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…

Installation will set you back $500, and will be installed in your new GMC, Chevy, Buick, or Cadillac, setting you back about $29 for 1 GB of service. Go over 1 GB of transfers, and you’re cut off, unless you pay for the 5 GB version. Range is limited to about 150 feet from your vehicle, which would be fine for camping, but you wouldn’t want to use it for torrenting or anything. Or you could just get a Mifi.

[via Autoblog]

Sprint currently only offers its 4G services in Baltimore, but that’s going to change this month when it rolls out the wicked fast service in Portland, Atlanta and Las Vegas. To harness the power of the new network, Sprint announced two new 4G routers today, the Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S and Cradlepoint MBR-1000. (There’s also the 3G/4G USB Modem U300.)

The former will support up to four simultaneous connections while the Cradelpoint can handle up to 32 users at once and both will support all of Sprint’s 3G and 4G USB dongles. Service plans range from $40 to $80 per month. The Sprint Personal Hotspot is priced at $160. The Cradlepoint is available through business sales for $250.

Sprint will expand its 4G network this year to the following cities: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle.

Overland Park, Kan. – August 5, 2009 –The search for the elusive Wi-Fi hotspot is a thing of the past for Sprint mobile broadband customers. Instead of hunting for a coffee shop or other fixed hotspot, Sprint’s new Mobile Broadband Router products connect multiple Wi-Fi-enabled devices at 3G or 4G mobile broadband speeds where Sprint 3G and 4G networks are available.

On the heels of launching the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot – which allows customers to simultaneously bridge several Wi-Fi devices to America’s most dependable 3G network1 – Sprint now adds two 3G/4G Mobile Broadband Routers to its mobile broadband arsenal: Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S and Cradlepoint MBR-1000 Broadband Router for business, each featuring both 3G and 4G connectivity. These devices are available for use with any Sprint 3G or 4G data plan ranging from $39.99 to $79.99 per month (excluding taxes and surcharges).

Used in combination with Sprint mobile broadband devices, like the 3G/4G USB Modem U300, these Mobile Broadband Routers can simultaneously connect Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones, laptops, MP3 players, cameras, gaming devices and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the Sprint 3G and 4G networks. Used with a broadband device, The routers provide access to the turbo-charged Sprint 4G network as it continues to roll out and access to America’s most dependable 3G network virtually everywhere else. Users can enjoy secure, high-speed connections from virtually any location, whether on a family outing at the beach or doing business at a remote job site.

Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S supports up to four simultaneous Wi-Fi connections and Cradlepoint MBR-1000 Broadband Router for business supports up to 32 simultaneous Wi-Fi connections. Both routers will support all of Sprint 3G and Sprint 4G mobile broadband USB devices.
“These mobile broadband routers provide an unprecedented bridge to high-speed network performance for multiple Wi-Fi devices or multiple users,” said Todd Rowley, vice president, Sprint 4G. “The addition of these mobile hotspot products offers even faster connectivity speeds to Wi-Fi users without the need to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. These two new products can potentially connect the Sprint 3G and 4G networks to the hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the U.S. today.”

The ability of these Mobile Broadband Routers to be used with both 3G and 4G networks will offer added advantages for a growing number of Wi-Fi users across the country. The Sprint Now Network already features 3G speeds that are faster in more places than the AT&T network.2 As the turbo-charged Sprint 4G network continues to roll out in markets across the country, customers will be able to further optimize the performance of their Wi-Fi devices, using them to connect them with the industry’s fastest available network speeds.

Sprint Personal Hot Spot PHS300S is priced at $159.99 and available in select Sprint retail stores within Sprint 4G markets, telesales, business sales and at www.sprint.com. Cradlepoint MBR1000 broadband router is priced at $249.99 and is available via business sales, telesales and online at www.sprint.com (all prices exclude taxes).
The first and only national carrier to offer 4G wireless services, Sprint currently offers 4G in Baltimore and will launch 4G in Portland, Atlanta and Las Vegas in August. Sprint 4G provides average downlink speeds of 3-6 Mbps and peak downlink speeds of over 10 Mbps, three to five times faster than today’s 3G service from any carrier (based on average download speeds).
The following markets are included on the list to experience Sprint 4G in 2009: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle. Also available for customers nationwide is the Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300, which provides the best of both worlds – the fast 3G speeds and lightning-fast 4G speeds wherever 4G is available.
For additional information on Sprint 4G mobile broadband products and plans, visit www.sprint.com/4G.

