If you’ve heard of iPod, you certainly should not have heard of iBeat.

The company, whom I’ve relegated as one trying to capitalize upon the i-suffix mania, has recently made what some consider a very, very bad move.

Their newest mp3 player, the i.Beat Blaxx exudes a degree of racism that’s only reserved for the best skits on SNL. Sounds suspiciously like something you’d hear circa 1800.

Please don’t tell me that you can’t see the pun.

You clicked.

Head executive of Vivid Entertainment Steven Hirsch recently opined that proprietors such as Japan’s DMM could, and possibly should, stream adult content onto the PS3 entertainment system.

This is of course tentative because DMM has made no formal requests to have their content stuffed onto the Sony Network. Though one has to realize that it probably will. The only thing that concerns me from a business perspective is that you can pretty much get Japanese-paraplegic-midget-niche porn in every dark corner of the Internet. Who needs PS3?

Note
“Tom sat on a nail” is clearly a euphemism for what’s about to happen.

The video
One guy and his cameraman stand their ground to confront a screeching F/A-18 Hornet. The flyby is unusually low; with the plane’s nose only being  several feet from the cameraman’s fragile, unprotected face.

I type this with a chuckle, tickled that I get to see this sort of stuff without risking my head being torn clean off.

More crazy stuff
Corvette vs. F/A – 18 Fighter Jet

Switching factions in the World Of Warcraft gaming sphere is one of those things that can start an Internet flame war. Adding fuel to that is the fact that WoW is now allowing you to do that for $30.

So in practical terms, if you’re a badass with ties to the Horde, you can forfeit your god-like status for something decidedly less sexy, like something on the other side of the fence. And if you’re part of the Alliance, you can pull that same crap.

The talks are that Blizzard is also planning on implementing a similar system to change character race. Faction and class would still be kept. Sex changes are off limits. Hopefully.

Doraemon, possibly the cutest, bluest, weirdest piece of hair celebrates… uh, a birthday, I think. Nobody’s that giggly without reason.

If you all don’t know Doraemon, the manga comics describe him to be a futuristic robot empowered with pockets that leverage scientific technicalities that exist only in corporate Japan. The pocket basically allows Doraemon to access a seemingly limitless variety of gadgets that mess with time-space so that weird crap like this can seem perfectly normal.

Contact me if you find this episode

Also weird: Doraemon is a cat.

Name
BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept

What is it
European supercar, souped-up on crack.

The specs
265 HP
250 km/h top speed
0 – 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds

Why it’s cool
Sexy lines and lit-up grills make it look quite menacing.

Why you should get one
I actually don’t know. But I’m sure all the cool kids have one.

A USB drive that looks like a hand grenade is mighty dangerous. There come’s a point where flash memory becomes so handy that you can fit it in weird shapes like these. If you’re really jonesing the public’s attention, a quick hand-out of $20 will get you the goods. Just don’t drop this.

Hideo Kojima, The Man behind Metal Gear has dictated an open letter to all the Jeff Albertsons around the world. Eh-em, his fans, I mean his fans!

There will be a sequel, and it will be magnificent.

The name of the game?  ”Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker” kinda like Walker, Texas Ranger, only without the beards or the punishing roundhouse kicks.

This upcoming game is apparently huge as it is a full-fledged title requiring “hundreds of hours to complete,” meaning that the game had better be real good.

Kojima is racking up the work hours as we speak. According to him, he’s going to be involved in all aspects of this project. Gameplay, design, artistic direction, story; everything is tightly knit under his Baskin Robbins shirt.

As for the story…
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is set in the 70s in a very exotic Costa Rica, close to a decade after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. The plot is going to be deeper and decidely grit-ti-er as we’re going to see Solid Snake question his purpose in the war when he’s defending a nation without the help of a military.

Existential Crisis

But GASP! The game’s going to be on a freaking PSP. I know what you’re thinking, crap graphics. But Kojima affirms his attention to the game’s look by saying, “we don’t plan on making any compromises with the graphics.” He assures the fanbase that the art team has been “producing PS3 quality” games for so long, that it will make you “wonder if this is really a PSP game.”

To make this whole deal even sweeter, Kojima tells us that the game will have stuff unique to the PSP system and a different gameplay system. So let’s hope it doesn’t mean strategy.

The Video
A man on a ladder has his hands perched up to a carefully measured 9 ft. He gracefully lets go and sends the tiny Hitachi drive plummeting to its concrete demise. He does it again.

The Lesson
Hitachi’s hard drives are not tough.  Even though the hardware itself seems fine, interfacing it with your computer will leave you with a complete blank. Also, SimpleTOUGH drives suck.

The Other Lesson
Always wait for people like this to test out hardware myths.
He has a broken hard drive — but we do not. Haha, total win.

Related
SimpleTOUGH Hard Drives By Hitachi Are Tough Suckers

Sci-Fi is awesome.
And despite the phaser weapons, robot chefs and hi-tech femmes, I find myself jonesing the electronic newspaper with the dynamic video screens. Think Minority Report and the fast-paced whizzing of news titles.

It doesn’t seem too unreasonable right?

CBS has recently pounced on this latest idea; combining print and digital tech to form some kind of new super-medium.

"pokey"

Look here. CBS and Pepsi Max have recently partnered up to deliver the world’s first VIP (Video-In-Print) Promotion. I’m guessing they’re doing this to complement that needy stare of NPH. The VIP works in the manner of an audio greeting card; you open it up and sound comes blasting through. Hidden between the thick, THICK, cardboard is a quarter-inch video screen with all the messy bits and pieces of hardware wiring.

The advert’s video quality is actually quite sucky; hey what’d you expect right? The sound however is not too bad.

Be very careful though.  The YouTube clip makes it seem pretty loud and I see that there’s no volume control. So if you’re the kind of person that reads their magazines in the dark, someone will certainly sniff you out. NPH would not be proud.

If you’re looking to get your copy…
The video-enabled magazine is part of the Entertainment Weekly series. BUT only those with subscriptions in New York and LA will be able to partake in the VIP.

So what’d you think? Certainly not as cool are advanced as the stuff we saw in Minority Report right?