D.I.G.I.T.

Created by Teehan+Lax labs, this awesome little visualizer which uses a retro display language (In this case those old school number displays) to show off a variety of programmable patterns. These would make a great addition to any crib, so here's to hoping they start mass producing these with interchangeable visual languages.

D.I.G.I.T. is a digital mirror that draws a segmented camera feed through seven-segment displays. It channels the long-standing tradition of rendering graphics within the constraints of simple computing paradigms, exemplified best by techniques such as ASCII and typewriter art.

Worth Checking Out : Monkey Light Animated LED Bike Display

5 years of development and over a half dozen prototypes later, the folks at the San Francisco based startup MonkeyLectric have successfully evolved their concept of LED bike augmentations to a whole new level, with a 4-bar system that allows full custom animations to be clearly displayed on your wheels from speeds ranging from 10-40mph. As both a means of turning your bike into an outlet for your creativity and visibility booster for night riders, this cool project is definitely worth supporting. Can't wait to Tron out my bike.

The Monkey Light Pro has 4 bars of LEDs which are attached together inside your wheel. As your ride the system rotates, using Persistence Of Vision to create an image with its 256 full color LEDs. The Monkey Light Pro has sensors to track its speed, heads-up position and rotation direction. This allows the system to create stable, full-wheel images from 10 to 40 mph (15 to 65 km/h).

The First Google Glass Short Film

Interesting timing. On the same day that the Apple unveiled the next generation of their product, Google dropped this video of a film captured using the companies newest augmented reality eyewear product, known as Google Eye and Project Glass. The glasses supposedly weigh less than a pair of sunglasses, and are integrated with memory, a processor, a camera, speaker, microphone, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi antennas, an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and battery to boot.

I can't help but be excited by the possibilities of this product, especially due to the fact that it falls into an all new mass market tech product category and the quality looks amazing (If it's not mocked up). And with a launch date of 2014, they should definitely have some time to streamline and improve the design of the glasses. I'll definitely be getting one of these day one, I've been stuck on augmented reality ever since discovering Ghost In The Shell.

The Apple iPhone 5 19-Pin Scheme

The first reveal of the upcoming design change. (Via)

Editorial ahead! Now that we're clear that some opinions are going to be stated, and I have that out of the way, let me ask you: Do you happen to own an iPhone? Looking forward to getting the next generation? Well as nice as it's probably going to be, you might as well throw away every single accessory you've ever bought for your previous phones. Every single accessory created for the phone since its launch in 2007 might be headed towards redundancy with the latest rumors, which state that all future iPhones will ditch the standard 30 pin charger cable for a smaller 19 pin cable. People are stunned by this possibility, myself included. I mean, why fix something that's seemingly not broken?

Have you guys ever heard of 'planned obsolescence?' It's a practice which encourages planning and designing a product so it's only useful for a limited time, before becoming obsolete. It's common practice, and used by many companies to create demand for the 'newer, better' model of the product. Yet this move is possibly prompted by the major accessory makers facing dwindling sales, as customers see no need to buy new accessories for a smartphone that had a universal dock system for 6 generations. What most tech blogs failed to address was the following question: Did the top accessory makers pad Apple's pockets, or hardball negotiate for an incentive to drop the standard cable as a means of forcing consumers to buy new accessories? We're inclined to think so.

Considering that three of the top accessory makers have been the first to confirm (TechCrunch) that they're working on 19 pin accessories already for the launch of the iPhone 5, the motive is simple : Greed. And why not? It's a fail safe business plan, designed to shake out the smaller accessory makers with tons of unsold '30 pin' stock and a good amount of people will probably conform to this odd decision without question. As for myself, after four years and owning 3 generations of iPhones I don't think I can support such practices anymore. As much as I'd love buying a slew of artificially overpriced accessories again, I'd rather start looking for an Android phone.

Edited 6/21/12 3:06pm CDT for clarity.
Edited 6/23/12 2:38am CDT for further clarity.

Sony's Immersive Movie Experiences

These cool little projects were created to promote the Playstation Move as a tool for creative video production. The idea was to showcase enhanced 3d projection mapping assisted by a Move strapped onto the camera fiming the scene. This aided them in helping the 3d mapping track the environment better to pull off much more elaborate illusions. This is pretty amazing, considering that 3d projection mapping usually only works from a single, static angle. Check out two more of these after the break!

