Crave

Now that you have the opportunity to own your own Victorian-era steampunk laptop, you can finally compute like it's 1899.

Richard "Doc" Nagy, who describes himself as a "steampunk contraptor, technical artist, and jackass-of-all-trades" first built a steampunk Windows XP laptop for fun nearly five years ago. Lately he's been busy shopping around his Victorian-era keyboards at CES and elsewhere, but now he says he's ready to make that sweet steampunk silicon action available to the public.

This week Nagy announced that he is ready to start taking preorders on a batch of steampunk laptops that will be updated and redesigned to reflect numerous technological advancements, both in laptop systems and in Nagy's own workshop.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has ranked the biggest energy hogs in the home, and the thing that's gobbling up the most is probably not what you think: the pairing of your digital video recorder and set-top box.

The environmental monitoring group released a study today that says that a high-definition cable or satellite set-top box when combined with a high-definition DVR uses up 446 kilowatt hours per year. That's more than a new Energy Star rated 21 cubic-foot refrigerator, which uses 415 kWh per year, according to the NRDC's data.

The combination of an HD DVR and an HD cable or satellite box in a house wastes many hours of energy even when not in use, the group found. The study reports that it costs American consumers more in electricity bills per year when they're not using their DVR and set-top box than ... Read full post & comments

An Australian engineer devises a flying motorcycle. What could go wrong? Plus, beer that transforms, a gadget charger for nuclear winter, a breakfast-making robot duo, and a psychedelic massage courtesy of Microsoft's Kinect.

With millions of implantable medical devices in the U.S. alone, and some 300,000 more people receiving them worldwide every year, the need to protect these wireless devices from being hacked is increasingly urgent.

Wearers might soon be better protected, thanks to new work out of MIT and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, so long as they don't mind walking around in invisible shields.

The system the research team will be proposing at the Association for Computing Machinery's Sigcomm conference in Toronto this August uses a jamming transmitter small enough to be worn as a watch or necklace.

The device would essentially be authorized to access the implant and send encrypted instructions to the transmitter (the team calls this the "shield"), which would in turn decode the encryption and relay the instructions to the implant.

Using a device that is separate from the medical implant is key for a few reasons: it allows for post-encryption in devices that are already implanted; it enables authorized emergency responders to simply remove the patient's shield in the event of emergencies; and it doesn't require the size of the implants to increase to accommodate and power the shield.

The new system expands on a technique recently developed at Stanford University that allows for sending and receiving signals in the same frequency band. In typical wireless technology, using the same frequency band interferes with the signal, but by employing three antennas positioned precise distances apart, one band can now be used.

Is malware really a problem on Android smartphones? It might just be, as evidenced by the rash of malicious apps that recently appeared in the Android Market.

As much as I dislike the idea of needing antivirus and antispyware software for my phone, better safe than sorry. And if I'm going to run such an app, it might as well kill multiple security birds with one stone.

ESET Mobile Security for Android offers malware protection, an antitheft system, call blocking, SMS blacklisting, and more. It's currently in beta, and currently free.

When you first install it, ESET Mobile Security identifies any immediate threats, which on my new Nexus S 4G included disabled SIM matching, an undefined "trusted" SIM, and an undefined password (for the app itself; it's there to prevent unauthorized attempts to uninstall it).

From there it's not immediately clear what you're supposed to do, if anything, but each of EMS' primary modules--Antivirus, Antispam, Anti-Theft, and Security Audit--comes with extensive built-in help.

You can play Angry Birds on your tablet, phone, or Web browser. You can cover your mobile device with an Angry Birds case. There is a board game. T-Mobile created a life-size version. There may even be an Angry Birds movie on the horizon.

In case you haven't reached Angry Birds saturation, you will soon be able to pick up some officially licensed Angry Birds speakers from Gear4. The speakers come in the shapes of Red Bird ($89.99), Helmet Pig ($119.99), and Black Bird ($129.99) and should hit stores in September.

Red Bird works with a 3.5mm cable and includes a stand for a music player or tablet. Helmet Pigs comes equipped with an iPod/iPhone dock on the top of its head. Black Bird's stand includes a dock that will also charge your iPad.

The obvious use for these speakers is to amplify your Angry Birds gaming experience. Just resist the temptation to pick up your Red Bird speaker and fling it at the Helmet Pig speaker.

Cue the Black Sabbath.

What else can you do if your obsessive colleague shows up to work in a homemade Iron Man suit? That's what Wang Xiao Kang did one day at telecom equipment maker ZTE's Shanghai offices.

It's not an easy thing to create an Iron Man suit, and Wang apparently spent months building his version of the Mark I version despite having no DIY experience.

Wang first made an LED-lit arc reactor and a repulsor arm, as well as a Mark III helmet using ethylene-vinyl acetate. He decided to focus on the early Iron Man suit, though, which was easier to mold.

After putting all the components together, coating the 110-pound suit, and adding a fan to the back part, Wang had spent some $460 and three months on his labor of love.

When Wang showed up to work in his Iron Man suit, his colleagues and boss apparently loved the costume. But the company security guard wasn't too pleased, and asked him to take it off.

Check out Wang's bodacious homage to Tony Stark in this vid:

This week: Scott and Dan are back from E3 with a detailed report on the best and worst from the big video game trade show. Meanwhile, Julie and Joe talk about how they came up with a plan to benchmark Samsung's new Chrome OS laptop, which is no small feat, as the OS is basically just Google's Chrome Web browser and nothing else.

Bonus: Download the show's jaunty theme song as a free MP3 here.

Sprint will add to its tablet options on June 24 with the debut of not only the Evo View 4G, but also new data plans.

According to information first obtained by AndroidPolice, the carrier will begin offering a 10GB data plan for $90/month and unlimited access to WiMAX data for data plans of 3GB and above. These options, later confirmed by Sprint PR spokeswoman Kristin Wallace, won't differ much from their existing rates, rather they will supplement them.

Customers will benefit from the additional choices to match their usage needs. Currently, subscribers can choose between 1GB, 3GB, and 5GB of data, with prices ranging from $20-$60 per month. Once the new rates take effect, however, anyone spending $45 or more (3GB+) will have unlimited access to the 4G ... Read full post & comments

Continuing our Justin Yu-less week, we've got Joe Kaminsky filling in. We'll ask him about his first initial impressions of the Wii U and if he thinks Nintendo's next console has the goods. We're starting to hear that it's 50 percent more powerful than the PS3, but is that even impressive?

Speaking of things that are remarkably unimpressive, Duke Nukem Forever hits stores today and we'll round up reviews from around the net. They are not positive.

Have you heard about the Airbus of 2050? It's almost transparent! Tune in to see just how terrifying this sounds to Jeff and why he'd rather be put to sleep like how Bruce Willis was in "The Fifth Element."

The 404 Digest for Episode 839

• The Airbus of 2050 really freaks us out.
• The Wii U is supposedly 50 percent more powerful than the Xbox 360/PS3. Big deal.
• Duke Nukem Forever? Not so much.
• Odds are we know your iPhone lock password.
• Apple starts selling unlocked iPhone 4s.

Episode 839