If you've been waiting for the right BlackBerry before making the jump into CrackBerry land, your time has come. The BlackBerry 8300 Curve is the e-mail checking, media-heavy smartphone we've been waiting for.

Design-wise, the 8300 is a looker with its thin Pearl-like profile, full QWERTY keyboard, and silvery finish. But the real reason you'll want it is 'cause of its media features. Both the guys at Laptop and Wired agree, this is RIM's best handheld easily blending in at the office during the day and doubling as a cool smartphone at night. So what do we get?

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First it's taking Korea then we hope it will hit our shores - and soon. Samsung's latest HD media center, the MV65, is a rather gorgeous-looking beast. Bright white, it boasts an integrated, hybrid analog/HDTV tuner with EPG and HD PVR functions. There's an electronic program guide, 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and a 512MB GeForce 7650 GS video card. Add to that a wireless keyboard and mouse and remote control, it looks pretty snazzerama. $1,505 are the magic numbers. – Ad Dugdale

Samsung MV65 HD Media Center PC is stylish [New Launches]

Yo Yo Yo! DJ Chicken Wings here, and this is my buddy MC Spare Ribs (although we also answer to Marvin and Ernesto). Bringing you the sounds of the BBQ, flickin' the switch while we flip the burgers. Yes Ma'am, be with you RIGHT IN AN INSTANT. Ernesto! Go serve the lady while I talk about this new wireless mixing controller from Hercules. It's got two channels so you can mix Pussycat Dolls with Linkin Park (Chicken Wings is Fi-eerrce, comprenday?) and even do some basic scratching with the two jog wheels.

When I scratch, that's when Mr Lightbody, our Manager, gets down on the Dickeys lino and, like, throws some crazy moves. And if he hasn't ruptured something, I press one of the FX buttons to, like, give him A to the P to the LAWS. Is that how you spell it, Mr Lightbody? I'm not sure how the thing works as I didn't bother with Computer Studies at school, I was more into Home Economics, see, but Mr Lightbody knows EVERYTHING. He's gonna hit you after the jump with all the tech stuff. Okay, gotta run, Ernesto's doing something with his boogers and that lady's ribs.

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The Topcon GR3 looks more like a heavy-duty flashlight than a GPS receiver. It looks like the kind of tool that Bruce Willis would use in one of the Die Hard movies to bop the bad guy over the head - or Ashton Kutcher if he's being a cheeky beggar. Really a tool for surveyors who need pinpoint accuracy - it uses 36 satellites to give you results down to the last milimeter - the GR3 is built to withstand the most extreme weather conditions. It has just won a prestigious award in Germany (making it more like David Hasselhoff than Mr T, perhaps) for design. But it's expensive: you won't get any change out of $22,000. – Ad Dugdale

Topcon GR3 GPS receiver gets design award [Navigadget]

Over the weekend, we teased you with a rumor that had been floating around, that Creative would introduce a tiny, flash-based audio player for under $50. Well, it happened, and it's actually under $40. (I mean "under" in the TV-announcer sense of the word.)

Creative's $39.99 1GB Zen Stone will be out this month, in six colors: black, white, red, blue, pink and green. Follow the jump for details, plus some very sweet photos you may not see anywhere else.

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This is the swimmer's equivalent to the pedometer, a length counter that makes me think of those old Walkman Sports. Stick the Lap Track on one end of the pool wall and it will show you all sorts of useful information as you power up and down the pool lane - best lap time, average lap time, average speed, total distance and calories burned. It only goes up to 50 lengths, but couch potato that I am, 50 lengths seems a lot of strokes to me. It runs on two AAA batteries and costs $60. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Waterproof Music via UberGizmo]

One day, hungarian designer Peter Zaolt Koren was at home thinking about how he could defeat a merciless alien invader called Ming or Zoltan. Or something like that. Suddenly, he had a strange revelation: why would anyone buy and wear horrible clothing especially designed for iPods when you can actually turn any clothing into wearable iPod nano covers? "As soon as it could hold your nano through one millimeter fabrics" he thought, "I would be as cool as freeware."

