N12 3D-printed bikini by Continuum Fashion and Shapeways

by Cino Zucchi Architetti »

from: http://www.dezeen.com/

N12 3D-printed bikini by Continuum Fashion
and Shapeways

The world’s first 3D-printed bikini has gone on sale, created by designers Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung of Continuum Fashion.

Called N12, the design comprises discs of varying sizes, linked together by springs.

These circles are smaller on parts of the garment that need to curve round the body and larger on areas with flatter contours.

The designers envisage that bespoke items of clothing could be made according to a body scan of the customer.

The project was developed in collaboration with 3D-printing company Shapeways and can be purchased through the online shop.

Photographs are by Ariel Efron.

The information below is from Continuum Fashion:

---

Designed by Continuum Fashion in collaboration with Shapeways the N12 if the first completely 3D-printed, ready-to-wear, item of clothing. Previous experiments into the use of 3D printing in clothing have remained purely experimental, haute couture items not available to purchase. This represents the first affordable design that will lead the way for more items fabricated using 3D printing technologies.

“The bikini’s design fundamentally reflects the beautiful intricacy possible with 3D printing, as well as the technical challenges of creating a flexible surface out of the solid nylon. Thousands of circular plates are connected by thin springs, creating a wholly new material that holds its form as well as being flexible. The layout of the circle pattern was achieved through custom written code that lays out the circles according to the curvature of the surface. In this way, the aesthetic design is completely derived from the structural design.” Mary Haung, Continuum Fashion

The patterning starts with a curved surface, some geometry to indicate edges and value ranges for the circles sizes and tolerance parameters. The pattern begins placing circles at a point near the edge. Each subsequent circles tries to stay as near to the nearest edge geometry at possible. The circle’s size is determined with this nearness and by the local curvature of the surface. Curvier areas get small circles and flatter areas larger, both to help with accurately approximating the surface and to ensure flexibility where it is needed and efficiency of pattern where it is not.

Every time a bend or elbow is encountered in the surface edge, a small gap will be left in the pattern. Gaps will also occur near the middle distances between edges where the placement of the next circle is less certain. After the first level of pattern has been created, these open areas are infilled with smaller circles to ensure complete coverage, and to create a more interesting aesthetic pattern.

One of the goals of the circle patterning system is to be able to adapt it to any surface, at any size. This means that future articles of clothing can be produced using the same algorithm, this could be taken a step further into absolute customization by using a body scan to make a bespoke article of clothing, 3D printed to exactly fit that person only.

Continuum Fashion is comprised of Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung. Jenna designs and programs interactive environments at Small Design Firm in Cambridge, MA. She has previously worked at KPF in computational geometry and has her BSAD in Architecture from MIT. Jenna is interested in reinterpreting traditional crafts and manufacturing using computational tools. Mary has a BA in Design and Media Arts from UCLA, and a MA from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID). Most recently, she worked in interaction design at Local Projects in NYC. Her other notable work includes Rhyme & Reason–a collection of LED dresses, and TYPEFACE–a software piece combining facial recognition and typography.

Shapeways is the online community and marketplace for personalized production where anyone can make and sell their own creations or buy custom‐made products, fabricated on demand in a variety of materials using the latest 3D printing technologies.

With headquarters in New York City and production facilities in Europe and the United States, Shapeways hosts a vibrant community of passionate creatives from around the world.

Model: Bojana Draskovic

iOpener Case Cracks Open A Cold One, Keeps Track Of What You’re Drinking

from: http://www.ohgizmo.com/

By Andrew Liszewski

By itself, the West|280 bottle opening iPhone case, cleverly called the iOpener, is just another novelty accessory that most people will probably roll their eyes at. But there’s more than meets the eye. As cases go it’s made from a plastic polycarbonate/ABS alloy which keeps it lightweight but also strong enough to endure the rigors of removing a bottle cap. And the bottle opener, which retracts into the case when not needed, is made from 14 gauge, 304 food grade stainless steel, polished with a special process so it shines without added materials like chrome that can flake off over time. The inventors, Clay Baker and Tom Ramies, clearly didn’t skimp when it came to choosing high-quality materials. But they also realized that the case could be more than just a novelty.

So the iOpener incorporates an accelerometer that knows when the encased iPhone has been inverted and moved with enough force to open a bottle cap, which then triggers an accompanying free app called BevConX. (This ensures the odds of it being triggered accidentally are pretty slim.) Once loaded the app automatically asks the user to specify what beverage they just opened, from a list of 1,200+ options. The time and location are recorded, and you can then of course share your choice on various social networks. You can even set the app to play your favorite song every time it launches, if a bottle opening iPhone case isn’t novel enough for you.

