In the beginning of the month we alerted you to Wal-Mart's super low-priced PCs and laptops to be flogged on Black Friday. Now we've been told that it gets even better. For $378 without any rebates, you can get your hands on an HP Pavilion ze2108wm laptop, installed with AMD Sempron processor with PowerNow! technology. The best part of this laptop looks like its battery life, which should last about 3 hours on the 6-cell battery. Not bad for under $500. Now the question is, does it matter enough to mingle with the freaks who will be in Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving? You'll have to use your better judgement on that one.

Black Friday Laptops 2005 [Anandtech]

Frustrated by the endless line, I turn away and literally knock into a pimply boy with a tie that's way too big for him; it looks like a bib, or maybe a backwards cape. He is standing in front of a screen displaying Microsoft Word and the following phrase:

MY VOICE SOFTLY CHANGE QUITE A MATE FROM MY TRAIN BE GIVEN 9 NORMALLY YOU.

"What s this?" I ask.

He explains that this is the new iListen product, which allows you to talk directly into your computer and have Microsoft Word dictate your words, lest the act of typing strain one's hamstrings.

"That phrase doesn't make any sense," I say. "Either your product doesn t work right, or you have a most curious cadence."

He chuckles uncomfortably and mumbles something about background noise. I ask him if I can play with iListen for a moment, and he looks around for help, finds none, then reluctantly agrees.

I turn to the microphone and am careful to speak slowly. "Hello. I am Will Leitch. I am here for Gizmodo.com. I am furious that the National League lost the All-Star Game last night. I am staying at a Howard Johnson s by Fenway Park, and it makes me feel very classy and special."

I watch at the screen lights up with my beautiful words.

HELLO AM LEASH I AM HERE FOR GIZMO DOTCOM FURRY NATION ALEAGUED LOST THE STAR GUMS NIGHT AM STAYING AT HOW WEIRD SON IS BEE FUNNY PARK IT MAKES CLASS SPECIAL.

I smile, the kid looks away and, all told, this class was special.

Exhausted already, I grab a sandwich, cookie and beverage for 12 bucks on special for the convention and then head back to my hotel room. Despite being armed with all this new techno expertise, I still can t figure out how to program the hotel television so it won t play "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" on every station, all afternoon.

The End

Among the Believers with Will Leitch

I am greeted by a 2003 Lexus in the middle of the display floor. It belongs to Michael Oh, the CEO of Tech SuperPowers, and the backseat is fitted with all kinds of digital editing equipment. The sign above the car screams proudly, GEEK MY RIDE! A Tech SuperPowers assistant named John DeYoung, who looks like he s a little annoyed that he couldn t make a career of going to String Cheese Incident shows, explains that this is Oh s actual car, rigged up specifically for this convention. DeYoung says, if one so desired, they could edit an entire film from the backseat.

I make a joke. Man, I thought the only thing you could do in a backseat involved a girl and a deserted road in the Midwest. DeYoung s jaw loosens for a millisecond as he stares blankly at me, and then he gets back on message. Well, yeah, it took us a few months to set this thing up, but if you really focused, you could probably do it in a couple of hours, he says. He offers me a seat in the backseat, but I decline.

When I told friends I was going to this convention, they all asked me to pick up some free crap for them, maybe an iPod or something. But nothing at the MacWorld convention is free. One exhibit, Delapod by Delarew Designs, sells designer iPod handbags, with a publicity photo of a woman modeling the merchandise. Apparently they don t use PhotoShop much at Delarew Designs world headquarters; the model has frighteningly large, protruding nipples desperately trying to escape her shirt. Another booth sells iPod holders, including iGuy, a squat Gumby-type thing with little deformed-baby flipper arms. It retails at $16.99, a discount special for this convention.

I notice a crowd at the MacDirectory Magazine booth up ahead. I drift over and see that the magazine has two display tables. One is manned by a chubby man named Huntley Fields; no one s at his table. The other, however, has a long line of balding, paunched men waiting to hear all about this thrilling publication. A buxom, tight-shirted, GoDaddy-esque woman named Vanessa Carlisle explains how the magazine works and offers to sell official MacDirectory Magazine trinkets and garb. A man in the back of the line stands on his tiptoes and even hops a little.

The Final Chapter Cometh

Among the Believers with Will Leitch

BOSTON—A few years ago, some friends of mine and I came up with a little game, usually played while drunk. The idea? Take Internet phrases that we use on a daily basis, and imagine how ridiculous they would have sounded if we said them 10 years ago. Example: Hey, dude, are you having problems with your Yahoo? Mine s totally messed up. Or: Yeah, I ve been Googling myself all day. I Googled my mom too. And yours! It s a good time, for a few minutes anyway.

It was difficult not to feel like I was living 10 years in the past while covering the MacWorld Conference in Boston this week. I m no computer expert; sessions like Harnessing the Power of Your XGrid and Discussing Automator In Tiger make about much sense as listening to a professional cricket broadcast. Oh, a wicked googly!

Yet there I was, on a morbidly muggy Wednesday afternoon in Boston, hanging out in the Exhibit Hall and visiting with the locals. Hardcore Mac users who of course are crawling everywhere here; this place is 45 percent goatees tend to be Koresh-ian about their computers; a merchandise stand sold convention T-shirts (for $30 a pop!) with sayings like Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back, It s a Mac Thing; You Wouldn t Understand and, my favorite, Who s Up For Some Mac-ing? (With a lipstick kiss splattered over the wording.) As a PC user who can t figure out how to work his Ethernet cable, I figured it wise to lay low on the first day.

