We’ve been wondering how the people behind NetShare get their app approved by Apple for the iPhone App Store. It adds the ability to tether your laptop to your iPhone, using the handset’s 3G modem as your laptop’s own, meaning you can go pretty much anywhere you can find a decent signal and have full Internet access on your laptop without Wi-Fi, all for free. And then the app was pulled from the store. And then it was back. And now it’s gone again. Hopefully you were lucky enough to grab it while it was available, because we’re not sure Apple’s going to let it out again.
This Ashton Martin DB5 is a full-sized, almost-perfect reproduction of the original Bond car–down to the front-blinkers machine guns and Ben-Hurish wheels’ blades–built using only cardboard and glue. It has no supporting structure, neither metal nor wood. Her Majesty’s cardboard spy car was built by Chris Gilmour, who has a tendency to convert everything in 1:1 scale cardboard models, from bikes to giant strong boxes to dragsters to dentist chairs, grand pianos, and portable typewriters:
This honestly sounds more like the plot of a Cheech and Chong movie than a news story, but apparently it’s true. In China, a kid named Yang was so upset that his parents wouldn’t buy him a Wii that he got together with a couple of shifty individuals and faked his own kidnapping. They then demand a ransom of about US$1,400 and were caught trying to withdraw it from an ATM. We’re assuming Yang would have had enough from his cut of the would-be payoff that he could get his own Wii without his parents help. How he’d explain why the first thing he wanted to do after being rescued was a trip to Best Buy we don’t know. [Destructoid]
This is the first look at Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), the major wild card character in the upcoming fourth installment in the Terminator series. Rumours abound about Marcus’ background – and humanness – but most of them are too spoilerific to post here, so let’s just go with what we know and see: he’s a major character, he’s not John Connor, he looks pretty serious and maybe, just maybe, there’s frayed a wire poking out from beneath his clavicle. I mean, it’s probably just his shirt, but it’s pretty suggestive. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, we might have ourselves a new Arnie. [Terminator Salvation on Giz]
This isn’t the tool box you’d likely see at your local garage right now. No, this is straight out of a gearhead’s rock n’ roll fantasy: A huge tool chest that also comes with an integrated Pioneer sound system and beer fridge. Top that off with self-illumination and built-in power strip and you’ve got almost everything you’d need. Except tools. At US$1600 it’s something you might actually start seeing in hobbyist garages soon. I know my stepdad’s going to want one. [Kobalt tools via Uncrate]
To many of us, our gadgets are like our babies: we bring them everywhere, they’re expensive, and we would go to great lengths to protect them. But just like babies, sometimes gadgets get dropped. The results are often tragic, and the guilt crippling. Maybe you haven’t drenched your new US$1600 keyboard in coffee, but have you accidentally plunked your BlackBerry in a urinal? Put your iPod through the wash? Has your adorable puppy destroyed your new laptop in a territorial gesture? What’s your worst, your most embarrassing, your most expensive or just your most ridiculous “oh, shit” gadget moment?
Windows Mobile and S60 users get an update to Google Maps this week that includes public transit stops as well as user star ratings for local businesses. The free upgrade shows not just where stops are for particular transit lines but also allows you to incorporate them into building your route. Blackberry users have had this functionality for a few weeks now and it’s likely a feature that will be updated for most other mobile operating systems in the next few weeks. [Google Mobile Blog]
The iPhone Arm keeps one hand free while using you’re the iPhone, or any other mobile device, really. It’s compatible with Jason’s favourite iPhone web app, and compliments it perfectly. It also supports Apple’s recently announced iPhone 3G videoconferencing kit, which it should be launching soon after. [Break via digg]
I don’t think John Carmack had a version of the Doom 2 and Wolfenstein RPGs in mind when he recently said that id Software was bringing something “very special” to the iPhone, but CEO Todd Hollenshead has revealed that he would like to bring both of these games to the device, which he claims is more powerful than a DS and PSP combined. The software is already being worked on for other platforms, but Hollenshead admits that it is too early to tell whether the games will be ported to the iPhone.
It appears that Duracell has developed an more portable and less expensive version of last year’s PowerSource charger with the new PowerSource Mini. This device features a lithium-ion battery pack and a mini USB pivot arm that allows you to juice up your MP3 players, mobile phones and other portable devices on the go. It also features a full-sized USB port that allows you to charge two devices at once. All-in-all the Powersource Mini should net an additional 24 hours of music on a Nano and about an hour of talk time on a Blackberry. Available now for around US$50. [Tiger Direct and Duracell via TFTS and Coolest Gadgets]
