Sure, you'll have to bide your time until at least January to get your hands on a proper beta of Windows 7, but why sweat out the wait for Redmond's latest and greatest when you can get a taste of the experience in naughty, low-res web video today? Video after the break.

Look, we know haphazardly stapling an iPod dock onto nearly any product can cause almost-paralyzing fits of hyperbole amongst marketing personnel, but Scosche's description of its sad little reviveLITE nightlight charger as "cordless" because it plugs directly into the wall might take the cake. Oh, wait -- you know what actually takes the cake? It's priced at a delightfully insulting $40. Yeah, we'll stick with the monster under the bed, guys. At least it respects us.

The soap opera of would-be Mac cloner Psystar was already full of shady twists and turns, but there's a possibility Apple's legal team thinks there's some truth to a few of the wilder conspiracy theories out there -- a paragraph tacked on to an amended version of the complaint filed in California says that Apple believes people or corporations "other than Psystar are involved in Psystar's unlawful and improper activities." That could mean just about anything, of course -- we've always thought Psystar was being a little too cocky, and no one's ever figured out how a fledging company that couldn't even hold on to a credit card processor could retain such a hotshot law firm -- but chances are Apple's just covering its ass in case it wants to sue the major investors of Psystar individually or even the OSx86 hackers that unwillingly enabled the company's dubious business. Either way, with all of Psystar's antitrust counterclaims dismissed and Apple adding new DMCA claims to its lawsuit, we've got a feeling things are about to go boom in Florida pretty soon -- if machines really are still shipping, this is probably your last chance to grab a piece of (semi-functional) history.

[Via Daring Fireball]

It's been on sale for a couple days now (at least in Shanghai), so it had to happen eventually -- you're witnessing the first tentative breaths of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II as it leaves the box. So many manuals to ignore! So many useless composite video cables and driver CDs to fill your drawers! So much bubble wrap to spend intimate moments with! It all goes down at the read link, kids.

[Thanks, Mikha]

The last Iomega eGo drives we saw were notably sleek, but the company's going back to a more bruiser image with the newest in the series -- the Encrypt and BlackBelt once again feature that rubber PowerGrip that cushions the case against impact. As you might expect, the $150 Encrypt features hardware-based 128-bit AES encryption that pops up when the drive is connected to a Windows PC to protect your 320GB of precious memories, while the $120 BlackBelt drops the fancy-pants crypto and just murders out 250GB of storage with a double-black finish and little rubber spikeys. That ought to scare the bad guys away, right? Available now, with the usual assortment of backup utilities you'll just delete anyway.

[Via Electronista]

Read - BlackBelt
Read - Encrypt

Come on, you didn't think Nokia's only response to the G1, iPhone, and Storm would be the 5800 XpressMusic, did you? Word on the ground at this week's Nokia World conference is that Espoo is planning a major announcement tomorrow -- and hey, is that a countdown timer to the keynote that just went live on Nokia's site? Interesting. Our pal and yours Robert Scoble says that Nokia execs are running around bragging that "the Internet" is totally in the dark on this one, and that only a small number of people within the company have seen the new device. That's certainly got our ears perked up -- we're guessing this is something a little more major than that hinted-at touch Communicator. We'll let you know right away if you want to stay up with us -- the event is scheduled for 3:15AM EST.

Read - Scoble's take
Read - Nokia countdown clock

Intel's never made a secret of the fact that it developed the now-ubiquitous Atom chipset primarily for mobile devices and low-powered netbooks for at emerging markets, so it's not totally surprising to hear Intel sales VP Stu Pann say the company doesn't see netbooks as potentially cannibalizing sales of its existing processors -- but we are a bit intrigued by his seeming dismissal of netbooks as everyday machines. According to Stu, a netbook with a 10-inch screen is "fine for an hour. It's not something you're going to use day in and day out." That's probably true, of course, but it's harsher language than we've heard from Intel in the past -- and it's more or less in line with AMD's recent decision to ignore netbooks entirely in favor of more capable machines "above that form factor." Of course, Intel execs can pretty much say whatever they want as long as the company is basically the only player in the netbook game, but we think a lot of people actually are willing to use a netbook as their primary machine, especially in this economy. Could you handle a netbook as your daily driver? The comment box awaits.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

We knew this day would eventually come, but somehow we're still misting up a little -- Linux has been ported to the iPhone and iPod touch. Dev Team member planetbeing is the mastermind in charge of bringing everyone's favorite open-source OS to Apple's handhelds, and while it's a little rough around the edges (read: no touchscreen drivers, sound, or WiFi / cell radio support), it's definitely the first step on the road to hacking nirvana. The team is hard at work, and it even sounds like they're thinking about porting Android in the near future (!), so hit the read link to try it out and lend a hand if you can -- or just head on past the break for a quick vid of the port in all its text-scrolling glory.

