Funny prank for the unsuspecting guest. You record a message into the thing (up to 6sec) and it plays back when the toilet paper is unrolled. Get it here.

Pixsy Corporation today announced the launch of StarHabit.com, a photo and video search engine focused on celebrity content aggregated from RSS feeds which we announced recently. StarHabit.com enables users to search for the latest and freshest celebrity content from top providers across the web in one location, updated dynamically throughout the day.

“The launch of StarHabit.com is designed to show new distribution partners an example of a next-generation celebrity photo and video search engine they can have under their brand,” said Chase Norlin, CEO of Pixsy. “StarHabit.com showcases the flexibility of our technology in powering media search engines for online publishers.”

MyStars lets users save their favorite celebrity photos, videos, content providers, categories, and searches. Clicking a photo or video thumbnail image sends users to the original source of that material.

Google has registered the domain GoogleImageTagger.com, leading to more speculation over what they plan to do regarding ‘image search’. Via Googling Google

This follows Google’s aquisition of Neven Vision, a biometric company specializing in image recognition. With Google looking to integrate some advanced techniques into their own image search or with Picasa.

And what about the leak of the Google Vision concept gadget? The device that will “will tag and name exactly what your staring at,” and which supposedly is “combining GPS, OLED technology and advanced image recognition in the form of a retractable screen device.”

Oh yes indeed, they are up to something in Mountain View.

The Neoracer is a portable excersize bike that works with pretty much all consoles, and PC games. Basically, it works by assigning the pedals to control any one button on the gamepad. So for example, in a PS2 racing game that uses the X button for the gas, one would assign the pedals to control X. The slower you pedal, the slower you racer will move. It also works with the cyberfitness software, IslandWorlds.

The Neoracer comes in two “compatibility” versions, “The Basic” and “The Extended”. The Basic edition can control PS, PS2, and PC games, while The Extended adds support for XBox, XBox2, and Gamecube (including PS, PS2, and PC). It’s priced at $189 for The Basic, and $218 for The Extended. The Neoracer can be purchased here.

A robot offers an unusual service in the museum. Pen in hand, he draws a human portrait. A drawing board sits in front of him, and a chair stands ready for his model.

Once a visitor is seated, the robot begins to work. The machine-artist fastens his camera eye on the model’s face, and with striking hand movements, he draws the person’s portrait.The resulting image is individual and unpredictable. With both technical ability and the capability to recognize the characteristics of a human face, the robot hand forms his own style. Watch ‘autoportait’ video below:

In Japan today, Sharp held a press conference for the introduction of six new AQUOS model TV’s.
These new models are introducing multiple features including:
The world’s highest contrast ratio and response time of 2000:1 and 4ms. A 1-Bit digital amplifier and new speaker system. Two HDMI inputs are standard. A new remote control is included. The 52inch model also conforms to Japan’s new energy consumption standards for 2008.

Read the rest of this entry »

Need we say more? Pick one up at GeekStuff4U.com ($30).

Hackers have obtained the credit card details of almost 19,000 online shoppers from telecoms giant AT&T. The US company said it had notified shoppers at its online store of the security breach, which affected people buying high-speed DSL internet items. Security was breached at the weekend, the company said, and online stores were quickly shut down in response. AT&T said it would reimburse customers for any fraudulent transactions and pay for any necessary credit services.US analyst Todd Stefan, of Setec Investigations, told the Associated Press that incidents of high-profile security fraud were on the rise. A “very large underground international community” trades in stolen personal information, especially credit card details, Mr Stefan said. Via BBC

Samsung announced its plan to demonstrate 4th Generation (4G) mobile technology at the annual Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island, Korea for the first time in the world. Demonstration will take place at the specially designed bus in mobile circumstances reaching 100 Mbps data transmission as well as at the display area inside forum venue to show speeds of 1Gbps of data transmission. The bus demonstration will give participants a first-hand experience of this latest technology. A demonstration bus will be moving at speeds of 60 km/h to show multi-cell Handover (the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another) with data speed of 100Mbps.

A live broadcast of the Forum, VOD, and internet access will be shown simultaneously in a demonstration bus allowing delegates to experience the stability and speed of 4G connectivity of 100Mbps data speed. 1 Gbps data speed under nomadic circumstances is 50 times faster than current Mobile WiMAX technology. It takes about 2.4 seconds to transfer 100 MP3 files (300MByte), 5.6 seconds to transfer 1 Movie (800MByte) at speeds of 1Gpbs. Samsung will demonstrate 1Gpbs data speed at nomadic circumstances by showing 32HD channel broadcast (20 Mpbs) download, Internet access and video telephony all at the same time. Furthermore, a 3.5 Gbps data transfer demonstration will be shown using 8X8 MIMO(Multi-Input Multi-Output) technology.

Samsung’s 4G technology demonstration is a next generation wireless communication service, a step up from last year’s Mobile WiMAX demonstration. Samsung has recently announced its plans to provide Mobile WiMAX systems and handsets to Sprint Nextel and lead the industry in next generation telecommunications technology. Additionally, Samsung has plans to commercialize Mobile WiMAX with nine major operators in seven different countries such as US, Italy, Brazil.

I know that I have been waiting for this for, it seems, way too long. There are many new features included in this update for the Motorola Q. One of which is Direct Push email technology. It also adds more robust Dial-Up networking features to allow Motorola Q users to more easily use their device as an EVDO wireless broadband modem via USB and Bluetooth (even though lots of us, including myself are already doing this). There are supposedly many more features in this update, including improved browser navigation. You can get the update here.

PS: I will update my Q later on this evening an post again with a first impressions of this new update.