There’s already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I’d add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it.

Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I’ve seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean.

I won’t speak on the problems with Fusion Garage but up until a few hours ago the entire TC/CG team expected to see the CrunchPad at some point in our lives. This is a massive change in this industry. A few years ago a blogger couldn’t get a press pass to CES let alone enough attention to build out a massive and mass-market hardware project.

Other organizations should learn from this or ignore it at their peril. It would behoove the New York Times, for example, to build something like the CrunchPad for consumption of the newspaper. They won’t do it because it is seemingly off-mission. This is what separates new media from old – the acceptance of risk. You can inject that instinct into old media but, as Devin wrote, “old” media can’t make the same mistakes we can.

Trust me: I’m not patting TC on the back here. I had very little to do with the design of this thing and I was as excited – and incredulous – as you were in regards to this product. It was great being part of the organization that began it and it’s sad to see it go.

Michael wanted to make a CrunchPad. It very nearly happened. This marks a sea change in what our media can accomplish as well as a testament to the good will it has engendered in its readership. In the end, a harsh accident intruded. This is an important distinction because from where I sit this clearly wasn’t a case of harsh reality striking down this project but something far stranger.

So goodnight, sweet CrunchPad. Some day your time will come.

Oh, I get it. It’s called “Shack” Friday at Radio Shack instead of Black Friday. Because “shack” sounds like “black” and “shack” is part of Radio Shack’s name. So basically, they just switched the two words around. I get it.

Know what else? The damn sale starts on Thursday! What a world! “Most stores open at 10 AM Thursday,” says the circular. And then they open at 5:30 in the morning on Friday! That’s Shack-rilege! See how I worked the name of the store into that one?

UPDATE: Radio Shack’s PR team was kind enough to send over high-resolution images of the national circular. Here are the links to the images:

Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3

Anyhoo, here’s the good stuff. Doorbusters are marked with an asterisk.

Automotive

Gigaware Car Charger for iPod – $10.00

Sirius Stratus 5 Dock & Play Radio + Car Kit – $29.99

XM onyX Satellite Radio – $59.99

Blank Media

25-Pack of Gigaware 16X DVD-Rs – B1G1F

50-Pack Of Gigaware 52X CD-R – B1G1F

Gigaware 25 Pack of 16X DVD-Rs – B1G1F

Gigaware 50 Pack of 52X CD-Rs – B1G1F

Cell Phones

BlackBerry Curve 8520 (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00

Gigaware High Power Docking Speaker For iPod – $49.99

LG Xenon Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00

Motorola CLIQ w/Motoblur (w/2-Year Agreement) – $79.99

Motorola i776 Cell Phone – $69.99

Nokia 2720 No-Contract Mobile Phone – $9.99

Palm Pixi Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $99.99

Palm Pre Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $99.99

Plantronics E210 Bluetooth Headset – $19.99

Samsung Impression Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $29.99

Samsung Instinct S30 Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00

Samsung Mantra Cell Phone – $29.99

Snap-On Covers for iPhone 3G or Blackberry Curve 8300 – $9.99

Computer Accessories

Gigaware 1.3MP Webcam w/Microphone – $14.99

Gigaware 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System – $10.00

Gigaware Folding Notebook Cooling Pad – $10.00

Gigaware VoIP USB Headset – $10.00

Gigaware Wireless Optical Mouse – $12.99

Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo – $19.99

Netbook Accessory Bundle (USB Hub, Mouse, Earbuds, Cooling Pad) – $29.99

Pinnacle Ultra-Compact USB HDTV Tuner – $39.99

Computers

Acer 11.6″ Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor Z520, 2GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive – $249.99

Acer 15.6″ Notebook w/AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor, 4GB Memory, 320 Hard Drive – $399.99

Digital Cameras

Buy Any $89.99 Camera In This Ad, Receive a Free Polaroid Pogo Mobile Printer – $0.00

Casio Exilim 10 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera Gift Bundle – $89.99

Kodak MD81 12.0 Megapixel Digital Camera – $99.99

Nikon S220 10 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera – $129.99

Olympus 12 Megapixel 7x Wide-Angle Zoom Digital Camera – $149.99

Vivitar 8.1 Megapixel 2x Optical Zoom Digital Camera – $49.99

Digital Media Cards

Sandisk 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo – $9.99

Sandisk 2GB Type-M xD-Picture Card – $9.99

Sandisk 4GB MicroSDHC Card – $9.99

Sandisk Standard SDHC Card – $9.99

DVD Players

Memorex Upconverting DVD Player – $29.99

Samsung BD-1600A Blu-ray Disc Player – $149.99

Electronics

Casio 32 Mini-Key Electronic Keyboard – $29.99

Discovery 54-Key Electronic Keyboard – $29.99

Discovery Kids Digital Camcorder – $39.99

Emerson Portable CD+G Karaoke Player – $29.99

Gigaware 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99

Gigaware Micro Projector – $99.99

MagicJack VoIP Kit – $29.99

Motorola 4-Pack of 2-Way FRS Radios – $29.99

Panasonic DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone System w/4 Headsets – $69.99

Pandigital 10.1″ Digital Photo Frame – $79.99

Sanyo 720p High-Definition Video Camcorder – $169.99

Skullcandy Headphones – $9.99

USB Turntable – $79.99

Vivitar 720p High-Definition Video Camcorder – $69.99

GPS Systems

Garmin Nuvi 255W 4.3″ Widescreen GPS – $119.99

Garmin Nuvi 265WT 4.3″ GPS w/Free Lifetime Traffic Updates – $169.99

Mio 4.3″ M400 GPS – $79.99

TomTom XL 330S GPS w/Free Dash Mount – $99.99

Hard Drives

Iomega 320GB Portable Hard Drive – $49.99

Miscellaneous

5×7″ Recordable Talking Picture Frame – $10.00

Duracell Color Charger w/2 AA Rechargeable Batteries – $10.00

Enercell Holiday Bettery Tin – $9.99

ESPN GameDay Universal 4-in-1 Remote – $10.00

Gigaware 1.5″ Digital Photo Keychain – $10.00

Gigaware Crystal Skin for iPod Touch – $10.00

Gigaware Laser Etched Skin for iPod Touch – $10.00

Gigaware Retractable Rapid Home Charger for iPod/iPhone – $10.00

RadioShack 25-Piece Mini Tool Kit – $10.00

RadioShack 4.3″ GPS Soft Case – $14.99

RadioShack GPS Home AC Charger – $14.99

RadioShack Weather Cube Radio – $10.00

Rechargeable Spotlight – $10.00

Swiss+Tech Micro-Max 19-in-1 Tool Kit – $10.00

MP3 Players

8GB iPod Touchw/$20 GC – $199.99

Gigaware 2GB MP3 Player – $19.99

Gigaware 4GB MP3 Player – $39.99

Gigaware MP3 Accessory Kit – $9.99

iHome Computer Stereo Speakers w/Dock for iPid – $29.99

iLive 2.1 Home Theater Upconverting DVD System w/Dock for iPod – $99.99

iPod 8GB Nano w/$15 GC – $149.99

iPod Accessory Kit – $30.00

Sansa 2GB Clip Plus Music Player w/1000 Song Music Card – $49.99

Sound Bar w/Dock for iPod – $69.99

Networking

Netgear WNR1000 Wireless-N 150 Router – $34.99

Portable USB Storage

Sandisk 2GB USB Flash Drive – $4.99

Sandisk 4GB USB Flash Drive – $9.99

Televisions

AOC 22″ 720P LCD HDTV – $199.99

Auvio 3.5″ Pocket Digital TV – $79.99

Auvio 7″ Portable TV – $119.99

Samsung 32″ LCD HDTV – $399.99

Video Games

DualShock 3 PS3 Wireless Controler – $29.99

Gigaware Recharging Station for Nintendo Wii – $12.99

Nyko Wand for Nintendo Wii – $24.99

V.Motion Game Console – $34.99

Xbox 360 Elite System w/$60 Cash Back & 2 Games (Lego Batman and Pure) – $299.99

Radio Shack Black Friday Ad [BlackFriday.info]

More Black Friday deals…

It’s here. Best Buy’s Black Friday ad is here. Stores open at 5AM and Best Buy will “pass out tickets for our Doorbuster Specials up to two hours before 5 a.m. store opening,” according to the circular. That means no running, probably. You can still do that thing where you walk really fast and sort of skip a little bit, but no running.

