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Well, it seems to be a robot themed day. This robot takes charge of a task that no other robot can handle: toilet paper dispensing. I guess it’s not really a robot… just a regular old toilet paper holder shaped like a robot’s head. So don’t expect it to start talking to you while you pull toilet paper through its mouth. Hmm… I guess that’s a good thing…. Multiple excellent colors available. Ceramic.

Apple rumors are an interesting breed. No other company garners the same level of speculation and anticipation that Apple receives.

The rumor mill is always churning, especially leading up to a major Apple announcement, and sometimes rumors fly so fast that it can be hard to make sense of it all. In case you were wondering, this clever infographic shows how the typical Apple rumor forms over time.

Good work, PCMag. That’s about all there is to it.

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Apple is working on a new type of drive that combines the best aspects of both traditional platter-based and flash storage. According to a recent patent published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Apple has some innovate ideas up its sleeve for a SSD/HDD combo drive.

From Patently Apple:

“On September 29, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a next generation Hybrid Drive that includes both a hard drive and Flash. Intel will be pushing their Smart Response hybrid drive systems for consumer systems in 2012 and Apple’s patent would indicate that they intend to have their own solution for future hardware. Uniquely Apple’s twist to this drive is that it will handle different types of storage media based on an environmental state of the hybrid drive. If the drive undergoes temperature, vibration or acceleration variances that could cause the hard drive to temporarily fail, the system would save the volatile data to the Flash drive.”

If the system detects a possible compromise on the HDD part of the drive, data will be automatically reallocated to the SSD (kind of like how RAID technology works now, only smarter). Platter drives are much more susceptible to physical shocks, magnetization and extreme temperatures, so a modern SSD would offer an added layer of assurance and speed to the whole process.

Apple’s upcoming drives will be very smart and efficient. Being able to predict harmful circumstances will result in less drive failure and better performance overall.

Intel’s Smart Response hybrid drives will hopefully push Apple to get these new drives out on the market sooner rather than later. As SSDs go down in price, it will become financially easier to implement larger amounts of flash storage.

Be on the look out for these hybrid drives from Apple in 2012.

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Following the news that Disney is introducing a series of iPad games that interact with physical toys, Lego is also introducing its next generation of games with the “Life of George” iPhone app.

The game consists of classic Lego bricks, a free iPhone app, and a mat that basically acts as a green screen. The player tries to create the image shown on the iPhone app in Legos on the mat before time runs out.

Once the player is done creating said Lego structure, a picture is taken of the mat with the iPhone or iPod touch. The App Store app will then calculate the score based on the player’s speed and accuracy.

Here’s a video of the game in action:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHZwSOVKBY

The Life of George app consists of 12 levels and 10 Lego models that can be played in single or multiplayer mode. “My Life” mode even allows the player to come up with original Lego creations that can be stored in the app’s virtual scrapbook.

Lego was looking for, “a fun way to combine both physical and virtual play into one product,” according to Macworld. The game will be sold in the US only, and the Life of George will hit shelves and the App Store on October 1st. The physical set will cost $23, while the iPhone app will be available for free.

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Remember Psystar? The small company used to put together computers running OS X to then sell on the cheap. Apple won a permanent injunction against Psystar back in 2009 that prohibited the company from selling any unauthorized computers running OS X.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirms that Psystar did indeed violate Apple’s Mac OS X copyrights, and that the ban on sales will be upheld.

Cnet reports:

“Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder ruled yesterday that Psystar’s Mac clones violated copyrights Apple holds, and the ban on sales will be upheld. According to Schroeder, Psystar specifically violated copyrights Apple holds in Mac OS X, and said that the U.S. District Court’s ruling in favor of Apple was just.”

Psystar became famous years ago for its “OpenMac” computers that were essentially PCs running modified versions of Mac OS X. The benefit of buying from Psystar was that customers could get powerful hardware running OS X for a fraction of Apple’s retail price.

After Apple sued Psystar, the courts ruled that the company violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Psystar was a pretty small company, and it was an uphill battle against Apple’s world class legal team from the very beginning.

The court deciding to uphold the ban doesn’t bode well for Pystar. The company’s days are clearly numbered.

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If you’re expecting to see iPads with a “Assembled in Brazil” marker engraved across the aluminum back starting next year, think again. Brazilian officials are now claiming that “crazy demands” by Foxconn could totally nix the $12 billion deal, keeping iPhone and iPad manufacturing firmly rooted in Asia.

According to a Reuters report, Braziian officials say that Foxconn and the government just can’t come to an agreement on tax breaks, work conditions and the like.

In addition, discussions have been difficult because of Brazil’s high taxes and unskilled workforce, neither of which meet Foxconn’s expectations.

Expectations grown from Foxconn’s Chinese origins, no doubt: it looks like a cultural divide is a big part of the impasse here.

