I was recently given one of the new Samsung GT-C6625v mobile phones to play with. It’s aimed at the office worker who needs email on the move and with the monthly tariff starting at £7.50 per user it could be a very attractive option for companies looking to reduce costs.

The phone itself is very BlackBerryish with a full QWERTY keyboard below the 2.6” screen. It runs Windows Mobile and integrates with a company’s existing Microsoft Exchange Server for email, you get the usual mobile Office applications for reading and editing document, spreadsheets, etc.

The phone feels quite light weight and comfy, fitting my hand well (even if it is pretty large (the phone, not my hand)). It was a bit confusing trying to get into different applications as you had to get to entertainment before arriving at the camera, which is not where I would normally look for it. Overall it is certainly worth checking out if you have an office full staff that need email on the move.

The product specification and pricing information can be found on the vodafone site.

However, it worked on my face! What can I say, the product does above and beyond its capacity. If you don’t believe me, check out some before and after pics of a now handsomer blogger after the jump.

The Bodygroom is designed for “sensitive areas” like the underarms, chest, legs, back, and the (ahem) groin area. In case you are worried about cutting yourself, there is a hypoallergenic shaving foil for some extra protection. It can be used for wet and dry shaving, and runs for about 50 minutes on an eight hour charge.

Other features include a Fast Extra-Large trimming comb to quickly trim hair in large areas, and an Extra-Sensitive trimming comb to comfortably trim hair in more sensitive areas.

So, if you are the type who wants to shave everywhere, I highly recommend this razor. You should be able to get it everywhere, and I recently found it on Amazon for a little under $49.99.

Just for fun, I have included some clips of the Bodygroom Manalogues for your enjoyment. Enjoy the bleeped out parts with graphics when he is discussing more sensitive issues of shaving.

The Sansa Fuze from SanDisk, is a cool little MP3/4 player along the same vein as the iPod Nano. We’ve recently been sent one to play with so here are our thoughts and findings (or a review so to speak).

Aesthetically the Fuze is a cute little player.The physical UI consists of a rotating front dial which also acts as the 4 navigation buttons with the center button for selection. The display crisp with a resolution of 220 x 176, large enough for watching the odd music video but you wouldn’t want to watch a feature length film on it. Sound quality was good (though as with just about any MP3 player the supplied headphones aren’t the greatest). What most impressed me about the Fuze are the extra features that you don’t find on other (note iPod) players, including:

• Built in microphone
• FM radio
• microSD Slot, a really cheap way to expand the capacity
• Easy to transfer files (drag and drop) without the need of propriety software

Though there are a few downsides:

• Propriety USB connection, it obviously comes the cable but a standard mini USB connection would be much more convenient especially for charging
• You bookmark videos but not audio books

The Fuze comes in 2, 4 and 8GB versions with prices starting from ~$70 at Amazon.

If you fancy winning our review unit be sure to check out our next coolest gadget of the week (don’t want to miss it, sign up for our free daily email digest).

I’m a pretty devout iPhone user. My original iPhone has been good to me. The new 2.0 firmware upgrade takes the device to a whole new level of awesomeness. But as awesome as the iPhone is, I couldn’t help but drool a bit when I first glimpsed the BlackBerry Bold. RIM promised a unique mix of form and function and according to the Boy Genius Report, they’ve pretty much delivered.

Boy Genius had a chance to take the Bold on a month long field test (seriously, we’re jealous) and the results are pretty much what most of us expected. It’s exactly what BlackBerry fans have been waiting for. Boy Genius says it best when they refer to the Bold as the “BlackBerry communities iPhone”.

The BGR review begins with a rocky start. The BlackBerry Bold has a start-up time which is admittedly frustrating. The phone takes upwards of three minutes to start-up. The Boy Genius team then had some issues keeping the phone powered in 3G mode. The old black screen and red LED that BlackBerry fans have become accustomed too.

But after their starter problems it was comparatively smooth sailing. BGR says the display is the nicest mobile phone screen they’ve ever seen and the Bold has been pimped up with an improved web browsing experience. The Bold is the BlackBerry that has it all, 3G data, GPS, and Wi-Fi. For much more check out the Boy Genius Report Bold review.

Source

As a cell-phone user who was eager for a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, I was eager to finally try out the BlackBerry 8830.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is definitely designed for business people on the go. In fact, it claims to be “the first CDMA smartphone capable of roaming globally on GSM/GPRS networks”. This means you can pretty much travel the world without having to change your phone, your phone number, or your e-mail.

I had to admit that using a BlackBerry takes a little getting used to. The 8830 has this tiny track-ball mouse for interface that is reminiscent of Atari’s Centipede video game. However, once I used the Setup Wizard, the BlackBerry opened up to me.

