FocuSoft Tech Blog

The Transtube 360 isn’t as packed with features as the Aquapeutics shower, but it does have one thing that’s impressive: a motion-sensing door.

The whole shower is like a glass go-go cage designed to make you feel like you’re washing yourself for other peoples’ enjoyment, but in a classy, design-centric sort of way. It’s definitely smaller than a traditional shower/tub combo, but all that glass is going to be rough to clean. [Trendir via Dvice]

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Motion-Sensing Transtube 360 Shower Puts You On Display [Showers]

It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but already Best Buy seems to have won the “most annoying holiday ad of the season” award. Seriously, try to sit through one of these without squirming around uncomfortably and wanting to punch the screen.

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Best Buy’s Holiday Carolers Make Me Want to Murder [Badvertising]

After teasing BlackBerry lovers with a limited “premier” customer release earlier in the week, AT&T has let loose with the BlackBerry Bold 9700.

It’s now available for anyone and everyone who loves all things BlackBerry. T-Mobile users, who;ve had access to this phone for a while, can yawn at this post at their leisure. [BGR]

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BlackBerry Bold 9700 Finally Available at AT&T Stores Nationwide [BlackBerry]

Old PC, new PC—doesn’t matter. This DisplayLink chip-equipped display adapter from Sewell will take any ol’ PC and provide support for resolutions up to 2,048 x 1,152, all powered via USB.

So yeah, if you’ve been chomping at the bit to get HD quality resolutions delivered to your monitor via a USB connection, this may be the adapter for you. Comes in a kind of periwinkle blue hue for $99. [Sewell via Engadget]

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Sewell USB-to-DVI/VGA/HDMI Delivers Resolutions Up to 2,048×1,152 [Adapters]

Hudson River water landings? Those are so yesterday, man. Somewhere in the Congo today there’s a pilot who, after a slight, um, miscalculation, crash landed his plane into a lava field.

Now, we can make light of this incident because all 117 passengers and crew walked away from the crash largely unharmed. The only real casualty was the captain’s ego, although I think he’s probably the talk of the terminal this morning. I mean come on—lava!

And check out this crazy quote from MSNBC:

The plane was flying from Kinshasa to Goma, and passengers had warned the crew that there were heavy clouds, Radio Okapi said.

Since when do the passengers do in-flight risk assessments for the crew? [MSNBC via Geekologie]

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Your Move, Captain Sullenberger [Airplanes]

There’s a great read over at Cheap Talk about how digital pinball machines changed the industry, back when there still was an industry. They were big tables where you flick a ball around, but they were smarter than you think.

In the olden days of pinball, there wasn’t much to adjust. Free game scores were hard wired into the machine and couldn’t be changed. But with the introduction of Williams High Speed in 1986, things got more complicated.

The new machines would dynamically adjust the free play score based on an algorithm. It also introduced a method where if you had already scored a free game, it was impossible to win a random free game.

The post goes into much more detail over at Cheap Talk, but ultimately, these algorithms, exploits, and the layouts of the tables themselves got so complicated that new players couldn’t figure out how to master them. And, as we all know, pinball faded into the night. If you’re at all a fan of pinball, it’s an interesting read. Head over to check it out. [Cheap Talk via Retro Thing]

Image via ktpupp

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Pinball Machines Were Sneakier Than You Think [Retromodo]

Cross promotions sometimes don’t make much sense. I’ve got nothing against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for agreeing to pitch NASA to youngsters, but really, there are better ways to capture youth attention.

The Rock just wants to make sure we remember that NASA’s responsible for the rubber soles on our shoes, and the (apparently humorous) inclusion of freeze-dried fruit in cereal. But c’mon, NASA. We need fewer celebrity endorsements, more trips to Mars if we want to keep kids convinced the organization has reason to exist. [Techland]

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The Rock Explains How NASA Helps Our Rock [Nasa]

We’ve seen cameras do all kinds of crazy things. DIY 3D photography, augmented reality, and now this demo by Qi Pan shows how an ordinary webcam can model objects in 3D.

I’m in no position to discuss the amount of technical wizardry in play here, but I do think the interface is really great. Look at how it overlays scanned textures on the person’s hand to create a transparency effect. Neato!

It’s definitely a whiz-bang application, but like augmented reality, I’m not sure how much I need it. Someone needs to figure out how to scan and print a sandwich. Now that would be something. [Pro Forma via Boing Boing]

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3D Scanning, a Webcam’s Latest Trick [Cameras]

Instead of replacing the St. Louis Zoo’s deceased polar bears with live ones, zoo officials put robots up in their place. This slightly-better-than-average yard display will surely be remembered as the humble beginning of the robot bear uprising.

The robot polar bears are part of the zoo’s holiday exhibit, and it’s unclear if they’ll be around after the season is over. Let’s face it, though. These would have to be some damn good robot bears to convince me to see them over live polar bears.

PETA is encouraging the zoo to keep developing the animatronic animals, but listen PETA, hear me out. Sure, you’re trying to keep animals out of captivity. You’re also promoting the creation of an advanced, highly mobile robot bear army.

I encourage you to rethink your position. [Inhabitots via Inhabitat]

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Robot Polar Bears: Less Dangerous Than Real Bears, For Now [Robots]

We still don’t know what the fabled Apple Tablet actually looks like, or if it even exists, really, but this concept magazine reader from Condé Nast gives us a glimpse at what to expect from tablet apps.

Turn down your volume before hitting play, loud techno music awaits. Down? OK, good. Now let’s look at what we’ve got here. It’s about what you would expect from a tablet magazine reader. The big screen lets you soak in the magazine layout without zooming, and the graphics are big and interactive. In a nutshell, it looks like a hi-res iPhone app.

According to the source, Condé Nast doesn’t want to take any chances, and the app is a precautionary measure to make sure they’re ready if/when the device comes out. So don’t take this to mean that launch is imminent. Take it as a sign that even if the tablet doesn’t exist, it should, because a lot of huge publishing companies are more than willing to throw their weight behind it. [Wired]

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Wired for the Apple Tablet [Apple Tablet]