Unlike more modern films about hacking like The Net and Hackers, Wargames has been lovingly embraced by the geek audience. And even 25 years after its release, it holds up as a thought-provoking film about a changing technological future--a future where the fate of the world really can be in one man's hands, or just as easily, the neutral clutches of an obedient piece of computer software.

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Here in Gizmodo we have this love-hate relationship with steampunk--which borders in the hate-hate most of the time. But when it comes to Star Wars redesigns, I can't help it, I'm fascinated by them, specially the new bounty hunters from Empire Strikes Back, including an omfg-I-want-it version of Boba Fett. Yoda and the rest of the characters, like the Snow Trooper, are equally as good.

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Science lab night-time routine goes like this: the experiment concludes, equipment winds slowly down. You rub bleary eyes, stretch your stiff neck, hit "save" on the data for analysis tomorrow. Then you deal with the forest of coffee mugs, flick the light switch and bumble out of the door. But the lab's still there: racks of equipment that can't be turned off humming, shining in the glow of its own LEDs... The technical bounds that give us our gadgets happen in these places of science, thought and, as it turns out, a kind of weird beauty when everyone's gone for the night. And that's the subject of this amazing photo set over at Seed Magazine. Check out the link for the full set: it'll get you thinking, or possibly reminiscing (it certainly did for me.) [Seed Magazine via Wired] Photos: Noah Kalina.

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A firmware update scheduled to drop later this week will allow Sony Readers to use the .epub format, an open standard (with DRM support) that has the backing of several major book publishers. This means you'll be able to get books from sources other than Sony's own Connect store, which currently only has one third the titles of Amazon's Kindle store. The Kindle, however, currently uses the Mobipocket format for its Kindle Store books, and does not yet support .epub. [AP]

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At US$449, MyAccountsToGo Dynamics GP and MyAccountsToGo SAP BusinessOne are the most expensive iPhone Apps available as of right now. It's under the Finance category and is designed for sales, marketing and finance people to access their transactions, statements, and other corporate terms that we have no clue about. Since the most we know about "business" is "business time", we can't say whether or not the US$449 is worth the cash, but we do know that you should buy both apps and just make it an even US$898. There's a free version if you want to know what the excitement's all about. Just don't accidentally buy the paid version.

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When Nintendo isn't busy heating their offices with a money furnaces just to wipe the sweat off their brow with money, sometimes Nintendo president Satoru Iwata takes a moment to step down from his sweaty throne to lay the smackdown (generally through a stinky sock filled with golden pirate coins) on competing consumer electronics. This time, he responded to those thinking that the iPhone might be the new DS:

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Intel has found another use for its tiny, low-power Atom chips--today they've announced intention to move into the system-on-a-chip industry, where they'll compete with ARM, MIPS, Freescale, and IBM among others to provide embeddable systems for things that aren't PCs. Namely cable boxes, manufacturing robots, security hardware, and anything else that needs an all-in-one brain. Initially they'll be using the Pentium M, but the transition to Atom should happen next year. Maybe this is what the "most of us wouldn't use Atom" talk was all about.[WSJ]

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Listen up you fools! I know that you cry and cry because you can't get a cool van like mine! Stop whining now and get the RC version for just sixty Washingtons! Or ask your mama for it if you don't have the money!

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The always fascinating and outworldly Xeni Jardin points us to this video of the Lego Blade Runner Spinner. She wrote: "Guys, you posted a while back about the badass one of a kind LEGO spinner car from Blade Runner that Joel Johnson spotted during the BBtv shoot at Syd Mead's studio. We cut an episode about it, check it out!" Actually, what Xeni meant to write was: "Witness Joel Johnson getting a stiffy touching Syd's Lego Spinner." I can't blame him. In his own words:

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Robotic hands and arms may be getting more sophisticated, but they don't really rival what we think C3-PO would have poking out of his torso. That is until now: an European science team have been busy creating the Sensopac robotic limb, and it's arguably the most human-like robotic limb yet. And partly that's because its sophistication is derived from software modelled on the human cerebellum. The arm has artificial skin that can sense force and direction in detail, and its 38 motors mimic the structure of human muscles and tendons to give it a very human-like grip.