In a matter of minutes, I had figured out how to view my email online, and could surf the web. As a newbie to smartphones, I have quickly discovered that there are some limitations to surfing the web online with a tiny screen.

Just to reiterate a point, the BlackBerry 8830 is for businesspeople. There is no camera, but there is a microSD. That SD is tough to access, as a user must remove the entire battery cover to get to it. However, everything else works like clockwork once you get used to it.

As for the price of the BlackBerry 8830, it is available for $399.99 with a two-year contract from Verizon. In fact, you can even get it here for a $100 discount.

Product Page

Recent weekend stats have shown that National Treasure: Book of Secrets has surpassed its predecessor.

As a gadget blogger, I was amazed at the amount of cool gadgets displayed in this film, and would like to review several of them at once. None of these contain any spoilers to the film.

The Resolute Desk Collection: Made after some ship that I have never heard of before I saw this movie, the drawers in this desk are specially numbered so that something special will be revealed when the proper code is entered. Perfect for when you’ve got something to hide, and you don’t think anyone would have the nerve to crack open the desk to find it.

The President’s Book Vault: Even though the President has given you the location in the Library of Congress for this ultra secret book that has been passed down from president to president, you should probably keep it locked in the shelf itself. Who would think of looking for it where it would actually belong? Comes with old-school dialing lock mechanism.

The Big Balance Platform: If you have some lost treasure, and you need some deadly trap to guard it, what better than a Big Balance Platform? The Big Balance Platform cannot hold everybody in the raiding party, and thus some perhaps all members will fall off the edge to their death. Unless they figure out basic physics principles and shift their weight around.

Anyway, I have no availability date or price on those things, but hey, they’ve been around for quite a while.

The new LG’s KU990 is undeniably a slinky number in the world of mobiles phones. It’s a slim and good looking and doesn’t feel plasticky. In simple terms this is a camera that you can ring people on as well as watch TV, browse the web and listen to music. Its large 66 mm touch pad screen occupies most of the front making it look like a tiny plasma whilst on the reverse, a lens encircled by jog wheel used to control the zoom and navigate through menus and adjust volume, gives the familiar appearance of a camera!

Navigation is made straight forward and friendly by the large and sensible icon layout on the touch screen. Helpfully, you can also set the touchpad to vibrate when you touch it – confirming each selection. Although the icons and buttons on the touchpad are a good size, not having small fingers or long fingernails be a disadvantage, but if this is the case, the small extendable stylus on standby. The only slightly annoying thing is the storage of the stylus which dangles untidily from the top of the phone.

You can view the full LG Viewty review over on our sister site Coolest Reviews.

It was a typical, lowest common denominator type of trivia game created to encompass the broadest possible audience. Being a geek who has lots of specialized, obscure trivial knowledge, this frustrated me.

However, if I would have to use Microsoft’s new Big Button Controller to play the game rather than the regular gamepad, I would revolt. Looking like something from Fisher Price rather than Microsoft Game Studios, each controller has a giant color-coded button at the top to correspond to “buzzing in” when you want to answer the question at hand. The four smaller color buttons will correspond to the answer you want to select. It connects wirelessly to your 360 and I’m assuming it runs on AA batteries just like the regular wireless controller.

Lucky for the consumer, these four controllers come bundled with the Scene It! game for $60. No reports whether or not you can buy these controllers separately, but it seems to be an indication of Microsoft’s desire to get a toehold into the “casual gaming” market that Nintendo and the Nintendo Wii have such a huge hold of right now.

Purchase Scene It! with the four Big Button controllers for $59.99 at any online or brick and mortar store that sells games on Thursday November 8th.

[Via Kotaku]

Compared to the older Java version of the program, this has lots of advantages, the most obvious being start-up speed and runtime speed. Every animation is smooth, loading times are blazing if you have a good connection.

An added feature would be the GPS support. This is really cool as long as you have an always-on connection, especially when on foot. It’s got all of the search features you know from the online version of Google Maps.

Read on for some hands-on reports and screenshots.

I first tried the speed, searching and switching between display modes (important for the E70). It performed really well. There was no crash, the speed was constant, and the searches were relevant and filled with useful info. More on that below.

Afterwards, I took my GPS module and the phone with me and went out for a stroll (and to buy some beer). I was very curious about what results the imperfect precision of GPS would have on a precise map display. The results were as expected: there are some funny situations where your location is displayed as on top of a building block or in the middle of the street. Of course, there’s a precision indicator on the bottom of the screen, which works best as a disclaimer. The best precision I got was 9 meters.

Since pictures are worth way more than words, the review will continue in the form of captioned images. It’s better, simpler, more relevant.

