It all started the first day, during the Sony press conference liveblog. Expecting Wi-Fi around the fair like last year, I opened my laptop and searched for networks to start posting the news as they were announced with text and images, like we usually do. Then it was the first time I realized this IFA was going to suck big time, starting right there: the T-Mobile Wi-Fi network, the one we usually connect to in the show, wasn't available at Sony's hall.

Fuck.

OK. No worries. There's another one, completely open, labeled Sony Event. "Great," I thought, "they are giving us Wi-Fi to work". I tried to connect. Nothing. There was no connection to the internet. Tried to connect again. Nada. Suddenly, the big screen in front of me lighted up:

Bloggers, you have Wi-Fi available. So feel free to blog the event live.

"No we don't, you son of Sir Howard!" Tried again and again and again. Restarted the computer. Some smelly frenchman next to me was getting amused by my desperation, giving me stupid advice about how to connect. I wanted to punch him. On the crotch. As the place was getting full and the event was about to start, I started to panic. I saw people trying to connect like me, also frustrated. It smelt pretty bad. And it wasn't the frenchman. I needed to start blogging in one minute. "OK, last try." No dice.

My only internet device was the iPhone, with its screen keyboard, the one that some people think is useless to actually type. The trick about the iPhone keyboard is that you don't have to try to be precise. Just try to hit the correct letters more or less, and let the prediction do all the work. However, even while I'm a good iPhone typer, doing updates over the slow GPRS, waiting for all our editing system to reload every time I saved, was going to be impossible.

Thankfully, Kit was in Lisbon awake and working. I fired up my AIM client and wrote to him "EMERGNCTT!" Shit. This spelled "d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r-!" Actually, it spelled "desastre!" because I had my spanish keyboard turned on. After I changed the keyboard to US English, I started to write at full speed on the iPhone, with Kit copying and pasting from his AIM screen to the post in Giz's editing system, saving instantly.

The whole process was only adding a couple of seconds of delay to the liveblog, so we were good. And the pictures? Straight from the iPhone camera and sent over email whenever I had a pause to take them. I would just start the camera, shot, send via email, get immediately out, and keep liveblogging via AIM while Mail was uploading the photo. Even the pictures were looking great because I was right next to the well-lit stage. No need for fancy stabilizers. I just held my breath and that was it. We did the same with the Philips press conference and, at the end, everything worked out perfectly.

I know that many other smartphones would have been able to do the same, but this time it was my good old iPhone, with the broken screen, and Jones on the background. The same iPhone that I hated and blamed for taking the worst pictures at the best rock concert ever saved my life at IFA 2008. I guess there's always a yin to every yang. [All IFA 2008 Coverage]

This just in case you didn't get the headline reference:

Part of the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency NextView program, the SUV-sized GeoEye-1 launched yesterday in a Delta II 7326 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California—without exploding. Hours later, GeoEye's ground station in Norway confirmed that the rocket had delivered its payload right on target. The satellite was alive, fully armed and operational on its 423-mile orbit above the Earth.

Built by General Dynamics, the GeoEye-1 is equipped with a next-generation camera made by ITT. This camera can easily distinguish objects 16 inches long, with 11-bits per pixel color. In other words: this thing can see the color of your shorts. It will be up there, looking at your pants every single day, the time it takes for it to complete one orbit. And it will keep doing that for more than ten years, its expected life.

Of course, there's nothing new here until you notice the huge Google logo on the rocket, signaling the fact that Sergei and Larry own the exclusive rights to the GeoEye-1 images. Yes, no other company will be able to access this information, only Google. And they will be there, available for the public in Google Maps and Google Earth.

But don't fret, tin-foil hatters, because Google won't be able to access the highest resolution images because of US government regulations. Sure, the other guys will, but then again, their big bad satellites can see closer than this one. Still, you can rest safe that your underpants will be safe from public scrutiny. For now. Unless you do like me and keep flashing them around. [GeoEye, Wikipedia, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency via Cnet]

If you think that the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope is going to be boring, you haven't seen this video yet. Not only the astronauts will be risking their lives as usual at 366 miles above the Earth, but the sheer amount and the difficulty of the tasks—from repairing components to replacing them to installing new gadgets—makes the mission an almost-impossible one, with soundtrack to match. I never imagined this was going to be such an ambitious and daunting work.

First, there's the pressure the astronauts are going to be facing. In addition to the stress of the spacewalks and the manual work in a weightless environment, they know this is not only the final mission, but also a single shot to service the mighty telescope. If some of the tasks are not completed, there's no way to return back another time and fix whatever is broken. The mission crew knows that Hubble is a vital instrument to science—one that keeps expanding our knowledge of the Universe, helping to answer the most crucial question Humanity has ever faced: where the hell do we come from?—and that the astronauts are men and women of science. And they are going to be the ones responsible for giving science this amazing tool for ten more years.

Then there's the time constrain: just eleven days. As John Grunsfeld—one of the mission astronauts with Andrew Feustel, Gregory Johnson, Megan McCarthur, Michael Good, Scott Altman, and Michael Massimino—puts it: "We got a lot of things we want to repair in Hubble and upgrade in Hubble, and not a lot of time to do it." During that short time, this is all the things they have to do:

Repairs

• Repair two failed instruments in space, which is the first time such a task is going to be attempted. This will be a test to see if Nasa can do this kind of tasks in future missions to the Moon and Mars. The repairs will require removing 110 (yes, a hundred and ten) little screws. While this seems easy, not only it will take a lot of time in zero gravity, but the screws, like any other floating debris, may become a big problem for the security of the astronauts up there.

• The first instrument to be repaired is the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It was installed in 2002, and then died after being the most used instrument in Hubble for years.

