What the hell? It’s been three years since I first joined this motley crew? I guess so. I’m a man of few words so I’ll keep this short. This is my last day with CrunchGear and TechCrunch. Thanks to Mike, Heather and John for giving me the opportunity to do something that I’ve grown to love over the last few years.

Ford and Microsoft have found great success partnering together on Sync and the rest of the automotive industry have finally taken notice. We’ve taken Sync for a ride or two and know that it works as advertised. We even took a 2010 Mustang for a spin over the weekend and even without the full-fledged Nav system with touchscreen, Sync worked great. BTW- Ford kicked some ass on the new Mustang. The interior is plush.

Anyway, BMW and Nuance announced earlier today that they’ve partnered to bring Nuance’s Music Search and One-shot Destination Entry tech to the Bavarian’s 2010 lineup of whips with Professional. Said system launches this month in the US and Europe. The speech recognition technology will go hand-in-hand with BMW’s already overly complicated iDrive system. Have fun with that.

Lowepro announced a handful of new camera bags at PMA in March and over the last couple months they’ve slowly trickled into the market. We were lucky enough to snag a Pro Roller x100 early and have spent quite a bit of time with it over the last few weeks including trips to Indianapolis for the Red Bull MotoGP.

In honor of Nerf’s 40th anniversary and the launch of the N-Strike Raider Rapid Fire CS 35 blaster, which ships today, Nerf sent over a mighty fine and ginormous care package to the CG office. I can’t believe the Parker Brothers developed Nerf in 1969 and the first product was some dumb four-inch polyurethane foam ball. They’ve come a long way since then.

Let’s dig into the goodie bag.

Welcome to 2006, AT&T.

That’s right, folks. AT&T has finally joined the fray and they’re calling it the A-List with Rollover. AT&T prisoners can now call up to five domestic “VIPs” without putting a dent into their pre-existing plan. As an added bonus, the Rollover feature has been bundled in and starts with the individual Nation plans higher than $59.99. A-List with Rollover launches on September 20. Oh, and don’t forget to read the fine print.

Sony’s ballyhooed motion control system for the PlayStation platform is months away from launch, but the PS Blog has some intriguing behind-the-scenes-like video with the R&D team that’s currently fine-tuning the system. Have a look at two videos after the jump.

Today, HTC officially announced the Touch2 with Windows Mobile 6.5 that includes My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. HTC was skimp on specs, but we do know that the Touch2 will have TouchFLO and a slew of Google products pre-installed. And the new IE Mobile supports Flash. If you’re into that sort of thing, which we suspect you are. The Touch2 launches on October 6 with availability spreading to the rest of Europe and Asia in Q4.

So my “hands-on” post was really more of a “quick look” or a “look at some sample images” post than a hands-on you’ve grown accustomed to from CG, so I thought it wise to have a real hands-on of the Pentax K-7. I’m a Pentax user and I let the fanboy in me get the best of me. Apologies. Now here’s the real hands-on, but before we jump into that, here is the full spec sheet of the K-7 that was used over the weekend at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix.

One of the downsides to covering gadgets on a daily basis for as long as I have is the fact that I think everything is crap. Very few things excite me and anything that does usually ends up falling short of my expectations. It’s unfortunate, but once in a blue moon does something not only impress, but also exceed my expectations. Case in point, the Pentax K-7.

Big news (not really) this AM from Olympus with the announcement of the E-600 DSLR. Looks like another entry-level(ish) digital SLR. Big notables for the 12.3-megapixel shooter include a swiveling 2.7-inch LCD and slew of fancy art filters. That’s seriously about it, folks. The E-600 coupled with a 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 kit lens will retail for $600 in November.

Looking for any easy way to transfer photos or files from one iPhone to another or an iPod Touch or Mac? Well, friend, we have a deal for you! DropCopy 2009 is currently free from the App Store. The file transfer app was $5 until this morning. It has its fair share of flaws but it’s free.

More pics inside if you’re curious.

What would it be like to have a real testing lab instead of working in the makeshift “lab” that is John’s attic? A blogger can dream. Or we can take a look at an outfit like Cnet.

The boys over at CBS tested the new PS3 Slim against the PS3 Fat using an array of power consumption tests. The verdict?

It seems a little unnecessary but (there’s a sucker born every second, right?) the 24.6-megapixel full-frame Exmor CMOS sensor equipped α850 is being geared towards “a broader group of consumers,” says Kristen Elder, the Director of Digital Imaging at Sony. Before you raise an eyebrow and ask why Sony has another full-frame DSLR when the α900 is top dog, ask me how much the α850 is going to be. It’s coming in under $2000, which is $700 cheaper than the α900.

Out of nowhere Sony just dropped three new α DSLRs, the α550, α500 and α850, which we’ll get to a little later. Key new features in the α500 series include the latest gen Exmor CMOS sensors and BIONZ image processors. Sony claims that the new sensors will capture high quality images in low light scenarios with the BIONZ image proc reducing color-noise as high up as ISO 12800. A couple other notables you might want to know about are in-camera HDR and improved Live View functions.

I love my home state for a number of reasons, but this is just one more reason why Oregon kicks ass. Portland, OR-based clothier Nau’s billfold wallet is perfect for any world traveler. It has a SIM card dedicated slot built right in! And it’s made from 100 percent recycled polyester.

On one hand, the Addonics Pocket Blu-ray/DVDRW packs eSATA and USB 2.0, but it isn’t the first portable Blu-ray player drive. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Fastmac released an external Blu-ray player drive back in January at Macworld, which I believe was the first external Blu-ray drive. I guess eSATA isn’t that important to me and the $259 price tag is a bit much considering the Fastmac drive is $120. Read and write speeds are nothing to drool over either.