Just in time for the holidays, Sandia National Laboratories have introduced their newest photovoltaic cells to the holiday-loving’ public. Resembling snowflakes, these sparkly-cells are made of crystalline silicon by way of using common microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems techniques. These photovoltaic cells seem to be giving the standard solar cell a run for its money — they use 100 times less material but produce the same amount of energy as a solar cell. More »

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From Ningin: It’s Christmas Eve. Your local mall has probably closed for business or will be closing soon. Lucky for you, Mixr never closes! Top stories across the Mixr network are our gifts to you, daily.

via Wirebot: Wirebot Game Survival Guide: 12 Tips For Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Five Dollar Games at “Five Below”

via Ziggytek: How to make the moves on a girl with technology The Weirdest Gadgets

via Ningin: Final Fantasy XIII sells 1.5 Mil in 4 days, pushes PS3 sales to 245k in a week Christmas Wish No. 2: For my Asian mom to stop hitting me with brooms

via Rekuru: Five Characters You Wouldn’t Want to “Save” Christmas: Part One

via GirlyBubble: Christmas Wish No. 2: A life-sized Rirakkuma bear

via FlauntMe: A Tan with No Sun Damage? Too Good to be True?

via BlitzNation: Christmas in the Nest (Day 2): Santa, the Elves, and the Eagles

via CrazySingleLife: The bitterness of defeat

via SwanDiary: Say hello to Vampire Weekend More »

From Ningin: The age old question will finally be answered. Who would win in a boxing match, man or machine? The answer is surprisingly mundane. More »

From Ningin: The figures are good, VERY good. The latest Final Fantasy game has sold over 1,500,000 units out of 1.8 Million that they shipped in the records that Famitsu reported. This figure is in Japan, and the PS3 alone. (There is no Japanese Xbox version) Hmm I guess they were quick to get the figures out because they didn’t release the one-week figures yet. More »

What’s better than tiny Robobuilder robots performing a synchronized dance to the season’s most loved Christmas carols? Nothing. I feel as if my life is complete now, Christmas for me is officially over since I’ve witnesed this Youtube video of synchronized dancing Robobuilder robots. More »

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What were they smoking, and more importantly, who would buy this stuff? Inspired by Jinra’s Pet Rock post, I thought that I would share a few strange toys, which I have encountered: More »

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So, you’re a dude. There’s a girl you want to make the first move on, but are hopelessly clueless because for one, girls are complicated and so is technology. San Francisco Weekly’s How to Make The First Move 2.0 chart demonstrates clearly what technology and methods of communication to avoid when it comes to making the first move. More »

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From Ningin: Before anyone gets into last minute Christmas shopping mode, this is just a friendly reminder that you’ll need The Daily Mixr. While it doesn’t fight irate holiday shoppers or claim to get your shopping done on time, it does offer you the day’s freshest Mixr stories.

via Wirebot: Cheap Game Alert: Fallout 3 for $39.99 In 2010 The Dead Will Rise Again

via Ziggytek: Top 5 Technological Apocalypse Films Dress detects pollution with LED lights

via Ningin: Namie lookin’ Glamorous Born from the Ellegarden ashes

via Rekuru: Public Service Announcement: WTF, iTunes? Aardman Studios takes a crack at The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks with Flipnote Studios

via GirlyBubble: Creative storage ideas

via FlauntMe: International Beauty Report: Natural Skincare Products Say hello to Lancôme’s newest spokesperson, Julia Roberts

via BlitzNation: Christmas in the Nest: A 3-Day Series Celebrating the Holidays with the Eagles Ravens Make Some Changes To Their Roster

via CrazySingleLife: Perfect date! But not…

via SwanDiary: Vampire in a Korean pop video? More »

I am having the hardest time wrapping my head around Think Geek’s USB pet rock. Although the USB pet rock is clearly a throwback to the original famed pet rock of the 70s, it’s still just as puzzling as the original. I mean, what is it good for? Does it even need to be attached to a USB port? I feel the only way to address the fact that I don’t understand it is with a fill-in-the-blank sentence. More »

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It’s not just Rudolph’s red nose that’ll be lighting up for the holidays. Ladies, you too, can make bring holiday brightness into your life with the Diffus Climate Dress. Well, as long as you’re in a heavily polluted area, that is. The Diffus Climate dress isn’t your standard LED light-up-whenever-you-please dress. The LED lights on the Diffus Climate dress react to heavy pollution and bad air by pulsating. More »

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A very common theme in video games is the demise of humanity due to technological advances. In film, this dark idea is not explored as often, but some of the movies that deal with the catastrophic dangers of too much technology are among my favorites. In order for a film to qualify for this list, it has to show a world that has been destroyed, or is on the verge of destruction, because of human technology gone awry. More »

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Pretty much everyone expects Apple to announce its long awaited tablet sometime in the first quarter of 2010, yet most of the device’s details are still shrouded in secrecy. Optimists expect advanced technologies like OLED, a solid-state flash drive, and an affordable price tag; others think that the tablet will be overpriced and barely more capable than an iPhone. Here is my realistic wish list for the Apple tablet: More »

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From Ningin: Upon much thought and speculation, it seems blinking is a far more serious problem than we’d anticipated it to be. Sure, I thought this blinking situation could be easily resolved by posting a weekly wrap-up post featuring every story that was published this week, but then I realized something quite epic: Blinking, happens super often. I can’t even tell you how many times I blink a day. The Mixr solution to excessive blinking comes to you in the form of a new daily featured called, The Daily Mixr. Everyday, we’ll bring you all of the top stories of the day across the Mixr Network of sites. More »

Ever since our family purchased our first personal computer in 1997, I have been building my own tower machines. During the past twelve years, around 8 custom-built PCs (and countless laptops, as well as Mac desktops like iMacs and Cubes!) have made their ways into our household. I have never purchased a brand name PC and likely never will. Most PC gamers and heavy number crunching users also choose to build their own machines because they can select the best parts at the best prices and not have to pay for extras that they do not need. I liken custom building PCs to a buffet: get what you want and only what you want. More »

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My final mini-roundup review takes a cursory look at some of the best IEMs for $200 and above. Part 1 features items under $100, while Part 2 outlines a few between $100-$200. None of these articles is meant to be exhaustive, as I have left out some notable brands. Also, I have excluded plenty of good portable headphones from companies like Audio-Technica because they are not IEMs and do not isolate from outside noise. For listeners on the go, I highly recommend an IEM over conventional headphones that do not provide passive isolation. You may have noticed that BOSE has been left off my lists. Suffice it to say that I am in agreement with 98% of the audiophile world that BOSE is not hi-fi and is generally very overpriced. More »

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