As yes, the age old argument of the best pair of jeans. Well, I pick my jeans off the Red Tag rack. Levis 510s are the brands “super skinny”, but don’t let that fool you, these aren’t the painted on tightness of jeans you will find with other brands, they do have some room to them.

Neither I nor Adam are purveyors of washing your jeans unnecessarily. So what we’ve found over here after rigorous testing in the CONVOKE labratories is that a nicely well worn in pair of 510s will fit you like a brand new or just washed 511s, which is right in that sweet spot for jeans. I pretty much wear these jeans every day (about 95%) and they’re still going strong after over 8 months of abuse, showing the quality that your plain old Levis have, and at $75 they really are a steal.

Go grab yourself a pair, throw on a white T, and… strut. It’s just that easy.

none | Favourites, Gear, Style

There are two known facts about high powered laser pointers, they’re expensive, but AWESOME. The little known fact is that, with the right know-how, you can amp up your cheap one into a match-lightin’, balloon-poppin’, leather-etchin’, rad-sauce version. Wired has this short and simple tutorial on how to do just that. So get on it.

none | Gear, Science

Why stick with the stoic old two handed clock? Asprial Clocks takes it up a notch with the truly unique spiral formed clock. Unfortunately at £350 it might not be the most affordable, any inspiring clock makers out there want to make me one?

none | Art, Design, Gear

Stephen Wiltshire has an incredible gift, super human even. Stephen draws city skylines at incredible detail FROM MEMORY. Steven was diagnosed at autistic at age 3 and has been drawing city skylines since age 5. His more recent works are cityscapes on huge canvasses and can be purchased scaled or full sized (up to 6 m x 1 m) here.

none | Art, Gear

If you know me, you’d know I have an unexplainable fetish for squids. SylvanSF has this and more in their new lineup. Unfortunately there is only a few select stores that carry this furniture, but if you can find it, it might be worth it (and if you manage to get you hands on the squid trunk, you know Christmas IS just around the corner).

none | Art, Gear

Just a quick update on the whole iPhone jailbreak thing. This is my current lockscreen on my phone. As you can see there’s weather, an agenda, and the number of new emails. You can also configure this to show number of missed calls and new SMS. The program is called Lockscreen Info and is available on Cydia. Winterboard is required to theme as you wish (including my minimal unlock swipe), and there are various programs that allow you to remove your clock (I’m using Clock Hide). Additionally, check out Popup Blocker, which can remove the redundant “missed calls” popup.

Hopefully this will at least help smooth over those who are gripped over no Android on Bell’s new network (Adam). Keeping things just that much more customizable.

none | Computers, Gear

You know what’s smart? Thermodynamics. What’s even smarter? Using it to your advantage. This device chills your wine in 90 seconds (or what’s claimed). I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, you get a piece of metal cold enough, with enough volume and surface area and it’s sure gonna cool your wine down fast, I’d be worried that ice could form on the device itself and there’s no telling what that’ll do to you wine.

Never-the-less great idea when you just can’t wait for that bottle to chill.

none | Food, Gear

Did anyone know that people were doing this? Frameless glasses may correct one of your senses, but magnetic implants actually give you a new sense altogether. A little magnet is implanted into the tip of your finger so that you can sense EM fields and pick up small magnetic objects. It’s body modification, not medicine, and carries with it the risk of infection or rejection, but still… how cool would it be to have an extra sense?

none | Gear, Science

We’ve already shared our love for everything Moleskine over here at CONVOKE, so here’s another product for our favorite journals. This folio really brings it home by being waterproof, protecting not only your Moleskine but your pens (specifically the G-Tec-C4, right?), money, business card, and whatever else you shove in there.

Check out this video for a full feature list.

none | Gear

I hope all you in the white north had an excellent Thanksgiving (I know I did). While everyone else was stuffing their faces in what can only be called splendor, geohot (George Hotz) was releasing blackra1n. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time coming.

My biggest gripe with the iPhone is the inability to set custom sms sounds. Not only is this possible on all but the cheapest phones, but due to the popularity of iPhones it only takes 8 people before 2 of you HAVE to have the same sound, quite confusing. My phone is now back and talking to me, just as my old one did.

Since the thing is now jailbroken, why not add a few more beneficial hacks to make the phone even greater? Here’s what I’m running:

5 Icon Dock: Allows for 5 icons on your dock, I have sms, phone, safari, mail and iPod.

QuickReply: Reply to sms messages without leaving your current app. Super convenient, you can also reply from your lock screen by double tapping the sms notification.

SBSettings: Quick access to your bluetooth, wifi, brightness, edge, 3g and running applications without leaving your current app. Also allows you to hide applications from the home screen. I never use stocks, compass, voice memos, stocks or iTunes, so it frees up quite a bit of real estate. You can still find these applications by searching with spotlight.

Installous: Might be unethical, but you can install hacked applications with this. Meaning the $100 tomtom app from the app store? Free. My phone is filled with stolen music already, so why not applications (and it’s still legal in Canada for now)?

statusnotifier: Allows for status of the phone to be placed in the top bar. Quick checks for email without unlocking the phone is now possible.

none | Computers, Gear