@methodshop

Recharge your cellphone, iPod, iPhone and camera with this USB solar powered bonsai tree by French designer Vivien Muller.

Thanks to 54 tiny photovoltaic panels, the iBonsai (we just made that name up) will store energy in a hidden battery during the day, allowing you to recharge your gadgets even at night.

Hate wire clutter? Who doesn't. The bonsai charging tree cleverly hides all wires and plugs under the tray.




Need to slim down the tree's berth so you can fit it on your desk? No problem. You can rotate each part individually and produce an endless number of different shapes. It's like metal adult LEGOS.



The iBonsai Tree is decorative, good for the environment and sexy. It's also just still a concept, so sorry. You can't buy this yet. Hopefully Vivien will sell his concept and get the tree mass produced soon.


[Via methodshop]

Recharge your cellphone, iPod, iPhone and camera with this USB solar powered bonsai tree by French designer Vivien Muller.

Thanks to 54 tiny photovoltaic panels, the iBonsai (we just made that name up) will store energy in a hidden battery during the day, allowing you to recharge your gadgets even at night.

Hate wire clutter? Who doesn't. The bonsai charging tree cleverly hides all wires and plugs under the tray.




Need to slim down the tree's girth so you can fit it on your desk? No problem. You can rotate each part individually and produce an endless number of different shapes. It's like metal adult LEGOS.



The iBonsai Tree is decorative, good for the environment and sexy. It's also just still a concept, so sorry. You can't buy this yet. Hopefully Vivien will sell his concept and get the tree mass produced soon.


methodshop

Labels: gadgets, iphone, ipod

What happens when a company that usually makes powerful lasers for the Chinese military decides to make a flashlight? They make a flashlight with a beam so strong that it can start a fire.

Wicked Lasers is known for making high-end lasers that can burn, cut, and project a laser beam hundreds of miles away. So when we found out that they were making a "flashlight," we were understandably both confused and curious.

Wicked Lasers named their new flashlight the TORCH... and for good reason. The "TORCH" is technically a flashlight. It looks like a flashlight. Operates like a flashlight. But this is no ordinary flashlight. The TORCH is so bright that its beam can ignite flammable objects as fast as an open flame.

Here's a video clip of the TORCH lighting some matches. As you will hear in the video, my assistants Libby and Lauren start laughing and blow snot all over the place. Honestly, who can blame them. This "flashlight" is ridiculous.

When you're done watching the video below, read the full review here:

Review: TORCH Flashlight





methodshop

Labels: gadgets, review

For the past few months, bloggers have been buzzing about the "Big Tent" at the #DNC08. Well, now that America's Democratic National Convention is underway, we finally got to see the Big Tent in action. The Big Tent is a facility for the alternative media hosted by DailyKos, the Sustainability Alliance and ProgressNow, with Digg, YouTube, and Google as corporate sponsors.

The two-story tent was made available for alternative and indy journalists and bloggers who didn't have a home base to report from for the political conventions. Everyone from small town soccer moms to Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, is blogging from the Big Tent in Denver.

The Big Tent is very luxurious compared to dirty cramp press rooms frequented by traditional press. Journalists and bloggers who signed up for a slot in the 8,000 square-foot facility get unlimited access to WiFi, phone/iPod/laptop charging stations, yoga classes, 10 minute massages, smoothies, comfy couches, a baby changing area and live entertainment. Oh yeah, food and drinks are included as well and the free beer starts at 1pm. The Big Tent is even handicapped accessible. I wouldn't be surprised if some traditional journalists decided to work "off site" in the Big Tent and avoid the skanky press rooms all together.



Flickr photos by socalmom and Steve Rhodes

At only $100 a pop, the Big Tent won't make back their total investment, let alone profit off of the 500 bloggers who booked time in the facility. So what do sponsors like Google gain by providing Big Tent services to bloggers? First of all, Google is getting a lot of exposure and press (this article included). Google also gets to promote their software and services, like Google Docs, Picasa and Blogger, to influential journalists and bloggers. Google has even included a kiosk in the public area of the tent where anyone can post videos on YouTube. Google will also have a major presence at next week's #RNC08 and demo some real time video search tools.


Flickr photo by socalmom

This year, the Democratic National Convention has credentialed more than 120 blogs but that's not nearly enough. People aren't content being spectators anymore, they want to participate using Internet tools like Twitter, blogs and YouTube. The privately funded Big Tent is meant to handle the overflow but it's already overflowing.

