MG Siegler / VentureBeat:

The $99 iPhone lives!  (Through AT&T, not Wal-Mart)  —  Some of you are likely upset that we now know for certain that Wal-Mart won’t be selling the iPhone for $99, and instead will give it a measly $2 discount when it goes on sale on Sunday.  So I’m happy to report today …

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The $99 iPhone lives! (Through AT&T, not Wal-Mart) (MG Siegler/VentureBeat)

Ben Heck’ s apprentices are showing their true colors again, with modder SifuF churning out a real winner over the holidays. The Nintendo Sixtyfree Lite-R just might be the most elegant portable N64 that we’ve seen to date, with a clean, low-key design, beautifully integrated buttons and a cartridge slot that’s about as non-cumbersome as possible. Of note, there are no internal batteries to speak of, thus it’s forced to rely on an InfoLithium (or any 7.2v supply) clipped on the rear. Tap the read link for a pictorial look at the build and final product. [Thanks, Adam] Filed under: Gaming , Handhelds Nintendo Sixtyfree Lite-R elegantly crams N64 into a luscious handheld originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:10:00 EST.

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Nintendo Sixtyfree Lite-R elegantly crams N64 into a luscious handheld

Thanks Phil ! That’s one sweet laser. Filed under: Meta When Make and Engadget collide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

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When Make and Engadget collide

Snackfeed, a video recommendation site that tries to aggregate the web’s hottest videos, has made impressive progress since its launch last fall. We were first introduced to the site at the DreamIt Ventures (a startup incubator similar to Y Combinator and TechStars) first funding day, and it held its private launch three weeks later. Since then the site has seen impressive growth, with a reported 150,000 unique visitors in November. Snackfeed is currently in private “b’alpha” but TechCrunch readers can grab one of 1000 invites by visiting this site and entering the code “snacktastic”.

The site presents videos in a basic feed that is populated with videos shared by your friends, your favorite shows (which you can sign up for during the registration process), and clips that are currently trending in blog posts, Twitter feeds, and other places across the web. Users can also follow eachother using a Twitter-like follow system.

Snackfeed’s Jason Laan says that while the company initially concentrated on an extensive recommendation engine that segmented viewers into personalized channels, it found that most people were primarily interested in watching the web’s most popular clips. The site now serves these first, and then tries to fill in “the gaps” with recommendations based on the user’s favorite blogs, recently watched Hulu and YouTube clips, and favorite topics. The site’s homepage also offers a listing of the web’s current most popular videos to non-members, and acts as a sort of Hype Machine for video. Laan says that the site’s rapid growth can be largely attributed to an aggressive marketing campaign on Twitter and other social sites.

There are a few other players in this space, including ffwd (covered here), which is focused on created a powerful recommendation algorithm that allows users to “channel surf” across the web.

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Snackfeed: A Newsfeed For The Web’s Hottest Video Clips

A hundred years ago a large meteor exploded ten kilometers above the Earth’s surface in Tunguska, obliterating 830 square miles of woods.

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Badass Asteroid Destroys Earth in High Definition [Weekend Eye Candy]

Michael Martin / Google Android News:

G1 Phone Owners May Get a Battery Replacement Christmas Gift from T-Mobile  —  A replacement extended life battery may be a late Christmas Present to frustrated G1 owners from T-Mobile.  —  As polled here and elsewhere, the main concern with the G1 is the short battery life as with only moderate use …

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G1 Phone Owners May Get a Battery Replacement Christmas Gift from T-Mobile (Michael Martin/Google Android News)

As an intern for Gizmodo, hobomodos have become my favorite part of our daily gadget deals : my marketing information in exchange for free TiVo cookie cutters? It’s yours before you can even say “leaky faucet.” Whether these hobomodos ever show up are highly questionable—so imagine my surprise when my free TiVo cookie cutters showed up just in time for the holiday baking season! The TiVo cookie cutter arrived in a plastic bag, accompanied by a recipe courtesy of TiVo. Prep Time: 1-3 minutes Cook Time: Bake Time may vary Level: Beginner Serves: The entire family, plus as many friends as you can fit into the living room.

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Hobomodo: I Sold My Identity for Free TiVo Cookie Cutters [Recessionomics]

Not that waste heat in general hasn’t been repurposed for non-wasteful activities before, but researchers at Doshisha University are now edging ever closer to making useful the previously annoying thermoacoustic phenomenon . For those not really tied into the science realm, said phenomenon is a nonlinear one in which “heated air autonomously transforms into sound when passing through small mesh holes in a wire sheet.” Gurus are now developing a cooling technology that would have heat converted to sound, where it would then be transferred through a tube and reconverted into heat; furthermore, other whiz-kids are looking to generate actual electricity from the racket

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Waste heat close to becoming useful in cooling / lighting applications

Giz friend Jean Snow interviews Amusement editor for Ping Mag , about the magazine’s unique mix of game coverage with a stylish mix of art, fashion, and digital culture. I love the high end photography. I also found it interesting that the magazine does its own one of a kind ads for the companies for placement in the mag. A worthy read on how tech editorial can and will advance into more sophisticated, and less trade-like publications

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Art: Amusement Mag’s Console Sculpture [Art]

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Voicetag Brings Voicemail To Facebook  —  For those of you who don’t think voicemail is counterproductive, there is a new app on Facebook called Voicetag that lets you send voicemail messages to individuals or groups.  This is not the first such app on Facebook (see Voicemail or TringMe) …

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Voicetag Brings Voicemail To Facebook (Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch)