Wired 12.09: The Giants of Anime are Coming The three titans of Japanese animation are all about to unleash monster new films. Watch your back, Shrek.

Sidekick 2 vs. Sidekick - Engadget - www.engadget.com iPodlounge deviates slightly from its focus on you-know-what and has a gallery of photos of T-Mobile’s new Sidekick 2, including a few showing it side-by-side with the old one and a Motorola V600 cellphone.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italian pensioner seeks adoption: "A widowed 80-year-old teacher in Italy has taken a novel step to stop being lonely - advertising for a family willing to adopt him as a grandfather."

Gizmodo : USB Christmas Tree

Gizmodo : Powerbook: 1, God: 0 It's a sad fact of life that God hates Mac users. If you needed any more proof, check out these pictures of this burnt and charred 12-inch Powerbook, caught in an apartment fire, which despite the damage and encrustations is reported to still work. What can we learn from this? In a kickboxing match between Jesus and Jobs, Steve would win.

Gizmodo : The Tube Lamp This Tube Lamp by Nik Willmore, which is a really dangerous thing since he lives and works right here in New York. At $225, though, it's almost cheap enough to just get and justify as a heirloom or something. Here's your inheritance, kids, and it glows!

Oh, and if you are worried about getting one just because the bulbs might burn out, apparently the 25-watt tubular bulbs can be gotten almost anywhere, even Home Depot. And of course, you can't forget the finishing touch - the control knob is a chromed replacement for a Fender Telecaster.

Catherine Zeta-Jones holds Motorola A630; T-Mobile release imminent? - Engadget - www.engadget.com

The Pac-Man rug - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "Could someone explain to us why it took over twenty years for someone to get around to weaving a Pac-Man floor rug?"

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Frustrated chimp takes up smoking: "Sexual frustration has driven a mild-mannered chimpanzee to take up smoking and spitting, according to China's Xinhua news agency."

Etymotic ER-6 Isolator - Headphones - CNET Reviews I think these are the headphones I want.

HP’s DJammer It’s still under development, but HP just showed of something called the DJammer at their Digital Experience webcast. Apparently it’s some kind of iPod add-on that’s specifically designed so that DJs can use the iPod to mix and cut like they can with digital turntables.

Actual pics of the new Treo Ace/Treo 650 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Griffin EarJams - Engadget - www.engadget.com

TIME.com: This Bud's For The U.S. -- Aug. 23, 2004 CASH CROP: Inside a former brewery in Ontario, police found this pot farm

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nasa to save Hubble telescope: "The US space agency has given the go-ahead for a robotic mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, Nasa officials have announced."

BBC NEWS | Business | Peru prepares for the gas age: "Something good is arriving. That is the slogan marking the launch of Camisea, the most ambitious energy project in Peruvian history."

BBC NEWS | Americas | Taxi driver: New York: "Taxi drivers know the streets of the world's great cities better than anyone. The BBC has spoken to five of them around the world about their work, their city and the problems they face.

Here, the BBC's Matt Wells takes a taxi with Narinder Diol, a member of New York's Asian community - a great number of whom are now employed driving the city's famous yellow cabs."

Gizmodo : Motorola MPx and MPx220 Rumors, Including Release Dates PhoneMag has a lot of information from a "trusted Asian carrier source" about Motorola's upcoming MPx and MPx220 smartphones, included (projected) release dates for September 27th for the MPx220, and November 30th for MPx, although the latter may be delayed until 2005. According to the source, Motorola is still working on the firmware and deciding how much ram should be in the model (initially they were talking about 32MB, which is almost preposterously low for a high-end model like this, but it's since been bumped to 48).

T-Mobile Action Sports Team and Hollywood's Elite Celebrated at an Exclusive Party to Debut the T-Mobile Sidekick II

Danger Intellisync®: Users can now synchronize their Microsoft Outlook/Exchange Calendar, contacts and to do list with their hiptop2.
Integrated, higher resolution camera: The flash -enabled camera is a great addition to the device.
Photo Caller ID: A fun feature that will allow you to see a photo of who is calling you. This offers new choice in how users integrate the camera application into their experience with the product.
Support for vCards: The new hiptop2 device allows you to send and receive virtual contact cards (vCards). vCards are a great way to easily save and share contact information with friends and colleagues.
SMS enhancements: This popular application will have new features and the ability to save up to 130 SMS messages on the device.
Yahoo! Messenger: The popular Yahoo! Messenger has been added as a choice for instant messaging.

