According to MacNN, support for the UI Application delegate class on the newly released iPhone SDK build could indicate that running background processes is possible. That would be cool, but nothing has been made official yet. [macNN]
“Toshiba Corp. said its profit plummeted 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to costs of its exit from next-generation video HD DVD business.” US$12 million profit, down from US$251.57 million last year. Ouchies. [AP]
When it comes to forecasting the weather, I often think that sticking a moistened finger into the air is about as accurate as all of that fancy doppler radar. However, there is no shortage of weather addicts out there that religiously check the news and treat weathermen like they were friggin’ prophets. It appears that Oregon Scientific has developed a weather forecasting watch made specifically for these types of people.
Will Smith over at Maximum PC just reviewed the Phantom Lapboard—that keyboard from the Phantom console guys which we first held for ourselves back at E3 2004. Surprise! They think the keyboard “rocks”. Their official position is that the pivoting scheme is comfortable and works great for righties and lefties. The only problem is their mouse. It sucks. Not only does it have signal dropouts, the left click button is “wimpy”. Probably not worth your US$130 until they can work out the mousing problems. [Maximum PC]
Are you one of those lousy parents that won’t buy a dog for your kids but try to pass off a goldfish as a pet that’s just as good? Well, if you want to help your case that fish are just as fun as an adorable golden retriever, there’s the R2 Fish School. It’ll let you train a goldfish to do such tricks as play basketball and swim around objects in its tank. The excitement never ends, as the ridiculous instructional clip after the jump demonstrates.
According to Zune Insider, the Red Zune 80 is starting to show up in retail stores after a stint at Zune Originals. The colour must be hot, hot, hot! [Zune Insider]
Ryan at Engadget says they’ve been chatting up one of the divinely chosen to lay eyes on the second-gen iPhone, and they’re claiming a couple details we haven’t heard before, as well as the by-now familiar: 3G and real GPS—expected, and hoped for. Metal backing out, glossy black is in, with chrome volume buttons, which should help with signal issues. It’s also a little fatter (probably cause of GPS and battery, which still isn’t removable) but you can toss your stupid headphone adapter. The screen is the same size and res (we’d heard they were trying to move to plastic, but doesn’t seem to be the case). He’s guessing it could ship in July. [Engadget]
Once again, the Thank Giz It’s Friday roundup is here to get the weekend started off right. If you are planning on a big night out, the following gadgets will help you handle everything from keeping your drinks cold to keeping your budding alcoholism on the DL. After all, if you are going to party this weekend, you might as well have the right tools for the job. Cheers!
The Super Mario invincibility doesn’t really make a huge appearance in Super Mario Galaxy as far as we’ve seen, but this desk version should more than fill in. For US$17.99 you get an unlimited amount of star power activated in tiny little segments every time you hit the button on its back. Will it get old fast? Definitely. Is it worth US$17.99? That depends on how much you like shouting “It’s a me!” to everyone who stops by at work. [Think Geek via Technabob via Geekalerts via Boing Boing]
newVideoPlayer("sw_attack.flv", 490, 405,""); Remember the case of the drunkard dressing up as Vader and beating some Jedi-wannabees with a crutch? Here’s the vid. I can’t believe someone got charged with assault for this. Footage of the actual attack just takes all the juice away from the tale. I mean, in the old days, you had to take off someone’s arm or head, or scorch their Jedi robes at least. Kids these days. [BBC]
