Surely the London Harrods didn’t intend to hire a simple snake to stand guard over $120,000 ruby- sapphire- and diamond-encrusted designer sandals. Clearly, it was a miscommunication: We think they meant COBRA, not A cobra. Lasers and “a fearful cry” are much better deterrents than a teensy snake bite. [AP] More »
While it’s still a teaser at the moment, John Nack (senior product manager for Photoshop) has confirmed the development of Photoshop Express. It’s a free online photo editor that’s not meant to replace Adobe’s current offerings, but “make Adobe imaging technology immediately accessible to large numbers of people.” And from the screenshot here you can tell it’s not even a dumbed- down Photoshop, but an entirely new product (that reminds us of something from the new iLIfe).
The announcement follows Adobe’s implementation of Premiere Express, their online video editor, and it signifies a fairly progressive market plan by Adobe. In a content creation culture where every teen is a video editor, the democratization of powerful multimedia tools online allows Adobe to reach out to this new generation without abandoning their industry professional bread and butter. And it makes us want to remind kids that we once edited a movie on a VCR (after walking 30 miles barefoot in the snow, aiming our kite for lightning to capture the electricity to do our work). [adobe] More »
A literary tech site has spotted an alleged update to Sony’s not-terribly-popular Reader. The PRS-505 doubles the memory capacity of the original PRS-500—it can now hold 160 books rather than 80. The new Reader also has an improved E-Ink screen, comes in a choice of colours and has a much smarter button layout and interface. But will any of this fussing actually help sell Readers? More »
newVideoPlayer("legomountains_gawker.flv", 475, 376); This is a 1:50 scale model of Lego Towers, a proposed housing development for Copenhagen &mdash made of Lego. Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, this time-lapse video was shot over five weeks. Photos, plus how many bricks were needed to make the model, are after the jump. More »
Japanese company Asobo unveiled this rather fabulous machine at the Tokyo International Gift Show earlier this month, which lets you customise small objects however you want. All you need is a small object, and an image (to customise said small object with.) There’s a video below. More »
After its commercial release, hackers all over the world are attempting to reverse the iPhone Sim Free software unlock by sniffing packets and analyzing the IPSF server traffic. Even DVD Jon is after them, according to sources deep in the effort. They are advancing at a fast pace and the crack may be ready as soon as tonight. However, not everyone is trying that route: part of the iPhone Dev Team is still independently working on their own unlock. More »
Mac Rumors is reporting that the next Apple TV update will probably let you access the iTunes Store direct from your armchair, without having to go via your computer. Loop Rumors is also corroborating the buzz, saying it’s going to happen soon. [Mac Rumors and Loop Rumors] More »
In anime and action films there is often a stand-off between the old and new, the traditional and the modern – the katana sword and the handgun. Often, a sword-wielding hero is able to slice an oncoming bullet in two, deftly rendering the anti-hero’s graceless weapon useless. Ever wondered if this was really possible? Watch the video after the jump. More »
Middle school student Jessyratfink (not her real name) came up with an innovative &mdash and utterly brazilliant &mdash project for her science fair: an electric chair for Barbie. You can find out just how she did it on the Instructables website, but there’s a small gallery below of her handiwork. More »
This press release from 2002 shows a Fujitsu mouse that could authenticate logins by scanning vein-patterns in a user’s hand. By taking an infrared scan of a person’s hand, the system can get a clear picture of their veins – the pattern is then used to authenticate users. Five years later, they have finally launched the product. So what have you been doing for 5 years, Fujitsu? More »