Little Printer: Your Awesome Little Desktop Companion

Little Printer is an awesome little gadget that will be arriving sometime in 2012, to give your online experience a slightly more analog feel. The concept is simple, and fun. Depending on what type of subscriptions you have on your phone, you'll receive a daily feed of news, puzzles, to do lists, trivia, reminders and messages from friends in a mini newspaper format. Who knows what this thing will cost, but I find myself strangely compelled by this retro futuristic little device. You can find out more about it here.

The GoPro Mach II

GoPro has seen some incredible success over the last few years with their extreme sports friendly 1080p cameras. Heck, I even bought one myself to see what the fuss was about and was amazed at the quality of footage I could capture with that tiny camera. GoPro just recently announced their second generation of miniature sports camera, simply named 'GoPro 2,' and traveled around the world with some of their favorite extreme sports idols to test out the new hardware. This montage is the result of the world tour..And its versatility is nothing short of mind blowing. The new camera is selling for the same price its predecessor cost ($299) and can be found on their website.

iPhone 4S VS Canon 5D MKII: A Surprising Side By Side Comparison

This was a fun video put together by a camera enthusiast to show off just how incredible the onboard iPhone 4S video camera is compared to a $3,000 high end Canon DSLR. Its pretty mind blowing to see that the difference in quality is nearly negligible during a daytime test. However, take this test with a grain of salt..In terms of features and versatility in different lighting situations the Canon 5D is superior in just about every way. This video is just an interesting taste of things to come in the next few years with microcamera tech. We've come a long way since the early days of cellphone cameras (10 seconds of recording time, anyone?).

The Cintiq 24HD Tablet Is Over The Top

If you work in any type of graphics, art or related field...This next generation of Wacom's touch sensitive monitor equipment is about 70% sleeker and 30% more functional, offering a widescreen drawing experience weighing in at a whopping 65 pounds. In terms of specs, its got an impressive 1920x1200 resolution, 550:1 contrast and 2048 degrees of pen sensitivity, and will set you back $2500. The new offering will be making its premiere in stores sometime in October, and will probably be the perfect purchase for serious Starcraft 2 players (I kid). Time to update the wishlist.

Turn Your Living Room Into A Feeding Frenzy

All I can think about while looking at these awesome Airswimmers is how badly I want to turn my living room into an aquarium swarming with these sweet fish blimps, as well as all the prank potential this product has. At only $40 a pop, these things are a steal. I mean, imagine unleashing an entire army of these helium filled guys at your office, living room or outside. Go buy a few hundred over on their website!

Motion Control: A Product Of The Seventies

While Sony, Nintendo, and Xbox fans all rage on about who invented the tech behind motion tracking technology, let us remind you that this tech was invented over 30 years ago.  The only issue was that at the time, people had no idea how this technology could be practically applied.  As a result, the system was regarded as experimental and used for stuff like liberal arts.  This was so ahead of its time that it kind of blows my mind.

Immersive Media: So Many Possibilities

The Dodeca 2360 System.  11 streams of coverage.

After yesterdays article that Nathan covered about a new way to photograph war, I received a tip about a Portland based firm called Immersive Media , a company that specializes in 360 degree immersive technology.  I'm surprised this hasn't been more actively covered by tech blogs, but I would love to get my hands on one of these. Using a total of 11 video streams, the camera can build a fully interactive 360 degree view of the world around it.  And at 2.5 pounds and a resolution of 2400x1200, this device is no pushover.

In terms of practical applications, people have barely scratched the surface regarding the potential of the device. Imagine sending one of these up to the international space station or combining this with a VR helmet with head tracking.  Just imagine that.  You could experience a place thousands of miles away from the comfort of your own home with 360 degree interactive video.  This could be the start of something a lot bigger.  A fully interactive example after the jump.

Beautiful Japanese Cellphone Ad

This beautiful ad was created was created by Drill Inc. in Japan..All this for a cellphone, imagine that.  The ad features a simple ball rolling down a giant marimba in the lush Kyushu region of Japan.  Let me also take this opportunity to tell you that Japanese phones are about 20 years ahead of everyone else.  Despite it wooden exterior, this thing probably has holographic 8G capabilities.

Drunken NES

Engineer/all around awesome guy Bastly Adams devised this awesome NES game/breathalyzer thing that gives you a drunkenness ranking.  How does this work?  You blow into the damn cartridge, a tribute to all those nights spent trying to get the dust off the connectors on our old NES games.  With a total of 6 rankings, all based off of animal puns..This is a winner for me.

Locked In A Hotel With An Insane Camera

So what do you do when you're stuck in a Las Vegas room with nothing to do and a Phantom Flex camera nearby that costs up to $150,000?  The guy who made this video, Tom Guillmette decided to have some fun with it.