So the ModYFire iWear clip-thingy was born. At last, a whole two generations of iPod nano users will be free to turn their entire wardrobe into silly looking pinched t-shirts, skirts, trousers and boxer pants. And wear them adopting awkward poses like the people in the gallery for just $25. All thanks to Zaolt's invention and his plan to build a rocket to protect us against alien invaders. –Jesus Diaz

Product page [ModYFire]

Just a quick reminder from our buddy Phil that the Maker Faire is coming up on May 19 and 20 at the San Mateo fairgrounds. We'll be there—as will Phil and thousands of other do-it-yourselfers—hanging out with a bunch of guys with way too much time on their hands and all the awesome stuff they make. – Jason Chen

[via Gadget Lab]

As famous as the DeLorean car is, you've probably never heard of the DeLorean Time watch—and for good reason. John DeLorean made this garish silver DeLorean-esque monstrosity for the sole purpose of raising funds for him to build a new sports car, the DMC2.

Each watch was to be $3,495, and by buying it, you were placed on a list for an exclusive early chance to buy a DMC2 when it was available. John unfortunately passed in 2005, so neither watch nor car made it to stores. However, you can still see what the planned watch design was going to look like, except that the dial was hidden in the picture on the left. – Jason Chen

DELOREAN TIME - The DMC2 Wristwatch [Watchismo]

We're big fans of gadgets shaped like other gadgets or one gadget shoved inside another gadget, and this flashlight cellphone is no exception. Designed for use in emergencies, this flashlight phone from Willcom runs on two flashlight batteries and has no screen.

We suppose it's useful to store this with the rest of your emergency supplies, but we'd probably prefer to keep our regular phone on us instead. We can never remember anyone's number if it's not already programmed in. – Jason Chen

MobileMentalism

I've not done half the blogging of CeBIT as intended. Sorry. Time has flown away on me since yesterday morning, but I do have a swag of coverage to post later today. Featuring Sony, Google, Sennheiser, D-Link, Netcomm, automated desks, crazy German research hardware, and girls in a spa. -Seamus Byrne

Nike's quietly rolled out a second-generation Nike+ Sport Armband for the iPod Nano, which incidentally fixes what could be biggest mistake on the first one: the inability to see the screen.

In the 2nd-gen version, Nike's cut a hole so you can see what the hell's going on with your workout, but it still keeps the same fabric and still holds the Nike+iPod receiver. It's $29.95, and you can grab one over at the Apple store. Too bad Nike didn't fix the problem we had, which was the instantaneous crushing of the iPod when we put this on our biceps because our muscles were too huge. Ha, ha. Just kidding. We have no muscles. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Apple via iLounge]

As useful as those hanging shower trays are, they can't compare when it comes to the cool factor with this Shower Octopus. Although pricey, the octopus gives you enough arms to hold five bottles in mid-air—something octopuses are known for.

The only thing we'd be concerned about (other than the fact that octopuses have eight legs and this has like twelve) is the bottles slipping through the hooks and onto our feet. That's happened enough already with our clumsy hands that we don't feel like repeating them with this. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Uptoyoutoronto (look under bath section) via Nerd Approved]

If you're at all curious about how the PlayStation Eye works, Penny Arcade's got you covered. Har har. Now if you really want to know how it works, check out this interview with the creator to get an insight into their decision making and see what improvements they've made over the EyeToy. – Jason Chen

Penny Arcade

The Halo UV Vacuum aims to make paranoid germophobes not flee your home at the site of your carpet, which typically contains 100,000 dust mites per square yard. It claims to terminate the mold, dust mites, germs, viruses, bacteria and other microscopic creepy-crawlers lurking in your carpet and mattress with extreme prejudice—granted, I don't if anything can kill what's undoubtedly festering in my roommate's mattress.

It also sports a HEPA filter, telescoping handle and automatic height shifter. Plus, the rep promised me it could totally handle the Oreck challenge and lift a bowling ball, which totally sold me.

If the germ genocide works, the only things that suck (sorry, had to) are the price ($400, like another sweet vacuum) and that the UV light doesn't make for a fun light show to keep you entertained while you vacuum, which is what I was hoping for. More pics after the jump.

