We’ve all seen thousands of USB gadgets and to be honest, after a while it just gets boring. Most of the stuff ist completely usless and not even worth an article about it. I decided to make an exeption, because this time, the UBS powered lunch bag / warmer is actually bringing some benefit to the table. I have no idea, how well this thing works. But if it can really keep the food warm (or even heaten it up? Don’t know about that..), it would be worth a shot. Hey, I’m not granted a lunch break anyway, but warm food would be a serious gain of life quality. Say thank you to Thanko and pay $22, but unfortunately in Japan only (via crunchgear).

Let me introduce the world’s smallest fuel cell to you. You can see it on the right; it measures only 3 mm x 3 mm x 1 mm. Researchers from the University of Illinois are responsible for the development of this beauty, that consists of just a few materials: water, metal hydride, some electrodes and a membrane.

The version you see produces 0.7 volts and a 0.1 milliamp current. It runs for about 30 hours, which is pretty long given the size of the cell. You can imagine that 0.7 volts and 0.1 milliamp current are not enough to power any gadget of yours, but of course, this mini-cell is just a step in development.

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There is this frech website called amateurdedesign, featuring quite strange designs for chairs and stuff. For example this fascinating chair, which is called HER. As you can see, your back should perfectly fit into the bachrest of HER, especially if you are naked. There is also a male equivalent called HIM. Both variations cost 267 Euros and were designed by Fabio Novembre from Italy. Seems like there are different colors available.

Now, I have got two questions: First of all, why does a webshop calling himself amateurdedesign feature stuff like that and second, who would actually put one of these chairs in his appartment? (via gizmodo).

Some days ago we published an article about the Palm Pre, its great touchscreen and the new WebOS Palm has been developing for the last two years. Of course, Apple had to take notice of Palms ambitious

touchscreen as well – and they don’t like it at all. Responding to the question, what they think to do about it, Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

“We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our [intellectual property] ripped off and will use whatever weapons we have at our disposal.”

As you might know, Palm has hired former Apple CEO Jon Rubenstein just before the release of the Palm Pre information at CES in Las Vegas. Although Apple hasn’t actually pointed at Palm: The Palm Pre is for sure the device, that has managed to implement the best touchscreen since the iPhone and might therefore be the biggest threat.

I wonder if Apple is actually ready to take any legal steps. They should be aware of the fact, that other companies are always about to “copy” features such as the touchscreen – and Apple simply can’t sue ‘em all (via wired).

Oh isn’t it hard. After years that seemed to be an endless party, we are all sitting in the dark, hoping for the economy to recover and for humanity to grow some intelligence. In these depressing days, you may want to think about putting your money under your mattress agin – like your grandmother did back in the days. Or put it into this Savings Book, that you can buy (with WHAT money, heck!) at the MoMA-store. Its reduced to $39.95 (before $90), takes bills and coins and is made from maple wood with a clooth binding.
And because it is a book, you can hide it between your other books that you still have got from highschool and you can be totally sure, that never ever someone will touch it (whether it be a housebreaker, your family or a bank) (via likecool).

Update: Nope, seems like we were all wrong. He’s getting a normal Blackberry like every one else. How boring.

Being president of the United States is not the easiest thing to do. Especially if you are not allowed to carry your own selection of digital communication devices such as iPhones, Blackberrys or any other smartphone. But Barrack Obama was obviously not ready to abandon his phone – that’s why his is getting a “Barrackberry” now. Of course, this is just a nice nickname, the phone is actually called Sectera Edge.

Sectera-phones are produced by US-company General Dynamics and are said to be extremly secure and stable at the same time. This “rugged phone” could be thrown of the White House and it would still work. And the best part: It is probably one of the most secure phones on earth, given the fact that the NSA approved it in march 2008. And we don’t need to tell you any more about these guys, don’t we?

Keep on reading to catch some more interesting facts on the Selectra Edge.

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Remember the UMPC hype some years ago? Well, unfortunately it was really just a hype and the few actually existing models did not sell very well.
Asus on the other hand managed to introduce a whole new generations of laptops all by itself. The series is now about to do it again: EeePC T91 and T101H are the first netbooks to feature touchscreens. There is no information about price and availablity so far, but the upcoming CeBit in Germany will bring some light into the darkness for sure.

The T91 has a 9″ display (the T101H 10″), an Atom-CPU and WLAN 802.11b/g/n. Other than the first EEE models, Asus is running its new babies with Windows XP Home including additional “Touch Software”.
Well, I wonder if there is some decent handwriting recognition software included – if yes, one of these netbooks is mine.
Check the amazing video after the break! (via engadget)

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Palm seemed to be stepping down for quite some time, especially after Apple released the iPhone. While other competitors tried to jump on the touch-train (Nokia with the S-60, RIM with the Storm), Palm did not show any signs of innovation. But now, things have changed – with its Palm Pre and the brand new WebOS, it seems like Palm is ready to kick it again.

Palm has taken a great deal of risk by chosing to completely rebuild its operating system. As a result, WebOS is said NOT to be compatible with the old PalmOS. Not very gratifying for third party developers, but Palm reassured, that reprogramming applications für WebOS should be very easy.
As for the Palm Pre, it relies (of course) on Apples touchscreen idea – but carries it even a little further. It is not only as smooth as on the iPhone, but also supports special gestures, that the user will have to learn first. According to Palm, the effort is worth it, as you can easily operate the phone with just one hand. Example: Sliding with your finger from left to right in the browser goes back one step in the browser history. Keeping your finger on the screen for a moment will open a menu with the programs you use the most.

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