The Latest Tokyo Flash Watch Hides the Time in a Maze

Tokyo Flash is the go-to watch brand for people who don't care what time it is. Here's its latest creation, which hides the time in the negative space of a maze.

The Kisai Maze is labyrinthine in its complexity. It takes some patience to work out what the hell time it is—but once you've cracked it, it's actually quite satisfying. The watch is available in stainless steel or black, and is on sale for $99 until Thursday, when the price jumps to $139. More here.

Apple Planning to Launch 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro This Month?

9to5mac is reporting that Apple is going to announce a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro alongside the iPad Mini at a forthcoming product announcement event.

The website cites a "consistently reliable source at a high-profile U.S. retailer", who has learned of a new, smaller version of the current 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. According to the source, a 13-inch version of the Retina MacBoook will share the thinner, lighter style of enclosure of the 15-inch version, and will be sold in two configurations—with differing processor and storage options. The source also claims that the 13-inch Retina MacBook will be sold alongside the standard 13-inch MacBook.

The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro was launched back in June to dropped jaws, and hinted at the future of Apple's laptop line: slim, hi-res displays, SSD-only storage and no optical drives. While a 13-inch version seemed inevitable, it remains to be seen with certainty if now is the time.

Still, chances are that the reason a 13-inch version wasn't launched alongside the 15-inch computer was that Apple was taking it easy on suppliers. Whether a six-month window provides enough breathing room—and whether we'll hear of a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro in the coming weeks—well, we'll just have to wait and see. More here.

No Wonder Street View Is So Good When Google Has This Army of Cars

Street View is good and getting better—and that's thanks to Google's massive fleet of cars, kitted out to capture the world around us in all its panoramic glory. This is what a parking lot full of them looks like.

Google's own Masrur Odinaev posted this picture of one of the company's holding pens: the fleet of Subaru Imprezas looks like an army of camera-equipped automatons, ready and waiting to do whatever Larry Page orders them to. Which, really, isn't far off the mark. Across the world, Odinaev estimates there are in fact 250 cars buzzing around. More here.

Windows 8 now Available to try at Best Buy

Microsoft's already opened up the floodgates with Windows 8 pre-orders, and it looks as if those still on the fence now have a sandbox to goof off in. Pictured above is a trio of Windows 8 notebooks from a Best Buy located in St. Cloud, Minnesota. More here.

Cavemen Would Have Killed For These Modern Stone Tools

A huge part of human history revolved around tying stones to sticks. We don't do it much any more, but if we did, we'd be super good at it. These modern stone tools prove it.

Designed by Ami Drach and Dov Ganchrow, each tool is specially engineered to fit the piece of stone or flint its paired with. Digital scans taken of the flint stones let each handle account for its blade's subtlest nook and cranny, resulting in some stylish hatchets and daggers cavemen could only dream of, if that.

The tools were put on display at the recent Budapest Design Week in Hungary. No Neanderthals were around to comment, but you can imagine what they might have said: something along the lines of "oogh!" More here.

Animal-Shaped Office Supplies Come With a Bite

Lions and tigers and bears, join models of sharks and gorillas and gators—all the best animals, in desk tool form for $78 each. Even better? All of these creatures' teeth are properly proportioned to their bodies. More here.

Windows 8 Packaging and Pricing Revealed

We're almost there. Just a few more days until the big reveal. But that doesn't mean there aren't still a few final Windows 8 secrets to be disclosed. Two of those are the price and the packaging, which online retailer Newegg has just let slip. There are four packages listed: Windows 8 Professional Upgrade ($69), Windows 8 Pro Pack ($69, product key card only), Windows 8 OEM ($99) and Windows 8 Professional ($139), with the latter two being available in both 32- and 64-bit versions (for the same price). 

If you go into the product page, however, we can see that the original price for the upgrade and product key card only versions is listed as "$199" suggesting that this might either be a launch offer, or subject to change. Don't forget though, there's still the chance to upgrade for an even lower price, for those who qualify. You can officially reserve your copy of Pro from today for $69.99 at all the main retailers, but if you can hold back on that impulse purchase for just a little longer, you'll be able to upgrade to Pro online for $39 (until January 31st). More here.

Guitar Skillet Lets You Cook Steak Like a Rockstar

Kitchenware might be practical, but it isn't nearly enough fun. Fortunately, cookware company Lodge has decided to change that by creating a seasoned guitar-shaped cast iron skillet at its Tennessee foundry.

Lodge refers to it as a mini skillet, and it isn't wrong: at a mere 11 inches, end-to-end, you'll struggle to fit a family's worth of steaks in the pan. But who cares about that when you pretend to play audacious guitar solos as you cook. The best bit? It only costs $18. More here.

