Author: Jack Loftus

No pics or concrete release date to speak of on this item at the moment, but we do know that Samsung will introduce a 10-inch Chrome OS-powered netbook sometime in 2010. And the specs? Specs! Here:

– 10.1 inch screen
– 2GB RAM
– 64GB flash storage
– similar in design to the N210 (pictured)
– 3G
– 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor

The info was announced officially, by way of Samsung’s Phil Newton. The coy executive offered nothing else on the Chrome OS netbook other than the amorphous “later in 2010” release date. [Netbook News via Engadget]

Sure, online checking accounts are but a mouse click away, but that’s how the Facebook crowd does banking. I want the future. Real-time Rainbows End type banking, with account information presented on the card itself, for all to see.

The designers say the tech powering the card would be e-ink and RFID. One displays your accumulated spending, and the other to check purchase histories and match them up to bank account transactions. The built-in shame the card provides is powered by millions of years of evolution and your significant other’s glaring and/or verbal/physical abuse when you return home from the mall.

And yes, this card means privacy is out the window, but this is the future, people. If Google has taught us anything about the future, it’s that privacy doesn’t matter. [Yanko Design via OhGizmo via Geekologie]

I know next to nothing about this oversize Lego minifig-shaped solar flashlight, other than it appeared in the official Lego booth at the 2010 Nuremberg Toy Fair.

I assume the discerning Lego collector would illuminate their darkened home with nothing less.

Also, AC adapter charging brick…get it? [Hobby Media – Thanks, Francesco]

The world’s largest production OLED TV is headed Stateside later this year, said LG reps at the ISE-2010 LG Electronics show this week. LG is aiming for mid-2010, with an expected stratospheric $2,500 price tag.

Presumably, given what LG has said on the subject, the 15-inch EL9500 would be a precursor to the 19- and 20-inch OLEDs they alluded to on February 1.

In any event, these gorgeous, petite TVs are on track for later this year, with a 40-inch unaffordable-for-the-common-man version arriving in 2012. [OLED-Info]

Remember the Google Nexus One‘s “sorely needed” 3G reception fix? Remember how Google promised a quick fix? Yes? Well, Happy Valentine’s Day! A solution has tentatively arrived in the form of a leaked firmware upgrade.

But don’t get *too* excited just yet, dear readers. While the firmware update does appear to address the Nexus One radio issue that plagued some users since they picked up their shiny new Google kit, it doesn’t appear to be what will finally be pushed out to the mainstream.

As Engadget correctly notes, there are a number of telltale signs that this fix should arrive soon, but it’s not quite ready just yet. Notably, the ROM includes Google Maps 3.4, not the most up-to-date 4.0 version that Google released for Buzz. It’s half-baked, in other words, but at least it proves Google is nearly ready to attend to its customers’ reception woes. Probably.

The folks at XDA apparently have this build available for download, should you be the DIY tinkering type. [XDA Forums via Engadget]

I don’t have a Valentine, so instead I woke up to this image of the Endeavour on approach to the ISS, courtesy a Facebook friend’s Wall. Bad Valentine? Nah, just a great image. Now wake up and get busy. [NASA]

Did you blink during the Super Bowl commercial breaks? Too bad if you did, because it means you may have missed the anemic number of gadget or tech-related commercials worth talking about tomorrow at the water cooler. But! Megan Fox!

Megan Fox is an obvious choice, for obvious reasons (if she’s your thing): She had a Motoblur, and we’re a gadget blog! See? Obvious. Anyway, tweeting from a tub on her new phone, she pondered what would happen if she sent a picture of her bathing out to the world. Hijinks ensued, people were hurt, and even a gay couple somehow got distracted by the fox that is Megan Fox:

And such is the power of Fox that there were scenes that didn’t make the final cut.

Then there was Beyonce, fresh off her Grammy performance, performing again for Vizio. Surrounded by Internet memes and celebrities, Twitter and what appeared to be an army of automobile assembly line robots (hopefully not ones from Toyota), she sang and sold that company’s Via/Internet Apps technology. Think Internet on your HDTV, not because I say so or because that’s exactly what it is, but because that’s the message Vizio assaulted viewers with during the 60-second clip:

Tough love was the story for Intel’s Jeffrey the Robot. The commercial was supposedly for Intel’s Core processor line, but I know the truth: Robot uprising. It 20 years’ time we can all look back at this commercial, when poor Jeffrey was snubbed For The Last Time by his human overlords:

Lastly, there’s one we actually covered yesterday. Google. Its poignant ad about a search-happy boy in love with a French girl aired yesterday, on the Internet, which is probably fitting. We’ll revisit it again here if you missed it tonight:

Sigh.

Personally, for me the ads were a bit stale this year. Even the Bud Light beer ads, which have made me laugh out loud on occasion in years past, felt a little tired. Betty White was a standout though, and there were back-to-back ads depicting grown men in their underwear. Possibly a first there. Also a first: Seeing a two-timing baby talk about eTrade while his “milk-a-holic” girl on the side blew up his shit over a webcam.

