So this is a video of Steven Leckart and I taking a 2009 Airstream Interstate 3500 down to Los Angeles. The Interstate began its life as a Dodge Sprinter van but was then was completely tricked out in the inside with all kinds of cool tech from Airstream. We talk about that stuff in the beginning of the video: the toilet with integrated shower, the fold down bed, the LCD TV, the combination convection oven/ microwave.

But a good 90 percent of this video is footage of Steve and I actually driving the Airstream down to LA. Hilarity results.

We experienced the world’s strangest urinal, camped illegally, couldn’t figure out how to microwave an enormous frozen burrito (AKA the BOMB), and had an adventure trying to locate the gas tank. Special attention should be paid around the 4:41 mark where we have the most awkward breakfast in history. Keep in mind, this trip may seem like it went on for weeks, but there was maybe eight hours of total driving max.

Steve’s also writing up the review of the Interstate over the weekend. We’ll have it ready to go early next week for y’all on wired.com/reviews. 

The camera work for the initial segments was performed by John Ross, our producer is Annaliza Savage. Steve and I took all of the footage on the road.

Special thanks to video editor Fernando Cardoso who took three hours of raw footage and cut it together into the masterpiece you see before you. Thanks Fern-dog, we owe you beer!

It's another day and another flexible display prototype gets to tease us with its sexiness. 

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute is working with design firm Pilotfish to develop a mobile phone with a foldable display embedded within.

Unlike the other foldable displays we've recently seen, the device's screen is a TFT-EPD screen and the mechanism appears to be built around the technology – one side slides up (or out) from the phone chassis to create a 5-inch screen.

If you're worried about the phone's thick appearance, it's not because of the need to accommodate the screen in the middle. The hinge only uses up one cm of space, or about 0.39 inches.

ITRI Managing Director Nick Vasiljevic says that even though this is their only public design, it could easily be adopted for larger displays on different formats. Presumably (and this is our own speculation), this could mean foldable displays for Netbooks or other gadgets (like the PSP) that force users to suffer from the eye-strain of small display areas.

This is the second recent mock-up we've seen detailing this idea. As we mentioned earlier, Samsung is preparing their own flexible display mod from their development group and that one looks pretty great.

We fully expect to hear of other companies getting in to this technology and will keep you updated as they come in.

Source: Pilotfish, engadget

See also:

• Japanese Start-up Readies Flexible, Transparent Plasma Screens

• Apple's Brick: A Dual-Screen, Foldable Netbook?

• Samsung Shows Flexible Display For Cellphones

Forget DSLRs and Laser TVs.

A toy box that lets you poke it from the inside is the perfect holiday gift for your loved one. This is especially the case if your work takes you away on long periods of travel.

Bandai's Tuttiki Bako (literally, 'the poking box') features a type of touch interface where you can 'tease and harass the digital characters' on-screen with your own finger.  According to the manufacturer, the box gives off a realistic sensation each time you touch a character, and you can see your own finger in the shadow-hand-style display.

Apparently, this wonderful sounding feat is accomplished through motion sensors embedded inside the box. We don't know if the screen will replicate other things that may be placed inside, like, say, a pencil or a q-tip.   

This technology is visually reminiscent (but far from the same) as that of Microsoft's LucidTouch, which allows you to manipulate the front and back of touchscreen devices. That one also produces transparent finger shadows to touch things on-screen, but instead, uses a camera to read movement.

Among the various things you can poke in the Poking Box toy are a panda, a face, and a tiny stick-like device. It also works as a bed clock, so you can always have it right next you in case you need to check the time in the middle of the night.   

The Poking Box is available in Japan, for about $30, and should be a great gift for all.

What kind of a kooky person would sue Apple for false advertising? What are the consequences of cramming a small camcorder into your gaping eye socket? How is emo alt rock band Weezer poised to play Christmas jams directly to the Jesus phone?

Find out with the Gadget Lab crew — Danny Dumas, Brian Chen, and Priya Ganapati as we wax elegant and eloquent about Apple’s recent legal qualms, one man’s quest to replace his eye with a miniscule camera, and the boys at Weezer’s spreading holiday cheer exclusively on the iPhone.

