The Karabiner also has a nail file and scissors tucked away Swiss-Army style next to the blade. The nail-file and scissors are not very menacing; they were probably just put in next to the knife to fill the extra space. To be perfectly honest, the blade is not all that threatening either. TSA security might not agree with that, but we would consider the knife a tool instead of a weapon. The knife could be used in self defense under certain circumstances. For example, if you were attacked in the forest by a small animal, like a rabbit or a squirrel.

The Karabiner is silver, with the Bounty Hunter logo on the side. It comes in one size and retails for 3,990 yen. It can be purchased online or in select retailers in Japan and the US. Definitely a tool to consider if you ever needed to cut something while climbing a mountain, or better yet file your nails. Overall it is a great design with an appealing look.

[via bounty-hunter]

Apparently just before the PBS hack, LuzSec issued a warning via Twitter that they are “working on another Sony operation.” After the recent Playstation debacles, we are not very inspired with overwhelming confidence in Sony. But the real issue is not Sony or PBS, the real issue is that some of the biggest IT firms in the world seem to be easy prey for rouge hacker groups. Some are wondering if these types of hacker attacks are more dangerous than Terrorists.

Obviously these are not threats to Homeland Security, but these targets have big money, and they spend big piles of it on security. It is no wonder that average consumers are being hammered with so much fraud and identity theft. No one is a fan of bad journalism, but these types of attacks are right up there near Domestic Terrorism. WikiLeaks issued their own unedited version of the Frontline interview to help set the record straight. That type of response seems a lot more realistic and a lot less dangerous, and probably a lot more effective.

Ever since the advent of the internet it has been clear that no secrets are safe. No senator can hide his affair, no corporation can hide unscrupulous practices, and the home address of the Snuffalupagus is probably posted on the internet. The only way we can find to ensure zero successful attacks is to sell your house and move to a cave in Oregon. Until then, watch yourself when you surf, and save me a seat in the cave.

[via Andy Greenburg]

The theme of the Purdue’s machine was Time Machine. It chronicled the history of the world from the Big Bang all the way up to the Armageddon and Apocalypse. One of our favorite parts was the jousting during the middle ages piece. No one would think that some of the brightest minds would come together to build machines to accomplish tasks that we could accomplish ourselves much faster and with better efficiency; but some of the brightest minds also brought us the IRS. (Not that we ever cheat on our taxes).

The winning machine watered a plant while putting on a good show. The machine’s process ended in a mock destruction of the world and life as we know it. But not to worry, at the end of the machine’s 244 steps a little flowering plant got watered to start the process over again. Kind of anti-climatic to think that the history of the world can be wrapped up in a two minute video.

Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter Jennifer George was on site for the competition. Zach Umperovitch, captain of a team that has won three national championships and set two world records in the past seven years was quoted as saying, “If Bruce Willis, Will Smith and Charlton Heston joined forces to build a Rube Goldberg machine, this is what it might look like. Of course, those guys wouldn’t be as crazy as we are to invest 3,500 hours to accomplish a task a toddler can do in mere seconds.”

A common observation among folks visiting the refreshed store was that the new abundance of iPad 2′s all over the counters created more cord mess in most instances. The iPad 2s were placed in a special acrylic casing that held it at an angle and also allowed it to connect to power via a flat cable. Wherever there used to be a product info placard, there’s now an iPad 2.

Considering the shortage of iPad 2s around the world, with online orders still 1-2 weeks out and various suppliers blamed for the production bottleneck, it’s interesting to see all these iPads suddenly flood the stores. However, the change does improve the queuing system for customers to get a hold of an Apple specialist, especially when the stores are busy. If you’ve visited the new Apple Store 2.0, let us know how you like it.

According to recent reports, Apple’s iPhone 5 may make a November appearance, while an iPhone 4S for carriers Sprint and T-Mobile may arrive in September. This leaves next month’s WWDC without a phone to announce, bringing many to believe that the focus will be on the rumored Apple iCloud, which may completely replace MobileMe, bring iTunes to the cloud, embarrass Google’s recently launched Music Beta, and attempt to “magically” revolutionize the industry in some way or other. Additionally, iOS 5 and the new Mac OS X Lion will most likely be unveiled as well.

Google announced Android Ice Cream Sandwich to come in Q4 2011 that will unify the platform and eliminate the need for the separate smartphone and tablet versions we currently see with Gingerbread and Honeycomb, respectively. Ice Cream Sandwich, besides sounding delectable, could alleviate a lot of the fragmentation issues that have been hindering app development for the platform that has often involved apps working for some devices and not others. This, plus a revamped Android Market along with the addition of Google TV into the Android ecosystem, will surely boost the quantity and scope of apps to come.

The term 4G was originally meant for 100Mbps, a speed that most carriers currently cannot achieve. It later became attached to the LTE and WiMAX networks being built by Verizon and Sprint, respectively. Late to the party, T-Mobile and AT&T, battled it out on the marketing end to jump on the 4G bandwagon by including their “evolved” 3G networks (HSPA+). However, this past week, AT&T redefined the term once again to mean anything with the combination of 3G speed plus a fast backhaul, or fast connection from cell tower back to the network.

According to PCMag, AT&T’s senior vice president of devices, Jeff Bradley, laid out the new definition saying, “Our tests show that [4G experiences] happen with Cat-10 devices, or 14.4 … combined with fast backhaul. That’s the key. It’s got to be a combination of the two.”

The product had been quite popular at one time with many celebrities toting around Flip cams, but with the onslaught of smartphone cameras—now boasting up to 1080p full HD along with instant sharing capabilities via WiFi and data plans, plus almost every other feature you can imagine—even the promising FlipLive WiFi-enabled camera is a step too late. On flip side, Flip die-hards feel there is still hope for the brand and the product, but that Cisco is simply giving up.

One time I watched Ace of Cakes or whatever. I didn’t really pay much attention, there was a lot of yelling and then they put this big cake in the back of a car and almost crashed it and stuff. I guess those shows have created an explosion of creative cakery nationwide! Liz jumped on this tidal wave of awesome sweetness and started making all sorts of confectionary delights. I really could go on for way too long about all of the different things she makes. She makes cakes like car engines, cakes with Mario, Domo-kun, or Banjo-monstar as I first knew him. She makes cakes that are tall and cakes that are short. She makes a lot of cakes. You should just go look at her company’s page here.

Now this is the neat part, she recently had some requests to make some cake toppers out of the visage of those rage filled avians. She’ll let you know exactly how she did it on this Instructable. Or if you break down into tears at anything resembling modeling clay because of terrible childhood memories, you can browse on over to her etsy where you will find a terrifying array of wrathful fowl available for sale. Don’t worry, they ship well.

[via Instructables]

Almost immediately after we posted the story originally sourced from CNN, we received a message from Google stating that the CNN report was purely speculative and soon thereafter received a rebuttal from CNN. It was quite entertaining, we must say, but it does bring up a lot of questions and concerns both on privacy as well as media reporting.

Consumers, especially those who require GSM over CDMA, may suffer from less competitive pricing plans. Even if T-Mobile is kept as a separate subsidiary, there’s no longer need for it to compete against AT&T. It will be interesting to see how Verizon and Sprint respond to this development in the upcoming months.

Considering that Twitter has been having a difficult time monetizing its platform and that the move also coincided with an update to Twitter’s own app, makes people wonder about the motivations and timing. Over the weekend, Ubermedia made all the changes requested, including changing the name of its app to UberSocial. And they look to be back up and running. But other 3rd-party apps may want to tread carefully now, too.