Mens Plaza

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

You’ll have to bear with us on this one folks as the news is a bit muffled crossing the Atlantic, language, and cultural divides, but UK-based Vodafone has reportedly received a restraining order against T-Mobile’s iPhone sales in Germany. Vodafone’s issue is the exclusivity contract with Apple and fee structure within T-Mobile’s subscription offering. What’s odd here is the language of the Dow Jones piece which claims that the Hamburg order, issued Monday is, “prohibiting the German telecommunications giant from selling Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone in Germany.” That sounds like a full stop (pending appeal) of all iPhone sales in Germany. The Financial Times, however, says that the order “will not disrupt sales” as the Christmas purchases accelerate. Vodafone is framing their argument around customer choice while admitting that it’s the revenue sharing model, and possibility that Nokia or Ericsson follow suit, which has prompted the legal action. At least they’re not sticking their heads in the sand this time.

[Via Appleinsider]

Read — Dow Jones
Read — Deutsche Telekom (translated)
Read — FT

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

The Blackberry Pearl 8120 has been spotted on the FCC, with GPS, a standard headhone jack, Stereo A2DP Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (no 3G, however). Could be a great T-Mobile@Home phone for roaming between hotspots and cell towers, seamlessly. [PhoneScoop]

It is unfortunate, and maybe a bit mean, but I feel compelled to point out the headline in the screenshot, “Dell. Now available in Beautiful”, as flawed. The problem with it is that it—correct me if I’m wrong—implies that all previous dells were not available in anything except ugly. And the clean lines of an HP laptop (as well as their rising sales over the last few quarters) would not beg to differ, although I think the XPS line is fast and not so bad on the eyes. [Dell]

As cool as we find the whole modular open-source electronics concept that Bug Labs has conjured up, we share some of the confusion and curiosity that you do about how this baby’s gonna fly. We sat down with CEO Peter Semmelhack and, in addition to giving us the first look at the powered-on Bug itself, he answered some of our most burning questions:
• Who will buy this device—besides hackers, that is?
• What is the ultimate Bug module combination?
• How will you avoid comparisons to the revered yet ill-fated Handspring?
• Are there any scenarios where an LCD screen wouldn’t be used?
• So, when and where can we buy our own Bug combos?
After you watch the vid, let us know what’s on your mind. (He may have answered it already, we couldn’t include everything in this clip here.) [Bug Labs, Bug Labs on Giz]

When adults design a laptop for children, it looks like the OLPC or Speak and Spell. When laptops are designed by children they look like the setup above. The PurC PC (Purple Construction Paper PC, my name) was made by an 8-year old girl in the youngster-founded, no-adults-allowed “The Laptop Club”.

Alphanumerics are pegged where function keys are normally situated. Below are the real function keys, like, “kitten, dog, cat, bird, collar, lease, hamster, and design pet.” There’s the unfortunate, “Buy Immediately, shop, order”, too. Corruption starts so young. Too bad Fake Steve Jobs already has a patent on Child-Like-Wonder in Computing Device(s)— he told me the C&Ds are in the mail for the lower 98-percentile of the club, and the other 2% are being taken from their parents to be trained as 5th generation Apple designers. There are 8 more models at The Morning News, so check em out. [CNet via TheMorningNews via BoingBoing]

Filed under: Portable Audio

Old Navy’s going to have to do a lot better than the unholy offspring of a Wiimote and a first-gen iPod shuffle to make us ignore the advertising and buy its KIRF fashions. Anyone know what super awesome tracks are preloaded on this thing?

[Thanks, Steve]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

It may be underpowered, but it’s got a big heart. Oh, and we hear it’s doing alright for itself in this generation’s console war, but that’s all hearsay. That’s right, Nintendo’s Wii turns one year old today, and what a magical year it’s been.

[Wii cake courtesy of Henry S.]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Most women (including yours truly) spend thousands of dollars a year on hair care. Shampoos, conditioners, serums, waxes, pastes, gels, mousses and hairsprays used to clean, soften and style. We spend countless hours drying and straightening and curling and fluffing up our hair. We spend upwards of $50 for just a haircut - and don’t get me started about the cost of a foil! We buy trinkets and baubles to put in our hair after spending those thousands - clips, barrettes, pins and so on.

