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Yet Some More Vinyl MacBook Decals For Your Enjoyment

Posted: 07 Sep 2010 04:37 AM PDT


Vinyl MacBook decals aren’t exactly new. There has been a rather good assortment of them over the years, but KnockoutVinyl has a bunch that I’ve never seen and each one can be yours for only $10. Not to shabby.

Video: Battlestar Galactica Theme On The Eigenharp

Posted: 07 Sep 2010 01:31 AM PDT

gbevin performs the Cylon theme of Bear McCreary’s version of All Along The Watchtower. Apparently he stressed his mac a bit too much and there are some distortions on the video. The performance is quite good and it is nice to see how BSG blends with the Eigenharp.

[via Synthtopia]

CrunchGear Week in Review: Bike Ride Edition

Posted: 07 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT

You Shall Not Pass: Cat Prevents Owner From Using His iPad

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 06:43 PM PDT

Reader Gary sent us pictures of his cat blocking his iPad, reminding us all that beasts like this cat know that we are throwing our lives away on technology and our inexorable march to a life chained to machines will cause us more suffering than we know.

The cat could also be hungry. You never know with cats.

[Thanks, Gary. Also, don't troll. It's a slow news day.]

Jailbreak A PS3 With Just A Nexus One, Palm Pre, or Nokia N900

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 04:56 PM PDT


PS3 mods are coming from everywhere now. The latest method is similar to the earlier USB exploit. Instead it uses certain handsets to do the dirty deed. The list of supported devices is rather short, but it couldn’t be easier if you have the right handset.

PS3Hax.net links to the compatability list and lays out the instructions.

  1. Download the package, extract it.
  2. Extract N1-CM6-PSFreedom.tar.gz and copy the contents to your SD card.
  3. Copy PS3-signed.zip and PS3-No-More-signed.zip to your SD card.
  4. Reboot into the recovery console.
  5. Install/flash PS3-signed.zip.
  6. Reboot your phone.
  7. Use ConnectBot or any terminal app and type:
    • cd /mnt/sdcard
    • su
    • insmod psfreedom.ko
  8. Kill the power to your PS3, switch on the back (PS3 Fat) or unplug from the wall (PS3 Slim), and connect your phone via USB.
  9. Re-enable power and press the PS3 power button followed by the eject button in quick succession.
  10. Your PS3 is now hacked! You'll see "Install Package Files" under GAME on the XMB.

To return your phone to normal just boot back to recovery and flash PS3-No-More-signed.zip. It's that easy. Video coming soon.

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy but remember, this may cause cops to show up. Your call. [via phandroid & PS3 mods are coming from everywhere now. The latest method is similar to the earlier USB exploit. Instead it uses certain handsets to do the dirty deed. The list of supported devices is rather short, but it couldn't be easier if you have the right handset.">make]

Crushable Garbage Can Concept: Why Not?

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 04:19 PM PDT

This concept garbage can/dust bin is made of thick, deformable silicone, and when it starts getting full, you can squish it down and compact the trash at the bottom. I mean sure, you could just stomp on the trash in your normal can, but then you wouldn’t be able to tell all your friends about your cool concept trash can.

[via Inventor Spot]

Dyson’s Response To The Air Multiplier Fan Clones

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:41 PM PDT

It’s probably a good time to be a patent lawyer over at Dyson. After all since the company produces bonifide innovative products every other week, clones no don’t pop up everywhere. It’s job security. That’s all. Just last week a seemingly perfect clone of the fanless Air Multiplier hit the interwebs and Dyson just issued a statement to do us concerning the knock-offs.

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ fans were launched in 2009 after four years of research and development. A team of specialist Dyson engineers have refined and patented the technology: illegal copies are of significantly inferior quality. Dyson rigorously defends its intellectual property and treats any infringement very seriously. Dyson is taking legal action against anyone who copies its technology.

In other words, the hounds are released and dem be hungry.

William Gibson’s New Book Is Out Tomorrow. Are You Getting It?

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 08:08 AM PDT

While I haven’t honestly enjoyed this latest set of books as well as I enjoyed the Sprawl and the Bridge trilogies, I would still give one of my fingers to give William Gibson a big man hug. He basically defined sci-fi for me, much in the same way Tolkien defined my taste in fantasy, and anything too far from his original dystopian settings peopled with amazingly detailed characters (The Road for example, owes a debt to Gibson, although Cormac McCarthy is a genius in his own right).

