Sam Lomen‘s Underskin charts a transit map to the human body. And no matter what the locals tell you, don’t take the pink line to the yellow line. That’s nowhere you want to go. [Behance via StreetAnatomy via TheDailyWhat]

I can’t say it’s any more practical than existing kitchen countertops, but the Accordion Table concept would certainly make an impressive centerpiece to your cooking space.

Instead of being bolted to the floor, the Accordion Table is fit with wheels (or something that can scrape against your flooring), allowing you to pull and rotate the tabletop to reveal hidden compartments at the seams.

As the design dictates, these compartments can be slid out easily for cleaning or replacement. And you still get some drawer space at each end of the table.

Yes, it’s a bit design for designs sake. But come on—admit it—the thing looks pretty cool, even if its convenience is a bit of an illusion. [Yanko Design]

There are too many Harmony remotes to keep straight, but the new Harmony 600 and 650 are welcome to confuse matters as they’ll sell for $100 and under (or roughly 33% less than their predecessors).

Harmony 600

The Harmony 600 features all of the standard Harmony functions—namely serving as a universal remote that can be programmed—via PC— to turn on your TV, DVD player and receiver when you ask to “Watch TV,” plus it’s rechargeable and features a screen that’s monochrome and backlit. You’ll find it for $80 this month.

Harmony 650

Meanwhile, the Harmony 650 looks pretty much identical to the 600, save for the screen, which supports both color and icons. This premium will cost you an extra $20, as the 650 will retail for $100 (OK, technically $99.99).

The neat thing, however, is that the Harmony 650 appears to be a repackaging of the existing Harmony 700, a detail that wouldn’t be good for more than trivia except that the 700 goes for $120 (and retails at $150). In other words, the line is dropping in price, significantly. [Logitech]

Olympic finishes always look close, but when these fractions of a second are charted in audio, you really conceptualize the nearly nonexistent margin between the top of a podium and the bottom of a scotch bottle. Just listen: [NYTimes]

Your Technotronic playlist aside, running on a treadmill is inherently boring because you are stuck in a room running on the same platform. But what if you could switch things up and simulate actual, real world topography?

The NordicTrack x7i Interactive Incline Trainer, $2,000, is loaded with Wi-Fi to interface with iFit Live, a fitness database that pulls actual trail and marathon routes from Google Maps (which, though not supported in the limited official workout library at this time, should really include Google Moon).

The corresponding information shifts your incline dynamically (40-degree incline, 6-degree decline), plus you get to see a bird’s eye view that allows you to track progress through your practice environment, or you can even take a look from the ground level through Google Street View.

Now, if only the NordicTrack x7i weren’t a treadmill, we’d really be on to something. [NordicTrack via PopSci]

In the current smartphone market, you need to choose between LCD touchscreens (incredible UI versatility) and real QWERTY buttons (tactile feedback). But the MorphPad offers a third choice that’s somewhere in between.

Little more than a proof of concept at the moment, this demo shows us a QWERTY Bluetooth remote filled with dynamic, reconfigurable buttons. This idea alone is beyond most current QWERTY implementation, but then Pelikon takes innovation a step further by allowing a majority of their keys to go blank and serve as a touch-sensitive pad (for mousing, gestures, etc).

My main concern isn’t whether or not the tech works (you can spot it in Toshiba’s Biblio), but whether or not the button-built touchpad really feels very comfortable to use.

And frankly, to all the worried Blackberry/Sidekick loyalists in the house, touch screens really aren’t so bad to type on. The learning curve for a Nexus One or iPhone isn’t all that far beyond any new smartphone keyboard, given that real-button QWERTY designs vary so much. [mobile-review via Engadget]

Don’t expect to read a book on ’em, but Western Digital’s latest My Passport Studio hard drives feature a customizable e-paper display that stays on even when the drive is unplugged.

(e-paper is all the rage in external drives lately, and we’ve already seen Western Digital make the upgrade in their larger externals.)

