Aside from access to SDKs, Apple developers get access to new OSs for Apple's portables and computers before the public. Now, buying your way in to the Mac Developer Program costs about the same as MobileMe.

Formerly a $500 to $3500 proposition, Apple has combined development memberships on all their platforms into one $100/year offer. For developers, that means developing for OS X is really no more expensive than developing for the iPhone. For fanboys, that means you can download the next beta OS without the need of a torrent. [Apple via 9to5Mac and Macworld]

Helloooo, sad people still clinging to Halo 2 on your original Xbox. As you know, Xbox Live for the OG Xbox is being turned off in 6 short weeks. Microsoft feels bad kinda about it! So they're giving you 400 Xbox Live points and 3 free months of Xbox Live to join the rest of us here in the present. And! And a Halo: Reach Beta invite. That's right, we have Halo in the present, too. [Xbox via Engadget]

Apple's claim that HTC is infringing on 20 obnoxiously broad cellphone patents will almost certainly end in a quiet settlement, behind closed doors. But as Gadget Lab asks, uh, what if it didn't? Presenting: The Apple-safe Nexus One! [Gadget Lab]

Last night here in NYC, British pop singer Little Boots used a huge laser harp on stage. We've seen these things before and I just don't get it. Let's just stick with the normal instruments, shall we? [BrooklynVegan]

One drop. Five minutes in a pocket with your keys. Three months of regular use. This is all it takes for an iPhone's backplate to go from a mirror-like shine to a scratched-to-hell eyesore. Here's how to fix it.

MacRumors forum member Shenaniganz08 salvaged an iPhone 3G from eBay, sanding, buffing and polishing it back from the brink of a life in a case, which would be dumb, because cases are dumb. (I mean, not really, but that's kind of the premise of this whole process, right? Anyway.) Here's what you need:

• Sandpaper 320(or 500),800,1000,1500,2000,2500,3000 grit
• 3M Rubbing compound
• Machine Polisher ( Power Drill or small buffer)
• Microfibers
• Sticky tack and or tape

What's great about this is that you don't need to buy almost anything. Half the stuff you need—the microfibers, the polishing disc and the rubbing compound—is included in a $15 3M headlight restoration kit , and you can use just about any crappy household drill for the buffing stage.

In any case, the results are stunning, and the documentation meticulous, so if you've got a few hours, a few bucks and an iPhone that looks like a piece of shitty sea glass, why not? [Macrumors via Gadget Lab]

Back in 2007, Thodio made the lovingly hand-crafted iBox speakers. But you know what? That was then. In today's rough and tumble world, your iPod needs speakers wrought with freakin kevlar. Welcome, survivalists, to the Thodio A-Box.

The innards are the same as the iBox, with your choice between two 25 watt amplifier or a "heavy duty" 70 watts. But really, the guts aren't the selling point for this bad boy. Heck, even Thodio knows that:

The iPod/mp3 player can be connected on the outside of the A-BOX as well as the inside so you can listen to your tunes while running around with the A-BOX for example or just protecting your iPod from bullets and stuff.

You know, bullets and stuff. What else does the heavy version offer? If the speakers are driven too loud, you get a "funky disco effect."

Sure, the heavy duty version'll run you $611, but that's a small price to pay for being able to dance under the funky disco lights of your blown-out speakers, firing round after round at it late into the night. [Thodio via The Awesomer]

Members of MIT's Bits and Atoms lab visited Afghanistan some time ago. While there, they showed locals how to turn pieces of board, wire, a plastic tub and some cans into reflectors for a wireless network. The result? Fab Fi.

The project resulted in 25 simultaneous live nodes being up in the city of Jalalabad and residents being able to enjoy a stable connection all over the place. Locals are even expanding the network by adding more reflectors and routers. There are some difficulties in actually obtaining the routers though, but the MIT crew—now dubbed the Jalalabad Fab Lab—are helping resolve those by shipping routers over.

On the surface this is a tale of some clever University MacGyvers, a small place in Afghanistan, and a makeshift Wi-Fi network, but the greater idea is that people came together to provide a new method of communication to an area where Skype calls and quick Google searches weren't a common luxury. Sure, now the area is exposed to time wasters and Internet porn, but it's also been provided some new opportunities to learn and explore. [Free Range International via Futurismic via Boing Boing]

Alright, so maybe Nessie isn't lighting up my living room just yet, but you can bet that if this concept lamp design ever gets produced, she will. The big question though: Shall I put her on a wall or ceiling?