• Then they have to fix the Space Telescope Imagine Spectrograph (STIS). This is a black hole hunter which also did the first detection and chemical analysis of a planet orbiting another star.

New instruments

• They will install the fanciest, most advanced spectrograph in space: the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph.

• In addition to the COS, they are also going to install the Wield Field Camera 3. This new camera is ten times better than the current instrument, and will let us see into the past of the Universe deeper and farther than ever before.

Spacecraft service

• In addition to the pure science aspect of the mission, Nasa also wants to upgrade and fix the spacecraft itself, starting with the gyroscopes, which will be upgraded.

• They also are going to install a refurbished fine guidance sensor.

• The batteries are going to be replaced for the first time since Hubble went into space.

• A new outer blanket layer, this time a solid shield, will be put on top of the current blanket.

• Thermal insulation will be replaced on several bays of the telescope.

• A new capture instrument will be installed to recover the Hubble at the end of its life.

Seems like a lot to me, but maybe is the Jerry Bruckheimerish soundtrack that makes it all more exciting. The really exciting part however, if the mission is completely successful, is that Hubble will be better than ever, ready for action for the next ten years. What does this really mean? Awesome eye candy for the next decade. And maybe showing to us that the origin of the Big Bang is really a huge bowl full of Froot Loops that went horribly wrong during one of God's breakfast.

Here are a couple of the more jaw-dropping excerpts:

Most of the problems pointed to as the cause of the epidemic of Red Rings of Death showed up way before launch, naturally:

In an Aug. 30, 2005 memo, the team reported overheating graphics chip, cracking heat sinks, cosmetic issues with the hard disk drive and the front of the box, under-performing graphics memory chips from Infineon (now Qimonda), a problem with the DVD drive, and other things.

The test machines were not properly debugged, due to an ill-advised cost-cutting initiative that shaved $2 million from $25 million paid to Cimtek, a test machine maker in Canada. The Microsoft team decided not to pay the consulting fee to Cimtek to build, manage and debug the test machines. Sources familiar with the matter said there were only about 500 test machines at the time of launch, a third of the 1,500 needed.

“There were so many problems, you didn’t know what was wrong,” said one source of the machines. “The [test engineers] didn’t have enough time to get up and running.”

The shortages at launch were in fact largely a product of the Xbox 360's low yields—in Spring 2006, this was the situation:

Microsoft had more than 500,000 defective consoles that sat in warehouses. They were either duds coming out of the factory or they were returned boxes, according to inside sources. The yield was climbing, but far too slowly. The company stood by its statement that returns were within “normal rates for consumer electronics products.”

At that time, the yield rate was still only "an abysmal 50 percent on the first pass. When the bad machines were reworked within the factory, the yield went up to 75 percent –- hardly acceptable." It's gotten better now, but still not amazing. As of the beginning of 2008, it's still only 85 percent—meaning for every 100 Xbox 360s produced, 15 don't work.

The Falcon revision, which used smaller 65nm chips and had a bunch of other tweaks, like more expensive, better quality heatsinks, alleviated some of the problems, as well as made them cheaper to produce—as many had suspected with their introduction. The latest, the Jasper board, takes that a step further, which Takahashi reports is what allowed them to steeply cut console prices last week.

All of this is just a small cut of Takahashi's dense, extremely well-reported feature. If you own an Xbox 360, you owe it to yourself to read. [Venture Beat]

• First, the proportions in the green one are all wrong compared to the orange one. Even counting the perspective, the first unit seems to have a much smaller wheel, with a bigger middle button. It's also farther away from the bottom of the iPod. Finally, the screen doesn't seem so elongated as the green unit.

• The surfaces are also different. The orange nano is clearly curved, while the green one is clearly flat. The button in the orange one follows the curve of the surface, while the button in the green one is clearly receded, like in the old nanos. With that side lighting, a curved surface would be obvious in the image. This one is clearly flat.

• The rounded corners on the orange iPod screen are bigger and more obvious than in the old one.

• Finally, the faker of the green iPod forgot to put a short ended iPod cable in the shot, using the old style one.

Our theory is that:

a) The original MacNN shot, which they obtained, may very well be the real McCoy.
b) The J.R. guy removed the MacNN watermark and reposted it in some forums, looking for some kind attention.
c) The same J.R. guy tried to keep the attention by faking this shot, but failed to realize the obvious physical differences between the two iPods.
d) J.R. is a loser.

Update: This just in. We just got a higher resolution image of the iPod without any water marks:

At the end, however, remember our basic rule about rumors: don't trust any of them. We all will have to wait for September 9 to see what's really rocking in Cupertino. [Engadget]

Tomorrow night at 10PM, Food Network kicks off Alton Brown's latest TV show, Feasting on Waves, where the Mensa-smart kitchen geek and his crew hop into two 50-foot catamarans and sail around 15 different Caribbean islands in search of quality cuisine, shooting and editing the hi-def episodes right there on the boats. It turns out, despite his disdain for specialized kitchen gadgets, Brown depended on regular high-end tech to make a cooking show on a boat happen.

How do you produce a TV show from a sailboat?

One of the things about the Feasting shows in general is that they have a very small crew, and we are moving with very little space. We are extremely packed and technology dense. We had two 50-foot catamarans—it sounds fun but it wasn’t that fun.

So you shoot and edit as you go?

This year we decided to go completely tapeless: Panasonic P2 cards on 200s. We’re downloading them into our portable Avid edit system. We take as much audio equipment as we take video equipment. The funny thing is, professional audio hasn’t gotten a whole lot smaller. Although hi-def cameras have gotten smaller, lenses have gotten better and battery time has gotten better, audio is still the tricky part of the process for field reporting.

I see you were also using a little Panasonic?

