MacGyver Unable to Fix his Own Car

Richard Dean Anderson is just an actor. He is not MacGyver. He cannot fix everything with a paperclip and a ballpoint pen. Yet, there's something disappointing about seeing him with the hood on his car open waiting for someone to help him. You're MACGYVER. Help yourself, man. Help yourself.

The 61-year-old actor was caught helplessly standing next to his dead Audi in Malibu yesterday, waiting for help. He just stares at it. At the car. Like he has no idea what to do with it. He's wearing cargo pants. It's really sad.

Of course, the car is an Audi Allroad, which is so mechanically screwed up even other Audi owners scoff at it for being unreliable. With its Torsen quattro four-wheel drive system and air suspension it's impossibly complex. The real MacGyver probably couldn't keep an Allroad on the road for more than six hours at a time without a Staples full of office supplies.

 

 

Would You Dangle Your iPhone From This Carabiner?

Instead of just clipping into the iPhone 4 and 4S' dock connector—which would have eventually guaranteed a shattered phone—this carabiner accessory comes with longer replacement screws that are promised to securely attach it to the bottom.

So while you can't just pop it on and off without the aid of a screwdriver, it does let you clip your phone to your belt or shoulder strap so it's always in reach. You can even use it as a giant keychain if you don't mind your keys banging against your face when you make calls. The metal plate sits flush enough for most dock accessories to still be used, and for $30 it's just about the easiest way to add a permanent tether to your phone.

 

 

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Don’t Know How to Use Amazon.com

One of the cardinal rules of Hollywood is that in order to be a very good looking actor, you also have to be very smart.

In an interview with USA Today, Jolie was asked whether the two online shop for Christmas presents—this was a hard-hitting interview, okay?

"Brad and I were on Amazon.com for the first time a week ago. But we got lost. After an hour, we just shut it off. My brain is too scattered and the wires go in different directions. I'll stick to catalogs."

Granted, Amazon's web interface is pretty lousy, but if you're used a computer within the past two decades, you should be able to navigate it without calling in a personal shopper and/or seeing eye dog.

Robots finally able to follow 'make me a sandwich' command

Pancakes? No problem. Cookies? You got it! Sandwich? ...is there a Subway near by? Why robots have such a hard time slapping meat and cheese on bread is beyond us, but we're glad the crack team at the Technical University of Munich has finally figured out how to teach them. The dynamic duo of James and Rosie don't exactly blaze through their task of making a sandwich and some popcorn, but at least they're nice enough to toast the bread for your salami- and cheese-based chow. As usual, the moves here are not preprogrammed, the two bots make decisions on the fly based on a complex "reasoning" mechanism and data it can cull from a Kinect.

Samsung Claims Record 300 Million Mobile Sales This Year

Add together ten million Galaxy S IIs, a dollop of Galaxy Nexii, a gargantuan gathering of Galaxy Notes and a healthy serving of Badas, and what do you get? 300 million handset sales so far in 2011, that's what. And Samsung claims that makes this the best year in its mobile-making history, surpassing 2010 by a whopping 20 million. 

Of course, more sales doesn't necessarily translate into greater revenue -- Nokia is still the world's largest manufacturer by volume and is a case in point. Nevertheless, we'll know more when Samsung reveals its Q4 earnings next month.

 

 

Why Do Three Google Execs Own Eight Private Jets?

How is the world's top search engine going to put its software in every TV on earth? Not by flying commercial, like some sort of company for poor people! Let's just buy a few spare private jets, just in case.

Most reasonable people are content with one or two private jets, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt aren't content with one plane each—The Mercury News reports the search triumvirate share eight. That's a lot of planes for three guys! Do they race? Do they pay people to fly all eight at once while they watch from the roof of a castel made of money? Is that ecologically or financially responsible? The answer to all of those things is probably no! But don't expect them to kick the habit anytime soon—they're ready to pony up $33 million in an effort to restore an old NASA hangar as their personal parking lot. See, if you had thought of Google first, you could be doing fun expensive things like this right now.

 

 

Indonesian Government Threatens to ban BlackBerry Services if it Can't spy on Users

It's not the first time that RIM's security measures have caused a bit of an inferiority complex, but the Indonesian government now is threatening to ban BIS and BBM services within the nation if it doesn't get its way. Partially, it seems that Indonesian officials are upset that Research in Motion will be building its new data centers in Singapore, rather than in the homeland. Additionally, as is, the government is unable to monitor these communications, which it sees as a security risk. 

As you likely know, all data is currently processed in RIM's Canadian facilities. Heru Sutadi, a member of the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body, had the following to say: "With the condition as it is now, we warn that the country's users to be cautious about using BlackBerry because the data exchanged is not safe or cannot be guaranteed of its safety." Sounds creepy, right? We always feel safer when knowing the government is monitoring our messages, too.

