Author: Brian Barrett

Hello Rewind is a company with two missions: to help recycle your old Mötley Crüe t-shirt into a kickass laptop sleeve, and to hire former sex trafficking victims to do it.

The process on your end is totally straightforward. Just buy a 13″ or 15″ laptop sleeve from Hello Rewind, and they’ll send you a pre-paid envelope. Mail them back the shirt of your choice, and 4-8 weeks later your hilarious ironic garment will have magically transformed into a hilarious ironic laptop sleeve.

Well, okay, not magically. That process is more complicated. From Hello Rewind’s website:

We want to show sex trafficking survivors that rescue is not the end and that there is hope for something better in their lives. We train and teach them in fundamental skills — sewing, English, business skills. Many of the laptop sleeves made through Hello Rewind are hand-crafted by sex trafficking survivors, and we hope that they become an integral part of our business operations. After supporting the sex trafficking suvivors involved with Hello Rewind, the remaining profits are recycled back into the company so that we can grow the business to support even more women.

So not only is it a great concept (I’ve already got eyes on a certain Wrestlemania III t-shirt that would be much better suited to protecting my Macbook Pro), it’s helping people lead better lives. Win. [Hello Rewind via Fashionably Geek]

If you happen to be in Times Square any time soon, you may notice this billboard for Best Buy’s electronics recycling program. Make sure you take a close look! It’s composed entirely of outmoded gear.

While part of me would hope some VHS players and bulky monitors would be allowed to fade away with dignity, at least these are ultimately being used in a clever way that promotes a good cause.

Besides, it looks cool! And it’s bonus fun hunting for bygone favorites. [Scouting NY]

Google has finally stepped up to the plate to offer a support phone line for Nexus One owners. It’s a necessary move, given the volume of customer complaints, but it’s also turned out to be a lackluster one.

Nexus One owners can call (888) 48NEXUS between 4am and 7pm PST to speak with a real live person. Unfortunately, though, they’ll only be able to get information on the status/shipping information on your existing order. For technical support or repairs and returns, you’ll still need to contact HTC customer care (1-888-216-4736). For billing/service support, you’ll still need to contact T-Mobile (1-877-453-1304).

Google doesn’t have to be its partners’ keeper, and if I were a Nexus One owner I’d rather have Google support than not. But it’s still got to be terribly frustrating to have three distinct places to turn when you’ve got a Nexus One issue. [Google via CNET]

We’ve seen a ton of Core i5 notebooks recently, all loaded with Intel’s impotent integrated graphics, which are part of the chip. Now, Nvidia’s Optimus enables PCs to switch automatically between Intel’s crappy integrated graphics and Nvidia’s beefier graphics cards.

Optimus is a new technology that allows Intel’s integrated GPU to coexist with a discrete Nvidia GPU in a new way, seamlessly alternating between the two depending on the task at hand. It works with GeForce 200M series, GeForce 300M series, next-gen GeForce M, and next-gen Ion GPUs, as well as Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Core i3/i5/i7, and Atom N450 processors.

At the most basic level, Optimus is similar to the switchable graphics that Nvidia pioneered a few years ago. But switchable graphics as currently conceived are a pain in the neck: You have to switch manually, there’s generally a 5-10 second delay, your screen flickers, you have to shut down certain applications. Optimus still includes a manual option, but otherwise automatically decides what can run on integrated graphics (regular web browsing) and what needs an extra boost (games, Flash video, etc), making the switch for you behind the scenes. It makes the change so quickly by letting the Nvidia GPU handle the processing duties while still employing Intel’s IGP as a display controller, as in the diagram above.

One drawback is that Optimus relies on the software to tell it which graphics to employ. That’ll be done through an Nvidia verification process and accessed through automatic online updates, but there may be instances where your PC doesn’t recognize a software and won’t know whether to use the IGP or the Nvidia GPU. You can still switch manually in those cases, but it’s an unfortunate extra step.

Performance hasn’t been confirmed yet by a third party, but Nvidia posits that Optimus is up to an 8x improvement across apps and games than Intel’s integrated solution. And because it only kicks in when needed, there’s purportedly not much of a battery drain, depending on how often you use intensive graphics.

Nvidia says there will be more than 50 notebooks packing Optimus by this summer, although today it’s launching only on a few Asus notebooks like the UL50Vf, an ultraportable which houses both a Core2Duo SU7300 and a GeForce G210M.

What we don’t know—but what we strongly suspect—is if Optimus is the solution Apple has been waiting for before refreshing its Macbook line. The hiccup: currently, Nvidia says that Optimus is only compatible with Windows 7. But with the Macworld just around the corner, we may be seeing Optimus Macbook Pros sooner than later. [Nvidia]

The Seagate Savvio 10K.4 is an enterprise storage HDD, which means you’re likely not going to just go out and buy one. But it’s notable for just how much information it can fit into one tiny disk drive.

Its 600GB capacity is twice what’s currently available on the market, and Seagate’s asserting that it’s 25% more reliable than any other drive, with an annualized failure rate of just .44%. And while it’d be nice to have one of my very own, at least I know that it’s about to make some IT manager out there very happy.

SEAGATE® SHIPS WORLD’S HIGHEST-CAPACITY, MOST RELIABLE

SMALL FORM FACTOR ENTERPRISE DRIVE: THE SAVVIOÒ 10K.4 HARD DRIVE

Enterprise storage systems can now move to 600GB capacity, 2 million hour MTBF solution

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – February 9, 2010 – Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today announced worldwide shipments of its Savvio® 10K.4 hard disk drive (HDD), the world’s highest-capacity and most reliable 2.5-inch enterprise-class drive. Built for the demands of enterprise servers and to enable new levels of data density in external storage arrays, Savvio 10K.4 doubles the capacity of its nearest competitor to 600GB. It is also the first HDD to achieve an unprecedented 2 million hours Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) reliability rating.