With MSNBC's facility down the street from the Big Tent, it will be interesting to compare mainstream versus alternative journalism's location facilities.

*MethodShop.com is powered by Blogger.


methodshop

Labels: events, tech news

Earlier this week, Yahoo introduced a useful mobile search site optimized for the iPhone. The new mobile site comes with some goodies, too: SearchAssist, to auto-complete inquiries; compatibility with Yahoo's SearchMonkey widgetized results (if you're logged in), and search shortcuts like weather, movie times, and local information.

You can check out the site here: http://search.yahoo.com/i




methodshop

Labels: iphone, tech news

Is Digg.com founder and Diggnation star Kevin Rose abusing his Apple contacts? This past weekend Kevin blogged about some new stuff being released by Apple next month including new iPods and an iTunes update.

According to Kevin, Apple will announce the following within the next few weeks:

• the iPod nano will take on a slimmer, more rounded look
• the iPod Touch will get an update with a new 2.1 operating system
• Prices of the iPod line will drop to differentiate the product from the iPhone
• iTunes 8.0 will be a major new release with several additional features
• Further out Apple is planning to add Blu-ray support to Mac OS X

Why would Rose risk exposing his Apple contacts by announcing this information? And why now? Rose mentions his Twitter account multiple times in his blog post and urges people to "follow" him on Twitter to get more information. Perhaps Rose is bitter that Barack Obama took the top slot away from him on Twitter earlier this month.



methodshop

Is Digg.com founder and Diggnation star Kevin Rose abusing his Apple contacts? This past weekend Rose blogged about some new stuff being released by Apple next month including new iPods and an iTunes update.

According to Kevin, Apple will announce the following within the next few weeks:

• the iPod nano will take on a slimmer, more rounded look
• the iPod Touch will get an update with a new 2.1 operating system
• Prices of the iPod line will drop to differentiate the product from the iPhone
• iTunes 8.0 will be a major new release with several additional features
• Further out Apple is planning to add Blu-ray support to Mac OS X

Why would Rose risk exposing his Apple contacts by announcing this information? And why now? Rose mentions his Twitter account multiple times in his blog post and urges people to "follow" him on Twitter to get more information. Perhaps Rose is bitter that Barack Obama took the top slot away from him on Twitter earlier this month.



methodshop

Labels: apple, iphone, ipod, itunes

Got an old broken iPhone laying around the house? Want to upgrade to an iPhone 3G but feel guilty because your old iPhone still works?

RapidRepair.com is offering up to $200 for your fully functional 1st gen iPhone regardless of the condition. Even if the iPhone has a cracked screen, Rapid Repair will still buy it. They want it for parts.

Rapid Repair will also repair your existing broken iPhone or sell you a cheaper refurbished 1st generation iPhone with a 90-day warranty. It's a much better deal than buying a sketchy iPhone from eBay or Craigslist.

For more information, check out Rapid Repair's service page here.


methodshop

Labels: gadgets, iphone, ipod

Don't have the extra cash to spurge on a GPS navigation system for the car? Want a chance to win a free one?

ECLIPSE, a subsidiarity of Fujitsu, is giving away free in-dashboard AVN6620 GPS navigation systems and music DVDs for their "ECLIPSE Driving Music 2008" online sweepstakes.

Besides having a great GPS navigation system, the Eclipse AVN6620 is loaded with features, including MP3 and WMV audio playback, DVD video (yes you can watch movies on this thing), Sirius Satellite Radio Traffic, an iPod connection, and some advanced equalizer options. The AVN6620 isn't one of those cheap GPS units with the tiny screens you see in K-Mart's electronics section.



AVN6620 Technical Specs:

• in-dash DVD receiver with built-in amp (15 watts RMS/50 peak x 4 channels)
• motorized 7" LCD video screen with adjustable display angle and touchscreen controls
• dual-zone capability with two DVD slots
• 24-bit digital-to-analog converter for full, detailed sound
• GPS navigation (includes GPS antenna and map DVD-ROM) featuring map and voice turn-by-turn guidance
• full more details check out ELIPSE's website
  

The ECLIPSE AVN6620 Navigation System lists for $999.99 on Amazon.com. But if you are feeling lucky, enter the ECLIPSE contest for a chance to win a free AVN6620 or an "ECLIPSE Driving Music 2008" music DVD compilation. The DVD contains a mix of music videos and audio tracks by a variety of artists including Maroon 5, Bon Jovi, Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Nicole Scherzinger, All American Rejects and Common.

