This reproduction of Lego's $60 X-Wing Fighter (model 94973) is anything but child's play. Measuring 11 feet tall and 45 feet long, the X-Wing model was intentionally scaled to match the props used in the original films.

Built in the Czech Republic at a model production facility, the X-Wing is the result of 32 people toiling for 72,000 hours. If you weren't convinced already, here's one more reason to be impressed: the Lego X-Wing dwarfs even the titanic 35-feet Lego mech located at the Mall of America.

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Malware writers turned their attention this week on Tiffany's and Tibetan activists, as well as targeting Mac computers and Android phones.

Spam messages claiming to be from upscale retailer Tiffany & Co. began appearing in inboxes this week.

Spotted by security firm Sophos, the text of the messages inform the recipient that they've received a payment from the company, and they need to open an attachment to the message to confirm the payment.

The attachment contains the Mal/BredoZp-B Trojan. The malware will install a backdoor on your computer as well as steal all your user names and passwords.

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Everything from lightbulbs controlled via Wi-Fi from a device plugged into your router, to light-up handlebars that give bikers directions could be found at HAXLR8R’s recent Demo Day in San Francisco. In this video, we’ll profile some of the highlights from the event.

HAXLR8R is a venture fund that focuses on hardware. Participants in the program spend three months in China, refining their prototypes where they could be mass produced for a cheaper price. The idea: Give tech hardware designers a crash course in getting a viable product to the marketplace. Once the accelerator is over, venture capital funds who’ve invested in the group get first crack at investing with specific companies showcased at Demo Day.

The Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU is a master's program like no other: It lets students delve into all things DIY—from programing, physical computing with things like Arduino, robotics, design, and more.

At the end of every semester, ITP opens its doors to the public to let everyone check out what its students have cooked up for their final projects. It just so happens that for these hackers, a thesis can be something other than a 1000-page dissertation. Instead, the final projects can be anything from robots, programs, and interactive comics all the way to... whatever the heck this thing is.

We went on the first night of the ITP Spring Show to check out some of the coolest projects there.

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Judging from the number of people poring over their smartphones on the sidewalk, in their cars and in public places, mobile seems to have stolen our attention away from the wired Internet and traditional TV.

However, there is a ways to go before mobile platforms become the primary place where consumers turn for entertainment and getting things done, said players at this week's CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas.

Network improvements help

Nokia Siemens Networks announced new capabilities in its network software to make video streams run more smoothly over mobile networks.

Among other things, the enhancements can reduce video stalling by 90 percent, according to the company. But even Sandro Tavares, head of marketing for NSN's Mobile Core business, sees "mobile-first" viewing habits as part of the future.

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LG hasn't always been a fan favorite: For a long time the company was best known for its budget handsets that did little to stand out from the competition. In recent years, however, LG has earned a reputation for creating solid, reliable devices. The LG Optimus G Pro continues that string of successes, blowing away its nearest competitor in size and design, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, and rivaling the recent HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 as one of the best Android phones on the market. The G Pro runs like a sports car engine in the body of a family minivan—an unassuming aesthetic mixed with luxury performance. Provided you can fit it in your hand (a big caveat), this quick, flashy giant might very well be the phone for you.

Built for Goliath

At 5.9 by 3.0 by 0.4 inches the Optimus G Pro is larger than almost any other phone on the market. Like last year’s Galaxy Note II, the G Pro packs 5.5 inches of screen real estate, straddling that fine line between tablet and phone.

Michael Homnick

On the other hand, the G Pro carries its size well. It’s definitely overlarge (people with tiny hands, beware), but I found the G Pro surprisingly comfortable to operate. In addition to a volume rocker, the left spine of the handset features a quick-launch button that can be customized to open any app on the device—handy for accessing the camera or a browser. The G Pro is slightly slimmer than the Galaxy Note II, which helped it sit better in my average-size hands. You’re also able to compress the keyboard closer to the left or right side if you really want to use the device one-handed.

Michael Homnick

As for the screen, it’s a beautiful behemoth running at 1920 by 1080 resolution, with a pixel density of 400 pixels per inch. That’s a much higher resolution than what you get on the Galaxy Note II’s 267 pixels per inch and 1280-by-720-resolution display, though the G Pro's density doesn’t quite live up to what the HTC One and Galaxy S4 offer (both are 1920 by 1080 displays, with 469 and 441 pixels per inch, respectively). Unfortunately, this beautiful screen is housed in a cheap plastic exterior that relentlessly attracts smudges. The phone is by no means ugly—especially with the screen on—but it just doesn't stand out, as the lovingly-honed HTC One does.

