Firefox 6 Breaks out Ahead of Schedule

It looks like the sly fox is ready to make its worldwide debut a few days early. In typical Mozilla fashion, a complete build of Firefox 6 is now unofficially available for your downloading pleasure, three days ahead of schedule.

 If you're looking for a major facelift to the desktop edition, you won't find one here -- most of the new features aren't cosmetic. Perhaps most visibly, you'll find the domain name of the page you're parked on highlighted in the address bar.

Go Snowboarding in the Dark With This LED Headlamp

Technically, the Snow Peak SnowMiner LED Headlamp is for hiking in the dark. But when you see the words snow and headlamp together, can you think of anything besides snowboarding in the dark?

But you shouldn't snowboard in the dark because even if you managed to find a way to do that, it's probably insanely dangerous. In any case, the SnowMiner is now slouch. The LED lamp emits 60 lumens worth of light. When strapped to your head, it shoots out a 35 meter focused beam. Awesome. But there'smore.

The lamp dome is made of a shape-shifting silicone material. When you squeeze the sides, the concave lens of the headlamp pops out into a dome-shaped form factor, effectively turning the SnowMiner into a lantern. For $50, what more could you ask for from your outdoor gear?

 

 

Philips Sonicare DiamondClean USB Toothbrush to Stay Fresh at Your Desk

For the modern dental enthusiast, I present to you the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean USB toothbrush -- because keeping your stank breath fresh at your computer is essential for early morning Skype calls. Long since gone are the days where brushing your teeth was limited to the bathroom.

 Nowadays, you'll need to keep those chompers fresh no matter where you might find yourself, including (but not limited to): the computer lab at school, your home office, your boss' office, or maybe even the Apple Store. Claiming up to 100 percent plaque removal and 44 percent more bristles, some are going so far as to call this £250 ($405) teeth gleamer the "iPod of toothbrushes."

 

 

Will Apple Announce the iPhone 5 on September 7th?

Kodawarisan, a Japanese web site, is reporting that Apple's Fall Event, which previously focused on iPods but will likely include the iPhone 5 announcement this year, is scheduled for Wednesday Sepetember 7th, 2011. The rumored date jives well with previous years.

Apple has always targeted early September for their Fall Events. Last year, the Fall Event was held on September 1st. In 2009 and 2008, it was held on September 9th. So it does make sense from a historical perspective. This year is a little different though because it will be the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on September 11th; it seems unlikely, perhaps, that Apple would want to compete with such an emotional and all-encompassing event for the type of media attention their product launches usually command.

 

 

I Hope Temporary Teeth Tattoos Never Become Popular

Trend hunters in Japan say the island nation's latest fad is for people to stick temporary tattoos to their teeth. If these pics are any indication, it looks as if someone's teeth are falling apart.

You might argue that it would make sense when you got a closer look at someone's grill. But how often do you examine the teeth of a friend, let alone some random stranger? And though they wear off in a few days, the idea of repeatedly gluing something to the front of my teeth just doesn't seem right.

 

 

The Evolution of Steve Jobs’ Clothing

This is Steve Jobs' wardrobe evolution since 1998, the year he returned to command Apple as interim CEO. You gotta admire a man who is loyal to his style no matter what. But my favorite Jobs is the old school Jobs.

After he returned to Apple, it was all Levi's, New Balances and black sweaters. One day I saw him wearing a suit—kind of—in a MacWorld Japan keynote, but that was it.

Back in the 70s and 80s his wardrobe used to be a mix of everything, from walking around the Apple campus barefoot in a t-shirt and shorts to old school three-piece suits to show his computers in fairs and keynotes.

 

 

FCC Details Plans to Bring Texting, Photos and Video to 911 Service

The Federal Communications Commission or FCC started talking about its intention to allow for 911 texting (and even photos and videos) last year, and now Chairman Julius Genachowski is out with a detailed plan for a "next generation" 911 service. The standout feature of it is just that -- the ability to send a text, photo or video in the event of an emergency -- but that also brings with it a complete overhaul of the backend of the service, and a switch to an IP-based architecture from the current circuit-switched system. 

That, the FCC says, should provide more flexibility and resiliency, and the agency has a number of other improvements in mind as well, including increased accessibility for people with disabilities, and new measures to improve the accuracy of location gathering (including new rules for wireless carriers). Of course, it all still is just a plan at the moment, but the FCC says it will consider a move to accelerate adoption of the plan next month.

