How do you sell the idea of hot coffee to people freezing in a bus stop? You don't need much, but McDonald's built a steam machine right inside the shelter's marquee itself. Too bad that their coffee sucks. [DirectDaily]

What a unique thing a book is.  Made from a tree, it has a hundred or more flexible pages that contain written text, enabling the book to contain a large sum of information in a very small volume.  Before paper, clay tablets, sheepskin parchment, and papyrus were all used to store information with far less efficiency.  Paper itself was once so rare and valuable that the Emperor of China had guards stationed around his paper posessions. 

Before the invention of the printing press, books were written by hand, and few outside of monastaries knew how to read.  There were only a few thousand books in all of Europe in the 14th century.  Charlemagne himself took great effort to learn how to read, but never managed to learn how to write, which still put him ahead of most kings of the time, who were generally illiterate. 

But with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, it became possible to make multiple copies of the same book, and before long, the number of books in Europe increased from thousands to millions. 

Fast forward to the early 21st century, and books are still printed by the millions.  Longtime readers of The Futurist know that I initially had written a book (2001-02), and sought to have it published the old-fashioned way.  However, the publishing industry, and literary agents, were astonishingly low-tech.  They did not use email, and required queries to be submitted via regular mail, with a self-addressed, stamped envelope included.  So I had to pay postage in both directions, and wait several days for a round trip to hear their response.  And this was just the literary agents.  The actual publishing house, if they decide to accept your book, would still take 12 months to produce and distribute the book even after the manuscript was complete.  Even then, royalties would be 10-15% of the retail price.  This prospect did not seem compelling to me, and I chose to parse my book into this blog you see before you. 

The refusal by the publishing industry to use email and other productivity-enhancing technologies as recently as 2003 kept their wages low.  Editors always moaned that they worked 60 hours a week just to make $50,000 a year, the same as they made in 1970.  My answer to them is that they have no basis to expect wage increases without increasing their productivity through technology. 

In the meantime, self-publishing technologies emerged to bypass the traditional publishers' role as arbitrers of what can become a book and what cannot.  From Lulu to iUniverse to BookSmart, any individual can produce a book, with copies that can be printed on demand.  Instances where an individual is seeking to go it alone without a huge upfront inventory production, or is otherwise marketing to only a tiny audience, have flourished.  But print-on-demand is not the true disruption - that was yet to come. 

The Amazon Kindle launched in late 2007 at the high price of $400.  Within 2 years, a substantially more advanced Kindle 2 was available for a much lower price of $260, alongside competing readers from several other companies.  Many people feel that the appeal of holding a physical book in our hands cannot be replaced by a display screen, and take a cavalier attitude towards dismissing e-readers.  The tune changes upon learning that the price of a book on an e-reader is just a third of what the paper form at a brick-and-mortar bookstore, with sales tax, would cost.  Market research firm iSuppli estimates that 5 million readers have been sold in 2009, and another 12 million will sell in 2010.  Amazon estimates that over one-third of its book sales are now through the kindle, greatly displacing sales of paper books. 

Imagine what happens when the Kindle and other e-readers cost only $100.  Brick and mortar bookstores will consolidate to fewer premises, extract profits mainly from picture-heavy books and magazines, and step up their positioning as literary coffeehouses.  Many employees and affiliates of the publishing industry will see their functions eliminated as part of the productivity gains.  College students forced to pay $100 for a textbook produced in small quantities will now pay only $20 for an e-reader version.  But even this is not the ultimate endgame of disruption. 

Intel now has a reader for the visually impaired that scans text from paper books, and reads them in an acceptable audio voice.  It is reported that with practice, an audio rate of 250 words per minute can be coherent.  While the reader costs $1500, and requires a user to turn pages manually, it is a matter of time before not only the reader's price drops, and more and more books are available as text files similar to those contained in e-readers like the Kindle.  There are already books available as free downloads of text files under the ironically named Project Gutenberg. 

