Despite the PS3 being the greatest home entertainment/gaming machine in history, people are reluctant to move on from their trusty, much-loved PS2s. You can't blame 'em, as good games are still coming out for it and it has perhaps the best back catalogue of any console ever. That's why it kind of makes sense that Sony may be planning to drop a new, power-brickless $99 PS2 model on us next year. This could, of course, be related to Sony's boneheaded decision to drop all backwards compatibility from the new 40GB PS3 model. You wouldn't do that just to try to move some cheap PS2s, would you Sony? I'd like to think that a move that low is below even you, but I wouldn't put it past you. [MCV via Kotaku]

This is not just some radio-controlled insect-like aircraft, no sirree. This is the DelFly II, a robotic dragonfly spy, developed by robot jockeys at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. While government agencies are not admitting to using such things, you can see how this hovering electro-insect with a camera on board might come in handy for some serious snooping. The current model weighs just 16.04 grams, can fly for 15 minutes at 30MPH or can hover for eight minutes, and has vision-based stabilization for its onboard camera. Check out another video of the DelFly II in flight, after the jump.

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This Sanwa numerical keyboard mouse might not rock your world, but we must have at least a handful of accountants in the audience whose jaws just dropped. Featuring a side toggle button "safety." normal use of the mouse is possible without going all speadsheet on Firefox's ass. But once you toggle that button...oh boy (this is what it's all about, right?)...you can unleash a fury of numerical entry without leaving your beloved optical companion. 3 LEDs denote whether the the 800dpi mouse is armed or just dangerous (we're not sure what LED #3 actually does), and it can be yours for $89. [product and dynamism via scifitech]

Yes, the title could have been "Nokia's Crappy Friday": Reuters says the N-Gage gaming service and the new music store are "among the cornerstones" of Nokia's big mobile-content push, yet today neither one is where it's supposed to be.

The new N-Gage gaming service, unveiled in August and due to launch this month, will now go live in December.

"Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected," [spokesperson] Kari Tuutti said. "We are talking about a couple of weeks."

Already, over 6 million people have used MOSH to exchange files. Nokia assures that copyrights are protected by Audible Magic, a scanning system that checks files as they pass through the service. Clearly, that's not enough reassurance for WMG.

And if I might add: What the hell are 6 million people exchanging if not some variety of copyrighted content? Original demo tapes and manuscripts? Seriously. [Reuters]

The business of ripping off people with more money than brains has just reached a new low. Innobitz tugs at the heartstrings of pet owners with JooZoo, an MP3 player for dogs that's so spangled with genuine diamonds and 18 karat gold that it costs an astronomical $2000. Thank goodness there are no headphones, which would probably drive a dog nuts. Instead, there's a speaker that plays automatically triggered sounds that correspond to "various behaviors," supposedly calming down the unfortunate dog encumbered by such a device. We would suggest further torturing the poor thing with recordings of choice sayings such as "Want to go out?" "Let's go in the car!" "Time to eat" "We're taking you to the vet" and a loop repeating the dog's name. [AVing]

The USB Far Infrared Pad is pitched as a solution for those aches and pains that are the natural byproduct of working sitting at one's computer. We don't know the $21.99 pad actually adheres to skin, but once stuck to carefully balanced upon the area of pain, 1.2W of USB juice heats the pad to between 104° and 113° F. We'd be more interested if the pads served a more interesting function, like electrified nicotine transmission to help us start smoking. But go ahead, pick one up for the crazy hypochondriac at the office (and send in a picture when they use it). [usbfever via ubergizmo]

Can you say WQUXGA? Toshiba can. According to a translated promo page, it built the 22" "super Kousei small LCD monitor" with a resolution of 3840x2400. That's 200 dots per inch! Toshiba admits, though, that the contrast ratio is 300:1, pretty bad even if you don't believe in contrast-ratio reporting. In Japan, MSRP for this sucker is 2,079,000 Yen (about $18,000). The XP-compatible PCI card required to run it will set you back another 312,900 Yen ($2,700). Oddly enough, in our search for an image, we found this reportedly WQUXGA monitor by ADTX, selling for the mysteriously low price of 198,000 Yen ($1,700)—wonder what the contrast ratio is on that. [Toshiba via Akihabara News; Source image from Matrox]

Before hell freezes over, let's try a bit of in-line skating, but these skates offer more than that. Strap on a pair of Kian Khuan's 720 inline skates, and a whole new dimension is laid out before us, because these super inline skates not only go forward and backward like any others, but can also spin 360 degrees in place and even roll sideways. Try that with a pair of ice skates. Since these 720s aren't for sale yet, we may have to wait for the spring thaw before we bang up our knees and elbows with them. Forget kneepads, make that Master Chief's suit of armour. [Yanko Design]

