You know that famous Blendtec blender that claims to blend anything? Guess what? IT’S BEEN DEFEATED! HA! Austin Howard from the Impression 5 Science Center in Lancing, Michigan has defeated Tom Dickson and his magical blender with keys. Yeah, that’s kind of unfair, but it still proves that the Blendtec blender is overrated. Now, it’s all about the SSI Shredder.
Source: Lansingnoise.tumblr.com
It’s about time! The rumor here is that Microsoft is going to be bringing out a version of the Xbox 360 controller that features a better d-pad. This is fantastic because the 360 is kinda notorious for it’s horrible d-pad, which makes having an arcade stick or a fighting pad pretty much necessary for Street Fighter 4, Mega Man 9/10, and a lot of the arcade titles. I hope this rumor is true because what they have right now is just plain awful, and everyone I know agrees with me that the d-pad is one of the worst things about the 360 right now.
Source: Engadget
Indie band Arcade Fire recently put out a fantastic album called The Suburbs. If you haven’t heard it, go buy it now. It’s one of the the best I’ve heard in quite some time. To promote it they’ve done some TV appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, some summer festival appearances, and an awesome live concert on YouTube (directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python!) However, they’ve saved the coolest bit of promotion for last. They’ve made a music video for We Used To Wait, but it’s not conventional at all: it’s a dynamically created experience that ties in with real life. Go to thewildernessdowntown.com (using Chrome), type in an address, and it will create a unique music video based on what you enter. To get the best effect, it should be the address you grow up, but since it makes heavy use of Google Earth and Street View, that may not work best. If that’s the case, then enter your home address or somewhere you know very well. Once you do that, just sit back and enjoy the show! A word of caution though, this does make extensive use of HTML5 and was designed to work best in Chrome. During the video, it will ask you to write a postcard to your younger self. Why? The band will take that postcard out on their North American tour this fall and give them out. If you get one, you’re supposed to plant it and a tree will grow. This is possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on the internet. I have the feeling more bands are going to do this in the future because having something spread viral on the internet is far more effective than trying to get on the radio these days, especially for a band like Arcade Fire. They have a devoted fanbase, but they just don’t get a ton of mainstream exposure. So yeah, definitely try it out. You won’t regret it.
Source: Pitchfork.
Blockbuster, formerly America’s Starbucks of video rental stores (remember those?) is expected to file for bankruptcy next month. It’s not hard to see why since they’ve lost so much ground to Netflix, Redbox, Hulu, and P2P. In fact, Blockbuster has lost over 1.1 billion since 2008, is sitting on 920 million in debt, and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last month. Not good for them, but will anyone really miss them? I know I won’t.
Source: LA Times
Panasonic posted a new video demonstration of how tough their ToughBook notebooks are. It’s like Will It Blend but far more impressive. Just, take a look at the video below. Panasonic took their ToughBook up against a rammer by mounting it on the rammer. It’s nothing incredible, just a bunch of shaking, but just wait for the big M Night Shyamalan twist ending. I guarantee your jaw will drop.
Source: Engadget
Toshiba is working on a new 3DTV that won’t require glasses. This is what I’ve been waiting for and the catalyst that will help 3DTV truly take off. At home, people don’t want to wear glasses to watch TV, and they especially don’t want to fork out $130 a pair. No word from Toshiba on specific launch dates or pricing, but I assume it will be rather expensive. Sure it’s nice that there’s going to be a 3DTV that doesn’t require glasses, but at the same time, is it truly worth it? There isn’t much you can get in 3D now. It’s limited to just a few channels on DirecTV, some Blu-ray releases, and a few video games (mostly on PS3). Maybe if the glassesless 3DTV catches on there will be more. As for right now, I’m just gonna ride this 3D wave out.
You’ve all heard of ChatRoulette right? It’s that website that matches you up with a random stranger and you chat via webcam. Well, LionsGate has found an awesome use for the site that doesn’t involve horny 20 year olds showing you their raging boners or hoping to jack off to naked chicks that might be on there. To promote their upcoming film, The Last Exorcism, LionsGate has set up a couple videos which play to unsuspecting visitors. It shows a girl looking all sexy and capturing your attention. Then, out of nowhere her eyes roll into the back of her head and she attacks the camera while screaming. Then a card that says www.thelastexorcism.com shows at the end. To show off their work, the movie studio has compiled a clip of real people reacting to what they think is a girl that’s going to take it off (warning: contains NSFW language).
I’m kinda surprised by this since I ditched Norton a long time ago, but it has some out on top on AV-Test’s Q2 testing with a score of 16/18. Very impressive, for what I considered to be bloatware and only bogged down your computer. I don’t think this will make me switch because I’m a big believer that anti virus should be free. That or just an initial charge for the program with no subscription fees. But hey, congrats to Norton for not only being a very popular AV solution, but a very good one as well.
Source: AV-Test
Teen heartthrob and professional thief (NSFW link) recently tweeted someone’s phone number to his almost 5 million followers. Almost immediately, the number was flooded with texts and calls from fans of the Canadian pop sensation. The number belongs to a guy named Kevin Kristopik. To demonstrate how this affected him, Kevin posted a video from youtube (this one is taken from the Gawker article)
I guess the reason why this happened is payback for Kevin’s hacking of one of Justin’s friend’s Twitter accounts and got Justin’s phone number. Oh crazy kids and their drama. I just hope someone throws a water bottle at Justin and ships him off to North Korea. 
Source: Gawker
If a German online retailer is to be believed, this is Microsoft’s rumored Arc Touch mouse. It features that same Arc design as the Arc mouse, but this time they’re taking some cues from Apple and making the mouse touch based (including the scrolling). They’re also giving the blue laser technology that lets it track on almost any surface. Another neat feature is that it folds flat for easy transportation. Now, Microsoft hasn’t announced anything about this mouse, but I’m sure we’ll hear something in the near future if this is in fact true. Not sure I’d want one since I’ve tried the arc mouse, and I’m not really a big fan of the design. I prefer huge mice because they fit my hand better.
Source: Engadget
Tony | 
09 2nd, 2010| 