Filed under: Cell Phones, iPhoneDo you have $20,000 burning a hole in your pocket? If so, we have about 20,000 other things for you to spend it on -- but if you want number 19,999, pay attention. Case-mate's ingeniously named "Diamond Case" is made with 42 nuggets of bling, totaling 3.5 carats, and is embedded in 18k gold. Apparently, they gave one away at Macworld. Think of it as the iPhone case for the rest of us. From CNETRelated links:iPhone Gets its First Virus The World's Most Expensive Tech Toys  Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: ComputersA Hungarian scientist has developed computer software that interprets the barks of a certain breed of Hungarian dog. This is exciting news, especially for so many dog owners who are convinced their pets are saying intricate and purposeful things whenever they bark. Turns out, they may be right.The software analyzes distinct barks that indicate the emotional state of the Hungarian Mudi herding breed in six situations: when the dog is alone, when it sees a ball, when it fights, when it plays, when it encounters a stranger or when it goes for a walk.Not quite a full range vocabulary but it's a start. Down the road, he and colleagues expect the software to be applicable in consumer products to allow easy human-dog dialog.For now, though, the software was only three percent better than humans at correctly determining which of the six scenarios was in play while one of the dogs barked, so it may be a while before you can find out specifically what your canine pal really thinks of the new chew toy you got him. But wait. We seem to remember a little toy from a few years ago called the Bow-lingual. A little digging confirms this device from Japan's Takara company, which was clearly marketed as a toy, claimed to interpret dog barks and relay statements like, "I'm feeling great!" or "Come on, play with me!" Interestingly enough, the toy maker also determined there were six distinct vocal patterns do be identified within dogs' barks and took into account the differences between the barks of 50 breeds. Impressive. To our disappointment, the official Bow-lingual Web site is no longer active. (But back in 2003, the folks at ExtremeTech took a close look at the toy.) And cat lovers, don't feel left out -- there was also a Meow-lingual.As for the Hungarian scientist, he says there is work to be done and improvements to be made to his software. The first thing we want him to do is develop a program that automatically helps us understand his Hungarian accent so we can figure out what else he's been saying.From Reuters. Related links: Gadget Silences Noisy Neighborhood DogsThe Dog That Speaks French, Sort Of...PetCell, the Mobile Phone for Dogs Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Audio/Video, Computers, Video Games, Interviews, Celebrities, iPod, iPhone, Switched Video, Cell Phones, Laptops, Handheld Devices, Cellphone, CES 2008 Last week in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was forced to share the stage with another major exhibition of consumer products, bigwigs and dealmakers. At the Sands Expo convention center, the annual Adult Video News (AVN) Adult Entertainment Expo -- a trade show in its tenth year showcasing adult talent and exhibitors -- was also in full swing. Since the event attracts over 30,000 international buyers and fans of adult entertainment, it seemed like the perfect place for at least some of the Switched team to interview the top female stars in adult entertainment about -- what else -- the role of gadgets, gizmos and technology in their busy off-set lives. We had seven different stars answer our Switched Questionnaire and you'll want to know what they had to say. We also sent out a separate videographer to film gadget-related interviews with 22 other adult stars, the results of which are highlighted in the above exclusive Switched video. To find out more, watch the video. Then, for even more saucy gadget talk, take a look at the interviews we've got lined up in the following pages. And if words or video simply aren't doing the trick, we've also got a stunning gallery waiting for you at the end.(Video and posts are safe for work, but some content may not be appropriate for younger viewers.)Next >> Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Computers, LaptopsMacworld 2008 is well underway. The biggest news, about Apple's super-slim new MacBook Air notebook and iTunes movie rentals, has come and gone, but not this post about some fanboys who waited in line to see Steve Jobs make his announcements.Five "excited" looking dudes had their undies in an uproar since 12 noon on Monday, first in the general admission line for yesterday's Stevenote. For those without calculators in their front pockets, that's a full 21 hours before the keynote began. And for those without superegos, that's a really long time to wait for a product intro.Related Links:Movie Rentals Hit iTunes (Plus, a New Apple TV)Apple Announces New MacBook Air, World's Thinnest LaptopMo Rocca Invades the iPhone Line Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Audio/Video, Columns, TV, CES 2008Now that everyone has declared BluRay the winner in the high-def war, what with Warner's announcement and Sony finally allowing adult films to be published on the format, I think it's important to take a look at HD-DVD's long walk back to the locker room after a game well-played.It would be a mistake to say that HD-DVD will cease to exist tomorrow. In fact, expect to see just the opposite of