Thomas the Transformer!~

It is Thomas The Tank, and also the Transformer. The Transformer is made up of three Thomas The Tanks: red, bule and green Thomas. Available on eBay for all of $8.50 Singapore dollars(about $5)~

via : ebay.com.sg

Sheetseat~

Sheetseat is a folding chair cut from a single sheet of plywood with a thickness of 3/4" when collapsed. This simple innovation in flat-pack seating allows for storage and transportation in even the tightest of spaces. Design credit: Efecem Kutuk~

via : ufukkeskin

Mona Lisa Made of 3,604 cups of coffee~

3,604 cups of coffee that had been made into a giant Mona Lisa, Click 2 enlarge!~

via : konrad

Talking Jedi Telescope Features Astronomy Lessons From Yoda~

This Jedi telescope allows you to insert 10 built-in Star Wars planets and ships into the heavens. It also features astronomy lessons from Yoda where he will teach you that “the planets and ships throughout the Star Wars universe are similar to our own.” Yes indeed, there is nothing more magical than having a cup of coffee in the morning and watching the Death Star come up over the horizon~

via : entertainmentearth

Personal urns, you won't be missed even after your time is over~

Has immortality ever crossed your mind, well no one can live forever but Cremation solutions has come up with one freaky product Personal Urns which can come close to it, at least it makes you believe so. Personal Urn uses advanced facial reconstruction and 3D printing technology that will take a full 3D image of the person’s head to create a urn that looks identical to the deceased person to store the ashes when times up . Just in case you are mirror cracking material, the company can make the urn in shape of any celebrity’s head~

via : cremationsolutions

Kodak Zi8 tinycam shoots image-stabilized 1080p~

Kodak waited for all the cheap tinycams to take their best shot, and now it's swooped down with the Zi8, a 1080p pocket camcorder with face tracking and, get this, image stabilization. None of the other cheapo camcorders have such a thing. We're just wondering how well it can stabilize those shaky shots, especially at the undercutting price of $180~

That bargain-basement price smacks down the $230 (and 720p) Flip Mino HD and Creative Vado HD (also 720p) in one shot. Like the others, it can upload directly to YouTube, but this one adds Facebook uploads to the mix, too, and lets you record everything onto an SD card. And look at that clean styling, available in three cool colors, and sporting a bigger-than-the-others 2.5-inch LCD screen on the top half and just one button sitting in the middle~

We'll have to wait until the Zi8 is available next month to see if Kodak also nailed the main weakness of such tinycams: the audio. But then, the Zi8's external audio jack gives us a hint, implying that if we don't like the onboard mic, we can supply a higher-quality one of our own. Nice~

via : crunchear

Wink Glasses protect your eyesight from gaming tunnel vision~

The ultimate eye preservation apparatus has been created for gamers who thrive on three-day marathon sessions. The device, called Wink Glasses, was created by Japan's Masunaga Optical Manufacturing to force computer users to blink to avoid eye strain~

Wink Glasses work using a sensor that detects how long you have gone without blinking and if the time passes the five-second mark the mechanism will automatically block your eyesight by fogging up the glass panel until you blink again. The device will hold an eight-hour charge and can also be connected to a USB outlet as an alternative power source. The Wink Glasses will hit the Japanese market on August 10th for 15,750 yen ($150)~

via : impresswatch

Jackie Chan Kaspersky 2010 Ad~

This Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 ad is so ridiculously bad that it’s guaranteed YouTube cult status; a Segway-riding Jackie Chan busts out a can of cheesy whoop ass on malware~

via : youtube

Super Mario Fire Hydrant~

His arms might be by his ears and his head might be slightly too pointy, but the Super Mario Fire Hydrant piece of street graffiti is an awesome piece of work. Now where’s the Luigi light post or the Yoshi park bench?~

via : albotas

Scientists create ultraviolet-transparent aluminum~

Oxford scientists say they've created transparent aluminum, but is it similar to what we saw in Star Trek IV? Well, not really. Using a powerful FLASH laser that produces brief pulses of "soft x-ray light," they knocked out an electron from every aluminum atom in a lab sample. Because this process didn't disrupt the metallic lattice structure of the metal, it magically turned the aluminum into a substance transparent to ultraviolet light~