Doorbusters are marked with an asterisk.

Automotive

Alpine 50-Watt x 4-Channel Car Stereo – $99.99

Pioneer 50 Watt x 4-Channel Car Stereo & Speaker Pair – $89.99

Cell Phones

AT&T Sony Ericsson W518a – Free w/2 Year Contract *

BoostMobile Motorola Clutch i465 – $59.99

DLO Jam Jacket For iPhone – $9.99

Jabra BT-2080 Bluetooth Headset – $19.99

LG Chocolate Touch From Verizon w/Two Year Activation – $0.00 *

MiFi 2200 By Novatel Wireless w/Two Year Activation – $0.00

Mobile Broadband Card 598U By Sierra Wireless w/Two Year Activation – $0.00

Motorola H710 Noise-Canceling Bluetooth Headset – $39.99

Motorola S9 HD Stereo Bluetooth Headset – $49.99

Net10 Samsung T401G – $39.99

Sprint BlackBerry Curve 8330 Smart Phone – Free w/2 Year Contract

Sprint Samsung Instinct S30 – Free w/2 Year Contract

T-Mobile Motorola Renew Phone – $7.99

Verizon Wireless DROID – $199.99 w/2 Year Contract

Verizon Wireless Motorola Rival – Free w/2 Year Contract *

Virgin Mobile Kyocera X-tc – $49.99

Computer Accessories

Logitech C250 Webcam – $19.99

Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse – $24.99

Rocketfish AC Power Adapter – $39.99

Computers

Compaq Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor, 1GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive – $179.99

Compaq Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor, 1GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive – $229.99

Dell 10.1″ Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor, 1GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive – $379.99

eMachines Desktop w/AMD Athlon Processor, 3GB RAM, 320GB HD, Windows 7, w/18.5″ LCD Monitor and HP Deskjet Printer – $299.97

HP 15.6″ Notebook w/AMD Turion II Dual Core Processor M500, 6GB Memory, 320GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 – $599.99

HP 15.6″ Notebook w/AMD Turion II Dual Core Processor M500, 8GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 – $699.99

Macbook 13.3″ Notebook w/2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive, w/$150 Gift Card – $999.99

Sony 15″ Laptop w/Intel Dual Core Processor, 4GB Memory, 320GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 – $399.99

Sony 15″ Laptop w/Intel Dual Core Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, Windows 7, Sony Headphones, Built-In Blu-ray Player, Blu-ray Movie – $479.97

Toshiba 16″ Laptop w/Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 3GB DDR3 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive (Model # L505-S5984) – $399.99

Toshiba 16″ Laptop w/Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4GB DDR3 Memory, 320GB Hard Drive (Model # L505-S5984) w/Printer and Case – $499.97

Digital Cameras

Canon EOS Rebel Tli D-SLR Camera w/18-55mm IS Lens – $699.99

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Grey) – $149.99

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Teal) – $149.99

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Extra Battery and Case (Grey) – $179.99

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Extra Battery and Case (Teal) – $179.99

Canon Rebel Tli Camera w/55-250mm IS Telephoto Lens and Lowepro D-SLR Bag – $849.97

Fujifilm Finepix Z37 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Extra Battery and Case – $149.97

Fujifilm Finepix Z37 Polka Dot 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera – $119.99

Insignia 720p HD Camcorder – $69.99

Insignia NS-DSC10A 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Pink) – $49.99 *

Insignia NS-DSC10B 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Blue) – $49.99 *

Kodak EasyShare C140 Digital Camera With 7″ Kodak Digital Photo Frame – $109.99

Nikon Coolpix P90 12.1 Megapixel Digital Camera – $299.99

Nikon Coolpix P90 12.1 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Extra Battery and Case – $329.97

Nikon Coolpix S60 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Red) – $179.99

Nikon Coolpix S60 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Extra Battery and Case – $209.97

Nikon D3000DX 10.2 Megapixel D-SLR Digital Camera w/10-55mm and 55-200mm Lens and Bag – $599.97

Nikon D3000DX 10.2 Megapixel D-SLR Digital Camera w/10-55mm VR Lens – $499.99

Sony Cybershot W180 10.1 Megapixel Digital Camera (Black) – $99.99

Sony Cybershot W180 10.1 Megapixel Digital Camera w/Flexpod and Camera Case – $119.97

Digital Media Cards

PNY 4GB Flash Drive – $9.99

PNY 4GB MicroSD HD Memory Card – $9.99

PNY 4GB SDHC Memory Card – $9.99

Sandisk 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo – $14.99

Sandisk 8GB MicroSDHC Memory Card – $19.99

Sandisk 8GB SD Card – $19.99

DVD Players

Insignia Blu-ray Disc Player (Model # NS-BRDVD3) – $99.99

Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-ray Disc Player – $279.99

Samsung Blu-Ray Disc Player – $149.99

Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray Disc Player – $149.99

Electronics

2GB Pulse Smartpen w/$30 Gift Card – $169.99

Bose In-Ear Headphones – $89.99

Canon Vixia HD HF20 Camcorder – $499.99

Canon Vixia HD HF20 Camcorder w/Extra Li-Ion Battery & 8″ HDMI Cable – $599.97

Dynex 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99

iHome Portable Alarm Clock Speaker iPod Dock – $39.99

Insignia 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $44.99

Logitech Harmony 510 Advanced Universal Remote – $39.99

Panasonic DECT 6.0 Expandable Cordless Phone System w/3 Handsets – $59.99

Pandigital 9″ Digital Photo Frame – $59.99

Sony DCR-SR47 Handycam Camcorder – $249.99

Sony DCR-SR47 Handycam Camcorder w/Extra Li-Ion Battery & Bag – $299.97

Sony DCR-SX40 Handycam Camcorder – $199.99

Sony DCR-SX40 Handycam Camcorder w/Extra Li-Ion Battery & 8GB Memory Stick – $259.97

Sony Reader Pocket Edition w/$30 Gift Card – $199.99

Sony Studio Monitor Headphones – $9.99

VTech DECT 6.0 Expandable Cordless Phone System w/2 Handsets – $44.99

GPS Systems

Garmin GPS Friction Mount – $14.99

Garmin Nuvi 205W GPS Navigation System – $99.99 *

Garmin Nuvi 255WT GPS Navigation System – $129.99

Lowepro Black Neoprene Sleeve – $7.99

Magellan SE4 GPS – $89.99

Tom Tom 540S Portable GPS Navigation System – $149.99

Tom Tom GO 730 Portable GPS Navigation System – $174.99

Hard Drives

LG External Slim Portable USB 2.0 DVD Drive – $49.99

Western Digital 1.5TB My Book Home Edition External Hard Drive – $119.99

Western Digital 500GB My Passport Elite Portable Hard Drive Titanium – $79.99

Western Digital WDTV Media Player – $74.99

Home Theater

4″ Monster Cable 700 Series HDMI Cable – $49.99

Init Cherry Wood Stand With Mount For TVs Up To 46″ – $99.99

Init Cherry Wood w/Black Glass Shelves TV Stand – $149.99

Klipsch Icon 2-Way Triple 5.25″ Floorstanding Speaker – $186.99

Klipsch Icon 2-Way Triple 6.5″ Floorstanding Speaker – $236.99

Samsung 5.1 Channel 1000W Home Theater System With Blu-ray Disc Player – $399.99

Sony 5.1 Channel 1000W Home Theater System – $279.99

Sony 7.1 Channel 770-Watt A/V Receiver – $279.99

Tilting Wall Mount For 30″-56″ Flat-Panel TVs – $99.99

Monitors

Acer 20″ HD LCD Monitor (Model # X203H) – $79.99

Dell 20″ HD LCD Monitor (Model # S2009W) – $99.99

MP3 Players

3 $10 iTunes Gift Cards – $25.00

8GB iPod 5th Generation Nano (Black) + Wall Charger & Case – $159.97

8GB iPod 5th Generation Nano (Blue) + Wall Charger & Case – $159.97

8GB iPod 5th Generation Nano (Pink) + Wall Charger & Case – $159.97

8GB iPod 5th Generation Nano (Purple) + Wall Charger & Case – $159.97

8GB iPod 5th Generation Nano (Silver) + Wall Charger & Case – $159.97

Apple 8GB iPod Touch 3rd Generation w/$30 Gift Card – $199.99

Bose Sound-dock Series II Digital Music System – $269.99

Power Pack for iPod/iPhone – $19.99

Sandisk 4GB Fuze MP3 Player (Black) – $44.99

Sandisk 4GB Fuze MP3 Player (Blue) – $44.99

Sandisk 4GB Fuze MP3 Player (Red) – $44.99

Networking

Linksys Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router w/4-Port Switch (Model # WRT160N) – $59.99

