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- Live In Oklahoma City? Watch Out For a Hot White MacBook With Cancer Research Data Inside
- PS3 Hacking Case Judge: Why Is This In My Courtroom
- HiJack Sucks Power And Data From Your iPhone’s 3.5mm Audio Jack
- Edible Concept: Tetris Sugar Cubes
- I Cannot In Good Conscience Recommend Buying This Yoda Robe
- Unfortunately, These Han And Greedo Bookends Are Sold Out
- 84 Of 97 Congress Representatives Supporting NBC/Comcast Merger Took Comcast Money
- Croatian Coffee Cafe Caters To iPad People
- Mitsubishi i-MiEV Taking Over Europe?
- Dell Adamo Price Cut By Another $100 To $799
- Here’s Your New Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield
- Popping Popcorn With Lasers Is Awesome And Healthy
- McAfee’s Tips To Keep You Safe Online: Mostly Common Sense (One Would Think!)
- Shure Announces New Headphones At NAAM
- Dreamcast Collection Coming To Xbox 360, PC On February 22
- Kickstarter: The PadPivot Might Be The First True Universal, Multi-Function Tablet Stand
- Watson! IBM’s Artificial Intelligence Looks To Upstage Its Human Benefactors In Grand Jeopardy Challenge
- Snag A Kobo Wireless eReader For Only $99
- Limited Edition: Sony Announces NEX-5 In Gold
- Tosh.0 Takes On Angry Birds, As Do I
| Live In Oklahoma City? Watch Out For a Hot White MacBook With Cancer Research Data Inside Posted: 14 Jan 2011 04:42 PM PST
The rest of you out there, please consider backing up your years of precious medical data.
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| PS3 Hacking Case Judge: Why Is This In My Courtroom Posted: 14 Jan 2011 04:29 PM PST
See, Hotz allegedly received donations from Paypal (he denies it), and news of the hack was posted on Twitter and YouTube by fail0verflow. Are Sony’s lawyers smoking crack? Do you try a mugger at the mint where the money he stole was made? Fortunately, the honorable Judge Susan Illston felt this was indeed a bit of a stretch. If anything involving Google or Facebook could be brought to California, then potentially “the entire universe would be subject to my jurisdiction.” Nice gig if you can get it. Sony then suggested the case should be tried in Federal court close to Sony’s American headquarters… because it says so in the PlayStation terms-of-service agreement. I’m not sure that’s binding, Sony, especially since Hotz obviously didn’t agree to those terms, and rendered the agreement null long ago. Seriously, though, the trial will be delayed and possibly moved to Hotz’s home state, beautiful New Jersey. We’ll keep you posted, as the results of this case could actually be relevant to the end user.
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| HiJack Sucks Power And Data From Your iPhone’s 3.5mm Audio Jack Posted: 14 Jan 2011 04:08 PM PST
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| Edible Concept: Tetris Sugar Cubes Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:50 PM PST
There are three troubles, though, that I can foresee. First, you might get a lot of broken ones in a loose bag. This can be solved by packing them together like the boxes of normal sugar cubes, but produces problem number two: how are you going to organize all those tetrads into a cohesive shape without any gaps? You’ll literally need to hire professional Tetris sugar-lump organizers. The pieces could slide down from the top and the workers would have to put them into place, forming solid lines all the way across so the box is totally full. Did I just blow your mind? Problem the third: if each of these is as big as four sugar cubes… you want some coffee with that sugar, buddy?
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| I Cannot In Good Conscience Recommend Buying This Yoda Robe Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:26 PM PST
This luxurious velour robe (what man wears a velour robe?) comes with a flip-up Yoda head and Rebel Alliance badge. Perfect for the man who never leaves his house. It costs £49.95, which is too much. [via 7Gadgets]
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| Unfortunately, These Han And Greedo Bookends Are Sold Out Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:00 PM PST
Here’s a better picture over at Flickr. There are others: this one, simulating the tense trash compactor scene from
The Jabba’s Palace one is weak. I’m not even going to link to it. I’d rather use that $200 to have someone punch me in the face.
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| 84 Of 97 Congress Representatives Supporting NBC/Comcast Merger Took Comcast Money Posted: 14 Jan 2011 02:30 PM PST
I mean honestly. When 84 out of 97 reps supporting the bill can be shown with little effort to have taken money from the company about which they’re supposed to be impartial, it makes us all look bad. The donations ranged from $1000 to $25000, and can be cross-referenced with the letter of support linked here (PDF).
