2050. That's the year that you'll plug your brain into a toaster. Intel doesn't know how, precisely, but according to Intel CTO Justin Rattner's recent keynote at the Intel Developer Forum, they're working on it. From Intel's summary of the event:

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Acer's Aspire One was already one of the most affordable 8.9" mini-notebooks on the market, but now they've gone and dropped the price further while adding a 6-cell battery version to the mix. The Windows XP version (120GB hard drive and 1GB RAM has been reduced US$50 from US$400 to US$350. Their Linux system (8GB SSD and 512MB RAM) dropped US$50 as well from US$380 to US$330. Oh, and those of you wanting the 6-cell system can pick it up for the old price of the 3-cell, US$400. So is Acer worried about the competition from a potentially US$300 Dell system? We don't know, but we sure do like seeing prices going down for once. And for the time being, the Aspire One is probably the best deal in the mini-notebook market. [Laptop]

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The WSJ is reporting on a deal that's close to completion between Google and Verizon Wireless, our second-largest mobile carrier, to become the exclusive search tech across all of their phones--potentially bringing a Google search bar to the homescreen of every VZW piece. Aside from the obvious web and local searching, the Google engine would replace Verizon's proprietary content search for ringtones, apps, and the like. Both parties would split ad revenues, which Google is extra excited about for the location-based ad serving capabilities. If the deal reaches completion, look for a decidedly more elegant search on Verizon's phones, from top to bottom. [WSJ]

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First it was liquid bottles. Then laptops. And now they are seizing our penis extensors, penis pumpers, and other sexual gadgets. The FDA is saying that they represent a real risk and federal border agents have now a guideline to confiscate them at US territory entry points. The list would be hilarious if it weren't so surreal and stupid:

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These unlikely-looking earphones have been dreamed up by designer Yoonsang Kim to combat the bacteria build-up that normal in-ear 'phones apparently have. They also hang together behind your neck when not in use, as a neat solution to that "oops my earphones are dangling" issue. There's just one flaw I can spot: just peering at my ears, these things would not fit... they'd either painfully distort my shell-likes, or just pop out. I bet I've got you prodding your ears, or trying to peek in a mirror now, haven't I? Still, it's an interesting bit of lateral thinking, and the sort of thing some earphone maker might try at some point. [Yanko Design]

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When the Asus Eee came out, the market was simple. There was only one tiny, cheap laptop so you knew which one was for you. That was less than a year ago, but things move quickly in the tech world. Now it's tough to keep up with the major brands offering mini-notebooks, let alone every no-name knockoff (where you may still find the better deals and innovation ). Luckily, Liliputing has created a comprehensive list of these machines so it's easy to compare stats and prices. And there were a few that even we hadn't heard about.

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The USAF keeps pushing forward the race towards cleaner skies--and leaner warmachine and potential global mayhem costs--moving from pure oil-derived fuel to a mixture between oil and synthetic fuel. The new benchmark is not a B1 bomber, which they already put through its paces using a similar mix, but a fighter jet: They broke the Mach 2 barrier using the new fuel mix in an F-15, which according to the Air Force is a crucial step:

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Nearly two months ago we teased you with a mocking mock-up of LG's upcoming KC910 mobile phone, but now over at Phone Arena there's a real image, and official specs. The KC910 is a successor to the Viewty and it's no image-slouch: there's an 8-megapixel cam in that shiny body with a xenon flash, Schneider-Kreuznach lens, and shooting up to ISO 1600. It also does VGA video at 30fps and can do high-speed 120fps filming, though this is at QVGA resolution. There's even GPS for geotagging your imagery and navigation.

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There's something about the simplicity of a skateboard that keeps designers coming back to revisit it... but the SoulArc board certainly seems a worthy reinvention. It's designed to make skateboarding feel more like surfing, with a huge leaf-spring mounted between its long deck and the wheels: And it's less unwieldy-looking than this previous effort. As you dig your heel in, the spring relaxes into corners, giving you more of a surfing-through-waves feeling. There's a video of the board in action after the gallery.

