Author: Kyle VanHemert

In today’s Remainders: progress. Sort of. Openmoko’s WikiReader takes baby steps towards usability; a new sculpture series offers busts of the Darth Vader that could’ve been; an MSNBC slideshow sheds light on the photographic pursuits of ISS astronauts, and more.

Wiki Wiki
We first saw Openmoko’s single-purpose WikiReader back in October, and we weren’t exactly blown away with what it had to offer. (What it has to offer, by the way, is Wikipedia on a tiny monochrome screen). Well, Openmoko announced an update for the stubborn little device that makes the onscreen keyboard easier to use and gives it better support for math equations in science-y articles. Hmmm. Those don’t sound like very exciting updates to me, but what the update lacks in thrills is made up for in the promotional material: the photo to the left shows someone using a WikiReader to read up on the Donner Party while taking a stroll through the wilderness. Yikes. People who received a WikiReader from their clueless Aunt can download the update now or buy it on two SD cards for $29. [Engadget]

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Digital sculptors at eFX have brought Vader’s original look to life with Ralph McQuarrie Signature Edition Darth Vader Concept Helmets. Based on McQuarrie’s original sketches for the Dark Lord, the three-piece helmet shows the Vader we know and love with a bigger, angrier mouth and a frowny-face brow. This most essential piece of Sith gear, in its early form, not only kept Darth Vader alive but also made sure everyone who came across him knew he was one baaaad mamajama. But fans haven’t been scared away by Vader’s sinister look: despite the $900 price tag, the limited run of 250 has already sold out. [Technabob]

N900, Meet 95
Here’s a partial list of things we’ve seen running on / working with the Nokia N900: a Sixaxis Playstation controller, Firefox Mobile 1.0, Maemo and Android dual-boot, Starcraft, and DukeNukem 3D. Here’s what we can add to that list: Windows 95. Its definitely a worthy addition to the N900’s stable of geek party tricks, but you have to wonder when people are going to start putting the N900’s power to use for something a little more…I don’t know…useful? [MobileCrunch]

Spaced Out
Every site on the internet you go to these days has some item about those Tweetin’ and TwitPic’n astronauts. And for good reason: the pictures they’ve been beaming back to Earth have themselves been breathtaking and have also served to give us a more immediate connection with those members of our species who happen to be hurtling around the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. This fascinating slideshow from MSNBC goes behind the scenes to give us some more information about the photography going on up in space. This bit, illuminating some of the astronauts’ favorite subject matter, is particularly cool:

Some crew members, according to Evans, are fascinated by aurora – the nighttime lights in the skies that occur when oxygen and nitrogen atoms are bombarded by charged solar particles, “and spend a good deal of time learning how to take photographs of the aurora that are meaningful.”

Really far out stuff. [MSNBC]

Motorola claims they’re coming out with a couple dozen Android phones in 2010, and with a crop so big a few of them are bound to be pretty weird. This render suggests that the MOTOSPLIT might be one of those.

Like the Samsung Alias 2 before it, the MOTOSPLIT shown here sports a keyboard that has tiny touch screens for keys, though this one has the unique ability to slide out in landscape or portrait orientation. Depending on the way its being held, or maybe the application its running, the mini screens update on the fly. Neat!

Not so neat is the part of the report that claims its specs will be more or less the same as the Backflip’s, which means its essentially relegated to Motorola’s junior varsity smartphone squad.

Still, Android Community’s rumors are just that, and it’s possible that come the season—Motorola expects the phone to be ready for Q3—MOTOSPLIT will have the power to match its versatility. [Android Community via SlashGear]

If you live anywhere on the East Coast and are at all interested in cool stuff that happens in the sky, you’d be remiss not to stay up late tonight to watch for the last ever nighttime shuttle launch.

Or you could wake up early, that works too. Either way, at 4:39 A.M. early tomorrow morning NASA will launch the Endeavor space shuttle, and it will be the last time it does so at night.

On its way up to the International Space Station, the shuttle will fly parallel to America’s eastern seaboard and the shuttle’s rockets will thus be visible to a surprisingly huge area, weather permitting. Here’s a map of where the rocket will be in the first ten minutes after launch and what areas of the country will be able to see it:

I told you it was a surprisingly huge area! To find out more about what you’re looking for and where exactly you should be looking for it, check out Space.com’s comprehensive rundown of the late night launch. [Space.com]

Oh-ho-ho this is rich. Some German pranksters saw a Google Street View car parked outside their place in Berlin and managed to sneak a GPS device onboard. Watch the Googlemobile roam around on Google Maps here. [fffff.at (NSFW) via Reddit]

Someone might judge you for putting together a mock iPad, but it’s certainly not going to be us. Be it for practicing the Tablet Sutra or faking out a fanboy friend, here’s the template you’ve been looking for.

