The Demo Site

Unlike Roombas and the ASIMO that require specific charging docks to refuel their power, the PR2 uses the standard 3-pronged electrical outlet for its power source.

Although it takes Willow Garage's PR2 58 minutes to complete its mission, it managed to barrel through 8 doors—maneuvering itself around junk scattered all over an office space—and find 9 different electrical outlets to recharge itself. If all the outlets were being used, I wonder if the PR2 is smart enough to figure out how to yank out other plugs for an empty socket. [Willow Glen via Robots.net via Technabob]

With the DTV transition happening today and analog broadcasting going away, what happens to this classic static that greeted you on every channel that wasn't there to remind you to keep flipping? [YouTube]

According to a lead developer at Apple—and a few tests run on the iPhone 3.0 to confirm—the inability to re-download previously purchased apps on iPhone 3.0 was just a bug. [Appadvice - Thanks Mahmoud!]

Somewhat like a vegetarian version of the Dragonfly building in Manhattan, the XERO Project is a proposed idea of bringing local agriculture, orchards, gardens and food stalls into the city of Dallas, all under one roof.

Don't put those BBQ ribs down quite yet—Texans can breathe a sigh of relief as this project is still only a concept, which was first submitted to the Vision Dallas design competition looking to make Dallas a greener city. [Archinect]

Here's the stuff that we didn't post today. (Until now, obviously.)

A few weeks back, we heard that a Dyson vac would be in the Transformers movie, but we never saw a pic, just this (clever) Worth1000 mockup. Then, today, we read on CrunchGear—well, pretty much exactly what we already knew, illustrated by this (clever) Worth1000 mockup. This is not what you'll see in the movie. But it's clever. [CrunchGear and Worth1000]

The floating bike concept is as old as, well, at least as old as bikes. And the idea of building a boat out of (empty) water jugs is pretty old too. That said, we applaud Li Wieguo for this masterful DIY plan for retrofitting said bike with said waterjugs. And I just love this picture, taken in Naishahu Park in the Chinese province of Hubei, for some reason. [Inhabitat]

Dell buying Palm? At first it sounds less likely than that Microsoft-Yahoo deal that keeps not happening. Then it sounds plausible: Palm has no cash, Dell still has a bit to burn. But then we slap ourselves in the face and say, business speculation is typically not our thing. When there are some facts on the table, we'll talk. [Reuters and NYT]

It wouldn't be Remainders without some trumped-up Apple story. This time, it's a virus. A little one, that doesn't do anything particular, that is allegedly transmitted to people who go to a porn site and watch the "main video." Why are we not shrieking and standing on a chair? Well, because the security firm Sophos branded it low-to-medium risk, and the only person who tried to infect his Mac couldn't seem to do it. Call us when there's a real bug to worry about. [Cult of Mac]

This is our DTV transition flowchart, inspired by the Consumerist.

Developer Steven Troughton-Smith seems to have discovered that running unsigned (custom) firmware—even firmware that bypasses the activation process—is super easy.

Not only can you use the Konami code to get the phone into dev mode, you can hold the volume-up button while it's booting in order to set it to restore mode. Once in that mode, you can use Palm's firmware flasher app to place on your own custom firmwares (doing whatever the hell you want to the phone) even if it hasn't been authenticated by Palm. Expect lots of low-level hacks that can do some really, really cool things. [Stephen Troughton-Smith via Daring Fireball]

The AACS Licensing Authority is most renowned as the group behind the DRM found in Blu-ray discs—the same DRM, mind you, that's already been cracked. And they're out to kill analog.

Ars Technica points out that in the recently released 118-page AACS Final Adopter Agreement, the AACSLA refers to the upcoming "analog sunset"—or the phasing out of AACS content playing back over analog connections.

What's this mean? By December 31, 2010, AACS licensed manufacturers are required to limit AACS-compatible analog signals to interlaced SD resolution. By 2013, no AACS-compliant device will be allowed to have an analog port.

So once again, what's this mean? It's about time to upgrade to HDMI. Oh, and stodgy DRM bureaucrats are still disillusioned that they can stop piracy in the digital age by censoring the technologies of yesteryear. That's all. [AACS Final Adopter Agreement PDF via ars technica and image]

I couldn't help but think this chair looks a lot like a three-dimensional butt-friendly Zune logo. And it got me thinking, what else could the Zune logo be made into? I got as far as hammock. [Dezeen]

The cat is out of the bag—literally. You saw Matt's Snow Leopard vs Windows 7, and it's Friday, so I think it's time for part deux of our classic flamefest.

To get things rolling, let me start: Fuck Windows 7, a Vista on a diet which is really just the same stuff as before without all the clutter. Like Matt said, it is a glorified service pack at full retail price. Mac OS X Snow Leopard, despite Matt describing it as another glorified Service Pack, is not a service pack—even while it's surprising and inexpensively priced as a service pack.

The fact is that, while it doesn't include new eye candy, the new version of the Mac OS X operating system implements a full re-factoring of some of its core technologies (in software engineering, re-factoring means rewriting the code underneath but not changing the user interface.) Full 64-bit overhaul, completely new QuickTime system—which flies—a new Cocoa Finder—which flies like an eagle too—and stuff like OpenCL and Grand Central dispatch, to name a few of the gigantic architectural changes. These changes are going to deeply affect—for the best—the performance of both the operating system and future applications, specially GCD and OpenCL. And all for $29? I think we have a clear winner here, even while the user won't see new pretty icons. They just will see stuff moving faster than ever before.