Therein lies the crescendo of disruption.  The Intel Reader is a $1500 device for the visually impaired, but will soon evolve into a technology that interfaces with Kindle-type e-readers and chatters off e-books at 250 words/minute, from the full e-book library that is vastly larger than any traditional collection of audiobooks.  A 90,000-word novel could be recited in just 6 hours, enabling a user to imbibe the whole book during a single coast-to-coast flight, even if the lights are dimmed.  People could further choose to preserve their vision at home, devouring book after book with the lights out.  As the technology advances further, the speech technology will allow the user to select a voice of his choosing to be read to in, perhaps even his own voice. 

Thus, without many people even noticing the murmurs, we can predict that the next 3 years will see the biggest transformation in book production and consumption since the days of Johannes Gutenberg.  That is a true demonstration of both the Accelerating Rate of Change and The Impact of Computing. 

The Rad Blaster does what a lot of MP3 players do—like play music, record sounds and store files. But this one does it shaped like a boombox. Like a BOOMBOX people.

Rad Blaster also includes a 1.1-inch OLED screen and 2GB of built-in memory. It's certainly bigger than a shuffle, but it doesn't sound like a bad deal for $60. I mean, can you breakdance to a shuffle? I think not. [Rad Blasters]

The automated precision with which the Micro S'more plunger fuses a marshmallow to its chocolate and graham cracker counterparts is not a power Man has proven worthy to wield. Two for $20. [Micro S'mores via Geekologie]

Choosing a graphics cards is a confusing endeavor. So Tom's Hardware shared their buying results after testing pretty much every card on the planet. Whether you've got $50 to spend or $250 to spend, this list will come in handy:

Some Notes About Our Recommendations

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don't play games, then the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need. We've added a reference page at the end of the column covering integrated graphics processors, which is likely more apropos.
• The criteria to get on this list are strictly price/performance. We acknowledge that recommendations for multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI, typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire or SLI and a chassis with more space to install multiple graphics cards. They also require a beefier power supply compared to what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision. In most cases, if we have recommended a multiple-card solution, we try to recommend a single-card honorable mention at a comparable price point for those who find multi-card setups undesirable.
• Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can't base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won't regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list; they might represent a good deal, but it's outside the scope of what we're trying to do.

Best PCIe Card: Under $85

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$50:

Radeon HD 4650 (Check Prices)

Great 1280x1024 performance in most games, 1680x1050 with lowered detail

You will not find a card that packs more punch than ATI's Radeon HD 4650 under the alluring $50 price point. With solid stock performance and an overclockable GPU, this card is an excellent starting point for our recommendations, and a wholly worthwhile upgrade if you're currently stuck using a motherboard with integrated graphics.

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$65: Tie

Radeon HD 4670 (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

With the release of Nvidia's GeForce GT 240, ATI's Radeon HD 4670 is no longer the most powerful reference card without a dedicated power connector. However, it remains a compelling solution under the $75 price point, which Nvidia's solution simply hasn't hit yet.

Performance is excellent and power usage is very low, making this product an impressive performer all-around. Its accelerated clock rates and modestly-higher price tag are worth considering if you originally had your eye on the Radeon HD 4650.

GeForce 9600 GSO (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GSO is seems to be getting quite hard to find, and is likely being end-of-life'd soon in favor of the new GeForce GT 240. Nevertheless, as long as it is available, the GeForce 9600 GSO remains a powerful competitor compared to the Radeon HD 4670. While the GeForce requires a dedicated PCIe power connector to supply more juice than the Radeon, it does offer better performance in some situations.

Best PCIe Card For ~$85:

GeForce 9600 GT (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GT is a great performer, thanks in part to its high-end 256-bit memory interface and speedy DDR3 memory. It's a great choice on an $85 budget, even if the architecture on which it centers is showing its age.

Certainly, this card's continued presence here is a testament to Nvidia's engineering work dating back almost two years ago. With that said, we'd certainly like to see the company's latest DirectX 10.1 cards drop in price to compete against ATI's strong offerings.

