Blog

Apple is not one to give away anything for free, so I was surprised to learn they would be having their Japanese store participate in a tradition called fukubukuro, also known as Lucky Bags. Every time New Years rolls around, Japanese retailers fill these ‘lucky bags’ with secret items and then they are sold at discount. Incase will be providing the Lucky Bag to Apple this year and they in turn will fill it with a total value of more than double the cost of the bag. The bag will retail for $350. Some Lucky Bags may also include a voucher for a new MacBook. It’s almost worth it to fly to Japan to watch the masses trying to get lucky!

Nearly 1.9 million people tuned in for Wednesday night’s season premiere of The Real World: DC, The Washington Post has learned.

The MTV docu-drama wrecked havoc on pedestrian traffic and community relations during filming in Washington’s trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood last summer. Although the highly controversial and oversexed Jersey Shore remains Music Television’s most talked about reality smash of the season, audiences haven’t been this interested in The Real World in ages. Last season’s premiere of the longrunning unscripted soap — now in its 23rd season –only drew 1.4 million viewers, despite being set alongside the steamy backdrop of Cancun, Mexico.

It’s still a far cry from the days when The Real World attracted 4 million viewers per episode.

The Audi E-Tron test drive by the Los Angeles Times is seen in this video, although it’s unlikely to tell you anything you didn’t already know. We don’t get an idea of what it feels like to actually drive the E-Tron, and the torque figures quoted are likely to be those of the wheels, and not the output shaft, which has created some controversy.

The driver of this test, Dan Neil, gives us some insight into what kind of car the E-Tron is like in his written article. He says:

Like all electric cars, the batteries are the biggest concern. The e-tron uses a lithium-ion pack sourced from Sanyo with a total capacity of 53 kWh, but only about 43 kWh is usable storage. Max discharge is a healthy 230 amps. According to Krauter, the car will have two settings for regenerative braking, one normal and one sporty — which is to say, you lift off the gas and the aggressive regen will instantly slow the car down as if it had piled into a load of sand. No coasting.

For enthusiast drivers, all this is catnip. Torque-vectoring all-wheel drive with big regenerative braking going into corners? That means less weight transfer, better overall balance, less brake wear, quicker time back to the throttle. The production version of this car is going to be stupid fast. I predict we are looking at the future production-car record holder at the Nurburgring.

The suggestion is that Fisker and Tesla look over their shoulders, as Audi is going to take over on electric sports car production. Only just before the electric SLS AMG turns up, that is.

The WirelessMediaStick by HSTi – Home Server Technologies Inc. is just another goody we will be seeing this week at CES.  The WirelessMediaStick streams your media files from any computer within a wireless network to any USB enabled DVD/Blu-ray player, TV, stereo or digital picture frame. Just plug it in and the device is now connected to your files, so that you’ll be able to play your music, videos and photos instantly. The WirelessMediaStick is essentially a virtual mass storage device which streams video, photos and music stored on any shared computer or mass storage device within your home/office network by utilizing your existing wireless router.  It eliminates the need for a media storage device to be placed next to your DVD player, TV, or Digital picture frame.  It is compatible with virtually any manufacturer’s audio/visual device that supports viewing/playing of stored media through the USB port.  The technology is managed by a web based interface accessible from any computer in your home. The WirelessMediaStick doesn’t need to be re-programed when you put more media on to your network; it automatically discovers it.  In addition, you can utilize your existing remote control so it is very easy to use. No pricing or word on availability yet but when we find out next week, we will update this post.

If you got an iPod touch you know that the sound recorder app is not really working for you because Apple did not give you device an build in microphone But now you can get a littl microphone just a couple of dollars.

The CablesToBuy Mini Microphone is easy it comes in a little shell so that you plug will not damage when not in use. And how do you use it? simple just plug it in to you iPod Touch (2e generation or newer) and you are ready to go.

So now you can have a great little mic so that you are ready to record audio to your iPod Touch.

