Author: Rosa Golijan

Fred Morrison didn’t cure a disease, go to the moon, or invent some high-tech gadget. But he made many of our lives just a bit happier with a simple toy that prompted dreams of flying saucers and sparked intramural games.

According to his son, “old age caught up” with Morrison as he dealt with a battle against cancer. Yet somehow, this remark appears to be the only sad line in Morrison’s obituary.

The man’s life sounds like it contained as much joy as he brought to children and adults around the world with his invention. In fact, even the events which led to the creation of what is now known as a Frisbee sound happy:

Morrison and his future wife, Lu, used to toss a tin cake pan on the beach in California. The idea grew as Morrison considered ways to make the cake pans fly better and after serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948.

From there the simple plastic disc would change name from “Pluto Platter” to “Frisbee,” but it would remain an staple in memories of summers in the park, beach games of Frisbee golf, and late night Ultimate Frisbee competitions.

So, while Fred Morrison’s passing is a sad event, it’s heartwarming to hear that he led a good life as he gave us an excuse to laugh and giggle as we send pieces of plastic whizzing through the air. [Yahoo]

Picture from Wikipedia

The iTunes Store is close to hitting 10 billion song downloads and to celebrate Apple is giving a lucky boy or gal a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Of course, no purchase is necessary to be entered into the drawing.

To throw your name into the hat, you can either purchase a song from the iTunes store or fill out this form anytime between today and whenever the 10 billionth song is downloaded. The important part is that:

The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through a song download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 9,999,999,999th song.

I just wonder what the winning song will be (assuming that it’s a purchase-based entry that wins). [Apple]

Anthony Holtvogt was careless enough to accidentally fire his gun in a restaurant, but thankfully his girlfriend must’ve bought her BlackBerry from Superman. It’s the only explanation I’ve got for the fact that the phone stopped a bullet.

Ok, so maybe it was simply a matter of the BlackBerry being in just the right spot and the bullet hitting it in just the right way. And it’s entirely possible that Anthony got dumped after accidentally shooting his own girlfriend.

I just like to think that it really was Superman’s BlackBerry and that it really did save a relationship. [WDTN via GottaBeMobile—Thanks, Matthew!]

It feels like all of the nine million Google Buzz posts and comments flooded your inbox this week. And as if that wasn’t enough, suddenly that creepy ex started “following” you. Google has a fix for one of those issues.

As a result of user feedback, Google has made these little changes to turn Buzz into something slightly less creepy without having to resort to elaborate workarounds:

• More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
• Ability to block anyone who starts following you
• More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

Now if only they could make the whole thing less annoying. [Gmail Blog]

Somehow it’s just not fun to work in a messy or unorganized kitchen—or at least that’s my excuse. The Ekokook kitchen concept is neither though. It’s organized, clean, eco-friendly, and oh-so-gorgeous.

Ekokook’s entire layout appears to have been very well thought out with fresh vegetable storage, water conservation, container gardening, waste sorting, recycling, and composting. And it really doesn’t hurt that the design itself seems to promote neatness.

I can already imagine leaving a plate of freshly baked cookies sitting on that counter. [Inhabitat]

What bothers me about most videos using autotune is that they go overboard with the effect. A bit of subtlety works so much better. Take this short clip of the iPad keynote for example. It’s definitely worthy of imitation.

Up, down, sideways. Up, down, si—damn it. Someone please make a new video so that I can get this sentence out of my head. [ArsTech]

Looks like the Google Chrome for Mac Beta update available now is bringing extension support (yes!), bookmark syncing, a cookie manager, and a task manager along with some general stability improvements. Definitely worth a look. [Chrome Blog via Lifehacker]

Maybe he was trying out the TVs or the baseball bat, maybe he was struck by Walmart rage. Whatever the case, this guy destroyed a row of TVs before sitting down in the electronics aisle and waiting for the police.

The smashed televisions add up to about $22,000 in damaged goods, 29 counts of criminal damage to property, and one bottle of confiscated anti-depressants. I suppose that’s just an itsy-bitsy bit worse than what went down with that foul-mouthed Australian guy. [Huffington Post via Engadget]

Apparently Veoh Networks, an online video company vaguely similar to YouTube, has “laid off its workforce yesterday and is expected to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.”

It’s sad to see the site go under as some of us have fond memories of using it, but what’s sadder is seeing about $67.5 million in venture capital funding evaporate into nothing. [peHUB]

An interview with a Microsoft Senior Product Manager opened the door to rumors of an iPad version of Microsoft’s Office suite. Let’s keep in mind though that the fellow just vaguely hinted that Microsoft is looking into this idea.