Aside from the display, the My Passport Studios are preformatted for Macs (though they’ll run just fine on a PC with a reformat), connect over USB or FireWire 800 and range in price from $150 (for 320GB) to $200 (for 640GB). They’re available now. [Western Digital]

WD(R) Introduces New My Passport(TM) Studio(TM) Portable Drives, Delivering Super-Fast, Go-Anywhere Performance for Mac(R) Computers

E-Label Smart Display Helps Creative Professionals Organize Their Storage

LAKE FOREST, Calif., March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new My Passport™ Studio™ portable drives featuring the super-fast FireWire® 800 interface and a customizable e-label that’s always visible, even when the drive is unplugged. Sporting a sleek and stylish design, the new high-performance My Passport Studio drives are formatted for Mac® computers, compatible with Apple® TimeMachine® software, and feature automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare™ software, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. Available now at select retailers and shopwd.com, the new My Passport Studio drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB.

WD’s My Passport Studio drives are designed for creative professionals and Mac enthusiasts. Their production and use of many large files require the fast transfers from computer to My Passport Studio drives that FireWire 800 provides. Professionals such as photographers also benefit from the e-labeling system to effectively organize their work.

The e-label smart display on the front of the My Passport drives can be changed as often as desired using the included WD SmartWare software. Users can easily create a label to personalize their drive or remind themselves of its contents. The e-label also shows available capacity and whether the drive is locked. Utilizing e-paper technology, the information on the display remains clearly visible, even when the drive is unplugged.

According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 GB of digital media and files which is projected to grow to over 1 TB of data by 2013.

“Many of our customers store their content on multiple external drives, making it difficult to know what content is on each drive,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing of WD’s Branded Products group. “The e-label smart display is an elegant and practical solution for organizing and keeping track of one’s digital life and work. WD SmartWare software makes it easy for users to protect their valuable content with automatic and continuous backup and encryption.”

The new My Passport Studio is fully compatible with Apple TimeMachine software for easy backup of your most important files. It also offers the option of the simple and intuitive WD SmartWare software, with automatic continuous backup and real-time visual interface, giving users a reassuring view of their backup as it happens. After the first backup, users’ files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file.

My Passport Studio drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with 256-bit hardware-based encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padlock to keep users’ data safe.

Price and Availability

The new My Passport Studio drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB and have a 3-year limited warranty. My Passport Studio ultra-portable drives are available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. MSRP for the My Passport Studio drives ranges from $149.99 USD to $199.99 USD depending on capacity.

My Passport Studio

The new WD My Passport Studio ultra-portable drives feature:

* Smart display – a customizable e-label that reminds users of what is stored on the drive and provides available capacity and security status at a glance even when the drive is unplugged;
* FireWire 800 – users can save and access data at top speeds with the high-performance FireWire 800 interface;
* Plug-and-play, designed for use with Mac computers and compatibility with Apple TimeMachine software;
* WD SmartWare software that visually presents consumers’ data in a software control center;
* 256-bit hardware-based encryption and password protection for peace of mind knowing that data is protected from unauthorized access;
* USB 2.0 interface – for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers;
* Planet-friendly packaging derived from recycled materials to minimize waste;
* HFS+ Journaled formatting and are compatible with Mac OS X Tiger®, Leopard® and Snow Leopard®; and,
* 3-year limited warranty.

WD SmartWare Software

WD SmartWare software features:

* Visual backup displays that show content in categories and shows the progress of backup;
* Automatic, continuous data backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file;
* Retrieve valuable data to its original location whether it’s lost data or the file has been overwritten; and,
* Customizable data backup that allows users to set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

Archos has never made bad products, but their PMPs have definitely grown less relevant over the last few years. But now? Now two Android-wielding Archos Home Tablets will each cost only about $200.

