Authorities haven’t said what the charges will be exactly, but here’s hoping whatever they are they involve this asshat paying back every cent he owes the authorities after they chased down that now infamous—and empty—Mylar balloon over Colorado. At least.

Police searched the Heene home early Sunday morning, and have scheduled a 1 p.m. EST press conference, where they will update us all on what’s going down. “We anticipate criminal charges will be filed sometime in the near future,” said Sheriff Jim Alderden in an interview with CNN this morning.

You wanted publicity, Richard Heene? You got it. [CNN, Gawker]

The damage is so extensive it looks as though the iPhone was dropped by an astronaut, survived re-entry and smashed into the car like a meteor. Needless to say, I am immediately inclined to drop this in the “phony” file—although I applaud the over-the-top imagery. [iphonenieuws via iphoneclub]

Here’s the creator’s explanation, in his own (poorly written) words. It was all just a prank, for some unknown reason!

I am sorry if you beleived it. It was a really bad attempt. You all are smart people. I never planned on it getting this big. But it did. (Come one, I know the Google logo. I am actually a graphic designer, I just wanted to see reactions if it was a crappy back.)

Oh, right, I also DO know CSS and HTML. Just clarifying that. I never was going to let this go on longer than 12 hours.

We’re mostly just disappointed, since a more professional mockup would’ve been so much harder to disprove. Couldn’t he have waited one day and gotten the damn Google colours right? [Faker's Blog via PC Mag]

This decrepit-looking camera is actually disguised in preparation for a trip overseas: It’s intentionally damaged and taped up on the surface, but is actually in perfect working order to mislead potential thieves. Clever! [MAKE]

According to a 9to5 reader, this perfect rendering, photoshop, or whatever the hell it is came inside a Russian magazine. My knowledge of Russian doesn’t go beyond “hey, wanna dance?”, “cheers,” and “you have beautiful blue eyes, let’s go back to mine” so I don’t have a clue about what this page is saying. If you speak the language of Dostoyevsky, drop me a line because I want to know.

Whatever they claim it is, I don’t care. It just looks too good and perfect to be true—which is why I want it to be real: It’s exactly as I can imagine it will be. And with the perfect, dream technical specs to boot:

• 10.4″ WXGA display.
• 1280 x 768 pixel with LED backlighting.
• NVIDIA MCP79
• Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz with 1MB L2 cache.
• 2GB DDR3-800.
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
• 64GB Solid State Drive.
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
• 1 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Mini Display Port
• Battery Li-Ion 5100mA

According to them, it will come sometime in 2009 for $US899. You know, delivered to your door by ten flying Russian mail order brides, all of them virgin. Or something like that. [9to5]

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, but this beautiful site design and clever ad campaign comes from… the Nova Scotia Tourism Board?!

It’s a great viral video, and all the little touches show that somebody’s really spent some time crafting it. Part dream phone (projector with full HD?) and part whimsy (the harmonica is hilarious), this is one of the best viral campaigns I’ve ever seen. I love the pitch-perfect narrator, the slick site design, and the fruit-based mockery (Apple + Blackberry = Pomegranate?). Of course, as soon as I found out it was an ad for Nova Scotia, I stopped paying attention. [Pomegranate Phone]

A camera crew visited Yaroo headquarters to inquire into the strange resemblance between it’s logo and that of Japan’s most popular search engine (that’s right… Yahoo! is Japan’s most popular search engine).

But the company spokesman denied that theirs was an imitation. The spokesman explained that the name “Yaroo” was a play on the Japanese word “Yaru,” which means “do.” Since they’ll do anything. Including copy stuff, presumably. Ya-boo. [Pink Tentacle]

Click on the image for high definition version

In fact, I’ve spent most of my day looking up planets that I never heard of. [Trukstop via Wookieepedia via Dark Roasted Blend]

Who could have guessed that the most prescient technologist of our day would be a relatively unknown British sketch comedian?

Peter Serafinowicz, of the possibly acclaimed Peter Serafinowicz Show, has put together a couple videos in the style of Apple’s stodgy online product demonstration videos, imagining two new products from the company. The iToilet, below, is relatively uninspired (it’s funny because it’s impossible, and something to do with bathrooms! Ha!) but the Mactini is kind of fantastic. Not to mention Serafinowicz’s wonderfully convincing half-Jobs, half-generic-demo-guy character, who is only a wandering eye outside of fitting right into Apple’s product tour rotation. UPDATE: It turns out that Serafinowsicz is partially responsible for the hilarious Look Around You series, so this sketch is no fluke. The vids are taken from his forthcoming Christmas special sketch show, which you can preview here. [Cult of Mac]

Apple Announces Last Year of Christmas

CUPERTINO, California–December 16, 2008–Apple® today announced that this is the last year for Christmas. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, spoke at a joint press conference held with Santa Claus at the North Pole this morning. He announced: “Apple has been honored to work with the North Pole the last several years to make Christmas possible, however, we have decided together that this is the last year for Christmas.”

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, Christmas has become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways, throughout the year.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on holidays in recent years, including Valentine’s Day, Columbus Day, President’s Day and Grandparents Day in Japan.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Press Contacts:
Buddy Elf
Apple
elf@apple.com

Papa Elf
North Pole
elf@santasworkshop.np

[Apple Canceled Christmas]