Your Kids Will Never Outgrow This Drawing Desk

Designed to accomodate kids of any age and height, this Grow Table drawing desk features a sloped work surface so at one end it's low enough for little tikes, while the other is high enough for teenagers.

Made from marine plywood with Douglas Fir accents, the Growth Table encourages both young and old to work and play together at the same desk. And its simple design means the table can keep up with a growing kid without the need for complicated adjustment mechanisms. Just be careful not to misplace a pencil when you're older because it has a long way to roll. More here.

How to Tell if the Universe Is a Computer Simulation

It's a famous question among academic philosophers: how can we be sure we're not living in a gigantic computer simulation? Fortunately, researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany think they've cracked it.

Their reasoning is pretty straightforward, according to Technology Review: if the cosmos is just a numerical simulation, calculated on some insanely powerful supercomputer tucked away in another world, there should be clues around us that can reveal the truth. Glitches in the system, if you like, that give the game away.

Moving from that reasoning to the science required to find those clues isn't quite so easy. To kick things off, the team of researchers from Bonn have speculated that the problem with all simulations is that they're discretized: to model a physical phenomenon, the real world has to be represented by separate points in time and 3D space. Sure you can make the distance between those points reeeeeeally small—but you still have to have this kind of grid.

So the researchers started looking at some physics they understood—in this instance high energy processes that become smaller as they get more energetic. Interestingly, they found that the idea of a world-as-computer-simulation would impose limits on the absolute amount of energy any particle can have, a result rooted in the fact that nothing could ever exist in a simulation which is smaller than the 3D grid it's represented on.

Weirdly enough, turns out such a limit actually does exist here in our world, and dictates the amount of energy cosmic ray particles can have. But the idea of the lattices add a further complication, because it would theoretically mean that we wouldn't see cosmic rays traveling equally in all directions across the imposed 3D grid.

To finish off by blowing your mind: that's a measurement that current technology could be used to make. Of course, if the findings were negative it wouldn't rule out the fact that our world was a silicon simulation, because it might just be more complex than we could ever imagine—but if results came out positive it could mean we're all made of code. More here.

Cheap Third-Party Lightning Cables Could Finally Be On the Way for Your iPhone 5

If you've been wanting an extra iPhone 5 cable, but haven't wanted to pay the full $40 for one, help might be on the way: a Chinese company called iPhone5mod says it has cracked the authentication chip found in the lightning connector and is now selling the cables for $20 apiece.

According to TG Daily, the company also has a supply of real authentication chips from an official Apple supplier as well:

"We are the first company to release a different Lightning Cable from Apple that fully supports the iPhone 5 (also works with iPod Touch 5th Gen and upcoming mini iPad too). It works independently or together with the iPhone 5 Dock," says the company.

[...]

According to the company, it's got two sources of appropriate chips: a supply of the genuine article from Apple's own supplier, and cracked chips that bypass Apple's authentication functions. Both work equally well, it says.

While these aren't yet cheaper, the fact that the authentication chip has been cloned opens the doors for a wave of other manufacturers. But though the knockoff lightning cables are said to do everything the official cables do, word has it that Apple will try and block the version of this cable that iPhone5mod is peddling. More here.

Motorola RAZR HD LTE now Available in Canada Through Rogers for $100

Motorola had said its dearest RAZR HD LTE would be coming "later this fall" as an exclusive to Rogers, and today's the day that relatively thin and powerful Android handset hits shelves across the border. Available now for $100 (with the obligatory three-year commitment, of course), the RAZR HD LTE will hand interested Canadians a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich (sorry, no Jelly Bean for now), a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED HD, 720p display and a 1.5GHz, dual-core S4 CPU -- not to mention the ability to surf on Rogers' LTE waves in areas where the network's live. 

Meanwhile, those who would like to go the "outright" way will have to spend a cool $600 on Moto's Kevlar-sporting slab, but, needless to say, that's the price folks have to pay for walking out the door with a bit of leeway. More here.

The Bicymple Is a Simpler Bicycle Without Any Bike Chains

A bicycle is already pretty damn simple. Two wheels, a frame, a seat, pedals and a chain. What happens if you remove the chains though? That would give you the Bicymple—a bicycle that's even more simple than you could ever imagine.

Why would you make a bicycle without a chain? Well, aside from the answer of why not, the folks behind Bicymple explain:

By removing the chain, the number of moving parts and overall complexity is significantly reduced. A direct-drive, freewheeling hub joins the crank arm axis with the rear-wheel axis, shortening the wheelbase and minimizing the design.

More than just a stylish concept bike, the bicymple is comfortable, easy to ride, and brilliantly simple to maintain. The lightweight design and short wheelbase make for a nimble ride. The optional rear-steer mode is reminiscent of custom "swing bikes" and allows tighter turns and "crab-riding".

More here. 