The Zune 2 ad campaign has begun. The slogan has changed from "Welcome to the Social" to "You Make It You"—are they saying Zune owners don't have friends?—and the visual appeal has become distinctly psychedelic, a combination of Alice in Wonderland, Yellow Submarine and Time Bandits. We notice that there's not a lot of fetishizing of the actual product in either. That could be a mistake. See for yourself in the video above, or at ZuneJourney.net. [Zune-Online.com]

Casio makes an odd egg-shaped label printer, but now it looks like the company has somehow shoehorned the innards of the device into a USB Label Mouse Printer. This one has a scratching our heads, but under certain circumstances it might dawn on you that you suddenly need a label ratcheting out of your mouse, right next to your thumb. It's designed to print whatever you designate on your PC, and an added convenience is its ability to automatically print a label with the current date and time. It'll do that with any TrueType font you have installed on your PC, but if you take a look at the results in the gallery below, you'll notice its print quality is a bit grainy. The mouse printer is $29, and a pack of three roles of self-sticking thermal paper is $14. [Brando]

I love useful useless pieces of plastic. RooKaps are just such micro-wonders that come in a rainbow of colors. They're just replacement caps for USB drives, but the small city of headless drives I have wandering around my desk make them oddly compelling. Not so compelling is the price, though, with clear ones running $16 for 12, and the coloured ones hitting $16.29 for ten. I mean, they're little pieces of plastic, they're not worth a whole dollar each. Oh, and I'm not sure who "asked" for the $3.99 ones with matching lanyards, but I'm pretty sure they fail at life. [RooKaps via Everything USB]

Gotta love Newegg. Asus's Eee notebook just went onsale there yesterday, and an unbox/grope video as well as a lengthy shot-by-shot dissection are already up. Despite seeing stock photos of people using it, the thing still seems almost unexpectedly and impressively pint-sized. Autopsy shot is this way, for the truly geeky.

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Buried in the pile of bad news that was Blockbuster's Q3 earnings report (losses more than tripled vs. last year to $35 million) was the quote from CEO Jim Keyes that "the company will no longer be narrowly focused on... Read More »

Okay, maybe the sky is falling for Sprint. According to the WSJ, Sprint's board is looking at several hard choices regarding their risk-laden WiMax venture, one of which is to spin off the WiMax unit to merge with frenemy Clearwire,... Read More »

PC World readers, you're in for a shock. The print edition of the local edition magazine is about to call it a day. Interestingly, they've said they're not about to kick out all their editorial staff for a very Scroogey Christmas, but will be keeping them on to drive their new focus on a big, sexy web edition.

We've lost a few small mags over recent years, but something on the scale of PC World is a pretty big tower to see fall. That said, there are an awful lot of computer mags in Australia, so could all the big ones really survive much longer?

I know some of the team. We see each other around at press events. So we send them all our best wishes as colleagues... followed by a big "Mwa, haha, bring it on! We will crush your puny online efforts!" And then we remember we're a blog, and we share the link love to anyone who deserves it. C'mon, PC World. Let's see you earn our online love!

The final print edition will run in January. [PC World Australia]

Dan Lyons, AKA Fake Steve Jobs is doing a reading of his new book, Options, in the valley. We're at Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park—the most important book reading, being so close to the mothership. I recognise an Apple employee in the crowd. Woz is here, and when I approached him to say hello, he moved aside, modestly, as if I was looking for a book behind him and he was in the way. No. "Woz," I said, " I'm a big fan of your work." He smiled, but I could tell he was already prepping to introduce Lyons, minutes away from being on stage. It's starting, and OMG...Woz just introduced FSJ and awarded him an official Apple black mock turtleneck...and Owen Thomas from Valleywag, AKA Mr. Bigglesworth is sitting front row, ready to taunt him. Fiction just slammed into reality and my mind just asploded. UPDATED

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With all of the emphasis on saving energy and eco-friendliness these days, hand-crank technology has seen increased use in devices ranging from phone chargers to the OLPC. If the Freeplay Foundation's LifeLight Project has its way, this old school technology may soon be used to illuminate the homes of Africa's poor. According to estimates, as many as 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity, resorting instead to kerosene lamps, battery powered lights, and wood fires to generate light. Prototypes are now being developed for future testing in Kenya, and designs have been drawn up for a base unit that would be used to recharge multiple detachable lights that can be distributed around the home. [BBC News]

China's TechFaith Wireless Communication Company has developed what they are calling the "World's first WCDMA/GSM dual mode phone." The "Twins" phone, as it has been dubbed, allows users the option of loading one WCDMA card and one GSM or loading dual GSM SIM cards. That means it would no longer be necessary to switch out SIM cards or carry around two phones for calls on both business and personal lines.

