Who wants to pay good money for an iPod case when you can make your own? All you need is a color printer, something sharp, and a little bit of something sticky--always a recipe for a good time, in my book!

Japanese blogger arupapa has designed multiple papercraft iPod nano cases. Just download one of the designs (in .jpeg or .pdf format), print them out, and follow the instructions (with helpful step-by-step pictures for those who can't read them crazy Japanese squiggles).

With a little bit of cutting and taping, you can have your iPod dressed up in anything from simple to snazzy. You can even make your own faux Burberry case! Classy and cheap.

Thanks to Japanese weird hunter Whitney Reynolds for this post!

Thanks to Staff Editor Tony Hoffman for this write-up! You can catch him on Gearlog Radio next week, discussing the asteroid he found and the demise of Pluto.

It's now been a week since the International Astronomical Union (IAU) stripped Pluto of its planethood.  In choosing the more stringent of two competing definitions of the term planet, the IAU has booted Pluto into a new underclass of "dwarf planets", and seemingly capped the solar system's planet total at eight. Many scientists aren't pleased with the new solar-system order, saying it's imprecise and too restrictive.  Meanwhile, Pluto continues to orbit out in the cold (literally, and now figuratively), oblivious to its demotion.

The ancient Greeks called the points of light that roved along the zodiac planetes: wanderers. But despite the discovery of several new planets since the invention of the telescope, astronomers never defined what a planet actually was. When Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were discovered in the early 1800s, they were originally considered planets, but later reclassified as asteroids. Pluto, discovered by Clyde Tombaugh of Lowell Observatory in 1930, proved to be much smaller than originally thought, smaller than Earth's moon, leading some astronomers to call for its demotion. But it was Caltech astronomer Mike Brown's discovery of an ice-world slightly larger than Pluto, which he nicknamed "Xena", that brought the issue to a head—would Xena be classified as a planet, or a mere asteroid? And however Xena went, Pluto was likely to follow.

The initial definition proposed by an IAU committee in August defined a planet as an object that orbits the Sun and is large enough so that its gravity holds it in a near-spherical shape. Opponents claimed that this definition would permit tens or hundreds of puny poseurs to become planets (though the proposal took care to distinguish the eight "classical planets" from Pluto and the upstarts), and it would be confusing to students and the public. Almost no one has to memorize the entire periodic table of the elements, yet everyone knows oxygen, carbon, iron, and other key elements. So, kids would learn of "Xena" (whatever it is ultimately named), as well as far-ranging, reddish Sedna, several large, exotically named iceballs (Quaoar, Ixion, Orcus, and Varuna), a football-shaped world known only as 2003 EL61, and other worlds as yet undiscovered.

The struggle to define planets became a turf war between planetary geologists, who study the structure and composition of worlds, and orbital dynamicists, who are concerned with planetary motion. The latter group forced the inclusion of a provision that to be a planet, an object must have "cleared the neighborhood around [its] orbit". This rules out Pluto—which orbits amid a flock of similar (yet mostly smaller) iceballs in a region known as the Kuiper Belt—and Ceres, the largest asteroid; both are being reclassified as dwarf planets. But what of Neptune? It hasn't cleared away pesky Pluto, nor the Kuiper-belt objects that cross its orbit.

And by the new definition, Earth—which lies in a cosmic shooting gallery of tens of thousands of asteroids that potentially could collide with us—shouldn't be a planet. (As to whether there's intelligent life here, I'll leave that to a future discussion.)

The solar system was due for a reclassification, to keep up with new discoveries. It made sense for the IAU to call Pluto the prototype for a new type of "trans-Neptunian" object, but that and planethood need not be mutually exclusive. Any definition of planet is some-what arbitrary; it's not as if objects are hung with tags that say "I'm a planet!" Faced with competing definitions, both with some scientific merit, the IAU went the restrictive route. Even as telescopes reveal new and exotic denizens of the outer solar system, we've gone and shrunk the solar system. Pluto's gotten the boot, and dwarf planets by definition aren't true planets. (Perhaps a better name for them would be planettes or worldlets.) Even many of the astronomers who supported the new order admit a twinge of sadness over Pluto's demotion. The new system is not only imprecise, but it's demoralizing. People are inspired by the idea of new planets in a way that they're never likely to be for lesser solar system bodies.

*Pictured here is a stained glass panel created in honor of Pluto's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, which Hoffman photographed last year in New Mexico.

What the heck? So I'm messing around with the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650, an all-around pretty nice laptop--albiet hefty, at over 10 pounds. But the thing that's most interesting is, of course, the integrated HD-DVD player. The laptop has a ginormous widescreen, built in Harmon Kardon sound system, and...oh, heck, just go read Cisco Cheng's review. It should be an ideal portable high-def DVD player--particularly with the cool QosmioPlayer, integrated software from Toshiba that lets you play DVDs in seconds without booting into Windows, just like a set-top DVD player. So I grab some popcorn and a copy of the HD DVD version of Jarhead and press the instant on button, only to get an ugly error message: Can't read disk.

What?