To enter the contest, visit ECLIPSEDrivingMusic.com. Good luck!




methodshop

Labels: contest, gadgets, review

When there's a hurricane or tropical storm warning, most people will either seek shelter or leave town. On the opposite end of the specturm there are the thrill seekers... like this poor guy.

He obviously thought it might be a good idea to try to kite surf the winds of Hurricane Fay. As you can see in the video below, a strong gust of wind blows the kite surfer out of the water, across the sand, over the highway and into a brick wall. He basically got owned by a hurricane. Ouch!



News reports say he's listed in critical condition. Let's just hope he isn't permanently paralyzed. Here's the video in slow motion if you want to see it again.


A kite surfer preps his board in the calm North Sea.


methodshop

Labels: offbeat, video

CinemaNow, one of the oldest movie and TV show download sites, has inked a deal that will make its movie and TV show downloads playable on both PCs and Macs.

CinemaNow will now utilize Widevine Technologies' multi-format DRM solution to make their download-to-own movies viewable on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. Pay-per-view titles will also be streamable using Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Opera browsers.



CinemaNow's decision to go cross-platform could help the company wrestle market share away from Apple iTunes, which dominates the paid digital video business. Up to now, iTunes has been the only download service to sell major studio movie downloads playable on Apple computers and PCs.


methodshop

Labels: tech news, video

While John McCain is still learning how to use email (we're not kidding), his U.S. Presidential competition has completely mastered the micro-blogging service Twitter.

This month, American presidential candidate Barack Obama dethroned Kevin Rose from Digg.com and became the most popular person on Twitter. According to Twitterholic, a website that measures the "followers" of Twitter accounts, Barack Obama has over 58,000 followers.



Obama's closest Twitter competitor is Kevin Rose with 56k followers. Robert Scoble, CNN Breaking News and Leo Laporte help round out the top 10.

Someone not in the Twitterholic top 10... John McCain. In fact McCain isn't even in the top 100. The only serious McCain Twitter account we found has a little over 1,000 followers. A truly pitiful showing for someone who is running for president.



Here's a 101 primer on Twitter and tips on how to explain it. If someone who personally knows John McCain is reading this, please print the article out for him (because you can't email it to him yet).

Tutorial: How to Explain Twitter to Your Grandma

And if you are feeling wild, you can follow @methodshop on Twitter here.


methodshop

Labels: tech news

When you can't get your iPod to mount or show up on your computer there are a few things you can do to trouble shoot this problem. Please follow these suggestions in order.

Free iPod Support: How to get your iPod connected with your computer






methodshop

Labels: ipod, tutorial

For the past couple weeks, NBC has been “tweeting” Olympic related messages via Twitter for NBC's morning news program the Today Show (twitter.com/todayshow).

Everyday the Today Show "tweets" about everything from the weather in Beijing, to behind the scenes tidbits and how NBC’s employees are spending their days in China. But this morning we learned something new about co-host Meredith Vieira. You might want to sit down or brace yourself.... she doesn't own an iPod (gasp!).



Why is her admission so weird to me? I can't tell if it's the fact that she doesn't own an iPod or that she felt the need to confess it.





methodshop

Labels: social networking, tech news

While John McCain is still learning how to use email (we're not kidding), his U.S. Presidential competition has completely mastered the micro-blogging service Twitter.

This month, American presidential candidate Barack Obama dethroned Kevin Rose from Digg.com and became the most popular person on Twitter. According to Twitterholic, a website that measures the "followers" of Twitter accounts, Barack Obama has over 58,000 followers.



Obama's closest Twitter competitor is still Kevin Rose with 56k followers. Robert Scoble, CNN Breaking News and Leo Laporte help round out the top 10.

Someone not in the Twitterholic top 10... John McCain. In fact McCain isn't even in the top 100. The only serious McCain Twitter account we found has a little over 1,000 followers. A truly pitiful showing for someone who is running for president of the United States.



Here's a 101 primer on Twitter and tips on how to explain it. If someone who personally knows John McCain is reading this, please print the article out for him (because you can't email it to him yet).





And if you are feeling wild, you can follow @methodshop on Twitter here.


methodshop

Labels: social networking, tech news

The average teenager these days probably has no idea who poor old Wilford is. But if you grew up during the 80's, then you probably remember Wilford Brimley from movies like Cocoon, The Natural and his many Quaker Oats Oatmeal commercials.