Here’s a Humongous New 8 Terabyte Thunderbolt Hard Drive

Western Digital is really getting in bed with Thunderbolt. It already has a 2TB 10,000RPM monster, and now it's got an 8TB external drive with Thunderbolt.

The MyBook 8TB is the largest consumer level Thunderbolt drive, and it works with RAID 0 and RAID 1. It comes with a Thunderbolt cable, too, which is nice. On the downside, it doesn't have a USB 3.0 alternative, so if you have to work with an alternative machine that doesn't have a Thunderbolt port, well, you're screwed. It's $850, and available now at WD'sonline store.

This Flashlight 9-in-1 Multi-Tool Is Completely Out of Hand

Multi-tools pack everything you need into a small, convenient device. Sometimes they can go a little overboard. But this thing takes it to a whole new level.

The 9-in-1 Emergency Light stores a knife, scissors, Phillips-head screwdriver, bottle opener, carabiner, and a hammer all into the base of a flashlight/latern that also has a blinking red flasher mode.

Some multi-tools have much larger arsenals, sure. But this one's particular mix looks questionable—how impossibly difficult would it be to use a knife with a gigantic handle like that? There can't be a single way that allows you to make accurate and precise cuts. More here.

Feel the Force: Angry Birds Star Wars Ccoming November 8th

Rovio teased a certain film-inspired Angry Birds picture last week, and as expected, it's another new game -- Angry Birds Star Wars. Our furious feathered friends are assuming the likenesses of characters from the epic saga, with the trusty Red Bird taking on Luke Skywalker's role. 

It wouldn't be the Rebel Alliance without a dark side to fight, which is where the Pigs fit into the storyline; even the music and levels for gravity-based play will hark back to the film franchise. In addition to the software, details of related merchandise have also been uncovered, including table games, toys and costumes. The game is out on November 8th for iOS, Android and computers, and if it follows the original storyline, we wonder how Red Bird's going to feel about his porcine family history. More here.

Prove You’re a Human By Telling This Captcha You Have the Right Feelings

Everybody wants a better Captcha. Trying to type in those distorted words can be a serious pain, and it's becoming less and less of an impedance to ever-more-intelligent spam bots. The Civil Rights Captcha takes a different approach; you've got to have a little empathy.

Instead of your run-of-the-mill alphanumeric gibberish, or random selection of words, the Civil Rights Captcha presents you with a short blurb about a Civil Rights violation and asks you how you feel about it. Ostensibly robots (and trolls) won't make it through because they'll remark that a human rights activist's murder makes them feel "aroused" instead of "upset." And bots will still have to make it past standard Captcha hurdles before they can even pick one of the choices.

Code for the Civil Rights Captcha is freely available, so anyone who wants to can pick it up. It definitely makes better use of Captcha space than most traditional systems do, and it's an interesting take on a system; isn't empathy more exclusively human than text recognition? And so what if the robots learn to fake that. It could make the robopocalypse so much more comfortable for all of us. More here.

Apple Issues Official Statement on iPhone 5 Camera Purple Lens Flare Issue

Apple has issued a support document about the “purple lens flare” issue on the iPhone 5, but don’t expect any type of recall or fix ad it is considered a common occurrence.

Following up on an email, Apple has now released a support document about the purple lens flare issue. As the document states, Apple feels this is an issue that happens in most small cameras, and has even been present in previous generations of the iPhone. The fix is fairly simply according to the statement:

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

Of course the issue is that you won’t normally see the problem until you look at the picture, and by then most moments are gone. More here.

Nano-SIMs Reportedly Popping up at T-Mobile Stores, Ready to Welcome your iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 may not be ready for sale unlocked officially just yet, but that doesn't mean T-Mobile isn't ready to be your service provider. As evidenced by the photo above, the folks at TmoNews and YouTuber BigRicksChannel have confirmed that the service provider is now selling iPhone 5-compatible Nano-SIMs. Of course, these'll work just fine with the Verizon-variant of the the 4-inch device, as it's technically unlocked out of the box. More here.

iPhone 5 Chemical Study Shows a Green Apple, Leaves Room for Improvement

Eventually, that shiny new iPhone 5 will have to meet its untimely end, whether it's in a landfill or (preferably) a recycling company's machinery. When it does, you'll at least be glad to know that Apple has kept the toxin levels down. HealthyStuff and iFixit have dissected the extra skinny smartphone and put it in the same "low concern" category for potential harm that's normally occupied by phones wearing their green credentials on their sleeves. 

Lets anyone rush to tell Greenpeace about the feat, just remember that there's a difference between proficiency at excising dangerous chemicals and getting rid of them completely: HealthyStuff still found small traces of bromine, chlorine, lead and mercury in the iPhone 5's construction, which could pose risks if the handset is ever broken apart or melted for scrap. Some concern also exists that the x-ray fluorescence spectrometer doesn't reveal the full extent of any toxic materials. Whether or not these remain sore points for you, the new iPhone is at least easier on the eco-friendly conscience than most of its peers. More here.