Best PCIe Card: ~$90 To $140

Best PCIe Card For ~$95: Tie

GeForce 9800 GT (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with lowered detail

The GeForce 9800 GT is essentially a rebadged GeForce 8800 GT, and offers the same great performance it has for years now (that sure sounds funny to say in reference to graphics cards).

With the rising price of ATI's Radeon HD 4850 giving it space to breathe, this legendary card is once again a recommended buy. But once again, we're looking forward to seeing technological progress put new, faster, and cooler products loaded down with more features in this space rather than revisiting history.

Fortunately, there's still PhysX and 3D Vision support to like about this aging board.

Radeon HD 4830 512MB (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with lowered detail

Just as the GeForce 9800 GT can once again be recommended due to the rising price of the Radeon HD 4850, so can the Radeon HD 4830. While availability is low, this Radeon is still a viable option under the $100 price point if you can find it. You'll discovered that it offers great performance on par with the GeForce 9800 GT, with the added benefit of DirectX 10.1 support.

Best PCIe Card For ~$110:

GeForce GTS 250 512MB (Check Prices)

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

The dissapearance of the $100 Radeon HD 4850 has not only opened up the GeForce 9800 GT and Radeon HD 4830 for recommended status, but also the GeForce GTS 250.

At $110, the 512MB version of this card offers respectable performance, and nothing else in the price range can compare to it. As fast as the Radeon HD 4850 and new Radeon HD 5750 (and notably cheaper), the GeForce GTS 250 has no real competition from the rest of the sub-$150 market at this time.

Bear in mind that going this route instead of the Radeon HD 5750 will cost you DirectX 11 support and Eyefinity. But in the context of gaming, you'll need to make other quality sacrifices long before trying to enjoy either value-add in the $110 range.

Best PCIe Card For ~$120:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB (Check Prices)

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

For $10 more than the 512MB version, an interested gamer can get the benefit of a full gigabyte of memory. At the highest resolutions and levels of anti-aliasing, this extra memory might provide a performance boost, though it's unlikely the GeForce GTS 250 is powerful enough to run at those detail levels. Still, many buyers might find the slight $10 price increase worthwhile in something like Grand Theft Auto IV.

Best PCIe Card: ~$150 To $290

Best PCIe Card For ~$155: Tie

Radeon HD 5770 (Check Prices)

Great 1920x1200 performance in most games

While the new Radeon HD 5770 isn't any faster than its older Radeon HD 4870 cousin (we've found that it's even slightly slower in many instances), it does have something the Radeon HD 4870 doesn't have: full DirectX 11 and Eyefinity support. Indeed, while the Radeon HD 5770 doesn't run away with any performance crowns in this category, it does look good from a longevity/value standpoint.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 260 (Check Prices)

Great 1920x1200 performance in most games

Like many cards, the GeForce GTX 260 is becoming very hard to find, and may soon be end-of-life'd. In any case, it does offer advantages in titles that run better on Nvidia's GT200 architecture, and it sports some GeForce-only value-added features like PhysX compatibility and support for GeForce 3D Vision.

Once again, a little diligence is required on the part of the buyer to find out which card is best adapted for his or her favorite titles, and whether or not your motherboard supports SLI, CrossFire, or both multi-card technologies.

Best PCIe Card For ~$200:

Radeon HD 4890 (Check Prices)

Excellent 1920x1200 performance in most games

The Radeon HD 4890 is essentially an overclocked Radeon HD 4870. However, the tweaks that AMD made to the newer RV790 die result in much higher overclocking headroom. At stock speeds, this card is worth the $200. But to get the most out of it, some overclocking is in order. And now that the prices on Radeon HD 5850 cards are through the roof, there's not much between this board and ATI's next-fastest solution.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$240:

2 x GeForce GTS 250 1GB in SLI Configuration (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most games with lowered detail

Two GeForce GTS 250 cards in SLI pack a punch and make a strong case for multi-card setups. With the Radeon HD 4850s going up in price and down in availability, these GeForce cards replace them as the weapon of choice for sub-$300 brute force power.

