Residents of Esparto, California had their windows shattered by an explosion created as part of a Mythbusters segment designed to see whether or not it was truly possible to knock someone’s socks off. According to KCRA news, the Mythbusters crew ignited 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate about a mile outside of Esparto that resulted in an explosion that “was a lot bigger than they expected.” → Read More
I may not know much about wrestling, but I do know that Photoshopping three stock photos on a muddy background and calling it Rubber Colorful Skin does not make for a salable product. I did, after all, try that technique in my new line of Rubber Colorful Skin Sex Wear and sorely overestimated the international need for such a product. → Read More
Innovative electric-car startup Tesla is unveiling the latest addition to its lineup this afternoon in Southern California. The sedan is meant to serve as a more affordable entry to the Tesla lineup that will appeal to the mainstream, with a ticket price of around $50,000 (as opposed to well over $100,000 for the Tesla Roadster). Current estimates for release of the car are late in 2011.
Earlier today Digg’s Kevin Rose leaked a number of photos of the car (which has been kept tightly under wraps until now). The car apparently features a very large touchscreen in the center console, as well as a digital display that is possibly touch-sensitive in the dash. Rose appears to have made the Flickr accounts he originally posted the photos to private, but they have been copied to a number of other sites.
The video feed should be live by 12:45 PM PST
Update: It looks like Ustream had trouble with its feed, but here are some details, via Jason Calacanis’s Twitter stream.
Sony today announced two new Blu-ray and HDD recorders for the Japanese market that feature a VOD function [JP]. The BDZ-A750 and the BDZ-A950 are Japan-only. Owners of a PSP or a Sony DAP can connect their devices to the recorders via USB to download and view content on their portables later. → Read More
I was so worried about this book ever becoming a movie – Horton Hears a Who and the other Seuss stuff was execrable – but this preview shows that Spike Jonze and David Eggers can me beautiful monster music together. October 16, eh? Can’t wait. → Read More
It’s been almost a year since we first got our hands on Samsung’s updated (u740) Alias, and whadoyaknow, Samsung is getting ready to launch the Alias2 on the Verizon Wireless network any time now. Funny how that tends to work. Just as you get comfortable with yesteryear’s technology…BAM, the next generation hits the scene. → Read More
I took a deep personal interest in Batter Blaster when I first covered it way back in October of 2007. At that time it was only available in the San Francisco area and, after what seemed like eons, I finally saw Batter Blaster in a grocery store here in Boston last night. Hit the jump to check out a video review of the Batter Blaster pancakes in a can. → Read More
There’s some changes going on at Lenovo. The corporation, of which the Chinese government is its largest shareholder, will turn its attention toward so-called emerging markets, such as the Middle East and Asia, China included. This necessarily comes at the expense of places like Western Europe and North America, where Lenovo will lessen its presence → Read More
Sony’s “don’t call it a netbook” VAIO P may be getting an internal makeover by the summer according to the all-things-Sony blog, Sony Insider. The current VAIO series model numbers have naming conventions such as “VGN-P530H/G” and Sony Insider was able to dig up six mysterious model numbers that look similar to the current ones, but place them in the 700 series instead of the 500 series. → Read More
Want to know everything that could possibly go wrong with Google? Well, you can read the risk section of its latest SEC filing, but that’s a snore. Or you can flip through the slides after the jump, which were put together by French consulting firm FaberNovel. They were the ones who gave us the hugely popular slideshow, “Everything you always wanted to know about Google . . . but were afraid to ask”.
This one is titled more morosely, “Why could Google die . . . maybe not now, but tomorrow.” I wouldn’t be picking out caskets just yet, but the slideshow does provide a convenient cheat sheet for most of the major threats that Google faces. It quickly goes through them, including the threat of antitrust and copyright infringement litigation, a massive privacy disaster, hiring and retention issues, disruption from new startups. There is even a nice slide listing Google’s 12 main weaknesses, along with a visual assessment of the probability, timing, and impact of each scenario. Of course, chances are that it doesn’t include the one threat that will get Google in the end. (I don’t know what it is either, but I am a big believer in black swans). → Read More
So Apple just released a firmware update for the new 17-inch MacBook Pro that supposedly fixes that nasty screen tearing issue we discussed. As with all firmware updates, you’re asked to pray to your god of choice in order to ensure that the update goes smoothly. → Read More
Here’s a spicy rumor for you all to enjoy. Apparently RIM is planning some sort of BlackBerry TV store/service/thing, and may launch it as early as CTIA next week. (CTIA is like CES, but just for cellphone stuff; actually, a more accurate comparison would have been with Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress; thank you.) It’d be a subscription service, and the TV shows download over a Wi-Fi connection; it won’t use your data (3G if you’re lucky) connection at all → Read More
Yahtzee, of Zero Punctuation fame, is never wrong. In his crosshairs this week is Resident Evil 5, a delightful romp through T-Virus-ravaged (or whatever virus it is this time) Africa. You have a partner, a woman named Sheva (not to be confused with Andriy Shevchenko), who’s totally useless. → Read More
Populist outrage in 3…2…1. IBM is laying off 5,000 U.S. employees and “building its work force in India and other locations,” according to the WSJ. Foreign workers now make up 71% of IBMs workforce of 400,000. → Read More
We’re nearing the end of our long road trip but we still have a bunch of stuff to giveaway. This edition of Guess the MPG involves us driving from Las Vegas, NV to Pomona, CA. We are headed to a Garage of Tomorrow event with the Fusion Hybrid and this route should involve a both high speed freeway travel and stop/start LA traffic. So far the Fusion Hybrid has recorded an average MPG of 34.1 MPG over the last 2000 miles, but most of that was highway travel at slightly higher speeds than the posted limit. This 250 mile route will be a bit different. Guess our mileage correctly and you’ll win a JBL On Stage Micro iPod dock and some killer Harmon Kardon earphones. → Read More
Here’s a juicy rumor (if you’re a geek, this is good stuff): A source tells us that Google AppEngine, a platform for building and hosting web applications in the cloud, will begin letting developers write applications in Java in the near future. Until now only Python applications were supported. The announcement should come at the Google I/O conference in late May.
Java applications are extremely popular, particularly for business applications, and it is one of the internally supported languages at Google. In fact, late last year a startup called Stax Networks launched that billed itself as an “AppEngine for Java.” Don’t feel too bad for the startup, however, they’ve said from the beginning that they expected Google to enter the Java market sooner rather than later.
Java continues to be one of the most popular programming languages, and is a natural next step for Google. And AppEngine has been a highly successful product, at least from a press standpoint – the Obama Administration has embraced it along with all things Google. → Read More
Matthew Dominick made this clever Mario mash-up in which the plumber blows the warp whistle and ends up in Chicago, a city that probably already has a surfeit of mustachioed ethnic plumbers but could always use one more. → Read More
Your friends, family, and coworkers may have laughed at you in the past but nobody, and I mean NOBODY, will be laughing when you walk into the room with your PSP mounted around your waist, ready for some serious portable gaming. → Read More
So far we have traveled 2000 miles in the Ford Fusion Hybrid and we’re pleased to say that it’s been comfy. The seats are supportive, but still soft. The leg and headroom is sufficient, and it rides nicely. We have traversed high mountains, rolling hills, and endless flatlands while enduring high winds, rain, snow, and even some hail over the last week. But this Fusion kept on truck’n while maintaining some sort of order inside. Watch the video after the break for a complete run-down on the Fusion’s interior. → Read More