The Archos 7 Home Tablet is pretty much just a refresh to their existing Archos 5 Internet Tablet—it’s a 7-inch touchscreen Android tablet (or, OK, MID), loaded with Wi-Fi and USB. This April, a 2GB model (we really hope there’s an SD card slot) goes on sale for about $200 overseas.

Meanwhile, the Archos 8 Home Tablet (or, OK, picture frame) is an 8-inch touchscreen tablet loaded with 4GB of storage, available overseas this May. The screen to case ratio isn’t fantastic, but the cooking software already has me mentally placing the Archos 8 into my kitchen. It should be available overseas this May for about $200.

It should be noted that both tablets have Arm9 CPUs that won’t be blazing fast. And each will probably be launched in the US, eliminating the need for an import. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

The Netgear Universal Wi-Fi Internet Adapter can connect anything with an ethernet port to your 802.11n network, be it an Xbox 360 or a TV. But so can many other devices on the market. What’s better about this one?

Much like the Xbox 360 Wireless N adapter, Netgear’s latest wireless N adapter is tiny, easily squeezing behind components in your home theater. Plus, it runs off USB power, meaning you don’t need to ferret around to plug it in to a powerstrip.

Really, taking into account the convenience, the Universal Wi-Fi Internet Adapter might be the most cleverly designed Wi-Fi adapter since Microsoft’s high-priced 360 dongle. And it works on anything with a USB and ethernet port, from your TV to your Blu-ray player, without special drivers.

Unfortunately, it’s similar to Microsoft’s dongle in more ways than one. This puppy will run $80 when it’s around this May.

By the way, if you’re just looking for a cheap way to connect the 360 to a Wi-Fi network, check out our feature on the matter here.

The Universal WiFi Internet Adapter (WNCE2001) for Home Theater Devices and Gaming Consoles
NETGEAR is also introducing the industry’s first compact USB-powered Universal WiFi Internet Adapter (WNCE2001) that works with Internet TVs, game consoles and Blu-ray players. The first of its kind, the adapter is the only affordable solution in a small form factor that delivers optimal Wireless-N performance and works universally with any Ethernet-enabled CE device. This saves consumers from the confusion and expense of purchasing separate WiFi USB adapters for each CE device in their home theater.

The Universal WiFi Internet Adapter is powered by the USB port, avoiding the need for a long wire to the power outlet and making it more visually pleasing in the already congested home theater environment. With NETGEAR Push Connect technology and CD-less set-up, it is truly a plug and play experience.

From what we can tell, the $175 Life Vest Messenger Bag, while quite fashionable, does not actually float. Thank goodness we clarified that before anyone got hurt on the way to some beach bound Starbucks. [ehrensache via notcot via boingboing]

If you’ve preordered a JooJoo and wonder where it’s been, Fusion Garage has just revealed that shipments will be delayed until March 25th.

Evidently, their previous announcement promising February shipments was a bit premature, though I’m not sure anyone is shocked by the delay, given the controversy of the whole situation.

Earlier this month, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo Internet tablet went into full production with an anticipated on-time delivery to consumers at the end of February. Last week, the company became aware of a manufacturing issue involving JooJoo’s industry-first 12.1 inch capacitive touch screen which Fusion Garage was quickly able to diagnose and rectify. The company now forecasts the JooJoo will be sent to consumers on March 25.

The manufacturing issue centers on fine tuning the touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen. Fusion Garage will be providing all pre-order customers with a free JooJoo accessory to compensate for the delay in the delivery of their JooJoo.

The Canon T2i dSLR sounded extremely exciting, as it promised to bring 1080P video (with decent frame rates) to Canon’s sub-$1000 dSLR line. Photographer Dan Chung was among the first to test it out, and the results look fantastic.

