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The Chumby -- a soft, leather-covered internet device -- attracts many people interested in modifying its software as well as its hardware. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

At Wired.com we love technology, but sometimes it just pisses us off. These readers feel the same way, and they did something about it. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Myka is a set-top box that will download and play BitTorrent files in a wide variety of formats. Company president Dan Lovy explains his plans in Gadget Lab. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Charlie Sorrel reads the tea leaves to predict four new features for the 3-G iPhone. Chime in with your ideas. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Nancy Miller test-spins the Pacemaker portable DJ gadget. The end result: Fun, but not worth the exorbitant pricetag. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Phone manufacturers, eager to make their handsets stand out, are cranking up the megapixels on their camera phones. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

The chipmaker stokes its rivalry with the One Laptop per Child organization, and shows off new features of its low-cost school laptops. Slated to go on sale in April for $300 to $500, the model is part of Intel's push for mobile "netbooks," aimed at millions of new consumers coming online in developing countries, as well as U.S. kids. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin tells the crowd at the annual CTIA Wireless show that he would oppose Skype's petition to open up wireless carriers' networks. http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?quot;][/url] http://feeds.wired.com/~f/wired/gadgets?I=WEqQOTg[/img]</img> </img> </img> View the full article://http://feeds.wired.com/~f/wired/gad...he full article

Cellphone makers will be touting their latest wares at this week's CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. Topping the feature lists: Enhanced operating systems and software. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Browse this week's Wired.com gadget reviews for a hi-fi audio recorder that can take a beating, a tablet MacBook and more of the latest tech. http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?quot;][/url] http://feeds.wired.com/~f/wired/gadgets?I=cQ6ZN5f[/img]</img> </img> </img> View the full article://http://feeds.wired.com/~f/wired/gad...he full article

The first attempt at using new technology for the national census is creating so many problems for head-counters that officials are talking about a "statistical Katrina" and giving serious thought to returning to the reliability of pencil and paper. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Wired.com tests the British version of Omnifone's MusicStation Max service, which offers all-you-can-eat access to major-label music. </img> </img> </img> </img> View the full article

Everex's gPC Mini is cheaper than the Mac Mini and almost as small, but the lack of OS X or Windows makes it a hard sell. Everex's gPC mini is the third in its new lineup of cheap, linux-powered computers. With smoothly rounded corners and a pearly-white paint job, it's like a Mac Mini from another universe. And that's certainly what its designers want you to think: at $500, it's a mass market PC that comes in a similar tiny form and at an even tinier price. The specs are good for the price: check our a comparison chart at the bottom of this post. Its Intel T2130 CPU is not as powerful as the Mac Mini's, and it has only 512MB of RAM to the $600 Mini's 1GB, but it has more storage (120GB vs. 80GB), a DVD burner, and various useful trimmings like an S-Video port, front USB port and a card reader. Like the Mini, it comes standalone: bring your own mouse, monitor and keyboard. The full specs are as follows: Intel Dual-Core T2130 (1.86GHz), Intel GMA950, video chip (same as the Mac Mini), Realtek ALC268 audio, gigabit ethernet, firewire, 4 USB ports and standard Audio In/Out. Having spent an hour with it to get some photos and a first look, its shortcomings were expected, given similar issues with Everex's recent subnotebook: gOS Linux just isn't ready for prime time as a mass-market alternative to Windows and OSX. View the full article

The wireless internet widget device Chumby touches down after years in development hell and it's totally worth the wait. Meet Chumby: a wireless gadget that pulls information off the web and puts it on your desktop. Chumby is like a widget box, serving up a constant stream of photos, sports scores and anything else that can be loaded into an RSS feed. There's been a lot of hype about this thing. After years in development hell and numerous false starts, it's been hailed as a revolution in internet access and also slammed as a half-baked gimmick. A gimmick it is not. After plugging in the plush device, we found the Chumby to be the perfect desktop companion, perfect for internet radio and watching eBay. Chumby works by patching into your WiFi connection, pulling content from the internet and displaying it in creative ways on a 3.5-inch touchscreen. Content arrives in widget form, and arrives in any flavor you can possibly think of — from news aggregators and stock tickers to Lolcat feeds to something called PandaCam. These DIY web-trawlers serve up a custom slice of internet pie wherever you’ve got a WiFi connection (and a power outlet). A few sites and blogs publish their own stuff, but Chumbyland is as dependent on its user base as it is on developers. Can’t find what you want? Conjure up your flash kung fu and create your own customized widget. It doesn’t run Doom (yet), but a quick search of the extensive forums shows that we’re not the only ones asking. View the full article

