Tickle Me Elmo Xtreme Edition: Cybernetically Enhanced Giggles

Elmo was 10. That's like 90 muppet years. His sensors were failing. He ran through batteries four times a day. His once hearty laugh was little more than a half-hearted chuckle. Fisher Price had the technology. So after 18 months of advanced surgery and rehabilitation, they cybernetically retooled Elmo into the most Ticklish Muppet Ever. And just in time for Christmas.

Read on to discover the three stages of coochie coochie coo.

Tickle Me Elmo Extreme edition went on sale yesterday and the little hairy beast is already on ebay for 2-10 times its $40 MSRP. The upgraded AI and robotics give Elmo T.M.X. the technology to laugh harder, faster, better. Tickle sensors reside on the foot, side, and chin. The Three Stages of Extreme Tickling are...

Tickle #1: Elmo laughs, slaps his knee twice, falls down, and stands back up.

Tickle #2: Elmo repeats step one, sits down again and falls backwards onto his back and starts kicking his feet while laughing even harder.

Tickle #3: Repeats steps 1 and 2, then rolls over onto his tummy where he starts hitting the floor with his fists, stands back up again, and takes a deep sigh.

Pray to god that your nephew does NOT want one of these soon to be $600 dollar toys.–Brian Lam

Top-secret Elmo revealed! [CNN]

Shiro SK9151 DECT Skype Phone

Speaking of Skype, a Singaporian company named Shiro has announced the SK9151 DECT Skype phone. In case you weren't familiar with DECT, it's the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications frequency, which goes on the 1.8GHz band instead of the 2.4GHz, which interferes with WiFi and Bluetooth.

The Skype phone itself works without being connected to your computer, like the Linksys Skype Phone that we reviewed a while back. The Shiro has a base station which charges the phone and and connects to your computer via USB, which then interfaces with the Skype software on your PC. The phone has a 100 number memory and 20 number caller ID. It's also hands free, and lets you walk 50 meters away inside your house—300 if there's no obstructions. – Jason Chen

Shiro SK9151 Skype DECT phone [Mobile Mag]

Toshiba Announces Laptop Battery Recall

Showing that they're a big boy laptop player like Dell and Apple, Toshiba announces that they're recalling their older Satellite and Tecra laptop batteries for fear of malfunction as well. These batteries are also made by Sony, like Dell's and Apple's, but reportedly won't have any chance of igniting.

For flammable fears, forfeit fearsome fatal fatteries fupon Foshiba. Check their site for a complete list on whether yours is affected. – Jason Chen

Toshiba [via Gearlog]

Motorola KRZR Shows Up In Hong Kong In a Blaze of Glory

The Motorola KRZR, with its 2 megapixel camera, microSD, Stereo Bluetooth, and quad-band GSM has just launched in Hong Kong. And while Chow Yun Fat is busy using it double fisted on the set of Pirates 3, we'll sit here twiddling our first-gen RAZRs like a monkey that dropped its banana on the floor. Oh, and China and Taiwan got them now as well. – Jason Chen

Motorola KRZR Debuts in Hong Kong [Mobiledia]

12GB PNY MaxFile Attaché USB Microdrive

PNY has been releasing USB drives for a while now, constantly upgrading their storage capacity and adding features. This time, they've upped the capacity to 12GB with the latest MaxFile Attaché. It includes software that syncs user data—documents, MP3s, pictures, etc.—between systems. And all that data won't take too long to transfer over since the transfer speed supposedly tops out at 11MB/s.

The 12GB MaxFile Attaché is bundled with a groovy protective case and a USB extension (whatever that is). It should be available today, retailing for $$169. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [PNY via Fareastgizmos.com]

Gizmodo Reader Witnesses IBM Laptop Catch Fire at LAX

Reader Tom was lucky enough to be a witness to what may be the first blogged instance of an IBM laptop igniting thanks to its battery.