However, there’s one thing that I’ve never spent a dime on…hair extensions. Sure, most women have had some sort of fake hair extension at one time or another, whether it be a permanent weave or just a temporary clip in type, but there’s never been a niche market for fake hair extension braids that light up. Seriously, it’s never come up.

Well, somebody thought that there was a need in the marketplace for some light-up hair braids, so they designed some. Called the Flashing Hair Braid…it’s basically a clip with some very unrealistic looking hair braided together with some flashing lights. It doesn’t make weird sounds, it doesn’t hide a bottle opener or anything like that. Just a hair braid with some flashy lights.

I’m not sure the practical usage of this particular item other than perhaps at Halloween or at a rave.

[CTO International via Techie Diva]

I like the Kindle, but after reading about its price and limitations, i’m pretty sure it’s not for me. Can you look past its pasty white shell (last year’s cool color), slanted keyboard and $400 price tag and love it for its free EVDO connection, paid-for subscription RSS feeds and DRM’d up approach? Wait, those last two are bad. Did you notice how it looks like a snowspeeder?[How to Comment]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

If you have a computer, I’m sure you’ve had to make copies of DVDs or CDs at one point or another in your life. But what if your job and/or profession requires you to make lots of copies of discs? What if you’re an indie musician and you need an affordable way to make copies of your latest album without paying a company thousands of dollars to make the copies for you? What if you’re a photographer and you need to make copies of photo discs for your wedding clients and all 45 family members? What if your computer just can’t handle that heavy of a workload?

Enter The One-Step DVD/CD Duplicator. I could go on and on about the features, but the website says it best:

At the touch of a button, this standalone duplicator makes an exact replica of a DVD or CD in just over six minutes without the need for a PC. Simply place the source DVD in the top tray and a blank DVD in the bottom tray, and this duplicator takes care of the rest. At 16X DVD and 48X CD drive speeds, this device can back up an entire library of home movies and allows you to easily copy a child’s piano recital for a distant relative. An ample internal 8MB buffer (with 2MB drive buffer) ensures that large files are copied seamlessly and without error. Supports all DVD technology platforms.

Note that this product is not intended to make duplicates of copyrighted material. But who makes physical pirated copies anymore in this digital world? But for those of you who have a legitimate use and have a lot of copying to do, you can pick one up for $349.95

[Hammacher Schlemmer via Gizmodo]

Instructables has a tutorial on a CD repair technique designed to bring nearly any disc (barring any cracks, breaks, etc…) back from the dead. The fix requires you to heat the underside of the CD over a gas burner, boil it in water and dry off your freshly resurfaced disc. The process seems to leave a slim margin of error, so if you’re trying to recover something valuable, you better know what you’re doing. [Instructables]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’re not even going to pretend like we know exactly what the players who gather to play Blitz Play Hero III are attempting to accomplish — with with phrases like “level 2: DRAW with CHALK within certain subjectively chosen (psychogeographic) WiFi areas and PLACE RFID-tags - all analogous- old school tagging!” sprinkled liberally around the website, it seems likely that we don’t really even posses the necessary chemicals to understand what’s happening here. Regardless, the game features RFID light up Christmas tree badges connected to modified Nintendo DSs running a homebrew “game controller,” a little creative warchalking, and an system of scoring that appears to center around graffiti-ing Nintendo D-pads everywhere. That sounds like a little slice of awesome, no matter what the rules — but if anyone can tell us how all this will somehow result in “the LIVE concert is simulated over Bergen: A BLACK AND WHITE MOVIE with a virtual RFID SOUNDSCAPE concert!” in the spring of 2008, do please let us know in comments? Thanks.

