There’s a close look at the BACTrack breath tester over on our sister publication coolest reviews. Follow the link to see how well it worked in the real world…

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As you may have heard, we had an earthquake here in Southern California on Tuesday, July 29th. Measuring a “mild” 5.4 on the Richter scale, it was enough for our house to shake for minutes, the water in the pool to wash over the sides, and to scare us out of our PJs. Seismologists have drilled into us Californians that there is a 99% chance that the big one will hit in the next 30 years, so the common thought that comes to mind is: “Is this it?”

URGENT NOTE: The Red Cross has just established a “Safe and Well” website for today’s earthquake so make sure to register, or if you can’t find a loved one, input that info under “Search” function. For the best information on what do do after an earthquake, check out this page on the Red Cross site.

Experts recommend that you be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least three days in case of a natural disaster. You need to store your household disaster kit in an easily accessible, yet safe location (i.e., where it’s least likely to have the house come down on it). We have our state-of-the-art EQ kit in a plastic garbage can with wheels so we can move it around - in our case, probably into the middle of the street.

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When does the NFL football season start? Let’s see, Thursday, September 4th says NFL.com. That’s actually not too far away. It cannot come soon enough and when it gets here this year, it’s going to be broadcast not only on television but also on a computer near you.

That’s right, the league that used to fear the internet video market is making a stark reversal of their policy and will begin streaming complete game broadcasts over the web in a partnership with NBC. This isn’t going to be some cheap feed without analysis or pizazz, it’s going to be the whole enchilada. What is on television will be on your computer, including John Madden’s extraordinary genius and Al Michaels’ stoic cynicism. Not only that, but the devoted site at NBC.com will also feature highlight clips, views from multiple cameras, live statistics, and blog content.

This is all part of the NFL and NBC’s new “Sunday Night Football” program, which took over the big game schedule of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” two years ago. This means that you won’t be able to use the service to watch out-of-market games or catch them after they’ve aired, it’s just a simple way to watch the games on Sunday nights if you can’t get to a television. The extras might be the ringer, though. With advertisements being figured out now, there’s plenty of money to be made and if the NFL gets this right, everybody will be happy.

Read the press release, via Crunchgear

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After much speculation on what the latest Sidekick device from T-Mobile will be called, the carrier decided to just name it Sidekick, plain and simple. There won’t be any other code name attached to it, bringing us back to the basics. You will be able to choose to fit one out of two shells that come with each Sidekick purchase - black and metallic green. There will also be a wide range of pre-designed shell patterns and colors for you to pick up at T-Mobile retail stores or online, and I’m pretty sure we won’t have to wait for long until someone with an excess amount of Swarovski crystals and super glue decide to bling up their Sidekick. Granted, other luxury labels might also think of blinging this up with diamonds and precious jewels, but that’s another story for another day. For now, we will look at the features right after the jump.

• Exterior shells that can be personalized
• Capability to record, play and share videos: record videos using the camera; receive video attachments from e-mail, picture messaging, or side load videos to the microSD card; play video using the built-in media player; share videos via e-mail, Bluetooth or picture messaging
• Horizontal swivel screen and full QWERTY keyboard (manufactured by Sharp)
• WQVGA screen with high-definition LCD technology
• Enhanced Web surfing: PC-like, full-size layout or standard Sidekick screen-size layout to scroll and read a page; use Mini Page to zoom out on an overview of an entire Web page; save images from Web pages to the microSD card
• Customizable IM experience: create and join group chats, set custom status messages, search for friends in a buddy list and see who is logged into IM to immediately start a conversation
• Easy download capability: install and use downloads without the need to restart the device; set a theme as the device’s default instantly
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP supports stereo Bluetooth and Bluetooth file transfer to other Bluetooth devices including Bluetooth photo printers
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• Included 512MB microSD memory card
• More storage: Up to 25 ringtones, add up to five slides to multimedia messages, and up to 60-second voice messages
• Quick Find to search across all applications
• T-Mobile myFaves® enabled
• Dimensions: 4.7” x 2.3” x 0.7”, 5.3 oz.
• 2.6-inch display, 400×240 pixels
• Quad-band world phone 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; GSM,GPRS,EDGE
• 1030mAh Lion battery

You can pick this up for $149.99, which is pretty reasonable although you’ll be tied down to a 2-year contract in the process. Image courtesy of Gizmodo.

