If you’ve ever considered getting a tattoo, it’s probably for aesthetic purposes. That’s all well and good, but in the near future getting a tattoo might be the best way to deliver vaccines, so if you go in for a new ink job you could also protect yourself from any number of diseases, including some cancers.

Some vaccines, when injected traditionally, fail to produce the necessary immune response. Researchers in Germany have found that by using a vibrating tattoo needle, they can get the optimal results. In tests on mice, using a tattoo needle produces 16 times more antibodies than by using a simple injection into muscle tissue. It may be tied to the greater damage to the body that tattoo needles produce.

It certainly would be interesting to have a permanent reminder of just when and how you were made immune from terrible, life-ending diseases, it would just suck to be forced into getting a tat in order to get the vaccine. Time will tell whether or not this becomes a viable or widespread technique. [BBC via Spulch]

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Although surveys can pretty much ask anything (would you like to see George Wendt eating beans in a movie?), this survey from Netflix that asks whether you’d like to stream Netflix movies to your Xbox 360 seems pretty plausible to us. Here’s why.

First, you have the MyNetflix plugin for Windows Vista Media Center PCs that turns the Media Center into a streaming frontend for the Netflix Watch Now interface. The developer of this app says that Media Center Extenders don’t work “yet”, which might mean that it’s an issue with codec support (Netflix doesn’t stream in the right video codec). They might even be able to fix this with a little bit of real-time video transcoding on your PC.

But what would you say if you could stream Netflix’s Watch Now movies directly to your 360 at no additional charge? Would you be happy, or really happy? [Thanks Andy!]

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You know, the thing about scrappy underdogs like the Giants is that they’re fighters. They bite back. HD DVD has apparently totally lost the will to win, or hell, even to live. Here’s their timid response to Netflix and Best Buy’s two-fister snub yesterday.

“We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it’s unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail.”

[Bold is mine.] They sound like a sad lil’ emo kid after Fall Out Boy cancelled a concert. “At least they were gonna come to my town. =((((”

You know what happens when you lie down in the snow? You die. [High-Def Digest]

P.S. The entire sad story of HD DVD’s demise is right here.

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This video, found on the VMWare Fusion Site, illustrates not only that Sinbad hasn’t passed away—as many of us previously thought—but he’s a gigantic nerd on the caliber of Gizmodo readers. Just listen to what he says regarding how he runs Windows and OS X simultaneously and marvel at how much more he knows about Macs and virtual machines than even some of your own friends. [VMWare]

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The second generation AppleTV software is now available, so feel free to update your units as soon as you can. In return for your time, you’ll get a whole bunch of new features such as movie rentals, Flickr and .Mac support, and the ability to work the thing without connecting it to a computer. [Apple - Thanks to all our Tipsters!]

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HG, or Head in the Game Controllers, had a brilliant idea to mod Xbox 360 controllers by duplicating some front face buttons onto the back. Why would you need this? So you won’t have to move your thumb away from the stick—which usually controls aiming or camera movement—in order to hit the action buttons.

This isn’t just for gamers who want a slight edge on the competition, but also for disabled gamers who need to relocate buttons because of an inability to hit certain key combinations. In either case, it’s a pretty neat idea that doesn’t really cost all that much more ($69 for two buttons on the back or $89 for four) than a standard controller.

360 Fanboy also points out that Gamer Modz has a similar modded controller product that’s customized for Halo 3 and Gears of War. They’ve also got a “turbo” fire controller that will hit the triggers at about 50,000 times a second. [HG Controllers via Xbox 360 Fanboy via Oh Gizmo]

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That three hour outage in your BlackBerry email service yesterday may have just been an inconvenience to you, but it’s a mystery to RIM, who still can’t figure out exactly what went wrong to cause your messages to dribble off into the land of lost dinner invitations instead of shooting off to their proper recipients. [CNN]

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Despite the high sales of the LG Chocolate*, anyone who’s actually used it knows that its touch controller is one of the worst UIs to come out in the last several years. The KF600 is LG’s new 3MP cellie with a slider keypad. It has the same electrostatic chocopad the Chocolate has, but with an improved 1.5-inch color display underneath. Reader: Avoid this phone at all costs.

That second chocopad screen sits just below the upper 2-inch LCD. The KF600 uses it to contextualize menus, just like the Samsung Soul and its OLED soulpad. Unlike the Soul, this phone sucks. Don’t be distracted by the eye candy in the video, but note how ineffective Jesús’s presses are.

*Cellmakers have told me that marketing directly equals sales for handsets, and carriers choose phones partially on ad budgets.

P.S. Don’t confuse this phone with the KT610, a symbian powered phone we saw at this same show.

Seoul, Feb 11 (Korea Newswire)– LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, today announced the European launch of its 2008 iF product design award winning LG KF600, a new mobile phone that is as feature rich and easy to use as it is stylish, thanks to its unique InteractPad¢â.