As it turns out this little camera is a really competent performer and the footage I’ve shot so far looks pretty much the same as my 7D to my eye…The footage you see here is shot at 1080p/25 frames a second and not graded with only minor adjustments of gamma, sharpening and a little smoothcam in Final Cut Pro…In terms of video image quality I think it is too early to make definitive judgments…[but] I think this camera is cheap enough that there is now little reason for pros who have not yet bought a HD-DSLR to not put their toes in the water and see if they like shooting video.

Note that Chung accentuated the frame rate by shooting almost exclusively with long dolly movements.

But if Chung’s hands-on wasn’t enough, here’s another beautiful clip from another photographer named Drew Painter. [DSLR News Shooter via planet5D]

The latest iMac was released 16 weeks ago. Since then, it’s been plagued with problems, most notably flickering and/or yellow screens. Today, the saga comes to an end because Apple has acknowledged the issues and offered their support.

At long last, Apple has released a statement to us, admitting the production issues with iMacs—which reader and forum anecdotes imply to be a bit less frequent than before but still very much present at some level—and labeling AppleCare as the proper channel for related complaints.

Apple’s Official Statement

“We’ve addressed the issues that caused display flickering and yellow tint. Customers concerned that their iMac is affected should contact AppleCare.”

These two short sentences might not look like much, but the statement is Apple’s first open acknowledgment of the jaundiced screen issue, and it identifies the problem as one worthy of AppleCare solutions. (A previous statement made to Bloomberg generalized the problem to all LCDs.)

From the start of these iMac updates, I made a deal that “…if Apple can come forward and openly admit the mistake while providing an adequate solution to their customers, I’ll laud them as an example as to how companies can take an unforeseen manufacturing issue and make things right.”

Today, Apple met the terms of that deal, and so will we.

The Catch

Of course, just because Apple has “addressed” these iMac issues doesn’t mean they have completely ferreted out the problems. (Their diction leaves some room for interpretation.). Since the production halt a few weeks back, Apple’s forums seem a little quieter regarding yellow screens, and flickering had already been solved by a firmware update. Still, about 20 people have written us since the production restart—some of them now on their third+ iMac—encountering new iMacs with yellow displays (versus just a handful offering the all clear). That response is slightly more positive than it was in the past, when basically everyone who wrote me complained of flickering screens, yellow screens and a number of other maladies.

Unfortunately, we tried to reconnect with every person who’d written us after suffering through multiple returns, but very few responded either way. My guess is that some had their issues dealt with, while others just gave up on the iMac altogether. Sitting on a few grand for a few months isn’t an easy thing to do for most people in this economy.

Yes, it’s a downright shame that Apple hasn’t been able to completely eliminate the yellow screen issue from the iMac line, whether their yield is 99.9% or somewhere far lower. At this point in time, I don’t think that every iMac shipping is inflicted with a dealbreaker of a screen (which honestly seemed to be the case for a bit in late 2009/early 2010), but I don’t think that nearly every iMac is shipping perfectly, either.

Yields have gotten better. How much better? I honestly don’t know.
(This photo is a yellow-screened 27-inch iMac produced after the production restart—displayed file dates are from an older Time Machine restore.)

As consumers, should we really be content with Apple’s response when evidence shows the problem isn’t entirely fixed? That decision is yours. But I will say, even with constant pressure from a website such as Gizmodo (along with many other publications that, thankfully, jumped on the bandwagon), a fundamental principle holds true: The longer you tell a lie, even one of omission, the harder it is to tell the truth. For Apple to come clean after 16 weeks of shipping an “ultimate display” that isn’t so ultimate should be something that the public can embrace, at least in part.

Because fanboyism and flame wars aside, if we leave no incentive for companies to be forthright regarding their mistakes, why the heck would they?

So Is It Finally Safe To Buy An iMac?

Yup, but with one huge caveat: You should run this test upon receipt. If any part of that screen doesn’t match to your liking, you may very well still need to return your first iMac before getting a system that works as advertised.

