a whole new level. Available with a variety of different animals on the side with their tales forming the handle, these mugs are so sweet you'll never need sugar in your coffee again.

Available in a four pack for around $60, or individually for $16 each, the mugs seem pretty clever until you discover the deer, hedgehog, moose, and other animals whose tails are too small to actually be useful for holding a hot mug. Then you realize the dream is over, and it's back to your trusty "pobody's nerfect" mug. More here.

A Bottle Cap Pencil Sharpener Is Pure Genius

If you prefer the feel of writing or sketching with a freshly sharpened pencil and are fastidious about keeping hydrated, this clever piece of synergy is going to blow your mind. Designed for use on standard plastic water bottles, this pencil sharpening bottle cap is a brilliantly obvious way to deal with pencil shavings.

It all but guarantees the shavings are not going to spill as long as the sharpener is screwed on tight, and you probably don't have to empty the bottle for months on end—depending on your pencil usage. It just might be the best $3 you ever spend, unless you just opt for a cheap mechanical pencil that never needs sharpening. But where's the fun in that? More here.

Robot Bat Wings Give Us a Glimpse Of the Future Of Vampires

By all logic bats shouldn't be able to fly. They're basically rats with wings, yet somehow they manage to soar through the air, and researchers at Brown University have finally figured out how. But since they're not the easiest animals to work with, Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartzcreated this biologically accurate robotic bat wing that perfectly mimics the creature's motions.

As the robo-bat was being developed and refined, the researchers were able to learn how all of the muscles and ligaments in the wing work together to not only enable flight, but also keep the animal intact while it was vigorously flapping.

The practical benefits of this research include developing more energy-efficient light aircraft, and even general improvements for the aerodynamics of existing planes. And of course better equipment and more authentic costumes for masked vigilantes. More here.

Lay Waste To Wireless Networks With This Hacktastic Nexus 7

Tablets are great for slouching on the sofa and checking your Facebook, but they can also be super sleek hack-machines. Take the new Pwnie Express Pwn Pad as an example; it's a fully-loaded hacker suite designed to puncture any network.

Built from a Nexus 7, the Pwn Pad obviously makes use of Google Android OS, but also has Ubuntu 12.04 tucked away inside to handle some of the more complex software built in. And that's not the only addition to the tablet's arsenal either; it also comes with a TP-Link wireless adapter to support packet injection at a far higher range than the Nexus 7's meager little wireless chip could do on its own.

Positioned as a tool for a serious security professional—a tool that could go so far as to replace a laptop in the field—the Pwn Pad doesn't come cheap. You can expect to pay a cool $795 for one when they ship in early April. And, even with that price tag, Pwn Pads don't really offer any additional functionality or software than a standard penetration-testing laptop doesn't have, but damned if it isn't slick as hell. More here.

iOS 6.1.3 Beta Fixes iPhone Lock Screen Security Hole

Apple's been keeping busy rolling out small patches of iOS 6. The latest, iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 just hit developers. Importantly, 9To5Mac reports that the update fixes the gaping lock screen bug that allows access even with out a passcode. No word on whether it patches up the recent Evasi0n jailbreak. Unfortunately, it's only a developer beta, so you won't get the fix yet. More here

This Is Officially the Best Copyright-Free Way to Sing Happy Birthday

You might not know it, but the melody from Happy Birthday To You is actually copyrighted, owned by Time Warner, and won't enter the public domain until 2030 at the earliest. That's why the Free Music Archive set out to find an alternative—and this is officially the best choice.

Along with WFMU, the Free Music Archive launched a competition back in January to find a new copyright-free and free-to-use celebratory birthday song. The winner, It's your Birthday!by Monk Turner and Fascinoma, features in this video. It was chosen by a panel of judges including Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig and Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan.

Why bother? Well, the fact it's copyrighted strictly means that Time Warner can cream royalty fees off anyone who chooses to use it. Allegedly, the company makes a cool $2 million from licensing the tune out for use in films, TV shows and advertisements. If you don't like that fact, start using this song instead!

Magnet Boxes Are Puzzles You Can Actually Use

Jigsaw puzzles are fun, though they're a tedious undertaking. You can never figure out where that one corner piece goes. Plastica's MagContainers are an assortment of magnetic, puzzle-like wooden boxes, and there's no wrong way to put them together.