How great is this: in 2003, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies had a plan on the books to launch a cyberattack on Iraq that would have zapped the country’s money supply. In other words, Saddam Hussein wouldn’t have had any money to pay his troops or whatever. Three cheers for destruction!

Now, the military never actually went through with the attack since President Bush and his advisers were afraid of the external financial ramifications. (Nobody knew for sure what type of collateral damage would play out.) Says one cyberwar specialist, “If you don’t know the consequences of a counterstrike against innocent third parties, it makes it very difficult to authorize one.”

What could go wrong in a cyberattack? “The chances are very high that you will inevitably hit civilian targets—the worst-case scenario is taking out a hospital which is sharing a network with some other agency,” says a Silicon Valley computer security specialist.

It goes without saying that cyberwar peaked in 1983.

Flickr

BBG points us to this Palm Pre commercial remix that forces us to ask the question: Was Tim Robbins dead or dying in the Jacob’s Ladder. Was it like in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? Why haven’t I watched that movie lately? It was really good.

Even crazier REAL commercial after the jump.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners–two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff. At a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank, armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as “support,” that is to say, vertical in front of the left shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight across the chest–a formal and unnatural position, enforcing an erect carriage of the body. It did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge; they merely blockaded the two ends of the foot planking that traversed it.

Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view. Doubtless there was an outpost farther along. The other bank of the stream was open ground–a gentle acclivity topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the bridge. Midway of the slope between the bridge and fort were the spectators–a single company of infantry in line, at “parade rest,” the butts of the rifles on the ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands crossed upon the stock. A lieu tenant stood at the right of the line, the point of his sword upon the ground, his left hand resting upon his right. Excepting the group of four at the center of the bridge, not a man moved. The company faced the bridge, staring stonily, motionless. The sentinels, facing the banks of the stream, might have been statues to adorn the bridge. The captain stood with folded arms, silent, observing the work of his subordinates, but making no sign. Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference.

The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age. He was a civilian, if one might judge from his habit, which was that of a planter. His features were good–a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from which his long, dark hair was combed straight back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat. He wore a mustache and pointed beard, but no whiskers; his eyes were large and dark gray, and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one whose neck was in the hemp. Evidently this was no vulgar assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded.

The preparations being complete, the two private soldiers stepped aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing. The sergeant turned to the captain, saluted and placed himself immediately behind that officer, who in turn moved apart one pace. These movements left the condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of the same plank, which spanned three of the cross-ties of the bridge. The end upon which the civilian stood almost, but not quite, reached a fourth. This plank had been held in place by the weight of the captain; it was now held by that of the sergeant. At a signal from the former the latter would step aside, the plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties. The arrangement commended itself to his judgment as simple and effective. His face had not been covered nor his eyes bandaged. He looked a moment at his “unsteadfast footing,” then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move, What a sluggish stream!

He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. The water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift–all had distracted him. And now he became conscious of a new disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by–it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each stroke with impatience and–he knew not why–apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer, the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.

He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. “If I could free my hands,” he thought, “I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader’s farthest advance.”

As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the doomed man’s brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside.

II
Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause. Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking service with the gallant army that had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth, and he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction. That opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to all in war time. Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier, and who in good faith and without too much qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war.

One evening while Farquhar and his wife were sitting on a rustic bench near the entrance to his grounds, a gray-clad soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink of water. Mrs. Farquhar was only toe, happy to serve him with her own white hands. While she was fetching the water her husband approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly for news from the front.

“The Yanks are repairing the railroads,” said the man, “and are getting ready for another advance. They have reached the Owl Creek bridge, put it in order and built a stockade on the north bank. The commandant has issued an order, which is posted everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels or trains will be summarily hanged. I saw the order.”

“How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge?” Farquhar asked.

“About thirty miles.”

“Is there no force on this side the creek?”

“Only a picket post half a mile out, on the railroad, and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge.”

“Suppose a man–a civilian and student of hanging–should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the sentinel,” said Farquhar, smiling, “what could he accomplish?”

The soldier reflected. “I was there a month ago,” he replied. “I observed that the flood of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at this end of the bridge. It is now dry and would burn like tow.”

The lady had now brought the water, which the soldier drank. He thanked her ceremoniously, bowed to her husband and rode away. An hour later, after nightfall, he repassed the plantation, going northward in the direction from which he had come. He was a Federal scout.

