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The Elica Glide under-cabinet hood keeps your cabinets clear of both smelly foods and excess stainless steel. With its chrome-plated, low, dynamic profile, it’ll surely be a hit with New Yorkers’ tiny kitchens.

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We’ve seen our share of innovative overhead kitchen pot racks made out of such varied materials as bicycle wheels, copper tubing, and IKEA parts. Now we can add Flickr member and Re-Nest reader Maigh’s super cool pot rack made from a reclaimed security door (complete with lock!) to the mix. She picked it up at a local salvage yard for $20. Now that’s what we call creative reuse!

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Looks like we’re about to see Qualcomm’s ARM-based Snapdragon platform finally start to take off this year. One of the first devices out of the gate will be Lenovo’s unique “Skylight” smartbook.

It’s a netbook-ish computer that weighs less than two pounds, sports 10-hour battery life, and an interface (Linux, presumably) full of continuously updating widgets. Wi-Fi and 3G connections are built in and the computer will be sold directly from Lenovo and through AT&T starting in April. There’s also a unique integrated USB stick that swivels out and detaches for taking your data with you elsewhere.

The price tag is going to be a sticking point for some people: $499 unlocked. These Snapdragon smartbooks are supposed to be priced around $200, right? Subsidized units sold through AT&T ought to be priced more aggressively. At any rate, you get a 10.1-inch screen at 720p resolution, HD playback, and a relatively spacious keyboard. We’ll take a closer look at CES but here’s a demo video in the mean time.

Lenovo Skylight [Press Release]

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If you’re going to buy that new USB 3.0 hub, you might as well have something to plug into it. Why not the new WD MyBook 3.0? I mean, it’s damn fast, not that expensive, and looks sick.

The drives will be available in both 1TB and 2TB flavors for $180 and TBA. Just like the other USB 3.0 drives we’ve seen, these are 5.0Gbps-capable on a USB 3.0 system. It’s also backwards compatible to 2.0 ports, but don’t expect that type of speed. But for an extra $20, WD offers the drives with a USB 3.0 card. Pretty reasonable in my book.

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Here’s a striking chart from David Rosenberg this morning. It should be pretty self-explanatory.

Now check out David Rosenberg’s big trends and themes for 2010 — >

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See Also:

• One In 50 Americans Lives On Nothing But Food Stamps
• Deflation Means No Cost-Of-Living Increase For Social Security Recipients
• Rosenberg’s Themes For 2010: The Consumer Is Still Toast, Housing Is Down, And Everyone Is Delinquent On Everything

Pat Laffaye, of Westport, Connecticut, has done the unthinkable. He beat George Costanza’s fictional Frogger record.

Laffaye is the first person in video gaming history to beat the “Costanza Score” of 860,630 points, set during a classic episode of Seinfeld, according to Twin Galaxies International –the official scorekeeper on all eras of video gaming since 1981.

Laffaye shattered George’s score, earning 896,980 points for crossing pixilated frogs across a busy street in a record-setting game that ended just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“Even though it was imagined by television writers, Pat has broken one of the most famous scores in pop culture,” Twin Galaxies Division Manager Patrick Scott Patterson said. “Pat’s amazing score will now forever be attached to not only Twin Galaxies history, but pop culture trivia as well.”

It might not be glamorous, but if a $110 camera is all you can afford — or all you’d trust your kid with — then it suddenly becomes of utmost importance. The new crop of A-series cameras fits such a bill, with the 12 megapixel, 4x zoom, optical image stabilized PowerShot A3100 IS in the “high end” at $180, followed by the 10 megapixel A3000 IS at $150; 10 megapixel, 3.3x zoom A495 at $130; and similarly specced A490 at $110. The differences between the A495 and A490 are muddled, outside of color choices and fewer scene selections. The Two A3000 cameras sports 2.7-inch screens and recharageable lithium-ion battery packs (a first for A-series cameras), with the A490 units going for 2.5-inches and trotting out the AAs. All four shooters should be out sometime in late February.