– Matt Buchanan

Product Page [Halo]

May 9th is looking to be a big day for Intel. That's when their new Bearlake chipset is expected to make its debut. In a nutshell, the new chipset will let you use DDR3 memory modules on your mobo. Cool, right? 'Cause DDR3 is faster than DDR2? Not really.

You see, when benchmarked, today's DDR2 memory beats DDR3 memory so until DDR3 hits 1.33GHz and 1.6GHz speeds, it's not worth making any drastic upgrades for. Our advice, wait it out to see those initial Bearlake benchmarks and then make your upgrades. – Louis Ramirez

DDR3 Launch Set for May 9th [The Inquirer]

The TVR Tuscan is a primo sports car, and for those who can't afford the $100,000 price tag, you can pretend with the TVR Tuscan wireless mouse! It is powered by a couple of AAA batteries (a small step down from the traditional 360hp engine) and includes two buttons, scroll wheel and blue lights. $40. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via gearfuse]

Looking for a way to get Blu-ray on your PC? Pioneer is making it a little bit easier with their BDC-2202 Blu-ray drive (that's the older model in the pic above). The $299 drive will read BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE discs at speeds of up to 5x while also reading BD-ROM (DL) and BD-R/RE (DL) discs at 2x speeds.

Mac fans can fall back on this drive (which is pricier) or if you wanna swing both ways, there's always the LG option. Just remember—if you're getting it to watch Blu-ray movies on your PC you gotta have the right video card and monitor set up (HDCP friendly), so you may be better off just getting a standalone player. – Louis Ramirez

Press Release

Marketed in Korea, this USB Fishtank is the perfect thing for a desk jockey that's too lazy to actually turn and take care of its fish. See, the USB connection hooks up to a software suite with a virtual fishtank, and whatever you do on the software fishtank—make bubbles, change the water temperature, or monitor the filter device—will be replicated in the actual fish tank.

Best of all, there's a monitor built into the tank so you can avoid even looking at it. Why not just cut out the actual fish tank and make this thing a software-only affair? – Jason Chen

A computer raises fishes? [AVING]

If you were at all interested in the Vudu box announcement—which promised an HD set-top box capable of streaming movies via P2P—this rumor may just give you a reason to get excited about the PS3 again. A source tells Sony Protection Group that Sony's planning on integrating a P2P file-sharing service transparently into PlayStation Home in order to lessen the loads on Sony's own servers.

Why should Sony's bandwidth bill matter to you? Well, if it means you can download or stream a movie faster through P2P compared with just plain downloading, then you should care. If Sony's serious about making the PS3 a multi-media center, then they're going to have to start putting real HD movies on there to compete with the Xbox 360. With Sony's big bucket of movies thanks to their film division, it's only a question of whether they want to. – Jason Chen

Sony's P2P Network [Sony Protection Group]

May 2, only a few more days until the festivities begin. Cinco de Mayo is the reason for the festivities I'm speaking of. Even though I am only half Hispanic, Cinco de Mayo is the perfect excuse to eat nachos, sit outside and get drunk on Modelo, Tecate and Corona. This heated nacho tray is the perfect accessory for that Cinco de Mayo party. It will keep the dip nice and toasty. It is powered with the good 'ole fashion wall outlet, but this device is just begging for a USB mod. $19. –Travis Hudson

Nacho lovers will love the electric Chip and Dip tray [Shiny Shiny]

What did you miss while you were off being asleep?

Apple confirms LED backlighting for this year.
Jobs looking to lay some green smackdown on the competition.

NVIDIA decides the 8800 GTX needs a bump, welcomes Ultra.
Yeah, but when will all this work better on Vista than XP?

Giz explores the state of the graphics card wars.
It's far from over, so catch up on what's what.

Digg folks go nuts over pulled HD-DVD key story.
Late update: Digg caved to user pressure... could get in some legal hot water now.

These Rohto V Arctic eye drops are supposed to "keep eyes cool under the strain of today's techno lifestyles," in particular the kind that results from staring at a monitor 20 hours a day, like we do at Giz. The "cool" part is supposed to be the menthol in the drops, which their rep said had her hooked on them.

