Oprah, that generous talk show host who no longer needs a last name, stooped down to YouTube to join up with the great unwashed yesterday, and to commemorate the occasion she gave away a $150 Flip Ultra camcorder to everybody in her talk show audience. Check out her condescending peptalk to YouTubers in the video above, promoting her show on which YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, whom Oprah says "don't go out much," appeared.

To show how easy it is to use the Flip Ultra, she took it with her backstage after the show, shooting lots of shaky cam video that gives us an idea of what it's like to be stared at by everyone in the room, all wondering if you're going to give even a small part of your $2.5 billion to them. Fascinating. Welcome to the 21st century, Oprah! She's the equivalent of Steve Jobs to soccer mums everywhere. This must mean YouTube has officially arrived, or on the other hand, maybe it's jumped the shark...? [Oprah on YouTube]

Microsoft's Windows Live package has just dropped out of beta development. The released package contains various desktop programs for email, IM, blogging and photo sharing. The Windows Live Mail app will allow for email account convergence between most popular email providers, including Gmail and AOL. Direct Flickr photo uploads and blog writing tools are also included within the software suite. Except for the mildly interesting new package, what else is on offer? Well, Microsoft is dropping brand spanking new email addresses with the @live.com domain.

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MB&F's Horological Machine No. 2 (HM2) is a timepiece god. It has four dials, which offer the following measurements: "instantaneous jump hour, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date and bi-hemisphere moon phase." That basically means the watch has two date and two time keeping dials. Who the hell cares? It's stunning! Check out its flawless beauty in the gallery below:

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In addition to the trio of new handsets they intro'd today, Sony Ericsson also announced plans for an upgraded PlayNow music service. Launching this spring, it could feature up to 5 million tracks in "MP3 and Windows Media digital rights management, or DRM-enabled formats" from all of the Big Four, though no track price has been relayed. On the upside (or downside, if you spend compulsively), you can have your tab tacked onto your phone bill. Interestingly, SE's planning to cut service providers in on revenues from OTA downloads. Sounds like it's off to a better start than Nokia's competing venture at any rate. [WSJ]

Developing 32nm processors with IBM and Toshiba has proved too rich for Sony's blood—they're pulling out of the joint R&D, right on the heels of selling their chip-making business to Toshiba a couple of weeks ago. [Reuters]

I don't understand a word of the video because I don't understand the language of surrender, but I don't need to in order to see that the dogs trapped inside of this $30,000 contraption for the four minutes of washing and drying aren't exactly experiencing jouissance. They're dogs, not designer jeans, people. And the guy that climbed inside to show it's safe is probably a plant who loves pain. [Key TV via Spluch]

Okay, technically it's a list of features Gadget Lab's readers want, but you guys probably want them too, right? Stuff like iChat, cut and paste functions and the ever-craved "media disinterest." Anything you want that didn't make the list? Better still if it's genuinely awesome but less likely to happen than Apple joining the Open Handset Alliance. [Gadget Lab]

The MiniMechadon walker works pretty much as advertised: It walks, awkwardly and prodding, just like the AT-STs you know and love. Cobbled together from a gumbo of parts, circuit boards and brass tubing, it's not quite as sparse as its film counterpart, what with the disco feet and all, but that's kind of why we dig it. The one thing the Empire didn't have enough of was style. Hit the jump for a shiny still shot. [Mike Smyth via TechEBlog via Technabob]

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Zipit Wireless introduced its second stab at instant messaging without needing a computer with the Z2. The flip-open handheld device allows teens to IM their pals over Wi-Fi and supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging services without any monthly fees. Kids can also sideload photos and their favourite tunes through the miniSD slot, or stream music directly from the internet. The Z2 will set you back $US150, and according Zipit reps, will be available in the next few weeks. [Zipit Wireless]

While I cannot definitively confirm that the CAM-007 is the world's smallest commercial camcorder spycam (see exhibit A and exhibit B), the self-contained device does clock in at a minuscule 0.3"x0.9"x0.5" and it boasts a fairly impressive feature set that includes both audio and video recording, MPEG-4 3 GP at 15fps, a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery that recharges via USB (up to 2 hours of recording), and Micro SD up to 2GB with room for approx. 19 hours of video on a 1GB card. Available for $US349. [Product Page]

There's a rumour going around stemming from Microsoft's emails last night informing people of the Zune 2 features that the upcoming players/software update will bring video sharing. We spoke with Microsoft and they told us that no, the new Zunes... Read More »

I can't play the guitar worth a damn, but with any luck the Pac-Man electric guitar would allow me to tap into my inner musician by channelling my dominant inner gaming nerd. Designed by Specimen Custom Guitars, the Pac-Man guitar features a blinking headstock and a variable-speed knob located on the eyeball that can synchronise the blinker to the beat. Unfortunately, the guitar is one-of-a-kind so chances are you won't be able to play one yourself—which is a shame because I would love to hear how this thing sounds. [Specimen via Ubergizmo]