Compounds containing aluminum have already been created (such as the aluminum oxynitride pictured above), but this is the first time pure aluminum has been rendered transparent. But you won't really be able to see through it — it's only invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation. The amazing part? ''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before," said Professor Justin Wark~

There's a catch, though: The aluminum sample turned transparent was tiny — less than a 20th of the width of a human hair in diameter. And the amount of power required to create this minuscule window was equal to that of a power plant providing electricity to an entire city. Oh, and the see-through aluminum reverts quickly back to its natural state. But hey, it's a start. Scientists are saying the technology used to create this entirely new state of matter might also help in the quest for generating power using nuclear fusion~

via : physorg

Panasonic rolls out space-age capsule hotel~

Despite the cultural differences it's still a wonder why Japanese capsule hotels haven't made their way to big U.S. cities like New York and Chicago. Perhaps a new take on the capsule hotel by Panasonic and designers Masaaki Hiromura and Takaaki Nakamura will inspire the West to finally adopt this futuristic hotel dynamic~

Set up like a normal (somewhat coffin-like) chamber for sleeping, the new 9H facility in Kyoto will merge cutting-edge electronics with minimalist design evocative of the late Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi aesthetic. Adorned with a simple, sleek black panel called the "sleeping environment system," the future of hotels will be on display at the Axis Gallery in Tokyo August 19th~

via : supernews

What Peter Jackson plans for the two Hobbit movies and why~

Today producer/director Peter Jackson talks about The Hobbit films, updates us on their status, debunks a few rumors and talks about what the two movies will actually encompass and why~

Among the highlights: The script for the first film is about three weeks away; no casting has been decided; the two movies will encompass the story in the book and won't be one movie about the book and a second to bridge the period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, as has been speculated; and the films will draw in narratives from the same era as told in other writings~

Jackson first talked about his decision to hire Guillermo del Toro to direct the two movies, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy book and precursor to The Lord of the Rings~

"Guillermo's there not because I'm a mentor of him, but I just thought he would do a terrific job with that film," Jackson said. "It wasn't the type of movie I [wanted] to give to a young, novice filmmaker and have them sort of godfather it through. I wanted someone who ... was established, who I could trust with it. ... With The Hobbit, I really don't want to ... be too involved in looking over the shoulder of the director."~

Jackson added that he chose not to direct the films himself for a specific reason: "So I didn't have to compete against myself," he said. "Because with the Lord of the Rings movies I did make, those were the very best films that I could make, given the circumstances and everything else. ... I poured my heart and soul into those films, and I just thought that I'd given everything I could to The Lord of the Rings, and now, with The Hobbit, I'd have to go there again, and now I'd be competing against myself. And how did I shoot Hobbiton the first time around? And how did I shoot Gandalf coming through the door? Now I'd have to look back at what I did the first time and do something different. Or not. And suddenly I could just imagine myself having this rather weird year or two where I was relating to my own work in a way in which I didn't feel comfortable. So I thought that the best thing—and honestly the best thing for the project and the fans of Tolkien and everything else—was to find another filmmaker who would do a really great job, and let them shoot Gandalf coming in the door, and let's all enjoy what they do with it and give somebody else a chance to do something fresh and original with it."~

Jackson remains heavily involved, writing the scripts with longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, as well as del Toro~

Following is an edited version of our conversation about The Hobbit, which is in preproduction in New Zealand~

Can you update us on the status of The Hobbit?~

Jackson: ... We're about three weeks, I would say—give or take a little tailwind—about three weeks from turning over the first script for the first Hobbit movie to the studio. The process that we've been through so far is we wrote—and when I say "we," it's the four of us, it's Guillermo, Philippa, Fran and myself—we wrote an extensive treatment of the two films, which we pitched to the studio on a long conference call, and that was, I guess, about three or four months ago. And that was good, that went well, and they liked the idea. Because no one was really [in disagreement about] "Should it be one film? Should it be two films?"~


