by Chris Ziegler, posted Aug 10th 2008 at 2:35PM An all-too-brief, all-too-fuzzy video of a device alleging to be none other than HTC’s Dream has surfaced on YouTube, showing a white smartphone of healthy size running Android and sliding horizontally to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. From what little we can make out, we’ve got to say that it’s not the sexiest thing we’ve ever seen — and the Dream has been so built up in our minds at this point that we’re expecting to have our socks knocked off hard by the time it’s officially unveiled. The silver lining here might be that the phone in the video bears an uncanny resemblance to a “reference design” made by “a partner” of Google’s that was demonstrated by none other than Google’s own Andy Rubin back in February of this year. (Read the full post about ‘HTC Dream, or just some reference design, shown off on video’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 10th 2008 at 1:17PMThough we expected Dell’s ruggedized Latitude E6400 ATG to have already launched by now, we suppose late is superior to never. As of this very moment, said laptop is available to order from the outfit’s Small & Medium Business division, and the baseline machine comes with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU, Vista Home Basic, a 3-year warranty, 14.1-inch WXGA LED-backlit (and outdoor viewable, too) display, Intel’s GMA 4500MHD graphics, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB 5,400RPM hard drive, 802.11b/g and a built-in combo drive. The machine we just described can be ordered up for $2,399, but those with a higher spending limit can opt for integrated WWAN, a 64GB SSD, a respectable amount of memory and a 2.8GHz T9600 processor. (Read the full post about ‘Dell rugged Latitude E6400 ATG laptop now available to order’…)

The Smart Shopper is the electronic gadget for shoppers who can’t live without their lists. Here’s how it works in a nutshell: say the item in the Smart Shopper, it records it and then you can print out the list on the built-in thermal printer. Smart Shopper has a built-in database of over 2500 common items, and you can add your custom items as well. It also has voice-recognition to understand what you’re telling it. At over $100, Smart Shopper is not cheap, but if you account for saving gas and time in not having to make return trips to the stores, then this could very well pay for itself before you know it. Gimme! (Read the full post about ‘Smart Shopper - say, record and print your shopping list’…)

Hobos might pretend they don’t mind their cardboard homes, but we’re smarter than that. We can see right through their booze-ridden glazed eyes and garbage can stench. Of course, they would much prefer an alternative to cardboard. Perhaps a material better insulated from the elements of nature. Buried deep in the hobo culture is a sub-branch of homeless life. This hobo demographic is known as the rag pickers. They run around cities, gathering any recyclable material they can muster and turn them in for pocket change. These hobo’s are actually providing a service. They are inadvertently producing a green environment. Wouldn’t it make sense to aid them in any way we could? (Read the full post about ‘Shelter Cart: Live like a luxorious rag picker’…)

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 10th 2008 at 7:10AMIt’s been a real roller coaster ride of emotions with SSD. The once lauded (at least in our hearts) savior of all things computing has, in real life, provided us with lackluster and even controversial performance gains, while battery improvements haven’t been revolutionary and the prices still aren’t exactly wallet-friendly. Most of that is unlikely to change in the next couple of years, but there’s still plenty to be fixed in the short term. Samsung is working with Microsoft to define optimum packet sizes and best practices for reading and writing files to SSD as a potential update for Windows Vista, which is particularly optimized to work best with traditional hard drives. (Read the full post about ‘Vista, OS X updates could bring significant SSD speed gains’…)

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 10th 2008 at 7:10AMIt’s been a real roller coaster ride of emotions with SSD. The once lauded (at least in our hearts) savior of all things computing has, in real life, provided us with lackluster and even controversial performance gains, while battery improvements haven’t been revolutionary and the prices still aren’t exactly wallet-friendly. Most of that is unlikely to change in the next couple of years, but there’s still plenty to be fixed in the short term. Samsung is working with Microsoft to define optimum packet sizes and best practices for reading and writing files to SSD as a potential update for Windows Vista, which is particularly optimized to work best with traditional hard drives. (Read the full post about ‘Vista, OS X updates could bring significant SSD speed gains’…)

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 10th 2008 at 3:40AM Apparently that sexual harassment suit had a big payoff for Aiko: she’s getting a hand. The developers of the fembot have created a hand for her botness, with five movable fingers, 15 movable joints, feedback sensitivity, low power consumption and palatable material cost of $1800. Oddly enough, the appropriate testing grounds for such a hand is Aiko’s local neighborhood Starbucks, where she apparently regularly is required to grab straws, cups and cardboard sleeves for coffee she can’t drink. How cruel. On the bright side, this hand isn’t just for Aiko: it can also be attached to an amputee’s forearm muscles, allowing for particularly low cost replacement hand — though we’re guessing it’s going to need a bit more work before it’s ready for mass human consumption. (Read the full post about ‘Aiko gets a new, Starbucks-ready hand prototype’…)

Click for a larger image. It’s been a few weeks since Nokia officially announced the E71 business-targeted qwerty smartphone and we just got our hands on one. The E71 comes fully loaded in a .39” thick body with: GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.2mp camera (that takes video), and 3G. The Nokia E71 is available now for an unsubsidized retail price of approximately USD 500. Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘Gadgetell Peep Show: Nokia E71′…)

In this week’s Gadget Lab Podcast , Dylan Tweney, Daniel Dumas, and Jose Fermoso talk about the controversial Micro Four Thirds System, a new set of standards for camera lenses and bodies that threatens to give competition to the SLRs. Despite the fact that some of these early cameras aren’t popular yet, they will discuss why their overall quality and ease of use will prove to be a be a better option for amateur photographers. In addition, they will go over the MSI Wind, which includes one of the best keyboards for a mini-notebook, as well as the Asus Eee Box PC, the lightweight, desktop version of the mini-Eee laptop. (Read the full post about ‘Gadget Lab Podcast #41: The Micro Four Thirds Photo System, Tiny Tumbleweed Houses, and the MSI Wind Mini-notebook’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 9th 2008 at 8:39PMLenovo already rolled out one Olympics-themed flash drive long before the Beijing Games kicked off, but now that the Opening Ceremonies have come and gone, the outfit is showing off a few more for good measure. The Mascot series contains a half dozen colorful 4GB units that’ll go for around $30 apiece, while the so-called Medallions will only be available on the second-hand market thanks to the original batch selling out. Lastly, we’ve got five slightly different 1GB titanium drives that boast swiveling plugs and arrive in a swank mahogany box. (Read the full post about ‘Lenovo shows off stable of Olympics-themed USB flash drives’…)