Author: Mark Wilson

The Hydrophobia Flash 70-200 appears to be such a powerful dSLR rain jacket that, not only will it repel rain, but it may even extort the clouds so they don’t dare spill a drop in the first place.

Accommodating dSLRs with both hot shoe flash rigs and lenses up to 70-200mm, the $145 Hydrophobia Flash 70-200 is sheer evil, housing a heart as dark as the Earth’s deepest cave while providing two arm holes to beckon you inside. Once there, clear LCD and flash windows taunt you with the world outside. But you are trapped. Dry, sure, but trapped all the same. [think tank photo via Gadget Lab via OhGizmo!]

I’m 20 hours in to Mass Effect 2. And as I board a flight to check out the Apple tablet, I couldn’t care less about Cupertino, OSs and multitouch. I just want to play this very special game more.

Don’t read my addiction the wrong way—I’m not talking about mere lust for leveling up, the same tawdry RPG convention that’s as self-destructive to its genre as it’s considered essential. I’m not talking about +2 to strength heroin here (though, much of that is alive and well).

Mass Effect 2 is not mere role playing game. It’s transcended to science fiction that you can play.

The Mass Effect games, for Xbox 360 and PC, offer the most realized sci fi universe—in design and character and story and sheer imagination—that I’ve seen since Star Wars/Trek, Blade Runner or any other fond movie memory I can recall. Developers at Bioware fused so many motifs so seamlessly (I’ve seen elements ranging from 2001 to Halo) that, while your character isn’t the first to wear skin-tight plastic armor in space, playing he or she will certainly feel that way.

Mass Effect 2 is out today—you can read what I wrote about the first game here. As for the sequel, it solidifies the ME universe as every bit as incredible as its sci fi predecessors. But, maybe more importantly, it solidifies gaming’s place in the advancement of narrative.

(Summary below, I wouldn’t call its contents spoilers, but you may want to skip for 100% pure experience.)

You play Commander Shepherd, the same hero/heroine from the original ME. In fact, you can import that character customized to your exact specs (from facial shape to voice) from the first game. The experience is akin to meeting an old friend. It ends up, Shepherd died since the first game, but (in my case, her) body has been reconstructed by her former arch enemies who’ve gone honest…or have they?

Long story short, there’s no time to decide because you have Universe to save. And I’ll leave it at that.

Of course, the fast-paced third-person combat along the way is wonderful—much improved form the original Mass Effect, you can easily order two troops to separate places to cover, assign them both a special attack (maybe one lifts your enemies into the air while another shoots cryogenic rounds) and then, cloak yourself before moving out of cover to snipe the main boss in the face—all with a few smooth button presses. But Mass Effect 2 is so much more than clever realtime strategic arcade combat.

Maybe the most telling point is that I listen to every conversation in the game to its entirety—I’m talking topics like the history of an alien religion—as opposed to fast forwarding through dialog whenever I can to get back into fights. I want to know what the characters think because that’s as much of the game, of the story, as scoring new biotic powers or the ability to hack enemy robots.

Of the first Mass Effect, I wrote this:

Sensing such a connection with the protagonist is invigorating feeling. It means that I suddenly don’t mind exploring side missions, learning about made up extinct civilization or memorizing those classically horrid alien names that sci fi fans have had to suffer their way through since the beginning of time. And those times when the choice finally is real-when I can decide whether or not to eradicate or salvage a colony-I weigh the consequences in a more substantial way than just wondering which response will make me more spacebucks. I care about…I kid you not…the fate of the galaxy.

In Mass Effect 2, that’s only more true because I’ve had the pleasure of growing with the series over an extended narrative arc. If you have an Xbox 360 or PC, I’d strongly recommend the experience. And even if you have no interest in sci fi , it’s one hell of a third person shooter.

Generally, we leave game reviews to Kotaku. And don’t worry, we plan on continuing that trend. Read what they wrote about Mass Effect 2 here.

In case you were interested in picking up Zombieland on Blu-ray when it’s released February 2nd, know that it will come with a custom PS3 theme. According to High-Def Digest:

Not advertised anywhere on the package, if you put the ‘Zombieland’ disc in your Playstation 3, under the game tab there is an option to download a ‘Zombieland’ theme, which makes icons red, and includes a rotating background of some of the pieces of promotional art for the film.