Luckily, Apple has acknowledged the issue and thereby removed some of the risk from you, meaning, at the very least, customer service will take your problem seriously. And hopefully, the next time Apple or any other company ships a new product, they’ll notify us of the problems instead of vice versa.

The Complete Faulty iMac Saga

The Faulty iMac Saga, Chapter 1: The Beginning

The Faulty iMac Saga: Chapter 2, Even Steve Jobs Can’t Fix ‘Em

The Faulty iMac Saga, Chapter 3: We Have Your Internal Memo, Apple

The Faulty iMac Saga, Chapter 4: Apple Buying Out Customers

The Faulty iMac Saga, Chapter 5: The Moment of Truth

A special thanks to Gizmodo Editorial Assistant Kyle VanHemert for all of his research work on this project, along with all the Giz readers who kept exchanging iMacs for us. If anyone out there is still having issues scoring a replacement for faulty iMac after contacting customer support, contact us at [email protected] and we’ll forward you on to Apple PR, at their request.

The US Patent & Trademark Office just published Apple’s latest trademark application for “Magic Trackpad“—and, looking at a bit of history, we think it could be one of two new products.

Possibility #1

Back in July 2009, Apple was granted a patent on their multi-touch Trackpad. However, many elements of the patent were left out, including advanced infrared imaging and optical emitters which could, in essence, make your Trackpad know when you were trying to type or trying to gesture (while opening the door for all sorts of other gesture tracking possibilities across much of your laptop’s work surface).

So the Magic Trackpad could be the next Trackpad for MacBooks.

Possibility #2

But the other, more enticing rumor, was one sourced from John Gruber back in October—that Apple could be introducing a “Wildcard I’m-Not-Sure-I-Really-Believe-It-Myself Out-There Rumor…Some Sort of Mentioned-Nowhere-Else-But-in-This-Very-Headline Multi-Touch Trackpad Gadget for Desktop Macs.”

Not so long ago, another Apple trademark was uncovered called the “Magic Slate”—many believe it to be the Gruber-described device. After HP and Dell both started coining the term “slate” around CES, I wonder if “slate” fell out of vogue, meaning the “Magic Slate” became the “Magic Trackpad.”

Taking a look at the actual Trackpad trademark filing, we must admit, the longshot standalone desktop trackpad feels like a decent fit:

International Class 009: Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

One thing’s for certain, if a device could actually cover every one of those categories in full, it most certainly would be something magical. [Patently Apple via Macrumors]

I never knew why Brian Lam wanted lasik so badly. He just called it “Godzilla protection.” [b3ta via The Daily What]

Cristian Wicha designs both furniture and surfboards. And looking at his PK Lounge, that’s pretty obvious.

I wasn’t going to get too literal with an interpretation, but I just can’t help myself—it’s as if the base of the chair is the wave and the top of the chair a board!

And while I’m no surfer, I’d love to sit on the thing—just to feel like I was shredding through the living room when, in reality, I was just playing some videogames while drinking beer. [Cristian Wicha via mocoloco]

The CartDesk may or may not be for you. The only way to know for sure is to take the following questionnaire:

Is the CartDesk Right For Me?

Do you despise those trendy roller bags?
Yes / No

Is your lap unable to sustain the pressure of a “lap”top?
Yes / No

Would you add 10 pounds to your payload to roll around something up to 20 pounds in weight?
Yes / No

Do you prefer taking up your personal overhead bin space with a bag accessory rather than a bag itself?
Yes / No

Does your rectum excrete invisible chairs upon command?
Yes / No

Do you just like to buy things because you like receiving packages in the mail?
Yes / No

If you answered “yes” to one of any of these questions, the $130 Cart Desk was tailored to your demographic. Enjoy. [ComfortHouse via RedFerret via OhGizmo!]

It’s in French, but you owe it to yourself to flip through one man’s war story of crafting his own SLR camera, which he machined from scratch. The pictures alone will make you feel properly inadequate. [Forum via MAKE]