Once upon a time, there were these cables that got into your home and into these things that went ring-ring, with numbers and redial buttons and call waiting. The DSP Multimedia Handset is the same, with Android and a touchscreen.

It’s also looks like the last twist to landline-based DECT handsets. In addition to Wi-Fi, this phone uses the Android operating system, meaning that you would be able to read your mail, surf the web, listen to music, talk with Google Voice, or use any of your favorite Android apps using its 3.5” TFT LCD touchscreen. It even supports accelerometers, so you can play even play games. [DSP via Android Community]

Brian Garret Schuur is a clever guy, and that’s why rapid manufacturer Freedom of Creation has taken his design for the Street Headphones. These made-to-order headphones feature the names of your favorite bands and singers all around them, in 3D.

They don’t seem very comfortable, but I would be glad if people used this way to show their musical taste—as opposed to blasting the volume up. [Freedom of Creation]

The bride: “We knew that we didn’t want standard paper invites. We wanted something for people to keep and remember. We’re geeks. We love video games. Why not have a video game invite?” You can play as the groom too:

Darina and Niko, we all want to marry you now. Happy life! [Offbeatbride via Boing Boing via Twitter]

The more I look at Thomas Prescher’s Mysterious Double Axis Tourbillon watch, the more I think it’s impossible this thing exists. The watch is completely empty of everything except the tourbillon, apparently floating in the middle of space.

Only one single metal wire holds it there, rotating onto itself and improving the accuracy of the time mechanism. The watch’s movement is inside the bezel, and it is powered by the horizontal swinging oscillating weight you can see on the top. [Watchprosite via Watchismo]

People of the world who hate hate HATE going to the dentist, rejoice: DentalVibe is a new device that completely eliminates the pain when they are sticking a stainless steel needle into your gums. All by cleverly fooling your brain.

Developed by Dr. Steven G. Goldberg DDS and Bresslergroup, DentalVibe vibrates at irregular intervals. While the brain ignores rapid rhythmical vibration, it notices pulses that are not regular. These vibrations are transmitted by A-beta nerve fibers, which are faster than the slower C fibers that transmit the sensation of pain caused by the needle penetrating your gums.

The result is that your brain will only notice the percussive vibration, but not the pain of the needle tearing apart the flesh of your gums until it hits the bone. Clever. Now they only have to solve the problem of the drilling, the tubes stretching your mouth, and the muzzak making you brain melt. [Bresslergroup]

My wife and I joined the NYC pinball league two weeks ago. I wonder if they would let me play using this brain-computer interface, which was shown at CeBit in Germany. [io9] Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Apple has sued Google’s phone manufacturer for infringing on 20 iPhone patents. Not so long ago, Apple and Google were a nice couple. Then, everything went to hell.

The romance began with the iPhone, even while we didn’t know about it in 2006. Back then, Steve Jobs invited Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt to his house, to sit at his table, and have vanilla-frosted cupcakes and tea together. It was instant love.

An Affair to Remember

They happily worked in the iPhone’s 2007 launch. Google gave Apple their maps, their search, and their mail, and Apple gave Google the best spot in their new shiny device. Apple put YouTube into the iPhone and Google made YouTube to work nicely with QuickTime, moving all videos to the h.264 standard (so Apple could avoid that nasty Flash kid). Google even optimized their web apps for the iPhone, and Apple smiled.

And so they played in the new smartphone playground together and giggled at Yahoo and Microsoft and Adobe and everyone else. They were the coolest kids, they told everyone how happy they were, and everyone thought they were the perfect lovers.

The iPhone quickly became a huge success, positioning itself as the future of ubiquitous consumer-oriented computing. Just the kind that Google wants to control to deliver its highly targeted ads. Google noticed the success, and the relationship started to rupture. I can imagine the meeting between Eric, Sergey and Larry: “Whaaaa…? How did they…? Fuck, we need to get into this now.” It was then that Google started to reveal its true face — and their plans for the little company they bought in 2005, helmed by the phone wiz Andy Rubin. They realized that they couldn’t let Apple control the main window to the web. After all, it was their web, not Apple’s.

Google presented Android, their own smartphone operating system made to imitate Apple’s. Not only did they devote resources to create this, but they wanted to give it for free to every manufacturer and carrier. It didn’t take much for Steve Jobs to realize that the romance was over. It was betrayal. Google was his new Microsoft. The real nemesis that could build a new dominant “Windows”, and turn his early success with the iPhone into the new Mac underdog.

That was when all went to hell.

Escalating Conflict

It wasn’t an open war. At the beginning, it all happened behind curtains, like when Apple allegedly stopped multitouch on Android and Google complied, realizing that they might otherwise be stepping into a patent minefield. Like the one the just got into now, with HTC as the proxy.

Steve Jobs couldn’t tie his tongue, however. Back in January 2008, he was already criticizing Google and Android, pointing out that it wasn’t going to be good for anyone. It was the first knife shining in the open, but it wasn’t the last one.

