On display at Maker Faire 2009 , Interactivation is a whimsical, slightly non-sensical cross between a six-way collaborative music machine and a Tesla coil , producing improvised sounds and scientific trickery from the same machine. Interactivation was created by a group called Lightning Temple, who want to use sound vibrations to promote holistic healing or something like that. Great. But it’s the tech I’m more interested in. The music component of Interactivation works by running each of the six stations through a sequencing program on a laptop. Each station has an array arcade-y buttons connected to a circuit board that triggers audio samples and/or loops, which wash over each other in a lovely mess of sonic slop. To keep everything sounding cohesive, the loops fire in time with the selected time signature, so all the samples are in rhythm. The Tesla Coil wasn’t up and running during the day, so it’s uncertain to what extent it functions. But I’m not sure I’d want to be noodling with sitar loops anywhere near Interactivation when it is working. [ Lightning Temple ]

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Of all the ridiculous things one can see at the Maker Faire , the Puppy Mover Monorail might take the cake. The scary thing about the Puppy Monorail is that it has managed to evolve over the years. The project started out as a modest 3 car train, but now has expanded to a WHOPPING five cars (FIVE!!!). Still, until I see some real puppies moving 10 feet down that squiggly track, I’m not sold. Also, one of the train cars should really be a milk bowl. [ Puppy Mover Monorail ]

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If you, too, want to start making Hollywood caliber videos like our man Adam Frucci , this $14 DIY video camera stabilizer project we found over at Lifehacker today will help. Now you just need to work on being funny. [ MAKE (PDF) via Lifehacker ]

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Microsoft “guru” Paul Thurott says the Zune HD launches on September 5. Mind you, this info comes fresh from the Zune forums, so we’ll slap a rumor on it for now with the caveat that it matches our earlier post about a September launch window. [ Zune Forums - Thanks Joel]

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In the tradition of the Atari ring comes this gold Optimus Prime ring from deviantartist =Dans-Magic . It’s the perfect gift for that special someone. That same special someone who’s willing to wait hours and hours in line with you at a premiere so you can go into the theater to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and ogle Megan Fox half-naked on a motorcycle. [ Geekologie ]

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The folks at Energizer are updating their Energi To Go line of rechargeable battery life extenders to encompass the iPhone 3G and solar power. The first new entries, two form-fitting, rubberized AP Charger battery packs for the iPhone, had me thinking of Incase Power Slider . They’re not as eye-catching as the Incase, but they’re not as expensive, either. It’s $50 for the AP1000 and $80 for the beefier, longer-lasting AP1500. Weigh your options, battery pack wants and desires accordingly. Also, in the case of the AP1500, Energizer promises to double the battery life of a typical iPhone charge. Updated: As some commenters have noted, and I’m inclined to agree with, that branding front and center is fugly at best. Definitely not subtle. In the aforementioned solar power category comes the SP1000 and SP2000, for $50 and $100, respectively. Boasting 500 charges each, these solar cells include a set of tips so that you can charge all manner of GPS devices, MP3 players and cellphones out in the wilds of suburbia. Or camping in the woods too, if that’s your thing. More tips are available online, should the included six not meet your needs. The SP line even charges via indoor light sources, although not as quickly as the advertised 6-hour charge time in direct sunlight. In all, there will be about 10 new additions to this line of battery packs and chargers coming in June, Energizer tells us, courtesy a new partnership with XPAL Power. Not much else to say on XPAL save a brief mention in our glorious Gadget Deals of the Day series.

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From the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen we’ve seen the new Devastator robot, Megan Fox disrobing , and various trailers . But what about, you know, the Fallen? Well, this image is him. Admittedly, this is not as cool as a trailer. And it certainly doesn’t elicit the tingling sensation Megan Fox gives you when she fixes an engine or graces the cover of Esquire. But it’s apparently a first look, procured by MTV to promote this evening’s MTV Movie Awards, and the thing looks legitimately bad ass (is that an Egyptian style headdress going on up in there?). And it looks slightly different too, right? Shia LeBeouf explains: Basically, the Fallen is to them what cavemen, Neanderthals were to us. He’s the ancestor, the first version of this exoskeleton. He’s the first version of this sentient being. That’s what he is. He’s the origins of what they came from. He also says the Megatron answers to the fallen thanks to a sort of “Emperor and Darth Vader … kind of situation.” So long as we’re talking Emperor-Vader from the Return of the Jedi , and not that “Noooo!!!” abomination at the end of Revenge of the Sith , that sounds cool enough. [ MTV via Film School Rejects ]

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Way back in 2006, a young, eager Jason Chen brought the world word of a Yoda Back Buddy that mimicked the training scene from The Empire Strikes Back . Now Darth Vader , ever the envious Sith Lord, wants in on the action too. Kind of demeaning for the ol’ baddie, no? I mean, turning one of the most celebrated villains in cinema history into some kind of $40 gimpy clinger-on… I mean, it’s almost like an out-of-touch filmmaker taking a storied franchise, reshooting key scenes with poorly planned updates and cut footage from 1977, and then selling the resulting schlock back to us as if it were the second coming. I mean, if that actually happened. Did it? But back on task. If this were an Anakin Skywalker Back Buddy , and it resembled Hayden Christensen, I might not be so critical. It’d be more fitting, is what I’m trying to say. This Darth is available for pre-order and ships in August. [ Star Wars Shop via OhGizmo ]

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Let me save you $100 with a tip. The wind, old as time and completely free, will push your kid around the pool on a rubber raft faster than this inflatable speedboat . Plus, the wind doesn’t require huge expensive D batteries, of which this inflatable cash sink requires eight. The wind also dissipates eventually, takes up no room in your garage, and won’t pop or become mangled when your kid—innocent and adorable, yes, but naive as fuck—tries to use this thing on the lawn when he gets bored in the pool. Still not convinced? The 360 degree movement, all at a neck-breaking 2MPH, is too much to pass up? OK, then, purchase away. Just be sure to send us a picture of the thing in six months when it’s stuffed in a closet next to your Snuggie collection. [ Cooolest Gadgets ]

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JMicron is preparing to debut its new NAND flash controller at Computex, and with it the company intends to boast it can slash SSD pricing by 50% in time for the holiday season. Officially labeled the JMF612, the chip is targeted at a “new generation of NAND flash chips built using smaller process geometries that will be entering the market soon.” Vague! The JMF612 chip will reportedly use an ARM9 core in a 289-ball TFBGA package, supporting up to 256MB of DDR or DDR2 DRAM as an external cache. Technical! But my brain hurts now. Put simply, if this lofty rhetoric isn’t just hot air up our ass, it means half price SSD by Christmas or thereabouts. Of course, there’s that brick wall looming on the horizon , but I guess we’ll deal with that headache when it arrives. [ DailyTech via Engadget ]

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Either Eric Cartman has started eating electronics or the design folk at Sony have some explaining to do regarding how they thought up the PSP Go . [Thanks, Joel!]

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If this cellphone release date stuff keeps up, we’ll be seeing a cellphone releasing every day in June. The latest we can add to the list is the Nokia N97. It’s the first Nokia N-series to sport a touchscreen, and you pre-ordered earlier this month , it will arrive around June 15 with the the S60 5th Edition OS on board. European support pages for the phone are already up and running, in case you dig that sort of thing [ BGR ]

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