It sounds like a small bonus for sure (given that the PS3 can load free user generated themes), but that doesn’t make the idea any less wonderful. [High-Def Digest via Joystiq]

After last weekend, it’s a sure thing that Avatar has topped Titanic’s $1.842 billion record. Meanwhile, Papa Smurf shares a bunk with a psychotic bed wetter in a public care facility. Every day he waits for that royalty check; every day he’s force-administered drugs to battle the delusions. [Variety via Gawker]

I’d never considered that “the cursor” may have gotten its name from a skill set having nothing to do with computers, but clearly the cursor is the ultimate human interface element for good reason. $10. [woot]

In what’s surely an attempt to spite high fructose corn syrup haters everywhere, Coke has redesigned their plastic bottle to contain what was once sugar cane. They call it a “PlantBottle.” (It’s not this thing.)

70% petroleum, 30% sugar cane leftovers (converted to a plastic after several chemical processes), the plantbottle is debuting in regions of high profile first, like Denmark for the convenient United Nations Climate Change Summit.

Through a commissioned study, Coke found their PlantBottles to have a 12%-to-19% smaller carbon footprint than their plastic classic. To put that metric into perspective: Coke used to be polluting the Earth with millions of bottles yearly that would expend our limited resources while filling our our oceans with endless filth. But with their new bottle, Coke is doing pretty much the same thing while being super pretentious dicks about it. [WSJ via Grub Street Chicago]

Why carry a jack, tent and sleeping bag on your back when all these items can fold into one, wearble 3lb bundle?

The JakPak is a three seasons tent built into a sleeping bag built into a jacket. Constructed of breathable but waterproof urethane coated ripstop nylon/polyester fabric, through the miracles of velcro-secured chambers, the jacket portion of the JakPak can unfurl to the body bag you see in the lead shot—complete with no see um netting and armpit ventilation!

The JakPak will be available this March for $250 and seeks to eliminate homelessness as we know it. [JakPak]

ZOMG. Is that Optimus Prime…on the iPhone??? This, and more stories from this week in video games:

G1 Transformers Awaken On The iPhone
Now if we only knew anything about the game.

LittleBigPlanet Is Also Playable… In 3D!!!
A cute game, but I don’t play it much in 2D.

Borderlands Level Cap Raise Confirmed by Gearbox
And with that one, solitary headline, weeks of my life are sacrificed to the gaming gods.

Link has Trouble Staying on Task (Comic)
It’s funny because it’s true.

A Closer Look At NieR
This game looks gross. So you have to see it.

Get A Little Depressed With The Heavy Rain Demo
Once again, if you have a PS3, Heavy Rain should be on your must-play list.

Frankenreview: Dark Void
Every new year comes with a new gimmick that comes with a mediocre shooter attached. Looks like Dark Void fills that role…but that jetpack looks so fun!

How Cover Shaped Gaming’s Last Decade
An excellent retrospective on the gaming industry’s new jump button.

2009 Game of the Year Finalist Debate: Demon’s Souls
Quite simply, this is my favorite Kotaku post in some time. Check it out.

Earlier today, we posted our first dSLR follow focus mod, and it nothing if not simple. This other follow focus mod…well…its hand crank drill drive shaft is but a stone’s throw from a hamster wheel and a hot poker. [FocusDrill]

Each side plays just fine. [The Bourne Identity (Amazon), $15]

“You may be thinking that you’re more gangsta than me, but you motherboarders have never seen my PC.” That, and more brilliance, from IBM Fellow John Cohn‘s music video, Engineering Paradise. [@IBMResearch]

We found the original Philips LivingColors lamp to be pretty astounding with its multi-million-color glow. Now the lamp gets an impressive v2 makeover.

The latest LivingColors lamp produces 16 million colors through a combination of 7 LEDs—an overall quality of light that’s 50% brighter than version one.

And while the intuitive remote and bulbous shape remain mostly unchanged, you’ll now have the option to purchase an opaque version (which we’re guessing produces a more directional light flow) along with a more typical metal base stand. Look for the update in Europe soon, with models ranging from about $230-$350. [geekandhype via Unplggd]

In film and video, if you want to rack focus, a “follow focus” makes the job a lot easier. Attaching to the focus ring, a follow focus can be as simple as a stick or as complicated as a gearbox.

Ultimately, the purpose is always the same: Make it as quick and simple as possible to rotate that focus ring from one spot to another. And make the job one-handed.