And hey you like reviews, right? Who doesn’t? Listen as we tear down the WORST gadget we’ve seen all year, the Hi-Phone, a Chinese made iPhone knockoff. Why do they call it the Hi-Phone? Probably because you’d have to be high to buy it.

If the embedded player above doesn't work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3

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You also simply must check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast — available on iTunes and the Gadget Lab blog.

Good video doesn't always need a great video camera. A still camera, imagination and a lot of hours can also get you there.

Cesar Kuriyama, a New York animator and lighting technical director, has directed a visually arresting music video using an interesting technique.

Eschewing a video camera, he took 45,000 photographs with a Nikon D200 DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera and stitched them together to create the illusion of video.

The music video was created for the band Fat City Reprise and premiered at their homecoming concert in Philadelphia.

Kuriyama says he directed the talent in the video to move as best they could in slow-motion while he had his director of photography Tommy Agriodimas shoot JPG bursts with the Nikon D200. 

The duo were able to get about 60 images per burst at about four pictures per second. "Obviously we did many takes for each shot," says Kuriyama. "Eventually one good take of them moving in slow motion would look great."

After that the team re-worked the frames in post-production to move closer to 24 frames per second.

Including the time for conceptualizing and creating the story board, it took Kuriyama about 14 months to the video. He worked on it after-work hours every day.

The whole video cost just about $3000 to make, says Kuriyama, "plus the endless personal hours."

The video also features an animated stuffed animal designed and created by a friend. Kuriyama rigged it with blue sticks coming out of its arms and legs and wore a black suit to hide him. Post-production tricks helped firm the illusion.

Much of the editing for the video, says Kuriyama, was done on his MacBook Pro in Final Cut Pro. He managed the photographs in iPhoto and did the effects in Eyeon Fusion.

Kuriyama's efforts is an interesting way to circumvent the challenge that photographers face when it comes to creating high quality videos at low cost.

Compact digital cameras, which have had video-recording capabilities for years, offer disappointing image quality. High-end video and movie cameras are bulky and can be very expensive.

But the $2700 21-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II capable of 1080p HD video and the $1300 12-megapixel Nikon D90, which can record 720p HD video could change the game.

The two cameras deliver very high quality video and still images and could help photographers move to a single camera for their needs.

Also see:
Nikon D40 DSLR Now Official

Photo: Cesar Kuriyama

Even as the financial markets were showing sings of a severe downturn at the beginning of the year, some high-flying industries felt less of a strain and were looking at significant profits. 

Mobile phone manufacturers were one of these lucky groups and with Apple and RIM leading the way, customers appeared to be unwilling to pass up their innovative must-have handsets. But all that’s gone now. And no company is a better example of the downturn than up-and-coming LG.

In a statement earlier this week, officials from the company revealed that it sold 23 million phones in the third quarter, a downturn from the record 27.7 million in the second quarter. And its operating profit margin went from 15.9 percent in the first quarter, to 11.5 in the last one. This is huge step back from a company that was recently doing 30% jumps every quarter and went from a small share of the world market to about 8%.

When the LG news is combined with similar statements from Nokia and Qualcomm, on top of the recent downgrading from industry analysts (Gartner expects a 4% dive next year), the phone business seems like it's the verge of a deep break.

Still, the LG numbers are not bad for a company that has only started to make its mark in the last couple of years in the U.S. And despite the fact that some (like us) have accused it of recycling handset ideas better executed elsewhere (the LG Viewty and its janky touch screen comes immediately to mind), they've been doing enough interesting things with them to merit a extra look by customers.

The company will likely ride out the recession successfully as long as it stops wasting its time with partnerships with lifestyle brands like Prada, fixes obvious problems (like cramped keyboards) and continues on its path of offering good hardware options that set it apart, such as 8 megapixel camera phones.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC

In the fine print of an advertisement, Apple shyly announced that iPhone owners have downloaded 300 million applications through the App Store.

Apple mentioned the number at the bottom of an iPhone ad in Friday's edition of New York Times, according to CNBC's Jim Goldman.

