Never in my life have I seen the same computing product get more hardware changes than software updates. Yes, I'm talking about Sony's Playstation 3, a product that is now starting on what can only be described as its third major retail beta program... with a fourth supposedly in the works.

According to an Engadget report, Gamestop has done everything but dole out the ISBN numbers on the packaging for the still unconfirmed 120GB Playstation 3. Was 80GB too small for their top tier PS3? No, of course not. It was too small to also be bundled with the new DualShock 3 controller... the controller that should have been bundled with all PS3 models to begin with. Sorry to everyone who bought an 80GB PS3 in the last few weeks. No refunds or exchanges please.

Thinking about picking yourself up a new 20, 40, 60, 80, or 120 Gig PS3 in the coming months and want to know which is the safest buy? Let's break it down:

I like a lot of things about the iPhone, but the one thing it does I'm totally jealous of is how it handles mobile web browsing. Practically porting a desktop web browser wasn't only smart, it was brilliant. As of this moment, nothing holds a candle to iPhone's web support... unless what I've seen of Skyfire comes true.

I've talked about my AT&T 8525 before, and overall I really like it. Since my upgrade to Windows Mobile 6, I've liked it even more. However, Microsoft just hasn't been able to deliver a decent mobile web browser. That's right I'll say it, Mobile Internet Explorer bites the big one. I used Mobile IE the day I brought my phone home, and started the hunt for a better mobile browser on day 2.

Where did that leave me? First I tried MiniMo .2, which is a early development mobile browser based on Firefox. It one day may be worth something, but it's got a long, long way to go (if they don't abandon the idea first).

As we go through life, we learn what is and is not acceptable behavior. Some of these acceptable behaviors are pretty simple to pick up on and will never change. Don't talk behind someone's back, don't leave the toilet seat up (at least so my wife says), don't pass gas in an elevator, and on and on. Simple, right? Perhaps even obvious? However, tech etiquette is still in its infancy, and the rules of acceptable behavior regarding technology aren't always as obvious as we'd like it to be. What's worse... no one ever seems to be on the same page, and sometimes you have to learn new rules the hard way.

In fact, I was recently given an etiquette lesson by a friend of mine during this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I've been attached to my Jawbone Bluetooth headset ever since I got it. Keeping my phone on my belt and being able to answer and receive calls without wires is a convenience I've grown too accustomed to, and it's doubtful I'll ever go back. The mere thought of having to hold a phone to my head simply to have a conversation... barbaric.

Why is it they make cell phones that can take pictures, shoot video, surf websites, send e-mails, and show PowerPoint presentations, but not reliably make phone calls??? If cell phones really were as reliable as Verizon and AT&T said so, then no one would ever drop a call for seemingly no reason. I've got plenty of bars AT&T!

What's funny is that the worst part of dropping a call isn't the fact the call is lost, it's the fact that no one is really sure who's supposed to call back. So what happens? Here's the typical lost call scenario:

1. After a moment or two of talking to nothing, the parties in question realize the call has been dropped.
2. Instinctively, both parties call each other at the same time and end up getting routed to voice mail.
3. Both parties realize the other is trying to call, so decide it's best to wait for the other call to come through.

I've been following the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc since the days when each was on the drawing board. For the record, I'm not choosing sides in this debate, nor am I recommending that anyone buy into either option. Each format brings HD quality movies and advanced playback features to the table. In my mind, that makes them both good. However, mass adoption of either simply won't happen until one of two things occurs:

1. One camp drops out of the race.


2. The stalemate draws on long enough that the ability to play back both formats is included in every playback device. Simply put; a tie. While a handful of hardware makers not entrenched in one camp or another have done this (namely LGs Super Blu players... "Super" meaning "super expensive"), the Toshiba's and Sony's of the world don't seem likely to build in support for their rivals even though it could finally advance adoption.

Cyber Monday is the Black Friday of online shopping. The Thanksgiving holiday is over, the mad rush to pick up bargains at stores the day after and over the weekend has passed, and everyone is back to work. Online retailers know their day is Monday, and it's the best day of the year to find super deals on just about anything... especially tech products.

The brick-and-mortar dealers like Circuit City and Best Buy have their websites primed with deals, and the major online folks like NewEgg, J&R, and Amazon are offering deep discounts on the hottest tech. If you missed the Black Friday rush, or didn't get everything you wanted, some crazy deals are still to be had.

Hop over to the TechLore Holiday Guide for complete coverage of Cyber Monday, with links to online retailers offering some of the best prices you'll find all year.

You’ve seen the ads, heard the hype, and have found some Black Friday deals too good to pass up. If you’ve decided to take the early Friday morning plunge after your scrumptious Thanksgiving meal, you’ll need to do a little prep work. After all, Black Friday shopping isn’t like your average trip to the mall. It’s more like a competition… you versus every other deal seeker in the area.

The experienced Black Friday shopper knows the routine: forget about sleep the night before, find a warm coat, grab some coffee, pick up the baseball bat, realize you’re going shopping and put down the baseball bat, get in the car, and get in line. It seems simple enough, but the Black Friday experience can be overwhelming to the long line newcomer.

