TowleTech V.103

You may have heard of a little game called Grand Theft Auto IV. Its sales topped $500 million in its first week in stores.

What you may not know about GTA IV is that it has a gay theme (see video clip, right, via via GuyTVBlog).

Jockohomo writes: "No, big bruiser Niko Bellic is not gay but rather disturbingly plays a homosexual lothario on an online dating site to lure a gay Irish American mobster. Damn, my ears perked up regarding the gay sequence, but surprise the play is handled brilliantly and with a great deal of humor thanks to acclaimed screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boyscout and The Long Kiss Goodnight). Per usual players can choose not the complete certain missions; i.e. main character Niko benefits later from a friendship formed with the gay mobster. Remember you’re playing an apocalyptic adult game where no demographic remains unscathed. While GTAIV walks a precarious line I have to give Rockstar Games props for not defaulting to the usual homophobic sequence filled with stereotypes."

Mobile phone manufacturer HTC this week launched the Touch Diamond, an iPhone like Windows Mobile device that has been lauded for its looks. Cool Hunting writes: "All the most important functions are accessible from the home screen using a simple gesture based touch interface; the graphics and animation are gorgeous. While the faceted physical design is innovative, its little nuances, like turning the phone over to silence an incoming call, that make this a device worth noting."

Bluetooth sensors could soon be implanted in people at risk of a heart attack: "If the 'in-body network' recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital."

You'll never win: study finds that the number of fat cells in your body will never change.

Military may be using electronic insects for surveillance by the end of the year: "British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives. Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby. Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets. Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers' hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside. BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army."

Meet the world's first bionic sea creature: "Two years ago Winter was the dolphin that could not swim. Instead of powering through the water with a flick of her tail, the bottlenose could barely waggle from side to side. She had lost her tail in a crab trap at just two months old and was found floating in distress off the coast of Florida."

The AP has launched a news service geared for the iPhone: "The service will deliver local news from participating member newspapers and national and international news from AP. The reports will be organized by ZIP code. Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and others also offer news services tailored for mobile devices, but Jeffrey Litvack, global product development director for AP, said the Mobile News Network would offer easier access to local news stories. Apple offered guidance on how to best tailor the service to the iPhone but has no formal role with the product, Litvack said." The iPhone also this week got its first photo-sharing site: Natuba.

Are you ready to unibike? " The electric Uno is the brainchild of 18-year-old Canadian Ben Gulak who spent several years developing the bike, which is controlled entirely by body movements. The machine actually has two wheels, side-by-side, and uses gyroscopic technology to stay upright. It moves in the direction the rider leans - and the more you lean, the faster you go. Ben claims that the bike could help beat pollution and he was inspired to design it after visiting China and seeing all the smog there."

To the moon, you! NASA has invited aeveryone the opportunity to place their name in a database which will be put on a microchip and put aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft. It's scheduled to launch in late 2008. It's for all practical purposes a novelty, although if the probe happens to be hijacked by aliens, at least they'll know how to address you. Submit your name here.

Perhaps the only people happy about this news are the makers of Propecia: Men living in polluted areas more likely to go bald. "The scientists believe toxins and carcinogens found in polluted air can stop hair growing by blocking mechanisms that produce the protein from which hair is made. Baldness is known to be hereditary, but the new research suggests that environmental factors could exacerbate hair loss."

TOWLETECH GUIDE TO THE TUBE:

BLACKBERRY 9000: A crackberry review of the newest BlackBerry device!

A DO-IT-YOURSELF PARTY BUTTON: Just what everyone needs, a party at the press of a button.

THE ATLAS DETECTOR: An animated explanation of the world's largest Hadron collider, which later in 2008 will be used to learn about the basic forces that shape our universe, creating microscopic black holes by colliding protons, and perhaps determining the origins of mass. Heavy stuff.

HEART BEANS COFFEE GRINDER: Coffee grinder that moves in sync with your heartbeat to "induce an experience of intimacy with the process of making coffee." Why? I have no idea.

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TowleTech V.103

I'm sad to announce that this will be Jon Barrett's last TowleTech column (at least until I can beg him back). Jon's embarking on a fantastic book project and I want to take this moment to thank him for his outstanding contributions to Towleroad. I know this post is something a lot of people look forward to each week. It will continue. If there are any witty and wise writers out there with their finger on the gay and tech world pulse, shoot us a tips email. In the meantime, thank you Jon. You will be missed.

BMW is bringing back the tiny Isetta and the company's likely to turn to the classic into an electric vehicle that could hit American showrooms by 2012. Reports Autopia: BMW brass are reportedly poised to sign off on the project in order to meet California’s zero-emissions vehicle mandate, which requires automakers to build 7,500 emissions-free cars by 2014. Click here to see what the new Isetta might look like.

