The Demo Site

For those who have a treasured item you want to display in style, the Levitron Revolution uses some sort of electromagnets—or anti-gravity voodoo magic—that levitates and slowly rotates your prized possession in space.

As long as your collectible weighs around 4 ounces or less and is non-ferrous, this device will pick it up, spin it around, and illuminate it with its built-in LED spotlights. Apparently, the Levitron Revolution is not in production yet, but when it becomes available sometime in August, I'm going to get two just so I can put my levitron on display using my other levitron. [Fascinations via BBG via OhGizmo]

Lifehacker's got some browser speed tests, file copiers and an office setup that's good if your wife only gives you a corner of a room.

• Building a quad monitor alcove
• Lifehacker speed tests Safari 4, Chrome and Firefox 3.5
• Use an empty cigarette packet as a flash diffuser

• Repair your iTunes library with meta-iPod
• The Google Wave Highlight Reel
• Five alternative file copiers

• Top ten wallpaper tools and tweaks

This is how the 40 million iPhones and iPod touches, a figure given by Apple at the WWDC Keynote, stack up against actual consoles.

Even though the iPhone has the distinct disadvantage of being a platform that's not purchased just for gaming—pretty much every person who buys a PSP buys it to play games, for example—it's still a pretty damn huge market. Combine this with the fact that the faster graphics support in the iPhone 3GS is going to make it a pretty damn good gaming device, you've got a juicy target for game developers to hit.

Note: sales data was taken from Wikipedia, and in some cases the figures are from as far back as March 2009. There shouldn't be a huge jump between March and May/June numbers, so it's close enough for the ballpark chart we're showing.

Described as a cross between a lightsaber and Listerine, scientists at the University of Southern California have invented a tiny, world's first, plasma blowtorch that is to be used for medical procedures—specifically in annihilating plaque.

Although shooting a stream of plasma into your mouth sounds painful, the blowtorch actually works in small pulses, which lets the flame's gasses ionize and cool down a little before they can burn you. So far, dentists have only used this technology to sterilize teeth during root canals, but have a few other ideas on where else to use it—perhaps, in the future, zapping away diseases on your genitals? [R and D via PopSci]

As part of their bankruptcy filings, Hackintosh maker Psystar declared that they owed Apple $75,000 for something or other.

Computerworld guesses that it's for 581 copies of Leopard that Psytar ordered but didn't get a chance to install on machines, but my guess is that it's one giant copy of Leopard that they custom ordered for the world's largest fake Mac. [Computerworld]

Not that half of you will care, but Microsoft's going to ship Windows 7 in Europe without IE8 bundled. That doesn't mean Europeans won't be able to get IE8—OEMs can shove them into their installs if they want, and end users can download IE8 themselves as well. [Ars Technica]

It's no coffee cup speaker, but PET bottles do, in fact, make a pretty decent shell for a couple of small speakers. Plus, the standardized shape means they will fit in a lot of existing holders.

Yeah, $15 speakers from CVS are not going to crank out a lot of sound, but it is definitely easy on the budget—and it doesn't require a ton of time and skill to accomplish. Hit instructables for details on how to make one yourself. [instructables via Make]

And with that, Microsoft's powerful, underappreciated photo visualizer resigned itself to an inevitable fate, as a promotional tool for iPhone fart apps.

The neatest thing about the Cinema Display iPhone app wall, which Apple stationed in the Moscone Center lobby during WWDC, was how it was animated, sending little shockwaves from each app's icon as it was purchased, which you obviously can't see in this static Photosynth. What you can see, however, is nearly each and every one of the 20,000 app icons listed in the collage, which has been stitched together from untold numbers of individual shots. A few random clicks in any direction will serve up a fresh screenfull of app icons, sometimes familiar, but generally just cryptic and unidentifiable.

To add one more thin film of irony to the situation, this particular Synth was constructed from shots snapped on an iPhone, though the guy behind it—who also made the iSynth viewer app—is now taking outside photo submissions, which is how Photosynth was intended to be used anyway. Embed is below (Silverlight required). [iSynth via Techcrunch]

It's easier than ever to pit Windows 7 and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard head-to-head: They're launching soon, both within a month of each other—and both are basically glorified service packs of the current OS.

In way, they're opposites: Windows 7 uses the same core foundation as Vista while fixing issues and prettying up the outside, while Snow Leopard keeps most of the same spots while re-arranging how things work internally. But the mission is the same—to evolve their current OS—not change the whole game. And launching this fall, we can't avoid a comparison study. The stars of Redmond and Cupertino have never been so closely aligned before.

Price/Availability
Snow Leopard socks Windows 7 on both counts here: It's shipping in September for just $29. Windows 7 doesn't hit until Oct. 22, and we've heard it could be pricier than Vista, though it will, on the other hand, be cheaper for people who already have Vista. Nowhere near $29, we bet, but we can dream, can't we?

Storage Footprint
Both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are engineered to gobble less of your hard drive than their predecessors. Snow Leopard promises to give you back 6GB of storage—cutting out all the code for PowerPC-based Macs helped a lot there. Microsoft isn't touting how much extra space you'll have with Windows 7 vs. Vista, but an earlier version of Windows 7 used about 6GB of space, and they've been thinking about ways to make drivers take up less space.

If it says anything though, Snow Leopard requires 5GB of free disk space, while Windows 7 has a minimum recommended requirement of 16GB for the 32-bit OS and 20GB for the 64-bit OS—Microsoft doesn't put out absolute bare minimums, though the footprint seems to be about 6-8GB for Windows 7.

Startup/Shutdown/Sleep
Windows 7 smoked Vista with sub-30-second startup times, and RC1 is even faster. Shutdowns are quicker too. We had problems with sleep in the beta release, but it still seemed better than Vista, if not faster. Apple doesn't pimp a specific improvement in startup time, but promises doubletime wakeups and 1.75x faster shutdowns than Leopard.

64-bit
Windows 7 will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors—it's up to you to pick the right one (hint: 64-bit). The majority of Windows 7 install will likely be 64-bit—since you don't have to worry about compatibility issues as much as with Vista 64, and people are starting to want 4GB or more of RAM—so we're at a tipping point there. Snow Leopard will also more or less finish up OS X's transition to 64-bit, so it's something Apple's pushing hard as well.

Multicore Parallel Processing Powah
Some of the tweaks that Microsoft is making to the core of Windows 7 are to improve parallel processing—in short, using multiple cores to handle more simultaneous tasks than past versions of Windows. But these multicore-optimizing tweaks don't seem as extensive as Apple's parallel processing plans in Snow Leopard, headlined by what it calls Grand Central Dispatch.

