We tend to walk the other way whenever we hear a baby cry, but if the crying baby happens to be yours, this little gizmo might help you race to his/her side. It's a wireless baby monitoring system that consists of a wireless camera and a portable LCD monitor. Whenever the camera hears little Bobby cry, it'll instantly trigger an alarm on the monitor so you can run to his side and shake him till he stops. No word yet on pricing or availability, but if it helps shut a crying baby's trap, we're all for it. – Louis Ramirez

Momsee [via AVING.net]

Just in time for holiday season comes this line of very geeky gifts from acorn studios. Most of the gifts are made from circuit boards—including tree ornaments, earrings, keychain, clocks, etc. They also have some cute little gifts made from keyboard keys such as rings, necklaces and cufflinks. Most of the gifts are under $20, some even as low as a few bucks and could be the perfect small presents for that nerdy co-worker. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Acorn Studios]

We've seen our fair share of VoIP phones before, but this might be the first MP3 player we've seen that does double duty as a VoIP headset. The Mystic comes in sizes ranging from 512MB to 2GB and plays your typical MP3, WAV, and WMA files. It'll even play back video on its 1.5-inch OLED screen. But plug it into your computer's USB port and suddenly it'll let you take and make VoIP calls (as well as recharge in the process). We like its simple styling and the 512MB model will set you back around $100 bucks.

Rimax Mystic [via Electronista]

Bypass the Blu-ray and HD DVD "revolution" altogether with the Dcube Mvision, an HD DivX player that can also play ripped DVD files from its hard disk. This setup box plays back DivX, OGG, WMA, WMV and MP3 files from its internal hard disk, and sends Dolby 5.1 sound through optical and coaxial ports, too.

So where would you get the HD files for this thing? That's up to you, but we've heard of a little thing called BitTorrent that might be able to help. Grab those files from the Interwebs on your PC and transfer them to this unit via that LAN port in the back. There's everything you need back there, well, except an HDMI port, but you can use a DVI-to-HDMI adapter for that, and hook this up to your HDTV.

Lots more pics and commentary, after the jump.

This is the way HDTV will be viewed in the future, not with physical media. If Dcube could just manage to bring its ambitious little Mvision box to these shores, we'll be all set. No pricing or delivery date was announced yet, but this is just the first of many units of this type. – Charlie White

Dcube's HD DivX Player 'Mvision' [AVing, via CrunchGear]

Several features of credit cards make them different from traditional forms of lending and encourage high levels of consumer debt by taking advantage of "consumers' cognitive and behavioral vulnerabilities," Adam J. Goldstein wrote in the latest issue of the University of Illinois Law Review. Goldstein is a former editor at the review who now works for a Chicago law firm.

read more

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Features, Internet Tools, .Mac

Lots of people hate Java for being both slow and a memory hog, so what better place to put it than on a cellphone? The Jasper S20 is the first guinea pig cellphone to meet the JSR-209 specifications on the Java Platform Micro Edition. Translated into English, all it means is that the Jasper S20 is the first jawn to run the latest (and greatest?) version of the Java mobile OS. It allows developers to pump out prettier 2D graphics, among other things.

The phone itself looks like something Fisher Price or Nickelodeon would produce, with a joystick-like device in the center for navigation. Also supported is multimedia playback (MP3, MPEG, etc.) and a microSD card slot to store all that junk. It'll ship to Asia "soon." There's a few pics of the super happy fun Java interface after the jump.

Cellphones and Java should be legally forced to remain at least 100 yards away from each other at all times. I don't want to hit "up" and have to wait for three seconds in order to see a response. – Nicholas Deleon

Java OS Jasper S20 [PhoneDaily via SlashPhone.com]

If you're lucky enough to have a good FM radio station nearby, you might want to check out Instant FM Music from ADS Tech, a $49 USB key that lets you record FM radio or web radio on your PC and transfer that to MP3 files or onto a CD.

