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Alright, starting April 7, you will be able to get a Volvo C30 with one of those 20 patterns. That’s only if you’re living in Sweden. Check out more of the patterns after the break.
[ Source ]

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I just got back from Chicago yesterday afternoon after fulfilling my duties as a Sidekick Roadie. Those duties included meeting the artists, hanging out with the VIP winners, and having too much fun. Colbie Caillat, Cat Power, and John Legend put on a great show and it looks like everyone had fun. I’m sure T-Mobile will have all sorts of pictures and video up on www.sidekick.com shortly. If you want to read about the trip, head over to the Tour blog where I’m posting about my experience going on tour with T-Mobile. If you’re in New York, we’ll be heading into town next week so look out!

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I think that we mentioned the 3Dconnexion mice before, but today’s news is about the combo 3Dconnexion and Second life. This video shows how this controller can be used with Second life. I haven’t tested it myself, but it you feel like it could improve your Second Life experience – knock yourself out…

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I don’t know if you ever notice our “categories” for Coolest gadgets, but many of them are pretty descriptive. One of them is “Cool Clocks”, and when I saw the Bulbdial clock, I knew I just had to write about it under that category.

As you can see, the Bulbidal is an electric clock that thinks it is a sundial. Instead of using the natural energy of the sun, it uses miniature streetlights that spin around the post. There is an hour hand, a minute hand, and a fast moving second hand. All these combine to give you a time that is a lot more accurate than your everyday sundial.

This design was created by a DIY creator/blogger David on Ironic Sans. He says that it can be used horizontally, like on a table, or vertically on a wall. The biggest irony is that the Bulbdial clock won’t work in the sun, because the sunlight will outshine the electric lights.

I don’t know about you, but I can think of some other uses for this device, other than a clock. For example, a player for old school LPs. I mean, look at it, it has a post right in the center. Make it spin and give it an arm with a needle, and you’ll be playing all your pre-80’s hits.

I can also think of another unconventional use: a cat toy. Any cat owner who dares to place this on a table will find that their tabby will be mesmerized and will undoubtedly be pawing the little lights like a catnip mouse.

No word if this one is becoming a reality, but I personally think it is quite aesthetically pleasing.

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Hot Bear
OK, it's not a cutting edge gadget, but this bear is simply irresistible.

You can have this for ?9.95

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One little fact about Solid State Drives (SSDs) is often overlooked. There’s no speed penalty for size. While a 2.5″ laptop hard drive typically spins at just 5,400 rpm compared to 7,200 rpm for a bigger 3.5″ desktop unit, there is no such compromise for solid state memory. The only limitation is how many chips you can squeeze into the box.

Which is why we expect the World’s Smallest claims to come thick and fast in the near future, starting with this 256GB SSD from OEM supplier Super Talent . The FSD56GC25H (try pronouncing that) is just 12.5mm (0.5″) thick and has, according to Super Talent, also been ruggedized. Prices will depend on how much resellers decide to charge, but with new SSDs popping up seemingly every day now, it can’t be long before these are standard kit and cheap, too.

Super Talent Announces “World’s Thinnest” 256GB SSD [Gear Log]

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Flickrer George has posted details of a clever project, wherein he turns an ordinary 32oz styrofoam cup into a ring flash. It’s as ingenious as it is simple: The large end of the cup is cut off and flipped, then re-glued to form a collector for the camera’s built-in flash.

It’s designed to be used for macro photography: there’s too much light-spill for regular shots, but the results when combined with an add-on Raynox close-up adapter are stunning in themselves, before you even consider the simplicity of this hack. Check ‘em out.

CCRRFD-RNX Magnum - “How To Make It” [Flickr via Make]

Picture: [George/Flickr]

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This funky map shows the best 3G and voice network around the country according to Neilson survey.  Where does your major metro area rank?  You’d think the big cities would at least be in the top five right?  Nope.

Indeed, it seems the bulk of city dwellers in the nations largest cities suffer with subpar speed and access.  Florida is looking pretty good for phone service while good data is spread out.  Anyone planning on using this data to plan your next move?

Cities with top ten voice networks averaged a 99.2% successful call rate; on average, 0.3% of all calls in these cities were dropped. Among the cities with top ranked 3G data networks, the average download speed for a 4 megabyte (MB) file was 727 kbps—an increase of more than 100 kbps over the top market average measured during the second half of 2006. Nielsen defines a “successful call” as one established and maintained for at least two minutes.

Read: [gigaom]

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AT&T’s new mobile TV service won’t just get new phones on the next update to its handset lineup, but possibly new Panasonic cellphones with low-voltage plasma technology under the hood as well. Details about this move were revealed by the consumer electronics product maker in a recent press conference, where it announced a few revamps to their telecom and HDTV divisions.