Nessie the Lamp was designed by 2-B-2 Architecture and is everything I want in a lamp. It's silly, curvy, and can be split into pieces if I ever get bored of it. Somebody please produce this thing already. [Yanko Design]

Hey, Topeka, Kansas! Duluth, Minnesota is calling you out for changing your name to Google in an attempt to get Google's Gigabit fiber Internet. They're announcing that all firstborn children shall be named Google Fiber.

Ah, thank goodness for that lengthy disclaimer at the beginning of the video or I'd have thought they were serious. [Thanks, Draven301!]

At the beginning there were Ibuka and Morita, the founders of Sony. At the end, a clusterfuckassery of blah models. And in the middle, a Big Bang of brilliant electronic gadgets, full of firsts and smallests. Here's the whole timeline.

Click on the image to see it full res

In today's Remainders: the many. A new multitouch test app shows that multiple fingers confuse the Nexus One; Windows 7 has sold multiple copies (roughly 90 million); Chrome and its numerous extensions are catching up to Firefox, and more

MultiSlouch
Nexus One users have been reporting some multitouch wonkery for a while now, and to get to the bottom of things Robert Green put together the Multitouch Visible Test. The application, available now in the Android Market, basically does what its name suggests, visualizing input by placing colored dots on the screen where it registers your fingers. The first test, on the Droid, runs fine—the dots stick close to the fingers the whole time. On the Nexus One, however, the dots flip around and track to the inverse when the fingers get too close. Google engineer Diana Hackborn responded to the video in a post on the Android developers group:

this is how the touch screen hardware on the Nexus One works (which is essentially the same screen as on the G1 and myTouch). The Droid has a sensor from a different manufacturer, with different behavior. Other phones will likewise have different sensors.

Sorry, Nexus One users, it looks like you might be stuck with the wonkery. [YouTube via AndroidandMe]

Windows 90 Million
According to Peter Klein, Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft has sold 90 million Windows 7 licenses since it launched last October. That's a lot! Klein notes that many of Microsoft's business customers are readying to make the upgrade, so you can plan on that number growing a whole lot more in the upcoming months. [All Things D]

Are We Human, Or Are We Surfing?
Everyone can agree on the BBC's uniformly high level of programming. This new spot for their upcoming "Superpower" series, a look at the internet and its capacity for transforming society, shows us that their advertisements are no less impressive. The spot uses aliens as a metaphor for internet users, showing how a worldwide network of disembodied individuals can summon the compassion and intelligence required to help humankind through its "infancy" period. Yeah, humankind, that's great. But superpowers? And aliens?! That's how they're really gonna hook the geek community. [Buzz Feed]

Shiny
In just the few short months that they have been available for Google Chrome, developers have put together over 3000 extensions for the growing browser. Depending on how you count—Mozilla hasn't released an official number—Chrome has somewhere between one quarter and one half of the extensions as Firefox, which has been racking them up for a considerably longer period. How to account for Chrome's extension explosion? It could be its approval process, er, lack thereof. Whereas Firefox's add-ons spend some time in a review period, Chrome's zoom into availability as soon as they're submitted. Chrome's extension windfall will be bolstered by a recent announcement from Jolicloud, makers of
[TechCrunch

If you're in the military, here's a tip: don't put upcoming missions in your Facebook status. You wouldn't think someone would need to tell you that, but here we are.

A raid on suspected militants in the West Bank was cancelled yesterday after an Israeli soldier updated his Facebook status to read "On Wednesday we clean up Qatanah, and on Thursday, god willing, we come home." The solider has since, unsurprisingly, been relieved of combat duty for being a moron. He'll also spend 10 days in prison for his update.

Trying to educate soldiers on the importance of not leaking classified info to Facebook, the Israel Defense Forces have started putting up new posters in bases:

In posters placed on military bases, a mock Facebook page shows the images of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Below their pictures - and Facebook "friend requests" - reads the slogan: "You think that everyone is your friend?"

I really want to see one of those posters. Anyone in the IDF want to send us a picture? My email address is below. I won't post it on Facebook, promise. [NY Times]

Seriously, nothing shows better the power of the 1000fps Phantom camera than a scary masked man cracking a watermelon open with a baseball bat. But it freaks me out. Now I need some dogs catching treats.

These Phantoms are amazing. What would you film if you had one of them? [Barzart]

There's no way to verify this except to test it, but Solar Components claims their Joos Orange charger has somewhere between six to twenty times as much "3G cell phone talk time per hours of sun" than their competitors.

