Author: Jack Loftus

In this case the burning sensation is “delicious,” not “first degree and could result in your death.” And apparently it really works too, although the advertised “time to awaken” period seems a bit too long for my taste.

Effective over an area of 50 feet, the Wasabi alarm can typically wake people up within two-and-a-half minutes. Update: This is a non-traditional fire alarm, for the deaf community. With that in mind, this could certainly save lives.

Two years ago this alarm was but a concept. Now it’s a $560 (?!?!) reality. [CNET via Technabob]

Amazon has given in to Macmillan, and will switch to a pricing model that sees eBook versions of bestseller and new hardcover releases offered to customers at $12.99 to $14.99. The official statement is as follows:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

Well, that was quick. [Kindle Community]

The Unclaimed Baggage Center, a real, live place where—wait for it—unclaimed airline baggage goes to market, is a smorgasbord of eclectic lost gadgets, guidance systems and diamonds, oh my:

For those gadget lovers amongst us, there’s a $250,000 Navy guidance system. Maybe all the military transports were full that day? Also, there’s a camera designed specifically for the space shuttle. Perhaps someone at NASA was delivering it to a buyer (if that’s the case, we doubt the engines will be “mailed” in quite the same way). Just add some unclaimed weaponry and the Unclaimed Baggage Center might be comparable to the armies in some third world countries.

For movie buffs, the original Hoggle puppet from Labyrinth was also lost and found by the Center, as was a real, live snake on a plane (rattlesnake).

Indiana Jones might have been flying the day a suitcase full of Egyptian artifacts was lost and never claimed. There were also a number of unclaimed diamonds and jewels, with some of the former having been found hanging out inside a loose sock. [Mental Floss via Consumerist]

The comparisons to another recently revealed tablet are unavoidable, but believe you me the similarities end with the aesthetics. Inside there’s Windows 7, flash support and multitouch. In fact, the more apt comparison is probably “netbook,” as you can see:

There’s the Atom N270 processor, running at 1.6Ghz, for example. And then there’s the 2GB of memory and solid state 32GB drive. Lastly, the replaceable battery on this 8.9-in. multitouch tablet is clocked at a mere four hours, which doesn’t seem that great (saving grace being that is replaceable).

Pricing is set at $599 when it launches in March. Impatient types can buy a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right now. [ExoPC via Engadget]

There’s nothing new coming your way in terms of aesthetics from MSI’s line of “C” laptops, but under the hood we’ve got Core i Series processors. One of these fellas even sports an ATI Radeon HD5470 graphics card.

The full laptop line includes the CX420, CR420 and CR720. The CX420 sports the aforementioned graphics card. Beyond the chipset and the one graphics-card-sporting laptop, this line isn’t all that exciting (e.g. ho-hum 1366 x 768 14-inch display). That said, this is a budget line, and MSI could very well surprise with some competitive pricing (pricing and release date were not made available in the PR). [MSI via Engadget]

Lumix will flood the market with a new series of F-line point and shoot cameras next month. Officially revealed at CES, the line already had its specs spelled out, but not pricing or release window. Now we have them:

FP3 (14.1MP, 720p): $230
FH1 (12MP, 720p): $160
FH3 (14.1MP, 720p): $180
FH20 (14.1MP, 720p): $200.
FP1 (12MP): $150
F3 (12.1MP, 720p): $130

All cameras are slated for a mid-February release. [About.com via Engadget]

During that Apple town hall meeting we mentioned earlier this week CEO Steve Jobs reportedly had some choice words regarding Google that left little doubt about how the outspoken executive sees the competition. Updated.

That “Don’t be evil” slogan Google’s known for? “Bullshit” Jobs said, after which he was reportedly rewarded with a big round of applause from the gathered throng of Apple employees.

Also about Google, Jobs said that company “entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.”

Jobs also singled out Adobe, calling the company “lazy” because, in his opinion, “they have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it.” Jobs also criticized Flash for being buggy. When a Mac crashes, it’s usually because of Flash, he reportedly told the crowd. “The world is moving to HTML5”, he said.

Reports that the town hall meeting was adjourned with a gavel that made a loud Bing sound were completely fabricated and made up by me just now.

Update: Mac Rumors and Daring Fireball have an update on this. Most of Wired’s quotes are paraphrased, and with that came some discrepancies between what may have been said and what was written to page. One change being “bullshit” was probably more along the lines of “full of crap.” So, same sentiment, different word choice. Also, while the lazy quote hasn’t been disputed, the tone may have been. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber said an attendee wrote to say Jobs was actually very nostalgic about the “kick ass Adobe of old.”

