It’s been a mad week here with little time for individual blog updates. So instead I’ve collected the interesting stuff of last week in one post:

• Ireland Retreats To The Dark Ages
  Not content to join the rest of the world in the 21st century, Ireland decides to make time go backwards and heads for the Dark Ages at full speed by passing a law against Blasphemy. It’s now illegal in Ireland to take the name of the Lord in vain. Well, Goddammit.
   
• Sauron’s Evil Eye Burns In The Night Sky
  Well, it’s not really the Eye of Sauron, it’s just an eye-shaped galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. But it’s still cool.
   
• Toygasm Overwhelms Adamus
  I have a new toy to replace my once-slick-but-now-clunky Tytn II: the HTC Hero. Like many of my new toy acquisitions, it is made of Pure Awesomeness until I get tired of it. Which in this case is likely not to happen for a while. Seamless integration with my Gmail, calendar and contacts, loads of cool apps, smooth interface, and most of all: open source. Fuck you, iPhone.
   
• U2 Still Rules
  I went to see U2 on their 360° tour in Croke Park, Dublin last Friday and it rocked.

That is all.

Remember PeerDrive^tm? Well, either TomTom has stolen my idea and gave it a twist to make it work, or my idea wasn’t so new and revolutionary to begin with (pick your version).

TomTom has recently implemented a new feature in their GPS devices called IQ Routes. To quote:

“This new improved technology calculates routes based on the real average speeds measured on roads every day compared to speed limits. This uses historical data that TomTom users have been adding to over the years. It will always provide users with the smartest route hour-by-hour, day-by-day, saving them time, money and fuel.”

Pretty darn clever idea, even if I say so myself.

For a few weeks I faced a dilemma: get the new HTC Magic or wait for the Palm Pre to be released here. Then I caught a whiff of this new application, exclusive to the Android platform (for the time being):

Absurdly humorous (and very NSFW due to excessive cursing).

(Via Boing Boing)

This is pure awesomeness:

(Via The Technium)

Augmented Reality is coming. The Wikitude application for the G1 phone gives you information on nearby points of interest based on your GPS location and objects identified through your phone’s camera. See a demonstration here:

(Via MobileCowboys)

For me, this is the best invention since sliced bread: the Goateesaver.

Now if only they can make it look less like a contraption from the Saw movie series….

Just got a new toy. My previous MP3 player was alright but didn’t have enough storage and couldn’t play videos, nor does it have an FM radio. The Zen is a superb device which has more features than you’re likely to need. Which is exactly what a geek toy should have.

The folks at German design bureau Blutsbrüder have come up with a supercool series of photo/CGI composite images featuring all kinds of future-tech gadgets and contrivances. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing. I sure am.

(Via Gizmodo)

This is one sweet piece of gaming gear: the Saitek Cyborg Keyboard. Aside from a wicked look, programmable keys and extra-sturdy materials, it also has different backlight options so you can highlight the all-important WASD keys with three different color shades.

I’m a total sucker for cool gizmo’s like that.