fuseblog

Beware, Consumers Of First-Generation Apple Products

Those iPod Nanos? They're the cutest darn things. Also, a tenth of 1% of them have screen problems. That's the word, first from the street, then from Apple HQ in Cali. Some owners have been complaining of "cracked, scratched or inexplicably failing screens, sometimes within hours of buying the machine".

But the good news is that Apple is responding. After an irate owner set up a complaint website, the company acknowledged the problem and is offering replacements.

Good ole Apple - often there is something wrong with products fresh out of the gate, but they always fix them. I always wait a few months... for everything. Apple products, movies, asking girls out... you name it.

The Hooker With A Heart Of Gold

Apple Computer this week introduced the iTunes Phone, a music-playing phone that Apple is comparing to the company's popular iPod shuffle music player. The phone stores up to 100 phone numbers that are randomly called throughout the day.

Stoner Snack

The 60s had the lava lamp and now in 2004, we have the Laserpod, the latest stoner visual accessory that should keep a large segment of people staring at the ceiling for hours.

What is it? It's basically a light gadget that uses a laser to create random light effects. It comes with a dome that produces a sort of Aurora Borealis within it, but take the dome off and you can project the trippy laser show onto a wall, ceiling, etc.

It's been out in Japan for a while, but it's now coming to the U.S. I4U has a review of the Laserpod, or you can check out their official site. Bong not included.

Rocket Power

And since we're on the subject of outrageous gadgets, check out this lifesize (maybe?) Transformer with a REAL rocket arm.

Saw Power

Forget a motor, if your super-motorcycle isn't powered by 24 chain saws, you suck.

Supersonic Shopping

First, there was the jet-powered wheelchair and now there's the jet-powered supermarket cart. Just in case you were wondering, the wheelchair would beat the supermarket cart in a drag race.

Dali does HTML

If Dali was alive and learned HTML, he might make something as wonderfully weird as this thing. Click the link, wait for it to load, then use your arrow keys to zoom in and out.

iBox

It certainly isn't easy to do, but if you're a big enough geek and have the time and patience, you can turn your $150 XBox into a full fledged Mac running OSX.

It only takes a couple dozen hours to do, so you better get started now.

Drinkin' Buddy

Every young adult needs a way to drink profusely no matter where they are - work, school, football game, concert - and what better way than to hide your stash in your shorts.

That's right, with Dr. Sneaky's Sneaky Shorts, you too can have a wearable, concealable beverage container where you go!

It's only $20 and sure to be a hit at college football games around the country.

And what could be better than a little crotch warming to keep your beverages hot and toasty!

Auto Voyeur

Buy one of there before they're banned...

The Cyclops Camera Car is an RC car with a camera and mic, so you can roll the little guy just about anywhere and it will transmit audio and video back to your controller. You can even use the line out to send the video/audio to a computer, TV or other capture device.

Let the locker room fantasies begin...

An Apple a Day

Apple today released pics and specs of the all-new iMac. It's basically either a 17" or 20" monitor with the CPU attached directly behind with a steel stand. Much nicer than the old lamp design, but it's design begs for it to be a tablet-like monitor that can be removed from the stand, carried around, accept touch-screen input and wireless connectivity. Maybe next time.

Geek Speak

What if you could turn your iPod into a universal remote to control yoyr DVD player, stereo, XBox and more?

Well, you can, you just have to be enough of a geek to follow the instructions.

It's not the easiest thing to do, but the result is pretty handy.

Save the iPod

If Senator Orrin Hatch and other Republicans (and probably some Democrats as well) get their way, that shiny, new iPod you're carrying around in your pocket may become illegal.

An iPod illegal? How could that happen? Well, Senator Orrin Hatch is sponsoring legislation called the INDUCE ACT which he is trying to push through Congress this week without debate on the issue. The bill allows the record industry to file lawsuits against companies that make unrestricted music software OR hardware.

What does it mean? It means the labels can sue not only owners of file-sharing applications such as Kazaa, but also manufacturers who make devices that can play unauthorized music, such as the iPod.

What can you do to stop this? Call your Congressman, of course, or simply go to this site to fill out a form that will be faxed directly to your Congressman.

Gratuitous Post #1

Did you really think we were above it?