This image’s sole purpose is for showing off. It’s the minimum zoom level. The whole world is on display, and you can click the navigation key/joystick to zoom. There’s a tad of delay between your action and the zoom-in, allowing you to zoom even closer or move the selection rectangle around. In this particular case (Nokia E70), the image is displayed in landscape mode on a 2.1 inch screen, so it’s very very sharp, even if not so big.

Now, to ‘visit’ London.. I did a quick search for ‘cafe’ while London was on screen, and I instantly got results for the particular area the map was zoomed on. Pressing a button as indicated at the bottom of the screen cycles you through the search results. The map will move quickly but smoothly to the destination point. Much smoother than on the iPhone for instance. Pressing the key allocated to the search result you are centered on brings you to the next screen…

…which is the info screen. Here’ you’ll get whatever details Google have about the current location. The ‘Directions’ options may be well known from the online version, but this time, if combined with a GPS receiver, you’ll have real navigation, live and with traffic infos. “more results” will give you the full list of results. Then, without opening any item in the list, there are some interesting options:

Most of what you see here can be found in the info page for each result, but it’s more practical to use this view if you don’t need to see the location on the map. Note the excellent integration with the operating system: you can save the information as a contact, and open the web address in its browser.

In the end, here’s a screenshot taken during the stroll. This time, it’s in portrait mode, too. I was actually 2-3 meters away from the little location dot. This is a definite recommendation, it really is an excellent program.

Check here for a full selection of digital picture frames for sale or continue down to read our reviews and comparisons.

	Pandigital	Kodak	eStarling	Phillips	Portable USA
Screen Size	8″	10″	8″	6.5″	10.4″
Resolution	800 x 600	800x 480	800 x 600	720 x 480	640 x 480
Aspect Ratio	4:3	16:9	16:9	4:3	16:9
Frame Style	Acrylic and black wood	Black Gloss	Black Piano Finish	Interchangeable	Cherry finish
Remote Control	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Wi-Fi	Not yet	Yes	Yes	No	No
Memory Cards	6 in 1 card Reader	MMC SD MS CF	MMC SD MS CF	USB	MMC SD MS CF
Internal Memory	128MB	128MB
Sound	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Plays Video	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Optional Batteries	Optional	N	N	N	N
Special Features	Built in clock, calendar and alarm	Print directly to any PictBridge enabled printers	turn-off automatically at night, email photos to the frame, text Messaging to Frame	Interchangable frames
Price	$179.99	$199.31	$169.99	$136.93	$175.95
Price

You can see an explanation of all comparison points here.

Reviews of Digital Picture Frames

Pandigital Photo Frame with 8″ LCD screen

The Pandigital photo frame has been receiving some good reviews recently. They may not be as well known a brand as Philips or Kodak but they do look to know what they are doing in the digital frame department with excellent picture quality.

Pandigital Frames available for sale from: Amazon
Official Site: Pandigital.

Kodak Easyshare 10″
The Kodak Easyshare range of digital picture frames also benefit from great picture quality and use Kodak Color Science. The operation menus aren’t said to be the most straight forward but that’s what instruction manuals are for.

Various cheap kodak frames are available at Amazon from $100, more information on the official Kodak site.

eStarling E-Mail Enabled Wi-Fi Photo Frame
It was the eStarling frame that first got me the most interested in digital picture frames. It was the first one that I came across that incorporated wireless technology meaning you can easily update the pictures without have to use memory cards or lug your laptop about. You can also email picture directly to the frame making it a cool gift for Wi-Fi enabled grandparents.

The eStarling is available for sale at Amazon with both a 7 and 8 inch version.

Philips Digital Picture Frame
The Philips frame also boasts one of the best pictures which is crisp even at close range. It will automatically rotate a picture depending on its orientation. It does use a rechargeable battery so can be displayed lead free, however in slideshow mode the battery life is only around the hour mark.

You can get a full range of Philips digital picture frames from Amazon or check out the Philips site for further technical details.

Portable USA 10.4-Inch Digital Picture Frame
Portable USA is not a make I’ve heard of before but it offers frames at cheap and reasonable prices and overall the reviews that I’ve read have been very positive. The 10.4 inch screen is the biggest in our frame comparison, so if you are after the biggest frame this is the one to buy.

You can buy other sizes of Portable USA frames starting from around $120.

Digital Picture Frames Comparison Points

Screen Size
As with monitors the screen size of a digital picture frame is measured in inches diagonally from corner to corner. It should be the size of the visible display and not include the surrounding frame.

Resolution
The resolution is the number of pixels that a digital photo frame can display. The higher the resolution the crisper the image, higher resolutions look better on larger screen sizes.

Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio is the displayed width divided by its height, they normally come in 4:3 or wide-screen. Pictures and photographs can be cropped to fit most digital photo frames.

Frame Style
A lot of the time your digital picture frame will be turned off so you want to ensure that the frame itself looks cool even when it isn’t displaying a photograph.

