Fresh off our Toaster Deathmatch 2K6, we bring you this Breakfast-Art Image Toaster. Sure, it looks like any old toaster you could get as a wedding present (and then promptly return for booze money), but this one draws things on your toast!

Four separate image designs—a sun, a cup of coffee, a smiley face or a birthday cake. You know what? As jaded as we've become over cutesy gadgets, this thing's pretty great. We're buying these as gifts for everybody this Xmas. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Brookstone via Coolest Gadgets]

No, Smurfette will not be part of a blueman gangbang.

TimeSys has hired a new vice president from the telecommunications industry. The Pittsburgh-based embedded Linux developer services provider announced that Greg Quiggle, formerly of Tollgrade Communications, will start immediately as VP of sales and marketing.

It hits the important bullet points...

Quark Interactive Designer 1.0 is a great tool for any QuarkXPress 7 designer who wants to create interactive content with Flash or who has existing content to convert for Web use.

Oakley sunglasses are expensive. But apparently, they're expensive for reasons other than the recognizable "O" logo that's stuck on them. Nope, they're resistant to shattering if something strikes them, unlike other sunglasses that'll happily embed shards of themselves in your eyes when hit. They can also withstand 2 pound weights falling on them and handle lasers better than other glasses. They test all these things in the "O Lab." The nice folks at NotCot got to check out the O Lab, providing photos and video of the machines used to test expensive sunglasses. Hit the jump for video.

[NotCot]

This game is surprisingly enjoyable for a few hours, but after that it goes from good, mindless fun to mind-numbingly repetitive.

DreamWorks' planned "Oldboy" remake appears to be gaining traction, with "I Am Legend" co-writer Mark Protosevich in early talks to write the screenplay.

http://www.WatchMojo.com presents... A look at the 9 planets that are in our solar system. Ranked 3.03 / 5 | 194 views | No comments

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Submitted By: watchmojo
Tags: space science planets solar system mercury pluto saturn earth 

Mickey Rourke is on the ropes.

A listing of the top 5 sellers per region worldwide, for all systems combined.

For America the list is: 1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC), 2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii), 3. Wii Fit (Wii), 4. Wii Play (Wii), 5. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360).

In light of the Sidekick Slide's recent problems, T-Mobile is pulling the Sidekick Slide from its product line. Readers are reporting the Slide is no longer on the T-Mobile product site, and anonymous inside sources are confirming this. This is convenient, seeing as Fridays (not to mention Friday night), are the best day to announce a story like this with the least news impact. More to come as we get more info. [Sidekick Slide on Giz]

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360

Sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy got the goods on some upcoming Black Friday deals yesterday. For those of you who may not know, Black Friday (so very appropriately named) is the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving, when stores feature gargantuan sales in an effort to suck shoppers in and kick-start the Christmas shopping season.

Best Buy is having an $18.99 sale featuring:

• Amped 3
• Condemned
• NBA Live '06
• Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis
• The Outfit (apparently you can score this one for only $9.99 if you buy it in-store before noon)
  

Circuit City offers a different set at $16.99:

• Full Auto
• Gun
• Perfect Dark Zero
• Quake 4
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Our advice is to call the stores to find out if these deals will be available online and stay inside. Black Friday is normally a hellish experience with a lot of pushing, shoving and greed. In fact, we're surprised Rockstar hasn't made a video game version yet.

Your mission: take out other shoppers before they can get your sale items.

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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/

A FAQ on the official Konami Web site has addressed some of the problems gamers are having with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

Sony's PlayStation 3 game console goes on sale in Japan, and hardcore gamers line up for hours in the cold and wet to get one. The units, in short supply because of production glitches, debut in the United States next week.

As promised, Intel today released its first processors based on 45-nanometer manufacturing process and the accompanying new Penryn architecture. The unveiling is headlined by the Xeon 5400, according to the company. Billed as one of the fastest processors ever for workstations and servers, the new model uses the reduced power and heat demands of ...

Writers of malicious code are turning to new approaches to ensure that their efforts evade detection, according to security experts at this week's CSI trade show.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be in stores on January 16th in North America and in Europe. The expansion to the world's leading subscription-based multiplayer online role-playing game will allow players to advance characters up to level 70, add two new playable races -- the Blood Elves and the...

Part of 1UP's "Three Weeks of Halo 3" blowout, today is the Multiplayer Analysis.

Hewlett-Packard's shifting the focus of its digital photo business from cameras to home printing and online photo services. Future cameras will still bear the HP branding, but they'll be designed and manufactured by a licensed third party. The HP-but-not camera deal should be set with the ghost producer halfway into 2008—HP will keep selling their own through the end of this year. [NYT, HP Press Release]

Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take 2, has refused to narrow down a release period for Grand Theft Auto IV, saying the publisher won't commit until it's "utterly convinced" the game is ready.

