Here is the new Apple MacBook (whee!) with the same old design (ooh). They come complete with new Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 2.16GHz, 1GB of RAM, SuperDrive, 802.11n wireless, 200GB HD and the usual arrange of ports, with prices starting at $1,099. The 2.16 machines get 8x SuperDrives with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). Old machines topped at 2.0Ghz, with 6x drives.
But no Santa Rosa, like all those PCs we saw unveiled last week. Awwww man!

The update is not very impressive. Unfortunately, no sight of new MacBook Pros, LED backlit displays or solid state hard drives for now, much less of the fabled MacBook Mini.

On one hand, we miss Boom style laptop launches. On the other, we're glad to have periodic updates to Mac lineup. Before Intel, Jobs had to forge the updated Power PC chips by hand, with Woz on the cordless phone telling him how to strike his hammer just so. Ah Woz...

Product page [Apple]

Fresh out of imagination? Now you can add full realism to your Wii fighting games such as Zelda and Red Steel with this Wii Combat Pack, including a realistic-looking sword, knife and shield into which you place your Wii remote and nunchuck.

Its makers insist that its foam material is perfectly safe, but we're wondering why you can't just supply your own make-believe weapons in your hands while you look at the screen for more inspiration. Plus, everybody else in the house will think you're a tool. What next, a helmet, and full battle regalia? So get yourself the ability to hallucinate, or pay for it here for $19. – Charlie White

Product Page [Brando]

This is the new helmet-mounted display system for the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. The helmet is designed to provide pilots with binocular-wide field-of-view, give night vision abilities and scare enemy pilots at first sight. It was used for the first time last April, making the F-35 the first combat plane without a cockpit-mounted heads-up display in a very long time.

Beyond making the pilot look like a spooky insect (comic book nerd moment: the Morpheus helmet from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comes to mind), the F-35 HDMS is loaded with all kinds of amazing goodies, like extreme off-axis targeting and head tracking "providing the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability." The helmet was developed by Vision Systems International, a company that has other quite weird designs that are already operational, like the DASH and the JHMCS. Technical specs and another image of the F-35 HMDS after the jump.

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Design-wise, the Flexi PDA concept may be one of the most interesting Tablet PCs I've seen in a while. When its unfolded, it works like a tablet and features its own QWERTY keyboard. Thanks to the handheld's flexible screen, you can also fold it in half and use as a cellphone.

The device, which was designed by Daniel Alexander, is also water-resistant, making it a nice companion for outdoorsy types who want to remain connected without being bogged down by a laptop. Overall, it's an interesting concept that we hope manufacturers pick up on. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [via Sci-Fi Tech]

Last month's Salon di Mobile (note to non-Italian speakers: that's a Furniture Fair, nothing to do with cellphones) in Milan played host to a Sony booth. The reason? The Japanese company has been working on a collaboration with a bunch of master craftsmen from Lombardy, where Sony's design concepts were made into (beautiful) reality by these Italian furniture makers.

The "piece" above is a laser-engraved coffee table with built-in projector and there are another nine in the gallery below, aimed at, say Sony, "creating a pleasant relation among human, product and space." If you say so, sunshine. From marble-based speakers to leather-upholstered chairs with surround sound, all is here. Enjoy and think of all the big cheeses at Sony, whose homes are now probably full of these one-offs that no one will ever get a sniff at. – Ad Dugdale

Sony Design Center in partnership with Master Lombard artisans: Europe [Sony Press Release]

Here's a cool trick Eric Stroud and and Michael Herrmann discovered: Sharks hate magnets. And the thing is, anyone who is a shark geek and a magnet geek can kind of mentally put it together. With the shark being able to sense weak currents in the water, this has GOT to feel like chewing tinfoil to Jaws. Next up: Magnets sewn into wetsuits.

We know lots of you have TV shipping horror stories. Hell we do too, once we got a review TV that was packaged just like this poor TV. While it was broken, it wasn't in nearly as bad shape as this guy.

