In today's Remainders: journeys. The Xof1 solar-powered saucer car readies for a trek across a Canadian ice road; analysts rain on the Verizon iPhone rumor parade; Google Buzz headaches reach the White House; planetary orbits, visualized and musicalized; and more. More »

In today's remainders: Apple hints at an LTE iPhone, augmented reality finds a new niche, Thomas Edison brings down the house, and Microsoft comes clean about its cryptic ads. More »

In today's Remainders: the next step. For John Grisham, it's e-books. For the television-viewing public, it's viewing television while surfing the web. For Google, it's controlling the internet. And for NVIDIA, it's releasing GeForce drivers that don't melt your rig. More »

In today's Remainders: Efficiency. Get out of your house and watch the Final Four basketball games in 3-D; treat yourself to some Chilean wine while supporting their relief effort; start choosing the color for your Dell Mini 5, and more. More »

In today's Remainders: laughs. The Onion riffs on Google's privacy issues; Virgin America's triumphant claim of going Flash-free is sort of a joke; a clever Chatroulette user pranks people into looking at themselves, and more.

Grounded
Yesterday Virgin America announced that they were actively ditching Flash for an all HTML website, explaining that it would make the site more accessible for mobile users. The media made it out to be a pretty big deal—which it might have been, had it been completely true. We visited Virgin's brand new site yesterday and what did we find? Flash! So that's strike one. Strike two is that Virgin doesn't really have much of a mobile site to speak of, so, you know, maybe it would've been more useful to focus on that than to grab some spotlight from the big Apple / Flash scrum. Strike three is just us being aggravated by the combination of strikes one and two. We like you, Virgin, don't get us wrong. But your new Flash free site isn't all that you made it out to be.
[The Register]

Sorry, You
Google wants to apologize to you, personally, for their recent privacy missteps. They know it's hard being 29 and living in your parents' basement. They realize that someone who spends 6 hours a day playing Everquest and another 3 trolling related message boards probably holds their privacy dear. They understand it doesn't help that you just broke up with your girlfriend, and they can tell that you're not taking it very well from all those desperate late night e-mails you've been sending her. Anyway, they just wanted to say that they're sorry and they're working on it. [The Onion]

iPad Ping Pong
On Monday, an analyst was carrying on about how a production issue at Foxconn was going to result in less iPads being available at launch. Peter Misek, the analyst in question, put that number somewhere around 300,000, at most half as many units as had been previously expected. Unsurprisingly, Foxconn has volleyed back saying that the manufacturing is moving along just fine and that they will surely meet the expected output of 600,000 - 700,000 iPads. So which is it? Who knows. Analysts make all sorts of silly claims—it's their job, after all—but if there is indeed a problem, Foxconn would be expected to deny, deny, deny. [Electronista]

MirrorRoulette
At this point, I think, people are starting to get used to Chatroulette, insomuch as anyone can get used to a random video chat website that connects people with strangers and their penises the world over. Now, we've moved onto the second phase of this whole business, in which people tweak the largely untweakable system in any way they can to take ChatRouletting to the next level. This four minute videos shows the condensed reactions of hours of ChatRoulette partners who had their video feed flipped back on them. It's pretty fun to see how people still mug for the camera, even when they're ostensibly just video chatting with themselves. Put this on a loop and hang it in a gallery; Metaroulette is realized. [LaughingSquid]