There was talk about doing The Hobbit as one movie and doing an in-between-The Hobbit-and-The Lord of the Rings [movie], a bridge movie. ... We worked through the storyline, and we thought, "Well, obviously, we could squeeze The Hobbit into one movie," but even, like, a three-hour movie, you'd be amazed at how much of that story you'd have to lose. It's weird. I mean, the book ... is what the book is, and we just worked through a process of including all the events that we'd like to see in a film, and it was clear [that] it wasn't going to fit. Plus, the fact that we want to embellish a few things and put a little bit of extra ... narrative in for Gandalf and what he's doing in Dol Guldur and the Necromancer and various sort of side ... stories that are happening. And so we decided really that the two movies we were doing should be The Hobbit part one and part two~

So we devised this treatment, we pitched it to the studio, and they were happy with it. So then we set about, about three months ago we started in earnest to write the screenplay, which we're now about three weeks from delivering the first film~

And we haven't done any casting yet. I mean, that's the truth. There's all these rumors about people, but we haven't offered a single role to any actor yet, because everything's a process, and we haven't got a green light, and we haven't got a budget. And when you make an offer to an actor, one of the things that you have to obviously expect is they're going to ask to see a script, so we have to wait until we have a script. The other thing that you also need when you offer the role to an actor is you need dates. You need to be able to tell them when you want to start work and when they're going to finish work and how long they're going to work for. Because, obviously, an actor's deal is very much tied to the commitment of work. And so it's not until we deliver the script that we can break the script down, that we can get a budget, and then once we've got a budget we have to get a green light, which we haven't got~

I mean, we've been talking about releasing the first movie in December '11 and the second in December '12, and that's what we're aiming for. But we've only ever been aiming for it, and the studio obviously are not going to sign off on the films until they see a script and the budgets that are budgeting to that script~

So we're three weeks away from the first movie, the first script going in, and we haven't started working on the second script yet. We're just doing one at a time. But we'll start work with that as soon as we're done with the first script. And as soon as we do the first script, there'll be a breakdown of that done. We'll work out the needs of the cast. We'll do some extrapolating. We're not going to wait for the second script before we do a budget, so we'll use the first script, and we'll kind of do a guesstimate based on that how much we think the two films are going to cost. We'll be able to block out the actors' times that we think we're going to need. When we're going to start, when we're going to finish. What the duration of the [shoot is]. And then at that point we can actually go and talk to their agents and offer them a role. So there really isn't any casting news that I can report, and that's the reason why~

Have you talked about casting among yourselves? Are there people in mind that you can think of?

Jackson: ... There are some, yeah, which I wouldn't [want to say]. Obviously, there, ... the thing that we want to do is, any characters that were seen in The Lord of the Rings, we obviously want the actors that originated the characters to come back and play them again. So that obviously goes without saying~

And in terms of new characters, in some regards we are talking about people as ideas, but ... obviously it would be wrong of me to talk about that here, because we should talk to the actors themselves first before we talk about it over the 'net.

And in other ways we're waiting until we finish the script, because ... a key bit of casting are the dwarves, and the dwarves are ... important characters in the sense that they're a variety of personalities. And we're developing up those personalities as we write the script. And it's very fluid, and we don't ... even want to start thinking about who would play those roles of the dwarves until we really nail the scripts. Because, you know, is this Happy or Sleepy or Dopey or Grumpy or Doc? We need to know who's who. ... We need to know the personality of the particular character and what their function in the story is before we really can figure out what actor would be suitable for that role. So ... we're not really thinking too much about that at the moment~

Chinese variant of HD DVD beating Blu-ray on its own soil~

Blu-ray may have triumphed over HD DVD here in the US, but in Japan — home to sushi, Human Tetris and Sony's Blu-ray format — the war still rages, and with a surprising contender.

