Here's What Happens When a Roomba Mates With An Air Purifier [Robots]

Moneual took a page from the book of iRobot and created an air purifier that motors around your house, doing its dirty work while you are away.

The sensor-filled Rydis H800 purifier will traverse your room, cleaning when it finds a pocket of polluted air. And it's a monster cleaner with a five different filters and a navigation system that'll make sure it hits every nook and cranny. The self-sufficient Rydis H800 even knows to return to its base station to charge when its battery gets too low.

Sadly, it wont cook your meals, do your dishes or massage your feet. You'll have to travel to South Korea if you want that type of robotic indulgence. [Kitchen Design Guide]

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Summer's Over: Here's Everything We Loved About It [Summermodo]

Today's the last official day of summer. And it's the last summer you'll enjoy before next year's inevitable apocalypse. So we hope you enjoyed it! Here are some of our favorite water-, beer-, and explosives-based gadgets and happenings from the summer that was.

Nothing says summer quite like a field full of fireflies on a starry night. And this beautiful long-exposure shot, which happened quite by accident, is actually pretty easy to replicate. More »

One imaginative user over at Instructables, SHIFT!, got the idea to build a personal AC unit in a travel coffee mug. It's similar in idea to another DIY AC unit made from a cooler, except much, much smaller. More »

Perfect for sharks and those who play two bet-limit strip poker, this inflatable poker set comes with an inflatable table, four lounge chairs and waterproof cards, chips and dice. More »

The closest thing to war many of you will face will be the family disputes over how to cook those burgers. Arm yourself against enemy fire with an apron fully-loaded with three grenades, for $45. More »

Shift Space Design has the right idea with their Funston fire pit/ice chest combo. It's perfect for those all-day backyard parties you'll be having this summer with your friends. More »

The Super Soakers of yore were precision weapons. Small. Thin, accurate squirts. A continuous aquatic laser beam. No more. The Hydro Cannon acts just like it sounds: More »

If you're really into fireworks, maybe you should move you butt to any square state. But whatever you do, don't move to New York, New Jersey, Delaware or Massachusetts. More »

It's summertime and you want something adventurous to do. Maybe you're visiting NYC and want to see more than the Statue of Liberty, or maybe you're stuck in NYC for the summer and tired of the usual. More »

Yes! Summer! Pool time! Aqua fun! Time to splish and splash! Get yer bathing suit! Round up your pals! Hop in the Banzai Whale Pool with three amigos! More »

Image credit Shutterstock/Marilyn Volan

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Here's A Way To Break Google's Search Page [Google]

There's an interesting glitch on Google's search page that'll misalign the page content when you search for the string "${". It doesn't appear to be serious; just surprising to see Google's mighty coders make a mistake like this.

There are lively discussions on Hacker News and StackOverflow as people try to figure out why this is happening. Google has not responded and it will likely be fixed quickly, so check it out while you can. You can test it using this link. Enjoy! [Google via Bryan English]

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Here's Windows 8's Start Menu [Windows]

It's not the most detailed look, but Tom's Hardware noticed a cameo of the newest Start Menu in a Windows 8 video demo. It looks... pretty bare. Stark white-on-black text, very few buttons, and, importantly, where are the programs?

Whereas Windows 7's Start Menu offers a multitude of ways to get at your software—favorites, search, ye olde giant list of applications—this Windows Phone 7-inspired Start Menu has none of that. Just a search box. Unless we're missing something from this screenshot, which is entirely possible, this looks like a pickle. Are we meant to search for whatever we want to use, as we might via OS X's Spotlight? Are there context-specific buttons that spring up? With Microsoft revealing more and more about their next titanic OS, we'll probably find out soon. [Tom's Hardware]

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Here's A Playhouse That's Wrong, Very Wrong [Design]

Sculpturist Dietrich Wegner created a playhouse for children that resembles a mushroom cloud. Yes, this is the same formation you would find after the detonation of an atomic bomb.

