What’s this? A $40 price cut on an item that’s likely on at least one gift list that you’re currently staring at? Huzzah! Unless, of course, you’re one of those proactive individuals who went out and already nabbed one. In all seriousness, Laptoping has reportedly received an email notification from Hewlett-Packard that the sleek and sexy Mini 1000 netbook will stoop to $359.99 starting tomorrow. That’ll net you an 8.9-inch panel, Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz), 1GB of RAM, an 8GB SSD, 3-cell battery and Windows XP Home. There’s no word on whether the stylish Vivienne Tam Edition will receive a drop of her own, but we wouldn’t count on it (yet).

Filed under: Laptops

HP Mini 1000 to get $40 price cut originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 22:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports

With a thick blanket of fog covering Thunderhill, officials have turned on the red caution light and postponed the race until visibility improves. All the teams are back in the pits and a driver/crew meeting is about to commence. So with 17 hours and 17 minutes left, it’s in God’s hands. But if this morning was any indication, we might not be back to racing until after 8 AM PST tomorrow. Stay tuned…

UPDATE: We just got back from the driver’s meeting and got word that the organizers will be checking with the national weather service periodicially, give updates on conditions every hour and if they give the go ahead to resume the race, the teams will have 30 minutes to prep before heading back to the track. During that time, no work can be performed to the vehicles.

2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill: Fog sucks, race postponed originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports

The sun has set and the fog is beginning to roll in. But before darkness descended on Thunderhill, we were able to catch some of the contenders in action, including the ultra-quick pit-stop performed by the Cytosport team, the everlasting Scion (yes, that’s an air-jack setup) and plenty of peg-leg performances from our favorite front drivers. Check it out in the gallery below and follow the action live at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill website.

2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill: Powerslides and peg-legs originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

When I was growing up I used to do magic shows at kids parties to earn some extra money. It was fun for awhile, but those kids could be pretty rowdy.

Here’s how the trick works. You launch the app and the phone does some nicely rendered videos with a curtain opening and some show-bizzy music. Screen prompts ask your innocent assistant to pick one of three objects and say the name of the object out loud. Without further ado you hand the person your iPhone and with music, a puff of smoke and some suspense the phone announces the object the person picked. Yes, it can be repeated, and the effect would be pretty astounding for most people. Fun to try around the office cubicle, or at a bar, or anywhere really.

It’s $2.99 at the App Store and worth it for the fun and mystification it can provide. My only suggestion is that there shouldn’t be an obvious link to the performance tutorial on the application’s main screen. If someone is browsing through the apps on your phone, they are only one click and a 90-second video away from the secret.

Try it and see if people are fooled. I predict they will be.

TUAWWe know the iPhone is magic — now it DOES magic originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports

“Come to Evil Genius - engine swap!!” That’s the text message we received at 3:30 PM from the esteemed Dr. Lieberman, telling us about the catastrophic engine failure that took out Evil Genius Racing’s 1994 Miata. By the time we caught up with John (the Evil Genius himself) the team had pulled out the grenaded mill, replaced it and had #65 back on track… in just over an hour and a half. And they started putting together another engine, just in case. As of this writing, #65 is 57th overall and 15th in class.

Two other engine mishaps have temporarily taken out the #9 Mustang and #94 RX-7. Work is underway on both, and we’re hoping to get more information from the teams soon.

2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill: Three engine swaps and counting originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Action

In a recent interview with MTV News, Sigourney Weaver discussed her potential involvement in two upcoming ludological adaptations of hit 80s films in which she starred. Weaver claimed she turned down an offer to work on an Aliens title as she believed the digi-Ripley portrayed in-game was “not true to the character.” She also explained that the resumé of the Aliens developer wasn’t too impressive — one of their past titles was a game “called ‘Rednecks’, where you shoot animals.”

We, and, more notably, Sega (the publisher of the pair of Aliens titles about which the MTV reporter was inquiring) have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. However, her feelings towards Atari’s recently acquired adaptation of Ghostbusters were crystal clear — she’s interested in joining the cast, but only if the title is “high-quality.” Oh, and if Atari finally greenlights her idea for a video game based on her “hit” 2001 “comedy”, Heartbreakers.

