Gearfuse

Japanese students lucky enough to snatch a free iPhone 3G from their school shouldn’t get too excited just yet. Your universities mean serious business. The iPhone might just be a smart ploy to get your asses in school.

A Japanese university has started to employ a special school attendance app which keeps track of whether you show your face in class or not. So not only are the iPhones to be used for studying purposes, but you can bet your academic arse that officials will be checking GPS records as well. So, you know what you do? Switch off with your friend, once every other day, give your friend your phone to bring to class. Let them deal with it.

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Consider yourself a huge college basketball fan? Excellent. If you own an iPhone, your day just got a whole lot brighter. CBS Sports is teaming up with MobiTV in an effort to offer 63 NCAA basketball games for free on the iPhone. The app, which goes on sale today for $4.99, will allow users with an iPod Touch or iPhone to connect to a WiFi network and choose a game to watch. Away on business in Florida and want to watch the Duke game? No problem.

So essentially, for $5, you get access to a shitload of basketball games. This is something I’d like to see happen with the NFL. I’d gladly shell out $20 for an app that lets me watch my New York Giants games. Wouldn’t you?

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I know college can be expensive but this story is ridiculous. 22-year-old Natalie Dylan needs money to pay for graduate school but doesn’t feel like working an honest job to obtain it. Instead, after learning that her sister had made mucho bucks from being a prostitute for three weeks, she decided to auction off her virginity to pay for her tuition. Classy, right? Apparently. Natalie’s bidding has gone up to $3.2 million, as it seems rich businessmen are doing anything for some vagina nowadays. After all, sex sells.

Don’t feel bad, either. Natalie says she isn’t being taken advantage of, but rather is just doing some study that helps “empower” her or some other lingo bullshit. Anyways, if you want her V-Card, you better get on it and take out a second mortgage.

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When we last heard about Jimmy Lemke the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior was in deep trouble for trying to plan a block party on Facebook. More than 5,000 people signed up to attend Jimmy’s big bash last weekend and the huge guest list caused local cops and university officials to crack down on the party. Jimmy was told to cancel the fiesta and warned that he would face serious consequences if anyone showed up ready to rock out. I checked in with Jimmy to see if he survived his social networking ordeal.

I got in touch with Jimmy through, what else, a message on Facebook to see how things went last. Jimmy told me that there were “no problems” and that “everything worked out well.” It looks like Jimmy learned from his bad Facebook experience, because he didn’t respond when I sent him a second message asking for more info about what went down. Perhaps Jimmy Lemke’s wisely decided to stay away from Facebook for awhile.

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student named Jimmy Lemke tried to plan a block party on Facebook and now he’s in hot water with school officials, his neighbors, and the local SWAT team.

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So, you want to work in the game industry. You want to live, breathe, think, screw and shit video games for the rest of your life. Unless you want to be a master of the custodial arts, game design is the last thing you’ll want to major in. As Frank Caron of Ars Technica points out, the game industry is a very brutal and competitive field. He offers some words of wisdom for those actively pursuing their dreams by suggesting more broad majors just so you have skills to fall back on in case the game industry’s doors were closed.

A few lucky souls may wind up producing art or doing programming for projects directly out of trade school, but for the vast majority, unemployment at the hands of a limited skill set will be the unfortunate reality.

Ouch. Thanks to Frank, if you want to get your foot in the door of the industry, you know what to do. Broaden your skills, whether it be computer graphics, programming or both. Last but not least, kiss as much ass as possible.  My advice? Become an indie developer.

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If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably noticed the new layout by now. While it has plenty of flaws, overall, it really helps blend the site together properly. A lot of my friends tend to not agree with me and switch back to the old version but soon they’ll be shit out of luck. Come September, Facebook will permanently switch over to the new layout. Says a Facebook exec:

“Around 20% of our users have now migrated to the new platform and it has been received well after people get used to it”

That’s not a good sign, so we’ll see what kind of chaos takes place next month when everyone is struggling to update their status. Personally, I think if you play with the design and UI enough, you’ll enjoy it. At least Facebook has instant messaging down pretty well.

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Today’s New York Times reports that many colleges are giving away free iPhones or the iPod Touch to their students. Apple hopes to hook new customers with the program and the schools involved hope to improve communications, test educational applications, and allow online research in class. Many professors are concerned that the devices will be a distraction.

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Not for those with severe scoliosis, the Reppo II Backpack Boombox from designer Joonas Saaranen packs in a pair of full-range speakers and an amplifier for jamming to tunes as you stroll around campus, as well as providing everyone around you with a bass-induced migraine. Needs more sub-woofer (and cowbell).

So far, Saaranen has gotten as far as creating a functional prototype for the Reppo II, yet has no comment on whether he plans on pursuing a mass-production of the backpack. Could it be the reestablishment of the boombox as we know it? — Andrew Dobrow

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So you got a Target giftcard for Christmas; do you have any plans for it? If you are a college student and don’t have a dish washer, here’s the answer. This is the countertop dish dryer. So maybe it won’t wash your dishes, that just means that you have to wash with soap, but it definitely will save you precious time that you would normally have wasted on drying those dishes with a cloth.

• 34 liter large capacity dish dryer can store up to 4 large size dishes, 8 medium size dishes, 6 small dishes, and 6 sets of chopsticks
• Fast hot air circulation promotes fast drying process with one touch
• Overheat protection installation and auto shut-off if the temperature exceeds 85°C
• Resists heat, prevents breakage and distortion

Why does it have a count for the amount of chopsticks that you can stuff in there? Shouldn’t it count forks or spoons? At least the china in the picture is pretty. — Nik Gomez

Countertop Dish Dryer [via OhGizmo!]