I don't know what's funnier, that Apple has the balls to erect a billboard so large it's illegal, or that Apple has such pull—financial and political—that they can get away with it. Since 2007 the 13,750-square-foot billboard has been up in a Boston-based storage facility, and the state has argued that it should come down. Protected in part by Boston hizzoner Thomas M. Menino and others, the ad remains, but after a temporary permit ran out, its owners had to pay a $110,000 "settlement." Sounds like a fine to me. Either way, the mofo is still standing. [AppleInsider]

On what looks like the Japanese equivalent of Regis and Kelly, a TV presenter showing off a Sony Vaio L touchscreen Win 7 PC can't quite get it to work. It's not fully frozen—it's the IR touch interface that seems to be the problem. Whatever the case, you can see this poor bastard visibly mourning his own rapidly decreasing family honor. And as for Reeg-san and JKelly, I don't know what they're saying, but I am pretty sure I've heard it all before. [MacDailyNews via CrunchGear]

Wal-Mart is sticking it to Best Buy with their own army of overpriced teenage-son replacements. You pay anywhere from $99 to $339 for, as Reuters puts it, "basic television installation on the low end to setting up a home theater, wireless router network or a home office computer network" on the high end. So let me get this straight, somebody paying $600 for a 40" LCD TV is going to pay $100 for it to be setup? Better yet, someone paying $30 for a wireless router will pay 10 times that for some dude to come install it? I mean, I know we're a service economy, but this is ridiculous. [Reuters]

My favorite Canadian co-CEO, RIM's Mike Lazaridis, did a kind of evasion/denial response to questions about the gloriously hideous Bluetooth BlackBerry smartwatch, a kind of wristborne Foleo, if you will. He kinda just giggled and said that the accessories they release are generally accessories that keep the BlackBerry handset at the center. Clearly this would be different—and CrackBerry maintains that it still may come out, designed and built for BlackBerrys by a firm unaffiliated with RIM. Sounds like a recipe for awesome to me. [TechDigest]

The errant text message also sent dozens of passengers to the hospital and closed down one of the busier sections of the Green Line at the Government Center and Park Street stops. The stops have since reopened, and criminal charges are all but set to be filed against the operator, Aiden Quinn, 24, of Attleboro, Mass. Quinn actually admitted to first responders that he was texting his girlfriend at the time of the crash because she wouldn't answer his initial call (which he also made, presumably, while driving a packed subway train).

In related news, Verizon is on board with a general ban on texting while driving, and Boston just instituted one of those "you mean it wasn't in place already?!" bans on cellphones for all T operators. The ban does not apply to popcorn. [AP, NYT, Channel 5 Boston]

Created by business owner Howard Davis as a way to promote his telephone company, he parked the car outside of the Somerville Theatre to help promote the flick "Auto-Morphosis" which screened at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

Folks were plopping their kids on the car and trying to take photos. One couple, who somehow fit their entire family and friends on top of the mobile, got into a verbal confrontation with the Phone Car guy. "You should have put signs up," yelled an angry mother after Davis admonished them to get off his car. "You have a tourist attraction and you expect people not to sit on it?"

Davis' response, "Would you sit on someone's Corvette?" The family still seemed ticked off.

Lastly, some free advice from your friendly neighborhood Gizmodo Contributing Editor: Don't fuck with a guy who wears a super hero costume and drives around in a freaking telephone.

[The Loaded Gun]

In the press release, Boston Power isn't touting some of the specs we've seen previously, like a 30-minute charge up to 80% or actual extended charge cycles; rather, they're playing up the fact that these batteries will preserve their abilities to hold a charge far longer than others (3 years). HP's even including a three-year warranty on the batts, which is nice.

They'll run $150 now as a replacement battery, and should be available as a build-to-order option for new laptops later this month.

HP Enviro Series Program Batteries Based on Sonata Supported by Wide Range of Consumer Notebooks from World's No. 1 Provider of PCs

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. – March 16, 2009 – Boston-Power's longer lasting, Ecolabel-certified battery technology, Sonata, is available to consumer notebook PC customers starting today via HP.

