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High Definition Content Protection—the annoying DRM-y thing that's supposed to stop people from copying hi-def stuff as it travels over a card-display connector— has apparently, and unfortunately, come to Apple's MacBooks. HDCP is now included on new MacBooks to protect iTunes Store media, though it seems that only some of the content is actually HDCP-aware. A high school teacher was unable to play Hellboy 2 on his classroom's projector with his new aluminum MacBook, but other purchased media (such as Stargate: Continuum and Heroes episodes) worked just fine. Perfect. Because copyright protection is all about inconveniencing those who actually bought their stuff legally? [Ars Technica]

For the guy who wants a Vudu system but demands a rack-mountable setup, the Vudu XL2 is here to foot the bill in Armani boots. It's essentially a Vudu XL in a premium aluminum package, storing a terabyte of content while squeezing within one rack unit of space. The catch is that it's priced at $1300 and still runs $40 extra for an IR remote attachment. But hey, it costs to be Mr. I Have a Custom Home Theater Installer. Read on for the full details.

Available Exclusively Through Professional Home Theater Installers, 1U Rack-Mountable Box Features Aerospace-Grade Aluminum Bezel, On-Demand Access to More HD Titles Than Any Other Service

Santa Clara, CA - Nov. 18, 2008 - VUDU debuted today the VUDU XL2, a new Internet movie player designed specifically for professional home theater installations that demand the highest quality picture and a product that occupies just one rack unit (1U) of space.

In addition to providing access to hundreds of titles in VUDU's proprietary HDX format and with the largest HD library available on-demand, the XL2 will allow the most discerning home theater owners to
choose from more than 10,000 titles for instant viewing. The exterior of the new rack-mountable VUDU XL2 sports an aerospace-grade aluminum bezel that features a glowing VUDU logo. Inside, the XL2 is built from the highest quality components, delivering the best picture available.

"The introduction of the XL2 reflects our unwavering commitment to the custom installation market," said Tony Miranz, Executive Vice President, Sales and Business Development, VUDU, Inc "VUDU XL2 is designed for easy and secure integration into rack-mounted systems and delivers the world's largest HD library as well as the highest-quality on-demand 1080p HD making VUDU XL2 an installer's weapon of choice."

Designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate into custom theaters, the XL2 offers a terabyte of storage, enough to store more than 500 films at your fingertips. XL2 also offers IP and IR control
that allow it to b integrated into most high-end home control systems, 1080i HD output over component, and the ability to route and switch HD signals through the home with the use of off-the-shelf video switchers.

Good news for all you non-Youtube internet video watchers who have G1s, the people of Adobe have basically confirmed that an Android-based version of Flash will be ready in coming months. Any device with at least 200MHz processors, more than 16MB RAM and a “completely capable web browser” will be able to render web-based flash content. [Adobe via ModmyGphone]

With just a few months before the digital TV conversion renders millions of sets obsolete (well, kind of), a group called the Electronics TakeBack Coalition is trying to shame major companies into some e-waste recycling initiative by giving them report card scores. Of all the companies surveyed, the highest score (B-) went to Sony, which launched the first national takeback program in 2007. More than half of everybody else got a big fat F for having absolutely nothing in place.

We've covered how serious the e-waste problem has gotten, especially for countries with less regulations and cheap, desperate labor available for the dangerous profession of e-waste sorting... such as China. TV take-back programs are probably rarer because people tend to replace them at a much slower rate than computers and cellphones, but it can never be too soon to kick start one up—especially at a critical juncture like this one. Check out the site for both the report cards and a guide for recycling your TV when you're ready to upgrade. [Take Back My TV]

(Flickr credit:Kevin Steele)

That Google Mobile for iPhone with talky talky search action is now up. Our own impressions of it are good. When you're not in a noisy place (or another phone is ringing in the background) it can pretty much translate anything you say into a meaningful phrase. "Gizmodo" was understood, surprisingly, as was "bear market" and "bare ass". That's right, it was smart enough to tell the difference between the words bear and bare, depending on the context. Also super cool? The jibberish noise it makes when it's searching for something. If you're an iPhone user, you should go get it now right here.