What's key about GCD is that if it works like Apple says, it'll make easy for app developers to use multiple cores by handling threading for the programmers. The trick these says isn't the hardware, it's the software—the software tools that enable programmers to actually use multicore technology. (Just look back at our interview with Intel chair Craig Barrett, who explained why Intel hires more software engineers than hardware guys at this point.)

GPGPU—Processing Powah Continued
Again, since Snow Leopard is all about the plumbing, Apple's being the loudest about how they plan to tap your graphics card for even more processing power. Using the OpenCL language, programmers can more easily tap the hundreds of cores lurking inside of your graphics card for applications that might have nothing to do with graphics. OpenCL is a big part of Snow Leopard, if you haven't noticed. Snow Leopard will also use your graphics card for H.264 video acceleration (for smoother playback without overheating the CPU), if you've got a newer Mac with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M chipset.

Windows 7 also uses graphics cards more smartly than Vista—it has native GPU-accelerated transcoding and some other refinements in the graphics programming. But its big GPGPU push we'll see a bit later when DirectX 11 launches in July.

Browser: Do You Want to Explore or Go on Safari?
Sorry guys, there's not much of a contest here: Internet Explorer 8 is by far the best browser Microsoft has ever shipped, but when you consider it needs a compatibility list for all the sites coded for IE's past shittiness, the real modern web standards support in Safari 4 gives this one to Safari without even considering the other features. It's also wildly better than IE8 at handling JavaScript, which is pretty key in the age of web apps.

Networking
Networking is waaaaaaaay better in Windows 7 than it was in Vista—you can actually get to wireless networking with fewer than seventeen clicks, and the networking UI makes more sense. It also seems to be a little smarter at finding stuff on your network, at least in our experience. We're still not totally sold on HomeGroups, but hey, Microsoft's trying. And (sorta) easy remote streaming built into the OS? Pretty good.

Apple's not really promoting any changes to networking in Snow Leopard beyond the metric that it's 1.55 times faster at joining networks than Leopard it's got more efficient filesharing. You could argue networking in Leopard didn't need to be reworked—it was definitely better than Vista's—but really, networking is one of those things that's still not easy to understand for regular people in either OS.

How Long's Your Battery Gonna Last?
Windows 7 supposedly improves notebook battery life by a minimum of 11 percent. On the Snow Leopard front, well, um, all of the new Macs have much bigger batteries? Since Apple didn't drop a slide at WWDC telling the whole world, we can presume there isn't any benefit.

So Much Media Playing
Windows Media Player will handle pretty much any kind of mainstream video or audio format you throw at it, be it H.264, Divx, Xvid or AAC. The UI is better too, but it still kinda sucks 'cause it's trying to do too much (kind of like iTunes nowadays). But it has a few pretty great tricks, like "Play To," that'll command any compatible device on your network and stream stuff to it by way of the newest DLNA standard. Not to mention it'll natively stream your whole library over the internets to anywhere. Oh yeah, and Windows Media Center still rocks.

Apple doesn't get too specific on whether or not QuickTime X can now handle a broader range of formats with its fancy new logo, just that it'll play "the latest modern media formats" like H.264 and AAC even more betterer. It's also got a pretty classy new UI and supports graphics-accelerated playback (mentioned above). But maybe the best new feature is built-in video recording and trimming.

If all this talk of video codecs and file formats is confusing, read our (hopefully) helpful guide on the subject.

Backgrounds
Have you seen Windows 7 acid-trip backgrounds? Incredible. What's Snow Leopard got? Some stupid purple star thing. Apple background designers needs more drugs, plz.

Backup/Backup Time
Time Machine is simply awesome because it's so incredibly easy to use and implement. It's 50 percent faster in Snow Leopard. Our only gripe is that it's still all or nothing—a few built-in scheduling and content preferences wouldn't hurt. Windows Backup and Restore is definitely improved in Windows 7, with finer control over backups and descriptions actually written in English.

Dock vs. Taskbar Round 3
Oh, this is a contentious one. We think Windows 7's taskbar is pretty damn excellent and even said that it was useful than OS X's dock thanks to Aero Peek, which lets you find any window in any app smoothly and instantly. Jump lists, which give you quick access to common functions right from the taskbar icon, were also a nice touch. In short, with these features and stuff like Aero Snap, more usable previews, and Aero Peek mixing it up with Alt+Tab, Windows 7 has the best UI of any Windows yet.

Snow Leopard's UI is mostly the same, but it manages to improve on one of its best features—Exposé—and the Dock at the same time. You can actually do a whole lot more stuff from the Dock now, so you can easily drop files in whatever app window you want to. Exposé, my "I would die without it" feature in Leopard, now arranges windows in a neat grid, rather than scattering them across whatever space is available. Stacks is actually useful now too, since they're scrollable and you can look in folders within stacks in Snow Leopard.

Exchange Support
Snow Leopard's got it built-in, your copy of Windows 7 doesn't. Freaky but true.

Overall Snap Crack and Pop
Both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are designed to be faster, leaner, stronger and more stable than the OSes they're building on. Windows 7 is markedly more responsive, and you simply feel like you're more in control. We'll have to see with Snow Leopard, but if it lives up to Apple's promises, we're definitely looking forward to the performance prowess.

There' s a whole lot that goes into deciding whether you're a Mac or PC, but whatever one you pick, you definitely won't go wrong upgrading your OS this fall.

Although we have yet to hear anything about an Android MID from their event today, Archos has announced the Archos9—a UMPC that runs Windows 7.

Unlike its predecessors, which are basic touchscreen internet media tablets, the Archos9 is a touch tablet that can run a full computer OS. It also features a built-in webcam, 120GB hard drive, full touch support, an external mic, streo speakers, and a toggled-on optical trackpad and an on-screen keyboard, and will be available in Europe this October—around the same time as Windows 7's release—for €450 ($635).

Not far behind the quiet April release of the Archos 2, the Archos 3 has made an appearance on Archo's web site. Looking slim and shiny, the Archos 3 is an 8GB MP3 player, which touts a 3-inch color touchscreen, 14 hours of battery life, and supports photo, audio and video playback, voice recording and more. There is no word on pricing and availability as of now. [Archos via CNet and UMPC]

There has been some grumbling here and there about a lack of Palm Pre signal strength (it doesn't look too hot in the image from our review). So I have a simple question for you: how is your Pre signal?

How is Your Palm Pre Signal Strength?(survey software)

If there really is a problem with Pre reception, don't worry about it too much. If you recall, there were similar problems with the iPhone 3G before the 2.2.1 update.

T-Mobile's next gen T1 Android phone—Samsung's Bigfoot—looks like it features AMOLED and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and will actually be available sooner than we thought.

