I hate spiders, I hate horror movies, and I hate gimmicky computer cases. But I love the commercial for the Lian Li Mini-atx case. Maybe it's just because it reminded me of Steve Irwin.

There aren't details on availability and pricing for this case, but who cares when the promo video alone is fun. [CrunchGear]

Some folks decided to study the calling habits of 5.3 million people over an 18-month period. 350 million phone calls later, they came to an almost obvious conclusion: Prepaid cellphone users make and return fewer calls than their postpaid counterparts.

You can click on the image to take a closer look at the graphs.

Initially the study done at the Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Finland, was intended to analyze reciprocity—the likelihood of an individual receiving as many calls in return as he or she makes. But during the course of the research, a clear difference was discovered in the calling habits of prepaid and postpaid users:

Postpaid users tend to be more prolific, having on average 5.41 people they call. Prepaid users, by contrast, have only 3.41 contacts on average (although the notion of "average" is a little strange here since there is a very long tail on these distributions).

Postpaid users also made about 10 times as many calls as prepaid users while 25 percent of prepaid users had odd relationships in which "one participant makes more than 80 percent of all calls."

Technology Review suggests that the differences in calling habits could be explained by the fact that prepaid users are more likely to be younger individuals, but I'd go as far as considering that the unlimited mobile-to-mobile or weekend benefits of postpaid plans may play a role as well. [Technology Review via NY Times Bits]

The upcoming i5 MacBook Pro refresh might be closer than we thought, with TUAW discovering that Best Buy emptied their systems of the current version. Since they're not likely to go MacBook-less for long, that points to soon. [TUAW]

This concept scale that doubles as a decorative rug might—might—be the thing to finally get me taking better care of myself.

Designer Kwan Sunman's Rug With Scale project does away with the cold, judgmental form factors of your average bathroom scale, ensconcing it instead in a warm and inviting rug. The readout from the scale shows up on a small red tag that illuminates its user's current weight, previous weight, and goal weight to help chart progress.

The rug portion is also removable (for washing) and interchangeable (for personal style preference). That is, it will be, if this ever becomes an actual, buyable product. Fill in your own "worth the weight" pun here, if so inclined. [Red Dot via Yanko]

Google's two new announcements: integrating a Twitter-like service into Gmail and a goal of a real-time speech translation service shows what direction they're taking the company: Into the space between you and every other human being on the planet.

To be fair, these two developments are really far apart in their delivery dates. The Gmail status update could come as soon as tomorrow, whereas the the speech-to-text-to-speech translation system is still a ways out. You can definitely see just how much work Google needs to do by trying to read your Google Voice voicemail transcriptions. (Voice search works better on Android 2.1 because you're talking slower and enunciating.) But both these features point in the same direction many of the company's other products have been hinting at. Here's a list of Google's major products, in case you forgot, and which sector of communication they want to dominate.

• Google Voice: This is a big one, and it'll be the most natural interface for Google to slot in the voice-translation into. If you're using it the way Google wants you to use it, you're already piping all your voice calls and SMS through Google's tubes. And refining speech to text gives them a good idea of your interests and what you're talking about, allowing them to better serve up the relevant ads to you during calls.

• Gmail: Having access to at least one end of everyone's email conversations, outside of business emails, gives Google the ability to be a gateway for most of your written communications. But that's not enough for Google, which is why they developed...

• Google Wave: It's email, message boards, chat rooms and collaboration software all in one, except every participant needs a Google account. This closes that "openness" loophole that email has, and forces everyone into Google's biosphere. So this, and Gmail, should make sure that every medium-length communique passes through Google's maw for analysis. But what about shorter and longer forms? Update: Thanks commenters, for reminding me that Google made Wave open, so people can create their own Wave servers to talk to each other with the Wave protocol. The point still remains, that if you were going to use a service, wouldn't you rather use the service from the company that created the protocol, for performance and feature reasons?

• Google Docs: For longer documents.

• Google Talk: For short blasts of instant messaging, video chats and some audio chatting.

• Picasa and YouTube: Communication doesn't have to be all text-based, you putting your photos and videos online count too.

• Android and Chrome OS: By getting you down at the operating system level, Google can theoretically know every kind of communication you perform. It knows who you talk to, how you do it and when you do it. It can even shape the how by delivering the experience themselves.

• Everything else. There's Checkout, Finance, Maps, Reader, News and other apps, which fill in the other forms of communication or expression that aren't quite covered by the major products above. One major missing piece is social networking, where Google basically failed before with its Orkut service (except for Brazil), so this new Twitter/Gmail hybrid might be their next entrance into the space.