Meanwhile, when the next generation of the Toyota Prius comes out in 2009 it’s expected to be four inches longer, have a more powerful engine, and be more fuel efficient, AutoObserver reports.

Fortune is reporting that AT&T is preparing to “subsidize the cost of the new iPhone, bringing the price down to $199 for customers who sign two-year contracts,” when Apple comes out with a 3G version, which is expected to happen this summer.

And for that iPhone you’ve already got: Gizmodo reports that AT&T hotspots—including at Barnes and Noble and Starbucks—are now offering free Wi-Fi service to iPhone users. Working off your laptop? No worry. Here’s how to fool the hotspot into thinking your browser is an iPhone.

As part of the promotion for his new film, Australia, director Baz Luhrmann has launched a filmmaking course on iTunes called Set to Screen. As Underwire reports: “The virtual film school features monthly podcasts with behind-the-scenes footage from Australia designed to illustrate how costume design, cinematography, music scoring, and other production elements come together. The kicker: Some podcasts include assignments. The best student work will be included in the DVD for the World War II romance [starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman] after its theatrical release next fall.

New York City’s MTA will begin installing cameras in its subway cars as part of a pilot program to reduce graffiti in the trains, which the MTA says costs $1.8 million per year to remove. But, as Autopia reports: Most transit systems that already use cameras in their cars still have intolerable amounts of graffiti and scratchiti.

Starting this week, iTunes began selling movies the same day they are released on DVD. Participating studios include 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertaiment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment, and First Look Studios.

The Boy Genius has snagged some images of the upcoming BlackBerry Kickstart, which comes in a clamshell, has a Pearl-esque keyboard, and apparently utilizes both an internal and LCD screen.

Here's a new twist on recycling: Re-Shirt is an Austrian-based company that resells used T-shirts based on the owners' anecdotes of when it was originally purchased or a memorable event that took place when it was worn. Each shirt is assigned a code, so when someone buys it, they can come back to the site and add to the shirt's history. From what I can tell, the stories are pretty clean--can't say as much for all the shirts.
(Via Coolhunting)

TOWLETECH TV

POKE ME: British Sketch Comedy collective Idiot of Ants re-enacts a Facebook interaction if it were to take place in person.

iGOOGLE: Google introduces personalized home pages created by top designers and pop stars.

MACBOOK ERROR: Lenova parodies the MacBook Air.

TIDYBOW: Amazing self-cleaning toilet.

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TOWLETECH V.102

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at magnetic field masterpieces, interactive holograms, airline seating that you'll be looking forward to, Beauty and the Geek jeans, and test tube turkey.

Flint Weisser, a Pratt student from my hometown of Boise, has created a series of drawings by capturing the complex interactions of magnetic fields. As Wired.com’s Alexis Madrigal explains: “Each piece consists of magnets bolted to steel plates and covered with a thin film of nickel particles sandwiched in plastic. The nickel particles act like iron filings to align themselves to the magnets’ fields.” Not sure I get it, but the result is pretty amazing. See more of Weisser’s work here. Or see it in person.

Fresh on the paws of the fauna sauna (which is supposed to heal your pet’s arthritis with infrared heat) comes the SunSpa, a product that claims to control Fido’s mood swings by stimulating sunlight. Reports Crave: “The 150-watt light keeps the bed at a toasty 80 to 85 degrees while promising to last 5,000 hours. The bed itself is covered with “Crypton Fabric” that is odor- and water-resistant, two qualities that would probably improve any pet’s disposition with or without light.”

If you’re fed up with the cell phone options out there, here’s your chance to create one of your own design—and to pocket a little cash while you’re at it. LG is throwing an innovation challenge and asking average Joes to come up with designs for the “dream phone.” But if the pretty weak prizes don’t deter you—the winner gets a 52-inch screen TV and $10,000—the deadline probably will; all entries must be in by April 30.

In what could quite simply be one of the best creations of the 21st century, next to the iPhone anyway, Delta is planning to introduce new “Cozy Suite” seats in the economy section of its Boeing 777 and 767 fleet by 2010. Says Gizmodo: “The major feature of the design is a staggered layout that increases privacy while simultaneously creating a space for weary travelers to rest their heads. It also allows passengers to enjoy 31 inches of leg room (two inches better than the competition) and the ability tot recline without disturbing the people behind them.”

The next chapter in the ongoing saga of the much-rumored 3G iPhone: The Times Online in the UK quoted an unnamed source as saying that the upcoming device will have a “radically different” appearance than the current iPhone. Two apparent possibilities are a clamshell and a slider with a hardware QWERTY keyboard. Seems a little too standard for Apple, though, no?

I guess Garden Burgers are no longer good enough. PETA announced this week that it would offer $1 million to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.” To win, the contestant must also produce a product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
(Image via Gizmodo)

The Centers Disease Control confirmed a piece of news that a few of my friend friends can attest (Henry? Helen?). This year’s flu season was the worst in recent history. And worse: The flu vaccine didn’t really work.

