I’m not trying to say the folks at the Hasso-Plattner Institute are crazy, but guys: the folks at the Hasso-Plattner Institute are crazy. Introducing the Imaginary Phone – an exercise in how to take interaction design to its (il)logical conclusion. Using a large depth camera mounted on an arm, the system can read your palm – or, rather, read your opposite hand’s motions across said palm, as you swipe, tap and gesture as if it were your real phone (which is meanwhile in your pocket or something). Why would you want to play Angry Birds while your phone is still in your pocket? Honestly, your guess is as…

In a head-scratchingly bass-ackwards marketing decision, you can now send recorded videos to friends and family (and enemies, I guess – who are we to judge) via snail mail in the form of TV in a Card. Apparently born of a mind stuck in the late 90s, TV in a Card is what can only be summed up as the logical progression of musical birthday cards – and a logical regression of just recording and emailing a private YouTube video. Each card contains a lithium battery that lasts 90 minutes, and can play up to 30 continuous minutes of video on its 3.4″ LCD screen. Personally, I’m not up for reading a birthday card…

Have you ever spilled ketchup on a table and wished there was a way to pick it up in its current form and replace it intact somewhere else? Of course not, but that fact didn’t stop Japanese restaurant gadget builder Furukawakiko from inventing something that does just that. Despite racking my brain, I cannot think of a single use for the device. That doesn’t make it any less amazing. I suppose if you drop mustard on the table and it falls into a perfect form of the Virgin Mary, you now have an apparatus to preserve the holy condiment in all its glory. …

If Google has AdSense, let’s just call this NonSense. A new advertising campaign for people-what-make-cars Alfo Romeo is (we desperately hope) not the future of advertising, as you’ll doubtlessly agree by watching this video. ‘There’s no getting away from an offer this good’ proclaims a motorized billboard, as it chooses unwitting pedestrians and gives chase, urging them to purchase a car. I can’t imagine this is the best way to sell cars – and obviously, this video was created with humour in mind  – but still, there’s a deeper concern here. Given the pervasion of advertising in our everyday…

Talk about gratitude. According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, a twentysomething father has named his newborn daughter ‘Facebook’ to pay homage to the role Facebook (like, real Facebook) played in the recent Egyptian revolution.  No, really. This is a thing. According to TechCrunch, the translation is as follows: A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl “Facebook” Jamal Ibrahim (his name.) The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the…

And here is a visual riddle to help ferry you into the weekend – Escher’s Waterfall, come to life. I’ve been sitting here for longer than I should trying to figure this one out. Any insights, Techi readers? Or did we really just kick science in the teeth? Before some humourless troll decides to remind us that science can’t be kicked in the teeth nor anywhere else, that was a joke. But in the impossible offchance this is real, we just basically solved all humanity’s problems. In the words of a great internet: “what is this I don’t even”…

Many of us still long for a simpler time, when programs came on disks, and no one ever played past the first episode of a shareware game, because no one wanted to order the full version by phone. This is for us….

Effective immediately, Big Steve has been made to take medical leave from Apple again, handing the reigns over to COO Tim Cook and sending the following memo to Apple’s employees. Team, At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place…

If you’ve always wanted an iPhone but have been too intimidated by its gargantuan price, now could be the time, as Apple has begun selling the 3GS for a mere pittance: forty nine dollars. And this ain’t no temporary sale – Apple has added this to the official fluff on its website. $49 will totally get you an iPhone 3GS. For keepsies. And that’s pretty radical. But the catch? Well, that would be that this phone is, again, the iPhone 3GS – and it’s only available at this price with a 2-year contract – so to partake in this cheap telephony means you miss out on the iPhone 5. Considering some people are still stubbornly…

From the file labelled ‘stuff you didn’t expect to hear about today’ comes this puzzler: LG has announced that it’s teaming up with film score icon Ennio Morricone to produce exclusive ringtones and music for its devices. The music will come preloaded on LG’s entire range of smartphones, beginning with the Optimus 2X, and will feature 10 Morricone classics, as well as 15 new pieces developed specifically for LG. For those of you who aren’t hip to Morricone, he’s an extremely influential legend in the world of composing. Hell, I thought he was dead until wikipedia-ing him a couple minutes ago. Even…