Other features include: a 2.0 megapixel camera, 2.8" touch sensitive TFT-LCD display, 256MB/64MB ROM memory, MP3 and MPEG4 player, WCDMA modem, Bluetooth, and video call capabilities. Two models will be available the "Dragonfly" and "OMAP' with the latter having a faster CPU and tri-band network support instead of quad-band. Naturally, no pricing information has been released, which is just as well seeing as how this product is unlikely to make its way to the states anytime soon. Bummer. [TechFaith via TFOT]

Since the YP-P2 is Samsung's attempt to take on the iPod touch, we thought we'd show you a touching video—one that Jennifer and I shot in a crowded Starbucks today—depicting its (mostly) touch-friendly interface. [Samsung]

Appleinsider sources have learned that iTunes 7.5 could arrive as early as next week, or the middle of the month at the latest. The upgrade is expected to offer better management of duplicate song entries and prevent crashes resulting from iTunes Plus upgrades. [Appleinsider]

In just a few short weeks, I'll be leaving Gizmodo. It's not you, it's me. I've been made one of those "offers you can't refuse", and so - for now - my blogging days are in their death throws. I'm going to run the online side of things for the new Time Out Sydney (yes, the site needs a lot of work - that's why I'm going there), the local branch of the world's greatest entertainment listings magazine.

So let's make Movember a party to remember! I'm proud of what we've built here so far (we includes you reader folk) and I know that when the next Ed takes over the helm, the company behind Giz AU is set to give them the extra resources they need to turn things up to eleven. More local content will certainly be on the way.

I'll be finishing just before the end of the month, though I'll keep my mug around long enough to see the outcome of my efforts on the mo frontier. If anyone's interested, maybe we'll organise a reader meetup here in Sydney as a farewell / welcome bash as part of handing over the conch to whoever comes next.

Speaking of... if you think you cut the mustard as a potential local Editor, email chris +at+ alluremedia +dot+ com +dot+ au and tell him why you've got what it takes.

Although it'll be about a year before we mold our bodies into any kind of humanoid-esque form capable of running a marathon, but the news that said races are banning headphones isn't inspiring us to train. Apparently USA Track & Field, the group in charge, thinks iPods and other music devices makes running too dangerous and possibly prevents people from having a "competitive edge".

The runners themselves are divided. Some old folks say running with music ruins the experience, and some other folks say that if they're banning folks because they can't hear they should ban deaf people as well. Us? If it's like whiteboard marker huffing—which totally gives you an extra six miles, btw—and doesn't hurt anyone, it should be allowed. [NYTimes]

CDs may be headed towards obsolecence, but that doesn't seem to stop manufacturers from coming up with unique new devices to play them. One of these devices, the Japanese made Cathay PK-24, may look like a miniature grand piano, but the only thing it can play is tunes from your CD or FM radio. The keys even act as the playback controls to add to the fun. Available in Asia for about $165 a pop —which is way too freakin' much if you ask me. [Product Page via Technabob via Geekalerts]

Bug Labs and their open source hardware might make building gadgets as easy as stacking lego bricks. Here's the first time we've seen the hardware live and we were lucky enough to have founder Peter Semmelhack walk us through the gear, module by module. Below, there's a gallery walkthrough of the parts. [Bug Labs on Giz]

A new high speed pulsing laser developed by Arizona State physics professor Kong-Thon Tsen and his son Shaw-Wei Tsen, a pathology student at Johns Hopkins, has succeeded in killing a common virus without damaging the healthy surrounding cells. The laser utilizes the principle of "forced resonance" by vibrating the shell of a virus to "crack" it. Plus, tests have proven that it is possible to break down the shells at energies far lower than those needed to damage surrounding T-cells.

Since these ultrashort-pulse lasers or USPs don't generate a lot of heat, they are far gentler than conventional lasers, which may open up the possibility of using them to eradicate viruses in stored blood. The duo is currently testing the laser on HIV and hepatitis, which could be truly groundbreaking if successful. Will this physics professor and his biologist son restore my faith in medical science? Only time will tell. [Wired]

Want naked DSL now, now, NOW? Okay, you can't order it today, but you can apply to Internode to be a part of their trial. You'll have to wear your own costs to disconnect, etc, from any current services, but Internode has put their trial participant price at $40 per month - that's ADSL2+ with nothing else to pay because you no longer need a voice line. Phase one of the trial is in Adelaide (home of Internode), followed by Internode-enabled exchanges nationally. They aim to launch the full service, Internode Ultra, in Q1 2008.

