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.

In this case the burning sensation is "delicious," not "first degree and could result in your death." And apparently it really works too, although the advertised "time to awaken" period seems a bit too long for my taste.

Effective over an area of 50 feet, the Wasabi alarm can typically wake people up within two-and-a-half minutes. Update: This is a non-traditional fire alarm, for the deaf community. With that in mind, this could certainly save lives.

Two years ago this alarm was but a concept. Now it's a $560 (?!?!) reality. [CNET via Technabob]

Amazon has given in to Macmillan, and will switch to a pricing model that sees bestseller and new hardcover releases offered to customers at $12.99 to $14.99. The official statement is as follows:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

Well, that was quick. [Kindle Community]

The Unclaimed Baggage Center, a real, live place where—wait for it—unclaimed airline baggage goes to market, is a smorgasbord of eclectic lost gadgets, guidance systems and diamonds, oh my:

For those gadget lovers amongst us, there's a $250,000 Navy guidance system. Maybe all the military transports were full that day? Also, there's a camera designed specifically for the space shuttle. Perhaps someone at NASA was delivering it to a buyer (if that's the case, we doubt the engines will be "mailed" in quite the same way). Just add some unclaimed weaponry and the Unclaimed Baggage Center might be comparable to the armies in some third world countries.

For movie buffs, the original Hoggle puppet from Labyrinth was also lost and found by the Center, as was a real, live snake on a plane (rattlesnake).

Indiana Jones might have been flying the day a suitcase full of Egyptian artifacts was lost and never claimed. There were also a number of unclaimed diamonds and jewels, with some of the former having been found hanging out inside a loose sock. [Mental Floss via Consumerist]

The comparisons to another recently revealed tablet are unavoidable, but believe you me the similarities end with the aesthetics. Inside there's Windows 7, flash support and multitouch. In fact, the more apt comparison is probably "netbook," as you can see:

There's the Atom N270 processor, running at 1.6Ghz, for example. And then there's the 2GB of memory and solid state 32GB drive. Lastly, the replaceable battery on this 8.9-in. multitouch tablet is clocked at a mere four hours, which doesn't seem that great (saving grace being that is replaceable).

Pricing is set at $599 when it launches in March. Impatient types can buy a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right now. [ExoPC via Engadget]

There's nothing new coming your way in terms of aesthetics from MSI's line of "C" laptops, but under the hood we've got Core i Series processors. One of these fellas even sports an ATI Radeon HD5470 graphics card.

The full laptop line includes the CX420, CR420 and CR720. The CX420 sports the aforementioned graphics card. Beyond the chipset and the one graphics-card-sporting laptop, this line isn't all that exciting (e.g. ho-hum 1366 x 768 14-inch display). That said, this is a budget line, and MSI could very well surprise with some competitive pricing (pricing and release date were not made available in the PR). [MSI via Engadget]

Lumix will flood the market with a new series of F-line point and shoot cameras next month. Officially revealed at CES, the line already had its specs spelled out, but not pricing or release window. Now we have them:

FP3 (14.1MP, 720p): $230
FH1 (12MP, 720p): $160
FH3 (14.1MP, 720p): $180
FH20 (14.1MP, 720p): $200.
FP1 (12MP): $150
F3 (12.1MP, 720p): $130

All cameras are slated for a mid-February release. [About.com via Engadget]

During that Apple town hall meeting we mentioned earlier this week CEO Steve Jobs reportedly had some choice words regarding Google that left little doubt about how the outspoken executive sees the competition. Updated.

That "Don't be evil" slogan Google's known for? "Bullshit" Jobs said, after which he was reportedly rewarded with a big round of applause from the gathered throng of Apple employees.

Also about Google, Jobs said that company "entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them."

Jobs also singled out Adobe, calling the company "lazy" because, in his opinion, "they have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it." Jobs also criticized Flash for being buggy. When a Mac crashes, it's usually because of Flash, he reportedly told the crowd. "The world is moving to HTML5", he said.

Reports that the town hall meeting was adjourned with a gavel that made a loud Bing sound were completely fabricated and made up by me just now.