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| Croatian Coffee Cafe Caters To iPad People Posted: 14 Jan 2011 02:29 PM PST
When you go into a coffee shop anymore, isn’t it just full of iPads, others tabs, and coffee labs? These days, many of us aren’t looking to newspaper as a source of breaking and premium content; instead we’d rather know what conflict @kanyewest or @michaelarrington have gotten into. The Box coffee shop in Split, Croatia is no different, except that they will be providing free iPads instead of free newspapers. The move away from newspaper is said to be “greener,” since the shop won’t have to throw away the papers every day. As a anti-theft method, the cafe fitted the iPads with a security tag that alerts baristas if the tablet has moved far from the table. Let’s be honest here, tech people have got to be the biggest consumers of coffee; it’s impossible to machine-out otherwise. By appealing to techies, The Box will bring in all the caffeine addicted Twitter heads.
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| Mitsubishi i-MiEV Taking Over Europe? Posted: 14 Jan 2011 01:45 PM PST
Today, Mitsubishi announced that it plans to bring the Euro-spec i-MiEV to 15 European countries. As you know, production started last fall, and Mitsubishi is trying to make it out faster than the Volt or Leaf; and with the Leaf's recent productions problems and Volt's low December sales, it may not be too hard. In addition to the initial 15 countries, there have been requests from the other Europeans, such as Finland, Serbia, Turkey, and Slovenia. When the US gets hold of the little Jellybean, expect it to be priced around $30,000, and that would be before the tax credit. The i-MiEV is going to be great for people in small – large cities, where parking is tight and often limited. The i-MiEV will fall under the EV priority category that many cities are implementing into parking spots that include charging stations. Quick charging on the little Mitsubishi will take only 30 min from 0-80% with a specific quick charging station. Max speed is 80 mph and max range is 80 miles.
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| Dell Adamo Price Cut By Another $100 To $799 Posted: 14 Jan 2011 01:21 PM PST
$799 is really a good price for this thing, guys. But at this rate, they might drop it to $699 in February. Buy now or take the risk? It’s up to you, old friend. It’s up to you.
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| Here’s Your New Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield Posted: 14 Jan 2011 12:36 PM PST
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| Popping Popcorn With Lasers Is Awesome And Healthy Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:30 AM PST
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| McAfee’s Tips To Keep You Safe Online: Mostly Common Sense (One Would Think!) Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:00 AM PST
This should be an interesting year when it comes to keeping your data safe. Odds are you (and even your parents!) either have or will have a smartphone of some sort this year, and odds are evildoers will be trying their hardest to ruin your life: steal your credit card info, hack your Twitter account, order 10 pizzas and send them your house without you knowing, etc. Traitorware! We’re living on the edge of a lightning bolt here. With that in mind, McAfee has compiled a quick list of things that should help your make 2011 as safe a year as possible. Conversely, you could permanently disconnect from the Internet. Your call. What McAfee has to say probably isn’t breaking news to too many of you, but perhaps you can absorb some of this knowledge and help keep your community, both virtual and otherwise, safe and sound. 1. Mobile phones are next. McAfee says mobile phones will increasingly be targeted by evildoers, so treat your phone like it’s your pet kitten; guard it with your life. One handy tip: don’t keep all of your passwords stored locally on your phone. All it would take is one nosy kid getting access to your phone and then you’d be up a certain creek. 2. Everything is connected to the Internet now, so the opportunity for danger lies all over the place. I seem to recall Internet-connected refrigerators being touted at CES last week. It beehives you to be alert when dealing with Internet-connected devices. 3. McAfee recommends you rock encrypted USB thumb drives to store sensitive information. May I also recommend you try to memorize as many passwords as possible? Your brain is pretty powerful: use it! 4. Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date. Easy enough! 5. Oooo, here’s a controversial one: don’t trust your security to free anti-virus software. (Take that, AVG!) Newer anti-virus software can also provide Cloud-based protection—let the almighty Cloud protect you! The other points pretty much fall under the "common sense" banner: keep an eye on what your kids do online (not only to protect them from inappropriate content, but to ensure they’re not rummaging around shady pirate blogs and gunning up your system); back up your information if it means anything at all to you. Again, I’m pretty sure most of you guys know all of these things, know how to work around the Internet without blowing up your spot, but perhaps your less savvy friends could use a pointer?