Courtesy of Jess Silverstone at Revolutionary Concepts, this template can be printed on standard paper and will fold into an iPad that’s just about the same size as the real thing, as long as your printer is capable of borderless printing.

Here’s the front and the back, and here’s what your arts and crafts project will look like when it’s all put together:

So have at it. I’m not gonna ask any questions. [MacRumors]

Curious. Very curious. Eric Schmidt, head Googler, just Tweeted about his excitement for tomorrow’s Superbowl. But he’s not nearly as pumped for the gridiron as he is for a commercial running during the third quarter:

Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said “Hell has indeed frozen over.”)

Well, color us intrigued. What exactly will Google be advertising, if it’s even a Google advertisement to begin with? A minimalist Nexus One spot? A rehashing of Apple’s famous 1984 ad? If you have any guesses, let’s hear ’em in the comments. [Eric Schmidt]

Update: BusinessInsider spotted a blog post by search guru John Battelle which suggests tomorrow’s ad will be this one, entitled “Parisian Love”:

Sure, it’s sweet and all, but really? That’s it? Not to mention that the idea of running off to France to live a life of truffles and Truffaut and true love might not exactly resonate with the segment of our nation that will be tuned in tomorrow.

With just a roll or two of painters tape, some patience, and a willingness to forfeit the respectability of their apartments (except, maybe, from a single perspective), some clever artists have created a very impressive collection of tape-based illusions.

Earlier today, Boing Boing posted this neat Back to the Future-inspired piece featuring an impressively detailed DeLorean rendered with painters tape. Kudos to YouTube user Wablamo for immortalizing everyone’s favorite time traveling automobile in such an appropriately mind-boggling medium.

But the true hero of the anamorphic painters tape illusion is a YouTube user who goes by the name of BrussPup. I’ve watched BrussPup evolve over these last few weeks from his first experiments in the form—when he was, indeed, just a pup—up through our current moment in which BrussPup stands as a titan of tape-based illusions.

But let’s start back with his humble beginnings. BrussPup’s first piece, “X Room Illusion!,” was a relatively simple undertaking but it betrayed the artist’s natural ability for this particular endeavor:

A week later, we were treated to “Crazy Cube Illusion!,” a more complex, confident effort that garnered a corresponding increase in YouTube views and blog notoriety:

Emboldened, BrussPup quickly offered up his next piece, “Pac-man Illusion!,” which was noteworthy for spanning all the way down his hallway and incorporating a piece reflected by a mirror, which just piled extra mind-boggling on top of the regular mind-blogging to which we had grown accustomed:

BrussPup’s most recent piece, “Nintendo Illusion!,” is certainly his most ambitious effort to date. In this illusion, which took BrussPup fifteen hours to complete, blacklights and white paper were employed to create a glowing Nintendo controller:

There’s no telling what’s next in the world of tape-based anamorphic illusions. Has BrussPup retired his tape roll forever? Will Wablamo usurp his title as preeminent anamoprhic illusionist? We’ll just have to wait, squint our eyes, scratch our heads, and see. [BrussPup’s YouTube Channel and Boing Boing]

PPCGeeks is offering up a whole bevy of rumors regarding Windows Mobile 7 and what will be revealed at MWC next week. What they’re referring to as Windows Phone 7 has a Zune-like interface and Xbox integration but no multitasking.

PPCGeeks and Mobile Tech World claim that Windows Mobile 7 will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress, though it will be announced under the new name Windows Phone 7 and the presentation will focus on the user interface without offering too much detail on specific functionality. Here’s a breakdown of what PPCGeeks and Mobile Tech World have heard:

The UI goes by the codename Metro and is heavily influenced by that of the Zune HD. The interface has been described as “clean,” “soulful,” and “alive,” and offers a fully reimagined Start page. Third party UIs like HTC’s Sense will no longer be supported. Windows Phone 7 will ditch Windows Mobile Device Center in favor of Zune’s syncing software, and will offer integration with social media networks, Zune devices, and Xboxes, including friends, gamer tags, achievements and the like.