Known as CBHD, or China Blue High-Definition, it currently has a 3% market share lead over Blu-ray and this year gained the support of Warner Brothers, which will be releasing big titles such as the Harry Potter series on the format. CBHD started as CH-DVD back in '07, though has since rebranded and gained a foothold. It's a joint venture by China's OMNERC and the DVD Forum, which was responsible for the HD DVD format that lost out to Blu-ray~

Blu-ray also launched in China this year, where the CBHD standard is already heavily entrenched. CBHD boasts more protection than its HD DVD predecessor, and with more Chinese-developed technologies that will ensure less money is lost to royalties paid because of foreign patents~

via : maximumpc

Miyazaki, in first con appearance, previews Ponyo~

During Disney's Friday Comic-Con presentation of upcoming animation projects, chief creative officer John Lasseter screened footage from the upcoming animated film Ponyo and interviewed its director, Hayao Miyazaki. Bringing the acclaimed Japanese animation guru to Comic-Con stages for the first time, Lasseter and an appreciative crowd lavished praise on Myazaki's body of work before showing a clip that exemplified the new film's wondrous, beautiful imagery~

Ponyo was originally conceived and produced through Miyazaki's native company, Studio Ghibli, but even removed of its cultural specificity, the film stood out sharply from its Western counterparts; indeed, after presentations for the re-release of Toy Story 1 and 2 and even new projects like The Princess and the Frog, its dreamlike quality and lyrical storytelling truly seemed to be part of an entirely different set of artistic rules. Lasseter, who is Miyazaki's friend as well as his colleague, was effusive with his praise for both the filmmaker and his film, which he said "America deserves" as he brought the director to the stage~

As he took the stage, Lasseter asked him about his storyboarding process. Via a translator, Miyazaki explained, "My process is thinking, thinking and thinking—thinking about my stories for a long time. If you have a better way, please let me know."~

Lasseter said he had the chance to watch Miyazaki at work creating storyboards himself that "are so beautiful," to which the director replied, "I think working on the storyboard alone is a custom we have in Japan in terms of animation. It's not just I that works that way, but since I'm slow it seems like I'm working on the storyboards all of the time."~

Talking about how he came up with the idea for Ponyo, Miyazaki revealed, "the first idea I had for Ponyo was that the little boy picks up a frog. But I couldn't work out a good character for a frog, so I turned it into a goldfish." The film follows the evolution—both emotionally and literally—of that relationship, but Miyazaki indicated that he wasn't interested in crafting something that was too conceptually complex, even if it was always going to be visually stunning. "I wanted to make it a simple story, and to show simplicity through the colors. Since the main character is red, I didn't want her color to overwhelm the other colors. So the other colors had to be brightened as well."~

After discussing his ongoing collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi, Lasseter set up a clip from the film that involved Ponyo (Noah Lindsay Cyrus), the little goldfish that wants to become a real girl; Sosuke (Frankie Jonas); and Sosuke's mother Lisa (Tina Fey). As the scene opens, Ponyo and her brothers and sisters race upwards from the bottom of the ocean; as they near the surface, they seem to evolve and expand and transform—although Ponyo becomes a girl while the others become massive fish. Tossing ships to and fro, the fish tumble and spill over each other like an unstoppable tidal wave, but Ponyo runs and jumps easily at its crest, sprinting on the surface of the water~

Meanwhile, Sosuke and Lisa drive along the coast as the ocean roils next to them; only Sosuke seems to notice that the water looks like a swirling mass of fish, and that there's an odd little girl running on their heads. Ponyo catches up to their car, and Lisa comments, "This wave is just after us," but turns a corner and the wave subsides as Ponyo is thrown into the sea. Sosuke asks him mom to stop the car so he can check on the little girl, but when he gets out, a gust of wind picks him up and carries him off to join her in the water. But Lisa grabs him and pulls him back to safety, and they drive off as the ocean begins to calm~

As the lights came up, San Diego Comic-Con's Eddie Ibrahim appeared on stage and presented both Lasseter and Miyazaki with the convention's Inkpot Award. "I am very honored to receive this," Miyazaki said. "Thank you very much."~

As Lasseter opened the floor for questions to the entire Disney panel, which included filmmakers from the Toy Story films, Beauty and the Beast, and The Princess and the Frog, he interrupted proceedings to remind the audience that Aug. 14 is when Ponyo will be released in the United States in 800 theaters: "It's a really nice, big release across the country." Whether the film itself translates to American audiences remains to be seen, but the day's panel offered a rare, unique and important lesson in understanding Miyazaki~

via : comic-con

Snap Together a Working Darth Vader Robotic Arm~

This kit features 45 snap-together parts that you can use to build a working Darth Vader robotic arm. Once assembled, users can extend and turn the arm as well as open and close the fingers to grasp objects~

via : entertainmentearth

Start a fire with style – pac-man style~

If you have to have a lighter, it might as well be a Zippo… and if you have to have a Zippo, it might as well have Pac-Man on it. This is logic, people, born of science. Don’t try to dispute it~

