Gardeners Dig These Gadgets

Light shines through dark background, new owners complain

(NEWSER) - The iPad 2 is still brand spankin' new to the market, but glitch reports are already coming in: Apple's latest darling may have a “bleeding” problem, Gizmodo reports. Check out the video in the gallery: Light shines oddly from the side of the machine, cutting through an image that’s supposed to be all black. It’s not yet known whether this is a general problem or just an issue in a few machines—but with blogs like Engadget also reporting the story, Apple may be in for a headache. More»

New offerings can be used as hammers, soaked, dropped

(NEWSER) - The iPhone might be pretty, but it’s probably best not to use it as a hammer. If you’re looking for a phone that can handle such treatment—and can be thrown, showered with, or plunged into beer—your best bet may be one of the rugged models from firms such as Nokia and Sonim. “Some people just want a device that is built to last,” Sonim’s CEO tells Wired. More»

Even if you don't drink, hop vines can be an attractive garden addition

(NEWSER) - Sure, anyone can buy a home beer-making kit. But why not go one step further and grow the hops yourself? That’s what Ben Granger, owner of a specialty beer shop, decided to do when he turned to home brewing. “I wanted to know what I was working with, from start to finish,” he tells the New York Times—and as a bonus, the fast-growing, dramatic vines give an aesthetic boost to even non-drinkers' gardens. More»

(NEWSER) - They can't quite Twitter, but plants have sophisticated means of communication nonetheless, reports the Telegraph. A new study suggests they use complex chemical signals to discuss both predators and pollinators. In one test, sagebrush shrubs whose neighbors had their leaves clipped, as if by grasshoppers, appeared to grow more resilient, suggesting they'd been warned. More»

Mossberg and Swisher: it's an iPhone revolution

(NEWSER) - Web 2.0’s a thing of the past, write Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher for All Things D. "Something major is happening at the intersection of tech and media, and we think it deserves its own new hyped-up name,” they announce. Web 3.0 is the era of “the thin client, running clean, simple software, against cloud-based data and services”—and the leaders of the revolution are the iPhone and iPod Touch. More»