The Nokia N900 Isn't A Phone, It's A Psychotic Shapeshifter [Nokia]

While we've been sitting, waiting, wishing for the Nokia N900, we missed something very important: It's not a phone. As this Nokia ad shows, it's actually a psychotic shapeshifter. At least I think that's the message they're trying to send.
If you don't feel like watching the whole ad, jump to about 1:50. It's where the truth is revealed. It's also the moment when I began to daydream about the days when ads actually showed the product for more than a few seconds.
UPDATE:

Offers up the following:

• Maemo 5 OS
• 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) resistive touchscreen display
• 110.9 × 59.8 × 18mm, 181g
• Portrait-orientation sliding QWERTY
• Mozilla-based browser, full Adobe Flash support
• ARM cortex A8 processor
• 32GB internal memory
• 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover
• MicroSDHC support up to 16GB
• FM transmitter
• Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA 900/1700/2100, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP
• GPS
• 1320 mAh battery

[Gizmodo via GitEmSteveDave!]

A Surround Sound Speaker, Not a Dartboard [Home Theater]

The EOps i24R3 Portable isn't just the product of a design student and a 3D modeling program. It's a real, wireless, waterproof, single-speaker surround sound system that was just announced by Hong Kong designer Michael Young. How does it work?
The design is basically one sealed sound chamber filled with enough speakers for an authentic surround sound experience: four, 2.6-inch flat speakers and two, 4.5-inch passive radiator speakers. You'll find a 2x10W Class D amplifier squeezed in that shell as well.
Plugging in or operating off a built-in lithium polymer battery, the i24R3 has no inputs, instead receiving signals over 2.4GHz wireless USB or A2DP Bluetooth—yes, from software like iTunes and devices like iPhones.
And while we have no idea how it actually sounds or how much it actually costs, we have too many regularly-intoxicated friends with too good of access to aerodynamic implements to ever invest in one of our own. [Gizmodo via Michael Young via The Design Blog]

Honda's carbon nanotubes will change the world

Carbon nanotubes have otherworldly qualities, and now Honda says its figured out a way to make the manufacture of such miraculous materials practical. Get this: Honda says its carbon nanotubes are:

• 100,000 times thinner than human hair
• Stronger than steel
• Conduct electricity better than copper
• Conduct heat better than a diamond
• Light as cotton

Imagine constructing our world from such materials, resulting in lighter and stronger cars, tinier computers, super capacitors, more efficient flexible batteries, more powerful solar panels, practical fuel cells, super-strong composite materials, and maybe even a Spider-Man suit. The breakthrough? Honda says it can manufacture such nanotubes with a 91% success rate, compared to the 25 to 50% success rate currently possible.
[DVICE via Jalopnik]

Intel starts production on its versatile 32-nanometer chips

Intel has started to produce the ultra-dense 32-nanometer chips it needs to bring about the next generation of processors. What's that mean for you and me? Well, two things, depending on the architecture of the 32nm chips: faster computers, phones and more, or ones that use less energy.
That's because Intel is focusing on "systems on a chip" production (or SoCs), which allows the company to tweak each chip depending on what it's going into. Raw power is fine for computers, for instance, but specialty instances of the processors — such as in phones and cars — require a little something different.
It's also this SoC-oriented approach that represents a departure for Intel, as the company will try to offer a variety of components it doesn't normally include in the manufacturing process. This shift in direction is thanks, in part, to the $7 billion the company has invested to adapt its US plants for 32nm manufacturing.
Intel wants to be the first to bring the 32nm technology to the market, with chips going into computers and electronics by the end of this year, and opening up the 32nm SoC line early next year.
The 45nm chips we use now aren't dead, however, according to the Wall Street Journal:

In the meantime, Intel next week plans to discuss Jasper Forest, a 45-nanometer SoC targeted at products such as communications and data-storage equipment. On Thursday, it is expected to follow up with Sodaville, another 45-nanometer chip for digital TVs, set-top boxes and media players that combines its Atom microprocessor with circuitry for graphics, video and other functions.

Via the Wall Street Journal