So we're waiting for a flight in the United lounge at LAX, the flight next to ours was heading to London and in the middle of final boarding, when suddenly this guy comes running the wrong way up the jetway, pushing other boarding passengers out of the way, he quickly drops his laptop on the floor and the thing immediately flares up like a giant firework for about 15 seconds, then catches fire. About a hundred other people in the lounge jumped up and began a mix of gawking and general panic, I clearly heard a few fleeing individuals saying something about terrorists. The fire burned for a minute while everybody just stared at it, then another flare up, this one much larger than the first, drove a larger group of gawkers away. Eventually, the high intensity flaring calmed down and a larger fire kicked in, all the while letting off a thick cloud of white smoke that was slowly filling the terminal. Finally, an employee came over with a fire extinguisher and put it out of its misery.

I spoke to the laptop owner (while getting close for some pictures!) and he said he his laptop was an IBM, that he had checked the battery against the recalls on the net and his battery wasn't a recall. I don't remember seeing any IBM laptops nuke themselves yet on Gizmodo, just MacBooks and Dells with Sony batteries, but it was a close call nonetheless. If that thing had fired off while that plane was in the air, who knows what would have happened.

Also, we got to overhear some of the not-so-computer-literate people on our flight talking about how laptop batteries can explode if you "get too many viruses on your computer.

Olympus E-400: World's Smallest DSLR, But Not Available in US? Huh?

Here's a bit of frustrating news: Olympus announced its E-400 10-megapixel camera, calling it "the world's smallest digital SLR," and the next thing we know the company drops the bomb that the camera won't be available in North America. Gee, thanks, Olympus. Change that.

It's pretty small, too—look at that insert picture to the right, and you'll see how it could just about fit in the palm of your hand. It reminds us of that "OM" series of film SLRs we had years ago, which packed a lot of big features into its small size.

So let's figure out what we won't be getting: it has a 2.5-inch LCD viewscreen and a sophisticated optical viewfinder, too. Olympus added an amplifier circuit that reduces noise, and at the same time speeds up its operation, allowing it to snap off three frames per second. Plus, it uses the full line Olympus's schweet Zuiko Digital Top Pro Lenses, along with a variety of accessories. If you're intimidated by all the high-tech manual stuff, it also has 31 scene modes to tailor its automatic shooting to your situation. Shipping in November, no price was mentioned yet. – Charlie White

10.0 million pixel Olympus E-400 [Digital Photography Review]

A Few Segways Go Haywire, All Are Recalled

Segways are just for cops and dorks, and now even they won't be riding them for a while because all 23,500 of the two-wheeled personal transporters have been recalled. A software problem was discovered that could cause a Segway to suddenly reverse direction, dumping the dorks on their duffs.

Speaking of dorks, take a look at that pic there—why, it's our beloved president taking a spill on a Segway. Maybe the thing just has good logic in its electronic brain, which will now be assimilated. Back to the hive, Segways. Mommie's calling. – Charlie White

Consumer Product Safety Commission Recall [CPSC, via Jalopnik]

Top 5 Road Trip Gadgets

Summer is coming to an end and soon there will be a nip in the air, and that means Autumn's on its way and those leaves will be a changin'. Sounds like it's time for a road trip, taking off for some leaf peeping during the most beautiful time of the year. But what do you take with you?

We just got back from a multi-thousand mile road trip, taking along a carload of gadgets. Which ones proved themselves to be indispensable? There were lots of worthy candidates, but we've boiled it down to the Top 5 Road Trip Gadgets, the most useful accoutrements in our bag o' tricks. See the list, after the jump. – Charlie White

1. Garmin StreetPilot c550 GPS Navigation System
GPS navigation doesn't get any easier than this, and the Garmin StreetPilot c550 showed us the way so many times that it practically became a member of the family. No matter how many turns we missed, the StreetPilot patiently helped us find our way back without calling us an idiot once, and its touchscreen display not only showed us where we were going but how far we'd been, and even revealed that, yes, we had traveled in excess of 100mph. It also played nicely with our Bluetooth telephone, flawlessly played back MP3 files, and even gave us hands-free speakerphonage, too. It's a great package for $800.