After that, executives at Apple have been pretty clear about what they think about Google, like when Tim Cook said that Google was still trying to catch up with the first iPhone or Jobs gave his blunt-as-bricks opinion on Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra. “It’s bullshit,” he said, a sentiment now shared by many.

It almost feels like this is something personal for Steve Jobs, as if he believed that a fake-smiled Eric Schmidt sat at the Apple’s board, eating his food and drinking his wine, while plotting to kidnap Apple’s baby since the very beginning. It seems the feeling is mutual: Schmidt delivered his own snide against Jobs and his new baby recently, pooping on the iPad as nothing more than a big phone.

Knowing how things developed, it’s surprising that Schmidt stayed on Apple’s board for so long. He resigned on August 2009, just as the war started to go open, first with Google grabbing mobile advertising company AdMob from Apple’s hands (which forced Apple to buy Quattro Wireless). Then with Apple pissing on Google’s parade by stealing Lala, the music streaming service that Larry and Sergei wanted to have.

The love affair was definitely over, and the bitter separation started. Like gangrene, the hate started to spread to every aspect in the relations between the two companies. According to insiders, negotiating the terms for maps in the new iPhone OS and the iPad was a fierce battle, to the point in which Apple went and bought their own charting company at one point. Who knows if that move was part of their poker hand—like the rumors about Apple replacing Google search with Bing—or an actual desire to get fully independent from Google.

The War for the Future of Computing

The true war, however, has started today, with the lawsuit against HTC. It names their Windows phones, but that’s just a distracting maneuver. The core example in the lawsuit is Android, and that’s where the real attack is. And by going against HTC, the weakest link in the chain, Apple is not only attacking Google. It’s also giving a warning to every manufacturer out there: If you try to pull a Nexus Two for them, we will launch our missiles against you. Motorola—who confirmed they are working with Google—could be the next one in the list.

Jobs clearly knows that they are playing for the domination of the future of computing, the Next Big Thing. And he doesn’t want this one to end like the Macintosh-Windows War. This time he has a huge lead, and he has the deep pockets to fight for it, whether that means new product development, strategic acquisitions or all-out legal battles. In the most recent Apple shareholder meeting, he clearly said this: They will use their huge mountain of cash to do everything necessary, every “bold move” needed to keep their lead, and have the whole enchilada for themselves.

There’s no doubt that Jobs will use every single of Apple’s 40 billion dollars to trump Google’s plans, and keep their massive market share in the mobile device and applications world. But for that he will need a strong cloud structure and to get deep into the social aspect of the web. Of the latter, they got nothing. On the former, MobileMe is still a half-baked solution, and iWork.com beta has failed to gain any real traction. Maybe Apple’s traditional enemy—Microsoft—would be able to help there. And maybe getting together with Facebook would slap Google where it hurts more.

On the other side, Google has the lead in the cloud, except for their failed social efforts, which are the target of jokes and extreme criticism. At the same time, while technically good, Android has failed to match the momentum of the iPhone. Android’s app marketplace is still tiny compared to the App Store—and low quality too, by comparison. Apple has an easier time wooing app developers at this point, and that is a big advantage.

Overall, it seems like the two ex-lovers are in a technical tie, and are getting dirtier and bloodier by the day. Sometimes, love ends up like this.

Unlike wood-based models, the Heat 1X is a real metal rocket. At more than 9 meters high, it’s also the largest amateur rocket in the world. The guys building it are planning one almost as large as the V-2.

They call themselves Copenhagen Suborbitals, and they operate from an abandoned shipyard in the outskirts of the Danish capital. This group of nutters rolled out their Heat 1X engine last Sunday. The image above puts it next to their planned beasts and the first ballistic missile ever: The German V-2.

These are the same guys who built a submarine last year, which makes me fear they are probably planning to build a cruise missile and pacify some hostile territory. Like New Jersey. [Something Awful]

And a party in my pants. I still have to find my pink unicorns, though. Till then, I will keep flipping this book, which makes a rainbow to appear floating in the air, without the aid of any funky pills.

It’s still as wonderfully useless and pretty as when it was published in Japan, in 2007. [Utrecht]

After Sony’s warning, the PlayStation Network seems to be back online and fully operational, according to reader Larry Gallant. Updated

I wanted to let you guys know that the phat PS3s are now able to login to the Playstation network and the clocks are working. I was able to login at 6:28 PM eastern time in the Boston, MA USA area.

No official word from Sony yet, however, so proceed with caution.

Update: Multiple readers are reporting that things are fixed, and they now can use their PS3s normally.

Have you been able to connect to the network? Tell us in the comments. [Thanks Larry]

Apart from a colossal tsunami, here’s another effect of the 66.6 exajoules liberated by this weekend’s earthquake in Chile: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that days will now be shorter because the quake shifted Earth’s axis by three inches.