NetGear Wireless N Router (Model # WNR2000-100NAS) – $49.99

Portable USB Storage

Sandisk Cruzer 8GB USB Flash Drive – $19.99

Printers

$10 Gift Card With Any $40 Ink Purchase – $0.00

Epson Stylus NX110 Multifunction Printer – $24.99

HP Photosmart C4795 Wireless Multifunction Printer – $64.99

Software

Instant Immersion Spanish Software – $19.99

Microsoft Office Home And Student 2007 – $69.99

Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements – $74.99

Televisions

Dynex 19″ 720p LCD HDTV (Model # DX-L19-10A) – $149.99

Dynex 32″ 720p LCD HDTV (Model # DX-L321-10A) – $299.99 *

Dynex 40″ 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV (Model # DX-L40-10A) – $499.99

Insignia 42″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV (Model # NS-L42Q120-10A) – $699.99 *

LG 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV (Model # 32LH30-UA) – $439.99

Panasonic Viera 50″ 1080p Plasma HDTV (Model # TC-P50U1) w/Blu-ray Disc Player (Model # DMP-BD60K) – $999.98

Samsung 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV (Model # LN32B530P7F) – $497.99

Samsung 32″ 720p LCD HDTV (Model # LN32B360C5D) – $397.99

Samsung 40″ 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV (Model # LN40B500P3FXZA) – $597.99

Samsung 42″ 720p Plasma HDTV (Model # PN42B400P3DXZA) – $547.99

Samsung 46″ 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV (Model # UN4686000VF) – $1599.99 *

Samsung 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV (LN46B500P3FXZA) – $847.99

Samsung 50″ 1080p Plasma HDTV (Model # PN50B530S2F) – $897.99

Samsung 50″ 720p Plasma HDTV (Model # PN50B430P2D) – $697.99

Sony 32″ 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV (Model # KDL32L504) – $377.99

Sony 40″ 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV (Model # KDL40S504) – $662.99

Sony 46″ 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV (Model # KDL465504) – $852.99

Video Games

$20 Gift Card w/Any DSi Game System Purchase – $0.00

Assassins Creed (PC Game) – $19.99

Bash Party (Wii) – $14.99

Bioshock (PC Game) – $19.99

Bolt (DS Game) – $9.99

Brutal Legend (PS3) – $34.99 *

Brutal Legend (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Call of Juarex (PS3) – $19.99

Call of Juarez (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Civilization IV (PC Game) – $19.99

Cooking Mama (DS Game) – $9.99

Cooking Mama (Wii) – $14.99

Crash (DS Game) – $9.99

Dragon Age (PS3) – $34.99 *

Dragon Age (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Excite Bots Trick Racing (Wii) – $14.99

Fallout 3 (PS3) – $19.99

Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Family Game Night (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Far Cry 2 (PC Game) – $4.99

FIFA Soccer 10 (PS3) – $34.99 *

FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Guinness World Records (DS Game) – $9.99

Hawx (PS3) – $19.99 *

Hawx (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Left 4 Dead 2 (PS3) – $34.99 *

Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Madagascar 2 Escape From Africa (Wii) – $14.99

Madden 10 (PS3) – $34.99 *

Madden 10 (XBox 360) – $34.99 *

Marker Man (DS Game) – $9.99

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Wii) – $14.99

My Sims Kingdom (Wii) – $9.99

My Word Coach (DS Game) – $9.99

NBA Live 09 (Wii) – $9.99

NBA Live 10 (PS3) – $34.99 *

NBA Live 10 (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Need For Speed: Shift (PS3) – $34.99 *

Need For Speed: Shift (XBox 360) – $34.99 *

NHL 10 (PS3) – $34.99 *

NHL 10 (Xbox 360) – $34.99 *

Nintendo DSi Brain Age Bundle (White) w/$20 Gift Card – $169.99

Nintendo DSi Mario Bundle (Metallic Blue) w/$20 Gift Card – $169.99

Pikmin Classic (Wii) – $14.99

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) – $9.99

Resident Evil 5 (PS3) – $19.99

Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Riddick (PS3) – $19.99

Riddick (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Slots (PC Game) – $19.99

Sonic Chronicles The Dark Brotherhood (DS Game) – $9.99

Sony PlayStation 3 Package w/120GB Console, Little Big Planet, and Ratchet And Clank – $299.99 *

Spyro (DS Game) – $9.99

Stalker (PC Game) – $4.99

Sudoku Ball (DS Game) – $9.99

The Bigs 2 (PS3) – $19.99

The Bigs 2 (Xbox 360) – $19.99

Wii Sports Snowboard (Wii) – $14.99

Wii Sports (Wii) – $9.99

World Of Warcraft (PC Game) – $4.99

Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Bundle w/Four Pack Game Set – $299.99

BestBuy Black Friday Ad [BlackFriday.info]

More Black Friday deals…

Fox News held a fair and balanced debate over Modern Warfare 2, the popular new FPS that lets you play a CIA operative tasked with helping Russian agents clear terrorists out of an airport. In the game, it turns out that the Russian had turned on you and forced you to kill innocents in the airport. It’s a depiction of USA-funded terrorism. It is not a murder simulator.

The debate here, if it can be called that, seems to rotate around the correlation between video game violence and real violence. The old man in this debate mentioned an American Association of Pediatrics statement. Here it is:

VIOLENT VIDEO GAME CONTENT MORE ATTRACTIVE TO YOUTH

Restrictive age and violent-content labels increased the attractiveness of video games for boys and girls of all age groups, according to a new study. In “Age and Violent-Content Labels Make Video Games Forbidden Fruits for Youth,” researchers tested 310 Dutch children in three groups: 7 to 8, 12 to 13 and 16 to 17 years of age. Participants read fictitious video game descriptions and rated how much or how little they wanted to play each game. An important finding for parents, pediatricians and policy-makers is that age and violent-content labels do not prevent young children from playing games with objectionable content. In fact, they have the opposite effect. Study authors suggest that video games should not be forbidden in Europe or the United States because that will only make the games more attractive, and parents should help in selecting appropriate games for their children to play.

This amazing bit of news – kids like stuff they can’t have – is an obvious by-product of our neophilic instincts and does very little to correlate events like the shooting at Fort Hood and 9/11 to violent video games.

Violence stems from a lack of human interaction in a nurturing and mental health context. To ascribe any sort of behavior to media is a cop out for the pundits and for the aggressor. That said, I would recommend children not watch Fox News because it encourages damn fools to come to presidential speeches wearing guns, but that’s neither here nor there.

Sadly, Jon Cristensen at SlashGamer was too tongue-tied to respond to this criticism and it’s rarely the gamer that comes out ahead in these sorts of ambushes. The bottom line: violent games are not for young kids just as pornography, beer, cigarettes, handguns, lighters, spray paint, and knives are not for kids. There is a time and a context for each of those things and to rail against them shows a lack of judgment and clarity.

