The part of scheduled keynote speaker Julian Assange, the Australian hacker US agents have made it clear they would like to question, was played by Jake Appelbaum today at HOPE. More »
The ChouChou Robotic Butterfly is just like a real butterfly, except it can live forever. Or at least until its battery runs out. You won't even know the difference, just watch it fly. [Japan Trends] More »
You remember those billboards in Minority Report, the ones that personalize what they display depending on who stands in front of it. Tokyo is rolling out digital billboards that do the same thing. More »
I don't drink wine but if I did, I would totally buy this wine glass. It fits an entire bottle of wine—all 750ml of that bitter grape juice—in its 9-inch tall, super sized goblet. [Amazon via The Awesomer] More »
The iChatr app has been removed from the App Store due to "a number of users exposing themselves during the random video chat sessions." What did Apple think was going to happen when they approved it? More »
So Motorola spoke up on the Droid X's eFuse issue: if you install unapproved ROMs on your Droid X, your phone won't break. It'll just go into recovery mode and be unusable until you install Motorola approved software. Gee, thanks Moto. More »
Apparently, everyone has long been baffled by how Leonardo da Vinci created such subtle shadows and light on the Mona Lisa. So much so that scientists X-rayed the painting to discover his technique. More »
This a test video captured by the iPhone 4 with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens attached. It's pretty impressive. More »
In his search to create the perfect poached egg, our own matt buchanan documented his journey in the NY Times Diner's Journal blog. Check out the various gizmos and kitchen appliances he tests and the surprising (to me, at least) conclusion he reaches here. [NY Times Diner's Journal] More »
RIM and Nokia have responded to Apple's claim that all smartphones have the same attenuation and signal loss issue that the iPhone 4 has. Here's what they said: More »
Hulu Plus got a lot of attention in its iPad/iPhone incarnations. But it's also the smoothest, most polished media experience I've ever had on my PS3. And to some extent, it really is the Holy Grail: Hulu on TV. More »
Jeff Potter plays with his food, and wants to get you to as well. He experiments with equipment, techniques, chemistry, even the psychology and genetics of flavor. Sometimes it's delicious, and sometimes he blows up the kitchen. Sometimes both. More »
This beautiful handmade knife is shaped entirely from fiber optic glass. You know, the stuff that gives us super fast internet. A knifemaker used a process called knapping, a throwback method of shaping stones into useful tools, to form it. More »
iHome wants to get rid of your loose cables and chargers and replace them with their base docking station. The not-so-elegantly named iB969 is a good looking hub that charges your iPhone, iPad, and any ol' gadget that connects through USB. More »
The results from the Messenger spacecraft's third and final flyby of Mercury are finally in and cover ground never before mapped. But they leave scientists wanting more. More »
Facing the worst image crisis in Steve's Second Kingdom's history, Apple will officially talk about the iPhone 4 antenna problem this Friday. Probably. Nobody really knows what they will say but, if you guess right, you can win a free pizza. More »
Anandtech has studied apple's new 4.01 OS update, and found that the new formula for displaying bars covers a much greater dynamic range. That is, it will show lower and higher signals than before, assigning those more extreme values as 1 and 5 bars. This means it'll require more signal to show higher bars, with the result of the iPhone showing 5 bars less often, but also showing "no service" less often, too. [anandtech via macrumors] More »
It's late and you're feeling bored? Head over to #whitenoise! The folks there are bound to make you giggle like crazy. More »
On the left, we have an issue of Popular Science from 1925. On the right we have an issue of the same magazine from 2010. So many years later and we're still focused on the future rather than the present. More »
You'd think a facility belonging to a private contractor working for the U.S. Special Operations Command would be well-secured, but seven thieves managed to park two semitrailer trucks next to it and spend nine hours loading them up with laptops. More »
