For those of you keeping score at home, HTC's Dream, due to hit T-Mobile in October as the first Android phone, just got tapped by the FCC's rubber stamp. Unfortunately there aren't any of those h-o-t product shots that the FCC is usually known for to give us a better look at the device, just a lot of black and white. But it does confirm the Dream moniker, that it's got a jog ball, Wi-Fi and it's running on the 850/1700/1900MHz bands. Very exciting! [FCC via Engadget]

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Were I an old geezer right now, my gadget-cravings would no doubt include this multifunction walking stick. It's adjustable, has in-built suspension, an LED flashlight, flashing signals and an alarm and is one bad-arse walking assistance device. Ok, so it's probably designed mainly for hikers and other outdoorsy-types, but if your grandma or grandpa is into gadgets and has walking troubles, then I can imagine they'd love this. Available now for US$31. [Gadget4All via 7Gadgets]

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Before Gizmodo, I worked in the bowels of the broadcast industry for a number of years. I was either shooting video or cutting video every day, all day. And while Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects were both tools I used with some proficiency on a daily basis, I've never seen a post production demo as incredible as this clip from the University of Washington.

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The classic arcade cabinet of yesterdecade gets a snazzy makeover in the Retro Space machine from designer Martijn Koch. It's a tribute in part to "honour the design of the first ever arcade cabinet" which was Computer Space, from 1971. So it's got arcade-quality controls for two people, including the ever-important trackball (good news for Missile Command fans) and squeezes in 100+ games and a suite of emulators.

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Until now to telescopic-zoom an image with your iPhone 3G involved a quick sprint in the general direction of your photo's subject: But now Brando has a version of their telescope add-on for the phone. The lens is a 6x zoom bolt-on, and comes with a transparent mounting system/iPhone case much as before. It's also still very awkward looking: You won't be sneaking up to many curtains to peep unnoticed with this in your mitts. Available now for US$19. [Brando]

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Brassieres pop up surprisingly often at Giz... and here're a few more tech-laden ones: the LumiTops. They're from Lumigram, and have fibre optics that emit a "soft and sensusous" glow when you connect up their batteries, thereby ensuring that the wearer's boobs become even more eye-grabbing than usual. The batteries are interchangeable and are good for up to 12 hours of party-going glow. There's also other clothing in the evening-wear range, including shawls and men's clothing, but frankly these items are the best, don't you think? Prices range from US$145 to US$250 at the online store. [Lumigram via Inventorspot]

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Way back in April was when we first showed you details on Lenovo's Ideapad U8 mobile internet device, and Lenovo's just launched it at the Beijing Olympics. The palmtop phone/PC has an Intel Atom Z500 ticking away inside at 800MHz, GPS, dual cameras, and with 1GB of RAM and a sizable 6GB SSD. Connectivity-wise, it's fully loaded with 802.11 b/g wi-fi, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G support and apparently "WiMAX support." There's also a dongle for picking up China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting signals so you can watch the Olympics for free. But therein lies the rub: The 300 gram, vaguely PSP-like U8 is a China-only gizmo, so you won't care that it'll have a price "equivalent" to other smartphones. [Pocketables]

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News is just out of a new way to jailbreak your iPhone, and this time the tool is specifically designed to work "quickly and easily, without requiring a full restore." Quickpwn has been released as a beta, intended to complement the main PwnageTool. It works with iPhones and iPod's running 2.0.1 firmware, and operates very quickly without needing iTunes to rebuild/restore your device afterwards. This beta version is basically feature-complete, but lacks a "funky UI" (they're adding that soon) and is currently windows only (other OS's are "coming soon"). It's available here. Keep your eyes open for a complete version (though remember that even though it's development software, it's apparently "impossible for this to permanently damage your device"). [iPhone-Dev.org]

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Back in June we brought you the news that NASA's astronauts would be wearing brand new-designed space suits when they walk on the Moon next. But now it looks like the firm Oceaneering, who had been awarded the contract, have had the deal pulled by the government after protests about the procurement from a rival suit manufacturer. It's a US$745 million contract for 109 suits (24 for the moon,) so we get why it's important. But I hope the mess is sorted soon: you don't really want astros popping open their space wardrobe and thinking "Oh, I can't go out tonight, I've not a thing to wear." [AP]

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Lenovo recently went official with details on the upcoming Ideapad S10 ultra-portable notebook, and now there's data on a little brother version, the S9 Lite. The S9 will have a slightly smaller screen, at 8.9-inches, with a 300-kilopixel webcam, 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD. It's got the same Atom N270 and 945 GSE chipset, though, so it sounds very much like its bigger S10 brother, and comes with Linux and a "multitouch function" trackpad. In three colours, the diminutive PC will cost you US$370 upon launch in Hong Kong. [UMPCFever via Engadget]

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Are you looking to create a reputation as a sleazy douchebag fun-loving ladies man? Then why not become the life of the party with the Boob Tube beer bong? It works just like any other beer bong, except instead of sucking on a cut-off piece of garden hose, you can suck on a breast-shaped piece of plastic!