Apple has filed many patent applications relating to multitouch interfaces like that found on the iPhone -- including patents on the "pinch" gesture used to zoom in and out. As other manufacturers bring multitouch devices to market, Apple's patent applications could prove a major stumbling block. Is pinching proprietary? We may find out in the coming months as many companies, inspired by the success of Apple's iPhone, release their own multitouch-enabled laptops, smartphones and tablets. In doing so, these companies -- including RIM, Nokia and Synaptics -- may run afoul of multitouch patent applications recently filed by Apple. If Apple's attorneys have the right touch to get patents for its "pinch" and other multitouch gestures used on the iPhone, the company may be able to put the touch on competitors that want to use the same gestures on their devices. AP/Sakuma "If Apple's patents are granted, the company could absolutely stop others from using similar technology," says Raj Abhyanker, a patent lawyer who used to write patent applications for Apple. "They'd also be in an especially good position to stop others from including certain features. Apple could stop [their use] not only on mobile devices but also desktops." Patent experts contacted by Wired.com stressed that the patent office can take four or more years to grant patents, and Apple is far from certain to win these patents. Indeed, other companies, including BenQ-Siemens and Nokia, have also filed patent applications on a series of gestures and touch applications for multitouch devices. However, with more than 200 patent claims for the iPhone alone, including several multitouch-related patent applications, Apple is clearly seeking to control as much of the multitouch world as it can. View the full article

HD-DVD Death Imminent: Reuters, NHK Toshiba is to put HD-DVD out of its misery. Reuters confirmed reported Saturday afternoon that it will cease manufacturing HD-DVD equipment, following earlier reports from Japan's NHK public broadcasting network. This leaves Blu-Ray as the presumptive victor in the irrelevant optical disk format war. It now must face up to the real competition: the continuing success of DVD and the growing popularity of downloads, both on the internet and on-demand cable TV. The end comes only a day after Wal-Mart announced it would no longer carry HD-DVD stuff. This will go a long way to confirming the view, long-held by cynics, that the mega-retailer always held the executioner's axe to begin with, and was merely waiting until it was clear which format's camp had the most densely-stuffed brown envelopes to throw at Hollywood. View the full article Toshiba press release

Project Resolution: Four 1080p Projectors Tested and Rated Mitsubishi HC-4900 Sony VPL-VW60 Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080UB Sanyo PLV-Z2000 View the full article

A major service outage afflicts users of BlackBerry smart phones across the United States and Canada on Monday. AT&T and Verizon Wireless say manufacturer RIM told them customers of all wireless carriers were affected. BlackBerry Outage Frustrates Users Again SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The company that makes the ubiquitous, addictive BlackBerry smart phones said Tuesday it was still looking into what caused the second widespread service disruption in less than a year. Research in Motion Ltd. said customers in the United States and Canada "experienced intermittent delays" for about three hours Monday beginning about 3:30 p.m. EST. RIM said no messages were lost, and voice and text messaging services were unaffected. "It is too early to determine root cause at this time, but RIM does have a team addressing this issue in order to define the problem and prevent it in the future," the company said in a statement. The BlackBerry service, which lets users check e-mail and access other data, has become a lifeline for many business executives and is increasingly popular among consumers with smart phones like the BlackBerry Pearl. Outages have been rare in the BlackBerry's nine-year history, but when they do hit, subscribers who have become addicted to the gadgets are quick to unleash their fury. View the full article