"We know it's highly anticipated. Right now our view is to put out a high quality title and we're not in the business of disappointing investors."

Zelnick said that any concerns that the initial delay had caused it to miss the Christmas sales period have been alleviated, as GTA IV is a "must-have" title, able to take advantage of a bigger installed base of consoles in the New Year.

Whether you’re looking to add DVD burning capability to your system, looking for an easier way to copy optical media, or just want the latest and fastest drives for burning DVDs—even dual-layer DVDs—the LaCie d2 can easily and speedily handle all that and more.
Best Current Price: $170.26 (via ProductFinder)

Going green in the dark, says survey.

Many UK companies have adopted green policies on power consumption without having any way of measuring their progress, a new survey has found.

eWeek: "The recent decision by the Open Document Foundation to substitute the World Wide Web Consortium's Compound Document Format in place of the format it was set up to promote, the Open Document Format, has sparked a contentious debate over what shape the format should take..."

Console Addicted posted a photo which confirms the fact that Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare for Xbox 360 is available for download on torrents site all over the world as a Back-Up Disc.

Google on Monday plans to unveil an ambitious mobile application development platform and is working to reach deals with wireless carriers, handset makers, software developers and hardware providers.

Mozilla, Microsoft reps argue over the future of web scripting

As a guy who has railed *against* JavaScript for years, for reasons that I still think are somewhat valid (variously implemented, not always guaranteed to even be enabled, security, discipline, testing, etc), but is coming around now, thanks to being enlightened by the reality that techniques like Ajax do matter, and frameworks like Dojo, Prototype, Script.aculo.us and so on, I have to say that I agree with Brendan Eich on this one.

The points Brendan makes, and the roadmap seem pretty clear.

And really, just as I should not have much say in this because of my past JavaScript discretions, frankly, neither should Microsoft - even though the process clearly HAS tried to accommodate anyone interested. I couldn't agree more with sentiments like: "Sorry, but most of those JScript deviations are not candidate de facto standards -- they are just your bugs to fix. They should not stall ES4 for one second," when it comes to MS peeps claiming de-facto crap.

Constantly changing worm has infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is usually a mild-mannered, non-confrontational guy. But after an altercation aboard an airplane, he is remanded to the care of an anger management therapist, Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), who could probably use some anger management himself.

The next best thing to a Gphone?

A 45-days-old golden retriever learns the housekeeping duties Ranked 3.35 / 5 | 200 views | No comments

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Submitted By: warrensmith
Tags: pet dog cute funny puppy golden retriever housekeeping learning 

Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight

• G4 is running a Heroes marathon all day and night.
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes.
• ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos at 7, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• The CW has a new CW Now at 7.
• At 8, FOX has Game 4 of The World Series.
• The CW has a new Life Is Wild at 8.
• There's a new Nature on PBS at 8, then a new Masterpiece Theatre.
• The Cartoon Network has the new movie The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It at 8.
• At 9, CBS has a new Cold Case, followed by a new Shark.
• HGTV has the special What's With That Haunted Halloween House at 9.
• HBO has a new Tell Me You Love Me at 9, then a new Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• Also at 9: Showtime has a new Dexter, followed by a new Brotherhood.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Robot Chicken.

Check your local TV listings for more.

 

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Sports, Soccer, from Konami

Date Added: Obama promises change..... 10/25/2008 01:56

No one messes with Conan's armor!

Okay, so technically, Gisele Bundchen is topless on the cover of the November / December issue of American Photo magazine, but it's the photos inside that really count. The incredible, and rare under-cleavage in the second and third pictures...

This is why you dont try to tie a rope around a sperm whale and tow it with a motorboat.

Aaron Thomas hits the streets screamin in this video review for Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

Inside an office in sunny Raleigh, North Carolina, Epic vice president Mark Rein settles back into a comfy seat. "It all started way back in the stone age," he begins. "You know, Tim Sweeney started the company in his parents' basement in Maryland."

Outside, staff members play on the Epic basketball court, others help themselves to a mountain of saturated fat in a snacking area that would make Elvis blush, and a dummy sits in the echoing halls of a super hi-tech motion capture suite just waiting to be hurled off a ledge for the fiftieth time.

Others still beaver away on Unreal Tournament III, presumed further iterations of Gears of War and engine tech that will have an inordinate number of games we've barely dreamt of plugged into its guts. There's no disputing it, Epic Games have come a long, long way since their original birth as Potomac Computer Systems back in 1991.

Samsung is still supporting another, non-Google open operating system for mobiles, showing off a couple of Symbian-based smartphones at a recent event in London. The Samsung I7110 doubles as a phone and a navigation device, while the Samsung L870 is being marketed as a fashion slider.