pIn today's Remainders: Empires. Apple tends to theirs at their annual shareholders meeting; Verizon reinforces their cellular empire for Spring Break action; and the Galactic Empire's graphic design team faces off with Ole Miss's inew/i rebel mascot. And more!/p pimg src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_trap.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" /bIt's a Mascot!/bbr Ole Miss has been without a mascot since 2003, when its Colonel Reb was deemed offensive. A campus-wide vote was initiated to determine the new one, and the University has gravitated towards a Rebel of a different nature: Admiral Ackbar! Star Wars fans shouldn't get too excited; the Associated Student Body President said that the campaign is only "comic relief." Too bad, the thought of Red Squadron-replica football helmets running around on ESPN had me pretty excited. [a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404447.html"Washington Post]/a/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/submarine.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_submarine.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abWe All Live In An Autonomous Submarine/bbr Today PopSci shares a report on Gulper, an autonomous submarine that can plan its own experiments. "Cool," you say, but in reality it's not quite as exciting as it soundsmdash;Gulper basically just makes small decisions within the confines of a preprogrammed task to get things done more efficiently. Submarines have been zipping around on their own a href="http://gizmodo.com/5419070/robotic-sea+glider-achieves-first-unmanned-underwater-transatlantic-crossing"for a while now/a, so it's gonna take a little bit more autonomy to impress us. [a href="http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/autonomous-submarine-bot-plans-experiments-navigates-without-human-help"PopSci/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/frame_01.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_frame_01.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abFramed/bbr The "Fancy Alpha" offers you the chance to disguise your unsightly HDTV antenna...as an unsightly picture frame. When there are so many striking, a href="http://www.unplggd.com/unplggd/home-theater/hdtv-antennas-you-dont-have-to-hide-in-the-closet-109638?image_id=1179167"well-designed antennas/a on the market, why bother? [a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/02/25/tv-antenna-disguised-as-picture-frame/"CrunchGear/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/springbreak.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_springbreak.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abSpring Break Service/bbr Pass the beer bong to Verizonmdash;today the carrier sent out a press release confirming that their Florida network is ready for the Spring Break sexting onslaught:/p blockquote pWhen droves of college students from around the country hit Florida's spring break hot spots this year, they can count on the Verizon Wireless 3G network to handle their millions of voice calls, text and picture messages, downloads and more to stay in touch with friends at the next beach party or family back home./p /blockquote pApparently service wasn't quite up to snuff last spring break, so in the meantime they spent $240 million on improving the network. Sign of the times if there ever was one. [strikeThe Onion/strike a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/verizon-wireless-3g-network-ready-to-burn-bright-in-florida-spring-break-hot-spots-85363877.html"PR Newswire/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/brokenhummer.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_brokenhummer.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abHummer Stalls/bbr All over the world, pockets of the environmentally-friendly are partying like the end of emReturn of the Jedi/em. What's the cause for all the celebration? The shuttering of Hummer, of course. The brand, which has long been the most visible signal of everything wrong with our gas-guzzling SUV automotive culture, was supposed to be sold to a Chinese company but the deal fell apart. Eco-friendly and Ewoks alike: cheer on. [a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/24/news/companies/hummer_chinese/"CNN/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/spotify.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_spotify.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abSpotty Sales/bbr For a while it seemed like the powers that be had agreed to let this a href="http://gizmodo.com/t/spotify"Spotify thing/a happen, but a recent study is sure to make the Brothers Warner and their big-wig cousins raise an eyebrow. It found that on-demand streaming music sites, like Spotify, decreased paid downloads 13 percent. That's bad enough, but when you look at it in the context of streaming internet radio's influence on paid downloadsmdash;it can boost them up to 41%mdash;Spotify's future with the big labels looks even dimmer. [a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10459568-261.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0"CNET/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/shareholders.jpg"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_shareholders.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abShareholders/bbr Apple's annual shareholder meeting was today, and it didn't generate much in the way of explosive news. Here's what was discussed: Apple is sitting on a gigantic pile of cash, something to the tune of $40 billion (this a href="http://gizmodo.com/5402668/apples-soaring-pile-of-cash"we knew/a); Apple plans to build 25 stores in China (this we didn't); some people are pushing for a more environmentally-friendly Apple (a greener Apple, if you will); and one shareholder thinks there should be women on the board (Tipper Gore was suggested). I told you it wasn't explosive. [a href="http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/02/25/inside-apples-shareholders-meeting/"Brainstrom Tech/a]/p pa rel="lytebox" href="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/starships.png"img src="http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_starships.jpg" class="left image500" width="500" //abLoose Lips/bbr Artist Cliff Chang created some adverts for the Galactic Empire in the style of World War II propaganda posters, and, as you can see, they are quite wonderful. I'm sure Palpatine had pro-Empire posters up in every spaceport, but I can't imagine the Empire's graphic design team had a style this impressive. [a href="http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/darth_vader_needs_you_to_suppress_the_rebel_alliance_.php"New Launches/a]/pbr clear="both" style="clear: both;"/ br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d2da8b143e2bdc2119af023b2c2a4b8ep=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d2da8b143e2bdc2119af023b2c2a4b8ep=1"//a img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226"/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:H0mrP-F8Qgo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:D7DqB2pKExk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?a=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/gizmodo/full?i=K8Nphvoc8WQ:mae6d4FUnmQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/K8Nphvoc8WQ" height="1" width="1"/

In today's Remainders: solutions! Solutions for distilling water vapor into drinkable water; keeping your lunch warm with only a USB port; beaming an entire Springsteen album to your phone in under 10 seconds, and more.

