CrunchGear

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• Be careful when you decide which costume to buy for your children
• Nobel Physics prize goes to creators of the CCD, fiber optic communications
• Time For Gadgets! Episode 1
• Internet Archaeology: In which the internet’s sordid past is preserved and curated
• Bare It All in HD: 69adget’s DIY Guide to Homemade Sex Tapes
• NSFW video: This man hearts his Neo Geo collection
• Why open source will never rule the desktop and why it doesn’t have to
• The HP Envy 15 Beats Edition blazes its own path

Be careful when you decide which costume to buy for your children Posted: 10 Oct 2009 10:00 PM PDT Let this video serve as a cautionary tale, of what happens when a kid sees too many Batman movies, and then gets a costume to match.

Nobel Physics prize goes to creators of the CCD, fiber optic communications Posted: 10 Oct 2009 08:30 PM PDT With all the hoopla lately about the Nobel Peace prize, you might have missed the fact that there was another Nobel prize given away this week: the Nobel Prize In Physics. This significantly geekier prize was actually awarded to two separate inventions, both of which are extremely significant. So here’s how it breaks down. Two separate prizes were given out, and the winners will split the award (but probably not the medal). The first winner was Charles K. Kao, the man who is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking developments in the use of fiber optics in communication. So essentially, he made it possible for me to be doing the job that I’m doing today. The other half of the prize was awarded to two co-recipients, Willard Boyle and George Smith. These two gentlemen worked at Bell Labs in the late 1960’s, and were responsible for developing the CCD device, which is of course used in digital cameras and other devices. The award was given to Boyle and Smith not because of the CCD’s use in digital cameras, but for it’s use in medical devices and research, and not necessarily for it’s use in taking your family vacation shots. So there you have it. While the Peace prize may have been a controversial choice, I doubt anyone would have issue with who received the Physics prize. [via DPReview]

Time For Gadgets! Episode 1 Posted: 10 Oct 2009 04:00 PM PDT I'm toying with the idea of doing ten-minute episodic reviews videos where I can showcase several gadgets in one fell swoop and throw in some nonsense for good measure. So here it is, the first episode of Time For Gadgets! That exclamation point is part of the title since gadgets should be exciting and whimsical. Here's a list of the items featured in this episode… Trip Glasses: $40 at ThinkGeek Trip Glasses feature two red LED lights and a sound generator that pulsate patterns of rapidly blinking light and binaural-type audio tones with the promise that "they allow you to safely meditate, hallucinate, trip out and generally relax with your eyes gently closed." And guess what? They actually work. You probably won't full-on hallucinate, but you'll definitely see weird shapes and all in all, it's a pretty relaxing experience. The sequence runs for 14 minutes and then the glasses automatically shut off. Big Buck Hunter Pro TV Video Game: $40 at Jakks Pacific If you like the arcade version of Big Buck Hunter, you will absolutely love this $40 home version. It plugs directly into your TV and appears to be an almost exact replica of the arcade machine. The gun is a little on the disappointing side – it doesn't feel too sturdy and the pump action doesn't have nearly as much travel as the full-size game, but everything else is there. The TV version adds a red on-screen aiming cursor, which I found to be a tad distracting. If you train yourself to ignore the cursor, though, things get a bit easier. RoadHome: $35 at Speck A simple mini-USB car charger that also features flip-out prongs for use in a standard wall jack – nice for traveling, though $35 seems a bit expensive. HardCase Plus: $30 at Mophie The best all-around iPhone case I've found to date, the HardCase Plus completely envelops your iPhone in protection without adding too much extra bulk. I'm petrified of damaging the screen on my iPhone, so the fact that this case actually covers the screen without hindering any of the touch-centric features is amazing. MoGo Talk for iPhone: $130 at MogoStore The MoGo Talk is quite a feat of engineering. It's a slim, hard-backed iPhone case with a built-in Bluetooth headset that folds down to 5mm thin. When you want to use the headset, just pop it out of the case and flip out the earpiece. There's a tiny microUSB port built into the case, too, so you can recharge the headset easily. Sound quality is good and you'll get around four hours of talk time. The flexible earbud blocks out ambient noise pretty well, too. Seat Buddy: $20 at Seat Pods Seat Buddy is a hands-free rubber housing for your iPhone that allows you to hang the device from a seat-back tray table on an airplane. It's a dead-simple solution to the nagging problem of having to hold your iPhone or iPod touch upright for an entire movie. HMX-R10 Camcorder: $500 at Samsung A full HD camcorder stuffed in a compact, attractive package. The HMX-R10 does up to 1080i at 60 frames per second, or 1080p at 30 frames per second. Video quality is really sharp for such a small and relatively inexpensive camcorder, although footage has a tendency to pixelate and tear if you whip the camera from side to side too quickly. Standard handheld and tripod footage looks great, though. The camcorder really needs a built-in hand strap that spans the entire side of the device. Instead, you get a little leather wrist strap that attaches to the back right corner of the camera. The lack of a full hand strap makes the camera really hard to use one-handed. Quick look at the Archos 5 Internet Tablet: $380 at Archos Just a quick hands-on showcasing some of the features of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. I'll be doing a full review later. For now, you can also read some first impressions of the device.

