Gizmodo: Poll

Is Iron Man the Best Superhero Movie Ever?

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Many of you have probably seen Iron Man already. Jason saw it on Wednesday and thought it was the best superhero movie this side of Batman Begins (but we all know Jason is a Bruce Wayne fanboy.) Brian agreed in his review. But we want your opinion: has Iron Man survived the jump from trailer to full-lenght movie, keeping its predicted status of best superhero movie ever? Your answers after the jump.

Iron Man to Be Released Today at 8PM

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:19:14 EDT

In case you didn't know, Iron Man—probably the most gadgety movie ever this side of James Bond—is arriving in theaters today, May 1st, at 8PM. Not tomorrow at 12AM, but this evening. Yesterday, all our West Coast editors had the opportunity to see it at the TechCrunch screening. I caught Jason just before he went to sleep in his crotchless pajamas, and I asked him if it was truly pantsworthy, like we predicted after the trailer. He said "yes, better than Spiderman and X-Men." Oh boy. [Superhero Hype—Thanks Lindsay]

What Kind of Geek are You?

AddyDugdale — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Wired has done a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to spotting geeks. Third from the right is gadget geek, who apparently "writes ferocious comments on Giz" (FIRST! and Will It Blend? are not examples of ferocious comments, before you ask.) James Chiang's fabulous photo just begs the question, however: What kind of geek are you?

I'm Mr T, you pantyhose suckas! [Wired]

Man Makes Canoe with Seven Thousand Chopsticks

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:15:39 EDT

Shuhei Ogawara spent two years of his life collecting 7,382 wood disposable chopsticks from his office cafeteria, glued them together in three months, and applied a polyester coat to build this 13-foot long, 66-pound canoe. This is heavier than a regular canoe, so he still doesn't know if it's going to float or not. What do you think?

We don't really care if it floats or not, quite frankly. We think it's cool enough as it is. With his patience, the next thing Mr. Shuhei would most probably build will be a 1:1 72,800-tonne replica of the battleship Yamato, complete with four 19.7-foot propellers and nine 18.1-inch cannons, all made from gluing about 15.2 million soy sauce containers, 26.3 million empty bento boxes, and an undetermined amount of old mochi for coating. [Pink Tentacle]

John Mayer Gets Apple Reply after Bug Report Jibba-Jabba

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:40:00 EDT

It looks like writing "John Mayer here" really works to get Apple's attention when you report a problem. According to Steve Jobs' fab guitarist, they got back to him directly only four days after he sent the bug report ramblings:

...four days later, I received an e-mail from my manager saying that Apple was at my service. Word of my problem initially made it's way to Apple not by way of my public profile, but by a technician receiving the report as they would anyone else's and passing it along internally until word reached my friends at the company.

Well, John, sorry to bust the bubble, but if you start your bug reports saying you are John Mayer, of course your manager is going to get a mail from Apple. The support guy who took care of Mayer had this to say:

"We take crash reports seriously on our side, because for us it's just like being able to talk directly with the customer while the problem is happening. The information that we get from the automated system is perfect for helping us solve the problem, and obviously the customers comments can take it one step further."

We bet that Apple takes reports seriously, but have you ever got anyone from Apple—or any other company—sending you an email from a bug report? [John Mayer —thanks Robbie]

Guest Editor's Answer: Mr. T has sent hundreds of bug reports about Safari breaking down and never got ANYTHING back from those Apple suckas! Here's my latest report:

Hello suckas! Mr. T here. I was trying to do some of editing today for this tech site and the crazy Safari crashed! I pity the fool who goes out tryin' a' take over da world with their browser, then runs home cryin' to his momma! So listen to me, suckas! You're going to fix this! Or I'm gonna kill that crazy Jobs! Sincerely, Mr. T

And then I added a picture of genitals drawn in ASCII code!