And for today's "clever concept that could get you in trouble at airport security": Beauty and the Geek Jeans. Essentially, it's everything you need to work your computer--on the front of your pants. In addition to the keyboard, it includes speakers built into the knees, a pocket for mouse storage, and (ahem) a joystick controller behind the zipper.

In honor of Earth Day, Lifehacker put together a list of easy ways to go green with your computer.

In case you’re still itching to get your hands on a Kindle, they’re finally back in stock on Amazon. Honestly, though, mine’s been collecting dust on my nightstand. Every time I try to buy a book, it’s not yet available for the Kindle.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope. An interactive hologram that responds to gestures.

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TowleTech V.101

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at imagined cities, using your iphone as a DJ deck, a hot way to avoid letting your memory burn you on your anniversary, massage pants, and a promising experimental treatment for cancer.

Wired.com has compiled a portfolio of mile-high skyscrapers and floating cities that never were. Above: Frank Lloyd Wright’s This Illinois, which was supposed to shoot 5,278 feet above Chicago.

I don’t have a lot of information on this (or this) concept dj iPhone application. They definitely look cool. But if your hands are small enough to work those turntables, I don’t know how popular you’re going to be at the party.

Earlier this week, Andy posted video footage of a man stuck in an elevator for 41 hours (all part of a story in the most recent New Yorker magazine). But the sidebar to that story is also worth a read: everything you didn’t know about elevators and elevator safety.

Check out this “young me/new gallery,” where people have posted old photos of and then tried to recreate the same pose today. Better yet, post a pair of your own pictures.
(Via BoingBoing)

Here’s a new tool to that attempts to predict if your next flight will be delayed—and by how much. As Autopia reports: Delaycast gathers historical data and runs it through powerful computers, using algorithms to search for patterns. This gives is a roadmap to anticipate future delays. It’s predictive modeling, and it’s similar to what sites like Farecast use to guess which way ticket prices are going.

Need something a little more substantial to carry your MacBook Air around with? Check out this ultra-slim shoulder bag from Orbino. If red’s a little too much, the Handstained Mahogany Leather might be more your style.

And here’ s little something for those engaged couples in Massachusetts and Canada (the only two places in North America where gay people can legally wed): It’s a wedding band that burns your finger to remind you of your anniversary. As Gadget Lab explains: A full 24 hours before your special day begins, a “hot spot” on the ring’s interior will begin to warm up to 120 degrees for approximately 10 seconds. And in case that doesn’t do the trick, the ring will continue to warm up every hour, on the hour, all day.”

Are those massage pants? Or are you just happy to see me?

If you watched 60 Minutes last Sunday, you’ll know that John Kanzius, a man who has absolutely no medical training (and not even a college degree), has come up with one of the most promising leads in cancer research today—using radio waves and a hot dog. Check out this story:

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TowleTech V.100

In this week's tech news (our 100th TowleTech!), Jon Barrett looks at Zaha Hadid's futuristic designs, strange German tech-wear, carbon dioxide maps, air-taxi service (for the rich), and how Tivo execs might know the outcome of American Idol before you do.

The Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid won a competition this week to design a museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, that may serve as an exhibition space for the Guggenheim Foundation and the Hermitage Museum. Hadid’s space-age design beat proposals by Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliana Fuksas. If feasibility plans for the museum are approved, it should open by 2011.

Scientists at Purdue University have come up with a new technique to precisely track daily and local patterns of carbon dioxide emissions—down to 100-square-kilometer chunks across the country. “The resulting database and maps provide of a view of the industrial metabolism of our combustion powered lives,” The New York Times reports. For a video of the NASA- and Department of Energy-funded program, called Project Vulcan, check out this video.

In the continued and mounting speculation about the arrival of a 3G iPhone, bloggers pounced on a comment The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg made during a conference last week. According to Crave, Mossberg was discussing broadband penetration and online video when he casually mentioned iPhone and said “it will be 3G in 60 days.” But on Tuesday, Mossberg told Silicon Alley Insider that his comments were misunderstood. “If I knew when this date was, why would I announce it in the middle of a sentence at the Finnish embassy, rather than report it in The Wall Street Journal?

And in equally ridiculous Apple-related news (unless you’re Bavarian), a German company has created a pair of lederhosen, complete with an iPod-control panel. The britches were unveiled a few months ago, but timeliness be damned, I thought these were too funny not to talk about.

In a move to broaden the scope of what has been only a photo-sharing website, Yahoo added videos to Flickr this week. Reports cnet: “The videos, limited to 90 seconds and 150MB, will be shows as thumbnails alongside users’ photos, and will inherit all the features of photos stored on the site: Users can add comments, captions, geotags, and privacy restrictions so only friends or family may view the videos.”

