That's more than we could say in early November, when we reported that the Crunchpad's development arc was more akin to Duke Nukem Forever than a real, live product. Pricing was all over the place, moving slowly up the chain from $200, to $300, and finally to $400. That was back in July, then August, and finally this fine month, at which point the price tag had ballooned to $400.

Well it's all hogwash says Arrington, thank you very much, and he has no idea where the high price rumors came from, since manufacturing costs have continued to come down. Maybe he's holding out until we all have replicators in our homes, and can just buy the schematics and software from him on the cheap?

In a video Friday (above, 39:00 mark) from the Gillmore Gang, Arrington said sponsorships akin to Firefox's Google search box could spiral costs down even further. In a Steve Jobsian twist he added that his team will continue to work on the tablet until it's "perfect." Great. I'll go warm up the replicator. [YouTube via Engadget]

The fact is that the timeline for the Crunchpad thus far reads like a vaporware gadget or the financially-challeged launch of the OLPC project. First, the Crunchpad was $200, then it became $300, then there was supposed to be an announcement in July or August. Of course, that never happened, but another summertime rumor placed the launch in November for $400. That was months ago—and nothing has materialized so far.

Rumors are rumors, but if rising costs are a major issue, that does not bode well—especially with the threat of a sub $1000 Apple Tablet looming. [Silicon Alley]

Unfortunately, Modu founder Dov Moran appears to be backtracking mightily from remarks he made when we first learned about Modu more than a year ago.

If you'll remember, Modu was once billed as a modular phone with dozens of "jackets" that could do everything from GPS to play MP3s. Additional hyperbole included the promise that the phone would be an experience that could turn the "one-size-fits-all" smartphone market "on its ear."

Now, however, Moran is talking only about the low cost, simplistic nature of the modu.

"Don't forget that billions of people are still using 2nd-gen devices and a lot of them don't need much more. People just want a small, light device that's easy to dial and send text messages. If you want an Iphone with a camera that makes coffee and can transform into a kite, and you're ready to pay thousands of Shekels for it - well, you have a big choice to pick from."

Yeah, but wasn't this thing advertised as the phone that could quickly and easily transform into whatever you desired? I kind of got the impression, ironically, that a phone turning into a kite was a Modu trick, not the iPhone. Guess that changed during focus group testing. [Calcalist via Mobo]

This Gear Diary diary on the Keyport brought back feelings of anger and frustration. If you don't remember, the Keyport was a device that took in six of your keys—custom made—and allowed you to individually *snickt* them out like a switchblade or Swiss Army Knife. Fantastic idea; shit execution.

The company's been showing off their "product" since 2007, and even showed pictures and video of the manufacturing process—a process that's so sophisticated they're able to charge $300 for a set. What did they do with all those $300 pre-orders? Not delivering a product, that's what. In fact, they refunded people's money in 2008, but then didn't get around to returning their keys. Why? We have no idea. After Gear Diary's post went up, a Keyport rep got ahold of him and promised that his keys would be returned and that actual products would be shipping some time between now and the heat death of the universe. Sounds doubtful.

But that's not the only disappointment we've had in the last few years. There was the Palm Foleo, which was actually an interesting idea (an Netbook-like device that connected to your Palm) that may have been slightly too early for its time. It came before the Netbook craze, and died an unseemly death from people who wanted no part of it and shamed Palm into ditching its development. But what of the people who did? The Pre doesn't have enough drying power to soak up those tears, but might be a better choice, market-wise, in the end.

Then there are the things that have been vaporware so much that people stopped caring. Was anybody actually surprised that Duke Nukem Forever was canned because the company ran out of money before their employees were able to switch rendering engines yet another time? Saddened, yes, but surprised? And how about the Phantom game console? They finally managed to deliver the keyboard + mouse part of their product, and even that was like pushing a mattress through a moonroof.

Are we conditioned, as tech lovers, to be accustomed to being let down? Did we care that the $10 Indian laptop turned out to be just something stupid? Or that the $100 laptop idea brought up years ago still hasn't materialized? Or how about a decently-powered laptop that will let you get eight hours of work done? Where's that?

I think we're just so used to our gadgets disappointing us that we'll take what we can get. We don't really care that Microsoft hasn't gotten around to placing all those promised features of Longhorn—which was stripped down to become Vista—into Windows 7. We're just happy they're getting the OS delivered on time. On time! We're grading one of the world's largest software companies on a scale we use to grade Kindergarteners.