T-Mobile Sidekick II review roundup - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "T-Mobile Sidekick II review roundup"

T-Mobile Sidekick II Reviewed So, uhm, I guess the wait for the T-Mobile Sidekick II is about over since PC Magazine just put up a review. Way to start the hype machine, Danger! Maybe they decided not to really talk it up because it looks sort of, you know, bland. I mean, come on, VGA camera? Is the Sidekick destined to remain the sort-of-cool cellphone with the crappy camera? How about user-developed applications? When do we get those?

I guess I'll reserve final judgement until I can play around with the new unit, but for now it looks like a modest upgrade to a unit sorely in need of some juice in the first place. Also, I'm still a little bit bitter Danger got so fussy a few months back when we leaked the images of the Sidekick II. We only leaked because we cared!

AP Wire | 08/04/2004 | Tech Test: the Addictive Hiptop Improves

T-Mobile Sidekick II PC Mag Review with lots of pics. They say the camera sucks: "The new model integrates a VGA camera with flash and adds new buttons so you can take pictures with the screen closed. The camera was slow to start up, and our photos were somewhat blurry and full of halos and strange color effects." The old cameras sucked more though.

PigLatin Mat T's Blog

Om Malik on Broadband: Sidekick II: The Danger Evolution

MSNBC - T-Mobile's hiptop gets hipper There’s good news for current T-Mobile Sidekick customers: You will get a chance be one of the first to upgrade to the new device at a special price.

If you cherish the Sidekick II for its data capabilities there’s even better news. Intellisync has been approved to be released on the Sidekick platform. That means users will be able to pay a one-time fee, download the PIM-sync application onto their PC and synchronize with Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Contacts and To Do lists.

T-Mobile Sidekick II gets real - Engadget - www.engadget.com T-Mobile officially took the wraps off the next Sidekick mobile communicator today, which they’re calling the Sidekick II PV-100 (not sure what the extra “PV-100” means). More or less as we figured, it’s thinner than the old one, has a color LCD screen, better reception, a VGA quality digital camera, better battery life, built-in speakerphone, and will retail for $299.99 when it hits stores this fall.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Polystyrene homes planned for Afghans

Send text messages to a landline - Engadget - www.engadget.com
Especially useful since now that making regular voice phone calls is totally out of fashion, BT is introducing a new service in the UK that let’s you send a text message to a regular landline phone. Since hardly any landline phones can receive text messages (believe it or not, there are actually a few out there), BT’s service uses text-to-speech software to convert the message into a voicemail, even translating that text shorthand favored by teens into something a bit more comprehensible. Or you could just call and leave a voicemail in the first place. Your choice.

Netgear’s new WGT634U Wireless Media Router Netgear’s new WGT634U Wireless Media Router has a little something extra that we expect will be standard on all of these things sooner or later: a USB 2.0 port for attaching an external hard drive that anyone on the network can access.

Panasonic R3 Review the Panasonic R3, a machine so well put-together that I actually considered buying one for my own personal use, and if it didn't cost twice that of my budget (importers are selling it for around $2800 for a fully-spec'd out unit), I probably would have. What makes the R3 the hands-down best sub-notebook I've ever used? Well, for starters, it actually usable.

Wired News: Porn Blogs Manipulate Google: "It's clever. You have to give them that. And it's another example of porn folk being sort of ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and marketing."

T-Mobile Sidekick 2 turns up - Engadget - www.engadget.com "A pic and a little blurb about T-Mobile’s new Sidekick 2 have turned up in the August 2nd issue of Newsweek in a piece about back-to-college technology, listing it as having a built-in VGA quality camera and a price of $229. We still don’t think this’ll be out until September."

MobileTracker: Upcoming US phones We’ve mentioned a ton of new phones for the US lately, so many that its hard to keep track of what’s coming when. Below we have an exclusive look at all the dirt on the phones you ask about.
Big news reported here: MPx delayed to 2005, SK2 around this week or next, A630 in September.

tech ronin: Hiptop II / Sidekick II Just linking to this because it has a link to the SK2 manual.

