Next time you send an email, take a moment to ponder the simple beauty of the address field. No, not the name. Who cares who you’re sending emails to. I certainly don’t. No, the @ symbol. It’s artwork now! More »

“Get your greasy fingers off that DS Li—oh, you work here. Sorry about that. Please, continue with your McDonald’s training.” More »

It’s no surprise given the current hype level, but there are no less than three 3D programming announcements making the rounds today. Two of the three deal with—surprise!—sporting events. More »

Remember when, just the other day, we were talking about the future of storage, and how quantum mechanics is on the pipe dream, it’s totally magic list for now? Yeah. Me too. Thing is, shit just got real: Updated. More »

FoxTrot uses the geekiest of comic book humor to rake the iPad and its lack of flash over the coals. Funny because it’s true! Pretty brilliant Sunday strip, Mr. Amend, just be wary of visitors from Cupertino. [Foxtrot] More »

Hey look, Wal-Mart is selling the HTC HD2 early, and the inevitable unboxing YouTube video has already hit the web. [YouTube via BGR] More »

If you’re head over heels for an iPad, it will pay to be a teacher or some other figure in an educational institution. More »

I could have sworn I killed this thing while playing Mass Effect 2 the other day, but the designer says this is actually a benevolent, firefighting automaton called Firegard that’s meant to aid firemen in the field, not kill them. More »

I realize comparisons to another “Pads” are unfair, especially given the Tablet Wars I just invented by saying Tablet Wars haven’t even officially started, but surely the WePad’s name is some kind of backhanded compliment/joke from its creators at Neofonie? More »

Does the iPhone need a mobile MIDI app? Irrelevant question, self, because it has one now, regardless of need or want. Called the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer, it’s a low power, portable option for MIDI mixers on the move. More »

The other day we learned a Google StreetView car buzzed (or was buzzed by?) a well-fed seagull. Today, it would seem one of his countrymen decided to repay the favor. With poop. [Google StreetView – Thanks, Eric] More »

In this recently released commercial from Sprint, altruistic “Matt” grants his friend “Steve” (ha!) 4G speeds on his 3G network iPhone by way of the Overdrive mobile hotspot. Then he eats an apple—so clever! More »

Memory is a fickle thing. As far as my brain is concerned, I didn’t exist before age three. Remembering four or five is easier, but there are holes. Thankfully, all it takes are some voyeuristic navigation tools to fill them. More »

The renowned MIT Media Lab is a place where every project is an amazing, unbelievable glimpse into humanity’s technological future. Now, thanks to a massive $90 million extension, the architecture can match the wondrous excitement created within.

In case you haven’t had the opportunity to swing by this particular block in Cambridge, Massachusetts, here’s what the old Media Lab looks like. It’s still there. In fact, you can see the extension under construction, and marvel at the stark contrast in design.

Mensa Tetris

The six-level, interconnected extension, the work of the famed, award-winning architectural firm Fumihiko Maki and Associates, is like an immense Tetris puzzle. Every piece represents a functional element that is tightly connected to others, giving anyone inside the feeling of being inside a finished puzzle. Maki, himself the winner of a Pritzker Prize, was on hand over the weekend to officially open the MIT Media Lab. (It’s technically been in operation since December.)

As he described it, each piece of this six-level building connects to the next. Balcony offices overlook open air labs and work spaces. Colorful stairways bisect the central atrium, their red, blue and yellow coloring inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red.

Color aside, the trait hitting visitors in the face before they even walk through the door is glass. Cambridge building codes prevented a 100% glass exterior, so Maki came up with a loophole: bamboo. Inspired by translucent Japanese bamboo screens, Maki covered the remaining exterior with a mix of glass and aluminum tubes.

The result is at the same time beautiful and energy efficient, but also functional. We’re constantly reminded that this is one incredibly open, collaborative working environment.

From the street, especially at night, passers-by can literally see lab work happening within. Maki called this “filtered views,” inspired by the work of the pointillist artist George Seurat (lots of dots!). MIT played a part too, having provided Maki with an image of the Visible Man to further drive home the point that this lab space be open.

But enough architecture? What kind of world-changing stuff can we expect this multimillion dollar, 163,000-sq. ft. incubator to pump out in the future?

Well, if the past is any indication, plenty. The place that saw the beginnings of Guitar Hero, e-ink displays, OLPC and Lego Mindstorms is still driving much of the stuff that gets the Gizmodo editors, at least, sweating profusely in their blogging sweatpants.

The Media Lab will help “plumb the depths of how technology can have a greater impact on industry, society and business,” said Media Lab director Frank Moss.

To net denizens and geeks like you and me, that boils down to robotics, prosthetic limbs, AI and the obligatory Minority Report UI reference that any article mentioning 3D interfaces must include.