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All those confusing-display watches from Tokyo flash have nothing on the impeccable eco-credentials of Quiksilver's upcoming watch. The Ray is analogue with a 27-jewel movement, though its display is unusual and looks like it'd take a while to get used to... but it's shipped in eco-friendly packaging by ship rather than by air (saving on CO2 emissions) and is made of largely recyclable materials. That's stuff like wood, stainless steel, aluminium, and mineral glass, and though I'm not sure it's the "world's first eco-friendly timepiece" it certainly sounds like a good idea. You'll probably have to be a rich eco-warrior to have one though: it's a limited run of 1,000 pieces, and the price is still to be announced. [Acquiremag]

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The updated PSP 3000 didn't seem all that jaw-dropping, save for talk of its dramatically improved screen: But now pics of the screen in action have surfaced, and boy oh boy, it's dramatically improved alright. Check out that contrast in the pic, comparing it to the PSP Lite: Game playing in brightly-lit situations looks like it won't be a problem with the new machine. In other pics you can see the redesign has other minor changes, like a slightly more curved profile at the edges near the control pads... whether this makes for more comfortable handling will have to wait for a hands-on review. [Famitsu via Kotaku]

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This upcoming mini-PC from Celrun is something a bit like the old iLamp-style iMac, a bit notebooky, a bit low-cost desktop Eee PC... but actually not like any of them too much: It seems to be it's own low-power, neat design desktop genre. It's got an 18.4-inch widescreen LCD, has built-in stereo speakers and microphone and has an Intel Atom purring away inside. Mainly the Lluon A1 is intended to be a multimedia PC since it's got an IPTV function which requires it to be dual boot—Linux for the IPTV, and Windows for standard PC functions. It's intriguing, and though there's no info on pricing, we know it'll be hitting the shops mid-September in Korea, Europe and North America. [Aving]

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It looks like data on the upcoming Canon EOS 50D DSLR has been leaked onto the web, by Canon itself. Details appeared briefly on Canon's China site, although the link now is disabled, and gave an insight into what specs the beast will have. They're pretty decent: it's a 15.1-megapixel camera (with standard 1.6x CMOS sensor factor) with a 9-segment AF/AE sensor array, 95% view viewfinder and shoots at ISO 100 to 3200, with an "expansion" to 6400 and 12800. There's also face recognition auto focus, 6.3 frames-per-second high-speed shooting, and 14-bit image processing by the Digic 4 processor. Interestingly it'll have an HDMI output too. Obviously we'll have to wait for a proper release to know more—including data on prices and release dates. [Canon.cn via NeutralDay.com Thanks, Patrick!]

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My inbox this morning was flooded with tips that Dell was offering their entry-level Inspiron 1525 for just $399 online thanks to a $300 cashback offer. By the time I went to check it out for myself, the offer was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared into the ether faster than a summer storm.

I contacted Dell for clarification on the issue and they promised to get back to me, but while I was (and still am) waiting, tipster Adam (who purchased the deal when he could) has since informed us that no, Dell will not be honouring the deals.

Anyone who purchased the bargain notebook has apparently had their money refunded, with Adam being told that Dell takes a loss of $70 per $699 unit, so they would be losing $370per unit if they honoured the deal.

Until we hear back from Dell directly, there's no word on whether they'll offer these disappointed customers any form of compensation in the form of free upgrades or similar like Lenovo did for their online customers recently. But you shouldn't hold your breath...

UPDATE: I've just spoken with the guys from Dell, and if you happened to purchase using EFT, you could be in luck...

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Invisible Shield isn't anything new - it's been available in the US for years. What is new is that these military-grade clear casings for your gadgets are now available down under.

Prices start at $19.95, and there's literally thousands of designs for different gadgets, with everything from phones and PDAs to laptops included.

The local website doesn't seem to be up and running yet, but when it is you should be able to order directly from them online.

[Invisible Shield]

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software (think Doom and Quake), accuses PC hardware manufacturers of implicitly supporting piracy of all kinds because they see it as a "hidden benefit" when you buy a PC. This came up in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, and was part of a larger point aimed at answer the question of why PC manufacturers aren't doing more to stop piracy with hardware measures. When asked if these companies are secretly happy about piracy, Todd says:

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The iPhone's button-free input scheme isn't so great for fast-action shooters or action-adventure or any type of game with the phrase "action" in it, but it is great for RPGs and point-and-clicks. What better point-and-click to port over to the iPhone than Myst, which is one of the ones that came out during the height of P&C games' popularity, and is also sorta the most famous. Its developer Cyan lets slip in its forums that only three of their developers are working on it, and the project funded by outside resources. This will definitely kill a few hours in line at the soup kitchen. [Myst Online via Wired via Kotaku]

The US$500 Xross Fade DJ system is Sony's hard-to-pronounce dual iPod dock kit for mixing songs. It may have some rad-looking bass reflex speakers and dual subwoofers, but it's unfortunately gimped as far as DJ features go—you can cue and crossfade between songs, a technology straight outta 2005 and something you could do on a PC with moderate iTunes skills. There are also some presumably lame-arse drum beats you can lay on top of your tracks to spice them up, but not much more. Seriously Sony, what gives? DJing is just no fun without some "wikki wikki". Press release down below. [Sony]

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Sony's S-Airplay Wireless iPod Dock is basically a cheaper, less functional version of the Sonos home audio system. You plug your iPod into the central base station, plug in up to 10 wireless speakers into power outlets through the house and just like that, you have multi-room audio.