The geometric shapes have magnets embedded on all sides, so you can configure them any way you want. They come in square and triangle, with a small ($52) and a large ($69) version for each shape. You can store whatever you like in these neat, stackable boxes. More here.

A Magnetic Case Keeps Your Knives Safe and Sharp

Knifes: they will cut you. Not out of hostility or resentment, but because they're knives, dummy. Magmate's Magnetic Blade Guards will protect your precious fingers and keep your knives sharp at the same time.

The PVC sheaths won't save you from cuts you might sustain during some clumsy chopping, but you sure won't reach into the drawer and get a hand full of blade. The guards come in two sizes, a smaller one for $20 and a larger for $25. They're brightly colored and happy, and when you're done with your mincing, you snap them securely over your knives. More here.

Animal Snout Cups Let You Pick Your Nose

These animal shnaz cups are a great idea for your next party. They're also the only acceptable way to pick your nose.

They come from Fred & Friends, makers of all-around fun things. Eight, nine-ounce cups come in each $8 pack. You get a toucan, a zebra, a shark, and an iguana for your one creepy friend, among other exotic beasts. Surprise your guests who were probably expecting boring Solo cups. More here.

Does Anyone Actually Want a Transparent Phone?

There are a couple of rumored features that "phones of the future!" always seem to have, and up there with flexibility is transparency. See-through phones have been a futuristic what-if for ages now, but now a company called Polytron is promising that the future is here! Or at least close. Within the year, perhaps.

Sure, it'd be impressive, but it just raises the question: why? Is there any really good application for a transparent phone? Even if there is, would it ever be useful for the average Joe, expect maybe if he wants to keep tabs on the palm of his dominant hand?

This Is Where Apple Sources All Its Components

This map, put together by China File, plots all of the publicly available suppliers who fuel Apple's production lines. While the majority are found in Asia, it's interesting to see that the rest of world represents, too.

Each point on the interactive map represents an individual supplier, provided with complete context—from Analog Devices in Limerick, Ireland, to Arvato Digital in Smithfield, Australia. Explore the zoomable, clickable version of the map here.

There are, as you can see, plenty of suppliers based in the US, the most important—or at least, prolific—of which produce glass and processors for iOS devices. More here.

Google Will Open Retail Stores

Google is expanding out of its Mountain View haven and into the hangouts of America. According to an “extremely reliable source,” the search giant will roll out a retail initiative by opening up multiple flagship Google Stores in time for the holidays. Instead of relying on Google Play to get your Nexus 4, all you’ll need to do is drive on down to your favorite Google hangout.

“The mission of the stores is to get new Google Nexus, Chrome and especially upcoming products into the hands of prospective constumers,” 9to5Google said. The source added that Google has plenty of potential customers on the market, but they don’t have the opportunity to try the company’s stuff out—a try-before-you-buy situation. Stores will be Google’s solution, and potentially lead to increased sales.

Google currently offers smaller store-within-a-store options inside Best Buy locations in the U.S., but those only focus on Chromebooks. The source claims an actual Google retail store would have a much broader approach since the company pretty much offers an entire lineup of products now. We have to agree.

“The decision to open stores, I’m told, came when drawing up plans to take the google Glass to the public,” 9to5Google said. The only way consumers would be comfortable with purchasing such a (potentially) futuristic tech is if they could try it out first. The store idea was born around that, and it only makes sense to sell everything Google offers.

Apple has absolutely perfected the retail experience, and it’s a huge part of the company’s success. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently admitted that Apple Stores are much more than just a place to hock gadgets, but a wonderful advantage in community mind share.

Google wants a piece of that. More here.

The Multitasking Toss-And-Chop Is Your Salad Making Secret Weapon

This little scissor cyborg tool is a multitasker. Throw all the ingredients from your leafy green mix in the bowl—lettuce, tomatoes, carrots—go nuts. Everything will get sliced and mixed together without having to make a stop at a cutting board first. Sure, it's basically just a knife and scissors and tongs all in one, for $25. More here.

What’s the Difference Between an Asteroid and a Meteor?

The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently!

An asteroid is a rocky object in space that's not as big as a planet and isn't a moon. There are millions of them, think the asteroid belt in space. A meteor is an asteroid that burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, think shooting stars. A meteorite is a meteor that actually lands on the surface of Earth, think about Russia today.

