Verizon's First LTE Wi-Fi Hotspots

Until now, all of Verizon's 4G has been packed inside dongles. Samsung and Novatel's LTE hotspots will let you spread the 4G around with Wi-Fi. Slightly thicker than the old MiFi.

No price or date—or battery life spec—for Samsung's 4G Hotspot or Novatel's MiFi 4510L yet, unfortunately. Just that they'll support up to 5 devices.

 

 

Man Survives Without Using Soap For 18 Months—Could You?

What would happen if you went a year and a half without washing with soap and shampoo? Would your girlfriend ditch you? Friends loathe having to invite you 'round? Or, like Richard Nikoley and Sean Bonner, would life just...go on?

Nikoley's gone without either for 18 months now, and Bonner, inspired by Nikoley, just a year. Both claim life is much easier now, with Nikoley seeing some pleasant bonuses:

"What I've found over these 18 months is that I never even thought of the money I was saving. Hell, a decent sized bottle of shampoo and body wash would last me months anyway. Oh, and then there's the travel size versions. No, what has made this experience oh so satisfying is that I don't have to worry about any of that anymore — ever. Don't have to buy it. Don't have to carry it. Don't ever run out of it. Don't have to get it tossed in the dumpster by TSA goons."

Bonner, writing on Boing Boing, can't see himself ever going back to buying bottles of chemicals:

"The future? I will definitely be sticking with this. I'm still annoyed it took me 35 years to learn what I clearly already knew as a baby kicking and screaming when my parents tried to wash my hair. At least that's what I want to assume I knew back then. I know now, but I'd still rather not think about how much I spent on soap and shampoo and related products over the years when they were likely causing all the problems I was trying to protect against."

Supposedly one in 230 million people around the world are allergic to water, and cannot bathe without their skin being brought out in rashes, so suffer far worse than Nikoley and Bonner would if forced into a shower with a bar of soap. But would you go 18 months without using cleansing products on your skin or hair?

Samsung's 9 Series Laptop Takes the MacBook Air Head-On

It looks like the 13-inch MacBook Air finally has some serious competition: the 13-inchSamsung 9 Series is a shade lighter, a touch thinner, and looks like the Air's evil twin.

The differences in size and weight may amount to not much more than a rounding error—2.89 pounds to the Air's 2.9, and profiles of .64 inches versus .68—but its black metal finish and sleek curves make it look like it belongs on the deck of the Death Star.

The 9 Series packs a 1.4GHz second-gen Core i5 processor, including Intel's much-improved integrated graphics, and claims a downright decent 6.5 hours of battery life. You're also looking at 4GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, and a, surprisingly for the frame, a 1.5watt subwoofer. Gilding this very thin lily are USB 3.0 and built-in WiMax 4G.

Which, of course, is going to cost you. The 9 Series comes this February with a $1600 starting price.

 

 

A Fungus Is Destroying The World's Bananas

Tropical Race Four, a soil-born fungus, has been destroying bananas across the world. It kills the plant and makes bananas smell like garbage. That deadly fungus is expected to hit Central America, which is where we get all our bananas from.

There are a thousand types of bananas in the world but only one represents 99% of the banana export market. That'd be the Cavendish banana. Cavendish bananas dominate the export market because they provide farmers "with a high yield of palatable fruit that can endure overseas trip without ripening too quickly or bruising too easily".

One problem, though. By relying solely on the Cavendish banana (and clones of the Cavendish), one disease can wipe out a whole ton o' bananas in one sweeping motion. Tropical Race Four is that disease, and it's already wiped out Cavendish bananas in Asia and Australia with newspapers around the world calling it the "HIV of banana plantations".

The funny thing is the Cavendish banana actually replaced another banana (Gros Michel) in the 1950's because that one got stricken with the Panama disease. History is repeating itself but this time scientists are working feverishly in an attempt to save our banana population. Let's hope they succeed.

 

 

iFlash Lights Up Dark Scenes for Flash-Less iDevice Photographers

If you're constantly disappointed with your iPhone 3G, 3GS, or iPod Touch's camera performance in low light scenarios, the iFlash could be just what you need. It's $29.95 and plugs into your iDevice's docking port.

The iFlash can conveniently fit underneath most cases and can also be repurposed as an LED flashlight. According to the iFlash's makers, by attaching the module to your iPhone with a plastic 3.5mm jack it can dangle like a phone charm, but that sounds highly unappealing.