What's more interesting than that astronomical grand total is what it gives away about the App Store's rapid progress. In Apple's latest conference call held late October, Steve Jobs said he was expecting to see iPhone owners download their 200 millionth application. So if we take the advertisement as fact, that means 100 million applications have been downloaded in the past six weeks. Holy moly.

Then again, let's take this number with a grain of salt. The corporation recently said claims made in its iPhone advertisements are true, but we'd be fools to believe them anyway.

Apple Apps "Bubble" Talk Just That, As Downloads Soar [CNBC]

Photo: superciliousness/Flickr

We're curious as to the utility of Elecom's upcoming waterproof SDHC card. The selling point seems to be that your pictures will be safe if you drop the card in water whilst transferring between devices.

But an SD card has no power source inside, and being solid-state, it also has no moving parts to get wet and rust. Surely any SD is waterproof in this sense? Sure, with a regular card, you'd want to leave it in a warm, dry place for a few days after dunking, but what of Elecom's card? Would you risk putting a wet card into a dry camera?

A look at the product packaging gives us a clue. We see a silly cry-baby who has spilled water on his camera. A woman (his mother?) triumphantly holds the memory card aloft, smiling brilliantly and completely unaware of both her son's distress and the worm peeking from his hair. So perhaps the idea is to keep your photos safe after an aqueous disaster caused by brain parasites.

The card will be available in 4GB and 8GB sizes, is waterproof for up to half an hour at a depth of one meter (3.3 feet) and has a read/write speed of 15MB/s. Price tba.

Product page [Elecom via Oh Gizmo via Akihabara News]

This is truly one of the neatest hacks we have seen in a while, and it should work with any portable video player. Simply rip a screen-sized hole in the side of an airplane sick-bag, tuck the end into the lap-tray of the seat in front and sit back to enjoy the movie. We thought that Andy Ihnatko's Gorillapod in-flight entertainment system was good, but this one is even better. And cheaper.

Testicular mumps Trick17: Free iPhonehalter [Hodenmumpds via Engadget]

See Also:

• Gorillapod Go-Go: Miniature, Flexible Tripod

A Japanese start-up is trying to shake up the display scene with the latest version of their flexible display prototype.

Shinoda Plasma's three-meter wide, 1 mm-thick plasma made some waves earlier this year, but the new panel shown at the FPD International show in Yokohama, Japan, is the almost-final version they’ll be releasing next year.

Like the last version, Shinoda's plasma is made out of three plasma tube array modules modded together to produce a 960 x 360 pixel resolution screen that weighs only 7.9 lbs. and consumes, on average, about 400 watts.

But the improvement lies in the visibility of the screen. The glass tubes, which are lined with electrode films, are designed so tightly and are so long that they make the screen unbelievably thin while staying tough enough to bend.

Plus, the chemistry of the tubes enables the whole display to go without a back panel, making it transparent and therefore visible from the back as well as the front.

As we noted last month, makers of flexible displays are trying to carve in an important niche within the future of display industry.

Most recently, government groups like the U.S. Army have unveiled their plans to test flexible panels for military applications. On top of that, the regular lineup of manufacturers is getting in line to try out this potentially lucrative market.

One of the leading manufacturers investing in flexible OLED displays is Korea's Samsung. The company recently unveiled 14- and 31-inch OLED panels in a conference in Dubai, and earlier last month, displayed a prototype cell phone that contained a foldable OLED screen inside its innards as well as a plastic AMOLED with thin film encapsulation (see video below.)

Because OLED panels generate light organically (through pixels that create their own light), they're also conducive to super thin and flexible designs without losing picture quality.

Expect the first applications of the large panel flexible plasmas from Shinoda to show up in public areas fairly soon, and we fully expect it to show up at CES next month.

Remember these? The rotary phone is still something of an icon, and if you look at the infographics dotted around public telephones, it is still literally an icon.

The trouble is, as lovely as they look, these old phones are a pain to use -- slow to dial and lacking in a few modern conveniences. Which is why we love the Retro 1970s Style Desktop Telephone. It doesn't compromise on the basics -- a real bell, a pop-out label on which to write your number and a heavy stainless steel base-plate (although in the picture it looks more like galvanized steel).

