This fine piece of flip phone is Blackberry’s very first clamshell, codenamed Kickstart. It’s not overly attractive—it’s got a RAZR-esque silhouette. The inside is Pearly, with a trackball and SureType keyboard. Boy Genius states that the internal LCD is “decent looking,” but the shot of the external has a weird sheen over it, so it’s hard to tell there. Sort of an odd choice from RIM, I think—was there an untapped demand for a flip Blackberry? No other specs, but anticipate it by the end of the year. Profile shot after the jump or hit BGR for the full five. [BGR]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Because police don’t have enough ways to ruin my weekend, a company called AcuNetx (I spelled that right) has developed a device called the HawkEye, a non-invasive device that scans the eyes of drivers to tell their intoxication levels. It’s not meant for field stops so much as checkpoints, which are illegal in many states, and […]

Because police don’t have enough ways to ruin my weekend, a company called AcuNetx (I spelled that right) has developed a device called the HawkEye, a non-invasive device that scans the eyes of drivers to tell their intoxication levels.

It’s not meant for field stops so much as checkpoints, which are illegal in many states, and requires a laptop and hand-held device to operate. It detects movements of the pupils as they react to certain stimuli to determine sobriety levels.

The HawkEye itself can’t exactly determine the BOC, something needed as evidence, but will give probable cause for a full field test.

You teetotalers have nothing to fear, but those of us with lives are keeping a wary on the fun-killing Big Brother. Personally, I find it offensive that they would attempt to interfere with my goal of endorsing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happy hour.

Via [crunchgear]

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Super strong artificial silk almost here Rock Band members and Guitar Heroes: your social network has arrived in uRockHard Super Mario 64-Life 2 Unreasonable Stance: GTA IV isn’t violent enough The Orientation: Emulators

Super strong artificial silk nearly here
Rock Band members and Guitar Heroes: your social network has arrived in uRockHard
Super Mario 64-Life 2
Unreasonable Stance: GTA IV isn’t violent enough
The Orientation: Emulators

Via [crunchgear]

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This is what every MacBook Air needs: built-in 3G wireless. In order to get this goodness into the MBA, Jordan Bunnell busted up a Verizon USB727 Air Card and soldered it up with the MBA’s unused USB controllers on the motherboard and used a little bit of voodoo to get power flowing to the card. There’s a little bit more elbow grease to get the antenna ports situated and the card crammed in there nice and properly, but as you can see, it pays off. Check out the whole nerdy process in detail over at his site, though our heart’s a little too faint to attempt the feat. [Get Listed Locally via engadget]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials for Scarlet, the hit new Television series on Television. Perhaps you were wondering why the commercials don’t tell you what channel it’s on or even when, or what it’s about. Perhaps you thought to yourself it’s part of some viral-style marketing campaign, and you’d be right. But it’s not for a […]

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials for Scarlet, the hit new Television series on Television. Perhaps you were wondering why the commercials don’t tell you what channel it’s on or even when, or what it’s about. Perhaps you thought to yourself it’s part of some viral-style marketing campaign, and you’d be right.

But it’s not for a TV show, but a line of HDTVs from LG. A series of Televisions, really. A Television series.

Get it? Good.

The scarlet series are high-end LG Televisions with red bezels. They have decent specs, and range in size from 32 inches to 52 inches at 1080p. They have nothing to do with the Red camera of the same name, or G.I. Joe.

The question remains: are they worth all this hype?

Via [crunchgear]

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The Taipei times quotes HTC’s own financial executive Cheng Hui-ming at an investor’s conference as saying they will launch “the most important product for HTC this year” at an event on May 6. Cheng wasn’t too forthcoming with details, but it seems like it’s going to be a “Touch” phone—as in one of the HTC Touch models—and be called the “Diamond”. He states that it’s going to be so good, he’s “confident of landing orders from most major carriers,” but warned about possible delays because they haven’t gotten certification for the phone yet. Sounds very interesting. Could it be this phone? [Taipei Times via Engadget]

Via [Gizmodo]

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I looked into getting Leopard to run on mini-PCs and this gives me hope that it is actually possible. While it’s not easy, this hack lets you install Leopard onto the OQO mini-PC and even dual-boot into Windows when you need to run Quicken. The only thing they couldn’t get to work was WWAN, which […]

I looked into getting Leopard to run on mini-PCs and this gives me hope that it is actually possible. While it’s not simple, this hack lets you install Leopard onto the OQO mini-PC and even dual-boot into Windows when you need to run Quicken. The only thing they couldn’t get to work was WWAN, which they’re working on now.