So the way I see it is this: Apple got into a solid, fast, lean machine and retrofitted the engine to put it in overdrive. Microsoft, on the other side, just made the mess of Windows Vista actually usable with Windows 7. It will be a speed boost, yes, but only because the previous operating system was crap. So OS X wins again this round. Deal with that, Windows fanboys.

Now, your turn. Remember that you can't get banned for comments in this post.

[Image by Nep Smith via Cult of Mac]

The large, incredibly readable font on the Pre is part of why we said the OS was so usable in our review, but we just thought it was a nice choice of fonts; we didn't know Palm commissioned it themselves.

The company responsible for the font—Font Bureau—makes custom designs for "publications and corporations". This particular one is called Prelude, and has a similar sibling that Palm uses for the ads.

And if you're really a font fan, you'll want to check out that font fight video we posted a while back. [Typophile via Engadget]

I've seen plenty of devices that turn pages for you, but Ninomiya-kun takes things a step further by actually reading books aloud.

Ninomiya-kun can analyze and distinguish about 2,300 Japanese characters from actual paper books. Impressive, but in an age where text-to-speech is already showing up on ebooks, one has to wonder if technology like this is really necessary. Currently we have like what...less than 1% literacy rate among robots? Reading is fundamental people. [Yomiuri via Crunchgear]

Apple's been tweaking the design of its stores and plan to open up to 100 of the new retail spaces this year.

Apparently, the new Scottsdale, Arizona store shows what the slightly new look will be like. For one, the Genius Bar is far larger than before, so that's good for people sick of waiting for help with their computers. But it's also got a lot more natural light, with floor-to-ceiling windows on either side creating a tunnel effect and skylights on the roof. But they're still blocking Facebook, you internet mooches. [9 to 5 Mac]

If you have a thing for Tesla coils (and who doesn't really) you will be interested in this experiment/history lesson about wireless power put on by Omega Recoil at this year's Maker Faire.

During the presentation, they provide some background on Nikola Tesla's experiments and attempt to recreate them by powering a light bulb wirelessly at various distances. It works of course—in 1899 Tesla managed to transmit 100 million volts of power over a distance of 26 miles where it lit up a bank of 200 light bulbs and an electric motor. So why haven't figured out how to do this on a large scale over the last 100 years? [Fora]

Want to build your own robot using the loosest possible definition of "build"? The RoBe:Do Three is a wheeled robot that just needs a netbook to be plugged in to get it rolling.

Simply plop your netbook on the chassis, plug it into the robot via USB, and you're good to go. As for what it can do, well, that's up to you.

All of RoBe:Do's robots can be controlled with a Linux, Mac or Windows PC using various software languages and tools such as C, C++, C#, Flash AS3, Java, .NET, Python, VBScript and Visual Basic to name a few. Three comes with attachment mechanisms to facilitate the addition of USB plug-and-play sensors, I/O controllers, actuators or cases to expand the capabilities of the robot.

The Three is available now for $439. [RoBe:Do via Gizmag]

We already heard about this on the Best Buy front, but it looks like several computer makers will let you upgrade to Windows 7 for free—or at least cheaply—if you buy a Vista computer after June 26. [InfoWorld]

All those apps at WWDC were pretty cool, right? Of course, they'll be a lot cooler when they actually come out. Get your head out of clouds, and into some of this week's iPhone apps.

KCRW Radio: It's no secret that we love KCRW, but it seems to have been pulled from the free AOL Radio app and shoved inside an official, dedicated app, which costs a whole dollar. I'm letting this one slide because they're a public radio station, and because the app—with on-demand shows and multiple streams—is way better.

Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima: Yep, that's the same guy behind all those Brain Age games for DS, which this iPhone app closely resembles. I'm not gonna lie, I miss the stylus-based exercises. But the finger-friendly tasks are worthy of the series, in that they make my head hurt. Six bucks.

Star Defense: You know those tower defense games where you stop endless waves of monsters/dudes/robots from passing across a map? This is that, in 3D. As in, on a sphere. As we saw at WWDC it looks lush, and it's one of those rare games that really, truly works with a touchscreen. Seven dollars and a safe buy if you're a fan of CREEPING DOOM.

bChamp: This one's a little weird. bChamp parses your beatboxing, and plays it back to you as sampled beatboxing, in theory making you into a better mouth-percussionist. I had limited luck getting my beats to register, and the test iPhone (not mine!) ended up covered in spit. Also an issue: beatboxing is dumb. $1. (via Techcrunch)

Get Home: This app figures out where you are and tells you the best way to get home. It'll give walking directions, figure out a bus route, call a cab or ring a friend. It's got huge, colorful buttons. IT IS CLEARLY FOR DRUNK PEOPLE. Be honest about what your app is for, Little Pixels. Two dollars.

This Week's App News on Giz:

• Apple's WWDC iPhone App Wall Gets the Full Photosynth Treatment

• Doom Resurrection for iPhone Due Next Week; Here's the Trailer

• Star Radio Communicator iPhone App is NOT AT ALL Like Anything from Star Trek

• Ngmoco Won't Be Making iPhone-3GS-Exclusive Games

• Apple's iDisk iPhone App Lets MobileMe Users View and Send Documents, Videos, and More

• Is Napster Making an iPhone App?

