Listen up, KIRF fans. We've got a real unique one on our hands today, as this critter copies not one, but two entities in a single fell swoop. For starters, the company is named CNet Technology -- we'll let you do the math there -- and secondly, this thing looks just about exactly like Apple's own AirPort Express. Sure, there are a few extra LEDs on there to really ugly it up, but only someone in serious denial would ever say this thing didn't get its inspiration from Cupertino. Officially dubbed the CWR-635M, this portable router / WAP simply plugs into one's wall socket and provides a pair of Ethernet jacks and two USB ports locally for even more networking fun. There's no telling if this copycat will ever be released on US soil, but given that made it into the FCC's database, we reckon anything is possible.

According to CNET, Cingular [aka, the new AT&T] has "confirmed" June 11 as the release date for Apple's iPhone. Keep in mind that confirmation in this case is unofficial as it supposedly comes from a front-line sales support person. See, after a call to Cingular's customer service, CNET was transfered to sales where they were told of the magical date. Of course, all this makes perfect sense as the 11th also marks the kickoff of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference where Steve and Co are always keen to announce new wares.

[Thanks, Adam]

Everyone enjoys a good Xbox hack, but they're not so fun when the tables are turned and it's your Live account that's been commandeered by crooks -- who are supposedly draining your credit card while you're stuck on the sidelines with a duplicate, unusable Gamertag. While it's not surprising that hackers would hijack online accounts to snatch valuable personal info, the question being raised in forums and now in the media is how Microsoft has been dealing / plans to deal with these breaches. The company first admitted that "there have [recently] been reports of fraudulent activity and account theft taking place" on Live when contacted by CNET, and went on to say that it is "actively investigating all reports of fraudulent behavior and theft." However, Major Nelson is now reporting that Redmond has found "no evidence of any compromise of the security of the Xbox Live Network or Bungie.net," and is attributing all of the recent incidents to "malicious users...attempting to draw personal information from unsuspecting users." It's hard to imagine that the uptick in fraud revealed to CNET is due solely to an increase in gullible gamers, but unless Microsoft plans on tightening security, all you can really do is continue to exercise the usual precautions or cancel your account and get your MMO fix from Yahoo! Bingo.

[Via Joystiq]

The upcoming Slacker player from Broadband Instruments is never gonna win any fashion shows -- it's not ugly, per se, but that big ol' screen makes for a device the size of a late 90's PDA -- so we're more interested in hearing about the functionality than watching it strut its stuff in front of the cameras. Still, the innovative features and copious storage options mean that this chunkster is likely to make some waves in the market, so we're sure that those of you considering a purchase want to peep all the angles. With that in mind, Cnet's got a bunch of press shots of the satellite radio-playin', internet radio-streamin' DAP; hit up the Read link if you think you might be interested in getting your slack on sometime.

With Kati and the Kim children safely recovered from the Oregon wilderness, the search has been on since yesterday with renewed vigor to find James Kim, the missing and much-missed senior editor at CNET. He left his family Saturday in search of help, and has been missing since. Today apparently trackers found a pair of jeans in the vicinity of the search which are thought to belong to James. It's yet unknown whether these do belong to James, but if so it's puzzling why he would have dropped or shed these pants in the bitter-cold Oregon outback. Apparently James left equipped with a heavy jacket, sweater, and a couple of lighters, although nothing was mentioned about spare pants. More as we get it.

Update: Oregon officials in a press conference this afternoon have stated their search is continuing; aside from the article found earlier today, supposedly another article has been spotted, although not yet recovered. The search is primarily taking place right now in the Big Windy Creek drainage area, which is five miles long, and roughly five miles away from the car site.

As we understand it, the National Guard is enroute for more searching tonight. Due to the terrain officials are still having trouble getting into at least one particular search area. When asked why he dropped into the ditch: "I don't know, I'm looking forward to asking him that personally. ... We're operating under the assumption that he is alive, and won't stop until we find him."
"This is frustrating, we are so close."
"We are treating this search like we are looking for one of our own family members."
"If I run out of resources I'll call for more help. But we want to stay away from private citizens volunteering."

Just a brief update in case you haven't caught the latest: Crave reports that James and his family are driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with license plate "DOESF." The official missing person report can be found here. Officials investigating the case have narrowed their search to a stretch of Oregon's Highway 38, which is on the route that the family would most likely have taken to get to the Gold Beach motel where they had reservations.