[Via Make]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Our Amazon Kindle coverage is crackling like the fires of knowledge or whatever Kindle refers to. Everything we’ve got on the so-called iPod of reading (or not):
•Amazon Kindle Hands-On, Plus All Your Questions Answered
•Giz Live at the Amazon Kindle Launch
•Amazon Kindle Vs. Sony Reader Bitchfight
•Video: How to Use Amazon Kindle
•Kindle’s EV-DO Whispernet Service Is Free
•Official Details: $399, Whispernet EV-DO, the “iPod of Reading”

And all of the pre-release rumors and stuff:
•More Leaked Details: Email, Newspaper Subscriptions, No Backlight
•Kindle Arriving Next Week
•Kindle Spec Rumors From 7 Months Ago
•First Inklings of EV-DO
•Everything else

The N810 tablet, with its keyboard, GPS, linux OS, Wi-Fi but no cellular connection is on sale today. Long Live the PDA/UMPC? [Nokia]

Wired has put together a list of ten gadgets that have done little more than separate the gullible from their hard earned money. There are some classics on there, including: the harmony chip, MPion MP3 Player, the Philip Stein Teslar Watch, and my all-time personal favorite —the “ionized” Q-Ray bracelet. Seriously, every time I saw that commercial a little bit of my faith in humanity died. What little faith I had left was dashed when I learned that $200 piece of metal garbage managed to generate $87 million. Unbelievable. Hit the link for the full list. [Wired]

CrunchGear’s Matt Hickey wrote a good how-to on upgrading your iPod touch’s firmware to 1.1.2 without sacrificing the ability to download third party apps. The process is farily simple; it involves downgrading to 1.1.1 (if you’re not there already), downloading and installing a program through installer.app called OktoPrep, upgrading to firmware 1.1.2 and finally running Jailbreak 1.1.2. For all the nuances, check out the post at [Crunch Gear].

As part of Walmart’s Thanksgiving madness, you can get an 80GB Playstation 3 plus 10 Blu-ray discs (under $30 in value), plus the 5 free titles you can get with mail-in rebate. That’s the biggest deal we’ve seen on HD discs since the $99 HD DVD players. This bloody format war, we call it the digital Vietnam. [Walmart via Crave’s Erica Ogg]

These are about the creepiest cellphone accessories we’ve ever seen: Androgynous babies tied up S&M style dangling from your cellphone. The disturbingly satisfied Kewpie Dolls are available with five different rope colors for about $6. If you wanna feel really icky, check out the promo shot after the jump, which makes the orgy above look PG: There’s fire, drugs and Kewpies. Seriously.

[Strapya World via Inventor Spot via Spluch]

Fast lane daily has a video of the Nissan GT-R, with rare footage of that amazing instrument cluster designed by Gran Turismo game designers. Fast forward past the talking head to witness footage of the boost gauge, lateral and longitudinal G-forces (over time!), among many other stats, at your fingertips. Might have been better to build this stuff into HUD, as you don’t want to be staring at the digital cluster pack for longer than you need to in a 3-second car. [Fast Lane Daily, GT-R on Giz]

In the tradition of Dr. Frog and Botanicalls comes Thirsty Light, a $10 sensor that sits in your potted plant and blinks when the soil goes dry. You get to trade all that anxiety for a straightforward Pavlovian response: you see a blinky light, and you water your plant. Alternatively, there’s a “quick-check” method: buy one and walk around the house with it, sticking it in all your plants. When you are done, you can even turn it off to save juice. OK, I’m sold—I’ll take one. (I just noticed you can buy 12 for $84—that’s how they get you: the damn volume discount!) [Thirsty Light]

Filed under: Cellphones

Although Sprint has coughed up some $1 billion over the past few years in order to nix the interference between 2,200 public safety agencies across the US and its iDEN network, it apparently hasn’t done enough. Reportedly, the FCC has warned Sprint that it “could lose access to the signal spectrum used by its Nextel- and Boost Mobile-branded wireless services” if it doesn’t remedy the problem by June of 2008. Supposedly, Sprint is “working hard” to settle the issue, but it’s not wasting any time asking the US Court of Appeals to get involved. The carrier claims that these shut down threats could force it to halt signups of Nextel-branded customers, and furthermore, around three million public-safety workers would purportedly lose service if the FCC did indeed shut down the Nextel network. ‘Course, industry analysts are suggesting that regulators wouldn’t really go through with shutting it down, but if nothing else, this should light a fire under Sprint to expedite the process.