Weekend political stuff for your iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com Free downloads for itunes of 1) the 9/11 Commission final Report, 2) The Democratic National convention days 1 & 2. (Republican to follow, once it happens.)

Wired News: Liberals Want Their Own Network: "A group of progressive media activists covering the Democratic National Convention in Boston plans to launch a new television network to counter the conservative news coverage"

Sidekick Vs. Treo 600: "I'm a fan of both the Sidekick and the Treo 600, so when Levi Wallach wrote to tell me about his in-depth comparison article featuring the two keyboarded messenger devices, I immediately did what any sane person would do and read it and then forgot to post about it. Fortunately for you, that was only like last week, and the information is no less pertinent. In fact, with the Sidekick II and the Treo Ace/610 just around the corner, bargain-minded shoppers would do well to pay extra attention to the two devices that are still plenty capable and about to get plenty cheap."

Briva: In-Sink Dishwasher from KitchenAid

New York City lampposts going wireless - Engadget - www.engadget.com

An evening with Motorola - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "The MPx, their new Pocket PC Phone which should be out ever-so-soon."

Tons of Motorola RAZR V3 pics - Engadget - www.engadget.com Ok, we had so many fresh pics of Motorola’s RAZR V3 that we thought it merited it’s own post. And yes, it is as jaw droppingly gorgeous as we’d hoped it would be.

More Details About Alpine iPod Interface: "MacCentral has more details about Alpine's upcoming in-car iPod interface, including the single-greatest quote ever to slip past the lips of a VP of Marketing, 'Consumers love a knob more than anything.' I've been saying that for years."

Fat content of tahini: "Q. What is the fat content of tahini, a.k.a. tahina (ground sesame seeds), and how much of the fat is saturated? A. Tahini is a little more than half fat, but only 10% of the fat is saturated. So a 1-ounce serving, which is equivalent to about 30 grams, has 16 grams of fat, 2 of which are saturated."

Tapatio Hot Sauce My hot sauce of choice.

Danger grows coffers as Sharp lends wireless weight - Computer Business Review Danger chairman and CEO Hank Nothhaft described the deal with Sharp, which already supplies LCD displays for the current Hiptop devices, as "an incredibly important agreement" for the company. He told ComputerWire that the Japanese electronics giant's first Danger-based design should be available by Christmas this year. Others, including voice- rather than data-centric models, should follow within twelve months, he said.

Defect in the new iPod? - Engadget - www.engadget.com

We had no idea: Getting iTunes onto Motorola cellphones - Engadget - www.engadget.com

First review of the Motorola V3 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Danger! That’s one Sharp Hiptop!

HP iPAQ h6300 @ Dave's iPAQ

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 'Hi, I'm on the plane' 'I'm on the plane' Mobiles banned on planes - the rules could soon change.

Bag Borrow Or Steal: Handbag Rental - wish I thought of it

Why Mac OS X is Better

Links to a bunch of Red v. Blue Halo comedy movies

Downtown River to River Festival Event 2004 Schedule of Events - NYC - New York

Bottle Cap Tripod This Bottle Cap Tripod is a great solution, making it easy to throw together a jerry-rigged tripod whenever you need one. And if you live in New York, you can probably just pick up a bottle off the street. Not perfect, but not bad for 10 bucks.

Photos & Video of Motorola MPx Smart Phone Coming Soon with Windows Mobile Second Edition for the Pocket PC - WebTalk Radio MPx Smart Phone Could Arrive Late September/October 2004

Wired News: Downloading for Democracy While legislators in Washington work to outlaw peer-to-peer networks, one website is turning the peer-to-peer technology back on Washington to expose its inner, secretive workings.


But outragedmoderates.org isn't offering copyright music and videos for download. The site, launched two weeks ago, has aggregated more than 600 government and court documents to make them available for download through the Kazaa, LimeWire and Soulseek P2P networks in the interest of making government more transparent and accountable.

Wired News: Apple's Cheaper, Juicier IPod: "Greg Joswiak, vice president of hardware product marketing at Apple, said it expects 'a very strong growth' in the third quarter, helped by the upgrade. Traditionally the third quarter is stronger than the second quarter due to back-to-school sales, he said.