Iron Man New Full Trailer Shows Why It's Going to be the Best Hi-Tech Superhero Movie Ever

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:20:38 EST

I don't know about you, but any trailer that starts with the greatest gadget genius of all time having a morning whisky on the rocks, while traveling through the desert in a Humvee to the beat of AC/DC's Back In Black, says to me: BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER. Which is precisely what you can see in the new Iron Man full trailer, along with everything you would expect Robert Downey Jr's perfect Tony Stark to do, from tinkering with his armor while mixing cocktails to playing with a multitouch holographic display to crashing through his amazing mansion on the edge of a cliff (Bruce Wayne is a wimp) to kissing the redheaded goddess that is Gwyneth Paltrow playing Virginia "Pepper" Potts, his personal assistant. Best quotes ever and poll, after the jump.

Tony Stark (to army driver): "Good God, you are a woman."

Tony Stark: "Yeah. I can fly."

Computer: "Sir, the upgrade is complete" (talking about the new armor) Tony Stark: "Tell you what. Put a little hot rod red in there."

Tony Stark (to Virginia Potts, while fitting his armor): "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you caught me doing."

JasonPoll concept courtesy of Jason Chen (who is a Batman fan; nobody is perfect.) [IGN]

Proof of New Macbooks?

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:45:35 EST

Remember those rumors that AppleInsider was claiming a few hours ago? It came from an unfamiliar source, but while we're wildly guessing, here's an image of those updated model numbers with prices in the sub-$2000 range, far more appropriate for the Macbook standard than the pro:

According to this source, these are not the MacBook Pros you are looking for:

I just printed the inventory at FutureShop, the store I work at, and found new MacBooks... NOT MacBook Pros. The items are APPLE MACB MB402LL/A and MB403LL/A. I saw this posted in other places, but the prices is what will interest you. They're listed at 1149.99 and 1349.99. These are Canadian prices, mind you, so I imagine they'll be less in the states. Take a look at the picture, the two I'm mentioning are at the bottom.

Of course, Obi Kenobi here could have printed this out off Excel. But Macrumors recently got a separate source showing similarly low prices attached to the new model numbers.

Knight Rider iPhone-Inspired Interior Officially Revealed

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:20:33 EST

The new KITT's dashboard has been officially revealed, confirming the previously leaked image (in high resolution after the jump, along with a gratuitous—but necessary—photo of the new car and the Hoff at the Playboy Mansion) and Knight Rider's producer David Bartis' words about the interior design's similarities with the iPhone:

You look at the iPhone and you go—thats the coolest phone out there. It's just a flat screen that you can touch and access anything. So the iPhone interface was actually a big inspiration for the way the interior of this car would look because its very simple, it's very streamlined, it's very clean.

Looks like Bartis is right: aluminum on leather, check. Touchscreen, check. Glossy surfaces, check. Simplicity, check. Almost no knobs, except the new driver, who makes the Hoff looks like Olivier, Marlon Brando, Pacino and DeNiro combined, check. Voice spectrometer that look like an iTunes's visualizer? Check. Apple Bluetooth keyboard? Not checked, but looks like it. What do you think? Is it really iPhone-inspired?

[Net Car Show, Knight Rider Online, Shadow Flight and io9]

LEGO Monty Python Beats LEGO Star Wars, With a Stick

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:39:11 EST

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.With the amazing LEGO Steam Wars contest over, here's a new contest on LEGO Castle-based vignette story telling. One of the first entries is an instant classic: the "Bring out your dead!" skit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (video after the jump.) The obvious question, which may tear apart the site apart and probably destroy the whole time-space continuum too, is: LEGO Monty Python or LEGO Star Wars?

If you are a LEGO fan, don't forget to participate in the Classic Castle contest (hopefully with more Python-related moments.) [Brothers Brick]

What in the Name of Bender's Shiny Metal Ass Is This?

