FedEx woke me up. Saturday delivery. I was hungover as hell. I opened the package to find a T-Mobile Motorola Dolce & Gabbana RAZR. So before I threw up and drank a cup of coffee, I made this unpackaging video for you all. I love you all that much. Yes. Really. Happy New Years Eve…

Air Dry That Sh*t…Not
Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Lets Go! Rider Kick!
LG’s Latest And Greatest (well maybe not greatest)

I’ve been jamming out to Man Man and doing nothing productive today, because let’s face it, there isn’t really anything to report today. We almost nothing. We do still have two more winners for our Reader Response Holiday SPECTACULAR.

So let’s get right to that. Read More

Product Page

Kamen Rider [Zippo Japan]

LG SB-190 [Cetizen]

iHolic [Saycost]

Nothing makes us cringe more than a gadget getting beaten up or destroyed. However, this Tickle Me Elmo doll that looks like a Private in Vietnam being torched with napalm keeps laughing after it becomes englufed in flames. Hilarious or creepy? You commenters decide.

Tickle Me Elmo On Fire [Digg]

So if you’re like, one of those guys who really needed an iPod game that you bought one, you’re in luck. Through a fairly easy method, you can crack iPod Games that you purchased for use on any iPod. Sounds great, right? Cubis 2 on my Nano and 5G!!!

But be forewarned, not only is this potentially illegal, but people are claiming it’s screwing up anything else purchased from the iTunes Music Store. I say go for the gusto, buddy.

How to get games to transfer [iPod Hacks via Digg]

If you are any way into music and use any semi-popular MP3 player (software-based), you should check out Last.fm! You install a little plugin onto your PC or Mac and it collects song information from your MP3 player and puts it into a database. So now you can see just how many times you listened to Jimmy Eat World – Sweetness and what albums you listen to are the least popular.

Oh and did I mention profiles? Yes you can add friends and find friends with similar tastes in music. They also allow you to check out new music with the Last.fm player – a piece of software that plays songs like a radio based on your musical tastes. You can even have RSS feeds of your last-played tracks. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re into music at all. You can view the last 10 songs I’ve listened to below.

Official Site [Last.fm]
My Last.fm page

Face it, DRM is here to stay. Sure there are cracks (thanks DVD Jon!), file-sharing networks, and Bit Torrent, but the fact is many people are still buying digital music online legally. Some pundits say DRM is either doomed to failure or harmful to the consumer experience because of its increasing lack of interoperability, but I see a clear path through the DRM labyrinth. One company in particular, Navio, has been trying hard to create a new paradigm of ownership for digital content—so-called rights-based commerce. So why hasn’t this potentially brilliant idea taken off yet?

It’s not rocket science why purchasing rights to digital music (and other content) is a good idea. You go to an artist’s web site or an online store and purchase the rights to a song, and those rights are stored in a “digital locker”. In some cases, you’d download the appropriately DRM-ed file directly from the site, while in other cases, you would receive a set of license codes for various online stores and download the appropriate file there.
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History of Computerized RPGs: The Wonder Years
Dazzling Toaster Amps
Workspace Roundup: Ergonomic Chairs
Solar Powered GPS Receiver for Hermits, Perverts
The Futurist: MacWorld’s-A-Comin’ or… The Perfect Musicphone

Polaroid and Storage Appliance Corporation. Called the Polaroid Media Backup Photo Edition, it’s essentially a portable 40GB hard drive designed for backing up your photos—and only your photos. I haven’t tested it out yet, but if the $129 drive works as promised, it’s definitely some of the best tech for the clueless that I’ve seen.

Storage Appliance has a ClickFree technology built into the drive that, as soon as it’s connected by USB to your Windows 2000 or XP computer (Vista support will be ready at launch in Q1 2007), hunts down any image file (more than 60 different file types are supported) and automatically backs them up. No software to install, no setup process to go through. Nothing. It just finds them and saves them to the drive. Even if they’re in compressed folders.

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Solar GPS [TransSystem]

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Growing up, NERF guns were my true arsenal. I remember being the first kid on the block to get the Balzooka – a gatling-gun that shot multiple NERF balls at your foes. The best were capture the flag fights and shootouts in public places.

So what has NERF been up to lately? Check out the N-Strike Longshot CS-6 rifle. The latest and greatest piece to terrorize your neighborhood with. From the official NERF website:

Take your blasting skills to the extreme with this two-in-one blaster! This blaster is more than three feet long and can launch foam arrows up to 35 feet away! Aim with accuracy and precision using the targeting scope. Two quick-reload clips hold a total of 12 STREAMLINE DARTS. There’s even a fold-down bi-pod to help you steady your aim for important shots. Looking for a quick shot at close range? The blaster has removable parts to give you one-handed freedom with a single-shot blaster! In either mode, load up, aim, press the trigger and watch the darts go the distance!

It even comes with two quick-reload clips. If you and your friends have a 30-pack of Miller Lite and want to get rowdy, I suggest swinging by Toys R Us and picking up a few. $29.99 each, Flinstones Band-Aids not included.

N-Strike Longshot CS-6 Official Page [NERF Website]

You know what. For today, guns are gear. Enjoy this crazy 90-year old bitch firing off an automatic.

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O.J.’s book deal and Mel Gibson’s drunk driving arrest.

The game plays just like traditional hangman, but Saddam will taunt you along the way with choice phrases like “Americans can’t spell” or “I laugh at your letters.” Ha.

This will likely result in jihad against me and the CG staff, but I just report the “news,” so, and I mean this quite literally, don’t shoot the messengers, m’kay?

MacWorld is just around the corner, and with it endless speculation that 2007 will not only be the year Apple finally throws its hat into the mobile phone ring, but also the year that the promise of a musicphone that can actually substitute for your digital music player of choice finally comes true.

Of course, it’s all déjà vu to us. I’m pretty sure 2006 was supposed the year of the musicphone, and maybe even 2005 before that. There are many good reasons consumers haven’t really embraced music/phone convergence yet, and it isn’t just the lack of one made by Apple.

So what would it take to make the perfect (Apple or non-Apple) musicphone? Click the jump to see exactly what needs to be done before we all leave our iPods gathering dust for good…
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