The RFID Guardian is a personal, battery-powered RFID firewall that manages tags "within physical proximity of a person," blocking them from answering queries—and possibly getting snooped. Better yet, it can clone your chips so you can switch the signal off and on at your command. The latest version is totally open with a wiki, source code bank and bug-tracker, making an already fantastic tool—given the proliferation of RFID chips loaded with personal info—even better. [RFID Guardian via BoingBoing]

The Work and Play Combo by the design team at Gruber + Schlager features a foldout desk for working on one side, and space for a TV and DVD player/entertainment system on the other. On one side it's all about business, and on the other it's all about partying. The unit "transforms" with a simple turn, which can save valuable space and add a unique look to any room. It is definitely an interesting concept, one that I would love to see go into production. [Gruber + Schlager via Trendir via Treehugger]

Fake Steve's lengthy stream of bile laying waste to the Google Phone isn't simply pure invective, it's actually a mostly well-reasoned indictment of coalitions that trumpets the values of "one vision, one man, one genius." It's worth reading in its entirety, but this is our favourite quote:

The only companies that join consortia are the ones who are too stupid or shitty to make a great product on their own. It's like, Hey, we've got forty spazzo companies that can't fuck their way out of a paper bag; let's put them all together and maybe they'll magically become some kind of big bad powerhouse.

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At the Web 2.0 conference, Dash GPS announced that they were providing an open API for mashing up the Cellular-equipped navigator with webapps. Here's the first live demo of Dash being used to drive through a neighbourhood and call up the price and details on every house on the street using Zillow.com's Database. See that Silicon Valley house with the red door? It's 1150 square feet, yet 1.1 million bucks. What's cooler is that they've got craigslist, yahoo! search and other plugins for the Spring launch. And people will build a dozens more. I'm stoked for this thing.

Today Lenovo unveiled the first computers to use Intel's fast, energy efficient new 45nm Penryn chips. The newly branded ThinkStation D10 and S10 will offer quad core performance along with a "passive venting system" that helps to cool the system quietly.

Further spec details are scarce, but Lenovo did mention that the D10 is outfitted with a 5400 Xeon processor and the S10 with a 3GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9650. They also noted that both computers would use NVIDIA graphics and dual Gigabit Ethernet and multiple slots, bays and USB ports for expandability. Expect the D10 and the S10 to be released this January for $US1,739 and $US1,199 respectively. [Press Release and Electronista]

The Pentaphone is the brainchild of Austrian designer Robert Stadler and is intended to offer a stylish means of conducting a conversation on your mobile without being distracted by ambient noise. As you might have guessed, this product is only a concept piece at the moment, and it is likely to stay that way until people become comfortable with the idea of looking stupid under a giant helmet-like wooden dome. [Robert Stadler via Designboom]

As a guy who produces either way too much or way too little saliva, humidifiers are key to keep from waking up 14 times in the middle of the night to gulp down water. This Umydo Humidifier doesn't just moisten up the place, it adds a touch of class to a room that only a stainless steel quarter circle dog bowl could match. We're unclear on how the thing actually works or where the mist comes out of, but we definitely want one. [Allmodern via Oh Gizmo]

A couple of months ago we discovered that the notion of a 3x Wi-Fi signal boost from the Wi-Fire wasn't a load of crap after all. In fact, it delivered a 5x signal boost and a range approaching 1000 feet for only $US79.99. All the more reason why Vista owners should be excited that hField has developed a version compatible with your chosen OS with the same specs and price as the previous versions. They also noted that a Linux version is well on its way, although no release dates have been set. [Product Page]

These Hokkairos have been very popular in Japan and all over the world (Lam even had one when he was five—his parents made him sleep on a stainless steel bed), acting as a self-contained hand warmer you stick into your pocket in the winter. As you can see in the cool warm video above, you just need to break the coin-shaped container to cause a chemical reaction. It's "semi-permanent," so you can heat up the thing once it's cooled off (probably not in a microwave) for use again. It's only $US4 each, which is definitely a price not too much to pay to keep our fingers intact when high-fiving Eskimos. [Strapya]

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is a fan of the Open Handset Alliance—not shocking, considering the open device requirement for the 700MHz spectrum auction and the recent end to exclusive apartment contracts for cable providers. [CNET]

At MSN Match, a crack group of armchair psychologists (plus one real one) use a dude's choice of gaming machine to reveal the inner reaches of their very soul to potential dates. We take it a step further, reading in between the lines they've already read between. Ladies, a Wii owner

is selfish about his passion, but he knows the Wii is acceptable because of its social interaction functionality. He is smart enough to find a way to continue to game and not scare his date away.

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Motorola announced a new bluetooth headset today dubbed the Motopure H12. Along with the charging base and carrying case, the Motopure features Motorola's crystal talk technology (previously exclusive to their handsets) which uses two microphones for noise reduction purposes. Boy Genius Report got a hands-on with it and called it one of the most comfortable headsets they've used. The Motopure H12 is currently selling at AT&T stores for $US99 after mail-in rebate. [Motorola via Boy Genius Report]

I'm paranoid, extremely vain and hence under the impression that everyone is out to stalk me, so my Facebook profile is highly privatised. FBChicks is a site that may appeal to those who are more into the 'social' aspects of 'social networking' and follows in the grand tradition of class and ingenuity that spawned successes such as Hot or Not.