Remote Control
The remote control enables you to change the settings on a digital picture frame from the comfort of the sofa, like with a television remote control.

Wi-Fi
With a wi-fi picture frame you are able send pictures to the frame wirelessly. They make it easy to display an ever changing collection of pictures either from your home PC or a shared collection (like a Flickr account). Some wireless frames will also enable you to email photographs directly to the frame even from your cell phone. You will need to have access to a Wi-Fi access point to make use of this.

Memory Cards
Adding a digital memory card to a photo frame increases the number of photographs it can display. If you buy a digital picture frame that accepts the same memory card as your digital camera you will be able to swap the card between the two.

Internal Memory
Some frames come with internal memory, this means the frame can store the pictures without always needing the memory card to be connected.

Sound
Some picture frames are used purely for displaying images whilst others incorporate speakers which let them play music or other sounds.

Plays Video
As well as showing your photographs many of the newer digitial picture frames are also capable of playing video.

Optional Batteries
All the digital picture frames that we reviewed need to be connected to an external power supply. However some of them have rechargeable batteries so ones charged they can be hung on the wall without trailing wires (though they will need plugging in again when charging.)

Usual disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge all points in this comparison are correct but you are advised to read the manufactures specifications before making any purchase.

Of course, the first thing to do was test it. And I did. And it’s cool!.. Even if there are no fancy transitions or animations, you can still create decent, good-looking presentations, and there are some pretty nice features to it too.

Best of all, the presentations are always online and you can access them anywhere.

Silently added at the side of its other companions, Document and Spreadsheet, this new piece of software has surprised me in many pleasant ways.

For instance, it’s fast. Very fast. Then it’s got a clean, easy-to-use interface. You really don’t need the help pages..

Then, it allows for cooperation and sharing. More people can view the presentation with you, you can also do online presentations (just start the presentation, you’ll get a chat-like interface and a link to share, which sends people straight into the presentation with you). More than that, more people can edit the file at the same time, if invited. Very cool.

Also, there’s a new feature, called revisions, which allows you to flip through many various key points in the editing process, which are automatically recognized and stored.

Al in all, the cooperation and the fact it’s located in the cloud make this a very useful tool and a worthy member of the Google Docs family.

Go give it a try!

Design & Structure
Apple is known for designing products that are beautiful, and the Touch is no exception. But still, upon closer inspection, it’s easy to figure out that Apple didn’t want the Touch to look too beautiful, that’s for the iPhone. The two main things that anyone will notice is the “scratchtastic” mirror-like back and the out-of-place black piece of plastic covering the WiFi antenna. Another annoyance is the lack of any form of tactile buttons for controlling music, something the iPhone has (volume rocker, headphone controller). It’s pretty difficult, and I’m speaking from experience, to fumble through your pocket on the metro to skip to the next song. There’s just no reason for those controls not to be there because it would cost Apple what, a dollar or two tops to put them in. Still, even with those gripes, the Touch feels solid and looks great, but you’ll definitely be wanting a case.

UI & Applications
Like the iPhone, the Touch has an intuitive, touch based user interface. Navigating through the few built in applications is easy and, I hate to say it, kinda fun as well.

On to the apps that come with your Touch. There are dedicated buttons on the bottom of the screen for your music, videos, photos, and the iTunes WiFi store. Navigating your music is a breeze, either by scrolling through a list of artists/songs/genres etc or by using Cover Flow (which is much snappier than on the new Nanos and Classics). The actual “now playing” screen looks awesome if you have cover art, otherwise it looks a little bare. My only gripe in this area of the Touch is how hard it is to adjust the position of the song; because of how tiny the bar is, it’s very difficult to get it just where you want it and very easy to skip to either the beginning or end.

Videos are equally easy to navigate. They’re simply organized by movies, TV shows, and music videos. Playing a video looks great, except for one thing, the blacks look extremely so-so, a problem many users are reporting.

Photos, organized by albums synced from your computer, look great on the Touch, and yes, you can pinch to zoom! It’s also easy, as in one button easy, to have an automated slideshow with transitions and music form your library created.

Now, this is my favorite new feature of the Touch, you can buy songs (no videos! ) from the iTunes Store over any WiFi connection. In a year’s time, you’ll be able to use Starbuck’s in-store WiFi to browse the WiFi store and make purchases; unfortunately that’s all you can do, so if you want to check your mail, you’re still going to have to pay for it. Can’t say I’m too excited about that. From the store app, you can select to view featured artists and tunes, the top tens for various genres, and, the most powerful option, a search box where you can enter in an artist, song name, album, etc. A nice touch (heh, get it?) is that the app will try to autocomplete your search for you. Once you find something you like, just tap it to load the standard 30 second preview from within your window and then tap “Buy” to have it quickly download to your Touch after you enter in your password. In a surprising move, Apple choses not to completely screw you over when you use the WiFi store because, the next time you sync your Touch, your purchased songs are copied right over to your computer in a special playlist called “Purchased on Name’s iPod”. You won’t have to re-buy those songs you already bought at the standard price. I know, that sounds crazy, but there are people out there. . .