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cakecrumbs/LiveJournal

Chocolate buttercream. Marshmallow fondant. Orange Madeira sponge. These are some of the things that went into this mouth-watering attempt at replicating one hemisphere of our big, blue planet. Livejournal-er cakecrumbs recently posted about her attempts at creating a structurally correct cake rendition of the Earth.

Cakecrumbs' sister had approached her about creating a model of our planet and was initially shot down. However, craftman's pride (or raw stubbornness) eventually won out, and cakecrumbs baked cakes inside cakes inside cakes. As tough as fitting cakes inside cakes sounds, it took six whole hours to create the continents.

[Neatorama via Baking Adventures]

Reprogramming the identification number of a cellphone could be punishable with a prison sentence of up to five years under the terms of a proposed federal law introduced Friday.

The Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act of 2013 makes changing the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in a phone a crime. The IMEI number is a unique identification number in every cellphone and is exchanged when a mobile phone signs on to a mobile network.

In an attempt to combat the growing number of violent street robberies of high-end smartphones, carriers have built a database that blocks stolen phones from being reused. The database relies on the IMEI number, so if the number is reprogrammed in a stolen handset, it could bypass the database check and get resold and reused.

Reprogramming the number isn't easy, but it also represents a weak point in the battle against these robberies, which now account for close to half of all street crime in several major U.S. cities. While the theft of the phone and the sale of stolen goods both constitute crimes, the electronic reprogramming in the middle doesn't. The new law would change that.

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Guns produced with 3D printers pose a public safety risk that’s beyond the ability of regulators to control it, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security bulletin to law enforcement agencies warned this week.

“Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns,” the bulletin obtained by Fox News stated.

DHS did not respond to a request by TechHive for a copy of the bulletin.

The document specifically mentions 3D printer files used to create a handgun called “The Liberator” and posted to the Internet by Defense Distributed, a nonprofit company started by University of Texas law student Cody R. Wilson.

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Sony and Lego are working together on creating a new generation of products that bridge the gap between toys and video games.

A team of researchers at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo is embedding tiny motors, cameras, and actuators into Lego blocks. One demonstration uses two small motorized Lego platforms, one of which is computer-controlled and will relentlessly pursue the other, which can be maneuvered using a wireless PlayStation controller or by hand.

Any combination of blocks can be built up on the platforms, and more platforms can be added. The system could be used to create Lego battles, or simply play tag. The research team has also added actuators that can cause Lego structures to crumble on demand, and camera blocks that can beam first-hand video of the action to tablets and smartphones.

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Nowtoo Sugi

Everyone knows that latte art is the new definition of cool (or hot, as the case may be). While the Internet is already resplendent with a whole bunch of inventive, caffeine-driven masterpieces, Nowtoo Sugi's full-color foamy creations is a surprising new twist.

It's also amazing as to how much a little bit of color can do for Kirby's complexion. Nowtoo  is fairly active on Twitter, so if you're keen on keeping track on what else he whips up for his family, you may want to keep tabs on him there. He's made a whole spectrum of anime-related creations but also enough video game tributes to fill a castle in the Mushroom Kingdom.

[@Nowtoo/Twitter via Kotaku]

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Actor and aspiring Silicon Valley tycoon Ashton Kutcher recently took the stage at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas to discuss the state of social media. During his Q&A, Kutcher made a reference to Facebook being the new religion as it facilitates greater trust among complete strangers. However, the thing that stood out for me was his unwarranted negative views on the progression of Twitter and what he sees as an unmanageable floodgate of information.

Mr. Kutcher commented that Twitter “used to be a personalized experience that I could share.” He went on to lament that the “signal-to-noise” ratio on the microblogging network has gotten out of hand. He blames Twitter’s noise problems on two developments: 1) the automatic retweet button that was first introduced in 2009, to which he commented, “it created a lot of noise in the system that hurt the experience.” And 2) he feels that there are too many media brands using the platform badly: “I think the media f----d it up. There’s a lot of people selling shit that I don’t want in my feed.”

The comments are curious in that Kutcher was an early celebrity booster of the service and still currently boasts more than 14 million followers (he even had his own Twitter app). So, he—more than most—should know how to tailor Twitter to fit his needs. He even goes on to admit, “Maybe I need to curate my feed better. When I first started using [Twitter], it felt like the democratization of media.”

I have watched Twitter go through several changes as it exploded into the mainstream. And it seems as democratic and free as ever—if not better than at any point in its development.