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This is quite possibly one of the meanest looking computers you will ever lay your eyes on. The Aspire Predator from Acer is their top of the line gaming machine, meant to aid you in your quest to destroy anything and everything that stands in your way, from Alien hordes to Danny Glover.

The front panel mechanically rotates up to expose the glorious innards, from hot-swappable HDDs to USB ports. Behind the connections (in the belly of the beast, perhaps?) you're inundated with the highest possible tech available, from the 4TB of hard disk space to the 8GB of RAM. The entire thing is powered by an Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor with 1333MHz FSB, while a two-way enabled NVIDIA SLI takes care of the graphics.

There's also liquid cooling and dual Gigabit LAN technology to completely eradicate lag from your fragfests.

Needless to say, all this tech will cost a pretty penny, and that pretty panny adds up to be $4,500. But if you're serious about your PC gaming, how can you really afford to not own one of these machines?

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You know all those big Playstation announcements that Sony made yesterday out of Liepzig? Well the local branch of Playstation has dropped some info on what they mean locally, and the bad news is that when it comes to getting the latest and greatest, Australia is on a severe time delay.

For a start, we're not getting the 160GB PS3. Considering we're only just getting the 80GB model next week, this doesn't come as a complete surprise, especially considering Sony's willingness to let users swap in their own hard drives. But having a higher-end model might have been nice for hardcore gamers, especially if we see the same Rock Band 2 features appear on Playstation (and we actually get Rock Band 1 or 2 at some point, I guess).

The new PSP-3000 drops on October 16 for $299.95, and the wireless keyboard peripheral will land by the end of the year for an undisclosed sum.

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What exactly constitutes madness? Craziness? Being a complete nutball? Is it a lack of control of mental function? Or the inability to interact with society at a level considered "normal" by society? Or is it just the term you would use to describe anyone who actively wants to create the dreaded BSOD on their Windows machine?

If you take the latter definition, then the guys at ZDnet AU are a textbook example of the crazy. Not only have they discovered a way of manually creating the BSOD, they're actually sharing instructions on how to do it on their site.

The hack involves a little bit of registry editing, but is fairly easy to follow should you be equally insane.

Of course, there is a method behind the madness at ZDNet - apparently they use it as a way of trialling remote recovery software. But I know better - these guys really just want to watch the world burn in an ocean of blue computer monitors...

[ZDNet AU]

A spokesman for Orange in Poland unabashedly proclaimed that they "have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone." An interesting technique to be sure, we're just wondering if these actors will give up their places when it comes time to actually buy the phone, or if they're going to actually go through and get an iPhone (maybe give them out for free after?). It's not something we would have done, and it would have probably worked had the spokespeople not acknowledged it so openly. "Why yes, that is a sock in my pants. Why do you ask? "[Reuters]

If you haven't already entered our Tropic Thunder competition, you should click the link and enter now. Because on Monday, I'll be picking a winner. And even though a Director's chair and a double pass may not seem very Giz-like, it's still a free trip to go and see one of the funniest movies of the year. What other gadget site will offer you that? None of them, that's who. Because they don't care about you like Giz care's about you.

So go and enter now. Here.

This year's Intel Developer Forum is all about different form-factors, with walls of nearly identical MIDs, way too many netbooks and this strange creature, the Intel UrbanMax concept. The prototype is running a Core 2 Duo (at least for now) crammed into a thin, quasi-tablet case, with an 11 inch N-trig DuoSense capacative multitouch screen and provisions for a WiMax connection built in. The UrbanMax form-factor is a novel take on the old tablet concept, and possibly a superior one.

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I'm not sure who is getting the Magic Treehouse Bedroom that is currently being constructed by the craftsman at Kidtropolis, but I'm jealous. When I was a kid, I didn't have any fancy indoor treehouse to sleep in--just a cot and some newspaper. Still, I am not too bitter to recognise the artistry that goes into making a custom bedroom of this calibre. Just don't let your kids see it--unless you have a lot of money to burn that is. [Kidtropolis via Wired GeekDad]

Mobile data keeps getting cheaper. You can now get 1GB per month from pretty much any network for under $30, often including the price of the wireless modem.

The exception, of course, is Telstra, who are banking on the fact that their NextG network is superior to the other carrier's offerings that it keeps its prices at a premium to put it politely.

The good news is that even Telstra is starting to come to the mobile data pricing party, although they're still waiting in their car out the front, waiting for everyone to come to them rather than go inside and be social.

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