It works like a TiVo, where its included Snaptune One software shows you a playlist of songs from your choice of radio stations, recording that station's entire playlist and then letting you pick which songs you'd like to listen to on the PC or transfer to your iPod or a CD. Timeshifting? Scheduling recordings? It does that, too. Sounds like TiVo to me.

We have one of these Instant FM Music devices here and we'll be testing it over the weekend, so stay tuned for our results. Our first impression? Aren't those record company greedmeisters going to hate this? Sure, the FM sound quality won't be that great, but still, you'll be able to have and hold those songs for free. – Charlie White

Product Page [ADS Tech]

If that 3.5-hour playback time of the 30GB iPod or 6.5 hour playback of the 80GB model isn't going to be enough for you, here's the Sonnettech Volta Rechargeable Battery Pack, claiming "up to" (we're always wary of those two weasel words) 16 hours of video playback on a single 5.5 hour charge.

In addition to its extended video playback capabilities, a fully-charged Volta can actually charge your iPod three times if you can't get to a hot USB port or AC adapter. Even though it's yet another device to put into your bag of tricks, this one looks like it could keep you watching video until your eyes get crossed.

Beyond that, it can keep that iPod going for 80 hours of music listening. This is great for those of us who whine about the iPod not having enough battery longevity. If that's a priority, it might be worth shelling out $69.95. – Charlie White

Product Page [Sonnet Technologies, Inc.]

We've had our eye on the SkyFi3 for some time now and the folks over at CNET have put it through the ringer noting that other than the MicroSD expansion slot it carries, the SkyFi3 doesn't bring anything new to the market (especially not with its budget feel and monochrome display). You'll have to splurge an additional $49 dollars on a pair of "funky-looking" antenna headphones if you want Live XM capability and even then, the sound quality is "a tad compressed sounding." Overall, it's deemed a "nice audio companion for those who spend lots of time in their autos." If the Inno and Helix are outta your range, the $200 SkyFi3 might be what you were waiting for. – Louis Ramirez

Delphi SkyFi3 [via CNET]

Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, Stocking Stuffers

• "Teddy" the iBear hugs your music player to his belly in a pouch; a hidden cable connects to the headphone jack of any iPod or any other audio device with a headphone jack.
• Squeeze his paw to turn him on and hear your tunes through his built-in speaker - and enjoy the iPulse lightshow on all four paws!
• The green, blue and red LED light show pulses to the music's rhythm, frequency and volume
• Runs on four C batteries (sold separately) or optional AC adapter

As promised earlier today, I interviewed Fabio at the Geek Squad event yesterday. Here's some highlights.

•Fabio likes his Macs. He uses Final Cut Pro to edit video he does for TV, but is using a G4. WTF? He'll spring for a MacPro soon, though, he assured me.

•The dude is an old school gadget geek; he used to own an Amiga. Can you picture him tinkering away on an Amiga?

As the video above shows, he also knows how to solder...

•He's got a ridiculous A/V system, complete with 15 ft. x 7 ft. screen, powered by a Ronco HD projector. He's also keen on Krell.

•He's not a fan of either HD DVD or Blu-ray.

•He called the Xbox 360 "incredible." He's not really a fan of today's video games, however, but is completely blown away by the graphics. Then he went off on some weird tangent about how he and Hulk Hogan were the first real people on the cover of a video game box.

Now, what you've all been waiting for... hot Fabio pics!

So be sure to tell your friends that today you learned that Fabio is a big nerd, just like you. – Nicholas Deleon

You've got a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and wireless speakers, so why are you still connecting to your monitor with a cable? What are you, some kind of luddite? You need a wireless monitor connector, like the new WID101 from Teq Gear. This device connects the DVI port on your PC to the one on your monitor over an encrypted 802.11 a. g or b network, squishing the video data down to fit. It'll run at resolutions up to WXGA (1366 by 768 pixels; good enough for a 17-inch LCD screen) and will set you back $995. – Richard Baguley

WID101 [TeqGear]