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Once the bastion of open standards for the Web, Google is under heavy criticism for its decision to lock down Google+ Hangouts, its unified messaging service that is expected to replace Google Talk.

Unlike Talk, Hangouts is not based on open standards and cannot be integrated with multichat clients like Digsby or Adium. But if you ask Google, the company says it won’t open up Hangouts until other major messaging systems, such as Microsoft’s Skype, reciprocate.

Hangouts, once a Google+ feature that allowed you to carry on video chats with up to ten people, is now morphing into Google’s unified messaging platform. It supports instant messaging conversations and chat SMS-style via your mobile devices, similar to BlackBerry Messenger and Whatsapp. The company says it plans to add true SMS integration as well as Google Voice features in the coming months.

A step in the wrong direction

Google’s move away from open standards was recently criticized by the digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation as a “clear step backward for many users.” The EFF took Google to task for moving away from XMPP, a widely used open protocol for instant messaging that Google helped to popularize with Talk. XMPP enables use of Talk not only through Google’s chat clients, but third-party clients as well.

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NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O’Dell, G.J. Ferland, W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert, David Thompson

It looks like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is busy helping with new discoveries again. After studying the well-known Ring Nebula, it’s helped scientists make a curious new observation: The nebula is more like a “jelly doughnut” than a “bagel”, making its name a bit of a misnomer.

These new descriptions come from researcher C. Robert O’Dell, team leader of a group studying the nebula using past and present Hubble images as well as imagery from other ground telescopes. The group found the central nebula is less circular than astronomers thought, and also contains more material than previously believed.

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Nokia is targeting HTC’s latest slate of smartphones, including the HTC One, with new legal action in the U.S. that demands the Taiwanese company cease the alleged patent infringement.

Nokia is accusing the HTC One, and several other HTC phones, of infringing three Nokia patents, according to a lawsuit filed by the Finnish handset maker on Thursday. The patents deal with handset radio frequency identification technology for use with applications. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. district court of Southern California, is demanding HTC stop the alleged infringement and pay damages.

Other handsets named in the lawsuit include HTC’s Droid DNA, the HTC First, and last year’s generation of HTC One phones.

Nokia on Thursday also filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the company said in an email. Nokia said both the ITC and U.S. district court complaints cover nine patents new to its legal dispute with HTC.

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TEL AVIV—First it was Facebook, then Apple, then Facebook again, and now Google. It seems every major tech company wants a piece of Waze, the popular crowdsourcing mapping and navigation service.

Google may enter a bidding war for Waze against archrival Facebook, with the buy-in starting around $1 billion, according to a Friday Bloomberg report. If Facebook were to win, it would be the second time in about a year that the company has shelled out exorbitant coin for an acquisition, after picking up Instagram in mid-2012 for $1 billion.

When reports surfaced in January that Apple was considering buying Waze—rumors that were later debunked—the supposed acquisition made a lot of sense.  It would have solved Apple’s infamous mapping woes that were so effectively highlighted at the time by iOS users on Tumblr and Reddit.

The reasons for Facebook or Google to acquire Waze, while not as obvious as Apple’s, are still quite sound and strategic. Mobile is a massive component of both companies' growth stories right now, and on mobile platforms location is everything. Location lets you target ads, provide more interesting new services, and of course supply navigation. And Waze has all of these things. Google doesn’t necessarily need what Waze offers, but Waze would give Facebook a serious edge that it now lacks.

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A few weeks ago, we were absolutely excited over the over the prospect of the ProDesk3D, a full-color 3D printer in the works from a New York-based startup named botObjects. Unlike every 3D printer that we’ve seen so far, the ProDesk3D color palate isn’t limited to a handful of pre-colored spools of plastic. This printer promised to create a whole rainbow of colors, not unlike an inkjet printer using a five-color cartridge.

It was an amazing promise accompanied by a pair of computer-generated images of the printer with too many unanswered questions. In fact, there was more we didn’t know about the ProDesk3D than what we did know. We didn't know what combination of five colors it would mix together, how it would print, what it could actually print, when it would come out, or how much it would cost.

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Two things make for tech accessories that see regular use: having them with you when you need them, and being simple enough to use on a repeated basis. Along those lines, Integral Design has put forward an easily carried, single-part smartphone stand it calls the Keyprop (funding through June 1).

The Keyprop is made up of a polycarbonate core encased within an elastic copolymer coating, creating a rigid yet grippy item. The key-shaped stand plugs a middle prong into your headphone jack, the fore prong resting against the edge of the face of your phone while your keyring sits next to the base. (With an iPhone 5, you use the Lightning port instead.) The team suggests piling keys underneath to adjust angles. For purposes of video calls, media viewing, or reading, say, your device is now propped up at a useful angle. Integral Design says the Keyprop should works with most smartphones and cases more slender than half an inch.

