Another flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, bearing the same flight number as the flight that featured the Christmas Day Firecracker pants guy from Nigeria, has been the target of some kind of "bathroom disruption."

The man in this case, also from Nigeria, allegedly locked himself in the bathroom. Our tipster, Mike, asked, what's next, "new bathroom restrictions?" Whatever the case, we can be all but certain there will be no electronics allowed in the bathroom from here on out.

Thankfully, the plane landed safely in Detroit with no injuries, although we imagine that bathroom door is pretty banged up. This developing story will no doubt cast new uncertainties over the debate surrounding our on board electronics. [Huffington Post]

The sound quality could be dubious, but the design is clever: By squishing the sub and speakers down to a few inches in width, Q Acoustics has managed to hide a complete speaker system behind your flat panel TV.

The rig works with TVs that range between 30- and 42-inches, attaches to an existing frame or can even just chill with your TV on a stand. Available in Europe only for now, it costs a somewhat lofty $500.

My only question is one related to vibration. By placing the subwoofer directly behind the TV and against the wall/frame that supports it, will there be any visible vibration on the screen as you watch Kirk and company blast Nero into subspace? I ask because a similar thing happens to my rearview mirror when I blast my pop music at high decibels in the coche. [Q Acoustic via Red Ferret via DVICE]

Vacuuming is functional, and sometimes it's bloody expensive, but rarely would I use the term "fashionable" to describe this weekly chore. And yet, this Toshiba/Electrolux collaboration, inexplicably called the Escargot, exists.

The tiny shoulder slung vacuum is encased in brushed metal, costs a modest $130, and weighs just five pounds. It's somewhat quiet too, says Toshiba, with an output of 65dB.

Still, vacuuming is a solitary, relatively noisy activity that pisses off family pets and annoys me to no end—this coming from a guy with hardwood floors and one rug. Why bother making it pretty? [Toshiba via Wired Gadget Lab]

Importers take note: This budget priced PMP doesn't look like much, but she has it where it counts. It being price (about $60-$90) and output (1080i via HDMI).

The 4.3-inch screen supports a 1360x768 resolution, the internal storage checks in a 4GB, and there's room for more memory thanks to memory card slot on the side.

Other goodies include 720p output for a monitor via HDMI out, and an FM radio.

Ed. Note: The device provides 1080i output via HDMI. [PMP Today via Akihabara News via Engadget]

Steampunk-inspired PC master modder Datamancer (aka Rich Nagy) is no stranger to Gizmodo, and his latest work, a keyboard called Sojourner, is yet another example of his mastery within the genre.

If you really like steampunk-inspired gear, this can be yours for about $1,200 to $1,500.

The keys have all been artificially distressed to give the impression that this keyboard has "traveled the world in the backpack of an intrepid explorer."

Side view. Note the holes and, yes, more distressing and tarnish.

More keys! Also distressed! Just like your wallet should you try and buy this thing. [Datamancer via Born Rich]

Much better than Lucas'* prequel explanation. [Flickr]

* See, Lucas in Spanish means Luke. Get it? GET IT? Oh, TFSU.

The north magnetic pole is moving at 37 miles-a-year toward Russia, which means they're stealing it. Or the Earth's core is fluxing. Actually, nobody really knows what's happening. I just hope it's not a prelude to a catastrophic magnetic shift.

Arnaud Chulliat—geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris—says that there's a mysterious magnetic plume that is pushing the north pole at an increasing speed. The plume comes from deep in the Earth's core, says Chulliat, which is believed to be made of iron, with molten rock spinning around like a dynamo. This is what creates Earth's magnetic field. I have to admit that these theories sound a lot more logic that my theory of a malfunction in the giant sphere that powers our home planet—the one full of gargantuan unobtanium-powered machines created by Atlantis' scientists in 20,000BC—but whatever.

Meanwhile, regular scientists have evidence that the Earth's magnetic field flips every 300,000 years. The problem here is that 780,000 years have passed since the last polarity change, which means that a new shift could be imminent. There's proof that the field's strength is falling down at a very fast rate over the last two hundred years, a fact that has lead some experts to believe it could disappear completely over the next 1,000 years before it flips. Other boffins believe that this is just a fluctuation in the field.

If the first theory finally happens, the whole process will have catastrophic consequences to human civilization and nature. Without a magnetic field, nothing will protect us against space radiation. The weather will go completely gaga, and the Sun will fry all our communications and navigation services, not to talk about all of us. At the same time, countless migrational species will get lost, affecting food chains and causing mayhem through the entire planet.

