After the Windows Phone 7 launch passed without so much as a mention of Project Pink, Microsoft's other new phone project started to fade into memory. Today, we can confirm: Pink's coming, and Verizon's the carrier. UPDATE: First live shots.

A tipster passed us a load of 3rd-party marketing materials, in which a promotional plan for Pink is laid out in detail. (Campaign specifics and most graphics have to be witheld to protect the innocent, but rest assured, they're legit.) The documents don't talk about specs or software details, or more importantly why the hell Microsoft thinks this weird little pebble is a good idea, but there's plenty we can learn:

• The early Pink renders leaked to us back in September? Those are exactly the same ones included in the proposal.

• Of the two phones in prior leaks, only one shows up here: The Turtle vertical slider. It's a messaging phone, basically—one part Pre, and two parts Sidekick. (Or maybe three.)

• Verizon is a launch partner for the device, and probably an exclusive carrier. The branding and marketing in the documents suggests a joint Microsoft/Verizon launch, but another carrier isn't completely out of the question.

• The phones aren't running Windows Phone 7, unless it's hidden behind a different interface. Virtually all rumors around the Pink platform implied as much, and again, this appears to be something fundamentally different.

• Social Networking! It's all over the proposal, and presumably, the phone.

• It's suggested that the platform has apps of some sort. For a phone like this to share apps with Windows Phone 7 is pretty much impossible—the minimum hardware requirement for a Windows Phone look out of reach for this little black lump—so this one's a big question mark. Is it another SDK? Or closed app development like we've seen on the Zune HD? Web apps?

Since the documents come from a party working with Microsoft, and not Microsoft itself, a few things are missing: there's no mention of a release name for the product (Pink is the codename we've been using, but the launch title could be different.); stil no sense at all as to how the interface works; and no announcement or launch date. The documents are just days old, and hint at a near-term launch, which would be inline with what we've been hearing about a second Microsoft phone launch at or around CTIA at the end of this month. And remember, this are marketing materials, designed to promote a launch, not just an announcement. In other words, Pink, or whatever the hell it is, will likely beat Windows Phone 7 to market. So that explains all those Tweets, I guess.

All these missing pieces add up to a massive gap, not just in the phone's feature sheet, but in our understanding of what it's supposed to be. If it's a replacement for the Sidekick, the obvious question is, is anyone asking for a replacement for the Sidekick? If it's just a Microsoft-branded feature phone, er, why? Doesn't the future of youth/budget phones all about scaled-back smartphones (see: Pixi, Backflip), and not glorified feature phones?

UPDATE: More insiders have come forward, and now we have a possible timeframe: Late April. Oh, and there are two phones, as implied by the original leak. The second, according to our tipster, is the Pure horizontal slider, pictured below:

So these two phones - the Sharp PB10ZU and the PB20ZU - there are names for them but I can't tell you what they are, cause Verizon may just put out different code names in order to find out where any leaks occur. And frankly the names are really really awful sounding so I hope what I've been told aren't the final names anyway...

Apparently the interface shares some aesthetic elements with Windows Phone 7, albeit with "some sort of UI skin/more of a social-networking edge to [it]." As for release, apparently Verizon is "looking at a late April launch date," though this isn't set in stone. [Thanks, Tipsters!]

John Herlihy, Google Europe's big chief, says that desktops will be irrelevant in three years. Which is precisely why Apple and Google are trying to kill each other, fiercely fighting for the domination of the mobile device world.

Both companies know that mobile computing is where the action is now and where it will be forever. At its presentation, Steve Jobs was adamant that the iPad was the continuation of the battle that started with the iPhone, and repeatedly said that Apple was a "mobile devices company." Google's agreed, which is why Herlihy echoed Schmidt's words at Barcelona's GSM 2010: Everything that Google is doing and planning is centered on the mobile, the cloud, and ubiquitous connectivity.

They are both right: Your desktop computer will disappear, no matter how much the geekdom cries, unless you are an engineer or someone who requires a big screen to work on—and, even then, the idea of the desktop as we know it will change too. The mice will go extinct, and every John and Jane will do their work and their pleasure using mobile devices like phones and tablets. As it should be, because computing has to become invisible, not complicated and cumbersome, like it is today. In a few years, the computing world will be like Star Trek: The Next Generation, but without the Enterprise. [Silicon Republic]

We have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Porn Detection Stick, a simple USB dongle, will legitimately, automatically scan your hard drive for pornography. The good news is, well, times have changed.

The Porn Detection Stick, by Paraben, is a $100 thumb drive stuffed with Windows-compatible image detection software. Give it an hour and a half, and the device can scan 70,000 images—even deleted ones—with algorithms that analyze "facial features, flesh tone colors, image back grounds, body part shapes, and more."

The system promises less than 1% false positives.