It must be the dream of every nerd to get into orbit, but one lucky bastiche is going to fly: Former Microsoftie Charles Simonyi is now training to be the next space tourist to the International Space Station. The self-described nerd (who lead the teams that developed Word and Excel, and is thus richer than the rest of us put together) will be taking off on the 9th of March 2007 from Russia and will spend 8 days in orbit. And like any self-respecting nerd, he already has a blog about the experience. – Richard Baguley

'Nerd' outlines space ambitions [BBC]
Charles In Space [Charles In Space]

The folks at Camcorder Info have finished their lengthy thesis on Sony's HDR-SR1. For those who don't remember, the SR1 is Sony's hard drive-packing (30GB) HD camcorder. It has the same CMOS sensor found in Sony's HDR-UX1, so it suffered from the same noise problems users complained about on the UX1. It also couldn't top the Canon HV10, which held on to its best picture crown. The SR1 did provide sharper images with less fuzz than the UX1.

The SR1 also got pat on its chunky ass for having cool features like a mic input, headphone jack, its ability to shoot hi-res stills while recording, and for having a multifunction ring that lets you tweak manual settings. Their main gripe was with the Sony's clunky software which is required to edit AVCHD footage. Otherwise, indie filmmakers should be lining up as we speak. – Louis Ramirez

Sony HDR-SR1 [via Camcorder Info]

CNET writer Daniel Terdiman is a cruel, heartless sort of dude: he got a Nabaztag (one of those electronic bunnies that reads you the news and wiggles its ears), but completely failed to fall in love with the floppy eared technological marvel:

I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be... Spoken messages from fellow bunny owners are fun. Even watching LapinLED do "tai chi" at random times was kind of neat...But ultimately, that's all there is. This is a $150 toy. It flashes. It speaks. But it's a novelty. And despite my initial excitement, I find myself a little underwhelmed.

Well, if you're MacBook ain't mooing chances are it could be shutting down on you. Apple fessed up today saying that a small number of lazy ass MacBooks have been intermittently shutting down on their owners. A new firmware update should keep your sleepy Mac from quitting on you. Or you could give it the ol' German technique. – Louis Ramirez

MacBook SMC Firmware Update v1.1

MagSafe, schmagsafe. You don't have to have a next-gen Apple laptop to have a magnetic power adapter, just do it yourself like the folks at Instructables. It may not look like the prettiest do-it-yourself job on the planet, but by golly it gets the job done. Good job putting Apple in their place, and making sure they know who is boss. – Travis Hudson

ThinkSafe: A Magnetic Power Connector for Thinkpads [Instructables via Lifehacker]

As we mentioned earlier today, Geek Squad is opening a new facility to help redress customer grievances. So Gizmodo wants to know, what has your experience been like with the Geek Squad?

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Feel free to add any rants in the ol' comment box. Any particular beefs and/or tales of interest ($1 to Futurama)? – Nicholas Deleon

The NF-810 is the latest digital audio player from Nexx that is trying to one-up the iPod Nano. How is it going to do this? Simple. By doing what the iPod Nano can't: video. The NF-810 can play SMV video files along with MP3, WMA and ADPCM audio files. It has a 1.6-inch color screen (great for watching movies!!) FM radio, voice recorder, photo viewer, etc. It will be available in 512MB, 1GB and 2GB capacities and there is no word on pricing.

I'm still boggled by the fact that Nexx thinks people will watch video on a 1.6-inch screen. Jump for a poll that will help me solve this quandary.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

– Travis Hudson

Nexx NF-810 DAP mimics nano, but does video too [MobileMag]

You know the Geek Squad, right? Those admittedly nerdy guys and dolls in Best Buys 'round the country that try to fix your computer? Well, they've heard many of the complaints lobbied against them like slow turn around time and not-as-high-quality-as-it-could-be service. (Brian Lam, our fine leader, had a few friends screwed by the Geek Squad recently. We're talking lost digital photos, completely reinstalling Windows when that wasn't requested, etc.)

