Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve long held that ROMs are the biggest selling point for Android phones that no one wants to talk about (or are at least neck and neck for those of you who absolutely need your porn on the go). If, after a few drinks, I start having a good natured debate about smartphones with an iPhone owning friend (which does indeed happen more often that I’d care to admit), I’ll usually break out my Droid and start playing a round of Super Mario 3.

However, the Droid QWERTY keyboard is okay–but not great–for such gaming. In fact, I’ve actually worn down some of the keys on the thing playing Super Mario Brothers. And, all things considered, I’ve actually got it good. There are plenty of Android handsets that rely entirely on the touchscreen for control–a pretty miserable way to play a console-formatted sidescroller.

Game Gripper offers a decent and intriguing answer–a controller that slips right over the keyboard of a number of handsets. But let’s be honest–you’re still not playing the way that god (and Shigeru Miyamoto) intended.

With that in mind, I submit to you my nominee for hack of the day. Using an HTC EVO 4G, a BlueSMiRF Bluetooth module, an Arduino board, and, of course, an original NES controller, this fellow designed what is quite possible the ultimate Android/Nintendo hack.

The final product ain’t all that pretty–and, let’s be honest, you’d look pretty dumb playing it on the subway (where most of my own handset gaming occurs)–but damn it if it doesn’t work like a charm

Jeez guy, don’t you know that it’s iPod (or is that iTouch) day? Don’t you think it’s hard enough being the iPod already? Constantly living in the shadow of your younger, more successful sibling? But no, these days the iPod can’t even get one single day in the spotlight.

Ahead of this afternoon’s big Apple music announcement, rumors are circulating about an iPhone 4 update coming later this month. The update will supposedly fix the hardware issues with the handset that have contributed to its “death grip” reception problems.

The comments are coming from Marco Quatorze, the director of value added services for Telcel, Mexico’s largest mobile carrier–also the home of the iPhone in that country. iPhone 4s sold in that country prior to September 30th will be the same reception impaired devices available in the rest of the world–Apple will be offering up the same rubber band solution, as well.

After the stated September 30th end of the promotion, however, Apple will be releasing the upgraded hardware, according to Quatorze. How valid are these claims? It’s hard to say. Apple isn’t talking (it has other things on its mind, after all–not that it’s ever all that talkative in the first place), but the dates certainly seem to match up.

We probably shouldn’t have been too surprised when the Indian government yesterday announced that Research in Motion had offered a proposal–an attempt to work with the government’s request for increased access to the information stored on its citizens’ smartphones for “law enforcement” purposes.

Principled stands are all well and good, but at the end of the day, RIM is a company and companies exist to make money, right? And India, after all, is a huge potential market for any consumer electronics manufacturer. In a statement yesterday, Indian government announced that the BlackBerry manufacturer had, “made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies.”

The aforementioned “proposals” come after an ultimatum by the India government, which threated to shut down BlackBerry support if RIM didn’t comply by August 31st.

The question then, ultimately, is whether RIM will be forced to make similar concessions in other countries. The India kerfuffle, after all, came on the heels of similar threats by the United Arab Emirates, which threatened to block services after October 11th. Within a few days, Saudi Arabia was threatening its own block, if RIM didn’t meet its request by August 6th (though the latter did, ultimately, grant the company an extension).

If you’re anything like me, you have a vehement rage towards iPods. Of course, some people will tell you “you should leave iPods alone, there’s more important things to be doing with your time than hating inanimate objects.” But these people are likely iPods dressed as humans trying to fool you into wavering from the cause. Don’t fall for it! You just scream at them “I’m too smart to fall for your dirty tricks, you iPod wearing a human suit!” And then run out of the room.

Thankfully, we live in an age where no person is forced to suffer their boiling hatred for a piece of hardware in solitude. The Internet can connect you with others who have been wronged by iPods. You can even find those who have gone all Hostel with their revenge on the portable digital device menace. Thankfully, these warrior poets decided to record their retribution and share the results with the world.

You’ll notice we didn’t choose any iPhone torture videos (and there are plenty of them) in this post. That’s because we like the iPhone. They and their smart phone ilk are going to make the very idea of a portable digital player completely outmoded. iPod, meet the true death!

But until that day of complete iPod obsolescence, they will still be among us. And they will have to pay.

Things get medieval after the jump.

You know how when someone points something out to you, you just can’t stop seeing it? Well, the blogosphere has just done that to me. There are a number of posts floating around various tech blogs suggesting that a new Droid commercial is mocking the Abu Ghraib torture scandal from a few years back–you remember that, right? “The U.S. does not torture,” only, you know, we kind of did…

I haven’t seen the commercial out of the context of the suggestion–and now that it’s planted in my brain, I likely won’t be able to ever see it that way. Now that it’s in the ether, however, the connection is certainly there. Certain parallels seem to exist between the images in the shot and the photos that surfaced of prisoners in compromising positions in the Baghdad prison.

I’m certainly willing to give Verizon, Motorola, et al. the benefit of the doubt here–at least as far as the subject matter. As far as the actual comedic content–well, it’s not torture, but that’s probably the nicest thing I can say about it…