The staff of Mac|Life has a neat thinkfeature imagining future packaging for Apple software. They’ve got three concepts, all of which are eye-catching, attractive and Apple-esque, but they don’t feel quite right. The first, by Mac|Life’s own art director, for instance, might be eco-friendly with recycled packaging, but it still uses more material than is necessary, bucking Apple’s trend toward absolutely minimal packaging.
When the world finally goes all to hell and the missiles start flying, a Geiger counter will be a handy tool for anyone who survives the blast. Be prepared by building your own Mr. Fission radar detector. The device works with a standard Geiger tube, a high voltage power supply, and a design based around a Motorola MC68HC908KX8 microcontroller.
If you are interested in building one of these yourself, the designer is in the process of developing a simpler, cheaper version complete with detailed information and schematics. Until then, you can hit him up for some info on the project in the following link [N1VG via Hack a Day via Make]
The ground-breaking GPS vs. Radar case has been decided and, much to the chagrin of perpetual speeders like myself, the Sonoma County Superior Court has ruled that 17-year-old Shaun Malone was guilty of speeding.
The court case represented the first time that anyone had contested a ticket based on the data obtained by a GPS tracking device, and it appears that the failure of the defence was due largely to the inability of either side to accurately determine when the radar gun clocked him and where the GPS tracker marked him at 45 mph. Apparently, the system took readings every 30 seconds —if these readings were more frequent, there would have been a much better case for raising reasonable doubt. My guess is that we will see a lot more of these cases turn up as the technology progresses. So all hope is not lost. [Press Democrat]
iPhone developer Pumpkin plugged “rental” into a string search of the iPhone’s lockdown daemon file—which authorizes the iPhone for services—returning a curious set of hits: pumpkin:~ pumpkin$ strings /usr/local/share/iphone-filesystem/usr/libexec/lockdownd | grep -i rental
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not retrieve FairPlayID
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not initialize FairPlay context
trigger_rental_bag_verification: Could not verify the rental bag response: %d
load_rental_bag_request: Could not retrieve FairPlayID
load_rental_bag_request: Could not initialize FairPlay context
load_rental_bag_request: Could not generate rental bag request
…..
The code’s there, so where’s the goods?
Cowon will finally release their Q5 (Q5W for American markets) media player in US stores before the end of the month. The 40 GB model will cost $US550 while the 60 GB will cost $US600. [Electronista]
Apparently, the folks responsible for illuminating the Rockefeller Christmas tree this year have decided that the benefits of LED lighting can no longer be ignored. This year, the tree will be decked out with 30,000 LED lights as opposed to the traditional incandescent bulbs.
The move is expected to reduce the display’s electricity consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day. And if that wasn’t green enough for you, the tree will also be recycled into building materials to be used by Habitat for Humanity. And the branches will probably be used in a nutrient-rich mulch that will nourish mother Earth, hippies will dance and sing – and so on and so forth. The lighting ceremony takes place on November 28, and the tree will be illuminated daily through the first week of January. [CNN]
Its full name is Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate, and this second-gen version of Hitachi’s EMIEW office worker robot is a lot better looking than the original. At its launch today, however, things didn’t quite go to plan, and what was meant to be a showcase in up-to-the-minute robot fabulousness turned into a ZOMG-I-think-it’s-drunk moment.
