Author: Sean Fallon

Teac and German manufacturer Avantgarde Acoustics have teamed up to produce a line of speakers that I can only hope sound as good as they look.

The G2 line consists of three models: the Duo, Duo Omega and Uno. All three models feature a frequency range of around 170-20,000Hz for speakers and 20-350Hz for the subwoofer, but the Duo Omega is the most expensive at the equivalent of $41,592. Even if you could afford it, there is no word on whether or not the speakers will be available outside of Japan. [Avantgarde via Le Journal du Geek via Newlaunches]

ReCellular, the world’s leading recycler of cellphones, has launched Phones For Haiti—a relief effort that donates 100% of the value of your recycled phone to quake victims via the American Red Cross. [Phones for Haiti via Inhabitat]

In this Google-sponsored video by Patrick Boivin, stop-motion ninjas show us only the second unboxing that I can describe as “action-packed.” They easily defeated the Nexus One packaging, but their arch-rival Blister Pack won’t go down so easy. [Engadget]

There aren’t many watches out there that can draw a crowd, but Geoffrey Cooper’s “Geocentric” has that potential. The passage of time is represented much like the Earth revolving around the sun.

The rings, which are in constant motion, revolve around the face of the watch to display both the hour an the minutes. So far as I can tell, Geocentric is still in the design/prototype phase, but I think it has what it takes to be a great product. [Geoffrey Cooper via The Design Blog]

Remember the $1000 “I Am Rich” iPhone application? Well, here is another $1000 app that actually does something. If you are an aspiring lawyer, it might actually be a bargain.

How could a $1000 iPhone app be a bargain you ask? Well, BarMax CA was designed by Harvard lawyers, and it’s designed to help law students pass the bar exam—so you know the information comes from a credible source . Plus, BarBri, a company that is well known in the industry for offering in-class test prep combined with a free iPhone app, typically charges between $3000 and $4000 for enrollment (they have also been involved in multiple class action lawsuits regarding monopolistic business practices).

The app is huge at 1GB—offering audio lectures, practice tests, flash cards and more—in short, everything you would need from a 2-month course. Obviously, the current offering is meant for the California bar, but there are plans to roll out versions for New York and five other popular states by the end of the year. There will also be a $500 version that features only multiple choice preparation. [iTunes and Barmax via TechCrunch]

Now we know why Verizon decided to double our FiOS cancellation fees. They have unveiled new bundle options that deliver up to 35Mbps upstream and downstream and 90 or more HD channels.

New Bundles Packed With Speed and HD

New double-, triple- and quad-play bundles are available with a 24-month service agreement that guarantees the customer’s rate will not change for two years. FiOS bundles are also available in month-to-month plans that do not require a minimum term agreement. To explore Verizon’s many bundle options and order service, visit www.verizon.com/bundles or call Verizon at 1-888-GET-FIOS.

New triple-play bundle options with a service agreement are:

•Ultimate: FiOS TV Ultimate HD includes 90 or more HD channels; premium content from EPIX, Showtime, TMC, Flix and the NFL RedZone; FiOS Internet service with an ultra-fast, symmetrical connection speed of up to 35/35 Mbps; and FiOS voice service – all available for $139.99 a month. In the New York City area this bundle also includes HBO/Cinemax and other premium channels, for a total of 125 or more HD channels, and is available for $149.99 a month.

•Extreme: FiOS TV Extreme HD includes 65 or more HD channels; FiOS Internet service with an ultra-fast, symmetrical connection speed of up to 25/25 Mbps; and FiOS voice service – available for $124.99 a month. In the New York City area this bundle also includes Showtime, TMC and Flix, for a total of 80 or more HD channels, and is available for $119.99 a month.

•Prime: FiOS TV Prime HD includes 40 or more HD channels; FiOS Internet service with a connection speed of up to 15/5 Mbps; and FiOS voice service – available for $109.99 a month. In the New York City area this bundle includes all of the TV content offered with FiOS TV Extreme HD, for a total of more than 65 HD channels.

The Ultimate and Extreme triple-play bundles – as well as the Prime triple-play bundle in the New York City market area – include free access to thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots across the U.S. Customers also have access to Verizon’s leading FiOS TV video-on-demand service, with more than 18,000 monthly titles – including 2,800 in HD – and FiOS TV’s advanced interactive media guide, with access to social-networking, news and entertainment widgets and more.