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| Shure Announces New Headphones At NAAM Posted: 14 Jan 2011 10:30 AM PST
This week is NAMM, the huge music products trade show out in Anaheim — sort of a CES for music nerds. Some of the first products to come out at NAAM are from Shure. Shure announced a set of in-ear style buds and two pairs of DJ-style headsets. The in-ear SE215s’ are promised to have new low-end capabilities with just single drivers in each ear; the target here was tuning for the low end with greater bass. One of the features we like is the detachable Kevlar-backed cable that should make for a robust pair of buds. If using with iPhone, or any other phone, you’ll have to purchase a separate adapter for mic and remote control. Colors are clear and black and will hit the street for $99. For those who demand over-the-ear style cans with an audiophile experience, Shure has delivered with the SRH550DJ and SRH940s. The former is aimed at nightclub DJs; they are much more durable and have some massive 50mm drivers that will pump the bass — key for keeping beat. Shure kept maximum portability in mind by making these foldable. The later of those two, the SRH940s, are more designed as studio monitors that can be used by both serious and amateur producers. The design emphasis here is to keep very tight bass response with crystal clear highs — our personal favorite style. These will also be foldable, and come will comfort padding in key areas to keep listeners comfy for hours. Prices are $99 for the SRH550DJ and $299 for the SRH940. Expect this spring.
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| Dreamcast Collection Coming To Xbox 360, PC On February 22 Posted: 14 Jan 2011 08:54 AM PST
The long-awaited Dreamcast collection for the Xbox 360 and PC now has a release date: February 22. The collection includes Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5: Part 2 (ha!), and Sega Bass Fishing. No price available just yet. Sega says the games will feature "enhanced graphics" for both the 360 and PC, but only the 360 version has Achievements and Leaderboards. So if Achievements mean anything to you, then you’ll probably want to go the 360 route. Also note that the PC version will only be digital download only. Hopefully this is the start of more (and more frequent!) Dreamcast releases. I think we all can agree it was a console that was ahead of its time (even if it was only playing catch-up with what had been happening on the PC for several years by then).
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| Kickstarter: The PadPivot Might Be The First True Universal, Multi-Function Tablet Stand Posted: 14 Jan 2011 07:55 AM PST That about does it. The PadPivot must be the last novel idea in tablet stands. Shut down the Chinese design factories. This seems to address the entire market’s needs and more. Not only does the PadPivot do multi-angle, table-top tablet mounting and holding, but the contoured shape is designed for legs, too. Most tablet users can attest, this is the most common usage location anyway. The Kickstarter demo video shows why. You sit down, put the tablet on your thigh and then do a little balancing routine to keep it in place. With the PadPivot, you simply rest the backside of the iPad or any other slate device on the PadPivot’s pad while the rounded shape holds to your leg. Oh, and it folds up nicely, too. I’m sold. The creators are looking to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter, which will allow them to start the injection molding process. As of this post’s writing, the project is 2-days old and they’re already north of 10% ($1,155~) towards their target goal. User funding starts at $5 with pledges of $25 or more netting users a PadPivot and more. There’s a good chance thanks to the winning combo of a clever design and fair pledge levels that the PadPivot could reach similar success levels as the Glif iPhone tripod, the C-Loop, and the iPod Nano Watchband. Here’s hoping they do. Update 3 hours after posting: They hit their target goal of $10,000 and they’re just two days in! Good product + Kickstarter = Success      
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| Posted: 14 Jan 2011 07:15 AM PST Like it or not, but the robots are coming, and they're not messing around. I know this because I've seen an IBM-developed artificial intelligence (AI) named Watson defeat two human opponents (all-time great champions, no less) in a round of Jeopardy. Granted, it was merely an exhibition round—the actual robot versus human tournament airs in mid-February—but it portends something fantastic: a world where our benevolent masters, mechanical men, will lead us to sweet salvation. Or, failing that, a world where AI is useful enough to assist humans in areas like healthcare and government. That's cool, too. IBM has been developing Watson, an AI that runs on 10 plain ol', off-the-shelf Power 750 servers (running Linux!), for past four years. (That's "him" up there. Thomas J. Watson would be proud.) But saying "the past four years" doesn't really do justice to the fact that IBM has been conducting high-level research since its founding back in 1911. Consider Watson the culmination of IBM ingenuity going back long before anyone even knew what an iPhone was. Needless to say, it takes an awful lot of horsepower to make Watson tick. Let's put it this way: the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro has a dual-core processor. (You'll recall that