The perennial Battle of the Dry Turkey begins in less than 48 hours, and this year you’re going to emerge victorious. But if you’re not talented in the culinary arts, or downright lucky, you’ll need a little help from some clever technology to win this age-old war. That’s why we put together this list of 8 essential examples of turkey tech, assisting you in your annual demonstration of cooking prowess.

Continue reading...

Baby just took her first step! After over a year of delays, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider saw its first collision on Monday when two low energy proton beams were smashed into one another. This comes after the LHC’s warm up over the weekend, and it’s another milestone for the 17-mile-long-ring as it works itself back up to full strength.

From CERN:

Next on the schedule is an intense commissioning phase aimed at increasing the beam intensity and accelerating the beams. All being well, by Christmas, the LHC should reach 1.2 TeV per beam, and have provided good quantities of collision data for the experiments’ calibrations.

CERN Director General Rolf Heuer remarked that it was “a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time.” Granted, it may not seem all that short to those of us that have been following its progress, but a year of delays for a multi-billion dollar project and the largest science experiment ever endeavored by mankind doesn’t seem so bad. We can afford him some leeway, right?

CERN, via Ars Technica

Continue reading...

You know electric cars are serious when even Rolls Royce is considering ditching fossil fuel for electrons. The maker of luxury cars renowned the world over for their opulence is seriously considering having an electric version of its luxo-bargo Phantom on the road as early as next year… just in time for the 2012 Olympics being held in its native London.

But will an electric Rolls work?

Read more of this story »

Continue reading...

If the city council of Downey, CA, approves it tonight, Tesla’s new factory to build the upcoming Model S sedan will be at the site of Downey Studios, just outside of Los Angeles. The plant is expected to initially create up to 1,200 much needed jobs in a city with high unemployment.

Read more of this story »

Continue reading...

The holidays, as we all know, are a time for giving. The rich, however, give new meaning to the word generosity. Just look at Warren Buffet, who is bequeathing all his money to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. But what happens if the plaything in a rich man or woman’s life is a teensy weensy bit more materialistic?

Blow-out present time, that’s what it is. And if the gift is big, then it probably means forking out a five-figure sum on wrapping paper, plus giftwrap-wallahs to make the unboxing-day experience one to remember. Maybe there’s something here on your list — if you’re a billionaire.

Click Continue to find out what high-tech gifts will break the bank for you this Christmas.

Continue reading...

Due to the fact that our current energy grid is roughly 51% coal-powered, electric cars and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) have taken some heat as being more polluting than their manufacturers claim, and as we get closer to the release of actual mass-market electric cars, the debate seems to get more intense. Although studies have shown that electric cars and PHEVs are cleaner than pure gas cars even when run off of mostly coal power, the debate still goes on—ad nauseum.

But from my perspective, that debate is a completely irrelevant smokescreen.

Read more of this story »

Continue reading...

Some particularly creative Battlestar Galatica fan made this Cylon birthday cake, which includes an awesome working red eye. You can see the complete video at Sci Fi Wire.

Continue reading...

I’m as big a fan of silly USB baubles as anyone, but I’ve got to wonder if this Alien USB toy is worth it. I mean, for $45 plus shipping from Japan, you’d expect it to hold some data, right? But instead, it just sticks its tongue out and lights up. Pretty cool, I guess, but $45 worth of cool? I think my USB ports can do better than that.

Via Strapya

Continue reading...

Top Gear is one of my all-time favorite shows. It never ceases to provide laughs and good entertainment while simultaneously managing to actually deliver useful content as well. My only gripe with it is that here in the States, we are always at least one season behind. So, while season 14 starts up on BBC in Britain, we’ll be lucky if we see the start of season 13 by February on BBC America.

That lag especially sucks right now because in episode two of season 14, which just aired in Europe, the Top Gear crew has built themselves a “car to save the world”—the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust. Due to the fact that BBC in Britain restricts video viewing from their website to Europeans, I can only bring you a mish mash of bits and pieces of the episode from youtube… but even without the full episode, there are plenty of laughs to be had.

Cheers and enjoy.

Read more of this story »

Continue reading...

The MacBook is a great laptop, for the most part. But when you cram so much computer into such a tiny package, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices. First on the chopping block: decent speakers.

The BassJump is a subwoofer for the MacBook, basically turning the laptop’s built-in speakers into tweeters and handling the bass duties itself. It uses software to separate everything, making it more versatile than if you just plugged a normal subwoofer in. Of course, you could also get a dedicated set of good speakers, but they wouldn’t look like they belonged next to your MacBook, would they?

BassJUmp via Gizmodo

Continue reading...

You’re looking at our dream car. We gave you a sneak peek at this car two months ago, but now the for-real prototype is coming to the U.S., and we have more details about its unique specs. This BMW Vision is a diesel plug-in hybrid that cranks out an awesome 356 hp. But the astonishing part? It packs that impressive wallop and still gets 63 miles per gallon. Like the Chevy Volt, it travels a short distance on all-electric power (it can go 31 miles, a few less than the Volt’s claimed electric range), but has a total range of 431 miles when you tap its 6.6 gallon diesel fuel tank.