Is There an Updated, Faster Version of the iPad 3 Coming?

This is interesting. MacRumors reports that an iOS developer found a new, unknown iPad device showing up in his app analytics. Though that usually means the next version of the iPad, the unknown iPad actually had the same footprint as the current iPad 3—but with the faster processor of the iPhone 5. Hmm...

Here's what MacRumors found:

MacRumors has received word from a developer who has seen evidence of a previously unknown "iPad3,6" device showing up in his app analytics. Most interestingly, the device's processor targets the new ARMv7s architecture that supports the custom A6 system-on-a-chip found in the iPhone 5. This new iPad thus appears to be running either an A6 chip itself or a variation on Apple's custom A6 design.

What's interesting about this news is that there were rumors that Apple was going to update the entire line of iOS products this fall so that every new device will have the new racketeering Lightning connector. That would require an update of the 'new iPad' which was released in March of this year. This unknown iPad would be that updated iPad 3.

So when will it be coming? Well, if the iPad Mini is really going to be announced this month, that would make for a good platform to sneak in an update of the iPad 3. But the question is, at that point, what would happen to the iPad 4, which would theoretically follow in the Spring of 2013? Maybe that's too far ahead to speculate. As for this mysterious iPad 3, I guess we'll find out what happens soon enough. More here.

Here’s the First Look at Firefox for Windows 8

Just a few weeks ahead of Microsoft's release of Windows 8, Mozilla has pushed the first preview version of Firefox Metro out of the nest.

Though its designed specifically for Metro, it also works on the classic Windows desktop environment. You can download it here, and it will be updated nightly. It's the same Firefox you know, with some added Windows 8/Metro-specific features. 

Here are a few to keep an eye out for:

• Touch and swipe gesture support
• Syncs with Firefox on the desktop
• Supports Windows 8 charms
• Data sharing between other Metro apps
• Tab bar with tab previews
• Keyboard shortcuts
• View pages in desktop mode

This Beautiful Bike Is Made From Bent Beech Wood

This bike, designed by Andy Martin for furniture manufacturer Thonet, is unlike any other we've ever seen. Save for its wheels and drivetrain, the whole thing is made from swooping lengths of steamed beech wood—and it looks just beautiful as a result.

The contours of the frame were cut using a CNC machine, and the joints are all—thankfully—reinforced by subtle spring rods, so it doesn't splinter easy. As Martin explains:

"The challenge was to take on the fairly low tech process of steam bending and then apply it to a 21st century bicycle with highly complex engineering."

He seems to have managed fairly well. One of the nicest aspects of the design is just how much of the bike is made from wood—even the saddle is hand-crafted from a lump of beech. To keep things simple it doesn't come with brakes, just a pair of carbon fiber wheels and a single-speed drive train.

Unbelievably, you'll be able to actually buy one of these things through Andy Martin's studio site—if you're prepared to stump up an eye-watering $70,000.  More here.

The Black iPad Mini Could Look Absolutely Stunning

After the iPhone 5 leak mega-saga—at this point you can call these renders sneak previews—the black anodized aluminum iPad mini seems like a done deal.

It would be a nice surprise for the rumored imminent presentation of the new 7.85-inch model: iPad Minis with anodized aluminum backs in different colors, just like the iPod touch.

It's pure speculation, but it kind of makes sense. The color backs would make the cheaper iPad mini quite different from the Kindle Fires and the rest of mini-tablets of this world. It's playful and aligns with the iPod touch theme. And it would certainly help Apple sell gazillions of them this holiday season.

Game of Thrones Wall Decal Makes Your Toilet Fit for a King of Westeros

It's all but guaranteed you've got at least one throne in your home that everyone fights to sit on. And thanks to the PeelAndStickDecals Etsy shop, you can make it feel as grand as the throne that serves the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

And securing it doesn't even require you to wipe out opposing forces, or slay a single soul. You just need $30, a little patience, and a toilet that's not covered in knick-knacks. The decal probably works just as well with any chair in your home that's backed by a wall, but the gag works so much better in your bathroom. More here.

Old-Fashioned Bell Accessory Guarantees You’ll Never Sleep Through Your iPhone’s Alarm

The bedside alarm clock is just one of many devices made obsolete by smartphones. But with their puny speakers it's not impossible to sleep through a phone's alarm. Unless you've got this questionable iBell Mini accessory that merges tried and tested old-fashioned alarm clock technology with new.

Instead of an electronic beep, or even your favorite song, it wakes you from your slumber with the ear-piercing sound of a metal hammer pounding away at a pair of metal bells. It's $38 and doesn't require any batteries, but that's because it leeches off your iPhone's power source. And since it's designed for the old dock connector, you'll want to factor in the cost of Apple's Lightning adapter too if you've upgraded to the iPhone 5. More here.

