See, this is what we were saying. It's not that we're not excited about Maemo, or that we hate S60, or even that we dislike it when a company like Nokia builds a free messaging app that integrate social networks like Facebook (and now Twitter) into the handset experience. It's just that Nokia has just built an app that only works on the N97, N97 Mini and the 5800, leaving the company's quasi-flagship handset the N900 out in the cold. The new app can upload pictures and videos, integrates with email and the dialer, and pushes Facebook and Twitter updates live to the homescreen. It also serves as a all-too-timely example of how hard it is to support two operating systems at once. Alright, we're done preaching, time to fire up the N97 and tell some people about our day. A video demo is after the break.

Green lovers have been patiently waiting for the commercialized version of OLPC's pull-string laptop charger, but in the meantime Easy Energy's YoGen should tide yank-happy hands over. Pulling the charger's lawnmower-style ripcord generates enough power through its patented alternator technology to charge up phones, iPods and a slew of other handheld gadgets. According to YoGen charging time is similar to that of standard AC adapters and gadgets can be brought back to life with just a few pulls -- as can be seen in the incredibly realistic videos below where YoGens magically appear to save the day, jump start an iPhone and help a man lie to his wife. Formal launch is due at CES, but those that can't wait to strengthen their hand muscles can preorder one now on YoGen's website for 40 bucks.

Even though Motorola's only officially announced a small handful of devices that run Android so far, this much is clear -- the company was dead serious about going all-in on the platform because we're seeing new leaked hardware practically every time we look. This time around, it's a clearer view of the Zeppelin, which turns out to be coming to market on China Telecom as the XT800. It looks like it could be a sharp-looking handset, borrowing design elements of the Instinct HD and featuring both GSM and CDMA radios for compliance with Telecom's up-and-coming 3G network. What makes this juicier, though, is the fact that QQ.com alternately identifies the Zeppelin as the Titanium, a device we'd just seen in the FCC with EV-DO Rev. A last week. That leads us to believe we could see this bad boy on Sprint or Verizon in the near future -- and with an HDMI output in this thing, 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for high-end Android gear.

[Thanks, Vitala]

You know 3D has a long way to go when even Jerry Jones can't manage to sell it for longer than seven minutes: the vaunted real-time 3D scoreboard display experiment at last night's Cowboys game was turned off to loud cheers after just six minutes and fifty seconds of being active. The problem, as usual, was glasses: most of the 80,000 people in attendance didn't bother to put on the headgear required to see the 3D effect, and instead saw a blurry anaglyph image -- which they then booed. What's more, some who wore the glasses complained that the 3D effect caused nausea, although probably not as badly as the Cowboys' 17-20 loss to the Chargers. HDlogix actually has the tech to do glasses-free 3D, but it simply doesn't work when scaled up for the world's largest HD monitor -- a problem they'll have plenty of time to solve when the Cowboys fail to make the playoffs with another couple December losses.

In case you weren't aware, Synaptics dabbled in the touchscreen handset game way back in 2006 with the Onyx concept, before phones like the LG Prada and Apple's iPhone came along and proved the idea so convincingly. However, Synaptics thinks innovation has stagnated since, and has girded itself once again to attempt another trend-setting concept. This one's a bit more wild: the "Fuse" involves contributions from Alloy, TAT, Immersion and Texas Instruments, and includes squeeze, tilt and haptic interaction. The big idea is to approach single-handed and no-look operation on a touchscreen handset, no small feat to be sure. The result is a pure kitchen sink of sensors, including a touchpad on the back of the phone, touch and pressure sensitive strips along both sides of the phones, dual haptic feedback motors, a 3-axis accelerometer and of course a new-generation Synaptics touchscreen in front. The TI OMAP 3630 processor powers the TAT Cascades 3D UI Engine which attempts to contextualize UI interaction with perspective tilts and fancy motion, and the haptics feeds back to let you know where your finger is on the screen -- an attempt to emulate feeling out the correct nub for keypad orientation on a button phone. We'll have to play with it to find out if Synaptics is really on to something, but even if the Fuse isn't the next best thing, we could certainly see somebody using some of these sensors to improve existing handset interaction. Check out a quick video after the break.