The I7110 comes with a GPS navigation program with geo-tagging, pedestrian and driving navigators. It also packs a 5MP camera, multiple codec support, 50MB of internal memory (expandable up to 16GB with a microSD slot), and an FM transmitter to push music and driving instructions through an in car radio.

Meanwhile, the L870 comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 3MP camera, FM radio, a music player, Bluetooth, and 100MB of internal memory (expandable up to 4GB). Instead of navigation programs, the slider has a more traditional set of smartphone software—push email, document viewers and the like. Prices weren't available yet for either phone.

With Extensive Product Portfolio

Samsung offers a variety of Symbian smartphones at the Smartphone Show 2008

The Smartphone Show, London, UK, October 21 2008 - Samsung Electronics, a leading provider of mobile phones and telecom systems, showcases an extensive portfolio of Symbian smartphones at this year’s Smartphone Show (Oct. 21~22) in London, United Kingdom.

Samsung sees a great growth potential in the open Operating System based smartphone market, and has invested a lot of R&D and marketing resources in this market for past several years. Consequently, Samsung plans to offer a wider range of open OS mobiles this year, demonstrating significant progress in open OS and smartphone technology. Your browser may not support display of this image., the ultimate mobile entertainer with an 8-megapixel camera and Symbian OS, was recently launched and extremely well received by users and industry professionals all around the world.

Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecommunications Business, said: “I’m sure that we will see more and more demand for smartphones with open Operating Systems thanks to the increasing need for flexibility and customization on mobiles, and the introduction of various mobile applications. Samsung’s new Symbian OS-based smartphones such as Your browser may not support display of this image. shows our strategic focus on the open OS phone market.�

“We will reinforce our open OS and smartphone leadership not only by providing more products, but also by opening our new developers collaboration program ‘Samsung Mobile Innovator’.� He concluded.

At this year’s Smartphone Show, Mr.Ho-Soo Lee, Executive Vice President of Mobile Solution Centre, Telecommunication Business of Samsung Electronics, will deliver the keynote speech, ‘Eight Reasons to Innov8,’ on Tuesday, October 21.

Samsung’s newly announced Symbian smartphones at the Smartphone Show include:

Samsung I7110

As a mobile navigator, the I7110 boasts advanced GPS navigation with geo-tagging, pedestrian navigation and driving navigation. The I7110’s AMOLED LCD screen provides sharp and vivid image even in daylight for perfect pedestrian navigation in the palm of your hand. Through its FM transmitter, the I7110 enables its users to receive the voice guides on the move by transmitting to an in car radio.

With Samsung I7110, users will be able to enjoy a 5 Megapixel camera with Auto focus and LED flash. It also comes with the latest digital camera features including smile shot and blink shot functions. The I7110 also provides advanced video recording and play features, supporting multi-codec files to enable its users to easily transfer without the hassle of converting files. It features 50MB of internal memory with micro SD slot, allowing users to store and enjoy various contents on the device up to 16GB.

To offer seamless connectivity, the I7110 comes with HSDPA connectivity and Wi-Fi connectivity. For easier web browsing, the phone also provides an 8-way optical mouse. The I7110 supports a 1200mAh battery that delivers 11 hours of talk time, meaning this slim and stylish smartphone offers long lasting multimedia experience.

Samsung L870

Like a fine tailored suit, the L870 is encased in a magnificent stainless steel body softly brushed with an elegant hairline pattern, and a 13.5mm slim and sleek outline, which can perfectly complement every outfit and style.

Leveraging the capabilities of S60 platform, L870 brings full connectivity that surpasses expectations for a handset device. The applications and features of S60 software are not only easy to learn and use, but also enable maximum productivity. A high speed internet browser provides access to more than 6,000 open applications which are compatible with L870 so users can customize the device for their individual needs.

L870 features many useful Samsung pre-installed applications such as an advanced task manager Checkit, PIMs (Personal information manager) homescreen, Team manager and business card recognition function. With these applications, users will experience a better time and life managing experience than ever.

L870 boasts many other latest applications and interfaces. A creative user interface (UI) features three different themes, and a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display, a 3-megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS, music player and Bluetooth v.2.0 supports are all embedded within L870 for satisfying visual and audio entertainment needs.

