Virgin Mobile today finished its acquisition of nerd fave Helio. The deal was finished today with US$38 stock transaction to EarthLink and SK Telecom. This means that Virgin is hands down the largest MVNO in America, and it also means it could expand even more sing it can now offer both pre-paid and post-paid plans as well as the high-end devices from Helio. But the question remains: Will it be able to make money? [Press Release]
Kevin Rose’s Apple crystal ball has been wrong more often than not (he was sorta right about US$199 iPhone), but this time he’s seen pictures people! (“It looks pretty cool.”) He says that not only will the new iPod nano be tall and skinny and giant-screened like we’ve heard, he says it’ll be rounded (like iPhone 3G’s ass-side, but all the way around), and even provides this handy rendering. His other rumourage, like a huge iTunes update with for-real new features, is all way more reasonable than his past forecasting, so they’re actually possible too!
It’s part bike and part skateboard and it looks all fun. It’s the Freestyle Dirtsurfer and it’s a new hybrid like toy for all of you X Games types who can’t wait for winter to get here soon enough. One neat touch is a Razor-scooter-like brake on the back wheel so you don’t end up in the ER the first time you try it on a downhill. And for US$450, you really don’t want to crash it too much. [ExExEq via Like Cool]
Apple might neglect the Mac mini more than apparently hipsters do showers in mid-August, but some people love it enough to lavish it with the attention no one else does. Hideo Takano is one of those people, transforming the little fetish block into other boxes people obsess over: an over-sized Lego block for Apple-loving manboys to dream of building a Mac minizord, and a cute little gas can for pyromaniacs. Or simply other Macs–like a Quadra or a Mac Pro. We really love the bright red gas can:
Albatron has launched a new UMPC-like devices called the Tee PC that could be an interesting media tablet. It has a touchscreen and stylus for input, runs Windows CE 6, and comes with all kinds of connectivity including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and has a built-in swiveling webcam for on-the-go conferencing. It’s not beefy specs-wise, running on a 400MHz ARM processor, but it should handle most Internet tasks just fine. [Hot Hardware]
If you liked Johnny Chung Lee’s Wii headtracking tricks you will love iHologram, a stunning iPhone app that makes the screen look like a window to a real, parallel dimension. While it seems like magic, it uses anamorphosis, a very simple painting technique that has been used by old masters since the 15th century, mixed with the technology in the JesusPhone.
The mad scientist behind this hack was faced with a problem. His beloved Amazon Kindle had a shattered screen and was all but dead. Distraught, he thought to himself: “what if I could sacrifice a Sony reader and perform and unholy cross species screen transplant? Yeah, it just might work because the e-ink screens on both devices are nearly identical.”
Besides being a magnet for penis puns, this pen is absolutely bursting with functionality that will leave just about any tool junkie satisfied. At the most basic level you get a handsome stainless steel ballpoint pen, but it can also transform into “a hole puncher, a stainless steel file, a short cutting blade, a flat screwdriver, a wire sleeve remover/small nail remover, an ear pick, a long cutting blade, a tweezer, a Philips screwdriver, and a stainless steel fork and a saw.” It could very well be the best US$15 you ever spend outside of a bordello my friend. [Firebox via SlipperyBrick via OhGizmo]
Forget about that treehouse bedroom I wrote about yesterday, the new mark to beat comes from superdad Steve Norris who spent 15 months building his kids a treehouse so epic it became newsworthy in Canada. Suspended in a tree 4 metres up, the fort features electricity, cable TV, an intercom system, a makeshift urinal, smoke detectors and a trap door warning signal wired to the main house. He even set up an intruder alarm using old fire horns that sounds like an air raid siren when it goes off.
We got our first look at the Folderix folder-shaped USB drive from Art Lebedev when it was in the concept phase. It took over a year to bring to market (that’s Lebedev for you), but it appears that they took that time to subtly streamline the quirky little drive. You can pick up a 4GB now in yellow, blue or purple for US$55. [Art Lebedev via Electronista]
