Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

LG eyes number two phone maker spot for 2012, premium brand in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Car designer Harsha Vardhan has a different vision of tomorrow. While his vehicle calls for an electric engine, just like we see in cars now like the Prius or Volt, that engine drives magnetic fields, not wheels.

(The magnetic fields, of course, do eventually drive the wheels forward when the energy is transferred from over superconducting fluid that touches the rims.)

The result is, theoretically, a very smooth and quiet ride with a low environmental impact. We just like the design for its neat, rear-entry cockpit and all of the potential we see in jousting of the future. [ecofriend]

If fembots were viciously cultured Japanese escorts instead of just ditsy blondes, Austin Powers would not have lived to make The Love Guru. (Tagged NSFW for crude violence and PG13 T&A)

This preview for Robo Geisha captures a world in which geisha are robotic assassins, super villains shoot rockets from wheelchairs, giant robots make buildings bleed and assassins sometimes sustain inconvenient anal injuries by way of panty katana. The film is expected to hit (Japan's?) theaters this fall.

If anyone has any more information on this must-see, Oscar-sure film, please share it in the comments. [Robo-Geisha via CrunchGear]

Of course, that’s just plain silly. Newspapers didn’t invent investigative journalism any more than they invented news or reporting news.

In fact, in this digital age where anyone willing to do the work can spill the beans to a massive audience, there is more reason than ever for independent investigators to step up to the plate. The folks at QuarryGirl, a blog dedicated to animal rights, have done just that.

Having been given a great deal of anecdotal proof that some food at Vegan restaurants around LA contained animal by-products, they decided to see if they could prove it. One might assume, as a bunch of bloggers with, potentially, no J-school experience whatsoever, they might make a hash of things. Instead, they made a plan:

Here's an outline of the plan:

• Locate a facility that has no traces of egg, casein or shellfish in which to perform the advanced tests
• Purchase anti-contamination equipment including industrial sterilization supplies, lab coats, uncontaminated bags, swabs, razor blades, gloves and floor coverings
• Obtain highly restricted industrial food testing "kits" only available to the food manufacturing industry
• Develop a regimented process to test each food item with the highest standards of inter-test cleanliness, ensuring that absolutely no food particles from one food item contaminate another
• Select a diverse set of menu items from 100% vegan-only restaurants throughout LA (with one exception, see later)
• Order the food for carry-out, and seal it in an airtight bag in its original packaging either inside, or very close to the point of purchase
• Transport the food items to the testing facility intact and sealed, and perform the tests within 48 hours of purchase, keeping them refrigerated until immediately before the test
• Develop a strict bracketing control, with a thorough analysis of the testing facility and equipment before testing: A negative control to ensure no pre-existing contamination, and a positive control test on a known-positive food product (containing all three target non-vegan items) to ensure that the tests do indicate positive results
• Conduct the test in absolute secrecy to ensure that no restaurant would know they were providing samples, and pose as regular customers ordering take-out food in a normal way, with no disclosure that the items would be used for a test.

So, we divided up the work between us, and dedicated a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday as well as over $1,000 of our collective money to pulling off the most extensive scientific test that we know of to find out, once and for all, if samples of restaurant food are vegan or not.

Not sure about you, but that sounds like a pretty sound plan. Find out what happened here.

This is just one example of how the inevitable death of newspapers will simply not be the information apocalypse they’d like you to think it will be.

Dave Title is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Dave Title and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

Ed Bott of ZDNet finds this M&M buried inside the horrible trail mix that is the Windows 7 Home Premium End User License Agreement: there's going to be a Family Pack.

That's it. There's going to be a family pack for three users. Nobody knows what the pricing will be, but Apple's family pack pricing is $199 for five users. Only three (Mom, Dad and Junior) can use Windows 7, so theoretically it should be lower than $199. But when you look at the pricing for a standalone one-user copy of Home Premium, it's $120 for an upgrade and $200 for a full version. So somewhere between $120 and $199 for an upgrade Family Pack, and somewhere between $200 and infinity for a retail Family Pack. [ZDNet]

You know what they say: Nothing takes the callouses off like fastening plastic bags filled with urine around your feet.

The Foot Pee! Pack, essentially two ziplock bags intended for your feet, supports an age-old philosophy that one's pee can have benefits to their skin. Now I'm no expert, but I've been accidentally urinating on stuff for years now, and I can't say that my crotch, toes, knees, backyard bushes or bathroom walls look any younger because of it. [Toyko Times via Tokyo Mango]

Also note the products tagline: "Easy & Surprise"

Continue reading Sega Toys makes indoor fireworks infinitely safer, to Elvis Costello's dismay

Filed under: Displays

Sega Toys makes indoor fireworks infinitely safer, to Elvis Costello's dismay originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.