Author: Jesus Diaz

The Guardian polycarbonate waterproof case is all I need to get my Kindle on vacation to Goa. It won’t only protect it against cocktail spillage, but it will make it float on the tub or the sea.

And on top of that, it’s waterproof down to one meter, just in case I want to take it from the hammock to a snorkeling swim. Because that’s what I really want to do while I’m snorkeling or in the shower: Read The Old Man and the Sea.

My Kindle will also remain fully functional, thanks to the flexible material covering the keys. If I actually had a Kindle, that is. [M-Edge via Slashgear]

A series of solar eclipse—on 2006, 2008, and 2009—have allowed scientist to take these beautiful images of the Sun’s corona, the first ones in history that show a phenomenon called the Iron Line.

The iron line is made of highly ionized iron, called Fe XI 789.2 nm. The iron spewing reaches an extremely far distance—an amazing three times the solar radii—and has regions in which there are more irons than in others. [NASA]

Shockingly enough, analyst Maynard J. Um “expects” a new iPhone launching in mid-2010. See, this guy is so smart that we must trust him when he says that he “believes” that a CDMA-based iPhone is coming from Verizon, right? RIGHT?

We believe a CDMA-iPhone is also in the works, though believe Verizon Wireless and Apple may currently be apart on pricing.

When he says “We” he refers to him and the Queen of England. I guess that Verizon’s customers are really waiting for this to happen, but other analysts are calling all this wishful thinking. While we wait to see if he is right or not, I would be polishing my

[Apple Insider]

I can’t wait to get my nails over one of these absurdly small 64GB USB drives. They come in 8 to 64GB, and will continuously backup your files, no matter what you are doing. [Crunchgear]

[Voice=”Barry White”] When I first saw you, girl, I knew I had to make you mine. Now, I’m in the mood, baby. In the mood for…the Belly Love…Belly Love…oh yeah…I want to hold you…on that gloooowing light.

You know… the Belly Love… No, really, you know the one I mean, don’t you? Yeah, the sofa with the puffy glowing moving tentacles that release a fragrance while caressing your body which I heard is inspired by a soft coral found in the Indian Ocean that you probably saw when you were drooling one day after dinner watching old Costeau re-runs on your old sofa? Yes, your old sofa. This is… the new sofa, for, you know, doing it.

And now, let’s put the stereo in love mode, sweet woman of mine. I feel the love right here, glowing in my heart… and in my pants… while I get with you… in the Belly Love.

I want to spend two weeks working with the new fan-less, VIA EPIA-P820 pico-ITX board—with full 64-bit support—and matching VIA Amos-3001 chassis to create a full HD home theater in my car. Thankfully, I don’t have a car.

But it’s a perfect base for a custom home theater in any case. The board has a 1.2GHz U2500 VIA Nano processor with 2GB of DDR2 system memory, a VIA VX855 Media System Processor—which can decode any 1080p codec you can throw at it—and a VIA Chrome9™ HCM 3D integrated graphics core with full DirectX 9.0 support.

The best thing is that this 10 x 7.2-centimeter board fits perfectly in the aluminum VIA Amos-3001 chassis, alongside a I/O daughter board with HDMI, VGA, Gigabit LAN and two USB 2.0 ports. The whole packaged is capable of outputting DTS audio through S/PDIF, and connect to an additional four USB ports, IDE, and Serial ATA.

I’m sure the model holding the new Samsung Digital Photo Frame 700Z 7-inch OLED photo frame at CES2010 will have a lot less clothing than this one. The frame comes with 4GB of memory and Bluetooth support. [DA via Oled-Display]

If ESPN, Discovery, Imax, and Sony have it their way, 3D television may actually go from novelty to reality in 2011. I can’t wait for the sensory overload of white sharks trying to eat the pants out of me.

scovery, Imax, and Sony are expected to announce the channel—which will feature a mix of 3D content starting in 2011—at CES. It will be 24 hours, which make it different from the ESPN 3D network, which will only operate when they have any sports event filmed in 3D. [NYT and The Live Feed]

Heyzeusrollerbladingchrist. Apple has sold one billion apps since the two billion September 28 mark, reaching three billion in 98 days. That’s 30,612,244 apps per day, 1,275,510 per hour, 121,043 per minute, 350 every second. Freakingnuts.

Apple’s App Store Downloads Top Three Billion

CUPERTINO, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone® and iPod touch® users worldwide.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

How much is that in fart apps? And how many apps per minute would Apple sell if you counted time in dog years? What about fox years?

Hookai. So. The Samurai Air Sword is really an iPhone in disguise. It doesn’t come with touchscreen, CPU, multimedia processor, memory, GPS, or compass. But it has a gyroscope and runs a clone of the only iPhone application that matters.

The Lightsaber app! Except it’s not really an app, and this is better: It makes 48 swooshabolous sound effects while you move it up in the air using a motion sensor. So screw the web browser, the mail, the stupid touchscreen, and all that fancy crap. For $18 and two AAA batteries, this thing does exactly what you need it to do. [Happinet via IT Media via DVICE]

Lately I’ve been sharing my desk. Lots of fun, but you quickly end up with a cable mess and running out of plugs. That’s why I want someone to convert the RedDot Award-winner PowerPost into a real product.

