If you’ve been holding out for a Flip Mino-style camcorder but haven’t been able to justify the $150+ price tag, here’s something that may be of interest to you instead.

Amazon is selling the RCA Small Wonder EZ200 camcorder for just $59.99 with free shipping. The camera uses microSD cards for recording footage and features a swiveling LCD screen for standard and flip-around self-recording — the Flip series of camcorders just have a standard, non-flip screen.

The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup BetaGroup and saw five startups pitch their stuff to the 200-person audience.

The last one to get its five minutes of fame was Cherry, a new mobile operator that promised to “revolutionize the telecom world”. Needless to say, I was as curious as I was skeptical.

Then the company’s CEO got up on stage, introduced himself, took out his Nokia smartphone, called some random guy in the audience and had him call him back on his phone afterwards. Projecting his mobile phone screen on a bigger screen for everyone to see, he demonstrated how he didn’t need to launch an application and just browsed his contact list to call the other person. Standard functionality, sure, but the cool part of it was the fact that the phone was lacking the presence of a SIM card, which is supposed to identify you as a subscriber of a telephony service.

Ben Heckendorn is no doubt one of the greatest computer modders of our time. Doug just interviewed him and we have featured his work numerous times on CrunchGear. He’s back with yet another incarnation of a portable Xbox. This time around he used a newer Jasper motherboard and added more features like a built-in Ethernet, digital volume controls, and a flush mounted optical drive.

Before everyone gets in a huff, let’s consider Amazon’s intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be placed in books which you have purchased legitimately at full price, so let’s put that out of our heads. But what if you could take a few bucks off the cover price at the cost of a few contextual ads relating (if possible) to the book’s content?

Personally, I wouldn’t mind — partially because I don’t use a Kindle or intend to any time soon, but more because it’s a no-lose situation. Amazon wouldn’t risk alienating its loyal Kindle base with dirty tricks like this, so it’s safe to assume it’ll be at least somewhat opt-in.

According to survey of 2,300 Japanese retail stores, the iPhone was #1 in customer popularity, beating out all of those crazy, wonky phones they sell in Tokyo with names like the WonderFetus 100 Softbank X200-900 and the Brad Pitt Special Edition E900 from Sanyo with built-in TV tuner, can-opener, and fishing lures.

Taking a page from the Baby Translator invented by Homer Simpson’s half-brother Herb Powell, the $100 “Why Cry Baby Analyzer” attempts to help parents figure out what their wailing bundle of joy is so upset about. While not as accurate as the Baby Translator from the Simpsons (”I have soiled myself… how embarrassing”) the WCBA can apparently detect the following dispositions: hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy, and stressed.

Dearest CrunchGear readers: I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to Karen Dyer, who is not only the voice of Sheva Alomar, from Resident Evil 5, but who also did said character’s motion capture. I hope you enjoy it on this day, our day of freedom.

Big Mike has been pretty quiet about the CrunchPad since it was first leaked the other month and for good reason. We’ve heard from reliable sources that Apple is still on track with an oversized iPod Touch in the coming months. We more or less know everything there is to know about the CrunchPad, but a few more specs have popped up thanks to the NYT and SF Biz Times. The CP, made by Fusion Garage, is 16mm thick with a 12-inch screen encased in aluminum.