Verizon is also offering a limited time promotion that gives you 12-months of Prime, Extreme and Ultimate for $90, $115 and $130 respectively ($90, $100 and $130 in the NYC area). Of course, with cancellations fees that high, you had better think long and hard about it. [PR Newswire]

Nice try PCgadgets, but I know a plain old storage locker when I see one. I’m sure that branding it for the Xbox 360 is the difference between a $40 price tag and $15 price tag.

Are those Playstation games in there? That’s right—don’t be fooled. This locker isn’t just for the 360. And nothing spells “security” like a tiny brass padlock and a compact, easy to carry form factor. [PCgadgets via Joystiq]

Somewhere on the family tree of the Edifier M3-Plus you are going to find a tennis ball and a cardboard tube. Surprisingly, this design hodgepodge has yielded some interesting portable speakers.

Designed for travelers, the Edifier M3-Plus consists of two racquetball sized speakers and a 2-inch Neodymium-iron Boron Magnet assembly subwoofer housed inside an aluminum tube. Availability information has not been announced, but the 2.1 system should come in at around $100 when it’s released. [Edifer via Unplggd]

Yes, a business card that shoots a magazine of 10 pennies with rubber band power will get you noticed—but it probably won’t be the kind of attention you hoped for.

Then again, load that thing up with Krugerrands and you will definitely score yourself some allies despite the painful welts. Hit the following link iIf you want to try your hand at making one of these yourself. [Thingverse via Make]

Growing up in upstate New York, I know something about ice, snow and struggling through waist high drifts piled up by the city snow plows with a woefully inadequate Toro snowblower. God, I wish I had some of this crap back then.

This is how Russians melt snow and ice during their intense winters—by strapping a Klimov VK-1 engine from Mig-15 onto a truck. I think one of these would have taken care of the snow at the end of my driveway (and probably my entire lawn, neighbors lawn, and the woods behind my house) no problem. [Link]
This homemade flamethrower was designed to kill mosquitoes in the home, but I think it’s safer to use one of these outside on the ice covering your front steps. Then again, maybe not. [Link]
Now THIS is what I really needed for my driveway—and autonomous Roomba-esque show shovel. The I-Shovel can automatically detect snowfall accumulation and clear the driveway when it determines that the depth is significant enough for action. [I-Shovel via Link]
I remember icicles the size of swords hanging from my gutters during the winter. Needless to say, that is some dangerous shit—and all that ice is hard on the gutters themselves. The solution could be to install Guttergloves to melt the ice before it accumulates. [Gutterglove via Link]
I’ve never used one of these before, but an electric ice scraper with a heating element makes sense. Although, I doubt that most of these things really crank out enough heat to be practical. [Amazon]
It doesn’t get any simpler than this guys—if you don’t have a garage, put a windshield cover on your car to prevent that situation where you’re late for work, and you frantically scrape out just enough of a spot on the windshield to see, but your peephole kind of fogs up going down the road and you wind up in a ditch. Yeah, we’ve all been there. [Amazon]
Dealing with chains and snow tires is a pain in the ass. Supposedly, these fabric and rubber Snowbootz are easier to install and provide great traction in the snow and ice. Consumer Reports didn’t agree with that assessment completely, but they did find that the system worked well on ice and packed snow—but not so well on soft snow. So, at the very least, it should prevent this type of situation. [Snowbootz]
If you can’t beat the ice, you might as well make it work for you. The Eternal Ice Drop is basically a spherical glass bulb with frozen water inside that you use to chill cognac. The idea is to perfectly chill the drink without watering it down. [5.5 Designers via Link]
Remember that scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase blazes down a hill on a greased-up sled? Well, Ky Michaelson is living that with his homemade rocket sled. This thing should eliminate snow and ice, leaving nothing but a flaming streak of Earth in your wake. [Rocketman via Link]
Have you ever busted your ass slipping on ice in the driveway? It’s painful and embarrassing. One way to conveniently prevent that problem is to wear a pair of boots with reversible cleats. When you’re outside, the cleats can be turned to reveal steel studs that provide traction. When heading back indoors, the cleats can be turned around to a flat, rubber side. [Hammacher via Link]

Kevin Schopfer, the same delusional, megalomaniac architect behind NOAH is back with the Boston Arcology (BoA) floating city concept for Boston Harbor. I’m not from Boston, but my guess is that their reaction would be: “this is wicked retahded.”