2. Canon PowerShot SD550 Digital ELPH Peep at all that gorgeous Fall color with a camera that has plenty of power but isn't too big. You can look at spec lists all day long, debating megapixels and 12x zooms, but what it boils down to is, what camera gets used the most? For us, it's the 7.1-megapixel Canon SD550, a near-perfect combination of small form factor, big sharp 2.5-inch viewscreen, fast performance and ease of use. Sure, it's not a 12-megapixel professional digital SLR, but try cramming one of those muthas in your pocket on a 5-mile hike sometime. Yes, we know—it's not brand new, but that turns out to be a plus because that makes the SD550 cheap, around $300.

3. Linksys Travel Router WTR54GS with SpeedBooster
Here's a tiny little pocket-sized Wireless G router that packs the punch of others five times its size. The Linksys Travel Router with SpeedBooster takes that single Ethernet connection in your hotel room and turns it into a WiFi network everyone can enjoy. This baby is powerful enough for people down the hall to tap into without paying, too. It's also great at sharing a wireless hotspot connection, and you can even enable secure encryption between your PC and your friend's. Best of all, it couldn't be easier to configure—every time, we plugged it in and it just worked. It's $80.

4. Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M65
When you're out on the road, it couldn't hurt to have workstation-class performance on your lap, and that's just what you get with the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M65. It has a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 processor on board, Intel's fastest mobile Core 2 Duo, affectionately codenamed Merom. Although it would have been even nicer if it had an SD card slot for all those pretty pictures we were taking, it proved itself extremely roadworthy nonetheless with its internal EV-DO MiniCard that lets you check your email even in the boondocks of South Dakota. It's $3288.

5. Mio C710 Digiwalker
The Mio C710 Digiwalker is more than just a highly accurate GPS device with maps for all of North America inside and natural-sounding voice commands giving you turn-by-turn directions. It's an excellent multimedia player, with a bright and sharp 3.5-inch display that can play MPEG4 and DivX movies for you, and also handles all the MP3s you can cram onto an SD flash disk. Plus, it works seamlessly with your Bluetooth phone, giving you a hell of a good-sounding speakerphone and showing you caller ID when the phone rings, too. It's easy on the pocketbook as well, cheaper than most GPS units at $600. – Charlie White

Hybrio Rechargable Batteries: Last Four Times Longer?

Hybrio batteries by Everlast are said to last four times longer than everyday alkaline batteries and can be recharged 500 times. The kicker here is the price, though, with a four pack including a charger costing around $28. If they can last as long as the company says, these suckers will pay for themselves after just a few charges. They'll be available in late October. – Charlie White

Product Page [Hybrio USA, via treehugger]

Formac External Portable Hard Disk Comes in Darth Vader Black, Luke Skywalker White

The Formac Disk Mini comes in both all-black and all-white versions, and despite its name, works on both Windows and OS X.

The drives come in 60, 80 and 120GB sizes, can be connected via USB 2.0 and Firewire, and is bus powered, so you can power it off whatever connector you use. Prices range between £70 ($130) for the low end and £160 ($298) for the high end. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Formac via Tech Digest]

BenQ C1000 10-Megapixel Camera

BenQ has unveiled an update to their C800 digital camera. Welcome the C1000. This thing has a whopping 10.1-megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom and 2.4-inch LCD. This camera also has PASM, a feature that allows a wide variety of different shooting techniques. It even allows manual control of aperture and shutter settings. Damn, make it a little bulkier and it could be confused for a DSLR. The C1000 has includes 24MB of internal memory and SD memory expansion. It will be available later this month for $360.