They've just opened a comically large warehouse just outside Louisville, Kentucky, aka the capital of the world, in order to redress these issues. For a photo tour of the facility, along with some running social commentary inspired by listening to right wing talk radio, jump for joy. Did I mention that Fabio was there?

I was dragged from my big, huge mansion in Manhattan to Louisville to cover this thing. The day opened with a Geek Squad helicopter majestically floating above the local square. Why? I don't know.

Then there was a press conference with the founder of Geek Squad, the mayor of Louisville and Fabio. Yeah, that Fabio.

The news here was that Geek Squad is teaming up with the city to bring Wi-Fi to it. Of course, details of the deal weren't discussed in the slightest. Who needs details?

The big daddy, however, was the huge ass facility Geek Squad built. I've got a few pics for your amusement.

In essence, the facility was constructed to, as I said earlier, redress quality assurance issues that plagued Geek Squad in the past. Once completely up and running, the facility should be able to turn out faulty computers within three days. That is, send it in on Monday, you'll have it back on Thursday. It's just a matter of people being willing to pay more for shipping charges; the computer will likely be fixed within the same day that it arrives at the warehouse. The new facility will be big on data recovery, too. They're thinking of constructing a clean room to really get customer's data back from the dead.

They take that whole "Geek" thing seriously.

Later today, I'll have an interview with Fabio up. It turns out he's a pretty big nerd and loves his electronics. Look, him soldering a motherboard!

Keep your eyes peeled. I asked all the tough questions. – Nicholas Deleon

Geek Squad Home Page [Geek Squad]

The Cuboglass is a black box that will hide the TV and give people the impression that you have a taste for lame contemporary artwork. Turn the TV on and it works like normal, displaying your favorite cartoons and reality shows, therefore proving to the world that you aren't a hipster doofus and really just another lazy TV-watching bum.

I'm trying to decide what is worse: being ashamed of owning a TV, or paying $1,191 for a box that can make it look like you don't own a TV? – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via SCI FI]

Convergence is the name of the game with this table from Gorenje. The table, which already looks futuristic as it is, has an automated refrigerator built in that will rise to the top with the push of a button. No longer will you have to make the painstaking trip from the dining room to the refrigerator for another brewsky. The table will be available next summer in a variety of materials such as glass, wood, stone and will likely cost a couple trillion. – Travis Hudson

Gorenje Smart Table has a cold heart [SlashGear]

Here's the next generation of convenience charging technology, the PowerMonkey, a good companion to have if you run out of juice. Charge it up first and its variety of compatible tips will give you 40 hours of fun on an iPod, six hours on a Sony PSP and even keep that digital camera going until that snap happy finger of yours gets sore.

It's $65, costing about the same as an iGo charger with all the necessary accessories, but giving you more power for your money. Plus, it looks like a dildo. What more could you ask for? – Charlie White

Product Page [Power Traveler]

Our pals over at EngadgetHD took on one hell of a project and came out successful.

As much as we love the TiVo Series3, for $800 we would like a bigger hard drive than 250GB. Sure it's still almost 100GB more than most Cable Company DVRs, but we need more than 35 hours of HD goodness.

Proceed at your own risk, though. We would hate to hear you bricking (or cinder blocking?) your $800 Series3 TiVo. If you are still too chicken to try this on your own, Weaknees sells pre-upgraded Series3 TiVos. – Travis Hudson

How-To: Upgrade you Series3 drive [EngadgetHD]

Halloween is just a few days away, but that still leaves time to build yourself a geek costume or buy yourself an animatronic scary cat. If you're looking for inspiration, the Monsterlist of Halloween projects has links to hundreds of Halloween related props and projects that you can build, ranging from a $20 fog chiller to an animatronic Zombie. On the right we have the disturbingly realistic looking human BBQ. – Richard Baguley

Monster Page Of Halloween Projects [SF Gate]

