What's creepier than automatically informing Twitter every time your unborn child kicks his mother's womb? Giving all your Twitter followers a live feed of your heartbeat, including canned messages to announce your death in case you cease pumping Cheeto-infused blood through your goth-nerdy veins. This Japanese DIY project has open source schematics and is designed to bypass a PC and send the news of your heart hiccups directly the internet. Check out the appropriately dramatic video after the break.

Sure VIZIO only just showed off new updates in its high end XVT series, but it's already planning the next generation of LCDs with VIZIO Internet Apps included. Packing widget functionality, 802.11n wireless networking and slider QWERTY Bluetooth remote, the SV422XVT, SV472XVT and VF552XVT Connected HDTVs are coming home in November, October and December, respectively. Already on deck to serve up content for your widgets are Vudu, Revision3, Facebook, Twitter, Rhapsody, Blockbuster OnDemand, Showtime, Flickr and more. The biggest surprise? There's apparently no price premium planned for these features, with the 55-inch clocking in at the same $2,199 price as the model it's replacing, though the 47-inch jumps $200 over the previous edition to $1,699, while adding the local dimming LED backlit technology previously reserved for the 55-inch. The 42-inch will be the first and cheapest available at $1,199 (sans LED) -- we'll see if that bar is low enough to get viewers to jump into the internet-connected display future.

Read - VIZIO Announces High Performance XVT HDTV Line Up with 240Hz SPS(TM), TruLED(TM) and Smart Dimming(TM) Technology, VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA), and Slim Line(TM) 120Hz LCD HDTV Models
Read - VIZIO Unveils Rhapsody Digital Music Service for VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA(TM)) Connected HDTVs
Read - VIZIO Reveals Dynamic New Content Partners for VIZIO Internet Apps Connected HDTV Feature

Microsoft is busy announcing a slew of upgrades to Xbox Live, and the biggest news so far is relaunch of the video service, now Zune-branded with 1080p instant-on streaming content in 18 countries. XBL is also now integrated with Facebook -- your Facebook account can be linked to your Gamertag, and games will support Facebook Connect for sharing content online. That's pretty huge -- but if that wasn't enough, you're also getting Twitter and Last.fm in the deal. Want more? Netflix users will now be able to browse the entire catalog instead of simply loading their queue, and Microsoft has also gotten its Party Watch system in order, so you'll be able to heckle videos with your online friends. Last but not least, there's now live TV streaming for UK and Ireland gamers, who'll get Premier League soccer live from Sky. All in all, a solid set of updates for XBL -- but we'll wait and see how that "1080p" video looks before we pronounce Blu-ray dead. PR blurb after the break.

The future of the Zune continues to be awfully cloudy: although the Twitter account @officethemovie was directly linked from Microsoft's Office 2010 promo site earlier today, company spokesperson Brian Seitz just pinged us to say that those Zune rumors posted to the account weren't exactly on the up-and-up:

That account is bunk. Not run by Microsoft so I would not put much stock in what they say. The real Office movie account is http://twitter.com/office2010movie.

Of course, that's a denial focused on the source of the rumors, not their content, so we're guessing something more serious is going on -- we've got a feeling whoever was running that account spoke out of turn, especially since Brian himself promised new Zune hardware this year. Regardless, the lesson stands: people on Twitter will lie to you until you are penniless and alone, and then they will kill and eat you.

Update: Yep, the account is a fake -- the person who created it has fessed up to pulling the hoax as a publicity stunt for some rambling iPhone piracy article he wrote, which is an excellent way to be ignored forever.

You may not have heard of the Celery fax-to-email service for the elderly in the past, but now that the company's rolling out Twitter and Facebook integration we'd bet it's the hottest ticket on the 4PM dinner scene -- Nanna's always had a thing for Ashton, after all. Built around a Lexmark fax machine (or your own, if you have one) the Celery service allows the computer-illiterate to send and receive emails, tweets, and Facebook status messages by simply writing down messages and faxing 'em out -- incoming messages can be printed out individually or in digest form to cope with volume. Add in a dash of RSS integration and hell, you've basically got the world's clunkiest netbook on your hands. Yep, interesting, but we'd almost rather pay the $14 / month service fee to make sure Nan never, ever sees our Facebook or Twitter pages.

