To open the secret entrance to the cave, try left-left-up-left-down-down-right-left then a-y-y-x-b-a and then hold the d-pad down while clicking y-y-b-b. Press start twice, and you will get in. [Flopculture]

The most common charge leveled at the Xbox 360 by Playstation 3 devotees is that Microsoft dares to charge for its Xbox Live service, unlike the free PSN. Not for long!

Back in November, a presentation slide revealed that Sony had a paid subscription plan in the works for PSN. And now Peter Dille, the head of PSN, had this to say in an interview with IGN:

Will we charge for it or why don't we charge for it? It's been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but Kaz recently went on the record as saying that's something we're looking at. I can confirm that as well. That's something that we're actively thinking about. What's the best way to approach that if we were to do that? You know, no announcements at this point in time, but it's something we're thinking about.

Now the question is what exactly will they be charging for. Will they charge for online multiplayer, like Xbox Live? Or will they offer up some new premium goodies to entice people to pay up while leaving the current offerings up for free? In any case, it looks like there's soon to be a little less ammo in the console wars. But don't worry, Sony fanboys: you still have Blu-ray. No one can take that away from you. [IGN via TFTS]

This isn't a review. It's not even breaking news. It's just a reminder that someone somewhere is doing something awesome.

I've been fascinated by the "Adspecs" since I first heard of them a few years ago. The glasses have oil-filled lenses which, when adjusted with the attached syringes, allow anyone to dial in their own prescription just by looking at a chart. (I've tried to show how the lens work in the video above.)

This story originally started with a question: Hey, did that project ever actually get off the ground?

I'm happy to report that it has—to the tune of 30,000 pairs of Adspecs already in the field around the world, distributed through a variety of aid organizations.

For the last few weeks, I've been speaking the Centre for Vision in the Develop World's Owen Reading about where the project is going. It does hurt he's a Gizmodo reader. (Hi, Owen!) He explained why the Adspecs are such a good solution for developing economies.

"They require very little training to dispense, can be dispensed by an organisation's volunteers in the field, they only need to be delivered once and can make a difference for years afterwards, and are inherently safer (and less valuable on the black market) than items such as prescription medications."

The Adspecs aren't perfect. The sample pair I was given were an older design with a cranky hinge. It popped right apart when I put them on my huge head. It's nothing a little superglue can't fix, but thankfully a stronger design is already being distributed in the field. Adspecs are undergoing constant iterative improvement.

One of those improvements is price: The current version of the Adspecs still cost nearly $20 a pop to produce—a bargain considering they come with a self-administered eye exam built right in, but not as close to the $1-a-pair goal set by the project's founder and director, Josh Silver.

It's the sort of mixture of charity and innovation that makes my heart leap, an opportunity to use the mass production and design capabilities of the developed world to provide a life-changing solution to those who need it—without making those who receive aid dependent on someone else for continued support.

This won't be the last you'll see of the Adspecs here on Gizmodo, especially if you've got a notion to donate to the project or their distribution partners.

Among all the widgets-of-the-day, the tablets and phones and mail-order furniture, it's easy to forget how technology can make such a profound difference in people's lives. So let's not forget.

Background music by a band I suspect most of you will really enjoy, The Depreciation Guild, a Brooklyn-based band that combine an NES with really lovely shoegaze guitar. In fact, here's their latest single embedded below.

Our colegas at Gizmodo Brazil got themselves a nice little get: A previously unseen Motorola Android prototype, which was apparently shown to employees of the company last week. So, what is this thing?

Giz.br editor Pedro accurately describes it as a sort of keyboardless version of the Backflip we saw at CES. The front styling is a bit more garish that the Backflip's, but the size, general aesthetic, Android build (1.5) and software skin (Motoblur) all fit the Backflip's mold.

The more pressing question is whether or not we'll ever see this phone. Motorola's now pumping Motoblur'd handsets out through two—count 'em—major US carriers, and as a presumed budget piece, it'd fit nicely in either Verizon or AT&T's product lines, if they'd have it. But stateside, we've got nothing—that the first pics of this prototype device showed up in one of its potential markets, as opposed to its place of manufacture, and that this market is nowhere near the US, means Motorola's latest may never pass through immigration. Or maybe it will! My breath, it is bated.

Full gallery and (Portuguese) writeup at [Giz Brazil]

Your mom's probably rented a DVD from Redbox—those hulking vending machines lurking outside of grocery stories, lending out DVDs for a buck a day. Walmart's not thrilled with them, and now blocking new release purchases in bulk.

