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LightCap Transforms Cancer Into Neat Lantern
Posted by Mark Wilson at 11:52 PM on May 13, 2008
For those among us not afraid of mosquitoes or Bisphenol A, the LightCap 200 is a solar-powered LED light that screws onto 2" water bottles (like those from Nalgene), transforming them into lanterns. Just 75 grams heavy and weatherproof (...though "waterproof" might have been more reassuring), the US$20 LightCap seems like a practical way to reduce the load of your camping gear while still reining over wildlife as its technological master. Plus, drop it into a bottle of Gatorade and you've got yourself a party light. [Sol Lightvia OhGizmo!]
Watches were the original gadget. But unlike their silicon counterparts, good watches tend to appreciate over time. So barring that 5G iPhone prototype sitting in Jobs' desk, we believe this US$2,157,760 Patek Philippe watch just auctioned at Sotheby's may be the world's new most expensive gadget. While the watch itself is a masterpiece, its historical weight tips the scales—owned by race car driver Carlo Felice Trossi, the watch was released in 1932, "a turning point which also saw car racing and the emergence of airplanes," as described by Sotheby's. [
It was one of those wacky things we thought might not make it to the US but sure enough it has: 
The LifeCam VX-5000 is Microsoft's first attempt at a halfway decent looking webcam: a lightweight, compact unit with a flexible base, it can hook on a laptop or monitor, or rest on a desk. The 640x480 video camera (1.3MP still) has 3x digital zoom as well as pan and tilt functions. The LifeCam features a Windows Live Call button on top to quickly start video chats with contacts, and PhotoSwap, which allows you to share pictures in a virtual photo album. The ring around the camera's outside comes in blue, green, or red, a very tiny way to express your individuality. It will retail for US$50 when it comes out in June; full release after the jump. [
While much of the world is concerned about baby boomer populations of their own, we finally have the simple technologies to, if not prevent conditions like Alzheimer's, help improve the independence and quality of life for those inflicted. This Memento Memory LifeBook concept is a feasible idea for those who need constant, quick reminders and easy access to information.
Today Apple revealed its plans for WWDC, 
Whether you like the song or not—Addy says technically this is called Wimp-Pop, but it sounds more to me like Foux Da Fa Fa*—I've got to say that this music video made using The Bird and the Bee's Again and Again is mesmerising. Or at the very least, a really cool musical tour through 40 Mac OS X features and applications: it starts slow and boring with Word, but it ends being a complete explosion of synchronised eye candy using everything from Photo Booth to Stickies to Spotlight to Dashboard widgets to Stacks. See if you can distinguish each and every one of the features and apps featured, then compare it to the list after the jump (I think we are missing a few.)
Today Microsoft is hooking up all Office for Mac 2008 users with Service Pack 1. The company is also announcing the return of Visual Basic for Applications—in the next version, though, so no specified date yet. Hey, at least they heard your concerns, right? Here's a 
It's 
Today at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Show, I discovered my next workout machine: Michael Chladil's Rope and Pulley. Seriously, gone are the elliptical and the rowing machine—I'm going to install this and do the silly dance you see above every day, until I'm at least as fit as any 
Today, when we visited NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program spring 2008 show, we were immediately drawn to "Moving Parts," a crazy pinball game that's the brainchild and thesis of physical-interaction designer Daniel Soltis. It's made of real wood, with wooden buttons and plungers, but the board itself is empty, and stays that way. The game you see is merely a projection from above, but man does it feel real.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Dell is killing its four big balls XPS gaming machines (not the entire XPS line, like the standard notebooks, which are selling really well) to focus all of its juice on Alienware as its sole gaming brand. The timeline isn't overly specific, but the clock is ticking for Dell's 
So, 
CNNMoney/Fortune has a story out saying that Eve, the female character to stand opposite 
It took around a year to put together from scratch, but a German PC modder going by the name "Froop" managed to build an elaborate PC casemod inspired by the Chernobyl theme in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The result is "Unit 4," a working PC model of Chernobyl complete with a flip-top that allows you to peer into the bowels of the destroyed power plant. The construction process is outlined in its entirety in the following links, but you can check out some pics of the early stages as well as the final product in the gallery. [
The European Space Agency is looking into manufacturing intermetallic materials in zero gravity space to cut the weight of jet engines in half and increase fuel efficiency. Intermetallic materials are different than alloys in that they are combined at the molecular level, as opposed to merely melting down metals and creating a homogeneous mix. Scientists want to manufacture Titanium Aluminide up in space because on earth, the difference in the metals' weight prevents the allow from diffusing correctly. The ESA currently plans to go up to the International Space Station to conduct tests on the manufacturing process. [
When you have been roughing it where showers are hard to come by, you will be happy to to have a Universal Shower Diffuser close at hand. Basically,the device attaches to the top of a standard PET water bottle and restricts the flow of water so that it can be dispensed like a shower head when squeezed. Just make sure you don't use that bottle you took a leak in during the car ride—unless you are into that sort of thing. Available for around US$50. [
PC World Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken announced in a blog entry today that he will be stepping down in June to build his own tech site from scratch. McCracken gained notoriety last May, 
This Hardbox enclosure from Korean company Sarotech looks even more book-like than the Western Digital MyBook drives that have been around for a few years. There are two status indicator lights on the front, behind which sits 3.5-inch SATA drives that connect to your PC via USB. It's great for hiding the fact that you don't have any books but have loads of external hard drives. That is, until someone looks closer and realises you've read a book called Hardbox. Maybe Hardbox means something different in Korean. [
A newly published patent application from Nikon has revealed plans for a new viewfinder technology involving a small display screen that can be viewed within the optical viewfinder. The photographer could switch between the optical image and digital display for a number of reasons, the most notable being the ability to enable a wide viewing angle when zoomed in on a subject.
Industry numbers group NPD has just confirmed that Microsoft's Zune's sold 2 million units, just slightly under one year after it 
Bike theft is a pretty sizable problem in cities, with only the most industrial-strength locks keeping nimble-fingered thieves from taking off with your two-wheeler. This Bike Tree concept helps alleviate this problem by raising bikes up and out of reach of bike thieves. It also helps save space, allowing more bikes to be parked in a smaller area. I like it; let's see some of these installed in NYC, eh? [
We're not sure why nobody's caught this bug until now, but OpenBSD developer Marc Balmer has just closed the book on a 25-year-old flaw affecting BSD file systems. He found it when an OpenBSD user emailed him about SAMBA crashing, which he then traced to a workaround SAMBA used to function correctly on BSD systems, which he THEN traced back to a flaw that existed since August of 1983. This bug is in every single BSD system since then, including Mac OS X. The code itself was a very trivial fix, which makes it all the crazier that it took 25 years to do so. [