UPDATE – A cool response:

So when word came down that Apple had filed a patent for what appears to be an ad-supported version of OS X, my shock abated almost instantly. In fact, I only felt more justified in backing ad-supported products. There will be objections, some legitimate, some hysterical, but I think it will become increasingly clear over the next few years that this sort of thing is not only unavoidable, but ultimately desirable. As with other major emerging concepts like globalization, peer to peer connectivity, net neutrality, and device convergence, the evolution of advertising will be denied, debated, and championed in a million different ways. And that’s okay. Like those other processes (all of them still ongoing), you don’t have to accept them right away, but it helps if you realize that resistance is futile.

First, though, give yourselves a pat on the back. As a member of the vanguard of new media, next-generation services, and experimental technology, you should feel a certain pride. And I think you’ve also been justified in your various transgressions out here on the frontier — blocking ads, pirating media and software, and misusing or abusing other services (to a point at least) — because you moved faster than the rest of the world and it’s their fault that they didn’t see it coming, or weren’t fast enough to react in time. I don’t want to get all copyfight up in here, but the dinosaurs of media and communications deserve all the flak and failure they’ve piled up. I know it, you know it, they won’t say so but they know it too — but the time for sulking and suing is over. Instead, they’re piling into the wagons and hitting the trail. The latest Wild West on the internet is being clogged with settlers, and, at the risk of allowing this metaphor to overstay its welcome, there’s about to be a new sheriff in town (pictured at right). And the next few years will be the story of how the West was re-won — by corporate interests, as usual. Hey, it had to happen sometime.

Look. The fastest growing mobile platforms in the world are essentially trojan horses for new advertising (Android) and paid content (Apple). DRM is starting, thank god, to assume a form that isn’t instinctively abhorrent to even to the most seasoned of internet users. Digital distribution is no longer looked upon as an aberration, but an opportunity. And this positive change in new advertising is combined with, as Eric Clemons noted back in March, a failure on the part of traditional advertising to engage its audience on any level. Of course, his objections apply equally to a banner ad that’s in your browser as it does to a banner ad that’s on your desktop. Let’s talk about it.

Break yourself

So what can you do? Well, you can change the way you advertise. Ads these days are so bad that anybody who clicks one is guaranteed to be a sucker. And the supply of suckers, birth rates notwithstanding, is decreasing as techsavviness increases (along with AdBlock, torrenting, etc.). Even when you take an ethical stand, like Penny Arcade and others, and only advertise on your site for things you want you readership to support, ads simply won’t do any more. I wonder why? Let’s see. Tell me how most ads these days differ from the following:

(image from here)

Except for the fact that you no longer have to send a piece of mail to a physical address (usually, anyway), it is evident that the bulk of advertising hasn’t changed in 150 years. Interesting, that — and surprising that such a mind-bogglingly backward-looking strategy has survived so long. But luckily for us, advertisers are finally beginning to realize that the internet isn’t just a periodical with infinite pages. Innovators have, over the last four or five years, created a huge, rich playpen for marketers, and unsurprisingly those marketers have largely ignored it. Hence the trouble monetizing such obvious gold mines as Flickr, FaceBook, Twitter, and so on. “How will we make money on Twitter, there’s no place to put our gold-rush-era advertisements for Gammon’s Unctuous Ointment?” Sorry, but change comes from within, people. I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but if you can’t figure out how to take a hundred million eyeballs a day and turn it into cash, you should reconsider your profession.

That’s why I see all these troublesome embedded ads and sponsored services as non-threatening — even cute in a way. They represent the infancy of new advertising, and stuff like an ad-supported OS or office suite are their first wobbly steps. Photogenic in a way, but be ready to capture the first few falls as well. For instance: Apple’s potential system, while obviously just a rough sketch in more ways than one, has the troubling flowchart box “User pre-buys time?” Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Coin-op computing is not the way to go. Revisit Eric’s article for a few ideas on what is the way to go, but while I have you I’d like to add a few examples I’ve just thought up in the last few minutes, if I may. I doubt I’m the first person to think of these, but I don’t see any of them being implemented widely, so pretend I invented them for the purposes of this post.

Ads that aren’t anachronisms

When you say “ad-supported,” it conjures images of ugly banner ads surrounding the functional portion of the program or service. You and I see it every day in Gmail, after all, and who hasn’t seen worse? Nagware also comes to mind; I used WinRAR for a decade and clicked down its nag screen thousands of times before giving in. But that’s old school. These days, ads are rectangles filled with lies. Nobody clicks on those any more, or if they do, the numbers are decreasing at a rate which must alarm those who fill the rectangles. But what if the ads were to be invisible? Picture this: an OS-wide layer that detects searches, reads text on webpages, and scours all content for products and services. A Snap-esque pop-up or browser bar provides the lowest prices, latest blog posts, and a link to the official site. It provides trackable clickthroughs (bankable) and is, in fact, useful to the user. In a “normal” machine you could turn this off, and in an ad-supported machine you couldn’t (without some work anyway). Sure, it’s not a full solution, but honestly, would you mind having that on your machine if it meant saving a couple hundred bucks up front? Even if you say yes (and I might), I guarantee there are about a hundred million people who would say no. Can you say Wal-Mart? I knew you could. I’d venture to say that this is one of the driving ideas behind Chrome OS.

So that’s a kickoff point for ads in the OS: unavoidable yet unobtrusive, simple yet functional. What about in the browser? It’s more difficult because the user has more control over what they do and don’t see. But the same principles are at work, and at the risk of tooting TechCrunch’s horn, we’re already applying them (and have been before I got here; I’m not claiming any credit). Look down at the bottom of this paragraph. It’s a CrunchBase widget! Useful, embeddable, trackable, and customizable — mark my words, in a year or two these things (not just CrunchBase but similar items) will be everywhere. After all, who says an ad has to be produced by the company making the product? People don’t like those ads anyway. They’re badly designed, and frequently damned lies to boot. But in a CrunchBase or say GDGT embedded widget, you know the source, you don’t have to worry about spin, and it’s no skin off your back if TechCrunch gets a penny whenever you click through to Sony’s site through one. And here’s the fun part: payment, placement, and tracking are virtually identical to traditional ads. Sony doesn’t want to pay a website to advertise for them? Then no links to Sony. Users can figure it out by themselves.

If I’m honest, they should be a bit smaller if they’re to be everywhere. And have more stuff. You get the idea, though. …yeah, it’s me, so what?

But media, Devin, you’re forgetting the media! Billions are spent on television advertising. Or so I’m told — I only see TV ads at the gym and at bars these days, since I download or stream all my media. I’m not boasting of being some elite master pirate and internet jockey; the fact is that tech-savvy people do what I do, or rather I do what they do, because at the moment it’s easier and better. That’s all. And there are more people qualifying as tech-savvy every day. Media companies are realizing that, and TV ads, while not on their way out, are going to have to be heavily augmented with something else. What could it be? What did I say about the other ads — oh yes, unavoidable yet unobtrusive, simple yet functional. Okay, here’s one I just thought up as I typed this sentence. When you stream or download a show, have metadata or an on-screen menu or page (visible during the intro, ads, or whatnot) where you can buy associated items. But not just DVD sets. I mean, if someone’s watching episode 89, they either own episodes 1-60 already or will be buying them sooner or later anyway. You’re trying to sell God to the choir. Why not accessorize? The meta-page I theorize (an enormous advertisement in disguise) can have all manner of things: links to the coffee shop the characters were in. Prices and local availability for the clothes they wore. iTunes link for songs from the soundtrack. Related shows! Related books! Every time you provide an episode for free (if that continues) — with unskippable ad breaks for your regular ads! — you get to expose every viewer to a cornucopia of products that they are probably at least a little interested in. Can you say that about cable? And if you do say it, will people laugh?