That covers the real core applications of the Touch. You also have Safari, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Calculator, and Settings. All of these, except the calendar where you can’t add appointments, work well, especially for a mobile device. Notably absent from the Touch is the Mail app, something I really think would be helpful to have. Going to Gmail through Safari is easy enough, but having a dedicated application makes it much easier. And really, since the Touch is based off the same OS as the iPhone, it seems like Apple just didn’t feel like giving you your money’s worth for this product. How hard is it to copy the Mail app to the Touch? One might venture a guess: not hard at all. Come on Apple.

Overall. . .
Being an Apple fanboy, I expected to give this thing a glowing review, but it has plenty of flaws that I can’t even convince myself are small. I tried to be as objective as possible with the following list:
Pros

• The UI is fantastic, especially Cover Flow
• Videos, except for the blacks, look great on the 3.5″ screen
• iTunes WiFi Store is well implemented and makes it easy to buy songs on the go

Cons

• $400 for 16 GB is expensive — Apple should’ve gone the hard drive route, even if it meant a few extra millimeters of thickness
• No tactile buttons to control playback
• The back is prone to scratches and the black nub (WiFi antenna) just looks out of place
• Apple, without any apparent technological reason, crippled the device by not including all of the already-developed iPhone’s applications (most notable: Mail).

If you’re interested in my recommendation, I would say this: if you want it now, and don’t mind that it’s just an iPod with so-so storage, go for it. But, if you can, wait for the second generation. By then, you’ll get more storage and hopefully a higher quality device, both physically and in regard to the included applications.

The iPod Touch is available from Apple for $300/8 GB or $400/16 GB.

Made of first-grade but vintage-looking brass, it’s a replica of those used by French soldiers in the first World War.

It’s an inexpensive gadget which is always a pleasure to look at. You’ll see a bigger picture and a video after the break.

This gadget is all about the looks. The solid brass and the flimsy yet sturdy and functional mechanics could even push this toward the steampunk genre.

How it works? Well, I’ve always had difficulties explaining things in words rather than demonstrating them, so here’s a steaming fresh video I just made

As you could see in the movie, it’s not very easy to close it with only one hand. The usual procedure would be to hold the outer shield and push its bottom side against your hand or table or anything.

You can get it at louis.de in Europe (for 9,95 Euros), or for $20 from militarytour.com – four our friends across the ocean.

To wrap this up, here’s a nice big picture of it with a pack of tobacco and a box of small cigarette papers, just where it belongs

Working from home on my PC has been a pleasure & a blessing for the last few years until around June when I developed a sharp R.S.I. pain from using my mouse, the only thing I could do was take regular breaks away from the computer but I soon found this more of a hindrance than a solution and it was never long before the pain would come back. I decided upon the Evoluent 3 vertical mouse which keeps the wrist in a more natural handshake position rather than the common twisted forearm, the logic sounded good and I decided to try it out.

The Evoluent comes beautifully presented and worked straight out the box using a USB port, this worked for me as my wireless mouse was still connected and worked along side it making the transition easier for certain tasks like image manipulation which I found took a little more time with the vertical mouse, mainly due to it being a new experience. The Evoluent felt strange and almost cumbersome for the first few days and although daily tasks quickly become more natural I was still unsure as to whether it helped any with the RSI as the pain was still present, it took around 1 to 2 weeks for the mouse to fully come into its own, after 2 weeks my RSI pain has completely disappeared and using the mouse felt natural and effortless.

There are sensitivity and DPI settings for the mouse 800dpi to 2600dpi that you can adjust so this would suit gamers as well, Battlefield 2 being a favourite of mine posed no problems at all.

Overall I am extremely happy, it takes a good week or two for the pain to ease & disappear and for everyday tasks to feel more natural but I firmly believe that if you stick with it and give it a fair shot then any RSI pain and initial misgivings soon dispel. A problem solved in my case.

You can buy the Vertical Mouse from Amazon.com for $69.95 or Amazon.co.uk for £76.99 (which doesn’t seem fair at all).

When I bought my first MF-575 picture frame, I got it as a gift for a family member who liked to complain that I never send them pictures anymore. The problem is, I have a digital camera and haven’t gotten any pictures developed in several years. So now, whenever I go over to their house for a visit, I just bring an extra memory card from my digital camera full of new pictures. If you don’t have an extra memory card, the MF-575 has an easy-to-use MD/SD/MMC memory card reader that plugs into any computer with a USB port. So you can just plug the entire picture frame into your computer and copy the pictures onto the card that way if necessary.