But why do they want these things? Why would Google want to be the middleman between you and the world? To sell you ads, of course. And don't think Google is going to stop at just helping you talk over the internet or over the phone, they're going to reach into meatspace as well. How? One step is making that speech-to-speech translation portable, so you can do a sort of near-field communication with someone else with the same device while at the same time being able to look them in the face. Then, blast you two with the appropriate ads on the billboard next to you.

Motorola claims they're coming out with a couple dozen Android phones in 2010, and with a crop so big a few of them are bound to be pretty weird. This render suggests that the MOTOSPLIT might be one of those.

Like the Samsung Alias 2 before it, the MOTOSPLIT shown here sports a keyboard that has tiny touch screens for keys, though this one has the unique ability to slide out in landscape or portrait orientation. Depending on the way its being held, or maybe the application its running, the mini screens update on the fly. Neat!

Not so neat is the part of the report that claims its specs will be more or less the same as the Backflip's, which means its essentially relegated to Motorola's junior varsity smartphone squad.

Still, Android Community's rumors are just that, and it's possible that come the season—Motorola expects the phone to be ready for Q3—MOTOSPLIT will have the power to match its versatility. [Android Community via SlashGear]

Oh-ho-ho this is rich. Some German pranksters saw a Google Street View car parked outside their place in Berlin and managed to sneak a GPS device onboard. Watch the Googlemobile roam around on Google Maps here. [fffff.at (NSFW) via Reddit]

If you've been looking for a case mod that will strike fear into all the other computers you come across, well, look no further. But be careful, this guy gets cranky when he needs to defrag.

A lot of us subject our computers to quite a bit of abuse. We overcrowd their hard drives and overclock their processors. We bang on their keyboards. We smudge their screens. If you want a case mod that will keep you in line, this one, taking the form of Kratos, the main character from the God of War game series, will do just that.

With Kratos's unflinching stare burning a hole in the side of your head, you're sure to always stay on task and treat your machine with respect. Or he'll have your typing fingers. [Engadget]

Someone might judge you for putting together a mock iPad, but it's certainly not going to be us. Be it for practicing the Tablet Sutra or faking out a fanboy friend, here's the template you've been looking for.

Courtesy of Jess Silverstone at Revolutionary Concepts, this template can be printed on standard paper and will fold into an iPad that's just about the same size as the real thing, as long as your printer is capable of borderless printing.

Here's the front and the back, and here's what your arts and crafts project will look like when it's all put together:

So have at it. I'm not gonna ask any questions. [MacRumors]

Curious. Very curious. Eric Schmidt, head Googler, just Tweeted about his excitement for tomorrow's Superbowl. But he's not nearly as pumped for the gridiron as he is for a commercial running during the third quarter:

Can't wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said "Hell has indeed frozen over.")

Well, color us intrigued. What exactly will Google be advertising, if it's even a Google advertisement to begin with? A minimalist Nexus One spot? A rehashing of Apple's famous 1984 ad? If you have any guesses, let's hear 'em in the comments. [Eric Schmidt]

Update: BusinessInsider spotted a blog post by search guru John Battelle which suggests tomorrow's ad will be this one, entitled "Parisian Love":

Sure, it's sweet and all, but really? That's it? Not to mention that the idea of running off to France to live a life of truffles and Truffaut and true love might not exactly resonate with the segment of our nation that will be tuned in tomorrow.

With just a roll or two of painters tape, some patience, and a willingness to forfeit the respectability of their apartments (except, maybe, from a single perspective), some clever artists have created a very impressive collection of tape-based illusions.

Earlier today, Boing Boing posted this neat Back to the Future-inspired piece featuring an impressively detailed DeLorean rendered with painters tape. Kudos to YouTube user Wablamo for immortalizing everyone's favorite time traveling automobile in such an appropriately mind-boggling medium.

But the true hero of the anamorphic painters tape illusion is a YouTube user who goes by the name of BrussPup. I've watched BrussPup evolve over these last few weeks from his first experiments in the form—when he was, indeed, just a pup—up through our current moment in which BrussPup stands as a titan of tape-based illusions.