There Is a Smartphone Inside Entertainment Weekly Magazine

WikiLeaks and Pirate Bay Web Host PRQ Has Been Raided

The Swedish web host PeRiQuito AB, PRQ, is one of the most controversial web hosts on the planet, valuing free speech so highly that it serves up web content for Pirate Bay, WikiLeaks. Yesterday, though, Swedish police paid a visit.

Forbes reports that Stockholm police raided the company yesterday. The process brought about technical issues for PQR, which shut down its own website and a swathe of torrent sites like Pirate Bay, but the police also seized a number of servers.

It's currently not clear which servers were taken. There're certainly plenty to choose from: among PQR's 2,000-or-so customers are WikiLeaks, the North America Man-Boy Love Association, the Chechen rebel site Kavkaz Central, and the defamation-accused Italian blog known as Perugia Shock.

PQR was founded by Pirate Bay members back in 2004, and has been raided by police twice before: in 2006 to gain evidence about Pirate Bay and 2010 during a more general file sharing investigation. The nature of the PQR business—a no-questions-asked set-up where clients often remain anonymous—means that even it doesn't know why the raid happened yet. More here.

Nothing Will Ever Be As Relaxing As Cruising in a Hot Tub Tug Boat

Cruise lines will keep spending billions of dollars on ocean-going monstrosities that promise to be the most relaxing way to spend your vacation. But they can't hold a candle to this tiny seaworthy hot tub that's warmed with a simple wood burning stove and propelled with a quiet electric motor.

The HotTug will easily ferry six to eight passengers whether or not the glass fiber-reinforced polyester hull is filled with water. It works as both a floating hot tub or a regular boat, but presumably gets far better mileage when drained. A wood stove safely heats the water to whatever temperature you desire, and you can add a gas outboard motor if the built-in electric option doesn't have enough range or speed for your liking. The boat itself, stripped of motors and the stove, will set you back around $11,600. But fully equipped you're looking at spending upwards of $21,300 for what has to be the most relaxing way to enjoy the water. More here.

These Stabilized Binoculars Compensate for 98 Percent of Your Shakes and Shivers

Adapting its military-grade gear for the consumer market, Fraser-Volpe's STEDI-EYE Mariner binoculars promise to remove up to 98 percent of unwanted motion from shaky hands, or vibrations from a moving vehicle. It's weatherproof and packs night vision too, making it an uber-expensive accessory for serious bird watchers.

Just how expensive you might ask? Try just north of $5,400. You could build your own private aviary with that much money. But the binoculars do seem to deliver impressive features for their high-end price tag. Besides being completely waterproof, buoyant, and working even in the dark, the Mariners feature a set of gyroscope-stabilized prisms sitting between its 14X magnifying lenses. The system is capable of instantly cancelling out vertical movements as drastic as 50 degrees, so even while running through the woods you're guaranteed a perfect view of that rare Green-breasted Mango. More here.

The Most Comfortable Pile of Rocks You Will Ever Sit On

You go to a rocky beach, you dig for a few seashells, skip a few stones on the water, and make a couch. Wait, what? Ok beach rocks might not be the first inspiration that comes to mind when crafting new furniture, but in the case of GumDesign's Isola couch, the finished result came out quite well.

Comprised of multiple, modular pieces, the seating is designed so that no two pieces look quite the same when arranged (just like a real pile of rocks), and even works in a few current design trends, such as the use of solid neon colors and marble table tops. Depending on your tastes, you may not like the men's suit inspired fabrics, but all in all, it's a pretty fun take on furniture. More here.

Gameloft’s New iOS Wireless Controller Is a Portable iCade

ThinkGeek's adorable iCade is genius. It turns your iPad into a little arcade! Asteroids forever! If it has a drawback, it's that, well, it kind of destroys the iPad's portability. Meet the Bluetooth Duo Gamer controller, which sheds the cabinet for a dock that'll fit in your backpack.

The Duo Gamer looks familiar, like a 6-button controller you use with some consoles. What sets it apart from other mobile controllers, the iCade (Atari's joystick arcade) is its flexibility. The Duo Gamer can be used as a handheld controller, yes, but thanks to its cartoonishly large proportions you can set it down on a surface and use it arcade style. In addition to working with the iPad, it will also work with your iPhone or iPod Touch. (It plugs into the 30-pin dock, so you'll need Apple's adapter to use it with your iPhone 5.)

The Duo Gamer is available now for $80. It's immediately compatible with 10 games, including Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front Free, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, NOVA 3, and Order & Chaos. More here.

