No need to defog your spectacles, what you just read there in the headline is the truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola's nearly archaic (in cellphone years, anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling handset in the United States. Of course, it helps that it's highly subsidized on practically every carrier from coast to coast, but we're still a little stunned that it's selling this well nearly 2.5 years after Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest of the top five isn't nearly as shocking, with Apple's iPhone snagging the silver, RIM's BlackBerry Curve grabbing the bronze, LG's Chocolate at number four and the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the original RAZR still selling so well, one would think Motorola could just tweak it slightly and issue a second iteration for even more windfall profits. Er, wait.

If there's one thing that could put a stop to terrorism once and for all, it's this DAP. Nothing strikes fear into the heart of an anti-American jihadist like this hideous MP3 player loaded up with Deerhoof b-sides and the entire Duran Duran back-catalog. The next time you snake under barbed wire and behind enemy lines, let them know where you're coming from by flashing this baby before you unload round after round of righteousness. Sure, it's only got 1GB of storage, but it's not about how many tracks you've got -- it's about showing off your American spirit with this Chinese-made product.

[Via anythingbutipod]

It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).

[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]

Don't feel bad if the iAudio U5 hasn't creeped into your mind since it "debuted" at IFA last September -- it's not like Cowon's doled out any sort of marketing blitz to keep us intrigued. Nevertheless, this somewhat stylish little DAP is apparently making its way to the US of A for those who like to avoid the me-too crowd. Specs wise, you'll find a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution LCD, up to a full day of battery life, 4GB / 8GB of internal memory, MP3 / WMA / WAV playback, a built-in FM radio and voice recorder, user adjustable five-band EQ and USB connectivity. Good enough for you? Cough up $149.99 / $109.99 to snag one in 8GB or 4GB, respectively.

We already learned that some 28-percent of US households were rocking at least one HDTV back in March, but now the Consumer Electronics Association has come forward with new figures showing that over half of American abodes are home to a digital television. According to revamped CEA projections, around 32 million DTV units will ship out next year, with 79-percent of those being HD sets. 'Course, the downside of this is that a good chunk of America still isn't prepared for the DTV cutover in 2009, but thanks to all the advertising that will likely be taking place over the next year and change, we'd say they've got plenty of time to get on board.

We're not exactly sure how much we trust i-SOBOT's MySpace page, but if you're a believer, this creature will be headed to America real soon. Interestingly, it purports that the primary reason for making the leap to the US is to "study our culture," which is likely a suave way of suggesting that its totally scoping out our defenses as the clan back home develops a sufficient takeover strategy. Nevertheless, word on the street has this bad boy landing stateside before Christmas for $300 - $350, so there's still a few months left to prepare for the seemingly inevitable invasion.

[Via Gearlog]

Yeah, we know our overseas brethren have been toying with their 8GB clix 2 DAPs for awhile now, but as these things usually go, we Americans are celebrating late. Nevertheless, the US iriver store is now offering up the 8GB clix 2 for purchase, and it still touts that lovable 2.2-inch AMOLED display, an FM tuner, integrated voice recorder, up to 24-hours of battery life, and USB 2.0 connectivity. All yours for $239.99.

An unnamed Chinese company has expressed interest in purchasing an American Hard Disk Drive manufacturer, which has predictably sparked the interest of the American Government ever paranoid about technology "security." Mr. Bill "Seagate is for porn" Watkins disclosed this overture from an unnamed company, eloquently stating that "The U.S. government is freaking out" whilst saying that Seagate was not the target company -- although apparently the company would find it hard to refuse a generous offer from a Chinese company. In the end though the whole mini-ruckus seems much ado about nothing: the New York Times seems to think that the Chinese will only go through with a bid if it doesn't ruffle the feathers in Washington, and one can only imagine the resulting "ruffling" if this high tech purchase rumor transitioned from mere conjecture to the realms of possibility. And all this over something as seemingly trivial as storage.

Good news for those of you in Taiwan (and America, too) who can't wait to get acquainted with HTC's Touch, as its creator has reportedly announced that it will be deployed shortly in its "home base," with an American launch to go down before the dawn of 2008. Peter Chou, chief executive officer at HTC, has purportedly stated that it would "only be fitting if the first country in Asia to sell the Touch was Taiwan," and also noted that Chunghwa Telecom would be its "exclusive partner in distributing and retailing the handset" in that country. On the home front, all we know is that the Touch should indeed be found on American shelves before the year's end, but here's to hoping it's closer to today than December 31st.