Just when we thought we had the 330 all figured out, in comes the Nokia 870 claiming to be the 370s true biological father. While there's definitely some resemblances, not much is known about the 870's background. It clearly has a bigger, wider screen and also what looks like an antenna jutting out from the side (possibly for cellular voice calls). Though it's a frontal shot, it also gives the impression it's slimmer, which would make it more appealing to us than its chubby offspring. – Louis Ramirez

Internet Tablet Talk [via CrunchGear]

The Mac pros are already ecstatic over the Mac Pro, that tower of a Mac with the dual-core Xeons inside, but now they're getting even more worked up over the rumors of a dual quad-core Mac in the works. So that would mean—count 'em—eight cores in all, sending those content creators straight into MacHeaven. What will they call it? OctoMac? Yaweh?

It's no surprise that this is the next step for the top-line Mac Pro. Those quad-core Xeon 5300 series "Clovertown" chips are being readied for lots of workstations we can't tell you about yet. The best news is that pricing of the base config of Apple's eight-way machine may closely match that of its four-way incumbent.

Who says we're Mac fanboys? Bile-spitting skepticism, after the jump.

Judging from the slowpoke rollout of Apple's Intel Core 2 Duo "Merom" MacBook Pro notebooks, we're thinking that "after mid-November" scuttlebutt about the eight-way Mac Pro's ship date is about as credible as Apple's claim that the Merom notebooks are "up to 39% faster" than their predecessors. – Charlie White

Ripe in Cupertino: an Apple with 8 cores [AppleInsider]

Do you love the Earth? You'd better, or she's gonna kick your ass. To save yourself a Gaia ass-kicking, consider the Everex StepNote NC1500, a laptop with a 15.4-inch screen and a 1.5-Ghz VIA C7-M processor. This, Everex claims, makes it the world's most energy efficient notebook. While it's not going to win any speed contests, it's pretty efficient on the bank account at $498.The cute puppy is an optional extra: consult you're local humane society for prices. – Richard Baguley

Everex NC1500 [Everex]
Everex StepNote NC 1500: $500 Green Laptop [CrunchGear]

Okay folks, it's polarization time. Since we hang around, drinking beers and monkeying with gadgets all day and spontaneously erupt into typeage from time to time, it's our job to keep our fingers on the pulse of what's sizzlin' and what's fizzlin'.

While you're working away at your worthwhile jobs, we'll continue sorting out the coolness from the lukewarm for you. Of course, the following list is full of half-baked opinions, but they're probably right. Read along, get angry or applaud, but here it is, in honor of Picasso's birthday yesterday (10/25/06): The Old In/Out.

Fizzlin' Sizzlin'
iPod Zune
Core 2 Quad Core
LCD Laser Optoelectronic
Factory-Installed GPS Portable GPS
KRZR iPhone
HD DVD Blu-ray
Physical Media BitTorrent
WiFi EV-DO Rev A
PS3 Wii
Bikini Boobkini

Forty more, after the jump!

Prints LED Picture Frames
Firefox 2 IE7
Exploding Liquids Exploding Batteries
Spinning Disks Flash Memory
Vista Ubuntu
Video on Demand TiVo Series 3
O2 Water Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper
Hybrids Tesla
Blackjack Texas Hold 'Em
MacBook Pro Solar Space Heater
Rear Projectors Front Projectors
Fear Loathing
Steve Jobs J Allard
Blond Redhead
Bush Thinking Humanoid
Tits Ass
Optical Laser
Spa Chicken Ranch
DV HDV
Magazines Blogs
Robots Teledildonic Blow-up Dolls
XM Sirius
Planes Trains
Typing Voice Recognition
Hollywood Bollywood
Paintball Tankball
Permission Forgiveness
New York Vegas
Hello Kitty Braised Kitty Steaks
Real Estate Stocks
Arctic DS Black Pearl
Wristwatch Cellphone Clock
Paper Plastic
Boldface Opinions Pervasive Opinions
Lazy Efficient
iTunes Winamp
Nike+iPod Garmin Forerunner
RAZR KRZR
Q Dash