that. HD-DVD continue on as an underground favorite format, much like Betamax did in the 70s and laser discs did in the 90s. Remember laser discs, the giant optical discs that came before DVD, the stuff of early home theater buffs who could tell you a thing or two about digital mastering way beforehalf of Hollywood was even Bar Mitzvah'd? No? How about beta, the superior tape format that Sony wanted you to buy instead of VHS?I originally thought HD-DVD was completely done for before the Consumer Electronics Show. Warner's Blu-Ray-exclusive announcement and the HD-DVD group's decision to back out of their keynote made it sound like they would go away with a whimper. On the final day of the conference, however, I took one last walk by the HD-DVD booth just to see what was up. After all, I'm a sucker for a good heartbreak story. "So I looked on bestbuy.com this morning," began the booth attendant, speaking to three half-asleep attendees who, by my estimation, were there more for the chair rest than the presentation. "You can now buy an HD-DVD drive for $179. That also comes with ten free discs. Ten free discs! That easily makes HD-DVD the best deal in high definition."The guy had a point. Think about it -- for $179, you can get a high-end HD-DVD player that will also upscale your regular DVDs to high-definition resolution. It will also play your Super-Audio CDs. You also get ten free HD-DVD discs. Go try to buy ten new regular-definition DVDs for $179 -- I dare you. That evening I was ordering an HD-DVD drive from bestbuy.com. Call me a vulture if you will, but I'll be enjoying this winter in high-def heaven. Heck - I might even cancel my Netflix account for a few months and save another $50 or so.That closing value on the HD-DVD format really is hard to beat. Even if another HD-DVD title never comes out, the closing cost of the format -- along with its hardware -- is easily worth the cost to anyone with a high-definition television. Is it an investment for the far future? Not so much, but most of us who already have home theaters and high-definition televisions aren't exactly known for our electronics long-term investment acumen -- we'll all have new TVs, receivers, and speakers in a few years anyway. Anyway, with Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals and NetFlix opening up the "View It Now" service to unlimited views, disc-based movies' days are numbered.Enjoy the fire sale. I know I will.Related Links:High-Def Adult Movies Coming to Blu-ray It's Finally Time to Pick Blu-ray Over HD-DVD Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: ComputersBest Buy's Geek Squad isn't exactly known for respecting people's property. This time, however, instead of us catching them, they caught a guy with child porn. A middle school custodian sent in a hard drive back in August of 2007 to recover lost data. Upon performing their usual search (and invasion of personal privacy), the Geek Squadders at a Twin Cities location found over 800 images of young girls between the ages of 7 and 15 in various states of undress and performing sexual acts. The Geek Squad promptly turned the evidence over to the police. The police eventually obtained a search warrant and -- upon execution -- found more evidence in the janitor's home. While we would like to say that this guy is sick and deserves whatever punishment he gets, we are disturbed by the conduct of Geek Squad employees who seem to make it a habit of going through customer data. Whether or not the data is illegal and leads to arrest, warrantless searches by non-law-enforcement personnel is disturbing on an ethical level and we're pretty sure unconstitutional.From ConsumeristRelated links:Best Buy Employee Caught Perving OutBest Buy Sued for Being ScummyBest Buy Perv Videotapes Customer Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: ComputersWondering how yesterday's MacBook Air got so thin? Some, of course, think it was just the result of decades of research by Apple techies. We think we have a better explanation, though: alien technology. Don't believe us? According to the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, several witnesses say they spotted something mysterious in the air over Texas last night. Said unidentified flying object (UFO) was traveling at an estimated 3,000 miles per hour while being chased by military jets!One of the witnesses, a pilot named Steve Allen, indicated that the alleged craft was difficult to see, but based on the lights that appeared to be on the edges of the thing, Allen estimated it to be about one mile long and a half-mile wide. The lights went from corner to corner. It was directly above Highway 67 traveling towards Stephenville at a high rate of speed - about 3,000 miles per hour is what I would estimate.No mention of how thin this thing was, but it would have had to have been a large craft to be sure, and a fast one, something we certainly don't have in our military -- at least not that we're aware of anyhow. No comment from Apple, for whatever that's worth.From Stephenville Empire-Tribune (via BoingBoing)Related Links: Apple Announces New MacBook Air, World's Thinnest Laptop Wired Celebrates 60 Years of Flying Saucers UFO Terrorizes Flickr Photo Site  Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Cell Phones, AdviceWe here at Switched, like most people, just really don't like cell phone contracts much. Sure, they let you get cheap(er) phones because the providers are willing to take a little cut on profits up front with the expectation of