Contrary to previous reports of the phone being released in October for $150, Boy Genius's source is reporting that the Bigfoot will be launching "really soon"—perhaps as early as this summer. [Boy Genius Report]

According to bit-tech, , Intel is planning to release a six-core Nehalem processor sometime this year.

Rumor also has it that most board manufacturers have already added support, so those of you with Nehalem rigs can probably upgrade to the new chip with a BIOS update. Saving a little money is definitely a good thing in this situation, because if and when a six-core Nehalem is released, expect prices to be in excess of $1000. [bit-tech via Trusted Reviews]

Instead of a Photoshop Contest, this week we're holding an MS Paint Contest. And I want you to use everyone's favorite rudimentary image editor to design your dream iPhone apps.

Work up your masterpieces and send them to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "MS Paint iPhone Apps" as the subject. Don't send me BMP files! Instead, save your files as JPGs, GIFS or PNGs. Seriously, don't be sending me 3MB bitmaps or they won't be included. Save your files with a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with, and get 'em to me by next Tuesday morning. I'll pick the top three winners and put the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

Samsung has announced it's first solar powered GSM cellphone, the Crest E1107, for eco-friendly, budget conscious types that don't seem to be concerned with practicality.

Apparently, the Crest can generate enough power for 5-10 minutes of talk time with one hour of exposure to the sun. Like I said, practicality flies out the window here. Not surprisingly, the additional features are basic—like an FM radio, MP3 ringers, fake call feature (for avoiding unwanted calls) a flashlight, and a few minor features tailored to specific markets. However, there is no denying that it is easy on the budget. Besides the power savings, Unwired View claims the device is already on sale in India for around $59.

Cheap or not, we probably won't be seeing it in the States anytime soon. The Crest E1107 is slated for release in India, Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America starting this month.

Samsung Introduces Its First Solar Powered Mobile Phone

Samsung leads solar panel mobile market with

the launch of Crest Solar (E1107)

Seoul, Korea, June 10, 2009 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, today announced its first solar powered mobile phone, the "Crest Solar" (E1107). The new handset enables its users to charge the battery anywhere the sun is shining when electricity is unavailable.

"The Crest Solar represents our effort and commitment to strengthen our leadership in the solar panel mobile market," said Executive Vice President JK Shin, head of the Mobile Communication Division at Samsung Electronics.

"With Samsung's cutting edge technology and consumer-oriented strategy, I believe the Crest Solar will be the perfect fit for anyone in any market – not only because it is solar powered, but because it has features that were designed to appeal to various cultures."

The Crest Solar will be available in numerous markets including India, Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America from June 2009.

Powered by the Sun

With an extended solar powered battery, the Samsung Crest Solar solves the problem of unavailable or unstable electrical outlets, particularly in rural areas. The phone has the capacity to provide around 5~10 minutes of talk time with one hour of solar charging.* Moreover, the solar panel charging allows its users to save money and energy consumption on traditional electrical charging.

* Measured when the phone is turned-off under the sun light of 80,000 Lux. Results can be different depending on circumstances.

Localized Features for Various Markets

The Crest Solar comes in a compact design with essential mobile phone features such as FM radio, MP3 ring tones, embedded games and a powerful torch light. For consumer safety, the phone offers Mobile Tracker, which automatically alerts when the SIM card is changed or sends out an SOS message in an emergency. The Crest Solar also has a fake call feature, so users can pretend they have an incoming call to escape unsafe situations.

To satisfy Crest Solar users in various markets, Samsung offers localized features for different countries. For instance, it offers profile screening for bikers in the Southeast Asian market that provides incoming call alerts only from selected contacts for safe riding. The Crest Solar also provides specialized features for different religions, such as alerts for prayer time.

You know those Microsoft laptop hunter spots? Apple may already have responded with TV spots of their own, but these MacBook Pros strike back at Microsoft better than any ad can: by doing.

Apple did two things simultaneously that are usually contradictory; they lowered the price of their entire MacBook Pro line while at the same time bumping up the specs. The 15-inch version now starts at $1699 and caps out at $2299, down from $1999 and $2499. What's even nicer is that the 13-inch MacBook—which previously didn't have a Firewire slot or a "nicer" screen—got absorbed into the MacBook Pro family and is now virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the Pro line.

Two other things changed on the build that make the Pros more appealing to regular consumers. The replaceable battery has been swapped for the same type of lithium-polymer internal battery previously found in the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which boosts battery life at the expense of not being able to be changed out in the field. This, for the large majority of people, is a good thing. The batteries last 1000 charge cycles, which at 200/cycles a year, would last you five years. Even if you go through one charge cycle every day, you'll still make it about three years before you need to take Apple up on the $129 replacement. (The $129 includes shipping, labor and disposal of the old battery.)

In our test, the 13-inch MacBook Pro got 3:31 of battery compared to the 3:46 of the 15-inch MacBook Pro. We used the same metrics as the previous MacBook Pro test—medium brightness, Wi-Fi on, keyboard backlight on low, H.264 movie—and got about an hour more on each machine. That's a pretty incredible jump just from a change (non-user replaceable battery) that most people won't notice.

The other interesting swap is the removal of the ExpressCard slot in favor of an SD card slot. According to Apple, there was only a "single digit" amount of customers that used the ExpressCard, whereas tons of people have digital cameras or other devices that use SD. Again, for the vast majority of mainstream customers, this decision was a smart one. And if you really do need ExpressCard, you can still find it on the 17-inch MacBook Pro—which doesn't have an SD card slot.

Then we have the improved LED-backlit display, which has a 60% greater color gamut than previous version. What this means to you is that even the 13-inch MacBook Pro will have a quality display even though it's a few hundred dollars cheaper than the 15-inch. The previous 13-inch MacBook, as you saw in our review, had a screen that was obviously inferior to the Pros, and distorted very noticeably as you stepped away or viewed the screen at an angle. Not anymore. From our tests, the 13 and 15 MacBook Pros looked just about identical, and both had superior color performance compared to older machines we had around.

An even nicer picture is painted by the benchmarks. This is the first time the 15-inch has gone up over 3GHz (the CTO version), and the entire line has the ability to handle 8GB of RAM. We didn't test this 8GB configuration, but we're pretty eager to see how much faster it makes us in our daily work.

Both sets of scores are on par with the changes in specs on the new machines. Since the CPUs have been bumped up, the scores have risen to match. It also makes sense that the 2.53GHz 15-inch just about ties the 2.53GHz 13-inch from this year. The only weird drop is in the Integer section of Geekbench, where both machines this year have dropped. A change in Geekbench? A change in 10.5.7? We're not sure. But these are some good numbers nonetheless.

Although the removable latch has been exchanged for a screwed in panel, you can still get to the hard drive and RAM by removing ten screws and gently lifting off the back. The entire process should take you less than 10 minutes.