Mark Balsama, a Group Manager of the Communications Systems Division, says that these new cellphone plasma displays will “rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money.” For much less money, eh? But how come they can’t even do it with their Plasma TVs in the first place? Anyway, Panasonic seems really keen on putting this technology to work on cellphones, and claims that they’ve been working on this for about 10 years now. One piece of advice that I’d like to offer, is that they make these cellphone displays touchscreen-enabled. And then strike at deal with Apple. That ought to help them “revolutionize the consumer electronics business.”

Via [PR Newswire]

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I am doing a bit of head scratching this morning.  CTIA has come and gone, as has CeBit and 3G.  In this post, I’ll go over the 3 phones that are hot on the tail of the iPhone.  But can any of them compare?

First, I think it is essential to boil down the obvious: the iPhone hype is about 3 things.
1. OS.  Fun.  Simple.  Easy.  We like pushing things around with our fingers.
2. Internet.  We do so much online, it is natural to do that everywhere.  The big screen is a huge plus.
3. Sexy.  What makes sexy?  Not sure but Apple has it right now.

Knowing I am but a tech blogger and thus an idiot, let’s see how the phone makers have assessed the competition and how they plan to beat it.

Sony Xperia. Our Editor and all-round good guy, Robert Nelson had this to quip,

Sony Ericsson has launched the XPERIA brand with the XPERIA X1 handset. The X1 has an impressive set of features. Just to start it’s running Windows Mobile 6 with a full slide-out arc-sliding QWERTY keyboard with 4-way key and optical joystick. The X1 along with the XPERIA lineup will be focusing on the growing need for mobile web communication and multimedia entertainment. The X1 features has a metal-finish body with a 3-inch wide VGA 800 x 480 touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, A2DP Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera with a microSD card slot for additional storage.

Samsung has been somewhat slow to get something to the US market.  Perhaps the Instinct will be the new standard bearer for Samsung.  Our David Gonzales has this report:

As you can see, the Samsung Instinct has a large, touch-sensitive display and it runs on a custom UI made by Samsung from the ground up taking data convergence into focus. It will also offer local haptic feedback, built-in GPS and Sprint TV. This is Samsung’s first direct strike at Apple’s iphone, as well as against a lot of other touchscreen-based devices that have been popping up lately. I’m sure Samsung hopes that the Instinct won’t stink but will it have what it takes to be a real iPhone killer when it’s finally released? We will see.

LG Vu
We’ve seen the Prada phone for over a year now and still nothing especially impressive on the US mainland from LG.  Can the Vu be it?  Our Robert Nelson has this to spec out for us:

The official specs for the LG Vu are in and it seems the recent speculation about two versions was correct. The Vu will be available as the CU920 with TV support and the CU915 without TV support. Both models will, of course, feature the large 3-inch WQVGA 262K color touchscreen.

Other features that are shared between both models is 3G support, a 2-megapixel camera and HTML web browser. The Vu has just 120MB of internal memory, but also has a microSD slot with support for up to 4GB of additional storage. The Vu measures in at 4.25 x 2.16 x 0.51-inches and weighs just 3.16-ounces. The included 1000mAh battery is stated to give up to 3-hours of talk time.

What amazes me a bit is the folks that got hands on with any of these units describe them as “wonky” “not ready” and “beta”.  Can anyone imagine Apple showing their phone in a less than pristine manner?  Maybe I am missing something, but putting the phone out there in a less than controlled manner just to get an impression seems risky.

So, let’s look at my criteria.  Up first OS:
Xperia:Windows 6.1.  ZZZ.  At least they had the sense to jazz it up a bit.  Perhaps they have found a way, like HTC to put a well thought out UI on the beast.
Instinct: I’ve seen this somewhere before…a copy of the iPhone OS.  It looks fast and the GPS is hot.  Customizable and 3 buttons to play with.  Interesting for sure.
Vu: Voyager OS.  Looks a bit cumbersome and I’ve not been super impressed with the Voyager.

Up next Internet:
Xperia: The new Internet Explorer is supposed to be much better, allowing iPhone-like panning and zooming at will.  Perhaps this will help the dinosaur.
Instinct: The web looks crowded in the hands on I’ve seen.  Perhaps you can customize these buttons that line both sides of the screen off.
Vu: :looks crowded again, two rows of buttons at the bottom.  The zoom function looks awkward at best.

And finally sex appeal:
Xperia: the slide out keypad will be the shiznit for some.
Instinct: good looking, still not iconic though
Vu: I am on the fence.  It really doesn’t look sexy to me, but I am not a Verizon man.

So, any of these want to make you stand outside in a line this summer to buy?  Let us know in the comments.

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