Fun, huh? But fret not, my dear Earthlings, as this may not be related to the acceleration of the pole movement. We only know two things for sure: First, the magnetic north pole has been moving since it was first recorded. Around 1904 it was moving northeastward at 9 miles a year, accelerating in 1989 until it reached its current 34 to 37 miles a year speed in 2007. Chulliat says that it's difficult to forecast when the pole will arrive to Russia, if it finally does. Second, they need to adjust the maps orientation.

Whatever the case is, this is yet another reminder that life may be even shorter than it already is, so stop surfing the web now, go out, and enjoy it. [National Geographic]

Can you believe it? Ping Pong paddle gloves! The game, it has changed!

Now, granted, I haven't actually slipped my hand into one of these potentially revolutionary paddles, but the design alone had me salivating this morning and that has to mean something, right?

The $100 set includes the two paddles, four balls, terrycloth wristbands and a carrying case. The designer claims the more intimate palm-to-ball feel will result in a faster game with more spin and better control.

No idea if that's true or not, but I can guarantee using these paddles will result in a completely different game of table tennis. Question now is whether or not the International Table Tennis Federation takes notice. [Broadmann via Uncrate]

When crazy stuff happens on airplanes, as it did on Christmas, you can rest assured security will tighten and terrifying electronics restrictions will fall into place. But in this latest case, our electronics? They may still be "safe."

I bring that up because there was apparently this nasty rumor going around that all electronics would soon be banned on all British Airways and Virgina Atlantic flights once these inevitable "new security measures" went live. And could you imagine? A trans-Atlantic flight without laptop movies, MP3 jams and podcasts, and positively no covert airplane mode smartphone adult content? Hell in an aluminum tube, says I.

But it's apparently not true, for now. Both airways said electronics are still GO, even as some previouslt reported "unpredictable" security measures go into place over the next few days.

American carriers, like Continental, United and AA, have also not changed their security measures in the wake of the attempted Xmas Day terrorist attack—yet—so getting home from your relatives this week could still be moderately bearable, as far as air travel goes anyway. [Pocket Lint]

Remember Aiko, the fembot created by amateur inventor Le Trung? Well, apparently she and his boyfriend/creator spent Christmas with his family, and he even got her presents. He claims that she's exactly like a real woman. Seriously, Le? Let's review:

"Aiko can recognise faces and says hello to anyone she has met."

OK. Sounds good enough.

"She helps me pick what to have for dinner and knows what drinks I like."

Hmmhmm.

"Like a real female she will react to being touched in certain ways."

Right.

"If you grab or squeeze too hard she will try to slap you."

Correct.

"She has all senses except for smell."

Fine. That can be convenient at times.

"[Walking] is the most difficult thing for any inventor to do. The problem is finding a way for Aiko to walk that looks human-like without impacting on any of her other abilities. I have spent the last six months taking her apart and trying out lots of different systems, but I haven't been able to get it right yet."

Ooooooook. So she doesn't walk and you can take her apart to rebuild her.

"But Aiko is always helpful and never complains. She is the perfect woman to have around at Christmas."

Come on, Le, you had me until you said that. That's not very realistic. But then again, whatever rocks your world, dude. If you are happy, Aiko is happy, and we are all happy. Just don't have another heart attack while working on her, like you had two years ago.

I wish the New Year brings you both happiness and no tight white jackets. [Daily Mail]

Gift cards have ruined Christmas. An utterly depressing fact: They're the most popular present in the United States. Did you know Blockbuster is responsible for the modern gift card?

The Big Money's history of gift cards is a fascinating timeline of how they spread like a virus, infecting every gift-giving tradition we hold dear: Neiman Marcus actually was the first to sell gift cards, in 1994, but because the retailer didn't quite understand their potential, the cards were kept out of sight and sold only as a novelty item. Blockbuster was the first to display them, starting in 1995, which was the true beginning of the gift card revolution.

Starbucks was the next major innovator, in 2001, with gift cards that worked more than once, so you'd have to keep going back. (Today, one out of seven purchases is made with a gift card at Starbucks in the US.) Which brings us to the present, with gimmick cards like Best Buy's tiny speaker or Target's little camera, or purely electronic ones, like for Steam and Amazon.

Did your Christmas feel more empty and hollow this year? Did you give or receive a gift card? Bingo. Gift cards are the most cynical of all presents, lower than cash. They lock the receiver into a particular store or service, while relieving the giver of any responsibility, thought or feeling. If someone gives you a gift card, they don't care about you. In fact, they're trying to trick you, and make you think that they do, because they took the time to select a store to purchase your piece of plastic from. That is a lie—the effort went into the ruse, not your gift.