SDXC Cards Go to 128GB

We're still a long ways from the 2TB SDXC. At $700, the card's clearly aimed at the professional market. It's best to think of this more as a neat technological breakthrough than something to add to your shopping list.

The 128GB Lexar should be available, along with its 64GB cousin ($400), this spring.

 

 

Mighty Mouse Has One Less Gene, Lives 20% Longer

Sorry, Apple. Researchers have already created a mightier mouse: By deleting a single gene from a mouse's genetic makeup, they've enabled it to suffer fewer age related ailments and live 20% longer. On humans, that'd be about 16 bonus years.

So what exactly did those crazy scientists do? They bred mice with the "gene that produces the protein S6 kinase 1 (S6K1)" disabled. The effects of this are a bit extreme:

The change mimicked the effect of keeping the mice on a calorie-restricted diet. Severely restricting the diets of yeast, bacteria, mice and primates have granted these animals unnaturally long lives. For humans, however, maintaining a diet of near starvation would be difficult at best

That last part's the bad news so far, but researchers are conducting further studies particularly targeting the S6K1 protein as it seems to have a direct link to longevity in mice. There are hopes that the benefits will one day be reproduced with drugs so that we don't have to starve ourselves for longer lives and prettier looks.

 

 

This Mouse Knows How to Tweet

I'm not even talking about Twitter. Thanks to the wonderful world of genetic engineering (which is the greatest thing ever), this mouse no longer squeaks. It tweets. Yes, like a bird.

The tweeting ability of the mouse actually came about by accident. Sort of. As AFP tells it, scientists at the University of Osaka were working on a study to see how genetic mutation facilitates evolution. So after breeding genetically modified mice that were prone to copy DNA wrong, they happened upon one mouse that could unexpectedly tweet. They've since bred over a hundred of these "singing mice."

Scientists are especially intrigued by this, because tweeting among birds functions as a low-level language for them. So they believe these noises from the tweeting mouse aren't entirely as random as the normal squeak. And they're also curious how it will affect normal, non-tweeting mice exposed to these sounds.

 

 

Why the Human Body Temperature Is 98.5 Degrees Fahrenheit (37°C)

Scientists have found the reason why our body temperature is 98.5° Fahrenheit (37°C). Apparently it's the perfect balance, as it's warm enough to prevent fungal infection but not so hot that we need to eat nonstop to maintain our metabolism.

Scientists have always wondered why advanced mammals are so hot compared to other animals. And this might be the reason! Fungal species that can thrive and infect an animal typically declines by 6 percent for every 1° C rise in temperature. So, we know we need a higher body temperature to ward off fungal infection. The question is how warm?

Scientists devised a mathematical model that analyzed the benefits gained by body temperatures that protect against fungi versus the costs (in terms of extra food consumption) required to maintain body temperatures between 30° and 40° C. The optimal temperature for maximizing benefits while minimizing costs was found to be 36.7° C, which closely approximates normal body temperature.

Looks like we were made for a reason (and so were the other mammals who all have temperatures around 98.5 degrees)!

Lightest 3D Glasses in the World

Samsung's ultra-lightweight 3D glasses don't look as bad as generic active shutter specs, but that's not saying much. Noses and ears, breathe a sigh of relief: they weigh just 28 grams.

 

 

A USB Hub With a Power Strip State of Mind

That's the idea behind Japanese company Elecom's latest attempt to re-engineer the humble USB hub, a power strip-esque block with ports facing skyward and a switch dedicated to each one.

Sure, the garden of sprouting cords won't help you forget that the hub is sitting on your desk, but that means you won't forget that they're sucking up precious electricity, either. The hubs are on sale now in Japan $41 for four ports or $106 for seven.

MacBook Air's SSDs Will Be Sold to Other Companies by Toshiba

Available in 64GB and 128GB capacities (both measuring 2.2mm in height) and a 3.7mm tall 256GB option, the Blade X-gale SSDs will inevitably show up in laptops, netbooks or even tablets. They've got a max sequential read speed of 220MB/s, with max sequential write speed of 180MB/s.

 

 

Forget Your Dog, Your Phone Needs an Adorable Little Outfit

You don't spend all day in some sweaty plastic case, so why subject your most faithful electronic companion to that same sartorial torture? Get it the case it deserves. The outerwear it needs. A tiny denim outfit.

Thanks to SabaiSmile at Etsy—where you can now certifiably buy anything you can think of—you can snatch up a jacket, a dress, or some short shorts for your smartphone, MP3 player, or if you're a real big weirdo your handheld GPS device. 