III
As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead. From this state he was awakened–ages later, it seemed to him–by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fulness–of congestion. These sensations were unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion. Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash; a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs. To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!–the idea seemed to him ludicrous. He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten, and he knew that he was rising toward the surface–knew it with reluctance, for he was now very comfortable. “To be hanged and drowned,” he thought? “that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair.”

He was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his wrist apprised him that he was trying to free his hands. He gave the struggle his attention, as an idler might observe the feat of a juggler, without interest in the outcome. What splendid effort!–what magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor! Bravo! The cord fell away; his arms parted and floated upward, the hands dimly seen on each side in the growing light. He watched them with a new interest as first one and then the other pounced upon the noose at his neck. They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside, its undulations resembling those of a water snake. “Put it back, put it back!” He thought he shouted these words to his hands, for the undoing of the noose had been succeeded by the direst pang that he had yet experienced. His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire; his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. His whole body was racked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish! But his disobedient hands gave no heed to the command. They beat the water vigorously with quick, downward strokes, forcing him to the surface. He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight; his chest expanded convulsively, and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great draught of air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek!

He was now in full possession of his physical senses. They were, indeed, preternaturally keen and alert. Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived. He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck. He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf–saw the very insects upon them: the locusts, the brilliant-bodied flies, the grey spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig. He noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass. The humming of the gnats that danced above the eddies of the stream, the beating of the dragon flies’ wings, the strokes of the water-spiders’ legs, like oars which had lifted their boat–all these made audible music. A fish slid along beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water.

He had come to the surface facing down the stream; in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly round, himself the pivotal point, and he saw the bridge, the fort, the soldiers upon the bridge, the captain, the sergeant, the two privates, his executioners. They were in silhouette against the blue sky. They shouted and gesticulated, pointing at him. The captain had drawn his pistol, but did not fire; the others were unarmed. Their movements were grotesque and horrible, their forms gigantic.

Suddenly he heard a sharp report and something struck the water smartly within a few inches of his head, spattering his face with spray. He heard a second report, and saw one of the sentinels with his rifle at his shoulder, a light cloud of blue smoke rising from the muzzle. The man in the water saw the eye of the man on the bridge gazing into his own through the sights of the rifle. He observed that it was a grey eye and remembered having read that grey eyes were keenest, and that all famous marksmen had them. Nevertheless, this one had missed.

A counter-swirl had caught Farquhar and turned him half round; he was again looking into the forest on the bank opposite the fort. The sound of a clear, high voice in a monotonous singsong now rang out behind him and came across the water with a distinctness that pierced and subdued all other sounds, even the beating of the ripples in his ears. Although no soldier, he had frequented camps enough to know the dread significance of that deliberate, drawling, aspirated chant; the lieu. tenant on shore was taking a part in the morning’s work. How coldly and pitilessly–with what an even, calm intonation, presaging, and enforcing tranquillity in the men–with what accurately measured inter vals fell those cruel words:

“Attention, company! . . Shoulder arms! . . . Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!”

Farquhar dived–dived as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dulled thunder of the volley and, rising again toward the surface, met shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward. Some of them touched him on the face and hands, then fell away, continuing their descent. One lodged between his collar and neck; it was uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out.

As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther down stream nearer to safety. The soldiers had almost finished reloading; the metal ramrods flashed all at once in the sunshine as they were drawn from the barrels, turned in the air, and thrust into their sockets. The two sentinels fired again, independently and ineffectually.

The hunted man saw all this over his shoulder; he was now swimming vigorously with the current. His brain was as energetic as his arms and legs; he thought with the rapidity of lightning.

The officer,” he reasoned, “will not make that martinet’s error a second time. It is as easy to dodge a volley as a single shot. He has probably already given the command to fire at will. God help me, I cannot dodge them all!”

An appalling plash within two yards of him was followed by a loud, rushing sound, diminuendo, which seemed to travel back through the air to the fort and died in an explosion which stirred the very river to its deeps!

A rising sheet of water curved over him, fell down upon him, blinded him, strangled him! The cannon had taken a hand in the game. As he shook his head free from the commotion of the smitten water he heard the deflected shot humming through the air ahead, and in an instant it was cracking and smashing the branches in the forest beyond.

“They will not do that again,” he thought; “the next time they will use a charge of grape. I must keep my eye upon the gun; the smoke will apprise me–the report arrives too late; it lags behind the missile. That is a good gun.”

