Million-Volt Zap Cane Is Like Real-World Lightsaber

Owning the Zap Cane is about as close as you’ll ever get to being Yoda, combining walking-stick and Lightsaber into one ugly but effective package. The cane is adjustable between 32 and 36-inches (still too high for Dagobah’s favorite Jedi master) for when you’re hobbling around, trying to teach that lazy, whining Skywalker kid to [...]

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The Weirdest Things That Get Dropped on New Years Eve [NewYearsEve]

If you thought dropping Snooki was weird, you haven't seen the rest of America. Some cities drop really weird things on New Years Eve. How weird? How about bologna, sausage, a drag queen, a bag of chips and a possum? More »

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World's largest cave is big enough to fit a skyscraper and even has its own jungle [Earthporn]

Vietnam's Hang Son Doong cave is the largest in the world, with caverns big enough to fit an entire city street inside them. These awe-inspiring photos take you inside the beautiful, alien world of the Hang Son Doong cave. More »

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PSA: iPhone alarms not working come New Year's Day 2011

We're not exactly sure of the cause of this fancy new issue affecting Apple's super cool iPhone line of cellphones, but apparently you've got trouble come 1/1/2011. According to an explosive stream of frustration-filled tweets on the Twitter microblogging service, when the clock strikes midnight, one off alarms will cease to sing out. The issue sounds eerily similar to recent Daylight Savings Time trouble we witnessed back in November, although we saw both repeating alarm and single alarm failures.

So how can you fix this potentially life-ruining problem? Well until Apple patches its OS -- and it's currently unclear if this is just iOS 4.2.1 or earlier versions as well -- you can simply create a recurring alarm at the time you need to be woken up, and then disable it once your dreams are completely ruined. We're taking a deeper look into the issue and have contacted Apple -- if we get more news, you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, feel free to commiserate in comments, and... happy new year?

Update: 9to5 Mac says that the bug will get fixed all by itself once the calendar hits January 3rd. We haven't confirmed this, but if it turns out to be the case, that's pretty good news. In less good news, the issue seems to be affecting iOS 4.1 and 4.0.2 as well.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PSA: iPhone alarms not working come New Year's Day 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC's 4G Thunderbolt Phone Could Be Dual-Core With 1080p [Android]

If these specs are to be believed, the Thunderbolt will be HTC's first dual-core phone (with a 1.2GHz MSM8960 processor), and will contain an 8MP rear-facing camera and 5MP forward-facing camera. More »

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Ask DLS: how to change your Download Squad password, the best Android web browser, and tailoring our RSS feeds

We're back with more of your questions, and more of our excellent answers.

This week, with the high-profile Gawker Media hack, we've been innundated with commenters asking how to change their Download Squad password. Now, it's not the easiest thing in the world, and yes, we know our commenting system isn't the best in the world (and we know there are still a few 'Easter eggs' from the Switched merger; they'll be ironed out soon, I promise) -- so if you're struggling to change your password, follow these simple steps:

• Make sure you're logged in -- the only way to do this (at the moment) is to leave a comment on a post (any post will do!)
• Find one of your comments -- the comment you just made will work just fine
• Click your name -- it's a link to your profile page (it will look something like this). Marvel at your huge post counts!
• Type your old password, and confirm a new password -- hit Change Password and you're done!

Continue reading Ask DLS: how to change your Download Squad password, the best Android web browser, and tailoring our RSS feeds

Ask DLS: how to change your Download Squad password, the best Android web browser, and tailoring our RSS feeds originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android still has horrible text messaging bugs that'll get you fired, busted, or otherwise embarrassed

Pardon us if the headline is a little sensational, but this is one that we've personally experienced -- and it's not pretty. For at least the last couple versions, Android has been plagued with a couple extremely serious bugs in its text messaging subsystem that can ultimately end up causing you to text the wrong contact -- even contacts that you've never texted before. There appear to be a few failure modes; the one we definitely experience on the Gingerbread-powered Nexus S involves being routed to the wrong thread when you tap it either in the Notifications list or the master thread list in the Messaging application, so if you don't notice, you'll end up firing a message to the wrong person.

More seriously, though, there's also an open issue in Android's bug tracking system -- inexplicably marked "medium" priority -- where sent text messages can appear to be in the correct thread and still end up being sent to another contact altogether. In other words, unless you pull up the Message Details screen after the fact, you might not even know the grievous act you've committed until your boss, significant other, or best friend -- make that former best friend -- texts you back. There seem to have been some attempts on Google's part over the year to fix it; we can't confirm that it still happens in 2.3, but for what it's worth, the issue hasn't been marked resolved in Google Code... and it was opened some six months ago.

This is akin to an alarm clock that occasionally won't go off (we've been there) or a car that randomly won't let you turn the steering wheel -- you simply cannot have a phone that you can't trust to communicate with the right people. It's a deal-breaker. We're pretty shocked that these issues weren't tied up and blasted to all affected phones as an over-the-air patch months ago, but whatever the reason, we'd like to see Google, manufacturers, and carriers drop every other Android update they're working on and make sure this is completely resolved immediately.

Want to see this fixed as much as we do? Scroll to the bottom of the Google Code page and hit "Vote for this issue and get email change notifications."

Android still has horrible text messaging bugs that'll get you fired, busted, or otherwise embarrassed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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