Yesterday while checking out the statistics for traffic to this blog, I noticed a huge spike in traffic on a day where I happened to mention teen queen Lindsay Lohan in a post about the Olsen Twins. Seems that a lot of people searching for her on Google and Yahoo had made their way here on the strength of that tiny mention.

So in the interest of getting more people here, I've decided that we should do a gratuitous Lindsay Lohan post once a week to get all those people searching for her over here.

Here's gratuitous Lindsay Lohan post #1: Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay Lohan.

All you people Googling Lindsay...not sure if we have exactly what you were looking for (what would that be anyway?), but there's plenty more here, so check it out.

If not, we'll see you next week for gratuitous Lindsay Lohan post #2. Thanks for coming.

Game On!

If it's May, it must be time for E3, the biggest event of the year for the videogaming industry. If you haven't heard, videogames are a bigger industry than movies and music combined, so it's a pretty big deal. The announcements and product launches will be hot and heavy over the next few days, but here are a few early highlights:

PSP revealed! Sony's portable game/music/movies machine finally gets unveiled. Did anyone think Sony was just sitting on their hands watching Nintendo sell oodles of Gameboys over the past few years? Well this thing isn't just for games (although it's about as powerful as a PS2), but will also store and play digital music and also support the playback of full-length movies on Sony's new UMD media disc format. It's even Wi-Fi enabled so you'll be able to share and play with people around you.

Nintendo DS revealed Nintendo answers Sony's entry into the market with the DS, a dual-screen machine (one of them is a touch screen similar to a Palm) that the details are still sketchy on. Look for Nintendo to fill in the blanks over the next few days.

IGN and Gamespot are full of details on the PSP, DS and everything else E3-related.

Your Very Own Bush

For those that always suspected Dubya was a puppet, now you can pull the strings yourself (if Cheney and Rumsfeld will give 'em up long enough).

bushspeech.org is a pretty amazing Flash application that lets you string together words or phrases from Bush's speeches to form your own. You can even save your creation, listen to ones made by other users and vote for your favorites.

There's just something classic about watching George W. tell you, "I wanna unit as big as the state of California." Buck up, George, we all do.

Apple Singing New Tune

Apple introduced a ton of new features into iTunes yesterday that are definitely worth checking out. Download the latest version here.

- New Apple Lossless format features CD quality sound at half the file size.
- iMix: Create and share your playlists with the world.
- Party Shuffle; Creates randomly generated playlists from your music collection.
- Printing: Create your own CD jewel cases. Finally!
- Music videos: Watch 'em in iTunes now.
- Movie Tralers: These too!
- WMA conversion: Converts your non-DRM WMA files into Apple Lossless.
- Radio Charts: See who's on top of the charts in every city.

Star Wars Kid Kills Bill

By now, just about everyone has seen the Star Wars kid video and many of its incarnations. The newest, however, might be the best yet. In a pretty amazing example of video effects and editing, the Star Wars kid takes on Tarantino's Bill and company in the Kill Bill trailer. Check it out

From www.boingboing.net

Dirty Digits Done Dirt Cheap

From www.horkulated.com

Ooh baby, nice finger!

Ever wanted to know how to make your finger look like an a**? I thought so. Your prayers have been answered in the instructional website that guides you through the step-by-step process of turning your (hopefully) clean little finger into something a little dirtier. People may think you're checking out porn (again) but its really the secret finger trick.

While you're there, you can also check out finger a**es from around the world! Norway seems to be especially proficient.

They Call it "The Ashcroft"

In the latest round of Puritanical positioning, Wal Mart has started selling a DVD player that can seamlessly skip over violence, swearing, nudity and "other potentially offensive movie content" (whatever that means). Wish I had this thing during the Bush speech last night.

This news is so lame I'm speechless...and by the way, I've never made a mistake either.

Slap Happy Brits

From a land known for their jocularity and quick wit comes the UK-based site news site www.ananova.com. Alongside the usual smattering of news and sports headlines is the always weird, sometimes wonderful section entitled "Quirkies." Some recent highlights:

Man's vomit causes extensive car damage.

Vibrating condom is top draw at inventor's fair.

Cambodian police use bananas to coax confessions.

Might be time for a visit to the inventor's fair ...