The one Bud Light ad I will give props to, however, was their Autotune bit. It’s a stretch including here on Gizmodo, but we have a history with that app (iPhone, anyone?), and we’ll take an opportunity here to thank Budweiser for hopefully killing the tech off for good with this Super Bowl ad:

OK, I admit it, I smiled a bit watching that a second time. Guilty.

The entire crop is over at YouTube in one convenient package (Fox’s is notably absent at the moment, although they appear to be updating throughout the night).

Apparently, when people sing Sinatra’s My Way in a Philippines karaoke bar, and they sing it poorly, they die.

The epidemic’s gotten so bad, in fact, that local law enforcement started calling it the “My Way Killings.”

No one really know why dozens have died over the past decade while warbling to one of Sinatra’s greatest hits, just that they have, and after this specific song. Is it bad singing? Traditionally violent streets being traditionally violent streets? Die hard Sinatra fans exacting their revenge on newbs who butcher the greats? Possibly. Karaoke is huge in the region, with machines popping up everywhere, from bars to alleyways (as you can see from the image). Combine that with high crime and a fanatical love of Frank Sinatra and you could have just the right mix for a kill (the audience with your talent) or be killed (by the audience for sucking) atmosphere.

One thing’s for sure: This guy should stay the hell away form the Philippines. [NYT]

It appears to be graphene day. First, IBM was using the material to shame silicon into submission, and now Swedish scientists say graphene could one day make lamps and other traditional lighting elements unnecessary.

If the Swedes are right, then future homes and buildings could be adorned with graphene panels, called light emitting electromechanical cells (LECs, for short).

The LEC panels can be fashioned so they cover an entire ceiling, wall, or whatever, and they’re completely adjustable. Dim your walls and ceiling for a romantic evening with the female characters of Mass Effect 2, for example.

The article notes that OLED panels have seen similar implementations, but the graphene scientists say their material is both cheaper to produce and better for the environment (OLED panels contain indium tin oxide, which is difficult to recycle). [Science Daily via Treehugger via DVICE]

Normally we ignore “steampunk” news because it has nothing to do with real, actual steampunk and more to do with some bloke attaching nonfunctional brass tubing to his PC, but in this case these guns actually shoot something.

The blunderbuss, above, shoots rubber balls. Cool, I suppose…But! It also shoots them at such a velocity that they can penetrate cardboard at a respectable distance:

The other rifle, Black Betty shoots ping pong balls and confetti paper, the latter of which can be lit up to make a flame thrower of sorts:

And that’s probably the last steampunk anything you’ll see here for a while. Well, unless it shoots something. Or, you know, actually uses steam power. [YouTube via Boing Boing]

The HTC Incredible, a leaked cellphone code name that first made the rounds back in December, is the real deal, as seen in these sneak peak pics from Pocket Now. Can you say brown? You’ll see: Updated.

Very original Zune coloring, no? Lots of contours and wacky shapes going on in the rear too (and probably a prototype placeholder, we hope).

There are some specs to go along with the leak, those being an Android 2.1 OS with HTC Sense, running on a Snapdragon CPU. A rumored 256MB of RAM accompanies a roughly 3.5-3.7″ WVGA screen (possibly AMOLED? That’s unconfirmed).

Dual LED flashes adorn the brownish backplate, and an optical mouse pointer resides down near the bottom. Thoughts?

Update: Now with video:

Now it looks red… [Pocket Now]

A Power Point marketing slide, purportedly showing a number of T-Mobile phones with March release dates, has leaked to the web. Notables include the HTC HD2 (3/24), Moto Cliq XT (3/10). and the Nokia Nuron (3/17).

While the slide deals in unconfirmed data, the release dates and phones mentioned are completely within reason. Case in point, sites like TMO News, from whence this slide came, have been getting rumors and tips abound in recent months that hinted the Nuron and XT, at least, were due out in March.

Well, there’s that, and the fact that I very much doubt there’s some troll out there who’s purposefully leaking false release dates about Motorola and Nokia phones on the T-Mobile network. I could be wrong. [PPC Geeks via TMO News]

The ExoPC tablet we showed you last Sunday got torn apart this weekend. While the outer aesthetics were well-documented, the insides were still unseen. Well, no longer. Someone has broken the tablet down, as geeks are wont to do.

Inside there’s the netbook-esque bits we discussed one week ago. Intel Atom N270, 2GB RAM, check and check. Mini PCI-Express slot, check. Possible SIM slot, check. Windows 7 runs the whole rig. Still no visuals of the multitouch screen in action, but those should arrive soon. In any event, this post was more about red meat for the gadget tear down sect. [ExoPC via Engadget]

In 1869, Atlantic Monthly writer E. Everett Hale imagined what a primitive space station might look like. It involved a lot of brick. Given NASA’s looming cuts, it may very well be all they can afford in the present!