AddyDugdale — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:30:56 EST

[Dezeen]

iPhone Smashes Windows Mobile and Motorola in 4Q

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:10:42 EST

Steve Ballmer must be banging his head against the wall after dismissing the idea of the iPhone as "silly" last year: market research firm Canalys has confirmed the trend announced by Jobs at MacWorld, with the iPhone grabbing 28 percent of the U.S. "converged-device" market (aka smartphones) for the fourth quarter, smashing the combined Windows Mobile phones and Motorola. RIM was first with 41 percent, but Canalys thinks the evolution is "striking." Is this beginner's luck or a real success that is here to stay?

Apple's success as a new entrant is striking, but it will face challenges to keep its momentum going, said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham in a statement. Historically, vendors with just one smartphone design, no matter how good, struggle, he said. That means Apple will have to create and refresh a portfolio of devices if it wants to increase its market share, he said.

Worldwide, Nokia takes the first place with 52.8 percent followed by RIM with 11.4 and Apple with 6.5. When you think that Apple is only available in a few countries, this is a particularly stunning feat.

[NYT]

Iron Man Uses Dell Servers, Tony Stark Drinks Too Much Bourbon

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:30:26 EST

Here's a batch of 13 new images from the movie about the greatest gadget tinkerer and playboy of all time: Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. And while all of them are great and make our legs shake in anticipation, there's something wrong going on in there. Let's review:

• Same amazing armors as before, check.
• Random circuitry fiddling, check.
• Playboy sport supercars, check.
• One of said playboy sport supercars, a Cobra of all things, destroyed in goofy accident, check.
• $5,000 Armani suit, check.
• $7,000 Zegna leather jacket, check.
• Obligatory just-out-of-bed hot girl, naked in man's shirt, check.
• Obligatory hot-but-untouchable secretary for underlying sexual tension, check.
• Random casino gaming, check.
• Dell servers...

Dell servers?

Tony, Tony, Tony... really, you, me and the devil in the bottle go a long way back, but come on, off-the-shelf Dell servers? Where are the elegant supercomputers that any playboy should use? Where are the stunning mirrored-surfaced classified computers that only Stark Industries and Nick Fury would use? Even those punks from the X-Men have mind-blowing hardware. You can't have a friggin' flying armor and run it on commodity server racks, mate. Damn marketing.

[Worst Previews]

Is HD Video the Next Must-Have Point 'n' Shoot Feature?

Eric Sheline — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:32:25 EST

At PMA 2008, it seemed like everyone is adding HD video recording to their digital point 'n' shoot lineup: Panasonic's TZ5 and FX35, Samsung's NV24HD, a few Kodak EasyShare cameras and even one Canon PowerShot, the TX-1. Though Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm are still notably missing from the bandwagon, and Canon doesn't seem to be pushing hard just yet, we predict that 720p video recording is the next big upsell, now that image stabilization, face recognition and in-camera editing are nearly ubiquitous. The question is:

Sleuthy NYC Couple Use Deckard Technique to Find Aussie Lost-Camera Owner

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:13:03 EST

It was like a real-life scene from Blade Runner, well, except for the pleasure-model skin jobs, the handguns that sound like laser blasters and the whole Harrison Ford thing. An NYC couple stumbles upon a digital camera left in a cab on New Year's Eve, and decide to turn all sleuthy.

They pore over the 300 photos and videos in the memory card—which probably wasn't exactly legal—landing upon a shot of a bunch of people drunk in a bar, wearing nametags. Though the names themselves seemed to lead nowhere, a couple clicks up and to the right, a little zoom and voila! Our heroes could see the bar's name, written on an awning.

Popping over there, they shook down the bartender for information. The barman remembered a party and a particular "big tipper" who, fortunately for the couple, worked at another bar. They met up with her, and it turned out that her sister was amigos with the Australian who lost the camera. (What kind of amigo, I guess we'll never know.) After a few e-mails, the camera is making its way back to the bloke in Australia, who is happy to "know there are some honest people left in the world." [SMH]

Sure, it's a cute story, but the question is this:

The End of an Era: Steve Jobs Says Only One Boom!

