Hasta La Gadget!

If you wanted to jump aboard the 2012 Xbox LIVE Update Public Beta bandwagon but missed the figurative boat in July, then you will be pleased to know that the overwhelming response at the end of the month so impressed Microsoft, that they have announced a second open call for Xbox LIVE subscribers who fully intend to make the cut, so to speak, this time around in order to test out the beta program. It is said that a whole lot more beta testers will be accepted in the latest “recruitment” round, but do bear in mind that there will still be limited space, and once spots are fully filled, the beta will again, close its doors – making the adage “the early bird gets the worm” all the more relevant this time around. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 2012 Xbox LIVE Update public beta now available, Microsoft Live security outlined, recommends users to change password,

Bob Averill, who introduced us to the world of underwater hamster care, had a couple of other projects to show us during our visit to Portland, Oregon, including the All-Weather Motorcycle Helmet. What, you ask, makes a motorcycle helmet “all-weather?” Why, built-in heating and cooling, of course. Averill started with a standard Vega modular helmet, adding an evaporative cooler powered by a solar panel on top. The cooler pulls air from an intake on the helmet’s side, sucking up more air at higher speeds and blowing it through a sponge, across the wearer’s face. When things get too cold, there’s a heater built into the liner, created from a heated mouse pad and powered by a lithium battery. Averill is looking to get the project mass-produced, but that’s easier said than done, when it comes to a safety products like this — and Kickstarter, apparently, isn’t playing ball. Check out a video of the helmet after the break.

Continue reading All-weather motorcycle helmet heats and cools your face, protects grey matter (video)

All-weather motorcycle helmet heats and cools your face, protects grey matter (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For your perusal: a Geiger counter made in the style of HR Giger. Why? Because this is the Internet and people do stuff for attention, that’s why.

The creator, Steve D of Mad Art Lab, bought a real Geiger counter from Adafruit Industries and wrapped it up in plastic bones from a skeleton model. A coat of black paint and some creepy pipes and he had a complete Giger counter that looked like a cross between a tricorder and a lizard fetus.

The impetus for the project was a mispelling Steve noticed in a recent Tweet:

Now if someone could make an 3D model of this we could all enjoy our Giger counters as we went our way through the wilds of alien planets.

via Make

Stephen King is one of the most celebrated modern authors in the world. He has a huge number of books, movies, and TV shows to his credit. King is typically thought of as a horror writer, but some of my favorite stories King has ever written don’t necessarily fit the traditional horror genre.

Some of my favorite books from King are The Dark Tower series that follows gunslinger Roland Deschain. This series of books has been optioned for a movie and a TV show tie in, but fans of the franchise will be saddened to hear that things are looking bad for The Dark Tower right now. Warner Bros. has officially passed on developing an adaptation of the book series for the big screen and for TV.

Sadly, Warner Bros. taking a pass comes after Universal Pictures passed on it last year. The curious thing is that the project had a serious names attached to it, with Ron Howard attached to direct at least the first part of the series and set to oversee the entire project. Russell Crowe was also said to be interested in playing the gunslinger. The project would have had a movie trilogy with a limited run TV shows that would tie content between the three movies. I’ll add this project right next to the Halo live-action movie on my list of the best movies that never were.

[via ComingSoon]

The Safety Pen might not be new, as it was thought up of last year, but then again, we are not going to argue with a $1 marker pen that was specially designed to be able to administer up to 400 prenatal disease tests thanks to the reagent within. Sean Monagle, a graduate student at the John Hopkins University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, alongside with his engineering classmates Maxim Budyansky, Sherri Hall, Matthew Means, Shishira Nagesh Mary O’Grady, Peter Truskey and James Waring, have come up with this particular marker pen which is capable of identifying prenatal diseases at the early stages in an accurate manner without costing a bomb, potentially able to save many lives across different continents.

This group who are out to change the world with their invention intend to manufacture color-coded kits which are capable of screening several conditions, ranging from diabetes to urinary tract infections as well. They have given themselves a three year timeframe in order to see through to the Safety Pen’s roll out, targeting a $20,000 cost along the way.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: “Who’s Your Daddy” truck is a mobile paternity test lab, Immune Project brings up patient data by scanning QR codes, hopes to bring vaccination to the masses,