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Redesigned Coke Can Won't Roll Off the Table [Design]

This concept Coke can design uses a manufacturing process called impact extrusion to form geometric shapes into the can rather than making it round. I'm not sure how practical it is, but I like it. [The Dieline via PSFK]

From: Gizmodo

Bird Beats Broadband! Pigeon Flies 4GBs Faster than South African DSL [Broadband]

Bird Beats Broadband! Pigeon Flies 4GBs Faster than South African DSL [Broadband]: "

South Africa's broadband has got to be feeling pretty ill-equipped today considering a real, wing-flapping pigeon beat its transfer speeds. No really, a company found out that sending a bird with a 4GB USB drive was faster than uploading.

That has got to hurt for Telkom, one of South Africa's main ADSL providers, but damn is Winston the pigeon feeling like the man today. He is telling all the other pigeons, how it took him two hours to carry the strapped-to-his-back flash drive 60 miles to the company's second office in Durban. In the same time the broadband service had only sent 4 percent of the data. You do the math but that is pretty damn slow upload speeds. No wonder the guys at Unlimited IT first joked that a bird could send files faster.

This is just the kind of story I want to read to children at night (I'm thinking the picture book is called 'Winston and the Broadband'). Let's hope South Africa gets those fiber optic lines installed soon or else a crap load of bird seed. [BBC]

All the Apple Event Rumors: Is It Only Rock and Roll? [Apple]

All the Apple Event Rumors: Is It Only Rock and Roll? [Apple]: "

This Wednesday Apple is having an event titled It's Only Rock and Roll, but we like it. I'm sucker for the Stones, but only rock and roll? Here is the complete guide to all the rumors and midnight ramblings:

Most likely

• New iPod touch: All iPod models have been discontinued in the stock databases, so new units are a given, even if they arrive to the shops later than expected. The only question is the feature set. Would it have a new camera? Looks very likely, as new cases pop absolutely everywhere. New storage capacities? It is a very strong possibility. A new processor, once again leapfrogging the iPhone? Perhaps new materials? We will see about that.

• New iPod nano: Like the iPod touch, the nano will see an update, adding a camera to it. We still don't know if anything physical will change, but it's not likely, looking at the multiple cases.

• New album features: This one was confirmed by the record labels—although Apple always has the last word on what goes into each release. It seems they have been jointly developing new interactive features to encourage the purchase of full albums. The project is called Cocktail, and it's aimed to 'reproduce the album experience.' It may be new glorified PDF-like documents, or some interactive stuff. I don't know about you, but if it's something I can't touch, I can't get no satisfaction.

Likely

• New iPhone OS update: Knowing that a new iPod touch is coming, and about the new features in Cocktail, a new iPhone OS 3.1 update will probably be a must too.

• The end of the classic iPod: Looking at the sinking sales of the big honky tonk iPods, this may be their end, hopefully getting replaced by a 64GB iPod touch. As much as I loved it—had every single model until the iPhone came—it's time to leave them in the memory motel.

Unlikely

• Apple tablet: We had high hopes for this one, but unless Apple decides to pull a rabbit out of their magic hat at the last second, it looks like the the fabled Apple tablet is not going to happen this time. You can't always get what you want, but you can get what you need.

• Beatles remastered: As much as I want this to happen—and even while tomorrow The Beatles Remastered box sets will be released—I don't think the Beatles on iTunes is on the cards. This rumor comes again and again, every single year, and it never gets realized. This year, look at the invitation. There is no way that Apple would have used the Rolling Stones if the Beatles were coming to the iTunes Music Store. In fact, if sounds like Steve's way of saying: "Fuck it, we need no bloody Beatles, innit?"

The One More Thing

• You know us and our sympathy for the devil: We are all still holding our breaths to see Steve back in the show and tell game. If he doesn't, we are going to pass out. So let's spend the day together, Mr. Jobs.

Photo by Brad Immanuel

"

Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Too much social media can be a bad thing. Two girls lost in a stormwater drain in Adelaide, Australia, updated their Facebook status instead of calling emergency services on Sunday night, in a situation authorities called “worrying”.

