[Photo from Gothamist]

The Smart Car is here, and Gothamist sent their friend Nick to give us his full report on the car that many of us have been coveting. Here is the consensus:

"Look at the Smart as a practical car that's easier to use in an urban environment than anything else, and you'll be happy. Look at it as fundamentally altering the way Americans think about transportation though, and you'll be disappointed."

The smart car isn't as green as every makes it out to be, averaging only around 38mpg, nor is it electric. Though very compact, it's not as small as you might think. The 6'2" Nick sat comfortably in driver's seat. It feels safe, with a steel roll cage surrounding you and airbags encompassing, you will be able to zip through traffic like no SUV or sedan ever could (did we mention the awesome parking spots you'll be able to score?-see above). Nick is also quick to point out that it's not cheap (the one above was $18,500), nor "Gay". We think it's adorable.

Wanna know what we found (with the help of thecoolhunter) that's even cooler than the new toy everyone has been talking about? (Macbook Air) It's the iPod Conerto Table by Lovegrove & Repucci.

Ever want to act like you could dine in your own place with the most beautiful piece by Mozart being played in the background each night, on your very own grand piano? This table is for you. With a mounted base and speaker system for you iPod, just one open of the lid reveals two surface mounted speakers. For only $1400 USD, you can choose between the black or white model, and wow your future dinner guests as you will, no doubt, have the coolest new apartment accessory around. Would also serve as a great desk in any office....we want, we want!

[Photo from Gizmodo]

Our favorite Deity Steve Jobs just finished delivering his 2008 keynote speech, seconds ago, at MacWorld. Gizmodo is covering the entire event live since it started at 9:00 am Pacific Time (as is every other blogger out there it seems). A quick run down on what has happened so that you won't be the only odd man out at your dinner party tonight.

1. Unleashed a newer version of the "Time Capsule" which will help you back up your Macs wirelessly.

2. iPhone has been on the market for 200 days today. There have been roughly 4 million sold (averages out to 20,000 a day), and grabbed the second spot in the market (under RIM) in only one quarter's time. They have partnered with Google and Skyhook to make location tracking for their maps possible without using GPS, but instead using wi-fi locations and cell phone towers.

3. iTunes Movie Rentals. They have signed on with every major film studio and will have 1,000 films available by February. (Old releases are $2.99, new ones are $3.99). You can purchase a movie and then watch on Macs, PCs, ipods, iphones, etc and transfer back and forth. You can also watch on the new:

4. Apple TV. Price slashed today to $229, no computer is required to view anything from imovies, to flickr photos to youtubes, all transferable to your HD television sets.

5. Finally he unveils the Macbook Air (shown above). The smallest, sleekest, most powerful notebook computer yet. At 3 pounds you can fit this sucker into a manilla folder (which Steve demonstrated). It is 56% less volume than the MacBook, goes for $1799 and will be available in 2 weeks. Steve Jobs should run for president.

[Photo from Racked]

Looks like Upper West Siders will have something shiny to ring in the new year. It has been confirmed by several sources that Apple will be taking over the old Victoria Secret's store on the NW corner of 67th and Broadway, and help in Steve Jobs attempt for total world domination. The THREE other stores (Soho, 5th, and Meatpacking) are jam packed all day long. It seems like only yesterday we were jamming into the Soho location to get our hands on those shiny, bulky 30MG ipods...now we will have our choice of all ipods, nanos, ipod video, iphones, and all things apple in yet another "unhipstery" location. Now located in every fine shopping center throughout the country, we've gotten ourselves into some serious "Apple Maddness", leaving us wondering if there will be an "Apple Relapse" from the very hipsters that helped catapult the brand to greatness.

Maybe Kristian Laliberte wasn't as confused as everyone thought. This Thursday there really is going to be a party for "The Smartest Kids in the Room", an insider party to

"reveal our plan to infiltrate the media for the next three months and discuss our launch party in March. We will be explaining our view of how the media game works in New York, and we want to invite our closest allies to come and play."

Wow. Well we're flattered we're on the invite list, just not sure if this famegame is something we should embrace or not. We have open minds, but this thing has been around for awhile and hasn't really created much of a stir, however, we do occasionally miss our socialiterank so maybe this will help fill that void, at least for awhile until people start getting bored with this highschoolish popularity game that is our city. Oh wait, that's NEVER going to happen! Game on!

Curious about just exactly what FameGame is? Direct from the invite...

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Merriam-Webster announced today that the 2007 word of the year is "w00t"

w00t (interjection). expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"

Based on reader votes, this commonly used word among techies beat out "facebook" and "conundrum" for word of the year. You may remember our love of the "woot-offs"and all things woot....