Hard Drive Shipments Recover From FLoods in Thailand, Expected to Reach Record High

Last year's floods in Thailand caused hard drive shortages after wreaking havoc on a number of electronics manufacturers, but new stats from IHS iSuppli indicate that the HDD market for PCs has fully recovered and is poised to hit an all time high. The firm expects 524 million units for internal use in PCs to ship this year, besting the previous record by 4.3 percent. What's giving the recovery an added boost? According to the analytics group, the extra demand comes courtesy of Windows 8 and Ultrabooks. Unfortunately for deal hounds, the company noted in a report earlier this year that prices aren't expected to dip below the pre-flood range until 2014. More here.

This Crazy Steve Jobs Sculpture Is Supposedly Made with a Touch of Jobs’ Stolen Trash

You may remember the Steve Jobs action figures that were introduced and then canceled earlier this year. Now there's a new Steve Jobs figure on the horizon, one that supposedly contains a weird and creepy ingredient: trash stolen from Jobs himself.

The sculpture, made by XVALA, is due to be shown at a gallery in Los Angeles starting early in October. As for the trash thing, Cory Allen Contemporary Art described it this way in the announcement of the piece:

Coated in an "Apple White finish," the sculpture is cast in the artist's patented plastic porcelain, mixed with a recycled resin made up of Steve Job's residential trash which the artist collected from the tech icon's home several months before his death.

The plan, apparently, is to mass-produce the sculptures in "an appropriate work environment" as a shot at Apple's Foxconn production facilities and a limited number will come in black, as a reminder of Foxconn suicides. According to Cory Allen, production will continue with or without (read: without) Apple's approval. The sculptures, entitled "Think Different" will be unveiled on October 13th. More here.

Apple Stops Calling Its Maps “The Most Powerful”

Following Apple CEO Tim Cook's candid admission that Apple Maps might not be so great, and his suggestion that users turn to competing services, Apple has cleaned up one final detail: they aren't calling their maps the most powerful any more.

Previously, Apple's website suggested iOS 6 maps were not only the most beautiful, but also the most powerful maps out there saying "All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever." Granted, the statement was hedged a bit with that "may just" part, but apparently not enough because now they've removed the word "powerful" all together. The new description reads "All in a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease."

After Cook's apology, and pointing users toward the likes of Bing and MapQuest in the app store, this last bit of language-changing definitely seems fitting. And accurate. More here.

A Stiff Bendy Cable Keeps This Power Bar Exactly Where You Put It

If you ever try to use a power bar anywhere but on the floor, you'll quickly realize that gravity will do everything it can to drag it off a table, a ladder, or anything not at ground level. That's not the case with Quirky's new Prop Power extension cord, though. Its six-foot cable is made with flexible wiring and a conforming plastic sleeve, so it holds its shape.

That means you can wrap it around table legs, or snake it through the steps of a ladder, and it will hold on for dear life. Unfortunately the business end of the Prop Power is limited to just three grounded outlets, but there's nothing stopping you from daisy chaining another power bar on the end when you run out. And while Quirky promises the Prop Power is going into production, there's no estimate on how much it will cost or when it will be available until they start actually churning them out. More here.

This $50 Stick Turns Any HDTV Into an Android-Powered Smart TV

If you're wondering how you can breathe life into that old TV set, the FAVI SmartStick might be what you're looking for. For $50, you get a dongle that provides your TV with Android and access to streaming movies and music.

The stick, which runs Jelly Bean and packs 4GB of storage, plugs into any HDMI port and uses baked-in Wi-Fi to provide access to the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Epix, YouTube, and Pandora. It comes as standard with a full internet browser, but because it runs Android you can download anything from the Play store, too.

The stick also lets you stream media wirelessly from another computer elsewhere in your pad, though you have to use a proprietary MediaSHARE app. And it does only cost $50. More here.

World’s Thinnest External Drive Squeezes Half a Terabyte Into a Third of an Inch

ADATA is touting its new HE720 as the world's thinnest external hard drive. The company has managed to squeeze 500 GB of storage and a speedy USB 3.0 connection into a brushed metal enclosure measuring in at a mere 8.9 millimeters thick—or just over a third of an inch.

Just a few days ago Toshiba claimed its new Canvio external drive—boasting similar specs—was the world's thinnest. But it measures in at a portly nine millimeters meaning ADATA's got it beat by a hair—literally. So if you've already transitioned to a thin ultrabook, this will easily squeeze alongside it in your bag. The new HE720 of course includes the requisite mediocre backup software that comes standard on most external drives these days, and is available right now with a matching svelte price tag of just $90. More here.

Your Future iPad’s Display Might Have Built-In Speakers

Apple's always publishing patents, but here's one that sounds rather fun: imagine an iPhone or iPad with a flexible display that has speakers built in to it, to provide surround sound.