Does Wilford Brimley really look like a cat? You decide.


Check Out The Photos: Wilford Brimley Looks Like a Cat






methodshop

Labels: pics

Nexcopy announced their new 20 target SD Duplicator earlier today. Definitely a device for the ubergeek who's into data loading Secure Digital media. At first glance you ask yourself "Who'd want 20 copies of their SD card from their camera?" But it's clear Nexcopy isn't chasing down the guys looking to make a 100 copies of their weekend Vegas photos [or are they?]. The SD duplicator is geared towards companies who send out software applications on SD cards for field devices, or need to manage a large number of miniSD cards for an army of Palm Pilots.

The SD200PC also works with microSD cards so the phone companies will have a field day loading up their phones with promo material for lucky customers. Which makes sense, because these Smartphones and PDAs are getting so powerful and the media has so much capacity, many people keep most of their data on microSD cards these days.

The unit connects via USB and has 20 numbered SD ports so it's easy to identify which SD card is which. The unit comes with software that supports FAT and FAT32 formats and includes NTFS support with their bit-for-bit copy function which also supports Linux distribution packages for those embedded applications. All SD formats are supported and for the not-so-techy user, the Nexcopy software has a job wizard to guide you through the dupe process.

I bet these sell for hotcakes right before CES 2009.


Source: GetUSB.info

Labels: gadgets, review

Eric Avery is one of the unsung heroes of the alternative rock movement in the late 80s and early 90s. As one of the 2 founders of Jane's Addiction, Avery along with Perry Ferrell helped define the So-Cal sound that paved the way for bands like Sublime and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Unfortunately Jane's Addiction only lasted through 2 studio albums (Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual) and broke up in 1991. But a recent blog post by Eric Avery, hints at a the possibility of a full reunion with the original lineup.

Here's the quote from Avery's blog:

"how do i mention speculating without creating, at the very least, some wild speculation over the coming months. am i considering something with the boys of janes addiction? yes."

Why the sudden change of heart? Jane's Addiction has reformed twice since 1991 without Avery. Last April, the original Jane's Addiction lineup (Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins) reunited to perform at the NME Awards. Apparently all went well both on stage and off. This was the 1st performance with Avery since their 1991 Lollapalooza tour.



Since Jane's Addiction's original breakup in 1991, Avery has been courted by Tool, Metallica, and Smashing Pumpkins, has toured with Garbage and Alanis Morissette (who he also dated) and participated in 2 side projects, Polar Bear and Deconstruction. Avery has given his blessing to put some free mp3s from his Polar Bear project online. The downloads include the out-of-print albums Chewing Gum and Man's Ruin and some a live unreleased tracks including the song "Green." Also Avery's self-produced album titled "Help Wanted" on Dangerbird Records was released in April 2008. If you've been curious about what he's been up to since Jane's Addiction, definitely check out his new CD and the free mp3s.

Hopefully everyone has put aside the issues that led to their breakup in 1991 and fans will finally see a new Jane's Addiction album come out soon.


methodshop

Labels: music

When Apple launched their new App Store on July 10th, everyone knew it would be a success. But no one could have known it would be this BIG of a success.

The App Store has delivered more than 60 million apps to iPhone/iPod Touch owners in less than a month. According to an interview in the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says that the App Store is bringing in an average of $1 million a day for the fee-based apps which range from $1-$10. That's right. Apple is on track to make $360 million per year from their brand new App Store division even though Apple gives 70% of all App Store revenue to developers.

"I've never seen anything like this in my career for software," ~ Steve Jobs

Sega's Super Monkey Ball ($9.99) game remains the top app, selling 300,000 copies during the store's first 20 days. We'll do the math for you on that one: 300,000 * 9.99 = $2,997,000. Not bad for a game Sega only spent 8 weeks working on.


Sega's Super Monkey Ball game.



methodshop

Labels: apple, iphone, ipod, itunes

Jake and Amir is hugely popular online comedy series produced by CollegeHumor. The series stars two CollegeHumor co-workers, Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, who share the same cubicle at CollegeHumor's offices in New York City.

In our favorite episode titled "Lunch Meeting," [see video below] Jake tries to have a serious meeting with Amir at work. However, Amir insists on ordering lunch before the meeting because he's more productive when he has food in him. In fact, Amir is so hungry, that he considers it a hunger emergency and dials 911. We won't give away the rest of the episode, just watch Lunch Meeting to see what Jake & Amir are all about.

