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iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G Reviews: Hardware, Software and Apps

Here's our Gizmodo iPhone 3G Review, iPhone Firmware 2.0 Review and our still updating iPhone App Review Marathon (89 apps total).

On the ball

It Took Comcast 20 Calls and 3 Visits Over 5 Weeks to Determine That No Cable Was Run to This Guy's House

I know—Comcast bashing is getting way too easy these days. But its hard to resist when you find out that it took 20 calls and 3 personal visits over five weeks for the company to figure out why Kenneth Bayes, a subscriber in Haymarket VA, could not get service. Then it hit them—they never ran cable to the guy's house. It is just the kind of customer service debacle that Comcast has been blaming on their rapid growth. According to Rick Germano, senior vice president of customer operations, "We are a victim of our own success, to a degree." More »

Fake Steve Starts Real Dan Lyons Blog The Fake Steve Jobs blog may be gone (for now) but Dan Lyons has started a blog with a somewhat similar style, expanded topic matter, interesting treatment angles on tech and a Newsweek-themed header. [RealDanLyons]

PSP

More PSP 3000 Spy Shots

A tipster mailed in these additional PSP spy shots to go along with the ones we saw yesterday. Assuming this is real, it shows a black PSP with the new PlayStation button, the mic hole, and a thinner outer ring. There's also the headphone jack with the TV out port which features more arrows than before. Color us amazed. If anything, this says that everyone, from Sony themselves to people who have nothing better to do than to make fakes and seed them to news sites online, aren't really expecting much out of the next iteration of the PSP. More »

BlackBerry Media Sync

BlackBerry Media Sync Released, iTunes and RIM Now 2Getha 4Eva

If you cram in enough expandable storage, BlackBerry phones are actually fairly decent media players. Transferring your music collection, though, has always been sort of a pain in the ass. Media Sync solves this problem, interfacing with your iTunes music collection to automatically transfer selected music and playlists to your BlackBerry. It is currently only available for Windows and doesn't support video or DRMed tracks, but hey, it's a start. [BlackBerry via CrackBerry]

nothing to see here

DelFly Micro Dragonfly Is Smallest Creepy Autonomous Spybot Yet

We told you the tiny DelFly II robotic dragonfly spy cam was just the beginning, and we were right. The same Dutch roboticist is now unveiling the DelFly Micro—with a wingspan of just 10cm and a weight of 3.07 grams, it's the first to be smaller than an actual real-life dragonfly. Granted, the dragonfly being used for comparison is Borneo's Tetracanthagyna plagiata, which has a frankly horrifying 20cm wingspan—the largest in the world, no less. But still, now you're even less likely to realize those annoying bugs whizzing around during your protest march are actually just autonomous insectoid ornithopters keeping an eye on you—nothing to worry about. See it take to the air, complete with live eye-in-the-sky video feed, below. More »

Humping Dog

The Neutered USB Humping Dog On Sale Now

The Crunching Dog—a sadly neutered version of the humping dog—is finally on sale. All it takes is $9.99 for you to get a cheap plastic dog to show you that you're worthless because you'll never do as many situps or do them as fast as this crappy toy from Japan. Seriously though, how can something with a dong THAT huge even physically do situps? This is the excuse we're using to justify our own obesity, in case you were wondering. [ThinkGeek]

Voice of the voiceless

iPhone App Devs Still Gagged by Non-Disclosure Agreement, Mad as F'n Hell About It

As we covered in our case for still needing the iPhone app black market, developers are gagged by a non-disclosure agreement that keeps them from talking about actually programming the iPhone with anybody, even though sharing info would help app development. Surprise, developers don't like that. So now we have Fucking NDA, which aggregates their rants and musings, turning them into a single stream of angst about, well, that fucking NDA. Here's a gem collected from Twitterific's Craig Hockenberry: More »

Rumor

Dell E (aka Mini-Inspiron) Specs Uncovered, Actually Called Inspiron Mini?