30th anniversary Pac-Man lighters, just the thing to hand down to the grandchildren someday. Oh, tie-in merchandise. Never change–particularly if you look this spiffy. I’m not a big fan of lighters or anything (is anyone?), but I have to admit that these Zippos are sporting a pretty nifty design. I think I’m particularly fond of the simplicity of design #3, though #1–”Game”–is pretty nice~

Pac-Man’s actual 30th anniversary isn’t until next year, but it looks like people are gonna start early by getting a jump on the other celebratory gear. All hail a year of Pac-Man! I’m for it~

via : tinycartridge

Twilight Film Alternate Ending Revealed~

Looks like they strayed from the book a bit, but all in all, I’m thoroughly satisfied. I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy watching this though. Sorry fangirls, please don’t hurt me~

via : uniquedaily

OMFG : Tron Legacy Trailer~

It’s the same teaser shown at last year’s SDCC, (finally get to see a good copy not cam quality) and i am genuinely excited for Tron Legacy: Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn but brings his son along for the ride~

via : youtube

Star Wars: In Concert~

The Force is strong with Star Wars: In Concert; John Williams’ legendary music will be performed by a full orchestra and choir in front of a 3-story hi-def screen playing movie footage. Get tickets NOW~

via : starwarsinconcert

555 KubiK - "How it would be, if a house was dreaming"~

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture - the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers "Galerie der Gegenwart". Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves - describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself~

via : vimeo

Trailer: Alice in Wonderland~

The trailer for Alice in Wonderland movie is up (more or less):it’s delightfully twisted in the way only Tim Burton can twist movies, made even better with Johnny Depp as the lead~

via : youtube

Speed of Light~

-SPEED OF LIGHT- ..... ESSAI N°5.1 from toys prophet on Vimeo.

via : vimeo

Bagelheads – Japanese Up Their Crazy Cred With Latest Fad~

In their perpetual pursuit to “out-weird” the rest of the world, the Japanese have resorted to perhaps the stupidest/weirdest body mod fad of all-time~

No, those kids up there in the photo aren’t suffering from progressed brain tumors. Rather, they are bagelheads: people who modify their body so that it looks like a giant bagel is growing out of their skin~

The look is accomplished through the use of a saline solution drip, which is injected at your local tattoo/piercing shop by a professional piercer. The injection causes massive swelling, which can then be molded and pressed into the shape of your choosing~

Naturally, the Japanese chose the logical shape of a bagel. Thankfully, the bagels only last for one night before your body gobbles up the saline solution and your skin returns to normal. Still, possible side effects include headache, infection, stretched skin, the inability to wear a hat and getting laughed at by everyone who looks at you~

via : manolith

Door "Hand-le"~

The real 'Door hand', called Door "Hand-le", by Naomi Thellier de Poncheville for London Design Festival~

via : naomithellier

Motion-sensing brought to the TV remote~

The Wiimote certainly changed how video games are played, but can all that controller wagging be used to control your TV as well? This concept "Remotion" remote control posits that yes, yes it can~

While it looks like a fancy dustbuster, it uses motion to control your TV. Shake it up and down to adjust the volume and move it side to side to flip through the channels. But with today's remotes having tons of buttons for things like picture-in-picture and swapping sources, I'm not sure something so simple would fly~

via : yanko

Sleepover Time!: Imperial Walker Bunk Bed ~

Some guy went and built his son an AT-AT themed bunk bed. And by themed I mean it's actually an AT-AT. It almost makes me wish I had had a custom bunk bed growing up. But sleeping in the garage clutching a gas can builds character, right? THEN WHY AM I STILL ONLY A LEVEL 2 BLOGGER?!~

via : gizmodo

Wipeout HD officially gets more Furious and more psychedelic

Speaking of supersleek, future-iconographic, mag-lev hover-racing, the Fury add-on for Wipeout HD is now available from the Playstation Store for ten bucks. You get new ship models and new tracks. You also get three new modes. Two of them seem based on dealing with obstacles on the track, while a third emphasizes combat~