Whether new or experienced, I’ve come up with 10 Black Friday tips to help everyone prepare for their shopping adventure, and hopefully have a more successful and enjoyable time.

AT&T has been promising a free upgrade to 8525 owners for quite some time. The wait has been painful for most, causing upheaval and endless complaining in the AT&T user forums. The elusive update, originally promised to be in Q3, seemed like it would never hit.

It may not be Q3 anymore, but 8525 owners should still rejoice. HTC made the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade available for download on their site this morning, ending the wait once and for all. 8525 owners can get upgrade instructions and the download here.

AT&T and HTC (oddly) are only offering the upgrade between today and February 1, 2008... because that's just the consumer friendly thing to do I guess (thanks to AT&T for making me wish I switched to Sprint just that tiny bit more). 8525 owners should save the download in a safe place in case they need to use it again after a warranty exchange.

At the end of part 2, I had just finished hunting down and grabbing the major pieces for the $25 Garage Entertainment System. With a few twists here and there, including the addition of a dedicated Media PC for the garage thanks to a "free" find at a yard sale, the $25 Garage Entertainement System was finally starting to come together. If you haven't yet read parts 1 or 2, go check that out before you continue:

Part 1: http://www.techlore.com/blog/entry/19541/Crazy-Tech-Project--The--25-Garage-E...

Part 2: http://www.techlore.com/blog/entry/19580/Crazy-Tech-Project--The--25-Garage-E...

After tacking on a few of the extra things I needed (like a mouse, keyboard, and some cables), was I within budget? Let's see:

• Reciever (garage sale) - $7
• Speakers (garage sale) - $8
• Media Computer (sidewalk) - Free
• Monitor (garage sale) - $1
• AM/FM Tuner (garage sale) - $2
• Terk Powered Antenna (garage sale) - $.50
• Belkin Wireless Network Card (friend) - Free
• 25 ft. Speaker wire (garage sale) - $2

At the end of part 1, I had just finished scoping what would inevitably be the $25 Garage Entertainment system, quite a challenge given the requirements I decided on. If you haven't yet read part 1, go check that out before you continue: http://www.techlore.com/blog/entry/19...

Part 2 - Finding the Gear

Given the restrictions in place, the only real choice for aquiring my goods was to mooch off friends and family or hit garage sales. Considering most of my friends and family don't have the things I need (none of them are real tech pack-rats) garage sales would be my only choice.

I knew up front the speakers and receiver would be the hard parts to come by, and probably suck up most of my budget, so I figured the best deals would be had at garage sales. Note to anyone who wants to try this at home, it took a long, long time to find things. Budget plenty of time for bargain hunting.

I mentioned long ago that when I get bored, I do some crazy things. The latest in my (what my better half calls "crazy") tech projects was to solve one of my home's deficiencies... no entertainment in the garage. Seriously, for the common man the garage is a temple. It's a place where guys go to be guys, and do things like work on cars, watch the game, play darts, smoke cigars, and any number of other things. In our case as townhome dwellers, it's a common area for lots of other things, like when we light up the outdoor fireplace in the driveway with the neighbors or even do a cookout and eat outside.

Long ago, the lady thought it would be neat to have some music in the garage. So, to keep things simple, I started with a CD player and set of portable speakers. Yeah, it worked, but it sounded terrible, and was a pain to play all the music we have since most of it is stored on a home server. Besides, what kind of geek would I be if THAT was my final solution? Thus, the idea for the garage entertainment system (what I refer to now as the

For those who know a little about my background, I spent well over 10 years in electronics sales at a variety of places. Of those, my job at a high end audio/video retailer and installer was where I got to eat, breathe, and practically swim in home theater equipment... definitely my favorite segment of the consumer electronics industry. I'll save that piece on why I love home theater so much for another day, but I will share with you the best news I've heard in months... M&K Sound is supposedly coming back.

For those unfamiliar with M&K, I'll say this. They make some of the best speakers I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. Actually, I should say "used to make some of the best speakers." February 22nd of this year was a sad day... M&K's founder Ken Kreisel closed the doors of the renowned speaker company.

It's happened to everyone... that gut-wrenching, horrifying feeling you get when the shiny new gadget you JUST bought a month ago drops in price or is replaced by something better. Look at iPhone owners. You can't tell me those that picked up 8GB iPhones at $599 didn't feel a bit used when Apple lowered the price to $399 only 2 months after it was launched. Sure, that $100 in-store credit helped soften the blow, but no doubt everyone probably wishes they had waited those few months before buying.

It's the story of the early gadget adopter, and those on the cutting edge of technology often get bum deals and beat up on their electronic purchases. I usually try to purchase with a bit of caution, but even I still get taken from time to time. It wasn't all that long ago I picked up a new Premium XBOX 360, only to discover that not long after they'd put out a new

This just in from the "out of left field" department... It was only a short time ago that Sling Media publicly revealed they have been working with DirecTV on their new SuperCast NFL service, only to announce today that EchoStar Communications (owner and operator of the other major US satellite TV provider) has just acquired the company for roughly $380 million dollars.