Of course, stores love gift cards, a pure token that holds no value after it's purchased, except that which the merchant dictates. Odds are, when somebody comes in to spend a gift card, they'll use to buy something more expensive. Even if the gift card is never used, the store still keeps the money—and most unused gift cards lose value over time, withering with the seasons. It's an $87 billion con by the retail industry, and Americans, obsessed with convenience, have eaten it up.

If you're thinking about buying somebody a gift card because you can't be bothered to pick out a real present, don't. Give them cash. Sure, you might feel like an asshole—well, you kind of are—but I promise you, the person receiving the wad will like it a whole lot more than any gift card. Cash can be spent, anytime, anywhere, and it won't expire in a year (unless the economy completely collapses, then we've got bigger problems than declining gift standards).

Update: I forgot to make the important exception for independent and local specialty stores, like record shops. Gift cards are okay in that case (small businesses need money, speciality stores require some consideration).

Here's a question that's quickly becoming a dilemma, though. What's a better (worse?) gift, cash or digital media? [The Big Money]

If you don't want other people to know what you read, you probably shouldn't own an ereader. And you really shouldn't get a constantly connected Kindle or Nook, at least according to the EFF's eye-opening guide to ebook privacy.

The Kindle and Nook are tied to Amazon and Barnes & Noble's respective bookstores, meaning every purchase and every book search is recorded. Amazon's license agreement for the Kindle, for instance, notes that the Kindle's software "will provide Amazon with data about your Device and its interaction with the Service...and information related to the content on your Device and your use of it (such as automatic bookmarking of the last page read and content deletions from the Device)."

The Nook is obviously capable of phoning home in a similar manner, but it's unknown whether or not it does, at least for now. With Google Books, it's clear that what you're actually reading is logged, down to the specific page.

On the other hand, since Sony's Reader lacks 3G for a constant connection and isn't as tightly integrated with their ebook store, there's less opportunity for data collection, particularly if you stick w/ sideloaded books. Better still, says the EFF is the open-source FBReader. But you can't download books from anywhere in 3 seconds over 3G, and the experience isn't as nice.

It's the classic tradeoff: Less privacy for more convenience and a better experience, or greater privacy for a bigger hassle. What side are you on? [EFF]

Do you believe in gadget heaven? How about reincarnation? The Precision Camera repair facility brings a good part of a million smashed, malfunctioning and dead shooters back to life every year.

They get almost 3000 broken cameras a day—from warranties, users and extended warranties. Technicians focus their expertise on a particular brand and fix them using manufacturer specific diagnosis machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The Nikon and Olympus camera repair lines are in one building, "with Sony, Kodak and Fuji are in another". Most repairs happen in 3 days or less.

The company has been around since 1948 but they don't fix film loading devices any more, citing the rising costs of parts.

If your camera dies, it'll probably go somewhere like this if you care enough about it to give it a second lease on life. [Courant]

Google has an ad banner in their search home page for their Chrome browser. Can it eventually change the course of the browser wars? And what can happen if it does?

Google's search home page has stayed clean forever, with no clutter or advertising banners of any kind. When Chrome came out, they broke their self-imposed rule to promote their browser whenever an Internet Explorer user arrived to their page. Using their most powerful nuke—the most popular home page in the world—Google is looking to change the course of the Browser War. Now that Chrome is available for Mac, the banner has started to appear in Safari too. According to the latest statistics, their strategy is working well, growing to a 4.4% browser market share in 15 months.

Google knows they need to control the web in every sense, and Chrome is now one of the most important pieces in their strategy to keep their web stronghold. It's clearly the cornerstone of their future plans to take over the incoming new computing world—a world of smart phones and new devices that will eventually replace the computer as we know it. They are hoping the majority of those smart phones would be running Android, and tablets and computers would running ChromeOS. And rendering their web world, there will be Chrome. Not Internet Explorer, Safari/Webkit, or Firefox. Google wants to own the delivery medium, power the hardware, deploy the browser, and then control the delivery of the content. They want the whole enchilada.

That's why this is happening. Chrome will now get exposed to the hundreds of millions of people who visit Google's home page every day. Many will look at the banner and, trusting the Google brand, they will download and install it. My feeling is that many will click that big thing on the top right corner, but even if it's a small percentage of visitors, the potential for change is enormous. We will see soon how effective this campaign could be, but there's one fact that can't be denied now: This is a competitive advantage that browsers like Firefox or Opera don't have. If it ends being powerful change force, Google could eventually face an anti-trust investigation like the one Microsoft faced when they used their domination of desktop operating systems to win the Browser War 1.0 against Netscape. After all, the web is the new OS and Google owns the web.