At the moment the iOpener appears to only be available in a black or white version for the iPhone 3G/3GS for $29.95, presumably because it took Clay and Tom so long to develop the original version. So hopefully if it becomes a success an iPhone 4 version will soon be on its way.

[ iOpener Bottle Opener iPhone Case ] VIA [ The Dallas Morning News ]

Area 51 De-Classified and Uncovered

As information from the top secret US military base is declassified, The Independent talks alien conspiracy theories, the Cold War and UFOs with a man who was there

Interview by Jonathan Owen
From: http://www.independent.co.uk/

Rumours that the U.S government had proof of visiting alien life hidden away in a top secret military installation known as Area 51 have persisted for half a century.

One of the most famous secret military bases in the world, Area 51 has been shrouded in secrecy since it was set up during the early years of the Cold War.

Access to the Nevada base has always been highly restricted and those who worked there were sworn not to speak of it.

A U-2 pilot is being fitted into a partial pressure suit at Area 51. These early pressure suits bore a cunning resemblance to the alien costumes of 1950s B-movies.

 CLICK HERE FOR DECLASSIFIED IMAGES

But now early veterans have spilled the beans for a documentary Area 51: I Was There being broadcast on National Geographic Channel on Sunday.

The documentary combines personal testimonies with recently declassified information, photos and video (some of which can be found above).

Here T.D Barnes, 74, one of the documentary participants and a man who was commissioned to test secret aircraft by the CIA at Area 51 in the late ‘60s, shares his experiences:

I think the people selected were all the same. We weren’t really nosy. There were 23 of us but we protected our own secrets from each other. You didn’t snoop into what each other was doing and we still don’t today because some of it is still classified.

You didn’t volunteer to tell people what you were doing. You only reported to what we called ‘the customer’, which could be the CIA or it could be any other agency, could be air force foreign technology division.

I decided to talk about my experiences because about eight or ten years ago we started realising that we were losing our people and that the stories of what we did have never been told. When the CIA started declassifying information, I started gathering these stories together.

The more we talked to the historians and the military the more we realised that they simply did not know what we did. A lot of the technical stuff that we did that was classified so the world never knew about it and today they had gone ahead and reinvented the wheel that we had invented back in the 1960s.

For example a lot of [the work I was doing] had to do with high speed flight and the radar- that was one of my specialties. I came from a programme where I was used to dealing with tracking planes so one of the things I did at Area 51 was radar tracking. We were developing the very first stealth plane but we didn’t know what the radar would see when it was flying overhead at 2,200 miles an hour.

They brought me out there because I was used to dealing with high speed radar [monitoring]. The plane would fly overhead and we would look for it with the radar. Technology like that that was really primitive back then, we marvel today they can do the same thing with computers, but we didn’t have computers back then.

When I was in the army I became a specialist in electronic counter measures. The CIA was evaluating the capabilities of the Soviet Union, would we be able to shoot this plane down, that sort of thing. So when the Russians set up camp in Cuba that made it really easy for the CIA to evaluate the equipment.

A lot of activity took place not necessarily at the area [Cuba]. That’s what few people know about. And that less than 5 per cent of all the people working on the programme even knew the CIA was involved.

I was on a special project working for the CIA. I was a consultant/contractor. I left them in 1975 and have always been available for consulting and that sort of thing and they call me up on different things but after that I went into private business, the oil and gas business.

I was loaned out to the Nevada test site [by the CIA] for a period to work on the rig that was drilling the holes for the atomic bomb and I got familiar with the drilling equipment and the geology and that sort of thing.

When I was in the army my wife knew I was working on top secret projects. The wives were very important in the screening process. Anyone who had a wife that was a security risk didn’t get into the programme. They’d vet the wives and families almost as strongly as they did us.

I think the reason [there are so many conspiracy theories] is that for many years no-one knew about Area 51. Then all of a sudden the general public found out that it had been there all these years and it was like “What had they been doing there?” and “Oh, it must be tied in with the aliens”.

We brought some of this on ourselves. For instance the A12 - we flew 2,850 missions out of area 51 from 1952 to 1958. So people were obviously seeing things. Even flying 90,000ft at 2,200 miles an hour, which is faster than a bullet, people would occasionally see it or maybe an airline pilot or people on a commercial airline - and to them it was a UFO.

