AT&T wants more of your money in exchange for (supposedly) fast download speeds with their new HSUPA-capable 3G wireless broadband modem cards. First off we have the GT Ultra that comes in the archaic PCMCIA II form factor, followed by the GT Ultra Express that fits into most of today’s laptops and notebooks which come with an ExpressCard slot. Both of these data cards are compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Mac OS X. They retail for $49.99 a pop with a 2-year contract which amounts up to $60 monthly.

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Posted Feb 14th 2008 9:25AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Gaming
The word on the street, nay, the word straight from Jeff Bell’s mouth, is that the Xbox 360 is experiencing stock shortages, which could hurt sales for January and February. “You could say we misjudged demand,” said Bell, head of global marketing for Microsoft games. “We’re literally out of stock in many stores. We think this will have an impact on our sales.” Apparently the 1.3 million Xboxen sold in December didn’t leave many sitting around for the rest of winter, so we could be seeing shortages through February, according to Bell — but they should be able to meet demand by spring. It almost sounds like Microsoft is playing hard to get like a certain other console we know of, but we’ll bite our tongue until we can get a tearful confession out of Major Nelson. Or, you know, two straight years of stock scarcity.

[Via Joystiq]

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Almost twenty years after finding the Holy Grail and stopping the Nazis in their dirty tracks, Indiana Jones returns this upcoming May in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The trailer was released earlier today and we didn’t want our dear readers to miss out on the buzz.

Not only will we get to experience the next great adventure in the saga but we’ll also be able to see Spielberg-quality reproduction of a few 50’s era gadgets, such as the Cold-War ready Aero Willys and Jeep MD vehicles.   

Of course, no gadget/tool is more distinctive in the Indiana Jones stories as the bullwhip, which has been used in a variety of ways. Indy’s used it to jump between buildings and to wrap it around his father’s legs to prevent him from falling off an out-of-control Nazi tank. 

There are only 97 days to go until the premiere, so you should start getting in line tonight. Your significant other will surely appreciate it. 

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There’s not much that will get me blogging about the Republican National Committee (RNC). However, they’ve had a creative Valentine’s Day streak that’s remarkably hilarious (aw . . . they’re pretty hilarious when they’re serious too).

There are six designs to choose from; three Obama and three Clinton. Each has a goofy-but-glib statement. Here are my two favorites:

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Philips’ new 9@9j will ship with both the worst name ever and a slot for a AAA backup battery. The phone is the result of a partnership between Philips and the Israeli company Techtium, which was first announced in March last year.

The 9@9j uses the BackuPower tech to recharge its own internal battery from a spare. To get any use out it, though, you’ll need a special AAA sized lithium battery from Energizer. And the three hour extra life seems rather pathetic when you consider that Philips’ Xenium NRG, on which this new phone is based, has a whopping one month of standby time already.

Philips Xenium 9@9j phone has AAA battery backup [Tech Digest]

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What is your laptop worth to you? I am not just talking about the cost of the hardware, but the data on it as well. According to one owner, she believes that her laptop, including the data on it, is worth about US$54 million. Mind you, that includes some added dollars for lost time and frustration.

According to MSNBC’S “The Red Tape Chronicles” blog, Raelyn Campbell is suing Best Buy for losing her laptop. As you have probably guessed by now, she wants $54 million from the retailer. Campbell had taken her laptop in for repairs only to have the laptop turn up missing. That amount comes after Best Buy attempted to reimburse her for the lost laptop by paying her $900. Campbell refused since that wouldn’t have covered the replacement of the laptop let alone any reimbursement for the missing data on it.

Best Buy later increased the offer, after Campbell contacted the Washington D.C. Attorney General’s office. After it contacted the store, Best Buy increased the offer to a $1,100 refund and a $500 gift card. Of course, the $54 million lawsuit helped to sway Best Buy to increase the offer even more when Campbell filed it in November. Best Buy then offered $2,500 in addition to the $1,100 refund and the $500 gift card. Campbell believes that is still not enough, since she has not received an explanation for her missing computer and her expenses have risen since filing the lawsuit.

Read more from “The Red Tape Chronicles” blog.

Brian’s Opinion

At the end of the day, Campbell is not suing for $54 million, because Best Buy lost her laptop. She is suing for that amount because of the lack of customer service she received from the company. It’s pretty ridiculous that she has been given no explanation for her missing laptop.

Think about what is on your laptop or your home computer right now. What would you do if everything went missing? What if the computer included sensitive financial information as well? If you’re like most people, then you may keep a lot of sensitive files on your computer, like tax forms, but probably the most personal thing you can lose is pictures.

The thing about a picture is that it is irreplaceable. Yet another reminder, to back up your files off-site somewhere, but how comfortable would you feel if someone you didn’t know had all of those pictures? Campbell wants more than simply her laptop back. She wants some of the privacy she has lost. She also wants Best Buy to acknowledge this intrusion appropriately, which clearly hasn’t been done to her satisfaction as of yet. At this point, I don’t know if Best Buy can really satisfy her at this point. Time rang out for that a long time ago.

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I guess Toshiba had better cut its losses where hd dvd is concerned, as more and more hardware manufacturers are producing Blu-ray devices. Harman Kardon will be releasing its DVC 600 Blu-ray player this September at IFA ‘08 in Berlin, with a price tag that resides betwen £450 to £500. Other than Blu-ray discs, the DVC 600 also welcomes DVDs and CDs. It is capable of upscaling video to 720p and boast DVI, USB, analogue audio and video sockets.

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Archos looks set to be the first over the finish line with its new line of portable media players that will feature 3G connectivity, allowing it to virtually connect to the Internet no matter where you are - as long as there is an appropriate signal from a cell tower. The Opera web browser will provide all your browsing experience needs. This new range of players is tipped to be released before the end of 2008, with the 606 WiFi and 706 WiFi being among them.

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Mad Catz Interactive has released its Xbox 360 HDMI Conversion Kit to the masses, enabling Xbox 360 owners to hook up directly to any standard HDMI input on their TVs or displays in order to enjoy the benefits of true High-Definition (HD) digital video and audio for both gaming and movie playback. This HDMI Conversion Kit connects easily to the ‘AV Output’ which is located on the rear of the console, converting analogue signals to a digital HDMI stream. It is capable of ouputting all HD resolutions including full HD (1080p) and works fine with HDMI 1.3. The HDMI Conversion Kit ought to be available by now for $89.99 a set.

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Photo: Kuni Takahashi/Chicago Tribune

According to a member of the House of Representatives, the use of Social Security Cards to forge one’s identity is going up and this crime costs the National economy close to 50 billion a year. As a result, new legislation is being introduced to update the paper-only version of today to one with a photograph, fingerprint info, a bar code and a magnetic strip. This new development comes in the heels of many other types of proposals that have failed to come up with any new form of a national-card security ID.

Currently, members of the Department of Defense are issued an identification card with similar specs to the proposed new SSN card, but issuing this technology to the masses, while adding even more of an individual’s information on it, could pose huge problems. The most basic one is that if a card were to be stolen, even more of your personal information would be out there to be abused by tech-savvy criminals.

The other that comes to mind is that a great number of ID theft cases start with the mishandling of information in the centers where they are supposed to be the most secure. In the last few years, many banks, tech companies (like Monster), Universities, and other institutions have had a lot of problems keeping private information private. Laptops with thousands of personal emails have been lost, servers have been hacked, and incompetent employees have ‘misplaced’ info for personal loans and yes, they included people’s social security numbers.

Maybe we should keep the focus at the top, before we’re  asked to give up our prints.

»read more from "High-tech Social Security Cards: The Answer to ID Fraud or Future Gadgets Waiting to be Abused?"