Hasta La Gadget!

A study by scientists at UCLA and the University of Pittsburg published today shows that a harmless virus that naturally lives on our skin infects and kills Propionibacterium acnes, the bacteria that causes acne. Of course, the next step is to weaponize it against unsightly blemishes:

“There are two fairly obvious potential directions that could exploit this kind of research,” says Graham Hatfull of the University of Pittsburgh, an author of the study. “The first is the possibility of using the phages directly as a therapy for acne. The second is the opportunity to use phage-derived components for their activities.”

Unlike synthetic antibiotics, which is the currently most prescribed treatment for acne, a phage-based treatment wouldn’t cause P. acnes to develop a natural resistance.  The phage is a predator of P. acnes, not an antibiotic, so resistances can’t form. The study was published in the American Society for Microbiology, and details the process of isolating the different phages’ DNA, which found that all different species of phages on a face have incredbily similar DNA, which means that phage-based antimicrobial therapy is less likely to develop.

Of course, when a topical cream does hit the market, the medicine you buy won’t be trumpeting that it’s clearing your pores through bacteria-eating viruses that have always lived on your face.

Image courtesy of Caitlin Regan.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Tim Cook apologizes for Apple Maps fiasco, suggests you use Bing, InsideAR Augmented Reality Conference: Munich, Oct 1-2,

Ever want to be two places at once but standard videoconferencing technologies just aren’t creepy enough for you? Well, if you’ve got $16000 to burn and a desire to be a disembodied head attached to wheels, the newly announced Beam Remote Presence Robot might be right up your alley. Beyond the catchy name, the system features three major components: the robotic device, specialized software, and a docking station. Basically, while teleconferencing, the software will give you the views and controls you need to move the Beam robot around a remote location. The docking station is perhaps the most best feature of the Beam robot–hauling around a 5-foot robot weighing 95 pounds takes enough energy to sap even the beefiest batteries, so it’s great that the Beam robot gets 8 hours of use on a charge. Also, the 17-inch screen shows the operator’s face life-sized, unless you’ve got a super-huge face. There’ve been telepresence robots before, and this one is a bit pricy, but if you’ve got a need to be somewhere remotely, it’s probably a better solution than strapping a laptop running Skype to a Roomba.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kinect adds more value to teleconferencing, Tim Cook apologizes for Apple Maps fiasco, suggests you use Bing,

Venerable Japanese watchmaker Seiko has released a limited-edition series of Star Wars watches. Out on October 12, six characters from the films get their own model, each based on a different Seiko model. Among the characters included are some usual suspects: the Yoda watch has a subtle green face, and the murdered out black Darth Vader model is extremely cool. There are also some more questionable choices: who wants a Darth Maul watch? Since they’re Seiko, some of the watches will have mechanical movements, which is very cool for movie tie-ins; these aren’t the Star Wars watches that come at the bottom of a cereal box. The list price is around $1750, but Amazon Japan’s got them for about $1000. No word on whether these are ever coming to the United States, so hop on over to Japan if you’ve got to have one.

Check out the whole line of watches here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Limited Edition Star Wars watches from Seiko Japan , R2-D2 luggage by Salvador Bachiller,

Ever wanted to see the great coral reefs of the world but don’t have the time, money, or expertise to fly down to Australia and go scuba diving? Google, along with the Catlin Seaview Survey, have taken hundreds of panoramic photos down below and have posted the resulting pictures online in Google’s Street View interface. The photos were taken with a specially designed 360-degree camera, the Seaview SVII, which is a lot like an underwater version of Google’s Street View cameras. In addition to a 360-degree image, the camera captures geolocation and direction, so it’s possible to create a detailed map with the photos. Initially, the underwater photos were taken to document the condition of the world’s reefs, but Google and Catlin Seaview realized that posting them online can bring a whole lot of joy beyond environmental preservation. You can check out diving sites in the Phillipines, Hawaii, and Australia at maps.google.com/ocean today.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google parades mobile Street View backpack, Google stops Street View in Bangalore,

Earlier today, we noted an FTC settlement which shows that seven rent-to-own business sold PCs with installed spyware that secretly collect consumer information. The software is designed by a possibly-defunct company called DesignerWare, and the FTC estimates that over 420,000 computers had included a utility called “Rental Agent,” which included a feature called “Detective Mode,” which not only included a keylogger but the ability to access the computer’s webcam. Creepy. This is one of the biggest corporate invasions of privacy in recent memory and the FTC report issues no fines and finds no criminal culpability.

(more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google could be fined $22.5 million for bypassing Safari privacy settings, Google could face fines up to $10 million over Apple’s Safari browser issue,