By Andrew Liszewski

Don’t get too excited over this classy white USB necktie, since it doesn’t appear to be available for sale, but the concept was created by the designers at dialog05 as a means for making business contacts. Instead of swapping business cards, you can just download their contact info to the handy USB flash drive you have hanging around your neck all day long.

[ dialog05 - Business Class ] VIA [ Inspire me, now! ]

By Andrew Liszewski

NAB is just around the corner, so for the next week or so you can expect an avalanche of new broadcast-related gear. Like the ProPrompter Wing from Bodelin Technologies. It attaches to your camcorder’s tripod mount and allows your iPhone or iPod Touch to hang off the side, relatively close to the lens, and be used as a teleprompter.

The other piece of this puzzle is the ProPrompter software which is still awaiting approval on the Apple App Store. It features smooth scrolling in landscape or portrait modes, seven ‘prompting’ speeds, customizable fonts, text size and background color as well as cue point functionality. Your scripts need to be uploaded to the ProPrompter website and then downloaded to your device, but you’re able to upload as many as you need once you’re logged into their site.

The ProPrompter software will be free once available on the App Store, and pricing for the ProPrompter Wing will most likely be officially announced at NAB.

[ ProPrompter Wing ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s nice being clean. It’s a shame, then, that being clean is just so much damn work. Like, you get in the shower, and then you’re supposed to STAND there. Stand! And you have to be rubbing soap on your body and shampoo in your hair, and if you try and do that in opposite directions at the same time, it’ll make you fall over and you’ll crack your head open and die. And that would be bad.

The automatic human washing machine takes most of the dying out of showers by not only giving you the chance to lie down while getting clean, but also by doing all of the actual cleaning for you. You stick yourself inside the washing pod and command it to go, and it will wash you with soap and water, use infrared light to steam heat you, pamper you with sound and aromatherapy, and then finish up with a seaweed wrap and some body lotion. Then you get out, and the machine sterilizes itself to get rid of all the nastiness you left behind.

I have no idea how, or how well, the automatic human washing machine (aka the “Santelubain 999″) actually performs its numerous cleaning tasks, but the website assures us that “the automatic human washing machine has been recognized by various people through coverage by different medias.” Ah, okay, very good then. There’s no price listed, but the company seems interested in OEM resellers.

[ Avant ] VIA [ TrendHunter ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

I think everyone is familiar with the Red Ring of Death on the 360. Hell, if you’ve owned a 360 for very long, you’ve probably experienced this wonderful sensation once or twice. Well lately there’s been a new issue plaguing owners of Microsoft’s current-gen console, simply called the E74 Error.

While the E74 Error doesn’t sound nearly as ominous as the RRoD, it has the same effect. It turns your 360 from a kick-ass gaming machine into a doorstop. Since you don’t get three flashing red lights, you aren’t covered under Microsoft’s extended 3-year warranty. Until now that is.

Microsoft has apparently been listening to their customers again and have decided to extend the 3-year RRoD warranty to include the E74 Error. Just head over to the official support page for the info. I have to commend Microsoft on this move, as I’ve been a bit worried that I’ll have a $200 brick sometime in the future. Wait, did I just commend them for offering to fix a widespread issue with their console that probably never should have happened in the first place? I must be going crazy in my old age.

[ Microsoft ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Here’s something rather strange. Everyone knows that in order to buy an iPhone here in the US, it has to be locked down to AT&T’s network. Sure, you can jailbreak your phone and get it to work on another GSM carrier like T-Mobile, but you can’t buy one straight from the store and use it on a different network. Well if you head over to Buy.com, that isn’t the case.

Somehow this online superstore has managed to get their hands on a lot of 16GB iPhones that have never been locked. Not purchased, unlocked and resold. Never locked. How were they able to procure such a rare item? I can’t be for certain, but something tells me it involves bending the laws of time and space. Read on for their description of the phone.

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By Chris Scott Barr

I think enough people have gotten fired over the stupid crap they post online that you know someone’s always watching what you say. So what do you think happened when a girl complains about a lack of torrents for a movie that’s still in theaters? You guessed it, someone at the movie studio found her tweet and took action. Of course the actions of the studio weren’t what you would expect.

It seems the Miramax Films has been keeping an eye out for people tweeting about piracy. In this particular case, a girl (we’ll call her Amanda, mostly because thats her name) posted on Twitter that there weren’t any Adventureland torrents up. Miramax saw the tweet and offered her a pair of tickets to go watch the movie in theaters. That’s right, they didn’t scold her for trying to watch their new movie for free. Instead they made sure that she had no problems viewing it without paying. Wow.

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By Shane McGlaun

My kids have a slew of LeapFrog toys lying around the house. I can honestly say that most of them play the most annoying tunes. You know the sort of tunes I am talking about, the ones that stick in your mind and you end up humming them all day like “C says “kuh”, C says “kuh” every letter makes a sound, C says “kuh”". Crap, now it’s stuck in my head again.

I have a hard time when I am sitting near my kids getting them to leave my iPhone alone as it is. LeapFrog has now announced its first iPhone app called Number Rumble that will have them wanting to play with my phone even more. The game helps kids six to ten learn math by teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

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By Shane McGlaun

I have tried lots of earphones over the years that are available in the aftermarket to go along with my iPhone. The earphones that came with my iPhone sucked. They were uncomfortable, lacked bass, and generally just irritated me when I tried to use them.

It didn’t take long for me to get myself a decent set of aftermarket headphones. I have used Ultimate Ears earphones before and so far found them to be very good. Logitech owned Ultimate Ears has announced its latest set of earphones called the Ultimate Ears 700 noise isolating earphones.

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By Andrew Liszewski

GigaPan has updated their robotic camera mount line with the new Epic 100 which can now support a camera and lens combination of up to 3lbs, accommodating larger P&S models and smaller DSLRs. Other notable upgrades include a backlit display making it easier to setup the mount for night-time panoramas, an adjusted gearing pitch allowing for “greater holding torque and finer precision movements” and most importantly, the ability to capture multiple shots (up to 9) at each image location, facilitating those who like to take HDRI photos.

Of course if you read my review of the GigaPan Epic, you’ll know that while it’s a must-have tool for any photographer who’s into the whole panoramic thing, the battery life was lacking at best. And given the Epic 100 will be moving around heavier cameras on the same set of 6 x AA batteries, I have to assume the battery life situation isn’t any better, but hopefully not any worse.

[ GigaPan Epic 100 ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]