Careful, Old People in Japan May Pee on Your iPad [Wrongmodo]

As if there weren't enough iPad jokes already, it turns out that there's a Japanese product—a high-tech adult diaper—called the Aipad. You can guess the pronunciation by the fact that I'm even writing about this.

The Aipad has apparently been around for a while and has "2 lines of aluminium [which] can be connected by clip with a small sensor unit. When the diaper soaked, the sensor notifies it via radio waves." Basically it lets people or their caretakers know when it's time for a diaper change.

Oh, and according to Jason, "ai" means "love" in Japanese. I don't know if that's supposed to be some sort of comfort or not. [AipadWarning: PDF via Asiajin]


Adobe Busts Out Porn in iPad Flash Crusade [Flash]

Adobe is not going to take Flash's exclusion from the iPad lying down. Their latest salvo: enlisting their friends at Bang Brothers to show just how badly you're going to miss Flash video on Apple's new device.

Lee Brimelow over at TheFlashBlog provides ten examples of pages that will be incapacitated on the iPad due to the lack of Flash, ranging from Disney to Google Finance to... well, to hard core pornography. In fact, it's near the top of the list, at the intersection of Hulu and CNN.

Low blow? Possibly. But the iPad is at heart a content delivery device, and last I heard pornography was pretty popular on these here internets. Then again, given the lack of built-in kickstand, trying to watch porn on the iPad might give a whole new meaning to tablet sutra. [The Flash Blog via Wired]


Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Not Impressed With Your iPad [Blockquote]

Google's CEO rarely comments publicly on the competition. When asked directly today about the iPad, though, he couldn't resist a minor jab in Apple's direction.

Schmidt was fielding questions from reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland when he made is opinion—such as it is—of tablets known. Of course, Google also has a vested interest in the space, with more than a few upcoming slates set to run Android. Still! It's actually a pretty good point. [Guardian via Business Insider]


First Video of Russia’s T-50 Stealth Fighter Jet [Aviation]

Russia's been testing its new T-50 "Sukhhoi" stealth fighter jets and so far they're a success. This video shows the first test flight and is supposedly also the very first time the public is getting to see the bird.

With the T-50's "basic specs" including "greater agility, sustained supersonic-flight capability in non-afterburning mode, low radar visibility, low heat signature, as well as enhanced take-off and landing performance," I wonder what the upgrade options are. Either way, this successful test flight makes Russia the only country aside from the United States to have fifth-generation fighters—if you don't count the Joint Strike Fighter and it's multi-country financial backing. [Ria Novosti]


Man Sells Hacked Comcast Modems to FBI, Gets Up to 20 Years in Prison [Crime]

Matthew Delorey's business idea was to sell hacked Comcast modems which allow free Internet access. He just forgot to avoid FBI agents, conspiracy, wire fraud, and $250,000 fines. Now he may get 20 years in prison to rethink things.

Delorey wasn't doing anything insanely difficult. He was just modifying modems' MAC addresses to match those of modems whose owners were old-fashioned and actually paying for Internet access. He would've probably gotten away with selling them for a while longer had some of his buyers not been undercover FBI agents. Whoops.

The resulting conspiracy and wire fraud charges held up in federal court and a ridiculously huge fine and prison sentence were suggested. Yeah, the guy's a criminal—a stupid one—but come on. 20 years and $250K are just a bit overboard. I hope the final sentence and fine are a bit more reasonable. [Computer World via Crunch Gear]

Pictured modem is probably not one of the hacked ones. It's a picture by chaunceydavis818


Google Slowly Choking the Life Out of IE6 [Google]

Google's slowly killing compatibility for IE6 with Google Apps—as of March 1, Docs and Sites aren't supported with Internet Exploder 6 anymore. It'll load, but most of the features won't work.

Gmail and Gcal will be killing support for IE6 sometime this year TechCrunch hears, which should bring death even more swiftly to probably the most maligned web browser in history. [TechCrunch]


The iPad’s Interface and Gestures: What’s Actually New (Video) [Ipad]

The iPad is a gargantuan iPhone, perhaps more precisely than many hoped. But, if you look closely, you can see hints of what's truly coming next.

There are a few new scraps of gestures and interface bits, all thanks to the larger screen, which you can see sprinkled throughout the keynote video:

True multi-finger multitouch
Two finger swipes, three finger twirls—multitouch gestures that weren't really possible on the iPhone's tiny screen, unless you're a mouse. This is what people were excited about, and we only get a taste. Though, the gesture Phil uses to drag multiple slides in Keynote, using two hands, looks a bit awkward and belabored.

Popovers
The most significant new UI element of the iPad vs. the iPhone are popovers, which you see all over the place when you need to dive further into the interface, or make a choice from a list (since blowing up lists to full screen size doesn't make a whole lot of sense now). A box pops up, and has a list of choices or options, which might take you down through multiple levels of lists, like you see in the demo of Numbers, with selecting functions to calculate. Gruber has more on popovers, and why they're significant, here.

Media Navigator
In some ways, the media navigator Phil Schiller shows off in iWork is the most interesting bit to me: That's what Apple sees as replacing a file browser in this type of computer. It's a popover too, technically.

Long touches and drags
Lots of touch, hold and drag, something you didn't see much of in the iPhone. With more UI elements, and layers of them, you need a way of distinguishing what type of motion action you're trying to engage.

These are all pretty basic, so far, building right on top of the iPhone's established interface, but it points to the future: More fingers, more gestures, more layered UI elements and built-in browsers.