Of course, what the software can't analyze are any videos that may be saved to your hard drive or pretty much anything in the web. In fact, the Porn Detection Stick seems designed for a whole other era of pornographic distribution, one when the discerning man might have scanned the latest Playboy to his 386 for posterity before pulling down his Zubaz pants to masturbate to it. Then again, maybe that's a good thing. [Porn Detection Stick via 69gagdet via ChipChick]

Hunting around in the iPhone/iPad SDK, one developer spotted this option to make an emergency call.

The above was easily achieved by enabled a passcode lock, and then entering it incorrectly about 5 times. You can then slide for a emergency call.

So does this mean the iPad will make emergency calls?

Possibly. There are two schools of thought here, and they both hold some validity.

The skeptic's response is simple, "that's leftover from the iPhone SDK, on which the iPad SDK is based!" It could be.

But, what I might call the more reasoned response, is that the iPads with 3G chips, speakers and mics could (technically) make such calls just fine. Plus, as 9To5Mac points out, FCC regulations mandate that all cellphones must be able to place emergency calls, even when not under subscription.

By offering iPad owners the option to make emergency calls, Apple could be sidestepping any FCC issues while also being generally cool about their device assisting those in emergencies.

Besides, I always knew the iPad was just a big iPhone! [Gumball Tech via 9To5Mac]

My wife and I joined the NYC pinball league two weeks ago. I wonder if they would let me play using this brain-computer interface, which was shown at CeBit in Germany. [io9] Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Ovi Maps has been a focal point for Nokia in the last few weeks since they gave it all away for free, so it's not surprising a hardware company wants to use their turn-by-turn navigation for cars.

If you've got an Alpine car system with a dashboard or speakers, then you'll be able to connect your Nokia handset by either Bluetooth or USB, with navigation displayed by Ovi Maps on the dashboard. Navigation updates and music can come through your car's speakers rather than the Nokia's puny little speaker, and even information about the fuel levels and engine health can be integrated into Ovi Maps, so if you're in need of fuel for example, Ovi Maps will tell you where the next petrol station is.

No products have been shown off just yet, but this Terminal Mode will be available on Nokia phones soon apparently—and with well over 3m downloads of the free Ovi Maps, upgrading your car system could prove very tantalizing for some. [Alpine via Engadget via SlashGear]

Just as I'd play LEGO Star Wars, I'd gladly watch a full feature LEGO Star Wars movie—assuming it's as well-executed as this clip. Enjoy the brick gore. [BricksinMotion via Kotaku]

If you're a Verizon customer and your phone isn't connecting to data this morning, it's not just you. Verizon has confirmed that its data is down across the nation, though apparently NY is doing just fine. UPDATE

Your make/model of phone has nothing to do with the problem, as everything from Blackberries to Droids are equally affected by the outage. Those old fashioned phone calls, however, still work just fine. [Crackberry and DroidForums via Engadget]

UPDATE: According to Verizon, the outage is over. On their Twitter account, Verizon also clarified that, despite earlier reports, this was an issue in the eastern US.

Lomo cameras (back in the day) were popular as they were cheap as chips and almost disposable, made from just flimsy plastic. Now, they're coated in 24-carat gold and in limited edition runs of 130 pieces.

It'll still produce the same dreamy photos full of saturated colors and vignetted corners, but at $600 a piece it'll probably be relegated to a dusty shelf than actually be used. Still, I definitely want one—especially now that I can spoil the aesthetic completely with Lomography's new instant back accessory for the LC-A+. [Lomography via Retro To Go]

After it was pulled in December due to some bugs, Layar is back in the App Store, available for iPhone 3GS users. [Layar via Mobile-Ent]

Seen through the eye of the YouTube gloryhole is Honda's eco-friendly trike, which debuted this week at the Geneva Motor Show.

While it's just a concept, it's on display at the show where the battery-powered three-wheeler is being ogled by people OTHER THAN US. It makes me slightly teary at the thought. [Electricpig]

UK bookies Paddy Power doesn't have much faith in the state of console gaming. After the PS3's spectacular shitstorm of a failure this week, they're putting odds of 11/8 on it happening again. The Xbox 360 meanwhile has 7/4 odds.

Sweet, innocent little Wii, which never hurts anyone with downtime—just a few broken plasmas when it first came onto the scene—has odds of just 2/1. They're taking bets now, with the next console to suffer a "global glitch" that gets reported on the UK Sky News paying out bigtime for those in the know. [Paddy Power via MCV]

People have been thinking long and hard for well over a month now whether they'll buy the Wi-Fi version which is available this month, or wait for next month's 3G model. AT&T isn't arguing their case well here.