The change—which can only be measured thanks to computer models—will result in days that are 1.26 microseconds shorter than before. That’s 0.00000126 seconds shorter. There may have been more visible changes, like islands changing its position. One of them, Santa María, may have raised two meters after the shattering land move.

This is not the first time this has happened, as every single earthquake has an effect on the planet’s axis. [Business Week]

I don’t know who has the pockets and the space to install Hydrofloors—mechanically operated tiles that sink into the ground slowly, revealing a swimming pool already full of water—but I want to meet them. Watch them in action:

According to the manufacturer, the system is “nearly invisible” and you can adjust the depth of the swimming pool to any depth just by using a control panel. I wonder if my downstairs neighbor will mind it if I install one. [Hydrofloors via Notcot]

There is great clusterfuckassery going on right now on the PlayStation Network, affecting fat PS3s. Sony is working on it and they hope to “resolve the problem within the next 24 hours.” Updated

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.

The latest thin PS3 model doesn’t have this problem, but if you have a fat PS3, here’s what you are facing if you turn it on:

• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

Update: According to some readers, Netflix doesn’t work either.
Update 2: Some readers report everything is back to normal.
Keep watching for updates. [Sony]

While this is still my favorite computer rig and Gizmodo’s readers setups are still very impressive, I have to admit that Lifehacker’s reader Steve Price is only second to this other computer rig on space. The specs make me dizzy.

The whole setup is composed by 40 24″ panoramic monitors, driven by six computers with Intel Core i7 975, 24GB of memory, two SLC Solid State Drives in a RAID 0 configuration, and a whole bunch of Nvidia NVS 420s and Nvidia 9800 GTs cards. Each computer drives a different number of displays, sitting on a small hidden room with a dedicated air conditioning unit.

According to Steve, he uses this setup for “intraday trading and development”. Hooookay. [Flickr via Lifehacker]

This weekend’s Chilean earthquake was 8.8 magnitude, among the most powerful in recorded history. This is how its 66.6 exajoules of energy spread across the Pacific, as shown by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The earthquake—which so far has resulted in more than 700 dead people— was the equivalent of the explosion of 15.8 gigatons of TNT. That’s 316 Soviet Tsar nuclear bombs—at 50 megatons, the most powerful ever created—dropping at the same time in the same place.

As NOAA’s graphic model shows, it generated a huge tsunami that wiped the Pacific, fortunately weakening before it reached other populated coastal areas at the other side of the ocean, like Hawaii or New Zealand. Sadly, the Chileans were not that lucky. [NOAA]

I’m a fan of Wacom’s Cintiq display tablets, so I’m excited about their new 21-inch model, the Cintiq 21UX. According to Wacom, it has better pen performance and ergonomics. The two back touch-strips have me intrigued.

They say their new Grip Pen has their new Tip Sensor technology that requires near-zero pressure to start painting, which is great to get a more natural feeling. It also has 2048 levels of pressure—doubling the previous model. The tablet itself has been redesigned, with eight programmable keys on each side of the tablet, over the bezel.

The coolest addition, however, are the two touch strips on the sides of the tablet, on the back of the bezel itself. These are like mini-trackpads, which can be used for four functions depending on the application. You change the function with your thumb using the round button on the front of the tablet—a LED displays the selected function—and use your middle or forefinger to manipulate the touchpad up and down. For example, you can use it to control the variation of a brush, then click the round button, and use it to control the speed of the airbrush, while using the pen with your other hand. Smart. Can’t wait to try it.

The tablet display allows you to position the screen at any angle between 10 and 65 degrees, and it can be detached to use any VESA-compatible mount. I would definitely want to have one mounted on a hydraulically-assisted arm, to be able to position it in front of my main monitor at any time.

I wish there were light bulbs that could actually illuminate a room exactly like candles. In the meantime, the Light Bulb Effect substitutes hot filaments, glass, and vacuum for real wax and wicks.

Helbert Ferreira and Remi Melander, I love you. [System Design Studio via Yanko]

Three-dee displays make me dizzy. I want to see real 3D without eyeglasses, which is exactly what this new Nintendo DSi game does. It opens a world to a new dimension by tracking your face with the DSi camera.

Its name is Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda, and the mechanics are quite simple: You move your face or tilt your Nintendo DSi to find hidden shapes inside a 3D scene taking over the two screens, a fantastic Through-the-Looking-Glassish doll house that seems completely real. It feels as if the DSi is a window to an alternative world.

What’s the magic trick? It uses the front camera of the DSi to track your eyes’ position in relation to the angle of the DSi screens, the same principle as Johnny Chung Lee’s Wii hack. Since the game knows from where you are looking, it changes the perspective of the 3D camera in sync with your eyes, giving you the perfect illusion that you are looking into a world inside your handheld. [Nintendo Japan via Boing Boing]

Raidon Hybrid Disk puts together a Solid State Drive with a hard drive that backups data, just in case the former goes to hell in ball of fire and data loss mayhem. No price or capacities yet. [Raidon via MacWorld]