No word on if this was packaged by the same people who made the Mommy Furniture.– Ben Longo

How not to ship a plasma TV [Geekologie]

A dispatch from the Clio awards [Slate]

Check this out. Order a Mac in Japan, get a free Bearbrick. Cool, but not quite topping my favorite Lego/Apple Mashup ever, the 1984 ad diorama in building blocks. – Brian Lam

Apple Bearbrick [Plastic Bamboo]

It's a good thing the Jingle Jugs wasn't out when David Brent was still working for Wernham Hogg, otherwise the women in that workplace would really have had something to complain about. There's not much to this gadget once you boil it down to its essentials: a pair of singing, vibrating tits for $49. Which is enough for us. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Jingle Jugs via Slashgear]

A new report by Forrester Research declares that the paid video download market is going to come to a grinding halt in 2008, despite growing rapidly into 2007. Why? Forrester analyst James McQuivey thinks we're going to withhold our credit card numbers and migrate to free content—besides, according to McQuivey, despite Apple's best efforts to make it easy for all, it's only us "media addicts" who've jumped in.

The shaky manifesto wavers a bit into believability, however, when he says that the current geek-heaviness owes to "the average consumer still being confused about different video formats and DRM rights, getting downloaded video onto the TV, and premium content being slow to arrive to the digital market." On that much, he's right.

But is that enough to reason to think paid downloads are doomed to imminent oblivion in the wake of say, Joost? Or a subscription service attached to your 360 or Apple TV? As Ars points out, people occasionally do like to own the content they watch. You know, sometimes. And the market's still in its relative infancy, with potentially lots of room to grow into the proper niches to fit users' tastes.

Have guys paid for a video download? From who? – Matt Buchanan

Forrester: Paid video downloads, Apple TV a "dead end" [Ars Technica]
Image via Flickr

We're big fans of the online game rental company Gamefly here, so this deal is both fantastic and devious, depending on how ethical you are. Gamefly has a deal going that will give you either a Wii or one... Read More »

Architect, David Fisher, has envisioned a new tower that includes one part wind turbines and one part independently motorized floors. Together they create a spinning generator of doom.

The tower is based around a concrete center core and then each floor will be placed one on top of another (like a sandwich). This format will allow every level to have its very own wind turbine. When all of the turbines are harnessed together the tower will not only be able to power itself, but up to ten other similarly sized ones as well. Darn, I thought Captain Planet was going to show up.

Jump ahead to see a fun fanciful choreographed video of the proposed tower.

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Are you an "audiophile system installer" frustrated by cabinet speakers that don't perform in your living room like they did in the lab? Do you like feeling a constant sense of vague paranoia, like someone's watching you? Then Proclaim Audiworks' DMT-1000 speakers just might be the speakers for you. While the spherical shape is ostensibly for sound quality, the design screams "look at me!" ('cause it's looking at you, duh) rather than "listen to me!" For $26,000, you had better be doing a lot of both. – Matt Buchanan

Product Page [via Crave]

Did you hear that dpreview.com was just bought out by Amazon? If you're not familiar with dpreview, it's the largest database for digital camera reviews and news on the internet. Hell, it's even the first result if you type "cameras" into Google.

But how does the purchase of the biggest camera review site by the biggest online retailer affect you? Well, we (and the rest of the tech community) are still debating this internally, but the fact that Amazon is now owner and watcher of the site may call into question its impartiality towards camera reviews. Will Amazon pass down edicts for the reviewers telling them to pimp cameras with higher margins? Who knows. But something like this is akin say, CNET being bought out by Fry's.

In the meantime, we'll still give them the benefit of the doubt and believe they can give honest and unbiased reviews until they prove otherwise. We hope they stay true to their number one Google ranking. – Jason Chen

Press Release [dpreview]

PSU has the latest details on the upcoming version 2.00 update your PlayStation 3 is getting, and it looks like a big one. One of the main features Sony's adding—and that users have been asking in order to catch up to the Xbox 360—is access to the Cross Media Bar when inside a game. Now you can hop to any other PS3 area or just change settings without quitting your game. Score.