“We’re dealing with a lot of issues, like the (Taiwanese) trying to figure out how to do business in Brazil … and Brazil figuring out how to produce these complicated products,” a government official said. “Maybe we will end up starting with something smaller.”

Smaller? Like the Kindle Fire, perhaps?

What’s strange about this report is that just a week ago, Brazil’s Minister of Scirence and Technology Aloizio Mercadante said that the Foxconn factory was “ready” and would start pumping out iPad 2s. Either that’s an outright lie, or Foxconn’s prepared to let that factory just sit empty and rotting to get the government concessions it wants.

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Megha Gurung:

Auto part sculptureUnique sculptures made of Auto parts

The best alternative to reduce the waste parts that are mere burden on the earth is to recycle them. Recycling is good for the environment and is one of the best ways to protect it. There are many artists who have made efforts to save the environment and have created awesome sculptures from the trash auto parts. “Waste to wealth” turned creations are fabulous and are embedded with the green idea. Here we have a list of such beautiful creations made up of trash auto parts.

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Jayanti Anubhav:

unique office furnitureunique office furniture for those how want to make their office different

Office is a place where you practically spend more time of your life than in your house. For ages, most of the offices have the same monotonous look, with rare variations in the heavily formal ambiance and feel of it. However, a little innovation and creativity can lead to a better productivity as you would happily spend hours in your office. With some innovative office furniture, you can completely change the look and feel of your office, converting it into a happier place. Or the other way round, if you planning to set up an office at home, you can rather experiment with more innovative furniture to have fun while working. Here are seven cool and innovative office furniture designs to transform your office into a lighter and better place to work.

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Babita Sajnani:

Wooden motorbikeWooden motorbike designs for a stylish ride

Wooden motorbikes would make this metallic mean machine an eco friendly alternative as it shuns the metal that leads to non-biodegradable junk in the landfills. Here are five wooden motorbikes that are bound to give you a stylish green ride.

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Asmita Prasad:

Tallest skyscrapers in the worldTallest building in the world

With the staring problem of global population explosion, the cities of the world are increasing challenges for space and most of them have taken the vertical route to accommodate an ever-growing number of businesses and residents. Though the skyscraper trend began in the 1970s in the US, it really came into its own in the new millennium in Asia which now is home to some of the world’s tallest structures. Here’s a list of the world’s tallest skyscrapers according to their height from the ground:

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Aravind Balasubramanya:

I phone conceptThe ever innovating Apple at its best

Cellphones are no longer a functional necessity. They have social, societal, class, strata and fashion implications that simply cannot be ignored. Thus while the race is on to get trendier and classier mobiles, another race has begun to get out ‘glassier’ mobile phones! And if you have come in late, let us assure that the heats for the race have already yielded some amazing results. Here are the ten finalists for the race to the champion ribbon.

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Over a year ago, when Skype’s iOS app was finally upgraded with the ability to work as a backgrounded app, it was a big step in the direction of untethering voice communications from the telcoms. Today marks the next big step in that direction, as both Skype’s iPhone and iPad app add Bluetooth support.

This new feature is convenient for the iPhone, but huge for the iPad and iPod Touch, as Skype will undoubtedly now become the go-to app for voice communication on those devices.

Today’s updates also bring a redesign of the iPhone app’s interface and image stabilization for video. Note that Bluetooth is only supported for the iPhone 4, 3GS, 4th-Gen iPt and iPad 2.

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For those of you rueing the fact that your iPad’s Smart Cover doesn’t protect your sleek baby’s bum, here’re two new options from Belkin — one of which practically gives your iPad a whole matching ensemble.

The Emerge 024 (above) is a $40 kit that contains a perforated backing that snaps onto the back of the iPad 2 and four colored inserts that match Apple’s Smart Cover colors.

For Londoners, the Snap Shield Secure ($40) rejects color in favor of translucency; it’s a thin plastic backing with “an integrated steel strip that holds the Smart Cover flat against the case when it is open.”

Both look pretty cool and offer alternatives to cases like Griffin’s IntelliCase.

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Kosella think they have a slick new way to make stylus tips: Instead of using the rubbery tips of most styli, they’ve figured out a way to use a fabric tip that has tiny metal filaments woven into it in order to make it conductive.

The new tips really are slick — Kosella sent us an Aponyo Click to play around with, and the fabric really does slide across an iPad’s surface with less resistance than those standard black tips. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s noticeable.

There’re three styli in the Kosella Aponyo lineup. The one above is the $20 Flip, with a stylus tip at one end and an old school ballpoint at the other. We played around with the Click ($18), with a retractable tip like a click ballpoint. The final one is the compact (but extendable) Mini ($15).

Kosella says there aren’t many left, but they’ll have more in stock soon when the current supply is gone. Oh, and you’ll get 10% off one of these styli from Amazon if you use promo code HGLNYY4G before December 31.

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