Canon debuts A3100 IS, A3000 IS, A495 and A490 low-end shooters originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Thanks, Lopez]

Nexus One hitting France at €450 contract-free? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Tokyo University’s touchless pointing system could wipe out smudgy screens

Tokyo University’s touchless pointing system could wipe out smudgy screens originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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La marca japonesa Nissan, ha cerrado el año 2009 como la única marca de turismos del ranking top 10 que crece en España. A pesar de que el mercado cayó en torno a un 18% a causa de la crisis, un aumento de las ventas de turismos en la segunda mitad del año ha permitido a Nissan crecer un 3.1% en el volumen de matricualciones de turismos y de 4×4 con un total de 35.804 unidades. Esta cifra toma una importante relevancia debido a que la maraca nipona ha sido la única del ranking TOP10 español que crece en volumen este año.

Uno de los factores de este crecimiento es el Plan 2000E, que ha disparado la demanda de particulares y las ventas de vehículos Nissan. De entre los modelos de Nissan el Qashqai ha sido el modelo mas vendido, sólo en el último mes del año ha registrado un aumento del 114%, situándose en cuarta posición en el ranking de los turismos más vendidos en España.

Otro de los productos que ha entrado con fuerza en el mercado es el Nissan Pixo que con sólo 7 meses en el mercado, fue lanzado en Mayo, ya ocupa la séptima posición en su segmento.

Fuente | Nissan

Our DIY home organization project for the New Year involved hanging a pegboard organizer in our tiny kitchen. Although we found lots of how-tos for installing pegboard on the web, very few of them had detailed instructions and supply lists, so we thought it would be helpful to document our own experience in step-by-step form.

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Alfa Romeo is scheduled to show three new vehicles at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show joining the much-anticipated Giulietta. Sources have told Inside Line that the three models will debut in addition to the Giulietta, which will come to the U.S. in 2011, and will hint at the next 159 lineup.

The new 159 sedan will drop its numeric badging for a classic Alfa Romeo name; however, it is not clear yet as to what Alfa plans on calling the sedan.

“At Geneva, each of the Turin design houses — Stile Bertone, Pininfarina and Italdesign Giugiaro — will create a version of the new midsize model to be shown at their respective stands,” the source told the publication.

Speculation has it that Bertone will show a new coupe, Pininfarina will come with a convertible, and Italdesign Giugiaro will debut a sedan.

2011 Alfa Romeo Giulietta:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Inside Line

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial, App Store

Apple announced this morning that App Store downloads have officially broken 3 billion, and it happened in less than 18 months.

In a press release issued today, Steve Jobs said, “…this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

The App Store broke the billion-download barrier in April and hit 2 billion in September. With all the new iPhones and iPod touches (estimated) sold in the holiday quarter, this number should only climb higher.

Part of the store’s success is perfection of the impulse purchase. It’s ridiculously easy to find an app while you’re in line at the bank for instance, do a bit of poking around and hit “buy!” Why not, it’s only two bucks!

Competitors have been launched, some more successful than others, but Steve’s right in saying that nothing else has matched the App Store’s success. Congratulations to Apple!

TUAWApp Store tops 3 billion downloads originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At Northwestern, I was a journalism/political science major because I wanted to be a journalist in Washington, DC. But not all of my friends’ majors and dream careers lined up so cleanly. I knew theater majors who wanted to be travel writers, and history majors who wanted to work in public health in Africa, and psychology majors who wanted to be sports agents and so on.

One of the nice things about college is that you don’t have to plug into a pre-med or pre-law streamline if you don’t want to. If you want to study novels for four years, or study philosophy, or learn to write in ancient Greek, you can do that and graduate with the same degree as somebody who’s laser-beam focused on turning college into a pre-professional career tutorial.

But in these economic times, with money tight and parents looking harder for a return on investment, schools are feeling the pressure to make college relevant for careers. Is that a good thing?

I think so. From the NYT article:

The pressure on institutions to answer those questions is prompting
changes from the admissions office to the career center. But even as
they rush to prove their relevance, colleges and universities worry
that students are specializing too early, that they are so focused on
picking the perfect major that they don’t allow time for
self-discovery, much less late blooming.

I generally think the “American” approach to liberal arts college education is a little weird. We expect our colleges to be intellectual playgrounds and professional factories. They’re designed to touch on a diverse range of material (my distribution requirements mandated at least one Statistics course and one Art History course) and also allow students to dive deep into their major. But trying to instill expertise in this system is a bit like trying to get somebody to eat a lot of one kind of vegetable by putting them in front of a buffet.