The InteractPad¢â replaces physical navigation keys with context-specific virtual keys that change to fit the task at hand. This new interface comes in response to the need for a simple way to navigate through the multitudinous features on today¡¯s mobile phones.

The LG KF600¡¯s InteractPad¢â and its virtual menu keys show the exact keys a user needs to complete the task at hand eliminating distractions. This is far more flexible than standard hardware keys and eliminates the need to memorize exactly which key performs what function. These virtual keys are also larger and better spaced than physical keys, improving accuracy.

The InteractPad¢â is an ideal interface for controlling multimedia features like the LG KF600¡¯s digital audio player, camera and video camera. Because its controls are not tied to physical buttons, each of these functions has a custom interface that makes it incredibly intuitive to use.

To make it easier to use, the InteractPad¢â is equipped with multi-sensorial feedback that provides users with audio, visual and tactile cues. When a virtual button is pressed it becomes larger and the phone vibrates just slightly and makes a clicking sound. This feedback is not only designed to make these virtual buttons seem more like real ones, it also makes the phone more comfortable to use and improves accuracy.

gives the phone a different character that can act as an extension of its owner¡¯s personality. These themes, many of which were inspired by the work of famed artist Keith Haring, affect all aspects of the LG KF600¡¯s interface including the InteractPad¢â. When users choose a theme, all the layouts of each application will be reflected in menu, icons as well as wallpaper under the integrated theme.

The LG KF600 is far more advanced than other slide phones and unlike any other phone available because of its unique interface and feed-forward tactile navigation made possible by the InteractPad¢â.

Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said, ¡°The LG KF600 and the InteractPad¢â reflect LG¡¯s commitment to making its handsets easier to use through improved user interface technology. Usability is truly at the centre of this handset¡¯s design and it represents LG¡¯s latest achievement in making phones that connect with their users. This handset offers a mere glimpse into a newly emerging trend in the mobile market. LG is researching and developing new ways to improve usability and will continue focus on features that add practical benefits for users.¡±

The LG KF600¡¯s powerful multimedia features include a 3 mega-pixel camera, MP3 player, video recording, FM radio, Bluetooth and more. Its ergonomic trapezoidal shape is the ideal complement to the phone¡¯s sleek, glossy finish.

The LG KF600 will be available for purchase starting from January and will be introduced at World Mobile Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain in February.

1) Main Features
¡ÜInteractPad¢â Unique interactive touch-based virtual navigation keypad that interacts with upper display and with the user
¡ÜDynamic graphic interface themes Eight integrated graphic themes that are reflected in all menu, icons, wallpaper and other comprehensive interface features
¡ÜMultimedia Features Music player with FM Radio, 3 Mega pixel camera & camcorder, and touch-control games

2) Basic Specifications

RF band: EDGE 900/ 1800/ 1900
Dimensions: 101.2mm (L) x 50.7mm (W) x 14.1mm (D)
Upper display: 320 x 240 pixels, 2.00¡È, 262K color TFT
Lower pad (InteractPad¢â): 240 x 176 pixels, 1.5¡È, 262K color TFT
Weight: 107g
Standard battery: Li-Ion 800 mAh
Standby Time, Max (hrs): 300 hrs
Talk Time (hrs): 3 hrs
Color choices: Pastel pink, shiny pink, wine red and titan

Media Contact : LG Electronics Global PR, Corporate Communications
media contact: Judy Pae at lgpr@lge.com, phone: 82-2-3777-7144

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Yesterday’s surprising-but-not-shocking announcement that Starbucks would be switching to AT&T for WiFi services left a lot of T-Mobile customers in the lurch — although Starbucks said that T-Mo and AT&T had an “agreement” that would let HotSpot users stay connected, there weren’t a ton of details given. Well, it looks like you’ve got a few more years of caffeinated surfing ahead of you, guys — T-Mobile issued a press release today saying it was committed to ensuring “minimum customer impact” during the transition, and that it’s signed a five year “roaming agreement” with AT&T that will kick in when the Starbucks WiFi transition begins later this year. Of course, the ideal roaming agreement would let you use either company’s networks wherever you are, not just AT&T bandwidth in Starbucks — we’ll totally spring for the coffee if these two companies want to meet and sort something like that out.

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Filed under: Cellphones

While Microsoft was doing little to hide how much it was willing to spend on Yahoo!, the company’s been decidedly more coy about exactly how much it dropped to pick up Sidekick-maker Danger earlier this week. The ever-dependable Om Malik now claims to have turned up a figure, however, and while it pales compared to that Yahoo! offer, it’s still quite a doozy. According to Om, a “fairly solid source” informed him that Microsoft parted with a full $500 million to bring Danger into its fold, with later-stage investors in Danger the biggest beneficiaries of that payday. What’s more, that hefty price also got Om speculating that Microsoft may be about to “pull an Xbox” with its cellphone business, fearing that its current approach would relegate it to the business market — a pretty safe assumption, if you ask us.

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