But let's start back with his humble beginnings. BrussPup's first piece, "X Room Illusion!," was a relatively simple undertaking but it betrayed the artist's natural ability for this particular endeavor:

A week later, we were treated to "Crazy Cube Illusion!," a more complex, confident effort that garnered a corresponding increase in YouTube views and blog notoriety:

Emboldened, BrussPup quickly offered up his next piece, "Pac-man Illusion!," which was noteworthy for spanning all the way down his hallway and incorporating a piece reflected by a mirror, which just piled extra mind-boggling on top of the regular mind-blogging to which we had grown accustomed:

BrussPup's most recent piece, "Nintendo Illusion!," is certainly his most ambitious effort to date. In this illusion, which took BrussPup fifteen hours to complete, blacklights and white paper were employed to create a glowing Nintendo controller:

There's no telling what's next in the world of tape-based anamorphic illusions. Has BrussPup retired his tape roll forever? Will Wablamo usurp his title as preeminent anamoprhic illusionist? We'll just have to wait, squint our eyes, scratch our heads, and see. [BrussPup's YouTube Channel and Boing Boing]

PPCGeeks is offering up a whole bevy of rumors regarding Windows Mobile 7 and what will be revealed at MWC next week. What they're referring to as Windows Phone 7 has a Zune-like interface and Xbox integration but no multitasking.

PPCGeeks and Mobile Tech World claim that Windows Mobile 7 will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress, though it will be announced under the new name Windows Phone 7 and the presentation will focus on the user interface without offering too much detail on specific functionality. Here's a breakdown of what PPCGeeks and Mobile Tech World have heard:

The UI goes by the codename Metro and is heavily influenced by that of the Zune HD. The interface has been described as "clean," "soulful," and "alive," and offers a fully reimagined Start page. Third party UIs like HTC's Sense will no longer be supported. Windows Phone 7 will ditch Windows Mobile Device Center in favor of Zune's syncing software, and will offer integration with social media networks, Zune devices, and Xboxes, including friends, gamer tags, achievements and the like.

Apps will only be able to be installed via the Marketplace, which supports an API as well as a try before you buy system. Flash will not be supported initially. Windows Phone 7 also won't offer multitasking, though apps will be able to receive push notifications while paused in the background. WP7 will also reportedly lack NETCF backwards compatibility.

MobileTechWorld's report includes the tidbit that the browsing experience is faster than that of the iPhone 3G, and that Microsoft believes that Windows Phone 7 devices will roll out by September though they themselves won't manufacture any of them.

With all the rumors surrounding Windows Mobile 7, there's no telling if this particular batch will hold water. But with MWC just around the corner, it's definitely possible that this could contain some nuggets of truth. Hopefully it's just not the no-multitasking nugget. [PPCGeeks and MobileTechWorld via Engadget]

A few weeks ago Amazon announced they were opening up the Kindle for development, and as of today they are accepting requests for the Kindle Development Kit in limited beta. Head over to Amazon to sign up to be a beta developer and to request the KDK. The site also has updated Kindle Developement Kit FAQs and API information. [Amazon]

Like the Virgin Mary before it, an impression of a Nintendo DSi appeared on this piece of toast. Now it just needs a salami screen protector and a vegetable stylus and this mouthwatering gadget will be complete. [Tiny Cartridge]

Did you blink during the Super Bowl commercial breaks? Too bad if you did, because it means you may have missed the anemic number of gadget or tech-related commercials worth talking about tomorrow at the water cooler. But! Megan Fox!

Megan Fox is an obvious choice, for obvious reasons (if she's your thing): She had a Motoblur, and we're a gadget blog! See? Obvious. Anyway, tweeting from a tub on her new phone, she pondered what would happen if she sent a picture of her bathing out to the world. Hijinks ensued, people were hurt, and even a gay couple somehow got distracted by the fox that is Megan Fox:

And such is the power of Fox that there were scenes that didn't make the final cut.

Then there was Beyonce, fresh off her Grammy performance, performing again for Vizio. Surrounded by Internet memes and celebrities, Twitter and what appeared to be an army of automobile assembly line robots (hopefully not ones from Toyota), she sang and sold that company's Via/Internet Apps technology. Think Internet on your HDTV, not because I say so or because that's exactly what it is, but because that's the message Vizio assaulted viewers with during the 60-second clip:

Tough love was the story for Intel's Jeffrey the Robot. The commercial was supposedly for Intel's Core processor line, but I know the truth: Robot uprising. It 20 years' time we can all look back at this commercial, when poor Jeffrey was snubbed For The Last Time by his human overlords:

Lastly, there's one we actually covered yesterday. Google. Its poignant ad about a search-happy boy in love with a French girl aired yesterday, on the Internet, which is probably fitting. We'll revisit it again here if you missed it tonight:

Sigh.