Chief executive Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference yesterday that the iPad will mostly be a "Wi-Fi driven product," adding his thoughts on the likelihood of someone wanting a second contract. At least they know the score of the game. [Reuters]

Nokia's picked the beta version of the Skype app up off the floor, dusted it off, and granted it a shiny new spot in its Ovi Store, for all Symbian^1 phones. Your network can kiss goodbye your money.

It works over Wi-Fi or a data connection on these handset models: Nokia E71, N96, N85, 5320, 6210 Navigator, 6220 classic, N78, N79, E63, E66, N82, E51, N95, N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB, E90, E72, 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 mini, X6, and the 5530.

While it only works on Nokia handsets at the moment, Skype plans on launching the app on other manufacturers' Symbian phones, with Sony Ericsson next in line to get the free Skype-to-Skype calls, IM ability and sharing files functionality. It's available now through the Ovi Store, however whenever I click on it it says the item is no longer available. First day nerves, I bet. [Nokia Conversations]

This is Danvers State Insane Asylum, the inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium "which in turn was the inspiration for Arkham Asylum in the Batman comic book series." Today, the building is part of Avalon Danvers, a pleasant residential community.

Right now, those buildings stand surrounded by a swimming pool, fitness center, basketball court, and whatever other amenities an apartment community might have:

Still spooky looking, no? Doesn't seem surprising that there's been all sorts of supernatural activity reported by residents and visitors.

I just hope they hand out free Proton Packs with every new lease. [WIkipedia via Fast Company]

So there's this tiny unpatched bug in VBScript that lets sneaky websites run malicious code on machines running Internet Explorer on Windows XP. It's triggered when you try to access the help menu by hitting the F1 key. Whoops.

According to a recent Microsoft security advisory:

The vulnerability exists in the way that VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer. If a malicious Web site displayed a specially crafted dialog box and a user pressed the F1 key, arbitrary code could be executed in the security context of the currently logged-on user.

This means that all someone with ill intentions needs to do is create a website which has a somewhat convincing popup prompt to coax you into hitting F1. And tada! You've allowed him or her to run some kind of code on your machine.

It'll be a while before a patch is available for this bug, but in the meantime Microsoft suggests that you protect yourself by not pressing the F1 key if a Web site tells you to. [Microsoft via Computer World via Slashdot]

Picture by Karl Alvin

The Nvidia Optimus seamlessly switches between GPUs based on need. And based on this fellow being able to yank out a GPU while the rest of a system is running, it works rather well too.

Sure, it would've been funny if something had gone wrong at that 1:40 mark, but the fact that this little demonstration worked just the way it should is great news. By switching between integrated and discrete graphics, Optimus could one day double our laptop batteries' lives. And that's more exciting than any bit of sparks and smoke could've been. [nTersect Blog]

Around 600 million metric tons of water ice were discovered in shadowy craters at the moon's north pole. How much is that, in terms that mean something to you? Possibly enough to sustain a mother-F-ing moon base, that's how much.

A piece of NASA radar equipment hitching a ride on an Indian probe made the discovery, which was reported earlier today. It was only last September that water ice was confirmed to exist on the moon's south pole, but these significant deposits bring us that much closer to the ultimate space nerd dream of a base on the moon.

"The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought," said Paul Spudis, a NASA engineer who works with the Mini-SAR radar equipment.

Scientists say the water, which may be more readily available than that found at the south pole, could be mined for fuel and oxygen or distilled into drinking water for lunar dwellers.

Sure, there's that whole issue with the budget and how its steering our space program away from the moon. But 600 million tons is a lot of water, especially for a nation thirsty for some new space adventures. [Space.com via PopSci]

You've been skimming credit cards and the cops know—they've already executed a search warrant and found a flash drive full of evidence against you. If you're Florin Necula, this means that it's time to swallow.

After being arrested, Necula decided that it was a good idea to snatch up one of the pieces of evidence against him, shove it into his mouth, and swallow. Hard. Youch.

Not only will the poor guy probably wind up in jail with a tummy ache, but he's being charged with obstruction of justice because of his attempt to destroy evidence. [Smoking Gun via The Loop via Jim Dalrymple]

The X-Ray pictured obviously isn't this guy's. It's of some dog who swallowed a fork instead of a flash drive and was found at Mental Floss

So you want some cycling practice but you're worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. You don't want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers. Updated: More danger!

I would love to bike more often, but the thought of cycling here in New York City is utterly daunting. This alternative, however, seems even more terrifying.

If you want to brave your unfinished basement on two wheels, a free motion set up only costs about $35 in parts and can be assembled by following this Instructable. Just don't say I didn't warn you. [Make and Instructables]

Update: Giz reader Daniel and his buddies laugh at free motion bicycle roller danger. Why's that? Because they get down with free motion moped roller danger.

Thank you Daniel, I'm glad you are still alive to share that with us.