 

 

Quirky Stem Turns Citrus Fruits Into Spray Bottles

If you prefer a fresh blast of lemon or lime juice on a salad instead of a heavy dressing, just jam Quirky's new Stem accessory into a citrus fruit of your choice, instantly turning it into a spray bottle.

Besides a set of serrated teeth on the bottom that let it easily pierce the skin, the mechanics of how the Stem actually works are a little vague. I mean the general idea is pretty obvious, but how it manages to avoid getting clogged with pulp and seeds is a mystery to me.

However its patent pending design works, the Stem is going into production with pricing details to be revealed when it's closer to being available. And while the first version will probably be limited to citrus fruits, I'm optimistic the technology can eventually be adapted to sticks of butter and hunks of ham to make sprayable versions of more delicious foods. Get it here.

Google-Funded Study Says Firefox Less Secure than Internet Explorer

Remember when you downloaded Firefox circa 2004 because Internet Explorer was inundating Windows XP with viruses? Those days have long since passed, and according to a Google-funded study carried out by Accuvant, Firefox is now among the least secure web browsers. Naturally, Chrome is the best.

Obviously this has to be approached with a fair amount of skepticism, Forbes points to Accuvant's industry cred for objective reports on security. his particular report calls out Firefox's inability to sandbox code in the browser, thus preventing hackers and malicious code from gaining access to the rest of someone's operating system.

Accuvant's researchers argue that Google's ability to start from scratch in creating Chrome allowed the company to incorporate new security features that were tougher to integrate into Firefox's legacy code base. "Mozilla's products were around before browser security was such a relevant issue," says Accuvant researcher Chris Valasek. "Chrome was just born at the correct time in the correct environment."

Internet Explorer, which has been bashed for years as being a security cesspool was actually found to compete quite well against Chrome as far as security goes, though it wasn't found to be better. Also curious about this report: where's Safari?

 

 

How to Catch Tomorrow Morning’s Lunar Eclipse

Clear skies and geographical location permitting, Saturday will be your last chance to spy a total lunar eclipse until 2014. Here's what you need to know to catch a glimpse before it's gone.

First things first: if you live in South America or some of Africa's westernmost regions, we're sorry — it looks like you're going to have to wait a few more years to witness a total lunar eclipse in person. Fortunately, you can still watch the eclipse online via a live feed over on slooh.com. Everyone else, congratulations. You win.

For the majority of the Western Hemisphere, the eclipse will be most noticeable early Saturday morning in the hours right before dawn. The Moon will enter Earth's shadow at 3:33 PST, and the total eclipse phase will begin at 6:06 PST. This means that those of us on the East coast may have a hard time spotting the eclipse, as the Moon will be setting more or less right as it's entering Earth's shadow (the more dramatic, ruddy colors typically associated with a total lunar eclipse won't likely become noticeable until around 4:45 am PST). Views will improve, however, as you move north and west; in fact, Alaska should be able to catch the eclipse in its entirety, right up until the Moon leaves the Earth's shadow around 12:30 PST.

Nokia Lumia 710 now Shipping Worldwide

It's been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release. Priced at around €270 (or about $332), the Mango-laced handset will arrive in stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia over the next seven days, before expanding to other global markets "over the coming weeks." The 3.7-inch device joins the Lumia 800.

 

 

Knuckle Meat Pounder to Beat the Crap Out Of Your Steak

Knuckle Meat Tenderizer. I don't know how it is supposed to work (do I hang up the piece of meat first?) but $13 sounds fine to release your stress and get tender steak. Get it here.

 

 

The Pope Has Chosen Android

This, my friends, may be the end of the smartphone fanboy wars. I can give my two cents. The rest of the tech community can give theirs. But God Almighty himself, through his appointed papal mouthpiece, has picked a winner.

For this year's celebration of Christ's birth, Pope Benedict will remotely light a giant Christmas tree display attached to the side of a mountain, from 130 miles away.

But! Scandal! He's doing it with the Lord's fave new gadget, MSNBC reports, straight from the Vatican newswire:

Benedict XVI will activate the illumination from his apartments in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. He will touch the screen of a Sony "Tablet" with an "Android" operating system which, via the Internet, will transmit the command to switch on the electric current to the tree.

Will this alleged "Android" "Tablet" be a Sony S? It doesn't matter. The heavens have parted, and the choice is clear: The Pope Chooses Android.

 

 

HP’s $99 TouchPad Firesale Is Finally Back

The time's come, cheapasses: HP's $99 TouchPad firesale is about to make its triumphant return. Oh my god I've waited so long for this.