Besides its green credentials, just look at it! It’s more conventional-looking than that crazy BMW we showed you last month, but it’s still a concept car, meaning that a body style this radical probably won’t be showing up on real-world production lines anytime soon. It’s way beyond the illustration stage, though — you’re looking at a prototype that’ll be rolled out next week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. We look forward to the day when cars like this will be commonplace.

BMW Vision, via Gearlog

Continue reading...

Beacon Power is working to build a smarter grid with a technology that has been around since Leonardo Da Vinci’s time. Here is how the simple, ubiquitous flywheel may become the next best hope for the U.S. electric grid.

This post originally appeared at Popular Mechanics. You can read the full post on their website. Written by Chris Ladd.

The 2000-pound cylinder of fiberglass, resin and carbon fiber, glossy as a vinyl record, hangs from a mechanical winch above its thick steel chamber. For millennia, flywheels have powered everything from potter’s wheels to steam engines, storing kinetic energy in their momentum as they spin. Now, the flywheel has found a higher purpose in the electrical grid: Wound around a 500-pound rotor, this 5-foot-tall, 3-foot-diameter flywheel assembly at Beacon Power’s plant in Tyngsboro, Mass., appears poised to be the great green hope of that unsung, unsexy, absolutely essential energy niche that is frequency regulation.

Read more of this story »

Continue reading...

Finally, someone is figuring out that if you want a PC in your home theater, you’ll be needing a decent, hardware keyboard. Here’s one of the best ideas yet, and it looks a whole lot like a Blackberry: It’s a wireless USB keyboard and touchpad that might be just what you need.

We like its backlit keyboard and radio-frequency (RF) operation, using the 2.4GHz band, so you don’t have to worry about pointing the device directly at the receiver. While this little handset looks kind of cheap, it’s more portable than a standard-sized keyboard, and its touchpad takes the place of a bulky mouse. If you look at the white one in the gallery below, it actually doesn’t look half bad.

This is a heck of a sight better than those horrendous on-screen keyboards that you navigate with a remote control. Think about it — how many button presses does it take to spell your name? About 50? It’s absurd. Drop $61 on this tiny keyboard, and solve that problem once and for all. Here’s a video of the device in action:

Continue reading...

Why have both a computer and a desk when you can combine both items into one convenient package? That’s the idea behind this custom mod, which built a computer right into a desk.

Of course, this makes upgrading either the desk or the computer a lot more difficult, but fortunately, the water-cooled PC installed inside looks like it’ll be more than adequate for some time. And I guess the desk looks OK as well. I’ll probably stick to using a laptop, but more power to people willing to put a bit more work into things.

Case Mod Blog via Technabob

Continue reading...

Do you have an imaginative kid? Then don’t get the Illuminated JetBib Feeding System, because all of the imagining is done for the little rugrat with this landing light-equipped bib and airplane spoon with a couple of flashing LEDs on each wing. Those blinkinlights on the bib are motion activated, assuring you that whatever that watery gruel is that you feed your offspring is cleared for landing.

This could be a big hit for Thanksgiving, but your toddler may wonder why everyone is laughing as you bark out realistic pilot jargon as you navigate your blinking, winged spoon in for a smooth arrival. Pilots will chuckle at that number 42 on the runway, impossible unless somehow there’s a compass direction that’s designated 420 degrees. More proof that this little feeding system is more for the entertainment of the parents than the wearer.

Think Geek, via Coolest Gadgets

Continue reading...

It may not be the first curved monitor we’ve seen, but the Ostendo CRVD sure is the most gorgeous. The 43-inch, 2880 x 900 quad-DLP rear projection could be yours for $6,500. It looks less bulky than last year’s Alienware model, but that’s probably to do with Ostendo having sexed up the press shots a tad.

The military have been buying these up like crazy, apparently, as has a member of Dubai’s royal family — well, wouldn’t you? Head over the jump, where you can see three of the blighters in action where they really belong: gaming.

Continue reading...

Other than a pile of Wheaties floating in a bowl of Red Bull, the next best thing to waking up with a charge may be the new Boxing Bell Alarm Clock from Banpresto. When the alarm sounds, an announcer begins calling off the ten-count. If you’re still laying down by the end of the count, the alarm sounds again and again.

A rather cute aspect of the device is the mallet that is included to allow you to stop the bell from ringing any further. You can pick up the alarm clock for just 2,900 yen ($32.72) here and you can see video of the Boxing Bell Alarm Clock in action here.

Via Japan Probe

Continue reading...

On flight day four of the STS-129 mission, a member of the crew photographed the aft section of space shuttle Atlantis through a window from aboard the International Space Station. Reflections on the window are visible in this image. The 11-day shuttle mission continued maintenance and upgrades to the orbital outpost. Image Credit: NASA

Continue reading...

The bright sun greets the International Space Station in this Nov. 22 image, taken from the Russian section of the orbital outpost and photographed by the STS-129 crew. The 11-day STS-129 mission installed a number of station upgrades and prepared the station for the installation of Node 3, which is slated for another mission. Image Credit: NASA

Continue reading...