making more through fees in the long-run. However, they still rub us the wrong way. We love it, then, when someone's able to escape their contract, and that's the gift Verizon has sent to its subscribers with plans that don't include bundled text messaging.Verizon recently raised its per-message charge from 15 cents up to 20 cents, modifying the terms that many current subscribers agreed to when they begrudgingly signed that two-year contract. That change means you now have a way to avoid a hefty cancellation fee, but you can't just up and stop paying your bill; that would be too easy. Last week a helpful member at the SlickDeals.net forum posted a detailed walkthrough on how you can get out of your contract, and many are reporting success. It's not a difficult thing if you're so inclined, certainly easier than the tactics others have tried to achieve the same. You basically just need to speak to a representative and read them a few lines of text. After a few callbacks you should get permission to drop out of your plan if you are so inclined with no strings attached. The catch is you only have 60 days from the change to cancel your plan, so you'd better get your mobiles in gear.The Consumerist and SlickDeals.netRelated Links: Verizon Customer Fakes Death to End Contract How to Break Your Cell Phone Contract New T-Mobile Katalyst Handles Wi-Fi and VoIP  Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: ComputersAll the rumor-mongers were right: Apple announced the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest laptop. This beauty comes in at a ridiculous .16 inches thin -- so thin that it fits in a manila envelope. It features a full-size keyboard, so there are no compromises as far as usability goes. It also has a 13.3-inch display, built-in iSight camera, and a new, larger trackpad which does all the cool iPhone-like things like zooming, pinching, and scrolling. It has an 80-gig drive built in unless you want to upgrade to a 64-gig solid-state (no moving parts) drive.Do we want one? Heck yes. It starts at $1799 and ships in 2-3 weeks. Go get 'em!%Gallery-13916%Also from Apple Today:Software Updates for iPhone and iPod TouchMovie Rentals Hit iTunes (in HD, too)Apple's New TimeCapsule Wireless Backup Hard Drive / Wireless Router Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Computers, Google, iPhoneAs part of a Macworld makeover - coinciding with the annual Mac love-fest in San Francisco where the biggest Apple announcements are made - Google today announced a revamped Gmail application for use on iPhones.According to Google, the upgrades were in response to user-requested features, notably pre-fetching (where email is downloaded automatically) and auto-complete (where words and addresses are finished with suggested letters as you type), and implemented with the AJAX web development tools.AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Basically, web applications developed with AJAX are able to perform lots of tasks behind the scenes and without requiring the user to reload the whole web page each time a new command or request is made. This makes the applications, especially for mobile devices like the iPhone, much more responsive and less data-intensive. (For the truly techy among you, click here to learn more.)With address auto complete, Google claims most email addresses can be completed within two or three keystrokes. With the preload feature, your most recent messages will already be loaded into your device, meaning no more long waits for the text to be revealed. Both are features that make us happy. After all, we're already accustomed to such functionality on our Blackberrys and our Palm Treos.From Official Gmail Blog.Related links:Google Releases iPhone-Friendly Versions of Its Pages and ServicesGmail Gets Major UpgradeNew Google Maps Mobile Finds Your Location Without GPS  Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Computers, Video Games, TVPBS just opened up its new online service aimed at children called 'PBS Kids Play!' The activities are aimed at children ages 3-6 and is currently available for a free trial as part of the beta test. When the trial ends, parents will be asked to cough up $79 for the year, or $9.95 a month.Currently the application only officially supports Windows XP, or Vista. A web version of the edu-tainment games are available to users of Mac OS X and Linux, but let's just say it's still a little buggy. Kids play games with characters from various PBS shows such as 'Curious George,' 'The Berenstain Bears,' 'Bob the Builder,' and even 'Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.'PBS Kids Play! is not a social networking service. There is no interaction between children or with children, so safety shouldn't be a concern. Parents can however sign in and check a child's progress in the educational activities or set time limits on play. At $79 a year, the subscription is a bit on the pricey side. But PBS Kids Play! is definitely more useful than that tote bag PBS is always pushing.From ReutersRelated links:Kids Spend Too Much Time Online, Says ParentsComputer Training for TotsVideo Game Teaches Healthy Eating, Discourages Slothfulness Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Cell Phones, iPod, iPhoneAs if the plethora of other announcements out of the boys in Cupertino weren't enough today, Apple is also unleashing a software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As we mentioned in December, the iPhone update to 1.1.3 adds a whole host of new features, including