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Lovers' Keyring
A delightful (and rather enchanting) pair of keyrings, for couples who value a little heart to heart.

You can have this for ?12.95

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Not just jeans friends, ModeLabs Group’s Levi’s handset is also all about the 3G experience, at least for Orange France users. This clunky slider features triple-band GSM, 2100MHz UMTS, 2 megapixel cam, Bluetooth, FM radio, and a microSD slot to extend the storage for your digital media. Orange is even offering to fill your memory card slot with a 1GB card and give you somewhere to put it with a Jean pocket-shaped case if you get there soon enough. We saw Levi’s first branded set some time ago and it’s encouraging to see them stepping up with faster data services — well at least UMTS. Who knows, we may one day see some on this side of the world.
[Source]

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Since its release last fall, the Mugen Puchi Puchi electronic bubble wrap toy from Bandai became so popular in Japan that the company deemed the novelty keyring worthy of an update. The second-generation toy, dubbed Moe Puchi Puchi, retains the same design and "functionality" of its predecessor but adds a little something to appeal to consumers who have a little thing for young Japanese . . . anime characters.

Wrapped in packaging sporting wide-eyed girls dressed in anime archetype attire, Moe Puchi Puchi still aims to satisfy the baffling human obsession with popping bubble wrap. But in addition to the standard clicking that accompanies a "pop," the speaker on the back of the toy lets out the whispering Japanese voices of the characters.

I’ve had some time with the Mugen Puchi, so the voices should be clear as day. They’ll all be in Japanese, of course, but the tone (moe means "cute, precious, innocent" and is typically used to describe young girls in anime and manga) should be enough to convey the sweet sentiments.

As with the original, these "bonus" sounds will only be heard at set intervals. Every one-hundredth pop on the Mugen results in a completely random and often humorous sound like a clown horn honk, dog bark, or burp; the Moe version, on the other hand, utters heart-melting phrases either every 50 pops or after being left alone for too long (there’s conflicting info on this).

There are four colors to choose from, each corresponding to a distinct archetype and equipped with one-liners appropriate to the character:

• Pink is Imouto, the adoring baby sister.
• Black is Meido, the stereotypical young maid.
• Blue is Osananajimi, the loyal childhood friend.
• Red is Tsundere, the tough yet vulnerable school girl.

As the only toy designed to replicate the feel of popping bubble wrap, the Puchi Puchi is obviously in a class by itself. It’s unique and fun (for a minute), to be sure, but it doesn’t really feel or sound like bubble wrap. The buttons are realistically squishy and soft, but they’re just too firm. You really have to push the bubble to get it to "pop," which is too much work for too little reward.

If you’re thinking of paying $59 for the whole set just for the anime voices and to brush up on your Japanese, then fine. To each his own, they say. But if you want the Moe Puchi Puchi because having everlasting bubble wrap with you at all times is equivalent to sheer bliss, then you may want to reconsider.

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This is a bit of a twist (well spin) on a traditional bathroom, a bath one minute but a with a 180 degree turn it transforms into a shower.

Designed by Ron Arad, the “Rotator” is made out of duralight® and is more of a work of art than just a simple bath. However looking at it does not fill me confidence about the comfort of bathing in it. To empty the bath simply rotate it until the water overflows, just make sure you have a drainage in your bathroom floor.

More info over on De Zeen found via ID Asia.

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In the ‘really?’ department, the University of Chicago’s Law School has decided to block Internet access in classrooms, in what appears to be the first such school-mandated restriction.

While I understand restricting high-school students and to a much smaller degree college students, but law school students? Really? Aren’t they adults who should decide for themselves whether or not they pay attention in class? How about if they decided to just miss class altogether? Wouldn’t that amount to the same thing?

As long as they’re not making a lot of noise, I don’t see the problem, apart from annoying some uptight profs. I wish I had an Internet-connected laptop when I went to classes. I can see it being a valuable tool to help with learning the subject matter at hand. The fact of the matter is that you can only lead a horse to water; the rest is up to them. Just my $0.02.

via Slashdot

Posted in Networking & Internet

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The Pioneer AVIC-F500BT is almost here now after receiving approval from the FCC, offering one of the larger screens where GPS naviation systems are concerned at 5.8″. It provides door-to-door driving directions and is able to connect to virtually anything in your vehicle, pairing up with your handset thanks to Bluetooth while boasting support for an optional TMC antenna. Heck, the ND-BC2 add-on also allows you to connect it to a rear view camera for those who question their own reverse parking skills. Patience is a virtue, friends, so don’t go blow that wad of cash you have at the moment on something frivolous as you wait for the Pioneer AVIC-F500BT to hit the streets.

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Pocket-lint does a first look review of the Sony Ericsson W980 and writes, “The W980 is one of the best Walkman phones yet with some really good features that will make it stand out from the crowd when it comes to offering music on the go…this still looks like an impressive handset and certainly one for music fans to watch.”

Read more about the Sony Ericsson W980.

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The Department of Defense is currently pouring plenty of dough into a portable handheld device which is smart enough to identify signs of brain damage in a person shortly after a roadside bomb or other injuries which cause trauma to the head within seconds. So far $4.6 million has been poured over four years for such a device, and the final product must be rugged enough to survive extreme battlefield conditions such as Iraq. It isn’t ready just yet, but we do know it features a small high-resolution camera and software that measures just how well a person tracks a red dot which moves in a small circle. Simple tests like that as well as remembering a few words show just how much damage was inflicted. I wonder if the device can check out brain damage our kids get from watching the garbage on TV these days…

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Motorola’s internal roadmap reveals 9 different handsets which will see action this year, with some of them already available readily in retail stores (U9, W270 and E8). Below are more details on leaked handsets such as the ZN5, VE75, A180 and L800T.

A810

• 2.2″ 260k color QVGA TFT display
• 2 megapixel camera
• Linux OS
• Stereo Bluetooth
• TI OMAP850 200MHz processor
• microSD memory card slot

VE75

• 2.6″ 260k color WQVGA TFT display
• 2 megapixel camera
• Dual SIM card support
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Slider form factor

More are available after the jump.

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Light Cast
There’s magic at the heart of Lightcast, a compact box capable of delivering a fully interactive music-synchronised light show that simply puts all others to shame.

See price