These Japanese masks don't only tighten and make your pores microscopic, they also turn it into a très romantic activity with your partner. Creepily reminscent of Jason in Friday the 13th, they provide ample anonymity for psychotic, law-breaking fun as well. Instead of running around with a chainsaw though, robbing a bank might just be more useful because financial bankruptcy is just no fun. Only problem with these masks is you don't really know what to tell the cops about the person behind the pink mask, holding up the bank teller in San Francisco, do you? [TOKYO MANGO]

For those whose living spaces that are too small for a barbecue pit, or for those who never know when they'll need a barbecue on hand, the BabyQ is a small, portable grill-to-go. This 22x17x6cm device—which is small enough to fit into your girlfriend's purse—weighs in at a little under two pounds, can feed about two to three people, and even comes with its own mini charcoal bag to hold your coal. The stainless steel BabyQ is also dishwasher friendly so you don't have to worry about greasy hands and dirty fingernails when you're done with this baby griller. [PDB via Yanko]

Remember those knockoff 6-1 Chargepod chargers we showed you last week? A judge just granted a temporary restraining order to get Target to stop selling the unlicensed, unauthorized duplications. Good news for Callpod and good news for consumers, who were getting fooled by the not-as-good knockoffs anyway. Here's our original review in case you were interested in getting one yourself. Short verdict: they're good. [Photo Credit Ben Johnson]

Today was a very special day in pizza tech news. First, Dominos, oh boy Dominos: you've automated pizza ordering and delivery in a way that I never specifically thought about, but now that it's out, have already welcomed as a new sign that humans are making progress in this world. You can now order, pay for and track delivery of a pizza from a graphical menu on your TiVo. And on top of that, a free medium Papa John's pie can be yours via its now-painfully-antiquated web delivery system all for becoming a fan of PJ's on Facebook.

But oh do we still have some ground to cover. I'm envisioning a world of platform-agnostic pizza acquisition apps on every web-connected device everywhere, and it's a world in which I'm pretty sure you'll want to join me in delicious reality.

Granted, we live in a pretty good time right now as far as zero-human-interaction, chainstore-pizzeria-to-mouth-in-shortest-time-possible pizza acquisition systems. You can go to any of the major chains' web sites and have a pie on the way in just a few minutes. Maybe a side of cheese sticks too? And hey, we're running out of Coke. Throw in a two liter. I can't be bothered to go out in this cold/rain/beautiful weather.

They'll even save your credit card number so you don't have to even think about money beyond the five seconds the subtotal is on the screen. And tip's on the card.

I will admit that I was late to embrace the online pizza ordering paradigm. I live in New York City, and I can literally walk to the end of my block and get a delicious hot NYC slice whenever I want it. That is, when the King doesn't feel like shuttering the doors for no clear reason at prime mealtimes. Which he does on a disappointingly frequent basis. But I've been doing it more lately—learned from a couple of friends who have Papa John's online ordering down to a science—and I must say I like.

Fitting with my wish, we also live in a pretty good time as far as being able to customize our devices with third-party applications. Pizza Hut has a Facebook app that can order your pizza. That's a good step, even though it's no different from the main websites, save for the ability to broadcast to all your friends when you place a couch order. But please, further. Take Netflix as an example. Watch Instantly is now on Blu-ray decks from LG and Samsung, the Xbox 360, the aforementioned TiVo and of course the dedicated Roku box, with more partnerships on the way. This is the model we should be following as far as pizza ordering is concerned—the path to the life that I've imagined.

So it is you, major pizza chains, that I address. Embrace our software-is-king future. Open up an API into your respective ordering systems, or better yet, tie them together into one magical mozzarella, tomato and dough delivery web framework. And after that's all set up, encourage the use of this API by manufacturers which will soon, in turn, make everything an application platform in order to respond to this exploding demand for pizza ordered from the couch. Don't just stop at an iPhone app—there's no reason there shouldn't be an App Store for every web-connected device in your home.

They say that where the porn industry goes, tech follows. And it's true. But I say let pizza, glorious pizza, be the trailblazer. Wake me up when this is how things are—I'll be asleep on my couch, surrounded by empty Papa John's garlic sauce cups.