We were so secret even our own military didn’t know that we existed. No-one knew that we existed. So the air forces started investigating the sightings and they would start getting too close to finding out what we were doing and they would hit that security block where someone said “That’s a top secret programme, make up a story, go home and don’t say another word about it”.

So they would make up a story to explain the UFO sighting and the stories were just not very good and the people just didn’t believe them and rightly so.

The rumours of aliens are not true. It was so primitive back when we drilled the first water wells out there in the desert, you just didn’t have anything, it was just desert. I think it was because it was such a mystery what was going on that’s what attracted the conspiracy theories.

The Soviets had satellites looking at us all the time, every 45 minutes one came over the horizon. If [there had been anything to do with aliens] going on Russia would have certainly known about it.

We got our hands on a Soviet Mig-21 [a jet fighter aircraft], to find out why they were giving us such a rough time and that was exciting. We were flying the enemy’s planes, tracking it with their radar. During the Six-Day War Israel captured a lot of Soviet radar and, of course, that was my area of expertise. We brought them out to Nevada and actually got them operating so that we could see what the Russians were seeing when they would track us.

That was a big part of the Stealth programme, we realised that we needed to have all these various radars scattered around the desert

Some of [the stuff I know] will probably never be declassified. A lot of it is political or based on technical details. A lot of it is just plain political.

I believe in secrecy. There’s a lot of stuff that should never be secret that is, but then when the CIA started declassifying the documents in 2007 they were putting major documents on their website. I told the CIA security people then “Are you crazy, the enemy would love to have this knowledge even though its 50 years old, it’s never been reinvented.” So we started working together on some of the sensitive things. They didn’t realise because they didn’t know enough about what we did.

Secrets don’t stay secret very long now, not like they used to.

Area 51: I Was There premieres on Sunday at 9pm on National Geographic Channel

Welcome to Gulliver’s Kingdom, the unhappiest place on Earth

From: http://io9.com/

MODERN RUINS

Cyriaque Lamar — The Japanese theme park Gulliver's Kingdom was only open from 1997-2001 before a lack of visitors shuttered it. Until its decaying remains were demolished in 2007, the park and its 147-foot-long Lemuel Gulliver statue were prime destinations for urban explorers.

Gulliver's Kingdom was located 2.5 hours away from Tokyo and in the sights of Mt. Fuji. That sounds like prime real estate, but the Kingdom was in a curious neighborhood. Other nearby landmarks included the village of Kamikuishiki (the former location of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's sarin gas manufacturing facilities) and the "Sea of Trees," a bucolic forest that is also Japan's most popular suicide destination.

Of course, Gulliver's Kingdom brought the disconcerting all on its own. After the park's finances dried up, a giant, dead-eyed model of Jonathan Swift's literary hero laid forever supine, exposed to the elements and Lilliputian graffiti artists. Gulliver and his ghostly playland may be gone, but you can see many photos of his dead duchy over at Web Urbanistand Sleepy City.

[Top photo by MutantMandias; middle photo by Yamanashi via Sleepy City.]

Chile’s Volcano Eruption Looks Like Hell on Earth

By: Casey Chan

From: http://gizmodo.com/

If you need a reminder on how fucking scary volcanoes can be, check out the explosion of Puyehue volcano in southern Chile. The volcano hadn't erupted for half a century but blew up this past weekend, painting the sky red.

I mean seriously, this volcano looks unreal. 3,500 people were evacuated from the area and ash from the volcano even rained down in Argentina. [Denver Post via Mappeal]

Image Credit: AFP PHOTO/CLAUDIO SANTANA

More Incredible Pics here: http://photos.denverpost.com/

New Moms Sell Excess Breast Milk for Cash on Internet

By JUJU CHANG (@JujuChangABC) and NATASHA SINGH
From: http://abcnews.go.com/

Women all over the country are cashing in on what people are calling a mother's natural liquid gold: human breast milk. (ABC News)

Women all over the country are cashing in on what people are calling a mother's natural liquid gold: human breast milk. A month's supply can cost anywhere from $300 up to $1,200 dollars. In contrast, a month's worth of formula costs an average of $200.

For Kamilla Vainshtok and other women like her, the transactions – all done online – can literally "pump up" their income. "Onlythebreast.com is basically a Craigslist for breast milk," Vainshtok told "Good Morning America." "There's buyers and sellers, there's an opportunity for them to meet each other."

Vainshtok, 25, is now in the unpaid portion of her maternity leave. Four months after her daughter was born she started producing an abundance of milk. It's been a source of extra money for her.