I'm mostly looking forward to new tracks, since Wipeout HD for the Playstation 3 consisted entirely of tracks from the earlier PSP games. I'm particularly interested in the four "zone" tracks, which seem to push the psychedelic angle more than the sleek futuristic angle. I hope artist Rita Linsley designs tracks as well as she grooves on quantum physics. From her comments on the developers blog:

'Zone' is speed experienced in its purest state, with no weapons. From a poetic point of view Zone can be likened to riding an atom in a particle accelerator. The speed of the atom as it 'rides the torus' gets increasingly faster and faster, until ultimately it moves at such surreal speeds that it exists contiguously at all points along its path. It becomes an omnipresent singularity along this path, a very peculiar entity with 'mixed dimensionality.' If we could become that little atom at that moment we would find ourselves connected to a psychedelic 'speed-dimension.' It would be one hell of a trip! So zone mode is all about surreal abstract geometries, and shifting landscapes of colour that create an otherworldly atmosphere~

via : ps3

Solar Powered Gadget Charging Wi-Fi Flowers~

Toyota, in a ploy to sell more Priuses (Priusi?), is installing these solar-powered, gadget charging Wi-Fi stations in a select few U.S. cities (Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Unfortunately, I don't live in any of those cities so I'm going to continue stealing my neighbor's electricity. Isn't that right, Mr. Lendoff? I said your yard looks great!~

via : geekologie

Wonderful Weird Japan : Moon men look a lot like white people~

In the original tale, Kaguya Hime is a princess from the moon and moon men eventually make her return home. In this commercial, moon men instead offer air freshener to save Kaguya Hime from a smelly situation.~

via : dannychoo

Soliloquy Super Yacht~

Soliloquy - Turntable from Callender Designs on Vimeo.

The Soliloquy Super Yacht is super green: powered by solar, wind and hybrid tech, the 190-foot, rigid-wing luxoboat boasts zero emissions and even uses gym equipment to charge batteries~

via : solarsailor

USB flash disk with fingerprint authentication~

Thanks to a USB fingerprint security lock flash drive, my documents and data are now safe. Those prying eyes would cause no harm when the access is right at your fingertips. Your important files and computer itself will virtually be accessible to no one other than you. Available for $38, it comes with an 8GB storage capacity~

via : 7gadgets

Have fun while eating - Eat off a moving train~

A dining table has some many complications to it; you can’t talk while you eat, elbows off the table, no cutlery noise please and blah blah blah. In short, one place I hate like anything. Manners, they say! Isn’t there a place where dining has some sort of excitement to it? Did I just hear you say, Japan?~

Thanks to “Sushi Train Restaurant and Game,” a replica of the N700 series Shinkansen, it allows you to play while you eat. It’s a remote controlled bullet train lunch kit that lets you build tracks and eat off a moving train. Sadly, the price ($105) a lil on the high side~

via : japantrendshop

Master Chief Ring~

Say you and your Halo-loving girlfriend want to take that next step in your relationship. The holy union of Halo companionship is unbreakable by most any trolling. It’s a proposal she won’t be able to refuse~

The $175 Halo ring, inspired by Master Chief’s Mark IV Spartan helmet, isn’t what you’d call cheap, but it is a lot cheaper than a diamond, and potentially just as precious. Hey dude, if she doesn’t dig this as much as a diamond than she doesn’t deserve you!~

via : wetanz

Bridal Robot ~

Not having much luck with the “ladies-with-actual-organs” circuit quite yet? She might not be a Lucy Liu bot, but she’s about as close as we’re going to get for now. This HRP-4C unit got the royal treatment, dressing up in a Yumi Katsura wedding dress and strutting her synthetic stuff all over the runway~

