Cell Bytes

I like the idea of this titanium iPhone body replacement, and that’s why it’s too bad is just a nice hyper-realistic 3D render. The fact is that, despite what the student who made it claims, it’s not real.

First, the making of a custom, very intricate titanium part like this is a complicated and expensive process, one that would require ultra-precise CAD work and manufacturing. For CNC you will need a very high resolution machine, and molding is not available to mere mortals. Only someone at an aerospace company, a high end prototyping shop, or a factory would be able to pull this. That’s why you don’t see custom iPhone bodies in the market—I want them, please—unless they are Chinese mass produced plastics.

But the most important thing is the fact that there is not such a thing as a “special titanium alloy that is RF transparent.” Titanium makes radio signal reception and emission very difficult. It’s a radio insulating material, which is why the Titanium PowerBook G4 had such a crappy Wi-Fi reception. Sadly, the alleged alloy simply doesn’t exist. And if it does, you would only find it at Boeing or Lockheed Martin’s secret development facilities. Or Area 51.

If he discovered it, I suggest he patents the hell out of it and sell it to the military. They would love it. There’s the issue of having the mute button in the wrong direction too, but it’s ok. If you can create objects from nonobtamium, you can rearrange the circuitry inside the machine too. [Modmyi via Engadget]

Really? Really Sony BMG? After over 30 million views you just now decided to make YouTube pull Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” for a terms of use violation? If you were going to try to stop rickrolling, couldn’t you have at least done it a couple years ago?

Do you know what’s going to happen now? People are going to be rickrolling other people as much as possible using illicit streams as a protest all day. Thanks, assholes. Thanks.

Update: Via Ken Fisher, here’s why Sony BMG pulled the original video. [Neowin]

Not the first time Nvidia’s slapped bigger numbers on older cards, PC Perspective reports that a bunch of the 300 series cards are reincarnated versions of previous cards.

The GeForce 310 is the same as the GeForce 210, using the GT218 core; the GeForce 315 uses the same GT216 core as the GT 220; and the GT 340 is basically a GT 240. And then there’s the GT 320 and GT 330, which use the G92b core, which has roots going back to the GeForce 8800 GT (a card that debuted in 2007).

Man, those new Fermi-powered chips can’t come fast enough. [PC Perspective]

This is the Kodak Bantam Special, a limited-edition camera designed by Teague and released in 1936. It’s totally art deco and totally beautiful. [Monoscope via Kottke]

When the PS3 launched, 120MB of its 512MB of RAM were dedicated at all times to the OS. (To put that footrpint in perspective, the Xbox 360’s OS only used 32MB.) Luckily, Sony has refined their system.

Over the course of several updates, the PS3’s OS has been weaned off RAM, its dependence cut to just 50MB—including the in-game XMB upgrade—meaning that an additional 70MB of RAM is available for game developers to use as they see fit.

No, that’s not enough extra oomph to revolutionize the PS3 as a brand new console, but it’s likely we’ll see a slightly nicer lighting effect (or an equivalent) some time because of it. [PlayStation University and Joystiq]

What you’re looking at is not only the winner of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council photo competition, it’s also the moment when humans became fearful of the mighty weightlifting ant race.

As your eyes have clocked from the words “500mg” written on the weight, it’s lifting approximately 100 times its own body weight. Also visible in the photo (apart from the ant’s cruel fate flashing before its eyes, as it envisions a future taking on human civilization, only to be crushed with a single lazy spray of Rentokil) is the tiny little wet pads on each foot that helps lift heavy weights. I could do with some of those for the gym. [PopSci]