C'mon, add your In/Outs in comments! – Charlie White

This week at Uncrate: We get ready for the fall candy-then-turkey onslaught with the Life Fitness T9e Treadmill, pick our favorite Halloween Costumes For Guys, and get over 400 beer recommendations from our awesome (and drunk) readers. We also stick in your ear with the Bose TriPort In-Ear Headphones, and check out the Big Love and Nacho Libre DVDs, as well as the new PostSecret book. Plus, we take 'er easy for all you sinners with the Lebowski-approved Abide Hoodie and Volcom Weirder Chino Pant.

So I can understand the simple mistake that was made when Sean received his shrink-wrapped iPod from Smalldog.com, and opened it to find a couple bars of soap and some cheap batteries.

After a quick call to the Smalldog customer service, and a laughing at by the representative, Sean had a replacement on the way. Check out the entire story over at the Consumerist. – Travis Hudson

No iPod, Soap! [Consumerist]

So here's your chance to indulge in the sort of idle speculation that makes the tech publishing world fun. Which big vendor is teasing a new tablet PC today in closed door briefings? Hint: it'll come in any color you like, as long as it's black. Your guesses, please, in the comments... – Richard Baguley

Apple dropped another bomb today by unveiling a new patent application appropriately titled "Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control." At least they are specific with the title.

The focus of the patent is the incorporation of a touch-sensitive bezel (edge of screen) that can adapt to the screen contents to provide an input method for the user. Hrmpf suggests that the use of this non-screen area would eliminate many of the "smudge" and "scratch" concerns for a full-screen touch iPod.

Apple describes new interface for iPod (more pics here) [Hrmpf! via Mac Rumors]

Silly me, thinking that 720p projectors were big, expensive things that only people with a paycheck more frequent than us freelance writers could afford; The Optoma HD70 DLP projector costs under a thousand bucks. Sure, it only does 720p when the really fancy ones do 1080p, but it's cheap, and according to Audioholics, pretty damn good:

There are certainly better projectors out there, but you probably won't find them at this price point - and definitely not with 720p DLP technology. If you're looking to get "into" a front projection system but haven't been able to justify the costs - you no longer have an excuse.

Optoma HD70 DLP Projector Review [Audioholics]

Amazon is having one hell of a Wireless Inventory Blowout Sale. You can get paid up to $150 to take one of their cellphones and service plan. T-Mobile and Cingular service are available on these phones. Here are some examples of the better deals, rounded up by the frugalhounds at Dealhack:

• Samsung t309 Phone and T-Mobile service for $150 - $150 instant savings - $100 rebate = $100 paid to you.
• Nokia 6030 Phone and Cingular service for $150 - $150 instant savings - $100 rebate = $100 paid to you.
• BlackBerry 7105t Phone and T-Mobile service for $300 - $300 instant savings - $150 rebate = $150 paid to you.
• Nokia 6102i Phone and Cingular service for $150 - $150 instant savings - $100 rebate = $100 paid to you.
• LG C1500 Phone and Cingular service for $200 - $200 instant savings - $100 rebate = $100 paid to you.

Product Page [Via Dealhack]

How can you say these earbuds aren't sexy? Just look at the profile view—those curves drive me wild! The three earbuds released are the SE-CL22-TJ, SE-CL22DN and SE-CD25DN. The first two have 10mm speakers and pump out up to 102dB with a frequency range of 7Hz to 23kHz. The latter mentioned earbud has a 13.5 diameter speaker with up to 106dB with a frequency range of 18Hz to 22kHz. Audiogasm, anyone? – Travis Hudson

3 new Pioneer headsets for DAPs [Akihabara]

Do you sneer at non-professional products, dismissing them with a snort of "amateurs!" Then the Slingbox Pro is for you: it adds more inputs and the ability to act as a pass-through device (very useful if your satellite or cable box only has one output). There's also an optional high def component video input, and PC Mag lays on the praise for the $249.99 device, describing the image quality as "spectacular". They don't ignore the possibilities for annoying other people by changing channels from a continent away, though:

But it's not for travelers who leave other people at home, unless both parties want to watch the same thing at the same time.