The 13-inch MacBook also has one fewer audio port, instead opting for a single audio port that supports digital in and out. If you need simultaneous in and out and don't want to go up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, you can use a $29 USB audio adapter instead.

So is there anything bad to say about the new MacBook Pro line? No, not really. It's cheaper, faster, has more consumer-friendly features and now even has a 13-inch option for people who need slightly more portability. Those people who were waiting for the second-iteration version of a new hardware design (a pretty smart rule to follow with Apple products in general) before upgrading can safely do so now—and get a better deal in the process. [MacBook Pros]

It's cheaper, faster and has a nicer screen

SD card slot more useful than ExpressCard for vast majority of customers

MacBook Pro line now has a 13-inch option

Built-in battery means increased battery size, and that means about an hour longer battery life

If you're in need of a new laptop/computer, today's the day to get one. From Dell netbooks to Apple iMacs, we've got them lined up for you.

Computing and Peripherals:
• HP G60t Core 2 Duo 16" Laptop with 4GB RAM, Blu-ray, 256MB NVIDIA for $709.79 plus free shipping (normally $1,014).
• Apple iMac 24" Desktop for $1,099 plus free shipping (normally $1,199).
• Dell Vostro A90 Netbook Intel Atom 8.9in Mini Laptop (1GB/16GB SSD) for $249 (normally $324).
• Dell Vostro 1520 Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 15.4in LED Laptop (3GB/250GB/Vista Biz + XP Pro) w/ 8GB Flash Drive for $529 (normally $799).
• Lenovo IdeaPad G530 Intel Dual-Core 2.16GHz 15.4in Laptop (2GB/160GB) for $386.99 plus free shipping (normally $429.99 - use coupon code USPLENOVO).
• XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5 PCI-E 2.0 Video Card for $115.56 (normally $195).
• 1TB Hitachi USB Extneral Hard Drive for $74.99 plus free shipping (normally $119.99).
• 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drive for $88 plus free shipping (normally $100 - use this rebate form).

Gaming:
• Sony Playstation 3 80GB for $349.99 plus free shipping (normally $399).

Home Entertainment:
• 50'' Samsung PN50B550 1080p Plasma HDTV for $1309.99 plus free shipping (normally $1599.99 - use coupon code JD9VZMWY).
• 47'' Philips 47PFL3603D 1080p LCD HDTV (normally $1,799).
• 40" Samsung LN40B550 1080p LCD TV for $884.99 plus free shipping (normally $915 - use coupon code IGTZ3SB7).
• 32" Vizio VW32L LCD TV for $388 plus free shipping (normally $430).
• Blu-ray Disc Player BDP-S300 (refurbished) for $134.99 (normally $399).
• Polk Audio 50 Floorstanding Speaker for $94.99 (normally $130).

Hobomodo:
• 2GB USB Flash Drive for $0.
• Subscription to Car and Driver Magazine for $0.
• Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash for $0.
• Hand Therapy Cream from Crabtree and Evelyn for $0 (must have present coupons in-store only).
• Playtex Sport Tampons Sample for $0.
• "Explain Yourselves #2" by Joan of Arcs MP3 Download for $0.
• "The Jesus You Can't Ignore" Book for $0.

If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping!

[Thanks TechDealDigger, Fat Wallet, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains and TechBargains.]

Want to be top nerd in the nerdly, iPhone-wanting circle you run in? Then pre-order, pre-order, pre-order my friends.

The bottom line is this—AT&T stores are going to have two lines come launch day on June 19th. One that opens at 7 am, and one that opens at 8 am (Apple Stores also open at 8). If you want access to that early line, you need to make a visit to the AT&T website to place that order now. Then again, you might enjoy the sights, smells and comradery that comes with suffering in a long-ass line on a hot day with your fellow man. Not me. Last year I waited three hours and that was too damn long. [ifoAppleStore via Ars]

I really thought this "Transformers 2: CGI Megan Fox Even Hotter This Time" behind-the-scenes footage was a joke by those guys at LandlineTV. Apparently, I was very wrong:

Apparently she really needed some CGI retouching. (Please, somebody please tell me this is not real.)

Didn't hear? Dell launched a download store in January. Today they became the only third-party retailer to sell Microsoft downloads. Problem is, they sell Office Home and Student for $130, where Amazon sells it, in the box, for $95. [Dell]

Plenty of couches pull out into beds, but how many of them pull out into snooker tables? Not enough, if you ask me.

Sure, your mother-in-law won't be able to sleep on it when she comes to visit, but is that such a bad thing? I mean, how versatile a piece of furniture is this? It can turn your living room into a game room in about 30 seconds.

Seriously people, why is this an antique and not something we all own? I want an air hockey couch, and I want it now! Let's make this happen!

You have never seen the like - a truly unique sofa that converts into a 6ft pool table!

Produced as a collaboration between Pierce upholsterers of Accrington and Riley, the famous pool and snooker table manufacturers, this is an exceedingly rare piece, and if not a prototype, then it was produced in a very limited quantity.

[The Daily What via eBay]

If you always wanted to be engulfed by a hundred tons of shark-infested water, you really need one of these Mairine surfing jackets. It really can save your life. If it existed, that is.

The Mairine—University of New South Wales student Grant Humphreys' finalist design for the Australian Design Awards—is a jacket for big wave surfing, the kind that requires the surfer to be towed to the waves location under extreme weather conditions. You know, when surfing stops to be really JackJohnsonish fun and starts being extremely fun. Until you die.

To avoid the Bodhi ending, the Mairine has a air canister in the back, which can quickly inflate de jacket in case of emergency. The inflation could be manual or—if the surfer falls unconscious—a manual spring-loaded timer will fire the canister and push the surfer up so the sharks can see him better. []

The Squad Firefighter Positioning System is like Jack Bauer's PDA, which magically shows his position in a building plan. Except that firefighters would extinguish the fire, and Jack Bauer would probably set the building on fire.

Unfortunately, the Squad Firefighter Positioning System is not a real product. Designed by University of New South Wales' student Roy Hareguina, Squad is supposed to use an inbuilt sonar to scan the building architecture and provide a mini-map, showing the environment and the location of each team member.

That would be really cool if sonars actually worked that way, but never mind. We like it anyway because its rugged and practical industrial design. Hopefully, one day these would be a reality. [Australian Design Award via GizMag]

If you're still using the Windows 7 beta Instead of the Windows 7 RC1, you should get on upgrading. As of July 1st, it'll start shutting down every two hours. As of August 1st, it's game over completely. [Windows Blog]

Casio's latest addition to the Exilim lineup boasts 12.1 megapixels and an ultra-wide angle 24mm, 10X optical zoom lens. They also claim it's the thinnest and lightest camera in its class.

Other features include: a battery life of 1000 shots, a 3-inch LCD, CCD-shift image stabilization, max ISO 3200 sensitivity, dynamic photo function that coverts JPEGs into a motion movie file and 720p video recording capability at 30 fps. All in a package that measures under an inch thick. The Exilim EX-H10 will hit stores in July for $300.

CASIO RELEASES EXILIM HI-ZOOM COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA WITH ULTRA-WIDE ANGLE 24 MM, 10X OPTICAL ZOOM LENS

World's Thinnest and Lightest*1 Camera in its Class Features Battery Life of 1,000 Shots,*2 and an Advanced Dynamic Photo Function

DOVER, NJ, June 11, 2009 – Casio America, Inc. and its parent company, Casio Computer Co., Ltd., today announced the release of another groundbreaking digital camera, the EXILIM

Hi-Zoom EX-H10. With a thin, compact body and an ultra-wide angle 24mm, 10x optical zoom lens, this new model can take up to 1,000 shots*1 on a single battery charge - making it the perfect travel companion.

At the heart of the new EX-H10 is the EXILIM Engine 4.0, which delivers higher image quality and lower power consumption in an even more compact package. The new Engine's Multi-CPU*3 is specifically designed for high-speed image processing. Reflecting Casio's quest for perfection, the new camera provides the best in basic photography functions - beautiful imaging with reduced noise and long battery life for many hours of use. A high-performance 12.1-megapixel model, it also boasts a lens with outstanding optical capabilities - from wide angle to telephoto - and it features a number of Casio's totally original photographic functions.

Ultra-wide angle 24 mm, 10X optical zoom lens

Only Casio could find a way to pack a 10X optical zoom lens, large 3.0-inch monitor and a CCD-shift image stabilization mechanism into such a slim, compact camera body, just .95" thin, convenient for travel. With ultra-wide angle starting at 24 mm (35 mm film camera equivalent) all the way up to 10x telephoto zoom, the photographer is ready for any scene - from huge buildings and other wonders at tourist destinations to distant figures in a landscape.

*1. As of June 11, 2009, based on a Casio survey of digital cameras with a 10X or greater optical zoom lenses.

*2. When photos taken in accordance with Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) standards.

*3. A package comprising a high-speed dedicated image processing CPU in addition to the usual high performance CPU.

"The development of the ultra-wide angle 24mm continues Casio's dedication to creating digital cameras that are packed with innovative features and new technology," said Toshiyuki Iguchi, Senior General Manager of Casio's Digital Imaging Division at Casio America, Inc. "This new feature gives our camera enthusiasts the opportunity to capture their extraordinary moments in a variety of shooting environments."

Advanced Dynamic Photo function

Casio's original Dynamic Photo function, which creates composite moving images using the camera's own high-speed image processing technology, now does even more. When a moving subject is cut out of a number of images and combined with a different still shot that forms the background, the size of the subject can be changed to suit the background image. Next, the Dynamic Photo video can easily be converted in-camera into a Motion JPEG movie file. Moreover, moving graphics such as hearts and bouquets of flowers are included so that users can have fun decorating their still images using the Dynamic Photo function. Casio not only allows users to have fun taking and viewing photos, but also provides innovative new ways for them to create original images, right on the camera.

1,000-shot long battery life

Casio has reduced energy consumption by improving the circuitry and operational controls and designing a higher capacity battery, enabling the user to take 1,000 shots on a single full charge. The EX-H10 provides a convenient solution for people on the go. It's possible to take 100 pictures every day of a 10 day vacation, without ever needing to recharge, eliminating the need to pack a charger. The long-life battery gives users approximately 11 consecutive hours of viewing on a single charge.

New Landscape Mode

The EX-H10 also features a new Landscape Mode for capturing beautiful scenic photography. Unlike earlier landscape photography modes, which enhance the saturation of an entire hue, users can now select between the Vivid Landscape option that uses image analysis to determine and vividly enhance only the most important colors in the landscape or the Mist Removal option that makes weather-affected misty scenes look clear and bright.

The new camera will begin shipping to retail in mid July. The EX-H10 will have an MSRP of $299.99 and will be available in black.

In Sweden they love Jesus so much that they got 30,000 bricks to build a full size 6-foot-tall Lego sculpture in toga-party costume. See what I did there? See? [Columbus Dispatch via Gearfuse]

You'd be forgiven for doubting, or at least being disappointed with, the first blurry shots of the Xperia X2, Sony Ericsson's rumored followup to the pricey-but-pretty X1. Today, we get a much better look.

The first thing that jumps out here, aside from the phone's tastefully designed brushed aluminum shell, is Windows Mobile 6.5's finger-friendly visage: indication—though not confirmation—that this'll be one of the first wave of major 6.5 handsets, alongside previously-announced hardware from HTC. But above all, this means no Android, probably. Oh well!

The keyboard has a distinctive look too, bearing more resemblance to a full-size PC keyboard than a cellphone keypad. Hopefully the changes are strictly aesthetic, seeing as the previous model's keypad was one of its strongest points. Sadly, the original source isn't saying a whole lot about his device beyond what we can observe for ourselves, so for now, we simply gaze. [jjlifeblog via BGR]

The home automation industry abandoned its original goal of making things simpler loooooong ago. Now, everyone's just racing to design the most ostentatious devices they can—like Savant's Virtual Control, which gives your entire house a per-room touch interface.

The concept of Savant's system is similar to the iffy Domia X10 lighting controller we saw a few years ago: it takes an image of a room, and triggers certain commands when an item, like a light or a TV, is touched onscreen. This difference is, instead of relying on a programmable touch layer placed over a static photograph, Savant's Virtual Control (a temporary name, by the way) actually displays a dynamic digital photo of a room—or really, lots of rooms—which doesn't just control the various parts of your automated home; it reflects their states.

For example, if you switch off a light in your billiards room, (which you have, because you're clearly an extremely rich person), the light pictured on your Virtual Control will go dark too. A simple finger swipe takes you to another room—say, a your private library—so you can spin up your antique gramophone, or whatever.

There's no special tech voodoo here, just a bunch of preloaded image data, which Savant will send a photographer to collect and curate for you. And weirdly, although the system seems to be intended to manage your whole house, its 9-inch base station is tethered to one place by power and ethernet cables. So there's that. [CEPro]

You've seen the shoes and you've scored the jacket. But what about the most garish garment of Marty McFly's 2015 ensemble, his eye-straining, iridescent hat? Yes, now even that masterpiece is for sale.

While actually shipping July 15th, the Marty MacFly 2015 Hat Replica is available for pre-order today for the low, low price of $25. But not only does the hat's rainbow styling give you a taste of fashion to come, its one-size-fits-all design is outfitted with Velcro—the space-age fastening technology that's normally so rare and expensive that only Payless shoe stores can afford to fly in available stock from Jupiter.

Living in the future is the best, isn't it? [Amazon via ChipChick]

Storm chasers drive towards tornados, hoping to photograph them from up close and study them as they're happening. But usually they just get close. Not last week, when these storm chasers went inside a twister.

This happened last week in Goshen co., Wyoming, the clip taken by the TornadoVideos.net SRV Dominator. The footage is impressive not because of what it does capture (the inside of a tornado) but also because of what it doesn't (girlish screaming and crying). [TornadoVideos.net via Neatorama]

Hubert at Ubergizmo walks us through how much more powerful the iPhone 3GS can be for graphics over the previous iPhones—he used to program for Nvidia—and it's potentially mindblowingly better.

It's not just that the new graphics chip is more powerful, it's the jump from a fixed-pipeline graphics architecture to an OpenGL ES 2.0 architecture that he says is "like going from Half Life to Half Life 2." That's because a whole bunch of modern graphics techniques—ones programmers use on big boy computers and consoles for games like Doom 3 and Gears of War—are suddenly available to developers, like bump mapping, shadows, and multi-textures and lightmaps.

Obviously, you shouldn't expect Xbox 360 level graphics—besides developers not wanting to unceremoniously ditch the 40 million other iPhone users out there, the iPhone 3GS is running on just a 600MHz processor with 256MB RAM and that Power-VR SGX GPU, after all. It's just that programmers can do a whole lot more with that than they could the older iPhones, so games are gonna look way better and vastly more sophisticated than they used to on the iPhone, once devs decide to leave the old hardware behind.

Which should be pretty good, since EA said last year the iPhone was more powerful than the DS, and Sega said it was as powerful as the Dreamcast, the second greatest console of all time. [UberGizmo]

Did you know that a laptop cannot function on your desk? It's true, the thing won't even boot. Luckily, iHome's iStand is saving the world from this technological travesty.

Just slip your computer into the anodized aluminum rails, and you're good to go. Almost. You see, the iStand Notebook Media Bundle does a whole lot more than just holding your laptop.

It can hold your iPod, too.

Holy fuck.

While we know it's difficult to believe, those speakers in front aren't just speakers. They're part of an iPod/iPhone dock. You plug them in, load your iPod and they'll play back music while charging the device. You know, just like a laptop, but with an ever-so-refined mediocrity that only the most tone-deaf music aficionado will appreciate. Still, iHome isn't done yet.

Oh no, they're throwing in a wireless keyboard and mouse as well for the mere $300 asking price. I know what you're thinking, "I could buy a pretty sweet netbook for that much." Well stop contemplating such practical thoughts and hand iHome your money. They've clearly earned it. [iHome Lifeworks via Crave]

Kindle DX is the true heir to the Kindle throne, but whether Amazon's ebook kingdom is growing or shrinking depends on the next wave of books—textbooks. In the meantime, bigger screen, cool new tricks...

I know now I have a love/hate relationship with Kindle. The drive of Amazon to make this unlikely little thing a star is inspiring in a world where most companies just go around copying each other. Amazon has, from the beginning, delivered on so many of promises of e-readers—cheap books delivered instantly to a lightweight screen that's easy on the eyes and stays powered for days on a single battery charge.

The Kindle 2 that hit this spring was a disappointment, nothing but a Kindle 1 with a more predictable design and some novelty tricks.

The DX, arriving just months later, solves real problems of the first generation. Internally, it has native PDF support, which allows for reading of the vast bulk of formal business literature, not to mention a bazillion easy-to-download copyright-free (free-free!) works of actual literature. Externally, the DX's larger 10-inch screen makes it better suited to handle the content, not just PDFs, but textbooks, whose heavily formatted pages would look shabby on the smaller Kindle's 6-inch screen.

The DX also has an inclinometer, so you can flip it sideways or even upside down. I didn't know what that was for at first—but I do now.

The DX is not-so-secretly the smartest thing Amazon could do to show academic publishers it was time to green up and get with digital distribution. But it's a real "if you build it, they will come" strategy, because although Amazon has announced that it "reached an agreement" with the three publishers who account for 60% of textbooks sold—Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley (but not Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)—we haven't seen any actual textbooks distributed to Kindles yet and, more upsettingly, we have no idea how much they will cost or what weird rights issues may be involved in their "sale."

So while we're sitting here, DX in hand, waiting for the real reason for its existence to come to fruition, it doesn't hurt to talk about it as a reader for regular books, right?

I am currently a little over halfway through Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, a heavyweight champ of a book, even in paperback, that sits on my chest each night, restricting my breathing until I have no choice but to fall asleep.

As you can see from the scale shots below, the DX weighs about half as much as the paperback, a real load off my chest. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) As Kindle lover Chen is apt to point out, the Kindle 2 is just half the weight of the DX, but I counter with this lazy man's factoid: Even using a slightly larger font, I can see the equivalent of two and a half Kindle 2 pages on a DX screen. It is, in fact, a better reading experience.

When it comes to PDFs, the Kindle DX lives up to its unambitious promise: There they are, in the menu, the minute you copy them from your computer to the Kindle via USB. What won't show up are .doc, .docx, Excel spreadsheets or any other text-based pseudo-standards from the Microsoft people, and no images either.

The good and bad thing about the PDFs is that they appear squarely in the DX's 10-inch rectangular frame, "no panning, no zooming, no scrolling," as Amazon's bossman Jeff Bezos likes to say. This is wonderful when you have a PDF like my free copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's presented in a big clear font and saved to PDF, meaning I can't change the font size, but I don't want to either. The trouble arises when you have something like the HP product brochure below. Damn thing was meant to be seen on a computer, with full-color graphics and the ability to zoom in on the fine print. As you can see, some print is so small, the Kindle's slightly chunky E-Ink screen resolution can't render it legibly.

That's when I found that you really can zoom.

Remember I mentioned that inclinometer, that orients the screen horizontally or vertically depending on how you hold it? It's not terribly useful for Kindle books, which are meant to look great in vertical (portrait) orientation. But when you're looking at a PDF, and you can't read everything, tilting the whole deal 90 degrees gets you a bit of a zoom. How much? If you think about it, that's a little over 20%, not a lot, but a bit of a boost when you need it. The PDF support is so convenient, but means I especially miss the SD card slot from the first Kindle. It would make life with the DX a far sight easier.

So the screen is bigger, but perhaps still not big enough, at least for the text books and businessy documents. I'm happy to say that it's finally reached the minimum required size for recreational reading, which is what most people will be buying it for anyway.

