Hasta La Gadget!

Mobile phones are making a lot of things obsolete – payphones, maps, privacy – because of cheap and easy to use apps. A new open source technology might add keys – and keychains, and locksmiths – to the cellphone hit list. Called LibeTech, the system enables QR codes to be used as door keys.

LibeTech was developed by Jeremy Blum and 3 other students from Cornell during their senior year. The system is very simple to use. Say you have a hotel reservation. All you have to do is go to a website, log in and the hotel will send you a QR code.

When you get to your room, just show the QR code to the webcam at the door and you’re in. You don’t even need to own the latest smartphone to do this; any phone or gadget that can store and show the image of the code will suffice.

Of course, the convenience is a double-edged sword: someone could easily take a copy of your code. Imagine keys to entire hotels being shared on torrent sites. After much thought and consultation with fellow nerds, Blum and his colleagues have decided to make their technology open source instead of building a commercial product based around it. If you want to modernize your doors, head to Blum’s website for more details and links to the necessary code.

[via Hack A Day]

The best part of the GTA games is the mayhem that you can cause as you drive and run and gun throughout the city. Some of the mods for the game are pretty cool too. You know what’s really awesome? A mod that lets you wreck havoc across the city as a giraffe.

There is nothing better than seeing a giraffe riding a motorbike, firing an RPG and pushing cars so they go flying like Superman sneezed. This Grand Theft Auto IV giraffe mod by indirivacua is some hardcore giraffe action for zoo fans everywhere.

Just make sure that you watch the video all the way through to the end, you’ll be happy you did. It is some funny stuff. To me at least. Who doesn’t love a giraffe on a rampage? But how about elephant?

[via Geek]

Would you whack your phone voluntarily to shut it up? I know I wouldn’t. Just think of all the bumps and scratches whacking might cause to the phone’s exterior. This is just one more reason why I probably won’t be buying any Microsoft phones soon – especially those that incorporate this strange feature.

Okay, so Microsoft hasn’t actually gotten around to making phones that ask you to whack them, but they might. They’ve been on a patent filing spree lately and the one that asks you to give your phone a good old whack or two is just one of them.

The patent application explains that users will be able to turn their phone off or make it go silent by hitting it. It’s pretty much common knowledge that you aren’t supposed to drop your phone or hit it at will, but if Microsoft goes through with incorporating this feature into future phones, then you might soon see well-meaning people whacking their phones in public while they look like idiots to the rest of us.

[TNW via Gizmodo via Dvice]

Women (and the occasional guy) are known for splurging on things that don’t really make sense sometimes. A dress that costs five hundred dollars. A pair of shoes that retails for several thousand. But I think even the most frivolous of women would draw the line at paperbag purses priced at $290.

No, that wasn’t a typo. The paper bag you see above is really being sold for close to $300 (USD).

It’s part of Jil Sander’s fall/winter collection, and is called the Varsari bag. That’s a pretty fancy name for a purse that looks like a brown paper bag, isn’t it?

I’m not sure what theme Jil was working with for her line, but what was she thinking? Carrying around a brown paper bag while you’re dressed to the nines doesn’t seem like you’re making a fashion statement; it just looks tacky. Now it would totally fit in with your outfit if you’re dressed like a hobo, but really, I doubt you’d go through all that trouble just for this little “purse.”

But if you want it, here’s a tip: just buy a pack of paper bags, line them with plastic or something, and you’re good to go. All for less than a dollar. And if you’re a really big spender, you can buy a reusable paper bag for $19, and put the other $272 back in your other purse.

P.S. I stand corrected. Apparently, the brown paper bag purses sold out almost immediately when it went on sale. A black leather version of the Varsari also went on sale for twice the price and were snatched up immediately as well. They might be calling it a “fashion statement” but I just don’t see it. Do you?

[via Incredible Things]

These shoes won’t take you home when you click its heels, but it will help you get there. Made by British artist Dominic Wilcox, the No Place Like Home shoes points the wearer to the right way via the magic of GPS.

According to Inhabitat, there’s a GPS receiver on the heel of the left shoe that can be used to punch in an address, although they didn’t mention exactly how that’s done. Once it knows where you want to go, LEDs on the left shoe indicate the direction to take, while a line of LEDs on the right shoe provides a rough estimate of proximity to the destination.

The shoes are part of Wilcox’ solo show Variations on Normal at the KK Outlet. It would’ve been awesome if he made them with roller skates.

[via Inhabitat via DVICE]