Several years ago (when I was a teenager) I was using Bluetooth to transfer files back and forth from my phone to my computer, and I pondered: Why can’t power be wirelessly transmitted? That has to happen soon; it can’t be that hard.

In 2009, PowerMat (videos) is releasing a range of products that charge/power any device wirelessly. All you do is place your device (iPods, lamps, computers, mobile phones) on the PowerMat and it charges without the use of cables needing to connect from each device to the wall.

My vision was a product that could beam wireless power throughout a room or even a house, but you have to start somewhere, right?

It’s also a safe and environmentally beneficial wireless method for transmitting electricity at a wide range of power levels. If you’re charging a device, it will either be disconnected from the PowerMat or turned off when it’s charge is complete. That is cool!

Now imagine if every surface in your house was a PowerMat. Your toaster, sandwich press, and blender could all be moved anywhere in the kitchen for convenience. Of course, having marble countertops wouldn’t be a problem at all. Imagine placing your flat screen TV on top of a table and having it power on. Then, you have the frustration of the HDMI, optical in/out, and surround sound cables. Hehe.

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Today marks a week since Twestival 2009! The festival took place in over 202 locations. Great effort everyone!

Results

As of the 18th of February, 2009, the total raised from the global Twestival even is $250,000 USD. That is expected to rise over $300,000 USD due to the fact that donations from over 80 cities are still waiting to be confirmed.

Is $250,000 a lot?

$250,000 USD = 55 water projects in Ethiopia, Uganda and India – clean water for just over 17,000 people.

Can we do more?

Of course! charity: water is continuously accepting donations for the water projects happening in developing nations. 100% of the tax-deductable donations go to the charity.

One of the biggest Twestivals — Twestival L.A. — was co-organized by Daynah. She’s a great member of the Viddler community, and everyone was talking about her at the event.

Check out the coverage of Twestival L.A. by Mahalo Daily (subscribe). See if you can count how many times Daynah is mentioned. Then triple it and donate that much or more to charity: water.

If you have some video from the Twestival you attended, please link it up below!

Many manufacturers impose restrictions on what you can do on their devices. Why should a car be only allowed to drive on the road? What if we wanted to fly somewhere… Well, Too Smart Guys (subscribe) haven’t tackled that one (yet), but they’ve hacked many other devices such as Apple iPhones and Nintendo Wiis.

At this point in time, almost every single device that requires electricity as some piece of software in it. When there’s software, there’s a way to hack that software. The manufacturers won’t tell you this, but a geek will.

Meet Pox and Ragable. They’re two guys too smart for their own good. So, they are pawning off their knowledge on to you with quick how-tos in how to hack anything.

In this episode they hack the AppleTV. Apple, Inc is known for their harsh lockdowns on many of their products. Never fear! Too Smart Guys are here!

If you have a nifty hack that you’d like to get featured on The Viddler Blog and front page, just send me a message and I’ll hook you up!

If you’ve ever seen the BMW Gina Concept car, you’ll definitely appreciate the effect David Perel from OBOX Design is about to show you in the screencast below.

From the Couch (subscribe) is a Web TV Show that was created at the end of 2008 by brothers and founders of OBOX Design, David and Mark Perel. The guys give you tips on CSS, creating websites from scratch, and they keep you up to date with happenings on the web. They also review websites and keep you up to date with news about OBOX and the realities of running a small web company.

In this video David quickly teaches you how to create the effect of a flexible material (such as what the BMW Gina is covered in; hence David calls it The “Gina” Effect) extruding from your web page — or other graphic design — using Fireworks CS4. There’s nothing better than a tutorial that only goes for four minutes. And… go!

If you haven’t checked out from-the-couch.com and obox-design.com, then you’re missing out on some serious eye candy. Seriously, every time I visit their sites I have to wear a bib. In fact, while writing this post, I’ve totally messed bib up; I have to go clean up.

If you enjoyed this video, leave a comment below or on the timeline. Giddy!

Great Stuff was founded in south Germany’s capital city Munich in October 2003 as a reaction to the fast changes in the music business nowadays.
Great Stuff understands these changing times as a big chance for a music & media company — with a real view of the future — to shake up the industry.

Great Stuff Records (subscribe) — one of Great Stuff’s divisions — offers manages an artist from top to bottom. From the creation of the music to producing the music video and publishing it online. They created the video below by artist Trick and Kubic.

Now! This is the kind of music you dance hard to in the clubs of Germany. Of course, it’s exported to clubs around the world. It’s genre is House. Generally, you either like House beats or you don’t. I’d find it pretty hard to believe that this wouldn’t get you giddy and groovin’ on Monday morning!

Wherever you are, dance!

About The Band

Trick & Kubic are Frank Hermann (aka Trick) and Lars Niekisch (aka Kubic). These two Berlin boys know how to move you with their trademark sound born out of a mix from electro, minimal house and funky basslicks. Riding high on the peak of “New German Dubby Electronic Dirt” (Mixmag), which began its worldwide popularity in 2005 through releases on labels such as Get Physical and Great Stuff Recordings. Check out Trick & Kubic’s mySpace!

If you find a music video you’d absolutely love to be featured on Music Video Monday, then just send me a message and tell me all about it.

It was recently Charles Darwin‘s 199th birthday. Of course, he left this planet at the age of 73, but his theory of evolution — natural selection — lives on in the modern evolutionary theory.

If you’d like to learn in-depth about Darwinism, perhaps you should read On the Origin of Species (with audio / PDF format).