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The Windows version of Pwnage, the iPhone 2.0 jailbreak and unlock software for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch, is out now. Like the Mac OS X version, it will free all models to install non-Apple-approved applications, but it won't unlock the iPhone 3G to liberate you from roaming charges. For unlocking you will need a special SIM card. Updated with Rapidshare mirror

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Creative is clearly in some kind of rush to get new media players out into the world: first the X-Fi, then the Krystal and now the Mozaic. It's a pretty standard offering, with music and video playing function, a 1.8-inch screen, FM radio and voice recorder, but, like the Nokia Prism, it's the keypad that makes it a teeny bit different. It's a mosaic-themed one, which you may either think is a tasteful dash of creativity, or a daft way of confusing the controls. In black, silver and pink colours, it's in either 2, 4 or 8GB versions for US$99, US$129 and $unknown. [NothingbutCreative]

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It's been a while since we've shown you anything with Sanyo's Eneloop label, but this new product bearing the wireless charging tech will sound like good news for Wiimote users fed up of awkward battery/charging solutions. Sanyo have teamed up with Nintendo to make the Eneloop Wiimote charger: and it's contactless. You simply replace the standard Wiimote back, drop it into the stand (which even accommodates silicon covers) when you're done playing, and it'll refill the batteries in 220 minutes. The stands can daisy chain off one power brick, so up to four Wiimotes can get juice at the same time. But there's a problem: apparently it's Japan only for now. Though I can't imagine it'll always be: it's just way too useful. [Akihabaranews]

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Back in January, Hitachi released the BD9H Blu-ray camcorder, and it's taken just six months for the next generation to come along. The DZ-BD10H takes the same core design, but squeezes it into a slightly smaller package. It's still a full HS palmcorder, recording to 8-cm BD, DVD-R/RW/RAM or a 30GB HDD but this time the sensor is a 7-megapixel CMOS and the camera has the ability to write stills and movies to SD/SDHC cards too.

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Philippe Kahn, founder of Borland, camera phone pioneer and guy who helped make that Fullpower MotionX-Poker iPhone game is making yet another run at the Pacific Cup, double handing from SF to Hawaii. I took these shots of them leaving the bay this Saturday on a Nikon D300 and you can see the progression from balmy Sausalito sun to foggy, rough, 30-knot bay sailing. And then into the open ocean.

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At Facebook's annual f8 conference this afternoon it was revealed that iPhone app developers will be able to integrate apps with Facebook Connect--in other words, apps will be able to link up to and share data with your Facebook account, so your identity will be consistent and linked across apps through your Facebook account. Think of it like this:

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Back in 2006, 3 introduced an IP webcam that you could monitor on your 3G phone. It was called the 3 Eyecam, it was about the size of a coffee mug and it was a HUGE failure. From the fact that it beeped when you connected to it, to the terrible video quality, it was panned universally for being the suckiest security camera ever.

Now, two years later, Optus is offering a similar IP security vision solution. Dubbed the Securecam, it allows Optus 3G customers the ability to monitor their home or office via a private IP camera.

Users can easily install the camera themselves, and can receive SMS or email notification if the camera detects movement. They can then check the camera via an IP address or a compatible Optus 3G phone.

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Samsung has a new slider on the market in Europe and we're hoping it finds its way over here. The i8510 is a S60-powered GSM phone with very fast 3G speeds and Wi-Fi, as well as GPS. What makes this high-end phone lust-worthy, though, is the 8 Megapixel multifunction camera with Xenon flash that can record video at up to 120 frames per second. It also has image stabilisation and face recognition as well as other features. Couple that with Bluetooth 2 and 16GB of internal flash storage and you've got a serious, slim phone for T-Mobile users. And it looks really nice, too. [Symbian Guru]

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This week's over-the-top I Survived... challenges didn't have as much gadgety goodness as usual, but were strangely satisfying nonetheless. First, Velcro-clad contestants were dangled in front of of a teammate, who would try to pass them Velcro balls to catch. The objective was for the dangler, manipulated by two other contestants, to collect as many balls as possible without getting hit too many times by their opponent, stationed behind a cool pneumatic ball cannon.
Sort of boring, right? Well the second challenge was way better. Fans of MXC (Takeshi's castle, for non-Americans) will recognise the false door game, where contestants have to get through a series of doors, some soft and fake, some real and hard. ISJGS takes it to the next level, forcing contestants to swing - not run - into the doors.