Joswiak shot down market rumors of 60-GB models in the pipeline. 'We have no plans in regard to announcing 60-GB models,' Joswiak said. 'We are trying to create a much more compelling lineup with two models for 20 and 40 GB at extremely compelling prices.'"

Wired News: New Foreskin Is Really a Stretch Forget therapy. Forget sex toys or role playing. Build thee a foreskin, young -- or old -- man. Men who have been circumcised, who account for about 63 percent of the U.S. male population (one of the highest rates in the world), have been stripped of some significant sensory ability, say some groups that oppose circumcision.

MSNBC - The New iPod Full Newsweek article on the new ipod.

Danger May Soon Rule the Handheld Market

BD4D Features showcase the best BD4D content - chosen for its superior qualtiy in techincality,
originality, creativity, innovation and emotive value. It's creative content that will rock ya.

Free iPods from FreeiPods.com? Engadget gets the scoop - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Memorable Quotes from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

The International Oompa Loompa Network

That's Just Not Right dotcom

More Lindsay Lohan and her SK

SideKick II! - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Motorola A630 review - Intro - Cell Phones - CNET Reviews

Ok. So obviously I am OCD on what my next phone will be. It's gonna happen this year and I am trying to leave the hiptop for one of thos motorolas (preferably the mpx). I was blogging about it here, but I think that blog is going to retire now. So now you, poor reader, will decide along with me at Wudan.

Motorola A630 - Windows Mobile 2003 and a wide display!

Even more Motorola MPx rumors, hearsay, and gossip - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Motorola makes an honest handset out of the MPx - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Motorola Finally Shows Off the A630 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

MobileTracker: Motorola A630 announced Motorola today introduced the Motorola A630 at an exclusive party in New York City on the rooftop of Hotel Gansevoort (pictures from the party). It’s a camera phone that the company hopes will help boost the Motorola brand image, analyst are upbeat . The main feature of the A630 is a fold-out keyboard (the phone folds out in half, see photos). Other known features are:

Integrated VGA digital camera

Bluetooth

MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone

176 x 220 65,000 color display

Weighs just 3.5 ounces



The Motorola A630 is a Cingular Wireless exclusive at launch—expect to pay $200 to $300. We should see it this summer.

Is This The Next iPod?

How-To use AOL Instant Messenger to send a Text Message to a phone - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Next iPod in August? - Engadget - www.engadget.com We’d heard September, but now the word on the street is that the next generation iPods are going to be released in August. According to sources, it sounds like they’re going to be a crossbreed of the regular old iPod and the iPod mini, taking some features from each. Some of the rumored upgrades: a smaller form factor, similar to themMini in design (which probably means the new scroll wheel), a bigger hard drive and a bunch of color options, such as purple, orange and yellow (why do you taunt us Apple?).

The ultimate iPod mini - Engadget - www.engadget.com We’re not sure whether he was just trying to shut up all the haters on some Japanese message board complaining about all the features the iPod mini doesn’t have, or just trying to show off his Photoshop chops, but some dude in Japan designed the ultimate iPod mini with every single thing they were asking for, including:

Is Mac OS X 'Tiger' Rolling Over on Windows Support?: "If Apple has a cross-platform client strategy for Mac OS X, it is playing it close to its vest.

However, Derick Naef, chief operating officer of networking developer Group Logic Inc., of Arlington, Va., said that WWDC attendees received some useful information about the Tiger client later in the week.

"There wasn't anything groundbreaking, but there were incremental improvements," he said. "They are moving in right direction."

Wired News: Macworld Boston Opens Loudly: "But not everyone was pleased. "I'm disappointed it's not in New York," said William Castro, a product designer who flew up to attend a couple of Photoshop classes. "The show last year (in New York) had a lot more vendors and more people involved in Mac media. I know a lot of designers who wanted to come but wouldn't because it was in Boston."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Jordan's female boxers go for glory

$800 Stokke Xplory Stroller Hits NYC: "I'm honored that Greg Allen of DaddyTypes.com wrote me an even longer, more explanatory description in email of the new $800 Stokke Xplory fashion stroller than he wrote on his own blog. And yes, I said $800 stroller. You know, for kids. To puke in. Anyway, I'll just quote his dandy email after the jump and we can all marvel at the apparently burgeoning market for big ballin' baby buggies."