I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in the US to get Panasonic’s HDC-HS100 AVCHD camcorder. It’s got a nice little Leica lens on it. We take everything through a DaVinci color correction system. Once we do that, you really can’t tell the difference between my little camera and the big cameras—it’s all 1080i. We have some scenes that were 100% shot with just my camera.

How did you connect to the internet?

It’s kinda funny, the entire time that I was in the islands, I had perfect e-mail with my iPhone. The entire time. I think there was once, during a midnight crossing, the Anegada Passage, where I lost internet for about half an hour. The rest of the time, I was getting e-mail through either EDGE or something else [probably GPRS].

I did not even take a computer with me on that trip. I decided I just didn’t want to see a computer for a while. And at the time, I figured you know, computers, boats, water, scuba diving. I thought about taking the ToughBook along, and then I thought about taking the Asus because that’s a great little box. Then I thought, the hell with it. I took a few pads of paper, some pens and my iPhone.

You also carry GPS everywhere, right?

As a motorcyclist, as a hiker and as a pilot, I’m pretty sold on Garmin. In the first Feasting on Asphalt, I had a touchscreen weatherproof version of the StreetPilot for my motorcycle that even worked with gloves on. I just really love how their interfaces work. You don’t even need manuals for most of their stuff, the stuff is so intuitive.

In New York, I use Google Maps with my iPhone, because I know where I am—I don’t need GPS. If I was going some place where I needed GPS, I’d use my Garmin Colorado [shown in top pic], which I really really like. It’s a really great marine box. It’s splashproof, but it comes loaded with all the marine functions, so it’s really easy to do marine chart info if you get the right cards for it. You can sail the world with one.

So it was your navi on land and sea?

Everywhere. We basically documented the entire Feasting on Waves journey in the Colorado. Every place we went, we popped a waypoint. It’s got so many easy functions for calculating distance it made navigating around the island easier. Even islands that didn’t have roads at all, we could get good topographic information.

Do you adhere to the old sailor’s adage that you should never have just one form of navigation?

Abso-stinking-lutely. When I fly, I may have full GPS on the plane, but I got a full set of charts too, and I keep the charts out while I’m flying to make sure I know where I am. In this day and age, if I have a major power outage, I just whip out my handheld, the 496, a spectacular handheld aviation GPS. But there could be a catastrophic satellite failure, different things could happen that could make GPS unusable—I guess.

I think your unit would fail before the satellite did.

Something could happen to satellites, you never know. So I always want to know where I am on paper, too.

And on the island, what was your backup?

There were a lot of times where I didn’t have a backup. On islands, I sometimes didn’t have anything else, because there aren't reliable paper maps for those places. The only time I wasn’t using Garmin to navigate was when we were underwater—I don’t think they have an underwater unit yet. We did a fair amount of scuba diving, and you’re still on your own under water. You still gotta use a compass.

I think you just invented something.

Underwater GPS would be spectacular. I don’t know how deep you can go with that technology without having serious problems. Even 50 to 70 feet would be useful. I wonder why they haven’t done that yet. I’ll ask Garmin when I can get that. For rec diving, having that kind of application would be fantastic.

Note: I asked Garmin why there wasn't a scuba GPS, and I got a quick reply: "The reason for no scuba GPS is simple... the signal is deflected by water."

So how do you keep everything charged up?

That’s a problem. Especially on the boats, it was really difficult. We got down there and realized that the power systems on the boats which were all 220V—the power wasn’t clean enough for our editing computers. On St. Martin, we had to go buy a Honda generator to run on the back of the boat to give us good steady clean 120V.

The Colorado runs on AAs, so I took a batch of rechargeable AAs. I ran the recharger for that in the cabin where I also charged my iPhone and my little camera batteries. I had to have three chargers. My other camera only runs on regular batteries, not rechargeables.

What kind of camera is it?

It’s an old metal Canon EF—about 30 years old. I also carry a 35mm Leica point-and-shoot with a fixed 40mm lens. I was shooting slide film in the Canon and print film in the Leica.

So you’re not shooting digital?

Not on this. I wanted Ektochrome—nothing looks like Ektochrome. I’m old school that way. I have a pretty decent Canon digital, and a Leica digital as well, but I didn’t want to have to deal with the chargers, and I wanted super robust technology, so I went film. I like film. You can’t beat it. I spent most of my career as a cinematographer before I went to culinary school, so I just got a thing about film emulsions. It’s still the way I think. I just don’t appreciate digital photography as much as I should.

I know, I know—we managed to get through an entire discussion about a food show without talking about the freakin' food. Good thing there are already clips of the show (alas, non-embeddable) up at Food Network's website, so take a look. The awesome photographs of Alton were shot—digitally—by Marion Laney, ForgottenGulf.com.

As we saw at E3 and WWDC, the iPhone version of Spore is Spore Origins, which is limited to the "primordial ooze" stage you see here, with a limited version of the Creature Creator thrown in for tweaking your bug cosmetically. On the plus side, it's simple and a quick diversion, and it's fun combo-ing your way through 35 increasingly difficult levels of munching little floaties. You can also import photos from your iPhone camera to texture-map on your creatures (Benny's Michigan Fab 5 tee).

But on the downside, the game suffers from the same control awkwardness that all of the accelerometer-only games do—as you can see in our video, the camera had a tough time keeping focus because you're always dramatically moving the phone to try to reign in your creature. A training stage featured a level-like bubble for each axis that showed you when you were at the zero-point, which was incredibly helpful—too bad it disappeared after training.

And most disappointingly, Spore for iPhone does not connect with the greater Spore hive in any way, meaning you won't see any procedurally generated creatures made by real other players of the game via Spore's central server. Kind of a weird choice for such a connected phone, and most confusingly, EA says the simpler Java based game for most other cellphones does in fact have connectivity to the greater spore world.