Apps will only be able to be installed via the Marketplace, which supports an API as well as a try before you buy system. Flash will not be supported initially. Windows Phone 7 also won’t offer multitasking, though apps will be able to receive push notifications while paused in the background. WP7 will also reportedly lack NETCF backwards compatibility.

MobileTechWorld’s report includes the tidbit that the browsing experience is faster than that of the iPhone 3G, and that Microsoft believes that Windows Phone 7 devices will roll out by September though they themselves won’t manufacture any of them.

With all the rumors surrounding Windows Mobile 7, there’s no telling if this particular batch will hold water. But with MWC just around the corner, it’s definitely possible that this could contain some nuggets of truth. Hopefully it’s just not the no-multitasking nugget. [PPCGeeks and MobileTechWorld via Engadget]

A few weeks ago Amazon announced they were opening up the Kindle for development, and as of today they are accepting requests for the Kindle Development Kit in limited beta. Head over to Amazon to sign up to be a beta developer and to request the KDK. The site also has updated Kindle Developement Kit FAQs and API information. [Amazon]

Like the Virgin Mary before it, an impression of a Nintendo DSi appeared on this piece of toast. Now it just needs a salami screen protector and a vegetable stylus and this mouthwatering gadget will be complete. [Tiny Cartridge]

Thursday night’s edition of the Charlie Rose Show brought David Carr, Michael Arrington, and Walt Mossberg together to discuss the iPad. Having used the iPad briefly, all three seem optimistic about what it has to offer.

Though we’ve already heard Mosspuppet’s preemptive review of the iPad, it’s interesting to see all three of these influential voices—Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal; David Carr, a columnist for the New York Times; and TechCrunch’s head honcho Michael Arrington—discussing Apple’s upcoming device in one forum. And what emerges is that all of them, to varying degrees, are excited about the iPad’s promise.

At one point, David Carr says, “I think there’s a revolution in the fact that you lean back and read something,” and this, the possibility of a more casual version of computing, seems to be the iPad’s greatest promise in the minds of all three journalists. And after reading the 1994 Rolling Stone interview with Steve Jobs that recently resurfaced, it’s clear that Jobs is at his most passionate when he has locked in on a revolution to champion. [TechCrunch]

I thought Google Map Buddy’s ability to generate printable, hi-res versions of Google Maps was pretty neat but figured I’d never find a reason to use it. These Google Maps envelops, however, are definitely worth the ink and the effort.

There’s not a whole lot to them, but some of the best ideas are the simplest. Beste Miray Dogan, a graphic designer from Istanbul, showed that with a Google Map print out and a little ingenuity, you can make a custom envelop that pinpoints the exact location from which it was sent. How nice.

There’s no template on her site, but with some trial and error I trust you’ll be able to master the mapenvelope in no time. [Beste Miray via Nerd Approved]

As Make puts it, the atomic clock is old and busted. The quantum-logic clock from National Institute of Standards and Technology, keeping time 100,000 times more accurately than its predecessor, is definitely the new hotness.

The quantum clock, developed by physicist Chin-wen Chou of the NIST, keeps time by measuring the energy of a single aluminum ion with UV lasers. It loses one second every 3.4 billion years, compared to the cesium fountain clock which loses a second every 100 million years, and upon which the current international standard is based.

In fact, the new quantum-logic clock is so precise that Chou’s team can’t even measure it, as the current definition of a second is based on the prevailing cesium clock.

Don’t get too excited about setting your life to a more precise clock just yet: there are currently no plans to adopt the quantum clock as the international standard. But with potential applications ranging from use in more precise GPS devices to answering questions about the speed of light and Einsteinian relativity, this clock is still a serious tick into the future. [Wired via Make]

Yesterday, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington was driving around Google’s campus, talking on his phone trying to figure out where exactly his meeting was. One righteous Googler didn’t approve of Arrington’s potentially unsafe talking-while-driving, so he took a stand. Literally.

In what Arrington describes as the young man’s Tiananmen Square moment, a stand-off ensued between the TechCrunch proprietor and the bespectacled Google geek. Thankfully, this moment was captured in photographs by both participants.

Here’s how Arrington recaps the drama:

…this guy, who’s wearing a Google employee badge, decides it’s time to take a stand against cell phone use in cars. So he stands in front of my car and won’t move…Cars behind me start swerving. I back up to go around him. He steps forward, vigilant in his defense of the law. I’m off the phone now, and snapping this picture didn’t help getting him to move on. The light changes. The light changes again. Cars are now backed up behind me…I’m not sure what comes next in a situation like this. I can either drive over him or park my car. So I put the car in park, open the door to get out and discuss the situation with him. That’s when he ran away. His mission, apparently, accomplished.

The employee in question, Mike Shields, has not backed down in the face of public semi-humiliation:

@arrington If you really want to talk about this, let’s do that when your car is not abandoned in the road.

I take automobile safety as seriously as the next guy, but I’m also a fan of a good razzing when its appropriate, so I’m not really sure who comes out on top in this soon-to-be-legendary Mountain View stand off. I’m just glad that I live in a day and age in which camera phones let me relive the high drama as if I were actually there. [TechCrunch via Business Insider]

Blackberry users who have been frustrated by their phone’s inability to properly sync Gmail can unclench their fists. Documents detailing the new features of the upcoming BIS 3.0 show Gmail syncing and WMA support are on the way.

RIM is finally updating BIS so that Gmail will accurately sync read and unread status of your mail. It’s about time.

The update will also add support for Windows Media Audio attachments as well as OpenOffice documents. BIS 3.0 will also include the decidedly less exciting updates of a reconfigured, more secure E-mail setup application and more accurate error messages that will direct users to their specific carrier. I’m not kidding.

Carriers are themselves responsible to roll out the new Blackberry Internet Service so it’s hard to say exactly when it should be popping up on your Blackberry. But just be glad that Gmail syncing and more exacting error messages are on their way. [BBLeaks via Crackberry]

If you saw the iPad and said “Yes!” but then heard that it had an LCD screen and said “No!,” Yinlips is making the clone for you: their iPad lookalike has an E-Ink screen.

Okay, it’s not color and it won’t run any of those apps you cherish so much, but if you like the form factor of the iPad and the easy-on-the-eyes screen of the Kindle, this device from Yinlips offers the best of both worlds.

It packs a 6″ E-Ink touchscreen and boasts 20 hours of battery life, and can handle PDF, TXT, HTML, and apparently some photo formats as well.

There’s no word on the price or availability of this Frankenreader yet, and the original page in Chinese doesn’t offer much in the way of detail. Still, if you’re an E-Ink devotee but you really don’t want to give up that single home button, stay tuned for more information. [Imp3 via PMP Today – Thanks Brian!]

Sure, anybody with ears can agree that something is lost when records are compressed and converted to digital files. But if you really want to walk the walk you can’t just listen to vinyl, you have to record your own.

Gakken’s Gramophone kit can play records of any size, using a bamboo needle to belch crackling analog goodness out of its nickel-plated iron horn. Playback speed and tone are adjustable, and the player is powered by a hand crank. We wouldn’t want to spoil your old-school integrity with batteries, now would we?

But the most fun part of the Gramophone kit is the ability to record your own music directly to vinyl.

To record your own records, sing into the horn and the bamboo needle cuts the grooves into a new piece of vinyl. OK, it’s probably not going to sound as good as Garage Band but it’s a fun experiment nonetheless.

It’ll cost you about $170 to import this sucker from Japan Trend Shop and some assembly is definitely required, but if you’re an analog enthusiast and looking for a good project, Gakken’s gramophone kit might be the ticket. [Random Good Stuff]

Say Hello to Marko Calasan. He’s nine years old and lives in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He’s also Microsoft Certified four times over and working on his fifth certificate. (And he prefers Bing.)

This is the type of story that warms your heart but also makes you feel a little bad about yourself. Why? Because still in his single digits, Marko is more computer literate than many of us will ever be. Here he describes his first memories of using a computer:

But my first memory is from when I was approximately 3 years old when I was making simple actions like personalizing Windows, then installing Windows, making remote desktop connections with workstations and servers on remote locations, and so on.

As someone who still struggles to get remote desktop working, that hurts. But still, good for the little guy, who has earned four certificates—MCP, MCDST, MCSA and MCSE—and is going for his fifth to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. When asked about his plans for the next ten years, Calasan said he hoped to write Windows 7 instructional books for users of all levels. He also said that Bing is his preferred search engine.

When asked if he preferred Windows or OSX, Calasan held back from indulging his literal inner fanboy, explaining, “For everyone, the choice is different, so for me I use Windows because I am satisfied with its security, stability, scalability, productivity and many other good advantages of the Microsoft Windows operating system.”

That diplomatic reponse to the enduring operating system debate might be an even more impressive display of precociousness than his certificates. [Network World]