Hasta La Gadget!

Remember the novelty “executive toy” of the 1980s, the panel of pins that could be squished onto hands, faces or any other object and the metal rods would form a 3D portrait in steel pixels? Well, this concept KitchenAid “Variable Grill” is something very similar, although you’d never want to push your face into it.

The grill is of the hinged type, and the top surface has 140 separate elements, or heat-pixels, if you will. Each pixel has a glass top which actually touches the food, and a heating element which sits behind it, providing the BTUs. Because every heat-pixel moves independently, they can settle onto the surface of the food and the elements are all the same distance from the surface. Thhe glass stopping the elements from actually touching it.

It’s ingenious, but the rendering is a little on the long-and-thin side: wouldn’t a square be better? I also wonder if the heat would really cook any more evenly than a normal grill, if well attended by simply turning the target food often.

These kinds of grills could be considered slightly gimmicky, and don’t achieve much that you couldn’t do with a broiler or a cast-iron grill=pan. On the other hand, George Forman hasn’t done too bad in the same market so perhaps the designer, Roberto Bertran, is on to something.

KitchenAid Variable Grill [Yanko]

You’ve got to love the simplicity of the iBend. This rigid vinyl iPhone stand is so slim you can fit it in your wallet, purse, or even your iPhone’s case. Remove it, and you’ve got a convenient way to prop up your iPhone for a little video viewing. It also works with the iPod Touch and the Nexus One.

As you can see on the iBend site, it comes in some attractively designed patterns. The price is a low $4.99, and that’s for two iBends, so it’s nice to see an iPhone accessory that doesn’t price gouge. If you’ve ever been sitting at a coffee shop or on a plane and wished you could prop your iPhone up while you watch a movie, then it’s $5 well spent.

It’s almost never a good idea to predict how the tech world will look in five years, even if you’re an executive at one of the world’s largest electronics companies. Maybe especially if you’re an executive at one of the world’s largest electronics companies.

Here’s a new quote from Steve Haber, the president of Sony’s digital reading business division:”Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong–it’s within five.”

I suppose it’s telling that Haber moved the date up by a couple of years. Clearly he ‘s been emboldened by the success of the Kindle, iPad, and, of course, his own company’s slew of e-readers.

I’m not saying that Haber will necessarily be proven wrong: Look at how dominant electronic music distribution has become. But I wouldn’t be too surprised should he find himself adjusting his timeframe once again.

Apple’s WWDC is technically a developer conference, but for the past few years it’s also been the coming-out party for each new iPhone generation. This year looks to be no exception, as the buzz around the fourth-generation iPhone (no, it probably won’t be the “iPhone 4G”) has been particularly intense.

Before Steve Jobs and Co. settle in for four days of highly technical developer discussions, they’ll let loose with around 2 hours of new product demos. Will we see that fourth-generation iPhone? A new Apple TV? A cloud-based music service? Nobody outside Apple really knows, except that whatever we see, it’ll be big.

PCMag’s mobile managing editor Sascha Segan and audio/video lead analyst Tim Gideon will be live-blogging the event and trying to get their hands on anything made publicly available there. We’ll have text and photos from an event that is unlikely to be streamed officially by Apple. Check back on Monday, June 7, starting at 9:30 AM Pacific (12:30 PM Eastern) to join in the fun.

The wait is finally over and America’s first 4G phone is now available. Will you get the HTC Evo 4G? pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20006808-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p