"I Googled breast milk for sale, milk for donation, and I came across onlythebreast.com … within the first week that of my listing, I found a family in Ohio that needed some breast milk and I shipped it out to them," the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident said.

Chang asked Vainshtok of if pumping her milk and putting it in the mail didn't "seem weird" to her.
"It definitely did seem weird to me but I knew I was helping a family in need," she replied. "Their child wasn't responding well to formula, was having a lot of tummy aches and spit-ups. So I figured if I was able to help this child with breast milk because their mother wasn't able to, then I might as well help them out."

Moms Earn Needed Cash

It was a win-win situation for both the buyer and Vainshtok. She shipped 300 ounces to the buyer in packed ice. That one-month supply added several hundred dollars to her bank account.

Allee Kincaid's excess milk has earned her the family nickname "the dairy cow."

"My husband and I just added it up and over the last 9.5 months, we've had about 16,000 ounces," the 26-year-old from Baxter, Iowa, said.

Kincaid is a stay-at-home mom. She also found the niche industry online -- which has been fueled by a slew of medical studies which have concluded that breast milk can boost everything from babies' immune systems to their I.Q.s.

The money Kincaid earns from mothers who're unable to breast feed themselves helps to pay her bills.
"We're a one-income family, my husband works … We actually just bought a new truck that would fit all of us, because my car that I had before was kind of smaller," she said. "So it definitely helped us buy things that we wouldn't be able to afford otherwise." Desiree Espinoza's milk money gave her the wedding of her dreams – including her dress, his tuxedo, the decorations – and even their rings.

"In the first month I made close to $1,200. It was quite a bit … ," Espinoza, 22, said.

The Phoenix woman has used that money to fill lots of needs: a computer, clothes for her growing daughter, wipes, medicine, "anything else that she needed that we didn't have the money for," she said.

But the exchange is not without risk. What little screening there is is all based on the honor system.
That allows for so many unknowns -- such as the donor's medical background, said Dr. Judy Goldstein, a pediatrician with Global Pediatrics in Manhattan. Purchasers also don't know if the donor mother has been on drugs.

"The skin of the mother could be contaminated … then the breast pump has to be sterile…," Goldstein added.

In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recommend buying breast milk on the open market. Such transactions could lead to the transmission of disease. However, it does recommend buying milk from approved milk banks. It may cost more, but the dangers are reduced.

Seller Mom Not Sure She'd Use 'Stranger's' Milk

"I would never do anything to harm anyone else's baby," Kincaid said.

"I feed my baby the same milk that I'm selling … I've had thousands of e-mails, back and forth, between people before they buy milk because they want to make sure it's the best for their baby and I as a mother can understand wanting to be cautious," she added.

Ironically, Vainshtok isn't so sure she could overlook the caveats if the tables were turned.

"Not from a perfect stranger – maybe if I knew the person, I might be willing to do it. But doing it over the Internet from a perfect stranger, just seems a little bit strange to me. And yet you're the perfect stranger. Absolutely and of course I have all good intentions so I'm definitely doing it the proper way. But you never know," she said.

Copyright © 2011 ABC News Internet Ventures

Plaxico Burress Released From Prison

By Ohm Youngmisuk
ESPNNewYork.com

N.Y. SportsCenter

ROME, N.Y. -- In his first precious moments as a free man again, Plaxico Burress embraced his wife and cradled his two young kids after being released from prison for serving nearly two years on a gun charge.

In the kind of heartfelt emotion that can only come from being away from family for so long, Burress soaked up the reunion with his loved ones. He looked like a giddy kid, even finding a few touching minutes to play with his two dogs.

AP Photo/Heather AinsworthPlaxico Burress told reporters: "As far as football is concerned, if and when everything gets settled, when they get back on the field, I'll be ready."

"I just want to thank God for bringing me through one of the most trying times in my life," said Burress, who wore an old-school Philadelphia Phillies cap, a black zip-up hoodie and shorts. "It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day to be reunited with my family. I want to go home and spend some quality time with them.
"I'd like to thank everybody for their prayers and words of encouragement," Burress continued in his brief time with reporters outside the prison. "I'd like to thank all my fans all around the world for the thousands of letters, for their unwavering support. As far as football is concerned, if and when everything gets settled, when they get back on the field, I'll be ready."

