Motorola\'s got another Q in the queue in the form of the new Napolean world phone. It\'s a CDMA smartphone for Verizon that does double duty with GSM, so you can use it pretty much anywhere. It also includes Wi-Fi if you\'re not feeling like using its EV-DO Revision A or EDGE data, runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and includes a fingerprint scanner and a 2-megapixel camera with flash. It sounds like a great phone for world travelers, but probably overkill for anyone else. [BGR]
As you already know, today was the launch of the limited-edition Marty McFly-inspired Nike Hyperdunk sneakers. 350 pairs were sold almost instantly (some are now for sale in eBay for as much as $2,000), a hundred of them at the UNDFTD shop in Santa Monica, where L.A. Lakers\' megastar Kobe Bryant arrived in a DeLorean time machine to be greeted by hundred of fans, some of them camping outside for more than 24 hours. Seriously, I\'m a Back to the Future fan too, but what kind of obsessed fanboy can wait for more than 24 hours for a stupid piece of merchandise? Ah... hrmmm. OK, nevermind. [Hyperbeast]
With an unpopular war going on, an unpopular president in the White House and an economy in crisis, sometimes we struggle to remember what makes this country great. July 4th should be a time to reflect on the positives—a day to celebrate our independence and recapture our patriotic spirit. For some of us, that may be easier said than done. However, I am confident that the following gadgets will serve as a reminder, to all nerds, why we live in the best country in the world. And if you are still not convinced, just remember—you could be living in Canada.
Freedom of Speech:
Nothing says "America" like making our political leaders hump in action figure form. Start your own freaky Beltway love triangle involving George and Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Uncle Sam, John and Jackie Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Benjamin Franklin (horn-dog that he was) with these Political Posers action figures. They even threw Jesus in for some totally inappropriate fun. Available for $8.88 each. [Prank Place]
Don\'t like how Bush is handling things in the White House? Move him into another white house (the kind made from porcelain). You will knock him down a few pegs with a really dirty job. The George Bush toilet brush is available for $16.95. [Baron Bob]
Hillary may be out of the race, but you can remember her campaign for the nation\'s highest office every time you crack open a walnut. The Hillary Clinton Nutcracker is available for $19.99. [Teptronics via Link]
Knives With Guns In Them:
The G.R.A.D. features a .22 caliber gun hidden in a knife for people who don\'t think their enemies can ever be too dead. Second amendment! Wooo! Available for $699. [GunsAmerica (how appropriate) and Link]
Huge Grills and Competitive Eating:
It is no wonder that all of the grills out there vying for the title of "world\'s largest" can be found in the United States. The "Big Taste Grill" is 65 feet of meat-cooking mayhem. With surface area enough for 750 brats at a given time, its max output is 2,500 bph (brats per hour). [Big Taste Grill]
It\'s not a gadget but come on...competitive eating. If that doesn\'t scream America I don\'t know what does. Seriously—they have their own federation, like wrestlers. [IFOCE]
Texas:
Texas knows how to do America right—big and in your face. Case in point, the world\'s largest video screen is set to go up in the new Cowboys stadium next year. When it is finally installed, it will measure a whopping 11,200 square feet. [Link]
Excess and Laziness:
America is obsessed with acquiring wealth to live lavish, lazy lifestyles. Plumbing service provider Roto-Rooter had America pegged when it ran a promotion last year with a pimped-out toilet featuring a 20-inch LCD, DVD player, XBox 360, iPod with toilet paper stereo docking station, TiVo, Avanti refrigerator with beer tap, a bike pedal exerciser and cup warmer/cooler. [Link]
Over-the-Top Consumerism:
One of the most interesting things about America is that companies will try and sell us anything—and we will be right there, waiting at the check-out lanes with open arms and open wallets.
Star Trek- and MLB-themed urns are a perfect example of this phenomenon. Major companies and franchises put their names on products, and we are so enamored we want to take them to the afterlife. [Eternal Image via Link]
What could be more American than a pair of motion-activated, singing, vibrating breasts? How about a pair of motion-activated, singing, vibrating breasts that you can record your own song on? Indeed, "Jingle Jugs for Life" has an option to record your own message or song. And, in a truly American move, they have added a pre-recorded breast cancer awareness message on each product to keep the feminists at bay. Available for $39.99 (original version) and $49.99 for breast cancer awareness version. [Jingle Jugs and Link]
In the end, I can only hope that this little gadget-filled journey across our great nation has helped you understand just how lucky you are to be an American. So, get out there, cook up some BBQ, drink some beer and shoot illegal fireworks wildly into the air. It\'s the American way.