I haven't got a lot to say about the newspaper industry that the Kindle will allegedly save, except that Kindle newspapers don't look or feel anything like real newspapers, so they may disappoint a few old-schoolers out there. You don't even get a fat front page of options pointing in all directions, but instead, incomplete tables of contents segregated by section. I am glad for the newspaper distribution on Kindle, but only in the same way that I am glad for the faxed New York Times cheatsheets they hand out at resorts that are too far from mainland USA to get an actual paper on time. Seriously, if this is somehow more accessible than reading a newspaper on a laptop, I'll eat my hat.

The same goes for the text-to-speech that publishers are all frightened of. Sure, computer-generated voices are getting better, and the precedent set here might eventually shut down some voice-talent union, but in the meantime, their jobs are safe: I can't imagine how anyone could listen to more than a paragraph. Apparently neither can Amazon: In the Kindle DX, the speech controls are buried, and you have to memorize a keystroke combination to get it working.

The DX also doesn't give any new hope for E-Ink as a sustainable platform. The many people who bitch that color is king are not wrong, exactly, but color E-Ink is puke-tastic and far from cheap. Monochrome E-Ink may look nice by the light of your nightstand lamp—and thank God Amazon hasn't gone and mucked it up like Sony did with that PRS (more like POS)-700—but it's still too slow to leaf around the way you would a serious work of literature. (My best example of this is still Infinite Jest by the late great David Foster Wallace. I was surprised to discover that it's actually finally available as a Kindle book, every glorious footnote intact albeit cumbersomely hyperlinked. I have always assumed it would be more daunting on a Kindle than in book form, but now that I have a chance to find out, I'll have to get back to you.)

Unless E-Ink gets cheaper, faster, bigger and more colorful all at once, it's doomed. The iPhone is an all-around worse system for book readin', but way more people have iPhones, so it could beat Kindle by sheer momentum. And Mary Lou Jepsen's Pixel Qi company is working on a new LCD screen that—like the OLPC XO screen she was instrumental in devising—will run on less power, be easy on the eyes in natural light, and have optimized modes for both black-and-white and color.

The hope for the current Kindles is that these boring old black-and-white textbooks we keep hearing about appear on the horizon like an army of indignant Ents. Give every college kid a DX and the chance to download half their texts to Kindle, and all bets are off.

So what happens next? Well like I said, we wait.

In Summary

Best ebook reader to date

Native PDF support

Larger screen means (almost) everything is easier to read

E-Ink screen is easy on the eyes and battery efficient, but makes pages slow to "turn" and does not come in color

Textbooks would be ideal, so let's see the deals

$489 price tag is steep

No zooming means some PDFs will be unreadable

We have no issues with Linux, other than that vendors often overlook the platform when it comes to drivers. Luckily, The Geekess, also known as Sarah Sharp, has coded the first USB 3.0 driver for Linux. Her efforts will not only make USB 3.0 compatible with Linux when the tech hits later this month, but will also earn Linux the title of "First!" OS to support the USB 3.0 standard. Nice! [The Geekess via Ozel Web Tasarim via Engadget]

Hello, we're still looking for another intern to work in New York City, since we need more coffee than the current one can carry. Kidding, we need you to lift some heavy gadgets. Here's what we're looking for:

What You Need
• Gadget love and knowledge—some geekiness is definitely a good thing
• Writing experience is a major plus, but not 100 percent mandatory—but you should have a good command of the English language, and be ready to demonstrate it with some samples
• A decent laptop (one that can handle light video editing)
• An alarm clock, 'cause you'll be up eeeeeearly every morning
• Basic experience with HTML, Flickr, torrenting, Firefox, FTP-the internets, essentially
• An NYCish address (you need to be able to get to Manhattan in the morning with no problems)
• Dedication—the job's fun, but it's definitely work
• The ability to listen and follow instructions and be fast—basically, you're here to learn and build up your knowledge-base
• To be over 18

What You'll Be Doing
• Spotting stories
• Helping us pull together stories with research
• Supporting editors in the field doing live reporting
• Writing, eventually, if you're awesome

The pay is incredibly lousy—we're not kidding—but you'll get top-notch experience with the well-oiled blog machine that is Giz, learn lots of neat words for penis, and yes, get to play with cool gadgets you (maybe) couldn't afford on your own. Send your resume, no attachments please—seriously, we'll delete your application without even looking at it—and tell us why you're the best person on earth, or at least in NY, to JOBS@gizmodo.com, with NYC INTERN in the subject line, otherwise we might miss it. Good luck!

We've seen the Red One blur the line between DSLRs and HD cameras with Esquire's video-still Megan Fox cover, but this video shows how a photography studio that shoots movie posters has used it to blend photography and video even more.

And here's one of the finished products:
[Alexx Henry]

As you know, to steal an ATM you only need John Connor's Atari Portfolio, a credit card interface, and a password cracking program. Easy. That or 20 thugs and all that money will be yours.

I can imagine them escaping in the van: "WE ARE RICH!"

And then dividing the booty, later in their lair: "OK, and that will be $25.77 each... hm-mmmmmm."

Oh, the joy.

There's something vaguely reminiscent of vintage sci fi in this new remote from Monster, but there's not nearly enough of that something to make the design palatable in any way.

The Monster MCC AV50 Home Theater Controller, $50 next month, is a "tabletop universal remote control" that has a "Web-based setup." We have no real grasp of what these descriptions indicate, but assume the device to be bulky as hell (that's the "tabletop" part) and have a simple onscreen setup (that's the "web" part).

Maybe there's a market for such big, easy to use controllers, but why anyone would want to wield a QWERTY-like keyboard without the keyboard is beyond us—especially one this ugly. Indeed, it's hard to believe that this announcement was coupled with Monster's new, aesthetically pleasing HDMI cables. [Gearlog and PCMag via Crunchgear]

Why change the camera white point when you can actually change the entire room white point and leave your camera fixed? OK, that doesn't make any sense at all, but you can do it with the new Sharp LED lamps.

Remote-controlled color-changing LED-baed lightbulbs are not new, but the 560-lumen Sharp DL-L60AV has a beautiful classic design and focus on only the white range, allowing you to change its temperature from eight different points.

As a bonus, these lights last for 40,000 hours, consume very little energy—only 4.1 or 7.5 watts, depending on the model—and doesn't attract insects:

These LED lamps emit almost no light in the 350-nm (ultraviolet) waveband that tends to attract insects, thus minimizing dirt and contamination of the lighting fixture from flying bugs and insects

Having experienced the mosquitos in NYC, I can really see that as a major selling point. [Sharp via Impress]

A cord-free desk, military-approved grilling gear, and cursing cards - prepare for your next man mission with the week's best from Uncrate.