Shortly after walking out of the Oneida Correctional Facility around 9 a.m. ET, Burress' lawyer, Peter Frankel, drove the wide receiver to the nearby Lodge at the Turning Stone Resort-Casino for his emotional reunion with his wife Tiffany, his son Elijah, 4, and daughter Giovanna, 1.

After spending more than an hour at the hotel with his family, Burress -- who was followed by a camera crew that was with the family -- spent a few minutes playing with his two dogs in front of the hotel while an SUV was loaded with luggage.

Burress looked incredibly happy and humbled. He played peek-a-boo with his daughter while she was sitting inside the car and he was standing outside before later hopping into the back seat with his children.

Drew Rosenhaus, Burress' agent, said earlier on Monday morning that his client would travel to his home in South Florida and immediately begin training with other football players to begin his NFL comeback.

Rosenhaus, who jumped into Burress' arms moments after he walked out of the prison, also said Burress isn't ruling out a possible reunion with the New York Giants.

"I wouldn't rule out any team, I wouldn't rule out the Giants, I wouldn't rule out any club," Rosenhaus told reporters. "I really won't talk about specific teams because I don't want to hurt his position. As far as the Giants, my personal opinion is he wouldn't rule them out. I certainly wouldn't.

"We are going to be open to all 32 teams," Rosenhaus added. "Ultimately this will be Plax's decision, not mine. I am here to help him pick the best spot and get the very best contract. And that is what we will do."
Brandon Jacobs, one of Burress' best friends on the Giants, said last Thursday that "there is no chance Plaxico Burress is a New York Giant after he comes home" and that the wide receiver was looking for a fresh start, perhaps with the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, on Monday, Jacobs was a tad hesitant to close the door completely on a Plaxico-Giants sequel but did reiterate that Burress will have options. He mentioned the Eagles, Saints, Rams and Colts as potential options.

"I mean, I think there's a chance the Giants, I mean, I know they probably want him back," Jacobs said in an interview with SiriusXM NFL radio. "But with him having more options to pick from, I don't know how that's going to work out."

Several Giants players want Burress back with the team, which has missed the postseason the last two years without him. Coach Tom Coughlin has said that there hasn't been much discussion about a possible reunion.
"First of all what I can say about (Burress being released) is I am happy that he is home with his family," Giants general manager Jerry Reese said on the Stephen A. Smith show on 1050 ESPN New York. "And that's really about all I can say, you know, he is a free agent and I am not at liberty to talk about free agents - Plaxico or any other free agent at this time. I am just happy that he is home with his family."

Former Giants teammate Osi Umenyiora told ESPN in a "SportsCenter" interview on Monday that Burress looked like he was in "tremendous shape" when he visited the receiver in prison.

"I think he'll be able to make an impact immediately," he said. "A guy with that kind of physical ability and that kind of talent ... All you have to do is throw him the ball and he'll be able to make the same kind of plays he was able to make before."

At a quick glance, Burress, who will turn 34 in August, appeared to be in good shape. Rosenhaus said Burress did all he could to stay in shape while in prison.

"He's been very strong," Rosenhaus said. "He did a lot better than I would have. No question worked out, maintained a very positive attitude, always driven to get back to the NFL, be with his family again. As well as you could for 21 months of incarceration.

"Running, staying in shape, sprints, jogging, lifting weights, as much as you can do in a facility like this," Rosenhaus added. "Running routes, didn't have a quarterback here unfortunately. But he did very well -- push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, a lot of core strength, as much as you can imagine in this type of environment."
Burress will become a free agent once the lockout ends and free agency begins. Rosenhaus believes there will be a strong interest in his client. Teams like the New York Jets, St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins and Eagles could be interested in the 6-foot-5 receiver, who caught the game-winning touchdown in the Giants' 17-14 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots during the 2007 season.

“I wouldn't rule out any team, I wouldn't rule out the Giants, I wouldn't rule out any club.”
-- Agent Drew Rosenhaus

"Before the lockout started and during that very brief window, right around the time of the draft, the feedback was excellent," said Rosenhaus, who along with all other agents is not allowed to talk to teams until the lockout is lifted. "Plaxico is going to be a top free agent, there are going to be multiple teams interested in signing him. I expect him to get a good contract, I expect him to absolutely be playing. I think he'll be coveted. He'll be one of our top free agents."

Burress has not played football since late November in 2008 when a handgun that was tucked in his sweatpants slipped from his waistband and went off as he tried to grab the gun while in a New York City nightclub. Burress shot himself in the thigh. Nearly a year later, he entered prison to serve his sentence in September of 2009.

Burress was released about three months early for good behavior.