Sigourney Weaver turned down Aliens game, interested in ‘high-quality’ Ghostbusters originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Being the home cinema fanatics that we are, we’d much rather spend around two large to snag one of QuietHome’s THX-certified doors, but our love for all things biometric still manages to make this one tug on our delicate heartstrings. Masterfully crafted by the carbon fiber gurus at Brazil’s own Chaote Carbon, this 99-pound, 7.5- x 4.9-foot door was carefully wrapped in carbon fiber and equipped with a biometric scanner to keep unwelcome guests waiting in the rain. We can’t say we totally see the value proposition considering the $15,000 price tag, but we get the idea the buyer here probably has more money than he can figure out how to spend.

[Via Unplggd]

Filed under: Household

Carbon fiber door boasts biometric scanner, $15,000 sticker originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Audio, iPhone, App Store

Whenever I’m not listening to my iPod in the car, I’m usually have my radio tuned to National Public Radio, where I get my fix of classical and jazz music. American Public Media has created an iPhone app that caters to those of us who want to listen to a particular NPR station, but don’t happen to be near a computer.

Public Radio Tuner (click opens iTunes) is a free application that compiles the Internet streams from more than 150 public radio stations into a single list. You scroll through the list to your preferred station, then there is a screen with a play button and volume control. Over Wi-Fi, the station I picked came in clear with no interruptions. I can turn off the iPhone’s screen and it’ll keep playing. However, when I tried to launch Public Radio Tuner using a fairly strong EDGE connection, the application insisted that it wasn’t connected to the Internet. I had to utilize another program that activated an Internet connection, then relaunch Public Radio Tuner, before it would work over EDGE. After that, it works as advertised, though American Public Media warns that some stations require a 3G or Wi-Fi connection to work properly.

It’s a simple application, and does what it does well. It still needs some improvement. I would love to see a search tool implemented so you can bypass scrolling through the long list of radio stations; search by station name or by location would be great. The ability to bookmark your favorite stations would be an additional bonus, as well as tweaking the application to recognize a connection over EDGE without having to launch another application.

TUAWFirst Look: Public Radio Tuner originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc. Auto Shows, Motorcycles, Celebrities

Back in September of 2007, Steven Tyler, best known as the lead singer for Aerosmith, launched a custom motorcycle company along with his cousin, Stephen Talarico, and cycle designer Mark Dirico. The trio called the company Red Wing Motorcycles. That high-flying moniker may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out that the name was already taken. In fact, it’s been taken a few times. This being the case, Tyler used the New England International Auto Show, which is running this weekend, to announce that the company has been renamed Dirico Custom Motorcycles. To see the whole thing take place live on video, click here.

Yeah, so it may not be as catchy as Red Wing, but at least it’s available. As far as the bikes go, these “factory custom” machines seem like quality pieces and use mostly stock V-Twin powerplants from The Motor Company. While this means they should be pretty reliable, there’s not much here to separate Red Wing Dirico Custom Motorcycles from those of the the hundreds of other “custom” manufacturers. So, what’s the hook? Each bike comes pre-signed by none other than… Steven Tyler, of course.

[Source: Auto Insane]

Steven Tyler’s Red Wing Motorcycles changes name to Dirico Custom Motorcycles originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: TUAW Business

Hello fellow Apple fans & TUAW readers! Yes, I’m from Texas, and I’m sure it’s much more a pleasure for me to be writing this than for you to be reading it. While I was exposed to Macs in elementary school I really did not “get it” until I bought my first iPod (third-generation, 40GB). Shortly thereafter I stumbled upon TUAW after reading articles on Hack a Day about installing Linux on my unknowing iPod. Fast forward a few years and my entire immediate family are all owners of some form of MacBook, iPhone and/or iPod.

I currently spend my days working for a software company specializing in enterprise management applications. It is neither glamorous nor entertaining and it keeps me chained to a Windows environment. It does however allow me to work with people while troubleshooting issues as well as developing technical documents about our software. In my free time I can often be found reading TUAW and many other fantastic websites as well as occasionally posting articles to my own site aron cares.

I am passionate about Apple, technology and the many web communities about them. I also enjoy photography and have a slight addiction to all things home theater and HD. I am very much looking forward to being a part of the TUAW team and being able to contribute in my own way as well as reading what you all have to say.

TUAWHowdy, I’m a Mac. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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