Read - HTC launch in Taiwan
Read - HTC launch in USA

The 1,000 hand-painted model rockets that Austin-area Cub Scout Pack 990 and Boy Scout Troop 990 are aiming to launch some 500 to 1,000-feet in the sky today aren't as technically sophisticated as some we've seen, but raising over $8,000 in an attempt to obliterate the current record of 399 is something to salute. Rather than pocketing the funds and heading off to Philmont or using this fine weekend to complete that 50-miler via canoe, these two crews have their sights set on deploying a full thousand rockets (shown again after the jump) within five seconds of each other in order to firmly establish a new world record. Interestingly enough, the event has drawn such buzz around the area that Congressman Michael McCaul and Austin City Council Member Lee Leffingwell will actually be speaking at the venue before watching the fireworks -- and if any of you just happen to be in the area with a few extra frames left on your digicam, grab a few shots, will ya? Oh, and we recognize that true Scouts already know the motto, but considering the pyrotechnics you're playing with on this one, we're really stressing that "be prepared" bit.

If you've yearned for an Asian-based GPS, but didn't feel like worrying over those annoying import duties or changing out the maps, Space Machine apparently feels your pain. Contrary to its title, this device actually doesn't include the marked highways on Jupiter and Mars, but it does manage to include NAVTEQ maps of North America in case you're traveling there, and also features a 3.5-inch QVGA touchscreen, integrated MP3 player, automatic re-routing, turn-by-turn voice guidance, SiRF Star III GPS receiver, 256MB SD card, car mounting kit, headphone jack, and a carrying case to boot. While most rebadgers actually take the time to slap their own logo on there, the GPS-306 apparently still rocks the Holux GPSsmile 51 motif, right down the "Holux" branding atop the screen. Nevertheless, we do appreciate the effort of importing the unit for us, and those attracted to the name more than its functionality can pick one up now for $399.95.

Since good things come to those who wait (or pre-order, sometimes), we're thrilled to see our patience has paid off while waiting for Epson's EMP-TW1000 to head stateside. As predicted, the svelte new projector rocks the PowerLite moniker, while maintaining the bevy of impressive specs and curvaceous design. Beneath the hood of the PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080 is Epson's own C2 Fine 1080p 3LCD chips, OptiCinema optics, E-TORL lamp, an AccuCinema lens, and "Absolute Black Technology" which provides a 12,000:1 contrast ratio. While you won't be able to grab this US-bound beauty until January 2007, you can use all this extra time to start pinching those pennies, as this bad boy will run you $4,999 when it finally lands.

No need to stop when you're on a roll, right? We've seen the 3.0 firmware hit the wild, heard rumblings about a future television streaming service, and still know that the not-so-universal UMD format was dead from day one. In a presumed attempt to hit Nintendo (or more specifically, the DS Lite), where it hurts most, Sony is intelligently pushing the non-gaming aspects of its portable system by announcing the forthcoming availability of PSP Spot download stations. While our pals in Japan and Europe have been enjoying these services for the past few months, Sony is getting ready to toss wireless streaming displays into Circuit City, GameStop, Target, and Toys 'R Us locations to deliver "game demos, movie trailers, music clips, mini-strategy guides, wallpapers, and more" onto needy PSP memory sticks. While we don't have any hard dates in which to expect such kiosks to land on showroom floors (or overcrowded electronics departments), we do know that they'll start trickling into North America "beginning this month," and should top out at around "6,000 units" by January.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

While it probably won't matter much once we're pitting one robot army against another, it appears that the US Air Force is looking into new "subterranean vehicles" that could be used to navigate to underground bombs, traps, or nuclear pods and defuse the situation from beneath. Although we figured the USAF would focus the majority of its attention somewhere above the Earth's surface, the newfangled moles would be deployed a safe distance from the target and "autonomously navigate itself to the target" while cleverly avoiding buried obstacles on its route. While larger digging machines can certainly accomplish the same task, the catch here is that the life-saving worm must not exceed "12 inches" in length and be able to run off of minimal battery power. Similar to other "teams" of robotic creatures feeding off one another to accomplish complex goals, the Air Force envisions swarms of these diggers penetrating and neutralizing potential hotbeds for underground explosives, all without sacrificing human lives. Now if we only had one of these bad boys to sneak up into Best Buy's PS3 holding closet last night, we'd have a winner.

[Via Defense Tech]

Although RCA's been noticed most recently for its Lrya portable media players, the company is reportedly aiming to release a travel-friendly TV tuner in non-dongle form. Breaking the USB-stick mold, the tabletop MPC4000 tuner will pull in HD OTA broadcasts as well as standard definition signals, and even boasts an optional clip-on antenna for those out-of-the-way hotel stops. Weighing just two ounces, the device shouldn't be too burdensome in your trusty knapsack, and the USB 2.0 connector allows it to play nice on any notebook or PC (sorry, Mac brethren). The included software will supposedly enable an on-screen channel guide, as well as turning your hard drive into a virtual PVR. The MPC4000 is slated to hit stores in April of next year for a slightly above average $199, but if you need to get your portable TV tuning on in the meantime, there's plenty of other options in the wild.

[Via PVRWire]