Bad news for hops-loving homos. Research out of New Zealand reports that climate change may threaten the production of malting barley, a crucial ingredient to making beer. “It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up,” the Associated Press quoted one of the researchers as saying.

TiVo execs say they can predict the outcome of American Idol simply by gauging users’ fast-forwarding and rewinding habits. And according to Wired.com, the company is 4-0 for the past four weeks of AI competition. “Those performers who are most frequently fast-forwarded through also happen to be the ones who receive the fewest votes,” Wired.com reports. “Conversely, performers who are rewound and re-watched get the highest votes.

With travel on American Airlines nearly grinding to a halt this past week, there’s added reason to pay attention to a new company called DayJet. The Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows asserts that, by using its fleet of tiny Eclipse 500 Jets to shuttle passengers back and forth to wherever they want to go (and whenever they want to get there), DayJet is one of the first companies to offer viable air-taxi service to the country. Unfortunately, DayJet’s service—which, according to Wired.com, can cost about twice as much as a standard airline flight—is currently limited to the southeast corner of the country.

Could NapTV—only a concept now—be the laptop computer of the television category?

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TowleTech V.99

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at urban Polar Bears, BlackBerry spooning, the first footage of a solar tsunami, Bjork's 3-D music video, and the case for a 3G iPhone.

Wooster Collective has discovered a New York artist who is using plastic bags to breathe life into street art. “He (or she) ties the bags to the ventilation grates above the subway lines so that when the subway rushes through underneath, the animal jumps up and springs to life.”

Gossip TV shows and magazines have theorized about strength of Madonna’s and Guy Ritchie’s marriage, but Madge tells Elle magazine that she and her husband sleep right next to each other—with their BlackBerrys under their pillows: “It’s not unromantic. It’s practical. I’m sure loads of couples have their BlackBerrys in bed with them. I have to sleep with my BlackBerry because I often wake up in the middle of the night and remember that I’ve forgotten something, so I jump up and make notes. Guy's always waiting for me to come to bed, so he plays Brick on his BlackBerry until I’m ready.”

Yahoo announced that it will add voice-enabled search to its mobile platform, called OneSearch 2.0, which it plans to roll out to manufacturers beginning this summer. As Information Week reports: “To access the voice service, a person would only have to push the call button on the phone and say a word or phrase to Yahoo’s automated service to get results shipped to the phone. During the demo, saying ‘British Airways 287’ got arrival times, ‘March Madness’ got a list of scores for games played during the college basketball tournament, and ‘3600 Las Vegas Boulevard’ led to a street map and directions.”

Apple is trying to stand in the way of New York City’s attempt to trademark a logo for the city’s GreeNYC campaign. Apple says the logo, which shows a stylized apple with a stalk and a leaf, will confuse people and “seriously injure the reputation which [Apple] has established for its goods and services.” The city says Apple’s claims have “no merit” and that “no consumer is likely to be confused.”

Another sign—and a good one, at that—that a 3G iPhone is right around the corner: AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega told journalists gathered at a press luncheon that he expected all of the company's smart integrated devices to be 3G in the next couple of months. Then, when asked by PC Magazine's Sascha Segan if his comment included the iPhone, de la Vega said, “Let me repeat what I said: I think that you’re going to see our integrated devices be 3G in the not-too-distant future, and I mean months. That should be clear enough.”

Microsoft announced this week that AT&T will carry its Surface table monitor to help customers select phones in their stores. Reports Unplugged: “This is basically a soft roll-out which will allow Microsoft a little real-word feedback while getting consumers used to the product.”

NASA’s twin Stereo spacecraft has captured the first 3-D footage of a solar ‘tsunami—a circular shockwave, caused by a huge explosion on the sun’s surface that travels 1 million kilometers in just 30 minutes.

For me, spring means there’s just another month or two until I can get back to the beach. But for those of you who look forward to hitting the slopes this spring, check out Podpro, which offers free downloadable trail maps for your iPhone or iPod.

As a follow-up to their list of the top 10 best performing headphones, Unplugged.com has now released its winners for the most fashionable headphones out there.

Bjork is the latest of a group, including U2, Hannah Montana, and Missy Elliott, to create a 3-D music video. Only the 2-D version of Bjork’s video “Wanderlaust” video is available online now, but the 3-D version will be released on DVD and packaged with a pair of 3-D glasses on April 14. Click here for a brief behind-the-scenes documentary of the production process.

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TowleTech V.98

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at the newest entry in tourist space travel, the arrival of inflight cell phone calling (and showers), using your iPod to work out, Rickrolling, and your stupid questions answered by Calpernia Addams.

A company called Xcor Aerospace on Wednesday announced plans for a two-seater commercial spacecraft, called the Lynx, that could take its first test flight by 2010. Plans are for the spacecraft to take wealthy passengers on 25-minute spaceflights. “Our company’s goal has always been to build rocket-powered vehicles that can be flown like regular aircraft,” said company president Jeffrey Greason, who claims that the Lynx is relatively environmentally friendly: “They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid-fuel or hybrid rocket motors,” he says. See an animated clip of the Lynx in flight here.