Internet Archaeology: In which the internet’s sordid past is preserved and curated Posted: 10 Oct 2009 03:25 PM PDT It wasn’t long ago that we heard about the imminent demise of one of the net’s most infamous and venerable sites: Geocities. At the time, we could see the pendulum hanging from the rafters, but earlier this week it was set a-swinging and the site will die quietly and gallantly on October 26th. Of course, while the sites will no longer be accessible at Geocities itself, they will be preserved in our hearts — and on the Internet Archive, of course. But merely being not deleted is hardly an honor fit for one the original pillars of the internet. Although we (and you) created a modest tribute, it deserves more, being one of the primary crucibles (or petri dishes, depending on your point of view) for internet culture. Enter Internet Archaeology, a site established in order to “explore, recover, archive and showcase the graphic artifacts found within earlier Internet Culture.” Artifacts is the perfect word, isn’t it? And as eye-searing as many of them are, there is a kind of transcendent quality in them to the sympathetic eye, and the site is dedicated to preserving that. Spend a few minutes browsing through the already-impressive catalog of images (or catch highlights in the blog) and you begin to be rather a connoisseur in them, and to give a certain grudging regard. After all, making those 3D text animated GIFs was no cake walk in pre-millennium days. There is, of course, a community aspect, where anyone can upload and share their internet oddities, provided they’re SFW and relatively small (it looks like). Entire pages are hosted as well, from outright craziness (my favorites) to sci-fi web rings to personal pages left for dead. These standouts represent the prehistoric relatives of our modern blogs and forums, so tread lightly on these, their graves. There are even original works recontextualizing (never thought I’d use that word without irony) the content in… well, in ways. The creator, New Yorker Ryder Ripps, noted that the total space being used by Geocities pages was perhaps as little as 3TB. Of course, when you put that in GIF terms, that’s a huge amount of content. While panning for gold in the twilight of Geocities is an important job, the intent of Internet Archaeology isn’t just to be a bucket for animated GIFs. The Internet Archive has already saved them from oblivion. The difference is that IA is curated in a serious way; the object is to capture the quintessence of the period by providing the most telling samples. If any readers have been to (and comprehended — the one does not follow the other) The Museum of Jurassic Technology, they might sense a similarity. Singly, each “exhibit,” as we may as well term these gifs, pages, and collections, is hardly worth a second look. But together, like the Wonder Twins or Planeteers, they are able to create something greater: a synthesis of the mindsets in this incredibly important, yet sadly garish and bizarre, period of internet history. Oh, and for those of you following the contest: RENDERED

Bare It All in HD: 69adget’s DIY Guide to Homemade Sex Tapes Posted: 10 Oct 2009 01:00 PM PDT Some content may not be suitable for all audiences. Kim Kardashian’s done it. Paris Hilton’s done it. Ron Jeremy invented it. And Screech perfected it. Now it’s your turn to jump on the bandwagon because nothing takes your career to the next level quite like a sex tape! Why Make A Sex Tape? Ohhh the sex tape. Kinky. Homemade. Easy to make. The sex tape is not only for nostalgia, but also for learning purposes, because you can remember the night no matter how much alcohol you drank, savor your performance, and improve upon it. Hey, you might even become famous. Besides, nothing is as hot as watching yourself in action. The Equipment: What You’ll Need You can make an impromptu sex tape with as much as a camera phone in a bathroom stall. But if you’re looking to make this tape up to par with your family favorite DVDs, you need to take the time to prep: you’ll need a real HD camcorder like the Sony HDR-CX12 with Night Shot mode for that professional look and feel and HD makeup for porn star quality perfection. Men, the makeup applies to you too – think about baring it all below the belt in HD and tell me you don’t want makeup. If you’re in the moment and the mood strikes without proper time to set-up, you may want to consider a mini camera that you can grab on-the-fly for some serious close ups. Handheld cameras like the Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Camcorder (waterproof is so essential) or the ever popular Flip are portable so you’ll be prepared to capture whatever surprises your session brings. Choosing & Setting the Mood Setting up your DIY sex studio is probably the most difficult aspect of your homemade sex tape. Are you into fantasy role playing? Is this a shower video? Amateur action on the couch? No matter where you decide to film, there are a few basic steps you can take when setting up the scene to ensure maximum cinematic greatness. Your apartment could definitely use some mood lighting, and with the Color Light DVD all you do is pop it in your DVD player and let the mood enhancing colors do the rest. You can also enhance your standard bed or couch a la 1970’s with the Magic Fingers system that upgrades standard inanimate objects with a super powered vibrating motor. Always a crowd pleaser. Perform Like a Porn Star but Remember Camera Angles You need to consider the angles that the camera will capture. If you set-up the camera at the foot of your bed, chances are that your video will be up close and personal with your backside. And I promise you that it will not be a flattering movie you will want to watch over and over. Especially if you’re a dude. Instead, place the camera to the side of your bed at an angle to capture all the sideways, upside down, and inside out action. To help you out, check out this bendable Joby Tripod for hands free video capture. Be Inspired – Best Free Porn Sites Watch a few amateur pornos, check out a few websites, and get inspired with your partner. Aside from getting your libido started, these videos will help inspire you for your lights, camera, action moment. Check out sites like PornoTube or RedTube for short clips or even movies to help get you in the mood. Sharing Your Video Is Caring Don’t forget that sharing is caring! If you took your video on your cell phone, e-mail NSFW clips to your boo to remind him or her how exceptional you really are. Or if you choose a camcorder to film your video, make sure you choose a camera with easy transfer to your computer and TV. If you want to keep your video private you could enlist the help of an Iron Key encrypted Flash Drive. If you only want to share footage with specific people online, try Vimeo, a service that offers HD quality video and password protection. However, if you choose to share your video with the world (which you obviously should), try uploading videos first to YouTube for maximum exposure. Chances are that the video will get banned so you should also upload to YouTube’s x-rated cousin YouPorn. Similar sites include Spankwire, Pornotube, and RedTube. Hey, why not have a viewing party and display your flick on that big screen TV in your living room? Just remember to close the blinds first! For more about the latest sex toys and technology, check out www.69adget.com