Anyway, his new book Zero History is out tomorrow and I’ve pre-ordered. Set in the “current” – namely some post-9/11 world populated by artistes of the slightly funny deal – the book follows Milgram from Spook Country as… well, I’ll let Cory Doctorow say it:

Bigend has got Milgrim hunting for the designer behind a mysterious line of fetish-denim, in the hopes of remaking it as the basis for a lucrative US military contract; this being Bigend’s idea of novelty-seeking good times.

Sigh. I assure you Molly Millions wouldn’t go out looking for a nice piece of denim, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, Cory says it’s fun and a real novel, which is important. Gibson isn’t a sci-fi writer per se, he’s a writer and the Sprawl and Bridge had enough nanotech and silent ninjas to assuage my grief at a story whose plot revolves around selvage.

Want A Tablet That You Can Actually Use? Buy A WeTab

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:59 AM PDT

You can get it for 450€ ($580) and it supports Flash while it’s not just a big expensive smartphone. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), optional 3G (UMTS/HSDPA), 16 / 32 GB, Extension with SDHC Card up to 32 GB. The expensive version has Full-HD 1080p video output. Supported TV and Video Formats: H.264, AVI, WMV, DivX, MOV, OGG, FLV. Would you rather buy something as limited as a giant smartphone? Check out all the specifications here.

iPod Touch Has a Vibrating Motor For Facetime Calls

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:51 AM PDT

This just in: the new iPod Touch with front-facing camera (aka the iPhone Lite) has a built-in vibrating motor for notifications, including silent call notifications. Why is this important? Well, presumably the iPod Touch is now a Facetime phone and definitely needs new ways to interact with the user. I’m personally very excited.

This confirms information found in the Accessibility page for the iPod.

Here is the first piece of evidence, and it is on Apple's very own website. Located on the Accessibility page for the iPod touch, you can scroll down to the 'Video calling with FaceTime' and clearly see the following: "… If somebody wants to start a video call with you, you'll receive an invitation — along with a vibrating alert — on your iPod touch asking you to join. …"

via iPodTouchFans


No, We’re Not Serving Up Malware

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:34 AM PDT

While I would love to share with you guys the logic bomb I wrote in high school that moved my floppy drive read head into a corner of the drive that caused massive damage to the disk inside (it never worked) or the “virus” I wrote that randomly erased blocks of my hard drive when I ran it on my Packard Bell 386 back in the ’90s, rest assured that CrunchGear does not serve up malware. In fact, if you check out the diagnostics, Google notes that the site has served up exactly 0 pieces of malware since they’ve been crawling it and that there is really no reason to scare you poor, defenseless folks.

Incidentally, ask Scott about BLUEBOY.EXE, a “blue boxing” program that I apparently uploaded to a BBS in Columbus, Ohio that was really just a batch file that said “FORMAT C:.” I totally do not remember doing that, but clearly I was a jerk.

Sharp Sets New Record For Solar Cell Efficiency

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:24 AM PDT

If there’s something solar energy as a technology needs, then it’s better and cheaper solar cells. And now Sharp has apparently made a step forward regarding the first factor: the company says it has developed a solar cell that has the world’s highest efficiency of 42.1%, breaking the record of Spectrolab of the US.

The American company’s triple-junction solar cells convert “just” 41.6% of sunlight into electricity. Sharp’s models have been developed together with Japan’s top college, the University of Tokyo. According to Sharp, the next step is to produce solar cells with 45% efficiency by 2014 and 50% efficiency by 2025.

The company also said that at 45% efficiency, the cost of generating solar power is about the same as the cost for power coming from thermal and nuclear power plants. It now plans to commercialize its new solar cells as quickly as possible.

Via Mainichi [JP]

St. Dupont “Service Without Fail” RAID Watch

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 05:29 AM PDT

Here is some serious French testosterone in a watch. Made for or influenced by the special, elite operations branch of the national French police known as RAID. The highly secretive special force is interesting because they often recruit people directly from the public, as opposed to existing police or military personnel. The purpose of the group as part of the national police, is to combat and investigate major crimes and terrorism. RAID stands for "Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion." In English, "Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence." They seem to kick enough ass to get a watch made for them with their logo on it.


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