Ha! NASA budget jokes! So topical, yet so sad. Anyway, there are a number of space station concepts from the past century, and while none saw the light of day, some of their features did, and could even help astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars, if they ever happen.

There’s artificial gravity, for instance, which many scientists agree will be important if we’re to travel to Mars and beyond. It was first imagined as far back as 1929.

Then there’s the inflatable station, which was initially discussed decades ago. It’s made a resurgence as of late because it’d be cheap and easy to launch into orbit.

Lastly, there are designs that probably seemed pretty fantastical when artists conjured them up oh so many years ago, but in reality were kind of spot on. Like this one:

Then again, there’s this:

George Lucas, you got some splaining to do! [Scienceray via Neatorama]

We know graphene is tough stuff, but Big Blue‘s discovering the substance makes a great transistor too, to the tune of a record-setting 100GHz.

You see, the 100Ghz graphene transistor IBM was crowing about this week is already much, much faster than a comparably sized silicon one. Current “state-of-the-art” silicon maxes out at 40Ghz. But better still, IBM created the graphene screamer using existing silicon fabrication methods. No new gear necessary!

However, as is commonplace with these types of stories, graphene transistors—at least ones deployed widely in everyday computing—are still a ways away. IBM researchers, why must you tease us so? [IBM via Engadget]

Amazon is still sleeping on Macmillan’s couch, but at least they’re talking again. Rumor has it Amazon quietly started restocking hardcover and paperback copies of the publisher’s books—but not the eBook ones. Updated.

Both companies declined to comment on the eBook side of the debate, so there’s obviously some more work to do there.

Small steps. Small $12.99 to $14.99 priced steps…

Update: This is a minor update to a Giz story that ran yesterday. The update info includes the lack of Macmillan eBook titles.

Update 2: As commenters note, eBooks are back in action now as well. [Reuters]

I, not being an artist, am content to ride Boston’s subway system quietly, eyes down, in a general malaise. It’s a New England thing. French artist Hubert de Lartigue, on the other hand, uses his subway time to imagine X-Wings.

X-Wings from paper metro tickets, to be precise. de Lartique assembles them using nothing but a scalpel and a folding tool—no glue—and they’re pretty sharp.

“I’m very proud of how it turned out and I feel like I am the author of a little masterpiece. I got to the point where I asked myself whether the Parisian metro tickets hadn’t actually been designed to enable me to one day use it as a canvas for this ‘work.’ Their proportions and even the patterns and drawings on them take part in the whole of the work. I’m not kidding, I find that there is a great underlying mystery here…”

So what say you, Parisian metro officials? Who amongst you is the closet Star Wars freak that designed an entire city’s subways passes after a marathon Star Wars viewing session?

Step-by-step instructions for creating your own fleet of Empire-defying papercraft X-Wings can be found here. Naturally, also living in Paris will help your construction efforts immensely.

Editor’s Note: This is actually kirigami, as the artist is making small cuts to the paper. Apologies to the origami artists out there! -j.l. [Hubert de Lartigue via Neatorama]

Yeah, that brilliant flash of light you saw streaking through the dark sky last early this morning? Not the space shuttle making its last ever night time launch from Cape Canaveral.

Unfortunately for you, the launch was postponed, possibly to Monday, and you were either drunk, stoned, both, or you were “visited” and you’re about to mold a mountain out of mashed potatoes. Which is too bad, considering the night launch could have been seen all along the Eastern Seaboard. [MSNBC]

Self-described cellphone cynic and “father of Linux” Linus Torvalds decided to get a Google Nexus One the other day. And while the customer service lines may be clogged over the phone’s performance, Daddy Linux is positively pleased as punch.

Unsurprisingly, the man who invented the most popular open source operating system in the world is a “happy camper” over the fact that this cellphone runs Linux. But Linux alone wasn’t enough to get Linus on board with the rest of the smartphone crazy 21rst century, no sir. His previous phones, in fact—the ones he mostly used to “play Galaga” on long flights—also had various versions of Linux, but lacked that certain spark.

Pinch to zoom touch capability and GPS were what finally got Torvalds to commit, and commit he has. The Nexus One “is a winner” he wrote yesterday, adding that it no longer feels as though he’s forced to drag along a cellphone for “just in case” emergencies.

So, Google, as you frantically work the phones in that customer support center and stare longingly at other company’s smartphone sales, take some solace in the fact that the Father of Linux is out there, somewhere, playing games on your Linux phone. [Linus Torvalds via Laughing Squid]

Comedian Stephen Colbert is hosting the Grammys, and to mark the occasion of “Song of the Year” (Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)), he pulled out his shiny new iPad.

Notable because it’s one of the first out in the open (is he “the first?”). Also notable: No iPads in those obscene celebrity gift baskets people get for attending these things (Jay-Z didn’t even get one, Colbert mocked).

And yes, this looked to be the real deal, as you could see the screen changing from portrait to landscape as the moved the iPad around.

Update: Now with video.