It’s a simple concept: An alternative table leg that is in itself a huge power strip. My only worry is that, knowing myself, it would look looking like a deranged hydra shortly after its installation. [Red Dot Award]

Han Guitar Solo t-shirt sold separately. [Flickr via Geekologie via Star Wars Blog]

Forget about any Olympics inauguration ceremonies or any Fourth of July: The Burj Dubai is the tallest building in the world, and it got the highest fireworks too for its opening ceremony. So colossal you’ll think they are destroying it.

The tower—which officially is 2717 feet tall (828 meters)—was inaugurated today, and the developers launched it with all they got. The people who attended the ceremony couldn’t stop cheering in awe. I don’t blame them. Watch the whole video to see the lighting effects just before the final fireworks. They look designed by aliens.

After writing this morning about the Glare LA-9/P, a device that can blind people from 2.5 miles away, I got this video of a product called the Dazer Laser. It seems like a joke, but it’s real. I think?

I just love the swoosh sounds—I think the guy doing the voice over makes them. Or the way the suspect doesn’t turn away and starts running. And their script: “Dazer Laser will effectively disrupt and stop the perpetration of wrongdoing!” or “Dazer Laser, saving lives one daze at a time.”

This is an instant classic, I tell you.

I would like to live in this glass house, a place in the middle of the woods that even has glass-based furniture. Why? I just want to walk around naked all day. Like I do now, but better.

Sadly, it’s just a concept based on a furniture line by Santambrogiomilano. The furniture is real, however. Thinking twice, it would be too much like living under the glass stair of an Apple Store. I still prefer Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller. [Santambrogiomilano via Apartment Therapy]

Bonooooooorrrrlllllllll! I know you are a rock star and a defender of the planet and I really like Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum and even Zooropa, but come on, “reverse Robin Hood”? So wrong. And it gets worse:

“But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content.”

Amazing. Is he putting the fight to protect children from sexual depredators at the same level of pirates copying music? Or does he wish that we all had an Internet control system comparable to communist China? And this guy fights for human rights and freedom?

At the end, Bono, this is not about reverse Robin Hooding. This is not about the providers stealing from you. This is about two groups of fat cats fighting for money. First, you’re rich and your pals at the music industry are rich. Second, those are rich service providers. In the middle, getting sandwiched between your throbbing shameless practices and thick hypocrisy, is the people. I can’t speak for the rest of us, but I’m sick of you both.

And while we are talking about Robin Hood, and giving gold schillings from the rich to the poor, let’s talk about your tax evasion practices to avoid redistributing your wealth in Ireland. [BBC]

Phones, GPS, computers… Do we really want to give Android the power to control our washer-dryers and ovens and printers too? Would someone hack them to microwave your underpants, wash your soup, and dry your pizza?

It probably doesn’t matter. I do it all the time. But better get used to it, because this is what we are getting soon:

This is the NIM1000, an capacitive touch-sensitive Android-based module that is designed to control all kinds of appliances. It has the necessary connections to plug into anything, from kitchen appliances, to printers, and enterprise desktop phones. You can’t buy it, however: It’s designed for manufacturers of these products.

Made by Touch Revolution, the NIM1000 module will be demonstrated at CES in these appliances and gadgets, showing what features they can get. The washer dryer has slide touch-screen controls, stain guides, and a way to interpret the extraterrestrial symbols that come printed in clothe’s labels. The microwave, according to Touch Revolution, “doubles a kitchen control center,” with widgets to play Pandora, show a photo of your dog, read the news, a web browser, and timers for both the oven and the burners.

Do you need your microwave to be a kitchen command center while I play music and watch pictures of my dog in it all day, while posting for Gizmodo through the web browser? I don’t know about you, but I’ll be there like shareware.

Wouldn’t you? Yes, this reminds me a bit of the old dot.com era, when everyone and their dogs put Java or Windows CE in every single thing out there. And we all know how that ended.

iPhone app developers never cease to amaze me, re-inventing not only the software, but also the hardware itself, like the iPhone air blower app. Or Pocket Heat, which can turn your iPhone into a hand heater. Here’s how it works:

Easy: The app puts your iPhone on overdrive, using 100% of its processing power. That, as you probably have noticed with some applications, makes the components to overheat, which in turn can warm up your hands. There’s another application like this, called iHandWarmer, but Pocket Heater wins because of its really beautiful retro design.

Both apps will kill your battery pretty quickly, though, but I’d choose having a dead iPhone over having my finger fall of because of frostbite. [iTunes Apple Store via Krapps]

We saw a blurry image of the XM-25 grenade launcher before, but it sure looks dangerous and menacing in the hands of a soldier. So dangerous and menacing that they could include them in an Aliens remake.

With its computer-controlled projectiles, the XM-25 grenade launcher has everyone amazed at the Pentangon. The key to its destructive power is how the projectiles can be programmed wirelessly to explode at a laser-measured range. That means that you can fire a projectile over a wall or barricade, and have it explode over the enemy, without having to make contact with any object.

The Army wants to have one in each infantry squad by 2012. [Danger Room]