What Are The Most Stylish Laptops And Ultrabooks?
Laptop Buying Guide 2012: How To Find The Right Laptop For You
Spotify Finally Makes Its Australian Debut
Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time
HTC One XL Review: The Best Is Getting Better
The Lies Everyone Tells On Dating Sites
Windows Media Player 11 discovers a purpose in life—how awesome is that? (Seriously, who actually uses it for anything?) Apparently, European forums started reporting last month that running WMP 11 in the background noticeably cuts World of Warcraft load times, especially in stickier areas, though American slackjaws have just recently caught on. Game|Life confirms WoW Insider’s post on the bizarre performance steroid with a test on their own machine. But will it help your rig run Crysis—or any other game for that matter? [WoW Insider via Game|Life]
The project is still in its pre-beautification phase, with wires and stuff exposed and everywhere, but Frank’s Wii nunchuck-controlled robot looks pretty promising. What’s neat is that his input system uses the accelerometer, instead of just the joystick and the pair of buttons, so he can move the robot around with wrist turns and flicks. I figure it’d be kind of cool to control an RC helicopter this way, at least at until your arm got tired, then it could spell trouble. [via MAKE]
If your Zune’s been behaving like it deserves coal in its sleeve for Christmas, Microsoft has released a diagnostic tool that bundles up data for tech support to pore over to help them get your wares in order if update 2.3 didn’t do the trick. Basically, you download the tool, pop it open and try to sync up Zune while it’s running. After the Zune acts like a spoiled brat and won’t talk to your PC, disconnect it and voila, you have a report to send to support techs, which hopefully will help them get your Zune straightened up after a quick trip to reform school or whatever so it talks to your PC all politely. [Microsoft via Zune Boards]
We hate to burst your bubble but Joystiq has provided some convincing evidence that the recent video showing a DS version of Mario Galaxy was a fake —albeit a very good one. It appears that a shorter, more stable version of the was posted on a video-sharing site by a user with the handle psycho3ler. That is the same guy behind the infamous Nintendo ON hoax video from 2005. So yeah, there will be no Galaxy for the DS (for now) —but you probably already saw this one coming. We are used to having our hopes and dreams crushed. [Stage9 Video and Nintendo On Video via Joystiq]
What the hell is wrong with people? Seriously. Anyone who has seen the endless stream of Jackass copycat videos floating out there knows all to well that there are some frighteningly stupid people out there. As if you needed yet another example, check out this vid featuring a bunch of tools testing out their homemade nail gun bazooka. Spoiler: It doesn’t end well. [Break]
The All-In-One is in full effect this year, with some very hot models: the Gateway One, the Dell XPS One and Apple’s new iMac. While it’s nice to pick favorites and all, the fact is, each of these are better than most computers out there, and each has particular design traits that stand out. I’ve given awards in different categories at the end of this piece, but in the meantime, this is really a walk through of different design choices. If it seems to lean heavily on the Dell XPS One, that’s because it’s newer, and we’ve already spent more time on the Apple and the Gateway. So take a leisurely stroll through all of this stuff, compare and contrast, and at the end, hell, call your own winner.
I’m not all about typing on the floor like the dude pictured here, but I do have quite a few cords criss-crossing the rooms of my home. For the most part, these cords are hidden in a very half-assed manner behind couches and under rugs —resulting in a geeky ghetto look that is as dangerous as it is hideous. My guess is that a scenario like the one I just described is fairly common, which is why Paul Kogelnig and Gabriel Heusser designed the Cablet Carpet.
No matter where you are on this planet, you will find throngs of people longing to get loaded—and they will often go to great lengths to do it. Case in point is this bar built inside a 72ft Baobab tree in Limpopo, South Africa. When Baobab trees reach 1,000 years old they begin to hollow naturally. This particular tree is around 6,000 years old and the hollow is big enough to hold 15 people comfortably (or 54 people very uncomfortably as they discovered a few years ago).
These Japanese fake boob gadgets were found at a dollar store in San Francisco. Essentially a couple of balloons you stick in your shirt and inflate, they probably won’t fool too many people, but if you’re really desperate, ladies, it’s certainly the cheapest boost out there other than tissues. And lest you think these are sexist, apparently there’s an inflatable peen available from the same company that, unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of. If someone finds it though, email me. I promise to do a pants-on video with it for the good of gender equality. [Boing Boing]
Our data gathering series started off yesterday by determining that our Mac and PC audience are just about equal, with the left over 20% being users of both formats and a scant 5% being Linux fans. Very fascinating—that’s quite a few more Mac fans than we were expecting. Continuing our data gathering experiment, we’re going to ask you this: what phone do you use, and what phone do you think is the best. Choose the phone you use in the poll, and drop a comment to say what you think is the best.
