Hasta La Gadget!

If Arnold had encountered this Predator, the movie would have been five minutes of him, Carl Weathers and Jesse “The Body” Ventura stuffing their faces. Did I say Arnold and the gang? I meant me. This Predator cake by Kupkake Tree is incredibly detailed to the point where it looks horrifying – in a good way.

It looks so real that you have to wonder who is going to be eating who. At least it can’t turn all invisible and rip your spine out… I don’t think.

Eat it’s mouth first so it can’t eat you. Just to be safe. I know one thing. I’m now hungry enough that my stomach is making the Predator sound.

[via Between the Pages via Neatorama]

Welcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!
It’s already Friday west of the international dateline – here in Japan, it’s totally the future. The weekly JTFF is our somewhat technosnarky coverage of 2-5 particularly important, specifically Japan-related tech stories. Get yourself hip to the micro & macro that went down while North America was sleeping – check in with Akihabara News every Friday morning and BOOM! Ahead of the game, you win.

:: JTFF – May 3, 2013 ::

• New Pacific Rim Trailer for Japanese Audiences
The JTFF doesn’t often jump into entertainment stories, but since this one’s 1. about giant robots fighting alien sea monsters (“kaiju,” Japanese for “monster”), and 2. directed by Guillermo del Toro, it’s not only wildly relevant (perhaps you’ve noticed our recent renaissance in robotics coverage?), but also promises to maybe, just maybe be a decent blockbuster-scale robot movie. Jump through to see what the suits up in marketing decided to aim at the Japanese.
[PACIFIC RIM JAPAN TRAILER – DIGITAL JOURNAL]

• How Robots are Changing the Way We Age
Interesting and very comprehensive coverage of why and how robots will be all up the developing world’s aging process. Of course anyone worth their Robo-Dorky merit badge knows Japan’s aging society is the vanguard of the “Yeah so we’re getting old really fast and who’s going to take care of us ummm okay let’s do robots” club, and this piece provides a very nice contextual framework for how the issue’s addressed both here and in the rest of the world. For a primer, you might want to begin with our own coverage here.
[GETTING OLD WITH ROBOTS & STUFF – FISCAL TIMES]

• Japan’s Taking Nuclear Energy Tech to the Middle East
Not only is Japan funding off-shore wind farms in the eastern United States, they’re also taking J-Tech nuclear energy know-how to the UAE and Turkey. After Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pan-Arabian hobnobbing, a deal was inked for Japan to sell nuclear tech to the UAE, and this bodes well both for tech exports and maintaining Japan’s steady stream of UAE fossil fuels, for which it’s a platinum-level customer. Motivation and angles on the agreement with Turkey are not quite as easy to parse, but appear to be part of Japan’s ongoing efforts to boost technological exports in lucrative markets outside of the traditional electronics, automotive, etc.
[THINGS GO WELL FOR ABE IN THE UAE – UPI] – [TURKEY GETS SOME NUCLEAR J-TECH – JAPAN TIMES]

That was the JTFF, and live from the future – that is all!

_________

Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com, where the JTFF was born.

Tokyo at Night image via PhotoEverywhere.

A man accused of being one of the “most prolific sellers” of counterfeit electronics in the UK has just been sent down for two and a half years. Over 4,000 KiRFs, mainly consisting of knock-off Sennheiser and Monster headphones, were found at Michael Reeder’s address, with a value of around £250,000 ($400,000). However, Sennheiser claims this is just 1 percent of $40 million worth of items Reeder has sold online, which is why the German manufacturer has taken a keen interest in his prosecution. Last year, Sennheiser introduced a series of authentication technologies to prevent counterfeiting that was mainly originating in China — including QR codes on product packaging that customers can verify online. If Sennheiser’s estimate of 400,000 fake items is accurate, then it makes the UK’s recent Microsoft Windows scandal look almost like small fry.

Update: Apologies for the earlier stumble with missing zeroes on this post.

Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video

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Retail giant target has announced a partnership with Latin music artist Emilio Estefan and Monster Headphones. The partnership has resulted in the introduction of a new set of premium headphones called the Sound Machine by Monster Headphones. The headphones will be exclusive to Target initially and are set to launch on April 14.

Target says that the headphones will be available at select retail stores in its chain, but they will be available at Target.com. The headphones were specifically designed with Latin music in mind and promise to capture the “rich, percussive nature of the music.” The headphones will be available in two different styles.

The more expensive over-ear design will have plush ear cushions providing noise isolation and comfort for $249.99. A cheaper on-ear design will be available for $149.99. The on-ear versions will be designed for lightweight comfort and will have controls for the user’s phone and music built-in.

The over-ear headphones have swiveling ear cups and advanced deep bass technology. The over-ear version will also sport a cable with an in-line microphone and controls for smartphone music. The frequency response for both headphone styles is 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Target has the exclusive for 60 days and then the headphones will rollout to additional retailers.

[via Monster]

Target unveils Sound Machine by Monster Headphones is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There is nothing quite like a pair of great sounding headphones to accompany your favorite music, and if you want to spice things up a bit, you could very well settle for the Monster Nokia Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset that is now available to the masses. Touted by some to be the perfect accessory if you want the ultimate mobile music experience, the Monster Nokia Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset will come in a range of striking colors, which will definitely help you stand out from the rest of the mundane looking crowd.

Of course, since this pair of headphones arrive in extremely bright colors, one can easily deduce that the Monster Nokia Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset will also jive with Nokia’s existing Lumia range of smartphones, where they seem to be a perfect match for one another. The Monster Purity Pro comes with integrated NFC capability, so connecting it to your compatible Lumia device would be as easy as touching the phone and headset together. There, no fuss at all, although it will also play nice via Bluetooth or 3.5mm connectivity. The Nokia Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset by Monster will retail for around €299 per pair. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BIG JAMBOX Updated, LG Jukeblox Hits The FCC, We Wonder What It Is,