This year on Christmas morning, I was thinking about taking a series of pictures while everyone is opening their gifts. Then I’ll take the memory card out of my digital camera and pop it into the MF-575 picture frame for an instant slide show for everyone to enjoy on Christmas afternoon. Good idea right? The number of images you can put into your MF-575 slide show is only limited by the capacity of the memory card being used.

Here’s the full review: MF-575 Digital Picture Frame

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

I was recently approached by Scott Seegert and asked if I’d like to review his new book, it’S A GUY thiNg. It’s the first time I’ve ever been contacted by a published author and as I’m not renowned for saying no to freebies I was more than happy to accept.

I received my signed copy of it’S A GUY thiNg last week and have flicking through it and giggling to myself ever since. The book is all about the crazy things that oddballs guys have registered patents for in the past. There are such gems as the “Helmet mounted Pistol” which incorporates a neck support so as not to strain your self when it fires. Patented in 2002 is “Tom’s Buttocks Cleavage-Revealing Pants” which are special pants for the ladies with a certain area of material removed in a nice fashion conscious pattern.

Scott’s writing style suits the subject material perfectly and if he ever fancies blogging he is more than welcome here. He’s given me permission to reproduce a couple of his patent posts here, so enjoy:

George’s Golf Practice Apparatus Patented 1956

Every guy knows that the length of his drive is directly proportional to the length of a specific anatomical member which, for the sake of being discrete, we shall refer to as “Mr. Johnson”. Suffice it to say nobody wants to hit a limp dribbler up the fairway. This explains why the typical guy will spend up to 83% of his pre-tax income on assorted equipment which promises to improve his golf swing.

Well, the best of this equipment, as determined by total weight, is George’s revolutionary golf practice apparatus (GPA), a device once described by Rube Goldberg as being “a bit complicated”. The GPA will allow any run of the mill guy to increase the length of his Johnson, err, drive right in the comfort of his very own structurally reinforced den or recreation room. For those interested, the GPA comes unassembled and all that you’ll require to put it together is a ¾” box wrench, an acetylene torch and Stephen Hawking. Once assembled, simply lubricate twice daily at points 1 through 203, and the GPA will stand ready to offer years of faithful service.

Jack’s No-Slip Hairpiece

If you’re a guy who wears a hairpiece, you’re all too familiar with the situation: one moment you’re showing off for the ladies by executing a perfect half-gainer into the clubhouse pool, and the next you appear to startled bystanders to be a man in a flesh-tone bathing cap trying frantically to rescue what seems to be a large guinea pig from the pool’s filter. That’s right – that darned hairpiece has fallen off yet again, supplying onlookers with another great anecdote at your expense.
Well, wind, water, starved predatory birds – nothing, and we mean nothing, is going to tear the no-slip hairpiece from its wearer’s dome. The secret lies in the plastic horseshoe-shaped component which is permanently, that’s right – permanently, attached to the head at the existing hairline via adhesives or braiding. The hairpiece itself contains a matching component that fits up to the head-mounted piece like a door hinge. Once aligned correctly, flexible pins are inserted through the hinge tunnel and the removable portion is rooted firmly in place. The result is a hair replacement system in which the wearer, after careful and meticulous grooming utilizing the latest advancements in hairstyling technology, could easily pass for a guy with a small cat asleep on his head.
As Jack points out, the non-permanent portion of the hairpiece may be quickly and easily removed “when conditions of privacy prevail”. Oh, we have a feeling they’ll prevail, all right.

You can buy It’s a Guy Thing from Amazon for $11.16 and it’s worth every penny.

While it is based on the toys made in the early 80’s by Hasbro (Thank you Hasbro!) However the writing crew did a great job binding together a story that parallels the atmosphere of the original Gen I Transformers, while bringing new, and clearly up to date ideas to the big screen and introduce a whole new generation to the joys of Peter Cullen and his voice (hint, he sounds a lot like Optimus Prime).

You’re probably wondering also, did they make good looking robots?

Are there ridiculous Michael Bay explosions, battles, and chase scenes?

Did I nearly blow out my kidneys so I could stay and watch the whole movie?

Well of course, the answer is D, all of the above.

Read on for slightly juicier Transformer info (no spoilers, but good reasons to see it, you know, if you like having fun)

A few words about the new stars in it who you’ll be seeing waaayyy too much in the near future.

Megan Fox…wow, she seems nice.

Shia Labeouf,, can you say Indiana Jones 4, while keeping the old Even Stevens magic alive. This dude is hilarious and, one hell of an actor, who knew?!

Can you say really funny scenes that you don’t expect…(on purpose, not accidental…I’m looking at you Underworld!)

