Hasta La Gadget!

As you know, we love our LEGO around here. Every time I think I’ve seen it all, my faith in the creativity of humankind is restored by yet another LEGO build. This particular construction was inspired by the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muerto, or The Day of the Dead.

LEGO-maniac Brickbaron created this bright and colorful scene of a fun house, loaded with happy (and somewhat terrified) minifigs as they make their way in and out of the FunHaus (which, coincidentally isn’t Spanish at all).

It’s embellished with skulls and a facade loaded with eyeballs and chompy teeth to lure you in. It’s also got an awesome moving scene in the middle, which you can check out in the video clip below:

Brickbaron also says the scene was highly influenced by the works of artist Pooch, and I suggest that you check out his website for some cool and unusual paintings. Be sure to check out the hi-res images of FunHaus over on Flickr too.

[via Brothers Brick]

On the Apple Q4 conference call, both CFO Peter Oppenheimer and CEO Tim Cook took a moment to defend the iPad’s pricing in response to a question about what they think about comments it’s too high. Not surprisingly, both defended the pricing decision and talked quality.

“When we set out to build the iPad mini, we didn’t set out to build a small, cheap tablet,” Oppenheimer said. Instead, he argued that Apple’s goal was to replicate the high-quality experience of the standard iPad.

“Apple will not make a product that someone may feel good about the moment they’re paying for it, but then when they get home they rarely use it again,” Cook said. “I would encourage you to use an iPad mini and I don’t think that you’ll be using anything other than another iPad after that.”

Cook’s statements were based on the fact that the existing iPad continues to own an outsized portion of tablet browsing usage and other engagement stats. He’s arguing that the iPad mini will likewise be an experience that provides value over a longer term than cheaper Android tablets, suggesting a lot of those make it home but then don’t become a daily use device.

“Customers are very smart, have high expectations and they want a device that can do more,” Cook said. He also addressed the rest of the competition in response to a later question, adding, that ”[The iPad mini] is not a compromised product, like the 7-inch tablets. It’s in a whole different league.”

The Dark Knight Rises – one of the biggest movies of the year – will be releasing on DVD and Blu Ray soon (December 4 to be specific), and Warner Bros. has one whopper of a promotion planned for the lead up to release. Starting this weekend, Warner Bros. will send a total of six Batmobiles on tour across the country. The Batmobiles span most of Batman’s Hollywood history, starting with the version seen in 1966′s Batman, The Movie starring Adam West and ending with the black and camo Tumblers seen in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.

Of course, there were plenty of Batmobiles between 1966 and 2012, and those will all be on display too. These include the Batmobile Michael Keaton drove in Batman and Batman Returns, the one Val Kilmer cruised around in Batman Forever, and the one from 1997′s beyond terrible Batman and Robin. As an added bonus, the Batpod from Christopher Nolan’s films will be on display as well.

The tour kicks off this weekend at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. On Saturday, the Batmobiles will be parked outside the Miller Lite Club, while on Sunday, they’ll be on display at half-time during the Cowboys’ game against the New York Giants. After the stint in Arlington, the Batmobiles will move onto Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Lousiana the weekend of November 3.

More dates will be announced later on, so no, the Batmobiles will not just be visiting those locations listed above. Make no mistake, if you’re a Bat-fan, this is about as good a chance as any to catch a glimpse at the various Batmobiles that have graced the silver screen throughout the years. Will you be making the trip to see these Batmobiles in person?

Batmobiles new and old hit the streets for Dark Knight Rises DVD release is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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*Not verbatim, but pretty much. During Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Cook just dissed Microsoft’s new kinda-tablet-kinda-computer thing. “I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats,” Mr. Cook quipped. That’s sarcasm. Mean, corporate sarcasm! More »

The iPad mini’s gross margin is “significantly below” the rest of Apple’s product line at $329, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said on the company’s conference call today. He said that’s driving lower guidance for the upcoming quarter despite a number of new products just-launched across its lineup of offerings.

“We’re unwilling to cut corners in delivering the best experiences in the world,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. He stressed that the company is all about setting the bar high, perhaps implying that that’s what’s making gross margins slimmer on the iPad mini.

Oppenheimer added that the company hopes to improve margins with further supply chain and manufacturing process optimization as its production of the iPad mini continues to ramp up and become more efficient and cost-effective.

Launching the iPad mini required being “aggressive” on pricing according to Apple on the call, which is why the company chose to go below its ordinary margins. In past articles, I estimated that the bill-of-materials and construction costs might put the iPad mini within Apple’s existing range in terms of gross margins on hardware products, but it seems like the company’s unique design is keeping the iPad mini costs above the range I’d suggested.