AT&T Slips iPhone Black Reference in Customer Pages [Apple]

Something called the “iPhone Black” is now appearing in the “Select Model” popup menu on AT&T’s registered customers screen. An AT&T spokesperson has told us that the company doesn’t have any comment on this. And we don’t know what “iPhone Black” means, but some may take this as a confirmation of the rumored all-black iPhone allegedly coming next month. However, since there’s no other information except this screenshot, we will take it as is. [AppleInsider]

Update: AT&T’s just denied the existence of an iPhone Black, pointing to leftover placeholder text from a weekend update.

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Apple promo references 2.6GHz MacBook

Filed under: Laptops

Not that we wouldn’t eventually expect a 2.6GHz MacBook, but Apple’s Hot News site is running this promo that references a new, upgraded model of the laptop (which right now only reaches 2.4GHz). Our take? We’re thinking typo, not premature announcement.

[Thanks, Matthew and fr]

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ASUS Eee PC 900 now available

Filed under: Laptops

We knew it was due today, and what do you know: ASUS is busting out its new 8.9-inch Eee PC 900 right on schedule. So far ZipZoomfly is selling the XP version for $600, while Buy.com is offering up the Linux edition for $566. We’re not sure what happened to those other resellers, or where that $550 pricepoint went, but we’re sure we’ll be seeing both before long — which means it might be wise to hold off for just a tad bit longer, unless you really can’t wait for sweet, sweet subnotebook embrace.

[Via Laptoping]

Read - Buy.com
Read - ZipZoomfly

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What You Missed Last Weekend [Roundup]

Here’s the best weekend gadget news you missed because you were working security at the Western White House for the Jenna Bush wedding.
• The iPhones are missing! The iPhones are missing!
• Lextech software can turn your iPhone into a portable surveillance camera control console.
• Forget all that iPhone news, because there’s a bulb in Livermore, California that’s burned bright for 107 years.
• Justin Timberlake flip-flopped and threw his weight behind a techy new MTV reality show called The Phone.
• Choo! Choo! Conductors of the future rejoice, because there’s a new HD simulator rig in town.

• A fleet-fingered, record-breaking Israeli hairdresser cut hair—not ears—using 10 scissors at once.
• If MacGruber’s son isn’t gay, then what was that in his backpack?
• We learned how to love LEGO blocks and the men who love building with them.
• The Zeppelin returned, albeit in a slightly less flammable variety.
• Doctors in San Diego removed a man’s appendix by going through his stomach and sucking it out his mouth.

Now, hit up the home page for the best gadget and technology news in the whole wide world.

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Weird Combo Of The Day: Nail Clipper/Butane Lighter [Weird Combo Of The Day]

Behold, the 2-in-1 nail clipper and butane lighter. Because as we all know, the only way to properly dispose of your body’s nail waste is miniature, ritualistic burning. $2.68 with free shipping—or $1.34 per function. [dealextreme] Thanks Martin!

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Motorola’s cellphone business needs a new leader: okay, I’m in.

Filed under: Cellphones

From the (tiny) desk of the editor:

Yesterday Motorola CEO Greg Brown told board members and shareholders that, among a lot of other bad news, the company is no closer to finding someone to lead the company’s rotting cellphone business (which Moto is in the middle of spinning off as its “Mobile Devices” unit). One shareholder remarked, “You’re not doing your job that you’re paid for. Either put up or get out.” That investor, like the rest of us, has witnessed the slow-mo train wreck that’s been that handset business in the days since the RAZR peaked; the things brought to light in the insider letter I published on Engadget just reinforces the fact that it’s time for a change at the top. Some even suggested that I take over Motorola’s handset business. I thought it over — okay, I’ll bite if Greg does.

The problem with so many American technology companies today — especially in the mobile space — is that while they have no dearth of business acumen at the top of the pyramid, they’re typically dry on vision and foresight. They spend brief periods of time innovating, and then milk a technology, brand, patent, or some combination therein for as long as they can get away with it (or in Moto’s case, way longer). They play it safe and go for the easy money. Motorola’s handset business has come to define this in the gadget world.

Continue reading Motorola’s cellphone business needs a new leader: okay, I’m in.

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Microsoft increases focus on Fone+ cellphone project for the poor

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft has been touting its Fone+ project for a little while now, but it looks like the company is starting to step up its efforts a bit further, with the new head of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, Craig Mundie, reportedly leading the charge to increase the focus on the project aimed at bringing cellphones to the poor. This isn’t a case of simply handing out as many barebones handsets as possible, however. Instead, Microsoft wants to use the cellphones (which are described as a “low-to-mid-end smartphone”) as an alternative to computers like the OLPC, an idea the company has been tossing around since before the Fone+ project even had a name. To make things a bit more practical, the cellphones would be paired with a dock that hooks up to TV, resulting in a system that Mundie says is “a lot cheaper than having to buy a whole separate computer.” Unfortunately, while it is upping its efforts, Microsoft apparently still isn’t ready to provide any sort of timeline about when we can expect to see an actual product, and Mundie adds that the company continues to “explore and look at both phone-up models and PC-down models” to make computing more accessible to the poor.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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A REAL Universal Remote Concept [Concepts]

Not so long ago, we ran an “All Giz Wants” about a real universal remote—one that wouldn’t just change your channels but change your life. (Marketers, feel free to use that). This concept holds a kinship to our humble dream of turning on our oven with the touch of a button…errr…remotely. Make no mistake, it’s just an artist’s rendering with ergonomics that are questionable at best. But it’s something to keep us trudging through life (hopefully from our couches). [coroflot via DVICE]

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Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Maybe our robo-challenges speak something to our respective histories: Americans have spent the last few years driving intelligent vehicles through vast expanses of desert, but over in Europe, scientists and technologists are preparing for this fall’s Microtransat, wherein machines must sail across the Atlantic propelled only by wind and artificial intelligence. The race, intended as a public proof of concept for long-range autonomous sea-faring scientific vessels, should take the, um, roboats three months to complete.

[Via Piquepaille]

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Via [Engadget]

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Mo’ Slow-Mo: Objects Breaking (or Not) for the Casio EX-F1 [Slow-mo]

Our friend Robert Woodhead (of slow-mo Mentos-n-Coke fame) has kindly shared another of his Casio Exilim EX-F1 masterpieces, this time water balloons and china slowly shattering (and occasionally not shattering) to the tune of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. They’re a mixture of 300, 600 and 1200 frame-per-second shots, set up in an uncomfortably vertical version of widescreen (tallscreen?), but they sure are fun. When will the slow-mo clips cease? you ask. Never, that’s when. [Robert Woodhead]

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