Johnny Henry of Laurel, Mississippi claims that the vibrating toilet seat he has concocted "is designed to stimulate,” he said. “It’s to make you feel good while you are there.” In other words, it seduces and stimulates stubborn bowels into action. Mmmm...sounds like how I would like to spend part of my morning between 8 and 9 am (right after two cups of coffee and something with bran in it). The good news is that Henry has developed a prototype and is already pitching it to investors. With any luck, we will all be chillin' in the bathroom with a vibrating seat and a whole pack of 3 ply sometime soon. [Leader Call via Boing Boing]

It may be just a concept for now, but the new SGI Molecule blows our minds with its potential power: Imagine 5,000 Atom N330 chips in just one 3U rack computer, the size of your average PC desktop. That's 10,000 cores in one single computer, or 40 more times the processing power of your typical 1U x86 cluster node. Is this possible? How do they expect to do this without actually creating a hole full of molten metal and plastic?

According to SGI, the key to make this system work is their proprietary Kelvin cooling technology, which we can only imagine works by pouring buckets of liquid nitrogen over the CPUs. According to them, all this vaporware may result in a computer that can sustain 20,000 threads of execution, with a 15TB/sec memory bandwidth per rack.

• High concurrency with 20,000 threads of execution — 40 times more than a single rack x86 cluster system
• High throughput with 15TB/sec of memory bandwidth per rack — over 20 times faster than a single rack x86 cluster system
• Greater balance with up to three times the memory bandwidth/OPS compared to current x86 CPUs
• High performance with approximately 3.5 times the computational performance per rack
• Greener with low-watt consumer CPUs and low-power memory that deliver 7 times better memory bandwidth/watt
• Innovative Silicon Graphics Kelvin cooling technology, which enables denser packaging by stabilizing thermal operations in densely configured solutions
• Operating environment flexibility, capable of running industry-standard Linux(R) implementations, with Microsoft(R) Windows(R) variants on some configurations

[SGI via Gadget Lab]

Somehow, I don't think the world is ready for a charger that powers up an iPhone when you flex a hand grip. I mean, a firm handshake commands respect, but we are still talking about exercise here. So, I think that a solar powered charging case is probably about as eco-friendly as most of us are willing to get. On the other hand, you could view it like a stress reliever—a means of squeezing away your frustrations. Based on the time displayed on the iPhone in the image, my guess is that the designer also had stress relief in mind with this concept as well. [petitinvention via Ecofriend via Gearfuse]

Today's batch of deals features some tasty ingredients like a 42-inch 1080p Sharp LCD for $800, a Olympus Stylus 7.1MP Digital Camera for $99.99 shipped and an awesome Valve set that delivers you every game in their catalog for $99. As always, there is plenty more where that came from (and at these prices you can afford to order seconds). So grab your wallet and dig in.

Gaming:
• PlayStation 3 DualShock Wireless Controller for $39.99 plus free shipping (originally $54.99).
• Xbox 360 with 20GB HD (refurbished) for $159.99 (originally $299.99).
• Buy 1 Wii game at $29.99+, get $20 off the 2nd Wii game.
• Every Valve game (i.e. Half-Life, Portal, Counter Strike, etc) for $99 total. (Thanks CrunchGear.)

Home Entertainment:
• Sharp 42'' 1080p LCD HDTV for $799 (originally $1,399.99).
• Sharp 52'' 1080p LCD HDTV for $1,421.25 shipped (originally $2,099.99 - use coupon code "AFLTV25").
• Memorex Blu-Ray Disc Player for $139.99 (originally $269.99).
• Polk Audio miDock iPod Speakers for $36.99 plus free shipping (originally $99.99).

Computer peripherals:
• Viewsonic Optiquest 22'' Widescreen LCD Monitor for $149.99 (originally $339 - use this rebate form).
• Belkin Wireless G Router for $19.99 plus free shipping (originally $39.99).

Cameras:
• Olympus Stylus 7.1MP Digital Camera for $99.99 plus free shipping (originally $229.99).
• Kodak EasyShare 8MP Digital Camera for $99.99 plus free shipping (originally $199.99).

Stocking Stuffers:
• Philips 10-Outlet Surge Protector for $19.99 plus free shipping (originally $79.95).
• Motorized Thunder Boat for $13.50 (originally $44.99).
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - The Complete Series on DVD for $12.99 (originally $59.98).
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Season 3 for $14.98 (originally $39.98 - in Target stores only).
• The Simpsons - Seasons 1-9 for $12.98 each (originally $39.98-$49.98 each - available only in Target stores. Valid until 11/22).
• Anime DVDs for as low as $1.

Hobomodo:
• Deck of Magic cards for $0.

