The 102-year history of the Times Square New Year’s Even Ball is one filled with technology, death and, of course, pretty shiny lights. See it all unfold in our historical timeline.

(Click the image for a large popout version.)

Of course, for those who don’t appreciate the festivity of the ball drop, despite all of the hard work behind the scenes, feel free to ignore the ball’s 32,256 glimmering Philips LEDs and turn your attention to your iPhone…because, yes, Waterford has made an app for that.

Happy New Year everyone!

The 2010 Times Square New Year’s Ball is ready to go. They saved money and didn’t add any LEDs, but they added new stunning Waterford clink-clink glass panels. Here’s the insider look on how they did it, and why.

Anthony Quintano also sent us this video on the setup of the camera that will offer the closest view of the time ball tonight, broadcasting the event to the entire world.

We had few complaints with the Droid, and the Sholes, Occiphobic as it may be, is lustable, without a doubt. But Motorola’s alleged next phone, the .35-inch-thick, 1080p-capable Shadow/Mirage, makes Motorola’s current Android lineup look old-fashioned.

All we’ve got for now is a crude rendering and a dubiously sourced Chinese leak, but given the recent spate of Snapdragon-powered Android phones, the specs are within the realm of plausibility: crammed into the slim body, there’s a processor capable of decoding 1080p video, an 8-megapixel camera, and an HDMI port, masked by a 4.3-inch, 800 x 484 screen, as compared to the Droid’s 3.7-inch display of the same resolution.

If true, this means that there’s an Android phone that’s at least as powerful as, and thinner than, Google’s überbuzzed Nexus One sitting just over the horizon, which strikes yet another blow to the mythos of the be-all, end-all Android device. [Mobilϳ via BGR]

“We are ending our sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods and wish him well in the future.” That’s from AT&ampT spokesman Fletcher Cook in an email sent out earlier today. [CNN]

While we′re confident that we nailed our 50 worst gadgets of the decade, you commenters reminded us of a few truly awful gems that didn’t make the cut. So here are ten more worst gadgets for your enjoyment and derision.

And please, suggest any others that you feel strongly about. I’ll be reading the comments all day, adding the most egregiously bad examples to the list. And if you’d rather view the embedded as one long post, we’ve got you covered here.

Everyone remembers that story about how a bunch of people were suing Apple for potential iPod-induced hearing loss, even though they hadn’t lost any hearing. It got shot down last year, appealed, and today, killed for good. CRANK IT.

The case was a bit odd from the start, in that it hinged on the potential for hearing loss, rather than actual, inflicted hearing loss. It was also odd beacuse iPods, which are evidently capable of pumping out about 125dB of sound through a pair of those crappy white earbuds, already have a volume-limiting function. This is in addition to normal volume controls, which apparently don’t provide enough guidance to users to prevent them from techno-blasting their eardrums into mucousy, deaf meat-nuggets. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision from last year that iPod could be, and generally are, used safely, and dismissed the lawsuit.

But as my grandfather always used to say, at the center of every frivolous class action technology lawsuit, there lies a grain of truth: iPods and iPhones, if you turn them up too loud, can damage your hearing. So don’t, k? [Ars Technica]

Being a geek no longer holds the stigma it once did. In fact, it can be downright cool to be a geek these days. But not all geeks are created equal.

The Socially Acceptable Geek Subgenre Scale is a handy showcase of just where various types of geeks fall in the social hierarchy. And if you’re offended because you find yourself near the bottom of the scale, just remember: there’s no shame in being passionate about something unpopular as long as no one knows about it. And if you really hate clicking through the gallery, click here to see all of them on one long page. Although while doing so realize that people who whine about galleries are their own subgenre of geek, and it’s not very high up on the scale.

Illustrations by Dan Meth.

Hi guys, John Mayer here. I know it’s been a while since I’ve “touched base,” but you know I’ve been pretty busy with my fourth album launch, y’know, the “heartbreak handbook”? About that anti-Twitter girl?

Anyway, Imma here to let you know that I think you should all take a one week digital cleanse. Defragment your mind, man—I’m talking about your mental and psychological hard drive!

Here’s what I wrote on my Tumbly-blog-thang about my super-cool idea:

“The cleanse will begin at 9am on January 1. This gives everyone a chance to text and tweet their new year’s well wishes, and theoretically begins upon waking up the morning of January 1. The cleanse will end at 9am on January 8.

Guidelines:

*email only from laptop or desktop computers

*cell phones can only be used to make calls, and no text messages or e-mails are allowed - if you receive a text, you must reply in voice over the phone. E-mails must be returned from a laptop or desktop computer.

*no use of Twitter or any other social networking site - this includes reading as well as posting.

*no visiting of any entertainment or gossip sites. (No need to detail which ones - you know what they are.)”

I probably shoulda thought of those people who don’t wake up until after 9am on New Year’s Day, clutching their vodka-soaked stomachs. But hey, I’m a clean-living soul, remember?

I’ll leave you with the final words of encouragement from my blog. Put on Eye of the Tiger, or a super-positive song, maybe even my hit single Gravity if you′re up for the power. Say these words with me, people, come on:

“This can be done, people. Do it with me. When we pop back up on the grid on January 8, let’s trade stories on what it felt like, how hard it was, and maybe how hard it actually wasn’t.”

Peace, JM.

&mdash&mdash&mdash

Wise words from our buddy John Mayer there. Just so you know, we’re taking his advice and are hanging up our internet connections tomorrow for a week. Sorry readers&mdashwe know you were looking forward to our CES coverage next week, but Mayer’s right. Peace. We’re off to do some serious defragmentation.

Image Credit: Newsgroper

No, I’m not obsessed with Saturn. OK, I am obsessed with Saturn. But so is Time, who picked this deliciously crispy photo as one of the images of the year, revealing ring bumps as high as the Rocky Mountains.

I′m not surprised, because it’s a truly unique moment, one that happens at Saturn’s equinox, which is an event that only happens twice in 10,179 Earth days. And this time, we had Cassini there to take this amazing photo, just when the sun illuminates the rings edge-on. As Carolyn Porco—Cassini imaging team leader—puts it:

The geometry revealed structures and phenomena in the rings we had never seen before. We saw this famous adornment spring from two dimensions into three, with some ring structures soaring as high as the Rocky Mountains. It made me feel blessed.

The team used Cassini during a week to take photos of vertical clumps in the ring, and when the equinox happened, they could measure their true size looking at the shadows. According to NASA’s Bob Pappalardo at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

It’s like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time. This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us.

Well, Bob and Carolyn, Carolyn and Bob and the rest of the Cassini team, all I can say is thank you for an amazing work, and the stunning desktop backgrounds in 2009. [NASA Full Resolution Image]

Ohoho, this is a mod that tickles my funnybone. Remember the Dell Mini 3i Android phone, destined for China only? Some dude has taken his Inspiron Mini netbook to pieces and turned it into his take on the Dell phone.

Because after all, who doesn′t want a 10.1-inch Dell phone? Err… [Shanzai via JkkMobile]