But while follow focus is basically a standard in motion film and video cameras, it’s nonexistent in the modern day, video-wielding dSLR world. So one flickr member made his own follow focus with a $6 steel hose clamp from Home Depot. Padded with a rubber band, it clamps right around the focus ring. And hey, it works great!

Look for the official, $200 versions from Nikon and Canon some time in the future, I’m sure. Unlike the Home Depot version, they will be powder coated black. [flickr]

From an AskReddit member: “Go to a hotel and say you think you lost it there. It’s the #1 most left behind item at hotels, so most places have a big bin filled with every phone charger imaginable. [Reddit] UPDATE

UPDATE: I just received this note from a reader on the subject:

“I work for the second largest conference hotel in my city. You have no idea the size box we have of chargers left behind. 90 percent are idiot blackberry chargers. This works 100% of the time, we never verify that anyone stays here we just let them go shopping for there charger. Hell we even will give people a charger if they call down to the front desk and say they forgot theirs!”

Nice!

The Soap Light, a concept, uses inductive charging to power a glowing paperweight. It’s not necessarily any more practical than a Tap Light, but…look, don’t question these things. We’re still gonna need infomercials in the future. [Yanko Design]

In the past, we’ve labeled Dr. Anthony Atala a mad-but-completely-sane scientist because he’s been growing Frankensteinian replacement body parts in his lab for years. But in his recently published TEDMED talk, you’ll realize that idea is less sick than inspiring.

I caught up with Dr. Atala after this talk, discussing with him the possibility of a Gizmodo feature on his research that eventually came to fruition. Almost sheepishly, he stressed how skimming over so much research in so little time made each development look simple, when in all reality, the trial and error involved regarding each individual component was staggering.

Either way, it’s a fantastic clip—one of those presentations that just makes you excited to be alive (while reaffirming that developments are in the works to keep you that way). [TEDMED]

You’ve probably heard something about Doctors Without Borders (also known as the Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF) lately, given their involvement in Haiti. Here, we see the organization set up what they call “plug-and-play” hospitals—self-sustained, inflatable medical facilities.

The whole 41 metric ton setup allows 9 tents housing 100 beds to be delivered by air, an inflatable facility that operates nearly autonomous from Haiti’s devastated infrastructure. Everything from generators to sterilization equipment comes along with the tents.

BoingBoing has an excellent interview with members of the MSF regarding these deployed facilities that I’d highly recommend reading in full. And if you’re interested in supporting these particular efforts in Haiti, we’ve included that link as well. [BoingBoing and Donate to Doctors Without Borders]

An All Spark Xbox 360 seems like a clever idea, that is, until your TV turns into a robot during a Golden Girls marathon and your head is decapitated by a very strange amalgamation of pop culture motifs.

Though this mod looks impressive, its construction was relatively simple. A plywood box was coated with self-hardening clay, and this clay was carved with various glyphs before it dried. Given that the All Spark 360 has more component real estate than the Xbox 360, squeezing in the electronics was a reasonable process.

And if only the disc drive let out a burst of steam upon ejection, I’d be molding myself a new Xbox at this very moment. [Flickr via HawtyMcBloggy via technabob]

On January 30th, the BBC will begin airing a multi-part documentary about the internet. And they’ve been so kind as to offer us the first few minutes to air here.

This clip is little more than a teaser to the interviews contained within, but that series of interviews is indeed incredible—including Tim Berners-Lee (the MIT engineer behind the web), Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Stephen Fry. (Though, imagine if all these people were brought together to discuss something totally random rather than their fields of expertise, like their favorite color or ice cream flavor.)

Still, The Virtual Revolution definitely seems worth a watch if your cable or satellite package includes the BBC. [The Virtual Revolution]

According to AppleInsider’s sources, this flickr image is the closest mockup of the Apple Tablet that anyone has seen to date. And yes, it’s essentially a big, first-gen iPhone that’s “met its match with a rolling pin.”

Rather than a plastic back, AI claims the Tablet will have the same, two-tone aluminum look of the original iPhone. But while this image is thought to be very close to Apple’s final design, it doesn’t sound like a full-fledged OS X will be on board. Why? The Tablet will have an iPhone-inspired Home button (along with a 10-inch screen, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker grills, a microphone, GPS, 3G connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector, if AppleInsider has it right).

Personally, I never grew tired of the iPhone’s original look, and I’d love to see the design in tablet form. What about you? [AppleInsider and flickr]