Are you a socially awkward individual that loves eating out but hates talking to real people on the phone? Then you probably already know about OpenTable, the awesome online reservation site. Now they've got a free iPhone app that's even slicker and easier to use than their actual (or mobile) site. It'll find the restaurants closest to you and throw 'em on a Google map along with their available times—a few presses later, and you're booked (even if you don't have an OpenTable account).

I did find one persistent crash though—every time I tried to look up my expired points, the whole app went own. Other than that though, it performed flawlessly. Sure, since you're doing this on your iPhone, you could almost as easily find a phone number and call. But who has time (or wants) to talk to actual people nowadays? This is faster, easier and yes, better, even if you can't slip the maître d' a Franklin or six to skip the line. Now if we could just get a Momofuku Ko resy app. [iTunes]

I know. LED-illuminated pool table. You don't really need much more information to justify the $700 that you are going to spend on it. Each pocket illuminates with blue LEDs. That's it. Done. Here's my credit card. But in case you need more, the six-feet pool table converts into a card playing table and a "dining table".

According to the manufacturers, the Aurora Pool Table has been "specially designed to replicate the play found on a commercial pub style British pool table", which I'm sure means that a) is compliant with the pool rules in that country and b) comes with a five gallon bottle filled with a mix of urine, old beer, and fried pork grease mixture, so you can spray your carpet and furniture until it really feels like a real British pub. Without the drunk lads.

• Replicates playfield dimensions of 6ft slate bed British pool table
• Pocket sizes the same as found on British pool table
• Commercial standard cushions
• Hard wearing commercial standard Blue cloth
• Blue LED flood lights in the pockets
• Specially designed Pool Cue "Holster" for storing cues
• Reversible dining top - can be used as a dining top or a card table top
• Ball return system
• Adjustable feet levelers to ensure a level play surface
• Accessories include 2 x 48" cues, a set of Red & Yellow balls, Chalk, Triangle, Brush

Unfortunately, it's only available in (Great!) Britain. [Liberty Games]

I'd thought that the 7800mAh battery for the MSI Wind was absurd, but one netbook fan got his hands on a $62 12000mAh battery for his Asus Eee. The result, pictured here, adds over half a pound to the machine's weight and an uncomfortable incline to typing on the system. But it should offer 8-10 hours of battery life, too. Here's the more obnoxious closed shot:

As for the battery bargain, it's still available to those who can wield it over at DealExtreme.[Scott'Soapbox via Lilliputing and DealExtreme]

We played with Gas Cubby, the car maintenance tracking tool for iPhone, and can say that the $5 is a pretty low price to pay if you really want to keep your ride in good condition. Among its many hardcore features are gas price fill-up tracking and graphing, service tracking and data (insurance, VIN) storage. We all know that we're supposed to get and document regular service on our cars, but who the hell remembers? By tracking your gas purchases (which you get much more frequently), Gas Cubby will remind you of when those tires need rotating or when filters need replacement. Pretty damn good for $5, I'd say. [Gas Cubby]

Hey guys, it's that time of year again: Break out of your current Sprint contract without paying an early-termination thanks to a materially adverse change of contract. Our fedora-wearing cousins at Consumerist note that a 99-cent administrative fee increase per line going into effect Jan. 1 falls under that rubric, meaning "you can use it to argue that the fee renders your contract void and you can end service without a termination fee." For all the details and precisely how to outmaneuver vigilant Sprint reps, head over there: [Consumerist, Image: albany_tim/Flickr]

While we've already seen older iterations Netgear's powerline-based networking products, it's just today that the new Powerline HD Plus Ethernet Adapter Kit ($170) and Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit ($150) have become widely available. Both systems transfer data at 200 Mbps over your home's electrical wiring, but the big difference is that the Powerline HD Plus system includes a socket so you don't miss out on the plug space. Now if only my apartment's electrical were as reliable as its airspace, I might consider the purchase. [Netgear]

Hot off of software update is a firmware fix for those glitchy trackpads in the new MacBooks that would completely stop responding after a certain number of clicks. We never had problems with our trackpad, so it's hard to tell if it makes everything better, but the dead plant left outside my window did magically come back to life. Okay, not really, it's still pretty dead. But my trackpad does still work okay. Let us know if it helps you out (or doesn't). Update: Even though our update went smoothly, we're hearing of people having issues with the update, so proceed with some caution. [Mac Rumors]