an update to the Google Maps app with location, which pinpoints your... well, location, using cell phone tower triangulation. The update also allows the customization of the home screen, and gives you up to 9 home screens to customize. Add web clips (glorified home screen bookmarks), text message several people at once (finally!), and now your iPod media will have subtitles, chapters, and lyrics.The iPod touch picks up all the same feature s (minus the SMS and Location), and finally gets Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather just like the iPhone. The downside? The iPod touch update will cost $20, which is pretty surprising to us. The update will be installed on all iPod Touches shipping from this point on so we're kind of confused as to why Apple would charge for the update. Our advice -- wait it out. The complaints are bound to pile up until Apple changes course, just like with the Airport Extreme N update, or iPhone price drop.From EngadgetRelated links:New MacBook Air, World's Thinnest LaptopApple's New Time Capsule Wireless Hard DriveMovie Rentals Hit iTunes (Plus a New Apple TV) Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Computers, MySpaceOn the same day MySpace and the attorneys general for 49 states announced an agreement that will allow parents to have their kids' email addresses blocked from the social networking site we get this tragic story out of Florida:A Tampa man met two girls, aged 14 and 12, through MySpace and met up with them to have sex. After the 14-year-old confided in her parents about what happened, the police nabbed the pervert after he attempted a second meeting with the younger girl.Turn your irony sensors on now: When arrested he was wearing a shirt that read "Real Men of Genius." See the referenced story for the picture. And that's the long and short of the humor here. Irony sensors off now. Thank you.Nothing is funny about a predator skulking around MySpace looking for victims. It will be interesting to see how many parents take advantage of the new offering by the social networking site to let them block their children from signing up. Granted, this relies on the parents submitting their kids' email addresses in order to have them blocked, which may not be enough considering how easy it is to set up a new free email account. But at least it is a start.What would you do to protect your kids from online predators? What do you do to protect yourself when you go online yourself?From Tampa Bay's 10 and The New York Times. Related links:Can Privacy Exist on the Internet?Stalker Alert -- 53 Percent of Adults Google OthersTeens Still Prefer Landline Phones, Says Study Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  Filed under: Audio/Video, Computers, TVWell, we all knew it was coming. The rumors have been circulating for so long that it's more been a matter of when rather than if. At today's MacWorld keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that he has finally struck a deal to put movie rentals on iTunes. Pretty much all the major movie studios --Touchstone, MGM, Miramax, Lions Gate, Fox, WB, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony -- have all signed on to provide rentals at $2.99 for older films and $3.99 for new releases. Like pretty much every other online movie service and Vudu, the iTunes movie rental service, which launches today, gives you 30 days to watch a chosen film, but after you hit play, you have just 24 hours to complete the movie before your rental expires. The files can be transfered to iPods and Apple TVs, though, so you can start watching the movie while it's still downloading your computer's iTunes, then copy it over to your iPod (or Apple TV) and finish watching it somewhere else later that day.Apple also unveiled Apple TV Take 2, which essentially amounts to a new interface for the Apple TV that makes it independent of a computer. The update lets you access the full iTunes store directly from your Apple TV and rent DVD-quality movies to watch on your TV (or buy music and audiobooks to listen to on your TV/home theater system). And, for just a dollar more, you can get HD quality video and 5.1 surround sound. The Apple TV will still sync to your PC or Mac, if you have one. The revamped Apple TVships in two weeks for $229. The best part is that current Apple TV users aren't left out in the cold. Jobs admitted that Apple hadn't exactly hit the nail on the head with the original Apple TV, and is offering the new UI and features as a free download to all current Apple TV users. For once, some of Apple's early adopters are getting taken care of!So, does this mean you should forget Blu-ray and just pick up a new Apple TV? Maybe, though we're going to reserve our final judgment until we find out whether the HD offered is highest-quality 1080p or not (as with Blu-ray) and if every one of the 1,000 or so films Apple is promising to have available by year's end is also available in HD.That said, we won't say don't rent movies from iTunes. We've got iPods just like everyone else, and we'd be dumb not to partake of this latest offering from Apple. We just want to see if Apple really has a decent selection of HD movies, since no one else -- other than the Blu-ray camp (and only recently) -- seems to have pulled this off.From EngadgetRelated links:Apple's New Time Capsule Wireless Hard DriveApple Announces New MacBook Air, World's Thinnest LaptopNetflix Preempts Apple with Unlimited Movie Downloads Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments