Thursday, December 4, 2008

Science

First Teddie Bear Astronauts Conquer Space

11:38PM December 4, 2008 | Jesus Diaz

Yesterday the Japanese announced the first space beer. Now the British are claiming the first teddy bear astronauts, who were photographed in space from a home-made vessel with two digital cameras, a flight computer, GPS, and radio.

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Mobile

The Blackberry Storm Screen Takes on a Knife

11:13PM December 4, 2008 | Mark Wilson

Yes, my friends, the Blackberry Storm screen may be the hardest material on Earth.

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Gadgets

Tokyo Street Watches Graph the Time, Shoot It, or Turn It Into Some Bugs

10:17PM December 4, 2008 | John Herrman

These watches from Tokyo Street take three novel approaches to telling time: one draws a target, the other makes a graph, and the last displays ants. Glowing, inscrutable little ants.

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Entertainment

Netflix Watch Instantly For Mac Now Available For All Subscribers

9:09PM December 4, 2008 | John Herrman

Netflix’s Silverlight-based Watch Instantly feature for Macs is out of beta, and activated for all subscribers. The catalog still isn’t complete and the six machine limit stands, but good news is good news. [Netflix —Thanks, Ben!]

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Software

Well What Do You Know, It’s a New Windows 7 Boot Screen

8:32PM December 4, 2008 | John Herrman

Each release of Windows treats us to a new boot screen. XP had its endless progress bar, and Vista added its emblem. Windows 7, though, gets a glowing Microsoft blob.

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Computing

Coby to Release $US100 ‘Midget’ Laptop to Sell in Rite-Aid, Kroger

7:58PM December 4, 2008 | John Herrman

Just as we’re coming to grips with the entire netbook phenomenon, low end manufacturer Coby comes up with something even lamer. “[Midget PCs]are smaller than a netbook but not THAT small.” Midget PCs. Lovely.

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Geek Out

Space Age Fetishism Getting Silly New Moniker: Atompunk

6:00PM December 4, 2008 | Elaine Chow

Are you obsessed with Sputnik, the Space Race, Google architecture and radioactive powers for superheroes? Look out, it seems like your fetish is about to get a name: “Atompunk.”

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Gadgets

Late 1800s Studley Tool Chest is Function and Form

4:30PM December 4, 2008 | Elaine Chow

Sometimes, things as mundane as tool kits can look like great works of art. This piano repair box, perfected by Henry Studley, does a great job of fixing up instruments, but it’s careful placement of knicknacks also makes it beautiful.

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Dealzmodo: Save 50% On BigPond Music Vouchers

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4:00PM December 4, 2008 | Nick Broughall

I generally don’t buy music online – I’m still a purist at heart who likes to own all my music on CDs. If I was planning on spending some online dollars on some tunes though, I’d be all over this deal from BigPond – essentially they’re offering 50% off the price of a $50 or $100 BigPond Music gift card. You can’t pick them up online, which means you actually have to go to the shops, but considering BigPond sell a good chunk of their music (from all the majors) in non-DRM’d MP3 format, it’s easy to buy the music from BigPond then transfer it over to iTunes (or other music management software for the half-dozen Apple haters out there). Deal runs until December 31st, so maybe it’s that perfect last-minute Xmas gift for that hard to please colleague?

[BigPond Music via Lifehacker] More »


Software

Japan Mobile Phone App Gives Fashion Advice Based on Your Face

3:00PM December 4, 2008 | Elaine Chow

Japan mobile phone app maker J-Magic has released a useful update to its celebrity look-a-like app, “Kao Cheki.” Called “Shoubu Co-de Cheki,” it offers fashion advice based on mobile snapshots of your face. Anyone want to make this for the iPhone?

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