• Apple's Huge, Throbbing Wall of iPhone Apps

• WWDC 2009 iPhone 3.0 App Roundup

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory and our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

While makers of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ were relatively quiet at E3, declining the opportunity to demo their game/controller on the show floor, a new promo video gives us a closer look at the package.

In this clip, the Numark Scratch Deck looks fun enough to use, but maybe more importantly, Numark promises that their toy turntable can teach you skills that are "transferable to any DJ setup." (We doubt that, but given that our own knowledge of mixing is pretty limited, any real DJs in the audience are invited to run that comment through their BS filter in the comments.) Maybe the game will offer some passing entertainment, but we still can't help but recall our Beatmania controller whenever we look at the thing. [Kotaku]

A shark with a laser beam is a pretty freaking deadly animal—so we understand. No one has lived to tell the tale. But when these sharks finally attack Man in mass, we'll have a plan.

That plan is called the Laser Synthitar. The DIY project combines a broken guitar (thought useless!) with three standard laser pointers (thought boring!) and a sound modulation system (thought deafening!). Combined, these technologies form the most promising defense against sharks with laser beams. But even if we still fall to the techno-aquatic beast, we'll do so while rocking. [Instructables via Synthopia via MAKE]

Find My iPhone was one of the best things Apple showed off on Monday at WWDC—track your phone, send harassing messages, etc. It works, but whoever pinched your iPhone can just turn off tracking right from the phone.

So, if you wanna steal your friend's iPhone and not have them know where you absconded to, all you have to do it go into Settings, then hit Mail, Contact, Calendars and click on the MobileMe account. Turn off Find My iPhone and all your friend will get is a little yellow warning symbol when they try to track it if the phone's been previously located (see above).

Even if they're not smart enough to dig into the MobileMe account setting, all you have to do is turn off Location Services under General settings—that also cripples Find My iPhone long enough to get it back home to wipe it out completely so it's untraceable.

You can still send nastygrams to the iPhone via the service as long as the phone is still online, so presumably Remote Wipe still works as well, though neither of those will actually help find your iPhone.

Update: Yes, this all obviously assumes they can get into your settings if you haven't passcode-locked your phone or they figure out what your passcode is.

Luckily, it seems like even with this massive vulnerability in the tracking feature—you know, the one the service is named after—it should still be more than enough to catch most iPhone thieves.

In case you have been oblivious to the endless warnings and apocalyptic terror of those who fear they will live in a world without television, the DTV transition is happening today. So I have to ask, does your TV still work?

Does Your TV Still Work?(opinion)

If you or someone you know was unprepared for the switch, HDGuru has put together a list of last minute tips that can help get the TV back up and running.

Poll results: Do You Have a Surround Sound Setup?

•Yes, I have a home theater in a box setup. 29%
•Yes, I have a full system that I pieced together with separate components. 47%
•Sort of. I have a virtual surround system with no rear speakers. 4%
•Yes, I bought a full system, but did not hook up the rear speakers. 3%
•No, I do not have a surround sound system. 16%

[Image via Getty Images]

Under a new proposal taken up today, Congress would give the FCC power to limit the volume of commercial advertising to match the average decibels of the show being watched.

Under current laws, TV ads must not exceed the loudest peak in a show—but anyone who has ever been scared half to death by Billy Mays exploding onto the screen for Oxi Clean knows that is generally unacceptable.

Naturally, broadcasters and advertisers want to set their own standards—they even have their own plan to reduce ad volume set to take effect within a couple of months. Many believe that the Congressional bill with pass, but it may not be necessary if the broadcasters set acceptable limits. Either way, it looks as though loud pitchmen are going to be the only ones losing out on this. [York Daily Record]

You know all of that nasty, gross stuff you do in private? Now you can do all of it in public thanks to the following products. I mean, why should you have to change?

[Image via Collegelawstudent]

Palm already lets you sync the Pre with iTunes via its clever pretending-to-be-an-iPod, but that only gets music, video and photos onto your phone. Missing Sync does the rest.

It's an extension of their other Missing Sync products that are already out for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. It lets you grab contacts and calendar (great), as well as ringtones and podcasts, both of which were able to be synced before just with the USB disk mode. It costs $40, which is kinda high, but better than having to loop your contacts around into Google every time you want to do a sync. [Mark Space via Boy Genius]

In the new movie Moon, we get all of our energy from mining on the moon and we have sentient robot helpers. And, surprise surprise, all that fancy tech creates some pretty serious problems.

The movie surrounds the ordeals of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell, turning in an incredible performance), a astronaut who's stationed on the moon to oversee the mining of Helium 3, a compound that the Earth now relies on for all of its energy needs. His only companion is Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), a Hal-like robot with a yellow smiley face that acts as his helper and sole companion.

He's nearing the end of his three-year contract and is seriously ready to go home. Thanks to some busted communications satellites, he can only communicate with his wife and daughter on the surface via recorded messages, and the isolation has him at the end of his rope.