Wegner created the structure using Poly-fil, rope, wood and steel. According to him and perhaps other adults, it represents the contradiction of "two conflicting ideas." But for kids its one fantastic place to play. Seriously, it's mushroom cloud playhouse, what more could you want? [Laughing Squid

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Here's Where the Word Luddite Really Comes From [History]

Dude, you don't use Instagram? What are you, some kind of Luddite? Believe it or not, Luddites aren't just people who cross their arms at, lag behind of, or turn up their nose at tech. Originally, they smashed it apart.

The Luddites were violent radicals. Only instead of attacking people, as is the case with most violent radicals, their enemy was the machine. The Luddites, named after the mythical English folk hero Ned "King" Ludd, were terrified of what Industrial Revolution tech meant for their lives. For many of them, it meant the destruction of their lives—the loss of their vocations. Sound familiar?

Like those autoworkers who saw robotic arms replacing their craft, countless English men and women who worked in the cotton trade—refining it for sale—saw mill technology usurping their labor. The jobs they did, machines could do faster and cheaper. And that's exactly what the machines did. So the laborers decided to destroy these machines.

Using hammers and arson, Luddite armies of furious laborers destroyed the machines that encroached on their vocation—causing a staggering £100,000 worth of damage between 1811 and 1812. They left factories in ruin, and earned a reputation as heroes of the working class—an "unprecedented" "character of daring and ferocity," wrote the Annual Register in 1812.

The British Empire, which saw a rise in wealth unprecedented in the whole of human history through the use of industrial machinery, naturally, wasn't going to take this. They dispatched the military against Luddite groups, quashing, arresting, imprisoning, and executing them. Laws were passed to make the destruction of equipment a grave crime. Force was used until workers were too scared to resist the progress of history and technology.

It's a struggle that's still felt in this country and every country across the world—and a problem all of us grapple with. What hands did once, gears replaced. What gears did once, robotic arms replace. What paper did once, screens do now. Though we all enjoy modern life too much to ever smash it apart or burn down the local Best Buy, the struggle of the Luddite remains, at least in abstract. So next time you're called one because you don't want to upgrade your smartphone, tell your friend to kindly shut up and read a history book. Whether it's a Kindle or a paperback is your problem.

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Here's Why You Shouldn't Make Phone Calls During the Hurricane [Hurricane Irene]

Want to know why cell networks got clogged and choked during the earthquake? A one minute phone call is 460,800% larger than a single text. So with our next natural disaster this week, use SMS. For everyone's sake.

Simple math: its 720 KB for a minute of calling, and 0.15625 KB for a text.

MAJOR CAVEAT: if you're experiencing an emergency, absolutely use a telephone to get in touch with the appropriate authorities. But those "omg can you believe it's raining?" thoughts floating in your head? Try transcribing them instead of talking them out.

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iTunes 10.4.1 Is Live, Here's What It Fixes [Apple]

The latest iteration of iTunes corrects a handful of bugs including problems with third-party keyboards, album artwork additions, system hangs during HD movie purchases, and prevalent issues with VoiceOver support. Details on what's included are available at MacRumors and iTunes.

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Here's How to Rip Apart a Computer and Melt the Circuit Boards for Gold (So You Can Survive the Next Financial Apocalypse) [Gold]

Screw the stock market, screw cash monies, I'm putting everything I have in gold. And you know where you can pan for gold these days? Your old computer. There's always been tiny traces of gold (some as thinner than human hair) on the circuit boards. Just rip 'em and melt 'em for a gold nugget.

At over $1900 an ounce—it's big time money making opportunity! And that's exactly what Jem Stansfield did. He cut apart his old computer circuit boards and ripped his old phone apart (there's gold in the SIM card port and numberpad) and then poured concentrated nitric acid (which dissolves a ton o' stuff) all over it. It didn't get rid of everything so he went bold: he used a concoction of acid to make all the gold disappear. A sorta reverse methodology. Once it turned to this disgusting black milky liquid, he added A LOT of super scientific powder to get gold and then blasted it with intense heat to make it shine once again. All that work and he made this:

I'm not about to suggest you take all your old computers and do the same but WE SHOULD ALL DO THE SAME THING. It's the modern day gold mining, people. Don't be left behind when I'm rolling the dough of multi-thousand dollar bills. Sure, you might melt your hand off with all that acid but gold! Gold! GOLD! Watch the entire video of what Jems Stanfield did here.[BBC]

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