If you’d like the simple version in less than 4.5 minutes, then perhaps you should watch this episode of Rocketboom.

After watching this I realized I’d never watched a full regular episode of Rocketboom. :S I had to look up exactly what the show is about…

Rocketboom (subscribe subscribe subscribe) is a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron, hosted by Joanne Colan, and it throws a comedic slant on subjects in the style of a television news program.

It’s pretty darn entertaining, hey!

If you have another theory on evolution, let me know about it my sending me a message via my profile. I’d love to hear about it!

Valentine’s Day has just begun, but there’s already an array of cute videos on Viddler’s Valentine Videos site. More info on the site…

By staying with my three little cousins (all under 8) over the past month I’ve discovered that children are very much involved in Valentine’s Day. I don’t remember ever doing anything for Valentine’s Day until I was a teenager. I guess those clever marketers are getting us from the beginning of our lives. Heh.

I’ve also realized it means cupcakes, candy, and friendship! The single people in the community always get depressed about Valentine’s Day and just want it to be over with. You don’t need to be in a relationship with someone to enjoy yourself today! Buy a cupcake for a friend and make them smile. If you don’t have access to cupcakes, draw one. You’d be surprised how easy it is to bring a smile to a friend’s face.

Now, let me bring a smile to your face by introducing you to Betty Crocker‘s (subscribe) kids talking about what love means to them. So cute!

What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, no more.— Oh, I couldn’t help myself.

If you get a giddy surprise today from a loved one, let me know about it.

Happy Val Day Viddlerers!

Warning: If you go to Betty Crocker’s website, you will drool all over your internet device. Have a napkin handy!

Around a month ago I came up with the idea to use the sxswvideos.com website template for Valentine’s Day; importing videos with tags such as “valentine’s day” and “vday”.

Rachel was clever enough to redesign and recode the website and make my dream come true. She spent many hours with me figuring it out and making it perfect.

Here’s what it looks like. You can click on the image to go Valentine Videos.

So, how do I put my videos on here?

If you upload or record a video to Viddler and tag it with “Valentine’s Day” and/or “vday”, the site automatically import your video without you need to do anything else.

You can also record or upload your videos right on the site, and link friends/family to your video embedded on the Valentine Videos site.

Pretty cool, ay!

What happens after Valentine’s Day?

The site disappears and is lost forever. Nah! It’ll stick around until next year. Its friend sxswvideos.com will be active soon though. Woo!

Thanks to Rachel, the rest of the Viddler Team, Drew, and Josh for helping out with the site. Go Team!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Viddler!

Gamers rejoice! Here’s a hot piece of hardware that’s portable and under $1,000. It weighs in at a beefy 7.5lbs (3.3kg), but that’s light compared the typical gaming tower.

HotHardware (subscribe) goes in depth with the Asus G50Vt Gamer’s Notebook. It is in Asus’ Republic Of Gamers line of products which means it features hardware aimed specifically towards gamers and overclockers.

Some notable features about the G50Vt are its eSATA port, HDMI (you could hook this baby up to a plasma and game on the BIG screen!), and the ability to natively overclock the machine from it’s standard 2.26GHz up to 2.493 GHz in Turbo Extreme mode. What a screamer!

You can find all the rest of the specifications in the video and on HotHardware’s Video Spotlight.

If you like computing and technology, then you should be subscribed to HotHardware’s videos. They’ll also keep you informed if you follow them on Twitter.

Do yee have a neat video you’d like to see featured on The Viddler Blog and front page? Perhaps you’ve played on the Asus mentioned in the above video. Did it scream like the specs suggest? Let me know.

Today, in over 175 locations around the world, thousands of people are attending Twestival in support of charity: water.

The History of Twestival

Twestival is a tweetup (Twitter meetup) that supports a cause. In September, 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London, UK, organized and event where the local Twitter community could get together offline; meet face-to-face with people they might have otherwise only connected with online, boogie down on the dance floor, enjoy some drinks, and tie it all together to support a local homeless shelter.

The majority of the event was organized within two weeks using Twitter and the united talents & financial support of the local Twittersphere.

Throughout the world similar stories began to emerge showing local Twitter communities coming together and taking action for an important cause.

Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities were able to collaborate on an international scale, but working from a local level, it could have a spectacular impact. — Twestival.com

The Charity

As mentioned, the global charity involved with today’s global Twestival is charity: water; a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

Countless communities in developing nations go without clean water every day. Using sewege and other dirty waters for drinking, food preparation, and other practices spreads diseases and makes these communities very sick.

This is where charity: water and their partner organizations come in. Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 – $12,000 USD, and many living on less than $1 a day cannot afford one in their community, even if the money is combined.

Banding together as a large community to support this charity is an awesome feat! Everyone go to Twestival.com and find your nearest Twestival event to attend. Donating as little as $20 to the cause, getting a drink, munching some food, and hanging out with your local Twitter community is well worth it!

The Video

Here’s the video from the first Twestival in London as documented by Christian (subscribe, follow on Twitter).

If you’re heading to one of the many Twestivals tonight in the UK, Christian has the giddy idea of trying to attending as many of them as he can between Newcastle and London. Rock n’ roll, dude! Read more about this on his blog…

I know many of you will be recording video at the Twestival(s) you choose to attend. Be sure to tag them with twestival2009 and send me a message with a link to the video. I want to get a bunch together and feature them post-Twestival.

Enjoy your Twestival! You made it. Rock on!