The real trouble begins when he gets in a rover accident checking on one of the automated mining vehicles that methodically crawl over the surface of the moon. He wakes up in the infirmary with Gerty looking after him. When he goes outside the base to investigate what happened, he finds his crashed vehicle—with him alive inside it.

This, of course, is troubling, and this is where the movie starts to get really interesting. Because both the Sam in the accident and the Sam who woke up in the infirmary are real, and neither knows what the hell the other is doing there.

The mystery of who each of them are and why they're there unravels slowly, and some of the best parts of the movie are them interacting together. Sam Rockwell does an amazing job of making each one instantly distinguishable from the other, and there are some truly stunning special effects used to have them interact together seamlessly. Ever seen a guy play ping pong against himself?

To go too much further into the story would spoil some of the more rewarding reveals, but suffice to say they figure out some pretty unsettling secrets about the lunar mining operation.

The film's themes and setting feel familiar to anyone who's followed sci-fi movies in the past, specifically 2001 and Solaris as well as the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (which is being made into a movie due out next year). Gerty is obviously an homage to Hal, with his soothing monotone and not-quite-human demeanor, but he manages to eclipse your expectations for a sentient space-robot and consistently surprise you.

It's not a flawless movie. While the special effects that make Sam Rockwell able to interact with himself are incredible, the low budget shows through more with the models of the lunar base, which is less than convincing.

The pacing feels off throughout, with large events feeling imminent and then happening without enough impact. And while the story feels like it should pack an emotional wollop, it's just not that affecting in the end. This may have something to do with the fact that, when all is revealed, the motivations behind the explanations aren't entirely justified.

That being said, Moon is definitely worth seeing to anyone interested in slow, heady sci-fi; sci-fi that explores the complex issues we're going to confront when tomorrow's technology is available to us rather than explosions and lasers.

Moon opens tonight in NY and LA.

A new post-release candidate 1 build of Windows 7—specifically, build 7229—has creeped onto BitTorrent. This is supposedly one of the last builds before Windows 7 is released to manufacturing. As always, grab at your own risk. [Thanks Bouke!]

More laptop, monitor, HDTV, and DVD/Blu-ray deals are in store for you today. Oh yeah, and I got some free food and COD4 for cheap, so I'm going to be gaming instead of working. Shh, don't tell Jason.

Computing and Peripherals:
• Lenovo G530-44623U 15.4" Dual Core Laptop for $379.99 plus free shipping (normally $446).
• Dell Vostro 220 Core 2 Duo Desktop with 19" LCD Monitor plus a 1TB External Hard Drive for $409 (normally $660).
• Asus EEE PC 701SD Intel Celeron M 7in Netbook (512MB/8GB SSD/Linux) for $149.99 plus free shipping (normally $199).
• Dell Vostro 1720 Core 2 Duo T6570 2.1GHz 17in LED-Backlit Laptop (2GB/250GB) for $599 plus free shipping (normally $826).
• 24" Dell S2409W Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor for $199.00 plus free shipping (normally $279 - use coupon code HT6G73V?WFV7L5).
• 22'' SVA 2209w Widescreen LCD Monitor for $119.99 plus free shipping (normally $179 - use this rebate form).
• 20" Samsung 2033SW Widescreen LCD Monitor for $139.99 plus free shipping (normally $169).
• 19" Hanns-G HW-191DPB LCD Monitor for $99.99 plus free shipping (normally $129).
• Seagate Momentus 320GB 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive $59.99 plus free shipping (normally $70 - use this rebate form).
• Loigtech Wireless Keyboard for $27.99 plus free shipping (normally $49.99).

Gaming:
• Sony Playstation Portable Slim 2000 $119.99 plus free shipping (normally $169.99).
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game of the Year Edition on Xbox 360 for $29.99 plus free shipping (normally $49.99).
• You're in the Movies (with Camera) on Xbox 360 for $9.82 (normally $19.99).
• Imagine Wedding on DS for $9.98 (normally $29.99 - valid today only).
• Elite Beat Agent on DS for $9.99 plus free shipping (normally $29.99).
• Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for $29.97 plus free shipping (normally $49.99).
• Xbox DVD Playback Kit for $3.49 plus free shipping (normally $9.99).

Home Entertainment and Movies:
• 52" Samsung LN52A750 1080p 120Hz LCD TV $1,602 (normally $1,787 - use coupon code LSJUNE75).
• 46" Toshiba REGZA 46XV645U 1080p 120Hz LCD TV for $1,097.99 plus free shipping (normally $1,289).
• 37" Vizio VO37LF 1080p LCD TV for $599 plus free shipping (normally $675 - use coupon code 0CHSTX0M?BNHSZ).
• Family Guy: The Total World Domination Collection (Stewie Head
Packaging) Seasons 1-6 + 2 Movies on DVD for $74 plus free shipping (normally $135.99).
• Psych: The Complete First and Second Season for $21 (normally $30).
• Superhero Collection on Blu-ray for $79.95 plus free shipping (normally $111.99).

Personal Portables and Peripherals:
• Motorola Bluetooth Adapter for iPod for $17 plus free shipping (normally $25).
• TomTom XL 340S GPS Navigation Receiver for $140 plus free shipping (normally $170).
• Belkin F7M055 SanDisk Sansa Charging Kit for $7 plus free shipping (normally $16.50).
• Headset Cable Wrap Organizer (2 Pack) for $0.60 plus free shipping (normally $ - use coupon code MLC401045).

Hobomodo:
• Mars Chocolates for $0 (250,000 available every Friday).
• Beverage from Border's for $0 (must bring this in-store coupon - valid through 6/18).
• White Castle Pork Sliders for $0.
• Forbes Magazine Subscription for $0.
• T-Rowe Price Family Records Organizer CD Rom for $0.
• New Testament Bible for $0.
• AMAZING Bible CD for $0.
• National Stroke Association's 2009-2010 Pocket Calendar for $0.
• Sundiwear Sticker Pack for $0.
• "The Key" by Speech Debelle MP3 Download for $0.
• "Hey Fella, Ya Fell" by Other Girls MP3 Download for $0.

If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping!

[Thanks TechDealDigger, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains and TechBargains.]

We all love rumors, but this one, well, let's just say it's not the most trustworthy rumor we've ever seen. Let's consider the source.

It's from a scummy site called Palluxo Media that, when investigated by Fortune, seems to have its sights set on lowering Apple's stock prices:

"You fell for Palluxo?," wrote "cynyc" - one of my regular readers - when I cited that quote as an attempt to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about Apple. "That site only exists to promote the agenda of Apple shorts [speculators betting that the stock will go down]."

I thought my reader was being overly cynical, but the recent history of Palluxo's Steve Jobs coverage suggests he may be onto something.

Consider this sequence of Palluxo headines:

* December 31, 2008: "CEO Steve Jobs on Deathbed, Prognosis Poor"
* May 23, 2009: "Apple Rumor: Steve Jobs Could Die Any Day"

and Thursday's prizewinner:

* June 11, 2009: "Apple Rumor: Steve Jobs Seen Kissing Unidentified Man"

But hey, the unidentified source claims to have evidence captured on a security camera! And he only wants $75,000 for it! We'll like, totally set up a PayPal account so everyone can chip in, OK guys? [Fortune]

Kindle DX (reviewed here) just started shipping Wednesday on Amazon and it's already sold out. Either people really love that DX, or the Earth only produces enough resources to sustain manufacturing a few units at a time. [Amazon via Macworld]

As the dust settles from the last two weeks of mobile madness, one question remains unanswered: Which of the new generation of smartphones should you actually buy? We've collected everything you need to know.

We've selected the five phones that most feel like modern handsets to us—the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, the Palm Pre, the HTC Magic (or, as we soon expect, the T-Mobile G2) and the BlackBerry Storm—and broken them down by hardware, software and cost. This is a guide in the strictest sense, meaning we aren't declaring winners or losers, just giving you the information you need to make your own choice. So! On with the matrices. Phones' hardware specs tend to dominate carriers' marketing, but in many cases they just don't mean much, with a few exceptions: screens, storage, graphics performance and input.

The iPhones and Pre hold a sizable advantage in the screen department, trumping the G2, which doesn't have multitouch, and the Storm, which has an ill-conceived pseudo-multitouch clickscreen that left most reviewers at best underwhelmed, and at worst downright frustrated.

In terms of storage, our phones take two fundamentally different approaches. The iPhone and Pre include healthy amounts of nonremovable storage—in the case of the iPhone 3G S, up to 32GB—which makes sense: if we're going to use our phones as they're marketed (as multimedia devices), we need space. The G2, like the G1 before it, depends on a removable microSD card for file storage, since its inbuilt memory is measured in megabytes. So does the Storm. This is fine if the carrier bundles the handset with a capacious card; Verizon is good about this. T-Mobile, on the other hand, shipped the G1 with a pitifully small 1GB card, so we'll just have to hope they're more generous with the G2.

Technical 3D ability is actually fairly uniform across this hardware, with the exception of the iPhone 3G S, which is, in this area, a next-gen product. Only Apple and HTC, though, give developers any meaningful kind of access to their handsets' graphics accelerators, meaning the G2 and iPhones (particularly the bulked-up 3G S) will be the sole options for would-be gamers. And of the two platforms, iPhone OS has amassed plenty of serious gaming titles, while Android, let's be honest, hasn't.

The Pre is an obvious standout in that it has a hardware keyboard in addition to its touchscreen. The hardware QWERTY/onscreen keyboard debate is all about personal preference, so whether this is a boon or a burden is up to you. Typing on a screen is an acquired skill—but much more so on the Storm than the iPhone or G2.

Battery life would seem to be a valuable metric; it's not. The differences in capacity and claimed endurance don't really matter much, since realistically, they all need to be charged nightly.

Note: the Storm is due a minor hardware refresh, possibly quite soon. The main change, it's been rumored, is a different touchscreen.
The greatest hardware in the world couldn't save a phone with shitty software, and your handset's OS is the single largest determining factor in how you'll enjoy your phone. We've explored the differences between the major smartphone platforms at length here, and there's no point getting too far into the specific differences right now.

To summarize: iPhone OS claims advantages in ease of use, its burgeoning App Store, and a respectable core feature set, but falters on multitasking and its lack of ability to install unsanctioned apps. The Pre's WebOS is extremely slick and friendly to multitasking, but its App Catalog is light on content, and its development SDK is somewhat restrictive. Android and BlackBerry OS are both more laissez-faire, letting users install apps from whatever source they choose. Neither of their app stores is spectacular, but Android's is markedly less anemic. More on app stores here.

