Futulele has come a long way since we saw it in March; it’s now on the App Store and has put on a lot of sheen in return for slipping past the original April release target. Along with a few more flowers to reinforce the Hawaiian vibe, Amidio’s definitive ukelele app has since gained the requisite support for the new iPad’s graphics and a fully automatic mode, just in case you’re not yet a virtual Jake Shimabukuro. If your ambitions do involve playing for yourself, you still have access to the promised maximum 132 chords (12 per set) with the flexibility to adjust chorus, delay, EQ and reverb in addition to recording those plucky creations. We’re still waiting on the Futulele Remote app (and matching case) to choose chords more like we would on the real deal, but you can do it all on the iPad for now if you’re willing to spend a fiver at the App Store. A flower necklace and an impressionable young lover are optional.

Continue reading Futulele goes live for iPad, ukelele serenades just went multi-touch (video)

Futulele goes live for iPad, ukelele serenades just went multi-touch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 May 2012 00:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(via CollegeHumor)

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“Mr. Mann’s wish was to restore the good old custom of having the rich and poor educated together; and for that end he desired to make the public schools as good as schools could be made, so that the rich and the poor might not necessarily be coincident with the educated and the ignorant.”

– Mary Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, 1865 (via popularhistory)

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This
is what happens when someone forgot to turn off the light:

A long-forgotten neon lamp that was switched on during the Great
Depression and left burning for about 77 years has been discovered hidden
behind a dusty partition at Clifton’s Cafeteria. The find was made amid
an extensive renovation of the downtown eatery, according to the building’s
owner, Andrew Meieran.

The neon fixture is believed to have been installed in 1935 when
Clifford Clinton purchased the lease to Boos Bros. Cafeteria on Broadway
and 7th Street and converted the place into a forest-themed restaurant.
[…]

In 1949, the nook was covered over with plastic and plywood when
part of the restroom was partitioned off as a storage area.

But for some reason, workmen never got around to disconnecting
the electricity. For the next 62 years the illuminated tubing was hidden
within the wall. Meieran estimates that the neon tube has racked up
more than $17,000 in electrical bills.

Link
(Photo: Allen J. Schaben/LA Times) – via Now
What’s Trending

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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

This week Inhabitat has been reporting live from New York Design Week, where we’ve witnessed countless innovative green designs from around the world. To kick things off, we were pretty impressed with this desk lamp designed by Jake Dyson (son of the vacuum god) that extends the life of its LED bulbs by a whopping 37 years. Also in the category of “bright shiny things we love” is QisDesign’s Aurelia lamp, which bears a striking resemblance to a glowing jellyfish. We were also dazzled by UM Project’s collection of retro, robot-inspired lamps, Light & Contrast’s cute LED flower lights, and we were absolutely floored by Alessandro Jordão’s larger-than-life LEGO chair. Can’t get enough of NY Design Week? Check out all of our favorite green designs from this year’s shows.

Continuing with the topic of innovative green lighting technology, artist Ryosuke Fukusada has created the impossible: a glowing wooden light bulb. Confused? The light was created using a technique called Rokuro, and it consists of an LED light bulb wrapped with a very thin layer of wood. When the bulb is turned on, it illuminates the grain of the wood. As Fukusada’s creation demonstrates, LED lighting technology has taken some incredible strides recently, and we took some time to round-up 24 of our all-time favorite green lamps that look great with LED bulbs.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Jake Dyson’s lamp, wooden light bulbs and weed-killing lasers

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Jake Dyson’s lamp, wooden light bulbs and weed-killing lasers originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 May 2012 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re always open to tools that help with automation or basic tech literacy, so our test of iOS app Triggers entailed a swift journey from joy to disappointment. Triggers uses the same basic idea as web automation tool If This Then That, allowing users to set a condition (“phone hears noise greater than 10″) and define an output. Unfortunately, while If This Then That integrates a wide range of social networks, Triggers’ inputs are basically limited to the physical sensors on the device. That means you’ll be able to set conditions for acceleration, light, hand proximity to device, sound, or system time. It’s not a bad set, but it’s a shame that you can’t set triggers for social networks, app launches, network signal strength, or even GPS…

Continue reading…

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Fifty years ago today, a coal seam caught fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, causing the mines beneath the town to catch fire. While the decades-old fire has caused most residents to abandon the town, a few holdouts remain. More »

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Oh boy, what does it say about me that I am a member of reddit, Digg, del.icio.us, and G+, but not Pinterest? I don’t know if you can actually say that “chicks rule” just because there are more of them on social networking sites. I don’t even know if there actually ARE more females on social networking sites, since Livejournal, Tumblr, myYearbook, Catster, and other sites are not represented at all, and since what is defined as a “social networking site” varies depending on who is defining. But here’s the data for these sites! If you need a larger version to read, see the full size chart at Information is Beautiful. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

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I know the chestburster covered in blood is supposed to look horrifically disgusting, but given that it’s cake, my mind automatically starts thinking about raspberry syrup and that just makes me hungry.

Link Via That’s Nerdalicious

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Researchers at Northwestern University have found one way to stop a leak: get rid of the liquid. A new variation on the Grätzel solar cell replaces a short-lived organic dye with a solid alternative. The molecular dye the solid substance replaces was corrosive, at risk of leaking and only lasted about 18-months — by replacing it, researchers plan to pave the way for a more affordable (and less toxic) alternative. Northwestern’s new design flaunts a 10.2-percent conversion efficiency, the highest ever recorded in a solid-state solar cell of its type — but that’s still only half of what traditional sun collectors can do. Researchers hope to improve conversion in the long run, but expect that the cost reduction alone will be enough to get the party going. It may not be the greenest solar technology we’ve ever seen, but who are we to judge?

Solid state solar panels are more affordable, say researchers, don’t leak originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 May 2012 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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