[Photo from Racked]

Omg everyone!...the new Apple store on the corner of 14th and 9th will be opening tomorrow!  We will stay far away for awhile, but see this addition as a smart one for the company.  First of all, EVERY other Apple store we've ever been to has been jam packed at all hours, so it makes complete sense that they continue to open especially in the Meatpacking district, home of many the foreign tourist already (you know how much they dig Apple shit).  Maybe this addition will mean that there will be less traffic in some of our favorite boutiques down there as well.  Anyway, here are the details (via Gizmodo):

• Apple's first three-story glass staircase (pictured above)

• 46-foot Genius Bar capable of serving 100 tech-support seekers per hour with 12 stations. It isn't the longest GB in the world though; somewhere there's a 50 footer.

• Pro Labs: Free multi-session classes in Logic, Final Cut and Aperture. Six students sign up for 2hrs, once a week for four weeks. The classes are intense and totally free, starting Jan. 7

• It won't be open 24 hours like the Fifth Avenue store, but it will be open til midnight.

• A Concierge team wearing light blue shirts will be on hand to show off all the shop's wares.

• A total of 175 employees will work the store, mostly veterans from other NYC stores.

• This store will have an entire floor dedicated to service, that's 50% more total space for tech support and education than any other Apple Store.

The nippy weather is not going to have any affect on the line that is, no doubt, already in formation.  Get there early if you want to get in on the fun...or do what we do and continue to make fun of people that wait in lines.

Last night we finally went to Fuerzabruta, the unique production by Argentinian Diqui James of "De La Guarda". After reading about this show in the Times back in August, we decided we wanted to check it out, and we are glad we actually followed through last night. Fuerzabruta is a "wordless fushion of physical and visual feats"...what this really means is that it is 70 minutes of non-stop stimulation similar to being fucked up on drugs. For those spectators that actually were high on something, we have no idea what kind of world they could have possibly been going on in their heads during this show. It was a pretty intense one for us stone sober.

Diqui James along with musical composer Gaby Kerpel wanted to create a "new project with the objective to create a company that continues the creative search of motivation and innovation." One in which "The public doesn't take part, they form part. Injured. Celebrating."

"We want to break intellectual submission of the language."

What this translates to is a lot of fucked up dance moves, thumping techno music, and crazy ass props surrounding you that leaves you wondering just what drugs these two were to come up with something like this. We felt like we were in a scene from Minority Report. When walking home we discussed what the meaning behind the different scenes were throughout the show. The struggles against life? Against our own Humanity? Individuals banding together to overcome the forces of nature? You can imagine how dumb we felt when we read this morning on the website from the creaters themselves that "No one knows the meaning of the work because it doesn't have one. A door is a door. It doesn't mean more or less than that."

Wow, so the work has no meaning. This explains why the best audience members were the sweaty tweenagers in all their glory. Braced-faces and awkward conversations surrounded us. The few "real adults" there stood on the outer edges of the circle by us, mostly annoyed by the forced moving of the crowd, though satisfied at times by the display. Our favorite part was of course the water scene in which a huge mylar pool ascends down on you and female dancers move about above. You have to watch the youtube we found on it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4wTGmYH7U]

The teenage boys no doubt especially enjoyed these scenes that left little to the imagination. For all things Fuerzabruta go here...also, we recommend a couple of cocktails or whatever other poison of your choice before going. This is a show that the broadway strike will not affect so it could be perfect for your visiting parents this holiday season. You may just want to check it out first to make sure they are the kinds of older set that would enjoy this sort of thing. It could be just the thing to bring them back to their own old club days.

Maybe what I’m about to disclose to you makes me a huge dork in your eyes, or maybe you can relate…I don’t really care what side you take, here are the facts: A CONSIDERABLE amount of my time in high school was spent playing Drug Wars on my TI-86 calculator. By considerable, I’m talking substantial. It all started when I somehow got (mistakenly) placed in the AP Calculus class as a sophomore. There were only a couple other sophomores in this mostly senior class and, well, I didn't have any friends at all. Now I don't want you to feel sorry for me. Once I found my beloved Drug Wars 2.0 I wouldn't have wanted to chit chat with anyone after that anyway. You see, that semester, what started out as me being a timid, shy sophomore dork, morphed into what ended as me being one of the slickest drug lords around. Drug Wars, the highly addictive calculator game made for various Texas Instrument Calcs (ours were mostly TI-86’s), helped me get through those long afternoons in calc class more than Rob, the hot senior quarterback that sat in front of me.