Carrier preferences will often override prices, but here they are anyway. The Pre and G2 are the most economic options, and the Storm roughly ties the 3G S as the most expensive. (It's easy to underestimate how much a small monthly cost difference can add up over two years.) But again, carrier loyalty (or more likely, disloyalty) and coverage quality is as important as cost. If Sprint's killing your Pre buzz, it could be worth waiting until next year, when Verizon is rumored to pick it up. Likewise, if T-Mobile coverage in your area is patchy, don't worry: by the time T-Mobile actually offers the G2, we'll probably have at least another functionally identical handset lined up for release elsewhere.

So there you have it: everything you need to know about the latest crop of consumer smartphones. Go forth, and be gouged.

In the era of HD, you thought good old DV was dead? Wrong! Because manufacturers can now make these low resolution cameras smaller than ever.

The Muvi Micro DV Cam measures just 2x0.8x0.4 inches but still manages to record 640x480 video at 30fps for 2-3 hours per charge. All of the footage is saved to your own MicroSD card and can be transferred while the camera recharges over USB.

Beyond basic recording, the camera can also be cued to record at a threshold of 65 decibels of noise. And with the disclosure of that spec, several thousand Giz readers immediately Googled "decibels lady changing." $129. [i want one of those via geekalerts]

The Gadget: Razer's ultrathin Sphex mousepad is sufficiently neat: It's more like a sheet of rugged paper that's sticky on one side and a solid, plasticky, mousing surface on the other.

Price: $15

The Verdict: Somewhat slippery compared to cloth, your mouse movements are going to feel a little too fast until you get used to it (which is the case with all plastic pads). It's in a "widescreen" format, and a little smaller overall than most mousepads. But overall, surprisingly good, and worth $15 if you need to take a mousepad everywhere 'cause you don't want swine flu on the bottom of your mouse.

Crazy thin

Good mousepad

Wide format might take some getting used to

[Razer]

The idea behind Blu-ray Managed Copy sounds good—it'll let you make one full-res backup copy of a Blu-ray disc, and studios are required to support it beginning next year. But needing brand new hardware is just the start.

So, the Managed Copy spec, long in the making, has just been finalized by the Advanced Access Content System License Administrator—the Blu-ray DRM dudes—and now it has to be finalized by the studios, manufacturers, Blu-ray licensers, and likely, the Blu-mpa Lumpas.

Supposing they finalize it, then you still need hardware that supports Managed Copy—not the cheap Blu-ray player you got this Christmas, or even one you'll buy this Christmas. We're talking 2010. And even if the right player falls off the back of a truck in 2009, the AACS authorization server won't be running until 2010.

Okay, it's 2010, and you have the right hardware. So you pop in your disc and tell the player to authorize a managed copy—which the studio can charge you for, so it's not like you're making a copy, you're purchasing an additional copy at a lower cost, one using materials that you provide. (Raise your hand high if think studios are gonna not charge. Okay, everyone throw stuff at these people.)

If you decide it's worth it, you can put the managed copy on another Blu-ray disc, DVD, Windows Media DRM-compatible storage, SD card, etc. Oh yeah, if you grab the 50GB full-res copy, where are you gonna store 'em all? What a mess. And besides, who honestly watches real Blu-ray? We'll take the far simpler Digital Copy, thanks. [Video Business via Blu-ray]

Brando, Brando, oh purveyors off all things plastic and electronic in a myriad forms and shapes. If you didn't like the Brando SATA drive horizontal dock with HDMI output, now you can have the vertical model.

Adding to the composite, component, and USB, the SATA HDD Multimedia Dock II also has an HDMI port, although it only supports 1080i. The media player supports the following formats:

• MPEG-1 (MPG, DAT)
• MPEG-2 (MPG, MPEG, VOB)
• MPEG-4 (AVI, MP4)
• DivX 3.11/4/5 (AVI, DIVX)
• XviD (AVI)
• AVI decode audio: MP3, AC3, ADPCM
• VOBSUB: srt, sub, smi, txt, ass, ssa
• MPEG-1 Layer 3, 24-320kbps (MP3)
• AC3 (in the movie)
• Microsoft PCM Wave (WAV)
• Advance Audio Coding LC (AAC)
• Microsoft Windows Media Audio WMA7/8 (WMA), no support for WMA9 Pro
• MP2 (MPA)

Looks like crap, but nice for $79. [Brando]

A few weeks back, one thousand of our readers participated in our MP3 bitrate test. Today, with the little help of a stats expert, we have results—and a recommended rip rate that most of you can live by.

Readers who took the test listened to three songs at varying bitrates on their own sound systems, and identified the threshold at which encoding quality stopped mattering to their ears. After statistically evaluating the results, we not only found that there's a bitrate that most of us can live by, we found that there is joy to be gleaned from uncompressed audio, especially if you spent money on your sound system.

Our Finding
If you're encoding MP3s in iTunes, do so at 256kbps. Why? The mean peak bitrate that users reported distinguishing across all three songs tested was 218.68kbps (when we removed WAVs, the clear outliers, from the results). Aim a bit higher than 218kbps, and you should be set. (Notably, users reported different bitrate results across songs. I'm betting that we see that the quality of a source recording—even within CDs—can really make a difference even when a song is compressed.)

