What exciting tech will you be playing with this weekend? New phones? Laptops? Tell us about it in comments…

“Cable Drawings” is a series of installations by artist Maisie Maud Broadhead in which pesky cords are incorporated into the very decor of one’s home.

But as Lifehacker points out, this technique need not be for the pretentious class alone. Adhesive wire clips, like those used in the lead photo, are available on the cheap. And you’ve spent years perfecting your perspective of the crudest of body parts already. [Maisie Maud Broadhead via Design Lounge via Unplggd via Lifehacker]

Of course, once you’ve transferred her collection of Neil Diamond MP3s and photos of cats using the cable, you’ll probably never use it again. Personally I’d use the $50 to buy a nice case of beer, but then again I’m hot and thirsty at the moment.

[Belkin]

The full story is over at Wired, and is quite interesting, but one of the effects achieved was to basically reverse Parkinson’s disease in mice. You should head over to find more, including what they’ll do to get around the need to thread fibre through your skull. [Wired]

The Price

$US70

The Verdict

It works, but damn if it isn’t expensive.

If you’re not really married to the higher quality digital audio, you might be better off getting the USB audio version for $US50, which performs basically the same service for $US20 less.

As for this unit, it definitely works—we’ve been using it on a Mac Mini hooked up to a 1080p TV for a week—and there are no dropouts or weird signal noise inconsistencies that we can see. Everything is plug and play, and you should have no problem using it on your 5.1 audio system.

Again, at $US70, it’s only really useful if Mini DisplayPort is your only display output, otherwise you can come up with a cheaper solution involving a series of cheaper tubes. [Kanex Live]

It works

It’s very expensive

If the idea of 7000 odd kilometres of cable being laid on the ocean floor kinda gets you hot and steamy, this video has a heap of cable porn for you to watch and enjoy. Not to mention a soundtrack that could replace the global need for coffee…

Taiwanese Foci fibre Optic Communication said to CNET that “it will start mass producing both the internal cables as well as Light Peak-based, USB-like cables at the start of 2010″. CNET speculates that—in a build-on-demand world—mass production generally indicates consumer product launches.

Now, once upon a time, Apple went to Intel and adopted USB for its original iMac, deprecating all previous peripheral connectivity ports—like ADB and serial buses—in favour of Intel’s standard. In the process, as the iMac exploded in popularity, it made USB extremely popular. On the other side, Apple failed to make FireWire—their own high-speed standard—as popular as USB, even while it was way faster and more flexible than USB. The reason: Intel didn’t put its weigh behind it. Intel’s USB success, however, wouldn’t have happened as fast without Apple’s help and the iMac.

Now it’s 2009. Reportedly, Intel came up with Light Peak and went to Apple to ask for opinions, and Apple got heavily involved in it because they have some needs. Obviously, both want Light Peak to happen. Light Peak, which uses USB-style connectors and fibre optics cables to achieve its ultra-fast 10gbps connectivity, could route traffic from any other transport technology, from DisplayPort to FireWire to USB 3.0.

One single port to rule them all. Obviously, you can see the simplicity-obsessed Apple’s interest in this.

So I’m going to take a leap of logic and faith to give you this wild conclusion: Given Foci’s mass-production schedule, I bet you a stack of pancakes that Apple will be the first to introduce new computers and gadgets with Light Peak as soon as early 2010. [Cnet]

Update: It’s starting!
11:02: Oh God, Andrew O’Keefe is MC. Bad jokes about the weather abound…
11:05: Oh frak! Lost my camera…
11:06: Found it. OK, 6900 km of cable connecting Guam to Sydney.
11:07 Bevan Slattery, CEO of Pipe Networks taking the stage.
11:07: iiNet put the idea forward to Pipe back in 2006. Bevan laughed at the idea. Then after another contact had conversation lamenting difficulty getting content to Australia from OS.
11:08: Tagline: “Not about capacity, it’s about competition.”
11:10: PPC-1 (pipe pacific cable Number 1)
11:11: Had to endure FUD campaigns from operators, plus GFC. Needed $80 million for the job, but had a lot of trouble getting it.
11:12: Developed a plan to move forward without the banks while facing insolvency — crap, this whole thing could have gone sour really quickly.
11:14: Will you get bigger quotas? Yes. Cheaper plans? Yes. In fact you’re already getting them.
11:15: Added bonus: redundancy in cables to Asia. Awesome.
11:16: A video now. Sydney harbour… Oh wait, this thing’s in the press kit. I’ll post it when I’m not just using a mobile internet key to connect to the net. It’s got a pretty full-on soundtrack for a video about pipes…
11:18: There’s something weirdly sexual about a huge metal pipe moving through a ship…
11:20: Clip’s done, O’Keefe’s back on stage.
11:22: David Coughlan, CEO of Tyco Telecommunications is on stage. They’re the guys that laid the cable.
11:24: History of Pipe/Tyco partnership being discussed. Tyco wondered how Pipe would manage to pay for something 4x their annual revenue.
11:25: The contract between Tyco and Pipe were signed only 20 months ago. That’s just crazy!
11:27: Now Bevan’s back on stage. Talking about the cable. 1.92TB system.
11:28: Maximum of $US30 million debt for Pipe International — the pipe itself is debt free.
11:29: Thanking partners: Michael Micket from iiNet, John Lindsay from Internode, Peter Loko from Telikom PNG plus a “customer who can’t be named” (who’s probably Google).
11:32: And a lot more people from Tyco, Tata, Pipe…they’re all up on stage.
11:35: Video from Guam — PPC-1 is active!
11:36: To showcase the pipe in action, there are two 103-inch Plasmas streaming HD content from Guam. I can tell you it looks awesome!
11:37: All done! I’ll pop some stats online a little later today. This is a huge day for Aussie broadband.

*The cable spans over 6,900km between Guam and Collaroy
*There are 78 Tyco Telecom repeaters on the system, spaced 92km apart (on average)
*The pipe has a 1.92TB capacity
*Pipe networks guarantees 99.999% uptime
*Every metre of the cable had to be manually placed into the ships that were laying it.
*Internode were the first customer to trial the connection prior to today’s launch

The Griffin cable uses the Panasonic eXport port standard, which is approved by Apple under the “Works with iPhone” and “Made for iPod” programs. The eXport port technology is now available for licensing by other in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems manufacturers.

The port allows the IFE system to access and display the iPhone/iPod’s multimedia content. as well as navigate through the user playlists, and content-metadata like artists or genre. Right now, you can find it in United Airlines—only in first class—and Continental Airlines’ new Boeing 777s.

Hopefully, all airlines will now start including these ports in every single aeroplane seat out there, which would give me an excuse to stop flirting with stewardesses. If I were living in the sexy, glamorous and not-very-SFW 70s, that is. [Runway Girl]