I\'m OCD about my desktop. I keep exactly six icons on it, tucked in the upper left hand corner. So Dell\'s OS X wannabe dock—actually made by Stardock and licensed to Dell, but let\'s not pretend it\'s not an Apple reaction—sounds like a great way to keep my desktop immaculate. Who originated the dock or why it came to be aren\'t really that important. The fact is, lots of people who never would\'ve used a dock are now going to when Dell ships these out. And that would be awesome, if the dock weren\'t so dumb.
Our review unit is an XPS M1330—Dell shipped us a fresh hard drive with Vista Ultimate and the latest Dell software. (The Dock will arrive on new Studio laptops, and eventually ship on some legacy systems, like the XPS M1330 and 1530.) Problem one is right when you boot it up. Windows started, and I thought they had accidentally given me a drive without the dock. The dock appeared a full minute after I started wondering WTF it was. Not a great start to the dock experience! A less savvy user might think the dock is just slow balls and turn it off. I did what I usually do when I get a notebook: Yank out the crapware, plus, in this case, the fingerprint reader and other Dell-specific software. Then reboot.
Dock comes up instantly. Yay. Okay, so while I don\'t find the default options useful, they were easy enough to swap out, move around, whatever. My desktop is spotless, the dock itself is beautiful. I\'m happy—until I start using the computer. That\'s when I realize the dock\'s fatal flaw.
It\'s not a real "dock" but just a dumb, pretty shortcut bar. It can make your desktop tidy, but you still have to use the regular Windows taskbar to interact with applications and see what they\'re up to. When I minimize Firefox, it goes to the taskbar, and I can\'t pop the window back open from the dock. The AIM icon doesn\'t bounce when I have a new message. It just sits there, lifeless, looking high-res and pretty. And what I want, what I expect, what I\'m subtly promised is something like OS X\'s dock. (Even if they won\'t let you stick it on the bottom.) If it was, and I could ditch the Windows taskbar, I would be in love with it. It would change the way a hefty chunk of the masses use their Vista computers, and maybe, just maybe, even keep them from making The Switch.
But it\'s not that. So instead of being in love with it, I\'m just in like with it. [Dell]
Although various GPS units already have the ability to display the current speed limit (they\'re pre-programmed in) of the road you\'re on, this Vauxhall Motors invention seems even better. There\'s a camera on-board that takes 30 snaps per second, then recognizing speed limit signs and translating that to a number to display on your dash.
This way you can know exactly what the speed limit is at all times, even when you\'ve just transitioned from a high speed area to a low speed one that cops like to ticket in. In fact, if this system is good enough, it could be a decent excuse to tell the popos that their speed limit signs were too obscured that even a 30FPS camera couldn\'t make it out. [Kicking Tires via Oh Gizmo]
This bobble head Darth Vader is designed for your monitor, where he can look down on you in shame. What has disgusted him so? You. Slob. I mean, you were the chosen one! Yes, you! You always knew it, too, but gave up on moving objects with your mind at an early age while settling for a brief stint at community college and a decent office job. Sure, you\'ve got a nice dog and a decent girlfriend, but you could have been wielding lightsabers and sharing awkward sexual tension with your sister. You\'re so lame. [Monsters in Motion via Nerd Approved]
Google\'s brand new Gtalk webapp for the iPhone is as crappy as I expected it would be. It has a nice design, and sending messages was easy, but at the end of the day it\'s still running in Safari—which means if you get a call you are signed out of chat. And unlike other web-based IM apps, Gtalk doesn\'t work in the background, so interruptions as simple as going to the home screen sign you out too. Also, there are no preference settings, so you are stuck looking at your whole contact list, online and off. Gtalk\'s AIM support is also curiously absent from this release. In short, this program sucks. If you\'re looking for a solid IM solution before the App store opens, I strongly recommend Agile Mobile\'s AM client recently released on Installer, which I\'ve been playing around with.
AM is extremely easy to set up and has lots of options so you can choose which contacts you see. It supports Gtalk and AIM protocols in addition to ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber. AM even logs your IM sessions so you can refer back to old conversations. But best of all, it keeps your IM conversations going, even when you are on a call or out of the program, and sends Mail style notifications alerting you to how many IMs came your way while you were gone. All in all, an extremely good experience for IMing on the go, so jailbreak if you haven\'t yet, and install this puppy. [Google via Lifehacker]
The limited edition Back to the Future Nike basketball sneakers are available now. You can get yours on eBay, where prices are going from $600 to $2,000. That is serious dollar gigawattage for a pair of sneakers, even if they look great out of the box, as you can see in the mega-gallery.
Only 350 pairs of these Nike Hyperdunks have been produced, with the color of the Nike shoes that Marty McFly wears in Back to the Future II, with a glow in the dark soles. Apparently people were camping out for 24 hours to get these in Santa Mónica, so you can be sure that they will be big collector items. At least until Nike realizes there\'s a whole market segment full of dumb people wanting to buy these. You know, the kind of fried-brain guys who have watched the movie a hundred times and still walk through the streets thinking "if I only had one of those floating skateboards now" at age 35.
Apple just ripped $500 off the price tag of their Solid State Drive-based MacBook Airs, which are now $2598, down from $3098. AppleInsider says the cuts came from two components, the 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, which got a $100 cut, and the 64GB SSD, which got a $400 cut. The sub-$3000 bill should be slightly more appetizing to fans of light laptops. And fans of money. [Apple Store via Apple Insider]
Here\'s an interesting fact about Microsoft Points—the fake currency used in the Xbox 360 and Zune Marketplaces—that we just learned yesterday: points expire. If you\'ve got promotional, contest, or giveaway points from Microsoft for doing something or other, you should check out their billing site. These actually expire after a given time. The good news is that points you buy normally don\'t expire, and would be completely ridiculous otherwise. Just keep an eye on your stuff. [Unscripted360]
You can already do a handful of gestures on the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro\'s trackpad, but Apple\'s going in and patenting a whole bunch more. Not only are there gestures in this application that involve a thumb and three fingers—something casual users will probably never use—but there\'s even a sample of how this would work for games like Tetris (shown after the jump) or Final Fantasy. Each "chord" would correspond to a character or movement or attack or something, which is definitely not simple like the Firefox/Opera mouse gestures we\'ve gotten used to. Still, more gestures are always good, and we\'re sure the end product won\'t be ridiculous like these. [Unwired View via Crunchgear]
Think Intel\'s breakthrough 45-nanometer chips are impressive stuff? Intel thought at one time dipping below 100nm would be miraculous, but Intel exec Pat Gelsinger says that "today we see a clear way to get to under 10 nanometers," and it\'ll be within the next 10 years.
The next die shrink is the 32nm Westmere chips next year, followed by 14nm a few years later and then the crazy sub-10nm chips after that. But they\'re probably going to have to make use of something like carbon nanotubes or spintronics to get below 10. The result of all that processing power, says Gelsinger, will be "a dramatic restructuring of the user interface." Yes! I\'ve always wanted true 3D computing goggles. [CRN]
We\'ve just added a good bit of information to our iPhone FAQ, including more AT&T details, launch date info, and iTunes details. See all the new stuff below, or just go to the FAQ to see the monster in its entirety.
Is there a difference between buying the iPhone at AT&T and buying it at Apple? Only if you\'re a business customer. AT&T says that there\'s no difference between regular customers, and both stores can do things like transferring your number from another carrier. See here for more details.
What\'s the final pricing information for AT&T\'s plans? Here it is below.
What time will the iPhone be on sale on July 11? 8am, so if you really, really want one, you might have to camp out.
What new features are coming in iTunes 7.7, the update that\'s coming July 11 along with the iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone 3G? MobileMe stuff, parental controls for games, and various other features like using your iPhone and iPod Touch as an iTunes remote. Click here for video and screenshots.
Wait, did you just say that iPhone will be able to control iTunes? Yup. You\'re getting a free remote control App.
Is there a good reason why the enterprise data plan is more expensive than the standard one? A good reason? AT&T says it\'s because business customers use more data than consumers, so they charge more.
Is there an upgrade fee for the iPhone 3G on AT&T? Yes. $18, says AT&T.
AT&T is nixing the agreement they\'ve had with Dish TV since 2003 to sell their satellite TV service as part of a triple play bundle with internet and voice. Some are speculating it\'s because AT&T is simply down on satellite TV (it\'s got its own U-verse IPTV thing after all), but more likely it\'s pitting Dish and DirecTV against each other in a bidding war, since U-verse deployment ain\'t exactly a runaway train speed-wise. So, realistically, you could see AT&T hawking DirecTV instead of Dish next year, which would be a blow to to the latter, since they\'re already little number two. But maybe AT&T will be super ballsy and push off satellite altogether. [Info Week]
Asus is jumping on the bandwagon led by Panasonic and HP and releasing the B51, a super strong ruggedized laptop. The B51 is Mil-Spec 810F tough, can survive three-foot drops and has a keyboard drainage system in case you can\'t keep your OJ in a glass. The heavy (7-lb.!) lappie runs Vista, has a Core 2 Duo processor, supports 4GB RAM, carries a HDD up to 320GB and has optional 1.3MP webcam and Bluetooth. Screen size, availability and pricing are still unknown—hey, what do you expect from Asus?—but the press release is after the jump. [Asus via Laptoping]
A Ruggedized Computing Solution for Mobile Professionals
ASUS B51E combines computing prowess with tough build to serve in the rough fields
Taipei, Taiwan, July 2, 2008 – Professionals who frequently find themselves on the road or in the field need a computer that can withstand the rigors of travel as well as operate reliably despite harsh environmental conditions. It is for this group of demanding users that ASUS has created the B51 notebook, which possesses ruggedized design and is built for excellent performance and reliability.
Ruggedized Notebook for Tough Environments
The B51 is built to endure harsh treatment. Starting with a lightweight yet strong magnesium alloy chassis that offers excellent protection for its components, the B51 is additionally buffered against shock by rubber bumpers along its edges, and high strength protective film to shield the notebook from scratches.
Built to Withstand Drops, Shocks, Spills and Scratches
The sum effect of the B51\'s ruggedized design is an exceptionally hardy notebook able to withstand most abuses that will damage conventional notebooks. The B51 is drop tested to military specifications (MIL 810F Method 516.5 Procedure IV), able to withstand drops from tabletop height – up to 75 cm.
Preserving the integrity of the data within, the B51\'s hard drive is floated on a sponge protection system, while the keyboard as a drainage path integrated into its design, so that the B51 is able to weather the occasional shocks and spills (up to 120cc) and continue to function reliably. Even while the insides are protected against rough use, the LCD screen of the B51 is also well protected from scratches by a high strength film, for a truly hard wearing notebook, inside and out.
By addressing the various areas of durability and usability, ASUS has created in the B51 an ideal mobile computing solution for professionals who routinely operate in tough, demanding environments.
Intel® Centrino Procesor Technology
-Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T8300/T8100/T5850/T5750
The NASA 2009 Astronaut Candidate Class recruitment—for the first mission to the Moon in four decades—may be over, but if you didn\'t send your résumé, don\'t worry: you can still be a space couch potato and look at the pretty images and videos, like this newly-released NASA simulation showing how the whole thing is going to work.
Rather than building a huge, expensive, and very complicated rocket carrying a smaller space ship—like the powerful Saturn did in the Apollo missions—the Constellation program will use two rockets to send a larger spacecraft. The first rocket will carry the lunar lander along with a propulsion stage into Earth orbit. The second one, the Ares I launch vehicle, will carry the Orion spaceship with the astronauts on board, which will be rendezvous with the lunar lander in orbit and dock. Once docked, the propulsion stage will push the combined craft to the moon and some lucky, smart, and courageous astronaut would be able to say: "It may not be the first step, and it certainly won\'t be the last one." Or "Oh boy, whooooopeeeee-doooo!"
Sony\'s latest PlayStation 3 firmware update 2.4 brought what the fanboys have been crying about since the console\'s inception—in-game access to the console\'s Cross Media Bar (XMB). But I\'ll tell you something, in-game XMB is fine and dandy, yes, but there were more pressing issues that Sony should have fixed first. In fact, I count 10 of \'em (because a list of nine would get me fired).
Smarter Firmware Updates
Let me agree to terms and conditions—a tiny 1K file transfer—before downloading the whole software update. Then once the update downloads it can roll into an install without me having to push some stupid buttons on the controller.
Automatic Downloaded-Game Installation
We\'re really still manually installing most game and demo downloads? Seriously? No, seriously?
Real Keyboard Support
The PS3 "supports" a mouse and keyboard. But keyboard support is still not functional or assignable in most games. Some middleware solutions would be nice here, Sony. I should be able to play anything on a mouse and keyboard by mapping SIXAXIS/DualShock3 buttons.
In-Game Web Browsing
OK, so here\'s an instance where we can access the XMB while in a game, but we can\'t really access it. Because you can\'t browse the web while in a game. I\'d love the option to look up walkthroughs...err...hints and tips without going to the computer.
Controllers Don\'t Charge Without PS3 "On"
Why do I need to leave on my entire PS3 to charge one controller? A firmware update could program the USB portion of the console to stay powered on while charging like, say, the Xbox 360.
PS Home
Oh, I haven\'t forgotten. Though I\'m becoming more bored by this once novel concept every day it doesn\'t appear.
Account Management
Let\'s just stick all those account management menus into the PlayStation Store. That way if I need to make changes to my account (something that would probably be prompted by a transaction at the PS Store), I don\'t need to revisit dead gray screen land.
Background Folding@Home
I\'m as lazily, unconsciously altruistic as the next guy, so work with Stanford to make Folding @ Home even better. Let me use it as a background process for when I\'m just hanging out on the dashboard, or browsing the PS Store. I know that playing some MP3s doesn\'t use all of the PlayStation 3\'s power, so let\'s use some of that extra number crunching to cure the world, or whatever.
Screengrabs
Any game, any time, I want to be able to perform a screengrab. I want to then be able to save the screengrab to my photo library or message it to a friend. This software technology has long been figured out, and it\'d be nice to have for showing everyone how awesome I am all the time.
Lower Power Standby
The PS3\'s primary standby mode is super low energy. But if you want to access Remote Play (XMB, pictures, etc) through the PSP, it\'s suddenly sucking as much power as five refrigerators just sitting there. Surely there is a clever way that the PS3 can be activated through an SMS or email system that would make it more eco-friendly than just being on all the time. Remote Play is not something I\'ll use every day. And because of that, I\'ve turned off the function completely—which is a shame because it\'s a pretty incredible idea.
It\'s not that the latest firmware update is bad; it\'s that the whole interface is so pleasurable to use and packing so much customization (for a console) that the rough spots can stand out even more. Come on, Sony, let\'s make the PS3 unbelievable.
Italian artist BLU is famous for painting politically and socially charged street murals, but his recent project involving street animation may be his most visually stunning. Called MUTO, the video is a series of digital stills assembled from sequential paintings on the streets/walls of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It\'s been floating around a bit, but if you haven\'t seen it, the effect is a sort of living, evolving mural that follows a dramatic, character-drive storyline. And if you watch one thing online today (or tomorrow or the next day), this should be it:
Meet STARMAC, the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control. Possibly the cleverest remote control mini-helicopter you\'ve ever seen, packed with GPS, sensors and computer power. It\'s a research quad-rotor that the Stanford team is using to develop algorithms for future aircraft like it.
The algorithms the team develops will allow hovering \'bots like STARMAC to navigate, deal with collisions or avoidance and even to work as a team, sharing info on their environment and navigating around each other.
That has all sorts of cool implications for things like future automated search and rescue drones, able to search large areas efficiently and quickly. But it also means spy \'bots. And when you\'ve watched the video, you\'ll have to agree that the way the things move reminds you of the flying cameras in (insert name of sci-fi movie of your choice). [Danger Room]
Remember Viacom suing YouTube and Google for one BILLION dollars eons ago? That\'s still going on! And while a judge ruled yesterday that while Google doesn\'t have to reveal its secret search sauce to the multimedia giantface, he did grant Viacom\'s request for YouTube to turn over records of "every video watch by YouTube users," and that includes their username and IP address. Yeah that\'s right, Viacom will know every time you watch "Pork n Beans" or need to refuel your day with Powerthirst. (Or watch Viacom\'s The Daily Show, you bastard.) And like that, the illusion of YouTube privacy was gone. [YouTube]
Mazel tov, Mozilla, for claiming the Guinness world record for most downloaded software in a 24-hour period after 8 million of your minions snagged Firefox 3 on launch day. It\'s not that big of a feat considering you took the record from absolutely no one, but you sure set the bar pretty high for anyone planning on breaking it. [Firefox via Reuters]
Google has just released a new version of their maps application that supports voice recognition search on the BlackBerry Pearl. That means Pearl users can load Google Maps, hold a side button, say "pizza, i said PIZZA...PEE ZZ UH" and have the application magically find tacos in your immediate vicinity. This upgrade doesn\'t look to be automatic, so hit the link to have Google text message your phone for the "experimental" update. [Google Maps via Gear Diary]
This week at Uncrate: We hit the road and the seas in the Terra Wind Amphibious RV, go green with the Greasecar Vegetable Oil Conversion System, and light up our worlds with the Dear Ingo Lamp. We also go exploring in the Eco-Explorer Boat, cool off with the DeLonghi Portable Air Conditioner, and kick back at San Francisco\'s Hotel Tomo. Finally, we impress the honeys with our bartending skills thanks to the Ultimate Professional Drink Maker, disguise ourselves with the Mustache Handkerchief, and learn about our heritage in American Nerd.
