Bricks! Minifigs! Spaceships! Star Wars! Airplanes! Robots! Sex! Secret Vaults! Our exclusive trip to the Lego mothership! More than six million read the best Lego stories of 2008. Check the Top 10 and my favorites. Most Popular Lego Stories of 2008 1.

Continued here:
The Best Lego Stories of 2008 [Lego]

The day the 30GB Zune stood still – news reports of this particular Zune model just freezing up has spread far and wide across the Internet, and it shows no sign of stopping, regardless of where you are in the world. It seems as though some sort of unidentified bug has simultaneously attacked this portable media player with no particular reason, preventing them from booting up and freezing halfway in the process. While this isn’t as serious compared to a situation where its supposed rival (”supposed” is used since the Zune never came near that category after its launch, with the iPod pulling way ahead to leave the Zune biting its dust) breaks down in a similar manner, it is still groundbreaking news as it involves Microsoft of all people. Initially, there was no word from Microsoft concerning this negative phenomenon that’s sweeping across 30GB Zunes worldwide, but good thing the company has since acknowledged the problem on its Zune support website. Too bad they have yet to post a fix, and Microsoft has issued a statement mentioning “Customers with 30GB Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware.

Here is the original post:
Leap year bug freezes Zunes

The nice guys at NewsDemon just offered you guys a coupon for 50% off monthly service between now an next Wednesday. Why? Because they want to pull Usenet out of the file sharing ghetto and expand their audience to cool people like you.

How do you get the goods? Roll over to NewsDemon and sign up for a monthly service with the coupon “CRUNCHGEARRULES.” As long as you keep re-upping, you’ll get the discount.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a great 2009!

Read the original here: 
Happy New Year from NewsDemon

Earlier today, the sound of thousands of Zune owners crying out in terror made ripples across the blogosphere. The response from Microsoft is to wait until tomorrow and all will be well. You’re probably wondering, what kind of bug fixes itself?

Well, I’ve got the code here and it’s very simple, really; if you’ve taken an introductory programming class, you’ll see the error right away.

year = ORIGINYEAR; /* = 1980 */

while (days > 365)
{
if (IsLeapYear(year))
{
if (days > 366)
{
days -= 366;
year += 1;
}
}
else
{
days -= 365;
year += 1;
}
}

You can see the details here, but the important bit is that today, the day count is 366. As you can see, the leap year is accounted for, but int “days” is too big for the main while loop to end. So the thing just keeps running and running… until 24 hours have passed and int day receives a new value. At least, I think that’s what happens (it’s been a while since CS101).

Itsnotabigtruck, the poster who figured this out for everyone, notes that this will occur again in four years if they don’t do something. I’m guessing that they will.

See the original post here:
Zune bug explained in detail

If you are a girly girl, or if for some reason you love someone with an obsession with hearts and the color pink, then you may be interested in this pink heart-shaped wireless guitar for the PS2. The guitar was designed by the teen girl band Aly & AJ and is selling for $49.99. Please don’t get this for me unless you want to see me smash it to pieces.

See the original post here: 
Girly guitar controller for PS2

Want to live out your “Blue Thunder” fantasy? Now you can legally get military-spec night vision goggles for when you are flying your helicopter. In the past, there were no FAA approved night vision goggles for civilian use — you were taking your chances when you were flying at night, and typically doing instrument based flying (exciting, but dangerous…but exciting). Now you can use real night vision, assuming you buy your gear from this company.

Having flown at night in a small plane, I think this is a really good thing. It should help keep me safe when I’m “importing” goods across the Mexican border.

See more here:
Pilots can now spy on you at night, look creepy

Welsh company Haemair’s prosthetic lung just won UK Institution of Chemical Engineers’ Stopford Projects Award for Bioprocess Innovation. 

Normally, when a patient’s lungs don’t function, the patient is put on an ECMO system, an external machine that functions like a lung. The problem with these machines is that they are pretty bulky. Haemair has made a system that is much smaller and can be worn outside the body or placed inside the body. This will allow patients to be mobile and potentially live a more normal life. Plus, if you believe the pictures, it makes you look like the T2000.

The device can be easily maintained or removed but I’m just not sure how safe it is going to be. As is the problem with most devices like these, there is a high risk of fatal blood clots and infections. They are planning start off with an external device and then eventually move on to implanted ones. So we’ll see if it works.

More: 
My Prosthetic Lung

I just saw this infomercial so forgive me if you’ve already seen it but I immediately thought of my days living in the dorms as a freshman. My roommate Justin and I would conjure up various ways to keep in our dope smoke without alerting the RA of our nefarious ways. Maybe it’s the booze talking but I thought I’d share.

For $20 you can get two Twin Draft Guards and a bonus over the door hook. That’s a $30 value, but you only pay 20 bucks!

Happy New Year!

Read the original post:
Twin Draft Guard = Stoner’s BFF

This guest post was written by Bryan Barletta, lead reviewer at AppVee, a site that offers iPhone app reviews and news. Barletta has picked out some of the App Store’s best applications, and we’ve embedded video reviews for some of them (click the corresponding review link to view a video if it isn’t already embedded). Also be sure to check out our picks of the hottest iPhone apps from back in July when the App Store first launched.

The iPhone and iPod Touch have taken the world by storm. In just a little over six months time we’ve witnessed the doors of the iTunes App Store opening to the 10,000 app marker being crossed. In between that time we’ve see the $999 I’m Rich make several people poor, fart joke apps earning over $25K in one day, and Apple still looking the other way when users mention copy and paste. And with the number of total apps reaching over 13,500 less than a month since the 10,000 mark was passed, that growth is showing no signs of stopping. But some of these stand out much more than others do, so we’ve tried to hone in on the cream of the crop.

