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]
Popularity: 2% [?]
These little guys called the Auto + USBoombox, have heads made of a cassette tape and they’re carrying around a smiling boombox that conceals a 1GB USB flash drive. On each edition of this Auto + USBoombox, you’ll also find an exclusive soundtrack. So what are the points of these little guys? None really, except that they’re collectible and adorable. The Auto + USBoombox 5-Inch Striped Edition and the Auto + USBoombox US Edition 5-Inch both retail for $60.00 from Kidrobot. 
