Raspberry Pi Team Shows off pics of Prototype Camera add-on

While the main thing that would make Raspberry Pi's diminutive $25 / $35 Linux setups better would be if we could get our hands on them faster, the team behind it is already working on improvements like this prototype camera seen above. The add-on is slated to ship later this year and plugs into the CSI pins left exposed right in the middle of each unit. According to the accompanying blog post, the specs may be downgraded from the prototype's 14MP sensor to keep things affordable, although there's no word on an exact price yet. Possible applications include robotics and home automation. More here.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Newest Facebook Status: I’m a Real Billionaire

In case you just woke from a coma at the center of the earth's core, Facebook's IPO blasts off today. And here's a casually obnoxious reminder from Mark Zuckerberg, who has something to do with this, if you weren't sure.

The status update—Mark Zuckerberg listed a company on NASDAQ. — with Chris Cox and 4 others—demonstrates the dynamic flexibility of the Facebook Timeline™, which allows you to share the moments of your life that matter most, and include those Friends™ who were along for The Ride™ with you. It was also rigged by a team of Facebook engineers to trigger at the exact moment Zuck activated the NASDAQ opening button bell, further making him the least relatable 28-year-old in the history of people in their 20s. More here.

How Many Screws Does It Take to Get to the Center of an Exploded Fuji X100?

Looking at this dismantled Fuji X100, it quickly becomes apparent that staring at exploded gadgets will never get old. Left for dead after suffering fatal water damage, the X100 donated it's body to the internet, providing eye candy for us all to ogle at.

Photographer James Maher took the camera apart piece by piece—which involved removing 130 screws and 152 parts—and photographed every step of the process, which you can check out here.

Steve Jobs Was Closely Involved With Development of Larger iPhone 5

First the Wall Street Journal said the next iPhone will have a four-inch screen, then Reuters agreed, and now Bloomberg's sources are saying the same thing. Bloomberg are also reporting, however, that Steve Jobs was closely involved with the design process.

In some ways that's a little surprising because, back in 2010, Jobs famously criticized large phones. He didn't think anybody would ever want to carry a big phone, going as far as saying that "no one's going to buy" one. The market has since proved him wrong and, if we're to believe Bloomberg's reporting, clearly Jobs had changed his mind before his death in October last year.

With so many reports floating around about Apple's shift to a four-inch screen, it's beginning to seem inevitable. If you're a small-screen fan, now might be a good time to brace yourself. More here.

Scientists Invent Grow-in-the-Dark Plants

The Sun's rays power virtually all vegetative growth on the face of the Earth, or at least they used to. A new discovery by a team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany will coerce plants into growing in total darkness.

Sunlight actually does more than simply provide plants with metabolic energy—it also activates photoreceptor cells called Phytochromes that, in turn, switch on physical processes like germination and blossoming. The study, which was just published in The Plant Cell journal, has devised an alternative means of jump-starting these same processes—relying on chemicals rather than the sun. The team discovered that feeding the substance "15Ea-phycocyanobilin" to seedlings chemically activates the same photoreceptors that natural light would, inducing the same development as those in a control group that were grown normally.

This discovery of course is still far from commercially viable but, if it does pan out, Tilman Lamparter, the director of the study, believes that it could have vast applications throughout the agriculture and research sciences. "Blossoming of flowers or development of the photosynthesis system may be controlled much better in the future," Lamparter told R&D Mag. "These findings would be of high use for agricultural industry in the cultivation of flowers or biomass production, for instance." More here.

Coffee Drinkers Live Longer

Millions of us start the morning with a coffee and think nothing of it. But new medical research suggests that it could be helping you live longer—if you drink enough of it.

The large-scale study, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that men who drank six cups of coffee or more every day were 10 per cent less likely to die during the 14 years of the study. Women who drank six cups or more were 15 per cent less likely to die over that same period. The result, fairly obviously, suggests that coffee drinkers live longer.

The researchers have also shown that the effect is seen across almost all causes of death, including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections. The effect, however, seems to decline with lower consumption—and a single cup of coffee a day was found to have negligible effect.

Dr Neal Freedman, one of the researchers from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville in Maryland, USA, explains:

"Coffee contains more than 1000 compounds that might affect the risk of death. The most well-studied compound is caffeine, although similar associations for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee in the current study and a previous study suggest that, if the relationship between coffee consumption and mortality were causal, other compounds in coffee—for example, antioxidants, including polyphenols—might be important."

All of which means, of course, that next time someone says you're drinking too much coffee, you know exactly what to say. More here.

Even Without Diamonds and Gold, Rolexes are Still Amazing

Rolex watches are generally known for their use of opulent materials and straightforward designs that don't exactly scream playful. But this customized Submariner, designed by the Bamford Watch Department, eschews the diamonds and gold and platinum in favor of something a little more sleek and stripped down. Ever think you'd see a Rolex packaged with a NATO band?

