Gadgets

Cervélo, which for the past decade has made some of the most coveted race bikes in cycling, is launching a new model for the Tour de France. And we have the exclusive, including the first test ride of any media outlet on the planet. Check back tomorrow for all the details and cool behind-the-scenes photos.

It’s only 15 years old, but Cervélo has become one of the top brands in cycling. It got there through innovative designs and engineering that brought a win at the Tour de France, an Ironman World Championship, Olympic medals and several of cycling’s top one-day races, including multiple wins at the brutal Paris-Roubaix (Google it).

Hitachi’s G-Connect is another network hard drive that can be accessed by your iOS device, or from any mobile device with a web browser. The 500GB G-Connect has an 802.11n radio to allow you to connect to it from either an iOS app (to be released in the fall), or just direct through the browser.

Better, the drive also has an Ethernet connection, meaning you can hook it up to your current router and put it on your home network.

What happens when you stack up 50 UV filters and screw them all onto the front of your lens? That depends on the quality of the filters you use.

The folks at Lens Rentals have a lot of filters lying around. One day, an employee named Kenny drew the sort straw and had to clean them all, stacking them as he went.

Apple has settled a patent dispute with Nokia that has been rattling through the courts since 2009. The struggling Finnish mobile giant sued Apple, claiming that it had infringed on ten patents, and then added another 36 to the mix in the following years. These patents covered everything from touchscreen scrolling to Wi-Fi to “multitasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality and the use of Bluetooth accessories.”

Apple of course counter-sued, but it appears that it wasn’t in as strong a position as it would have liked and was finally forced to back down.

Pretty much the only kind of paper books I still have are cookbooks. I have a ton, and most of them aren’t available in electronic form, plus I really like it when the food-stained pages fall open at favorite recipes. What I have no love for is the stack of hand-written recipes I have. They’re hard to find and easy to lose. If only there were some way to put them on my iPad?

BigOven, the iPhone, iPad and web-based recipe index, will now do the hard work for you. The service is called RecipeScan. You upload a photo of your hand-scrawled recipe (or even a page you have torn from a magazine) and — in two to five days — you’ll get it back in digital form. The worker is done by a team of human minions, so you should get back something fairly close to the original. Members get three free scans to try the service out and pro members get 25 credits.

By Casey Johnston, Ars Technica

Some instructional videos featuring the Motorola Droid 3 on Verizon’s network surfaced on YouTube on Sunday, thanks to enthusiast blog PhonePad. The two videos show off the buttons on the phone, the various methods of text input on the Droid 3 (physical keyboard, virtual keyboard, and Swype), and handing of contact information.

Hot-headed? Can’t sleep? Polar Pillow has the answer. It’s a pillow filled with a cooling gel which conducts the heat away from your noggin and lets you nod off to sleep.

When I was a kid I always had trouble sleeping thanks to a hot head. No matter how many times I flipped over my pillow (with Star Wars pillowcase) to the cool side, it would warm up in minutes. This was likely due to the thick, bowl-shaped haircuts my mother forced on me, but whatever — I had a hot head.

For many Android enthusiasts, “openness” is almost an 11th commandment. So when manufacturers began restricting full access to Android smartphones a couple years ago, many saw it as a cardinal sin.

Good news for you smartphone modders: Some manufacturers are beginning to see the light.

“Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices,” wrote HTC CEO Peter Chou in a Facebook post on Thursday evening.

The Third Rail case is much less dangerous than it sounds. Instead of being a huge metal beam that carries a gazillion volts with the dual purpose of powering underground trains and terrifying children, the Third Rail is an accessory battery pack for your iPhone.

It’s not just another chunky juice-pack style case, either.

Multiple publications report that Apple retail outlets are preparing “something big” this weekend in celebration of the 10th anniversary since the opening of the first Apple store, and that might involve a product launch. But it’s more likely nothing.

Apple stores are holding all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend, according to independent reports from MacStories, Boy Genius Report and Cult of Mac.