There's still some vagueness with release date (EA's site still only says "sometime in September") but all other Spore platforms launch in the US this Sunday. Look for it then or soon thereafter in the App Store for a price that'll probably be in the $10 and below range.

This week's app coverage on Giz:

• Remember what it was like to buy a CD? Apple's plans to include lyrics and additional album art via an app download for certain albums will help you remember.
• Continunig to carry the torch for political apps is Election '08 - a $1 app that collects poll data, electoral vote projections, and tons of other election data.
• And at CEDIA, all of the home automation systems are racing each other to release remote control applications, turning your iPhone into a capable touchscreen control surface for opening the blinds from across the street or jacking up the AC if your cat gets hot.

For even more apps: see what you missed last week and check our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

Lighting:

The first thing you need to do is set an erotic mood. This giant bustier lamp should do the trick. [Japanese Bustier Lamp]

We all know that kids tend to wander back to the nest when the food and money runs out. That means you need a backup plan to protect your privacy. The "Sex in Progress" lamp will ensure that you kid will be running back to the dorm as fast as possible. Available for $25. [Baron Bob via Link]

The Bed:

Now it is time to focus on the most important part of the room—the bed. One option is to go with the Private Cloud—a patented rocking bed by German designer Manuel Kloker. Legend has it that a couple was so intense that they managed to complete one full revolution. Think of the possibilities. [Manuel Kloker via Link]

Prefer something a little...rougher? No problem. Try Master R's Dungeon quality BDSM play frame. To the naked eye it looks like an innocent four-poster frame, but it features special fittings for slings, mirrors, stocks and other restraints for weird, painful fun. Available for $2655. [Master R's]

No matter what bed you choose, the Karmasheetra is a good accessory. It's like an even more perverted version of Twister. Available for about $35. [Shiny Shack]

Furniture:

No room would be complete without a few pieces of furniture, and the Adult Fun Stool is a must-have for any adult hideaway. The chair is spring loaded, so it will bounce up and down with you as you make good use of the attachment on top. Speaking of that, it is fully removable so you can use it like a traditional stool when not "in use." Just make sure to keep plenty of bleach on hand. Available for $315. [AFB]

Unfortunately, the legendary Vagina Couch was an art project sold on Craigslist earlier this year, so you may not be able to get your hands on the version pictured here. However, it could give you some good ideas if you are handy with a sewing machine. [Craigslist]

Accessories:

Now that you have the major components of the room down, it is time to start adding some finishing touches. If you simply must have a landline phone in the room, the Bona Phone is the only way to go with its patented "touch bone dialing" and orgasm ringtone. What you choose to do with it beyond making phone calls is your business. Available for $27. [Sensual Universe via Link]

If you and the Mrs. enjoy a game of chess now and then, this erotic version is sure to satisfy on multiple levels—especially if you are into some weird stuff. The pieces in this set get really freaky. [Russian Mammoth]

The last thing you need when you finally have the house to yourself is another kid cramping your style. It's always safety first with the condom-dispensing panic button. [Link]

Bonus: Finally, what intimate evening would be complete without taking a drag on that after-sex cigarette? Therefore, it is only fitting that we conclude this journey into the nether regions of the soul with what is undoubtedly the most offensive ashtray ever conceived of by man. [Link]

The Price: $80

The Verdict: A really fabulous effort.

Since coming back from the dead, Microsoft's SideWinder has been making some bold, unique design choices with its gaming hardware—and we're not just talking about the obvious Darth Vader overtones that we seriously dig—they've been toying with conventional ergonomic designs and layouts. I love that they're trying to do something genuinely new—the switchable keypad in the X6, the steel vertical thumb buttons on the first (new) Sidewinder mouse.

The problem is that some of the conventions they buck impact usability occasionally—the vertical thumb buttons on the Sidewinder mice, for instance, is a cramped, inferior setup to the standard horizontal layout. The X6 has a couple of similar issues—the space bar is longer than on most keyboards, running from the tip of the X key all the way to the question mark, so when reaching for right Alt, I'd smack the space bar eight times out of 10, even after a week with the keyboard.

The other major issue, versus other gaming keyboards, is that it doesn't have built-in USB or audio ports, like ones from Razer, SteelSeries or Logitech (though it doesn't have audio), for easy swapping of mice, headsets or other peripherals.

I still like this keyboard a lot—the punchiness of the keys is perfect, and has a very Logitech-y feel to it, actually. Dial controls for volume and backlighting are vastly superior to stupid buttons, and add to the "this fully armed and operational battle station" vibe. The removable keyboard is held in place with surprising strength by the magnets, so you won't worry about it coming apart in the middle of a frantic fragfest. And macros, macros, macros—there are lots of them, although I'm more of an FPS gamer, so they're less important to me—thought that might change when Starcraft 2 hits.

Eighty bucks puts it at the same price as Logitech's G15 and Razer's Lycosa (to which it's the most similar in style/build quality), but it's not better than either of those. Spring for this one if you're trying to complete your SideWinder set, need a ridiculous number of macros, or having a detachable keypad would be the bee's knees for you. Since this is only their first effort, I am pretty excited to see what they do next with the feedback on the X6. [Microsoft]

We didn't give a single one of these speakers any kind of field test, and we're not going to pretend for a second that that matters. Thankfully, you and I are not the folks who have to view these speakers as anything more than absolutely beautiful monuments to silly rich audio fetishists. So let's ogle: take the Sonnance "Threewheeler" donught-y Bluetooth outdoor speaker shown above as only the beginning. It costs $21,000.