 

 

Phones Stolen In the UK Riots Will Be Blocked From Networks

Just in case you were thinking of buying one of those 40 iPhone 4s that were most likely looted in the UK riots and put on Craigslist, don't—UK networks are blocking all stolen phones, so they'll be worthless.

Macworld spoke to several UK networks about the issue of the stolen phones, with the general answer being that they'll simply check stock records for each ransacked store, and add the IMEI number associated with each phone to the Equipment Identity Register which will block them from working with SIM cards in under a day. Within two days the phones will also be banned from being used on any UK network.

Sellers of stolen phones will likely still try and shift them onto unsuspecting buyers, meaning anyone who's been thinking about buying a brand new iPhone, BlackBerry or other recent model should probably go by official means only for a while, unless they want to end up with a very expensive door-stopper.

 

 

Minesweeper, Sudoku Now Available for Windows Phone Users

Got a Windows Phone 7 and an addictive personality? Well then today's your lucky day, as the Xbox Live versions of both Minesweeper and Sudoku have now landed in the US Marketplace. 

With these new additions, users can now sweep for virtual landmines in either Classic or Speed mode, or put their logic skills to the test by playing Sudoku in Lightning mode -- all while racking up achievements and powerups. Both are available for free and either will do a great job of destroying your productivity.

 

 

New Technique Could Rid Space of Junk in Just 4,000 Years

The earth's orbit is littered with about 20,000 pieces of space junk measuring four inches or larger. Pieces smaller than that are in the tens of millions, according to NASA.

To prevent the Earth's atmosphere from becoming a full-on junkyard, Italian Space Agency scientists have proposed an elegant way to remove space debris: launch a satellite that seeks out the garbage, then using a robotic arm attaches a propellant to it. The propellant escorts the junk to the earth's atmosphere where it burns up.

Sounds pretty neat, kind of like if Wall-E were a garbage collector when he propels himself through space with an aerosol can. The problem is the proposed technique is not so efficient. The Italian scientists report in the journal Acta Astronautica that one of their space junk collectors could take out five pieces of garbage per year. That means if space junk stopped proliferating now (although it's predicted to triple by 2030), the problem would be remedied in about 4,000 years.

Scientists say space junk doesn't pose an immediate threat, but it could quickly become one. That's because of the Kessler syndrome: as space junk proliferates, so does the likelihood of collisions, which quickly multiply the amount of crap in orbit. Space junk instantaneously increased by 25 percent when China detonated a weather satellite in 2007. Just two years later, an American and Russian satellite collided in 2009, throwing even more debris into the mix. If this happens enough times, the earth's atmosphere could become impassable, making space travel impossible.

Other proposed solutions to space junk include lasering threatening garbage out of the way or or employing service stations to lengthen the lifespans of existing satellites instead of launching new ones. But at a space conference in May, Gen. William Shelton, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command said there's no practical solution in sight for the space junk problem.

Well, at least for the foreseeable future we can still look forward to fireballs of space junk falling from the sky.

You Can Finally Share Photos Natively Using Twitter

Wow. Five years after it launched, Twitter has finally added native photo-sharing to its service. Starting now, all Twitter.com users have a camera icon that lets you add a photo to your tweet.

Images that are 3MB or less in size can be uploaded and embedded into a tweet. If a user follows you they will see the image and a pic.twitter.com link. If they don't follow you, they will see a "Click to Display Media" message. You can even add a hashtag to your image so others can find it using Twitter's photo and video search feature. In the future, Twitter will enable image galleries and add this upload feature to its mobile apps.

 

 

Nintendo to Release Flame Red 3DS Console Next Month

The console, which launched earlier this summer in Japan as the Red Flare, will hit stores next month (alongside the new Star Fox 64 3D game), joining a 3DS lineup that already features Cosmo Black and Aqua Blue.

The company will also be releasing two new games this winter -- Super Mario 3D Land in November and Mario Kart 7 in December -- in the hopes of rectifying its disappointing Q2 earnings report with a strong holiday campaign. Only time will tell whether or not it has any effect on Nintendo's bottom line, but if you're interested in adding a touch of Santa-like cheer to your yuletide gaming season, you can grab a Flame Red console on September 9th, for $170.

Tokyoflash's Kisai 3D Watch Turns Time Into a Colorful Ice Cube

The folks over at Tokyoflash tend to come up with some pretty inscrutable watches, but their latest creation, the Kisai 3D Unlimited, looks refreshingly simple. Its cube-like, "3D" time display may not be conventional, but its mirrored LCD doesn't require a degree in cryptology, either (the time displayed above is 12:34. See it?). 

