Here are some random tech news for you:

• A Twitter device to let you know your alive. [crunchgear]
• Acer is creaping up to become the second largest PC maker. [gizmodo]
• Imagine having a s’more keyboard? How long would that last!? [gizmodo]
• Rumors that a PSP phone is a possibility. [engadget]
• BeamBox develops a mini projector for iPhone, iPod Touch [engadget]
• Waterproof Lithium Metal-Air batteries [engadget]

Microsoft recently released retail rates (10x fast) of Windows 7, showing they had a heart all along and pricing it at a reasonable amount similar to that of Vista. Still, it doesn’t mean we should have to pay that much, either. That’s why it’s important for you to know that if you pre-order Windows 7 by July 11th, you can it for half price. Half friggin’ price, people!

Seriously, do I have to write several paragraphs extolling the virtues of a 50% discount? GO PRE-ORDER WINDOWS 7 NOW! Word on the street is that it’s a limited offer, though no one seems to know where the cutoff will be. All the more reason why you should be pre-ordering already.

Dammit, go pre-order!

A lot has happened since my post a few weeks ago about the PSPgo, so I figured I’d give you some more insight to the most drooled over hand held in years.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s see… Eric is off getting hitched and will be on his honeymoon and Dave is still driving across country with some minor pit stops and some great weather…

And it is Woot-off week, which means Andy will be scouting for that infamous BoC… hurray!

Here goes a few stories from the weekend!

• Sputnik LED Lamp; just a concept, but nevertheless cool. [crunchgear]
• Banned none-hand-free GPS in NJ [crunchgear]
• More colorful Samsung’s Mini S2  protable HDD [engadget]
• How about this. A waterproof PC! See for your self. [engadget]

So one of the new features of the iPhone 3GS is the “Find my iPhone” service. Once activated with a MobileMe account, if you iPhone ever gets stolen, you can track it down since it does have a built in GPS. Well, Kevin actually lost his new iPhone, was smart enough to activate the service and within a day, he tracked down his phone (with balls enough to confront the “thief”). Awesome!

Read his blog here… via Slashdot

So the company CTA Digital was hanging out at E3 this year and decided to show off their latest offering to the gaming community – a bowling ball for the Nintendo Wii.

Yes, it’s a bowling ball.  At least, it looks like a bowling ball.  The idea is that you open this sucker up (it splits in half like all good bowling balls do) and put your WiiMote inside.  Then it’s just a matter of holding the ball in a way that isn’t awkward and throwing it at your television without actually throwing it at your television.  Yay, fun!

This is just another hit onto the dead horse that is the Wii accessory market.  I don’t own a Wii.  I’ve seen them at stores, played them with friends, and have decided that while it is easily a bowling ball full of fun, I can’t bring myself to purchase one.  Because after an hour or two, the fun begins to fade.  The novelty wears off.  I begin craving a dual joystick controller and a recliner.  This effect is made only more apparent when people try to hand me steering wheels and boxing gloves and rifles.  Guess what, folks?  If I want to bowl with a bowling ball, I’m going to go to the bowling lanes.  Holding a plastic ball to further increase my illusion of bowling only manages to make me feel silly for not actually bowling.  Punching the air with boxing gloves only makes me wonder why I’m not doing the real thing to an old lady who has money that I want.

We saw all of this before on the original Nintendo.  And while we had our fun with the running pad and the rifle and the power glove, we moved on *.  So  please, can’t we just move on now?  It’s already creeping its way into other devices, as this steering wheel for your freaking iPhone and/or iPod TouchYourself screams for you to waste more money.  Seriously, if I see any of you with this thing I will punch you in the face.  With any luck, your loved ones will be nearby to witness the event so that they learn not to make such a ridiculous purchase themselves.

* Duck Hunt is the exception to the rule, however, as I will happily play Duck Hunt until I’m 80 with cataracts and a bad bladder.  And even then I’ll just get a TV put in the bathroom and shoot about wildly.

So… Dave is on leave as he moves from Vegas back to Beantown.  So I’m filling in for him over the next 2 weeks.

Take a look at what you need to know about OS 3.0 (esp. for the iPod Touch) before you upgrade as it might not be for everyone!

From apple.com

The premier lovechild of the Xbox Media Center Project, Boxee, has announce open voting on the Boxee developer challenge. A contest running for the last few months, Boxee is hoping to encourage widespread outsourcing of work to help expand their excellent platform. As a fine carrot on the stick, they’ve offered up a free Drobo to the winner of each category (videos, pictures, & music).

Boxee has been an appleTV and Mac based multimedia software that leverages internet technologies to expand the content more than your computer’s music and photo library. Also very exciting is the notice by lead man Avner Ronen that at the June 23rd Awards event, Boxee will be available for the leagues of hungry Windows users who are finished dealing with the media center edition.

If you haven’t discovered Boxee yet, register for a free account and download the software for free at Boxee.tv. If you’re already feeling the love, and have discovered the joys of the “scanwiches” application (not a finalist, harumph), head over to the polls at the news blog.

Though many television stations have done it already, today is the day when all remaining stations will make the switch to digital signals.  You know, it’s that thing you’ve been seeing messages for scrolling across the bottom of your screen for the past year or so.  But if you’re like most Americans, you were already prepared for the transition to digital television (DTV) without ever lifting a finger.  Still, just so we’re clear…

Analog is going the way of the Dodo.  To continue watching television after today, you need to have a TV that is not using rabbit ears, makes use of a digital converter box, or is hooked up to a cable box (which will have its own converter).  If you’re Rip Van Winkle and just woke up, you may not have been privy to the nauseatingly extensive advertising that’s been done to make sure you’re educated on the subject.  For people like yourself, you can play catch up at DTVAnswers.com, where you’ll be spoon fed instructions on how to identify if you need to do anything and what it is that would need to be done.  Of course, you could also just turn on your TV and see if you’re able to view anything.  If you get static, that’ll likely be your big clue.

And if you live up in the mountains far away from civilization, then you have my sympathies, as you’re probably both literally and figuratively up a creek.