As the industry’s only fourth generation, field-proven, 2.5-inch HDD designed for the enterprise,
Savvio 10K.4 also features Protection Information for enhanced protection of data-in-flight, a self-encrypting drive (SED) option for the ultimate protection of sensitive data-at-rest and PowerChoice™, which allows the Savvio 10K.4 hard drive to deliver improved power savings during idle.

“Our customers face challenging storage needs requiring the most efficient use of space and power while maintaining the highest performance possible,” said Howard Shoobe, senior manager, Dell Storage Product Management. “The new 2.5-inch 10K-rpm 600GB capacity point allows a doubling of capacity within the same rack space of current 3.5-inch 15K 600GB drives while increasing overall system-level performance and decreasing power usage.”

The combined features of Savvio 10K.4 deliver greater overall value and can reduce the total cost of ownership to IT organizations and administrators eager to optimize their data center’s power and performance efficiency. Leveraging the enterprise 2.5-inch small form factor as its platform, Savvio 10K.4 serves as a powerful storage building block when compared to 3.5-inch based systems.

“A transition to 2.5-inch enterprise-class HDDs by server and storage system OEMs is building momentum,” said John Rydning, IDC’s research director for hard disk drives. “There continues to be nearly insatiable demand for digital content accessed via numerous applications and devices, content that is increasingly delivered from storage systems equipped with high capacity enterprise-class HDDs such as Seagate’s Savvio® 10K.4.”

This concept scale that doubles as a decorative rug might—might—be the thing to finally get me taking better care of myself.

Designer Kwan Sunman’s Rug With Scale project does away with the cold, judgmental form factors of your average bathroom scale, ensconcing it instead in a warm and inviting rug. The readout from the scale shows up on a small red tag that illuminates its user’s current weight, previous weight, and goal weight to help chart progress.

The rug portion is also removable (for washing) and interchangeable (for personal style preference). That is, it will be, if this ever becomes an actual, buyable product. Fill in your own “worth the weight” pun here, if so inclined. [Red Dot via Yanko]

It will no longer cost you more to cancel a Nexus One contract than it does to buy a Nexus One. But Google’s still imposing a $150 “equipment recovery fee” on top of T-Mobile’s $200 ETF.

The change comes on the heels of an FCC inquiry into out-of-control termination fees. Up until now, Nexus One owners were expected to pay $350 in the event of canceling or downgrading their T-Mobile contracts within 120 days. With the new Terms of Sale, however:

“You agree to pay Google an equipment subsidy recovery fee (the “Equipment Recovery Fee”) in the event you cancel or downgrade your wireless plan within 120 days of activation of wireless service. If you activate a new line of service with T-Mobile, your Equipment Recovery Fee will be $150 USD if you cancel or downgrade your service plan within 120 days of activation.”

Obviously, Google doesn’t want folks selling phones under contract for profit, and they claim not to make any money off of equipment recovery. But while $150 extra is better than $350 extra, it’s still a huge fine to impose on someone for changing their mind. [Google Terms of Sale via WSJ]

When I first saw this tiny arcade back in September, it was love at first byte. And now that there’s an instructional video, I can build one of my very own. It looks so easy in fast forward!

The ingredients are easy enough to come by: a plug and play system mounted to a wooden case, a LCD screen lifted from a portable DVD player, and various assemblage tools. Of course, if you’re fresh out of elbow grease, you can always bid on the model shown in the video on eBay. [Thanks, Zack!]

Well, well, well. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal today, Apple management is going to remain “nimble” in iPad pricing if sales start off slow. Hey, wait a minute—are you thinking what I’m thinking?

The scoop originates from a Credit Suisse analyst, who apparently met with Apple executives recently to discuss all things tablet. In addition to the execs pitching how the iPad wouldn’t cannibalize Apple’s other product lines, they outright stated that they’ll adjust pricing if they have to:

“While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated).”

This actually isn’t all that surprising, if you think back to the iPhone’s launch in 2007 and the dramatic $200 price cut that followed just a few months later. That caused sales to surge 200% and garnered no small amount of publicity for the new device.

Bottom line: I don’t exactly have $500 to $830 burning a hole in my pocket to spend on a first-gen device. So spread the word! And for goodness sake, stay strong and don’t buy an iPad. Yet. [WSJ]

HTC’s had some faulty plumbing lately: first pics of the Incredible leak over the weekend, and now we’ve got our first look at the HTC Legend in the wild—complete with an ooo-shiny aluminum back.

The design—particularly the aluminum casing and optical sensor trackpad—jives with what we’d heard recently, as does the apparent HTC Sense interface.

It’s a different look for HTC, but I’d say not an unwelcome one. It’s especially comforting to know we’re not looking at a slew of brown-backed *cough* Incredible *cough* handsets. If the rest of the rumored specs—inclduing a 5.0-megapixel with LED flash, a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, and 512MB of internal memory—pan out, this looks like a nice step up from the Hero. Hopefully we’ll find out for sure at the Mobile World Congress next week. [Engadget]

This seems… backwards. If you want to buy OAR’s new album on Amazon, you’re going to end up paying 50% more for a digital download than you would for a physical disc.

It makes some sense, maybe, since at this point a majority of people ordering from Amazon will just end up downloading that the content of the CD onto their computer anyway. They’re paying more to save themselves that step, and to get their music right away. But $7 more? For the exact same content, minus actual physical resources?

Either this is the result of an inventory clean-out, a poorly conceived last-ditch effort to save CDs, or we’ve officially entered a Bizarro land where objects cost less than concepts. Which, hey, doesn’t sound so bad after all. [Consumerist]