Best PCIe Card: ~$300 To $400

Best PCIe Card For ~$310: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5850

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5850 has some definite advantages over a pair of GeForce GTX 260s in SLI or a pair of Radeon HD 5770s in CrossFire. It doesn't need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard, it uses a lot less power thanks to its 40nm manufacturing process, and it sports DirectX 11 capabilities (plus Eyefinity).

Unfortunately, scant availability forces us to relegate the Radeon HD 5850 to Honorable Mention status until it can be purchased without having to fight for it.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5850 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$330: Tie

At approximately the same price, these options retain the same advantages of their single-card counterparts: two GeForce GTX 260s offer SLI compatibility, PhysX, and GeForce 3D Vision support, and two Radeon HD 5770s offer DirectX 11, Eyefinity, and high-def audio bitstreaming to CrossFire-compatible motherboard users. A good case can be made for either of these options, and none of them are a poor choice. Just pick your poison.

2 x GeForce GTX 260 in SLI (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles

Nvidia doesn't have a DirectX 11-class architecture yet, so if you're going to sink $300+ into DirectX 10 hardware, do so knowing that there are competing DirectX 11 boards available in the same price range.

A pair of Radeon HD 5770s won't offer quite the same level of performance as two GeForce GTX 260s in SLI; that's the trade-off for more modern functionality, though.

2 x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5770 sports added benefits over its GeForce GTX 260 competition: DirectX 11, triple display outputs, and the ability to bitstream high-definition audio content from Blu-ray movies contribute significant value to ATI's newest mainstream graphics cards. For those seeking long-term DirectX 11 compatibility, this might be the more attractive option.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$400:

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards should, on average, perform on par or better than a single GeForce GTX 295, and will definitely beat out a single Radeon HD 5870. Plus, these Radeons cost less than either option. If you have a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and want some serious performance at high resolutions, this route is the way to go.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card: ~$400 And Up

Best PCIe Card For ~$410: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5870

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

For $10 less, a couple Radeon HD 4890s will easily beat a single Radeon HD 5870 in the titles that matter today (perhaps this will change when DirectX 11 software becomes more pervasive). From a raw price/performance standpoint, this makes the Radeon HD 5870 a hard sell. But that is not to say this card is underpowered: it sports the fastest single GPU on the planet, relatively low power usage (remarkably low at idle), and DirectX 11 support. For folks without a motherboard that supports CrossFire and a hefty power supply, the new Radeon HD 5870 is definitely a more-than-viable option. Unfortunately, availability is still quite rare.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5870 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$465: None

Honorable Mention: GeForce GTX 295 (Check Prices)

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

Despite ATI's new Radeon HD 5970 taking its place as the fastest graphics card on the planet, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 (with SLI-on-a-board) remains an extremely powerful graphics card. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275s, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over a single Radeon HD 5870 in the great majority of game titles, although the Radeon will use far less power doing so. The GeForce GTX 295 does have an advantage in that it it still quite easy to find and purchase. Moreover, ATI's release has forced prices on these cards down by a significant chunk.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$625: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5970

Great 2560x1600 performance

3,200 shader processors. There isn't much more we need to say about the brutal grace of execution that characterizes the world's fastest graphics card, the Radeon HD 5970. With two Radeon HD 5870 GPUs onboard, the only things we can complain about are scant availability and an extremely high price tag. Availability should improve over time; the price not so much, but if you're in the market for this card price probably isn't an issue.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5970 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

There you have it folks; the best cards for the money this month. Now all that's left to do is to find and purchase them.

Don't worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there are close to Nvidia's and ATI's reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer's reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.

Also remember that the stores don't follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you'll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!

This "Apple memo" that appeared mysteriously on Fake Steve Jobs' site plans an all-out iPhone attack on AT&T's network this Friday, December 18 at noon Pacific:

Subject: Operation Chokehold
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we'll create a digital flash mob. We're calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!

