magnets

Let's get one thing straight up front: the term "cinematic" does not in this instance mean it's time to order up some popcorn. There's no color, no dramatic score, no super slow-mo to announce the climax. This is gritty black-and-white footage of a woman giving birth.

But don't let the grit fool you into thinking it's low tech. The world's first birth in an MRI machine was announced by scientists at Charite University Hospital in Berlin back in December 2010, and they're only now releasing the 25-second video, which was made … Read more

Not everyone wants to keep their iPhone hidden away in a pocket. Some folks prefer to hang them on hooks or wear them around their necks.

And what about sticking them on a fridge, filing cabinet, or other metal surface? If my wife's phone had a magnetic backing, she could slap it on the door to our garage, thereby increasing her chances of remembering to take it to work. (Don't tell her I said that; she'll kill me in my sleep.)

To paraphrase the ol' saying, there's a Kickstarter project for that. MagSkin adds a magnetic backing to your iPhone 4/4S, thereby giving it an adheres-to-metal personality. (What, you thought I was going to say "magnetic"?)… Read more

Head-Fi is a national headphone club, and I went to the local meeting in Babylon, N.Y., last Saturday.

The vibe was friendly, and it was great to hear Head-Fi members' home-built gear, but there were a few surprises popping up from the headphone and electronics manufacturers in attendance.

Logitech Ultimate Ears' Personal Reference Monitor in-ear headphones feature a new twist on custom-molded-to-your-ears headphone design. Lots of brands now make custom in-ear headphones, and Logitech's have been among my favorites for years, but the upcoming Personal Reference Monitor takes the personalization to the next level. Once your ear canals' &… Read more

File this one under extreme fanboyism. A Newfield, N.J., man performed his own surgery to put magnets under his skin to hold his iPod Nano in place like a watch. Evidently nobody told him they make straps that do the same job.

The bloke in question is Dave Hurban, a tattoo artist working in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Kreative, an advertising and Web design and development company. His background in all things pointy, ink-filled, and painful means he's at least used to foreign objects invading his person, but this project, called "iDermal," really seems a step too far.

In the video you can see Dave going through the painstaking (pain being the key word here) process of measuring the Nano, marking out the spots on his wrist, and then setting about drilling into his own flesh to insert the four magnets. It's frankly rather grim, so if you're squeamish and prone to fainting at the slightest sight of blood then we suggest you watch it while lying on some cushions.

Read more of "Bonkers man puts magnets under his skin to hold iPod Nano," and see the video, at Crave UK.… Read more

An atom-based magnetic sensor the size of a sugar cube has successfully measured human brain activity, a milestone that could ultimately lead to advancing our understanding of a wide range of neurological conditions and diseases, according to researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

We first reported on an earlier iteration of the sensor, which has been in development since 2004, back when the team was first able to use the sensor to track a human heartbeat in 2010.

This week, the researchers report in the journal Biomedical Optics Express that their tiny sensor -- which consists … Read more

These days, you can order pizza via phone call, Web site, and smartphone app. Add to that list a button on your fridge.

Red Tomato Pizza, located in Dubai, created a tech-infused "very important pizza lovers fridge magnet" for its loyal customers.

This special magnet does not just sit there and look pretty among your other fridge accessories, however.

When pressed, the button's built-in Bluetooth chip connects to your cell phone and transmits a preprogrammed pizza order back to the Red Tomato Pizza restaurant. Once your order's been received, you'll get a confirmation via SMS. … Read more

The current highest-capacity internal hard drive that you can buy offers 3TB of storage space, which is huge. Soon you'll be able to put even more data on one, thanks toSeagate's recent achievement in data density.

The hard-drive maker announced today that it has become the first company to achieve the milestone storage density of 1 terabit (1 trillion bits) per square inch, promising to double the current hard-drive's capacity before the end of this decade. The company says its new storage technology will also allow hard drives to reach 60TB capacity within the next decade. … Read more

The Zero Gravity Fridge Rover won't patrol for expired items, but it will help to keep the fridge door organized.

The clutter that collects on the refrigerator door is a visual representation of activity. Like a giant funnel, it collects bits and pieces of everyday life from kids' artwork to the grocery list, not to mention schedules, reminders, and easy-to-find notes left for loved ones (that can stay in place for months on end). This is a happy clutter, one that evolves over time. As with all evolution, things get lost, things get replaced, and sometimes things get up … Read more

If you go to The Pirate Bay's Web site, you'll now see the words "The Magnet Bay." As of tomorrow, the popular Swedish torrent tracker will no longer be offering users torrent files, but instead will be posting magnet links.

On its blog today, the Pirate Bay wrote that even though this "marks the end of an era," users should not notice much of a difference.

"It shouldn't make much of a difference for the average user. At most it will take a few more seconds before a torrent shows the size … Read more