When asked if Microsoft would be considering an iPad version of Office, Mike Tedesco, Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU explained:

Yeah, it’s something that we’re looking at. Obviously the announcement (of the iPad) is really fresh and there’s nothing to announce or nothing that I can talk to you about today.

Just because Microsoft is “looking at” something doesn’t guarantee a product, but I’m still crossing my fingers and hoping that I’ll be able to poke that annoying paperclip on an iPad. [T3 via Techmeme]

When we asked for Valentine’s Day tech horror stories, some protested that there’s another side to things—serendipitous meetings on Twitter, gadgets that won hearts, and love. We want to hear more of these happy Valentine’s day love stories.

Maybe that NSA Craig’s List ad led to marriage, maybe technology aided a long-distance relationship, or maybe you’re both tech-obsessed geeks and a perfect match because of it.

Whatever the details, we want to hear about how gadgets, technology, or social networking helped your love life. So send your stories to me with the subject of “Happy Valentine Tales” and we can share the joy.

Of course, we are still taking submissions for Valentine’s Day tech horror stories and you can send those with the subject of “Bad Valentine Tales.”

Bad Valentine is our own special take on the beauty—and awkwardness—of geek love.

Photo by Fe Ilya

I received some proximity-sensing t-shirts from ThinkGeek to review, and got excited. Would I discover the love of my life while playing high-tech hide-and-seek? Or would I wind up lonelier than before? (Hint: Their high-pitch sound scares away dogs.)

Since Valentine’s Day is all about getting touchy-feely with other people while calling attention to the things going boom-ba-boom-boom in our chests, I called in ThinkGeek’s most appropriate products: The 8-Bit Dynamic Life shirt and the Locked On Proximity Sensing shirt.

The concept’s the same for both shirts: Your chest half-glows until you find someone else with a matching shirt. Then your whole chest glows. It’s fun, but there’s a chance you’ll find yourself doomed to wearing a shirt with only 2.5 hearts lit up, or one flashing an eternal “scanning” pattern.

Why in Cupid’s Name Do I Want These Things?

I’ll admit it. I laughed when I opened the box of shirts. It’s not as if I’m going to find my Valentine with them by say strolling through the mall, continuously monitoring my heart levels. If I did find someone that way, would I really want to date a person who willingly wears a shirt like that?

So, since using them as a way to aid my lovelife was out, the next logical idea was to play hide-and-seek. The Locked On shirts seem made for it. Sadly it was raining—the Florida equivalent of the Northeast’s Snowpocalypse—and things just aren’t fun when trying to play a game in a small indoor space. There’s only so many places to hide, and the shirts light up when they’re within about 12 feet of its counterpart. And in case you’re wondering, the two pairs are incompatible, so a four-way match was out of the question. Great, I can’t even lure a few people over to play then. What do I do with these shirts now?

Wait, What’s That Sound?

While wearing the 8-Bit shirt, I’d noticed it was emitting a high-pitched noise. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but the sound was all the more obvious with the Locked On shirt. It’s high-pitched, it’s annoying, and as soon as I stepped close to my neighbor’s dog, it made him run away. I think the poor pooch is now hiding somewhere, paws over his violated ears. And I’m left sitting here, even lonelier than I started out.

The Fun Wore Off Too Fast

It’s almost sad to say, but the interactive shirts are kinda fun for a few minutes. There’s something amusing about watching your front light up when near a similar shirt, but when you’re all alone, that excitement is short-lived. If you and your significant other each wore them to bed (lumpy three-AAA battery packs and all), you might even be able to read a Kindle by their strong glow. But by yourself, with just half the luminosity, you’d be hard pressed to see much more than the hand in front of your face.

Great for animal-haters since dogs will run away.


Decent battery life. I didn’t manage to kill any of the AAAs (three per shirt) used during testing.


No more expensive than an average gimmicky shirt.


The electronic parts of the shirt are removable for washing.


They’re kinda dorky looking, aren’t they?


Having a battery pack poking your side or back gets annoying really quickly


One is a very lonely number. You need either a pair of shirts or a special device to take advantage of the interactive aspect of the shirts.

Bad Valentine is our own special take on the beauty—and awkwardness—of geek love.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a bit of a Snowpocalypse happening. Delayed flights aside, it’s really not so bad though. After all, it finally lured the abominable fire-breathing snowman out of his cave and right into this video.