A man named Bo Eriksson foils this plan immediately. He sees my MEDIA badge blogs are media, haven t you heard? grabs my arm and says, in an accent that s three-quarters Swedish Chef and one-quarter Bela Legosi, If you ll indulge me, I d like to engage a little guerrilla marketing. He smiles gnarled, ebony teeth, and I nod, sure, eyeing the exit a mere 20 feet away.

His company is called edgeBlur, his homebase is Washingtonville, N.Y., his nametag says Bo Eriksson, The Grand Pobohaa ( I might have spelled that wrong, yes? ) and his product is called the surFACE 1.5. It s essentially a TV tray for your laptop, or, as he calls it, a Desktop Replacement Machine. You set it on your lap while you re sitting in your La-Z-Boy, and then you set your laptop on top of that. It s like a tiny, unstable desk that moves; it s, seriously, a TV tray.

I ask him, considering he accosted me about 30 seconds after I walked in the door, how well the item is selling. Well, it s selling more in Europe, strangely, considering the shipping costs, he says. People here tend to spend the money on more RAM. But I m working on a new prototype that I m hoping will break through. He s starting to tell me about the upcoming executive version (with real wood!), but I excuse myself, walking backwards, hands in air, and head to check out some exhibit booths.

Look for Part II tomorrow.

Standard specs: 5.6 TFT, color screen, legibility.

Panasonic Prototypes eBook Reader Able to Display Full-color Picture [NikkeiBP via i4u]

These come in pastel colors, are reusable—I match mine to my underwear each day so today my laptop is pink—and cost $35 (!!).

SKYN Tones Laptop Covers/Skins [GadgetMadness]

INFILL T3 The Ultimate In-Car Entertainment PC? [eHomeUpgrade]

Of course, we're now spoiled by design-by-community sites like Threadless, so we think that should be Schtickers' next schtep.

Product Page [Schtickers via I4U]

I saw IBM hanging out at Lester's Bagels yesterday, waiting for Apple to start her shift but she called in sick and you and me totally know why she called in: she and Intel went camping with Trey and them and nobody told IBM. Harsh.

IBM introduces dual-core PowerPC 970 chip [TheInquirer]

Considering the torment Verizon provides you (and me and the rest of us poor buggers) they've got a number of ads on Gizmodo. They're brave enough to have a banner advertising FIOS at Home so I clicked. I entered my phone number, clicked GO and eagerly awaited the results of my super-cool 15 Mbps fiber connection. The result: Online Ordering is Currently Unavailable We are unable to check Fios availability and process orders due to a system error. Please try again later. If this problem continues, please call your local Verizon business office to speak with a Verizon Online representative. We apologize for the inconvenience. I consider this a sign from God that it's in my best interest to continue avoiding Verizon.

Son of Sonata: Antec Sonata II [ExtremeTech]

Product Page [MotionComputing]

Near friction free lube discovered [TheInquirer]

Integrated iPod mini in Apple Notebook [101Reviews]

I won't be able to make it into the city to visit C3 this week, BTW, so anyone with any info, please drop us a line. You can be a citizen reporter aka unpaid freelancer!

SilverStone Sneak Peak: New Cases at C3 [XYZComputing]

Now, back to your regularly scheduled gadget coverage.

First off, I don't specifically understand what's going on here. Ping me if you'd like to get the link and do some forensics. Essentially, you go to the typical locked-down Apache site with lots of fake Paypal material. It asks you to click another link and then you get some sort of strange mini-browser that causes your main browser to auto-supply your email and password. I stopped the script before it could do any harm, but clearly they are piggy-backing on a real site here.

The header of the mini-browser appears above. Click it to see the full screen. I wouldn't normally post these but this one was so unique and I haven't had my coffee yet. I got so freaked that I went and changed my Paypal password. I changed it to 1234.

UPDATE - Slashdot picked up the trail as did Bachelor Ben. Thanks, faceless horde!

Generally, this is a standard Motion tablet with hardware-protected encryption and fingerprint reader. This model costs about $1,899.

Motion LE1600TC Tablet PC [MobileWhack]

At least the launch of the 7800GTX should drive prices down for everything else, including ATI's offerings. Considering how choppy Battlefield 2 runs on my machine, I'm going to need a price break on a good video card (and motherboard, and processor, and...) really soon.

Links and more (actually, just links) after the jump.

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX Preview [HardOCP]
Chaintech Releases First 7800GTX Card [TrustedReviews]
Evesham Axis 64 Decimator 78 - G70 (7800GTX) Revealed [TrustedReviews]
Nvidia Editor's Day June 2005 and Hands-on 7800GTX Preview [HTPCNews]
Nvidia Kicks Ass With 7800 GTX [TomsHardware]
NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX Hits The Ground Running [AnandTech]
NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX graphics processor Power MADD [TechReport]
GeForce 7800 GTX: Nvidia's Nuclear Option [ExtremeTech]

Generally, I like Toshiba's work. Compared to other well-known Japanese brands—er, brand—a lot of the Toshiba notebooks have a nicer suite of software and some very interesting features. The original Qosmio pissed me off because I had to carry it home once to review it and it weighed about 500 pounds but hopefully these newer versions will be lighter. Or then you can get the U10 and hide it under your hat.

Toshiba celebrates 20 years of notebooks [GeekZone]