Other items of note are energy saver settings, fast forwarding through music, CD information, password protecting accounts, and some backward compatibility changes. The update should hit relatively soon, but we'll let you know when it's up. – Jason Chen

PlayStation 3 Firmware v. 2.00 Update Details [PSU]

Mother's day has passed, but that doesn't mean you still won't enjoy these Mommy's Chairs. Yes, these are actual chairs—not sketches—that look like a retarded child drew them. They come in short bus yellow, slow learning blue, "gifted" green, and of course, retarded red. Plus, they cost you about $564 a chair and they only ship to the UK.

p.s. apologies to any disabled kids or parents of disabled kids for the overuse of the word retard in this post. And many of my other posts. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Wheredidyoubuythat via Nerd Approved]

If you're one of the few people (like us) still eagerly awaiting the summer blockbuster spectacular Transformers, you'll love these transformers watches from Seiko.

They may be goofy, and they may be supremely low tech, but they're definitely made for the nine-year-old boy inside of you. Note: we said the nine-year-old inside of you, not the nineteen-year-old co-ed you have locked up in the basement. By the way, we've called the cops on you Mark Wilson.

More pics after the jump.

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Rumors are already flying about BlackBerry's next Pearl revision, appropriately deemed the 8120. This BlackBerry is rumored for a late summer release and will be a significant update to the already existing 8100 "Pearl." Most notable is the addition of GPS, Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera and three new colors (titanium, blue and gold). The latest news is that the phone will officially be hitting Rogers in Canada this September with U.S. carriers (none confirmed) getting it a week earlier, so if you are in the market for a Pearl it may be better to chill for a bit.

GPS and Wi-Fi? Bye-bye battery life. –Travis Hudson

BlackBerry 8120 to replace the BlackBerry Pearl? [BGR]

Don't wanna pay $12 to see Spider-Man 3 in theaters? The folks at Comcast wanna stream the movie straight to your living room provided you pay 'em between $29 to $49/per movie. That's right, for the price of a... Read More »

Remember to bring your Bluetooth-enabled phones if you manage to make it to an Astros game at Minute Maid Park. The Astros have launched Bluetooth zones all around the park where folks can download video and audio clips, applications,... Read More »

This is the work of Debbie at DebbieDoesCakes (awesome name of a business) and it makes me wonder what kind of a couple loves TiVo so much to have the mascot as their wedding cake?

I do have to compliment Debbie on the outstanding work. Each cake is 18-inches tall and I would assume they were laid down to be cut into. To the couple that received these cakes: I would think about re-evaluating the marriage. Pardon my Sex and the City reference, but it is pretty easy to fall in love with a TiVo (ask Miranda) and possibly fall out of love with another, we should know. –Travis Hudson

Picture of the Day: Holy Matrimony [ZNF]

Having had a look at the new DLPs and LCDs from Mitsubishi, due out this August. The TVs are sweet; the DLPs have impressive viewing angles both widthwise and up-and-down. The LCDs appear to have great contrast and high performance, though it's really important to hold off judgment until we can compare them. In the meantime, I have unearthed a few things we didn't discuss when we covered the announcement.

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The traditional summer water balloon fight just got a little more intense. Fill up a water balloon and load it into this shoulder-mounted water mortar. It uses a spring-loaded mechanism to fire the water balloon. The effective range is anywhere from 15 to 20 feet, and this device is sure to piss off Mom. $40. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via SCI FI]

If you were intrigued by the Sony Ericsson P1 we told you about last week, here's a video preview of the device. It's a good walkthrough if you were wondering how the phone looks in the size of a normal person's hands, assuming Jens Greve has normal-sized hands.

Even with the combined-keys on the QWERTY, Jack from Experience Mobility says he could enter in text faster than he could on his Treo within 5 minutes. Extra video after the jump.

