It's not exactly the most elegant solution, but those looking to bring their still-kickin' NES a little (and we stress little) more in line with current-gen consoles now have a new option at their disposal, with the freshly-made Glider cart now offering downloadable content of sorts. To take advantage of that feature, however, you'll also need to snag yourself a USB CopyNES board (available for $70), which requires some cutting and soldering in order to be wrangled into your NES. If you're able to do that without doing some irreparable damage, you'll be able to connect your NES to your PC via USB and download new levels for Glider, which can be offloaded directly to the game thanks to its use of flashable cart. Not exactly the sort of thing that'll result in a spike of NES console sales on eBay, to be sure, but just imagine what your 1980s self would have thought of it.

[Via Gemaga, thanks J]

We've seen autonomous ocean gliders before, but the team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has just completed the first successful run of a glider that doesn't require its own power -- instead, it uses the heat difference between the warm upper layers of the ocean and the colder depths to propel itself. Not needing an internal power source let the glider traverse the Virgin Islands Basin between St. Thomas and St. Croix at depths of 13,000 feet over 20 times when it was launched in December, and the team estimates that it could run for another six months if necessary. The ocean's heat differential is a "virtually unlimited energy source," according to one Woods Hole researcher -- hmm, beach-charger, anyone?

[Thanks, Charlie]

We've all heard the diehards claiming that the whales are the ones we should save, and thanks to an autonomous glider crafted by Webb Research, they're finally getting their wish. Recently, a trial was pursued in which a radio / satellite phone-equipped Slocum Glider was sent up to 200-meters beneath the depths in order to survey, pinpoint, and record location data for various whale pods swimming about. The device then surfaces and "phones home" the recently gathered information, which can then be disseminated out to ensure nearby vessels don't enter whale-packed territories. Jim Theriault of Defense Research and Development Canada, Dartmouth ran the experiment, and noted that this iteration of whale sensing and reporting improved on previous attempts by being uber-stealthy, featuring a remote data reporting system, and boasting a signal processor capable of tracking even the baleen whale's "lower-frequency call." Currently, the torpedo runs on batteries which last a month or so without needing a recharge, but future renditions are planned to scour the waters for "between five months and a year" by utilizing a special recharging gel. Look for these to hit your nearest ocean later this summer, and try not to be too alarmed when it surfaces beside your craft.

[Via The Raw Feed]

We saw a few "Qool" (sorry, we were mandated to get that in) products at CeBIT this year: the QDA "Glider," QDA "Icon," and the Qool "Twins." The Twins come in two different flavors; the Twins 168 is a tri-band dual SIM handset that allows both SIMs to be active at all times. Rolling with CDMA? Then the T178 is for you, with tri-band GSM, plus a CDMA 800 / 1900 / 1X radio all in one set. This is top-shelf stuff if you are a business traveller -- no need to swap between SIMs to check your messages at home and throwing in the dual-purpose CDMA / GSM model does the same for CDMA users. The Glider is a quad-band Windows Mobile device with a sliding keypad, a 195MHz OMAP850 core, 2.8 inch touchscreen, Bluetooth 1.2, WiFi, EDGE data, and a 2 megapixel cam. This is a solid device and we absolutely loved the red backlit touch-controls mounted on the face. The QDA Icon is touted as the world's slimmest PDA phone with a 4 megapixel camera, and as such, it was given props with an Innovations honour at CES. The touchscreen QDA Icon is available in either dual-band GSM 900 / 1800 or 900 / 1900 versions, with the grunt delivered by a 200MHz OMAP730. Sadly, the only data options are Class 10 GPRS, Bluetooth 1.2 and USB -- no EDGE or HSDPA here.

The University of Washington's Deepglider won't go down as the first manmade projectile to scour the ocean for random (albeit useful) tidbits of information, but it does sport an ultra-modern frame and energy source that certainly sets it apart. Similar to the nuke detector, Edinburgh Duck, and the bevy of other submarines used for the benefit of mankind, this concoction is used to capture underwater data to aid researchers in discovering more about global warming and seafloor conditions, but its autonomous nature and carbon fiber enclosure gives it the ability to remain underwater "for up to a year" and sink to depths of nearly 9,000 feet. The 71-inch long, 138-pound device carries sensors to measure "oceanic conditions including salinity and temperature," and when not patrolling the seas based on satellite-driven controls, it can transmit the data remotely using the same signal path in reverse. Notably, the torpedo-like device boasts an energy-efficient, battery-powered design that allows it to stay submerged for ridiculous amounts of time without needing a recharge, and while we're not too sure if its researchers are too caught up in its unmatched diving abilities to notice how swank the power system is, they've apparently got a good thing going.

We've known MediaREADY a good long while for their all-inclusive set-top boxes, but their new Aero DAP, and it's forerunner, a nano-knockoff named Glider, have rather failed to excite. The new Aero player features MP3, WMA (no word on PlaysForSure), ASF and WAV playback, along with FM, voice recording and an "eye-popping" color selection (see above). The players range from 128MB to 2GB in storage capacity, and include USB 2.0 for speeding songs over to the boring little unit. Luckily, prices start at $29, so you might have one of the lamer MP3 players on the planet, but at least you'll have a bit of money in the bank. The Aero should be out this October.