We're tracking the situation at our post from yesterday, so that's the place to bookmark for now. We'll keep everybody updated as we learn more.

Also, our very sincerest thanks to all our readers -- many of whom obviously love CNET and James's work there -- for their support and compassion. We're all hopeful the Kim family will return safely soon.

We've received word that a respected member of our tech community, James Kim (whom many of you may know as CNET's senior editor of digital audio), and his family have gone missing. As we understand it, last weekend James, his wife Kati (above right), and his very young girls Penelope (left) and Sabine (baby), drove from their home in the SF Bay Area to Seattle. They were expected back some time Sunday, but were last seen by a hotel clerk at 5:45 PM on Saturday in or between Gold Beach or Portland, Oregon. We sincerely do hope they are all safe, and our hearts go out to the Kim family.

We'll have more information as we get it. If you have any information as to the Kim family's whereabouts, please contact the SFPD at 415-558-5508 during normal business hours, and 415-553-1071 after hours.

Update: Crave reports that James and his family are driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with license plate "DOESF." The official missing person report can be found here.

We've moved our updates after the break.

Environmentalists take heart, as LG Electronics is out doing some good in the world, and its forthcoming 52-inch HD plasma provides that widescreen beauty you adore with a sense of tree-luvin' satisfaction to boot. While we've seen gizmos encased in wood before (including Hannspree's own HDTV), this particular piece goes one step further by incorporating wood throughout the entire set. While rummaging through the secret lairs of LG in Seoul, CNET UK caught a glimpse of the mysterious set, and while they weren't allowed to film / photograph it, they rendered a look-alike and assured us that the "bezel was made of compressed wood (derived from renewable forests) and finished in white water-based paint." Of course, no piece of AV equipment would be complete without a hint of silver, so LG added an aluminum trim to go along with the "lead-free / low-lead internal components." While the company wouldn't lend any clues to its future release date nor pricing information, we were told that it would eventually be "commercially available," but similar components will probably be found in more peon-friendly models (like the LG LX70) before too long.

[Via CNET]

Since you can't take your iJoy ZipConnect chair everywhere you go, OSIM has a portable solution to your "musical therapy" needs. Boasting a stylish enclosure and a pair of massage modules, the iGoGo DAP performed its therapeutic magic surprisingly well -- once the kinks were worked out, that is. Reviewers at CNET were quick to praise the uniqueness of the device, but didn't hesitate to knock the "disappointing monochromatic interface, meager 128MB of internal storage," and the complete inability to play back any format besides MP3. While you can add a few more playlists via the MMC slot, they would've preferred a more expansion SD / CF option; furthermore, the player only mustered about 7 hours of battery life with massage mode in full effect. The crew noted that the "massagers suffered from frequent connection drops," but when things went smoothly, they provided a "truly blissful and relaxing massage experience." Still, for over $400 the iGoGo sports too many archaic features to be considered a true contender, and if relieving stress is your primary concern, you may be better off spending that coin in a day spa.

[Thanks, Ficky Rick]

Hours spent frolicking in fields, down at the local YMCA, or simply tossing a baseball back and forth with pops: these are just a few of the things that modern day children are growing less inclined to do, at least according to a hoard of seemingly-distinguished British authors, professors, and counselors. A letter published in today's The Daily Telegraph is encouraging the British government to take action in preventing the "death of childhood" (as it was so aptly phrased), citing concerns that video games, television, and basically anything that attaches to an AC outlet and provides entertainment is destroying the fabled childhood experience that is presumably oh-so-superior to the lives kids are currently leading. The letter apparently showed a desire for kids to have "real play" (as opposed to fake play?), and also expressed worry that the media was warping the brains of youngsters and encouraging them to act like "mini-adults." Regardless of whether or not the "indoor generation" will miss out on the days when TV was a pipe dream and duck-duck-goose made for a thrilling Saturday, we can't envision the government actually declaring a little late-night fragging illegal -- but hey, what do we know? Maybe the kids aren't alright, after all.