Slingbox Pro review [PC Mag]

By Brendan I. Koerner

For this week's column, I'm gonna ask y'all to jump in my Frink-worthy time machine and journey back to a bygone era: the halcyon days of late 2004. Ah, what a glorious time it was to be alive—the winds of change were blowing through the Ukraine, Ken Jennings' reign of terror on Jeopardy! came to an end, and Ireland had yet to fully adopt the metric system. But above all, the Motorola Razr V3 went on sale, for the whopping sum of $500 (after rebate!). Beyond my cheapo means, no doubt, but at least it was a Great Leap Forward for handset technology, right?

So how did the $500 Razr, the must-have for slinky models and the fat cats who love them just two years back, become today's $29.99 Razr, the default phone for pretty much everyone? Or, more succinctly, how did the Razr get so low-end, so fast? Though the economies of scale and the high-end trend toward data phones played their roles, I'd argue that the Razr was always the proverbial perfumed pig. And therein lies an important—nay, life-or-death—lesson on what really separates the pricey from the cheap. PLUS: A shameful admission about goofing on the Shuffle.

First off, perhaps some of y'all with short memories don't recall the Razr's initial incarnation as a luxury good. But indeed it was so—the slim handset was pitched as the mobilecomm equivalent of an iced-out watch, sure to spark envy among your less with-it pals. The Razr was also supposed to pull Motorola out of its sales doldrums, by helping it recapture the innovative rep it earned with the StarTAC phone way back in 1996. The company poured a lot of money into a clever promotional strategy, getting it into the hands of famous designers, celebrities, and their collagen-loving ilk. Tough to fathom, but folks actually debated over whether to plump for a Treo 650 or the Razr V3—even if they knew the former's obvious data advantages, the Razr's thinness still wowed 'em. And, hey, the prices really weren't all that different in those early days.

So what happened? Less than two years later, the wireless carriers are practically giving away Razrs—Verizon gave me one for $29 when I reupped my contract, and I just saw an ad pitching $49 Razrs for new customers. Okay, I know what a lot of you are saying—those phones are subsidized by the contracts. But that's a straight-up apples-to-apples comparison with the initial Razrs, which required two-year activation with Cingular. And, hey, let's look at the prepaid Razrs out there—this unlocked Razr is $159, and that includes the Mobile Phone Tools software (which Verizon wants me to fork over $39 for—right). Pop in $50 prepaid SIM card, and you're good to talk for a long, long time without getting hooked into an onerous contract.

The bottom line is, those folks who a) paid $500 for their early Razr and b) are still hooked into a Cingular contract as a result have gotta feel ripped off. The question is, was there any early hint that the Razr would become a low-end staple in less than two years? Or was everyone just so bewitched by the handset's unprecedented slimness that they didn't bother to step back and say, Hey, I'm paying a Treo-like price for a phone that lacks a QWERTY keyboard, a video camera (on the initial V3 model), or even a headphone jack—what gives?

An even more intriguing question is whether Motorola foresaw the incredibly rapid low-ending of the Razr back in 2004. Having fallen to number three in the handsets market at that time, they obviously needed a hit, and a high-margin hit at that. The Razr certainly did the trick, and you might argue that Motorola was able to bring the price down quickly as a result—y'know, that old chestnut about the more you manufacture, the cheaper the product gets. But let's face it, Motorola is run by some sharp cookies, and they knew that the initial premium they were charging was ridiculous even by the tech industry's oft-ridiculous standards. The company's Razr PR campaign succeeded where the Moto Pebl's failed—to be blunt, it managed to position the Razr as a phone that would help get you laid. (The Moto Pebl campaign aimed for this in a much more subtle way, but ended up coming off as the phone that will turn you androgynous.)