Radio frequency identification technology, which enables objects, pets and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly, is likely to be ubiquitous in the not-so-distant future. Almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments. Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future: -Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items - and, by extension, consumers - wherever they go, from a distance. -A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them. -In "Smart Homes," sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets - all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants' private lives. Science fiction? In truth, much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists - and new and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed. Some of the world's largest corporations are vested in the success of RFID technology, which couples highly miniaturized computers with radio antennas to broadcast information about sales and buyers to company databases. Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They're also in library books and "contactless" payment cards (such as American Express' "Blue" and ExxonMobil's "Speedpass.") Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts. At home, convenience is a selling point: RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see "personalized" commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction. "We've seen so many different uses of the technology," says Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, a national association of data collection businesses, including RFID, "and we're probably still just scratching the surface in terms of places RFID can be used." The problem, critics say, is that microchipped products might very well do a whole lot more. With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department. By placing sniffers in strategic areas, companies can invisibly "rifle through people's pockets, purses, suitcases, briefcases, luggage - and possibly their kitchens and bedrooms - anytime of the day or night," says Rasch, now managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc., a Baltimore-based company. In an RFID world, "You've got the possibility of unauthorized people learning stuff about who you are, what you've bought, how and where you've bought it ... It's like saying, 'Well, who wants to look through my medicine cabinet?'" He imagines a time when anyone from police to identity thieves to stalkers might scan locked car trunks, garages or home offices from a distance. "Think of it as a high-tech form of Dumpster diving," says Rasch, who's also concerned about data gathered by "spy" appliances in the home. "It's going to be used in unintended ways by third parties - not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you ..." --- View the full article

The "laser crazer" will be able to ruin enemy sniper scopes, night-vision gear and even binoculars at long range, using short bursts of high-energy laser pulses. The Pentagon's newest laser weapon has a peak power of more than a million megawatts, so intense that it warps the air around it. When the beam strikes the target it vaporises the impact site, producing a plasma fireball and a highly destructive shockwave. The end result: a tiny crater barely visible to the naked eye. That's because the so-called "laser crazer" is designed not to burn up missiles or tanks, but to scratch lenses. It's a portable nonlethal weapon designed to take out enemy optical systems at long range -- ruining an adversary's night-vision gear, sniper scopes and binoculars in a fraction of a second -- by sandblasting their lenses with ultrashort pulses of laser light. View the full article

We take a look back at how companies try to convince an incurious public to buy computers or videogames during times when TV audiences weren't as tech savvy as they are today, and find some comic results. Selling computers and videogames used to be much more difficult. Back when it was considered impressive to be able to display both blue and light blue, actual screenshots tended to congregate at the intersection of boring and repulsive. That's why a generation was raised thinking that the main purpose of a home computer was to store recipes. These ads take a slightly more elaborate approach to selling geek materials to the geeky, bringing in anything from transvestitism to Shatner -- although, sadly, not a transvestite Shatner. View the full article

After suffering bumps in the road to development, Apple's iPhone takes the wireless industry by storm, and turns a power structure between carriers and manufacturers on its head in the process. After suffering bumps in the road to development, Apple's iPhone takes the wireless industry by storm, and turns a power structure between carriers and manufacturers on its head in the process. The demo was not going well. Again. It was a late morning in the fall of 2006. Almost a year earlier, Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, "We don't have a product yet." The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. "It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill," says someone who was in the meeting. The ramifications were serious. The iPhone was to be the centerpiece of Apple's annual Macworld convention, set to take place in just a few months. Since his return to Apple in 1997, Jobs had used the event as a showcase to launch his biggest products, and Apple-watchers were expecting another dramatic announcement. Jobs had already admitted that Leopard — the new version of Apple's operating system — would be delayed. If the iPhone wasn't ready in time, Macworld would be a dud, Jobs' critics would pounce, and Apple's stock price could suffer. View the full article

Check out Wired's picks for standouts at CES 2008. Some are more pleasant on the eyes than others. Even covered in the slime from thousands of conference-goers' hands, Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus keyboards are a sight to behold. Big, badass and loaded with miniature OLED displays -- one for every key -- nothing comes remotely within range when it comes to elite nerdery. Nothing says "I sweat wealth" like a $1,536 keyboard. The OLED displays are crisp and vivid: Read more here

Millions of Americans will need digital converter boxes when television stations make the switch from analog to digital signals in February 2009. Demand will skyrocket and companies that will supply those converters hope they're up to the task. View the full article

The world didn't end and most calls and messages got through, but the high volume of texting and cellphone calls resulted in a lot of bounce-backs. In a real crisis, this could mean real trouble. NEW YORK (AP) -- Geeta Citygirl just figured something was wrong with her phone when she realized the greetings she was sending as the ball dropped New Year's Eve weren't getting through. In Los Angeles, a half-dozen New Year's text messages bounced back to Reggie Cameron on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after he thought he sent them out. View the full article