Tech Newz

The “Daily Shelter” by artist Ingrid Brandth is a dining-room table that converts to a secret fort: “At first glance it looks like an ordinary table. But for the one who knows its secret, it can be transformed into a shelter where one can hide from scary sounds, ghosts or family members. Just like a snail feels safe in its house.”

One of the coolest parts of having a two-year-old around the house is getting to play fort all the time — we dive ..read more

Richard sez, “For the discerning mad scientist: the list of items up for auction by the University of Delaware from a former Chrysler plant in Newark, Delaware. The university bought the plant after it closed, and apparently got the contents as well. The coolest items are probably the 6 axis robot arms, some still in line along assembly lines. There appears to be all kinds of milling equipment as well as other mysterious devices of unsure ..read more

Palm’s Pre and Pixi cellphones are getting upgraded soon. Gizmodo got some hands-on play time.

Go to the original story

We’d like to extend our thanks to those of you who have given generously to charity this year; three of those who did so, and who correctly answered a challenge, were selected by our pals at Tokyoflash to get a gift of their choice from their wonderful catalog of bizarre watches. Watch winner Thomas Smartwood donated to the Salvation Army and the public library in Des Moines; Sean Corbett donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Chris Haigy donated to ..read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has pored over the terms of service for several popular ebook services and devices and come up with “An E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy,” a handy chart that tells you what information about your reading habits you “agree” to send to these companies by simply standing in the vicinity of the device, clicking a link, or, in some cases, breathing.

In other words, your Kindle will periodically send information about you to Amazon. But exactly what information ..read more

The Food and Drug Administration is holding up the delivery of MG Siegler’s iMac because they apparently think it is an apple, not an Apple.

I don’t want to believe that either UPS or the U.S. Government are so stupid as to think that my Apple computer is actually an apple, but I can’t come up with any other explanation (and neither can people on Twitter). On my UPS tracking shipment screen right now all I see is “Exception” followed by ..read more

Cellular carriers claim that their contracts offset heavy subsidies on handsets. They claim they’d love to sell phones contract-free at retail–you’re just not interested. But there’s a problem with this story: these “full price” handsets are grossly overpriced, suggesting that they want consumers in the contract rat trap after all. As hard as it is to prove, discount handsets often reveal the absurdity of list pricing. For example, Motorola’s Renew, free with a 2-year agreement, is listed as $160 full-price ..read more

Do you think the TSA would let you past security with this USB memory stick in the shape of an itsy-bitsy grenade?

Go to the original story

Saul Hansell suggests that hated U.S. cellular carrier practices such as text message markups and fee-packed contracts ultimately give American consumers what they really want: predictable bills.

In pursuit of this we learn of the psychological “nuances” of pricing and the “supersized logic” of using fat overage fees to upsell customers to expensive all-you-can-eat plans.

“This year,” he writes, “the deals are becoming even better.”

His piece even claims that the industry would love to give up the adhesive contracts, early termination ..read more

My daughter earned this spinning top for selling wrapping paper in a school fundraiser. It plays the theme from Beverly Hills Cop and draws a laser circle on the floor. Thirty years ago the technology in this toy would have cost $100,000.

Go to the original story