We'll be honest, we're always on the lookout for faster and better ways to annoy our Twitter followers with hopelessly mundane status updates, and this brain-control interface from the University of Wisconsin's Adam Wilson seems to be the perfect to get all Scoble on it with a minimum of effort -- you think it, you tweet it. Okay okay, we kid -- it's actually just the usual brainwave-control setup you've seen everywhere, and the average user can only do ten characters a minute, but think of the potential, people. Soon everyone will know that you are "Walking on sidewalk, LOL" almost the second you think it, and all it will take is a mindreading cap paired with a sophisticated computers running an advanced signal processing algorithm connected to the massive infrastructure of the internet via a multibillion-dollar mobile broadband network. That's progress. Video after the break.

[Via Hack A Day]

What goes well with a communication-enabled water dish? Why, a Twitter / RFID-enabled kitty door, of course! The so-called Tweeting Cat Door is undoubtedly the most hilarious, insightful and useful DIY contraption we've ever seen to wed RFID, social networking and computer programming. Essentially, this homegrown cat door was crafted to only open when Gus or Penny walks up with their super special RFID tags; once they approach, a mounted camera snaps a picture and uploads it (along with a quip) to Twitter. Don't deny it -- your feline is steaming with envy from the corner of your desk right now.

[Via Switched]

When we got wind of Cisco's $590 million acquisition of Flip Video-maker Pure Digital, we immediately came to grips with the fit. After all, Cisco's been dying to pull another Linksys for some time now, and what better to expand its consumer electronics presence than with a cheap-o camcorder that's ripe for the addition of WiFi. Bigwig (and Pure Digital founder) Jonathan Kaplan recently sat down to talk about the product's future, and unsurprisingly, he definitely mentions the integration of Cisco's "strengths" into the handheld camcorder. Furthermore, he's hoping that an entity as large as Cisco can get the Flip Video line overseas, and he's also quite big on "building the brand." The takeaway? Don't be alarmed when a WiFi-equipped, streaming-capable successor hits the scene at CES 2010, complete with automatic upload-to-YouTube functionality.

We know you've been losing sleep just wondering how on earth General Motors plans to get OnStar users to keep on using once their free year is up, but apparently someone up top has been doing a bit more than just mulling. Gearlive received quite the interesting survey from OnStar this week, with a paragraph clearly explaining how Twitter integration would work should it come to the in-car alert / communication system. Essentially, the system could be programmed to read back tweets directed at you and convert your voice to text in order to upload new tweets. Envision this: you tweet that you're headed to Forks, Washington, and you ask your thousands of followers to name a good place to buy garlic. Magical, no?

We'll go ahead and warn you that a lot has changed since 2007, but if anything, the surge in Twitter users and the overwhelming growth in social networking would likely strengthen these findings. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just revealed some rather interesting stats from its study of age groups and their connection to mobile technology, particularly when looking at the "Ambivalent Networkers" group. Said clump is comprised mostly of males in their late 20s, which are stereotypically connected to their handsets at all times with a smile to go with it. According to the research, however, the majority of this group agreed that "taking a break is definitely a good idea," which was around ten percentage points above the average in the other four groups. We know you're about to tweet this to your 27 year old brother-in-law, but think twice before you knowingly hurt his soul like that.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Apple can be slow to act on user outcry at times, but it looks like the curious, discouraging case of Tweetie 1.3's App Store denial has come to a quick and painless resolution. There's no telling if it was the shouting proles that moved Apple to act, or perhaps a spoonfull of common sense -- Tweetie was apparently rejected on the grounds that it let people read swear words on the internet --- but whatever might have happened behind closed doors in Cupertino, Tweetie 1.3 is at last free to roam on the App Store, according to a Tweet from Tweetie developer Loren Brichter. Now all we need for eternal happiness is a clearly defined set of guidelines for App Store approval, a consistent appeals process, and some Nutella.

[Via The iPhone Blog]

Hey New Yorkers, did you get a chance to check out last week's Greener Gadgets conference? If not, you missed out on some killer eco gadgetry and discussion, including a panel on electronics recycling from our own Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky. As the dust settled on the main event, the design competition, Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone's Tweet-a-watt walked away with top honors. The service, which automatically updates Twitter with your power usage, beat out a coin-operated electrical piggy bank dubbed the Power Hog, a decidedly un-electronic indoor drying rack, and a hand-powered portable laundry machine, the Laundry Pod. Congratulations to all who won and participant; hit up the read link for a full list of the finalists.

[Via MAKE]