Update: Mac Rumors and Daring Fireball have an update on this. Most of Wired's quotes are paraphrased, and with that came some discrepancies between what may have been said and what was written to page. One change being "bullshit" was probably more along the lines of "full of crap." So, same sentiment, different word choice. Also, while the lazy quote hasn't been disputed, the tone may have been. Daring Fireball's John Gruber said an attendee wrote to say Jobs was actually very nostalgic about the "kick ass Adobe of old." [Wired]

Future comic book heroes may be referred to as Men of Spongy Steel if one researcher's experimental metal makes it out of the lab and into real-world applications.

There's no fancy name attached to this stuff yet, so we'll just call it steel foam for now. Name or no name, its various applications (tested in the lab) still sound incredible:

Rough traffic accident calculations show that by inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph.

Then there's the smash test, wherein researcher and materials scientist Afsaneh Rabiei takes a piece of steel and a piece of foam steel and smashes them both into a base plate at high speed. After the test, there's a clear indentation in the traditional steel, while the foam shows no damage whatsoever. Energy absorption, and all that.

As the article notes, metal foam isn't exactly a new invention, but these tests show Rabiei's may be the strongest version yet. Already scientists' minds are swimming with applications for this super spongy steel, most notably body armor, artificial limbs, boats and airplanes. [Live Science via Neatorama]

The writing was on the wall as recently as 2 a.m. this morning, and an open letter from Macmillan CEO John Sargent has confirmed everything we suspected: Macmillan books were pulled from Amazon store as part of a strong-arm tactic in the coming eBook price war. [Publishers Marketplace via Boing Boing]

So says Mark Cuban, opining about the potential for children's entertainment and media consumption with the iPad. The man owns a basketball team and was on Dancing with the Stars, people. Technology savant as far as I'm concerned.

Editor's Note: In all honesty I'm actually pretty excited about the iPad (from a software potential perspective), so don't take this light-hearted post to mean I'm making fun of Cuban. He's actually got quite the tech/media background (and HD too), and I happen to agree with him, for now. [MSNBC]

As data visualization has become more popular, bad infographics have started to crop up more and more frequently. Thankfully, we can always rely on Michael Paukner to make very, very good ones. Here he shows the satellites orbiting our planet.

Russia, as you might expect, has a whole lot of satellites that are no longer functioning. China is responsible for a surprisingly large amount of tiny space trash, though I'm not exactly clear on what that is. America, of course, is responsible for the largest amount of space trash.

Seeing how many broken satellites remain in orbit instantly reminded me of the scene in Wall-E in which the Earth of the future is seen enveloped in a layer of orbiting techno-trash. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Michael Paukner has a lot of other awesome stuff, space-related and otherwise, so check out his Flickr if you're interested. [Michael Paukner via We Love Dataviz]

This could very well be the world's first Swiss Army Knife. Bearing a striking resemblance to modern multi-tools, it has at least six distinct functions and originates from the Roman Empire circa 200 A.D.

If our multi-tools today, with their screwdrivers, pliers, and the rest, center on fixing things, this Roman predecessor is more useful for enjoying the pleasures of food. The tool includes a spike which historians think was used to snag snails out of their shells. A hook-like spatula is thought to have helped coax sauce out of the bottle.

Of course, the device also includes a fork, spoon, and knife for mealtime, as well as a toothpick to clean up your grill afterward. Amazingly, all of these tools appear to fold into the handle to keep everything compact, just like Swiss Army Knives and Leatherman multi-tools we use today.

The tool was found in the Mediterranean area nearly twenty years ago, so technically it's not Swiss at all, and it predates the modern Swiss Army Knife, invented in 1897, by nearly 1,800 years.

This very old gadget is currently being exhibited as part of a collection of Greek and Roman artifacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. [Daily Mail]

If you're serious about your music and are looking for a portable DAC that will keep your digital audio sounding crystal clear even when you're out and about, the USB-powered DACport might be just the ticket.

Does the mere thought of listening to MP3s makes your ears hurt? But do you still like to enjoy your music on the go? Then the DACport is a combination headphone amp and digital to analog converter to check out.