[Via Slashdot]

As far as rumors go, this one is about as thin on the deets as they come, but Cnet Asia is reporting that Sony Ericsson senior VP of Product and Application Planning, Rikko Sakaguchi, actually alluded to plans for a game-playing phone at a recent press event in Sweden. During what was presumably the Q&A portion of a media conference in honor of the merged company's fifth anniversary, Sakaguchi reportedly answered a question about a theoretical PSP phone (most decidedly NOT pictured above) by saying simply that Sony Ericsson "is working on something," but that "the surprise must be kept for the future." Yeah, we know, not too much meat here -- Sakaguchi did mention that the objective was to integrate gaming and communications functions, not to create a dedicated gaming device (whatever that means) -- however, after the relative success of its Walkman and Cybershot lineup of handsets, it certainly makes sense for the company to leverage the PlayStation brand in this market as well. Sony Ericsson would be wise, though, to learn from Nokia's experience with the N-Gage, which is that, well, people don't like the N-Gage. So, here's to hoping that the Ericsson side of the equation can knock some sense into the Sony side of the equation, or else we may end up with a bulky, side-talkin' handset which uses even more proprietary formats that no one is interested in.

[Via Maxconsole]

If there's anything better than killing two birds with one stone it's killing four of them, and thanks to a pair of early looks from Cnet, we're able to cram two product announcements and their corresponding reviews into one tidy little post. Even though they were just unveiled today, the tech mega-site was already able to take Dell's XPS 410 (pictured, left) and HP's Pavilion d4600y (pictured, right) Core 2 Duo-powered desktops out for a spin, and both machines come across as very capable performers. The two rigs share the same 2.4GHz E6600 CPU and 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM -- meaning that they throw down almost identical benchmark numbers, with the HP enjoying a slight but ultimately inconsequential edge -- but the Dell's nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS graphics card with 512MB VRAM makes short work of the ATI Radeon X1600XT-sporting Pavilion in the all-important gaming department. Dual 320GB hard drives also put the XPS 410 on top when it comes to storage capacity (although the d4600y still offers a very reasonable dual 250GB HDD array), and both towers seem equally well-suited for multimedia applications with their on-board dual-tuner TV cards and plethora of connectivity options. In the end, each $2,000 system earned a Very Good score of exactly 7.2 from Cnet, with the Dell obviously getting the nod for gamers, while the cheap-looking but feature-filled HP sounds like a better choice for the all-around user who wants greater expandability. Luckily, the hot new dual-core processors in both PCs means that you'll be getting one of the fastest machines on the market, no matter which model you choose.

Read- Dell XPS 410
Read- HP Pavilion d4600y

Considering that exactly zero people were interested enough in the new hard drive-based RCA MP3 players we brought you last week to actually leave a comment, we doubt that even a glowing review from Cnet would convince you to pick up one of these models -- but that's a moot point, because Cnet really doesn't have many positive things to say about the 6GB H116 they put through its paces. As you'll recall, RCA is clearly targeting the low-end of the market with its new DAPs, as evidenced by their black-and-white screens, rather generic-looking designs, and most tellingly, their complete lack of extra features that might sway folks away from the iTatorship. In fact, the only real compliment Cnet is able to muster about their unit is the fact that it does what it advertises: play music -- but not very well it seems. Combined with the buggy controls and poor quality of the FM transmitter, the sub-par audio would seem to indicate that even for the low-low price of $170, you're still not getting what you pay for.

[Thanks, Jen B.]

Those of you who were disappointed to learn that Nokia eschewed that rumored QWERTY thumb board for a less functional on-screen keyboard in the recent 770 software bump will be pleased to hear that a new interface method is just one of several changes the company is looking at for its next-generation of Internet tablets. In discussing the future of the 770 line with Cnet, Nokia's VP of convergence Ari Virtanen also mentioned that a webcam could be part of the equation, as one of the company's goals with this lineup is to duplicate the fixed Internet experience on a mobile device. And although cellphone radios are still not expected to find their way into these new products-- Virtanen said that Nokia wants to keep some of its offerings out of the "cellular value chain" -- their absence may not be actually be missed that much if the company goes ahead and includes WiMax as it's also said to be considering.

Following last month's deal with web video publisher Brightcove, TiVo has announced another round of partnerships that will bring various on-demand video clips to broadband-equipped Series 2 owners, with a new service called TiVoCast. The company has been making moves in this direction for some time now, but this is the first time we're being offered content that we'd actually bother watching, including NBA and WNBA highlights, New York Times-produced video (featuring David Pogue's often-humorous reviews), advice from CNET, and a dose of hip hop culture from H2O, along with male- and female-targeted programming from Heavy.com and iVillage, respectively. The new content -- accessible from the "Showcases" screen when it begins appearing next month -- will not be available to everyone, however, as USA Today is reporting that neither DirecTV subscribers nor Comcast customers will have access to any of these value-added TiVoCast downloads.