Taking advantage of the human traits of vanity, an affinity for substances that alter judgement and behaviour, and the subsequent plethora of compromising photos publicly available on Facebook, their positioning statement says it better than I ever could:

Tired of sorting through dozens of photos of your hot friends in order to find the few good ones? Perhaps the ones where they've gotten so drunk that they've forgotten pants, questioned their sexuality, or just generally posed like, well, we didn't want to use the word 'whores' but clearly the pictures speak for themselves.

So really, it's a productivity tool!

[FBChicks via ShinyShiny]

The problem with taking your Wii to your relatives' place for Thanksgiving is that the sensor bar, much like ourselves, is both fragile and awkward to travel with. This retractable sensor bar helps eliminate breakage by shrinking up into a small and convenient package when not in use. Sure, it's probably not as good as the real thing in terms of being a sensor, but it's pretty much guaranteed not to break when airline baggage handlers go sack tossing with your goodies. That $US25 price tag seems a bit extravagant to us, though. Who do we look like, video bloggers? [Console Shop via Go Nintendo via Kotaku]

Today we sat down with Asus and played with the Eee PC. Here's a look at the fun and hard work you can get done with lil Linux tyke, from startup to... Mr. Potato Head?–Video by Nick McGlynn

We just got our hands on the the Asus P527 we told you about a month ago. We confirmed that it does indeed have GPS, Windows Mobile 6 (shown here in, yes, English!) Wi-Fi and at least EDGE. (We will soon know if it has HSDPA, but don't hold your breath.) Asus will sell it unlocked through its website and retail channels starting in first quarter of next year. Price has not been announced. It won't be marketed through a carrier, but will obviously work with both AT&T and T-Mobile SIMs. The only weird trait is the absence of a QWERTY keypad. It's got a standard number pad with alphabetical letters over the keys. That's a touchscreen if you want to enter text QWERTY style, but frankly there doesn't appear to be any good way to type. I took some pics with it next to a Treo, for a mini Sizemodo. More news as we get it...

Although no official word has been released by Apple, there appears to be two serious data loss issues that could affect Macbook owners and users of Mac OS X Leopard. According to blogger Tom Karpik, Leopard's Finder has a bug in its directory-moving code that can result in massive data loss when transferring large files —regardless of the type of destination drive. Apparently, this flaw has been around since the days of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, so it could represent an ongoing problem that Apple has failed to address.

The other issue involves a flaw in certain 2.5-inch Segate SATA drives with a firmware version 7.01. As mentioned last week on Giz, the flaw causes read/write heads to fail and scratch up the drive. Again, these issues are not official, but you may want to take steps to back up your data just to be on the safe side. [TomKarpik via AppleInsider]

Quick rather sickly wrap today (a virus, not post-Cup 'fever'). Enjoy.

Nokia Haptikos technology makes physical keyboards obsolete, hopefully
Firetruck fuses with MiG fighter jet
Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme are surprisingly awesome
Star Trek home theatre, go where no man has left before
Symbian boss calls Android "just another Linux platform"
Intel to sell Home Server reference design for US$500

The Wind Shade Roof is basically a large roof (surprise) decked out with an arsenal of wind turbines that perform the combo power of providing shade and electricity to whatever's below or around it.

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The last time we talked about the Bookeen Cybook was in 2004, so we're keen on seeing what new features made it into their Gen3 device. In short, now their eReader can handle 8,000 page turns in a single charge (that's more than all the Harry Potters combined), an SD slot, RSS reading, and MP3 playback for listening to music while reading. It's $350, which isn't cheap compared to even Sony's reader, but Sony's doesn't let you jam out to The Hives while enjoying Dumbledore's latest wand adventure. [Bookeen via Techie Diva via Uber Review]

Stamp collecting or "philatelism" (as nerds in the know insist on calling it) has never really been all that interesting to me. In fact, I always considered it to be extremely boring. But one look at this beautiful stamp keyboard has changed my mind. There are actually 10 of these keyboards in existence, with each one featuring the stamps of a single nation —often focusing on a royal coronation or a particular sport. Unfortunately, most of these keyboards have been given to the designer's friends and family as gifts. So if you want to get your hands on one, you had best find out who "Andy" is and start kissing his butt. An additional picture is available after the break.

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After cutting U-verse rollout schedule estimates in May for the end of 2008 from availability in 19 million homes to 18 million, AT&T's at it again, now chopping it to 17 million. Apparently the rollout in former BellSouth territory (the... Read More »

Sony Ericsson just announced its new K660 web-optimized candybar. Sporting HSDPA connectivity, it lets you surf the web using the 2-inch screen horizontally and has custom web shortcut buttons. It also comes loaded with Google Maps for Mobile, although you'll be typing in your location manually as there's no GPS on board. It also has a 2-megapixel digital camera, a music player with FM radio, Bluetooth, and it comes with a 256MB Memory Stick Micro. It's set to drop in the first quarter of 2008 in "select markets," which probably means Europe, but we'll keep you updated.