Get the CablesToBuy™ Mini Microphone today and start using it real soon.

Hillary had healthcare — Michelle has childhood obesity.

First Lady Michelle Obama brings her platform of reducing kids’ waistlines through better school lunches, community gardens, and exercise to the world of reality TV this weekend. Mrs. Obama will appear on the Food Network series Iron Chef America this Sunday, Jan. 3. [Check your local listings….]

In the episode, which will open the show’s new season, White House chef Christeta Comerford and celebrity chef Bobby Flay joins forces against Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse. Obama will be featured on tonight’s show, revealing the secret ingredient that the chefs must use in their televised cook-off. She’ll also discuss her Healthy Kids Initiative.

After nearly 40 years of ushering in the New Year, Dick Clark’s annual ball drop and countdown special is still on top. According to Nielsen ratings, ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest was the most-watched NYE special of the night — attracting 8.7 million viewers and up 2% from last year!

Performers like Green Day and Rihanna helped NBC’s New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly garner its largest audience ever. Approximately 3.4 million viewers between 18-49 tuned into the countdown special hosted by the former TRL host. That’s up 13% from the 3.0 that tuned in in 2008.

Yeah, hardware accelerating Doom is an important milestone in any fledgling system’s career, but when you talk 3D acceleration, Quake is certainly a giant leap ahead of Doom in polygonal terms. The game has now been ported to webOS using the same new SDL library from version 1.3.5, and while it looks a little sluggish and crashy in the video after the break, it’s clearly a landmark event just the same. Now if only we could get stuff like this in the App Catalog we’d be perfectly happy forever and ever. Or for at least a week.

Continue reading Quake ported to the Pre, webOS 3D gaming truly within reach

Quake ported to the Pre, webOS 3D gaming truly within reach originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink EverythingPre  |  webOS Internals  | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating

Everyone knows that a diet high in sugar and bad fats may lead to obesity. But what they may not know is that an unhealthy Western diet is actually causing obesity on the genetic level. A new study published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (online at the FASEB Journal) reports that eating a high fat, high sugar diet actually turns on genes that cause the body to store more fat than it needs.

From the press release, “In the research report, scientists show that foods high in fat and sugar stimulate a known opioid receptor, called the kappa opioid receptor, which plays a role in fat metabolism. When this receptor is stimulated, it causes our bodies to hold on to far more fat than our bodies would do otherwise.”

The research was done on two different groups of mice — one group who had had their kappa opioid receptor artificially deactivated and the other group unaltered. Both groups were fed an energy-dense, high-sugar, high-fat diet for 16 weeks. What the researchers found was that, while the mice with the unaltered receptor became obese, those with the altered receptor remained lean.

Continue reading High Fat, High Sugar Diet Turns On ‘Fat Genes’

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Good news for movie fans: Friends of Poltergeist star Zelda Rubinstein have dismissed reports that the ailing 76-year-old is close to death.

Last week, RadarOnline.com published a report suggesting Rubinstein — who played creepy spirit talker Tangina in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 cult classic — had been taken off life support after spending much of December in intensive care at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The actress was hospitalized after two of her major organs failed, but pals say Zelda’s prognosis for recovery is good.

“She’s OK. Vitals are good. She’s apparently doing better. Internet sources exaggerated the story,” a friend tells MovieHole.net.

Drug-addled comedian Artie Lange has been hospitalized in New Jersey.

Lange — a Howard Stern sidekick with a history of substance abuse issues and DUI arrests — was rushed to a hospital just outside New York City for undisclosed reasons early Saturday.

“I can confirm that Artie is in the hospital. Artie has chosen to keep all information on this matter between him and his doctor. There will be no further comment,” a rep for Lange said over the weekend.

Lange took a leave of absence from Stern’s Sirius-XM radio program in the days leading up to the show’s two-week holiday break last month. He also cancelled several stand-up gigs in recent weeks, including a New Year’s Eve engagement.The Howard Stern Show is scheduled to return live on Monday.