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While Microsoft's next-generation Xbox One will have plenty of power on its own, sometimes it might opt for a little help from the cloud.

Xbox One games that need an extra graphics boost will be able to tap into 300,000 Microsoft servers for “latency-insensitive computation.” The cloud architecture can provide additional lighting, physics, and motion effects beyond the capabilities of the console's 8-core AMD processor and custom GPU.

As detailed by Ars Technica, cloud computing can help with effects that don't have to happen immediately.

“So when you walk into a room, it might be that for the first second or two the fidelity of the lighting is done by the console, but then, as the cloud catches up with that, the data comes back down to the console and you have incredibly realistic lighting,” Matt Booty, General Manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, told Ars.

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Corning has begun a pre-emptive strike against a competitor to Gorilla Glass, its product widely used in the displays of many smartphones.

The company has posted an article to the Web previewing the next generation of its product, as well as a stress-test video.

In its article, Corning maintained that Gorilla Glass has a number of benefits over sapphire as the cover glass for mobile devices, such as smartphones. It asserts that Gorilla Glass is lighter than sapphire; consumes less energy and costs less to produce; is brighter; is thinner so it can be curved and more responsive to touch; and is stronger.

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With the TV season ending, now is a great time to catch up with shows that are either finishing their run completely, or just coming to the end of remarkable seasons. Here are five finales from this year’s May sweeps that are worth your time (along with where you can catch up with earlier episodes).

The Office

★★★

Hulu, Series finale now streaming Netflix, first 8 seasons now streaming

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Given the brevity of most browser games, it can be hard for them to really tell a complete story that really connects with the player. This week I've got five free games for you that do an excellent job of telling great stories about life, death, truth—and fighting demons as an 8 year old.

Misadventure

It’s hard to make Atari-level graphics disturbing, but Misadventure does it with style. The conceit of the game is that you’re an 8-year-old that’s been chosen to ward off an invasion of evil demons. You just think you’re playing a video game though, so when the disturbing imagery pops up half of the scares come from the graphics themselves and half comes from imagining the 8-year-old that thinks this is all perfectly normal.

Truth Only

Truth Only does a great job of telling a story through gameplay. At first it seems like a traditional first-person shooter with some impressive graphics for a browser game. But as you start noticing who your enemies are and how your own weapon functions, the story of who you are and what you’re doing starts to draw you deeper and deeper into the game.

Lost Fluid

Lost Fluid is impressive mostly for the speed with which it establishes and tells its story. The whole game takes 10 minutes to play, less if you know what you’re doing or consult the walkthrough helpfully available in the upper right part of the game. In that time though, Lost Fluid manages to sketch an impressive little sci-fi tale about life and death.

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This week on the podcast, we attempt to articulate the awesomeness of the new Star Trek (there are a few spoilers) and Alex Cocilova gets an inappropriate nickname. Also up for discussion: upcoming TV shows we're excited about and what the new Xbox could mean for its competition. Check the video or download the mp3 below!

Links from this episode:

• The new Star Trek movie is incredible, even if it didn't leave the audience a moment to breathe.
• Jason gives a shout-out to Dolby Atmos and Carlos descibes his love for his JBL soundbar.
• SNL actors and The Office leave us, but we get to look forward to ADHD and the return of Wilfred to makes things okay.
• We talk about the Xbox reveal (sort of) and how it will force Nintendo to make a phone.

Got something you want us to talk about, check out, or a guest you want us to try to book? Send us mail at entertainment@techhive.com with the subject: Play This! podcast. Or, tweet at us @TechHive.

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Microsoft brushed off a dubious hacker's claim on Thursday that he stole 47 million account credentials for Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming service.

The hacker, who goes by the Twitter handle "@Reckz0r," wrote on Pastebin that Microsoft stored the login credentials in plain text. The data included email addresses and passwords, he added.

The alleged breach comes just days after Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One, the latest iteration of the gaming system.

"Xbox Live has not been hacked," the company said in a statement. "Microsoft can confirm that there has been no breach to the security of our Xbox Live service."

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In this year’s wireless speed tests, TechHive and its testing partner OpenSignal focused on getting real-world results. That’s why we used ordinary, readily available smartphones and tested in the physical spaces where real people use such devices, both inside and outside buildings.

