Engadget calls it “skull-shattering fun” and Gizmodo labeled it “ear shrapnel.” It’s available at Paladone.com and Boy’s Stuff, though nobody seems to have yet found a domestic supplier. From the catalog page:

The Sonic Grenade features three different levels of the most noxious sound since the last Westlife album. To launch, pull the pin and throw it towards your target. After 20 seconds, the sonic explosion occurs, giving even the deepest sleeper a wake-up call like they’ve never had before. You can only stop the sirens by replacing the pin, and if you take that out of the room, lazy bones will have to get up and come and grab it off you – mission accomplished.

File this next to the Annoises CD.
annoying, boys stuff, ear shrapnel, engadget, evil, evil joke, funny if it isn’t you, gizmodo, grenade, joke, noise, noise grenade, paladone, prank, skull-splitting, sonic alarm, sonic grenade

As if bluejacking wasn’t fun enough, now a few folks have now taken it a little further and figured out how to connect to the growing number of Bluetooth handsfree sets all around us.

Gizmodo fed me the link to what they’re calling “The Car Whisperer.”

Nothing against these guys, but it’s not like they did anything amazingly complex. Their story explains that they’re simply taking advantage of poor security like default passwords. Anyway, they can send audio to and record audio from un-paired systems — especially those that are appearing in fancy cars lately.

tags: bluejacking, bluetooth, car whisperer, default passwords, fancy cars, gizmodo, handsfree, poor security

Gizmodo reported it a while ago, but a Canadian company called Japanoid is importing these and other tiny Japanese cars. How tiny? At or under 1.5 meters (under 5 feet!) wide with engines 660CC or under. They’re called Kei Jidousha, or Keicars, or just K-cars (though not to be confused with Chrysler’s K-Cars). Japanoid has 12 vehicles listed, but my favorites are those four above and this funny looking truck.

The deal is, however, that Canadian law only allows imports of 15-year-old vehicles. There are other restrictions, of course, and all of it is made a little more ridiculous by the fact that the cars are right-side-drive. But at 50 miles per gallon, perhaps some exceptions can be made. But don’t expect US law to make any exceptions. US law only allows import of 25-year-old vehicles, even if they might help ease our fuel crisis.

US drivers might want to look at the SMART, available in the US soon.

tags: canadian law, economy car, economy cars, fuel economy, gizmodo, honda, honda acty, japanese cars, japanoid, k-car, k-cars, kei jidousha, keicars, mini, mitsubishi, mitsubishi minica toppo, nissan, nissan figaro, nissan pao, nissan s-cargo, smart, tiny

Gizmodo has two pictures of a young Bill Gates vogueing on a desk with 5.25-inch floppies and a circa-1986 PC monitor. Oh, wait, is that a Mac on his desk behind him?

The pics were reportedly published in Tiger Beat, and Gizmodo is offering a reward for the original issue.

update David Heisler wrote to Gizmodo to offer this correction and detail:

[Those] are not from Tiger Beat. According to snopes.com, these images are actually publicity photos taken of the then 30-year-old Bill Gates coincident with the initial release of Microsoft Windows in 1985. The Corbis photo archive identifies their depiction thusly: “Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, reclines on his desk in his office soon after the release of Windows 1.0. 1985 Bellevue, Washington, USA.” The Corbus link indicates the following information: Photo AAHW001037 Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, throws a Windows 1.0 floppy disk in his office soon after the product’s release. © Deborah Feingold/CORBIS

bill gates, billg, windows, trying to be cool, gizmodo, 1986, microsoft, looking good, trying too hard