Or, if you're that way inclined, you could always check out the Dong Bong. If you aren't sure what bodty part that one's shaped after, hit the NSFW link at the bottom of the post.

The best part is that in today's internet age, photos of you sucking down the amber fluid from a plastic organ will almost certainly end up online, giving you the reputation you always wanted.

Both are available online for US$22.95.

[Sexy Beer Bongs (slightly NSFW link) via Nerd Approved]

You guys are a pretty clued in lot, so this should go without saying. Always read the fine print of your contract. We know sometimes you get lazy, or you've been waiting to get served forever and you just overlook it. Well, if you overlook the details of the new pre-paid mobile broadband service from Optus, you could well find yourself out of credit faster than you can say, "Awesome! New movies on iTunes!"

On the surface, the deal looks pretty good: For $199 you get a USB internet key from Optus. Then you can pay $30 for 2GB to use over 30 days. If you need more, there's a range of recharge values - $40 for 3GB, $50 for 5GB, $70 for 6GB or $100 for 9GB.

But this is why you read the fineprint: you get charged in 10MB increments for both downloads and uploads. That's right - 10MB blocks. so if you download a 200KB email in a session, that's 10MB of your 2GB allowance gone. You can chew through the data pretty quickly like that, I would think.

Still having the pre-paid option culd be incredibly important for you, in which case this could be totally worth the money and freedom. Just make sure you read the contract...

[Optus]

Today Vodafone has announced that it's offering mobile broadband in a USB stick format, much like the one Three launched a few months ago. The biggest surprise though is that it's actually fairly competitively priced.

If you're a Vodafone voice customer, you can get the stick for free over 24 months on a $39.95 contract, which includes 5GB of data, or you can get 1GB of data per month for $19.95 plus $5 a month for the stick. Alternatively, if you don't have a Vodafone voice account, you can get 5GB for $49.95 or 1GB for $29.95.

That's not too much more expensive than Three's offering, especially if your phone's already with Voda. And the benefit of Vodafone over Three is the increased coverage - when you drift off their 3.5G network, you'll drop onto their 2G network, which won't cost you roaming dollars like Three does (they use Telstra's 2G network, which costs an obscene amount for super-slow internet access on the go).

Of course, as Gus at Lifehacker has found, Vodafone do sometimes get confused by their own terms of service, so you should make sure that you read the contract twice before you sign.

[Vodafone]

HP is smartly following up the rugged EliteBook biz laptop we doted on a couple months ago with an even more portable version: 12 inches, just over 1.3kg, still Mil-Spec 810F against dust and hot zones. It uses Intel's latest Core 2 Duo ULV (same as X301 and probably MacBook Air refresh), and it's well, loaded. One of our favourite things about it is that it's got more storage options than any other notebook that size.

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Don't get me wrong, Toshiba's XD-E500 is a decent 1080p/24fps upscaling DVD player--it toasted one of their own upconverting players in the demo, and they've gotten pretty good at doing it. It's got three different intelligent processing modes, two of which are really solid--sharp (which only sharpens where it's needed, not the whole picture), colour (dials up blues and greens plus sharp mode), and contrast (deepens blacks, probably the worst mode because you lose some dark detail).

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HP's EliteBook 2730p is the tablet of the new business lineup, and it's actually ruggedised as well, meeting the MIL-STD 810F spec for dust, altitude and high temperature. Specs and features are mostly the same as the other EliteBooks too (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV, SSD option, HP business and security stuff like the biz card reader, encryption and DriveGuard). Except you know, it's a tablet, with options for a standard LED-backlit screen or Outdoor View and a jog dial.

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Sony's latest range of NW-E MP3 players appeared on the company's New Zealand site today in a range of colours. The line features the NWZ-E435, NWZ-E436 and NWZ-E438, which will come in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, respectively. All models include a 2" QVGA TFT LCD display, FM tuner, and support MP3 (obviously), WMA, AAC, and linear PCM codec support. No pricing just yet, but they're rumoured to be hitting the channel within the next month or so. [Sony Insider]

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Not to be outdone by Sony upping the storage on the PS3, Microsoft has finally announced that the Xbox 360 Pro pack is getting an upgrade to a 60GB hard drive.

Of course, this was news in the US last month, when Microsoft dropped the price and increased the HDD in one fell swoop.

Considering we got the price cut early, but the new HDD size only ships to retail today, I wonder if Microsoft had a large warehouse full of 20GB Xbox 360 Pro packs that they needed to sell before they could bring us the 60GB.

In any case, 40GB more storage space for the same $499 price tag sounds good to us. If you're picking up a 360 this week, make sure it's got the extra storage.

[Xbox]

The promise of an organic light emitting diode (OLED) is that it will eventually become a super-efficient, low-cost light source to replace our archaic dependency on incandescent bulbs and those oh-so-yesterday LCD TVs, among other things. Ultimately, OLEDs were expected to possibly supplant the already efficient LEDs, too. That is, until a couple of Utah researchers revealed there could be some "complications." It seems we were half-right.

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If you go to the shops today and pick up a PS3, it will cost you around $699. For your money, you get a 40GB hard drive and a SIXAXIS controller.

But if you wait until August 28, for the same amount of money, you'll get an 80GB and a superior Dualshock 3 controller.

It's not rocket science people. It's simple value for money. Don't let your lust for gaming get in the way of a good buy - it's just not worth it.

[Playstation]

Sorry for the delayed wrap - our CMS tried to take a sickie. We're back to normal now, so here's the best of the weekend posts:

Quarter Million Dollars of Digital Photo Gear in a Single Photo
That's a lot of camera kit!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review (Verdict: The First Star Wars Movie You Will Truly Hate)
Well, there's no way I could misunderstand that review...

Vivid Gallery of High Speed Photography
I wonder how much the kit that took these photos is worth?

Ghostface Killah's Iron Man Cameo Finally Sees the Light Of Day
Personally couldn't give a crap about Ghostface Killah, but it's an Iron Man deleted scene!

Bono Loves Own Voice So Much He Blasts New U2 Album Loud Enough for Fan to Record, Leak It
Low-tech piracy at its best.

Stephen Colbert Isn't Afraid of the iPhone's Kill Switch
Which is why you should be afraid of Stephen Colbert!

Does one reach for a camera or a can of RAID when the Lexus Nuaero concept pulls into the driveway? Sure Jon Rådbrink's design looks incredibly cool, fast and futuristic; but then again I've also spent the last few minutes looking over my shoulder to see if Sigourney Weaver was about to burst from the wall in a load lifter to do battle with it in my office. As it turns out, there's a lot more to this design than just looks, and Rådbrink believes the car's "low weight and large presence" will be the way premium cars could be manufactured in the future. Oh, and it's loaded with tech, too.

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There's a slight issue for Asus Eee PC owners who want to use their older batteries with the Atom-based Eee PC 900A revealed earlier this month--they won't work. That's because the tiny laptop uses a different connector (4400mAh, cheap) than its predecessors the 701 and 900. There's some good news, however, as jkkmobile notes the 900A's 8GB SSD implements a single pci-e card, not a split one; and the SLF flash should give you speeds comparable to the 900/901 4GB SSD. [HKPug via jkkmobile]

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Stephen Colbert spoke, and the people listened: The kill switch that lets Apple remotely remove applications on your iPhone can be disabled with the push of a button. All you need is a jailbroken phone and the updated BossPrefs app found on Cydia. Simply choose "Disable Apple App Killswitch" in BossPrefs and Bob Barker that puppy into oblivion. This isn't the only way to get rid of the kill switch, but it's the easiest we've seen and can quickly be toggled on or off. Just be careful: if Apple wants to remove an app, they probably have a pretty good reason for doing so. [Thanks Alan, bryonbrock!!]

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At a time when the US$2 billion per year autograph business runs rampant with counterfeits, it's tough to ensure your memorabilia is authentic. Thanks to LiveAutographs.com, a website that shills personalised video "autographs" from B-listers like Carmen Electra, Stone Cold Steve Austin and the cast of Lost, that problem may soon be obsolete. Trekkie and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington recently praised the service after paying US$150 for a message from William Shatner, which took three months to arrive. Joke's on you Mike—I got a video from Shatner in an hour, and it only cost me iMovie and elbow grease. But for the last time Bill, my name isn't "Jackass". [LiveAutographs via TechCrunch, Reuters]

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The Buenos Aires government would have done the late Owen Lars proud with their newly installed US$5 million Intelligent Monitoring Towers. Designed to collect information about the city's air and noise quality, we can easily see these 42 towers being at home collecting moisture on a dusty planet in a certain binary star system far, far away. The towers measure cobalt, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, benzene and humidity (just like on Tatooine!).

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Sorry Gentiles, you'll want to step aside for this one.

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Seriously, this steampunk thing is getting out of hand. Like with this Casio G-Shock G8100A-5 wristwatch. They took a Casio watch, slapped on some bronze paint, and now everyone and their steam-powered mechanical dog is calling it steampunk. Enough! If you're going to charge US$100 for a bronze-coloured watch and have people start calling it steampunk, it had damn well better come powered by a miniature lever-pulling version of K.W. Jeter. [Casio via OhGizmo]

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