More importantly, it adds some modern features, including the hash and asterisk essential to navigating the modern hell of labyrinthine call centers, a last number redial, hands-free dialing and a line-out jack.

The price for this retro masterpiece? $73. If I still had a land-line, I'd buy one.

Product page [Brando via BBG]

Thanks to either prudery or (sadly) fear of litigation, the iPhone doesn't swear. Type in your preferred profanity and it will be downgraded to some other, less eloquent word such as duck or shut (curiously, the iPhone has no problem with the Olde English "c" word).

In the days of T9, part of the ritual of getting a new phone was the obligatory training period, during which you'd teach the phone to swear by adding new words to the dictionary. The iPhone doesn't have any such training feature, but potty-mouthed Tim (or Tracey) Luoma came up with a smart workaround: Add the f-bomb to your iPhone's contacts list.

Because the iPhone's auto-correct looks into your address book to check the spelling of your friends' names, you can also use it to add other frequently used words. Just remember to use lower case, as the iPhone tends to ignore capitalized words when correcting your mistakes.

I fully expect the comments on this post to turn into some puritanical rant about the value of swear words. Before you do that, please read the scholarly words of George Carlin on this subject. Better still, if you're thinking about complaining, don't ducking bother.

UPDATE:

Scot emails us with this tip:

Type the offending word thrice like "beetlejuice" each time it wishes to correct it go back and spell it correctly. The third time's the charm. It adds it to the dict.

Thanks, Scot!

Ducking an iPhone Annoyance [T’N’T Luoma via ★]

The picture probably tells you all you need to know about Speck's QwickDraw holster for the iPhone 3G. The non-leather case clips onto belt or waistband and the iPhone latches in. The little thumb-switch you see in the picture lets you slide the phone out again.

We imagine that Speck has researched the demographic for this product very carefully. Along with the lame name, the cowboy metaphor continues in the blurb:

[It] keeps your phone locked in place during mighty important activities, like sitting down at the saloon, climbing into the saddle, or rounding up your herd. With just a simple flick of the quick-release latch, you can whip that phone out and dial your local posse.

Seriously. That's not to say we aren't attracted by the whole Robert De Niro You-Talking-To-Me? schtick, it's just that here at Gadget Lab we do things properly. While everybody else was trying, in vain, to get Danny Dumas to shave his lovely locks into a psycho-mohawk, I was busy with the gaffer tape, metal rods and springs. The result? Instant access, sleeve mounted iPhone cannons. Awesome, huh?

The QwickDraw is on sale now for half its usual $30, which means you can buy two, one for each hip.

Product page [Speck. Thanks, Bill!]

Rob Spence looks you straight in the eye when he talks. So it's a little unnerving to imagine that soon one of his hazel-green eyes will have a tiny wireless video camera in it that records your every move.

The eye he's considering replacing is not a working one -- it's a prosthetic eye he's worn for several years. Spence, a 36-year-old Canadian filmmaker, is not content with having one blind eye. He wants a wireless video camera inside his prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies wherever he is, all the time, just by looking around.

"If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?" he asks.

Spence, who calls himself the "eyeborg guy," will not be restoring his vision. The camera won't connect to his brain. What it will do is allow him to be a bionic man where technology fuses with the human body to become inseparable. In effect, he will become a "little brother," someone who's watching and recording every move of those in his field of vision.

If successful, Spence will become one of a growing number of lifecasters. From early webcam pioneer Jennifer Kaye Ringley, who created JenniCam, to Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, to commercial lifecasting ventures Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, many people use video and internet technology to record and broadcast every moment of their waking lives. But Spence is taking lifecasting a step further, with a bionic eye camera that is actually embedded in his body.

"The eyes are like no other part of the body," says Spence. "It's what you look into when you fall in love with somebody and [influences] whether you trust someone or not. Now with a video camera in there, it will change how people see and perceive me."

It's an interesting and innovative idea, says Yonggang Huang, a professor in the departments of civil and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University. Huang, along with University of Illinois professor John Rogers has developed a web of micro-sensors to enable eye-shaped cameras. Huang is not involved in Spence's project.