AddyDugdale — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:20:23 EST

A lot of you have complained about Steve's "Booms" in the past. Old. Tired, you say, especially in our cartoons. Well, judging by yesterday's keynote, the Apple head man thinks the same. Compare and contrast yesterday's miserly tally of one "Boom!" to last year's bumper crop of 15 B-words. So, what word should El Jobso start repeating like a Tourettes-addled teenager now?

Apple Store Is Gone With the Wind, What Do You Expect Will Come Back?

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:50:04 EST

The Apple Store has been down for a long time now. As far as we can recall, it has never been down so long before a keynote, which may be a sign about what we already said last week: this keynote is going to be huge, even if the announcements could be tiny and paper-thin. While you wait for the keynote to start in our Liveblog, what do you expect to find when the store comes back up? Our poll with the most probable items is still going on:

What's The Best at CES?

Adrian Covert — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:24:58 EST

We're going into our fourth day of CES coverage, and we've seen some pretty sweet gadgets so far. So it's time to put the ball in your court and ask: What's your favorite gadget at CES? Vote after the jump or write-in your own in the comments.

Is the Apple MacBook Touch a Realistic Possibility?

Jesus Diaz — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:00:46 EST

Some Apple fan mixed the real iMac-like dock patent and the fabled MacBook touch, getting a very nice rendition of how both concepts may look together. There is minimalist dock station too, with an optical drive, extra hard-drive, charging and wireless connectivity but without the screen, which looks like a more realistic proposition. The whole thing is just a figment of a wet fanboy imagination, but could this really happen? And would you buy an Apple tablet, an ultra-Slim MacBook or none of them?

According to the author of this fantasy, "the Keyboard Wireless Dock connects to the dock using Wireless USB. It also has a bigger hard drive, some sort of DVD player/burner, inputs for your USB and Firewire devices. The whole keyboard part itself is used as a large multitouch track pad. Since the keys need to be depressed when hit, you can do lighter touches as you move across the whole thing."

Hokai. It also probably dices potatoes, synthesizes Strawberry Daiquiris and teleports you to other planets full of wonderful civilizations with sculptural Monica-Belucci-style oiled amazons or George-Clooney-style oiled warriors (depending on your preference), that will name you their King or Queen. In other words, it doesn't make much sense.

The black Powerbook-Titanium-style is quite nice, though. The concept may be feasible too: I like the idea of having an on-the-go tablet with touch keyboard for surfing, video, music and photography using a touch-optimized iLife suite. But one thing is some people finding the idea attractive, and the other is people buying it: unfortunately, the market for this kind of device could be quite limited as other keyboard-less Tablet PCs have demonstrated in the past. Even if we assume that Apple's implementation may make a difference, as it did in the case of the key-less iPhone, the market will still be very limited. One thing is a device like the iPhone, for short SMS/mails, and a very different thing is this kind of device.

Furthermore, looking at Apple's recent history, the company is not one that likes to create new markets, but improve on ones that may have true mass-market potential (like the iPod in the music market, or the iPhone in the cellphone market.) That's why a ultra-slim laptop idea, not a tablet, with Flash storage at a cheap price point sounds like a more realistic (and equally as sexy) as this tablet. Down the line, such product may get a touch-screen. At this point, a device like the one pictured here still looks like a risky proposition.

The mini-dock concept, on the other hand, seems like a real possibility for the rumored ultra-slim MacBook. If Apple finally decided to release such a machine without an optical drive, the dock seems like a reasonable combo. At least, a more elegant and more practical solution than their iMac-dock patent (and quite cheaper.) With a real keyboard. Apple did this in the past too with the PowerBook Duo. It was a good machine at the time, but limited. Perhaps like with the case of the Newton and the iPhone, now is the right time to implement all these technologies at the right price.

