blowing

The list of installations for next month's Beam electronic and analog music festival in West London has brought a playful and mysterious piece of art to our attention -- a surprising cocktail of high and low tech.

Sound artist Mike Blow is on the Beam bill, and his recent piece "Torch Song" combines a microphone-and-laptop setup with light sensors to create a control panel that lets its user "play" a building -- using flashlights.… Read more

You can't turn around in the App Store without tripping over physics-based puzzlers and games with a hand-sketched, graph-paper aesthetic--but Doodle Bomb still manages to be a fun, above-average entry into these two crowded subgenres.

Your goal in Doodle Bomb is to throw bombs--as few as possible--to escape each level. From your torn-out-paper perch, you're trying to blow up a green control panel to open a door and end each level. Along the way you have to blow up blue control panels to activate parts of the environment (such as hinges or wheels) and either avoid or exploit … Read more

Your friends call you a klutz, Mom calls you careless, and you beat yourself up every time you drop your phone in the toilet or step on your MP3 player. We can't help you with your overall clumsiness, but there may be a solution for your soaked devices.

The Bheestie Bag is a small, lightweight pouch that draws moisture out of personal electronics using small, liquid-absorbing beads. After the device has been soaked or spilled upon, take the battery out, dry the device, and place it in the bag for 24 to 72 hours. The beads absorb water in … Read more

If you're a guy in the mood for Valentine's Day who doesn't know what to do, well, I don't have any dating or relationship advice.

I do have something you might want to try, however. It lets you literally blow kisses to that very special person, or persons, regardless of the distance. All you need is an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and, of course, the ability to blow a kiss properly.

The application is aptly called "Blow a Kiss" and can be downloaded for free at Apple's App Store. I tried it on … Read more

As a reviewer I have to admit I've blown up more than my share of speakers over the years. I usually push the limits just before I finish the review and ship them back to their maker. Hey, it's my job and I like to see how loud they can go, and most of them survive my torture tests just fine, but some can't take the heat, like the Sony DAV-X10's poor little satellite I popped last week. The 2-inch "woofer" fell prey to my over zealous fun with Eminem's "Live From … Read more