When I heard the name 'miniHitch', I had one thing come to mind. However the Compwave MiniHitch is a great idea for those that have large screen LCD monitors to go along with their Mac minis. The miniHitch uses the standard VESA mount found on many LCD monitors. It is clear acrylic, so it shows off the beauty of the Mac mini.
Since the miniHitch reduces the clutter on your desk, it is a good substitue for the iMac if you've already purchased a mini and a flat screen monitor. Or if you're suffering from iMac envy. Compuwave also makes a mount for the iSight camera.
It's $50 direct from the manufacturer, who only works through PayPal.
Back when I was a kid, my mom would sing "Look For The Union Label," a song from a TV ad about how buying clothing made by unionized US workers, rather than from sweatshops, is the right thing to do.
Now the CWA (Communications Workers of America) are playing a similar tune in their new campaign to get Americans to switch to Cingular, the only unionized cell phone carrier in the US. The CWA's site, cingularswitch.com, singles out Verizon Wireless as a company to switch from, but T-Mobile and Sprint are also non-union, according to the CWA's Jeff Miller.
Politics can definitely play a role in your shopping choices. The founders of Domino's Pizza and Curves gyms have come under criticism for supporting pro-life causes, though the fact that both companies are franchises make the issue a lot cloudier (as individual franchisees may have different opinions.) The clothing company American Apparel, meanwhile, makes a positive selling point of their excellent working conditions -- though they're also anti-union. It's a complicated world, but if the "union label" means a lot to you, you should be making calls on Cingular.
UPDATED: David Blaine's failed attempt at breaking the world record for holding his breath underwater for longer than 8 minutes, 58 seconds has not deterred him from trying again. That's right, according to People Magazine, Blaine wants to try the stunt once more, but without being immersed in a tank for a week. He was released from the hospital on Tuesday and is feeling fine.
Unless you've been locked up in a 2,000-gallon tank of water yourself, then you've probably already heard about David Blaine's latest stunt: to hold his breath underwater longer than 8 minutes, 58 seconds, which is currently the world record.
Blaine has trained for the event with an elite free-diving team led by trainer Kirk Krack. He has been immersed in an 8-foot acrylic sphere full of 2,000 gallons of 98.6-degree F water for seven days and nights in front of the Lincoln Center in NYC. Drowned Alive will appear tonight at 8pm on ABC where he will hold his breath in hopes of a victory.
Rather than watching him on TV, fellow GearLogger PJ Jacobowitz and I decided to venture to Lincoln Center for a hands-on look at the daredevil himself. We didn't arrive empty-handed though. We decided to bring along a new product we've received in the PC Magazine Labs: SKB's DryPod: a protective, waterproof plastic casing, currently available for the 4Gen iPod and iPod with video. Luckily, PJ felt brave enough to use his iPod with video for the test. Our plan was to put the case on the iPod, immerse it in a vase full of water, then bring it to Blaine to show him the fun he could be having while underwater.
When we arrived, there he was: looking like a big fish, waving to everyone, probably bored out of his mind, with an oxygen mask and liquid nutrition being fed to him through a tube. Nuts I tell ya! Still, you couldn't help but be fascinated.
After being interviewed by Telemundo, we were able to get up close and personal with Blaine, by walking right up to the sphere and taking a picture while listening to some Weezer. He gave us a thumbs-up.
So far, the DryPod has held its breath for 3 hours and 46 minutes. It works very well underwater, and Weezer sounded great.
The DryPod comes with a stainless steel belt clip, arm band, lanyard with clip, and adapter for other headphones with different angle plugs.
Who can forget the late American painter Bob Ross, who taught viewers how to create those unbelieveable landscapes on the PBS TV show, The Joy of Painting? In fact, that was one of the only times I'd watch PBS growing up, besides Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers. To this day, it amazes me the amount of talent Ross possessed. It's such a shame that he died of lymphoma.
Thankfully, we can carry his artistic legacy with us, because Bob Ross Inc. have announced that they intend to develop a video/PC game based on his painting techniques for the PC, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Wii.
"The Bob Ross game will utilize the unique inputs that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Revolution have that can truly immerse the players while they learn to paint like Bob Ross and can play the addictive and fun games that we have planned for the title. I believe that Bob Ross Inc's and AGFRAG Entertainment Group's similar beliefs in independence, creativity, and teaching others will benefit how the game is developed and how the players of all ages will be able to enjoy this game."
No release date info yet, but we'll keep you posted.
I never miss the chance to make a Back to the Future reference. Apparently on eBay over the weekend, somebody won a replica of the De Lorean's Flux Capacitor that's seen in the film. Remember Doc hits his head after slipping off the toilet, and this image appears to him?
Seller 83delorean created the Flux Capacitor with real glass tubes, gold bases made from aluminum, a custom-built circuitboard, and white LEDs.
Yesterday, after 51 bids were placed, the lucky winner was usa1775 for $555. But be on the lookout, because the seller may offer another replica on eBay soon.
Thieves in Madrid used a laptop to wirelessly hack into footballer (that's "soccer player" to us Yanks) David Beckham' BMW X5 and make off with it. Twice, as a matter of fact, in the past year.
Here's how this high-tech car thievery works: Most high-end cars (actually, most current-model cars) have remote locking and unlocking. Some go a step further with a feature called "keyless go," which allows the car to start when the key is in the proximity of the car—or when the car gets a wireless signal indicating the key is nearby. So a thief can pull up alongside a desirable car with a laptop and a wireless transmitter, and broadcast thousands of key codes, until one of them unlocks and then starts the car. It takes about 20 minutes to run through all the possible codes, police say.
Beckham, the world's second-highest-paid soccer player, lost his car in a Madrid shopping center where he was lunching with his two sons. (Thieves like shopping centers because it's easy to find a high-end car and make entry at their leisure.) Beckham had lost another BMW six months earlier in a Madrid parking garage.
England's The Mercury reported Beckham is fourth player on the Real Madrid soccer club to have his car stolen in the past three years, along with Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, and Roberto Carlos. At least in Beckham's case, the theft was probably organized by a high-tech ring that grabs cars and resells them in Eastern Europe. His car is especially valuable, reportedly, because it has "armor plating," layers of Kevlar fiber in the doors and extra-thick glass to stop garden-variety carjackings in which the thieves have handguns but no serious weapons.
Could automakers prevent this kind of theft? Most likely. As with online passwords that lock you out for a couple minutes after three bad logon attempts, automakers might disable the car after a dozen bad attempts within 5 minutes, with a 15-minute cooling off period, but still allow the rightful owner immediate access with the physical key.
The Star reported that Audi offered to replace Beckham's Bimmer with a new Audi Q7SUV "worth an estimated $125,000, for one year, on the condition that he drive it to soccer practice every day." We'd like to see that Q7, because stateside we couldn't option one out for more than $70,000.
This isn't Beckham's first brush with BMW/technology celebrity. In late 2004, his 1996 M3 Evolution convertible, the one he drove while wooing Posh Spice (with difficulty, perhaps, considering the size of the backseat on a BMW cabriolet), was sold on eBay for more than $170,000. The car had 70,000 miles on it, and an intermediary let it go for a reported $20,000 to the eventual reseller. If you haven't seen that story before, just search the phrase "auction it like Beckham" on Google.
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