Update 2: We’re now learning that the next iPhone update with be an “A+ update” (which probably means “substantial,” but that’s no surprise). Furthermore, on that front, the updates will be such that Google/Android “won’t be able to keep up” with them (meaning competition lit a fire, perhaps?).

Other juicy tidbits:

– The Lala folks are probably destined for the iTunes team
– The Macs for 2010 are “going to take Apple to the next level” (???)
– And, Blu-Ray software “is a mess,” and Apple will continue to keep its distance until sales take off

[Wired]

Future comic book heroes may be referred to as Men of Spongy Steel if one researcher’s experimental metal makes it out of the lab and into real-world applications.

There’s no fancy name attached to this stuff yet, so we’ll just call it steel foam for now. Name or no name, its various applications (tested in the lab) still sound incredible:

Rough traffic accident calculations show that by inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph.

Then there’s the smash test, wherein researcher and materials scientist Afsaneh Rabiei takes a piece of steel and a piece of foam steel and smashes them both into a base plate at high speed. After the test, there’s a clear indentation in the traditional steel, while the foam shows no damage whatsoever. Energy absorption, and all that.

As the article notes, metal foam isn’t exactly a new invention, but these tests show Rabiei’s may be the strongest version yet. Already scientists’ minds are swimming with applications for this super spongy steel, most notably body armor, artificial limbs, boats and airplanes. [Live Science via Neatorama]

The writing was on the wall as recently as 2 a.m. this morning, and an open letter from Macmillan CEO John Sargent has confirmed everything we suspected: Macmillan books were pulled from Amazon store as part of a strong-arm tactic in the coming eBook price war. [Publishers Marketplace via Boing Boing]

So says Mark Cuban, opining about the potential for children’s entertainment and media consumption with the iPad. The man owns a basketball team and was on Dancing with the Stars, people. Technology savant as far as I’m concerned.

Editor’s Note: In all honesty I’m actually pretty excited about the iPad (from a software potential perspective), so don’t take this light-hearted post to mean I’m making fun of Cuban. He’s actually got quite the tech/media background (and HD too), and I happen to agree with him, for now. [MSNBC]

By way of our own Joel Johnson we get to see a very gritty, very geeky collection of photographs this fine evening. Above, the cab of a Panther Command vehicle. Below, the svelte cockpit of a Virgin Pendolino train: Updated:

Both images are the work of photographer Anthony Dickenson. Click ’em for full size.

I also encourage you to sample the rest of the portfolio, as they run an interesting gamut of urban landscapes, machinery and even a vintage pic of something our parents once called a “newspaper printing press.”

Oh, I’m sorry, I’ve just been told that last one is still around.

Update: Wired Magazine wrote me this morning with this cool update. It’s a detailed guide to all the buttons and switches in the Panther vehicle. Very cool, very complex. [Stem Agency]

The WSj is reporting this evening that the Obama Administration, in an attempt to get NASA doing more space and environmental stuff, will float the idea of using private companies to ferry astronauts into space, among other things.

The policy change, described as controversial by those in the know, will be included in the Administration’s next budget proposal.

Ultimately, the plan would establish “a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit-and eventually deeper into the solar system,” reports the WSJ.

Safety concerns are at the top of the list of objections to the plan, as are concerns over shifting NASA funds for existing programs to a private initiative. Other additions to the NASA budget include stepped up climate-monitoring programs, and better cooperation internationally for manned and unmanned space programs.

Unsurprisingly, private contractors like Lockheed Martin are lobbying for such a shift, as they could experience substantial gains should a new private NASA wing open in the near future.

Those opposed to the change, like Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords, argue that because NASA’s budget will remain the same under the new program, at about $18.7 billion, the private programs will only serve to spread the agency more thinly (hence the shifting funds worry stated above). During a hearing last month, Giffords said the private funds could weaken NASA and put human space flight “on hold for the foreseeable future.”

Case in point, only $200 million are earmarked for privatization this year, but that number is expected to increase to about $3.5 billion over the next five years. [WSJ – Thanks, Pablo]

Nope. No way. No conceivable way whatsoever this massage video game controller, called the Massage Me, could be hacked or used in a way that makes it sexual or awkward to use if your parents walked in the room:

You see, while you play your games normally, the Massage Me harness translates those button presses into different massage techniques, which are then used on a partner (or yourself) via the harness.

The system works with a hacked PlayStation controller for now, but the design is such that any button mashing controller will work just as well.

“The best massages come from playing games that require the player to press a lot of buttons and combinations,” says designers Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson.