If you enjoyed Kubrick\'s 2001 and Bushnell\'s 2600, then this shirt cannot be missed. And let me be the first to say, $12 to watch a bunch of monkeys reach for a joystick is an absolute steal. Hell, $12 to watch monkeys pretty much do anything is a decent value. [Etsy via Technabob]
For those who don\'t like the floating steering wheel of Mario Kart Wii (because it lacks the realism of driving around a banana-spewing bulletmobile), this wheel mount by JTT isn\'t a bad solution. Using a suction cup to attach the wheel to any flat surface, the top tilts 120-degrees so you can compete old-lady or bus-driver-style. But for $28, we really wish it had the famous Chinese-girl-driving-wrong-on-one-way setting. Oh well. I guess good old fashioned psychotic "don\'t-cut-me-off"-motherfucker-Caucasian will still serve me as well as it always has. [JTT via GoNintendo]
Did you know that science has made it possible to turn milk into a plastic by solidifying the casein it contains? Well, you do now. But I bet you\'d never think of using the technique to turn human breast milk into a "jewel" of sorts, and then use that to make a necklace. But that\'s exactly what French design team Duende are suggesting. Titled "Perle de Lait" their jewelry range is part of a bigger upcoming art exhibit that celebrates birth and explores "sharing of food between mother and child." It\'s a pretty amazing idea, though I\'m not sure I know many people who\'d wear it. Also to be exhibited is a set of "placenta coffins." Weird. There\'s a detailed preview over at Dezeen if you\'ve got the nerve. [Dezeen]
This transparent, glowing USB speaker is either missing one glowing arm to make it look like a flux capacitor, or has one arm too many to be the light on top of the TARDIS. It\'s weird. But if you\'re into EL-wire PC case modding, then I suppose this blue LED-lit USB speaker from Brando might be up your street. Measuring 5.9-inches long, it takes power from USB, has an audio-in socket and costs $22. [Brando]
This is the All Star Tailgating Trailer. Or as I like to call it, the The Get-Drunk-n-Stuffed Out of the Stadium Party BBQ Trailer. This thing—which you can order with custom paint, I\'ll take naked women in naughty positions and flames on a black background, thank you very much—has all the stuff you need to have a party anywhere, from a beer tap to a giant 60" LCD projection TV with surround sound to a full barbecue and grill, all in a compact 6 x 12-foot space:
Don\'t like how Bush is handling things in the White House? Move him into another white house (the kind made from porcelain). You will knock him down a few pegs with a really dirty job. The George Bush toilet brush is available for $16.95. [Baron Bob]
What could be more American than a pair of motion-activated, singing, vibrating breasts? How about a pair of motion-activated, singing, vibrating breasts that you can record your own song on? Indeed, "Jingle Jugs for Life" has an option to record your own message or song. And, in a truly American move, they have added a pre-recorded breast cancer awareness message on each product to keep the feminists at bay. Available for $39.99 (original version) and $49.99 for breast cancer awareness version. [Jingle Jugs and Link]
Google\'s brand new Gtalk webapp for the iPhone is as crappy as I expected it would be. It has a nice design, and sending messages was easy, but at the end of the day it\'s still running in Safari—which means if you get a call you are signed out of chat. And unlike other web-based IM apps, Gtalk doesn\'t work in the background, so interruptions as simple as going to the home screen sign you out too. Also, there are no preference settings, so you are stuck looking at your whole contact list, online and off. Gtalk\'s AIM support is also curiously absent from this release. In short, this program sucks. If you\'re looking for a solid IM solution before the App store opens, I strongly recommend Agile Mobile\'s AM client recently released on Installer, which I\'ve been playing around with.
