MSI N480GTX the fat yet speedy king of graphics cards, consumes 450w for it’s full 512 cores.

For several months after Nvidia released the 4xx series of graphics cards, the price was high enough that the minimal increase in performance wasn’t really worth it. Thankfully, over the last few months we’ve seen prices drop pretty substantially to the point where it’s finally a better decision (financially) to pick up an Nvidia card. You could be frugal, or, your could go balls to the wall with MSI’s upcoming NGTX480. The “N” signifies that this card is unlike any other. It makes use of the full 512 cores of the Fermi GF100 architecture. Previous benchmarks of a full 512-core card have shown some pretty minimal improvements. But MSI claims more is to come…

Would you do it: Radio tower repairmen. 1,700ft. No safety gear. Best view in world.

You know, I never really gave much thought into radio towers and how they work. I mean, I know the basic principles of it all. But the actually nitty gritty details such as “How do you replace the light at the top?” never really sunk very deep into my brain. I can now consider that ship sunk after watching a video of a radio tower repairman scaling to the top to replace nothing more than a simple light bulb. If you think it’s a simple task, punch yourself in the face, turn around, and then punch your mother in the face. It’s not an easy job. If you’re afraid of heights you wouldn’t make it. Period.

In the movie (inside), we hear the guy mentioning that you take an elevator to around 1,600ft. before climbing out and spidermanning your way to the top — another 170ft. or so. At that height, you can easily see a solid 55 miles in any direction. Pretty awesome, right? 1,700 ft. may not sound like much, but it is. Further adding to the jaw dropping moment is the astonishing admission by the worker himself that most repairmen don’t take the time to harness up or tie themselves down simply because it “takes too much time” and is “too tiring”. Both of those little gripes are easily solved when falling 1,700+ft. back to earth because you didn’t use a simple piece of safety gear — you’ll sleep great and have all the time in the world…

Morbid jokes aside, I have a new found respect for these guys and gals because my ass is not going up there. The part that got me the most was the last 30ft. or so of climbing in which the dude is dangling on a piece of red metal tubing that’s at most 4″ thick. Yikes! Step inside to see the full show…

The phone of the future will charge off your voice, bring potential for never-dying batteries.

Being a smartphone aficionado over the last several years has shown me time and time again just how badly battery technology has languished. It seems like we hear stories all the time of the next latest and greatest battery tech that is “just on the horizon”. And yet, that horizon never comes. The stories fade into oblivion and we never hear about them again. This more recent story isn’t about a type of battery per say, but more in how batteries charge. Currently, batteries need an electronic power source, whether it be a battery or a wall out let, to leech power from. There’s plenty of times in the average person’s day that such things just aren’t possible. Enter the world of 2035 and the spectacle of batteries charging themselves solely by the human voice.

Gigabyte welcomes Sandy Bridge with two new P67 boards.

Sandy Bridge processors aren’t available yet, but that hasn’t stopped custom PC hardware manufactures from jumping in feet first. Gigabyte took the time at IDF 2010 to show off two of their new P67 (Sandy Bridge) motherboards: the P67A-UD5 and GA-P67A-UD7. The most obvious change right off the bat is the color change. Gone is the baby blue that has adorned pretty much every Gigabyte motherboard for some time now. Replacing it is a much nicer looking and sinister dark theme that oozes sophistication.

The hardware is not only better looking, but beefier and of a heavier duty (both physically and electronically) construction. As should be standard these days, USB 3 is included by default meaning no pain-in-the-ass 3rd party cards. Gamers will likely want to know that tri and quad-SLI rigs will want to opt for the UD7 as it features Nvidia’s F200 controller whereas the UD5 does not. Still, most “gamers” don’t have $2k to drop on four GTX480′s. Just sayin’. While we’re talking about performance, it’s worth noting that Gigabytes current 1366 hardware can be had for rather cheap and overclocks extremely well. Hopefully this value and performance model transfers over during the move to Sandy Bridge.

Any custom PC builders looking forward to the upcoming Sandy Bridge release or are you still on the fence as to whether it’s worth upgrading everything again?

While you chew on that mind boggler, hop inside and check out a video with a Gigabyte Taiwan rep giving a rundown on the new hardware.

Cool creations: Lawnchair vehicle powered by four humans, spews fire.

I’m pretty sure a moving lawnchair is the last thing on my list of wants. I mean, who in their right mind dreams about lawnchairs. Hey, I’ve heard of stranger things I ‘spose. But for one Tom Wilson, 4-wheeled, fire spewing lawn chair machines of death is the only thing that populates his mind. So why not build one?

While the whole “born from hell” look is negated by a happy family of four merrily peddling away, the concept is still valid. It’s an awesome way to put the lowly lawn chair to good use. +1 For Tom. Jump inside for a video showing the Tom foolery (haha…see what I did there…) in action…

“TweetDark” theme adds Touch Wiz flare to TweetDeck Android app.

TweetDeck for Android is hands down one of the best looking Twitter clients for the platform. I’ve got a thing for dark, matte, simple UI’s. To that effect, TweetDeck for Android tickles me fancily. But for some, it may not be dark enough. If you haven’t got the want or the ability to theme TweetDeck yourself, the fine folks at WJD Designs do.

Those rockin’ a Samsung device will find that this TweetDeck theme closely resembles the Touch Wiz interface with it’s generous helping of blue hues. Personally, I prefer the stock TweetDeck color scheme a bit more. The dark greys and blacks are slick. I’m not to take credit away from the designers though. It’s just not my cup of tea. But therein lies one of the strengths of Android — if you don’t like it, change it.

Get to it: Download “TweetDark” from WJD Designs.

Twitter’s new design looks like a smartphone app. (I love it)

The wait is over folks. For all five of your reading out there, the micro-blogging/social networking site Twitter has let loose it’s new look upon the world. You’ll immediately notice that things look very, very different. To my eyes, it’s leaps and bounds better than the old interface. It manages to look more sophisticated and yet simple.

Physical looks aside, the new design features a never-ending update stream — Yay, no more “click more” crap!! — as well as a second panel on the right that shows trending topics, Twitter user specs, and so on. Though if you ask me, the coolest part of the redesign is that photos and videos open in the right panel, meaning you don’t have to click through to random places on the interwebs to get what you want. Nice! Personally, I’m really liking the new look and can’t wait ’til my accounts get access to it. What your thoughts and feelings? Are you as equally impressed or is it time for pitchforks, dragons, and fire? If you fall into the latter, you’ve only got a few days to a week left. While Twitter says it won’t be available to everyone right away (again, starting only with select users), they don’t offer up any date as to which the rollout will be complete. Guess they can’t fail to meet a deadline if there isn’t one to begin with, huh?

Hop inside for a couple more pics…**Update: Video added after the jump too.