island

Dean Kamen is best known as the inventor of the Segway scooter and medical devices including a portable insulin pump, a stair-climbing wheelchair, and a robotic prosthetic arm. Like any good inventor or mad genius, Kamen can be called eccentric. He lives in a hexagonal-shaped home, commutes to work via helicopter, and owns his very own island. Kamen has declared his island, the three-acre North Dumpling Island off the coast of Connecticut, an independent state with its own constitution, currency (based on Pi), and navy (a lone amphibious vehicle). The island comes complete with a replica of Stonehenge.

And soon, … Read more

I'm not sure about you, but this concept Z Island by DuPont Corian has me saying "oh la la!"

Like many of the newer concept kitchens, this beauty is the brainchild of a partnership between a creative brain and an established and trusted kitchenware brand: in this case, Zaha Hadid, Corian, and Ernestomeda. The DuPont Corian Z Island wowed audiences at Milan Design Week, again establishing Hadid as worthy of her Pritzker Architecture Prize (she was the first woman to receive the award in 2004.)

The set is split into two island units, one representing fire and … Read more

Congress learns all about cookies (not the delicious kind...but maybe the del.icio.us kind), Gmail goes down, and Google proves to be a terrible communicator. Also, the Amazon Kindle may take off after all (har har), and Twitter baffles us completely regarding its follow/follower spam prevention thing. In sum, it's a Tuesday, but it feels like a Monday.

Google apologizes for Gmail outage http://www.crn.com/software/210002714

PC World: Google Apps hit by prolonged Gmail access problem http://www.pcworld.com/article/149524/

Android may be … Read more

With the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies happening this Friday, we're betting most of you will be stuck on the couch all weekend, rooting for your home country (probably the good ol' USA, right?) as they compete in baseball, basketball, football, maybe even synchronized swimming for those select few.

You should, since NBC, CNBC, Universal HD, and most of NBC's channels will be broadcasting the games around the world in gorgeous 1080i. If not, consider picking one of following new Blu-ray releases. Yes, the selection is slim for this week, but one of them did win an Oscar for … Read more

Today Wilson misses the boat so we get Justin Yu and Ariel Nunez to replace him. We talk steampunk, iPhone VS. Treo, how to regrow fingers, and what it's like to actually read a book. Don't ask. All this plus a special trip to Awesometown on the 404.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

And no, it's not about their names.

A group called the Richmond County Young Republicans has issued an open letter to Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, asking them to check up on their geography.

Richmond County, after all, is the same entity as the New York borough of Staten Island, and if you're creating an event on Facebook, you apparently can't list the location of the shindig as "Staten Island." The closest location, reportedly, is "Staten Island Junction, N.J." (And there's nothing that a New Yorker hates more than being … Read more

While we're not in the habit of praising marketing campaigns, this one from Sprint and RIM at least shows that some people are trying things beyond such cliches as mystery ads and countdown commercials. In pushing the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone, the two companies are advertising "the first $10.5 million cell phone--an exciting limited-time offer for billionaires."

According to its special site, the phone comes bundled with with an "exotic island" for $10.5 million--$199.99 for the handset and $10,499,800.01 for the land. It even goes so far … Read more

We don't know if kids these days are capable of having fun without a computer or (real) handheld console these days, but this low-tech substitute should provide a bit of amusement--for all of 2 minutes. Yoshi's Island is a faux DS Lite puzzle game that's filled with water and two buttons to control streams of bubbles that move tiny rings inside. The objective is to land the rings into the right spots using your amazing bubble navigation skills. Good luck selling this to Junior.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Boynq, the company that may have the best name in all of the Netherlands, actually debuted this fashion-conscious multi-tasking speaker system earlier in the year at CES, but it's worth noting again now that it's finally arriving on the market.

Along with its "Audio Lens Technology" surround sound, the strangely named "Alibi" includes a microphone and a Webcam peeking out of the top, with an ingeniously situated volume control in the form of a silver band that looks like a girdle tightened around its waist. We were sold on this adornment based on its … Read more