This honestly sounds more like the plot of a Cheech and Chong movie than a news story, but apparently it’s true. In China, a kid named Yang was so upset that his parents wouldn’t buy him a Wii that he got together with a couple shifty individuals and faked his own kidnapping. They then demand a ransom of about $1,400 USD and were caught trying to withdraw it from an ATM. We’re assuming Yang would have had enough from his cut of the would-be payoff that he could get his own Wii without his parents’ help. How he’d explain why the first thing he wanted to do after being rescued was a trip to Best Buy we don’t know. [Destructoid]
Nike’s limited edition 2015 variant of the Hyperdunk Supremes just got here. The sneakers aren’t just pretty — they’re incredibly light for a high top at 13-ounces. The translucent rubberized upper has threads running through it at a crosspattern. Nike calls it Flywire tech, but I also recognize the idea from professional sailboat race sails, which run kevlar through the material to give it resistance to stretching and tearing, as well as more tensile strength. The sole has a sliver of carbon fiber running through it, too. Then the super nerdy and awesome Back to the Future references begin.
The box itself has 2015 on its side, and the slide out inner chamber is patterned like Marty’s hoverboard. The wrapping paper inside has the words “great scott!” on them. And the sneakers come with hoverboard pink laces with blue tips.
The sneakers themselves are standard hyperdunks with a few notable differences. The Nike logo on the back is the same font and color as the sneakers in BTTF2. The grey sides of the soles have blue paint specs on them, as in the movie. The uppers have triangular loops, deemphasized versions of the ultra high tops on the movie version. The lateral edge of the shoe is glow in the dark. The midsole has a pink and green hoverboard design, and if you lift it out, there’s a flux capacitor logo underneath it on the heel. The tongue of the shoe has orange/red Back to the Future arrows, and three dates and times as they might appear on the Flux capacitor’s controller: November 12 (the day the clock was struck by lightning), and two October days, partially obscured by a graphic.
They’re Nike, so they’re comfortable. I make no claims to their performance, but if they’re good enough for Kobe Bryant, I suppose they’ll work for blogging.
Michael Maloof of the McFly 2015 project had Nike send these to me for review because of the shared love we have for seeing these sneakers produced. They may not have power laces or electroluminescent Nike logos on them, but maybe that’ll come in version 2.
Your morning iPhone news fix: looks like Apple’s seeded a beta of firmware 2.1 (not to be confused with the supposed 2.0.1 that will fix the myriad bugs and issues with 2.0), which may have some new GPS features that would imply turn-by-turn directions. No argument from us if Apple really is including new Core Location hooks for tracking your direction and speed, which would both be needed for doing proper GPS navigation.
Another bit which may or may not make it into 2.1 is copy/paste. We’re still both hopeful and skeptical, but supposedly in the new version of the WebKit framework exists commands for “plugins,” “copy,” “paste,” “cut,” and some others. We can’t confirm if these really exist (and if they do, we don’t know how they’ve actually been there, or if they’re simply holdovers from the desktop WebKit frameworks), so don’t hold your breath. Also supposedly making its first appearance in the 2.1 beta code: Apple’s push notification service.
Oh, and by the way, if all this has whet your appetite for the device, sounds like today will be a bad day to try and snag one. Apple’s retail site shows absolutely zero iPhone availability in the US, so if you’re jonesing then check out eBay or the seedy looking dude on the corner with the overstuffed trenchcoat.
Update: Looks like the stores have been updated in the last hour, many have stock. Game on!
[Thanks to Cameron and everyone who sent these in]
Read - Apple all out of stock Read - New GPS features seeded? Read - 2.1 getting background push?
Hey, you remember the NeonodeN2? The OG full-face touchscreen phone? Well, better cherish those memories, since every N2 is being recalled due to “reception problems.” A fix is apparently ready to go, but seeing as we haven’t heard a peep from Neonode since it promised us a totally new OS and handsets back at CES, we’ve got a feeling you might be better off swapping out handsets for a while — besides, who still uses EDGE?
