We've accomplished many an hour of restful, mugger-prone napping on the subway, but there's always the danger of missing your stop -- a problem we're usually too drowsy to consider at 2am in the morning. Not clever hacker Pyocotan, however. This resourceful fellow has built the Noriko-san sleeping mask for fashion-forward commuters, which broadcasts your destination to fellow passengers on a garish LED display, while you're busy getting some shut-eye underneath the mask -- in the hope that they'll be kind enough to wake you up at the right stop after they've rid you of your iPod and wallet. With a cost of $200 in parts, and considerable impracticality to boot, this device isn't quite ready for the commercial sphere, but that's of little concern to Pyocotan -- he's just busy being awesome. Video is after the break.

[Via Make]

Merely hours after hearing that a contactless payment trial was going live on San Francisco's BART, along comes word that a test of a slightly different nature was also underway on the very same public transportation system. Reportedly, a recent Wi-Fi Rail installation on a select stretch of track proved that WiFi could be delivered to passengers at around 15Mbps -- up and down -- and if things go smoothly, the firm hopes to get its technology onto all sorts of rail systems across the globe. Unfortunately, there doesn't look to be any firm plans for the trial to stick on BART, but who knows, keep on refreshing that nearby network list on the morning commute and you might just get lucky.

At first listen, one may assume that leaping onto subway tracks for an iPhone is completely and utterly insane, and while we'd tend to agree, it's not like we haven't seen folks do similarly zany things in the heat of the moment. Reportedly, a vacationer in New York recently dropped his iPhone down onto the subway tracks while shuttling back home, and after realizing his dear mobile was missing and backtracking quite a ways, his pal finally spotted it down below. As you can probably imagine, the crazed owner leaped down, snagged the scratched up (but still fully functional) device and managed to climb back out unscathed. Granted, we can only imagine how painful it would be to drop even more dough on yet another iPhone when all that stands between you and your current one is a leap of faith, but we'd probably just ask one of those friendly MTA employees to help us out before going mano a mano with the Reaper.

[Via Switched]

Because all of the posters plastered on every single surface on the inside of the cars is clearly not enough advertising for your average subway passenger, London is poised to light up a half-kilometer-long LED display in the tunnel between Heathrow and Paddington Station. Manufactured by Canadian firm SideTrack, the simulated video system -- which is composed of 360 individual LED bars synchronized to train speeds -- will replace a static version already installed along the same Heathrow Express route, thus allowing officials to change the message without swapping out physical signage. No word yet on who the premiere advertiser will be, but this medium would seem like a good way for rental car companies to make a compelling point: "Avoid these crappy ads, rent from Avis next time."

[Thanks, Jamie D.]

After holding out for years, MTA has finally caved to the public's demand for cellphones in New York subways. New York City Transit has announced a deal with Transit Wireless, who's forking out $46.8 million over 10 years for the privilege of installing service in the 277 underground stations currently lacking coverage. Cell phone providers will have to pay Transit Wireless for their customers to be able to roam onto the subway network, but it's hard to feel sorry for them: a consortium of major providers, including Verizon and Sprint offered up a mere $40 (not a typo) to install similar coverage. The good news for subway passengers loathe to have the privacy of their commute interrupted by rude cellphone talkers is that coverage won't be extended to train tunnels, only the stations, meaning passengers will have to take care of business before they get on the train. Proponents cite the need for passengers to be able to text message and call out of stations in the case of emergencies, but we're just glad to finally step into a station without going through internet withdrawls. The first six stations should have coverage in two years, and once proven the system will expand to the rest of the stations in the following four years.

[Via textually.org]

Those crazies over at LAPTOP Magazine got it in their heads to do a bit of social experimentin' with one of Dell's 18 pound XPS M2010 monstrosities. They lugged the 20-inch system through the subway, a Starbucks and a park in search of reactions from Manhattanites, and while we won't spoil all the surprises, the fact that they even got noticed on the subway is quite a testament to the fact that this thing just doesn't belong off a desk. (We even got mugged and beaten for our RAZR one time, and not a person batted an eye.) In summary, you'd have to be a bit off your rocker -- and/or an editor at a consumer tech magazine with way too much free time -- to attempt a portable lifestyle with the M2010, but we're guessing you could've figured that one out one your own.