Suddenly he felt himself whirled round and round–spinning like a top. The water, the banks, the forests, the now distant bridge, fort and men–all were commingled and blurred. Objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of color–that was all he saw. He had been caught in a vortex and was being whirled on with a velocity of advance and gyration that made him giddy and sick. In a few moments he was flung upon the gravel at the foot of the left bank of the stream–the southern bank–and behind a projecting point which concealed him from his enemies. The sudden arrest of his motion, the abrasion of one of his hands on the gravel, restored him, and he wept with delight. He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble. The trees upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of their blooms. A strange, roseate light shone through the spaces among their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of Æolian harps. He had no wish to perfect his escape–was content to remain in that enchanting spot until retaken.

A whiz and rattle of grapeshot among the branches high above his head roused him from his dream. The baffled cannoneer had fired him a random farewell. He sprang to his feet, rushed up the sloping bank, and plunged into the forest.

All that day he traveled, laying his course by the rounding sun. The forest seemed interminable; nowhere did he discover a break in it, not even a woodman’s road. He had not known that he lived in so wild a region. There was something uncanny in the revelation.

By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famishing. The thought of his wife and children urged him on. At last he found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a point, like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead, as he looked up through this rift in the wood, shone great garden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations. He was sure they were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign significance. The wood on either side was full of singular noises, among which–once, twice, and again–he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue.

His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them. His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relieved its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cold air. How softly the turf had carpeted the untraveled avenue–he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet!

Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene–perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium. He stands at the gate of his own home. All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine. He must have traveled the entire night. As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him. At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity. Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms. As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon–then all is darkness and silence!

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

Wired has some info that the new iPods will have built-in video and audio recording and should support Skype chat.

“Wired commenters” have also said that you can add the Touch to a Verizon MiFi hotspot and create a Verizon network which is just crazy talk.

Wiimbledon is days away and we’ve got a ton of great stuff up for auction on eBay. If you want to play in the tournament this Saturday in Brooklyn at Barcade then sign up at Eventbrite. Otherwise just drop on by Barcade between 10AM and 5PM to enjoy all the fun. So, what’s up for grabs?

Dyson DC25 Animal
Dyson DC25 Animal
Dyson DC16 Animal
Nintendo Wii bundle including Nyko Wands, Lexar 2GB gaming edition SD card and rechargeable Duracell batteries
Nintendo Wii bundle including Nyko Wands, Lexar 2GB gaming edition SD card and rechargeable Duracell batteries
Nintendo Wii bundle including Nyko Wands, Lexar 2GB gaming edition SD card and rechargeable Duracell batteries
Casio Exilim EX-FS10
THX Razer Mako 2.1 speakers
Lexar 2GB Gaming Edition SD
Lexar 2GB Gaming Edition SD
Lexar 2GB Gaming Edition SD
Via Artigo A2000
10.2-inch Lenovo S10 netbook (blue)
Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Verizon MiFi 220 mobile hotspot
Samsung Saga (i770) for Verizon
Samsung Gravity for T-Mobile
Pentax Optio E70

So, you’re wondering how you can donate or snag some product, right? If you’re unable to make the event in Brooklyn then you can either donate directly to Child’s Play via their Paypal account (please add a note to your donation referencing Wiimbledon and CrunchGear) or bid on items that CrunchGear has allocated for Wiimbledon on this page. (It’s a little ghetto because it’s my personal eBay page, but I’ve linked all auction pages to the Child’s Play Charity and they’re getting all the proceeds). Check out all the items now. We’ll be adding to it over the next day so keep checking back.

And all of those products up for auction or as prizes would not have been possible without the generous donations of the following companies. From everyone at CrunchGear and Wiimbledon, we thank you.

A big thanks to Geek Squad for providing technical support at the event and for donating all six Wiis that will be used at the event and auctioned off later.

Nyko is onboard this year as the Official Racket of Wiimbledon with the Wand and it rocks.

We wouldn’t be having this tournament if it weren’t for Toshiba. Thanks for lending us six 42-inch Regza ZV650s for the event.

We love Dyson at CrunchGear and we love them even more for donating two DC25 Animals and two DC16 Animals. They never lose suction!

Casio, thanks for donating the EX-FS10 high-speed digital camera. Who doesn’t want to see their videos at 1000fps?

Now that Nintendo has pulled their head out and added support for SD cards, we can’t thank Lexar enough for donating 10 2GB gaming edition SD cards.

If you’re on Verizon then thank HTC for donating two Touch Pros to the cause.