It natively plays 24-bit/96 kHz, powers over USB, and is fully plug and play compatible. The $500 DACport claims that it will eliminate the cable jitter and background noise that is typical of USB DAC devices.

If you're still with me, you can check out a thorough review at Head-Fi or check out the manufacturer's site for more info. [CEntrance via Technabob]

I took two astronomy classes in college, and one of the few things I retained is that in space stuff just keeps floating. Thus, the Star Wars opening text, though originating galaxies away, will eventually make its way to Earth...

That catastrophic eventuality is the subject of this video, which was was filmed over a couple of hours but ultimately took weeks to complete due to all the post-production and editing. And it shows; the effects are pretty impressive throughout.

Though I guess if you're gonna do a high concept YouTube like the Star Wars text raining down on Earth, it's best to do it right. [Reddit]

If you're a Palm Pre owner who's been craving some old-school distraction, rejoice! You can now play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games on your smartphone.

Game Boy Advance games, like Mario Kart Short Circuit, aren't quite running at full speed yet—about 60% of normal speed with sound or 90% without—but Game Boy and Game Boy Color games work just fine, and, as they say, emulators can't be choosers.

The VisualBoyAdvance for WebOS project only started two weeks ago, so hopefully updates and improvements will be quick to follow. As shown in the video, the emulator can already switch between portrait and landscape and supports custom skinning.

Check out the project's page on Pre Central for information on how to install. [Pre Central via Engadget]

At one time in history, even da Vinci himself had to pen a resume to explain why he was a qualified applicant. Here's a translation of his letter to the Duke of Milan, enumerating his many talents and abilities.

Stone posted the scan of the letter along with this translation:

Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.

1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.

2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.

3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.

4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.

5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.

6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.

7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.

8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.

9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvellous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.

10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.

11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.

Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency - to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc.

The document, written when da Vinci was 30, is actually more of a cover letter than a resume; he leaves out many of his artistic achievements and instead focuses on what he can provide for the Duke in the way of innovative technologies of war.

I wonder if the Duke of Milan thought he was exaggerating when da Vinci claimed he could "paint...as well as any other, be he who he may."

It's nice to have the translation, but the full-resolution scan is worth a look, just to check out da Vinci's handwriting up close. And obviously, as my colleague Brian Barrett suggested, to uncover the secrets of the Catholic Church hidden therein. [Stone: Leonardo da Vinci's Resume via Kotte]

GoPro cameras are our go-to choice for filming extreme sports of any kind, but we weren't nearly as creative as this duo who attached their GoPro to a broom handle and started winging it back and forth while skimboarding.

This short video, entitled "Skimboarding in a Storm," is supposed to be noteworthy for its display of courageous watersporting in the face of meteorological danger. I was much more impressed by its cool camerawork.

The idea is pretty simple: attach the rugged, waterproof Go Pro camera to a stick and pass it to the skimboarder as he whizzes by so he can film himself skimming. But when they start tossing the monopod to each other in the air and catching it, the results are pretty awesome. [Neatorama]

Yesterday a change to the iPhone SDK allowed for VoIP over 3G and we heard about the first app which'll offer the functionality. Today another iPhone app, Fring, has begun allowing video and voice calls using Skype over 3G.

You don't need to update your version of the Fring app as it was simply a matter of Apple lifting some restrictions on its end. You can now freely make Skype calls without being connected through Wi-Fi—assuming you've got decent reception.

Still no word on when we'll get an official app from Skype though. [Fring via Pocket Lint via Engadget]

It's tough to pitch a perfect baseball game. It's supposedly even tougher to pitch a perfect videogame. Or at least so we're told by 2KSports who's offering $1 million to the first person to do it.

Apparently all you need to do aside from mastering Major League Baseball 2K10 on either an XBox 360 or PS3 is to submit recorded proof of your perfect game to 2K Sports. Their folks will then somehow verify the authenticity of your achievement and send you a check for a million if you're the first success story. It's a nice marketing gimmick, but part of me suspects that there'll be quite a few individuals who'll spend weeks attempting to perfect their virtual baseball skills. [2KSports via Neowin]