Because he was a high-profile inmate, he was placed in a protective custody unit at the prison, which has 930 inmates, 20 in protective custody. While in prison, he completed an aggression management program and worked as a lawn and grounds laborer, according the state's Department of Correctional Services.

Burress violated prison rules and regulations three times: He lied to a guard about having permission to use the phone; gave another inmate a pair of black and silver sneakers that were deemed contraband; and had too many cassette tapes and an unauthorized extra pillow in his "filthy" cell.

Burress will be on parole for two years. He has to get and keep a job, undergo substance abuse testing, obey any curfew established by his Florida parole officer, support his family and undergo any anger counseling or other conditions required by his parole officer.

"I think he's learned an awful lot," Rosenhaus said. "He knows that he obviously made a mistake and certainly the maturation from being in this type of environment for so many months to reflect on your life and the things you might do differently. To miss two NFL seasons in the prime of your career, to not be with your family, most importantly, to lose out on millions and millions of dollars -- these are things that have forced him certainly to evaluate his life and we all would become a better person."

It didn't take long for friends and former teammates to transmit their good wishes.

In response to a tweet that said: 'Just In!. Plaxico Burress Just Released from Jail!" former Giants star Michael Strahan responded: "About time!!"

Former Giants linebacker (and current ESPN NFL analyst) Antonio Pierce, who was with Burress the night his life unraveled, tweeted the following a couple of hours before Burress was released: "17.. Time well over due.. Great teammate, friend, person and better yet Man. Always a Champ.. Only 1 way to go ... Back to the TOP."

Miami Heat stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade also commented.

James tweeted: "Welcome home Plaxico! Best of luck in the near future both on and off the field. #17 Jersey coming to a city near u."

Wade, who is from Chicago, tweeted what many Bears fans likely are thinking.

"1st I'm happy for Plaxico Burress that he can b reunite with his love 1s that I'm sure he missed more than football .. but as a Bears fan i would love to c him in a Bears uniform," Wade wrote.

Ohm Youngmisuk covers the Giants for ESPNNewYork.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.


Follow Ohm Youngmisuk on Twitter: @notoriousohm

by Don Hatfield
from http://geek-news.mtv.com/



Lets be honest, hovercrafts are frikin awesome. Sure, they don’t brake very well and the turning radius clearly leaves a little to beg for, but they float on air and travel by land or sea. How could you not think hovercrafts are the coolest?

This concept was designed by 21-year old industrial design graduate Yuhan Zhang from China and I have to admit it’s probably the most badass looking hovercraft I’ve ever seen. She wanted to design a vehicle that could handle all of China’s terrain: ice, snow, dirt, water, hills, etc. To make it even better, it’s got official Volkswagen badges on it and has been appropriately named the Volkswagen Aqua. Head past the break for a bunch of pretty photos and more info.




The Volkswagen Aqua, like other hovercrafts, uses multiple motors. The primary engine, which just happens to be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell (AWESOME!), inflates the skirt and lifts the hovercraft just slightly off the ground. At the rear, the forward thrust and directional fans are each powered by individual electric motors making it a completely gasoline-free vehicle.





We just like how it looks. It reminds us of some futuristic spacecraft or even a landspeeder from Star Wars -- and you know how much we love Star Wars.


There is one little detail we’re not too sure about. You see the round hatch at the rear? Well, that’s the only door this thing has and it seems like it would be pretty impossible to look good crawling out of it.

World's First Amphibious Ice Cream Truck Spotted In London! (VIDEO)

by Don Hatfield

from http://geek-news.mtv.com/

It’s not everyday you see an amphibious ice cream truck, but that’s exactly what we’re looking at.  This water-logged treat machine was spotted cruising through the rivers of London on June 1st in celebration of National Ice Cream Week.

Delivering ice-cold summer treats to beach goers and everyone else enjoying the outdoors this summer isn’t this truck’s only mission. According to DailyMail, the truck delivers ice cream by land and sea to raise awareness of the UK’s troubled ice cream truck business. Due to increasing restrictions ice cream trucks are banned from some public places and have seen quite a decline because of it.




The ice cream truck was commissioned by Cadbury and while it may only be floating around London for the time being, there are plans for a national tour. In fact, The HMS Flake 99 may even make its way through the rivers of Venice. Check out the video below if you want to see this one-of-a-kind ice cream truck in action.