Wait, wait, wait. Hold the phone. BenQ makes digital cameras? Slap me around and call me Sally—you learn something new everyday. – Travis Hudson

BenQ launch C1000 10.1 megapixel digital camera [TechDigest]

Teclast TL-29 PMP

Teclast's R&D division has come up with the TL-T29, a portable media player that actually is pretty eye-pleasing. Also appreciated is that it supports so many gosh darn codecs, including the usual (MP3, WMA, etc.) and the esoteric (FLAC and Ogg). It does all of this with a 2.0-inch, 220x176-pixel resolution window to the world. You'll also find Teclast RBS Surround Sound and Teclast Stone3D Surround Sound. I guess "Gimmicky Audio Trickery" was already taken by some other company.

Battery life is expected to be in the 15-hour range for this portable media player, or PMP as the kids say. The 4GB version will retail for $125 when it comes out. – Nicholas Deleon

Updated Teclast TL-T29 info and Teclast TL-T29 - stylish flash PMP [dapreview.net]

Digital Radio / FM Receiver

Available Mid-September in Japan, this One-Seg digital radio/FM receiver will retail for 150,000 yen to corporate users ($1,288), and less for a consumer model. we're not sure why the device, with its 2.17-inch 240x320 screen, H.264 codec playback, and 3 hour battery life costs over a grand. From what we can make out from the translation, it's capable of receiving digital radio (their version of Sirius?) and regular FM radio. Their digital radio has 5.1 channels and "can offer colorful service it is new broadcast".

Can any Japanese readers shed some light on this? It does look pretty neat, even if there's zero chance of the US having a use for it. – Jason Chen

Pixela [Techjapan]

New Apple Products

New iPod Models

How to Recover Disk Space on your PC

Reader Leo writes: Lately I notice that Windows tells me i have low disk space quite often. When I start my computer I might have 800MB of free space, but after a few hours I get a warning from Windows and my drive shows less than 200MB of free space. Could this be a virus?

Many people don't realize that Windows makes prodigious use of your hard drive, even if you aren't installing new programs or creating new files. Through temporary files and the notorious swap file (the repository of "virtual memory" for when you run out of RAM). Want to see how big it is in the flesh? Just look on the C: drive (in the root folder) for "pagefile.sys." My pagefile.sys is 1.5GB in size. I'll discuss how to change this in a moment. But anyway, no, you don't have a virus. You're a victim of not having a big enough hard drive.

Let's start with how to attack this problem the easy way. First, let's try to clear off some space. You can start by getting rid of any files you don't need (got any old podcasts or video downloads clogging up your hard drive? toss 'em). You should also delete any old emails you no longer need, and make sure you empty them out of your deleted items folder.

Next take a spin with Windows Disk Cleanup (under Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools). Disk Cleanup will scour your drive for excess junk (like temporary files and old installers you don't need), and give you the option to delete them. You can also consider compressing old data files (Disk Cleanup will do this for you). Disk Cleanup is usually good for a few gigabytes of newly free space if you haven't run it recently. While you're at it, remember to uninstall any programs you don't use any more, using the Add/Remove Programs control panel.

Another useful trick is to throttle down System Restore settings. Go into the Windows System control panel and click the System Restore tab. By default, System Restore is set to use "Max" disk space: 12 percent of your drive. You can safely knock this down to 5 percent with minimal risk. On a 60GB drive, that equals more than 4GB of newly freed space.

Also in the System control panel, you can decrease the size of your swap file, though be warned, this could hurt performance. Click Advanced, then under Performance click Settings. Click Advanced again then look at the bottom of that tab. Your current virtual memory page file size will be noted. Click Change to throttle it down, though you should never go below the amount of your physical RAM. I recommend tweaking this only as a last resort.

After that, you can try shareware apps designed to free up disk space, but I don't really recommend them. A fresh Windows install will likely free up space too, but only if you back up the drive and reformat it. Again, that's probably more trouble than its worth. If these tips don't help you, you're probably just have too much data to fit on your hard drive. Consider adding a second drive (external models connect easily with USB) or, just maybe, upgrading the whole shebang. Good luck.