 

 

A Winter Wonderland in China

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang China is set to open on January 5, 2011. It's a winter wonderland with buildings made from beautiful ice and snow.

 

 

The northern lights could be headed south to a night sky near you

The amazing lights of the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart, the aurora australis, are created by the collision of charged particles in the Earth's magnetic field. As photons from the solar wind are accelerated along the lines of our planet's magnetic field, they undergo incredibly energetic reactions with nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere, releasing and absorbing lots of energy in the constant collisions. Collisions with oxygen molecules create the green or brownish-red colors of the aurora, while collisions with nitrogen account for the blue and red colors.

Because the lines of Earth's magnetic field run towards the two magnetic poles, the aurora effect is strongest and most likely to be visible to the naked eye in the polar regions. The poles also have an added advantage, as their much longer periods of darkness mean there are far more opportunities for auroras to become visible.

But every so often the auroras become visible far away from the poles, thanks to a little help from the Sun. During periods of extreme solar activity, the Sun can create what's known as coronal mass ejections (or CMEs), which are huge blasts of charged particles. In almost all cases, these CMEs miss the Earth completely, and even when they do hit the Earth it's rare that they have any noticeable effects.

Still, if a strong enough CME hits the Earth, it can trap tons more charged particles than normal in the magnetic field. That supercharges the aurora effect so that people living as far south as Dallas or Los Angeles would be able to see the northern lights. (Well, maybe notspecificially Dallas and LA - the city lights would probably drown the aurora out.)

We've already enjoyed some spectacular auroras thanks to the solar activity, and it only figures to get better. We're in a particularly strong period of solar activity at the moment, and astronomers predict it will peak around 2013.

Even Putin Looks Displeased With 3D Glasses

When Russia's bad boy Prime Minister Vladimir Putin himself looks irritated with the idea of wearing 3D glasses, it's gotta be time to reconsider that whole trend. 

 

 

The Last Roll of Kodachrome Film Ever Will Be Developed Today

Even if you don't give two f-stops about analog photography, it's always good to respect our elders. So today, we pour one out for Kodak's legendarily beautiful Kodachrome film, which after today, in Parsons, Kansas, will never be processed again.

Kodachrome, which Kodak stopped manufacturing last year, has been prized by the world's most eminent photographers for its beauty and refinement—the way it captures light and color is unlike anything else, and has made possible some of photography's greatest visions..

Despite having the bejeezus knocked out of it by digital, the singular beauty of analog photography should never be forgotten—and thanks to groups like the 1,668 member strong Kodachrome Flickr pool, it probably won't be.

 

 

The Nintendo 3DS Will Destroy Children's Eyeballs

Remember your parents telling you sitting too close to the TV would make you blind? Well, now when parents tell young kids to turn off the 3D on Nintendo's 3DS 'cause it'll ruin their eyes—they'll actually be right.

The machine translation is a little rough, but the gist is clear: Nintendo has issued a warning that kids under six shouldn't use the 3DS's 3D mode because their vision is still "in the development stage," and the way that stereoscopic 3D works, delivering different images to each eyeball, "has a potential impact on the growth of children's eyes."

Sony's also noted that kids under six shouldn't play 3D games without being examined by their eye doctor first. But the 3DS is in a slightly different position than the PS3, since Nintendo's way more geared toward kids than Sony is.

To keep the childrens away from 3D, the 3DS will apparently have a parental lock on 3D, locking the 3DS in 2D mode. Even with the parental lock, though, this is pretty crazy. Nintendo issuing a warning explicitly stating, "Hey, our product could screw up your child's vision." Who's gonna buy that for their kids?

Hoodie With Earbuds Instead of Strings Is Greatest iPod Accessory of All

Hoodies have strings around the neck, right? Have you EVER used those strings? Why you'd want to tighten a noose around your neck, I'll never know. The HoodieBuddie cleverly replaces the strings with earbuds; the pocket contains a 3.5mm jack.

All you need to do is whack your iPod into that 3.5mm jack, hiding in the front-right pocket, and you can listen to music without your wires getting tangled. Really, it costs $44. 

 

 

In the Future, We'll All Wear Clothes Made by 3D Printers

Designers are already using 3D printers to create textiles apparently. Fashion site Ecouterre has an article on the 3D printed clothes phenomenom, and the museum of Modern Art is exhibiting the Dutch designer Freedom of Creation's works already. 

It's not just the lure of having clothes that fit properly that's appealing for designers—3D printing also helps cut down on labor costs and could be seen as reducing waste.