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Looking for a pair of speakers to jazz up your desktop? Boynq's new motion-sensitive Saturn could do the trick. The spherical speaker must be standing upright in order to pump out audio. To turn it off, you place the sphere on its back. Sure, they sound gimmicky, but at least the speakers will keep your desktop tidy since they're USB-powered. And in addition to your computer, they'll also connect to any device with a 3.5mm audio-out. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [via Everything USB]

According to this internal AT&T doc to sales reps, the iPhone will not be available for preorder. I predict lines of fanboys, much like at the PS3 launch day, with lots of crime and anarchy to go along with.... Read More »

Oh yeah, we could totally see James Bond using this gigantic monstrosity of a cellphone. In our opinion, Roger Moore could have used this VIP 007 cellphone from China back in the '70s, where it would seem completely futuristic and blend right in with the other tacky stuff they shoved into his films (call us Connery fans).

Featuring a gigantic antenna, a 2-megapixel camera, Bond's "signature," stars, and what looks like a horrific dog/sheep spawn on the back, this phone is a prerequisite for any spy worth his weight in yuan. – Jason Chen

007 Phone [Phonedaily via Akihabara News via uber phones]

This rumor seems to come out of nowhere, but the combination of wishful thinking and high-end technology is what makes it so good. AppleInsider says a source told them Apple will integrate 3G access into a MacBook model. Other laptop makers have already introduced the trend into their business and "luxury" models, but Apple is supposedly integrating the card into the display, which saves space and increases performance.

If they do support this, it's likely they'll go with not EV-DO, but AT&T's HSDPA. Why? Well, the iPhone of course. – Jason Chen

Source: Apple may build 3G wireless into future notebook model [AppleInsider]

We've been eagerly awaiting a chance to get our hands on the JVC HD Everio GZ-HD7 hard drive camcorder, and now that we've had one here for the past few days, we were not disappointed. Here are our impressions of its usability, picture quality and overall design.

Holding the camcorder is a delight. It feels like the designers of this device have carefully considered the user, because this little camcorder fits perfectly in the hand. Nice usability touches such as powering the camcorder on when you open its 16x9 widescreen display, a little focus assist button up front right where you need it, and our favorite, an easy-to-use focus ring, add a lot to this overall user-friendly package.

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Dell Home has another solid deal on a quality Sony Cybershot digital camera. The DSC-S650 is a small digital camera with a 7.2-megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 2.0-inch LCD and 24MB of internal memory. The one downside is that... Read More »

Shiro was a year late getting this soccer ball MP3 player out—it was created for the World Cup (which took place last summer), but it is still pretty neat looking nonetheless. As an MP3 player, it is pretty dull with up to 1GB of memory, an OLED display, FM tuner and support for WMA, WAV and MP3. But it certainly looks sweet with the traditional soccer ball hexagon panels acting as the buttons. –Travis Hudson

shiro mp3 player inspired by soccer ball [technabob]

Designed by Nikita Golovlev, the Traveller is a GPS navigation system made from E-paper so it can fold and close like a paperback. The unit was created with tourists in mind, letting them pinpoint where they are and easily upload recent photos (the unit will have built-in Wi-Fi and limited storage). The concept is cool, and if it can tell me how to find the nearest bar, I'm all for it. Although for travel purposes, I do wish it were a tad thinner. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [via Gadget Lab]

Lexar's JumpDrive Secure II Plus brings the e-ink capacity meter previously seen in their other drives and the 256-bit AES encryption previously seen in the JumpDrive Secure II. The result? Something pretty convenient and secure, not to mention that it's the cheapest drive they have that has the e-ink capacity display.

The drive comes with the Lexar dashboard software for both Mac and Vista (although the OS X version required a driver install and a reboot) that was easy to use and easy to create mounted encrypted partitions on the drive. After setting aside 500MB of our 1GB drive on the partition—which was then mounted as a separate disk—we could drag and drop files onto it and it would be completely unreadable (it just looked like a file) when the drive was on another machine unless you knew the password.