If you’re attracted to open-mouthed soulless glares, the HRP-4C will fill your every desire. Cross your fingers that the future holds more robots in wedding dresses~

via : chunichi

Bowlingual Voice dog translator: now with answerphone~

Ah, the Bowlingual Voice translator. So called because, as well as having spiffy features such as an LCD screen, the ability to detect up to six dog moods, new, paw-shaped control buttons and a bunch of pre-recorded phrases to tell you just what is on Rexzilla's mind, there is also this: an answering machine~

via : dailymail

Unique Autosports pool table balances on wheels~

The Unique Autosports pool table from Hurricane Billiards appears to perch precariously on top of a row of four wheels in its center. It's quite stable, obviously, but the unique design certainly makes it stand out from most other pool tables. It looks like it's designed to go in a high-end garage, allowing you to shoot a few games while taking a break from tweaking your Ferrari. And knowing Hurricane Billiards, it's priced for those sorts of folks as well; look for this to set you back somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars range~

via : bornrich

The Chalkboard T-Shirt~

These little puppies have wearable chalkboards on them! They can write, draw, erase, repeat on their very own shirt without getting in trouble. The shirt is comfy to wear - the chalkboard is not stiff or hard. Regular chalk will work, no special chalk is required. And the Chalkboard T-shirt($35) has a little pocket for the chalk~

Sam Raimi to Direct World of Warcraft Movie~

Director of Spider-Man, Drag Me to Hell and Evil Dead, Sam Raimi, will be directing an upcoming live-action film adaptation of the World of Warcraft, tentatively titled “Warcraft.” Raimi said, of the game: “At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story.” And so it goes~

Can Raimi make Warcraft an exception of the usual game-based film flops? He’s got a great canvas to work with and the potential for tons of sequels. The lore of Warcraft runs deep~

via : guardian

Crazy Video Games~

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

This video games film is awesome, you should watch it, really Cool! Directed and animated by MUSCLEBEAVER. "This animation we did was planned and animated for the prologue of a documentary. (That explains the absurd, unfinished seeming, ending.That is where the actual documentary starts.... ) The briefing was to show an evolution of computer games. The documentary itself is about different people, based here in germany, showing their everyday life, and their addiction to the same specific, famous MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game):"Wo.." Every game character in this prologue was reinterpreted, redrawn (...one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame."~

via : vimeo

Dare of the day: Rollerblader goes rollercoaster~

This butt belongs to Dirk Auer. He's on a mission to do crazy things on in-line skates, and his latest stunt involved modding his blades and rocketing down the Mammoth rollercoaster in Stuttgart. Auer, whose leg muscles and courage must be hewn from a three-century-old oak, covered 860 meters in 60 seconds, reaching 56 mph on his 16-wheeler skates, which took him 110 hours to make~

Says the 36-year-old: "The roller caster is wooden and so unlike rides made from iron and steel there was always a chance of the odd nail or screw that would not be entirely flat. If the skates were to catch a stray nail then I could have fallen and I would almost certainly have died."~

German Auer already holds the world record for speed — he and his rollerblades hit 190 mph as he was dragged behind a Porsche GT~

via : youtube

Fujifilm Real 3D W1 camera shoots 3D pix and video, no glasses required~

Why does this camera have two lenses? Simple: Because you do, and Fujifilm's FinePix Real 3D W1 camera aims to take a photo "just as your eyes see it." The camera's 3D system is said to be the only one that can both snap pictures and record video in three dimensions — while never requiring you to wear silly glasses to view them properly. Nice~

It captures 3D pics via the two synchronized lenses married to a pair of CCD image sensors, with a proprietary processor "instantaneously" combining the data to create a single 3D image. Impressively, the system includes a 3x zoom, a fairly hard thing to integrate when you consider how precisely aligned the lenses need to be. The two lenses come in handy for 2D shooting, too, letting you capture a close-up and a wide span with the same shot, or getting two identical shots with different color tone~

That's all well and good, but how will those 3D pics and videos really look? Hard to say before the Real 3D W1 comes out in September (no price yet), but I am excited to find out~

via : fujifilm

Blue Beer From Melted Icebergs, Seaweed~

The Japanese, in their unending quest to make the awesomest stuff on the planet are manufacturing blue beer made from melted icebergs (take that you Titanic sinking bitch!)~