Wossy
Jonathan Ross, a UK television personality, isn't the first person you'd expect to deliver the latest news on Microsoft's Project Natal, but we'll take what we can get. Apparently he's had some time to play around with the system and likes what it has to offer:

OK. Before bed. Natal on X Box impressive. Not quite there yet i think but tye have til october and if they get it right...skys the limit.

Of course we've known that the sky is the limit with Natal, but the Tweet also serves to confirm what we've heard before in terms of release date—Microsoft is shooting for a Fall launch, sometime in October or shortly thereafter. Get ready to look silly. [Engadget]

Intel Intel
In an annual filing with the SEC, Intel revealed that they, too, were the target of advanced cyber attacks early this year. The relevant section of the report read:

We regularly face attempts by others to gain unauthorized access through the Internet to our information technology systems by, for example, masquerading as authorized users or surreptitious introduction of software. These attempts, which might be the result of industrial or other espionage, or actions by hackers seeking to harm the company, its products, or end users, are sometimes successful. One recent and sophisticated incident occurred in January 2010 around the same time as the recently publicized security incident reported by Google.

A NYTimes source confirmed that they were not only at the "same time" but were in fact part of the same wave of attacks that struck Google back in January. No need to feel sheepish, Intel, plenty of companies got attacked in that last go around. [NYTimes]

No Wires Nokia
Nokia's no stranger to concepts, and the newest video from their Nokia Research Center fits the usual bill: pretty exciting and only partially explained. The Explore and Share concept shows a system in which a portable device—in this case a Nokia N900—interacts with a retail kiosk wirelessly by being placed on a small "writer." Here's where the magic happens. The kiosk registers the n900 almost instantly, and, using a "new radio technology," is able to beam an entire Bruce Springsteen album to the device in under ten seconds. That's fast! Faster than NFC and Bluetooth 3.0, as Engadget points out. Concepts have the tendency to, you know, stay conceptual, but this type of snappy, functional wireless technology is something we'd be happy to see more of in the future. And the Boss? More of him in the future, too, please. [Engadget]

Net Some Water
Dropnet, a concept designed by Imke Hoehler, is a system of large polypropylene nets that snatch droplets from water vapor clouds and distill them into potable water. They not only provide low-infrastructure areas with drinkable water but also lend the hillsides on which they're installed an exotic Avataresque vibe, so they're doubly fine by me. [DesignBoom]

Lunchtime
Apparently Thanko's last USB-powered lunchbox was enough of a hit to warrant an upgrade—two, in fact—and today they've delivered, piping hot to our desks, two new "Hot Lunch Bag" devices. You have the compact model, which is basically a rehash of the older design, but now there is also the "super slim," a more space-efficient USB-powered hot lunch solution that looks like a pencil case and slips conveniently into your laptop bag. Because if there's any word I'd use to describe keeping my lunch plugged in to my laptop, it's convenient. [CrunchGear]

In today's Remainders: video! And in many cases, things caught on video for the first time, like Samsung's E6 and E101 ebook readers, Apple's $1 billion data center, Big Bloom's "miraculous" fuel cell, and a modern day Superman.