This is where we're confused though. Their chart shows that they have 120 minutes of talk time per hour of sun, but rate competitors at just 20 minutes of talk time per hour of sun. However, on their tech specs sheet, they say that they can "make more powe than any other personal solar charger on the market. Up to 20 times more." Or, if you use their reflector kit, which brings in more sun, you can get 30 times more.

So, assuming it's just six times more powerful than anyone else, the question remains: Are these guys just so much better and found a secret to solar power generation, or is everyone else just horrible engineers? Either way, Solar Components supposedly will ship this 5400mAh solar-powered battery in June at just $100. Sounds fishy for now, but we'd love to test it out ourselves to see. [Solar Joos via iPod NN]

AppleInsider found four cooling-related patents by Apple that might be used in future MacBooks in order to better keep temperatures from getting absurd as performance increases. The most interesting is the one that uses USB/Firewire ports as vents.

These ports would theoretically (while they're not being used, of course) help increase airflow to vital hot parts, so that you wouldn't have to create more vents on the other parts of the laptop. The downside is that if you're the kind of person who likes to plug everything in and fill up all the holes of your laptop all the time, you're cutting off potential ventilation.

Two of the other patents, one for sensing airflow and making adjustments automatically, and the other using heat-conductive hinge assemblies, seem more obvious and less innovative. The last, though, uses the Peltier effect which...

defines when an electrical current runs through the junction of two different metals. When electrons flow from a region of high density to a lower one, it allows them to cool. The application describes a "solid-state cooling mechanism" that would employ two sides to transfer heat away from the machine and help dissipate it.

So it allows additional cooling, but without having to employ more fans. Another way for the device to keep small and sturdy without cutting more holes and adding more air-pushing components. [Apple Insider]

A three-foot hole in the roof, footprints on a pipe leading up the side of the building, no alarm ringing, no one on any security footage and missing 20 laptops. Mission Impossible follow up or Best Buy burglary?

The incident is being dubbed the Mission Impossible burglary because the thieves apparently never touched the floor of the New Jersey Best Buy store—they would've set off an alarm if they did. Instead shimmied up a gas pipe, cut a hole in the ceiling of the place, and "dropped 16 feet to 10-foot-tall racks" to snatch the laptops from there. The crew cleverly avoided being caught on any security footage and left the store as quietly as they entered it.

Officers believe that about two to three people were needed to pull off the entire stunt, but I think they just need to ask a certain scientologist about his whereabouts for this particular evening. [NJ]

These Force Series SSDs from Corsair have up to 280MB/s reads and 260MB/s writes, which are supposedly "class-leading". Even if it's not the fastest solid state drives on the market period, it's the fastest Corsair's ever made.

The drives will be available in 100 and 200GB sizes in about two weeks, and will support SATA II 3.0Gb/s. No prices for these yet, but our guess is you're going to have to pay a little more for the higher performance. In comparison, Corsair's other 128GB drives run around $400-500, depending on where you shop. [Corsair]

TomTom's discounting their US and US+Canada navigation apps slightly, down to $50 and $70, respectively. They've done this before, on both apps, so it's not unprecedented, but it is a good deal if you're looking for iPhone Navigation. [App Store]

You can learn a lot about the psyches of internet users through Google's search suggestions, as we've seen. But What Do You Suggest? lets you explore these suggestions in a much more in-depth way.

The site allows you to start with any word you want, opening up visual trees showing what words people usually type next. The lines connecting the words show how common each word combo is, allowing you to follow the popularity to the most common search phrases or going to some of the weirder ones. And at the end, of course, you get the results those people searching for these things end up with.

It's a fascinating little time-suck, if you're interested in just how people use Google and how everyone is just a little bit crazy. [What Do You Suggest? via Infosthetics via Brian Stelter]

IBM is replacing copper wiring with an avalanche of photons and electrons. They are now transmitting data streams between circuits at the nanophotonic level. Speed: 40Gbps. Power supply: Just 1.5 volts. This video explain how it works.

The system is so fast and consumes so little because of electron avalanches: The receptor—called nanophotonic avalanche photodetector—catches the photon, which starts an electron chain reaction thanks to the properties of Germanium. What does this mean: Faster, smaller, and more power efficient devices. And the possibility of saying "nanophotonics" any time we want.

Nanophotonics!

[Twitter]