Elvis Presley reclaimed the top spot on Forbes.com’s seventh annual ranking of Top-Earning Celebrities, dead celebrities that is. The seventh annual ranking of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities” assesses the earning power of deceased celebrities, including musicians, actors, authors, songwriters and composers, among others.

Elvis (who earned $49 million from October 2006 – October 2007) and the other 12 icons on the list grossed a combined $232 million in the past 12 months. Newcomers to the list this year include Steve McQueen ($6 million) and James Brown ($5 million).

The Top 5 Top-Earning Dead Celebrities

1. Elvis Presley $49 Million
2. John Lennon $44 Million
3. Charles M. Schulz $35 Million
4. George Harrison $22 Million
5. Albert Einstein $18 Million

Kurt Cobain, who debuted in first place on the list in 2006, was one of four who fell off this year’s list, joining Ray Charles, J.R.R. Tolkien and Johnny Cash. Tupac Shakur ($9 million) is back on the list, as is James Dean ($3.5 million).

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Here’s a funky fresh music video produced by Jonas & François of 75 Music and So Me. Not only did this team of three perform a knockout job on Kayne West’s Good Life music video, they were also team that directed Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” hit.And in case you’re wondering who the vixen in the video is, it’s Angel Melaku.

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Make no mistake about it, there’s certainly a sect out there ready and willing to snap up just about anything smothered in a flowery print, and it seems that Sysbay International is looking to cash in. The seven-inch PF500 media player sports a 480 x 234 resolution panel, integrated speaker, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, AV output, USB connectivity, support for JPEG, BMP, MP3, WAV, WMA, AVI, DivX and XviD files, and of course, a not-exactly-elegant border. Reportedly, the unit comes with up to 2GB of internal memory, but if you actually feel the urge to add one of these to your own collection, you’ll have to send in a price inquiry of your own and wait for remorse to set in.

[Via PMPToday]

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After a two-year stint, Ricoh is finally rolling out a successor to their GR Digital — the GR digital II. No really, that’s the 10 megapixel GR II up there not their 10 megapixel GX100. The GR II boasts a 1/1.75-inch CCD, ISO 1600 max sensitivity, improved RAW and JPEG recordings, VGA video recordings, SDHC/SD card slot, and option for a Lithium-Ion power plant or pair of AAAs in a pinch. Right, just like the GX100. The GR II, however, is a tad smaller and lighter than the GX100 while offering a slightly larger, auto-rotating 2.7-inch LCD, and the same 28-mm (not 24 to 72-mm wide-angle) lens found on the original GR Digital. Expected in Japan on November 22nd for about ¥80,000 or right around 700 bucks.

[Via Amateur Photographer]

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We’ve seen a plethora of shirts made for more than just satisfying a core necessity in life, but a team of scientists over at the CSIRO’s Energy Technology Division are hoping to have “power shirts” at your local flea market (or other fine establishments) within five years. By using piezo electrical materials, the garb could reportedly “produce electricity as you move,” enabling users to juice up their DAPs, mobiles and air conditioned pants just by staying active. Other potential applications include powering battlefield-related equipment on soldiers and monitoring systems on the elderly, but making sure it can handle the oh-so-intimidating wash cycle remains a challenge.

[Via PopGadget, image courtesy of CSIRO]

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Golden Crystal Technology’s KI-T12 didn’t quite make the cut for the infamous keepin’ it real fake list, but even though it’s not a straight-up rip, there’s no denying the similitude. Interestingly enough, this isn’t even the first time we’ve seen a gizmo take a note from Nokia’s 7260, but this particular copycat simply handles DMV, MP3, MPX and WMA formats, features a wee 1.5-inch color display and includes a built-in FM tuner to boot. Furthermore, you’ll find six equalizer presets, your own electronic pet game (Tamagotchi, reincarnated!) and a text viewer. Per usual, you’ll have to send in an inquiry to find out how much these things run, but honestly, why would you want to do that?

[Via PMPToday]

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Look out Apple, Microsoft, SanDisk and anyone else who actually gives a damn about DAP design, features and quality: Best Buy still has a horse in this race. We were positively floored by the unadulterated horror of last year’s NS-DVxG DAP from Best Buy’s in-house Insignia brand, and now here comes the Insignia Kix to provide a low-cost, 1-inch screened entry to Insignia’s shoddy lineup. The player supports MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible, sports an FM tuner, runs for 30 hours on a lithium-ion battery, and stores 1GB of your tunes for $60. We suppose we can’t rag on ‘em for building a USB mass storage device, but that’s about as positive as we’re going to get for this one.

[Via dapreview]

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We’ve come to expect our Apple-related hacks early and user friendly these days, but we’ve still got mad respect for the folks at OSx86 Scene who’ve managed to get Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard up and running on Intel PCs on launch day — the day before if you felt like being a bit less upright about it. The hack requires a minimum of trickery on your part: just a burnable DVD, USB thumb drive and a bit of luck. Not everything’s super tested just yet, and OSx86 Scene will be expanding support and simplifying the process as time goes on, but this is sure a promising start.

[Via dailyApps, image courtesy of mac.nub]

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If you’re truly trying to protect wares that actually posses a substantial level of worth, we’d recommend a few alternatives more suited for the job, but if you’re simply trying to keep the office snoop from “borrowing” your red stapler, this cubicle defense system ought to suffice. Put simply, the three devices can be set up around your personal space, and while the first unit simply flashes, emits a blast and simultaneously alarms the other two, the second device actually throws out an uber-terrifying (okay, so maybe that’s a stretch) red beam to further startle the invader. If he / she persists, the final unit launches two non-lethal missiles to let that encroacher know that you mean business. Yeah, it’s not exactly intimidating, but if you’ve nothing better to do than watch a demonstration of the $39.99 system in action, check it out after the jump.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

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Scientists at North Carolina’s PULSTAR nuclear reactor facility fired a positron bean five times stronger than any other ever created earlier this month, breaking a record previously held by a team in Germany. The antimatter device — which apparently looks like a Star Trek warp reactor — was developed as part of a two year project by NC State, the University of Michigan, and Oak Ridge National Labs. Now that the device is working, the team is looking for practical applications for the tech, including building an “antimatter telescope,” which would allow even closer observations of atomic interactions. Or they could use it to blow up the universe. You know, whatever.

[Via TG Daily]

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