The Gadget: Caps4Stix rubber thumbstick covers for Xbox 360 and PS3. They're meant to add more grip for better precision and control.

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The idea of controlling your DVR via your iPhone is nothing new, but this MythTV iPhone remote allows Linux DVR users to get in on the fun of using their phones as visual remotes. It's got a real-time program guide so you can easily set recordings, plus the standard channel and volume buttons to flip around channels with. The only thing we have to complain about is that the UI is fairly ugly and not refined at all, but it's bearable. Unfortunately all of us here use either TiVo or Media Center or the cheap set-top-box provided from our Cable company, so we can't test it out. Let us know how it works for you. [eHomeUpgrade]

How's this sound: rather than hopping on the subway, when in a large city you'd hop into a little pod hanging from an elevated track. It would have pedals. You would then pedal yourself around the city, working up a lovely sweat before you reached your destination. Sound good? No?

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I love stupid gimmicks, don't get me wrong. But this cover is one of the worst ideas I've heard from a publication in awhile. Said the editor to the NYTimes: "Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years," Mr. Granger said. "I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry." Maybe you should like, invest in putting premium content on your website, or in E-books sold on Amazon instead of spending six figures to design a battery small enough to fit into an magazine cover that will only last 90 days, without any major refreshing of content. They might as well have used one of those hologram stickers found in 25-cent vending machines in the 80's.

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AT&T's Speech Mashups is a web-based service that will bring voice-activated search to the iPhone, as well as other Edge and 3G handsets. Instead of managing speech recognition on the actual handset, Speech Mashups sends the audio sample to the server, processes it and sends back a text transcription or command to your phone. Unfortunately for iPhone owners, this does not mean voice dialing or speech-to-text app support. Not at all.

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If there is one thing I can't stand it is getting into long-winded conversations with people on the phone. This is especially true if that person happens to be annoying. If I am forced to initiate the call, I find myself muttering a silent prayer that they won't pick up, but the fact of the matter is that annoying people are always available. The good news is that SlyDial has come up with a solution to this problem with a service that allows the caller to go directly to voicemail.

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According to a rumour that's been getting a little traction on the Mac sites, the new iPod nano will be multi-coloured. Notice that we said "nano" and not "nanos." Because while the current nano line is offered in multiple colours, 9to5Mac is claiming that the next nano will have more than one colour on each model. In addition, the storage capacity is said to be doubled alongside the inclusion of "new features." [9to5Mac]

Optics junkies at the University of Michigan have found a way to greatly boost the efficiency of OLEDs to produce 60% more light from the same amount of power as those previous, cranking out 70 lumens per watt. Their method uses a layer of five-micrometer-wide lenses mounted on top of a reflective grid, which coaxes the light out from the organic substrate and into the world. OLEDs to date have been held back by efficiency problems--they still can't match CFL bulbs' 90 lumens per watt, but they're getting there. This could mean lighting that adds even less power consumption to OLED's many benefits over compact fluorescents (longer life, better light, theoretical 100% efficiency, etc), and more energy-sipping OLED TV panels down the road. [Technology Review via DVICE]

There are gaming chairs that have speakers and a subwoofer, which are nice and have been done to death, but Gyroxus' gaming chair is a GAMING CHAIR. It's akin to the types of rigs you see in arcades that jiggles you like crazy in sync with whatever racing, flying or shooting game you've just thrown four quarters into.

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And here she is. After FCC chair Johnathan Adelstein withdrew his support today, the vote is now deadlocked and awaiting the yea or nay from Deborah Taylor, a Republican who is thought to be in favour of the merger.... Read More »