Stylish Stylus
We got a look at Samsung's ebook readers—the E6 and the E101—back at CES, but now you can check them out on video. Their claim to fame: electromagnetic resonance stylii that let you doodle on the screen and annotate your digital texts. Sure, that seems like it'd be useful for a particular set of ebookworms, but now that we're in the era of the iPad, watching and waiting for that E-Ink display to refresh is even more grueling. Still, the hardware looks pretty sleek, and might be a good fit for those who remain committed to their marginalia. [Engadget]

Pickleback
At the beginning of February, Nickelback had 1,380,820 fans on their Facebook page. Facebook user Coral Anne wondered if a Pickle could get more fans. So she started the group, "Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?" The answer was yes, yes it could; on Friday, the Pickleback surpassed Nickelback in terms of Facebook fandom. The little stunt apparently did not sit well with Chad Kroeger, Nickelback's frontman, who fired off this snooty little message to Pickelback's creator. No matter—I think she got her point across. [The Daily What]

Hype Machine
This morning, everyone was abuzz over a little cube called the Bloom Box. The publicity stemmed from a 60 Minutes segment in which the Bloom Box was described as a "power plant-in-a-box," and posited as a "miraculous" solution to our energy crisis. Well that'd be great, wouldn't it? BoingBoing, however, was quick to cut through the hype and peg the Bloom Box for what it really is: a gussied-up fuel cell. Here's how it works:

[The creator, Sridhar] said he bakes sand and cuts it into little squares that are turned into a ceramic. Then he coats it with green and black "inks" that he developed.

Sridhar told Stahl there is a secret formula. "And you take that and you apply that. You paint that on either side of this white ceramic to get a green layer and a black layer. And...that's it."

Big Bloom Boxes are currently powering some buildings owned by Ebay and Google and the results are indeed promising. Sridhar says that he hopes to shrink the Bloom Box down to be cheap enough for consumers sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, which usually translates roughly to 10 to never years. So, all in all, is the Bloom Box miraculous? No. Is it revolutionary? Probably not. Is it a viable option for cheap, renewable energy going forward? Maybe. [BoingBoing]

Safe!
Neatorama deems him a "real-life Superman." I don't know about that, but this guy, who dashed in front of an oncoming train to push a truck off the tracks, definitely has some super cajones. I like how he and his buddy celebrate so ecstatically right after his daring feat. And rightfully so. I'd imagine the "I just saved a car full of people" high five is the best high five of all. [Neatorama]

Nap Time
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley—nappers that they are—have determined that a 60- to 90-minute nap in the middle of the day can increase your brain's ability to retain facts that you learn later in the day. Which is great, because I totally have an hour and a half in the middle of the day when I'm just sitting around trying to figure out how to replenish my brainpower. Oh wait no I don't. There have been many studies like this that show how the mind benefits from naps, but they never seem to make it any easier for me to find time to do so. [PhysOrg]

That Data Center Is Fully Operational!
You know that tingle up your spine you got when you first caught a glimpse of the Death Star II? Watch this fly-by video of Apple's new $1 billion iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina and tell me if you get the same feeling. Still, you'll probably learn to love it—in the iCloud future, this is where all of your data will be stored. (Unless it's stored on a Bloom Box-fueled Google data center, that is). [Data Center Knowledge]

Can You Hear Me Now?
Fast Company has a piece about the 10 most addictive sounds that are currently nestling their way into our brains (largely without us even realizing it). The study, conducted by Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts, ranked the top 10 branded sounds and the top 10 non-branded sounds. The most addicting sound for each, respectively: the Intel jingle and a baby giggling. The article touches on how advertisers have begun to understand our brains' addictions to these noises, and how soundbites are playing an increasingly large role in branding. All Intel needs to do is get a baby giggling "bumBUM bum BUM" and they're unstoppable. [FastCompany]

In today's Remainders: a celebration. Photoshop turns 20 and reminds us why we love it with laser-eyed babies and an Earth with AT-ATs. We've also got possible iPad preorders, definite MobileMe and Chromium OS improvements, PMA bummers and more.

RIP PMA
Pentax is the latest manufacturer to bail from PMA, joining Canon and Leica who have also announced that they will not be attending the gigantic photography trade show this year. It could be in protest of the show's relocation from Las Vegas to Anaheim, though you'd think they'd take the vacation anywhere they could get it. [Electronista]

iPreorder
Charge your MacBooks, grab your sleeping bags, and make your peanut butter and jellys—iPad preorder time is drawing nigh. According to the website AppAdvice, "a reliable source of ours familiar with the matter" claims that preorders for the tablet will start next Thursday, February 25. Though the source says the initial preorders will be limited to Wi-Fi models, I'm sure that won't stop the foam that's already accumulating at the corners of the fanboys' mouths. [AppAdvice]

MobileMeep
Apple has quietly rolled out a number of improvements for MobileMe, specifically enhancing its accessibility from the iPhone and iPod Touch. In the main, the improvements come by way of new set-up links in the Contacts, Mail, and Calendars sections, as well as the ability to use the Find My iPhone feature from another iPhone instead of just a computer. So thieves should take note: MobileMe and its phone-finding abilities are now actually mobile. [Yahoo!]