Read on to see if this trial is going to meet your needs.

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Aside the fact that it's easy as balls to spot from a mile away thanks to its impressive heft and blue hue, Domonique Torrence's Spider-Man-inspired pepper spray bracelet comes close to being a useful idea. It's loaded with pepper spray cartridges, so you just slam the button in your palm to disperse the mild irritant into your attacker's face or other body part(s) without fishing around in your purse for a can. It's coming out later this year for 30 bucks, and if nothing else, it'll match your similarly bulky, ugly Crocs. [Local6 via CG]

Asus eee gets Australian date and pricing
$499! December! Yip! Yip!

Apple takes cheap laptops to Santa Rosa
Updates haven't translated to the local site yet.

Porn-induced malware attacks Leopard.
Trojans ahoy! Seriously, trojans on a Mac - but you need to be dumb to install it.

iPhone named Time's Invention of the Year.
I'd suggest this isn't all that hard to argue against. Unless there is some awesome life-saving medical stuff being overlooked.

Windows Home Server review.
A deep lookie lookie inside.

The $99 Wal-Mart deal and Best Buy's subsequent price matching got us to thinking. Just how low do the HD DVD and Blu-ray players have to go before you'll get into HD? At this point, we're guessing it needs to be low enough that you can write it off as a loss if that format happens to be the one that loses the format war. $200? $100? $50?

AU: We've talked about this here recently, but worth more thought. Would you consider things in that "write off" context? For me, the discs are more of an issue than the player. We might get hybrids this gen, but will someone really want to maintain support for HD DVD + Blu-ray the next time we get a disc density upgrade? I don't want to build a new HD library while I'm worried about which way the wind is blowing. I've bought a few choice discs, but not like I did with DVD. -SB

If every corporate American office had workspaces like the Eclipse partition system, I might not be so terrified of becoming a suit. Designer Marcus Curran came up with this workspace concept as part of an industrial design thesis he was working on while in school at the University of Melbourne. The central idea behind this contraption is versitility. It's retractable hood allows for various levels of privacy and access to accommodate to the changing work flow of one's daily job... not to mention room for a few shiny gadgets.

Verizon's spreading the FiOS lovefest to the HDTV side things today, announcing plans to ballon their HD channels to over 150 by the end of 2008. The HD expansion's more of a rollout than an explosion, initially doubled to 60+... Read More »

It's not quite the forecast predicting umbrella design from a year ago, but this ThinkGeek model beats it in the "it actually exists" category. The Ambient Forecasting Umbrella hits up Accuweather.com to fetch the day's forecast, which then gets converted into a small light show on the handle. Flashing blue lights mean it's going to rain or snow, with the speed of the flashing showing how likely it is. It's no Blade Runner umbrella, but it'll keep you dry. [ThinkGeek via Coolest Gadgets]

According to an Infoweek source, a Google / Verizon deal is not currently in the cards and Verizon is "unlikely to be the first operator to sign on with Google." This contradicts recent rumours that a Sprint / Verizon deal could come in the next few weeks. Don't you get the feeling that no one really knows what is going on here? [Infoweek]

Another day, another Wi-Fi patent entanglement. Today the troll plaintiff suing practically the entire industry is Wi-LAN, whose two patents—"related to Wi-Fi and power consumption in DSL products"—are apparently violated by anyone making or selling anything from routers to notebooks. The suit, launched in the capital of patent infringement suits, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, targets Acer, Apple, Belkin, Best Buy, Broadcom, Buffalo, Circuity City, Dell, D-Link, Gateway, HP, Infineon, Intel, Lenovo, Marvell, Netgear, Sony, TI, Toshiba, Westell and 2Wire.

Fujitsu alone has been spared the lawsuit hammer because it caved and struck a deal over the summer to licence Wi-LAN's whole patent portfolio—such transactions are why "patent holding" companies like Wi-LAN exist, not for anything productive. Be brave! Let loose the fury of your legal team to crush patent trolls into oblivion, since the patent office isn't doing much about it. The court system will ultimately thank you. [Reuters, Flickr]

We can't determine whether this DXG-110 is any good or not without actually testing it, but the fact that it crams 10-megapixels into a $169 body just reminds us that megapixel count is not the best way to tell the quality of a camera. However, if you do want a 10-megapixel cam for under $200 (of which this is the first), it has a 2.5-inch TFT screen, 3x optical zoom, 30FPS VGA video recording, 32MB internal memory, and is SD compatible. It also has proprietary DXG technology that picks the best dynamic range in high contrast scenes and some "Dynamic Fill Light" to enhance dark areas. It may be 10-megapixels for $169, but you often get what you pay for. [DXGUSA]