The patent describes a flexible display with all manner of built-in features: a tactile keyboard, laser mics and speakers. Much of this is made possible by the idea of a flexible display—which is some way off but by no means impossible to achieve. Once you can manage that, according to this patent, the world's your oysters.

For instance, shove an array of transducers behind the screen and you turn the whole thing into a giant speaker, which would go some way to sounding like a proper set of speakers. Vibration may be a problem, but that might be tolerable compared to the tinny sound you squeeze out of most mobile and tablet speakers. Unlikely to exist any time soon, of course, but we can dream. More here.

This Is the Closest View of Mars Yet

The Mars Curiosity Rover has touched a Martian rock for the first time. And, in the process, it gave us the closest, most detailed view of the Red Planet (a tiny part of it) yet, using her Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at ten, two and one inches from the rock.

The target was the pyramid-shaped rock of unknown origin, named Jake Matijevic in honor of the Mars Rover surface operations systems chief engineer who recently passed away.

The origin and composition will be known soon: the rover examined Jake Matijevic with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), one of the instruments at the end of its multi-use robotic arm. Then it used its ChemCam (Chemistry and Camera instrument) to shoot laser pulses to determine the rock's chemical composition.

According to NASA, the dark, relatively smooth rock "was selected as a desirable target because it allowed the science team to compare results of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument and the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, both of which provide information about the chemical elements in a target." More here.

Minuscule Voice Recorder Guarantees No One Will Know You’re a Snitch

When you're involved in a sting operation, or just trying to collect some incriminating evidence, the last thing you want is the perps realizing you've been recording everything. And since the days of sneakily recording a conversation with a phone in your pocket are long gone, this ridiculously tiny voice recorder could be the next best thing.

The Edic-mini Tiny B22 is just over an inch in size and weighs roughly the same as a large coin. But its built-in ultra sensitive microphone can record sounds up to 30 feet away, and the company claims that with a fresh cell-sized battery it can record for up to 24 hours, non-stop. And if you're planning a particularly long stakeout, a voice-activated mode is promised to almost triple that to 70 hours. It's just too bad it's crippled with a USB 1.1 port which makes offloading files incredibly slow, and a $440 price tag that will probably have most people just risking their lives with a cheap smartphone app. More here.

Apple Can’t Trademark Its Music Icon Because Of MySpace

In a hilarious court ruling, Apple got denied a trademark on its orange music icon (the one that's on iOS devices) because trademark judges said consumers might confuse the logo with one owned by MySpace. Hah!

Yes, My_____ or ____space or whatever it's going to be these days, is screwing with Apple's plans. Take a look at the two logos to see if there are similarities beyond being orange

Backstory on the MySpace logo: It was issued to a music service called iLike in 2008 and was acquired by MySpace in 2009 before being shuttered earlier this year. Apple tried to argue that no one has ever confused the two logos (which is probably true) but the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board disagreed saying:

In view of the facts that the marks are similar, the goods and services are related and are encountered by the same classes of consumers, we find that applicant's double musical note and design for "computer software [..]" is likely to cause confusion with the registered mark comprising a double musical note and design [..] for listening to MP3's and for sharing MP3's and music playlists with others.

iPhone 5 vs .50 Cal

Do You Use Your Phone At Concerts?

In some ways, it's a cardinal sin. In other ways, it's understandable. There's a whole world of difference between tweeting between sets to try and inflame your friends' jealousy, and holding your gargantuan phablet above your head for three or four songs at a time, blocking the view of those behind you, and capturing video that is so low quality that no one will want to watch it. Ever. You might wish you'd never even bothered to shoot it in the first place.

What's OK according to your personal smartphone concert etiquette? One quick shot as the headliner comes out on stage? No pictures, but texts, tweets, and Facebooking between sets? Unconditional and violent death to all phone-wielders?

How To Find Out If the Web Services You Use Every Day Are Making Money

A lot of business is done on the Internet, but the model for making money there isn't as straightforward as "sell a thing, make a profit." So how do the web services you use every day make money? The aptly named "How Do They Make Money" has some answers.

Often, the answer is subscribers, advertising, and freemium, but other factors are in the mix too. Even with all those options, a lot of these services aren't profitable. Which ones aren't might surprise you. How Do They Make Money has a breakdown of revenue type and profitability of nearly 50 different prominent Internet companies, and lets you arrange them by the kind of income they have, or the service they provide.

It's a neat little distraction, but it's worth noting that the site doesn't cite its sources, so if you're in this for anything more than mild amusement, you're going to have to go vet the facts yourself see here  How Do They Make Money

Twitter Is Finally Going To Let You Download All Your Old Tweets

Maybe you tweet mostly about lunch, or other seemingly inane things, but your Twitter stream forms something of a journal for most users. It is a micro-blog, after all. Now, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is saying you'll be able to download all your past tweets by the end of the year.