How I learned to stop worrying and so on

But I seem to have wandered off from the original topic. Let’s get something straight. The world is already ad-supported. It always was. And it will continue to be. Don’t fight it. It’s like slipping into a warm bath. If Apple puts out an ad-supported version of OS X, or Google Checkout is built into Chrome OS, or Microsoft brings back Clippy to suggest sponsored websites, you can cry all you want, but know that advertising makes the world go round. For a brief, exciting time, you’ve been ahead of the curve, in a land where ad-men feared to tread. You hate advertising, and rightly so, because you’ve been subjected to it in its worst possible guise. For a decade at least, ads have been a lame, decrepit wolf in comically unconvincing sheep’s clothing. That’s changing — and while it’s too little, too late for some (the RIAA and MPAA for two, or their dignity at least), it’s a golden opportunity for others, and it means progress and improvement for the end user.

It’ll take some time, but the coming renaissance in advertising is going to happen whether you like it or not, just as the revolution in communications happened to the advertisers — who decidedly did not like it. They fancied themselves an immovable object, but the truly unstoppable force of progress has since relieved them of that idea. Users have been empowered to choose when, how, and from whom they will accept advertising. The race now is not to the biggest and flashiest ad, as it has been for generations, but to the very opposite end of the spectrum. The winner will be the one who best convinces the user that they are not being advertised to at all. Indeed, we are about to change the very definition of advertisement. Care to help?

The Pixi is a non-slider with touchscreen and full keyboard. It will cost about $149 with two year contract and rebates on Sprint. You have 8GB of on board storage and it takes 2-megapixel pictures – down from the Pre’s 3-megapixels.

There is no Wi-Fi, a dealbreaker for many. The Pixi will be available in multiple “Artist Series” styles and will be available around the holidays.

The Pre costs about $199 – cut to $99 for a bit and then raised back up – so a $50 savings isn’t much when it comes to a device without Wi-Fi. I think the average smartphone buyer is looking for a few things in a device – a touchscreen, 3G networking, and, ideally, some alternative form of transfer. This doesn’t have it.

That said, it’s a fascinating move by Palm. Either they wanted to bury this news in the Apple event today or they foolishly thought this would overshadow the event. I’m betting on the former.

WebOS is a contender but with phones like the Hero and the Tattoo appearing on the horizon and HTC really taking a a hard look at its competitors – and eating them – Palm may be barking up the wrong tree.

We’ll have hands on later today.

Thin Palm Pixi Phone Puts

Fast, Intuitive Communication at Fingertips

Palm’s Thinnest Phone Yet Expands Palm webOS Line with Customizable Style

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2009 – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today introduced the Palm® Pixi™ phone for faster, more intuitive and personal communication in a compact and customizable design.(1) With the instinctively useable Palm webOS™ platform, strikingly thin design, a visible full keyboard and fashionable personalization options, Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways. It’s scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in time for the holidays.

“With Palm webOS, we’re creating a new, more intuitive smartphone experience defined by unmatched simplicity and usefulness,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “Palm Pixi brings this unique experience to a broader range of people who want enhanced messaging and social networking in a design that lets them express their personal style.”

In addition to linking your information from Google™, Facebook and Exchange ActiveSync, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration to Palm Synergy™ and assembles it all in a single view.(2) You can get your Yahoo! contacts, calendar and IM, and access to your LinkedIn contacts, including job titles. Synergy on Palm Pixi makes messaging easier by showing you all your conversations with the same person in one chat-style thread, so you can start a conversation on AIM Instant Messenger, Google Talk™ or Yahoo! Messenger and continue it by text message later.(3)

Complementing the phone’s already rich Facebook integration with the contacts, phone, calendar and photo applications, a new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi so you can see and comment on all the latest news from your friends, as well as easily update your status. The phone’s full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures.(4) The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable.

Personalization with Style

For those who want to express themselves with some extra style, Palm is introducing the Palm Pixi Artist Series. Designed by some of today’s most unique and compelling artists, these numbered, limited-edition back covers let you change designs to suit your mood. You can see the first collection in the series, as well as information about the artists, at www.palm.com/artistseries. Palm will be showcasing the fashionable new Palm Pixi with the Artist Series covers this week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York (Sept. 10-17).

You can also tailor Palm Pixi to your interests with downloadable applications from the Palm Beta App Catalog, including the latest entertainment and social networking applications such as Local Concerts by iLike, and Yelp™.(5) You can use Palm media sync to customize your phone with music, photos and videos from iTunes (Versions 8.1.1-8.2.1)(6), or use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air.(3)

“Palm Pixi continues Sprint’s leadership in providing useful and innovative devices on America’s most dependable 3G network,”(7) said Dan Hesse, chief executive officer at Sprint. “We are pleased to be the first carrier to bring this device to market and offer both devices in the growing Palm webOS family. Sprint’s Everything Data plans, which provide unrestricted access to the Internet, mobile content and applications, and our Ready Now retail experience make for a perfect combination with these new Palm products.”

The Sprint Mobile Broadband Network reaches more than 271 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports, and Sprint’s networks are now performing at best-ever levels.

Customers who purchase Palm Pixi will benefit from Sprint’s Ready Now, which the company pioneered to help customers leave the store educated, comfortable and confident about the phones they’re taking home. It is like having a free personal trainer that educates you on all your phone can do by setting up all the applications you want to use on the device.

Palm Pixi is also the perfect complement to Sprint’s Simply EverythingSM plan, which provides unlimited nationwide calling, texting, email, social networking, web browsing, GPS navigation, Sprint TV, streaming music, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile and much more for only $99.99 per month. It’s a savings of $1,200 over two years versus some comparable competitor plans.

Palm Pixi Features

High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A)
2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320×400 resolution TFT display
Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging
Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities), including Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo! IM
High-performance, desktop-class web browser
Integrated GPS(8)
Multimedia options, including pictures, video playback and music, and featuring a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
Email, including Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (Google push, Yahoo! push, POP3, IMAP)(9)
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
8GB of internal user storage (~7GB user available)(10)
USB mass storage mode
MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
The first handset to launch with Qualcomm’s high-performance MSM7627™ chipset
Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
Removable, rechargeable 1150 mAh battery
Dimensions: 55mm (W) x 111mm (L) x 10.85mm (D) [2.17 in. (W) x 4.37 in. (L) x 0.43 in. (D)]
Weight: 99.5 grams (3.51 ounces)
Sprint services, including Sprint TV® and Sprint Radio, Sprint Navigation, Sprint’s exclusive NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live

Availability and Pricing

The Palm Pixi phone is scheduled to be available from Sprint in time for the holidays. Pricing for the phone, as well as the limited-edition Palm Pixi Artist Series covers, will be announced closer to availability. Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi and be notified when it’s available can register at www.palm.com/pixi.

In addition, effective today the Palm Pre™ phone from Sprint is available for $149.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $150 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate. You can find this great pricing at Sprint stores, on the web (www.sprint.com) and by calling Sprint’s telesales group (1-800-SPRINT1). With the new Palm Pixi phone, and Palm Pre at a lower price, Palm and Sprint are bringing greater choice of Palm webOS phones to a larger audience.

It looks to be about the size of a large hardback book (still smaller than a Game Gear), but the screen is distressingly small. No doubt it’d be fun to truck around your cartridges everywhere you go, but I don’t think you’re really getting the full SNES experience here. No two-player, for instance, which means real games of Super Mario Kart and Contra 3 are out of the question.

Personally, I’ve gotten more than used to playing all my old games on an emulator on my laptop (I’m working on Crystalis and Mega Man 3). Nice big screen, save states if I need them, and once you get used to using a keyboard, it’s not that bad. Plus, it’s just as portable.

[via Engadget]

Good. A hot pants device, then, has the controls on the back, and you manipulate stuff by seeing through it or possibly just by instinct. These Apple patents seem to indicate such an interface on a little lozenge-type device with a “force-sensitive touch based surface.” You mean you have to be a Jedi to use this thing?

MaCNN calls it a “stunning nano-phone,” but to me it really just looks like some pre-emptive patent-getting for the click wheel and some other stuff, should transparent OLED displays become viable. Of course, being all screen, this particular device doesn’t seem to have anywhere to put the device, but that’s something we’ll let future Apple work out.

[via BGR and MobileSyrup]

This is part 6 of a 6 part series. Read them all here.