Who wants the new Sidekick LX 2009? How about a G1? Thanks, T-Mobile!

Thanks to THX for donating a Mako 2.1 speaker system. These are my personal favorites and they’re a bombass set of speakers.

Thanks to VIA for donating an A2000 storage server. You know what you’re going to do with this.

Need a Wii racing wheel or iPod speakers? Logitech has you covered with the PureFi Anytime iPod speakers and a Wii racing wheel.

Virgin America always takes care of us and we thank them for donating four Main Cabin tickets.

Lowepro, thanks for donating a gaggle of camera bags.

Need instant access to the Web? Verizon has you covered with the MiFi.

Never run out of batteries while playing your Wii ever again! Thanks to Duracell for providing rechargeable batteries.

I hear it’s the Year of the netbook. Thanks to Lenovo for hooking us up with the S10.

Need a phone? How about one or five from Samsung Mobile? We have the T-Mobile t349, AT&T Propel, T-Mobile Gravity, Verizon Juke and a Verizon Saga.

Have a lot of movies sitting on your computer? Wouldn’t you rather watch it all on your TV? Western Digital to the rescue with two WD TVs.

Pentax, you’re the best. Thanks for hooking us up with two E70 digital cameras.

This is just the short list as we have many more fabulous items up for grabs. I’ll be updating as we go. There’s still time to donate products, too! Just shoot me an e-mail at peterha at crunchgear dot com.

Update: AT&T Wireless is jumping on the bandwagon with a Samsung Jack.

And please don’t forget to donate your old gadgets to Gazelle.

Oh, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and RSVP on Facebook.

Here’s a nostalgic look back at the items we’ve recently reviewed here at CrunchGear…

Review: WickedLasers Photonic Disruptor

“We’re a WickedLasers family. We enjoy shooting them at napkins to make them burn and zapping friends legs while they’re sitting at our picnic table.”

Review: TuneUp for iTunes

“If you’re like me, your entire music collection has been downloaded/ripped willy-nilly between hits of nitrous oxide and sips of Colt .45.”

Review: EA’s Need for Speed Undercover for the iPhone, iPod Touch

“For whatever reason, I can’t stop playing the iPhone version of EA’s Need for Speed Undercover, which is why it’s taken me this long to review it. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a big fan of the console series, but EA nailed it on the head with the handheld port.”

Review: QuikPod Pro camera extension arm

“The QuikPod is an easy-to-use extension arm that is designed to let you take your own photo in front of sites you’re seeing.”

Review: Motorola Stature i9

“The good news (at least for Nextel subscribers) is that they are starting to move away from this brick phone style design, and more towards a sleeker, sexier look.”

Review: Verizon MiFi 2200 – We love everything but the bill

“We’ve loved the MiFi mobile router since we first laid eyes on it back at CES. After a few days of playing with the Verizon MiFi 2200, we still love it just as much – but with one hangup: the nasty monthly bill.”

Review: Radius Atomic Bass Earphones

“Call me a snob for liking my $150+ Ultimate Ears, Shure and Etymotic earphones, but they sound fantastic and fit perfectly. Oh, uh, excuse me while I remove the egg off my face.”

Video Review: Movaic iZel Smartphone Stand

“It does everything we’d expect of a cell phone stand, and it does it well.”

Video Review: Funky Monkey Fruit Chips

“Mmmmm… tasty fruit chips! It’s a slow day and I got some fruit chips in the mail.”

Review: HP Pavilion dv2 ultrathin notebook

“Almost as small as a netbook, and almost as powerful as a regular laptop, they said it would be the best of both worlds. Of course, the risk was that it would have the worst of both worlds instead. That turns out not to be the case, and the dv2 is a smart little machine — but it’s still far from perfect.”

Review: Flip UltraHD camcorder

“Joining the ranks of the Flip family, the UltraHD is one of the easiest-to-use digital camcorders on the market. This version features 8GB of storage, high-definition video capture, the ability to use an included rechargeable battery pack or off-the-shelf AA batteries, and HDMI output.”

Review: Innergie mCube90 Universal Adapter

“A thoughtful universal power adapter that can charge your laptop and a USB-powered device simultaneously, the Innergie mCube90 features a tiny secondary DC adapter that detaches from the main adapter for use in cars and airplanes.”

Review: Nokia XPressMusic 5800

“I’m sorry that I doubted Nokia. The 5800 is one of the nicest little touchscreen phones I’ve used in a long while and, aside from a few quirks, it’s one of the better implementations of touchscreen on the Symbian platform I’ve seen in a while.”