[Via iphone-dev.org; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Word on the street is that people have suddenly (and rather unexpectedly) started to be able to buy the Curve 8900 on Rogers for $179.99 on a three-year contract with support for the carrier's Talkspot UMA service. Why this wasn't heavily advertised leading up to the release, we don't know -- folks seem to be red-hot for this release -- but at any rate, you should be able to stroll into your local shop in the next few days and pick this sucker up. That eternal question comes up yet again: Curve, Bold, or Storm?

Update: Game on -- according to Boy Genius, the Curve is now listed in Rogers' internal database and retail stores are starting to get stocks. So what's it gonna be?

We figured Apple would've learned its lesson after the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned those "the real internet" iPhone commercials, but it looks like Steve's back in detention -- the ASA just ruled that another ad claiming that the iPhone is "really fast" is also misleading enough to be pulled. You've probably seen the similar US version of the ad, which shows the iPhone 3G loading a web page, switching to Maps to locate itself, downloading an attachment, and then finally taking a call, all in 30 seconds -- yeah, that doesn't happen. Apple claimed that its "Network performance may vary by location" disclaimer was enough to keep it safe, but the ASA wasn't having that: it said that the ad was likely to lead viewers to believe the iPhone was really that speedy. Of course, we're pretty certain most people understand that reality and advertising don't really have anything do with each other, but we're not the ones in charge -- just wait till the ASA finds out that drinking gallons of beer doesn't actually make you more attractive. Check the ad in question after the break.

[Thanks, David]

Whittling might have been a hoax and Blackberry massages just a ruse, but the Awethumb is all too real -- and all too freaking amazing. Yeah, we're not at all sure that these $8 plastic thumbguards -- available in your choice of colors! -- will actually protect you from repetitive stress or even make typing easier, but all the dudes and dudettes on the El train will know you mean business when you slip 'em on. As an added bonus, lack of compatibility with the iPhone will allow you to express your disdain for touchscreens in a satisfyingly dramatic way -- if you can't rock it with an Awethumb, you're not rockin'. Ah, to be young and ensheathed in plastic thumb protectors. Frankly astounding video after the break.

We don't have official confirmation of this yet, but we're hearing from all over that Verizon's launch of the BlackBerry Storm has so far been a raging success -- from what we can tell, it's sold out nearly everywhere, and the online store is buckling under the load of thousands of eager buyers. Sounds like RIM's on track for a hit -- any of you have any luck scoring a Storm today? How'd it go? Digging the SurePress screen? Hit us up in comments!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We knew Orb was working on an iPhone port of its media-streaming app, and it looks like Orb 2.0 just stealthily went live in the App Store. The $10 app lets TV junkies watch live TV from a tuner connected to a Windows PC, as well as stream music, videos, and photos from their libraries. Even cooler, Orb allows you to monitor a webcam, so you can finally nail those Diet Coke thieves from the comfort of your cube (or keep an eye on your infant, whatever.) Sadly there's no date for the Mac and Linux versions, but Orb says they're on the way. Alright Sling, looks like the ball's in your court.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Intel's new Core i7 chip has been showing up in tons of silly-spec'd high-end gaming rigs for about three days now, so it's obviously time to get bored and move on -- and right on cue, TechRadar's got the first benchmarks we've seen of the upcoming dual-processor Nehalem EP platform. The secret test machine featured two 2.8GHz Nehalem EP chips (likely to hit retail in 2009 as the Xeon X5560) and 24GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM controlled by the new Quick Path Interconnect and on-die memory controllers, which together cranked out a SPECfp base rate of 160 -- way above the 90 posted by current 3.4GHz Xeon setups, and higher than the 105 scored by a 2.7GHz dual-processor rig with AMD's new Shanghai chips. Yeah, that's silly fast, and it's bound to get even faster when these bad boys launch with a 3.2GHz part along for the ride. Now if Intel could just siphon some of that speed into these pokey Atoms we can actually afford, we'd be grins-a-plenty.

Jealous your almost instantly-obsolete Eee PC doesn't have that speedy new SSD with integrated controller ASUS is using in newer models? Well, Runcore's got you covered -- it's just launched a line of MLC SSDs with similar integrated controllers that offer 70Mbps read and 50Mbps write speeds. Even better, they're pretty damn cheap: just $70 for 16GB, $199 for 64GB, and a slightly less cheap $389 for 128GB. Sadly, they're mini-PCIe, so you probably can't go sticking them in your daily driver machine for a little speed boost, but you can't have it all, Chico.