New HP batteries based on Sonata technology are available as accessories for 18 existing notebook models representing approximately 70 percent of HP's consumer notebook PC portfolio.

In addition to first-of-its-kind environmental certifications, Sonata Li-ion battery cells deliver sustainable performance for three years – three times longer than most other notebook computer batteries. In fact, HP is providing a three-year warranty on the batteries – the first and only notebook computer provider in the industry to offer such a warranty.

Now available at www.hpshopping.com, the new HP battery based on Sonata is available as an accessory priced at $149.99. Later this month, the HP battery will be available as a point-of-sale option for consumers buying new HP notebooks at www.hpshopping.com. The battery's "drop-in" form factor enables it to be used with existing computers – including models in the HP Pavilion, HP HDX, Compaq Presario and HP G series. A complete list of compatible individual models is available at http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/NH493AA%2523ABA. More information can also be found on Boston-Power's site at http://www.boston-power.com/enviro.

"From the beginning, our goal has been to help notebook computer users benefit from optimal mobility with dependable, high-performance, environmentally sustainable batteries," said Boston-Power Founder and CEO Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud. "HP's endorsement of Sonata is a great step forward in popularizing this battery technology."

"HP delivers customers innovative products that respect our planet," said Jonathan Kaye, director of consumer notebooks marketing at HP. "The Enviro Series program
gives PC users longer lasting batteries that improve their computing experience while reducing the number of batteries that need to be recycled. That's a win for everyone."

Boston-Power is the first and only provider whose rechargeable Li-ion battery cells have earned the prestigious Nordic Ecolabel certification. The company has additionally earned a similar world's-first certification for its battery cells from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency. Sonata's patent-pending, whole-system design makes it capable of benefiting a wide range of end-applications – from consumer electronics to transportation. As a result, total cost of ownership benefits inherent in notebook computer batteries prove increasingly impressive in cases where even greater power is required.

According to the Boston Herald, T-Mobile will only help track the stolen phone (a Sidekick, snatched from a 16-year-old by an 18-year-old) if it's a "life or death situation", or if ordered to by a judge. Getting the SK back falls under neither of these two conditions, in this case, so police are hoping a letter from a city council member will sway T-Mobile in helping to track it down.

They'd better act soon, since the theft occured on November 20, and it's unlikely that that Sidekick's battery will hold out much longer for tracking purposes. [Boston Herald - Thanks Patrick!]

Above, two ladies demonstrate how best to hold your Sidekick if you want to get it stolen.

Gov't Center (5pm)
Government Center is a hub of public affairs, adulterous affairs and current affairs. It's also the home to one of the ugliest public buildings in the world (our City Hall). With thousands of wired, connected and gadget-toting workers converging on it every week day, it's a great place to test 3G wireless speeds too.

South Boston (8pm)
If there's one thing I think about when I visit South Boston, it's whether or not my wireless connection is going to work. Oh wait, no no no. That's not it at all. Where's the frickin' beer? Was that Matt Damon? Anyway, wireless networks and their reliability are a close second though, after the beer. And the bars. And the women of South Boston deserve a mention too, now that the place has become a hive of recent college grads. Did I say the network was second? Who knew 3G tests could be so conflicting?

Harvard Square (4pm)
Sweet, glorious Harvard. The smells, the sites, the history. It's also a clusterfuck of students, protesters and people trying to look educated and important without really accomplishing either. And it only took three minutes for a passing homeless man to sit down next to me during the tests and start talking about how Barack Obama was a babykilling devil. Bastion of liberalism my ass!

Waltham (12pm)
There's no place like home, and there's nothing quite like 3G tests on the front porch with a slick looking Lenovo laptop. But put them together and, well, it was just peachy keen, but I'm no longer allowed to be unsupervised on my porch anymore. Note to self: Pants are your friend.