"It's very clever," says Huang of Spence's quest. "It is not a true eye but it provides the way for people to record images in life as they see [them] and store [them]."

Spence lost his right eye at 13 while playing with his grandfather's gun on a visit to Ireland. "I wanted to shoot a pile of cowshit," he says. "I wasn't holding the gun properly and it backfired, causing a lot of trauma to the eye."

Continue reading "Eye Spy: Filmmaker Plans to Install Camera in His Eye Socket" »

Barack Obama won't be taking the mantle of Zune Brother No. 1 from Bill Gates after all.

In a stunning reaction that suggests the President-elect's ability to quickly turn around difficult public relations problems, an advisor has officially rejected the earlier suggestion that he used a Zune as his primary music player. Instead, he clarified Obama's position as an Apple fan and an owner of an iPod, which he most often uses when working out.

It is a crushing blow to Zune fans everywhere.

Judging by the hosannas of gratification they bestowed upon the President-elect in the hours following the initial report, the jilted fans might end up inconsolable and might need a hand walking the streets.

Some had even suggested that his use of the Microsoft player was the beginning of new era of 'bipodinsanship' and others were predicting a new rise in the player's popularity: "Look at what President Reagan did to the sales of jelly beans! This is great news!” said one excited forum commenter. Linuxlsrjd said in a twitter post: "2day has been a good day. I found out Obama n sum1 in my Hist group use a zune . . . Woot!"

But in hindsight, the saddest one comes from notorious twitter user MSWindows: "Barack Obama Uses a Zune. Who is the Maverick now?"

While news of the Obama response is too new to determine the reaction from the Zune lovers, we still expect it to be healthier than that of the Apple fanboys who needlessly and immediately mocked the President-elect when the initial Zunegate allegations were reported.

Many shocked Apple fans went to their forums and unleashed their customary vitriol, with some of them demanding an apology from the President-elect while others vowed to uncover any other questionable decisions of taste.

Unfortunately, it appears that some of these quests have already proven successful. Some Apple fans have uncovered fake-looking pictures of Obama buying or endorsing second rate products all over the land. Check them out after the jump and make your own decision.

As for us, we're still standing firm behind last year's Zune Vs. iPod Smackdown decision and think that the President-elect can use whatever he wants as his music player of choice, as long as he beats the economic recession, kicks the car industry in the behind, and occasionally challenges Heads of State to games of twenty-one.

Continue reading "Zunegate, Day Two: Obama Advisor Says He's an iPod Man" »

It's nearly the end of the year and that means its time for the lists to begin. National Geographic has picked what it calls as must-have gear for outdoor enthusiasts for 2009.

Included are the Suunto’s wrist-watch navigator the X10 ($599), the Sony Xperia X1, the Black Diamond Enforcer gloves ($170) and the very cool looking Kor One water bottle ($30). They have also listed their choice for camera, handheld GPS, jackets and a laptop made of bamboo.

Complete National Geographic gear gallery

Photo: Joshua Scott / National Geographic Adventure

Though Verizon says the Storm is its fastest selling handset yet, the touchscreen phone is also generating more negative buzz than any BlackBerry before.

Consumers and journalists are beating the Storm to a bloody pulp, with very few defending Research In Motion's response to the popular iPhone. 

The most vicious review on the Storm comes from New York Times columnist David Pogue. He ripped the Storm to oblivion last week, calling it the "BlackBerry Dud." And on Thursday he published some reader responses that couldn't agree with him more.

"Having tried the Storm on two different days to make sure it was really as bad as it seemed the first time, I too find it unbelievable that these are for sale," a reader wrote to Pogue. "Verizon should just box all these Storms up and send them to Toys R Us, who can sell them in the Brainteaser section, right next to the Rubik's Cubes."

Verizon and RIM unleashed the Storm on Nov. 21. Sporting a 4-inch touchscreen, the handset is Verizon's attempt to compete with Apple's phenomenally successful iPhone. The resonating complaints about the Storm suggest the handset is not going to pose a threat to Steve Jobs' revolutionary phone.