For the moment you have to use third-party services if you want to keep tweets on hand for posterity, and if you reached the 3,200-tweet API limit before you started, some of those early ones are effectively lost. From the sounds of it, Twitter's official backup tool could bail those folks out.

That's not the only thing coming either. In addition to tweet-downloading, Twitter is also looking into ways to allow third parties to republish large collections of tweets that might be relevant to breaking news or a live event, and include things like live polls, or other live-updating information. Despite API changes that screwed many third-party clients, it looks like Twitter is still planning on adding some interesting functionality to their surface. Whether they can fill the hole they've created, though, is yet to be seen. More here.

iPhone 5 jailbroken, but not yet ready for public consumption

You knew that the hackers of the world would be anxious to jailbreak their fresh new iPhone 5's, and the feat's been accomplished just a day after older hardware running iOS 6 was similarly set free. Grant Paul posted the picture you see above on Twitter, confirming his new, elongated iPhone is, indeed, running Cydia. Unfortunately, the jailbreak isn't available to the rest of us just yet, but it shouldn't be long before the masses gain access, too. Viva la liberté! More here.

You Can Now Slap a Quarter Terabyte of Storage In Your Camera

It took a few months longer than its 256 GB compact flash card, but Lexar has finally announced a matching 256 GB SDXC card that makes it oh-so-easy to lose or misplace a quarter terabyte of photographs. To put that in perspective, if you were shooting full resolution, full quality JPGs with the Sony RX100, you'd be able to snap just under 80,000 shots before needing to swap out your card.

The Professional 400x 256GB SDXC UHS-I is a Class 10 card that boasts a guaranteed sustained transfer speed—at least when reading data—of 60 MB per second. Just make sure you're using it with a card reader that can keep up. And, not surprisingly, when it's available next month Lexar expects you to cough up $900 for the privilege of rarely having to delete photos off your camera. More here.

Matias Quiet Pro Claims to be the 'Wworld's Quietest Mechanical Keyboard'

Canada's Matias Corporation has made something of a name for itself with its tactile keyboards, but those have primarily appealed to those who also enjoy (or at least accept) the sound of a mechanical keyboard in addition to its feel. The company's hoping to bring a few more into the tactile fold with its new Quiet Pro, though, which it claims is the "world's quietest mechanical keyboard." That, Matias says, comes without any sacrifices to tactile feedback, and is said to be the result of more than two years of work. As usual, the keyboard comes in both PC and Mac specific models (all-black and silver & black, respectively), each of which boasts three USB 2.0 ports and laser-etched keys with beveled keytops as opposed to the increasingly common flat variety.

Not surprisingly, you can also expect to pay a bit of a premium over your average keyboard -- each model will set you back $150, with US models available today (UK, German and Nordic versions are promised for January). More here.

Suitcase Laptop Support Gives You a Standing Desk Wherever You Travel

The next time you've got time to kill at the airport—whether at the hands of inclement weather or a never ending security line—you can still stay productive with this laptop stand that turns your suitcase into a miniature office.

When moored to your suitcase's extended handle it creates a three-legged desk that can support a laptop up to 13 pounds in weight. So as long as you've upgraded your hardware in the last ten years, you should be ok. And when no longer needed the $40 aluminum stand folds away a like a tripod—or a monopod at least—so it won't fill up a plane's overhead compartment during your flight. More here.

Apple’s Shake-To-Charge Patent Trades Calories for Battery Life

Its larger form factor and bigger battery mean the iPhone 5 should last longer on a single charge. But to overcome the fact that battery technology still basically sucks, Apple has applied for a 'shake to charge' patent that uses electromagnetic induction to convert everyday motions into extra battery life.

In Apple's system a small lubricated magnet would move across a series of printed coils inside an iPhone or iPod, inducing a small current which could be used to generate power and charge the battery. What sets Apple's design apart from the various radios and flashlights that already use this approach is the flat coils which can be easily printed using modern circuit production techniques. Just don't expect this to be the flagship feature on the iPhone 5S. Smartphones use far more power than this induction system could ever replenish, even with continuous vigorous shaking. But as their components get more energy efficient, somewhere way down the line this could be a plausible alternative to plugging in your phone every night. More here.

Samsung Building 128GB Flash Memory Chips For Next Year’s Superphones

There might just be a 128GB memory option when it comes to upgrading to the Galaxy S4 next year or the S5 the year after, thanks to Samsung now mass producing 128GB memory chips for use in mobile devices.

Samsung's newest 128GB eMMC NAND chips read data at 140MB/s and can write at up to 50MB/s, plus they're designed to fit the same slimline form factors as its current 16, 32 and 64GB memory chips. No mention's been made of any devices that'll use them yet, so keep your eyes open for a whole new level of onboard storage complete with unprecedented RRPs. More here.