So for future reference, how can cheap bastards like myself know when a supposed "luxury" gadget is actually a low-ender in disguise, and I need only wait 20 to 22 months for it to tumble into my price range? Here's a few tip-offs, inspired by my experience with the Razr's descent:

Style Over Substance Gadgets hawked on their design superiority don't age well, especially in a fast-paced market like handsets. No matter how sleek the Razr was, it shoulda been obvious that it couldn't hang with pure data phones over the long-run.

Inattention to Details The thing that's always bugged me about the Razr is the lousy user interface—little things like the organization of menus (regardless of carrier), or the fact they make it so hard to switch Bluetooth on and off. A product that hasn't been thought through all the way? Definitely headed for the low-end bin once the hype's worn off.

Material Science Funny how folks always seem to forget that a gadget's only as good as the materials with which its built. I'm hardly the only person to discover that the Razr's plastic exterior doesn't stand up to much of a pounding, and that the "nickel-plated copper alloy" keys have issues. Let's just say I don't plan on taking a Razr with me into the Indo-Burmese wilderness (where I'm heading next month).

Other thoughts on harbingers of a high-end gadget's low-end fate? Leave 'em in comments, or drop me a line. Remember: You've got the power inside you right now. Eternal happiness is just a dollar away.

APOLOGIES TO THE SHUFFLE: A very Apple-savvy reader wrote in last week to point out that I was mistaken about the fate of the 512 MB iPod Shuffle. I wrote that Apple not only ceased making the small-sized Shuffle a while back, but that they'd stopped supporting it. Turns out that the 512er died this year, but Apple does still support it with firmware upgrades et. al. Our tipster also pointed out that, should your Shuffle break (like mine), you can probably just take it to an Apple store and they'll swap you a new one—hey, it's the lowest-end iPod they offer, so why not?

Apologies to Steve Jobs and his hard-working minions for the error. My only excuse is that I've gotten way too many spams offering 512 MB Shuffles if I complete an online survey. I've wished death upon these spammers many a time, and the neural wires must've somehow gotten crossed so that I wished death upon the baby Shuffle, too. Or something like that.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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It's not often you find a phone that goes both ways, yet that's exactly what the forthcoming SCH-U710 does. This kinky bidirectional clamshell flips open like a typical clamshell and also likes to be opened horizontally from the side. The phone sports a set of external music controls along with a microSD slot, Bluetooth, and EV-DO. The phone's menu is said to support visual themes (nice for a change) and there's also talk of a 3.2-megapixel cam. The QWERTY keypad looks a little too small for our giant paws and the phone's love handle (on the left) looks awkward for texting, but otherwise we're liking what we see. Click through to check it out for yourself.

– Louis Ramirez

Samsung U710 [via HowardForums]

While LED taillights have become commonplace, we haven't seen them in the front of vehicles until now. The first production cars to use LED headlights will be the Audi R8 and Lexus LS, with more on the way. LEDs last longer and use less power, but by far the most appealing aspect of these tiny lights: the styling possibilities, where they take up much less room and can be distributed on the front of the car in unusual ways.

It's not easy engineering these LEDs for headlight use, because they get hotter than a two-dollar pistol, plus that heat from the engine compartment doesn't help, either. We're glad they sorted that out, though, because check out how way-cool these rides look. Not long from now, vehicles with old-skool conventional headlights will be about as appealing as grandma's mustache. – Charlie White

LED Headlights [Wheel Talk, via treehugger]

Introducing the next generation of webmail. With its smart use of the latest web technology, the new .Mac webmail will remind you of the Mail application on your desktop. You'll ...

Try Adobe® Soundbooth™. Soundbooth is a brand new application built in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit that provides the tools video editors, d...

Of all the reasons to lose weight, perhaps the dumbest one was given global exposure today by a journal not previously known for its medical or behavioral health credentials.

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Filed under: Hardware, Humor, iPod Family, Retail