Results
Sprint clearly played to win, here, with Verizon holding on and AT&T throwing in the towel. Even in uploads, where AT&T is generally the strongest competitor, it was a pretty matched fight.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

Currently, CarTel tracks traffic data by logging a car's speed during different point during the trip. Madden said the system differentiates itself from similar sounding systems because it actually understands where traffic delays are, and recommends the best routes to avoid them. MIT professor Hari Balakrishnan said the system has already chopped 25% off his commute since January thanks to a little number crunching on the part of the computer:

It recommended a new route that, although a few miles longer than the approach suggested by some mapping web sites, is considerably faster in practice.

CarTel also has the ability to link into a car's diagnostic system and inform the driver when to get service or if something is malfunctioning. Don't tell it John Connor's present location. Time travel is one hell of a commute. [MIT]

At least, that's what the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's lawsuit against the students, their professor and the university claims. They argue that the students actually ran afoul of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because one of the fare cards "constitutes a computer," and that because the MBTA works with the Department of Homeland Security, national security, yadda yadda. End result, the judge agreed and gagged the students for at least 10 days, so they couldn't give their talk (you can still check out the presentation here though). The students say that they believed the matter had been resolved before the restraining order was filed, and didn't realize that the MBTA wanted a full copy of the presentation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is currently repping the students, and says that the judge came to "a very, very wrong conclusion" and that the decision "has a tremendous chilling effect on sharing this sort of research. . . . And we intend to fight it with everything we've got." [Wired, WSJ, The Tech via Alley Insider]

Head of Apple Retail Ron Johnson gave some insight into the planning behind the Boylston Street location. The spot was picked out in 2000, but took eight years of planning to get it built. Because of Apple's recent success, the store has grown significantly from what was originally planned. If the store were built back in 2000, when the retail initiative was just getting started, it would have been one floor. If it were built in 2005, when the iPod was just taking off, it would have been two floors. Now, with the success of the iPhone, iPod and Mac lines, the store has three floors.

The first floor is all Mac, the company's "most important product" according to Johnson. Floor two is dedicated to iPod, iPhone and all the third party accessories Apple offers. The third floor is dedicated to service, with a massive Genius Bar, sections for one-on-one, workshops and a second location for Apple's new "Pro Labs" initiative.

The Genius Bar, which boasts 17 black stools, can serve 1,000 people per day at full capacity, with the store open from 8AM to 11PM.

The store is also environmentally friendly, with vegetation on the roof and a rainwater recollection system which directs water from the roof directly into the Back Bay water table.

The store opens tomorrow, Thursday the 15th, at 6PM.(Roof photo by Joyce Hannon. All others by Jordan Golson)

Sorry, I'm not so sure this is even close to the biggest. I am stupid. Some other sites have questioned this claim. Apple has never been forthcoming with information on upcoming stores, so we have to work this one out on our own.

The Boston Globe claimed back in 2007 that the store would be 21,350 square feet. The current largest location, the Regent Street store in London, has somewhere around 28,000 square feet of space.

ifoAppleStore says "...the [Boylston Street] lot is only 6,384 square-feet, so the store would have to be at least five stories to be larger than Regent Street (London), at 28,000 s.f."

The store is at least four stories above ground, (if you include the half-length fourth story that is hidden from street view) and likely has a floor or two of basement for stock-keeping purposes. This easily puts the store in the 26-32,000 sq ft range needed to beat Regent Street. There also may be discrepancies here between "sales space" and "back-of-house" space and what the employee meant by "largest in the world."

Apple hasn't gotten back to repeated requests for confirmation. Tag this one "plausible."

Why? We can only assume that wonderful things are as threatening to the city as Adult Swim promotions. (Yes, they alluded to Mooninites first and I couldn't really come up with a better angle.)

The best part? The Mayor's seal is on the notification. Can anyone in Boston check if Gizmodo is up and running on their free network? Not to take anything away from Boing Boing's plight...we just want to double check if we're living in the US or China.

– Mark Wilson

Mayor of Boston bans Boing Boing [boingboing]

Am I way off base here? Is ATHF as bad as Bin Laden? Who is really to blame for the entire of city of Boston being shut down?

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–Adam Frucci