I became suspicious when I read that I had to wait 15 minutes to put in my contacts after using the drops. Luckily for you guys, today I happened to be wearing glasses. I held the bottle over my eye and let two drops fall in.

Aftermath with picture after the jump.

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I don't know if it would be legit to actually call these headphones "wireless," but how about "wire free." The headphones attach directly to the iPod shuffle. It is an excellent idea to eliminate the cords, but something would be fishy about seeing someone walking around with what looks like an iPod shuffle grafted to the back of their head. This isn't the actual final design, but Arriva's founder said that final product is very close to what is seen above. –Travis Hudson

Oxymoronic wireless headphones for Apple's iPod Shuffle II [Crave]

Interested in working on your short game but that pesky backyard pool getting in the way? This poolside golf game is the perfect solution to that predicament. It floats in the water, and you can chip special "hoop-and-loop" (Velcro) balls onto it. Miss the target and be forced to get wet retrieving the balls. It is like a sick and twisted version of Chinese water torture, but in polos. If you feel the need to work on that long game, just toss the poolside golf game into the ocean. $50.

Floating golf, floating table tennis, what's next, floating foosball? I hope, foosball rocks. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

Can't seem to get your S.O. interested in your gaming hobby? Perhaps the project of dying your Wii straps will bridge the cap between arts and crafts and your fragging.

Beyond just being fun for the whole family, dying the straps will make it easy to tell which one your kids' friends slobbered all over and which one you keep in a drawer just for you. And at $4 each, it's pretty cheap as well. Then again, if just having a Wii isn't getting your wife into gaming, perhaps you've got no hope after all. – Jason Chen

Project Page [Instrutables via Kotaku]

SUCK UK (yes, their actual company name) has designed this very unique capsule LED clock and message display. It has a whole slew of LEDs and can be programmed to stream messages along with the time and date. The capsule design makes it perfect for that contemporary or futuristic-designed home. I can imagine it now... Ikea desks and the capsule LED clock fusing together for the ultimate contemporary, cheap living space accessory. Oh wait, that would never work because Ikea is cheap and this thing isn't. It has a £179 price tag. This programmable clock should be able to predict the future for £179. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via ChipChick]

Because breakfast isn't nerdy enough, I present to you the Keyboard Waffle Iron. There's really nothing else to be said about this wonder of modern technology, but I invite you to make your best keyboard/waffle puns in comments. Come on, let's see what you've got. –Adam Frucci

Chris Dimino [via Treehugger]

Since man discovered digital video compression, he's been fashioning tools to view smut entertainment on the big screen. Early attempts of cutting out holes for CRT monitors were futile, as were the fruitless attempts at training monkeys to hold laptops at eye level. Luckily, companies like Netgear have better solutions.

Their EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD is a media streamer that can suck almost any audio or video format from your computer to your overpriced HDTV—upscaling and supporting resolutions up to 1080p. Is this the all-in-one digital connectivity mecca we've been searching for? And how does it stack up against the Apple TV?

CNET, LAPTOP, Living Digitally and PCMag have an opinion on the matter...

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This looks like a pretty average doormat, but it is well above average. This RNID doormat has a pressure sensor underneath. When something activates the pressure sensor the mat will shoot a wireless signal to a pager device that can alert an ignorant parent that their child has left the house, again. Parenting just got that much easier! –Travis Hudson

RNID Contact Mat - keep track of your toddlers [TechDigest]

This super-healthy Weil-designed slow-cooker makes the process of slow cooking that much easier (because it is practically like rocket science). It includes an LCD display on the front that is chock-full of healthy recipes that you can scroll through and even program your own into. Once you have a recipe selected, put the ingredients in and program the temperature and desired time. Once it is done cooking it will automatically switch to a warming mode so it will be nice and toasty by the time you get back from the circus. $150. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

Jobs wants Apple to be a green Apple. In this message to the little people, he outlines his plans to save Mother Earth by changing the way Macs are made. Luckily, that doesn't involve cardboard computer cases. No! We get brighter, more energy efficient, monitors out of the deal, just like we've always wanted.

We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007...Apple plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.

Who knew being a hippie could be so cool.