Motorola flipped out last week when it introduced the very first dual-core mobile phone, the Atrix.) Two is plenty, right? It sure is if all you're concerned with is tweeting what you ate for breakfast this morning, but if you're trying to compete against two Jeopardy champions, trying to beat them at their own game, you're going to need a lot more. Try 2,880 cores. Let that sink in for a moment: two thousand eight hundred and eighty eight cores. That's the kind of processing power you need to call upon to even approach the raw capabilities of the human brain. Shame we tend to waste all that brainpower watching Dancing With The Stars. (A more in-depth look at Watson's genesis will air on PBS' NOVA on February 9.) All of the data Watson will ever know is present on more than 200 million locally stored "pages,"; Watson isn't merely a fancy way to access Wikipedia. (IBM wouldn't give the precise storage capacity of Watson, instead using the old "millions of pages worth of data" metaphor.) So when Watson faces off against ex-Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter (remember: the actual shows will air in mid-February; we'll remind you when the time comes), that's it—he knows what he knows. Watson will sit there, interpret Alex Trebek's questions as he asks them (good thing Trebek speaks English because that's all Watson understands), then do his best to answer as quickly as possible. He won't second-guess himself, either: if Watson knows the answer Jennings and Rutter might as well exit stage left. Watson is unstoppable. IBM has stressed how difficult it was to create Watson. Another famous IBM AI, Deep Blue, beat famed Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, but Deep Blue had one over on Watson: chess is far more math-based than Jeopardy. Computers are pretty good at math. Deep Blue never had to know how many hit singles Michale Jackson had; it never had to know when the last time the New York Mets won the World Series; it never had to know when the first iPod came out; it never had to know when the War of 1812 was. Deep Blue had chess—math— running through its veins, so to speak, while Watson has to have the sum of human knowledge at his fingertips at all times. The War of 1812 occurred in 1812, by the way. And it's not as if Watson will be going up against your local pub trivia champions like it's an episode of The Office; he'll be going after the all-time Jeopardy champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Jennings holds the all-time appearance record of appearing 74 times in a row on the show back in 2004-05, while Rutter holds the all-time money earned record of $3.25 million. Should Watson win it will represent a triumph of AI over man, yes, but it will also represent a triumph of mankind for mankind. Think of it this way: a team of researchers, flesh and blood just like you, came together to create a piece of software running on stock hardware that was able to out-think, out-know two Jeopardy grand champions. It's pretty wild.
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| Snag A Kobo Wireless eReader For Only $99 Posted: 14 Jan 2011 07:00 AM PST
The sale only runs through 1/17 so you better snag one while you can. Seriously, it’s a quality kit and a fine alternative to the Kindle or Nook thanks to the great screen and Borders storefront. [Borders via The eBook Reader]
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| Limited Edition: Sony Announces NEX-5 In Gold Posted: 14 Jan 2011 06:39 AM PST
Sony Japan yesterday announced [JP] a pretty glamorous addition to its well-received NEX-5 series of interchangeable lens digital cameras. Technically, the new model is identical to all devices we’ve seen coming from big S last year, but this one is in gold and actually looks pretty nice.
The NEX-5D in gold will go on sale as a double lens kit in Japan (and probably nowhere else) on February 10. Sony plans to offer the limited edition kit for $1,150. Via Engadget
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| Tosh.0 Takes On Angry Birds, As Do I Posted: 14 Jan 2011 05:54 AM PST
While I think modern comedy died with Don Knotts (The Incredible Mr. Limpet was the A Bout de Souffle of talking fish movies), Daniel Tosh is trying to bring a little color back into its cheeks with this odd, if true, look at Angry Birds. View it, please, and return to us here for further information. I have a problem with Angry Birds. If the pigs were to begin using generally accepted construction practices or the birds began using ammunition instead of suicide bombers, the tide of their endless war could be turned in favor of either party. As it stands, this is mutually assured destruction with the odds tilted towards the pigs and it is clear that some higher authority, perhaps the little monster from Cut the Rope, should step in and moderate a peace deal. If not for the birds living than for the birds yet to be born.
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Normally I would have passed this by. But since I 
I can’t work up any real outrage over this, because really, did anyone think that big business deals like this are anything but bought and paid for in Washington? But seriously, guys, you could stand to be a little more discreet about things.
Fire sale! It looks like Dell is trying to clear out inventory of the sexy Adamo line of laptops. Perhaps they’ve got something else cooking? Something thinner and 
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