[Via PhoneScoop]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Jalopnik reports that Moller, makers of the M400 flying car vapor we’ve come to love inhaling, have “substantial doubts” the cars will ever get off the ground.

They’ve always been confident, even if the public hasn’t, so this is a change of tune for the futurist company. Moller posted a quarterly loss of $81, 071, bringing their deficit to $40.6 million, and they’ve cited the need for more money to continue operations and manufacturing of flying cars. (Oh coincidence, that’s the same reason why my flying car isn’t for sale yet.) I’m wondering if Ford could buy the company and pull off the production, considering ex-Boeing executive Alan Mulally is the helm…but now I’m just acting desperate. [Jalopik]

Like most Mario games, many of the classic themes—of all sorts, but specifically music—are reused and remixed throughout the game. But this soundtrack for the gorgeous and gleeful “Gusty Garden” stage is all new. It gives me goosebumps just to listen to it again now in this video.

(Thanks, Whitta!)

A friend who works at Best Buy told us that there are five additional ad pages that didn’t make it into the leaked Black Friday ad, so there might be extra dealage to watch for in Thursday’s paper. Any Best Buy employees out there able to confirm or deny? [Black Friday @ Giz]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve seen a few remote health monitor concepts, but they all seem like overkill compared to RTX’s Telehealth Monitor, which strips things down to the basics. The device wirelessly connects to a range of sensors like blood glucose monitors, scales, and and blood pressure monitors, and sends data to healthcare providers over a phone line connection. In addition, the unit can be programmed to ask diagnostic questions, give dosage reminders, and communicate other information from doctor to patient. Intriguing, but come on — not even our grandparents have landlines anymore.

[Via MedGadget]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

If you consider yourself something of a handyman, my guess is that your toolbox at home has become increasingly filled with laser guided goodies over the last few years. That having been said, feast your eyes on this new laser guided hand saw. I could be wrong, but it seems like it would be fairly difficult to maintain a straight line with the beam flailing wildly about as you work — but hey…it has a laser on it! Available for $19.99 [Product Page via Uberreview]

Meant for your kitchen countertop, this 20-inch stainless-steel LCD TV will match most of your other kitchen wares, and comes with a water-resistant remote for accidental splashage. The resolution isn’t specified, though it’s an HDTV with an HDMI input. Granted, if you’re just using it to follow along with Alton Brown on Good Eats 1080p’s probably not much of a concern. The price might be, though, at $600. [Frontgate via Crave]

Here’s Rihanna in the latest Mexican FHM issue. I’m not sure if these are rehashed pics of Rihanna from an old photoshoot, but what really matters is that she’s all wet, and that’s weird because I have yet to lay my hands on her. Yup, I have that affect on women.

Related Articles:
Rihanna In A Bra For The Finish
Rihanna’s Breasts Need To Be Rescued!
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Rihanna Bikini Pictures

While I usually like to see a hot chick in a bikini top on a motorcycle, this is Pink we’re talking about here, and she turns me on about as much as Celine Dion in a thong. Nevertheless, for the four of you who might think she’s hot, here she is, in all her butchy glory.

Related Articles:
Hayden Vanessa Minnillo Bikini Pictures
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Here’s Gemma Atkinson in the latest Maxim magazine. It’s a good thing these pictures are sexy, because they’re helping me forget all about Gemma’s hairy belly we witnessed in yesterday’s bikini candids. Thank god for Photoshop. Oh ya, and thank god for big boobs.

Related Articles:
Gemma Atkinson Ultimo Lingerie Picture
Gemma Atkinson’s Boobs Need More Attention
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Gemma Atkinson’s Man Servant Has The Best Job In Town

According to Kansas.com, Airbus SAS plans to build a 900-seat version of its famously enormous A380 superjumbo. Currently, the A380 is intended to carry between 500-800 passengers depending on the configuration—although it has held up to 873 on at least one occasion.