Review: Ipevo Kaleido R7 digital frame

“I’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard all day than review a digital picture frame. What’s the big deal with these things?”

Review: Kodak Zx1

“Tell yer ma and tell yer pa if they need a little, handheld video camera for taking high quality shots of the cousins messing around in the yard, then the miniature Kodak Zx1 is for them.”

Two Minute Review: Ford GT40 Series Car Mouse

“The Ford GT40 Series Car Mouse from RoadMice.com is a $50 wireless mouse stuffed in a replica Ford GT.”

The Clickfree Traveler: The backup device that’s the size of a credit card

“This is probably the easiest review I’ve ever had to write.”

Video Review: SuperSmoker Blue

“The SuperSmoker is an atomizer that sends the taste and nicotine of a four cigarettes into your gullet without flame, smoke, or even any of the nasty chemicals usually found in cigs.”

Review: HP Firebird 803

“The Firebird is a sort of companion piece to the Blackbird: quieter, more compact, less powerful but still potent, and significantly less expensive.”

Video: Wherein Maestro Dobel Diamond Tequila is reviewed

“The Booze Fairy brought me some tequila the other day—tech, tequila, same difference right?”

Review: Maximo iM-590 headphones

“A great set of high-quality headphones at a reasonable price, Maximo’s $60 iM-590 “iMetal Isolation Earphones” strike a nice balance between features and affordability.”

Review: PPC locking HDMI cable

“An HDMI cable that snaps into place and cannot be pulled out without pressing the little lock. It works.”

Review: Moxi HD DVR

“Think of the Moxi HD as a hot, new Hollywood actress. She might have the look and desire to be the next big thing, but she just doesn’t have the goods to hang with the real starlets.”

Review: Online-Mastering.com

“Having your song professionally mastered is a good thing and Online-Mastering.com does it even better.”

Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37

“It’s got a wide-angle Leica lens, image stabilization, 720p HD video recording, and a 4x zoom. That’s a pretty compelling list of features for such a small camera.”

Quick Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour for iPhone

“For ten bucks, Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the iPhone/iPod touch is absolutely, hands-down, the best deal going when it comes to portable golf games.”

Review: Kodak Z980

“My initial conclusion? I’m going to say this just to get it over with: I miss my DSLR.”

All Reviews

Short version: We’ve loved the MiFi mobile router since we first laid eyes on it back at CES. After a few days of playing with the Verizon MiFi 2200, we still love it just as much – but with one hangup: the nasty monthly bill. After a trivial hiccup with the activation, we had 4 computers up and running in minutes. Speeds in our area are about average for the local EVDO Rev-A network, and we’ve had absolutely no connectivity drops in our 2 days of testing.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Sprint plans to launch the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot device for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year service agreement (excluding taxes). The MiFi 2200, available in the first week of June on www.sprint.com, in Sprint retail stores and other select channels, will allow users to connect to the Internet by bridging WiFi-enabled devices like laptops, MP3 players and gaming devices to America’s most dependable 3G network* – the EVDO Rev A Sprint Mobile Broadband Network. * $59.99 per month mobile broadband only plan (excluding taxes and surcharges)** or * $149.99 per month Simply Everything Plan + Mobile Broadband (phone plus device connectivity -- excluding taxes and surcharges)** Both plans include up to 5 GB per month and 5 cents per megabyte overage for the MiFi 2200.

Purchasing a netbook this way isn’t the cheapest solution. It will cost somewhere between $960 to $1,440 over the 2 years to own and use the netbook. But some folks still have the disposable income to pay for the convenience of walking into a VZW store and leaving with an always-connected netbook. The rest of us will purchase our netbooks and internet access separately.

We’ve had a special place in our hearts for the Novatel Wireless MiFi ever since we played with one at CES. Verizon let it leak via the MiFi’s online manual that the carrier was getting the portable EV-DO router sometime soon, but now we have info to fill in the blanks. 

The Verizon MiFi 2020 appears to be all of the hotness that the pre-production Novatel was with ability to share a Verizon 3G connection over 802.11b/g to five WiFi devices simultaneously. The battery should last up to four hours when in active use, and 40 hours in standby mode. You would think that Verizon would charge a hefty premium for such a device, but actually, it’s not that bad.