Tanning Improves Mood The promise of darker skin lures people to tanning beds. But the relaxing effects of ultraviolet (UV) light keep them coming back, a new study shows.

BBC NEWS | Health | White bread could spoil your diet People who ate whole grain foods, such as brown bread, did not have the same gain in waist size, the scientists at Tufts University in Boston found.

How-To use AOL Instant Messenger to send a Text Message to a phone - Features - Engadget - features.engadget.com

Yahoo!, Hotmail and Excite Respond to Gmail

Yahoo! Mail has recently enhanced its standard and premium services in response to Google's upcoming Gmail launch. On June 15, Yahoo! Mail increased its storage space to 100 MB for standard users and 2 GB for Yahoo! Mail Plus users. The 2 GB for Plus users is double the storage of Gmail. Yahoo increased the maximum size message that users can send and receive, now up to 10 MB per message.

Yahoo! Mail improved its email search capability and will put more than 50 million email addresses back into distribution. They have also redesigned the web-based email user interface to increase usability.

Hotmail has announced July 2004 plans to upgrade its free email offering in a similar manner to Yahoo! by upgrading services and mail storage capacities. They plan to offer free subscribers 250 MB of storage, up from the current 2 MB limit. Hotmail also plans to offer its anti-virus service for free: it will clean any viruses identified in a subscriber's email. Until now, Hotmail has alerted subscribers of a virus, but not cleaned it or removed it from access.

Excite will soon be increasing storage space from 3 MB to 125 MB for its free email users. They will also increase the maximum size message that users can send and receive, similar to Yahoo! Mail, to 10 MB.

The inside scoop on the MPx, MPx220, and MPx100 :: Mobile Gadget News - (MPx200.org) :: News, Reviews, and Help for the MPX200, SCH-i600, and SmartPhone Community

Paid family leave takes effect in California - Blogging Baby - www.bloggingbaby.com File this one under “It’s about freaking time!”: On Thursday, paid family leave took effect in the state of California. While such family leave has long been a fact of life in such countries as Germany and France, California is the first state in the US to require employers to offer 6 weeks of paid leave each year for parents to either care for their newborn or ill child or adopt a child.

Blogging Baby - www.bloggingbaby.com Blogging Baby is a blog — an online magazine — about pregnancy, baby care and parenting. We aren't paid to mention specific products. We cover what we think is interesting as parents ourselves.

Phone Shopping Friday - Unlocked GSM Phones - Engadget - www.engadget.com Good advice on some of the nicer new phones.

Exclusive Sony U50 review - Engadget - www.engadget.com We reviewed the Sony U50 and we’re happy to report it just might be one of the best portables, while a lot of companies are showing prototypes, Sony actually brought an amazing device to market…The U50/70 is the smallest and lightest full-power PC on the market. The hardware really speaks for itself, we took a lot of photos and video make sure to check’em all out.

BMW Motorrad The new 4-cylinder engine in the K 1200 S is full of Formula 1 details – from the cam followers in the cylinder head to the dry sump lubrication system. Even the shape of the combustion chambers is inspired by the critical motor racing discipline.

Economist.com | Business in the Americas: "LONG accustomed to being just a hub for Latin America and the Caribbean, Miami recently awarded itself an upgrade. It now advertises itself as the “Gateway of the Americas”. But why should an ambitious Florida city stop there, when “Capital of the Americas” beckons? Or even “Centre of the New World”, as one of its glossy brochures has it? For that is what Miami is now pitching for: already it has launched a big campaign to host the headquarters of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)."

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Poor Moldovans lured into sex trade "Moldova is Europe's poorest country. In the capital city, Chisinau, the average wage is about $2 a day. In the countryside, it is half that"...
Tight writing from the BBC.

"I was amused to see Yahoo and Hotmail scramble to revise their e-mail services so that they didn't look quite so pathetic in comparison. Yahoo upped the storage limit for a free account from 4 megabytes to 100; in July, Hotmail will raise its own limit from 2 megs to 250. (Paid accounts get even bigger storage upgrades.)"

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy's teen scooter riders grounded Thousands of Italian teenagers have been banned from driving motor scooters by a new law that took effect on Thursday.