That could mean a “stretch” Airbus A380 could be adjusted to hold as many as 1000 passengers depending on the carrier. Airbus will begin developing the larger version after the standard plane reaches full production in 2010. Dubai-based Emirates Airline, the company’s biggest client, has already shown interest, saying it would buy a new model when they become available. [Kansas via Luxist]

Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

While it won’t let you burn DVDs without a PC altogether, Samsung’s new SE-S204S DVD burner will at least cut your hard drive out of the equation, with it simply using your PC as a go-between between your still or video camera and your DVD media of choice. That, Samsung says, should “dramatically” cut down on the time it takes to create a DVD, with the usual pre-mastering, multiplexing and hard-disk buffering no longer needed. That speed is further aided by the drive’s 20x DVD+R and DVD-R writing, with it’s dual-layer writing lagging only slighlty behind at 16x and 12x for DVD+R and DVD-R, respectively. If that’s just the time-saving measure you’ve been looking for, you should be able to pick one of these up now for $160.

[Via Electronista, image courtesy of CDRLabs]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

MP3 players are nothing new, and any newer model will probably be ignored unless it has the little “i” in front of it. The MC Square X1 is one who choose to market on a different level: it can help you relax.

In fact, certain sources have revealed that doctors at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University have put the MC Square X1 through some clinical tests and have discovered it can give better sleep in addition to improved concentration, memory improvement, and overall relaxation.

Apparently its power of brain improvement comes from the included goggles, which can emanate light pulses in the form of red lights, along with nature sounds. However, these lights could be dangerous to someone prone to seizures.

Other features of the MC Square X1 include a voice recorder, as well as a miniSD for all your songs and photos.

I have to admit the price tag might be a little high at $400. I mean, for that price, I would have more stress. Fortunately, my MC Square X1 would be there to help me relieve it.

Still, don’t most people use their iPods and other PMPs to sit back and quietly relieve their stress anyway?

Via Product Page

OK, you can take your tinfoil hats off now. German site Heise Online has tested Hackint0sh user XianLi’s claims about the iPhone sending its IMEI to Apple while accessing the web. According to Heise and other sources, this is not true:

While the code says “IMEI,” which stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity, it seems that the actual IMEI is not transmitted. Using a sniffer, Heise says they were able to get the information that the applications are actually sending. The strings aren’t the same as the test iPhone’s IMEI and, in fact, each application sends its own unique code.

According to further testing by Rene at blog docpool, these IDs are identical in all iPhones he has tried. The most plausible explanation: the codes could be just application identifiers. Rumor smashed. Mystery solved. Time to get a bourbon at Big Joe’s. [Docpool and Heise Online– Thanks Wayne]

As an early Christmas present to our commenters, we are announcing new and improved commenting features. These new features include following friends, tracking comments and an updated profile page. Since we know you’re gonna love your present, here’s how it works.

To use these new features you must first log in at the top of the page with your comment ID and password. If you do not already have a commenting account, simple click the “new user” link to sign up. After you have logged in, your commenting ID will be displayed at the top the page, click it, and it will take you to your very own commenting home/profile page. From this home page you will be able to keep track of your commenting buddies and also view your comments, edit your avatar, email and AIM.

To make a friend, simply find a comment that you liked and to the right of it you will see a small + button. Click that + button and you will now be following that user just like your friends in real life. Not only are you able to view your newly added friend’s comments, but you are also able to view who is following you.

To view your newly added friend’s comments, there is a “friends” link at the top of the page where you logged in earlier. If you change your mind and decide you no longer enjoy reading a friend’s stupid banter, you can remove them from your friends list by clicking the x button under the friends section of your personal home page.

You not only have the ability to follow and remove friends but also the ability to leave friend’s a personal message on their profile page. Clicking a friend’s commenter name will take you to their profile page, from there you can view all of their comments and leave that special personal message.