Plenty more where that came from in our captioned gallery:

Though the first buyers will likely be rich dudes, the movie business is also going to be interested in it as a monitor, since it can handle 120% of the HDTV color gamut, enough to maybe get a good looking movie on a TV for one damn time. And let's not forget that Pioneer has shut down its own panel production lines and plans to go with Panasonic's. I asked if Pioneer would get a shot at the sweet new one—though there wasn't a straight answer, the sense I got was "probably not, at least not at first." Go Panasonic, kicking some TV ass!

They did get Bill Gates to use his mug shot somewhere in the spot (not spoiling it by saying where), but other than that we're underwhelmed. Here's what we took away from it: Bill Gates's jiggling ass is moist and tasty. Don't ask us now, watch the clip and you'll see. [Thanks mbaronny!]

LOS ANGELES, Calif., – September 5, 2008 – EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced that Spore™ Origins, an original game for the iPhone™ and iPod® touch, will be available this month. The game takes full advantage of the devices’ built-in accelerometer as players tilt, turn and twist their way through a world made of primordial ooze. In conjunction with the launch of Spore Origins, EA Mobile also announces a list of nine games in development for both the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.

Eat-or-be-eaten in Spore Origins! Designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch, Spore Origins uses the platforms’ motion-sensing technology to let gamers navigate a primordial tidepool on a quest to evolve. Feast on the weak and flee from the strong through two exciting modes and 35 challenging levels. Pinch, pull, and poke your creation in the Creature Editor, customizing the texture, shape and body parts to improve your offense, defense, perception and movement as you evolve over millions of years.

““We’re really excited to bring Spore Origins to the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Travis Boatman, Vice President Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile. “By leveraging the unique capabilities of these devices, players can customize their own creatures and shape their destiny in an exciting evolutionary journey. ”

EA Mobile today also announced nine titles in development for the iPhone and iPod touch, pending regional availability. This list includes YAHTZEE Adventures, EA Mini Golf, Lemonade Tycoon™, Mahjong, MONOPOLY: Here & Now The World Edition, SimCity, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, Need for Speed™ Undercover, and The Sims™ 3.

Spore Origins will be available globally from the Apple App Store on iPhone and iPod touch, or by simply visiting www.eamobile.com from an iPhone. Additional versions of Spore Origins are also available for the iPod, as well as other mobile devices. All iPod games are available for the third-generation iPod nano, iPod classic and fifth-generation iPod and can be sent as a gift using the iTunes gifting feature (www.itunes.com).

Kotaku says that both screens would have touch capability, which is reasonable to expect. They also point out that both screens will have a wide aspect ratio, which it's more difficult to believe unless they position the controls somewhere else (I don't see Nintendo sacrificing physical buttons for a pure touch interface.)

They also claim that this may not be the Nintendo DS 2, but a revision to the current model. Personally, I don't know how can that be. With such new prominent features, which will require a new generation of games to be fully exploited, it won't make sense to not name label it as the next generation DS.

In any case, they seem very confident about the news. So much in fact, that they used our Nintendo DS 2 3D mock-up to further highlight their scoop.

[Kotaku]

Update: We originally attributed this to IGN, but after some searching, it appears Kotaku was the origin of the story. We're not sure why IGN didn't attribute the story to Kotaku, but we've fixed the links now. – JC

For one, if iTunes 8 indeed goes HD, the iPhone is more than ready to run its content natively—especially considering that iTunes HD clips would probably be the same as Apple TV's (which is just 720P). That means no needing to convert HD clips for the iPhone/iPod touch (or maybe even the next generation of iPod?), which would seem more like Apple's style.

And while running videos at a higher resolution than needed isn't ideal for processing or syncing times, who knows, with the right adapters, maybe the iPhone could even put this video on your HDTV.

It's tough to tell exactly how Apple would handle iTunes in HD since clips would still presumably have to work on hardware like the iPod Classic and iPod nano—both of which lack the umpf of the iPhone's 620Mhz processor (though, yes, h.264 decoders in all current iPods/the iPhone handle decoding). But if the iPhone handles HD clips, that certainly buys Apple some flexibility.

This will require two cameras, one for video chat and the other for the "hand reading," but it opens a lot of possibilities. To start with, the entire keyboard can become a gesture control pad without even having to touch the surface. In addition to that, it can be combined with actual touch technology to identify single fingers on the surface, with the possibility of assigning specific functions to them.

The system even contemplates combining all this with accelerometers and force sensors, so the touch action can generate secondary data. One example of this may be applying a deformation effect to an image or a sound effect to a music track, giving it more or less strength depending on the force you use in your action. [USPTO via Unwired View]

MEET YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND: DELL’S INSPIRON MINI 9

Ideal Internet Buddy For Surfing, Shopping and Chatting

·Light, Highly Mobile Device Built For Easy Online Browsing And Entertainment

·Box.net Web Storage Keeps Your Personal Files Safe And Enables Anytime Access and SharingROUND ROCK, Texas, Sept. 4, 2008 –Dell today officially unveiled the Inspiron Mini 9. This small, easy-to-carry device stands ready to connect teens, tweens, travelers and “Tweeters” to their online world be it surfing the Web, chatting with friends, blogging, streaming content, uploading photos or enjoying favorite online videos, music and games.

The Inspiron Mini is an affordable Internet companion that can be fine-tuned to fit users’ specific needs and deeds. It is available now on www.dell.com/mini in the U.S., Japan and select countries in Europe. Availability elsewhere will be handled on a country -by-country basis.