Part 6: Philips Enters the Picture

In the summer of 2006, I got a call from the president of Power Sentry to tell me that they were being bought by Philips, the Netherlands-based consumer electronics giant. My initial instinct was that this would be a mixed bag. They were just too large. He reassured that it would be great for the PowerSquid, with the awesome brand and marketing power of this giant, worldwide corporation suddenly behind our product. What really ended up happening was that the huge corporation barley noticed that it sold PowerSquid, since it had thousands and thousands of other products. The lack of focus quickly became evident as the relationship began to unfold. Most notably in their responsiveness to our needs as Flexity, which usually amounted to, “bad news delivered late.” Nevertheless, we continued to push Flexity. Philips agreed to let us distribute their other power products to our customers, so we became a distributor of the original non-surge PowerSquid, as well as their lower-end (UL Listed) surge protectors.
We successfully sold the Calamari into Dell’s and Apple’s online stores, which were two of our major targets all along. Unfortunately, they both sequestered them to the last page of their surge protector sections. We had no “pay-to-play” money to get higher placement. With no special attention drawn to them and backwoods positioning, neither venue proved as successful as our own site.

We went to the CES show in January 2007 with a bigger, fancier exhibit booth and hoped we would renew interest in our products. It was a huge expense for us, but one we felt would pay off. We were wrong. Our booth was in an awkward spot where traffic flowed all around us, but very little came to us. We were hidden in plain sight. We emerged with only one promising lead – a satellite dish installer company with a fleet of 6,000 vans that was willing to sell the PowerSquid out of their vans. They placed several large orders, but then they were purchased by a private equity firm which immediately ended the practice of selling stuff to customers. They wanted to refocus on their core business, installations. We suddenly lost our one big client and we were devastated. We spent the next year trying to get more major customers to no avail and adjusting expectations to the new reality that Flexity was going to be a much more modest company than we had imagined.

On the other hand, Philips’ sales of PowerSquid were still going strong. The initial agreement we had negotiated with Power Sentry was ending, so I was in position to renegotiate terms of the license or go elsewhere. Working with a brilliant negotiation expert I had met, I approached other industry players and received significant interest, but, in the end, Philips made an offer we couldn’t refuse and we extended the agreement for the life of the patent. For no apparent reason, Philips waited six months to send me the signed renewal contract, leaving me in an agonizingly stressful limbo. When it finally did arrive, however, the new deal was lucrative.

So that brings us to today. I moved back to Columbus in 2007 and restarted my design consultancy, funded by PowerSquid royalties. We have been busy developing a line of gourmet cooking gadgets in partnership with RSVP, a small company based in Seattle run by a dear friend of mine. Our Onion Goggles have been a hit (they were reviewed here on CrunchGear not that long ago). We launched six more gourmet products with RSVP this year. I have just recently started manufacturing and marketing another one of my inventions, the Thirsty Light, a device that goes in houseplant soil and blinks when the plant needs water. And there is more on the way: a star clock, a new innovative power strip, and a glowing rock. We still operate Flexity, which is now building slowly into a nice business. Anticlimactically, MET Lab finally passed the six-armed Squid in 2008, but the specs were changing in 2009 so the certification was only good for six months. Philips still sells a lot of PowerSquid and sends us a royalty check every month.

The PowerSquid has been a long, amazing journey full of excitement, opportunity, disappointments, struggles, failures, and successes. It has been the best learning experience of my life and the greatest opportunity. It has opened doors and made me fairly well-known in the invention industry, giving me enough credibility to earn an audience with most manufacturers. I am thankful for the journey’s experience and rewards.

Stay tuned for the next exciting innovation from… the amazing SQUIDBOY!!

Christopher Hawker, an inventor specializing in innovative consumer products, is founder of Trident Design, LLC in Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of “Inventor’s Mind: 10 Steps to Making Money From your Inventions”, a free e-book available at Invent-Shop.com. He will be hosting his first InventShop Inventor’s Workshop in October 2009 for serious inventors who want to learn his inventing system.

This is part 6 of a 6 part series. Read them all here.

Want a PowerSquid? Leave a comment below (including your email) and we’ll pick one commenter at random per day.

Who knew? Apparently would-be thieves have a soft spot for baby photos. A research study conducted in Edinburgh found that lost wallets containing baby photos were returned nine out of ten times.

According to UK’s The Times:

Hundreds of wallets were planted on the streets of Edinburgh by psychologists last year. Perhaps surprisingly, nearly half of the 240 wallets were posted back. But there was a twist.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist, and his team inserted one of four photographs behind a clear plastic window inside, showing either a smiling baby, a cute puppy, a happy family or a contented elderly couple. Some wallets had no image and some had charity papers inside.

When faced with the photograph of the baby people were far more likely to send the wallet back, the study found. In fact, only one in ten were hard-hearted enough not to do so. With no picture to tug at the emotions, just one in seven were sent back.

According to Dr Wiseman the result reflects a compassionate instinct towards vulnerable infants that people have evolved to ensure the survival of future generations. “The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective,” he said.

This begs the question: If it works with wallets, will it also work for gadgets? Perhaps an adorable baby as the background on your cell phone and laptop might significantly up your chances of getting those devices back should they become lost or stolen.

And finally, some suggestions of photos to NOT have on your gadgets:

• You leaning against an Audi, eating lobster and wearing silver pants and a T-shirt that says “Enron-AIG Spring Fling 1998!”
• A stack of $100 bills with a caption that says “Plenty more where that came from — In my wallet, which is made from unicorn hair.”
• This photo

Want to keep your wallet? Carry a baby picture [Timesonline.co.uk via Consumerist]

Christmas.

That’s right: by the time Palm pinches off the GSM Pre Apple will have probably released iPod Touches with cameras and the HTC Hero, an Android phone that I wouldn’t kick out of bed for eating crackers, will be dancing on the Sprint Pre’s grave. It’s like Palm wants to fail.

Palm webOS Phone to Arrive in UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain on Local Telefónica Networks

WINDSOR, England, Jul 07, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced that the Palm(R) Pre(TM) phone is scheduled to be available initially in the UK, Ireland and Germany exclusively on the O2 network, and in Spain exclusively on the Movistar network, in time for the holidays. Palm Pre, the first phone based on the new Palm webOS(TM) mobile platform, brings your information from the many places it resides – on your phone, at work or on the web – into one simple, integrated view.(1)
“Europe continues to be an important region for Palm, and we’re proud to work with O2 and Movistar to spread the excitement Palm Pre has already ignited in North America,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “Since we showed Palm Pre at Mobile World Congress in February, there’s been a great deal of anticipation for an announcement about European availability, and that day is here.”
“We are fast becoming the home of the smartphone with the addition of the hotly-anticipated Palm Pre to our already extensive portfolio,” said Matthew Key, chairman and chief executive officer, Telefónica Europe. “Our customers will be the first outside of North America to experience one of the most successful mobile devices of the year.”
In its first weekend of availability in the United States, Palm Pre broke Sprint’s previous first-weekend sales records. Palm Pre also is scheduled to debut in Canada with Bell Mobility in the second half of 2009.
Palm Pre introduces a breakthrough user interface and hardware design that makes it one of the most integrated and user-friendly mobile phones on the market. Featuring a smooth, elegantly rounded ergonomic design and a physical keyboard that slides out only when needed, Palm Pre is engineered to feel natural in your hand and comfortably small in your pocket. When closed, Palm Pre is ideal for phone calls, web browsing, music, photos and videos; when open, Palm Pre is optimized for email and text messaging. It provides an exceptional experience for phone calls, whether held to your ear, over speakerphone or via Bluetooth.
With its curved slider and gesture-controlled touch interface, Palm Pre fuses exquisite design with the revolutionary webOS software for fast access to content on the device or web. Invented exclusively for mobile use, webOS offers an instinctive user experience that seems to anticipate your needs.

The Palm Pre—you may have heard of it—comes out on Saturday, but all sorts of media “outlets” have already published their reviews; I don’t know when our review will go up. And since it’s my feeling that most of you already assume the phone is “good,” I’ve gone ahead and collected a few excerpts of the more critical points. You know, the part of the review that goes something like, “Now, the Palm Pre isn’t perfect; we found a few problems with it. And they are…” That part. So let’s get on with it.

