It seems wind records aren’t the only vehicular-based records being broken this year. Pictured above is the 66-pound unnamed unmanned flying machine that broke a world record for the longest-lasting unmanned flight. It remained airborne for an unbelievable 83 hours and 37 minutes.

That’s three and a half days of non-stop flight thanks to it’s power source: lithium-sulfur batteries charged via solar panels during the day. The craft remained steady at a height of 60,000 feet while being flown by an autopilot guided by GPS. Who says you need a piloting license to operate an aircraft, let alone an actual pilot?

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This is the Greenbird. It might not look like much but it’s going for the world record of fastest wind-powered vehicle. It was designed by Dale Vince of Ecotricity and engineer Richard Jenkins. The current world record is 116.7 MPH and Dale Vince hopes to crush that speed at the dry salt flats at Lake LeFroy in Western Australia.

Using aeronautical techniques and merging them with marine and Formula One technologies, the Greenbird is part aeroplane, part sailboat and part race car. It’s a speed demon only when the wind is blowing. The light carbon composite structure gives it a light weight while the hard sail maximizes its wind thrust. Will it have what it takes to top the record speed? We shall see.

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This might look like a miniature Death Star but, in actuality, it’s a top secret spy cam. The DVR CamBall is the first ever digital video camera and MP3 player that’s as small as a ping-pong ball and able to record at 320×240 or 640×480 resolutions. What better way to sneak a camera into top-secret facilities than to roll it under the door. Unfortunately, once it’s out of your grasp their is little you can do to aim it.

That’s fine though, since this thing’s got the capability to hold up to 8GB of photos with an SD card. At $200, it comes with a couple of accessories including a tassel to wear the camera around your neck and an underwater case for snorkling shots that’ll turn you into a marine biologist in no time.

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But it could be…

Sound Chaser is so minimal, it’s fantastic. Flick a switch and it will follow a track made of records and play back the sound through a tiny speaker. Create a raceway resembling Monaco out of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” and let it roar. Looks like a great way to entertain your kids while you slip out for a quickie with the pool boy.

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A publicity stunt celebrating the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing leaves 2008 needles in Dr. Wei Sheng’s head as well as a few hundred in his shoulder (just for kicks).  When you’re already in the Guinness Book of World Records for sticking needles into your head, there is little you can do besides stick more needles in your head to attempt to break your own record. Dr. Wei Sheng, however, has decided to wear lipstick. What a fag.
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A few years ago, the phrase DVR meant TiVo. If you were recording TV shows, you were TiVoing. Times changed, TiVo panicked and the company stopped offering lifetime subscriptions. Ever since then, TiVo’s charisma has been flawed and the company has been offering extras to subscribers to placate them year after year.

Thankfully, the company has realized the error of its ways and will now offer lifetime subscriptions again. Unfortunately, the price-tag that comes with it isn’t all that great. Be prepared to shell out $399. Not only that, the subscription is box-specific, meaning that you can’t upgrade to that Series 3 without shelling out more bucks.

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Well, how about this for a twist in the DVR tale. A new patent filing hints that Apple could be planning to bring a Live TV recording feature to their Apple TV.

Not only will Apple TV users be able to browse and record live TV programming, but they’ll be able to watch their downloaded movies and TV programs purchased from iTunes. TiVo betta’ watch themselves. Apple is ready for a telemedia revolution. — Andrew Dobrow

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Momenta is one of the finalists in Microsoft’s Next-Gen PC Design competition, and it’s not wonder why. The neck-worn Momenta is designed to record your life in a rolling buffer, while actively reading your pulse.

When Momenta senses your heart rate increasing, it saves the previous five minutes of buffered video, acting as sort of a real life TiVo so you can watch later to see what it was that made your pulse rise. Momenta sure can provide some psychological clarity, but somewhere we know the real point is for friend’s to see your fears and turn-ons, and then make fun of them for you unmercifully. — Andrew Dobrow

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The Naaitafel holds a few distinctions among other conceptual art pieces. First off, it probably has the most awkwardly pronounced and worst named idea we’ve come across. Second off, it is a vintage mash-up of two old products, that produces something that should have been done a long time ago.

A sewing machine and a record player have very similar parts if you think about it. Both rely on a needle, both have a spindle, both are usually covered in dust. The combination just works. — Andrew Dobrow

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When it comes to SD (SDHC) card camcorders, few would deny that the Sanyo Xacti line is indeed one of the most popular products if not the best and most successful in the market. Digital camera giant Canon is planning to take Sanyo down with their new PowerShot TX1, equipped with a similar 7MP CCD sensor and the ability to record HD videos up to 1280×720pixels 30fps. What’s more is that Canon fitted in an optical anti-shake lens with 10x optical zoom, their DIGIC III image processing engine, other proprietary technologies such as face-recognition autofocus. The TX1 is also a lot smaller than the Xacti, measuring 29.0×59.9×88.8mm and weighing 220g. Sanyo must be very worried when Canon quoted the suggested retail price of 500USD (a whooping 300USD less than the Sanyo Xacti HD-2), you would lose the HDMI output and the ability of taking still pictures in the middle of video recording, but who cares, you can do a lot with the 300 bucks you save; besides, we have more faith in Canon optics. We have a picture of the TX1 flipped open after the jump.

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