Of course, our data is ever so more interesting than just our advice regarding MP3 bitrate encoding. Other findings:

19.65% of all participants responded that WAVs sounded better than MP3s in at least one of the three songs they tested. While the superiority of WAVs could be an imagined difference (our testing wasn't blind), is it so hard to believe that uncompressed audio is noticeably better? With the ever expanding waistlines of even laptop hard drives, maybe uncompressed audio (or even lossless audio compression like FLAC) is worth consideration.

Still, our most interesting finding was a statistically significant correlation between the amount a listener spent on their audio equipment and the maximum bitrate they could detect. In other words, the more expensive a participant's stereo, the higher the bitrate they preferred.
Why such a noticeable correlation? There could be a variety of explanations. Distinctions in bitrate may be easier to discern in more acoustically responsive audio equipment (that's generally more expensive). Purchasers of higher end audio equipment may simply have better ears. Or, of course, those who spend the most on their speakers might just be deluding themselves in their own snobbery.

Really, the correlation could be a combination of all three of those factors...or none of them.

It was a fun test and we're pleased that so many of our readers took time out of their other responsibilities to participate. If nothing else, we got to make some mean graphs. Get it?

* Reported results are based upon data collection from 743 complete surveys of over 1000. Data reported without WAV outliers from some of our results was from 597 complete surveys.

FAQs
Why didn't you guys test FLAC or something?
Face it, the average person opens iTunes to import their CDs in MP3 format. They aren't downloading special third party software. So this test was for them. Mankind can perform additional tests in the future, you know. And besides, if a format is truly lossless, the WAV test satisfies the category.

Why didn't you blind test?
Quite simply, reliable blind testing wasn't feasible. Even if we didn't disclose the the samples' bitrates, users could easily find the bitrate through metadata or comparing file size. It's a limitation that we acknowledge, and we're not drawing any unwarranted conclusions by taking this limitation into account. Furthermore, many sound experts feel that blind testing is actually flawed. We won't go into it here, but there are arguments on both sides.

A special thanks to Definitive for supplying us with two of their wonderful Mythos STS Supertowers ($3,000/pair) and Pioneer for lending us a recently released VSX-1019AH-K ($500), a solid receiver with notable iPhone/iPod integration.

This 14-year-old boy is Gerrit Blank, and he is probably smiling because he survived a 30,000 mph meteorite hit. His tale—confirmed by scientists at Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory—seems like the genesis of a superhero:

At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder. The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road.

That could have been written by Stan Lee himself, but it is what really happened. According to scientists, the highly magnetic rock—the size of a pea—came from outer space. It was probably a lot bigger when it entered the atmosphere, but this was the bit that survived the burning process. It hit him on his hand, leaving a 3-inch scar. If the hot meteorite had hit him on his head or torso, he would be dead now.

Only one other human has survived a meteor strike—a one in a million chance. [The Daily Telegraph]

We like foosball, despite the fact that we can't play real soccer. We like Barbie, despite the fact that she doesn't have any genitalia. It's no surprise then that we really like Foosball Barbie.

This is Barbie Foot, an art installation by Chloe Ruchon presented at the DMY Berlin Design Festival 2009. [Design Boom via Born Rich]

Here's the latest promo shot of Virtuality, Ron Moore's latest pilot coming to Fox* on June 26th. Note that Moore has completely reimagined sci-fi once again in that astronauts now wear spongy suits.

Intended to be a bit less intense than BSG's post-apocalyptic doom and gloom, Virtuality is about 12 astronauts on Man's first starship, the Phaeton. They're on a 10-year journey (feeling confident, aren't we Mr. Moore?) and will kill the time by plugging in to their own customized virtual reality worlds—a sort of holodeck meets the Matrix. That killing of time seems to be the focus of the show.

Our sister site io9 has been covering Virtuality quite a bit over the last year from inception to production, so they're a good resource if you'd like to read more about the pilot and potential new program. [io9]

* Wait, another promising sci-fi pilot is coming to Fox? Never mind, it's doomed.

This 0.27-inch LCD display has a 600x480 resolution...so what good does that do you? Potentially quite a bit.

It's proof that microdisplays are getting sharper, as Kopin Corporation, the company behind this prototype, had to shrink the individual color dots to just 2.9 x 8.7 µm apiece to reach this standard. (Keep in mind that a human hair is 100 µm wide, meaning these dots are much smaller—more on par with red blood cells, actually.)

While we're fairly certain that the image you see here is but a simulation, Kopin promises that the development is a necessary step in creating a "2048 x 2048-resolution display in a size smaller than a typical postage stamp." Yes, even postage stamps will soon dwarf the 1080p (1920x1080) resolution of your fancy television. [BW via Engadget]

Some find baby dolls cute. Others realize their potential for holding your stuff—if they're chopped to bits and fastened to wood.

