Indeed, the only way you are going to make a phone call on this is if you use your imagination. These paper iPhones are designed for one thing and one thing only — taking notes. At least it’s double sided — one half for regular notes and the other half for technical sketches. [Notepod via iSpazio via OhGizmo]

From today, I’m taking a little break, which coincides with the birth of Broughall Jnr No. 1™ sometime today. I’ll be off for two weeks, returning on Tuesday October 6. During that time, you can expect all the regular US content to be filtered down thanks to our Night Editor Elly as per usual. But to bring you all the local stuff, I’ve got Chris Oaten, former tech editor for the Adelaide Advertiser and former editor of Macworld Australia on board from Monday. Chris has got years of experience playing with gadgets, and is a self-confessed Mac fanboy – but he’s a nice guy, so go easy on him.

My byline won’t disappear over the next couple of weeks though. We’ve got a really exciting Giz AU theme week starting in late September, and the team has been busting its balls to get stuff ready for that, so hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

I’ll see you next month!

But it’s not all bad. Fortunately for me (and hopefully you), there’s been a little trend in laptops recently you may have heard of: Netbooks. Cheap, small, portable machines that have just enough power to browse the web, send and receive email and write a document or two. Which is all I need my mobile machine to do – I have a 20-inch iMac at home that gets me through most of the harder work here at Giz.

So, with that in mind, I’m launching a new netbook review program here at Giz AU. Starting tomorrow, you can follow my exciting adventures through mini, portable laptop land as I quest to find the ultimate netbook. I call it: “The Quest For Netbook Nirvana”.

As a bonus part of the series, I want to hear your opinions/questions on particular netbook models, starting with the Dell Mini 9. Send me your thoughts, hopes, dreams, questions and reviews to editor@gizmodo.com.au.

When I went to plug in my Verizon EV-DO card, all was well. But when I moved to hook up my digital camera’s USB cable in the other port, my smile turned upside down–just like the old plastic MacBooks, there is almost zero clearance in between the two USB ports, meaning anything that’s slightly above the normal plug size will block the other opening. Guhhhh.

On the old MBPs, there was a USB port on each side, for happier, double-connected times. Now if you use most any USB 3G card, you’ll have to hang it limply from a short extension cable if you want to get at your other port.

Sure you can also buy a card reader for your ExpressCard slot (even though the CF cards found in most quality DSLRs require an ugly protrusion), but that doesn’t help when you want to download images to your machine live via camera control software–a liveblogging essential. Also forget about using any USB card reader you had, certain bulky flashdrives or your prized USB Humping Dog without blocking the other port.

So if you’re getting a MBP and a 3G card to go with it, go with ExpressCard for the 3G–a nagging little thing that the old MBPs had on this new version. Otherwise this thing is a dream, and our review is more spot-on every day. Just little things like this that you wouldn’t normally think about that pop up. Have you ever been surprised by an unsuspected limitation of new gear like this? Let us know.

And CNN also did this piece on Palin’s Blackberry. (Thanks Veronica!)

The WSJ also did something on holiday shopping — note that I gave them an old photo I took one week into this job. Before it ruined my health. (Paywall, you can’t get in.)

Here are my favourite posts from Monday:
• Ten Inventions That Freed Themselves By Killing Their Masters
• Warbot Pinup Calendar: 12 Months of Gun-Wielding Robot Porn
• Ogle Cable Guys Between the Hours of Whenever and Anytime
• I Love Katamari for iPhone/iPod Touch Lightning Review
• Millennium Falcon Sled is as Close as You’ll Ever Get to the Real Thing
• What a Wiimote to the TV Actually Looks Like

I’m a bit road weary and drinking-weary but tomorrow I’m going off to this conference called EG, or Entertainment Gathering. It’s about a 2 hour drive south to Monterey, but I think it’ll be worth it. I generally avoid these things at all cost, but everyone I’ve talked to says the combo of tech and entertainment types makes for an unforgettable mix.

Snow will fall in Tahoe this next week! While NYC was butt cold, somehow, when there’s material to snowboard on, it’s not so bad. I’m going to be reviewing some snowboarding gear (with tech in it) this winter, in anticipation of the Gizmodo Snow Fun Meetup. Or whatever the hell we’re calling it this year. Oh yea, it’ll be April 4th. I hope you can make it this year. (Someone has to work the bunny slopes with Adrian.)

Here are my favourite posts from today:
• Windows Mobile Browser Battlemodo: Can You Get the Real Internet?
• The Slimmest Houses On Earth Are Made In Japan

I’m more than halfway through the book already and it’s pretty fantastic, giving a non-textbook history of stuff like the sticker pictures (Purikura), shooting games, music games and more. And Ashcraft wrote it, so you know it’s good. There’s lots of pictures, because I know you like pictures, and some shots of Japanese schoolgirls showing a little bit of leg in their skirts, because I know you know I know you like Japanese schoolgirls. In any case, you can get a copy here.

Here are some of my favourite posts from the last day or so.

• Nintendo DSi piracy is here again
• My review of the Callpod Fueltank charger, because I wrote it
• False alarm on that Apple antivirus thing that everyone everywhere’s been talking about
• Nokia’s got a new N97 phone

In other news, how are you enjoying the LA Auto Show with Jalopnik? Is it all hybrid-this and electric-that? That’s what I’m seeing based on Jalop’s coverage. Good times. I wonder if the car show crowd is more or less smelly than the consumer electronics crowd.

Here are some of the posts I liked today:

• Our Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Review
• This Media Centre touch control thing
• Our Mobile web browser Battlemodo (spoiler alert, they’re all poopy)