Fluid Media

As part of the opening, I was lucky enough to get a tour or some, but not all of the departments at the Media Lab. Departments like Biomechatronics, Cognitive Machines, Fluid Interfaces, Molecular Machines, Personal Robots, Smart Cities, Synthetic Neurobiology. It reads like Stephen Hawkings’ shopping list.

In any event, Fluid Media was one of the labs I got to tour first.

If you know Arduino, you’d be at home here, alongside the luminescent wallpaper, smart fabrics, “sewable computing” and inexpensive 3D fabricators that had me waxing nostalgic about Cory Doctorow’s Makers.

Above: No, not coasters or doilies. Sewable computers. If you aren’t wearing your mp3 player now, you will be soon.

Kindergarten Kids, Forever

The sense of play felt throughout the Media Lab’s open spaces owes itself to the students, of course, but it’s certainly assisted by the design. Moss called the atmosphere “serious fun,” in a building where bright minds “design by serendipity.” It’s pretty spot on. One lab leads into the other, encouraging social and professional interaction. Artists huddle with biomechanical engineers. Sometimes the union is short-lived, and sometimes it’s Guitar Hero.

But it’s serious fun: There’s a mission here, one that’s produced limbs for soldiers maimed in war; helped children learn robotics with crazy new Lego software; and created a paint brush, simply called I/O, that captures the essence of whatever you point it at—visual, musical or otherwise.

Even so, the fun, relaxed environment is apparent in this lab that director Moss says will change our futures. He and others, like Lifelong Kindergarten Department grad student Karen Brennan, were genuinely having fun while working with these high concepts and brain-bending experiments. The future, wild as it will be, looks pretty fun. Seriously.

Image credits: The Visible Man is a well-known see-through anatomy model from Craft House Corp. Composition in Yellow, Blue and Red from Wikipedia.

CNET thinks they’ve snagged a photo of Apple CEO Steve Jobs schmoozing at the Academy Awards. Does this mean the iPad’s going to make a last-minute appearance in those outlandish $85,000 gift bags? Updated: It’s him.

Is it him? Supposedly he’s next to the woman in the white dress. It’d make sense, given the Up/Pixar connection (FYI, it’s “up” for an award…), as well as all the negotiating he’s surely been doing behind the scenes in regards to movies and TV shows on the iPad. But it’s probably just for Up. Probably.

In any event, is anyone even watching tonight? [CNET]

Update: Macrumors has a pic from an “attendant” dancer/director John M Chu at the Oscars:

The NASA space program? Kind of hamstrung at the moment. But! Coming this April: An “ambitious plan” from the Obama Administration that will officially outline the agency’s future, and the future of U.S. space travel. The “plan” arrives this April 15. [MSNBC]

Feeling shame in the shower can arrive for many reasons, but here’s a new one that centers on water conservation. It’s called the Waterpebble, and the LED illuminates red, yellow or green depending on the amount of water used. Simple!

So simple, in fact, that even a crying, shame-ridden man in the shower could use it to accurately gauge whether or not he’s using just enough, or too much water. Hey, it’s better than wrinkly gingers telling you that you’ve been in there too long. [Waterpebble via Design Blog]

Kojiro here is the work of Tokyo’s JSK Robotics Laboratory. With his 60 degrees of motion, provided by a network of Super Effective! artificial muscles and tendons, he’ll utterly destroy Asimo in the inevitable slow-motion robot battle in their future.

I say slow motion because, I mean, look at this thing. He’s getting more hand holding help than grandpa at the retirement home. Hell, even grandpa doesn’t need someone fiddling with an original PlayStation controller and a UI to get him to perform basic tasks. Like turning at the waist (see video).

Geezer speed aside, it’s the musculature that’s the takeaway here. Modeled after human muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments, the system is incredibly flexible for a robot, and its 60 degrees of motion bests the aforementioned Asimo by a good 26 degrees. It’s also lighter than your traditional humanoid robot, which designers content will make it more friendly when humans have to interact with it.

Mental note: Lighter materials also mean one can chuck it farther, perhaps off a cliff, should “more friendly” actually be “more deadly” if and when it goes haywire. [IEEE Spectrum via Engadget]

Things I thought of while viewing the solar eclipse-inspired Nissyoku lamp: GLaDOS, a glowing tennis ball and, oh yeah, a solar eclipse:

The designer says that unlike those fleeting solar eclipses we see in the sky, this lamp lasts for up to 10 years.

It’s also capable of morphing from one simple shape to the next, and can be suspended from the ceiling, a la a chandelier, or placed on a table, where it will neither burn out your eyes nor damage your table.

The light source, sadly, is not fusion or even fission, but a 5W LED in each of the two panels. [Igendesign via Design Blog]