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It’s one thing to tinker in your garage to restore that old gas-guzzling muscle car that you think will get you some action. It’s something entirely different to invent an electricity-generating wind turbine out of scrap parts that could revolutionize personal power in developing nations, especially if you’re in college. Max Robinson has done just that, designing a turbine out of spare parts that costs less than $40 to build out of readily available parts and can power a home’s lighting for up to two and a half days or a radio for over a day. No word on how long an OLPC would last. [Daily Mail]

Original post by Matt Hickey

Exit Games has a multiplayer gaming platform, called Neutron, on PCs, mobile devices, game consoles, and BREW phones. It works across devices and hardware, so you can play someone on their PC via your handset. And now it’s ready for the iPhone. Today it was announced that the Neutron system of social network-like gaming now has iPhone support, or will as soon as developers code for it. The iPhone, with its svelte shape and always-on connectivity, makes for a lust-worthy multiplayer gaming device, so this is really just the next logical step in being able to play games with your friend on the train from across the world. [Exit Games via Kotaku via BBG]

Original post by Matt Hickey

Steven Sinofsky, Senior VP in charge of Windows 7 development, has just posted some details on the Microsoft’s Windows 7 Engineering blog on what the internal structure looks like for the upcoming OS. It sounds (at least to us) equal parts logistical nightmare and brute force “1000 monkeys at 1000 typewriters”, with 25 teams divided up to an average of 40 developers per team.

The organization is divided up into 25 teams, which encompases stuff like Applets and Gadgets, the File System, Core User Experience, Find and Organize, IE, Kernel & VM, Media Center, and Security. Of course many features span various parts of the OS, and it’s up to the management to coordinate between the numerous groups. What would we want to see more of? Better and smarter integration between various apps on Windows, for example having their Mail application be tied into Calendars for meeting schedules and Contacts, or making Gadgets able to access various parts of the OS. These are just two examples we came up with in as many seconds, but you get the idea. More integration. [Windows 7 blog]

Original post by Jason Chen

Microsoft hasn’t released its own Xbox Live iPhone app (and we’re kinda thinking they won’t), but it’s definitely cool letting developers fill the gap, on one condition: They can’t charge for the app. Of the three Live apps in the App Store, two are free right now, though iLive still charges $1.99, even though it has the worst interface of the three. Microsoft can boss them around ’cause they’re all getting Live info through the Xbox Community Developer Program. Either way, that works for us. [Joystiq]

Original post by matt buchanan

What is the best way for IE to gain market share back from Firefox? Porn. That’s right—when it comes to the internet, the answer is always porn. You know it, I know it, and apparently Microsoft knows it because there are rumors floating around that they may incorporate a private browsing feature, a.k.a “porn mode,” similar to Safari (Firefox pulled the feature from 3.0) that would allow users to thoroughly cover up their smutty tracks from anyone who might be checking their browsing history.

The IE 8 Beta 2 release should be hitting any day now, so we shall see soon enough whether or not this feature made it into the build. But, the question is, would private browsing make IE more appealing to you, or is it a non-issue? [istartedsomething via ZDNet Image via ninamariebarbuto]

Original post by Sean Fallon

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies have launched the the Bio Energy Discovery Kit, a product that they are calling “the fuel cell industry’s first direct ethanol product.” The kit directly converts alcohol into electricity and can run non-stop for days on end. The purpose of the kit is to introduce fuel cell technology to students, scientists, teachers and engineers using a simple gadget that is easy to understand.

However, they claim that the kit could be the first step towards replacing conventional batteries in portable devices like iPods or mobile phone chargers. I don’t know how practical a commercial application would be, or whether or not I would be willing to give up a single drop of my precious vodka, but you can pick up the kit now for $99. [Horizonfuelcell]

Original post by Sean Fallon

The idea of making public spaces more playful is the brainchild of artist Bruno Taylor. In this project, he modified several London bus stops with swings to brighten the day of busy commuters. Nevermind the smell, the noise, or that dude rubbing up against you—a swing set at the bus stop would melt away all of the stress associated with public transportation. That is until you get a little too carried away with the swinging motion and knock out someone walking behind the bus stop with your ass. On the playground that’s detention—in the adult world it’s called assault. Haha…(ass)ault. [Pixelsumo via PSFK via DVICE]

Original post by Sean Fallon

Jay-Z’s upcoming Bluetooth headphones don’t look nearly as good as Dr. Dre’s noise canceling version, but their mere existence sparks a new East Coast/West Coast gadget war. We can’t tell which we would prefer without looking at them, but Jay’s model has the benefit of being smaller and wireless Bluetooth enabled, which is totally different from noise canceling ones you use when you’re on a train or plane. Our prediction is that Diddy will come out with a pair of in-ear buds sometime within the next six months. [FCC via Crave via Engadget]

Original post by Jason Chen

I only read two sections of the WSJ, partly because it’s behind a pay wall, though there are ways around it. Their new Mobile Reader for BlackBerry drops the entire paper for free, constantly updated, right to your phone in an interface that actually works. Silicon Alley Insider says it’s the best newspaper app for any phone yet.

Click the headline once and you see a paragraph summary—click again to read the whole article, which only takes 10 secs to load on EDGE. And you can save stories for subway or air reading. No word on an iPhone version specifically, but the Journal told us that the reader is “currently in development” for “other smartphone platforms.” It makes sense to hit BlackBerry first since that’s what the suit-and-tie, richer-than-you crowd—the WSJ’s audience—are toting by and large. If you’ve got a BlackBerry, there’s no reason to not grab this. If you don’t read the Journal, try it, it’ll make you smarter (maybe not the editorial pages, but the rest of it will). [WSJ via Silicon Alley Insider]

Original post by matt buchanan

We’ve seen this crazy motorcycle exoskeleton before, but its inventor Jake Loniak has just mocked up a video showing what it would be like in motion. Yeah, we’re pretty damn impressed, but the guy gets cocky:

I believe a working prototype could be made, but it would take a great deal of time and engineering. This isn’t fantasy. It’s a green vehicle, and all of the numbers are based in the real world.

But who would actually use this? Sure, it looks pretty amazing and you can park it vertically in a garage to save space, but imagine having to unfasten yourself from this every time you get to work. Or the supermarket. Or grandma’s house. At least with a Segway you can hop off and do your business. [Popsci via Crunchgear via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Original post by Jason Chen