Sling Media just announced that EchoStar Communications has struck a deal to acquire them for cash and stock options valued around $380 million combined. If you don’t know who EchoStar is, they own DISH Network®.

DISH Network® offers a premier line of industry-leading Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and hundreds of video and audio channels as well as the most national HD and International channels in the U.S., Interactive TV, Latino and sports programming. DISH Network also provides a variety of package and price options including the lowest all-digital price in America and the DishDVR Advantage Package...

Bad news for PS3 owners...

Looking forward to setting up your new digital digs in the upcoming "Virtual Home" world coming to the Playstation Network? Well real-estate still isn't for sale, and it won't be for a while.

In another embarrassing blow for Sony, the much touted "Virtual Home" has been delayed until Spring 2008 according to Kazuo Hirai's keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show today. What a way to kick off your first major public appearance as the new chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment... by announcing a delay.

"Home" is supposed to be an online virtual world similar to Second Life, but exclusive to Playstation 3 owners. Sony has been very vocal about the kinds of things people can do in this virtual world, including things like create a custom virtual "you", setup your own apartment (complete with furniture, knick-knacks, and other digital gear), and a variety of social activities like play mini-games with a virtual PSP and watch video content with friends in your digital home theater.

Brandon C. over at our sister site, SlingCommunity.com, went digging through patent application documents and unearthed tons of never-before-seen details and images about the upcoming Clip+Sling TV sharing feature headed to Slingbox!

"We've been hearing about the upcoming "Clip+Sling" feature for quite some time now, though relatively few additional details have been released since the CES show in January. The basics have been covered pretty well (read Clip+Sling Video Demonstration with Brian Jaquet and Matt Whitlock's (me!) Interview with Jason Hirschhorn to get up to speed), but what we haven't known is how it's going to really work.

Today some of those "finer" details about Clip+Sling are starting to come to light thanks to a bit of one-on-one time with the patent application information on the program. I've learned a ton of information, and who better to share it with than a site filled with crazed Slingbox fans? In this article we are going to address some of your questions and give details on how the Clip+Sling program will work. We will first go through a simplified version and then get into everything in detail...

No doubt Apple is the king of the hill when it comes to MP3 players, but SanDisk keeps climbing the totem pole everytime a new model hits the Sansa product line. So, with Apple announcing new iPods the other day, it's not surprising that SanDisk would follow suit with a few new surprise products of their own. And holy cow do they look pretty nice...

SanDisk is getting a bit smarter with each product they launch, and is now really focusing on their strengths and previous successes with each new release. They're never going to compete with Apple on the touch screen front (at least not anytime in the foreseeable future), and probably wouldn't have much success going after full size players like the iPod Classic. Where they have created a name for themselves is in the ultra-compact and compact flash player market with excellent products like Sansa Express and the Nano-killing machine that is the

Leave it to our old friend Steve Jobs to walk out on stage and tell everyone what they wanted to hear... almost. Everyone was expecting some new iPods, and Jobs and Co. are releasing three new models for the holiday season, plus some new colors for Shuffle. On top of that, new features and some price moves were announced... all good, but no doubt it's going to irritate those that have just bought iPhones.

iPod Nano

First on the list is Nano, which is getting a total redesign for the 07-08 holiday season. Gone is the super-slender tall design of yore, as Apple decided Nano would be better after some weight gain. It's not actually heavier than the original, but it is wider and shorter... hence the "fatty" references it's been getting.

Other specs include include a 2-inch, QVGA, 320 x 240 screens that is (supposedly) 65-percent brighter than previous models, an

I've been using my new AT&T 8525 for about 3 weeks now, and all this time I've been learning what I can do with my phone while getting used to the quirks of owning a PocketPC/Phone hybrid. I mentioned in a previous post that I was thinking about buying the iPhone, but decided to pass on Apple's Kool-Aid in favor of Microsoft's. So far, I'm glad I did, because (as of right now) I can do these 10 things that iPhone owners can only dream about, and I have to say, some of these things are pretty darn basic...

1. Watch my home TV with SlingPlayer - Consider me a social outcast, but I don't care about YouTube Videos. With SlingPlayer Mobile I can watch my home television programming ANYWHERE. Enjoy those episodes of lonelygirl15 you crazy YouTube lovin' iPhoners, I'll be over there watching real television.

2. Install a program

The tech-savvy among us have been tethering our laptops through data enabled phones to AT&T's (formerly Cingular) data network for years. The concept of tethering is simple, attach your phone to your laptop via Bluetooth or direct connection, and make a connection to the provider's data network so you can browse the web and send e-mail with your laptop from anywhere. AT&T allows this practice on their top-tier data plans (starting at $59.99 per month), but users with smarts have been able to tether with unlimited data packages as low as $19.99 for years without any problems or additional charges.

Cellular providers have been getting wise to the practice for some time now, and have slowly been crippling phones to prevent users from dialing in without permission and upgrading their networks to catch data leechers tethering their laptops at lower packages. Crippling a phone typically means disabling the DUN (dial-up networking) Bluetooth profile that allows a PC to use the phone as a data modem.