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

Blood was reported to spill from the deceased, unfortunate test animals, but it was instantly turned to water. Blood to water—not even Jesus could do that. The officials that attended were so in awe of the dazzling power, they prevented any further development until the Death Ray Machine could be put to a useful, defensive purpose by the government. No one knows what became of the Death Ray Machine, but we think it just may be the scariest vaporware ever. [Modern Mechanix via Boing Boing]

The touch-screen interface is going to be built on a Symbian 60 OS base that still retains its standard UI.

Quite frankly, it looks to us as a little bit of good old FUD to hold the market while scrambling to match the iPhone. A year is a lot of time to wait for a worthy iPhone killer and we believe that real competition always benefits all of us, the consumers. And even if it was real, I'd assume they'd run into legal trouble for infringing on Apple US Patent #12341235ASDF for "Mind Bendingly Cool Phone" and other assorted UI methods.

So come on, couldn't you have done this demo on a piece of hardware not so Apple-like? Where's your pride? [Nok Nok]

Zenum Opus PDA Phone in May [Unwired via Slash Gear]

This makes the keyboard seem even less interesting than it was before, and it's gotten down to pretty uninteresting levels at this point. Next they'll announce that rather than OLED screens, the keys will be very small flipbooks. –Adam Frucci

Optimus Key Prototype from Taiwan [Optimus Project]

They're gonna keep on truckin' with the development while looking for a new manufacturer, but even more delays are probably inevitable. But hey, were you really planning on spending $1,500 on a keyboard? You just want it to come out so we can get one and post lots of pictures of it, so it's not like this is really that much of a blow to you. –Adam Frucci

Bad News and Good News [Optimus Project]

Making this work is existing technology known as beamforming, combined with sound localization using a camera or specialized microphone array. Mix that hardware up with a fancy software algorithm, and audio will be able to follow the listener around the room without disturbing others. Is this even possible, and if so, won't it be prohibitively expensive?

Microsoft aims to create that software algorithm, working with cheap speaker arrays such as its prototype pictured here, positioned in or around computer monitors. While the company admits the technology may be three years from actually working, if it ever does, it's hoping to include this audio beamforming algorithm in every copy of Windows Media Player.

Sure, audio projection has already been done, but not with this degree of accuracy. How will this be done? Insert miracle here. This technology sounds so far-fetched that we wouldn't recommend getting rid of those headsets any time soon. – Charlie White

Computer Speakers for Your Ears Only [Technology Review]

So now the official name of this much-delayed and over-hyped keyboard is Optimus Maximus. Too bad the damn thing will have a maximus price to go along with that naming conceit, spanking early adopters with a $1490 price tag, and now the company is saying it won't be available until December of this year. If ever. Sigh. – Charlie White

Optimus Keyboards [Art.Lebedev]

Olympus also said the E-1 will have the Fulltime Live View function, just like the E-410 and E-510, and added there will be unspecified "tremendous improvements in both performance and functionality, taking the excellent picture quality, mobility and reliability of the E-1 to new and unprecedented levels."

So in other words, it looks like Olympus missed a target or two, and wants to give itself nine months to roll out this camera. We're not holding our breath. – Charlie White

Olympus E-1 successor hinting continues [DP Review]

Our previous hands-on with this made it seem pretty robust, but their display here just screamed vaporware. Here's hoping that's not the case. –Adam Frucci

CES 2007 [Gizmodo]

Another piece of vaporware noted by Wired is the "iPod Killer." Thinking about the year in review it does seem every month there was another new iPod killer that ultimately failed (even the biggest iPod killer of all, the Zune). Topping the list as the number one piece of vaporware of 2006 is actually a repeat winner: Duke Nukem Forever. Congrats, Duke. – Travis Hudson

Vaporware '06: Return of the King [Wired News]

"I actually paid for the $100 prepay before April 1st when it became $120. Now the ship date has gone from June 1st, to August 15th and it looks like the price went up from $120 to now $160. However, those of us "smart" enough to get in on the ground floor won't have to pay a dime more (of course not, they can't refund the money; they've spent it). Here's to being optimistic, but I'm pulling out. It's vaporware in my book. Oh yeah, 5% extra off of any additional purchases. Wow."

Product Page Thanks, Jeff!

We almost can't believe the news that after two long years of saying "we'll launch it later this summer" and our favorite, "we'll launch it next year", it looks like Disney will actually be launching their Disney Mobile phone service this summer. Only Pumbaa truly understands how we feel.

Disney Mobile
Disney Phone Service Has Parents in Mind [NY Times]
Disney unveils MVNO plans, parents the target [Mobiletracker]

Designed by Igor Solovyov and Maria Solovyova—what is it with Eastern Europeans and vaporware?—this thing could be stuck to a bare wrist near you in the next few years.

Timeflex [YankoDesign]