But I digress. If constructed, the BoA would be LEED certified and be capable of housing 15,000 people distributed in hotels, offices, retail, museums, condominiums, and a new city hall. Of course, there would also be sky gardens and some sort of public, carbon neutral transportation system that would eliminate the need for cars.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Schopfer’s progressive thought process on this design, but there has to be more emphasis put on feasibility. Even if all of the construction goals could be accomplished, how much do you think something like this would cost? [Schopfer via Yanko Design via Inhabitat]

Billionaires looking to get into the supervillain racket take note: An entire 3 million square foot former Chrysler fabrication, assembly plant and distribution center is up for sale. Apparently, that includes machines and equipment.

Staffing it with henchmen would be a daunting task, but using the facility to build an army of mechs would be worth the effort and expense. [Great American Group via Boing Boing]

I’m a grown man and I love Nerf guns. I’m not alone either, which is why modders look to trick them out with new looks and new capabilities. Check out Oobject’s list for 12 of the best Nerf mods. [Oobject]

What you are looking at is a lovingly-crafted Android robot plush bag created over the course of two weeks as a birthday gift. And you can totally rip this idea off.

“On and off it took about, I guess, two weeks? I needed to pick the materials, figure out the design and of course, a lot of sewing and testing. The hardest task was to come up with a design that makes it both a fully functioning plush and a fully functioning bag, while conforming to the mascot as closely as possible. The head was a big trouble also, being a hemisphere and thus required some mathematics to calculate the right size of each piece of felt. The internal space should just be enough to hold your D40 w/ lens should you wish. The external shell is very strong though so it certainly won’t drop your camera.”

The whole thing falls under Creative Commons, so if anyone wants to sell something like this, by all means, go ahead. [Flickr via nicesoda via phandroid)

Starting on January 22nd, Red One users will be able to upgrade to the Mysterium-X sensor for the low, low price of $5,750. It’s the same sensor found on the Epic-X—delivering improved imaging and better low light performance.

The unit will also come with an updated version of REDCINE-X that can handle the new and improved video. Red also announced that anyone interested in stepping right up to the Epic-X can get a $1,250 credit if they are accepted into the beta program in either the first or second stage. [Electronista]

Segway is the UK’s problem now. Details are scarce, but the company has merged with a UK-based firm backed by Jimi Heselden, Chairman of Hesco Bastion and an investor in the independently owned Segway U.K. distributorship. Segway has also received funding to support future growth. [The Last Mile]

If I had $80,000 to spend on a car, I would probably go with an Audi A8. And now I have even more reason to want one since they partnered with Nvidia for their dashboard graphics.

Their Tegra 2 chipset will be installed in all Audi 2011 models—giving a boost to their dashboard graphics and adding the capability to display Google Earth mapping for navigation and point of interest search. [Pocket-Lint via Newlaunches via Likecool]

I know there is a tradition to uphold, and I enjoyed the movie, but groundhog texting? Do they even have thumbs?

Of course, the idea is to get the word out to the millions of crazy people out there that rely on a talking groundhog to predict the weather. If you are one of those people, text “Groundhog” to 247365. You will receive a reply on February 2nd. And, the good news is that Phil is fluent in both “groundhog-ese” and English, so you will have no problem absorbing his wisdom. [Yahoo via Fark]

I never really cared for the classic look of Linkysis routers to be perfectly honest. The solution: dress it up with Lego.

That’s just what Luke Anderson did with an old WRT54GL. He noticed that the guts fit nicely with the dimensions of Lego bricks, so he set about making a new case. The entire build can be seen in the video and is detailed on his blog. [Luke Anderson via Crunchgear]

The MiniGuru keyboard has three layers of functions designed to keep your fingers on the home row. Theoretically, that means you could type more efficiently. It would also mean a major overhaul to your typing technique.

Special modifier keys can be held down with a free thumb, allowing the user to cycle through layers of programmable key functionality. For example: hold down the modifier and J, K, L and ; can become arrow keys. There is also a mouse pointer in the center of the board if you choose to take this whole home key thing to the limit.

Again, the options for the keyboard are highly customizable, with changes saving to the firmware—but it’s going to take a lot of convincing when this thing comes out at the end of the year. I’m set in my typing ways dammit. Don’t try and change me. [Guru Board via ZDNet]