As for a meteoroid? No one really knows. They're just kind of like smaller asteroids. More here.

Video of Asteroid as It Approaches Earth at Five Miles Per Second

Here it is: video of asteroid 2012 DA14 as seen at 12:59UTC from Samford Valley Observatory, Brisbane, Australia. It is moving towards us at "a closing speed of five miles per second."

You can watch live video here.

Lego iPhone Cases Re-Define Brick Phone

The best part is they're buildable. That definitely gives a new meaning to the concept of a brick phone. Lego iPhones are way cooler than a Zack Morris monstrosity. You'll start to see these awesome cases this spring. Belkin and Lego have a multi-year deal, which will give us more Lego gadgets in the future. More here.

Get Pregnant Today, Get a Free Ikea Crib in 9 Months

Cheap people of Australia: run! Don't walk! To the nearest location where you can get pregnant. Ikea is doling out free cribs to babies born nine months from today.

The baby must come into the world on November 14, 2013. If that's your due date or if you get knocked up today or sometime in the next month, hold onto this coupon! Or convince your doctor to induce you on the 14th of November. Or eat a lot of spicy food that day. Whatever it takes. Unfortunately for Americans who are planning on a baby, this deal is only good in Australia. And unfortunately for any parent, Ikea cribs are only as secure as your assembling skills allow, which is to say they could be pretty hazardous. But hey, free crib! More here.

This Mug Would Let Tea Drinkers Say Goodbye to Spoons For Good

Spoons? You don't need no spoons. Or at least, you wouldn't if the SlingsHOT mug became a reality, because the shape of its handle is designed especially to let you deal with teabags using just your bare hands.

There's a groove running up and around the handle of the SlingsHOT mug, which both keeps the bag from falling into the cup, and also allows the user to pull the string back, slingshot-style, to squeeze water from the bag. That means no more squeezing with spoons or scalded fingers. Simple, but terribly effective.

Sadly, the cup is currently just a design concept by Samir Sufi—but it may yet make it into production. More here.

A Bean Bag Chair Fit For an Evil Dorm Room Dictator

Designed for impoverished students and those who couldn't care less about posture, the bean bag chair is rarely regarded as a stylish addition to a well-appointed room. That is, until designer Antoinette Bader managed to turn the lowly specimen into a throne fit for a criminal mastermind, an evil dictator, or your average CEO.

The Marie bean bag chair has been completely classed-up thanks to a top section of triangular padded segments that can be reconfigured into a variety of different sitting options. But it's still a bean bag chair at heart, and is filled with a sea of polystyrene beads so if you really just want to slump down it will happily accomodate your sloth. More here.

How To Get 50GB of Free Cloud Storage Right Now

Need a place to squirrel away your digital stash? Box is giving 50GB of online storage free to new users.

Box will let you sync across both Mac and PC, and it has apps for Android, iOS, Outlook, BlackBerry PlayBook, and a bunch of other platforms listed here. To get yours, just head over to Box here, sign up for an account, and enjoy.

This is basically free space for any system you could conceivably use. The only disadvantage is Box has an upload size limit of 250MB. But 50GB is a ton of space for zero money, and most competitors like Dropbox, for example, only gives you 2GB gratis. And who doesn't like free stuff? More here.

A Jailbreak for iOS 6.1.1 Is Already Here

iOS 6.1.1 was released yesterday, and there's already a jailbreak available for it. The Evasi0n jailbreak tool which hit the internet last week has been updated to v1.3, and it will now liberate everything.

As Redmond Pie notes, the 6.1.1 update wasn't really about patching up the new iPhone 5 jailbreak—it was about fixing cellular issues experienced by iPhone 4S users of iOS 6.1. The Evasi0n tool update fixes several bugs present in the last version, and will work for folks on 6.1.1. More here.

The Nexus 4’s Charging Orb Is Now On Sale in Google Play

The Nexus 4 has been around for a few months now, but the Android phone's pretty wireless orb charger is just now available in the Google Play store.

The accessory costs $60 and is supposed to ship in less than a week. And while $60 seems like a lot to spend on a charger, the unexpected monster demand for the Nexus 4 probably means it'll sell out soon. So if you want one, don't dawdle. More here.