A Gizmodo reader underwent a vasectomy to get an Apple iPhone, following wife's orders after a roadtrip with his kids to Boise, Colorado. But fear not, dear readers-with-your-manly-parts-still-intact, because his amazing tale of heroic Apple fandom doesn't include any Bobbit-style genital violence. Keep reading to know why and the —strange— happy finish.

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We're big fans of master craftsman and computer constructor Jeffrey Stephenson's work, and now he's outdone himself with the Skyscraper Photo PC, made entirely of basswood and mahogany veneer. We've shown you some of Stephenson's work before, the beautiful Decomatic Model 12, and now it looks like he's outdone himself with this case mod with a flat panel display out front to show off your favorite pics or vids.

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For the first time ever, Samsung has kicked Motorola out of the second position in the worldwide cellphone manufacturers ranking. Dropping its market share from 22.1% to 13%, this ends four years of Motorola being #2 behind Nokia. Comparing their handsets, the only thing that surprises us is that they didn't overtake them at least a year ago. How was it for the rest, including Apple?

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A 15-story office block in the heart of London is being demolished backwards in order to build a skyscraper in its place. Demolishers are working up from the ground level upwards, dismantling each floor to reveal the concrete core of the P&O building. Find out why, and the new skyscraper replacing it, after the jump.

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This alarm clock is made up of four 1"x1.5" cubes that can be moved around independently - if you're running late you can just rearrange the cubes to suit.

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Nissan have announced a cunning new safety feature, aimed at pedestrians rather than drivers. In the event of an accident, the hood on the Skyline Coupe immediately pops up a few inches, creating a softer landing spot. Note the word, softer, not soft - getting hit by a Nissan is still going to sting. It should be released in the fall, and will hopefully spread to all models eventually. [Japan Today]

In a world of complex do-it-all gadgets, the T.sonic 840 might seem a little bland. It's a fairly basic digital audio player, supporting everything you'd expect in the audio (MP3, WMA, WAV, WMA-DRM10) and visual (JPG, BMP) departments. But it is the simple yet functional approach that allows Transcend's latest gadget to pump out tunes for thirty hours on single charge. The 1.8" color TFT-LCD displays everything including the karaoke lyrics scroller and will even do text, if you're into reading on tiny screens. It will even help you in your Spanish classes. ¿Qué?

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We have an update on the UWB wireless docking solution from Toshiba, and the bad news is they are still waiting on it to pass muster with the local regulators. Tosh is eager to hand it over, but they have to wait on the approvals before it will get a run.

The mothership gave us a more detailed look at the device a few days ago. -Seamus Byrne

From the heavyweight Qosmio G40, to the ultralight Portege R500. 12.1-inches, 19.5mm thin, and under 1kg - complete with a 64GB SSD storage option instead of a hard disk.

You also get a DVD writer built-in (only does single layer discs), LED backlight, 802.11n (no built-in HSDPA like in the US, not yet anyway), Bluetooth, and using the ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo the R500 claims a battery life around 12.5 hours.

$3300 for the 120GB HDD model, or $4125 for the 64GB SSD. -Seamus Byrne

Toshiba premiered their new notebooks this week, with the Qosmio G40 a big step up for the desktop replacement scene. And they've done a good job on improving the overall design of the whole Tosh lappy range, too.

There are a few killer features in here, like its HD DVD-R drive that offers 30GB of disc burning goodness - probably the sexiest implementation of HD DVD we've seen anywhere. You also get twin DVB-T tuners on board for serious TV viewing chops, plus support for 1080p and Virtual Dolby Surround (run through its very nice 4-speaker Harmon Kardon setup). Pretty much all the specs are top of range. Runs Windows Vista Ultimate out of the box too. It's available now for $4999. More details after the jump.

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Is no gadget sacred anymore? Here we have an old school Ericsson rotary telephone stripped of its innards which were subsequently replaced with a home-built Atari 'punk' console. Did we need a new way to present the Pong box? Hit the jump for the DIY schematic on the console itself.