This week at Uncrate: We de-clutter Uncrate HQ with the BlueLounge StudioDesk, explore the outdoors in the Helly Hansen Trail Lizard, and set sail with the Remote Controlled RMS Titanic. We also fight on the side of flavor with the Tactical Grilling Kit, let our loved ones know how we really feel with The F*cking Card Collection, and enjoy the hilariousness of Eastbound & Down. Finally, we keep our stink at bay with John Varvatos Artisan, keep up with the Joneses thanks to the Indiana Leather Adventure Duffel, and jam out to the 60s-era sounds of Wait For Me by Moby.

Recently, Dell's been doing all the things that a major company does when getting ready to make a big acquisition, like building up cash reserves, selling bonds, and, well, talking about it, at least internally. The only question now is, what do they want? Is it a hardware company, maybe to break into the mobile space, or, as the WSJ boringly insinuates, a "data-storage and tech-services business?" [WSJ]

While Sony didn't announce a PS3 price cut at E3, Amazon is shaving $50 off 80GB systems all day. It's pretty much the best you can do unless you enlist for a Sony Style credit card. [Amazon via Kotaku]

The new Herman Miller Setu is certainly not the Herman Miller Embody. But then again, its $650 price tag is not the Embody's $1600. And for a good reason.

The reason for the price difference is that—even while it's comfy and has great design—it is not designed to work for long periods of time. It's much better and comfortable than a normal multi-purpose chair, however, even while it is supposed to be a multi-purpose chair. And what is a multi-purpose chair, are you asking? It's a chair that can go anywhere—from a work desk to a conference room—made for people who don't sit for 12 hours in a row. Like me and my cubic butt. Yes, twelve hours in a row. Some of them even naked. Let that thought sink now—it'll make sense through the day.

The Herman Miller Setu will be officially announced on June 15. [Otto via Fast Company]

Doom Resurrection, the first full title in the series since Doom III, will be coming to the App Store next week, and iD has cut a trailer. (Spoiler: It looks great.)

Some are already hailing it as a "true next generation game" for the iPhone, and it does have some fairly impressive graphics, as far as the platform goes. But with iPhone 3GS on its way, with a more powerful graphics processor and support for a newer version of OpenGL, isn't this an odd time to market an iPhone game on its up-to-the-minute visuals and performance?

iD head John Carmack doesn't think so, telling Venturebeat that the game, like other Doom titles before it, will grow into new hardware. He specifically mentions the possibility of multiplayer with OS 3.0, but doesn't talk about whether or not the game content will adapt to the 3G S. [Venturebeat, Talking About Games]

Samsung has posted the full details of its WB1000 (née TL320) analog-gauged point-and-shoot, and its specs—like its exterior—are eye-catching.

The WB1000 is built around a 12.2 megapixel sensor, which is capable of shooting up to ISO 3200 (in reduced 3.2-megapixel mode) and 720p video, which can be smoothed, like SD video, with the camera's built-in optical stabilizer. The lens goes wide, at 24mm-120mm film equivalent focal lengths, and the aperture opens up to a respectable f2.8 at minimum zoom.

The outwardly visible features, though, steal the show. At the back you'll find a 3.0-inch hVGA+ (that's 480×360) OLED screen, and on top there are a set of actual analog gauges, for metering battery charge and SD space. The rest of the camera isn't as stylized, unfortunately, looking like a fairly run-of-the-mill point-an-shoot from most angles. (But oooh, the novelty!)

Luckily, the price is also mainstream. Crutchfield is listing the product under the TL320 name for $380, which isn't bad at all, assuming picture and video quality are decent. According to the site, it'll ship on June 18th. [Samsung]

What do you do when you've instituted a bottom-to-top refresh in your product line, your new shipments are imminent, but you still have hundreds of stores with leftover inventory? FIRE SALE, is what.

Apple stores have discounted nearly every MacBook in stock, and while the markdowns aren't huge, they're worth a look: MacBook Airs have been discounted anywhere from $400 to $800, which means the previous base model is now $100 cheaper than the most affordable new version. The 2.66GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro is discounted by $500, bringing it below the new model's $2500 starting price. 13-inch unibodies get $100-$300 markdowns, which, given the latest units' advantages, might not be worth it.

You'll want to stop by or call your local store on this one, since these offers depend on remaining inventory, and might not hold in every location. [AppleInsider via Ars]

Canned videos and secondhand accounts can only tell us so much about Project Natal; it's really the kind of product you want to see for yourself. Microsoft's Kudo Tsunado went on Jimmy Fallon last night to give us a look.

Microsoft's initial announcement was prerecorded and very controlled, and our early hands-on experiences couldn't be filmed. Microsoft loosened up tonight, letting Fallon and, uhh, Jim from The Office jump in and out of Natal's sensor area to take control of live demos on national TV. As a segment, it was a little awkward, even in the context of Jimmy Fallon's show. As a tech demo? Drawn large across a 108-inch Sharp LCD, Natal came off as a tiny bit glitchy, but otherwise fantastic. [NBC]

If this aquarium doesn't qualify as green innovation, then I don't know what does. Because using a small garden to filter out nitrates from your freshwater fish tank is pretty damn eco-conscious.

Designed by Benjamin Graindorge and Duende Studio, this tank not only looks nice, but uses some simple ingenuity to accomplish the task of water filtration.

Here's how it works: nitrate-heavy water from your fish tank is pulled up into the garden, where it is passed over a layer of river sand, which uses bacteria to convert impurities into nitrates. The water is then passed over some plant life, which naturally absorbs the nitrates as nutrients. Then the purified water is thrown back down into the fish tank, where your gilled friends can swim at ease.

CoolHunting says there are plans for the Floating Garden to go into production in 2010, both in plastic and ceramic iterations. [Duende Studio via CoolHunting]

University of Texas researchers stumbled upon a new superconducting metal that is the world's thinnest at a mere two atoms—slightly thicker than a marathon runner by comparison.

Superconducting material is valuable because it has zero electrical resistance and can maintain a current without a power source. So far, it's been used in a variety of high-tech equipment, including MRI machines, and the Large Hadron Collider.

Gizmag says this new metal opens up the possibility for new breakthroughs in these fields, as well as being able to use it to observe how superconductivity itself works. [University of Texas via Gizmag]

Sure the Star Radio Communicator iPhone app looks kinda like that other communicator—you know, retro-futuristic design, flip door, 3 button layout—but last time I checked, Captain K's communicator absolutely did not make calls on Earth's phone system.

iPhoneSavior says the 99 cent app gives you a dialing interface to place calls from within the app, making you feel like you're about five seconds away from bitch-slapping a couple of Klingons. But I can't imagine Paramount is at all happy with this. [iTunes Store via iPhoneSavior]