Wired.com's Danny Dumas wasn't too pleased with the Storm, either: His major complaint was the operating system is a piece of garbage that doesn't do justice to "a piece of hardware this gorgeous."

And a quick Twitter search doesn't display much love for the Storm.

"Coworker just got a new Blackberry Storm," tweets Jeff Casemier. "It is a wonky P.O.S. Just F.Y.I."   

The complaints are likely only to get worse and more widespread: The phone's only two weeks old, and Verizon says the Storm is selling as fast as bacon-wrapped hot dogs outside a bar.

We're eager to hear what Gadget Lab readers have to say. Any of you out there with a Storm? How's it treating you? Let us know in the comments below.

See Also:

• Showdown: BlackBerry Storm VS. iPhone 3G
• Hands On With The BlackBerry Storm
• BlackBerry Storm Hits Vodafone
• Review: RIM BlackBerry Storm

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple believes Psystar, a manufacturer of Mac clones, is more than just a small Florida-based company.

In its most recent legal filing, Apple alleges there may be other parties helping drive Psystar's success -- possibly other corporations.

On information and belief, persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this Amended Complaint. The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10 (collectively the “John Doe Defendants”). On information and belief, the John Doe Defendants are various individuals and/or corporations who have infringed Apple’s intellectual property rights, breached or induced the breach of Apple’s license agreements and violated state and common law unfair competition laws. Apple will seek leave to amend this complaint to show the unknown John Doe Defendants’ true names and capacities when they are ascertained."

Legal news site Groklaw notes that if Apple's assumption is correct, this may explain why such a small company as Psystar is being backed by a major law firm. This could also indicate why Psystar is so bold with continuing to roll out Mac clones.

Apple in mid-July filed a lawsuit against Psystar alleging copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement. Psystar's first release in April was the "OpenMac" -- essentially a PC hacked to run OS X Leopard -- which the company later renamed OpenComputer. The sort-of Mac clone cost $400, or about $2,400 cheaper than a Mac Pro.

Psystar's audacity certainly raises a brow. Another startup called OpenTech wasn't so brave. Open Tech in July said it would offer a similar product -- PCs bundled with how-to kits on installing Mac OS X -- but the company shut down a month after its launch.

See Also:

• Psystar: Blu-Ray Hackintosh for Sale; MacBook Clones on the Way ...
• Psystar Tags Back Apple With Antitrust Suit
• Psystar Offers Cloned OS X Servers
• Apple Finally Sues Mac Copycat Psystar
• Apple Demands That Psystar Recalls All Hackintoshes

Photo: Psystar

A slew of voice recognition applications recently arrived on the iPhone, but each one could only handle a few tasks. If you're like me and hate cluttering your iPhone springboard with several applications, you can download a new voice recognition app called Vlingo , which crams voice-enabled dialing, map look-ups and web searches into one neat package. Something new the app introduces is the ability to update your Facebook status with speech.

I gave the app some tests, and it's pretty slick. I appreciate the Vlingo's versatility compared to other similar software. The Google Mobile voice-recognition app is limited to performing voice-enabled Google searches. Say Who just did voice dialing; Say Where only looks up businesses and maps. 

Using Vlingo is pretty straightforward. You tap the tab for the type of command you wish to dictate (maps, web search, phone list, Facebook). Then you hold down a button and dictate the command.

The app is free and available [iTunes] through the App Store.

Press Release [Vlingo] (Thanks, Beth!)

It's usually easy to deride products that are honored as Best of Innovations at CES because the awards are announced a full month before the event begins and before most experts have had a chance to check them out.

Also, the best products are always kept under wraps until they're announced at the event itself, leaving the premature 'Best of' list in the dust.

But this year, for a change, it looks like we might have some keepers.

iLuv's $200 iNT170 Internet Radio won the best portable gadgets category award and its attractive design and easy compatibility make it an attractive option. The iLuv iNT170 is Wi-Fi enabled, has an Ethernet port, and provides access to hundreds of internet (and FM) radio stations, 40 of which you can preset on the dock.