Glued and screwed to a vintage mahogany tray, these doll limbs have transcended from merely looking adorable to the highest role a toy stolen from your sister can hold: a barbaric craft project. The Hooktastic Holdall, available for $50, is tough enough to hold your coat, innocent enough to avoid the trashcan and repulsive enough to keep neighbors at bay. Run, don't walk, for the one unit in stock. [Etsy via 7Gadgets]

At least, that's what this video would lead you to believe. In reality, it's a clever little stop motion pitch for the iPhone app accompaniment to the fantastic Delicious Library 2.0. [Delicious Monster via BBG]

That's what we're supposedly looking at, gleaned directly from Nikon's site. Besides D300s splattered on it, note the SD card slot logo, matching earlier rumored specs. It's not a D400, but D300 + HD video, we'll take it. [Nikon Rumors]

There are plenty of photos of rockets and space shuttles taking off, but this crystal clear shot of a Delta II rocket is particularly spectacular. Perhaps because you don't know if it's exploding or taking off.

The Delta II rocket was taking the Messenger spacecraft to Mercury from launch pad 17-B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Obviously, the thing wasn't exploding: The probe is now successfully observing and taking beautiful photographs of Mercury. [Boston.com]

One of the biggest gripes people have with Palm's Mojo SDK is that it won't give developers full access to the OS, potentially curtailing 3D gaming. Now, with WebOS leaked and dissected, homebrewers are picking up the slack.

This guy has managed to get an open source, hardware-accelerated version of Doom running on his Pre, leveraging yesterday's full leak of a WebOS root image, which gave hackers and developers access to core elements of OS that won't be accessible with their MojoSDK. Granted, you'd expect Doom to run on the Pre accelerated or not, but at the very least it's a hopeful sign of things to come. [Sargund]

In case you plan to take a week off of school or work to solely watch movies and play video games, Blockbuster's Summer Escape Pass will make the couch potatoage economical.

For $10, Blockbuster is offering a Summer Escape Pass. Each is good for a week and offers unlimited rentals of movies and video games. The catch, of course, is that you can only rent one movie or game at a time. But if you live across the street from a Blockbuster or something, you could make a lot of trips to the all-you-can-watch media buffet. [PRNewsWire via OhGizmo! and image]

Even more traces of the Palm Eos "Pixie", the alleged followup to the Pre, have surfaced in recent days, and people are beginning to take its release for granted. Now, there are reports that Palm is getting cold feet.

These rumors come from noted grump Michael Arrington, who, despite a mixed history with hardware rumors, was the first to mention this device, which was later leaked in earnest. Citing anonymous sources, he claims:

Palm has decided to put the Pixie on hold until they have better visibility into how its current models are selling in the market.

But people love the Pre! Why would Palm wait?

Arrington cites the Pre's "low sales rates" as a reason for Palm reticence, which is problematic since the Pre, by any reasonable measure, sold fairly well. Furthermore, it could have sold more, had Palm not deliberately played down launch day availability due to limited initial supply. This report is also strangely reminiscent of some insinuations he made in his original Eos leak, which, by the way, landed before the Pre was even available.

The claim that Palm is waiting to see how the Pre does before they charge ahead with the Eos is reasonable; I would fully expect any company as precariously positioned as Palm to behave this way. This "lack of visibility," though, is most likely a function of early manufacturing woes with the Pre, not a reflection of any kind of disappointment with the device.

As OS X moves forward, so must Mac users; luckily, this time it'll be painless. But for broke people and PowerPC holdouts, regular Leopard is rumored to be due one more stabilizing update, to version 10.5.8. [AppleInsider via Ars]

The Archos 9 Windows 7 touch tablet has made it through its first round of show floor pageantry, briefly falling into the the expectant hands of the guy(s) from ArchosFans. The mildly romantic encounter was captured on video, for posterity.

The most important piece of the Archos 9's hardware—its 9-inch resistive touchscreen—works quite well here. (It's on smaller screens where the difference between resistive and capacitive screen starts to stand out, but that's another story.) The rest of the hardware, barring the alarmingly creaky "kickstand," looks solid and attractive, especially considering the $650 price point. (No US release date yet, sadly).

Windows 7, as we know, is fairly well suited to touchscreens, though on this particular device I think the simple addition of smooth touch scrolling for IE would do wonders.

Sidenote: take a good look at this form factor, because it's more or less what the mythical "Apple Tablet" is said to look like. I'm torn: on the one hand, I'd love to play with one, and it could be nice browsing device for the sofa; on the other, I could see getting tired of holding my hands up to the screen all the time, since it's too big to thumb. Just sayin'! [ArchosFans]

The weirdly naive Green Dam-Youth Escort web filter project, which was almost certainly initiated because a government official caught his kid looking at really weird porn on time, doesn't just alert at ladyboobs; as some had predicted, it's being used to censor politically sensitive material. Of course, China's been doing this server-side for years. [WSJ]

In the future, when your car can drive itself, you may well have this little guy to thank. Alternatively, when it gains sentience, bitterly plots against its owner and drives you into a wall, RoboCar will sit, watch and laugh.

In the nearer future, this disarmingly cute RoboCar will be used by researchers to experiment with autonomous vehicle systems, like the ones we've already seen from the likes of Mercedes. Each little robot is outfitted with a Maker Faire's worth of sensors doodads, from CCD stereo cameras image recognition sensors to accelerometers, proximity sensors and Wi-Fi.

The idea is to give researchers a platform on which to test their vehicle control tech that's smaller, more hackable and, most importantly, cheaper than a, full-size car. It's not that cheap, at about $6000, but that's a far sight less than a proper car—especially one that's been retrofitted for remote control, and loaded up with all the relevant technology. [Tech-On]