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What made these $100 headphones irresistible Apple store iPhone retail bait? If it was a sin to use white earbuds with a nano, it surely was a sin to use it with a $600 phonepod. They're also the only... Read More »

This guy seems to have made it his ongoing life project to fool around with the awesome destructive power of the sun's rays. Over an extensive website tracing his progress, you can get the full story or just skip to the end where you'll find his amazing 'Light Sharpener'. It is a parabolic set of mirrors focused to deliver a hot spot that melts faces. Well it could. Thankfully he only melts some junk with it. No doubt he's biding his time, refining his device before holding the world to ransom for a trillion dollars.

The Light Sharpener [via Make]

Here's a cool little robot guy who rides a bike. Is it cheating when they only make the robot 50cm tall to ride a little bike? Even at that height, managing gyros and balances to get a robot to stay on two wheels is pretty clever stuff. He can even handle bumps in the road too, plus detect obstacles and avoid them. Go, Murato Boy, Go!

Extra points for the downloadable papercraft version of Murata Boy, so you can have your very own cool little guy on your desk. -Seamus Byrne

Murata Boy [via Make]

Bosch is offering a special deal on their current (2006) model cordless rotary hammer as part of the 75th anniversary of their first rotary demolition hammer - that's way back in 1932. Buy the GBH2-18RE and you'll get a Bosch T-shirt to feel all rugged out in the shed, along with 2 extra drill bits. Buy the 22RE and you'll get the T-shirt plus 6 extra drill bits. Not the most dazzling deal ever, but it's a good excuse to talk shed tools, right? And father's day is only a few weeks away! -Seamus Byrne
[Bosch Australia]

Epson has launched a new cheap multifunction that looks keen to keep everyone in the family happy. The Epson Stylus CS5500 is selling for just $99, offering up a printer, scanner, copier menage a trois.

One of the eye popping elements is an option to use individual colour cartridges starting from an RRP of just $8.99. These economy carts deliver 170 pages (black) or 200 pages (colour) - versus 240/380 in the full carts. A good price if you are only a casual printer, and they use the latest DURABrite Ultra inks, so you're not getting a cheapo ink mix either.

Full release below the fold.

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Sorry for the slow one. I need a fry up to soak up the big night (thankfully I'm not hungover, just tired). It's all in there now, so here's a few headlines to get you up to speed.

LOLZ iPhone display runs Windows XP LOLZ.
Getec V100 tablet PC laughs in face of danger.
Brain pacemaker awakens the near vegetative.
Spyke, the Skype robot.
First Fully-Armed Robots Patrolling in Iraq; First Shots Imminent.
LG KC1 smartphone has 4G WiMax/WiBro... and lots more.

Shooting for the moon is a bit easier when you have one of these wacky Russian personal moon light boxes. I can't even imagine what they're for, but the users so far have come up with some fascinating, classic and even cryptic uses for a portable crescent. Good luck getting any sleep next to this thing, though; it appears somebody accidentally set the brightness level to "sun." [English Russia]

It seems that Nokia N800 users have a bad case of you-know-what envy. First they recreated the iPhone's virtual keyboard (sans predictive text) and now they're after the iconic kinetic scrolling method. Written in Python, the code is due out "soonish" for N800 users. [JKOntheRun]

Walt Mossberg appears to be scooping again. This time, it's a review of VMWare's Fusion (Available this Monday, August 6th). The software, like Parallels, allows PC programs to run from within OS X. Mossberg compares them, simply:

Parallels has more features than Fusion...But I found Fusion puts less strain on the computer overall.

