So if you’re the type who’s always buying new phones and updating your devices, then it’s time you head to the ecoATM nearest you to start recycling your old gadgets.

Not only will you be doing good old Mother Nature a favor here by recycling old stuff that you might no longer need or use, but you’ll also get some quick cash in return.

The ecoATM is an automated gadget recycler with a touchscreen and a metal tray below where you’re supposed to put your smartphone, MP3 player, or other device to be recycled.

The ecoATM then uses its camera to determine what kind of device you’re recycling by comparing it to its database that’s been inputted with over 4,000 different gadgets. It will then ask you to plug your device in so it can check if it still works or not. When it’s done with its analysis, it then displays a quote for your gadget, which you can either accept or reject.

If you accept its offer, the ecoATM then dispenses cash in return for your device. The ecoATM already has some machines up and running in California, while more will be rolled out across the country gradually.

[via Daily Mail]

Inside each Watch2Pay is a SIM card that is linked to a MasterCard PayPass prepaid account; it’s the key to the wireless interface between the watch and the reader. For practicality’s sake, each Watch2Pay also comes with a more conventional prepaid card for establishments that don’t have PayPass readers or for when your Watch2Pay is nicked off of you. Watch the video below for a bit more info. Unless you’re a fan of post-hardcore music, my headache and I strongly suggest you put it on mute.

No offense to the band who made that soundtrack, but come on. Whatever happened to bland commercial music? It’s bland for a reason. Watch2Pay is currently available in Poland and in the United Kingdom, where it sells for £99 (~$153 USD). I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes its way to other first world countries. Checkout the official website for more info.

[via Springwise via PFSK]

Since people will immediately recognize it and it will grab their attention, they’ll probably be more likely to leave tips when they see it. The other benefit is that the design of the tip box isn’t too glaringly loud, so it should fit in with any decor.

You can get it for $19.99 (USD) from Pukka/Dank. If you run a business that thrives on tips, you might want to pick one up to see how it will affect customer contributions.

[via DesignYouTrust]

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The snake struck at his hand, but given the current state of the world economy, he grabbed his money anyway. It’s just what you have to do in that situation. All ended well though. He called the police and a bank manager activated the cash release that had trapped the snake.

The snake was presumably returned to the board room on the top floor of the bank, where he sipped champagne, lit a cigar with a thousand dollar bill and made jokes about the 99%.

[via Neatorama]

Now someone has created real silver Bitcoin coins in 1 gm silver rounds, stamped with the Bitcoin symbol, bringing them into the real world. That makes these the first digital currency to take a physical form. They look cooler than our currency. It’s not like you can use these at the corner shop, but at least they could be a good investment because they are pure silver. Silver, like gold, is going up, up, up.

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[via Therichtimes]

But before you start hoarding computers and drooling at the prospect of earning money without doing anything, know that CPUsage will “only” pay you $10 (USD) a month for every four hours of daily work – or about $10 for 120 hours monthly – that your silicon slave does. I’m pretty sure that that’s not even enough to cover the cost of electricity that your computer will consume in that same time period.

Edit: CPUsage co-founder and CEO Jeff Martens corrected my assumption in his comment below, saying, “I’d like to address the electricity usage. In our analysis, the most power hungry Dell dekstop would consume about $7/month in electricity if the CPU was pinned at 100% utilization for the entire month…every minute of it (depends on your state’s electricity costs, of course). While it is unlikely that CPUsage would utilize your computer every minute of every day for an entire month, that same Dell desktop would earn you in the area of $75 in rewards. For $7 in electricity.” Learn more in this shaky-cam interview with Martens:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As Martens said in the video, the longer you lend them your computer’s power, the more money you’ll earn. Also, the more power you lend, the more money you’ll earn. But still, I don’t think people should expect to earn big money from being a CPUsage participant. Speaking of earnings, it’s not clear yet whether CPUsage will pay people with actual money or with gift cards.

Still, if you frequently use your computer anyway, then it would be nice to get the most out of it and earn a few bucks or items. Then again I’m no computer expert – who knows, there might be a way to game this system and earn lots of money from it. Check out the CPUsage website for more information.

[via The Next Web]

The goal was to raise the money that the project would need to go back online. The number that the scientists decided was needed to bring SETI back was $200,000. They started taking donations and with three days left in the program, the team had already raised $207,000.