At 7:00 PM Eastern on December 11th, HP's eBay store is going to have the next and maybe last cache of cheap TouchPads. $99 16GB models and $150 32GB models will both be up for grabs. That's great! Here's the catch: The units are refurbished, not new—which isn't a bad thing, necessarily!—and all sales are final. But like, who's going to try to return a $99 TouchPad anyway?

Since the original cheapo stampede over the first TouchPad firesale, the Kindle Fire's shown up with its $200 pricepoint, and the PlayBook dropped to that price as well—and maybe even further soon. But the TouchPad is still the only full-sized tablet to get the here-take-it-please-oh-god prices, and webOS has gotten a few upgrades while HP shuffles its feet over what to do with the mobile OS. So basically, it's still a totally awesome deal and you should get one if you can.

 

 

Amazon Will give you $5 if you use its Price Check app This Weekend

No joke, it really will. All you have to do is walk into a retailer this Saturday, whip out your smartphone and use Amazon's Price Check app to collect price data on in-store items. In exchange, the company will offer you a discount of five percent (or up to $5) on "select items" in electronics, toys, music, and other product divisions, though you'll only be able to use it a maximum of three times. 

The campaign represents Amazon's latest attempt to creep into the brick and mortar sector on the back of barcode scanning technology, and seems like a pretty clever way to bolster its mobile presence, while gathering intel on its competitors' prices, as well. It all kicks off at 9 PM (PST) on Friday, and will draw to a close just before midnight on Saturday.

 

 

Windows Phones Starting to Receive Support for Twitter Images in Pictures Hub

The "What's New" feed in Windows Phone Mango's Picture Hub has done a great job offering thumbnail images for Facebook and Windows Live messages, but for some reason lovers of Twitter pictures have been shunned, with only a link to the image being provided. Not the worst thing on the planet, of course, but certainly it's been a minor thorn in the side of frequent users of the social networking service. Reports are beginning to come in, however, that this is all changing now -- it looks as though quite a few photos originating from Twitter are now showing up, which may be an indicator of some fix-it work going on behind the scenes.

 

 

Sony Ericsson to Become Sony in mid-2012

Sony and Ericsson's decade-long partnership may have humbled Kim Kardashian, but dwindling market share and an over-reliance on feature phones signaled the end of the affair. Ericsson will have until "mid 2012" to clear its things from the spare room before the electronics giant begins a new solo venture. The revitalized enterprise will leverage its parent company's brand strength, R&D and content (since it owns a massive chunk of the entertainment industry) and in comments made to Times of India, company Vice President Kristian Tear said there would be a "fierce" advertising push to restore the company's reputation as a major player worldwide -- before taking a Pilates class to try and fit back into its bachelor pad.

 

 

Samsung Teases Flexible, Transparent Display in Concept Video

Samsung's flexible display technology isn't slated to hit the market until 2012, but the Korean manufacturer is already giving us a glimpse of how it may transform our lives, with a freshly released concept video. Yes, it's just a concept ad, and a relatively brief one at that, but it still paints a pretty mouth-watering portrait -- one full of transparent, flexible screens, smartphone-tablet hybrids, and augmented reality.

Mammoths May Be Roaming the World In Five Years

Scientists have been trying to clone woolly mammoths for years, but now they're really close. So close that in five years you may see herds of this gigantic beast—one of the favorite extinct prehistoric animals of the all-time.

Scientists from Japan's Kinki University and the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum have discovered well preserved marrow in a thigh bone discovered in Siberia, buried under the permafrost. The marrow is in such good condition that its cells' DNA could be used to replace the nuclei of elephant egg cells. This will allow scientist to create mammoth embryos.

The team wants to plant these embryos inside the wombs of elephant mothers so they can grow until birth. Although bigger than elephants, both animals are similar enough for this to work. This is a similar technique used in current cloning processes. The key is that the DNA has to be intact in order for this process to work. This discovery is their chance to achieve their objective.

 

 

Samsung's mSATA PM830 is Eight Grams of Pure SSD

The newest member of Samsung's 6Gb/s PM830 family of SSDs is designed to sit inside the Ultrabooksof 2012, which means it's had go through some slimming down. The mSATA drive uses 20 nanometer NAND for face-melting speed, but is crammed into a 50.95 x 30 x 3.8mm package, weighing only eight grams. The drive will comfortably read 500MB/s and write 260MB/s on a clear day, six times faster than a comparable HDD. 

It'll allow Windows to boot in under ten seconds and transfer "five DVD files" (roughly 45GB) in around a minute. The drives also come with 256-bit AES for those moments when your Ultrabook gets stolen, or more likely, floats away in the wind. 64GB, 128GB and 256GB variants will roll out to OEMs shortly but we expect a consumer version to be announced shortly for everyone with some courage and a screwdriver.