NSFW video: This man hearts his Neo Geo collection Posted: 10 Oct 2009 10:45 AM PDT Note: The topless Asian man in this slightly NSFW video that’s dancing around with his Ne Geo collection is not Peter Ha. I asked him if it was any of his family members but he didn’t find the joke funny. Ah well.

Why open source will never rule the desktop and why it doesn’t have to Posted: 10 Oct 2009 09:00 AM PDT Open source software is our era’s version of the French scientific salon. In the 18th and 19th centuries, young men (mostly men) would gather at the feet of elder scientists to learn the truth of the day. In Revolutionary France it was philosophy and natural science they studied and in the open source forums of the past decades it was discussions of the finer points of kernels, interrupts, and elegant coding. Purveyors of open source software have gone on to create an international network of crack programmers who all bear the same battle scars and have reveled in the same successes. But they always want more. They want the desktop. Not content to run the plumbing of the Internet and to control the firmware on almost every scientific device in the world, open source proponents believe it is their birthright to supplant Windows on the desktop or, barring that, at least gain mind share in the average home computer. They never will. Ubuntu is lovely. KDE is great. Debian is the bomb. Even OS X is pretty hot stuff. But none of them will ever take the desktop. That’s because the desktop is dying and they have already taken the second – soon-to-be central screen – the cellphone and that’s more than enough. Open source is now mobile. Unfortunately, open source purists won’t like how their handiwork will be storming the world. First, there’s Android. It will be the dominant smartphone OS by the middle of next decade. It is stable, attractively priced (free), and easy to pour into any mobile mold. Android of late has been splintering and it will be interesting to see how the different UI overlays and even different compiled libraries will evolve over time but once China builds out their Ophone platform, essentially a Chinese branch of Android, expect a huge change in the smart- and feature-phone market. But it’s still corporate, right? Add Chrome OS to this picture and you essentially have the gamut of form factors covered. But Chrome doesn’t belong on desktops and, thanks to netbooks, it would have to stay there. A free OS from Google is much more enticing to a certain audience, once they’ve been convinced of the device’s quality, than a Microsoft Taxed copy of Windows. So even if its corporate software, it doesn’t matter. It’s still open source. Open source advocates, like old Nirvana fans, especially won’t like the selling out of free software concepts when it comes to the marketing in app and media stores. Everyone a around “open source” concepts including Palm saying they’re opening up their Apps Store in odd ways and Symbian is paying lip service to open while taking its own sweet time. Android will eclipse and potentially destroy these efforts, and, like die-hard fans seeing Kurt and Krist on MTV, this causes some open source advocates to tremble with rage, point one quivering finger, and mouth “Sell out.” Most of this is marketing bluster but, in fact, it is the only way these folks see of gaining traction. Who runs these companies? Old Linux hackers. They know the best way to get people to buy drinks is to offer free wings. But fear not. All those decades of kernel hacking are not for nought. Open source has taught entire generations that anything is possible with a little code. These new developers understand the innate elegance of UIs, the value of user experience tweaks, and the tinkerers drive to constantly improve. They will beat Microsoft, at least on the mobile front, and by the time anyone notices they’ll own the majority of the small screens in the world. They’ll never rule the desktop, but they can rule the real estate around the desktop, a greater prize indeed.

The HP Envy 15 Beats Edition blazes its own path Posted: 10 Oct 2009 08:13 AM PDT The HP Envy 15 Beats Edition is noice. Look at that beast. You have to respect the matte black on black styling. Apple fanboys can’t say anything about this edition of the HP Envy looking like their MBPs. The Beats Edition looks better. Too bad it suffers from all the downfalls found in the Envy series and carries a $500 premium. At least it comes with the Beats headphones. Exact specifications aren’t listed just yet, but it’s likely that HP will pack this special edition with the same Core i7, Mobility Radeon HD 4830 system found in the standard Envy 15. This model has the same October 22nd shipping date, but will carry a $2,299 price tag. Worth the extra coin? Hip-hop wannabes probably think so. [HP via electronista]

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