And though it may not scream luxury, we all know that the guts inside of a Rolex are what make it as vaulable as what's on the outside. 41 of these rarities were produced, each with their own certificate of authenticity. But aside from the black steel casing and the $17,500 pricetag, the design of the watch face is easy enough to understand, but just weird enough to make it stand out from a typical Rolex release. More here.

The Next iPhone Will Have at Least a 4-Inch Screen

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the next iPhone will have a display which measures "at least 4 inches diagonally." Quoting sources familiar with Apple's supply chain, they also suggest that production of the device is due to commence next month.

The Journal identifies LG Display, Sharp, and Japan Display Inc. as the three major panel suppliers for the new larger screen. There's been much talk about a larger screen appearing on the iPhone—some of it nonsense—but this WSJ report adds weight to rumors that were circulated by iLounge earlier this month. It's beginning to look like a four-inch screen could, perhaps, maybe, possibly, at a push make an appearance. More here.

What’s the Mailing Address of the International Space Station?

One day, when the price is low enough, we would be able to send actual letters and packages to space. But what would a mail address look like? Example: what's the street and zip code of the Internation Space Station?

Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit asked himself that very same question during his stay up there:

It occurred to me that Space Station is a place as deserving of an address as other frontier stations like McMurdo Base or the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Base in Antarctica. These places have formal addresses, complete with zip codes.

So, if you wanted to send a gift to Don, say a Soda Stream Soda Maker or a new JackBack for his iPhone 4, which address should you use?

My sleep station is located in the fifth deck space of Node 2. From an Earth-based perspective, I pop out of my sleep station as if I were coming out of the floor. I am thus situated on the International Space Station (ISS) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees (the angle of our orbit plane to the equator) and an average altitude of 400 kilometers. It occurred to me that my address should be:

Node 2, Deck 5
ISS
LEO 51.603

The first three digits of your space zip code would be your orbital inclination and the last two a designator for your particular space station, with ISS being the third in this location (after the Salyut series and Mir).

According to Don, that postal code would be good until they get one hundred stations in orbit.

OK, so we got the address. Now the final question is: would Amazon Prime cover shipping to the ISS? More here.

New Windows Computers Will Get a $15 Upgrade to Windows 8

With Ivy Bridge out, there's a ton of great new desktops, ultrabooks, and gaming rigs coming out over the next few months. But they're all under the shadow of the other major release, Windows 8. Good news for anyone taking the plunge, though: Windows 8 upgrades will be available for just $15 if you buy a Windows 7 machine after June 2.

For previous updates to Windows, Microsoft had given free upgrades to late-cycle buyers. But Microsoft megablogger Paul Thurrott dug up the $15 price, and it seems fairly legitimate. The upgrade will also only cover Windows 8 Pro, not the standard version that most users would probably buy on their own. More here.

Customizable Sleeping Bag Lets You Peel Back Layers to Stay Cool

It turns out the tried-and-true technique of simply unzipping a sleeping bag when it gets too hot inside wasn't good enough for some people. Someone, somewhere, demanded more options, which led to the creation of this vented bag which looks like it's endured a bear attack or two.

In addition to a long zipper running up the edge, this $120 sleeping bag has four or five additional zippers running across it allowing a finicky camper to decide how much of their body they wan't to leave exposed. The creation looks like it would function better as a straight jacket than a way to stay warm when roughing it, but it's got enough micro-fiber insulation to keep you toasty down to 20º F. More here.

Apple's iPad WiFi + 4G renamed 'iPad WiFi + Cellular

Remember Apple's new iPad WiFi + 4G? Well, forget that moniker, as this variant of the company's latest slate has been quietly re-dubbed as the iPad WiFi + Cellular. As noticed by 9to5Mac, the change occurred within the last "24-48 hours" across many of Apple's region-specific webstores (update: and retail locations), including (but not limited to) those for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and various countries in Asia. 

In many regions the best you'll get out of the slate is HSPA-connectivity, even though it's also equipped for LTE -- something that Apple itself had considered good enough to market it as 4G despite offering refunds to customers in Australia who (like many others) couldn't officially partake in its LTE. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also notes that a similar change hasn't made its way over to the iPad 2, which still has its cellular-equipped variant named, iPad 2 WiFi + 3G. More here.

Could You Live Without Broadband at Home? Steve Wozniak Does!

Could you live without broadband at home? I don't know if I could, but Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak can. That's what he has recently said in Australia talking about his home in Los Gatos, California:

I don't have broadband at my home. I, Steve Wozniak, don't have broadband at my home. I live one kilometre out of the main part of town. Broadband is a monopoly in my town—that means you can get it from a cable company, but I don't have cable. There are 50 companies that want to sell me DSL, but they've all got to go through the Horizon wires—the local phone company—and I've got one of the two worst Horizons in the country. And so I can't get broadband in my house.

