Hasta La Gadget!

Slingshot master Joerg Sprave has shown off not only the most powerful, but also the most gleefully insane slingshots during his time as reigning rubber band madman. But even a slingshot devotee as loyal as Sprave had to ask himself whether or not the weapons can hold their own against handguns. The short answer? Yes. The long answer? Hell yes.

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If you’re a participant in the iOS ecosystem, then we’ve got some free money for you. OfficeMax is prepared to sell you 2 $25 iTunes gift cards for $40, and we think you should take them up on the offer. We see discounts on iTunes credit in the $100 range frequently, but that can be too much of an upfront commitment for a lot of people. This is a good sweet spot. [OfficeMax]

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Grin and bear it: Veebot can stick you with needles or an IV line.

(Credit: Screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)

The first of its kind, Veebot is a prototype robotic phlebotomist, designed to get all Dracula on your arm. It’s supposed to be as good as a human at finding a vein and drawing your blood.

Feel any better about getting your blood drawn? Yah, me neither.

I love it when robots do new things, but I have to admit I get more than a shadow of terror at the prospect of needle-wielding robots. Blame it on the “Star Wars” torture droid.

I know. That’s just an atavistic meatsack response. We should all welcome the evolution of venipuncture, from leeches to hypodermic needles to robots.

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There’s a folder appearing in the archives of the newest iOS 7 Beta with a title that suggests Apple is ready to bring a fingerprint scanner to the iPhone. This folder goes by the name of BiometricKitUI and brings with it the suggestion that the iPhone – or the iPad and the iPod touch, whichever you’d like to imagine – will be working with the recognition of its user by their unique characteristics or traits.

According to the contents of this folder, a sensor will exist within or under the iPhone’s home button. This code suggests that a “photo of a person holding an iPhone with their left [or right] hand while touching the Home button with their thumb” describes the pose you’ll be striking during your log-in process with the phone. This is the first physical lock created for the iPhone – if it does, indeed, come to fruition.

Also in this code embedded in iOS 7 beta 4 is a bit of a UI description: “a fingerprint that changes colour during the setup process”, complete with a “recognition is %@ complete”, suggesting it’ll take more than a moment. Now we’ll just have to wait to see which device this comes with, be it the iPhone 5S, a rebooted iPhone 5, or the full iPhone range, complete with the budget collection.

And on that note, you’ll want to take a peek at the full iOS 7 beta 4 from top to bottom. There you’ll find mainly bug fixes, but as developer Hamza Soon found and shared first with 9to5Mac, there are some hidden gems like what you’re seeing above! Keep on the search!

iPhone fingerprint sensor tapped in iOS leak is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Testicular cancer used to be a brutal condition with a low survival rate, but that’s all changed in recent years thanks to improved treatment. While just over half of patients survived a half century ago, today 96 percent of men who contract the disease are cured.

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