We will have to wait and see if all these wishes get granted by the Wizard of Cupertino. In the meantime, we can all vote and see what a part of the market, the readers of Gizmodo, really want. [Flickr via MacRumors Forums]

Gizmodo's 20 Most Commented Articles and Top 5 Commenters of 2007

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:30:51 EST

Gizmodo would be a sad lonely place without you, the readers. Sure, we would keep drinking cocktails and having wild beach parties in the South Pacific, but it just wouldn't be the same. No, really. So here they are, without further ado, the Top 20 Most Commented Articles and the Top 5 Commenters of 2007. Check them out and vote for your favorite after the jump:

Top 20 Most commented articles of 2007

1. Halo: Halo 3 Swag Rebagging (Plus Apology) - 415

2. iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don't Buy) - 344

3. Contest: Win a Free iPhone Software Unlock - 336

4. How to Comment: Win a Free iPhone Software Unlock - 286

5. Apple: 8GB iPhone Price Cut by $200, 4GB iPhone Gone - 279

6. Homophobia: Shareholder Takeover Planned to Stop Microsoft's 'Homosexual Agenda' - 273

7. Gizmodo iPhone Hands-On: I Called My Mommy - 237

8. Vote Giz: Vote for Giz! - 225

9. Apple: Apple's Beat Keynote Liveblog Here - 221

10. Exclusive: iPhone Free Software Unlock Confirmed (Death Star Explodes) - 215

11. Unicorn Chaser: We're Not Backing Out of Halo - 213

12. Top: Apple WWDC 2007 Liveblog - Steve Jobs Keynote - 211

13. Question Of The Day: Zune or iPod? - 209

14. iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 Out and Tested: Breaks 3rd-party Apps, Relocks iPhones and Sends Them to Semi-Brick Activation Limbo (Updated with video - 208

15. Whiners: Bitching About Too Much iPhone Coverage? Listen Up - 197

16. High Schooler Gets Detention for Using Firefox? UPDATE: Nope - 187

17. Announcements: Which Gizmodo Commenters Suck? - 184

18. Advertising: Intel Ad Might be Racist, but Boy Does It Make Me Want a Core 2 Duo 183

19. Oh, Food! I'll Just - Wahhhhhh!!: Squirrel Catapult is Awful, Yet We Can't Look Away 180

20. How to Comment: How Much Storage Do You Have? - 170

Top 5 Commenters of 2007
1. strider_mt2k's Activity - 4,151
2. Kaiser-Machead's Activity - 1,986
3. nutbastard's Activity - 1,356
4. ANoel's Activity 1,327
5. omg-ponies's Activity - 1,245

If you have another favorite comments or commenters, tell us in the comments and then other people can comment to your comments until a time-space warp is generated and gets all of us sucked into the next year or a new dimension.

Where Did You Shop For Evil Holiday Consumer Goods?

Mark Wilson — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:00:49 EST

It's Christmas Eve, and apparently that means people are making their last, mad dashes to immortalize their kinship through iPods and GPS systems. It's clearly too late to be shopping online for your holiday merchandise, but numerous inquiring minds need to know (OK, just ours), where did you do your holiday shopping this year?

Question of the day: Do You Use a Mac or PC?

Jason Chen — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:20:25 EST

In an effort to get to know our readers better, we're kicking off a series of polls that will figure out just where you guys stand on certain technologies. We'll start it with a big one: which do you use, Macs or PCs? We'll round all these answers up into a big something-or-other that you guys will like. Maybe we'll even include bar graphs!

Black Friday, Are You Risking Your Life For Deals?

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:01:10 EST

Black Friday's savings on tech are legit. We proved it yesterday in our Ultimate Black Friday Guide, comparing savings to online comparison shopping. If you are looking for a big ticket purchase like a TV, you can easily save $300, and maybe as much as $500 depending on the model. So we want to know:

Do Hit Chair: A Smashable Waste of $6000

Sean Fallon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:10:02 EDT

If you can believe it, the Do Hit Chair is a a $6020, 0.04" thick steel cube that the user smashes to resemble something approaching a chair. This "customizable" seating solution was designed by Marijn van der Poll and one can only assume that the absurd price tag on this thing is some sort of art-based premium. Honestly, charging this much for something so damn stupid because it is technically a "work of art" is infuriating. In fact, it makes me want to grab a sledgehammer and break some shit. Maybe that was the point in the first place. [Product Page via Productdose via Geekologie]

How Do Unboxing Posts Make You Feel?

