Lifestyle

Last Wednesday, the execs in charge of the latest Aqua Teen Hunger Force marketing campaign got a bit more publicity than they expected when the city of Boston called in bomb squads and shut down bridges after police mistakenly took the LED advertisements to be hazardous materials.

Six days and one $2 million fine for parent company Turner Broadcasting later, the Web is still captivated by the Mooninites who nearly shut down the city of Boston.

At this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco, the software company CyberDefender is giving away one of the infamous signs of Ignignokt (Err … Read more

Score one for boring!

One of the side-effects of Apple's popular Mac vs. PC television commercials is that there is now a cottage industry of fakes.

It's time to put aside your personal OS preference (AmigaOS, baby!) and have a good laugh at director Laurie McGuinness's mock PC-vs.-Mac clips. And if you can't...well, you're taking things far too seriously for your own good.

Nevertheless, we've balanced out the bashing with some links to pro-Apple clips below the embedded videos. Enjoy, and ponder whether the video-editing was done on a PC or a … Read more

The MIT Media Lab is ground zero for all things awesome, and Leonardo Bonanni's DishMaker is no exception.

Bonanni's dishwasher-sized machine uses recyclable discs of acrylic to create plates, bowls, and cups right in your home. Once you're done with the plates, you put them back into the DishMaker, where they're recycled and remolded into the dishware of your choice.

The DishMaker does not clean your dishes just yet, but Bonanni's working on it for a next-gen prototype.

According to his Web site, the DishMaker is the same size and consumes the same amount of … Read more

OK, so, you guys all seem to like the booze gadgetry. Here on Crave we've featured solutions for measuring wine temperature, making sure you don't drink too much, and even making one's own wine, but we've never addressed the oenophile's true problem. How do you keep track of all your pinots, shirazes, chardonnays, and what-have-yous? I mean, you really need to maintain a close watch on that stuff. You never know when the neighbors' kids will sneak in and nab a few bottles.

That's what the eSommelier is for. For just $8,000--I mean, … Read more

We initially blew right past the "Origami TV Remote Control" headline at Trendhunter because we'd rather waste our UMPC's pathetic battery life on something more vital than controlling our TV. But a closer look revealed that this remote control had nothing to do with the Origami Project and everything to do with actual origami--as in, folded paper.

On display at the Design Interactions Work in Progress Show in London, the paper remote control looks like the "fortune teller" you no doubt encountered in middle school. But rather than inaccurately predicting the name of your … Read more

No, the Soundbomb isn't a lo-fi, post-modern iPod speaker. And no, you definitely don't want to leave one under a bridge in Boston. But if you're an artist or a prankster, you may want to get on the waiting list for one.

The idea is simple: record the sound of your choice to the Soundbomb, hide it somewhere, and enjoy as the motion detector-based Soundbomb greets/annoys/scares the crap out of passersby by blaring your audio recording.

Imagine recording ghost noises to it and hiding it in a dark basement, using it as a stolen-beer alarm … Read more

It's early February. Do you know where your favorite band is?

iConcertCal does. This free iTunes plug-in for both Mac OS X and Windows scans your iTunes library and lets you know when the bands you listen to are coming to town.

After installing iConcertCal, the iTunes visualizer becomes a calendar that lists local concert dates for bands in your library. Clicking on each listing in the calendar lets you buy tickets, and changing the city and state brings up personalized listings for other cities.

Since a co-worker sent out a link to this free plug-in last week, I'… Read more

Let's face it: no matter how much you spend, home theater gear is pretty ugly. That's why the stuff used to be built into fine furniture in the '50s and '60s. And now that is happening again.

The "Theatre" system is part of a collection designed by Marcel Wanders for HE of the Netherlands. It's a low-slung, modern wooden side table with all the home theater stuff built into it and barely visible. The specs are fairly modest at just 25 watts of audio output, but they're probably just being honest, unlike the labeling … Read more

Yup, just in time for summer. It's all of 12 degrees Fahrenheit here in Manhattan, which is a big improvement over the 8-degree temperatures this morning, but still not warm enough to be thinking about outdoor barbecues. Nevertheless, this contraption on ProductDose is worth a nod, in my opinion: it's a balcony barbecue that allows you to fix a mini charcoal grill onto the edge of a balcony and use it to prepare burgers, fish, steaks, shish kebabs, or what-have-you. It looks as though it was somewhat inspired by flower boxes: there's a lower space to hold … Read more