Press Release

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VMware released a second beta release (Beta 2) for their VMware Fusion 2 product. VMware Fusion is a virtualization software for the Mac that lets you run other operating systems on the system at the same time OS X is running. This means, for example, that you can run Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, and Microsoft Windows XP at the same time on a single Mac (assuming you have enough RAM to run all these OSes simultaneously, of course).

There are a bunch of new features introduced with the Beta 2 release. The Unity feature that lets you display an application window from a Guest OS in a virtual machine now works with both Microsoft Windows and Linux. You could, for example, run Microsoft Visio in Windows XP but make it appear as a single Visio window that looks to be a seamless part of the Mac OS X graphical environment. The new Mirrored Folders lets certain Mac folders be mirrored to a Microsoft Windows folder on the virtual machine. So, for example, you could run Lotus Notes for Windows under VMware Fusion and attach a file from the Mac in a mirrored folder.

Multiple image snapshots with rollback and AutoProtect is yet another feature. Multiple Snapshots lets you save a virtual machine’s Guest OS at certain moments in time. If there is a problem, you can rollback to one of those snapshots and start from that presumably working point. The AutoProject feature lets you create this snapshots automatically in predetermined periods (once every 30 minutes for example). Power users will really get a kick out of the new ability for Mac Pro desktops to assign up to four processors to a virtual machine. Previously, this was limited to two processors.

I downloaded the 329.1MB Beta 2 installation file and installed it on an Intel-based MacBook. During the installation I was told that I needed to install the MacFuse 1.5.1 user file space system for virtual disk support. Otherwise, the Beta 2 installation was quite ordinary. VMware Fusion 2’s graphical interface is quite a bit different from the 1.x releases. The settings interface, for example, looks and works more like the Mac OS X settings interface. This seems to me to actually slow down my ability to quickly look at multiple settings and configure them since you need to back away from one settings window to get back to the main settings window and move to the next settings item. I’m looking forward to taking a closer look at what VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 has to offer over the next week or two.

For more information read the VMware Team Fusion blog item Safer, Stronger, and More Seamless: VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 Now Available

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That’s cool! 2008 Dodge Viper ACR, designed for ‘owners who want to drive to the track, punish a few Porsches and then drive home’. Let’s go for stopping first, this Viper pulled a 1.1g on the skid pad and stopped from 60 mph to zero in just 100 feet. In the opposite, zero to 60mph, it is achieving 3.7 seconds, similar to standard model but this ACR did run a slightly faster quarter-mile time of 11.6 seconds at 124.2 mph.
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If you’re a combo lover then you’ll definitely love Brando’s latest product. The 4-in-1 webcam functions as a Web Cam + Microphone + Fan + LED Light. It’s a nice looking usb device that can be attached to any neat surface - table, glass with a flexible sucker. The 4-in-1 Web Cam is now available for purchase for $23.
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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jul 31st 2008 at 7:28AM
If you’ve been looking for more information about — and pictures of — Lenovo’s diminutive X200, you’ve come to the right place. Crave got their hands on the laptop, compared it with its bigger brothers, and even supplied some measuring tape for the size-conscious like some poor, chopping-block-destined farm animal. For review, the 3.5-pound machine sports the Centrino 2 platform, measures just 0.8-inches thick, runs around $1,200, and early reviews are positive.

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The tape dispenser’s one of the most common office tools to have which often goes unappreciated. In order to increase the usefulness of this device, why not throw in an integrated 4-port USB hub as well? This results in the aptly-named Tape Dispenser USB 4-Port Hub that features a trio of ports behind that can be rotated up to 90 degrees for you to connect just about any USB devices without clashing. The front portion has a solitary USB port to complete the entire look. It will retail for $23 a pop.

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Apple has made known that its MobileMe service has finally being rid of all the gremlins within, and Cupertino will now concentrate on improving the service in other areas. The 1% of users who have been locked out of their email accounts for up to a fortnight can now resume their normal life. Word also has it that there will be a new update on MobileMe’s status which will be posted on the company’s site sometime later this week. Unfortunately, despite such assurances from Apple, there are still some people reporting that the MobileMe status is misleading since the so-called “fix” has not really worked for them.

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