The Lunch Meeting episode is a cult favorite and was even spoofed by the PopSiren girls at Revision3.




methodshop

Labels: video

Smog is becoming a major headache for the Chinese. Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing is 5 times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization. And Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards for the 2008 Olympic Games.



As you can imagine, the smog has a lot of athletes seeing red. Besides causing breathing problems, Beijing's smog also causes another issue for athletes... vision.

Visibility has been so bad in Beijing that Great Britain's women's hockey team is training with special red contact lenses. The performance-enhancing contact lenses assist with visibility in smog filled conditions. Several companies make these special red lenses, but Nike's Maxsight is probably the most popular.

But looking like Darth Maul from Star Wars is a small price to pay for clear vision, especially during Olympic competition.



The Chinese government is doing all they can to reduce smog during the Olympics including closing factories, banning cars and seeding clouds to create rain. But all these efforts may not be enough. From what we hear, Beijing air quality is still the pits.




methodshop

Labels: gadgets, tech news

"It's a comic! It's a cartoon! No wait, it's a Motion Comic?!!"

As part of the promotion for the highly anticipated film Watchmen, Warner Bros. and DC Comics created a motion comic version of the graphic novel.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, a "motion comic" is somewhere in-between a comic book and an animated video. Slow camera zooms of slightly animated comic book frames are combined with music, sound effects, and voice-overs to bring traditional comic books alive as video shorts.

The motion comic version of "Watchmen" takes viewers through the critically acclaimed Hugo award-winning graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It's actually very well done. The animation is actually better or at least just as good as animated TV shows like Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Liquid Television's Aeon Flux.

You can watch a preview of the new episodes here: Watchmen on iTunes



Watchmen doesn't hit theaters until March 6, 2009. Zack Snyder from 300 and Dawn of the Dead is directing.


methodshop

Labels: itunes, movies

In a time when so-called MC's rap about their bank accounts or invent the latest dance craze to sell records, Lupe Fiasco is on the other side of the spectrum. It's refreshing to find a mainstream rapper dealing with non-commercial issues with the passion and sheer lyrical skill that Lupe exemplifies.

MethodShop.com sat down with Lupe to talk about his music, sneaker design, karate, Chicago, Jay-Z and whatever else he thought was Cool.

Here's how it went....

Interview: Lupe Fiasco






methodshop

Labels: interview, music

We just a ton of emails everyday from people with iPod related questions. Most questions can be easily answered by forwarding a link from our Free iPod Support section but every once in awhile we'll get an email good enough to share... like this one.

The following email is from Anthony who owns several beautiful cottages near Newcastle, Britain in the UK.

"I do not possess an iPod but I have a question about them. I own a holiday cottage business and recently we have had a complaint from a customer. While staying in one of our cottages both her kids 2 year old iPods broke. The lights in the cottage had been flickering and there had been a couple of occasions when the electricity had been tripped. Could this affect iPods seriously enough to damage them?"

One of Anthony's guest cottages


Yes. A power surge could have damaged the iPods... but only if they were plugged in to an electrical outlet at the time of the surge. Power surges and electrical storms can't damage an iPod unless they have a physical connection with the device. As long as the iPods weren't plugged into an electrical outlet or struck by lightning, they can't be damaged by a massive burst of power.

Here's an extreme example of iPod damage by a burst of electrical power. In the summer of 2006, an American teenager named Jason Bunch was mowing his lawn while listening to his iPod when a storm front moved in and lightning struck his iPod. Unfortunately Jason's ears were severely burned and he lost some of his hearing. His iPod was also obviously destroyed.



So unless both of the iPods in question were charging and physically connected to a power outlet in one of your cottages, you are not responsible for any damage. Going forward, make sure you place surge protectors in all of your cottages. The last thing you want is for one of your guests to ruin their $6,000 super laptop while staying at your cottage.

Here are some good surge protectors:

• UK power: Belkin PureAV Home Cinema Surge Protector
• US power: Monster Cable MP AV600 Power Protector
  

Why did both of the cottage guests' iPods die at the same time? Perhaps the iPods were knocked around en route to the cottage or dropped during unpacking. Without a physical inspection it's hard to tell. You can get broken iPods and iPhones repaired here.


methodshop

Labels: ipod