Channel 7′s new ad for TiVo has hit the airwaves (and YouTube), and it’s not too bad an effort – towers made from videos build up around an animated TiVo icon, which then sucks them all down inside it at the end of the ad.
The problem is, like Sony’s bunny ad before it, this one borrows pretty heavily from someone else’s work. In this case though, it’s not some obscure artist that’s been ripped off, it’s Apple.
Wow! The iPhone hysteria has been a bit insane this past week, hasn’t it? Well, to try and counter the madness, we’re giving away another Nokia N78 to one lucky reader. Last week’s winner was Jon, who make me chuckle with his line about two tins and string – what can I say, I was overtired!
This week, we’ve got another N78 to give away thanks to Nokia. But this time, the question’s a little bit tougher: In 25 words or less, we need you to tell us: “What’s the best way you would make use of the integrated GPS functionality on the new Nokia N78?“. Answers in comments to this post – I’ll be judging this one on Friday at 5pm.
So start entering! This is your last chance at N78 greatness!
Unbreakable Fighting Umbrellas have been around for a little while now, but today we know of one government that actually uses them to protect its president. That government is the Philippines, and the protected president is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Further testimonials for the US$180 multi-purpose weapon/rainstopper from Secret Service agencies beyond the Philippines are just as glowing: “Your product is simple and affective as we saw in your video. I can carry it everywhere. Many other agencies wanted to know where they could purchase this umbrella,” said one proud customer on the Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella product page. If you haven’t seen the video yet, it’s worth a look, for nothing else than the fact that Thomas Kurz (“the world’s foremost expert on flexibility training”) uses one of these rainstoppers to chop a watermelon in two.
About a year ago, the Batmobile case mod lit up the internets with a design crafted from a Wal-Mart R/C Tumbler. The mod still kicks arse, but the specs were lame a year ago and are now…one year lamer. Still, it would make for a unique web surfing device and a great way to celebrate the opening of the new movie. Plus, its pretty cheap at the moment (although there is still a week left). [eBay via Geekalerts]
Design Toscano wants you to “expect the extraordinary from your home and garden,” and that includes the walking dead. Take this 5.9kg resin undead garden zombie, for example. Designed by British artist Alan Dickinson, it’s a life-sized resin sculpture that would be a terrifying addition to any lawn, garden or personal graveyard.
The burning question answered by these pics from Crackberry: What does the touchscreen BlackBerry’s keyboard look like? As rumoured, landscape gets you full QWERTY, while portrait mode drops you to SureType to squeeze in all the buttons. It’s straightforwardly utilitarian–taking up a massive amount of screen real estate, it definitely lacks in the glitz department. Here’s a shot of the SureType keyboard:
Oh how I love complicated DIY projects that impress your geeky friends but make simple tasks more difficult! Case in point, this Clove 2 glove that allows users to type without a keyboard using a convoluted set of hand gestures. The glove communicates with your computer using Bluetooth and custom software that translates your finger movements into keyboard actions. I can see how something like this would be useful in a simpler form, so if you are up to that challenge you can start with the complete set of instructions for building the base Clove 2 glove.
If laws about driving and using mobile phones in American cities are cramping your style, move to scenic India where anything goes! Watch in horror as this lunatic barrels down the highways of New Delhi sending text messages. Hey, why stop there? Yeah, go on and take that nap. Your fellow motorists will love it and the police…haha what police? [Geekologie]
A few Apple App Store developers have apparently taken a page from the line cutting Steve Wozniak today, and are using a loop hole in the service’s naming conventions to shoot their apps to the top of the list. The story goes that certain developers are cutting to the head of the class with sneakily inserted spaces and quotation marks. One “offender” is Jirbo, Inc., which put a space in front of all of its games’ titles. All Jirbo games now appear at the top of the alphabetical App Store games list.