We hope you enjoy your early present and if you encounter any problems while using these new features please let us know in the comments below or at tips@gizmodo.com, and be sure to note your OS and browser type. Happy Commenting!!!

After the sheriff’s office busted six dudes in July and a male teacher a week ago, Martin County commissioner Michael DiTerlizzi has had it with the wave of Larry Craigs getting it on around his beaches. Solution? $5500 solar-powered cameras that flash a bright light and spout off a verbal warning when they detect motion. A minute later, they start recording whatever action’s in front of them.

The commish—who seems entirely too hot on this project—wants them “everywhere on the beaches and parking” except bathrooms (hmm…), because “anything that deters that kind of activity is going to be good.” Los Angeles uses the Big Bro FlashCAMs as well—to stop vandalism, not dudes boinking. [Palm Beach Post via The Raw Feed]

Someday the Amazon Kindle will be worth your money.

Having used the new eBook reader from Amazon for a few hours, I’m happy to report that it manages to accomplish its major goals ably.

The ePaper screen is slightly smaller than that on its primary competitor, the Sony Reader, but is still quite legible and roomy; ePaper has a long way to go before it replaces ink on paper, but it’s comfortably on the right path. The always-on, no subscription data connection, powered by Sprint’s EV-DO network (or a slower network where the fast EVDO connection is unavailable) heralds the future of no-fuss connected devices. Its store, built right into the device, works simply and quickly. The hardware, while ugly—it looks like a Star Trek shuttlecraft once piloted by Mr. Bill—is comfortable to hold and use.

It’s just too damn expensive.

Worse, the $400 premium just to get the Kindle reader isn’t the last fee you’ll pay. I’m not talking about paying for eBooks from Amazon, which are priced typically at $10 or less, but for the additional fees tacked onto the data—the words—that are pushed down to the Kindle automatically. Subscribing to a blog via the Kindle service costs $2 a month. Newspapers run around $15 a month. All for information currently available for free via the web and RSS syndication, not from copyright violators, but straight from the publishers themselves. (Boing Boing is also available via Kindle’s blog service. We are also available on the web.)

The reason, I suspect, for the nickel and diming from Amazon is the always-on EVDO connection. While some of the cost that must be paid to the wireless carrier are surely cooked into the initial price of the Kindle, the costs tacked on to content subscriptions are an attempt to recoup charges Amazon will incur from Sprint over the life of an active device.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with spreading the cost of the wireless subscription over separate subscriptions. In some ways it’s similar to the “cafeteria” plans that some customers have been asking for from cable vendors for ages.

Yet two problems arise with this model in the Kindle: first, it puts a financial throttle on the amount of content one can reasonable afford to put on the device. I’m an edge case, perhaps, but I read several hundred sites a day, with thousands of posts and stories. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars a month to get that content pushed to my Kindle—the same content I get for free today.

The issue, of course, is monetization of the content. Amazon can’t afford to incur the data costs from Sprint if every Kindle could download unlimited RSS feeds. If it doesn’t allow straight RSS, it must provide ad-free content feeds from its partners. And if it doesn’t allow ads in the feeds, it needs to pay the content providers somehow. Hence, subscriptions.

Hence, a mess.

(You can access the web using the surprisingly okay “Basic Web” browser that ships with every Kindle and enjoy all the web sites you care to read, no subscription cost, no per-minute fees. But you can’t cache all those stories for reading later—you’ll have to read them live via the EVDO radio. You can, however, download books, which means there’s a great wealth of already extant books to be downloaded for free, provided they’re in a format Kindle understands.)

Second*, it confuses the “baked in” nature of the “no monthly fees” claim from Amazon. There are monthly fees to use all periodical content. There are free 14-day trials for most, but after that you’ll have to pay to subscribe.

***

In my very limited testing, it seems Kindle supports two types of text files natively**: .TXT files, or “plaintext” files, like those generated by Notepad, vi, and other common text editors; and .AZW, the proprietary format used by content download from Amazon. Other files formats, including Microsoft Word, can be read by the Kindle, but only after going through a conversion process from Amazon that involves emailing your document to a special @kindle.com email address. Users pay $.10 per file for conversion if they choose to send it directly to their Kindle via EV-DO—there’s that Sprint cost creeping back in again—or nothing if they choose to have the converted file sent back to their original email address, where it can then be transferred to the Kindle via a wired USB connection.