The latest IRISPen portable OCR scanner is ready to scoop up all the text you can throw at it. Just slide the pen over your text source and the magical goblins inside the pen convert it and toss it right into your favourite word processor. It will recognise any of 128 languages and the upgraded Translator version even offers to-and-from translations between eleven major languages. The Executive version offers a barcode scanner, but it won't translate, so your business had better be monolingual. $US129 will net you the basic Express model while you'll need to shell out $US149 and $US199 for the Translator and Executive versions, respectively. [IRISPen 6 via Electronista]

A big night and a failed alarm call this morning means I'm running late. Sorry! A good batch of local stories planned for today too, so check in later to see all the latest. -SB

Valleywag realises that Google will not likely do phone hardware themselves. Whatever. As long as it supports the software, hopefully some shiny Mobile Google OS, we're interested. Either way, this is what the WSJ and Reuters said today: •"Now it is drafting specifications for phones that can display all of Google's mobile applications at their best, and it is developing new software to run on them. The company is conducting much of the development work at a facility in Boston, and is working on a sophisticated new Web browser for cellphones." •Google has invested hundreds of millions on the project. •Google has also developed prototype phones, with partners like LG Electronics.

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If you thought putting your iPod nano in an Altoids tin was impressive, check out what Greg Sanders got inside a Penguin mints tin. It's a self-contained RPG game whose parts all fit inside the tin. All you have to do is plug in a Sega Genesis controller and a TV and you're set. Yes, but does it tell you how old your brain is? [MAKE via Play Gadgets]

Arnold Kim of Macrumors.com generally sticks to the speculative evidence, usually refraining from venturing into wilder guesses. Recently he brought to light a simple but so far unobserved pattern for better prediction:1) Apple Legal never gets involved for Images/Video of Fake Products and 2) Apple Legal always gets involved for Images/Video Real Products. This means that Apple Legal could be the best way to verify leaked images, since they can only C&D property that is theirs. I call the pair Arn's First and Second Theory of Apple Rumours.

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The Caltrain board is going to approve a multi-million-dollar project, finished by the end of 2008, that adds GPS and web-based tracking functionality for their trains. Caltrain, the SF Bay Area's commuter train, will then use the "Real Time Train Predictive Arrival GPS System" in nine train stops, allowing users to monitor the train's location/arrival via the website 511.org, and time their jog down to the train accordingly. [MercuryNews]

Advertisers are getting hip to new technologies, with a new Westin ad in Grand Central in NYC offering commuters a free ringtone via Bluetooth. We sent enterprising videoman Nick McGlynn to Midtown to check it out in person. Similar ads have popped up recently, such as a Target ad featuring a headphone jack that allowed people to listen to an album while they wait for the subway. This is the future of advertising! Brand loyalty via techno-bribes! Get excited!!!

It's one thing to peep studio shots of Motorola's Zante, the next evolutionary and yet unannounced step of the TMO Sidekick family. It's another to see it in the wild. This model is a bit beat up, so it's likely a prototype that's been around the block. As before, the specs are strikingly similar to the Sidekick 3's, with a ~2.4-inch screen, EDGE, 1.3MP cam, but with a sliding top instead of the flip.

If you need another reminder of how far ahead Korea is in the cellphone space compared to us, here's the LG KC1. It's got WiBro support, which is 4G and lets the phone get Wi-Fi speeds pretty much anywhere. The fast speeds allow the phone to do stuff like remote PC control, streaming videos, video calls and other ridiculously high-bandwidth apps that you could only do over Wi-Fi before. As for features, it's got DMB for live TV, a 2-megapixel camera, 512MB flash, an audio/video player, microSD slot and the front camera for 3G video calling. Even though it's running Windows Mobile 5, this is still a phone we'd happily trade in most other phones for (provided we have the WiMAX/WiBro access to back it up). [Akihabaranews via Electronista]

If there's one thing John C. Dvorak knows, it's how hard it is to come up with a strong opinion on a unique subject for a column every week. Hey, it's OK, Dvorak! You can't win 'em all! This week, he shrilly warns us of the impending "Web 2.0" bubble. His reasoning? There have been bubbles in the past. Don't you remember?! And this one is going to be even worse. Sorry Dvory, but I call bullshit.

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There have been robots patrolling the sunny sands of Iraq since the initial invasion, but until now, they've merely been there to scope stuff out. That was then, this is now. According to Noah over at the always-awesome Danger Room blog, the military has just deployed their new "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) that have been in development for the past few years. What are the SWORDS, exactly? Oh, just some bomb-disposal robots armed with M249 machine guns. Holy shit, robots with machine guns.