From the Wall Street Journal :

The Pre’s biggest disadvantage is its app store, the App Catalog. At launch, it has only about a dozen apps, compared with over 40,000 for the iPhone, and thousands each for the G1 and the modern BlackBerry models. Even worse, the Pre App Catalog isn’t finished. It’s immature, it’s labeled a beta, and Palm has yet to release the tools for making Pre apps available to more than a small group of developers.

In fact, during my testing, one of my downloads from the App Catalog caused my Pre to crash disastrously — all my email, contacts and other data were wiped out, and the phone was unable to connect to the Sprint network or Wi-Fi. Palm conceded the catastrophe was due to problems it still has getting the App Catalog to work with the phone’s internal memory, and explained that this is one reason it hasn’t widely distributed the developer tools.

…

There are only a handful of buttons, and my only real criticism of the industrial design is that these were rubbery and protruded too little from the body, making them hard to press unseen. The power button is clumsy to use when the keyboard is open.

…

But the Pre has a few other important downsides. Battery life between charges is relatively weak. While it’s in line with competitors with a claimed five hours of talk time, and matches the iPhone’s claimed five hours of Web surfing time, it offers only half the iPhone’s 24 hours of continuous music playback and claims just five hours of video playback, versus seven for the iPhone.

…

Another downside: the Pre’s autocorrect system, for instantly fixing mistyped words, is puny. Even with a physical keyboard, people make typos, and Palm only fixes about 2,500 common words, like “the.” By contrast, both the BlackBerry and iPhone have tens of thousands of autocorrections built in, including fixes for long, complex words.

From USA Today :

Still, I encountered occasional sluggishness and bugs. At one point, the clock was out of whack. At another, I had to shut down the Pre because the onscreen icons kept dancing around. I also longed for the visual voice mail feature of the iPhone — Pre’s unobtrusive “notifications” dashboard flagging incoming messages, system alerts and such is no substitute. And I wish Pre had more third-party applications at launch.

…

Too bad, as with the iPhone, there’s no video camera.

Pre poses no immediate challenge to the iPhone when it comes to robust apps. Only a dozen or so are available at launch, including Pandora Internet radio, Citysearch, The New York Times and Classic, an emulator that lets you run old Palm (Treo) programs.

From Gizmodo, which must have just finished playing Max Payne:

But the hardware? Cheap. Flimsy. Dangerous even.

…

The first thing you’ll notice as you slide open the Pre is the absurdly sharp ridge digging against your palm. Nowhere—not on the iPhone, the G1, the G2 or any of HTC’s other smartphones—has a phone been so threatening to the integrity of my skin. If you’re pushing up screen from the bottom of the phone, as you’d instinctively want to do, prepare to get sliced. It’s just that irresponsibly sharp… Maybe I’m being a perfectionist here, but this is the one biggest flaw in the hardware; one that’s not a dealbreaker, but really detracts from the overall experience.

…

[The keyboard] is not good enough for a smartphone. Each of my thumbs take up the width of four keys, ensuring that only a fingernail approach would get me anywhere near accurate typing.

…

Dialing is somewhere where Palm’s reliance on Universal Search becomes an over reliance on Universal Search. To dial a contact, you either have to pull up the contacts app and manually scroll down to the person you want (there’s no alphabet shortcut) or start typing. So, when you have hundreds of contacts, your only reasonable choice is to use the search.

…

Opening multiple apps at once really does slow down the phone enough to be noticeable. In fact, if you’re doing something particularly intensive, you’ll actually notice your music stutter, which we’ve never experienced once on the iPhone. Ever. [Me: Remember, kids: one-word sentences look “more important” than multi-word sentences.]

…

Also, the actual act of launching the app is a little frustrating: When you tap an icon, the launcher disappears and all you see is the home screen, as if you did something wrong. You don’t know whether or not your app has opened successfully until it has.

…

The hardware, on the other hand, is a liability. If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market. [Me: Note that that's the complete opposite of what USA Today said (“I can't think of a more comfortable cellphone in my hand.”), which is partially why I think reviews, across the board, are dumb. It's so subjective it's a waste of everyone's time.]

From Engadget:

Besides the standard issues we had with the construction of the phone, we did spot another peculiar problem we hope is just a one-in-a-million fluke with the test device we were given: it physically broke… There is a small flap that covers the MicroUSB port, and while attempting to get the thing open, a thin piece of plastic which runs along the bottom of the casing just snapped. Now, we’re not saying this is a widespread problem—in fact, reps at Palm claimed this was the first time they’d seen it happen—but it was a little disconcerting.

…

Touch sensitivity was more than acceptable, though we do take issue with tracking and accuracy in some instances, particularly when you’re close to the edges — taps sometimes go unregistered and your aim can feel off.

…

Our biggest gripe is actually with the software, which omits some no-brainers like double-tap spacebar for periods (though in the phone’s defense, it does have a dedicated period key). Auto-correction is in effect here, fixing your lowercase i’s, un-apostrophe’d contractions, and the occasional misspelling, but it pales in comparison to the iPhone’s intelligent input recognition.

…

Mostly, these gestures are intuitive and helpful, but we do question a few decisions Palm made here. For instance, when you want to bring up the launcher and you’re in an app, you have to swipe up to zoom out to the card view, and then swipe up again to get the launcher up. Why the extra step? We have no idea.

From Phonescoop:

The seams aren’t as tight as they could be, and the phone does have a somewhat “plasticky” feel to it.

…

Because the Pre is covered in shiny black plastic, it’s an absolute magnet for fingerprints. Not just on the screen, mind you, but all over the entire phone, including the back. I can’t think of a phone in recent memory that collected more finger oils and grime. It’s easy to clean off by rubbing it on your jeans, but still, wow does it get dirty fast.

…

OK, the keyboard. First, there is a very sharp edge outlining the bottom of the phone, and it also surrounds the keyboard when the Pre is open. I found this edge very annoying and distracting. Granted, you’re not touching it all that often, but when you do, you sure will know it.

…

On more than one occasion while testing, the “EV” symbol that sits next to the signal strength indicator changed to “R”. The user manual tells me this means the Pre was roaming. In all the years I’ve tested Sprint phones, I have never seen one roam before. The Pre couldn’t perform ANY network-dependent activities when the “R” symbol was present. This is goofy behavior that could be attributed to my review unit in particular and it is likely something that could be fixed with a firmware update.

…

The ringers were not loud enough to suit my tastes. Set all the way up, it would be quite easy to miss phone calls in loud or noisy environments.

…

Palm’s webOS is an absolutely battery hog. Because it is constantly pinging the network for information and data (aka, email, etc.) the battery often drains in less than two days. This was consistent across the whole time we spent with the device. Heavy use drains the battery even faster. I was easily able to kill the battery in one day with heavy web use, camera use, MMS use and some phone calls. Keep in mind, this is with no Bluetooth and no Wi-Fi active.

…

In terms of general usability, webOS ranks below iPhone OS, is about on-par with Android, and rests above S60, WinMo and BlackBerry OS.

…

There’s one major kicker. When the Pre is attached to a PC to sync media, it cannot make or receive calls or text messages!!! What the what?!? Palm doesn’t provide an explanation, but that’s just ridiculous.

…

The hardware comes off as feeling a little bit on the cheap side. That’s unfortunate. Some will find the QWERTY keyboard difficult to use, though I thought it was okay. The lack of expandable memory means it is limited to the 8GB of on-board storage.

Phew! I sure am beat, and I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the Palm Pre’s shortcomings.

I hope this has been educational at best, and time-saving at least.

Samsung didn’t officially have the Instinct S30 available for hands-on demos after yesterday night’s announcement – but, well, you know how we roll. We spent a good chunk of time poking at the device – so what do we think?

Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch >>

Presumably your Korean is as rusty as mine, so apologies in advance for not taking too much away from Samsung’s official reveal of the Instinct Mini, more accurately known as the S30. There’s a good chance, if not not an outright lock, that Samsung will show off the phone sometime this week at CTIA, where Greg is currently running about.

So far, we know the phone, like its Instinct predecessor, will launch on Sprint, supposedly sometime in April.

Yeah, bare bones, I know, but it’s now official. I propose we celebrate its arrival by watching the Chris vs. Boulder video(s) 300 times in a row.

Basel, the big watch show, is just around the corner and Concord is definitely in it to win it. While I’m sure hands-on shots will look pretty nasty – “a liquid featuring green phosphorescent nanoparticles fills a tube to assist in the reading” doesn’t translate well to looking cool in a convention hall – the step-by-step shots they’re showing at the official site are actually quite impressive. Once you see how these parts all fit together you kind of understand that watchmaking is pretty damn complex.

An aerial bi-axial tourbillon mechanism. A vertical power reserve. Individualist seconds. A stripped-down dial and spectacular volumes: the latest specimen from the C Lab Series defies all theories. Even better, it creates its own rules: emptiness is its core material, engineering its constancy; chemistry a dare and transparency a must.

Designed and developed by the C Lab Series, the C1 QuantumGravity symbolizes unrestricted and unconstrained time, where only impulse and intuition prevail. A special unit dedicated to extreme watchmaking, the C Lab Series has a mission: to push the boundaries of mechanical watch making by introducing it to new modes of expression. Last year, the C1 Tourbillon Gravity timepiece inaugurated a new watchmaking era, where time liberates itself without reserve.

In 2009, the C Lab Series is expanding this watchmaking metamorphosis to embrace new horizons. Initially devised in the fall of 2008, the C1 QuantumGravity was born after a 5-month incubation period, nurtured by the will and tireless energy of a team that works on instinct alone. BNB Concept was entrusted with the creation of the movement, while Studio Bellon finalized the design.

The result: a new species of watch that lives time as if it were an experiment and space, a source of stimulation. The creation of the C1 QuantumGravity constitutes a provocative act in itself, while its construction is an exploration carried out at the brink of excess and defiance.

A perpendicular power reserve

First equation: Power reserve = verticality + fluidity

A cylindrical piston. A vertical back-and-forth movement. Liquid. These were the three essential elements combined by the C Lab Series to create this astounding equation involving mechanics and chemistry.

Traditional design and display codes have been demolished to make way for a mobile glass column, located between 12 and 1 o’clock, which serves as the power reserve with a vertical indicator. On the chemistry side of things, a liquid featuring green phosphorescent nanoparticles fills a tube to assist in the reading. Meanwhile, on the mechanical side, this energy gauge operates perpendicularly to the caliber, rising up and down from its base to signal the remaining energy of the movement in relation to its available three-day power reserve. Its graduated outline corresponds to level indicators, which are secured to the inner surface of the watch.

A stayed bi-axial tourbillon

Second equation: Tourbillon = suspension + axes2

Cables. A bi-axial movement. A lateral position. This collection of challenges had to be taken on to erect a spectacular tourbillon carriage.

Exported to the timepiece’s Western border and literally suspended, it rotates in a multi-dimensional manner on two axes – the main one being vertical. Its baffling structure has adopted the rigid and light elevation of cable-stayed bridges: one arm, extended from cables measuring just 2/10th of a mm-wide and fastened to the plate, maintains the carriage vertically and thus reinforces the impression of an independent arrangement. The suspension mechanism is supported by an elastomeric self-tensing system, which enables the cable/arm hinge to be precisely adjusted and the dilatation effects, compensated.

Levitating mechanics

Third equation: Time = space

48.5 mm in diameter and 22 mm in depth: the appearance of a Titan, whose proportions reach a staggering 57.5 mm in breadth. Yet, the C1 QuantumGravity remains easily wearable thanks to its lugless design which ensures a perfect fit on the wrist. The use of Titanium for the case and Aluminum for the majority of movement components bestows a lightness on this timepiece that is as astounding as its size.

The build of this watch composed of 511 parts is also offset by an anatomy that privileges space and transparency: the case, whose machining required 400 hours of fine adjustment, can be reduced to a structure that is literally enveloped by 5 sapphire crystals. The mechanism is visible from all angles.

Although the case and movement share a genetic bond as they were made for each other, they are flanked by other elements that seem to operate self-sufficiently: to the West, a glass excrescence house the tourbillon carriage while to the East, two symmetrical casings house the winding mechanism and the seconds, at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock respectively.

Concealed entirely, the imposing time-setting key can be ejected from its armor by simply pressing on the push button. As for the seconds, they evade the dial to nestle on the side of the case. They are engraved in luminescent orange against a black aluminum roll and can be seen through a window whose cut echoes the push button of the crown. A lateral sapphire crystal reveals the rotating orange blades of the seconds wheel.

The dial has also been contaminated by this urge for maximum openness. Although it strives to display the flight of hours and minutes, its focus is on empty spaces. The depth of its field of vision is dizzying, the feeling of levitation exhilarating. Deconstruction, a concept so dear to Concord, has been magnified: the C1 QuantumGravity apprehends time as a perspective, using emptiness as a material on which time features are grafted.

Under the impressive sapphire crystal, the panorama, amplified to its utmost, outlines time that has almost been dematerialized. And despite the exuding madness, legibility has remained at the core of its construction. Just like a suspended glass saucer, the off-centered hour-circle between 3 and 4 o’clock dresses a part of the cavity at the bottom of which the movement is supported. A spider-like structure acts as a scaffold under the transparent disc punctuated by the luminescent orange markers. The 6.5 mm high hand-fitting is a technical prowess in itself and adds to the feeling of dizziness.

Wedged at the bottom of the abyss, the mechanical manually wound movement choreographs time with precision. An officer-style case-back which appears as an air-lock at every opportunity reveals the geometric circuit, the right-angled skeletonized bridges, the gear-trains that transmit energy to the tourbillon carriage and the cable adjustment. The finishing touches highlight an industrial design that is both methodical and futuristic: a black aluminum plate against anthracite aluminum bridges, rubies against polished steel screws… They embody the spirit of a watch made with high-tech materials, glass, emptiness and colored luminescent materials.

The C1 QuantumGravity defends time that is inexorably linked to space. Prophetic, its construction created in record time propels Concord into a parallel world where intuition is a favored ally and its design and mechanics a harbinger for the future of watchmaking. An addiction to breaking established codes and extrapolating underlies Concord’s creative mettle. C1 QuantumGravity is its ultimate creation.

Go to www.c1-quantum.ch to find out about how this exceptional timepiece, in a limited edition of 10, was created.

Technical Features:

Movement
Mechanical manually wound movement
Caliber Concord C104
21,600 vibrations per hour
3-day power reserve
42 Jewels

Functions
Hours, minutes
Roll of seconds external to the case
Vertical power-reserve indicator
Bi-axial tourbillon

Case
Titanium case with white gold elements
Dimensions: 48.5 mm in diameter – 22 mm in depth
5 sapphire crystals
See through officer-style hinged case back

Dial
Aerial skeletonized dial

Strap
Black vulcanized rubber fixed to the case with 4 screws

Secrets, Secrets, are no fun. Well, unless said secrets have to do with a ridiculous number of unannounced devices and details, and said secrets leak all over the internet. Then they’re a blast.

PhoneNews managed to get their hands on Sprint’s entire device roadmap for Q1 through Q3 of 2009, and each page packs a bit of fun – so be sure to look through them all.

Update: We didn’t see any reason to doubt the slides as legit, but we’ve gone ahead and confirmed with a few sources that at least some the details below are accurate. Doesn’t mean things can’t change, but the fact that a handful of the details below can be confirmed lends credence to the slide deck as a whole.

Some of the highlights:

• “Palm, BlackBerry, and Palm with Android/Google Android device in Q4 09″.
• Confirms BlackBerry Niagara for Q3
• Confirms HTC Rhodium for Q3
• Confirms Instinct 2/Instinct Mini/Samsung “Dash” for Q3