You’ll also gain an entirely new appreciation for eBay (watch…then you’ll know).

Oh yeah…and yes, it’s a deluge of GM vehicles, but you will want the new Camaro by the middle of the movie too.

One final note that’s pretty important…

THE ROBOTS ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! (I cannot repeat this enough).

These effects are simply staggering not since Jurassic Park has anything put you on your ear where you forget there are effects and treat the effects as actors (Yoda and Smeagol I know).

Thank you Mr. Bay and Mr. Spielberg for not screwing up the good memories of my childhood. Oh, and I have one request – How about a little Wheeljack next time!!!

Oh yeah…and Steorn is total crap. This is in no way related to the Transformers movie, but it had to be said. (that was me being petty and pointing out physics principles tend to hold true on this planet, though Cybertron may be slightly different).

Like the remote control tanks we reported on a few days ago, these new Picoo Z’s use lasers to fire upon each other.

Introducing a fully three dimensional interactive game to outsmart your opponent in the air, by using your flying skills and integral Laser Beam to temporarily disable the other Helicopter, accompanied by an audible sound effect for added excitement!…

You can buy the Sky Challenger Picoo Z from Gadget Box for £49.99 (~$100 but who cares they’re cool) or Amazon for $70 I’m now off to write an email about a review unit .

In less than two days, at 18:00 local time, the oh-so-hyped iPhone will be available for sale across the US. Mr. Jobs has offered the final version of the device to several (Apple lovin’?) US journalists, so there’s already a plethora of reviews available.

This article will be based on the available iPhone reviews (it’s going to be quite a while until it comes to Europe) and on my personal experience with the Nokia E70. The E70 is already pretty old, almost unknown, and ugly. But what it offers is already way beyond the iPhone.

This will be a long article, which will directly compare the two devices, highlight each one’s strengths and weaknesses, and give some insight in the world of the Symbian operating system and the s60 interface.

US readers don’t despair, I will make as little reference as possible to the fact that Nokia’s smartphone has WCDMA connectivity while the iPhone is limited to EDGE. And I’m doing that just because the E70 that’s available in the States is also limited to EDGE.

First of all, I want you to know that I postponed this comparison so I could be fair and know as much as possible about Apple’s device. The time has come, and it will be darn long until I’ll manage to have a hands-on contact with the iPhone.

Second of all, I consider this comparison pretty absurd myself, since the iPhone is nothing but a fancy phone, while the Nokia is a real smartphone. I’m doing it just because Mr. Jobs and even naive reviewers have called it a smartphone. Which, again, it isn’t.

A smartphone is characterized by extensibility. You will never see programs that can EDIT pictures or videos on the iPhone. Nor will you see ones to actively use the microphone or camera and save your work. The only thing that the iPod can and which is generally limited to smartphones is the multi-tasking ability.

Because many of you won’t be interested in all the technical gibberish, I’ll start the comparison/review with the mundane, palpable and visible details, and will build on tech specs later.

First of all, the looks and sizes: The iPhone is very good looking. From shell to interface, it looks great! It’s slim, but then look at its width.. It’s hard to figure it will be easily pocketable, especially since I had to get used to the Nokia. Apple’s gadget is half as thick as the Nokia, which earns kudos for the looks but doesn’t add any points to how pocketable it is.
On the other side, the E70 is simply put BUTT UGLY. Clearly designed for functionality, the design was left aside. Especially unappealing are the ’shoulders’ and hinges of the flip-able keyboard. It looks good when open, though. It’s almost twice as thick as the iPhone, but I’d rather have a thicker but not too wide device in the pocket.
I’ve saved a size comparison at Sizeasy.

That’s it with the sizes. I won’t start a complete review of the Nokia here, but you can find a fairly good one at mobile-review.com. The Russian reviewers don’t give any technical data or 3rd party application tips, but you’ll find it very useful and in-depth too.

Instead, I’ll do a step-by-step comparison: I’ll take a feature of the iPhone and then match it to what the E70 has to offer.

The interface: Apple gets all the points here. It’s fast, sleek, and beautiful. It doesn’t seem to offer any themes though, and it can’t be operated with only one hand. The E70 has a very weak point here: because of the handset’s size and desigh, they couldn’t fit a D-pad so there’s a joystick.. Sony-Ericsson users can testify what bad points it brings. As for the interface, it’s standard s60: doesn’t look fancy, but it’s fully skinnable, scalable and switches to landscape mode when you open the full keyboard. We’ll discuss keyboards later.

The phone: Apple offers a very nice interface, easy conference calling between up to 5 peers. The contact list offers no voice dialing and no search functions. The voice quality has been described as ‘just average’ by the reviewers, but I think it has to do with AT&T’s fixation on half-rate codecs. The E70 can only merge two calls, but it offers the standard Nokia quality. You also get speaker-independent voice dialing (no training required), contact search, and it can also speak out the name of the caller.