It’s been a while since we’ve reported about the doings of our robotic friend on Mars, but a press conference tomorrow (Thursday) could uncover Phoenix’s first positive report of water on the red planet. NASA’s conference will be held at 2 p.m. Eastern Thursday and we’re hearing that Pheonix Mission is ready to report that water ice is not only confirmed, but the research robot has dug some ice out of a trench, heated it, and confirmed that it is, in fact water. If this all holds true, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be able to determine whether or not the atmosphere could sustain life and lead to manned missions to Mars. We call shotgun.
We can appreciate the fact that BeRobot is supposedly going to be the smallest functional commercially available humanoid robot when it’s released this September. Really, we can, even despite the fact that each successive machine brings us one step closer to to the day the robots have mastered humanity, and our lowly race of meatbags lives on only as the amusing anachronisms kept alive to opulently feed them oil-covered grapes at laser-gunpoint. But BeRobot’s creator GeStream — and the rest of Japan, for that matter — really have to really put the pedal to the metal if we’re going to miniaturize these suckers small enough for gray goo in this lifetime. We’re waiting!
Anyone remotely familiar with the Zepto brand understands that it doesn’t mess around when it comes to PC gaming, and anyone (in the UK, at least) remotely interested in treating themselves to an all new machine should certainly give this one a glance. The 15.4-inch Nexus A15 arrives in a fairly respectable £599 ($1,181) / £699 ($1,378) base configuration, but things get entirely more exciting when adding in the 2.53GHz Intel P9500 CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive (or 32GB SSD, if that’s your thing), a Blu-ray optical drive and a 6-cell battery sure to wither away in no time flat. All the regulars are on board too: WiFi, NVIDIA’s GeForce 9600M GT, Windows Vista, audio in / out, a multicard reader, Ethernet and a few USB ports for good measure. Have fun making those previously mentioned price points look absurdly small.
We’ve been wondering how the people behind NetShare get their app approved by Apple for the iPhone App Store. It adds the ability to tether your laptop to your iPhone, using the handset’s 3G modem as your laptop’s own, meaning you can go pretty much anywhere you can find a decent signal and have full Internet access on your laptop without Wi-Fi, all for free. And then the app was pulled from the store. And then it was back. And now it’s gone again. Hopefully you were lucky enough to grab it while it was available, because we’re not sure Apple’s going to let it out again.
In further evidence of our rapidly eroding civil liberties, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The rules — which we reported on in February — allow for searches of hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, and video or audio tapes, and specify that the agencies can “detain” belongings for a “reasonable period of time,” (i.e., as long as they please). Additionally, the DHS can share the data found with other government agencies or private entities for translation, decryption, or (astoundingly vague) “other reasons.” The DHS says the policies apply to anyone entering the country — including US citizens — and claim the measures are necessary to prevent terrorism. In other news, Big Brother issued a statement today guaranteeing a bonus for turning over family members suspected of crimethink to the Thought Police.
This honestly sounds more like the plot of a Cheech and Chong movie than a news story, but apparently it’s true. In China, a kid named Yang was so upset that his parents wouldn’t buy him a Wii that he got together with a couple shifty individuals and faked his own kidnapping. They then demand a ransom of about $1,400 USD and were caught trying to withdraw it from an ATM. We’re assuming Yang would have had enough from his cut of the would-be payoff that he could get his own Wii without his parents’ help. How he’d explain why the first thing he wanted to do after being rescued was a trip to Best Buy we don’t know. [Destructoid]
Nike’s limited edition 2015 variant of the Hyperdunk Supremes just got here. The sneakers aren’t just pretty — they’re incredibly light for a high top at 13-ounces. The translucent rubberized upper has threads running through it at a crosspattern. Nike calls it Flywire tech, but I also recognize the idea from professional sailboat race sails, which run kevlar through the material to give it resistance to stretching and tearing, as well as more tensile strength. The sole has a sliver of carbon fiber running through it, too. Then the super nerdy and awesome Back to the Future references begin.
We’ve been wondering how the people behind 
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