Part of the reason Redbox is able to offer rentals for cheap is that it works outside of the studio system, unlike most everybody else, who have to deal with contracts and licenses and fees. Instead, according to Adams Media Research, it buys about 40 percent of its movies from big box retailers. So, Walmart and Target have reacted by cutting the number of new releases you can buy at a time to just five copies. They care because kiosk rentals could be worth over a billion dollars this year—why should they subsidize their profits?

What's that mean for Redbox? They might have to deal directly with the studios—who they're currently suing for better access to movies—and all you have to do is look at how they're manhandling Netflix to see what they think about cheap rentals screwing with profitable release windows. [BW, Image via Valerie Everett/Flickr]

Maybe you're a good photographer, but you're horrible with Photoshop. Maybe you're great at Photoshop, but you're a horrible photographer. Don't worry, both camps can excel at this week's Shooting Challenge: Polar Panoramas. I promise.

The Challenge

Make a polar panorama (or a planet made from a panoramic photograph)—which involves shooting a panorama, then bringing those shots into Photoshop. After about 5 minutes of work, with the help of the Polar Coordinates filter, you'll have something resembling our lead photo.

The Method

Photojojo has a superb step by step tutorial online, as does Instructables. The basic point to keep in mind is this: frame your base photograph so that the top and bottom 25% are fairly devoid of detail (sky and ground, for instance). Also, while we normally ask submissions to avoid post processing wherever possible, this week is obviously a little bit different. So go nuts to make your final shot look great (within ethical reason—no adding fake buildings or whatever).

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560x1600 sized in email. More details on these below.

Send your best entries by Sunday, February 7th at 6PM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Polar Panorama" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.

If there's one thing I love more than my vinyl toy collection, it's merchandise from my favorite mobile OS. Designer Andrew Bell convinced Google to lend him their mascot, resulting in 12 blind-boxed variations. Oh, how I love a blind-box!

They're available in cases of 16, though presumably once they get picked up by stores they'll start being sold individually, thus the perpetual crusade to collect every single one will start, and you'll spend all your spare time searching eBay for pre-opened boxes to complete your collection. It's a slippery slope, believe me. [Dyzplastic via Recombu]

I'd probably never use an electric blanket—I've just heard too many horror stories that include elements like burn marks and houses transformed to ash. But a water cooled/heated mattress? That sounds downright brilliant.

The ChiliBed is similar to all the memory foam mattresses you've seen advertised lately, but inside its core, water is either heated or cooled while it passes through coils, generating a massive temperature flux that should emanate naturally from your sleep surface.

But the real reason this product felt so remarkable? The claimed temperature range is impressively (and maybe even dangerously?) wide, accommodating those of you who'd like to sleep in environments spanning from 48-118 degrees F—and each member of the bed (assuming you're just sleeping with one other person) can have their own temperature controls.

Technically, I find the ChiliBed to be quite clever. Practically, well, neither temperature extreme sounds particularly healthy.

Still, bundled with the right level of research, it'd be neat if the ChiliBed could adjust temperatures in sync with your sleeping patterns, helping you rest or, heck, just sweat/shiver off some of your excess weight. [ChiliBed]

Normally hyper-intelligent robots terrify me, but this little guy has officially won me over. It uses Lego Mindstorms parts, a Lego programmable robotics kit and—of all things—a Nokia N95 mobile phone to unlock the mysteries of Rubik.

It's by no means the first Rubik's Cube solver we've seen, but it's definitely the first I've encountered that runs on phone. The ARM-packing Nokia N95 rests above the cube, scanning it with its camera as it solves. Double bonus points for working with a 4x4x4 Cube instead of the standard 3x3x3.

According to one intrepid YouTube commenter, the trial above took 15 minutes and 109 moves, which is more than my personal best of "a few months" and "I lost track." I just hope that when we're all assigned a robot overlord, mine is as neat as this one. [Make via Geekosystem]

The latest and greatest Nehalem-based Xeon Mac Pros are the fastest Apple computers you can buy. Unfortunately, they seem to have a serious problem when processing audio, a task that sucks 20% of its power while making the processors overheat.

According to Ars Technica, the problem—which happens with Early 2009 and Late 2009 models—doesn't only happen while playing iTunes' music or Quicktime videos, but also whenever you have USB or FireWire audio devices connected and working. Users have been reporting about it in support boards, but Apple has ignored the problem so far.

The company argues that the extra heat—which includes increases of 86