Top 10 Apps

Tweetie
An easy to use and full featured Twitter app that is speedy. The app has quite a bit of competition (other popular apps include Twitterfon and Twitterific).
Link: AppVee’s Tweetie Review

Pandora
Browse through the music genome and find new artists that fit your taste. These are automatically recommended by the site’s algorithm, so it acts like a personalized radio that works surprisingly well.
Link: AppVee’s Pandora Review

Simplify Media
Connect to multiple computers and stream their music directly to your iPhone.
Link: AppVee’s Simplify Media Review

RJDJ Album
Let your iPhone and the world around you create unique and original music. The app uses external inputs (like sound) to create a dynamic soundtrack).
Link: AppVee’s RjDj Review

Beejive IM
A multi-client instant messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Link: AppVee’s Beejive Review

Camerabag
Emulate 5 different camera and film setting directly from your iPhone. This helps spice up the photos you’re taking with the phone (the default application doesn’t offer much in the way of effects.
Link: AppVee’s Camerabag Review

Facebook
An updated version of the Facebook app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this allows you to chat with friends, post on walls, and use nearly every feature available on the social network’s main website.
Link: AppVee’s Facebook Review

Friendbook
A full featured replacement for the iPhone and iPod Touch contacts app.
Link: AppVee’s Friendbook Review

Vlingo
Voice control nearly every aspect of your iPhone and more – it’s like a more powerful version of the highly hyped (and still-impressive) Google Mobile App.
Link: AppVee’s Vlingo Review

Evernote
Keep track of everything you could possibly want to remember (like notes or photos) whether you’re on the go or at home.
Link: Appvee’s Evernote Review

Top 10 Games

Rolando
An epic platform adventure game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, this is easily one of the most innovate games to hit the platform.
Link: AppVee’s Rolando Review

Fieldrunners
A Tower defense game with SNES-like graphics. The classic gameply is highly addictive.
Link: AppVee’s Fieldrunners Review

Jellycar
A unique puzzle game that asks you to guide your “jelly car” to an endzone. As with most of the other games on this list, this is highly addictive.
Link: AppVee’s Jellycar Review

Scramboni
A multiplayer online word game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Multiplayer games on the iPhone are still rarer than they should be, and being able to play online definitely adds an extra dimension to the gameplay.
Link: AppVee’s Scramboni Review

Dr. Awesome
Save your friends and family from deadly micro viruses in this iPhone and iPod Touch game.
Link: AppVee’s Dr. Awesome Review

Up There
Guide your balloon through various obstacles as you attempt to get the highest score
Link: AppVee’s Up There Review

Flick Fishing
Forget your fishing rod – this uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to allow you to mimic a realistic fishing motion to cast a line. Also check out many of SGN’s games, which feature similar motion detection.
Link: AppVee’s Flick Fishing Review

Hero of Sparta
Control King Argos as you battle the Gods and their minions in this action adventure game.
Link: AppVee’s Hero of Sparta Review

Brothers in Arms
Play through 14 levels on foot or vehicle in this WWII action game.
Link: AppVee’s Brothers in Arms Review

Aurora Feint II
The popular iPhone and iPod Touch puzzle RPG game goes multiplayer.
Link: AppVee’s Aurora Feint II Review

While it’s easy to simply break down the top apps and games that we’ve enjoyed in 2008, it becomes a lot more difficult to find just five apps that took a chance and brought more innovation to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Below are the five apps we feel helped define the future of apps on these devices.

Top 5 Innovations

Ocarina

Link: AppVee’s Ocarina Review

RJDJ Album

Link: AppVee’s RjDj Review

iFun

Link: AppVee’s iFun Review

LogMeIn

Link: AppVee’s LogMeIn Review

Slydial

Link: AppVee’s SlyDial Review

The future of the iPhone and iPod Touch is wide open, to some degree. Depending on what restrictions Apple decides to lift. Developers are already chomping at the bit to release a video recording option as well as the ability for apps to run in the background. While those factors sit solely on the shoulders of Apple as they have been proven possible by the jailbroken community, there are quite a few things that we as consumers should expect out of the apps we’ll see in 2009.

With titles like Rhythm Spirit, a rhythm fighting game based on Japanese folklore, and Myst, a remake of the classic adventure game, making their way over to the iPhone and iPod Touch sometime in 2009 we’ve got some idea of what to look forward to. The real question is: What will be our Ocarina? Our Rolando? What apps are going to challenge the capabilities of this phone and create such a large hype that we find ourselves begging for just one more screenshot or bit of information? We’ll have to wait and see what the App Store has in store for us in 2009 as we count down the remaining hours.

2008 was all about experimenting. A fantastic device emerged, developers went crazy, and we’ve been flooded. Its now time to settle down, dig in and create some revolutionary applications. 2009 is going to be all about quality and depth. We’re going to see richer games that rival the DS and PSP, applications that truly make this device a portable computer, and multi-user apps that really start connecting people. Mobile social gaming is going to be huge and we can’t wait to see what developers have in store for us in the New Year.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Read more from the original source: 
A Look At Some Of The Best iPhone Apps Of 2008

Mad Catz has released two new accessories for Rock Band. One is the M.I.C., a microphone with integrated controller. The other is a portable drum kit. Mad indeed!

The microphone has the Xbox guide button, a D-pad, the usual colored ABXY Xbox buttons and a lock switch to prevent unintentional button presses. 

The drum set comes with the pedal and four drums all attached to a thin navigation pad and a set of drum sticks. These don’t have stands like the traditional Rock Band set, making them portable. All you need to to do is set them on a table or other flat surface and rock away.

Both are available now and the microphone will set you back around 60 bucks while the drum set only 50. 

[via arstechnica]

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New Rock Band mic and portable drums