Look, we're not ones to knock specs for specs' sake, and 1080p output is certainly impressive for a $177.45 Chinese import PMP, but after seeing RAmos churn its way through some Android with the W7, it's hard to get fired up for this new T11TE monster. But back to the specs: there's a 5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, 16GB of built-in memory, microSD expansion and codec support galore. Mix in the fact that the whole player is less than half an inch thick, and even packs in dual 3.5mm headphone jacks, and we really have no excuse to be Negative Nancys, but we suppose we're just a little OS-spoiled these days. It's not you, RAmos, it's us. We've changed.

Hey, kids. We got your attention? Good. Remember those pink and blue Wii controllers that were quietly launched in the Land of the Rising Sun back in October? Yeah, well it seems that both of those gems are coming to the United States, but it'll be well after Christmas before you can get your hands on either (without a good importer, anyway). Starting on February 14, 2010, the blue and pink Wiimote will be on sale on US soil, and both devices will come bundled with Wii MotionPlus dongles. There's no word yet on pricing, but we're guessing a small premium is in order for those badly in need of some hue variation.

JVC's never been much on using wires to hook up its home theater systems, and for those not looking for mind-blowing 7.1 surround, these soon-available wireless soundbar setups might just satisfy your aural cravings without forcing you to run ungodly lengths of cabling around your den. The TS-BA3 ($549.95) is a dual wireless soundbar system that consists of a 280-watt amplifier, 5.1-channel surround rig (including a soundbar, wireless subwoofer and wireless rear speaker kit) and built-in surround decoding. You'll also find a single analog input, two optical digital inputs and support for Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby ProLogic II surround signals. The TH-BS7 ($599.95) is engineered to mount alongside flat-panel HDTVs, with a 1.4-inch tall, ultrathin soundbar, an even slimmer wall-mountable amplifier / control unit and a wireless subwoofer. This one's packing 180-watts of teeth-rattling oomph and promises 4.1 sound with minimal consumption of floor space. Hop on past the break for the full release and detailed specifications.

UMID may have jumped the gun a bit when it let the world know that its M2 was already in development months before the M1 had even hit retail. Other than a glimpse at IDF we haven't seen much from the thing, but Onkyo seems to have grabbed the rights to create its own, called the BX. It definitely shares the same design as the M2, but its 1.2GHz Atom Z515 processor is 400MHz down on what the M2 is expected (or at least hoped) to ship with. There's 512MB of memory on tap, a 32GB SSD, and a 4.8-inch 1024 x 600 LCD upon which Windows XP is lovingly applied. Impressive specs, but at an impressive price -- ¥64,800, or about $730. We'll keep our netbooks, thanks.

We weren't waiting on too many more details surrounding Seagate's 7mm thin laptop hard drive, but one critical tidbit has just now been unearthed by the outfit itself. The Momentus Thin will make its official unveiling at CES here in just a few weeks, where it'll be available in 160GB and 250GB capacities and with 8MB of cache, a 5400RPM spin speed and a SATA 3Gbps interface. We're also told that it'll be far less expensive than similarly sized 1.8-inch HDD options, which means this bugger could soon be planted into Atom D410 / D510-based netbooks. The drive is slated to ship to OEM and integrator partners next month, though specific price points have yet to be mentioned. Have a peek at the first press shots below.

It's not every day we get to cite an official US Department of Justice news release, so it's with a certain glee that we can announce the US taxpayer was last week enriched by another $220 million courtesy of the not-so-fine folks who swindled him out of that money in the first place. Joining the ignominious ranks of LG, Sharp, Hitachi and Chungwa Picture Tube, Taiwanese manufacturer Chi Mei is refunding the US state for the pecuniary impact of its collusive practices, which were primarily related to keeping prices artificially high and profits proportionately inflated. US companies directly affected by these ignoble activities include HP, Dell and Apple, but don't you worry, AT&T has already started the inter-corporation scuffle, with Nokia piling on for good measure. Man, it almost seems like crime doesn't pay.