PDFs are another story. PDFs are not supported on the Kindle nor the conversion process from Amazon. Considering how widely PDF is used for academic texts, presentations, and eBooks, it’s a real failing. Even more so because the Sony Reader handles PDFs amply, if not perfectly.

The Kindle is not completely locked down, though, despite the use of DRM for eBooks downloaded from the Amazon store. Should you be willing to tinker with file converting programs, it is possible to get most electronic text onto the Kindle. It should have been easier than it is—Amazon needs to add more native format support to the Kindle, or at least a robust desktop conversion tool to .AZW.

***

Should you buy a Kindle? If you buy a lot of books from Amazon, perhaps. The Kindle’s predominate lot in life is to serve as a vector from Amazon to you. It does this extremely well. The screen is readable, and the big flappy buttons that make it look so awkward also make it pleasant to turn pages. The interface, based around a scroll wheel, is well thought-out (even if the click-down motion on the slick scroll wheel is sometimes slippery).

The selection of content is limited, but should increase in time. I searched for five different authors before finding one who had a book for sale on Kindle, although I will cop to looking in a niche that some might call elfy. The book I decided on was $7 on Kindle, $10 in paperback on Amazon. (Although $2.50, plus shipping, used, which is how I most commonly buy novels.) That’s a decent price, I suppose, but I can’t lend a Kindle book to a friend, nor take it with me to other devices.

In all the Kindle feels much like the very first iPod, where the promise can be seen but barely through the many flaws. I expect that Amazon will stick with the platform, smooth out some of the snags, and make it less financially treacherous to navigate its content.

Although I can hold a $400 eBook reader in my hand, it only feels truly valuable because I have a $7 book inside that I want to read. If Amazon can find a way to lower the barrier of entry on either side of the platform—a cheaper Kindle, or free content—it may then be worth wider consideration.***

* Yes, I was still going.

** There is still some confusion on these things, but those are the only two files that worked natively for me in my initial testing. It is possible I did something wrong, but I can’t imagine what.

*** I liked Core77’s closer, about seeing the Kindle “in the history books. Or the history Kindles.”

If you are as blind as I am, you have probably noticed that glasses are outrageously expensive. Naturally, that means that style often takes a back seat to price when picking up frames. The “Switch Glasses” concept by Hyo-Jong Kim aims to change all that with lenses that can be spun around for two distinct looks.

That means you can wear a conservative style to work that says “I am an intelligent individual that should be taken seriously,” and flip the frames around on Friday night to reveal a style that says “get a few beers in me and I’ll run through this bar naked. Are you calling me a liar? I’ll punch you in the face right now.” Again, it is only a concept at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it at a Lens Crafters sometime in the not too distant future. [Yanko Design via Sci Fi Tech]

Filed under: Handhelds

Folks, we’re going to level with you: Nokia’s N810 internet table — the magnetizing, multi-faceted gadget so many of you cats have been waiting for — is officially on store shelves. According to the Finnish company’s reps, the WiFi equipped handheld is now available for your general consumption at such luminous retailers as Best Buy Mobile, CompUSA, Micro Center, and Nokia flagship stoes in New York and Chicago. If you’ll recall, the Linux-based, touchscreen portable runs atop a 400MHz CPU, has 2GB of RAM (upgradable to 10GB), a built-in GPS receiver, a Mozilla-based browser, and a slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard. The silver dream machine is available right now for the suggested retail price of $479.

Update: As our eagle-eyed readers have noticed, the N810 has a 400MHz processor, not 400GHz – as much as we wish it were the other way around.