Solid Construction & Connections

With a starting weight of 2.28 lbs.[i], digital nomads will value the Inspiron Mini’s durable design, with sealed keyboard and reliable solid state drive (SSD) memory storage. A bright 8.9‑inch glossy LED display (1024x600) presents most web pages with no left-right scrolling, and the keypads are large and easy to navigate. Standard built-in Wi-Fi means quick and easy wireless internet access to hotspots in the home, on campus, in a local coffee shop, in the office or at a conference. The Inspiron Mini can be further customized with optional technology like:

· Built-in Webcam, bundled with Dell Video Chat, making it easy to stay in touch using video chat, recording and sending video emails, or even PC-to-PC phone calls around the world. DVC even supports four-way calling, making virtual family reunions a reality.

· Built-in Bluetooth® for easy wireless connections to Bluetooth-enabled accessories like a pair of stereo headphones, a mouse, a printer, etc.

Dell has teamed up with Box.net to offer exclusive web-based file storage, access and sharing to Inspiron Mini users, including a free Basic plan with 2GB of remote storage space, expandable to 25GB. Dell’s Inspiron Mini will include a direct link to a Dell-exclusive home page on Box.net (www.box.net/dell), providing users with an easy way to add incremental online storage space to easily manage their digital lives. Individuals can safely and securely upload files of any type to their Box, including photos, videos, music, documents and presentations, and then access those files from almost anywhere on any device.

Box.net’s world-class service requires no software to download. With its OpenBox platform, Box.net enables people to edit documents and photos directly from their web-browser and post media to their blog or social networks, further enhancing the mobility and user experience on the Inspiron Mini.

Individual & Intuitive, Simple & Stylish

Individuals can personalize their Inspiron Mini with choice of colors – Obsidian Black or Alpine White – and interaction experience – optional Windows® XP® or Ubuntu 8.04 with custom Dell interface (coming soon). For those looking for a more traditional and familiar experience, the Inspiron Mini with Windows XP Home is available immediately starting at $399.

Inspiron Mini devices featuring an intuitive Dell-developed custom interface are expected to be available in a few weeks with a starting price of $349. The custom home screen is designed to make it easy to find what people are looking for. Intuitive icons link directly to groups of similar applications, like games, Web and entertainment, and favorite web links for quick access. Plus, the home screen can be personalized, putting your favorites front and center.

This highly mobile and fun device can be carried anywhere in style thanks to a full line of custom “Designed for Dell” backpacks, messenger bags and convertible cases from merchants including Timbuk2. Blending high fashion and superior function, the coordinated bags and accessories incorporate subtle design elements and offer Inspiron Mini owners a unique way to express a personalized, integrated style. “Designed for Dell” products currently are available in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Finishing Touches

Dell provides a variety of service offerings and add-on options to help ensure devices are easy to use and maintain optimal performance, including:

· Dell Support Center: Quickly access Dell service and support from an icon on your desktop that provides automated fixes, software upgrades and tools to help keep your system up-to-date and running efficiently.

· DellConnect™ Remote Assistance:[ii] Dell experts help diagnose and solve PC problems via an Internet connection (available only on Windows-based systems)."

[Dell, Dell]

This beast offers 150 hours of HD recording, plus it's THX certified; it's always been a technicality, since the HD doesn't have it but had the same AV quality as the TiVo Series 3. The XL also has the same dual-tuner HD recording as the previous models, plus all the same expanded non-TV features: photos, YouTube, Amazon Unbox, Rhapsody and Music Choice, the music video service. The only downside to all this increased storage is that the box costs $600, the same price as the TiVo Series 3 after the first price cut; but it does come with a Series 3 backlit remote.

The Install: Super easy. Comcast was great about getting a guy down to our house that was experienced with CableCARD installs, and the installer (who shall remain nameless) did an excellent job getting the card in and active. It's pretty much exactly the same as the TiVo HD in terms of the install, and provided your local cable provider has them, one M-Card is enough to get both tuners working. Otherwise you'll need two standard ones. Great job to both Comcast on TiVo on this part.

The Experience: For those of you who are familiar with TiVo, the XL is the same user experience you're familiar with in previous HD models. Not much UI change here except for the fact that you're going to be scrolling through a lot more shows saved up on your big drive.

The Verdict: Very good. We extend our recommendation of the TiVo HD easily to the beefier TiVo HD XL, which despite the 2x price point, still offers a great DVR experience for the money.

The Recommendation: If you had to pick between the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL, what would we recommend? It depends on your watching habits. If you can make do with only having 20 hours of HD sitting on your machine at once, because you clear out shows shortly after watching or you just don't have all that many shows to record, the regular HD is fine. If you're like Brian Lam and hoard shows like they were being cancelled the next week, or like Mark Wilson, who records and saves every show with the word "dance" or "dancing" in the title (he claims it's for his wife), we'd recommend the XL.

On the other hand, you could also get a TiVo HD and expand the storage by purchasing a compatible external eSATA drive and just plugging it in, which increases the storage by 65 HD hours with a 500GB drive. See more details here. The plug-and-play eSATA port only supports up to 500GB, but you can hack it to support up to 1TB if you really wanted to. Or, if even the TiVo HD XL isn't enough, you can shove another 65-hour drive on there. [TiVo Store]

The Price: $949 as configured.

Form Factor

The Studio Hybrid is small, no doubt about it. A little heftier than a Wii, its color comes from a removable outer case that, in person, is far more transparent than the advertising art would have you believe. You can't really make out the color unless you're looking for it. In our cabinet, we'd ditch that sleeve to make the case even smaller. (Dell confirmed that the PC can run just fine on its side, too.)

Web Browsing

It was a joy, really. I used the bundled wireless laser mouse right on my couch. And the keyboard is light and comfortable.



Television

While web browsing, in another window, I watched NBC over my HD antenna with a USB coax adapter. The computer could handle the task fine, though when you changed channels, it wasn't quite as smooth as your HD box would be. But the bigger problem I had—one that is not specifically Dell's fault—is that the entire desktop didn't make it to my television (the edges were cut off a bit, a common problem for TVs displaying computer content). This is something to keep in mind before buying a media PC to use on your television (buy with a good return policy), and it wasn't ideal for TV.