Drive test metrics are great to have, and they help mobile carriers improve service and target problem areas on their networks. However, with over 34 percent of households in the United States claiming a mobile phone as their only phone, we know that most smartphone users are either at home or at work, presumably somewhere inside a building.

The results

In our tests, outdoor service was usually better than indoor service, but not by much. Both 4G and 3G service suffered an average speed loss of less than 0.7 megabits per second (700 kilobits per second), but that small difference turned into a big one for services where download speeds were less than 1 mbps to begin with.

Overall, 3G service showed marginal speed decreases when we used it indoors. Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon 3G speeds degraded by 5 to 9 percent in indoor usage. AT&T was an anomaly: Its 3G service produced download speeds that were 5.28 percent faster indoors than outdoors.

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The U.S. International Trade Commission has turned down a request for a ban on Microsoft's Xbox after finding that the gaming device did not infringe a patent owned by Google's Motorola Mobility unit.

The ITC's ruling Thursday has essentially confirmed an initial ruling by administrative law judge David P. Shaw in March that the Xbox did not infringe a Motorola patent relating to wireless peer-to-peer communications.

"We're disappointed with this decision and are evaluating our options," Motorola's spokesman William Moss said in an email on Thursday.

The patent in question was the last in the dispute which was filed in the ITC in November 2010 by Motorola which accused Microsoft of infringing five of its patents.

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Hard as it may be to believe, Gamestop executives believe that both the Microsoft Xbox One as well as the Sony PlayStation 4 will be priced less than their predecessors—and fewer people will buy them, too.

Gamestop executives told analysts that their “market model,” based on their own estimates as well as what they’ve been told by Microsoft and Sony, call for the next-generation systems to have a “lower opening price point than they did last cycle,” Robert Lloyd, the chief financial officer of Gamestop, told analysts on Thursday. The same model assumes that the adoption rate for both consoles will be between 80 to 85 percent of the past cycle, he said, and that the attach rate for software will be about 80 percent.

That means, Lloyd said, that the retailer expects 2013 sales will decline versus 2012, then pick up in 2013 as the new consoles launches gain traction, Lloyd said. In 2014, they will return to “very healthy growth,” he said.

Microsoft announced the Xbox One two days ago, and gamers and potential customers haven’t stopped talking about it since. Although Microsoft has said that it will talk more about games at the E3 games conference, Microsoft’s TV-centric focus turned off some. And up until today, game-rental companies like Gamestop weren’t saying much about whether consumers would be able to rent Xbox One games, let alone buy and sell used copies. At least Microsoft showed off the Xbox One; so far, Sony has only released a fuzzy video of the console, after excluding it entirely from its own reveal conference.

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Internet communities are more trustworthy than some big corporations, but mobile is proving a hard nut to crack even for the best of them, actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher told CTIA Wireless Thursday.

“Facebook is the new religion,” Kutcher said. “It’s a deeper trust bond that I have with someone.” Mass religions rose along with large cities and became a way for people to trust neighbors they didn’t know, Kutcher said. Facebook creates trust by turning strangers into “friends of friends,” Kutcher said.

Stephen Lawson

The same principle applies to online housing exchange Airbnb, which Kutcher said he was skeptical about at first but finally invested in. Having a friend vouch for someone or having other consumers give them good ratings online has proved as safe or safer than trusting corporate services, Kutcher said.

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Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to lug 100-pounds of cargo all day while engaged in battle? It's like torture, I'm sure, which is why I'd make a terrible soldier. Still, regardless of whether you've been trained to deal with such instantly crushing loads or not, 100 pounds is still a lot of weight. It's also why DARPA started the Warrior Web program.

With the Warrior Web program, DARPA wants to prevent and reduce the musculoskeletal injuries incurred from running, jumping, and crawling through uneven terrain–all without expending more than 100W of power. To accomplish this, researchers are aiming to make a lightweight exoskeleton-like suit that will protect injury-prone areas like the knees or the lumbar region of the spine.

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The Verge is reporting that AT&T has sneaked another fee into the phone bills of its 70 million or so postpaid wireless customers. The fee, called a "Mobility Administrative Fee" adds another 61 cents to the bill each month.

We ran a little basic math using information from AT&T's most recent quarterly report, and found the carrier will make an extra $2.5 billion over the next five years from the new fee alone. If the carrier's postpaid subscriber rolls increase, as it hopes, it will make even more.

AT&T started charging the fee May 1, and shows the new fee breakdown on its Additional Charges page.

"Consistent with similar fees charged by other carriers, the monthly fee of 61 cents per line will help cover certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell site rents and maintenance," an AT&T spokesperson said in an email to TechHive.

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