Poor rock stars: Squier Strat electric guitar seized in Italian customs, full of cocaine

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When I first saw this photo, my naive mind assumed it was a very poorly made cake with black marzipan icing, but on closer inspection…yep, that looks like Pete Doherty’s annual intake of Columbian marching power.

The black Squier Strat electric guitar was reportedly filled to overflowing with €2,500,000 worth of pure coke, and attempted to be smuggled from Costa Rica to Rome by an unnamed 30-year old suspect. Not…

Korea/Japan Week: NTT DoCoMo shows off mobile payments with Grab-a-Mushroom game and Coke vending machine

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I bloody love fairground grabber machines, I do. Even when they’re rigged so you’ve got zero hope of ever actually hoisting a soft toy out. And I like this one, which can be found at Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo’s showroom in Tokyo, even more.

Why? Partly because I won, and partly because it’s an example of NTT DoCoMo’s use of near-field communication to let you pay for stuff by pressing your mobile phone against a sensor, with not a coin in sight. Check the video over the jump to see how it works, and to see the same technology being used in, surprise surprise, a vending machine.

Coca-Cola and Apple iTunes giving away choons, iPods and concert tickets this Summer

cokeitunes.jpg Anti-capitalist? Better look away now, as two of your most-loathed corporations are teaming up together in the marriage of the decade. Well, until Microsoft buys Yahoo, anyway.

Coca-Cola, they of teeth-rotting prowess, are collaborating with iTunes to bulk up your iPod playlist and give away songs in over 2 billion promotional packs of Coca-Cola, Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Not got an iPod?…