Marge Simpson is going to be on the cover of Playboy on Oct. 16, and I don't know whether to laugh, puke, subscribe, or shake my head in utter dismay. What I do know is that this is proof the magazine industry as a whole, and the formerly dignified adult magazine industry in particular, has lost it. And I think it means The Simpsons has finally officially jumped the shark, too. (Confession: I have the first 8 or 9 seasons committed to memory, but I haven't watched it in years.) [SF Gate]

Kindle revelation of the day: While there may not be any extra service charges for the international edition (which costs just $20 more), the books themselves will cost more. This makes sense for roamers, certainly, since that effectively is the extra service charge, but it doesn't make as much sense for people who live in other countries. In its defense (or should I say defence?) Amazon cites higher EU taxes on ebooks as a reason. [Guardian UK]

TechCrunch caught this great Fox News blip where some guy (former Bush Deputy National Security Adviser Mark Pfeifle) said that the founders of Twitter should be up for the Nobel Peace Prize next time around. And we all had a good guffaw. And then we realized, whoa, wait a minute, why shouldn't this be taken seriously? It's not always about Michael Jackson, folks. [TechCrunch]

Engadget reported that a leaked slide from a Microsoft Office presentation mentioned the eagerly awaited Windows Mobile 7 would be released to manufacturing as early as "Spring 2010." Never mind that the Office team is in a completely different division of Microsoft than Windows Mobile, and that the company is not known for strong internal communication. If this is accurate at all, what it does (as Engadget also notes) is affirm what we basically already knew, that Windows Mobile 6.5 is a stop-gap and that WinMo 7 would come out as soon as developmentally possible, sometime in mid to late 2010. I don't care when it gets here as long as it's not a total piece of crap. [Engadget]

Asking price with two-year contract is an astounding $1,270 because tired, overdone Dick Tracy fantasies and allusions by gadget bloggers are anything but cheap. The presser says this is the "starting price" so the one-year contract might actually be more (that's admittedly a guess on my part, as additional contract subsidizing details are not given).

As we reported in July, the phone will be exclusive to Orange in France for the time being. Global distribution, hinted at before, is still unclear. [France Telecom OhGizmo]

Rounding out the feature list are a few watchphone necessities, like voice recognition and speakerphone, all in a package that measures in at about 12mm thick—bulkier than your average Swatch, but well within acceptable wristwear territory. The first wave of releases will be scattered throughout Europe, starting in France, where the S9110 will retail for around $650.

The most striking thing about this—as well as the LG GD910—is that unlike pretty much every watchphone we've seen before, these might be usable on a day to day basis, granted you're willing to accept the inherent awkwardness of the watchphone form factor. No word on a stateside release yet, but import costs aren't likely to stop the kinds of dapper jetsetting gentlemen and/or independently wealthy James Bond superfans who'll be buying this thing anyway. [SamsungHub via Mobilecrunch]

No idea. We're surprised that Apple is getting in on this agreement, though, and we're wondering if the microUSB port will supplement or replace the standard Apple 30-pin iPod port. We're guessing supplement.

As a refresher, you should go and look back at our cable explainer to see what other kinds of cables are out there now. [Reuters via Slashdot]

Update: Looks like Apple's going to provide an adapter. [PocketLint]

Luckily for the kids, the Taga trike stroller comes with a range of custom safety options and accessories, like the pictured double child seat, car seat, basket, and wooden double-seat trailer. Oh, and it transforms from trike to stroller in a few seconds, which is actually incredibly innovative and convenient. I'm going to go ahead and assume you take little Timmy out first.

The 44 to 64-lb. Taga kit tops off with a Shimano gear system (found on most mid-range bicycles), as well as front, rear, and parking brakes. The whole kit folds down to car trunk size. Again, take Timmy out first.

Europe only for now with a sky-high $2,500 base price. [Taga via Treehugger via DVICE]

It's because demand is so high here that Wiis only sit on shelves for about an hour before they're bought when people in Europe have been saying they can walk in to stores and buy a Wii at any time of day? It's not because you're allocating more inventory on your products to Europe and Japan because the weak US dollar is causing smaller revenues on units sold here? So when you say, "What I can commit myself to is that Nintendo is going to do its best to supply as many Wii hardware units as possible in order to meet demand there," we don't have reason to think that you're a liar and kind of a scumbag? Gotcha. [Forbes via Kotaku]

Jesus's take:

Now, before you go stringing up Nintendo, or do something really rash, like buy a PS3, consider the words of video game journalist go-to guy Michael Pachter.

"The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere," Pachter said.

Besides, it's not as if those American waistlines are going anywhere anytime soon. "They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now when Nintendo will have more units available," Pachter said. [LA Times]

The 1800 comes in two models, a dual-band 850/1900MHz and the 900/1800MHz for Europe and Asia, and works worldwide. A Hop-On press release promises local SIM card compatibility for more than 40 domestic wireless carriers. Both phones feature a talk time of up to 4 hours with 150 hours of standby time. Trash can not included, so please recycle. Hop-On even encourages the practice by offering a $5 rebate on returned phones. [Press release via Slashphone]

While Sony's PlayStation 3 has gotten off to a shaky, late start, Sony has always claimed that the console was doing well through Europe (which includes many markets that don't have public sales figures available). And that makes sense, since the PlayStation brand is incredibly strong there—48 million PS2s have been sold there, along with 12 million PSPs.

With this European data in hand, it's looking more and more like the Xbox 360 is an American trend (since their sales in Japan are virtually nonexistent). But Sony still has a good deal more ground to cover before they can claim second place in the console wars, even from the worldwide perspective. [BBC via Kotaku]

• The quality is patchy and keeps most in-flight calls short and tinny-sounding. One receiver of an OnAir call complained that it sounded like "talking to a small robot."
• Hefty roaming charges of up to 3 euros ($4.72) a minute.
• Calls made from the plane to the ground usually need a few tries to actually connect. Calls made from the ground to the plane tend to go directly to voice mail.
• Only six passengers can get a signal at any one time to avoid interfering with aircraft equipment. OnAir says the capacity will double to 12 in the coming weeks.
• Blackberry users had trouble downloading email messages.

Oh yeah, and there's that whole factor of whether people want to be disturbed by other passengers yakking on cellphones in the first place. At least one other airline, Lufthansa, decided not to offer the service after customers pointedly asked them not to. [New York Times]

Hop-On markets the phone as an ideal choice for kids, teens, seniors, and world travelers. If you ask me, it also sounds like a good option for anyone who... well... may not want the government tracking their activities, if you know what I mean. [Telecoms.com]