A new location-based service called FindMe uploads on your cell phone and then, using cell phone towers, will update your Facebook status based on your pre-tagged locations, such as “work,” “home,” etc. Reports Crave’s Jessica Dolcourt: “It’s a somewhat good, somewhat limited idea that suffers from half-backed presentation issues. For instance, FindMe doesn’t believe in grammatical standards when updating Facebook, nor in identifying FindMe-produced status messages with a proprietary icon. Not only does this miss the promotion boat, it confuses friends who wonder why I keep changing my status to ‘Jessica is at an unknown location,’ or to this caveman grunt: ‘Jessica Work.’”

Here is a very cool recycling program for those of you who live in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Paid for by Clover Technologies, the Mail Back program provides free postage-paid envelopes at 1,500 post offices in these cities to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods, and MP3 players. Read the full press release here.

Get prepared to be annoyed on an upcoming long-haul flight—the age of in-flight cell phone calling has arrived. Emirates Airlines is partnering with the company AeroMobile and spending $27 million to outfit its planes with technology that allows passengers to use their mobile phones in the air. As Autopia explains: Emirates says passengers will only be allowed to make five or six calls per flight, and flight crews will have the power to turn the system on and off as needed. And for when you’re not making telephone calls, the airline also promises that it will soon have showers in first class.

A homeowner in Jacksonville, Ore., came home to find nearly 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch and thinking, because of a fake Craigslist post, that everything there—including a horse—was theirs for the taking. According Cnet’s News.com: “The woman who showed up to take his horse finally started to feel uneasy about the whole deal when she realized that the horse looked perfectly healthy, and well, seemed to actually belong to someone. She left a note on the door and then decided to call [the homeowner] to make sure that the ad was legit.”

PumpOne, which sell individual workouts that can be played on different mobile devices (including a new iPod version), just released a new line of workouts—called Pumped for Summer 2008. I use PumpOne (when I actually make it to the gym), and it definitely helps me mix-up my exercise routine. But I’m not so sure I need a summer-specific program. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I definitely could use a summer-specific workout, but I'm not sure I would use one.

New York City’s three Apple stores ran out of iPhones this week, according to The Huffington Post, and that led some people, including Kevin Rose of Digg, to predict that the company was clearing its stock to make room for a new, 3G phone. Rose says that the 3G iPhone will hit stores within the next three months and will have two cameras—one for video chat and the other for taking still shots.

Andy posted a link earlier this week to a Los Angeles Time story interviewing 80s singer Rick Astley about “Rickrolling.” It led me to search for more on the phenomenon (which I found here) and, of course, take a look at the 1987 video for his song “Never Gonna Give You Up" (for those of you who haven’t been Rickrolled).

If you’ve got a few minutes (OK, maybe more than a few minutes) check out this podcast from Calpernia Addams, star of the Logo show Transamerican Love Story. Here she takes on stupid questions.

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TowleTech V.97

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at how you might see Paris from higher up than ever before, the possibility of a clamshell iPhone, Facebook's new privacy settings, the power of Robots, and John McCain's new campaign co-chair.

Spring is here—and to celebrate, here’s proof: a photograph taken from space on Thursday of the sun crossing the celestial equator and heading north.
(Source Astronomy Photo of the Day via GeekDad)

The X Prize Foundation on Thursday announced that it is sponsoring a $10-million competition for the next super-efficient car. Contenders, who must create “real cars” that are available for purchase, will race across the country in 2009 while being judged on fuel efficiency, speed, distance, and other factors.

A federal appeals court dismissed a discrimination suit against Craigslist last week, saying that the site is immune from accusations that it violates the Federal Housing Act of 1968. At issue was a lawsuit filed by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, which said Craigslist is liable for allowing customers to post discriminatory housing ads. But the court said the site should be treated like an ISP and not liable for posts by third parties.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman has her eyes on a new bid these days—John McCain’s bid for president of the United States. Whitman, whose resignation from the online auction site takes effect on March 31, will co-chair McCain’s national campaign.

In the spirit of tech news that’s really architecture news but too cool—or reprehensible, I can’t decide—not to report, the French will celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower by adding a giant webbed Kevlar observation deck to the top. As Gizmodo reports, the temporary deck will not only double the size of the deck, it will make the Eiffel Tower look like “some sort of alien space needle.”

Facebook introduced new privacy features this week meant to give users more control over who sees what data on their profile pages. Another new feature, “friends of friends,” allows users to share information about themselves with a wider group of people. Next up: instant messaging.