[Via PhysOrg]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

NVIDIA got official today with its GeForce 8800M GTX and GTS notebook GPUs, which you might remember from the fresh-out-the-door Alienware beast from a few hours ago. Mark Rein, Epic Games’ VP is “ordering one” exclamation point, if that makes you more blisteringly excited. [Nvidia]

Nintendo’s gun peripheral has a slot for your Wiimote, and comes with Link’s Crossbow training. It’s no duck hunt, but it’s really fun. The Good: High build quality, battery-less design, fairly accurate, Tommy-gun design of the Wii Zapper makes me feel like Wii Capone. Inexpensive, since it doesn’t introduce electrics, depending on the Wiimote’s exisiting buttons. Fun would be an understatement.

The Bad: The “A” button is awkward to hit, any sort of gangster sideways pistol action hurts accuracy. (Like in real life?) Unlike light guns, the Wiimote’s aim does not literally translate into direct targeting; hence, aiming toward the edge of large screens makes accuracy dive. You’re meant to shoot from the hip with this setup.

In Made of Honor (and probably real life), Patrick Dempsey is the epitome of a douchebag–a basketball-playing, covertible-driving, nerd-mocking, womanizing asshole. In other words, he’s the perfect antagonist to the geeky yet lovable underdog who is ultimately meant to get the girl in the end.

Yet, for reasons I still can’t grasp, Dempsey is the one we’re meant to be cheering for as he tries to stop his love from marrying a man who, by default, must be less of a dick. To keep us distracted from how much we should hate the McDreamy protagonist, he’s given the role of maid of honor, providing many opportunities for men-don’t-understand-lady-stuff and gay jokes as he reclaims his undeserved lady. Duckie must be rolling in his grave (a shallow hole the exact shape of Two and a Half Men).

The amusingly named peripherals manufacturer Thrustmaster has launched the T. Flight Stick X, describing it as the “World’s first PS3 joystick.” This should be welcome news for flight-sim fans —as long as your favorite game doesn’t exclusively utilize the motion sensor, which renders the device useless.

Still, the device has plenty to offer, like rudder and throttle control, airbrake or rapid-fire triggers, a mapping button, easy configuration switching, a slew of programmable buttons and axis, and PC compatibility. It even comes pre-configured for Blazing Angels on the PS3 and Flight Simulator X on the PC. Available for $50. (Product Page via Register Hardware via Wired]

Filed under: Gaming

Dragon’s new DuoShock 3 may not be anything more than a pale imitation of Sony’s own PS3 controller, but at least it’s a dirt cheap pale imitation, with it setting you back just $17. For that price you will get 2.4GHz wireless capabilities, but it seems that you’ll have to make do without the SIXAXIS’ motion sensing capabilities, which could pose quite a problem depending on the games you plan to play with it. On the upside, you’ll also be able to use the controller with your PC, as well as your PS2 with the included adapter. The controller does also boast a vibration function, although it seems pretty safe to assume that it’ll only work with the PS2. If that’s not too much of a deterrent, you can pick one up right now.

[Via PS3 Evolution]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Someone with lots of talent made a sweet Samus Aran costume from Metroid. Then some beautiful lady with lots of talent modeled it. Damn damn damn. What was I just talking about? Something about something. Oh right, the costume. Damn she looks good in that thing. Something about that beam cannon arm does magical things to me. Is it getting hot in here? I feel faint. I think I’m in love. I have to go now.

But because I love you all (and I’m not getting you anything else for Christmas) I’m posting a bunch more pictures after the jump.

Today’s most popular headlines are World’s Worst Fembot Slaps Your Face When You Touch Her Boobs (17,920 views today), Amazon Kindle Hands-On and Questions Answered (Gallery) (12,711) and Recoilless Auto Shotgun Fires 300 Rounds Per Minute, No Cleaning or Lube Required (11,408). Today’s most discussed stories are Shareholder Takeover Planned to Stop Microsoft’s ‘Homosexual Agenda’ (212 comments), Apple Spies on iPhone Users, Hackers Claim (50) and Amazon Kindle vs Sony Reader Bitchfight (49).

Dell’s exclusively got the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme gamepad right now for $80. That much extreme for only 80 bucks might be a Dealzmodo. [Dell Gaming via Electronista]