First of all you have to understand that although I’m not ANCIENT or anything, we still didn’t have blackberries or iPhones bouncing around in our uniformed pockets. Even if you did have a cell phone, or the more popular pager, you couldn’t use it in school unless you wanted to risk a demerit. That left us with little else to occupy our brain powers while we should have been using them to figure out derivative functions in calculus. So we turned to the games, and drug wars was my specialty.

Ah Drug Wars….where do I start? If you have ever played the game you know it’s absolutely one of the best things created out of a calculator. Here’s the deal:

OBJECTIVE: To make the most amount of money selling drugs in NYC in 30 days.

PREMISE: The player is a drug dealer living in NYC traveling around the various areas such as the Bronx, the Ghetto, Manhattan, Coney Island, and Brooklyn. Along the way, you buy and sell various drugs including Cocaine, Heroin, Acid, Weed, Speed, and Ludes. You start with $2k and 100 “spaces” in your pocket and no weapons. You have to deal with loan sharks (for your initial capital investments), weapons dealers, and my favorite, “Officer Hardass”. Hardass randomly confronts you during the game and you can either run or fight him (if you have weapons). Also random events like muggings, drug sales, increased drug prices, and the finding of drugs occur.

END: The game ends after 30 days of wheeling and dealing. Final score is calculated by taking the players current amount of cash and multiplying it by two.

STRATEGIES: The basic strategy is to buy a drug in one location at one price and travel to another location to sell it for a higher price (arbitrage). A skilled player must know the standard price of all drugs to realize when it is cheap, and take advantage of fluctuations in the market

You may have come across the game under one of it's other names: Druglord or Dope Wars. All you needed was a TI calculator and one of those cords to get started. What was also great about this game is that you could save it and come back to it later...something that the TI-83 version had previously lacked.

The funny thing about my experience with Drug Wars is that I probably learned more relevant entrepreneurial skills playing that game than any class taught me. Once I found out the "cool kids" were all playing as well, I earned their respect with my high score, reflected after taking advantage of the increased price of Heroin in Coney Island. Who knew that a calculator game could single handedly educate me in all things regarding drug trades in NYC, a place I unknowingly would reside in down the road, as well as win me a date to the prom?

Two really cool things we came across and wanted to share

The first has to do with our favorite toy, LEGO. The Storefront for Art and Architecture at Kenmare and Lafayatte is currently showcasing conceptual urban housing designs and one is an amazing version of New York City created out of Legos. We haven't seen it yet, but apparently the details are intense and include New Yorkers doing various things including street graffitti, working, going to Dean & Deluca, and even going at it. Gothamist does a good job reporting on the exhibit as well as a link to a fantastic flickr site with tons of photos to check out. Oh and get there before November 24th.

Second, brings us to the amazing work they are doing at Sony BRAVIA. They released their "play-doh" commercial October 4th but we just saw it today and thought it was pretty f-ing cool. It is the most ambitious piece of stop-motion animation ever undertaken. Created by ad agency Fallon London, the commercial took a team of 40 animators three weeks choreographing the models to create the 100,000 still images required to produce the 60-second ad.

"Technically this is the most difficult thing I have ever done," said the ad's director, Frank Budgen. "It is an incredibly difficult situation to control. You have New Yorkers wandering through frames and you have no say over it because we're doing it for real." Previous ads by BRAVIA have included releasing 250,000 bouncing balls on San Francisco and creating pyrotechnical paint display in Glasgow, though the latest one in the Financial District of NYC tops them all. Watch the video below which, besides the bunnies includes effects such as a 200 square foot purple plasticine wave and a whale "swimming" through the streets of Manhattan - all while locals go about their daily lives.

Last night, members of the elite social network asmallworld recieved an email debuting the new president and CEO of the company Joe Robinson.  Though he officially accepted the position in January, he apparently didn't feel comfortable enough yet in the role to make a formal announcement until yesterday (maybe the fact that he's made only 241 friends on the site has something to do with it?)-we kid, we kid.  In any event, his email outlined the changes that he will be starting to implement based on various feedback he's been receiving and will include things like:

-Automatic email reminders for messages, changes, etc.

-Improved design and layout of the site including new navigation and improved forum and message search function.

-A regular member newsletter and official introduction of the ASW Magazine

-Picture galleries, sharing and picture management for profiles, new tools such as friend notifications and powerful events/personalized calendar

-Travel Contests, hotel give-aways and member parties around the world.

There is a link to a video of Joe further describing his new role here. This is all too much for us to take in at once.  We really liked the fact that ASW kept things clean and simple and are a little bit disappointed that they will be falling to all the bells and whistles like the other social networking sites.  Then again, it would be pretty sweet to see some of Harvey Weinstein's personal pictures online.