It's no surprise that Apple is considering new form factors for the iPhone. And this could be one of the candidates. Unwiredreview.com found an Apple patent for a “dual-sided trackpad device,” which resembles the current iPhone design into a clamshell format. As Crave points out, “the key to this design is having touch-screen capabilities on both the top and bottom of the phone when it’s open.” Looks like it could be another thinovation for Apple.

Speaking of iPhone…ever wonder what a $176,400 version would look like?

And speaking of Apple, the company was named among “The Toxic 10” by Portfolio magazine. “Apple pledged to finish phasing out toxins such as polyninyl chlorides and brominated flame retardants from its products this year, but the iPhone, unveiled after that promise was made, contained both types of chemical,” the magazine reports.

TOWLETECH GUIDE TO THE TUBE

I LOVE MY MAC: Move over Obama girl, meet Apple fan Tonya.

FETCH: Robotic tennis-ball cannon proves to be dog's best friend.

THE ONION: Are we giving robots too much power?.

THE END OF THE WORLD BOOK: Alistair McCartney takes to YouTube to promote his new novel.

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TowleTech V.96

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at architecture that's not lazy, net acquisitions based on the Spitzer scandal, a new tool for back shavers, checking out the universe online, and the most anticipated video game of the year running on an iPhone.

Architect Bruce Fowle tells Metropolis that much of today’s architecture makes us fat— because the elevator lobbies are nice while the stairwells are nothing more than concrete blocks with poor lighting at the end of the hall. But Fowle says he’s been trying to design buildings that keep people fit. For example, in The New York Times building that Fowle designed with Renzo Piano he encased the stairwells in glass and made them so big that top execs sometimes go there to hold meetings.

Government official in Japan have launched an investigation of the iPod nano after one ’pod reportedly spewed “chest high flames” and caused a bedroom fire in January. The targeted model is MA099J/A (or the old black and white plastic model), Engadget reports. Perhaps the explosion was a sort of celebration; MP3 players turn 10 years old this month.

A downside of the super-slim MacBook Air: It’s so skinny that it might accidentally be thrown out with the trash. That’s what happened to Newsweek’s Steven Levy, who thinks the notebook got mixed up with the Sunday Times and then recycled with the paper. “Can you really blame a guy for losing something that’s called Air?” he asks.

Client 9 domain names were snatched up within minutes of The New York Times reporting news about a high-class prostitution ring that involved New York governor Eliot Spitzer, Wired.com reports. “The original story didn’t name Spitzer directly, but I thought [Client9.com] sounded catchy, so I bought it,” says Nick Galbreath, a Manhattan engineer who registered the domain for $10.13. Another domain, Client-9.net, went for $5.97. Meanwhile, Spitzer’s lady friend, “Kristen” seen here on her MySpace page) has become an Internet meme, with a handful of mash-ups like this one mixing Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction” with one of Kristen’s tracks.

Back shavers rejoice. Razorba has updated the design of its War Hammer, a long piece of plastic designed to make sure any and all of you can have a silky smooth back—without ever tweaking your neck.

BoingBoing’s Corey Doctorow lays out his “17 Tips For Getting Bloggers to Write About You.” His number one piece of advice is to have a link. “Seriously: If you want bloggers to write about you, you need to have something linkable. Your upcoming TV show, protest march, product or soccer tournament is literally unbloggable unless you put it on the Web somewhere first.” Find a link to the other 16 tips here.

BoingBoing also tipped us off to these great—and free—desktop wallpapers.

A new study says that driving with a hands-free phone is as dangerous as driving with a phone in your hand. The study, by Carnegie Mellon University, says that it’s listening to a caller (rather than keeping both hands on the wheel) that is the main distraction to drivers.

Google is no longer earthbound with the launch of Google Sky, Google Mars, and Google Moon, amazing resources for astronomy buffs. See a video demo here.

Here’s an exhibit that should appeal to water sports enthusiasts and environmentalists alike: Drinkpeedrinkpeedrinkpee is a project and installation that opened at Eyebeam in New York City this week. It features a large-scale diagram—showing the role our bodies play in the water cycle—and then offers visitors a DIY kit for using pee as plant fertilizer.

TOWLETECH GUIDE TO THE TUBE

DUBYA SINGS: After YouTube took down a cell phone video recording of the president serenading the White House press corps, Salon’s Scott Bateman put together this animated video to go along with an audio recording of Bush’s song.

SPORE PHONE: Footage of the highly anticipated game running on an iPhone.

SEARCH ME: A new search engine inspired by Apple's Cover Flow.

VOICE WITHOUT A VOICE: A neckband that translates thought into voice.

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TowleTech V.95

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at the San Francisco of the future, the iPhone SDK, winking your music on and off, making yourself a superstar in Times Square, and the Poseidon underwater hotel.

San Francisco firm IwamotoScott Architecture won the $10,000 grand prize for its entry in the History Channel’s City of the Future contest. The winning entry envisions what San Francisco might look like in 2108. I don’t anticipate being around long enough to wonder what these “Geothermal Mushrooms” on the top of Bernal Hill is all about. See all the images here.