Got My Eye-On Chromium
A new build of Chromium OS, dubbed Flow, features a few important updates: improved battery life, better automatic updating, and full support for machines running NVIDIA Ion. So if you've got a rig running on Ion and your eye on Chromium, now's your chance to tinker away. [Engadget]

Photoshop Strikes Back
Photoshop turned 20 today, and while it's not old enough to legally drink it can still seamlessly blend our world with those of Star Wars, as seen in these unsettlingly realistic images of Star Wars characters, vehicles, and villains hanging around out on Earth. Might be time to enlist in the Imperial Academy, just to be safe. [This Blog Rules]

Lasers, Baby
We see Photoshop's (re)touches everyday without even realizing it—in print ads, book covers, billboards and the rest—but those of us who spend countless hours on the internet see things that wear their Photoshopped status as a badge of honor on a daily basis. The latest in a long line of unabashedly unrealistic memes is Babies With Laser Eyes. Sure in the real world babies are cute and cuddly and adorable, even when they're poopy and crying. But in Photoshop world, all babies are potentially deadly robots whose eyes can scorch anything with a single glance. I like Photoshop world. [Babies With Laser Eyes]

In today's Remainders: possibilities. Bing hopes to expand its search empire by adding Yahoo's results; T-Mobile looks to add WebOS to its roster; the next iPhone might get a Super AMOLED screen (it won't); and porn possibilities abound for troops.

AMOLEDOMG
You'd think that OLED-display.net would be a trustworthy source for OLED-related news, especially when their info comes from "OLED industry sources," but their claim that Apple's next iPhone will use Samsung's Super AMOLED screens isn't very convincing. We heard this business in the run up to the unveiling of the iPad, too, and there isn't really any indication that this newest report is anything other than idle speculation. It's also noteworthy—or un-noteworthy, as the case may be—that the post ends with this bit: "the CEO of Rapid Repair believes also that Apple use Samsungs SUPER AMOLED in their next generation Iphone 4G." Neither the grammar nor the sourcing of this sentence do much to help the rumor's case. [OLED-display.net]

Posterity Tweets
As you probably know by now, your Tweets don't stick around forever. Unless you're Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary and Twitter n00b. After some debate on the matter, governmental lawyers have decided that Gibbs' Tweets, like other forms of communication, will be recorded in adherence with the Presidential Records Act of 1978. To read Gibbs' everlasting missives, check him out at http://twitter.com/PressSec. [Binghoo!
Today Microsoft and Yahoo were cleared to go ahead with their search sharing deal, which will push Yahoo's search results into Bing's corner of the internet. They hope to complete the cross-pollination by the end of the year, though the process could spill into 2011. Not much of a surprise here—we didn't expect the Binghoos not to get clearance—so just keep in mind that your search world will be shrinking in months to come. Where's that Jeeves when you need him? [Business Insider]

Fitting Palm To A T
According to the our precocious phone-loving friend, WebOS might be making its way to T-Mobile by way of a small, Pixi-ish handset. Okay. [Boy Genius Reports]

Porn Returns To The Front Lines
Back in 2008, the U.S. military banned flash drives, memory sticks and other forms of removable media because of the Agent.btz virus that threatened to compromise their networks. Though nothing much has changed in terms of the security threat that flash drives pose, the ban has been lifted, allowing soldiers to transfer data (read: porn) more easily amongst themselves. It's sort of a bummer to read the Departa of Defense's defeatist attitude on the whole matter of cybersecurity, though. One member of the U.S. Strategic Command explained:

Simply put, DoD [Department of Defense] cannot undo 20+ years of tacitly utilizing worst IT security practices in a reasonable amount of time, especially when many of these practices are embedded in enterprise wide processes.

If that's how they really feel, I guess they might as well give the troops their removable media. And all the goodies they contain. [Wired]