There is no indication of how long that money will keep the program going. SETI is still hoping the USAF will save it with a contract to track debris in space that might hit satellites or the ISS. The tracking of space junk could be done during the day and looking for alien signals could be done at night.

[via Forbes]

When the tin was full of change, I hid it at the back of my closet so it would sort of become my emergency fund. Unfortunately, I also completely forgot about it. A few years later, when I was cleaning out my stuff, I saw the can and decided that it was time to collect. Coins spilled out in every direction, but when I took a closer look, I realized that the coins were no longer being accepted in my country circa a few years ago. Sucks to be me, I know.

Okay, so anyway, that was a pretty long (and slightly unrelated) story about the Flying Piggy Bank, but it was the only anecdote I have that is all about piggy banks.

These Flying Piggy Banks were designed by Galerie Brigitte, and they feature a whole new opening with which you’re able to drop in a wide variety of coins and paper bills. The new slot looks like a cross hair, which is meant to make the whole task of dropping bills into the flying pig a whole lot easier.

According to Yanko Design, three sizes are available: S, M, and L, depending on how much cash you want to stash before you finally decide to literally break the bank.

I tried to track down the designer, but a site in her name just led to a page full of ads and articles on diesel engines and pond pumps. Oh, well. If you do decide to get a piggy bank (even if it isn’t the Flying Piggy Bank), I only have one piece of advice: crack it open the moment you hear that some notes in your currency are about to be phased out.

This will be the world’s first QR coin and they’ll be available starting  June 22. The silver version is the €5 coin and the gold is the €10. The guys at 2d code checked it out, and once you scan the QR code it will point to this website (not yet live) where you’ll find a “surprise” waiting for you. I’ve got no idea what the surprise might be, but it will probably include historical facts about the people and monuments on the coins. Personally, I’d like to see some kind of Easter egg revealed on the website.

Still, the coin looks pretty cool and I’m sure it will sell quite well. Heck, I’d like to have one please.

[via The Rich Times via LikeCool via DVice]

Apparently, it costs a ton of money to operate iTunes. We know that there are 15 billion songs downloaded on iTunes, 130 million books downloaded, and 14 billion apps downloaded along with $2.5 bill paid out to developers.

Along with that data, market intelligence firm Asymco took some other figures, worked the numbers, and came up with what it thinks iTunes costs to operate. The number is a whopping $1.3 billion each year. That works out to about $113 million monthly! That is a lot of money no matter how you slice it.

In working through their estimates, Asymco figured out the what Apple gets to keep after paying content owners (shown in the graph above), then assumed that they operate at break-even, since Apple has stated that they really make their money on the hardware business, and they have alluded to the iTunes store operating “a bit over break even” on several occasions.

It doesn’t seem like offering digital goods where you don’t have a physical store should cost that much.

Make Your Franklin is a community art project that invites people to recreate the US 100-dollar bill into something a bit more fun. There are lots of fun things to discover in their gallery, from complete redesigns to social commentaries.

The submitted designs come from all over the world and they are supposed to reflect the symbols of modern society into an everyday form. With U.S. currency being so ubiquitous, so it’s kind of fun to see what people have come up with.

[via Designboom]

The Personal ATM works a lot like actual ATMs, but not only can you deposit money in it, you can also set a target date or a target amount of money so you can monitor (and agonize) how long you have to wait before you should withdraw or how much you still have to save.

Just like the real thing, the Personal ATM comes with an ATM card with a modifiable PIN that you’ll need to insert to transact with the machine. It also has an anti-theft alarm, calculator and time and date function. You can order one at Latest Buy for $44 (USD).

[via Inventor Spot]

The gadget is actually a special bendy sticker that adheres to the back of a bill of your choice. Once folded shut, it holds all your other bills in place. Use a $100 bill if you want people to think you’re a big spender – you can just fill in the middle with ones. Of course, whatever bill you use as the wrapper for your wad of cash will probably become irretrievable, so you might want to stick with a single for now. In case you don’t get the concept, here’s a silly video of a girl with a Snidely Whiplash mustache dancing to Franz Ferdinand that should set you straight:

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See? Makes perfect sense now, right? The Invisible Money Clip is available from ALL CA$H Money Clips for $9.95 (USD) each, or get a pair for $14.95 in case you want to carry more than one stack of cash. ALL CA$H is careful to point out that price doesn’t include a dollar bill.