You can soon expect even more out of your iPhone now that Apple has released software and raised $100 million to lure developers to create applications for the popular ’pod. The Associated Press reports that Apple will sell outside developers’ applications through a new App Store. Developers will pay a $99 fee to register and will set the price for their applications. They’ll get 70 percent of the revenue and Apple 30 percent. As part of the announcement, Apple demonstrated seven applications developed within a couple weeks by high-profile names in tech.

A new iPod controller developed in Japan allows you to control your music with a blink of an eye—literally. It uses a camera clipped to glasses or a pair of headphones to read how you're blinking. Reuters reports: “Wink strongly for one second with one eye to rewind, use the other to skip to the next song, or close both eyes to pause and play.”
(Photo via Gizmodo)

Paypal users who access the site with a Safari browser are more vulnerable to security fraud than those who use Explore, Firefox, or Opera, Paypal said this week.

The Defense Department is about to award a contract to build an unmanned aircraft that can stay in the air for up to five years at a time. One of the biggest obstacles for the aircraft, which Gizmodo reports will likely draw from the NASA design pictured here, is how to power it for such a long period.

If California power company PG&E has its way, your phone might start smelling slightly funny after each charge. That’s because the company began using cow manure to produce natural gas that it hopes will be a new way to power homes. “When most people see a pile of manure, they see a pile of manure, we saw it as an opportunity for farmers, for utilities, and California,” a company spokesman told Reuters.

Now everybody can see their own mug on an electronic billboard above New York City’s Times Square—even without winning America’s Next Top Model. That’s because artist Raul Vincent Enriquez has launched a public art project this week, called “I in the Sky,” in which he lets anyone come into a photo booth and then transmits the resulting photographs to the top of the Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square. “You sit in the photo booth and hit the button and it takes about 30 photos of you and then we animate them,” Enriquez told Reuters. Ready for your close up? The booth is located in the Chashama art gallery on West 44th Street, just off Times Square. The animations are also supposed to be posted here (although there weren’t any there when I last checked). So this video will have to work until they get their act together.

Samsung Electronics this week became the first manufacturer to ship a 500 GB 2.5-inch drive to PC makers. That means you’ll soon be able to buy a notebook with a whopping 1TB of storage. By the way, if you’re in the market for a new laptop, check out Switched.com’s 2008 Laptop Buying Guide.

U.S. scientists have developed a computer mind-reading technique that lets them predict the images that people are looking at, raising the likelihood that they’ll soon be able to visualize scenes from a person’s dreams or memory. Amazing and scary at the same time.

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ROBOTIC SNAKE: As if real ones aren’t creepy enough.

DAVEY DANCE BLOG: I'm a little obsessed with this guy and his videos of himself dancing around the world.

POSEIDON UNDERWATER HOTEL: A video tour of the world's first 40-feet underwater hotel, scheduled to open in Fiji next year.

FENTIX CUBE: Like Rubik's, but better.

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TowleTech V.94

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at the newest application designed to facilitate online activism, a ship of sinking Mazdas, 3-D maps of the moon, composting, and the first videogame to utilize Microsoft's 'surface' multi-touch technology which may appeal to those of you who spent your childhood evenings trapping lightning bugs in the backyard.

These 1,301 glowing florescent bulbs aren’t plugged in, they’re planted in a field in England and are being powered by the magnetic field produced by the power lines above. See more photos here.

Apple updated its MacBook Pro computer this week, most notably by adding a multi-touch pad. But if you’re planning on buying one and you live in New York City’s Williamsburg neighborhood, be careful. One Mac owner this week told Gawker about a house burglary —where the burglar took all the Apple products in the apartment but left behind a Dell notebook computer.

Wired.com’s Joshua Davis has a terrific feature up about the Cougar Ace, a cargo ship that flipped on its side in Alaskan waters. The piece, which includes a video, describes a sea-salvage team’s efforts to save the boat and its cargo—millions of dollars in Mazdas.

A Facebook application launched this week is taking a new approach to online activism. Called Ultimatums, it lets users float an idea, set an arbitrary “tipping point,” and then track group members’ commitment to the common goal. As Wired.com’s Underwire describes: “Instead of abstract ideas (like Facebook group Make Poverty History), Ultimatums lets users set concrete goals. The end result is a straightforward app designed to transform a vibrant online community into a vehicle for specific social change. For example, one group calls for Wal-Mart to provide health care benefits for its employees. If a million users sign up, all million pledge to boycott the company if the demand isn’t met. Each ultimatum is an online petition created by users that requires a tipping point of participants to induce action.”

And when you’re not busy changing the world, check out this video: How to Not Get Caught on Facebook.

Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a new concept for a stretchable and flexible mobile device called Morph. The new concept phone, which is part of an online display in conjunction with the “Design of the Elastic Mind” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, uses nanotechnology to allow users to “morph” the device into whatever shape the want.

If you want to compost but live in an apartment, check out this indoor compost, called NatureMill. It will process up to 120 pounds of food per month, and a red light will shine when the compost is ready to use—whether it’s for your houseplants or your window garden. And don’t worry about the smell; a built-in carbon filter absorbs the odor.

Seems that Obama-mania has resulted in a shortage of campaign paraphernalia, leading one supporter to create ObamaCycle, which is being touted as sort of a Craigslist for supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate. The site, which has nearly 900 registered users, is aimed at reusing Obama campaign materials rather than throwing them away. Users, who have to register and create a profile, can leave messages to each other on the site and advertise their material needs and offers on the front page.

TOWLETECH TUBE

ANDROID'S STREET VIEW: Things are progressing quite well for the Google phone.

CYBER CELEBRITY: A new vlog examines the phenomenon.

MOONSCAPE: A 3D map of the moon.

SURFACE APPEAL: A demo of Firefly, the first-ever game developed for Microsoft's Surface.

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TowleTech V.93

Pentagram Architects partner James Biber took his inspiration from Radio City Music Hall and 2001: A Space Odyssey when he created this home theater in Montauk, New York. As Coolhunter reports, the space includes a series of felt-covered arches and 600 five-watt dimmer-controlled light bulbs “that provide a soft ambient light for when you need to find that elusive remote control.”

And for those of you who can’t bother rolling out of bed to watch TV, surf the Web, or listen to tunes—here's the Hi-Can High Fidelity Canopy. Details are sketchy on the concept for this all-in-one bed/entertainment system. But the video says it’s “coming soon,” so there’s hope for the bed-potato in us all.

Used to be that Wii bowling and tennis were considered a workout. Now Nintendo is introducing Wii Fit, a game that will have players engage in exercise-like activities, including yoga and low-impact calisthenics. Already a hit in Japan, where 1.4 million units have been sold, Wii Fit will go on sale here on May 19.

If you think the Wii is interactive, wait until you try out the $299 EPOC Neuroheadset. The headset, which was designed to control gameplay by reading your thoughts, was unveiled this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and is supposed to hit stores by year’s end.

Apple has slashed the price of its 1GB iPod Shuffle to $49 and introduced a new 2GB model for $69. And in case you’re looking to get rid of an old ’pod, the company also announced a recycling program for computers, iPods, and cell phones.

I can’t be the only one out there who had a childhood crush on Randolph Mantooth, who played one of the paramedics on the 1970s TV show Emergency! So NBC Universal must have had more than me in mind when it announced this week that it would begin streaming full episodes of Emergency! and a bunch of other old shows on its web sites, including NBC.com, SciFi.com, ChillerTV, and SleuthChannel.com. Some of the other programs to get the dotcom treatment beginning this month: The A-Team, Kojak, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Miami Vice, Buck Rogers, Night Gallery, and the original Battlestar Galactica.

Scientists in New York have developed a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it the darkest substance ever made. The Washington Post reports: “The material, made of hollow fibers, is a Roach Motel for photons—light checks in, but it never checks out. By voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness.”

Meanwhile, in Germany they’re exhibiting a LED device that overwhelms security cameras, essentially “allowing you to move through modern society in relative privacy,” Boing Boing reports.

Every taxi cab in New York City will have to be a hybrid by 2012, and the predominate Crown Victoria, which gets about 14 mpg will be relegated to the trash heap of history. So the city has launched the Taxi of Tomorrow initiative to help create a blueprint for what the next cabs will be. Reports Wired.com’s Autopia: “The city wants to get an idea of what’s possible before it decides what it wants. But Mayor Bloomberg has made this a top priority, and [Matthew] Daus [chairman of the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission] says there will be some firm guidelines—if not a detailed proposal—on the table before Bloomberg leaves office in 2009.

The ghost of Judy Garland visits Make Magazine's Maker's Faire.

And you thought writing notes to yourself on the palm of your hand was so 20th century. Check out the To-Do Tattoo.
(via Popgadget)

TOWLETECH TUBE

RABBIT RESCUE: Amy Sedaris takes care of business.

NANO VISION: magnifies movies on your nano.

TOO FAR FOR FAME: A viral video spoof (audio NSFW).

NO-FAIL ALARM CLOCK: Test your math skills and your patience.

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TowleTech V.92

In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at Dubai's latest architectural extravaganza, Isabella Rossellini's weird foray into fly fornication, Spore, tattoo inoculation, and how to successfully leave Facebook forever.

Dubai has the world’s tallest building, artificial islands arranged like a map of the world, and the world’s only 7-star hotel, and now it’s set to be home of the largest and tallest arch bridge ever. Envisioned by New York-based archite