It’s not clear how much danger the 10- and 12-year old girls were in: Australia’s ABCNews describes them as both “lost” and “trapped”, but it’s possible that they felt no imminent danger. Nonetheless, the Metropolitan Fire Service expressed concern that the youngsters, equipped with phones, would raise the alarm on Facebook rather than calling 000, the Australian equivalent of 911:

The 10- and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in a drain on Honeypot Road at Hackham in Adelaide’s southern suburbs on Sunday night. Glenn Benham from the MFS says it was fortunate a young friend was online at the time and was able to call for help for them.

“It is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls,” he said.

“If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway.”

It’s not the first time social media has been used in place of an emergency call: in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2009, a councilman was concerned that his cellphone battery would be flat by the time a 911 call connected. Instead, he Tweeted: “Need a paramedic on corner of John Wesley Dobbs and Jackson st. Woman on the ground unconscious. Pls ReTweet”.

Image: Metropolitan Fire Service, courtesy Tarale on Flickr

By Mashable

Found Footage: Snow Leopard hidden features, great video by a 16 year-old

Matt Fisher is a 16 year old high school junior and Apple enthusiast who has been putting up tutorial videos on all things Macintosh since December of 2008. I just saw one that is so good I wanted to bring it to your attention.

Matt has created a video on hidden features in Snow Leopard and although we have covered some of these before, this you have to see. In four minutes and twenty-nine seconds Matt covers more content than most people can cover in an hour, and he does it with grace and total clarity.

Matt found hidden features in:

• Coverflow


• Spotlight


• Resizing of icons


• Preview viewing modes


• Hiding windows in dock icons


• More organized keyboard shortcuts


• Location based setting of time and date


• Showing the date in the menubar


• Stacks


• Text and symbol substitution


• The re-emergence of the trash 'put back' feature.

Take a look and I think you'll not only be impressed, but pick up a few things you didn't know.

Thanks go out to Mustafa Histoni for sending in this tip.

TUAWFound Footage: Snow Leopard hidden features, great video by a 16 year-old originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Going, Going, Sold! eBay Sells Skype for US$ 2.7B

Going, Going, Sold! eBay Sells Skype for US$ 2.7B: "

So, what’s up with Skype? Good question. The VoIP service (news, site) has certainly been through the wringer lately, especially with what was originally intended to be an expansion of the service turning into an all out licensing war between eBay and Skype founders over the core code.

Fans of the platform have been waiting for someone to make a move, and now it’s here in the form of a sale. A US$ 2.7 billion sale.

"

Nokia's X6 follows the 5800's footsteps, while the X3 brings Ovi Store to Series 40

We'd be tempted to use the word 'featurephone' on the X6 (pictured) if it wasn't Nokia behind the handset, pumping the relatively chubby 0.55-inch thick form factor with 32GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera, a dual LED flash, TV-out, and a 3.2-inch touchscreen. The phone is also a Comes with Music only handset, so don't expect to get all boring and old with this phone in your pocket -- or to pay for a voice plan that doesn't include the service. Otherwise, the phone seems to be a slightly slimmed down Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, sporting the same OS, A-GPS (with Ovi Maps), and we suppose a similar resistive touchscreen. Nokia was kind enough to include a free copy of Spore along with the Ovi Store, and plans to ship the handset in Q4 2009 for 459 Euros (about $652 US) before subsidy.

The X3 is a much tamer affair than the X6, offering a 2.2 non-touchscreen, a slide-out keypad, and Series 40 for an OS. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera, but you'll have to spring for a microSD card if you need significant onboard storage. What's new is that the X3 is the first Series 40 handset to include the Ovi Store, which should help it edge out the competition when it comes to functionality. The price isn't bad either, at 115 Euros (about $163 US) before subsidy. It'll be out in Q4 as well.

Read - Nokia X6

Read - Nokia X3

Gallery: Nokia X6

Gallery: Nokia X3

From: Engadget