So how does the Woz live without wired internet access? More here.

Tesla Coil Gun Exists, May Shoot Lightning

Inspired by the graphic novel "Five Fists of Science" -- and perhaps encouraged by the plucky MIT student who made his own Tesla coil hat and survived -- a DIYer named Rob designed a Tesla coil gun, which he says is fully functional. 

Rob used a Nerf gun cast in aluminum for the housing and created a high voltage switch with a 3D powder printer. The gun is powered by an 18V ion drill battery and a flyback transformer housed inside a PVC plumbing end cap. Though Rob has yet to fire the gun, photos show what he says are sparks from the setup, and a demo clip is on the way. While video proof is always nice, so is preserving your life. More here.

Why Weren’t Hammers Designed With Magnetic Handles In the First Place?

Designer Jung Soo Park has managed to drastically improve the functionality and capabilities of the lowly hammer. But he didn't accessorize it with useless add-ons only good for attacking non-existant zombies. Instead, he added a magnet to the handle for wrangling nails. Genius.

And while Park's Neo Hammer isn't available for sale—it's just a concept—even the most inept handyman should be able to hack their own tool with this functionality. Just find yourself some strong glue, and an even stronger magnet, and you'll never have to hold another nail in your mouth again. More here.

Expanding Aluminum Picnic Table Is the Optimus Prime of Summer

Inspired by awkward picnics where a poor sap stands because there aren't enough seats around the table, the Expandable Portable Table's aluminum construction allows it to pull off an nifty eponymous trick: it can almost double its length to accomodate up either four or six guests, so everybody can have a place (if everybody is six people).

Its aluminum construction also adds two major features: no splinters, because rotting wood tabletops are the worst. And when the picnic is over and the table is sticky with ketchup and mustard, you can simply hose down the surfaces. Then it's pretty easy to carry home, because it packs flat. More here.

iPhone Unlock Screen Business Cards

There's nothing quite like a first impression, is there? That one chance to announce that hey, this is me. Do you present yourself as funny? Kind? Knowing? Blasé? Or maybe just as the special kind who thinks these iPhone unlock screen business cards are a swell idea.

Credit where it's due: These are very well-executed facsimiles. But when you hand someone a business card with an iPhone unlock screen with your picture on it on the front and personal info iOS-style on the back, you're giving them more than just your phone number. More here.

Dirt-Cheap Touchscreen Tech Means They’ll Be Everywhere Soon

You can operate your tablet and your smartphone by touch, but what if you could do the same with say, nutritional labels or price tags?

A research team headed up at Harvard University has developed paper electronic touch pads that cost just 25 cents per square meter. That means a small screen would be so cheap you could throw it out when you don't need it. Not exactly something people are doing with their iPads.

These inexpensive displays are made out of paper that has been coated in aluminum and a transparent polymer. With the aid of an external circuit, the metallized material becomes a capacitive surface. While the paper is super cheap, the challenge now is in finding equally affordable power sources, as well as reasonably-priced, flexible electronics.

The fields where this invention could be used run the gamut from entertainment to medicine to education. Imagine answering multiple choice questions on a test printed on touch paper. The researchers have already come up with a secure box with a keypad that makes you type in a code in order to enter it. More here.

iPhone 4 Mirror Back Replacement Is Perfect For Both Makeup

This is going to be a huge hit: an iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S back replacement. Not a case, but a real mirror that replaces your current iPhone's back cover. And they are only $30! More here.

Nike’s Dimpled Tracksuits Could Help Athletes Shatter World Records At This Summer’s Olympics

Usain Bolt is Jamaica's not-so-secret weapon for shattering track and field records. But at this summer's Olympic games, Nike's cooked up its own secret weapon—a track suit dimpled like a golfball—that will help athletes from countries like the United States, Germany, and Russia chase him down.

The Pro TurboSpeed, as Nike calls it, leaves no doubt as to what the suit is designed to do. Taking inspiration from what is probably the world's laziest sport, golf, the suit is covered in hundreds of tiny dimples designed to reduce its aerodynamic drag. And after thousands of hours of testing in a wind tunnel, Nike claims it can cut 100-meter dash times by as much as 0.23 seconds compared to the company's previous generation track suits. Which of course could easily be the difference between a world record, a medal, or not placing at all.

The suits are also designed to be as comfortable as possible to not hinder an athlete's performance. They're created with fabrics that are lighter than ever, and have all of the elastics and edge finishes placed on the outside so there's nothing rubbing against their skin that could distract them. More here.