Messaging: Apple offers conversation-like SMS, and formatted E-mail. No MMS or instant messenger here. Nokia doesn’t offer formatted mails by default, but there are many more protocols offered, clearly oriented towards the corporate user. You’ll get the standard POP and IMAP, plus various push-mail protocols, including the popular BlackBerry. You also get MMS and instant messenging by default. As an upgrade, Nokia has just started offering built-in support for Yahoo Messenger. If you really want formatted mails, there are commercial 3rd party applications that can offer user-friendly interfaces and lots of eye candy.

Web: The Safari browser is outstanding indeed. If only it had support for flash and flash videos.. Though, Apple’s claim that the iPhone brings the ‘real Internet’ for the first time on a ’smartphone’ is a load of BS. The over-one-year-old OSS browser which comes by default with s60 has exactly the same capabilities as this mobile Safari, and the same shortcomings. The interface is more familiar to PC users though, as it uses a mouse-like cursor and a transparent overlaid site map for quick and intuitive navigation. It also receives regular updates from Nokia.

Media: The ‘iPod’ application really is the best iPod ever released by Apple. CoverFlow is very nice, the fullscreen video looks cool on the big screen too. Even though the E70 is pretty much business-oriented, it has strong multimedia features, just like all s60 devices. You’ll get a music player with cover art; you’ll be able to sort the music by genre, artist, album, release date and so on. For videos, you have the built-in Real Player, which can play streams, and many video and audio formats. Having a fully-fledged operating system, the Nokia can also receive additional plugins for audio and video. The third party application market is overwhelming: you can even get full-screen DivX and XviD playback, with subtitles and all.

Since this is already getting extremely long, i’ll conclude this first part with the input methods. While the iPhone is truly revolutionary, the Nokia is pretty conservative. This makes everything but typing more enoyable on the iPhone, though you always have to use both hands. Nokia has the huge advantage of a full, physical QWERTY board. From all Nokia models I’ve used (including their communicators), this is by far the best keyboard ever featured on a Nokia.

Reviewers haven’t said too many good words about the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. I can very easily type on the E70 without looking at the keyboard.

Also, you don’t need both hands if you fold it closed. The application in use will be scaled to portrait, and you’ll be able to continue working with one hand. The exterior keypad is also excellent.

This concludes the first part. For extra details and for technical data, be sure to follow up on what’s to come.

Okay, we’ve all been victims of the juggernaut that is the all mighty iPhone. But is it really as smart as the hype, and it’s stinging price suggests? Let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly of this ground breaking phone.

The Good:

Awesome, sleek design. Finally breaking free from the round click wheel and tiny screen in favor of large Ground breaking touchscreen interface! Virtual keyboard with decently sized buttons that is easy to use. Instant switch to wireless hotspots when found while surfing. A fairly good camPhone which takes decent pictures in available light. Automatic portrait to landscape switching and back – perfect for watching movies or viewing photographs. And if you want to zoom in, you take two fingers and touch the screen, splitting them apart to enlarge the area you want. Very cool. Access to Google Maps. You Tube. Eight hour battery time. That’s pretty good considering all the media apps it has.

The Bad:

While you can look at documents, there is no ability to CUT, COPY, or PASTE? Look for a firmware update to fix this. Reliant on slow EDGE cellphone Internet network rather than 3G/EVDO. No song ringtones and no plans to sell them. What?! No games (even the 5G iPod has a version of Break Out). No Flash or Java support on the browser. Well, that kills a great deal of websites to view. No instant messaging or photo messaging. No actual GPS, just a fake interactive one where you tell it you’re at the next turn (not too safe if you’re driving). No Video recording! (as someone mentioned – how can you have YouTube access and not give people the ability to make their own videos to upload?). 8GB size with no memory card slot – so it isn’t expandable (700MB of which is taken up by the mobile version of OS X). For $600?! That’s a mighty pricey Nano.

The Ugly:

Battery isn’t removable, so you’ll have to send the entire phone in to Apple for replacement when it dies. Forced to go with ATT (formerly Cingular), which, despite it’s multi million dollar marketing blitz, is the king of dropped calls. You can’t just buy the iPhone and enjoy the rest of the features without signing up for it’s cell service. You have to activate the phone before the iPod features come alive. There’s No iTunes Music Store Access. Huh?

The Price

. Along with the afore mentioned 8GB’s $600 price tag, there’s a required two year ATTingular cell contract and data plan that runs anywhere from $60-100 a month. So, when all is said and done – you can expect to fork out around $2500 from your pocket. Your purchased iTunes not included.

If you want to see the iPhone in action before spending the night in line to buy it, check out Apple’s video Tour.