And yet. To a certain extent, expertise isn’t the point of college at all, and it’s not necessarily what employers are looking for. From the article:

The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently asked
employers who hire at least 25 percent of their workforce from two- or
four-year colleges what they want institutions to teach. The answers
did not suggest a narrow focus. Instead, 89 percent said they wanted
more emphasis on “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in
writing,”

If college’s want to keep the buffet-style education but also tell parents that they understand how to move their graduates from lecture halls to cubicles, I can think of two fairly simple solutions. First they should expand their acceptance of
accredited internships or provide more financial compensation to unpaid internships. A summer at
a non-profit think tank in DC is an education in policy,
politics and the serpentine navigation of Senate offices. If colleges
want to give all their students a leg up in the post-grad world where
internships are a requisite, they should step up their internship financing
and accreditation.

Second colleges should make it easier to students to streamline the graduation process. Here’s one way you could do that. Let’s say it normally takes 32 credits to graduate and 16 credits to complete a major. Rather than hold students hostage to an arbitrary smattering of distribution requirements, more colleges could allow something like a super-major where a student can graduate with a 20-credit major and 8 additional classes. In other words, the extra level of specialization would allow him or her to graduate one semester early. That could be an interesting way to reward students for choosing to “deep-dive” in college and save a semester worth of money.

If you weren’t all that impressed with the sound that emanated out of the iHome line of speakers the latest iPhone/iPod dock is looking to change all that. The iP2 features  Bongiovi Digital Power Station processing through twin 3.5″ coaxial neodymium speakers which provides impressive sound in a compact package. The iP2 is a follow-up to the iP1 and uses a 50 watt class D bi-amplified architecture with Bongiovi sound processing and alots for a A clean minimalist design, suspended in museum-quality smoked acrylic.  There is also both an AV Jack and Line-In jack for increased expandability for the iP2 to mingle with other Mp3 players and output to the TV. No pricing or availability is known yet but expect to see hit iHome’s site soon.

The e-book space is becoming increasingly disputed and there a number of players, of various backgrounds, contending for a piece of the potentially lucrative market. The clear leader at the moment is Amazon with its Kindle device and e-book store. But Google is taking another approach, more in line with the Google of old, by focusing on the service and, in this case, content and leaving the hardware to specialized parties. The latest partnership is with Spring Desing, maker of the Alex eReader device, which will get access to Google Books’ extensive library of free and paid digitized books and the deal is said to make one million books available to Alex users.

“We are pleased to work with Spring Design and the Alex, which is an exciting new reading device, that combined with a wealth of free public domain books from Google, provides great value to eReaders,” Brandon Badger, Google product manager, said in a statement. “Our relationship with Spring Design is helping to expand the number of ways people access eBooks and search for information online, whether for business, education or entertainment.”

The upcoming device, which will be launched at CES later this week, is pretty interesting and, with the right circumstances, could prove a rather popular e-book re… (read more)

 When you like cookies with a particular texture, it’s hard to know before trying a recipe if you’re going to get the result you want. And once you’ve tried a given recipe, it’s hard to know what changes you can try making to see if you can achieve that elusive chewy cookie, or crisp cookie. Part of the fun of baking is learning how to tweak recipes (or come up with new ones) to suit your personal preferences and, when it comes to cookies, Cook’s Illustrated (Mar.07 issue) came up with a few tips to help things along. These are general rules, not guarantees that you’ll get the result you had in mind with a substitution given below. I’ve added a few tips to the rules that will help you apply them when you start to experiment.

If you want chewy cookies, add melted butter. Butter is 20 percent water. Melting helps water in butter mix with flour to form gluten.
More gluten will make for a chewier cookie, just as it will make for a chewier bread. Keep in mind that you’re introducing extra liquid with a substitution like this one, and the cookies may be thinner than you’d like unless you add more dry ingredients or less liquid.

If you want thin, candy-like cookies, add more sugar. Sugar becomes fluid in the oven and helps cookies spread.
A little extra sugar will also help you get a crisp edge on a cookie. Caramelized sugar does not always survive well in the open air. Too much sugar and your cookies will be thin and chewy, not crisp, although they should still taste great. An airtight container will help preserve their fresh-from-the oven texture.

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