This Is iCloud

Adrian Covert
 From: http://gizmodo.com/5808952/icloud
—Apple's iCloud has emerged from the shadows, providing wireless backup and syncing for your apps, songs, documents, books, photos, videos, calendars and contacts. Best of all, it's free. Here's a few of iCloud's more notable features.

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A centralized hub

iCloud will store your photos, videos, music, contacts and other files, which are accessible from any compatible device, whether that be laptop, desktop, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

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It's free

iCloud is free. That means every user gets 5GB of space to do as they feel with. Whether you want to upload video, music, photos or books to access on the go, it's your choice.

iTunes in the cloud

iTunes will take the tracks you purchase in the iTunes Music store and automatically make a copy from their servers accessible to you for syncing on the go (you can enable up to 10 devices per account). However, if you want to match songs that you havent purchased through iTunes, it will cost $25 a year to have iTunes match as many tracks as you want. Plus, what iTunes in the cloud matches doesn't count against your 5GB limit, which will come in handy for those with large music libraries.MORE ON THAT HERE.

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iOS and OS X app integration

Many of MobileMe's features have been rewritten as apps that function in the cloud and deeply integrate with the apps on iOS devices and computers (Mac or PC). If you update a contact on your iPhone, that contact is added to your lists on your other Apple devices. Add a new calendar event in iCal, and it will show up on your iPad or any other device. Plus, all iCloud users get an email address that will have push updates enabled.

Photo streaming

When you snap a photo, you can send it up to iCloud, where it will beam it down to your computer and other iOS devices, but will also live on Apple's servers for 30 days. Photo apps on Apple devices will have a feature called Photostream, which will bring up a thumbnail array of all the photos.

App purchase history

Remembering what apps you've purchased in the appstore can be tricky. Especially when you need to redownload or install them on a second device. iCloud now keeps track of all your purchased apps in a single list, and allows you to directly download those apps from the list.

iWork compatibility

Now that iWork is on all iOS devices, it will automatically auto-save a copy of your progress made with the iWork suite of productivity apps, which is accessible by other devices.. That includes Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheets), and Keynote (presentations).

Third-party APIs

Apps on iOS and OS X will have API access to store documents. Programs like Evernote could theoretically store and sync documents using iCloud.

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Daily backups

App history, device settings, new photos, and purchased music, apps and books will all be sent up to iCloud automatically. El Jobso claims that "it just works."
iCloud isn't available quite yet, but should be ready for public consumption come fall. We'll see just how easy it is then.
Images Courtesy of MacLife

Apple iOS5: The Top 10 New Features

Jesus Diaz
From: http://gizmodo.com/
—The new iOS 5 is here. It is a "major release", according to Apple. It brings revamped notifications and more than 200 new features for your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. These are the top ten, and then some more.
Some of these features you already had in your iPhone or iPad. They just came in third-party apps.
If you used apps like the must-have WhatsApp, which allows you to message in an extremely easy way with all kinds of phones for free, you already were enjoying something like iMessage (even while iMessage adds important services, like device-wide conversation synchronization). If you had the awesome Instapaper, you already had some of the features of the new Safari. Or if you had something like Remember the Milk, you already had a great reminders service.
However, there are features that weren't available before, either because they are completely new or because they are system-wide. And there are real jewels too.

Things that may sound silly, like using the volume + button as a shutter in the Camera app. Or more important stuff, like well thought Notifications and the ability to run your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad without having a PC. Your iDevices are now completely autonomous. All these features put iOS on par again with some of the features that you could already find in Android, Palm or Windows Phone 7. Some of their implementations, surpass those platforms. But even while none of these new features are extraordinary per se, all of them together are quite impressive.
We can't wait for the fall to enjoy the new iOS 5. It looks like it will be a great release, if they keep it bug free and agile in older devices.

1. Notifications

The first big feature is notifications. At last, Apple will get rid of the annoying popups that break your flow. And with "annoying popups" I really meant "stupid dumb boxes that makes me want to smash my f*cking iPhone against the wall when I'm playing a game or chatting with strangers in the night".
They have replaced those with a new app called Notification Center. It's very similar to Mobile Notifier, the iOS notification app—which makes sense, since Apple hired its developer a while back. It not only includes app notification, but mini-widgets that show live information from apps like Weather and apps.
The notifications extend to the lock screen too, so you can see more stuff right away without unlocking your phone. Sliding your finger on it will automatically lead you to the app that generated that notification.
It looks very straightforward and useful.

2. Newsstand

Apple has built a virtual newsstand right onto iOS 5, very similar to the iBooks app but exclusively for magazines and periodicals. It looks like a cross between iBooks and a folder view, actually.

