Last Pirate Bay Co-Founder Has Been Arrested

The last free co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Fredrik Neij, was arrested in Asian yesterday November 3^rd.  The 36 year old who moved to Laos with his wife and children to escape sentencing was taken into custody after attempting to cross the Laos border into Thailand.

Charges for “promoting other peoples infringements of copyright laws” were filed against all founding members of The Pirate Bay in January of 2008 but Neij has been eluding police for years until now. The other 2 founding members are Gottfrid Svartholm and Peter Sunde.

Although a May 2006 raid temporarily took the torrent search engine offline, changes to their domain name were made to avoid permanently going down. Even till this day, with the founders locked behind bars and all, The Pirate Bay’s website is still up and running.

PlayStation Phone 'Zeus Z1' caught on video again, this time you can actually see it (update)

By Paul Miller posted Dec 3rd 2010 6:56PM

Breaking News

Wow guys, we just spotted a new video of the PlayStation Phone, codenamed Zeus Z1, and this time we get a long, loving look at the entire device -- a refreshing contrast to last time's blurry tease. In addition to appreciating just how fat this phone is, and just how real it is, you can clearly see a "PlayStation" icon, which should hopefully put to rest any doubts that this phone will actually play PlayStation games. Check out a close-up of the icon after the break. Oh, and by the way, there's no audio on the video, your computer is not broken.

[Thanks, Sha]

Update: There's another video! Check out a brief look at the PlayStation app after the break...

Alexander Amosu introduces iPhone 4 Diamond Spider

The iPhone 4 is an exquisite gadget indeed, but with its sales surpassing 20 million units it takes extra effort to get noticed when carrying one. Fortunately the famous British jeweler Alexander Amosu will give you the chance with its limited edition Diamond Spider - a diamond-encrusted iPhone 4 with some exclusive features.
The sides of the iPhone 4 Diamond Spider are covered by 846 brilliant-cut VVS1-grade F colour diamonds totaling 5.66 carats (we wonder if those are as effective as a bumper in solving the antenna issues). You are free to transfer those diamonds to another handset or just turn them into some kind of jewelry when you decide to switch phones.
You can also pick any color for the back of your Diamond Spider iPhone - black, white (there Apple, was that so hard?) or any other you may want.

Alexander Amosu iPhone 4 Diamond Spider
But as we told you - it doesn't end there. Every iPhone 4 Diamond Spider will come with a special golden number of your choice (the example given being 07XXX 111111). The price will also include a 24hr global concierge service, which promises to access the inaccessible for you.
And now for the pricing and availability - the iPhone 4 Diamond Spider costs £15000 and will be available in UK, Monaco, United Arab Emirates and… wait for it… Nigeria. Though, if you actually had the kind of cash to get one, we'd assume you'll be able to ship it to wherever else in the world necessary.
Source

Xperia X10 will get pinch-to-zoom in Q1 2011, with some limitation (video)

By Ross Miller  posted Nov 17th 2010 1:11PM

There's been a long back-and-forth from Sony Ericsson and the dev community as to whether or not theXperia X10 was at all capable of multi-touch -- the company stance has been that the hardware just can't do it, but still whispers to the contrary have lingered. Consider those murmurs validated: Sony Ericsson Product Blog has announced that the X10 will, in fact, get multi-touch in the first quarter of next year -- with some caveats. The large asterisk that's destined to clarify the minutiae will tell you that pinch-to-zoom will be enabled for browser and maps, but as the blog post put it, "situations like when the movement of the two fingers cross each other on the X- or Y-axis that could cause strange behavior." Third-party apps should be able to join some functionality, too, with the similar limitations (including when buttons must be pressed simultaneously -- that won't work). In the video demonstration after the break, take note how Angry Birds doesn't quite pinch and zoom smoothly. So yeah, it's not all sunshine, but at least there's something to look forward to.

Xperia X10 Blog Sony Ericsson

Artifical retina reconstructs normal vision in mice, human trials next

By Joseph L. Flatley  posted Nov 17th 2010 4:04PM

Scientists have been working on artificial retinas for years, and while the main focus of research has been to increase the amount of light captured, a study led by Sheila Nirenberg, PhD, has taken a different tack. The new system being devised at Weill Cornell Medical College better mimics frontline photoreceptor cells, making it easier for the ganglion cells to output a more accurate image. "If you want to really restore normal vision, you have to know the retina's code," Nirenberg said. "Once you have that, the door is open to the possibility of restoring normal vision." When researchers performed tests with mice, they found that those with the new system reconstructed more details (the second image, above) than those without (image three, above). "Incorporating the [more accurate] code jumped the system's performance up to normal levels - that is, there was enough information to reconstruct faces, newsprint, landscapes, essentially anything," Nirenberg said. The next step? Coordinating with other researchers to test the technology on human participants.

PhysOrg, Science News

Kinect data massaged into retro-futuristic 'Box Cloud,' iPad tilts its way into the action

y Paul Miller  posted Nov 17th 2010 4:32PM

We're sorry if you're like, so over Kinect hacks, but with a million tinkerers just getting warmed up on the thing, we recommend you just get comfortable and try to enjoy it. A new processing app by Chris Rojas takes the distance data and renders objects in neon cubes, with the size of the cube based on the object's distance from the sensor. Sure, it won't cure world hunger, but it looks pretty sweet. Of course, that wasn't good enough, so Chris hooked his app up to TouchOSC on the iPad, which gives him sliders to define and adjust different "planes of interest," along with the accelerometer input of the iPad to control zoom and pan of the virtual camera. Just don't get too close to that sensor, Chris, or the MCP might decide to digitize you entirely! Check out the original, iPad-less Box Cloud video after the break.

Adafruit Industries Blog cruxphotography (YouTube)

BoxWave's Keyboard Buddy turns your iPhone 4 into the Droid it always wanted to be

y Paul Miller  posted Nov 17th 2010 8:14PM

Suffering from a little bit of Droid envy? It happens to even the most loyal of iPhone users, and now BoxWave is stepping in to make your life almost complete (we say "almost" because there's still no native Gmail client for the iPhone, and all your tears aren't going to solve that). The BoxWave Keyboard Buddy Case is just what it sounds like, a Bluetooth keyboard embedded in an iPhone 4 case, only instead of flipping out like the TK-421 or slide-tilting like the ultra-bulky Nuu Mini Key, BoxWave's solution is a simple sliding affair that adds very little to the iPhone 4's profile and hardly anything to its footprint. Also, it's your buddy. It'll start shipping next month, and it's a little spendy at $70, but can you really put a price on the flattery of imitation?

BoxWave