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Remember that Aurora Feint Puzzle/RPG game that we told you we liked? Turns out we don't like it anymore. In fact, we're actually pretty damn scared of this app, seeing as Apple de-listed them from the App Store due to privacy and security issues. To the developer's credit, they were forthright with what they did and didn't do.

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iOpener's GPS technology is made so you can take real-time data from an F1 race and use it to race against those same drivers in a video game. By placing combination of Differential GPS and an Inertial Management Unit on a car, it can track its location accurate to 30cm and get the data to gamers in under 5 seconds. iOpener doesn't plan to develop games themselves, but want to make the technology open to developers, and believe the idea could span across other genres, such as biking or snowboarding. [BBC News via Gizmag]

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Three of the best mobile browsers that act like grown up ones are Mobile Safari, Skyfire and Opera Mobile 9.5. Even though the latter two (both for Windows Mobile) are still betas, Laptop Mag decided to toss them all into a race anyway, seeing which could deliver piping hot content the fastest. They ran Opera and Skyfire on an AT&T HTC Tilt, so everyone was surfing on the same 3G network with beefy hardware. Spoiler: Skyfire delivered pages in one third of the time it took Safari or Opera. It's because Skyfire cheats.

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Anyone who's watched to the end of an episode of Lost knows the Bad Robot mascot. You know the little bastard who taunts you with his eyes, saying, "I know exactly how the rest of Lost unfolds, but you're just going to have to wait for it piece by piece, you poor slobs." To commemorate your slow, painful wait, JJ Abrams had these limited edition figurines made in a batch of 500. They're giving away 3 of them at Comic-con this week, where they'll be showing off a pilot of their new show, Fringe. What's cool is that they prototyped these figures in house on the same 3D printer they designed the Cloverfield monster and the new Star Trek movie's phasers on.

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Pre-orders for the awesome Aptera electric car opened up last year, but the company has been relatively quiet about their progress as of late. Google's philanthropic arm has just thrown a cool US$2.75 million their way, and now they're being a little more forthright: the Aptera Typ-1 is due this year, same specs, at about US$30,000. Both full electric and plug-in hybrid flavours will be available. Given electric car startups' propensity for disappointing failure, it's comforting to see this especially promising one get a vote of confidence from Papa Goog. [CNET]

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Our good friend David Flynn over at APCMag got himself a bit of a scoop chatting with Mark Whittard from Toshiba - apparently they're seriously planning to launch an Eee PC killer in the near future.

Although there's very little info about the device at all, Mark did say that it would most likely feature a nine-inch screen, feature a (relatively) large SSD drive, run on an Atom processor and run Windows rather than Linux.

Interestingly, Mark used the apparently used the term ULPC to describe the device, with the "L" standing for "low-cost" rather than "light". Which should be the perfect way to confuse customers even more than they already are.

He also mentioned that they're goal in entering the space was to "produce a premium ULPC or mini-note at a slightly higher price by adding "a few hundred dollars" to the sticker".

As good as it is to have another player enter the low-cost laptop market, openly stating that you're trying to drive up the cost isn't going to win you too many friends with consumers looking for a super-cheap lappy. After all, they've already got the Eee, the MSI wind and the Acer Aspire Blue... Why pay $800 when you can get away with $500?

[APCMag]

A part of the American Dream is to be able to retire comfortably in your favourite area, say on a lake, with a large home. But not everyone dreams the same, some people love giant water slides, and this family went a little nuts and installed one inside their house for the kids. Not for the adults, mind you, the kids. It's thirty inches in diameter and totals thirty feet long, all indoors. It's built to wrap around the used parts of the house so you'd never notice. This is pretty damn cool and makes me resent my parents even more for never doing anything remotely this cool, ever. [The Craig Caboodle]

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Lifehacker covered the web version of PageOnce already, but think of it is as a web portal that displays all your various utility, credit card and shopping accounts in one page for easy glance-ability. This is the exact same thing, except on your iPhone. We love it.

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