Unlike the previous half-assed Bat Phone, this Bat Phone is the real deal—meaning you get a retro ’60’s handset, base, and flashing light when someone calls. You’ve got a few ringing options here. You can either have a standard ringer, no ringer (just flashing light, like Batman), or a buzzer. You’re going to want the flasher for sure, but we’re bummed that there’s no way to program the phone to only flash when you get a really important call from the Commissioner. Or a lady dressed in cat-shaped vinyl. [Red Hot Phones via PRnewswire]

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We’re not sure how well the Xbox 360 is doing in China, but Microsoft’s cashing in on this whole Chinese New Year business by throwing out a limited edition Chinese New Year Xbox. The box is colored red, which Chinese people like, but includes Halo 3, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us. If we were designing a game to include with this box, we’d do something like Viva Pinata, which is kinda festive, or Boom Boom Rocket, which has a whole lot of fireworks. Killing aliens may be fun, but it doesn’t scream welcome to the Year of the Rat. [CNET Asia]

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Apple uses spare white for a reason: It’s a pleasing, clean color. Until it isn’t. Like if your mom sets a coffee cup on top of your MacBook, or you toil away on it with especially grubby mitts. Solution? Arm & Hammer toothpaste!

All you’ve gotta do is rub some of it on the given blemish, let it dry, then wipe away with a damp cloth. Presto, it’s pretty again. No word on how well it whites out those dark, sketchy stains that slowly grow like a cancer where you rest your palms—someone wanna check it out and report back? [Lifehacker]

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If you still haven’t entered our contest to win an HDTV and a Windows Media Center Extender, tomorrow’s the last day. That means you’d better get going on those pictures you’re going to take for it.

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Nokia, who’s supposedly super loyal to the Symbian platform, is currently in talks with Microsoft (says one of Microsoft’s marketing directors) to load Windows Mobile on the handset maker’s phones. Here’s what Nokia already uses of Microsoft’s: ActiveSync and PlayReady, but like an anxious teenaged lover, Microsoft is working “closely” with Nokia and wants to “go all the way.” It’s too early to determine whether or not you’re going to be able to buy a Nokia with WinMo on it, but it’s all but guaranteed that they’ll still be selling phones with Symbian—so no worries S60 fans. [itwire]

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Benny Goldman: “I wonder how many jerkoffs went out and bought the new [16GB iPhone] even though they already owned the old one.” Apparently, a fair number of people, who I don’t think would appreciate being called jerkoffs, Benny. But that’s how some AT&T reps treated them according to our viligant brother site’s spy network, making a bunch of people extend their AT&T contracts with brand new ones. But that’s not how it’s supposed to go down.

The official word we got from AT&T via email is that while you do have to sign a new contract because of the iPhone activation process, your new contract should be automatically backdated to the start of the original one, so “bottom line…you don’t have to extend your iPhone contract if you upgrade to the 16 GB phone.” Obvious follow-up: What’s the policy going to be with the 3G iPhone? Update: We did ask that obvious follow-up, but all they could say was that they can’t “speculate on future plans.”

You shouldn’t get your hopes up for a repeat though—they’re considering the 16GB phone an upgrade, but iPhone 2 will probably be considered a wholly new and different device, requiring a wholly new and different 2-year contract. [AT&T]

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Making flash memory USB compatible without a card reader seems to be the hot thing to do nowdays, and SanDisk is following up on the craze with their Ultra II SD card with USB interface. It’s 8GB, has a $99 MSRP, and can fold in half to reveal the USB connector that you can easily shove into the USB slot on your machine. Because if we have to carry around one more thing in our bags when making the mad dash to grab a seat at Macworld, we may just collapse halfway in and have to blog prone on our stomachs in the aisle. [BusinessWire via jkontherun]

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If you are retarded and need to wear a helmet around to keep that noggin of yours safe, you might as well make it entertaining for others around you. I guess. I’m not really sure what other uses there are for this except perhaps as a way for construction workers to pass time on their lunch breaks. In any case, this is a hard hat with an LED display on the front that plays Pong and displays messages for some reason. Of course! [Instructables]

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Content filter version one: A massive, network-wide dragnet. Not really feeling that Big Bro deal, even though RIAA chief Cary Sherman says it “doesn’t give rise…to any privacy concerns because it can operate automatically and anonymously”? It’s cool, there’s a better approach: A locally installed filter on your computer.

As a bonus, a local filter would defeat encrypted torrents, since you’ve gotta decrypt ‘em, at which point the filter would kick in. Sherman is a smart cookie though, and knows people aren’t just gonna sign up to have their machine lojacked:

“Why would somebody put that on their machine? They wouldn’t likely want to do that, they’d do that when it benefits them such as for viruses and so on and so forth…it could be enforced at the modem or put in by the ISP.”

I’ve got nothing here. [Public Knowledge via Broadband Reports]

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Adorama’s got a 4GB Kingston Elite Pro CF card for $40, but with the $40 rebate, the total price is $0. Rebate deals sorta suck, but only if you’re forgetful, and we’re talking about free here. There’s only a day left, so hurry! [Adorama via Photography Bay]

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