Haroon Malik — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EDT

We want to know if you guys really want to see us unbox the newest gadgets, or whether you would prefer it if we skipped to the chase and just gave you a review outright. Talk to us, let us know what you are thinking. Help us help you. For the sake of humanity/Jason's pantsing sessions, drop your vote below:

When Will You Pounce on the Leopard?

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:30:00 EDT

I'm curious about when everyone is going to upgrade to Mac OS 10.5, better know throughout the galaxy as Leopard. I mean, I'm excited about all the new features but if I screw up my Mac, I'm totally SOL. Do I rush in where angels fear to tread and all that? What are you going to do? (And yeah, it should be obvious that this one is for the Mac users, but I've provided a few token responses for you haters.)Photo credit:Max Waugh

What should the X-Wing Guys Build Next?

Adrian Covert — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:00:04 EDT

So the X-Wing rocket project failed (albeit in a spectacular manner), leaving its dedicated group of hobbyists back at square one. If you could choose what they decide to send up in the air next, what would it be? Don't like the options in the poll? Submit your own choice in the comments.

It Doesn't Take a TARDIS To Time Shift

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:37:21 EDT

You read the post about DVRs screwing with Nielsen ratings, right? I'm gonna take a wild guess that most Giz readers never watch regularly scheduled programming. Here's a quick way for all of us to find out:

Japanese Company Releases USB Pussy but Nobody Knows What It Is

AddyDugdale — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:51:18 EDT

All clues point to the fact that this USB cat from Japan is, in fact, a mouse. Or is it? What do you think this infernal contraption is most likely to be? Vote in the poll below.

Whatever it is, it comes in three models and costs around $70. [Darumouse via Impress]

Some Broadband Speeds Slower than Advertised - How Is Yours?

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:30:05 EDT

In a fresh UK poll taken by 3,000 readers of Computeractive magazine, 62% reported that their broadband performed at less than half of their provider's advertised speed. Do you find this to be the case, or are you perfectly happy—or even pleasantly surprised—by your broadband performance? [BBC News]

What Features Do You Want in the TV Set of the Future?

Charlie White — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:40:05 EDT

Westinghouse, the company whose PR flacks try to make us think their old TVs are new but we're not fooled, keeps the press releases coming anyway, and in their latest missive they've done a poll, asking people what features they'd most like to see in TV sets of the future. The top answer? Voice recognition. Everybody seems to want to order around somebody or something, and the TV set will just have to do. Hey, let's do our own poll, using the same top answers Westinghouse got, and maybe we'll add one or two of our own. Cast your ballot, after the jump.

iPhone Wish List: Vote On It

Charlie White — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:15:00 EDT

We know you have a long wish list for the iPhone, but here's your chance to vote on it, Digg-style. There's now a site dedicated to iPhone feature requests, and it works on the same concept as community-based popularity website Digg. Vote for your favorite feature that was left out of the iPhone on the Wish List site, or register and suggest your own. Let's do our own informal poll here with the top vote-getters thus far. [iPhone Wish List]

UPDATE: Okay, okay, we added 3G to the list. It wasn't on the top voter-getters list on the iPhone Wish List site but certainly warrants a place in our poll here.

Poll: Is Your iPhone Earpiece Too Quiet?

Brian Lam — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:46:09 EDT

Informal poll time. I've been getting a few reader complaints about iPhone earpieces being too quiet. Before jumping to conclusions, I figured I'd ask around. Since complaining is a duty of the dissatified, please do me a favor and vote if you're happy, too. (I personally have had no problems with earpiece volume.)

Gizmodo's Female Reader Cellphone Study

Jason Chen — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:00:55 EDT

Samsung commissioned a boring cellphone survey for single women that asked them whether they had "text shame", which is sending a message and realizing that they shouldn't have sent it, whether women use it as an address book, whether they pretended to have reception trouble, and whether they had their friends call them on a date. All old stuff, so we're going to create our own, slightly more interesting survey after the jump.