The monthly plans start out at $40 with a 250MB cap, with the 5GB plan fetching $60. Then there is the 24 hour “DayPass” that charges the user only $15 for usage, but also requires that the MiFi be purchased at the full, and also unannounced, price. Expect to pay $100 after a $50 with a monthly service plan when the MiFi drops on May 17th.

The numbers collected by Net Applications focus exclusively on web clients in the month of April. We all know that Linux powers all the servers that run the Internet, so this discussion is limited to client systems accessing content on the Internet, rather than server machines delivering content.

One possible explanation for the increase in Linux clients is the continued growth of the netbook segment. Many people who buy a Linux-powered netbook will find it good enough to stick with for the limited operations they need to perform online. And it’s easier than ever to actually use Linux systems — it’s no longer necessary to pour over man pages for the pppd configuration file just to make a connection!

Mac systems represent just under 10%, and the Apple OS is trying hard to break the double-digit barrier. Windows, unsurprisingly, continues to dominate with almost 88% of the Internet client market.

It’s definitely not the first time we’ve seen the Novatel MiFi, or even the second – but they can keep cranking these things out in all sorts of different flavors and we wouldn’t mind a bit. A few weeks back, we found out that Sprint would be getting a MiFi of their own sometime in the next 3 months, and this latest leak indicates that Verizon will be getting one as well. No date is mentioned – but with CTIA 09 but a night or two away, we’d wager that an announcement is looming.

Here’s the concept, if you’ve missed our past blabbers on it: It’s essentially a battery-operated, 3G-powered WiFi router. Push a button, bam – it’s now a WiFi hotspot, fueled by the 3G network of whatever carrier’s SIM you’ve got inside. No dealing with cables or flaky tethering apps. It’s a blogger’s dream toy. Both times we messed with the MiFi were in environments that are generally absolutely horrible for such evaluations (the GSM model on an overloaded network, and the CDMA model in the basement of a hotel) – yet it performed spectacularly each time.

A few things are still unclear (EVDO Rev.A? Did Verizon lower the carrier-adjustable 5 person cap?). We just landed in Vegas – if our assumptions are correct and a VZW-branded MiFi is lurking around Sin City, we’ll have a hands-on up as soon as possible.

[Via PhoneArena]

We first saw the MiFi 2352 Mobile Hotspot’s CDMA brother back at CES; we loved it then, and we love it just as much in its GSM form. Novatel announced yesterday that Telefónica would be the first carrier to launch the MiFi sometime during this quarter, so we figured we’d stop by their suite to give it a spin.

We liked the brushed metal look of the CDMA variant a bit more than the plastic case of the MiFi 2352 – but aesthetics aren’t what counts here. It’s slim, and it’s light weight, and it works well. Once your SIM is in, the MiFi 2352 will act as a wireless router for up to 5 people (though carriers can drop this down to 3 if they choose). It goes from powered off to kickin’ out the WiFi juice in a matter of seconds, and has a swappable, USB charged battery, up to 16GB of storage via microSD, and internal GPS – live bloggers couldn’t ask for more.

Thee device can theoretically handle up to 7.2 megabit per second HSUPA but, as with all theoretical caps, don’t expect to actually reach that speed. We ran a few speed tests and were averaging about 4 megabits per second download and 1000 kilabits per second upload – not bad at all, considering that there are probably at least a few hundred thousand cell phones battling for tower time in the area around Mobile World Congress.

We got to take a quick sneak peak at the configuration screen, which we hadn’t seen previously; nothing too exciting here, but everything seemed about as simple as could be – see the screenshot below as an example.

I’ve been eying FIOS for a few years now – I know Doug has it and likes it – and was just inspired by a commercial on cable to pop by the Verizon site to check on FIOS in Brooklyn. Almost immediately I was shunted into a chat with “Philip” who proceeded to offer me DSL. Phil then encouraged me to “check back” with some regularity, something that would be swell if I cared enough to check back regularly.

What is it with third-generation networking systems? Carriers refuses to plug in anything, whether it’s fiber or WiMAX or real 3G, and then wonder why their revenue is so low. It took carriers a good decades to really bring in 3G – I remember Japan whizzing around on wireless networks in the 1990s and the European telecom I worked for in 1998 already implementing 3G in Poland. It can be argued that we didn’t really get 3G – or any devices that could actually use 3G – until the iPhone.

Sorry, Philip. I won’t be checking back. I’ll keep my eye on wireless technology like the MiFi from Novatel. There will be a day that you drop a little box in your living room and all your wiring problems are solved.