3. Twitter integration everywhere

iOS 5 will have Twitter integration everywhere. Apps like camera will be able to directly post the image to Twitter. The YouTube App, Safari or even Maps will support direct sharing in Twitter. It also adds a new Twitter address field to your Contacts application.

4. A new Safari

Safari has been revamped with new features. Reader will allow you to reformat a site on the fly, taking out ads and reformatting text so it looks better on your iPad or iPhone screen.
This feature flows into Reading List, which is a way to save those pages for later offline viewing, keeping them synchronized between all your iOS devices and Lion. Presumably via iCloud.
Apple's web browser also adds tabs in this version. Your open pages will line up right below your address bar. According to Apple, switching between pages is "lightning fast," so perhaps they have made some magic with the memory management to reduce the reload of pages in older devices.

5. New Reminders app

The new Reminders app makes it easy to make to-do lists. The interface is very simple and it's synchronized between iOS 5 devices and your Mac OS X desktop or notebook.
The really cool thing about Reminders is that it's location aware. Imagine you add that you need to buy milk, but then you forget about it. When you pass by the grocery store, the app will tell you that you need to buy milk.

6. New Camera app and photos

The new Camera up gets two of the most-requested features in the history of iOS. The first is a shortcut in the lock screen to access the camera right away, so you don't have to unlock and then click on the Camera icon, which often makes you lose the moment.
The other one, which is something we have whined about endlessly, is using one of the volume button as the shutter button. Just press + and that's it: CLICK! This is a very welcome addition.
The new app also includes basic photo editing. It includes quick enhance—which basically sharpens your image, making shadows and highlights more detailed, and correct color automagically. It also include red eye reduction and cropping, both welcome additions to those who don't have the Camera Plus already.

7. New Mail app

Mail includes a barrage of enhancements
• Rich Text Formatting, which will allow you to annoy the hell out of everyone bolding every sentence in your mails.
• Indentation control, which allows you to control the level of indentation of your quotes from other messages.
• Draggable email addresses, which allows to drag and drop email addresses into to, cc and bcc fields.
• Message flagging to call your attention over a particular mail later.
• Swipe to Inbox, which makes it very easy to access the list of message in portrait mode on the iPad, instead of clicking on a button for a weird pop-up dialog.

8. No PC required

At long last, the most important feature of them all: You will not need iTunes and PC anymore to use your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Apple has caught up with Android and Windows Phone 7. The new iOS 5 will allow you to set up your new device easily: Turn your new gadget on and a Welcome screen will appear. All software updates will happen over the air.
All the applications will be now completely autonomous. You will not have to go to iCal or some other desktop app to create a calendar, for example. There is no need for a desktop or laptop anymore, for anything.

9. New Game Center

The have enhanced Game Center too. Unfortunately, they have not renewed its awful casino interface, which looks as dated as always. But they have added much needed concepts from Xbox Live and other gaming systems:
• Achievement points.
• Access friends of friends, so you can compare and play with a wider range of people.
• Photos in your profile, so you can flirt with other nerds pretending to be women online.
• Game discovery, to play with whoever wants to play with you at any given time.
• Game downloads within Game Center.
• Support for turn-based games like Words for Friends and Scrabble.

10. iMessage

Another new useful feature, which will hurt Blackberry and the telecommunications companies wanting to sell you stupid SMS and MMS contracts: Apple has implemented a new messaging system called iMessage.
It works between all iOS 5 devices, allowing you to leave conversations on your iPhone and continue them in your iPad (again, I will not be surprised to see this integrated into Lion at a later date). It comes with delivery notification as well. However, unlike WhatsApp, it doesn't work with other non-iOS devices. Maybe Apple thinks your Android and Blackberry friends are not worth talking to for free.

All the others

• Dictionary everywhere: This is something that many people have asked for because they like it in the iBooks app. Now, every application will have Dictionary built-in.
• iTunes synchronization over Wi-Fi
• Advanced gestures: It will allow you to pass from app to app on the iPad by using a simple swipe gesture, without having to use the home button. This was a feature has been in testing for a long time and, trust me, once you try it you will not be able to live without it.

When is it happening?

If you are a developer, it's happening right now. The developer preview is available. The rest of the world will have to wait till this fall.

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All of Apple's New iCloud, iPhone and Mac Stuff

Today Apple gave us a preview of what all Macs, iPhones, iPads will look like in the future-and iCloud, their internet system that syncs your Apple toys and media together. More »

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