You could join this flashmob to bring AT&T "to its knees," but from what I can tell, it's already there. [Fake Steve]

Now you can nimbly pick up bacon in the pan while protecting yourself against grease burns with these Fusion Silicon Finger Tongs. Also works great for Brachiosaurus and Loch Ness Monster finger puppets. It's breakfast and a show. [ThinkGeek]

Watching this video of glowing people playing tennis in the dark has me dizzy. I can't imagine watching the game live. Well, I guess I can imagine it, but I would probably vomit just by doing that. [Thanks Buster Cox]

Last week I invoked the wrath of trance fans everywhere by suggesting Above & Beyond, rumored to be the first musical act in space, should be kept up there. Turns out Richard Branson chose Spandau Ballet instead.

I think I now want a ticket aboard Enterprise even more than I did before.

They're performing just one song, rumored to be either Gold, True or I'll Fly For You (surprising news to anyone who thought they had just two songs) if Spandau Ballet guitarist/saxophonist Steve Norman is to be believed. With only six passengers and two pilots allowed on that first Enterprise flight, the five Spandau Balleters will make up almost half the human weight. Although judging by the looks of Tony Hadley these days, maybe it'd be more like 50/50. [The List]

For sysadmins with an ache for the open road, these Ford E350 4x4 vans, complete with telescoping 35-foot mast, are datacenters on wheels.

Eleven of the vans were built by EMI Technologies in the '90s for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to monitor radio frequency interference. That's why in addition to the 35-foot antenna mast, each of the vans has a massive air conditioning unit inside, complete with in-wall duct work, as well as Onan 6.5K generators mounted inside a standard 19-inch server rack. A couple of them even have flip-down desks and rear-facing captain's chairs for pulling all-nighters.

EMI Technologies is still building similar vehicles for government agencies, but when I called them this morning they didn't have a whole lot to say about the vehicles. "How they were used might be classified," one man told me. But probably not—given the NTIA's purview, it's more likely these were used to make sure broadcast television stations weren't overstepping their spectrum or something.

What makes them a real deal are the vans themselves. Adam, the man who is selling the one with the lowest miles, said he'd probably let it go for around $16k. That's a fantastic deal for a dually van with the Quigley 4x4 conversion, even if it is over ten years old. I know this because I've been out pricing vans to convert into an ersatz Sportsmobile. I nearly wept when I saw these, because living in an impractical 4x4 van with an antenna mast tall enough to get a strong 3G signal on a remote mountaintop is my idea of heaven. I'm just not sure that there'd be enough living space inside for me and my dog next to the antenna pole and the 19-inch rack, even if I did remove the ridiculously large A/C unit. But love would find a way.

Here are the other two vans. If you buy one, let me drive it around someday!

Samsung's new camera showed up on the FCC website the other day, and the specs look pretty good so far: 14.2 megapixels, a 3.5-inch screen, and the ability to send photos via email and post online via Wi-Fi.

According to the FCC filing, the ST5500 also comes equipped with 100MB of memory, microSD support, and can take 1280x720 video at 30fps. It's also got 7x optical zoom and ISO settings up to ISO 3200, along with a max 1/2000 shutter speed. Expect it sometime early next year, and not for cheap. [FCC via Wireless Goodness via Engadget]

Here's the idea: your child scribbles an animal on Shidonni's website, they hand-sew a corresponding one-of-a-kind plush toy and mail it to you. Neat, right?

From the looks of this video, sweatshop laborers aren't stitching their fingers to your child's Christmas gift. Shidonni is just a small operation with a really good idea, actualizing a child's design into something they can hold.

I believe the cost is $85, and if you were interested in the gift for Christmas, you'd need to order by tomorrow, December 15th. No word on whether or not Shidonni will sew you one of the deadly tanks firing exploding ice cream cones that I drew as a kid. [Shiddoni]

Attention, teenagers of America: things cost money, even when plucked out of thin air. And attention parents of America: buy a data plan, already.