The watch also features a pretty sleek, stainless steel design, with a case measuring just 8.5mm thick, and a fully adjustable strap that can fit even the daintiest of wrists. If you're interested in grabbing one, you can choose from seven different colors for about $120 here.

 

 

Blackberry Users Are More Important than iPhone or Android Users

Social influence-ranking service Klout released some interesting numbers yesterday showing BlackBerry users are more influential than Android or iPhone users. Take that, you smug RIM-hating jerks.

Klout reported that the average Blackberry user it tracks scored a 43.6. The average iPhone user was a 42, while Android users came in behind both at 40.6. The average score on Klout is 20. Justin Bieber scores a perfect 100, baby.

Klout tracks some 80 million people on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It then purports to measure influence by looking at how one's posts on those networks affect others, and assigns a score from 0-100. It weeds out the bots, and places less importance on follower counts than it does action counts. For example, if you share a link, and many of your followers re-share it, or respond to it, or retweet it, that will raise your score. Likewise, if your network is made up of very influential people, that will also raise your Klout score.

Which sort of explains why BlackBerry users would win this thing. Who gets BlackBerrys? Corporate executives, often C-level types. My guess is that if you looked at the BlackBerry demographic on Klout, it would be an older and more professional user group than iPhone and Android with well-developed networks. Similarly, if you think about how many Android phones are free phones, it makes sense that a lot of those are going to end up in the hands of young people who haven't had the time or inclination to develop the kind of peer networks their elders have.

 

 

The Microsoft Touch Mouse

Taking center stage this year is Microsoft's Touch Mouse -- a multitouch gesture-based peripheral. Microsoft has finally made official its answer to Apple’s multitouch Magic Mouse: the Microsoft Touch Mouse for Windows 7.

The ergonomics are quite solid too—unlike the Magic Mouse, which is passable, but not great. As you can guess, the hatches dotted all over the mouse mark the touch area.

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S II LTE Phone Surfaces in Korea, Codenamed Celox?

There's a new Samsung Galaxy S II rumor circulating the web today -- this time, it's emanating from South Korea, where specs and images of an LTE smartphone, reportedly codenamed "Celox," have just surfaced. According to its listing, the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060processor, sports a 4.5-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display, and boasts 16GB of internal memory, with a microSD slot offering an extra 32GB. 

The phone also runs on Gingerbread, rocks a 1750mAh battery (compared to the smaller Galaxy S II's 1650mAH cell), offers 800MHz LTE support (at up to 50Mbps upstream, 100Mbps downstream) and features an 8MP rear-facing camera, along with a 2MP sensor up front

 

 

Alien-Looking Automatons Have Taken Over Heathrow Airport

These happy-looking automatons are currently jetting passengers around Heathrow airport without any supervision at a 25 mph clip. Man, when did the future happen? I totally missed it.

Created by BAA, these Ultra PRTs whiz around Heathrow's business parking lots independent of human intervention and have yet to experience what we call "an accident." Breakdowns are also extremely rare and the system has a 95% reliability rate.

 

 

A Watch Running Android

Albeit it's Donut, but the Italian "I'm Watch" (yes, that's what it's called) has plenty of flair in its bright colors and 1.5-inch screen that you can preview emails and texts on, plus screen calls like a normal Bluetooth watch.

Some basic Android apps work on the I'm Watch, and you can browse photos and play music from the 4GB of onboard storage, for 48 hours (or 30 if you're using the Bluetooth features). It'll set you back a fair ol' whack though—around $350. Get it here.

 

 

Blackberry Bold 9900 Up for Ppre-Order at Vodafone UK

The Bold 9900 is already standing proudly up for pre-order at Vodafone UK, along with a commitment to arrive at your doorstep in roughly a week's time if you take the plunge. However, just like the leaked T-Mobile USA pricing, it won't come cheap in the UK either: you'll need to swallow a £41 ($67) monthly price plan on a two-year contract before they'll give you the handset for free.

 Alternatively, you can opt for a monthly contract at half that price and pay a daunting £399 ($650) upfront for the phone. Nevertheless, if you're a BB fan and you're convinced of this form factor, then we predict you'll get on well with 9900's particularly chunky keyboard, high-res screen and top-notch build quality

July Broke Almost Over 9,000 Heat Records

The data above shows the places that broke heat records by day and by night. You can practically see the entire continental US in each graph! According to the Daily:

Last month almost 9,000 daily heat records were broken or tied across the country. This includes 2,755 highest maximum temperatures and 6,171 highest minimum temperatures (nighttime records).