Zumo thinks they got a peak at the specs for Dell's first cheap mini-laptop on a recent trip to Dell's Texas facilities. They say that it'll be called the Inspiron Mini, contrary to previous reports it'll it's the Dell E. What's supposedly inside sounds reasonable, and what you'd expect out of a suitable Eee killer, especially if it's really only $299. More »

Engines

Plastic Motor Powered Directly By Light, No Solar Middleman Necessary

Professor Tomiki Ikeda, along with his research team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a plastic motor that runs on direct light. Unlike solar power, there is no need for storing energy before conversion. The motor can achieve this feat thanks to a plastic compound containing azobenzene which contracts when exposed to ultraviolet light and returns to its original shape when exposed to visible light. By making this material into a belt and wrapping it around two wheels of different sizes, movement can be generated when the larger wheel is exposed to ultraviolet light and the smaller one to visible light. More »

iPod Speakers

iPod Swing Speakers Are Snap-On, Kinda Neat

These Neoneco Swing Speakers from Korea hook onto your iPod nano, classic or touch and provides sound where there was none before. It's not made for any sort of high fidelity sound reproduction, but at a battery life of 10 hours (it's got a separate power source) it provides bare-minimum sound on the go. Grab one from Korea if you really want one, but it is quite good if you want to share YouTube or iPod videos with other people and not get their earwax all over your earbuds. [Neometrokhan via AVING via Wired]

At&t

iPhone 3G Selling Twice as Fast as Original

The one major bit out of AT&T's quarterly earnings call is that the iPhone 3G is selling twice as fast as the original iPhone did last summer—in case the unending squiggles of people trailing out of Apple Stores and AT&T shops didn't tip you off. They didn't actually say how many were sold, but we know that worldwide Apple sold a million of them as of nine days ago, just three days after launch. Of course, the hot $199 price—undoubtedly responsible for the phone's brief life on shelves—means AT&T won't actually make money off of it until 2010. You know, when we're on our fourth-gen iPhone. [Alley Insider]

Question of the Day

Question of the Day: Does Your Partner Understand Your Gadget Obsession?

It's funny how technology can really put a wedge between two people in a relationship. That is to say, finding a couple where both parties share a genuine love for gadgets seems pretty rare. This issue is especially problematic when video games are involved. We are constantly hearing stories about how some dude is turning down sex and ignoring his family to play games online. As stupid as all this sounds, I'm willing to bet that it is a major problem with a lot of couples. Plus, gadget obsessions can be tied in with spending excessive amounts of money, which only serves to complicate matters. That having been said, I have to ask: does your partner understand your gadget obsession? More »

DIY

Amazing Wii-Like 3-D Controller Interface Built With Foil, Wiring, Resistors and Arduino


What you're looking at here is an actual Wii-like 3-D controller interface that can track objects like your hand in real time. It may look a little shoddy, but what's amazing is that this very functional 3-D interface was built by a hobbyist with parts most DIYers can find in their couch cushions—six resistors, aluminum foil, wire, a cardboard box, and an Arduino microprocessor to crunch the numbers. That's it. It couldn't be more simple. But how'd he pull it off? More »

Caps4stix

Lightning Review: Caps4Stix Thumstick Covers

The Gadget: Caps4Stix rubber thumbstick covers for Xbox 360 and PS3. They're meant to add more grip for better precision and control. More »

Most Popular Stories

iphone remote

MythTV's MyMote iPhone Remote App

The idea of controlling your DVR via your iPhone is nothing new, but this MythTV iPhone remote allows Linux DVR users to get in on the fun of using their phones as visual remotes. It's got a real-time program guide so you can easily set recordings, plus the standard channel and volume buttons to flip around channels with. The only thing we have to complain about is that the UI is fairly ugly and not refined at all, but it's bearable. Unfortunately all of us here use either TiVo or Media Center or the cheap set-top-box provided from our Cable company, so we can't test it out. Let us know how it works for you. [eHomeUpgrade]

sweeb.jpg Concepts

Crazy Human-Powered Monorail Would Deliver You to Work in a Sweaty Capsule

How's this sound: rather than hopping on the subway, when in a large city you'd hop into a little pod hanging from an elevated track. It would have pedals. You would then pedal yourself around the city, working up a lovely sweat before you reached your destination. Sound good? No? More »