In the rest of the note, Steve breaks down the changes at Apple, naughty chemical by naughty chemical. And he calls out his competitors:

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When it comes to iPod speaker docks, it's hard to be different, but Altec Lansing's iMV712 dock gets a leg up on its competition by embedding an 8.5-inch widescreen display in what otherwise would have been just another speaker dock. The dock also includes RCA inputs and an S-Video output. If you've go enough videos on your iPod and could use a boombox in your bedroom, this $349 system should make a nice companion (though to be honest, we wouldn't mind a price drop ). – Louis Ramirez

Press Release

Just a reminder to those of you who purchased an Xbox 360 Elite already. If you fill out a migration kit order form included with your machine, Microsoft will send you a cable free of charge.

It's free for a limited time, since Microsoft didn't really target Elite at upgraders, but didn't want to piss them off either. Grab one and transfer your stuff already. – Jason Chen

Update: There's some confusion as to what the transfer process does. If you don't use this cable to transfer, yes you lose your downloaded game videos which you can download again, but you also lose access to your Arcade games, which end up as demos if you try and download them again.

Also, it doesn't render the 20GB one useless. It just wipes out the old data on there. You can still use it as a spare drive.

Migration Help [Xbox via Kotaku]

The video card war has been pretty dirty these past few months, with Nvidia giving ATI as many right hooks as it can. Well, get ready for another one, 'cause today marks the debut of the GeForce 8800 Ultra, which builds on the 8800 GTX with faster memory speed (2.16GHz) and a faster core speed (612MHz).

It's not radically different from the 8800 GTX, but it'll give you a nice bump or two. It'll be out May 15th for around $829. Poor gamers can always fall back on these cards. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [via Electronista]

The MP3 Pocket Player has been created to fit your pocket jeans thanks to its bent design. The designer says that it's not only easier to wear but the curves will also make it easier to read the minuscule screen and access the controls. And, looking at the thing in action, it looks like he might be right. Another pic after the jump.

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This new Samsung ninja cyborg can apparently rotate their new CX971P 19-inch display into any angle with a single move of her organic plastic-covered, laser-tipped titanium finger. All thanks to its MagicRotation mechanism.

OK, so maybe she doesn't have lasers. Or isn't a cyborg. We can only wish. However, this new version of the 971P, has a positively laser-sharp 4000:1 contrast ratio and fast 6ms response time. It's Korea-only for now, but like the current $379.99 version, expect it to see it around here soon. –Jesus Diaz

Samsung CX971P LCD Monitor with MagicRotation [I4U News]

If you can't manage to take your Hummer out on the town without a guarantee that you'll be able to shoot hoops, you might have a problem. That problem won't be solved by dropping $500 on a basketball hoop that attaches to the back of your vehicle, but I guess it'll keep your stress levels down.

It seems to me that you could make basketball a lot more interesting by having a buddy drive slowly around the parking lot while you're trying to play. Sure, it might be dangerous, but it will justify sticking a giant basketball hoop on the back of your car a little bit more. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Core77]

The British Government is working on a plan to have cameras and tracking devices monitoring all cars at all times. It's in order to be able to properly charge people for congestion pricing plans, a system already in place in London and heading to Manhattan in the next year.

Sure, it's great to be able to charge tolls without the traffic snarls that tollbooths cause, but giving the government the ability to track exactly where any of their citizens are going at any given time opens the door for some serious abuses. There's already been a petition against the system that's garnered 1.8 million signatures, so it's safe to say that the public is wary of the plan.

What do you think, are the benefits of less traffic and fewer greenhouse emissions worth the sacrifice in privacy? –Adam Frucci

Reuters [via GadgetLab]

The word on the streets is that RIM's BlackBerry 8300 might show up as early as next week, and that it will bear the (classy?) name "Curve".

We already told you that the smartphone formerly known as Daytona won't have Wi-Fi, nor any kind of 3G. As a GSM handset, it looks like it's having the same basic troubles that Nokia and others are having trying to build a world phone that runs on US HSDPA. (The 8830, a CDMA phone, had no trouble conforming to EVDO standards.) Give it a year perhaps?

Now we have new facts, or at least new educated guesses, along with some tantalizing rumors.

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