Okhotsk Blue Draft stands out for its cool color and interesting (yet not off-putting) ingredients. The brew is made using water melted from icebergs that float each year onto Hokkaido beaches from the chilly Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the North Pacific ocean bordered by Japan and Russia~

Then Abashiri went one step further and used seaweed to give their brew and icy blue tint. Perhaps not the greatest selling point but it does make Okhotsk Blue look, well, different. As for the taste... reports state that Ryuho isn't at all bad as beers go, and if you didn't know there was seaweed in it, you likely wouldn't guess there was~

via : geekologie

Virtual Model Antonella~

This woman is fake! Ford has designed a woman for their latest-generation Fiesta, named Antonella(photo above)! Virtual model Antonella is the personification of a profile created from demographic research about the Fiesta��s target customer, said Moray Callum, executive director of Ford Americas design. NY time writes: "Antonella is an attractive 28-year old woman who lives in Rome. Her life is focused on friends and fun, clubbing and parties. She is also completely imaginary. She was the guiding personality for the Ford Verve, a design study that served as the basis for the latest-generation Fiesta~

A character invented by Ford designers to help them imagine cars better tailored to their intended customers, she embodies a philosophy that guides the company's design studios these days: to design the car, first design the driver...Invented characters get everyone on the same page," Mr. Callum said. "Personalizing gives context to the information we have. Sometimes the target demographics are difficult to relate to by, say, a 35-year-old male designer....Ford's goal in using made-up characters is that they will help produce cars that transcend national traits and are instead built around international~

via : core77

The Shweeb - Pedal-Powered Monorail~

The Shweeb is a Pedal-Powered Monorail system that is "a direct response to the transportation needs of today and the future." Each capsule holds a single rider who has to pedal in order to get from point A to point B and let you go much faster than a bicycle. The seat adjusts to your exact height and is as comfortable as a hammock. It exists right now, you can find it at an amusement park in New Zealand(Feel the adrenalin kick in as you fly around curves swinging out 60 degrees! You soar 4m above the pond and then miss the ground by inches!)~

"Our proposal to get you safely and quickly from one point in the city to another would be to elevate you onto a network of interconnected monorails where you never have to stop at traffic lights. The ideal vehicle for such a system already exists. Fully faired recumbent cycles, because of their low aerodynamic resistance, are breaking all bicycle speed records and currently reaching speeds of 90 kph (56 mph) in sprints. Suspending these comfortable and highly efficient machines from monorail tracks has the added advantage of taking away the rolling resistance of pneumatic tyres. Trains of Shweebs can further reduce the aero drag �C ten people travelling at 40 kph will each have a lot less work to do than a single rider at the same speed. A single rider requires only a fraction of the energy to achieve the same speed as a normal cyclist �C thanks to the significant reductions in both aero drag and tire friction. The vehicle is completely weatherproof, you can��t derail or fall out while on the cellphone or blackberry!" Check out watch the video of it in action~

via : treehugger

Lightsaber flashlight cuts through the darkness~

Everyone needs to keep a flashlight handy, so why not make yours an awesome Star Wars flashlight? This replica of Darth Vader's lightsaber won't slice off any appendages, but it will cut through the night with four LEDs. The red light helps maintain your night vision too~

The flashlight will only set you back $25. Not too bad a price to get in touch with the dark side. It uses 3 AAA batteries. The best part? It comes complete with lightsaber sound effects. As if you weren't going to make them yourself if it didn't~

via : gizmowatch

My Influences by Dan Meth~

My Influences from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

Dan Meth writes:
"When people ask, What are your cartoon influences?, it usually stumps me because theres just too many. So I put this music video together to list off as many influences as I could think of."~

via : vimeo

Deep Roots: The Mario Game Family Tree~

This is a depiction of all Mario games in the style of a family tree. Obviously, there aren't only ten games, so click HERE to see the super-ultra-high-res joint with all 130+ games~

via : limitbreak

I Would Never Leave: The Hi-Can Luxury Bed~

A theater screen pulls down at the foot of the bed for viewing television or movies. An integrated personal computer system means you can work or surf the web in bed as well. Game consoles are built in for added entertainment value. Lights for reading and shades for sleeping are also fully integrated~

via : dornob