When Ted Estarija added his son to his cell phone plan, he probably wasn't expecting the adorable little scamp to download 1.4GB in a month. But these kids, that's they do! Anyway, in a show of uncustomary magnanimity, Verizon has forgiven all charges for the month, and Estarija the Younger has been cut off, so everything's back the way it should be. Except for the fact that apparently a kajillion percent (approximately) increase in data usage didn't send up any flags at Verizon as it was happening, which is pretty unfortunate customer relations. [AP via Consumerist]

Jamie Capp was paralyzed playing football in high school, robbing him of the ability to hunt. But now, after a two and a half year legal battle, he's obtained a hunting license.

Jamie is now able to hunt using a 12-gauge shotgun attached to a battery-powered machine operated via breathing tube.

For a quadriplegic, firing a shotgun requires help from a companion. In Mr Cap's case, a friend sets up the contraption, safety on, on Mr Cap's wheelchair and Mr Cap aims the shotgun by moving the toggle switch with his mouth. Once his partner releases the safety, Mr Cap fires by sipping on the breathing tube.

It's great that the technology exists to allow Jamie to continue to enjoy a hobby that he loved before his accident. [Telegraph via Geekologie]

Assuming a 20-mile round trip to a store on Black Friday, one study found Cyber Monday emits 50 times less carbon through the miracles of online shopping. [GigaOM Pro via Treehugger]

If you've seen the internet (or Giz) this weekend, you've heard about it: the "real Google phone" that "changes everything." But before we get carried away, a counterpoint: Google isn't magic. And the Nexus One isn't a game-changer. Not yet.

And I don't mean to say that I don't understand what the Nexus One is, or what Google's trying to do. Nor am I saying that Google plan for the Nexus One—to offer a different type of cellphone buying experience than US customers are accustomed to, and to provide a model for future Android handset—is a particularly bad one. I'm saying that I don't get the hype: Google's Nexus one is an interesting experiment, not some kind of heroically disruptive Google coup, as many people, including us, have implied. Consider the facts:

It's an HTC Android handset. This means that on a material level, it's barely more of a Google phone than the G1—which Google passively oversaw—or the Motorola Droid—which Google actively helped design. And hey, people remember: Google still isn't a hardware company. Not even close.

The hardware isn't revolutionary. It's the third (at least) Snapdragon-powered Android phone we've heard about. It's got a 5-megapixel camera. It's got dual microphones, to help with noise reduction. It's fairly thin. These are nice features for a new phone, but they're more or less exactly what we'd expect HTC to be working on next.

It's pretty much running Android 2.0. People are talking a lot about how Google had full control over the Nexus One user experience, and how it's going to be unlike any other Android we've ever seen before. But we've seen other builds of 2.1, albiet covered in the Sense UI, leaked for the HTC Hero (spoiler: not that impressive), and combined with the early glimpses we've caught from spy shots, they give the feeling that 2.1 isn't much of a step up from 2.0, which is what the Droid ships with, which, mind you, Motorola doesn't seem to have touched almost at all. As far as I can tell, the Nexus One will have some pretty new UI flourishes, and maybe a few UX changes. Again: this is typical, paced progress, not a drastic overhaul.

The new business model isn't really new. Even the most breathless commentary on the Nexus One admits that what it means is more important than what's on its spec sheet. And yeah, it'll be the first phone marketed as the Google phone, and Google's sales strategy—to offer the device without contract first, and probably unlocked, with a (hardware limited—possibly just to T-Mobile, if you care about 3G) choice of carriers—is foreign to the US market. But it's far from unheard of—you can buy unlocked phones at Best Buy, for God's sake. Oh, and Nokia's been handling their US smartphone releases like this for years. It hasn't gone well.