Is Anyone buying the 4GB iPhone?

Brian Lam — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:36:42 EDT

I've never been into Video on iPods, but the iPhone's screen is huge, prompting me to convert some DVDs and buy some TV shows on iTunes. I want video on this thing. And so, I find myself already filling up the 8GB model all the way. Especially when system files take up 700MB right off the bat.

iPhone: You Getting One?

Jason Chen — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:59:25 EDT

A lot of you are obviously interested in the iPhone, but are you interested, or interested. Are you just satisfying your voyeuristic urges now, peeping at the weirdos in line, while you silently hold out for revision 2 or 3? Let us know. Your opinion matters to us. This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

Do You Shutdown Your PC at Night?

Brian Lam — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:33:28 EDT

You saw that study that Americans waste $1.72 billion in energy every year by leaving PCs on overnight? Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?

I've been considering turning off my PCs off at night just to avoid wear simple wear and tear. As fans whir, they draw dust into your case, robbing heatsinks of heat dissipating power. And most hard drives aren't rated for 24/7 service these days. [The Register]

Should Cellphones Be Allowed On Airplanes?

Brian Lam — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:16:38 EDT

Airbus just got permission from the EASA (the Eurotrash FAA) to allow cellphones on European flights.

Right now, crew can set the devices to silent mode, which amounts to a data-only mode for EV-DO. But the notion of a plane full of yapping business dudes is terrifying, and this doesn't restrict people from using VoIP. Frankly, the only time I am not blogging or thinking about work is on a plane, so I'm not looking forward this.

What do you think?

Is There a Problem with User Data Embedded in iTunes Tracks?

Adam Frucci — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:45:37 EDT

So we know that Apple embeds your user data in those DRM-free iTunes Plus songs. Some people have gotten up in arms about it, saying it constitutes a form of DRM, while others say you don't have anything to worry about if you're not planning on pirating the music.

So what do you think? Personally, I don't see it as a very big deal. I mean, the DRM-free tracks are meant to allow people to use the tracks how they see fit according to fair use, and having your name in the files won't affect that. Furthermore, anyone who's going to pirate music isn't going to do so by downloading AAC files from iTunes to spread around, they're going to rip MP3s from a CD. I think the iTunes Plus program is pretty damned awesome, and this whole ruckus is just an example of people never being satisfied no matter what they're given. Can't you people be happy for once?

–Adam Frucci

Do You Wall or Table Mount Your Flat TV?

Brian Lam — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:17:02 EDT

You following this Monster Cable debate we've been having? They showed us some tested differences between their cables and the cheap stuff.

One issue I have with the test is that they used 10-meter long HDMI cables. Of course that's going to dramatically increase the differences between high-end and low-end cables. And of course, I don't know a single person that uses a cable that length unless wall mounting; and wall mounting, in my experience, is rare. Many average tech geeks just don't use these.

Before I go to Monster HQ and match cheap cables vs their high end cables, help me do a fact check on my gut feeling.

And while we're asking, what about your cables?

Break Out the Fire Hoses: Only 4 Million iPhones Shipping This Year

Matt Buchanan — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 11:05:15 EDT

Remember all the fun you had standing in line to get a Wii because Nintendo couldn't put them out fast enough? Sweet, because if you want an iPhone, you're going to get to do it all over again.

On top of no pre-orders, Merrill Lynch (respectable analysts, but analysts nonetheless) is estimating that Apple will only be punching out around 200-300 thousand iPhones a month initially before speeding up to a million by the end of the year, for a total of four million shipped this year.

If you want to skip the riots, patience might pay off with ML pegging 12 million as the number for '08. Granted, that assumes that Apple would still only pump out a million a month—if demand is too insane, we imagine they can ask God to speed up his monthly deliveries to Earth. – Matt Buchanan

Merrill Lynch: iPhone shipments to total four million this year [Digitimes via New Launches]
Image via Flickr