Would Mozilla whine about this now, like they did about Microsoft? Would the Department of Justice keep an eye on this? Would the European Commission order Google to place banner's for Firefox, Opera, Safari, and, o the irony, Explorer in Google's home page, alongside Chrome's?

It's too early to tell if this is part of a long term aggressive push, but I can't wait for this clusterfuck to happen. It's going to be fun. [Silicon Alley Insider]

GV Mobile is now available for jailbroken iPhone devices for free, but there's something better coming up… GV Mobile 2.0. Here's a first look at the app.

It's pretty simple: Apple's iPhone OS is basically the only major smartphone operating system without an official or unofficial Google Voice client. We used to have GV Mobile and VoiceCentral, but as we all know, those were abruptly removed from the App Store and even Google's official client was turned away. Well, at least Apple didn't Amazon your iPhone and take away the Google Voice applications you already bought/downloaded, right? They might as well have as GV Mobile was rendered useless after a Google Voice-side update, and with no way of updating existing user's applications, anyone who had been a GV Mobile user up until that point in time was out of luck.

GV Mobile is now available for jailbroken iPhone devices for free, but there's something better coming up: GV Mobile 2.0. We're really excited to tell you about it, too. It has been polished and refined — it had an injection of features —and we love using it, even in its non-final and beta form. For starters, dialed calls connect almost instantly, your iPhone contacts and favorites are accessible right within the app, there's voicemail transcription viewing, and even multiple Google Voice account support. Advanced features like call forwarding phones, do not disturb settings as well automatic syncing, and even Growl support are on the to-do list, but for now, we're just happy to have GV Mobile back on our non-jailbroken iPhone. Hopefully Apple reverses course and lets this version through their pearly gates when it is finished, though we wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Super shout out to Sean Kovacs for hooking us up!

BGR features the latest tech news, mobile-related content and of course, exclusive scoops.

When a UK electric rail was disabled by the snow and cold, 100 passengers were left stranded. Until a Tornado came and whisked them home. That is, the steam engine named Tornado, built with 1940s tech. Speed isn't everything. [BBC]

Score for privacy rights: In a 4-to-3 vote, the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that police has no right to search your phone without a search warrant, overruling previous lower court decisions on the matter. This is great news.

In the State of Ohio vs Antwaun Smith, the Supreme Court has declared the search of Smith's cellphone—who was arrested at the time on drug charges—to be unconstitutional, breaking the protection against unreasonable search provided by the Fourth Amendment. The court has decided that cellphones are "capable of storing a wealth of digitized information" and, as such, they should be considered private. Therefore, police should obtain a search warrant before "entering" into the phone to look for evidence against a subject.

It's great to see some reasonable, informed logic in this ocean of stupidness and privacy abuse we live in. [Supreme Court of Ohio's PDF ruling via NYT]

Great news: Panasonic not only started mass producing laptop type battery with a record setting rating of 3.1 amp hours this December, but in the next few years, will make these cells with up to 4.0 amps in 2013. Yowzer.

Part of the secret is to use nickel instead of carbon for the positive terminal in each cell. The previous record at Panasonic for type cells were 2.9 amp hours, and a quick search shows that most are in the 2.2 amp range.

Battery tech still remains one of the slowest developing sectors in technology, which is why Obama put billions of dollars in grant money towards its research. And why this is great news for all. [Panasonic]

It's not a scientific test, but is there any other better way to test the strength of five bag brands than using a 10,300-pound elephant? Maybe there is, but it won't be this fun. Surprisingly, one bag resisted:

It took 14 minutes to crack open a $545 Tumi, eight minutes to open a $218 Delsey, one minute to open a legendary $240 Samsonite, and twenty minutes to rip apart a cheap $99 American Tourister. So much for premium pricing. The only un-cracked winner: A $320 Victorinox which, coincidentally, is the one I bought a few months ago. [CBS]

Considering Office 2010's cloud-based plans, it's no surprise that Apple's iWork division is courting developers to build "a scalable rich internet application." Let's face it: That means iWork in the cloud is (almost) definitely coming.

iWork already has a website that allows users to upload documents and comment on them, but no editing. As TechCrunch points out, what's interesting is that Apple is looking for someone to help go from "design to development," meaning there's probably a completely new product in the iWorks (...I'm so sorry about that, but I had to).

The posting also makes it sound like they're relatively early in the process (after all, they're looking for someone to help design, not just develop), but I'm sure Apple has something up their sleeve. This migration to the cloud is their big chance to finally catch up to Microsoft and Google's dominance in the world of office productivity suites. Guess we'll find out what Apple's cooking at some point. [TechCrunch]