Google doesn't have superpowers. Using their unmatched internet superpowers, Google can do more to convince the general public that an expensive, unsubsidized phone is a good idea than Nokia, whose marketing efforts have been wimpy and ineffective. But they can't do anything crazy, like give this thing away. They can sell it for cheap by relying on their own advertising network—or hell, their homepage—for advertising, as well as the massive press coverage they're already getting, and selling it at little to no profit. To be able to match carriers' prices, though, will be a stretch: A Verizon or a T-Mobile can absorb the cost of a phone in month-to-month fees and overage charges. What does Google have? Theoretical future Adsense revenue?

Even if what we see now is exactly what we're going to get, the Nexus One is something worth paying attention to—it will be a way for Google to demonstrate what their vision for Android is without carrier interference. They'll control the software experience on the phone; they'll control how it's updated; they'll control what software is and isn't allowed on it. And they could use it to convey an vision for Google Voice, in which Google supplies your number, your nonstandard calling rates and your texting allowance, while carriers simply supply a neutral, dumb and ultimately out-of-sight cellular connection. But even if that is what they're doing—we don't know!—the Nexus One is a first step. It'll be an early product to guide the progress of an industry, not the product that'll define it.

Whenever we talk about Google, we need to factor in a little windage. They're buzzy, they're huge, and they've thrown plenty of other industries curveballs before. This phone sits at the hype nexus (for lack of a better word) of Google Voice, Android, Google's online services and HTC. For now, to say that the Nexus One has somehow changed everything is to buy into these company's hype too earnestly, to ascribe to Google mystical qualities, and to take for granted a series of future actions that Google hasn't even hinted at fulfilling yet. Apple isn't the only company tech watchers recklessly project onto.

Or, to compress it to 140 characters or less: "The Google phone matters as much as Google makes it matter." For now, people, calm down.

For once, the Konami Code will help you cheat in real life: Punch it in on any product page at Gizmine followed by [enter], and a mystery gadget worth $20-$60 will be added to your cart, for free. Exciting!

We had a hard time getting it work in Firefox, though it worked okay in Safari. [Gizmine]

It's a neat-looking concept Corbin Dunn came up with, as far as cycling death-traps go. But in this economy, it's also practical for couples who'd rather not splurge on extravagances like a second wheel. UPDATED: Now with instructions and video!

For coolness factor, I'd put this tandem unicycle somewhere between Bi-Cycle tandem bike and the Face-to-Face, while for pure crazy it's just shy of the Uno bike in single-wheel formation. Unfortunately, Corbin forgot to save his "great post about the construction details," so you're on your own for now building a tandem unicycle for you and your sweetheart. I'm pretty sure that step one was "lose all rational sense of physical limitations," so feel free to get a head start on that until the full instruction list is up.

UPDATE: Full instructions, if you've got sufficient wild abandon, can be found here. [Corbin's Treehouse via LikeCool via OhGizmo!]

Remember the Adidas Imperial Stormtrooper sneakers sneaky sneak preview? The full collection has been revealed. I like the Skywalker and X-Wing models. Yoda is not bad, but Leia and the TIE Fighter are way too much.

Still, what I really want are the original Zissou Adidas. Head to Kicks on Fire for the full Adidas Star Wars 2010 collection. [Adidas and Kicks on Fire]

We posted our feature on Christmas Lights yesterday and the writer, the talented but inexperienced Chris Jacob used Jim Hutchison's piece as a source for some of his writing. But he didn't attribute clearly enough! We had the idea for the story, coincidentally, without knowing of Jim's fine work. And when it came time to research ours, his was some of the best source material to be found.

Chris's piece had multiple sources, but a quarter of the research did come from Jim's piece. In this sort of situation, we require not only an inline link to the source, but a full mention in the body as well as at the end of the post. This was not done on the first published version.

Chris—and Wilson, Jason and I—should have been more careful in reviewing his work and his research to make sure that Jim's website was clearly labeled, and Jim mentioned as an expert on Christmas lights referenced in the story.

Chris has updated the story and I'm going to talk to Jim about this later and apologize over the phone.

Again, I'm sorry for not more clearly mentioning where some of the information in this piece came from! To Jim and to our readers.