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Following up on our theme of Japanese gadgets that do pretty much nothing, we've got Solid Alliance's Mr. Tengu. It's a small brick with a face that plugs into your USB port and reacts to sounds and music around "him." Different sounds make him make different "facial expressions," and when he's tired he'll actually "go to sleep." This is "a great way to spend money." [Solid Alliance via Raw Feed via Sci Fi]

Can you imagine what kind of boring life you'd grow up to have if what you played with as a Japanese kid was a virtual commuter train simulator? All you do is go from one commuter stop to the next, picking up other sad sack salarymen, all the while enjoying the sights that is Japan's urban jungle. Makes me want to off myself just thinking about it. [TakaraTomy via Plastic Bamboo]

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The Ambient Devices Market Maven can pull DJIA, NASDAQ and S&P 500 data every 15 minutes, over FM sub bands, without service charges. Cool, if you're not obsessively needing stock updates every minute. But then again, if you're not, its kind of hard to justify the $125.

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If you're a fan of artist M.C. Escher and his "Waterfall" woodcut, here's a scale model that somehow replicates that physically impossible structure. The $59.99 sculpture is six inches high, and will only be made in a limited edition of 500 units. At first we were hoping this was a working fountain, but the laws of physics wouldn't permit that. Take the jump for a look at the original Escher woodcut, and another Escher Waterfall made of LEGO.

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Toshiba's second generation HD DVD players have only been out for a little more than half a year, but third generation players are already on their way. Set to launch October 1, the HD-A3, HD-A30 and HD-A35 players will retail for $299, $399 and $499 respectively. The cheaper HD-A3 will only have 720p and 1080i, whereas the top two will reach all the way up to 1080p. We'll post updates when Toshiba officially unveils these players at CEDIA next month. [Amazon via Format War Central]

All that talk about the Sony PS3 possibly getting a digital tuner and DVR has just been taken up a notch with the recollection that Sony actually has a deal with TiVo. Signed back in 2001, the deal allows Sony to use TiVo software, which has been capitalized in standalone TiVos (SVR 2000 and 3000) and DirectTiVo Receivers, but there hasn't been any use in PlayStations.

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I've never kept my iPod in a case because I think most cases just make them bulky and ugly. So would these $30 vinyl Howdy cases by Missy Broome, but in a good, Uglydolls kind of way. My only qualm is that there's no ninja version—granted, if there was, he'd probably kill the two pirates. [Missy Broome via Shiny Shiny]

It's time to show the utmost respect for Gizmodo Senior Associate Editor Jason Chen, who slams down his 4000th post today (there's #4000, just below this one here). Jason's written more stories for Gizmodo than anyone in history, bringing his astonishing accuracy, elegant humor and graceful writing style to every article he posts. Starting with his first Gizmodo story on April 16, 2006 to today, the guy's rock-solid every day and an inspiration to us all. Join us in honoring JC: master poster, journalist, blogger, great person and pantsmeister extraordinaire. If we could put him down our pants, we would. Congratulations, Chen, from all your awestruck Gizmodo colleagues!

We've posted our share of crazy awesome USB hubs, but "The Hub" from Ora-Ito actually looks great and looks like it works great. Not only does it have two Firewire cables, it's got a miniUSB, two USB extension cables, a regular USB cable, a USB light and a USB fan. But the good news is that it looks somewhat like an electronic plant, so you'll feel real great knowing you spent $90 on a USB/Firewire hub. [APlusRStore via Popgadget]

Normal Skype phones are boring. That's why Spyke, the Skype robot that transforms into another robot, is so cool. Not only does it transform into a slightly different bot, it's a Wi-Fi webcam, which means you can use it like a regular Skype-enabled webcam to record video, take pics and have NORMAL CONVERSATIONS. Yes, I'm talking to you through a crazy ass robot, Mom. How are you? Available in September. [SkypeStyle]