But on the surface, the best thing about it seems to be its low power consumption (at 15 watts), which would allow you to leave it on all day and not worry about a detrimental effect on your wallet or green initiatives.

In 2006, iLuv was one of the first companies to come out with a small iPod dock that allowed a user to record TV programs directly from the display set. That iLuv dock took in the input from a variety of sources and converted into MPEG-4s after pre-selecting for length. It wasn't a huge seller but received some good marks, which bodes well for the follow-up iNT170.

The other gadget we're into is the Psyko 5.1 gaming headphones, which 'won' the best design and engineering award for headphones. The headsets come with a 5.1 surround sound and promise to have zero latency, since they come without the crap digital processing that usually gets in the way of easy listening.

According to the manufacturer, these also come with precision directional audio that realistically positions a player within the audio space of a game. This means it could allow a player to react faster to a nearby blown shell in a shooting game and hear it a moment before another player. Sounds tricky, so expect for us to try this out soon to make sure the claims are accurate.

In the meantime, we'll have play through Gears of War 2 through the glitchy in-speakers of our crappy and old-timey (1995) Toshiba TV.

Clearwire, the WiMAX wireless broadband service provider that merged its assets this week with Sprint Nextel, is rolling ahead.

The company has started pre-selling its services in Portland, Orgeon and hopes to make it widely available throughout the city early next year.

Portland will be the second city after Baltimore to have WiMax, which is fourth generation or 4G wireless access.

Clearwire has also rebranded the service as 'Clear' replacing the Xohm brand that Sprint Nextel has used so far.

It will cost $50 for unlimited monthly usage, $40 for 2GB monthly usage and $10 a day for a 24-hour pass.

Two months ago Sprint kick started the service in Baltimore, Maryland and hopes to extend to other cities such as Chicago and Washington D.C. next year.

Clearwire will initially offer the wireless broadband service only for laptops and later bring it to phones, says the company. An early handset designed by Nokia for WiMax access has already sold out in Baltimore.

Clearwire is backed by Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks, which together have invested $3.2 billion in the company.

Its open all-IP network can provide users with average download speeds initially of 2-4 megabits per second and peak rates that are considerably faster, says  the company.

Photo: Xohm (now rebranded Clear) router (Somewhat Frank/Flickr)

 
The Boy Genius Report says it received a tip that Walmart will be selling a $99, 4GB iPhone. The publication says to take this rumor with a grain of salt, because the tipster doesn't yet have much cred.

There are a few ways to dissect this barebones rumor. If anything, we can take the rumor as a hint that Apple will roll out a $99 iPhone in the near future -- period. Not exclusively sold through Walmart, but also in the Apple Store and other retail partners.

I doubt the likelihood of an exclusive Walmart special: I can't see Steve Jobs diluting his iPhone line by selling a cheaper version of the popular handset through another store. Why would Apple sell a $99 iPhone through Walmart and not just the Apple Store? Plus, historically Apple hasn't given its retail partners particularly special treatment. We haven't seen Best Buy sell a less expensive version of the MacBook, for example.

But a $99, 4GB iPhone could certainly be desirable to many, given the state of the economy. Personally, I wouldn't consider one because 4GB just isn't enough for a handset I use to watch video, play music and listen to podcasts.

Would you consider a 4GB iPhone for $99? Vote in the poll below.

Apple to sell a $99 4GB iPhone at Walmart? [TBGR]

Photo: Florent Brunel/Flickr

Stanza, the go-to e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch, has been updated to incorporate a built-in book store. Now users of the free e-reader application can download commercial ePub-format books direct to their iPhones, over the air.

This can only boost the "sales" of the free application. According to Lexcycle's Neelan Choksi, Stanza has  been downloaded almost 600,000 times, and users are in turn downloading 50-60,000 books a day.

The service comes courtesy of a partnership between Lexcycle (the people behind Stanza) and the online e-book seller Fictionwise. We tested the service out, and had a quick chat with Neelan Choksi about Stanza, e-book piracy and the upcoming Kindle 2.

Continue reading "Interview: Stanza Brings Online Bookstore to the iPhone" »