Indeed, you coy bastards, indeed. [Ecouterre]

Forget the fact that, for most of 2010, most tablets not branded Apple will be, fairly or unfairly, swept under the rug. OK, with that out of the way, here’s a peek at Sungworld’s upcoming 7-in. Android tablet:

It’s Apple-esque in the hardware department, sort of, and the same can be said of the UI, although there’s no video of it in action just yet. Editor’s Note: Yeah, so that means iPhone. Obviously I haven’t seen the mythical Tablet. Obviously.

Inside that thick, thick shell is an ARM926 CPU, 128MB memory and 2GB storage. Color selection will include pink, blue, green, black, purple and blue, so it’s got that on the mythical, all but confirmed Apple Tablet, in any event.

No pricing information is available to us at the moment, but…hey, what’s this thing over here that everyone’s talking about on Wednesday? [Shanzaiben via I4U via Engadget]

From sad, anger-inducing news about bomb-sniffing charlatans we segue, thankfully, into some bomb detection news that may actually save lives. Made of quartz rods, this sniffer looks to be the real deal. Let’s get it to where it’s needed.

Mainly Iraq, Afghanistan and dozens of other war torn countries around the world, or any place that’s been taken advantage of by war criminal Jim McCormick and his wave of fraudulent dowsing rod RFID devices.

The quartz device is simple, cheap, and in tests remarkably effective. It sniffs out a substance called TATP, which made its infamous debut on the world stage during the 2004 Madrid bombing and later in July 2005, when terrorists attacked the London tubes. Why TATP? It’s easily made, cheap and similar to TNT, making it an obvious choice for terrorist cells across the globe. It’s also used a lot as a detonator, but the quartz rod device can detect either usage easily:

At its heart are three quartz rods, each 3 millimetres long and 40 micrometres wide, which are made to vibrate by applying an alternating voltage. Any TATP in the air bonds to chemicals coating the rods, causing their resonant frequency to change. Each rod is coated with a different chemical – a phenylene dendrimer, a cyclodextrin and sodium cholate – and each changes its rod’s resonant frequency in a different way. It is the combination of three changes that reveals TATP’s presence.

In the tests, the device was accurate, sensing TATP at levels of 1ppm. Researchers say 0.1 ppm will be possible in the future. Detectors that implement the technology will cost about $100, meaning they could easily be put in bus doorways, checkpoints and airports. Oh, and they actually work.

Photo note: Damage done by a TATP bomb. [New Scientist]

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal’s latest webcomic tackles technology’s effect on art and literature. With the coming Tablet Wars of 2010 and beyond looming before us, it’s funny because it’s true! [SMBC]

Haha. An apple a day. Just like Gizmodo with all this Tablet news! Get it?! Funny. But this is different. It’s a calendar concept. An ingenious one at that—and healthy too!

Unfortunately, these calendars are only available in AOK health insurance offices. They were created by Serviceplan, an ad agency in Munich, and can hold 28, 30 or 31 apples. Just adjust the tube depending on the month. Ed. Note: The Munch pun was, sadly, a typo. Fixed. -j.l.

And as commenters far wittier than I have noted below, this calendar is also adept at making moldy applesauce by about days 25-31… [I Believe In Adv book of joe via Neatorama]

BGR is reporting that the Sidekick’s days at T-Mobile are numbered. While it’s speculation for now, evidence from a “briefing” indicates that the myTouch Slide will spell the eventual doom of the flippy, text-heavy (but troubled) handset.

Silver lining for its remaining fans? The gaping hole could be filled with Microsoft’s Project Pink device. [BGR]

Detective’s Notebook, January 24: It’s raining. Again. Always raining. Hard. Thunder, lightning. Sounds angry. The bald guy in the black turtleneck’s angrier though. Can’t blame him. This company loves its secrets, and $100,000 worth just left out the back.

$100,000 worth of super secret Apple laptop prototype, to be precise. Lifted, sold, sold again—probably well on its way to that Blam kid’s desk at Gawker HQ by now for all I know.

I told my boys to round up the usual suspects. Not that I’d expect that crew to be behind this roughshod smash and grab. Ballmer, Schmidt, The Woz…none of those lunks would be this brazen and stupid. Those fellas would infiltrate. Be all quick and sly. Patient. Sit on the board for a while and take secrets out in their heads, not their hands. Like Schmidt.

Nah, the lineup is just a show. Anything I can do to get the turtleneck off my back. Guy says he’s all about zen and peace and OM OM OM, but those eyes say otherwise. There’s murder there, burning with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Whoever took that prototype’s a damn fool. Like Han said, no reward’s worth this. At least he had Leia. Time to scram.

Editor’s note: The prototype theft report was a dubious user-generated one floated by a community site named Zirana, posted this week. It has not been confirmed by area deputies or Apple, hence the bit of fun I’m having with it today, like I did with that old transforming couch in November. So, relax. [Zirana via TUAW]