Blu-ray

Dell's integrated Blu-ray drive...really isn't too shabby. Even on my 720p test display, I'd have to say my PS3 is rendering images with less noise and more color—Dell's integrated Blu-ray player warns that it doesn't support the full Windows color space—but loading times were reasonable, picture quality was passable and, let's just say it worked better than original DVD drives did in PCs...though not by a lot. Still, the biggest downfalls are Dell's lackluster integrated controls and when fast forwarding you realize that the system does have its limits (one time our screen stopped previewing the video altogether until we hit play again).



Verdict

Most will say the Studio Hybrid is overpriced. I'm not sure if that's the case. While the system starts at $500 and the unit I tested—one that I'm actually pretty pleased with—ballooned to $1000, the PC is pieced together from mostly laptop parts so you'll pay a laptop price. That's the cost of the form factor, and an unfortunate reality of the media PC market as it stands today (you'll crush the Studio Hybrid's performance for the dollar, but it'll look like there's a computer sitting next to your TV).

Still, $1000 is a lot to ask for a computer using integrated graphics.

All the same, I'd argue that the Hybrid's flaw isn't its potentially high price, but its target market. The computer is trying to be a general purpose system when Dell should have simply tricked out its media center capabilities to their max, or at least allow such an option. Integrate the digital tuner instead of making me stick dongles out the back and give me a remote to control everything from Blu-ray to Hulu, and I'm sold without seeing the sticker price.

But until then, I'd say the Studio Hybrid is just alright—not quite the media PC for everyone I'd hoped it would be. (You can't turn it on from your couch, you know?) The prospect of web browsing and BitTorrent can't pull me away from watching media on my PS3 or Xbox 360, and my stock DVR will probably handle video recording with a lot less hassle.

Then again, if Dell ever makes a Studio Hybrid 2, I'll be anxious to see the improvements. [Dell]

We've posted our first impressions of Google Chrome, and after extended use most of them have held up. Chrome is fast, feature-rich and stable, not to mention highly usable. But Google's in-house innovations (the multi-threaded engine, Javascript handling and task manager, mainly) make up a tiny portion of the user experience. The rest of the interface features, usage mechanics and touted features have clear and very public parentage—in one of Chrome's four largest competitors.

Now, that's not to say that Google has explicitly "stolen" anything from IE, Firefox, Opera or Safari. They have, as of now, acknowledged that they owe a great debt to some of the other large players in the browser market. After all, they're using Safari's WebKit engine, receive billions of revenue-pumping referrals from Firefox's Google search bar, and have open-sourced much of Chrome. For most users, though, these gestures and acknowledgments will go unnoticed, and features previously incorporated into other popular browsers will be seen first on Google's. I've put together a list of some of Chrome's most interesting features, including the mainstream browsers that "inspired" them.

Feature: Incognito Mode
Who already has it: Safari, IE 8, Firefox w/ extension

Google has cleverly named and advertised this feature as a privacy and safety tool, but we know exactly what it's for. Porn Mode, as we've been calling it, is becoming de rigueur for any browser that may be used by men, which is to say, all of them except this one. It made a recent appearance in a new IE 8 beta, but it finds its roots in Safari, circa 2005, when it was called "Private Browsing." Naturally, Chrome's implementation is a bit more complete, with more complex cache and history management, as well as the ability to have normal and "Incognito" windows running at the same time.

Feature: Smart Address Bar
Who already has it: Firefox, IE 8

When Firefox 3 dropped, there was much fanfare around its so-called "Awesome Bar" which, as it turns out, is pretty awesome. Strictly speaking, Chrome's address bar is slightly smarter than Firefox's, but I would argue less useful for power users who often need to dig up specific pages out of piles and piles from the same domain. Google has also modified the concept by merging the search and address bars into one, but most other browsers have included search functionality (by default or with modifiers) in their address bars for years.

Feature: Custom Panel Start Page
Who already has it: Opera, Firefox w/ extension

This feature is perhaps the most controversial, as Opera is a commercial, closed-source browser from which Google looks to have essentially lifted one of its most advertised features. Over a year ago, Opera introduced Speed Dial, which allowed users to build customized, panel-based pages that showed up whenever a tab was created. The large thumbnails provided easy, quick navigation to oft-visited pages and were a refreshing substitute for layers and layers of menus to access favorites. Chrome's home page is dynamically generated, but clearly took conceptual and aesthetic cues from Opera.

Feature: Tab detachment/attachment
Who already has it: Opera and Safari

Chrome, to complement its separate processes for each tab, allows for easy dragging and dropping from one window to another. In other words, you can rip a tab from its parent window to become its own, then drag it back without loss of data. This makes isolating important tabs as well as maintaining single-window mode both much easier, but —you guessed it —neither feature is new. Safari includes a tear-away feature by default, complete with a snazzy animation. Opera can handle tear-aways AND reattachments, in a nearly identical manner as Chrome.

Feature: Resizable Text Boxes
Who already has it: Safari, Firefox w/ Extension

These are fantastic for anyone who creates content, whether it be full-on news stories or the odd racist blog comment. Google's version in Chrome is functionally identical to Safari's earlier version of the feature, which was recently added with version 3.

Feature: Domain Highlighting
Who already has it: IE 8

Seriously. Internet Explorer 8 isn't even out yet and Chrome has managed to crib a feature from it. When the beta was put up for download last week, we noticed that the root domain name was always highlighted, which helps users keep track of what site they're on to avoid phishing attacks with syntactically confusing URLs. Sure enough, this showed up in Chrome a week later, though there's no telling who was working on it first.