Via [crunchgear]

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If you are planning on picking up an HDTV in the near future, HD Guru’s list of the 10 worst HDTV ripoffs for 2008 is required reading—pure and simple. Chances are, many consumers have already heard about the issue with HDMI cables—which is probably one of the biggest scams of all time (right up there with Q-Ray ionized bracelets and the Ionic Breeze). Other scams, like the one involving contrast ratio specifications are also making their way into the public consciousness.

However, there are still plenty of pitfalls that the novice consumer needs to avoid before making the commitment to drop a serious amount of cash on a new HDTV. The list summary is as follows:

•Fake HD and Cable Satellite Channels: Did you know that a number of HD channels broadcast a lot of “fake HD?” Anyone who has ever watched some of TNT’s HD broadcasts can attest to that.

•Dynamic Contrast Ratio Measurement Specification: The contrast ratio number is basically meaningless.

•Line Conditioners: They do nothing to improve the HDTV image.

•Deep Color: No deep color sources makes this a worthless feature.

•x.v.Color: Until Laser Televisions and xv Color HD discs appear on the scene, this feature isn’t truly useful.

•1080p HDTVs below 42″ (diagonal): If you own a HDTV under 42″, chances are you won’t recognize the quality difference over 720p—unless you’re standing really close to the Television.

•Flat LCD HDTVs 26″ and Smaller: The image quality of LCD HDTVs in the 26″ inch range or lower is generally poor.

•120Hz HDMI Cables: As mentioned before, costly HDMI cables are a massive ripoff. Case in point, decent HDMI cable for less than $2. I bought a few myself and they work fine.

•Off Brand Model HDTVs: No-name brands may cost you more down the line.

•HDMI: Horrible connector design can prove problematic. Always pretest your connections.

So there you have it. If you do your homework, you can save yourself a lot of problems (and money) down the line. For a full explanation on the items in this list, check out the HD Guru link. [HD Guru]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Like most nerds, I’m in full Iron Man mode as the motion picture release date draws closer. So, I couldn’t help but get excited after hearing about a Personal computer case mod based on Tony Stark’s Mark 1 Iron Man suit. Is it the ideal case mod I’ve ever seen? No, not really. In fact, I would have expected a little more from the dude who brought us the Team Fortress II sentry gun mod. Still, I appreciate the hand-crafted look and the 2x BFG 9800GX2 Quad Sli under the hood. At the very least, it is pretty damn cool for a three- week build. Check out the video after the jump.

[Ironmods Thanks Tom!]

Via [Gizmodo]

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A month after releasing its plugin that detects if your ISP is performing reset voodoo on your torrents, Azureus/Vuze is claiming AT&T hexes them with the same reset TCP packet curse as Comcast, despite AT&T’s explicit statements otherwise. AT&T denies the accusation and points out a flaw in the plugin’s method, that it can’t tell the difference between naturally occurring TCP resets and artificial ones generated by an ISP. Azureus, while admitting the issue, still says AT&T is full it.

According to their data, “the results show a significant enough difference in the level of resets from one network operator to another, to warrant asking certain network operators to describe their network management practices,” and AT&T, Cablevision and AOL are at the top of the heap. In our feature on ISP network management, while AT&T directly stated its “techniques don’t include degrading or blocking traffic,” they did decline to elaborate on what they did do.

While in Comcast’s case, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told a Senate committee they lied about throttling torrents only during periods of congestion and never issued a flat denial, AT&T’s repeated, direct counters incline us to believe them. But we still concur with Azureus’s goal, to push ISPs to be completely transparent about how they manage their network—we’ll leave whether the FCC should mandate net neutrality up to the policy wonks. Besides, it’s looking like the FCC is moving toward transparency regulations anyway, if not neutrality. [PC World]

Via [Gizmodo]

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