Built by some folks in Bel Air, Frosty—or at least I like to think that’s his name—is one huge snowman with flamethrower lungs:

And here I was proud of building a six-foot tall snow beast when I was ten. [Baltimore Sun]

When Motorola’s official Facebook page showed a post announcing that the Droid would be getting an update this week, everyone got excited. But it seems that someone might’ve been too quick to write about Android 2.1.

BGR explains that “according to Matt, forums manager over at Motorola, the information was prematurely released” and that “the DROID update page on Motorola’s website has been pulled and all links to the update page have been deleted from the forums.” [BGR]

There’s been talk of sportswear company PUMA going into the cellphone business and—based on the teaser website just launched—it looks like we’ll really be seeing a solar-powered, super-sporty cellphone soon. For now we just have a blurry picture.

The clever boys over at MobileCrunch took the time to rifle through the source code of the PUMA Phone teaser website and managed to gather these tidbits about the device:

• It’ll be called the “PUMA PHONE”
• As the PUMA brand implies, it’ll be aimed at sporty folks with a feature-set to match.
• It has a solar cell built-in, presumably for charging the phone
• GPS
• Video Chat
• Bike/Run tracking applications
• Pedometer (Step counter)
• Built-in stopwatch
• A “Music Turntable”
• Sports news app, IM app, and various other PUMA-branded apps which “give you access to the PUMA world”

Sounds like the phone would be more athletic than I. [PUMA Phone via MobileCrunch]

Bill Gates doesn’t seem very impressed with the iPad. Sure he’s throwing out some nice compliments to Apple, remarking about how great the iPhone is, and all that. But beneath all the pleasantries, he’s pretty much dismissing the product.

You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that.

Youch. Of course, as AllThingD’s John Paczkowski remarks: Bill Gates has made similar remarks in the past. In fact, when the iPod first came out he was noted as saying that “there’s nothing that the iPod does that [he would] say, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t think we can do that.’” Deja vu. [BNET via All Things D]

There was a power outage earlier and I sat in the dark. Not because I don’t have flashlights, but because I couldn’t find the right batteries. Oh, if only I had a dog and one of Fido Fashion’s power-generating leashes.

Fido Fashion really thought this leash through. There’s a little compartment for poop bags on the device. But the key feature is that power is generated as your pup runs off forcing the leash to coil and uncoil. All that energy is then used to light up a built in LED. Should be great for early or late walks in the dark or mornings when you’re sitting in the dark.

There aren’t any details on pricing yet, but the leash should be out later this year. [Fido Fashions via Coolest Gadgets via Wired]

Between Twitter-holic dates, Facebook relationship status changes, sexting, gadget mishaps, and that time you emailed nude pictures to your ex, there are plenty of ways for tech to affect relationships. What we want are your Valentine’s Day romance horror stories.

Did you creep someone out by following her on Twitter too soon after meeting? Or did your date text message you that it’s over after you accidentally sent a dirty message to his brother? Maybe that first attempt at a sexy video chat went oh-so-very wrong. Oh, and what about the time your iPhone wound up getting dunked in a beer glass?

Whatever the details, we want to hear about how gadgets, technology, or social networking interfered with your love life. So send your stories to me with the subject of “Bad Valentine Tales” and we can share the horror.

Picture by Kevin McShane

Occasionally I cover my ears and sing “Lalalala, I’m not listening to your concept description.” Today I’m covering them and begging “No! Don’t punch holes into my poor earlobes and make me use this hearing aid when I’m old! Please!”

I understand that it’s a gradual process to stretch out one’s earlobes and wear jewelry that looks like the PLUG hearing aid concept—heck, it’s even trendy to some—but that doesn’t mean that I could imagine a lot of people actually using this hearing aid if it ever turns into a real product. [Design Affairs]

Your furry buddy is barking and pawing at the door. Is he acting up or did you forget to walk him again? Don’t bother telling me “but honey! I thought you took him out,” when you could’ve checked the Dog-e-Minder.

The Dog-e-Minder is a waterproof, three-button device which attaches to your pet’s collar and keeps track of when he was walked, fed, or given medication:

Each button has a symbol related to an activity. The “fire hydrant” symbolizes walk time, the “dog bone” represents feeding time and the “RX” symbol records the last time medication was administered. When you perform any one of these activities, simply hold the corresponding button down for three seconds and the current date and time is saved. To view stored information, just press the appropriate button once, and the display shows the last time the task was completed. When idle, the Dog-e-Minder also acts as a dog identification tag, displaying important pet name and owner contact information.

The device comes in black, blue, pink and red and can be ordered now for $20 (and they’re buy one, get one free). It’s a nice deal, so we’re thinking of getting one for each of the interns to keep track of feeding times. [Dog-e-Minder]