Personally, for me the ads were a bit stale this year. Even the Bud Light beer ads, which have made me laugh out loud on occasion in years past, felt a little tired. Betty White was a standout though, and there were back-to-back ads depicting grown men in their underwear. Possibly a first there. Also a first: Seeing a two-timing baby talk about eTrade while his "milk-a-holic" girl on the side blew up his shit over a webcam.

The one Bud Light ad I will give props to, however, was their Autotune bit. It's a stretch including here on Gizmodo, but we have a history with that app (iPhone, anyone?), and we'll take an opportunity here to thank Budweiser for hopefully killing the tech off for good with this Super Bowl ad:

OK, I admit it, I smiled a bit watching that a second time. Guilty.

The entire crop is over at YouTube in one convenient package (Fox's is notably absent at the moment, although they appear to be updating throughout the night).

Apparently, when people sing Sinatra's My Way in a Philippines karaoke bar, and they sing it poorly, they die.

The epidemic's gotten so bad, in fact, that local law enforcement started calling it the "My Way Killings."

No one really know why dozens have died over the past decade while warbling to one of Sinatra's greatest hits, just that they have, and after this specific song. Is it bad singing? Traditionally violent streets being traditionally violent streets? Die hard Sinatra fans exacting their revenge on newbs who butcher the greats? Possibly. Karaoke is huge in the region, with machines popping up everywhere, from bars to alleyways (as you can see from the image). Combine that with high crime and a fanatical love of Frank Sinatra and you could have just the right mix for a kill (the audience with your talent) or be killed (by the audience for sucking) atmosphere.

One thing's for sure: This guy should stay the hell away form the Philippines. [NYT]

It appears to be graphene day. First, IBM was using the material to shame silicon into submission, and now Swedish scientists say graphene could one day make lamps and other traditional lighting elements unnecessary.

If the Swedes are right, then future homes and buildings could be adorned with graphene panels, called light emitting electromechanical cells (LECs, for short).

The LEC panels can be fashioned so they cover an entire ceiling, wall, or whatever, and they're completely adjustable. Dim your walls and ceiling for a romantic evening with the female characters of Mass Effect 2, for example.

The article notes that OLED panels have seen similar implementations, but the graphene scientists say their material is both cheaper to produce and better for the environment (OLED panels contain indium tin oxide, which is difficult to recycle). [Science Daily via Treehugger via DVICE]

Normally we ignore "steampunk" news because it has nothing to do with real, actual steampunk and more to do with some bloke attaching nonfunctional brass tubing to his PC, but in this case these guns actually shoot something.

The blunderbuss, above, shoots rubber balls. Cool, I suppose...But! It also shoots them at such a velocity that they can penetrate cardboard at a respectable distance:

The other rifle, Black Betty shoots ping pong balls and confetti paper, the latter of which can be lit up to make a flame thrower of sorts:

And that's probably the last steampunk anything you'll see here for a while. Well, unless it shoots something. Or, you know, actually uses steam power. [YouTube via Boing Boing]

The HTC Incredible, a leaked cellphone code name that first made the rounds back in December, is the real deal, as seen in these sneak peak pics from Pocket Now. Can you say brown? You'll see: Updated.

Very original Zune coloring, no? Lots of contours and wacky shapes going on in the rear too (and probably a prototype placeholder, we hope).

There are some specs to go along with the leak, those being an Android 2.1 OS with HTC Sense, running on a Snapdragon CPU. A rumored 256MB of RAM accompanies a roughly 3.5-3.7" WVGA screen (possibly AMOLED? That's unconfirmed).

Dual LED flashes adorn the brownish backplate, and an optical mouse pointer resides down near the bottom. Thoughts?

Update: Now with video:

Now it looks red... [Pocket Now]

A Power Point marketing slide, purportedly showing a number of T-Mobile phones with March release dates, has leaked to the web. Notables include the HTC HD2 (3/24), Moto Cliq XT (3/10). and the Nokia Nuron (3/17).

While the slide deals in unconfirmed data, the release dates and phones mentioned are completely within reason. Case in point, sites like TMO News, from whence this slide came, have been getting rumors and tips abound in recent months that hinted the Nuron and XT, at least, were due out in March.

Well, there's that, and the fact that I very much doubt there's some troll out there who's purposefully leaking false release dates about Motorola and Nokia phones on the T-Mobile network. I could be wrong. [PPC Geeks via TMO News]