Author: Ransler Dier

The green movement has stopped being just about saving our dying planet and has become the fashionable thing to do. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing, as on one hand it gets a group who wouldn’t normally care to be pulled into the movement involved, but on the other we lose the reason and passion of what began the movement in the process. This new phone charger from Nokia looks as if it will walk the line between the two, balancing green power and posh-ness. Nokia has come up with a way to charge your phone using the static electricity created by your rotating tire on your bike, therefore charging…

While I am not sure how “cool” the content is but this new website is offering a very insightful look into how huge the oil spill issue in the Gulf Of Mexico really is by allowing you to super impose it over your home and surrounding area. The software for the website IfItWasMyHome.com uses a combination of Google Maps and freely available government data available via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It places the parameters of the BP oil spill over any area in the world. You can move the spill to center on any location by simply typing in your address or any address as you would…

One thing we Germans are known for (other than our beer) is our crazy sense of style and awesome cars. This BMW just got a little more awesome, with the help of American artist Jeff Koons. This years BMW art car has been designed by Jeff Koons, who painted it using race cars and explosions as his inspiration. The result is a BMW race car that looks like a paint plant exploded all over it, only with the brightest and most vibrant colors (none of that earth tone crap). The result of this is a car that looks incredibly badass. “These race cars are lifelike, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy,” Koons…

A new feature for iGoogle has been implemented allowing users to change the background of their homepage and Google’s iconic white background into anything they want. Google’s Official Blog announced yesterday that they have added this new level of personalization. The uploading system will allow you to upload your photos from your computer, Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa. Or if you have those days where you enjoy the white screen, you can switch back and forth between it and your personalized background with the click of a button. Google is getting this feature out…

Well, I guess it would be only a matter of time before Hollywood got their hands dirty in the virtual world; as if the “real-life” Hollywood world wasn’t fake and scripted enough already. Virtual 3D Hollywood is the new project by GBK, a luxury lifestyle gifting and special events company. The premise is to allow players, that’s you, into the world of glitz and glamor as only Hollywood can deliver. The whole thing looks pretty similar to Second Life, which was fun for like a day if you ask me (call me old-fashioned but I would rather have conversations and deal with drama face to face and not…

With the death of print in full swing with the popularity of e-books and e-newspapers on the rise, magazines will now be making the leap to the iPad. The price will be much more than their ink and paper ancestors. A new post from AdAge has posted the magazine pricing for the iPad, and it doesn’t look good for the tech-savvy reader hoping to transfer all his or her subscriptions over to Apple’s device. We’ll start out with some comparisons; a year of Popular Mechanics will cost you only $12 for the magazine to be delivered in its original print format but to get it on your iPad it will cost you more than…

Remember Minority Report? If so, what about that scene where Tom Cruise is controlling a computer with hand movements that synced up to opera music? If your memory is fuzzy see it here. Well, the computer from that scene is actually a reality and has been in development since the early 90s. Who knew? Oblong Industries, the developer of the g-speak spatial operating environment, actually worked on the set of Minority Report so there is a reason for the similarities between the machines. The whole thing works with an I/O bulb, which looks out at the world and can tell the computation device what is going…

3D Gaming will be coming to your door a lot sooner than we all expected. NVidia and Asus have announced three new 3D computers this week, with a game-ready laptop adding another dimension to the gaming world in Taipei. Asus has unveiled its 3D lineup with the G51Jx-EE 3D gaming laptop, as well as the Eee Top ET2400 and CD5390 tower based PC. All three of these machines will ship with 120Hz displays, active shutter 3D glasses, and discrete graphics processors from NVidia. The 3D Vision active shutter glasses from NVidia shipped with the gaming ready PC erase the need for an external IR emitter to be running…

Waterwear is a plastic bag that you can put your iPad into allowing for heavy iPad use on the beach, in the kitchen, by the pool and even in the shower or bubble bath. Why is it cool? It allows for full iPad functionality in all elements and comes with a handy strap for those who can’t unhook from technology long enough to take a shower. I can see using this at the beach reading it but I can’t imagine walking in on someone sitting under the showerhead with their iPad in hand. I wonder if this new iPad condom will ship with a voucher for group therapy sessions for those who cannot put their device down. Enough…

Skype has launched a new version of its client software for Apple’s iPhone 3G allowing users who have downloaded the app to make calls to other Skype users on the 3G network. The best part? The service remains free at least until the end of this year. Skype announced on Sunday that the new app is available for the 3G iPhone and that Skype-to-Skype calls over Wi-Fi will remain free until after the end of 2010. Skype has also said that they have not yet decided on what to charge for the calls. With the new software, owners of the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and the second and third generations of the iPod…