Feature: Pseudo Full screen
Where it came from: Safari

Windows browsers have often included "full screen" modes, which hide interface elements to give as much screen space as possible to content. Chrome finds a happy middle ground between everything-goes full screen and normal maximized mode with its partially, uhh, chromeless look. When maximized, the side and bottom window chrome disappears, but the top navigation and tab elements remain. This feature was found as a default first, strangely, in Safari for Windows. Sure, Safari in Windows kinda sucks (balls, and lots of them), but the slick maximized state stood out as an outstanding feature. Chrome is a marginally more attractive browser, so again, their implementation is an improvement.

As I said before, Google has taken time to acknowledge the debt it owes to other browser projects, but that will be little comfort to the Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE teams if Chrome rises to success on their features. Google has taken the best ideas from the best products, given them a new name, some new guts and a PR monsoon. And, no matter how you feel about it, they've done it well.

Google has taken many (though definitely not all) of the most compelling features from disparate sources and united them in a pretty solid package. This all-in-one approach is much like the one that Opera has taken in the past, with some success. Where Chrome trounces its competition, however, is in polish. I don't mean to say that Chrome is without bugs or room for improvement, but the user experience is fast, simple and intuitive from the start. Each of the features culled from other browsers has been refined to be more obvious, easier to use and more effective in Chrome, which—questionable ethical implications aside—is all that really matters to the end user. [Chrome on Giz]

Fancast is essentially Comcast's way to expand into other areas of the entertainment sector without building on their cable monopoly. So their coming mobile app (working on Sprint phones for certain) includes partnerships with various media companies that may surprise you as part of a large media portal conglomerate.

Sure, Fancast supports basic Comcast services. You can watch an unspecified amount of live programming on your phone streamed at what we've been told is near perfect quality (on a small screen).

You can schedule recordings to your DVR and, maybe in later releases of the software, even stream these recordings to your phone a la Sling Box.

You can rate movies and buy tickets on Fandango.

And if other deals work out, you'll also be able to schedule recordings to your TiVo and add movies to your Netflix queue.

Apparently the software is more than ready to go. Comcast is just finishing negotiations with various partners. So whenever those negotiations finish, that's when you'll get Fancast mobile.

So, are you enjoying the snappy, clean performance of Google Chrome since downloading yesterday? If so, you might want to take a closer peek at the end user license agreement you didn't pay any attention to when downloading and installing it. Because according to what you agreed to, Google owns everything you publish and create while using Chrome. Ah-whaaa? Update: It was a copy & paste mistake, apparently, and the offending language is being removed as we speak. Thanks, Googe!

Here are the juicy bits in question:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Well, I guess I shouldn't have used Chrome to put some posts up yesterday, because I certainly do not have the rights, power or authority to hand over my work from Gawker to the Googe. Oops! You'll have to pry the rights to my posts from Nick Denton's cold, dead hands, Google.

In any case, it's a pretty unnecessary and unreasonable thing to put in the EULA for a browser, of all pieces of software, which makes it pretty questionable. Why in the hell would Google want ownership of every single blog post or email written in its browser? It's so unreasonable that it borders on the insane. I can't really imagine Google actually invoking this and suddenly publishing heavily edited entries from your LiveJournal for profit, but I think a lot of people would feel much better about hopping on board with Chrome if this little piece of sketchy legalese was axed.

What say you, Google overlords? [Tap the Hive]

But more importantly, Alan's skills and imagination show one of the countless possible themes for our Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest.

In case you missed it, Gizmodo and Lego are celebrating the Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lego minifig. By sending your short video centered around Lego's most famous icon you will be able to win a lot of prizes, including two priceless Lego vintage sets. And if you are into photography, remember that Brothers Brick is running a photography contest too.

Talking about which, we have got our first entry in the mail yesterday, so hurry up with yours. You can read the rules here. [Go Miniman Go]

Jesús Diaz: Jason, I can imagine the difficulty of taking such amazing shots from an helicopter at night... What camera and lenses did you use to catch this?
Jason Hawkes: I use quite a few different cameras. I started out shooting night aerials using film about six years ago. For my day aerial shoots I often shoot using a Hasselblad, but at night it is just not suitable because of the noise over 200 ISO.

JD: So what about now?
JH: For night shoots I now shoot using Nikons and Canons. Obviously I only work digitally. I sometimes shoot tethered directly to a Mac to look through the images as I take them, and my cameras are also directly attached to a GPS, which adds latitude and longitude information directly into the Metatdata. So together with the mount, there is quite a lot of equipment around the camera.

JD: What mounts do you use?
JH: I use two separate gyro stabilizing mounts, mounted together into one larger mount to get the stability you need for really crisp images.

JD: What are the typical settings you use (ISO, aperture, etc)?
JH: Previously with film I could only go to 400 sometimes 800 ISO but with the very latest crop of cameras you can easily shoot at 1600 with good results.

JD: What was the biggest technical challenge?
JH: I have specialized in aerial photography from helicopters for 19 years so am used to the other difficulties, i.e. cramped and very noisy condition. You fly with the door of the helicopter open wearing a headset to direct the pilot. In daylight without a mount you have to shoot at 1000 sec because of the vibration caused by the rotor blades, so having to shoot at very low shutter speeds at night it takes quite a while to change your habits in order to correctly use the gyro. Flying over cities you need a twin engined helicopter that costs £1100 ( GBP ) per hour, so its a very expensive technique to perfect.

JD: How many photos do you take to come to one of those amazing shots?
JH: At night I shoot around 500 images per hour and about 90% come out okay.

Visit Jason's web site for more examples of his stunning work. His Britain from Above series is simply spectacular. [Jason Hawkes]

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