Fine: I’m a crank. But don’t offer me something I can’t have and shunt me over to your lesser and less valuable offerings when I’m asking to pay for your crown jewels

Novatel’s MiFi is one slick puppy. The CG crew got a hands on and we’re pretty excited to get some for review. It’s a perfect solution for live blogging events when the Wi-Fi network is slammed with hundreds of other folks vying for bandwidth. It will accommodate up to five separate connections. The folks at Novatel also informed us that there will be three versions: CDMA, GSM for North America and a GSM model for the global market. What they couldn’t tell us was whether or not everyone accessing the router would be able to access the data that’s stored on the microSD card. We’ll have to wait and see.

We speed tested the device so hit the jump to see how well it did.

Novatel might be on to something with its MiFi device. It’s basically a rechargeable, portable wireless router that ingests mobile data signals and spits them back out as standard Wi-Fi. The company is calling the technology an “Intelligent Mobile Hotspot,” in case you were longing for some industry jargon.

The idea certainly isn’t new, but this version may very well be the most portable. Initial devices will be good for four hours of active usage or 40 hours of standby time and they’ll be available in the first half of next year, although specific carriers and prices haven’t been mentioned. Also, nobody seems to want to talk about the 5GB data limit imposed by all the major US wireless companies. Seems that if you shared a data connection between enough users, you’d blow through that limit pretty quickly.

Full release after the jump…

Novatel Wireless Drives New Era of Mobile Broadband with Industry First MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot

Ultra Portable Stand-Alone Device Creates a Mobile Wi-Fi Cloud Capable of Connecting Users and Devices

SAN DIEGO – Dec. 9, 2008 - Novatel Wireless Inc., (Nasdaq:NVTL), today unveiled MiFi, an unprecedented line of Intelligent Mobile Hotspots.  Together with a rich applications environment for enterprises and consumers, MiFi drives a new ecosystem of broadband connectivity.  Unlike existing router solutions that require an external broadband modem and serve only to provide connectivity, Novatel’s MiFi line creates a personal cloud of high-speed Internet connectivity that can be easily shared between multiple users and Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, cameras, gaming devices and multimedia players.  Novatel’s MiFi products serve as an intelligent, open platform capable of hosting advanced software applications and flexible enough to address the continued evolution of mobile broadband.

"With the pocket-sized MiFi device, Novatel Wireless has invented a new category of mobile broadband solutions, pushing the envelope in design and performance and ushering in the next era of the mobile broadband experience," said Peter Leparulo, chairman and CEO of Novatel Wireless.  "Our carrier partners will now be able to provide new wireless solutions and bundles for consumer and enterprise users.  This will contribute to the continued growth of the addressable broadband market and create a unique opportunity for carriers to generate additional revenue per user through the deployment of innovative value-add applications and services."

"Mobile Broadband is evolving and with the large number of WiFi enabled electronic devices coming to market, there is a growing consumer need for Internet-ready devices and applications to stay connected while on the go," said Chris Collins, senior analyst with The Yankee Group Research, Inc.

Next Generation in Mobile Broadband Connectivity
MiFi represents the industry’s first Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, a new category of mobile broadband that lets users put their world of content, services and connectivity in their pocket.  Featuring an internal battery providing over forty hours standby and up to four hours of active use on a single charge, the MiFi product line enables users to access high-speed Internet from anywhere there is a cellular connection, including moving vehicles where multiple passengers may need internet access.

Rich Applications Environment
Novatel’s MiFi product line will offer enterprises, SMB and SOHO users a unique solution to secure, control and manage wireless connections.  Certain MiFi configurations support applications such as auto VPN, automatic syncing of email and optional remote management capabilities for the enterprise IT manager. Novatel’s MiFi product line offers a robust platform capable of hosting third party applications that extend the reach and control of the enterprise when dealing with remote mobile assets.

With MiFi, consumers can consolidate and personalize their mobile Internet services through a convenient landing page whether they are at home, in the car or on the go.  For the operator, the MiFi landing page provides a window to the user to offer additional content and services.  MiFi will continue to evolve in order to support applications and services for individuals and families leading a mobile lifestyle.

Unprecedented Ease of Use
Novatel has applied its expertise in human interface engineering to make MiFi the easiest to use broadband device ever.  Users are one-click away from their personalized content and services, with no need for installing host applications or hardware drivers as part of the installation process.

Pricing and Availability
The MiFi line of Intelligent Mobile Hotspots will be commercially available in 1H09 through a variety of Novatel Wireless’ global tier-one operator customers and retail channels.