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iPod Nano Switches Left and Right Channels With Headphone Insert
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 8:40 AM on October 11, 2008
If you have a new 4th-gen nano and a decent ear, you may have noticed something funny: After putting it to sleep, if you wake it up by inserting headphones, the left and right channels switch. I tried this with the most obvious stereo mix of all time, David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and it's really easy to duplicate yourself. While it's easy to correct, it's still definitely a weird, weird bug. Thanks to reader Matt for bringing it to our attention, and posting a thread at iLounge. Have you noticed it or any other weird glitches, like Genius' pathological avoidance of the lovely Norah Jones? (I'm serious, try it!)
Insert your finger into the Tutukki Bako (Tutukki Box) and you probably won't feel much. Unless you look at the screen, you wouldn't know that you were clumsily stoking a tiny panda, a small, terrified man or even a woman's understandably unhappy face with an inappropriate-looking appendage. This lovely toy will superimpose a live digital representation of your digit on a couple of equally unsettling scenes and costs about $US30, though it's only available in Japan for now (and probably forever). I'm not sure what need or desire this fulfills, but if anyone knows please feel free not to let me know. Bonus screens after the jump. [
Sony's site has an absolutely hilarious page explaining how Intel's Core 2 Duo chip helps you multitask with cartoons featuring two odd, party-hat-wearing elfin caricatures. Read on for my analysis, with the caveat that I speak not a word of Japanese.
Designed by artist Francesca Lanzavecchia, NightMates are "soft anthropomorphic pillows and warming lamps" that are supposed to keep you company (and comfy) at night. They come in different sizes, depending on how much anthropomorphic love you need, but you might wanna stick with the smaller ones that are more like Glo-Worms—the full sized ones are more than a little creepy, like something that slithered off the cover of one of my roommate's NSFW manga collection to do wrong things to you while you sleep. [
Mmm, mind-bending USB lollipops, the "delicious new confectionery uses cutting edge Sensory Substitution Technology to transmit vivid emotive images into your mind's eye." Wait, what? Tripping via USB? Shockingly, it might actually be legit.
Looks like Asus is sniffing out the next big thing now that it's found heaps of success with its EeePC concept, and has decided that what the world really needs is a notebook that can function both as a mid-range computer and an Air Wick. The Asus F6 boasts a 13.3 inch screen, an integrated webcam, an Intel Core2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DRAM support, up to 320GB of HD space and comes in four scents - Floral Blossom, Musky Black, Morning Dew and Aqua Ocean. Asus doesn't say how long the fragrance is supposed to last, or whether you can reapply it. But for a couple of days at least, when the patrons of your local coffee shop wrinkle up their noses and ask "What's that smell?" you can proudly say "Me." [
Nokia's teaser site that promised the 
Back in 1922, a mechanical engineer began building his summer home in Rockport, Massachusetts out of paper. Originally used just as insulation, Elis Stenman soon began to make furniture and decorations out of paper as well. What resulted was Rockport's Paper House, which is remarkably still standing after 80 years. Stenman's grandniece is now in charge of the house, which was turned into a museum in the 1930s.
The FanWing has to be weirdest aircraft ever devised: it doesn't use rotors or jets for propulsion, but a patented "distributed-propulsion vortex-lift" technology which is similar to the blade cylinders used in harvesting machines. In fact, that's exactly what it looks like, a flying harvester. This prototype was presented at the recent Farnborough International Air Show, and seeing it flying in the video is weird, to say the least.
Kajima's floor-by-floor slow demolition is one of those rare things in life that leaves you truly speechless, mouth wide-open, and pinching yourself to be sure this is real while you mutter "what the frak." After all, seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie. The stunning process--called daruma-otoshi--is not only almost surrealistic but it helps to reduce the environmental impact. Seriously, I can watch this for hours:
