The only thing worse than getting a punctured tire is trying to use a flimsy scissor jack to change it. Break down on a dirt or snow-covered road and you probably have as good a shot at losing your hand as you do fixing a flat. Not so with the Titan, which may look like an exhaust-powered whoopee cushion, but can actually haul cars (even lifted rigs) up into the air on nearly any surface. Just run a hose to the exhaust of a running car, and the $120 (and up) balloon will gently raise the vehicle aloft -- and by "gently" we mean "really, really slowly." It's probably a little faster than calling AAA, but not as easy as Superjack's remote-controlled kit for lazies. If you have the patience, check out the vid after the break for six minutes of tire-changing action.

[Via Autoblog]

We weren't exactly hot on MSI's Titan 700 mini-PC when it first hit back in May, and now that TrustedReviews has had a chance to look one over, it looks like our initial impression wasn't that far off the mark. Although the diminutive case was stylish in an industrial way, the fit and finish left something to be desired, and the DVD door is apparently rather convoluted. The machine itself, powered by a ULV 2GHz VIA C7M, is "annoyingly audible" when running, and you're not getting a ton of horsepower in return -- a 720p AVI file barely played, and a .mov at the same res brought Windows Media Player to its knees. Like we said last time, unless space is at a premium, you're probably better off investing $500 into a real PC -- even if that means you have to forgo the Darth Vader looks.

MSI's been making some noise with the Wind lately, but the company is still busy turning out solid-but-uninspiring PCs as well, like the new Titan 700. The mini-ITX PC features a VIA CN700 processor at 2.0GHz, 1GB of RAM, dual-layer burner, and a 120GB 2.5-inch drive, all in a 2.7 x 7.2 x 9.5-inch package with Gigabit Ethernet and 4 USB ports. The only thing you won't be getting for your £234 ($458) is an OS -- you'll have to supply your own. Of course, for $500 you can probably get a slightly-larger computer with much more powerful processor and an actual OS, so unless you're somehow taken with the Titan's industrial-chic case, you're probably not too sad that this thing hasn't been announced outside of the UK yet.

[Via TrustedReviews]

We thought the Sprint Mogul was a little bit of alright, but do the 'nets agree? By and large, yeah, it seems the bottom line is that this is the must-have upgrade for PPC-6700 owners. Mobile Tech Review points out that an MMS client is notably missing and picture quality on the 2 megapixel camera could be better, but hey, it's still an improvement over the Apache's 1.3 megapixel unit. Boy Genius Report found that the ridges on the phone's posterior were a little funky, too; just like the Mogul's crazy bright yellow UI, it's probably an acquired taste.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

Read - Gear Diary ("...leaps and bounds above the PPC-6700 that it replaces...")
Read - Boy Genius Report ("...the device is a pleasure to use...")
Read - Phone Scoop ("... flashier design, updated operating and higher resolution camera...")
Read - My iTablet (3.75 / 5 stars, "...a worthy upgrade from the PPC-6700...")
Read - Mobile Tech Review (4 / 5 stars, "A very strong offering from Sprint, and a worthy, if not overdue, successor to the PPC-6700")

For our Mobile squad, no smartphone launch is complete until we've touched it, analyzed it, and -- knowing our butterfingered selves -- dropped it on a concrete surface (just kidding, our Mobile editors would sacrifice life and limb for the safety of a handset). But when said smartphone happens to be a frickin' CDMA device from HTC... well, that's like a once (or twice) in a lifetime event. Head on over to Mobile for our first impressions of Sprint's Mogul by HTC with a full gallery to boot. Heck, it's almost as good as actually buying one!

Bringing our terrifying nightmares of robots peeling the roof off our house like a tin of sardines one step closer to reality, German firm KUKA Roboter celebrated the launch of what it claims to be the worlds fastest and strongest robot yesterday. The KR 1000 "Titan" bot -- which earned itself a place in the Guinness Book of World's Records for being so, uh, mighty mighty -- can lift up to 1000kg (2,204 pounds) and has a reach of 3.2 meters. All that power is supplied by a nine-motor drive system that can twist out 44,200 pound-feet of torque, enabling the Titan to do jobs that formerly took two bots in places like auto plants, foundries, power plants, and materials factories. Here's hoping all those out-of-work robots don't start a revolution in protest -- we'd much rather they just start drinking.

[Via GizMag]

It's bad enough that nearly every HTC handset that makes its way into a carrier's lineup inevitably gets rebadged and renamed, but this one's sure to make you scratch your head. Just hours after hearing that the handset is likely to miss its May launch by a few months, we've now caught wind of an interesting teaser site that leaves little doubt about what phone is behind the silhouette. Interestingly, the Sprint, HTC, and Qualcomm sponsored site boldly states that the pictured device is not the PPC-6800, but rather the Mogul. It then continues on by insinuating that this 007-esque gizmo can handle just about any mission you task it with, but fails to provide any concrete information beyond that. Hey, you've got to find some way to keep interests piqued until October, eh?

Canada's Telus may be in the process of beating it to the punch, but that's not stopping Sprint (and Verizon, for that matter) from prepping its own variant of the HTC Titan, the PPC-6800. A PPCGeeks forum member recently got the enviable opportunity to screw around with a prototype of the Sprint-branded unit -- and besides coming away with a veritable cornucopia of imagery, they've posted a few key details: in addition to rocking Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3.3 (Pocket PC Phone Edition, of course), the device will use a Qualcomm MSM7500 to push bits and bytes at around 400MHz (as we've already seen in its XV6800 sibling) and end up with about 174MB of usable Flash and 49MB of RAM. Of course, this is a prototype -- specs are subject to change -- but seeing how the Telus version is already on the streets, what you see here is probably darned near what you're going to get. Follow the break for some key shots.

[Thanks, Brian C.]

Sure, the Xbox 360 Elite was finally announced, but we've got a fair bit of interesting cellphone news this week, too. Check out Samsung's UpStage, finally launched; or the long-awaited Helio Ocean dual-slider QWERTY featurephone -- not bad eh? And then HTC had a whole slew of gear, too, from their first UMPC to the Advantage's US launch. We won't only be talking about cellphones this week, but if you're not down with mobile gadgets then you might want to snag our enhanced RSS and skip some chapters, because we've got some CTIA stuff to catch up on.

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Hosts: Peter Rojas and Ryan Block

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Program:
00:50 - Xbox 360 Elite and 120GB drive now official
07:22 - The Helio Ocean
12:31 - Sprint announces Samsung UpStage, 99 cent songs over the air
17:15 - HTC Shift -- the cellphone company finally goes UMPC
19:46 - HTC Advantage coming to US... under the HTC brand
23:29 - HTC 6800 / Titan hands-on
25:36 - HTC S720 vs Vox and TyTn hands-on
26:02 - Hands-on with the Samsung Ubicell
34:15 - How-to: Upgrade the drive in your Apple TV

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We got a chance to play around with a Telus-branded HTC 6800 tonight -- we are in love. Significantly thinner and lighter than the TyTn and 6700, the 6800 has a spring-assisted slide and a keyboard with a slightly rubbery soft-touch finish that's probably the best we've ever seen on a portable device. This is the new handset to beat -- we can't wait to see the GSM version.

P.S. -We saw the 6800 on Sprint, but the executive who left it out snatched it out of our hands before we could take shots of it. Like you're so surprised it's coming.

The existence of HTC's follow up to the venerable Apache comes as a surprise to no one; after all, we've seeing it time and time again. Still, there's some sort of wave of reassurance that washes over us when we see a promised new handset get two thumbs-up from our boys and girls at the Fed. Still no word on exactly when we'll see the device materialize -- which is expected on Sprint and Verizon alike as the PPC6800 and XV6800, respectively -- but this filing should at least clear the path for both carriers to hold to their roadmaps; with EV-DO Rev. A, Bluetooth 2.0, and beefed-up internal storage all in the cards, those roadmaps really can't come quickly enough.

Hold on, Apache owners, your knight in shining armor is just around the corner! At least we think it is, now that we've seen some shots of a Verizon-branded XV6800 doing its thing in the wild. It may not look much different than the XV6700 it replaces, but we figure that if the EV-DO Rev. A doesn't tempt you -- or the promise of a Rev. A upgrade at some point, at least -- the 2 megapixel camera and 256MB of Flash just might. Hit the gallery for more pictures.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Check it big spenders 'cause the pros just dropped a new home theater projector into the mix. Introducing Digital Projection International's (DPI) native 1080p, 3-chip DLP projector -- the TITAN 1080p-250 -- their first 3-chip DLP projector designed exclusively for "the most elite" home cinemas. Using TI's 0.95-inch dark metal DLP technology, this pup brings a 1920 x 1080 resolution and 5000:1 contrast ratio while throwing a theater-quiet (outside New York, anyway) 35dBs and bright 2000 ANSI Lumens off a single, 250-watt HID lamp. Optimized for the 6 to 16-foot screen, you get plenty of control over the projected image with 7-point color correction as well as independent control of black level and lamp brightness. Sorry, no HDMI inputs here so you'll have to settle for HDCP enabled DVI or the array of other standard connections available. Sure it's ugly, but this projector is meant for a home cinema enclosure son, not for keeping your Pabst company on the card table. Available now for an undisclosed price 'cause that's how these high-end products roll, 10-4?

[Via AboutProjectors, Thanks Steven]