I stop to check the disk out. It's HD, sure, and the player's HD. Try it again. Same thing. In fact, after running through a fistful of disks (which cost more than a fistful of Euros, let me tell you), and reading reviews, and poring over charts, I stumbled across the "Detailed Specs" on Toshiba's Web site, which contains this odd bit of info:

Toshiba's QosmioPlayer does not support HD DVD playback function.

Buried there, in amongst the rest of the fine print. Toshiba's QosmioPlayer doesn't support Toshiba's HD DVD format. Again, what gives? Sure, the laptop comes with Intervideo's software, which does a crummy passable good great job, but at least reads the darn thing. Oh, and before you ask, no, the higher-end G35-AV660 doesn't appear to have fixed the problem. From where I sit, it looks like one division of the giant Japanese corp. ain't really talking to the others.

Hey Cheap Geeks! In the market for a cheap camera? How about a free one? Dealhack is sponsoring 88Slide's Back to School themed "Daily One Minute Trivia Challenge" and today's prize is a Kodak EasyShare C530. This point and shoot is pretty basic with a 5-megapixel resolution and a 1.5-inch LCD. Unfortunately, it doesn't have optical zoom--only 5X digital zoom, which as our camera expert, Terry Sullivan, will tell you is "no good." But hey, it's free, right?

PC Mag didn't review this camera, but we have reviewed another C-series model, the EasyShare C533, which is a pretty average camera, also 5MP, but with 3X optical zoom. Neither of these models are particularly stylish, but cheap and stylish don't usually hang out together, do they.

So go test your knowledge--today's subject is economics--and enter for your chance to win a free camera. All you have to do is watch a short video, answer the question correctly and hope for the best. The video is also available for viewing on your cell phone, or as a video podcast in iTunes. You've got until 9 p.m.

And while we're on the education tip, be sure to check out Gearlog's School Days coverage and PCMag.com's Back to School Guide.

HDTV prices have finally fallen to the point where someone in my relatively humble income bracket can afford one—almost. I am not talking about top-of-the line plasma, like the NEC 42XR4, but with prices for 32-inch LCD panels dropping under $800, I am officially in the market. I just need some cash that isn't already allocated to rent, credit card payments, or, well, rent. That is where the damn cursing comes in.

Cursing, as everyone knows, is inappropriate. (Most of the time.) Swears sound particularly offensive coming from mouths of the young and relatively untroubled, like my 12 year-old stepson, Emmet. Still, everyone slips from time to time. Instead of mere reprimands, everyone in the house has agreed to pay $1 for every curse. The money, of course, goes toward the purchase a brand new HD-ready LCD TV.

It has to be an LCD for two reasons. First of all, I can't really afford a plasma, this whole thing relies me getting a TV for less than $1,000. Perhaps more importantly, my living room is very bright and I don't have shades or curtains to block out the sunlight. If I want the TV to be viewable during the day, I am going to need a nice, bright LCD. In terms of low-cost models Westinghouse and Proview have consistently scored well on our tests. That is probably the way to go.

Right now, my main TV is a 19-inch CRT with no composite or component inputs. I need to use a coaxial adapter just to use the PlayStation 2. Not good for a Consumer Electronics editor. It has gotten to the point where I am tempted to come into PC Magazine's Labs on the weekends just to watch movies on the gorgeous HP Pavilion md5880n test system. That simply won't do.

Unfortunately, progress has been slow. So far, there is just $14 in the kitty. And that includes the first contribution in which Emmet, smitten with the idea of a TV upgrade and unable to break a ten dollar bill, proceeded to spit out a profane rant of Chappell-like proportions. Deadwood's season ended, so my language will be cleaner. At this rate, it will be well into next year before I get my TV.

Or I could decide to let Emmet play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and have my new TV by Thanksgiving.

Dan Costa is the Consumer Electronics Editor at PC Magazine and a host of Gearlog Radio; check back every Thursday for his take on the world of consumer electronics.

 

 

Finally, we can put all of those rumors to rest. Creative officially announced the Zen Vision W, its next generation portable media player.

In both 30GB and 60GB capacities, the Zen Vision W features a 4.3-inch, 16:9 widescreen, 480 x 272 resolution, FM radio with 32 station presets, voice recorder, and syncs with Microsoft Outlook contacts, calendar & tasks.

It supports many video formats, such as AVI, DivX 4 & 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG. It can play MP3, WMA, and WAV files and display JPEGs.

Battery life is said to last up to 13 hours for audio, or 4.5 hours for video, which is around the same battery life that the 30GB Zen Vision:M has.

The Zen Vision W is also reported to support music subscription services such as Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Napster To Go, Urge and MSN Music, as well as downloads from AOL Music Now, Soundbuzz, and Audible.com.

From the press release: "The Creative ZEN Vision W (30GB) premieres at COMEX 2006 in Singapore on 31 August 2006 for only S$649.00 and will be available at all Creative Stores island-wide and online at sg.store.creative.com, as well as other retail stores in Singapore. The 60GB model for just S$749.00 will be available in end September 2006."

Boy, those are hefty prices!

Even more so, Creative also announced a 60GB model of the Zen Vision:M, available for pre-order at COMEX 2006 for S$599.

[Gizmodo via epiZENter]