What's also convenient is the ability to encrypt and decrypt files that are not on the drive, meaning you can use the drive to encrypt half the files on your hard drive if you wanted. Except if you lost the drive, well, you'd probably have to go buy another one. All in all, their claims of this being the cheapest drive with the e-ink and 256-bit AES encryption makes this drive worthwhile in sizes from 512MBs up to 4GBs. An 8GB version should be available soon. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Lexar]

We've already seen some countries get uncomfortable with Google Earth's satellite images. You know, countries like Pakistan and North Korea. Well, it seems like a government closer to home might want Google to tone it down a bit: the U.S. government.

Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, recently stated that the government is increasingly uncomfortable with the images being available online. They might take steps such as cutting funding of satellite companies that provide Google with the images, which would be a pretty weak move on their part. No word on whether or not they'll ban YouTube in the U.S. until they agree to take this video down. You know you're in trouble when you're taking free speech cues from North Korea. –Adam Frucci

Information Week [via Boy Genius Report]

I know the Wiimote is supposed to be more about motion control than the old-fashion ways, but some people miss those old ways. For those missing getting the Nintendo fix with an analog stick and buttons (like the GameCube and N64 has) this peripheral is for you. It is an adapter for the Wiimote that can change the D-pad to a less old-school analog joystick. It is officially called Remocon and by the packaging and website, I would assume it is a cheap-y Asian-made product, but whatever as long as I can have my beloved analog joystick. $6. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

This week, as part of the Help Key column, Crunchgear's Vince Veneziani explored the topic of piracy and explained it from A to Z. If you aren't familiar with piracy, this is an excellent place to start. Vince explores a variety of areas including the basics, the different methods of pirating and even how to release material, which is something I was pretty clueless about. Hit it up. I know you are desperate to own a copy of Georgia Peach and knowing about piracy is the only way to do so. Nice write-up, Vince. (Oh, and Gizmodo doesn't condone pirating or any of that jazz.) –Travis Hudson

Help Key: The Essential Guide to Piracy [CrunchGear]

Why would Woz wear a watch on each wrist? And what kinds of watches would a man with his finger on the pulse of the tech industry sport? Not your standard Timex, that's for damned sure.

In another segment from my interview with Steve Wozniak last week, we see what kind of gear he keeps strapped to his person at all times. If there ever was someone suited to wear these insane watches, the Woz is it. Have we mentioned that we like Woz? Check back tomorrow for more. –Adam Frucci with video by Richard Blakeley

Join the gurus of cool in Coolness Roundup episode 87, praising and blasting product after product in lots of lively tech talk. This week, join Gizmodo's Charlie White and Sci Fi Tech's Stephen Schleicher as they give you their hands-on impressions of Adobe's latest software uber-suite, CS3, and evaluate features of the as-yet-unreleased video editing application Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 as well as compositing app After Effects.

After that, get the real story on that eStarling picture frame, a second attempt at a Wi-Fi enabled display that flops just as badly as the first one did. Then Charlie and Stephen really separate the coolness from the lukewarm with their Rapid Fire Roundup of Cool Products they've seen during the week. It's all on the Coolness Roundup, a free download from the iTunes store or you can get it straight from the show's official website.

Program Site [Coolness Roundup]

We're keeping our eyes on deadbolt technology these days, and here's one step beyond that keyless locking deadbolt we showed you a couple of weeks ago: The BioLock Fingerprint Deadbolt lock lets you open sesame with the touch of your index finger.

It can learn 50 different fingerprints, and for the old-school members of your household, yes, it has a regular old lock and key as a backup. It takes just a second to recognize your fingerprint, and you can swipe your finger to both lock and unlock it.

More details and pricing:

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MTV and Cisco are doing a "Digital Incubators" program, a joint venture between mtvU and Cisco that offers $30,000 in seed money to college kids who come up wit