’s , like many phones in America, has been a consistent letdown to those hoping to rock any decent online content on their phone, mainly because of the prohibitive EDGE data speeds which currently dominate the GSM market here (a matter of fact, no matter how much Mr. Jobs ). Well, it appears that at least Nokia is feeling our pain, because according to a recent GigaOM rumor, the company is readying a 3G variation of the N95 — presumably with a US carrier in tow — due out this September, which makes sense considering some of the company’s . If (and when) this happens, it should make the do-it-all phone, which boasts a 5 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, WiFi, and all sorts of multimedia functions, considerably more attractive to consumers in the States, even with its $749 price tag.

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We know we don’t normally do our How would you change feature in the middle of the week — nor do we ever do it about software — but since Tuesday we’ve been absolutely inundated with unhappy customers who want back many of the the more robust features of previous versions. Chief among them, iMovie could seriously use themes, chapter markers, a timeline view, track-volume editing / fading, and the list goes on. So tell us, what would you change about it? Go nuts in comments, we hear Apple reads the site every once in a while.

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We’re not going to mince words — this post goes out to everybody in the audience that wanted a little closer look at the due out next month. Enjoy the eye candy!

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Futurama fans (and Bender freaks in particular) may need to be sitting down when viewing this one, as we’re fairly certain you’ll be at least somewhat blown away by what lies ahead. On a whimsical request from a friend, a pioneering lad set out to not only create a lifelike rendition of Bender, but to “give it a ” and make it brew (saywha?). Judging by his other endeavors, this won’t go down as the first alcohol-related project he’s undertaken, but he’s well on his way to creating what’s sure to be a fanboy’s dream. The creature is being constructed with an assortment of MDF, glue, polystyrene balls, fiberglass, paint, and all sorts of electronic internals, and while it’s not quite complete as of this writing, feel free to bookmark the read link and tag along as the unfolds.

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SAN FRANCISCO: Google is giving the subjects of news stories a way to comment on articles written about them.

The online search leader introduced an experimental feature this week on its Google News Web site in the United States to allow any person mentioned in a news story that is linked there to submit a written response.

A Google employee then must verify the authenticity of the e-mail. Some methods include independently tracking down the subject's contact information and calling that person directly, or checking the author's e-mail address and phone number against information on a company or organization Web site.

If the author's identity is confirmed, the response is posted on the same page as the search results for the story.

The feature helps Google's news site evolve from being solely an aggregator of news articles to a forum where news subjects - and even the journalists who wrote the stories - can respond publicly to criticisms. The company emphasized that the feature is in the testing phase but could expand to other regions and languages.

Google pointed to several examples on the site Wednesday, including one from a McDonald's spokesman responding to a story about preschoolers preferring food wrapped in McDonald's packaging, and another from a professor at the University of California at San Francisco commenting on the importance of a new HIV treatment.

Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Google, declined to say how many employees were working on the project or how many responses from news subjects the company has received so far. Google announced the feature Tuesday in a blog posting.

“It's still early, but we're encouraged by what we've seen thus far,” Stricker said.

The goal is to test the “hypothesis that - whether they're penguin researchers or presidential candidates - a personal view can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the story,” Dan Meredith and Andy Golding, both software engineers at Google, said in the blog posting.

Google operates the Internet's largest ad network, but far fewer people visit its news site than the one offered by its chief search rival, Yahoo.

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GADGETS OF THE WEEK

Walkie-talkies have long been an alternative to cellphones for keeping in touch with family members and fellow adventurers on camping trips or Disney World jaunts - and without burning monthly minutes or suffering from lack of signal coverage. Motorola's new Talkabout T9580RSAME two-way radios take communication even further by broadcasting emergency alerts through the handset as well.

The radios use Specific Area Message Encoding, or SAME, technology to monitor for hurricane, blizzard, flood and other announcements from the National Weather Service that are specific to the local area.

The Talkabout handset gives a visual and audio warning when an alert is in effect.

The radios go on sale next month for $90 a pair; full details will be available at www.hellomoto.com. Under the best weather and terrain conditions, the Talkabouts offer a range of 25 miles, or 40 kilometers, between handsets for personal chatting. For those times when there are no electrical outlets around to recharge the batteries, the radios can switch over to regular AA cells for power.

Relive treks with tiny GPS tracker

Hansel and Gretel may have had breadcrumbs, but this is the 21st century. There is no reason to resort to baked goods to keep track of your path through the woods. The Trackstick II is a tiny GPS tracker that can record your wanderings for weeks at a time.

The TrackStick looks like a USB thumb drive and contains a GPS receiver and two AAA batteries. The device picks up signals from satellites orbiting the Earth to find your current position and then stores your coordinates over time. When you are back home, you can connect the TrackStick to a Windows PC and review your journey in Google Earth or a similar mapping program.

The $180 device can last for up to two weeks on one set of batteries. It stores location points in a megabyte of flash memory and can take a reading on your position every five seconds. Dealer information is at www.trackstick.com.

Exercise fanatics can use the device to plan routes and measure runs, while travelers - apart from Hansel and Gretel, perhaps - can enjoy using it to relive their journeys.

A guitar toy that could please adults

There are no strings to break on the $70 Power Tour Electric Guitar from Hasbro, coming next month in stores or at www.hasbro.com/tiger. Instead, your fingers glide on a glassy, light-up fret board that picks up the electrical capacitance of your fingers - not unlike your computer touch-pad - to sense the pitch. Strums are detected by sensors that track your thumb speed and direction, and you can shake the guitar to bend a note. An onboard speaker sounds fair, but you can use headphones, plus Hasbro is releasing a $50 Power Tour Amp. Regular speakers provided mixed results.

You can toggle between free play or tutorial modes, where you can learn the 12 onboard songs, a few bars at a time while the guitar judges your progress, a bit harshly with either boos or cheers. The idea of applying these technologies to a pint-size guitar came from Steve Unruh of Hasbro. Unruh is an electrical engineer, former educator and avid guitarist who can play the hardest song, “Frankenstein” by Edgar Winter, on this very guitar. Not bad for a toy.

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We’ve seen similar for various iterations of the iPod family, like , which spans generations one through four, but unfortunately we have yet to see anyone take on the 5G video iPods… until now. One apparently bored and crafty gentleman who goes by the name Tarkan Akdam has successfully replaced his untrustworthy, archaic, mechanical hard drive with a substantially smaller 4GB CF card (we suppose what it lacks in storage is made up for in peace of mind). Apparently, it’s not so tough to find a compatible solution to go from the factory-installed Toshiba drive to an off-the-shelf chunk of flash memory — as long as you have a custom circuit board made and don’t mind soldering 0.5mm pitch connections. If you’re reaching for your mini-screwdriver set right now, hit the read link and learn the whole process.

[Thanks, Roberto]

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Keepin’ things fresh in the digital realm is , which just unveiled six new devices on the European frontier. The compact WS-311M and WS-321M units sport 512MB and 1GB (respectively) of internal memory for loading up music files when not playing back lecturers, boast USB 2.0 connectivity, and offer up six recording qualities to boot. The 256MB WS-110 and 512MB WS-210S simply double as a LCD-equipped USB when not tuning into voices, and the 256MB VN-4100 and VN-4100PC flavors throw in voice activation, four recording options, a built-in display, and a recording timer for good measure. Granted, the September launch dates keep them from being of any real value during the earlier parts of next semester, but be sure and click through to take a look at the rest of the family.

[Via ]

- VN-4100 and VN-4100PC
- WS-110 and WS-210S
- WS-311M and WS-321M

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