Designed by Wang Chao, Maggie Kuo, and Jordi Parra, the electronic piggy bank concept has an iPhone for its screen that displays the emotions of the piggy bank, while an Arduino detects and manages the money and transmits status back to a computer via Bluetooth, which in turn notifies the iPhone over WiFi.

Creating an automatic withdrawal from your primary bank account to a savings account is probably easier and you won’t be charged any interest, but hey, if all fails, you can try this.

[via Ubergizmo]

Yep, these machines are designed to dispense gold or silver coins and ingots. Designed by Space International [JP], the machines can handle quantities from a gram to 1/4 of an ounce. At today’s prices, that puts the most expensive item in the machines at about $400 (USD). I guess when you look at those pricey Best Buy vending machines, it’s not all that crazy to think that someone might make a purchase out of one of these. That said, I’m not sure why you’d actually need to buy gold or silver on a whim.

The first gold vending machines are being installed in central Tokyo, where there’s little concern about criminals breaking into these. If they had one of these here in Chicago, it would be broken open and emptied in a day. Despite the fact the machine says “SPACE GOLD,” it currently only stocks gold found here on Earth. Perhaps if they did start mining gold in outer space, they could demand an even higher premium.

[via Bloomberg via Japan Trends]

You can now pay for your coffee if you use the iPhone or a Blackberry using the official Starbucks App. The app can be funded using your credit card or PayPal. Once you have money in your app account all you need to do is place your order and then hold your device with the barcode on the screen under the scanner at the counter.

The app deducts the money from your account automatically. This would be the perfect app for people who end up shocked at the end of the month that they spent hundreds of dollars on coffee alone. You can only put what you want to spend for the month in the app and when it’s gone, you drink the swill at the office. Starbucks claims the app is the fastest way to pay for drinks now.

I was given the game as an early Christmas gift, and have spent hours and hours playing it. The game is fantastic and has apparently been selling in droves. As a matter of fact, activision reported this week that Black Ops has sold over $1 billion globally since it launched in November. That is some serious green.

The game sold over $650 million in the first five days. So far, gamers have logged over 600 million hours of play with the average player logging on more than once per day for more than an hour each time.

I wonder if it snaps closed on your fingers like a clam when you run out of money completely. These Proverbial Wallet concepts from the team of Henry Holtzman, John Kestner, Daniel Leithinger, Emily Tow, Danny Bankman, Jaekyung Jung at MIT Media Lab actually come in three versions, including “Bumblebee” – that vibrates when your bank processes a transaction, and a “Peacock” one that expands and contracts based on your bank balance – puffing up like a peacock “to attract potential mates.”

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The hard to open design of the Mother Bear wallet can be mapped out to a monthly budget. This would be a great way to let kids know how much they have to spend. Hell, I wish I could remotely lock down my wife’s wallet once she spends too much.

[via designboom]

Above is a partial picture of Club Neverdie. Now here’s the mind blowing thing about this sale: like most games in the genre, Planet Calypso – part of the mega MMOG Entropia Universe – lets players earn virtual currency. In Calypso, players can mine, set up shops, and own property which can be rented, thus earning the owner virtual currency. But unlike other MMORPGs, Calypso also lets players exchange their virtual currency to real world money for a fixed rate.

So we don’t know whether Pesok paid Neverdie in virtual currency or cold hard cash, but even if Pesok did pay the $335,000 using virtual currency, Neverdie can cash that out to real money, which might not be enough to buy a real asteroid, but is surely more than enough reward for playing a video game. If that’s not enough, he sold off a dozen other domed virtual complexes for a total of $300,000, bringing his total payday to $635,000. Good god.

Check out Entropia Planets for more details on the sale.

[via Edge via Geekologie]

The epic failure of the Kin family of mobile phones has directly cost Ballmer $670,000 in bonus money. The reason for losing the huge chunk of his bonus wasn’t only the Kin failure though. The failure of Microsoft to make headway in the tablet market in fiscal 2010 was also cited. A company filing gave the official reasons as “unsuccessful launch of the Kin phone, loss of market share in the company’s mobile phone business, and the need for the company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors.”

Ballmer could have made a bonus of twice his annual salary, which is $670,000 yearly. He did land half the possible bonus thanks to steering Microsoft to its most profitable year. I know I’d be pissed if I lost a $670,000 bonus but that’s what you get for letting a turd like the Kin hit the market and the dude still made over a million this year and has $10 billion in stock. I don’t think he’ll be missing any house payments any time soon.

[via Reuters]