Samsung I7110 Specifications:

Network HSDPA 3.6 Mbps (900/2100), EDGE / GPRS (850/900/1800/1900)
OS Symbian OS V9.3, S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
Display 2.6" 262K QVGA AMOLED
Camera 5 Megapixel CMOS with AF and LED Flash, Smile Shot, Blink Shot
Video Video Player (DivX / H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MP4, RV)
VGA 30 fps / QVGA 120fps Video recording
H.263+AMR NB
Audio FM Radio with RDS DNSe 2.0
Music Player (MP3/ AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WMA / RealAudio)
Value-added Features GPS Navigation: Pedestrian & Driving, Geo-tagging
Optical Mouse, Accelerometer, FM Transmitter
Embedded 3D Games : FIFA 2008, Asphalt
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
Connectivity Bluetooth v2.0 / USB v2.0 / Wi-Fi
Memory 50MB User Memory + External Memory slot (up to 16GB)
Size 118 x 52 x 12.9 mm
Battery 1200 mAh
Talk time: up to 11 hrs/ 6 hrs (EDGE/WCDMA)
Stand-by time: up to 427 / 451 hrs (EDGE/WCDMA )

* Notice: Pedestrian map is available currently in only 10 cities in
Western Europe.

(Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milan,
Munich, Paris, Rome)

Samsung L870 Specifications:

Standard HSDPA (2100MHz) 3.6Mbps + EDGE/GPRS 900/1800/1900
Display 2.4" QVGA 16M Color TFT
Camera 3-Megapixel Camera
OS Symbian 9.3 S60 3.2
Features New Thematic UI, Quick Office document viewer
Push Email (Visto, Seven, Intellysync, Good)
Advanced PIM Applications
Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, RA, AMR, WMA)
Video Player (H.263 + AMR, MPEG4, Real One, WMV)
FM Radio (RDS) Bluetooth v.2.0 EDR USB 2.0 (Full Speed)
Memory 100MB internal memory + Micro SD up to 4GB
Size 103.5 x 50.5 x 13.5mm

Features Editor Joe Dodson gives us a run down on Naruto videogames.

Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Newsstand, Games and Game Movies

The versatile Andy Serkis, known mostly for playing characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or King Kong in, well, King Kong, can now add voice actor, writer and director to his growing list of credits. Serkis recently told Sci-Fi Wire that even though he has been busy as an actor with other projects, like the upcoming The Prestige and the action-adventure Stormbreaker, he also found time to work on the story and direct some of the sequences for an upcoming animated video game for Playstation 3 called Heavenly Sword. The story of Heavenly Sword centers around a warrior named Nariko who, when her village is attacked, takes up the fight against an evil king and his army using the Heavenly Sword.

Serkis was approached last year by the game's producer, Ninja Theory, and was asked to work with them on the game. After taking a look at Ninja Theory's concept art for the game and talking over the other elements like the story and the technology to be used for the game, Serkis was very interested in coming aboard but felt that there was one big problem -- performance. "They approached me, and I thought that there was a real gap between concept art and the look of it and the technology and actually the performance. Well, there is a real appetite out there for games now with performance," said Serkis in the article.

How would he solve this problem and help bring the game to a higher level of performance? By helping to script the game and directing the motion capture sessions. "We went back to New Zealand, and we rehearsed it, and then we shot all the motion capture. I directed all the performances for that game," said Serkis in the article. He also found time to voice several of the characters in the game as well as participate in front of the camera during the motion capture shoot by doing many of the motion capture movements for characters himself.

Heavenly Sword the video game should be coming out around the same time as the Playstaton 3. When Heavenly Sword the movie will be coming out is anyone's guess.

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Character profile for Billie Church in Clive Barker's Jericho!

mrcgran sends us to LXer for an interview with John Hull, a manager of the Linux Engineering team at Dell, where he reports on how the Ubuntu machines have been working out for them so far. "Embracing Ubuntu Linux on our desktops and laptops seems to have really raised Dell's visibility within the Linux community. We have been supporting, testing, developing for, and selling Linux for 8+ years here at Dell, but before the Ubuntu announcement, a lot of people didn't know that we did any of that... Previous to our Ubuntu product announcement... we would have a conversations with vendors about pushing Linux support for their hardware, but without a Linux product offering from Dell for that hardware, it was very difficult to convince them to release Linux drivers. That has certainly changed now... The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu, but it certainly won't overtake Microsoft Windows anytime soon."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HP is betting big on cloud computing as its $12 billion purchase of EDS shows that the company is serious about infrastructure as a service.

The facial animation side by side comparison with the original animation of the real-time tech trailer. And it seems to match up pretty well.

P.S. The video purposely leaves both audios in, and a slight delay to allow you to distinguish between both audios. Very interesting

See Reed and Sue get hitched.

Citing Al Gore as “ ‘probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted’ ” to combat global warming, the Nobel committee awarded the former Vice President the Nobel Peace Prize alongwith the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As reported by Alan Zarembo and Maggie Farley (Los Angeles Times), the committee noted how Gore’s ” ’strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change.’ “