Swiss tech show “Einstein” has decided to answer the age old important question “Does the reorientation on the iPad and iPhone work whilst in a zero gravity environment?”

Yes, they chose to answer this earth-shatteringly important question by getting into the “Vomit Comet” (a plane following an elliptic trajectory to create moments of freefall, or a sense of no gravity in relation to immediate surroundings) and spinning the wonder-slate around to see what happens.

What seems to happen in the video is that it does respond maybe once to the force of the spin, but for the rest of the time it remains oblivious to where the floor should be.

Expect NASA to launch a Kindle to the ISS to see if books are still readable soon…

[via Padgadget]

Warning: Taking apart your iPad will void your warranty. Do not attempt to disassemble the iPad unless you have a load of money or ninja tech support skills. If you want to see a selectively dissected iPad, why not watch this stop motion creation from TechRestore…

[TechRestore]

British techies will be overjoyed by the news that Best Buy UK will finally have physical stores. Thurrock in Essex will be their first location, followed by Croydon in the autumn.

Of course, Best Buy has been over here for a short time already being a webstore, however now they can terrorize Comet and Currys with their legions of blue shirted minions and the already established working retail knowledge of Carphone Warehouse (which it fundamentally is).

Aside from the price matching, the “Walk-Out-Working”, trade-ins and the employees being on 0% commission, I can’t think about much more that Best Buy could bring that’s a major improvement to electrical retailing in the UK as it is. Granted, the Geek Squad will be seen as the techie equivalent of emergency plumbers, but that’s really about it.

When Best Buy opens a store closer to me, I hope they can prove me wrong…

[Best Buy Bulletin]

The first ever captive flight by the VSS Enterprise (Not the Trek one) has occured. Virgin Galactic managed to fly the mothership and the spaceship in a captive flight from the Mojave Air and Spaceport.

Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic and bearded loveable rich guy added: “Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, ground-breaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us. It comes as no surprise that the flight went so well; the Scaled team is uniquely qualified to bring this important and incredible dream to reality. Today was another major step along that road and a testament to US engineering and innovation.”

Virgin Galactic will continue to do tests like this until 2011, when it hopes to start actually flying people and other expensive stuff into space.

Question: Will there be a duty free at the spaceport?

I like coffee. I also have no space for much in the way of kitchen equipment. Whatever am I going to do? How about I try and get hold of the Tassimo T20 from Bosch.

The T20 (No relation to the T2000) is a pod coffee machine in a small form factor. It’s “T-Disc” reader is able to set everything just right for that specific type of coffee, making it almost idiotproof to make a decent cup of joe. It’s 1.5 litre capacity only ever boils enough water for one cup, meaning you won’t be killed by eco warriors, and it’s small enough to not upset your flatmates by taking up too much kitchen worktop real estate.

All it needs is a “Pot Noodle” mode and I’d be over the moon… And yes, that press image really is full size…

[Bosch]

Just when we were all thinking that gaming was dead on the Mac (aside from some fantastic indie stuff, and World of Warcraft), Valve have announced that they’re going to be heaving Steam over to the Mac. And not just the Steam platform, but future releases from Valve will work on both PC and Mac. Heck, they’re even touting the ability to play a game on the PC then finishing it off on the Mac using their Steam Cloud voodoo.

There’s more detail over at our sister site Gametactics, but I’m quite frankly happy with the slight warm glow of playing Portal on my Mac. I just hope this is a triumph and Valve make a note of this future huge success… Can’t I make Portal jokes!? C’mon!

[Gametactics]

In a complete surprise move, Apple have announced their tablet, the iPad. Ok, yeah, there was a complete lack of suspense…

The iPad houses a 9.7″ screen in a body that’s just half an inch thick and 1.5 pounds in weight. Does Wi-Fi, 3G, has a 10 hour battery, does the app thing too. Basically, it’s a really big iPhone/iPod Touch, with a bit more grunt behind it, to the point where most of the apps available for the iPhone will work with it already with no further modifications needed by the developers. You’ll also have the ability to dock a keyboard or camera onto it if you really want to replace your laptop.

It comes in 3 main flavours: 16GB for $499, 32GB for $599, 64GB for $699, however that’s just the Wi-Fi version. Add in 3G and you’re talking an extra $130 on each price.

Do I want one? Yes. Do I have a need for one? Not really.

Of course, I may change my mind. Price drop to something small? Next version has extras like a camera or two? Who knows what will make it indespensible to me…

Full PR after the jump

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