I opened my new copy of Wired this week -- the one with Stephen Colbert on the cover -- to find the ad you see at left, advertising Cingular's new RAZR with iTunes, otherwise known as the V3i. (Click on the ad to make it bigger.) That connected with a statement Motorola CEO Ed Zander had made on stage in Chicago last week, when he said Cingular was selling the V3i "right now."

The V3i is the long awaited upgrade to Cingular's existing RAZR. As Phone Scoop says, it has a megapixel camera, MicroSD slot and voice commands -- so it's basically a lot like Verizon's RAZR V3m, but with iTunes instead of V CAST.

There's only one problem: Cingular isn't selling this phone yet. When I asked Cingular reps about the issue, they had no comment. And if you go to the Web site mentioned in the Wired ad, the V3i is nowhere to be seen. But apparently, both Motorola and whoever writes Cingular's ad copy think Cingular is selling the V3i. Left hand, meet right hand ...

Molly told us last week about the Bluetooth Virtual Laser Keyboard; here's another virtual keyboard, but this one's for musicians. Created by a company called Digital Information Development (DID), this cool-looking device simulates a 25-key 2-octave piano keyboard by projecting laser beams onto a surface. A CMOS camera and infrared semiconductor laser detect the keys you touch and plays the correct notes from built-in speakers.

The keyboard can simulate an organ, pipe organ and harpsichord, as well as a piano. It'll ship in Japan this coming November and should go for around 15,000 yen (around $130 U.S.). That seems, well, pretty cheap to me! Dynamism and ThinkGeek should look into carrying this.

[via Pink Tentacle]

As I've told readers before, I just love everything that Saitek comes out with.

This month, Saitek is shipping the Eclipse II backlit keyboard, which is an updated version of the original Eclipse ($60). The new version lets you switch between three different backlit colors (purple, red, blue) that illuminate through the laster-etched keys and are adjustable via a dimmer switch on the keyboard. The Eclipse II is made of a stylish silver casing, and its weighted base and large area rubber feet keep it planted on your desk. 

Other noticeable new features are media keys for volume control, Play/Pause and Skip Tracks. Works only with Win XP and 2000.

The Eclipse II Keyboard sells for $70. (Click on image for closer look.)

Thanks to PC Mag News Editor Mark Hachman for the tip!

What does your future hold? Technology to the rescue! Feed the Fortune Ball your birth date and time, and it calculates a 30-day fortune for you, using the Chinese calendar, astrology, numerology, I Ching, and Biorythms. It'll start glowing in one of the following colors: Red means common fortune; purple means rising fortune; green means good fortune; light blue means great fortune; and dark blue means supreme fortune. There's no bad fortune? Yeah, OK. I'm assuming the true interpretations range from "Don't come out of the bomb shelter until I glow otherwise" to "Enjoy that mansion and private jet, hot stuff."

The Fortune Ball was invented by Dr. Ming Fang, who allegedly is a well-known developer of medical and industrial products.  If that's true, it's kind of sad to think that Dr. Fang put finding a cure for cancer on hold to make this thing. But for £69.99 (USD $112.68) you too can own a device run by a curious mélange of mystical superstitions that glows a vague forecast of the upcoming month.

[via Gizmodo]

Thanks to Errol Pierre-Louis for the writeup!

Jen beat me to the Mel in Malibu ringtone! But here's an appropriately news-related followup. A couple weeks ago at the G8 summit, our compassionate leader decided to give German chancellor Angela Merkel a drive-by shoulder massage. Her reaction is priceless, and the video has been all over the Web.

If you can't get enough of this latest Dubya scandal, click over to Addicting Games and play Bush Backrub, which requires you to race among Merkel, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-Il furiously rubbing away. If one of them gets mad and leaves the table, the game is over. As a game, it'll keep you occupied for a short while. As social commentary, it's funny stuff. Happy Friday!

(I know this is very tenuously gadget-related. Well, you do have to play it on your PC...)

If you keep up with the Stars, then you already know that Mel Gibson was charged with drunken driving and driving with an open container last Friday in Malibu. And apparently, he made anti-Semitic comments to the police officer while being taken in to custody (which Gibson later apologized for).

We all know that when you're a celebrity, you can't get away with anything you do. Oasys Mobile created the "Mel in Malibu" ringtone, which is basically a reenactment of Gibson's experience with the LA police.

The ringtone is said to be the first in a series of "ScandalTones" from OasysMobile. Gee, I wonder who's next? Maybe it'll be Keith Michael from Bravo's reality show, "Project Runway", claiming his innocence for being accused of cheating by referring to "Pattern" books.

Listen to the "Mel in Malibu" ringtone and download it for free! It's pretty funny.

Thanks to Ben Gottesman for the tip!

It's Friday, so as Prince would say, "Let's go crazy, let's go nuts!"

Turn your office into a cubicle war path with the Boss Toss Flinger. Each flinger can launch one of four plastic executives from 12 to 15 feet. You'll also receive a bull's eye for target practice. It doesn't get any better than this folks!!

Each Boss Toss Flinger is now on sale for $4.49 at X-TremeGeek.com. Hurry though, because this offer will only last until August 13th.

If you don't want to get yourself in trouble for showing your true feelings about your boss, then try the other flingers: the Cat-a-Pult Kitty Flinger (which launches plastic cats) and the Ninja Attack Flinger (which launches--you guessed it--plastic ninjas)!

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is going on next week, August 7th to the 11th, and according to Robert Scoble, Apple is readying "a dizzying amount of new products". He goes on to say that he would elaborate, "but that'd get me sued by Steve Jobs, and I don't need that kind of heck right now". That last line tells me something is definitely up. Could it be a new iPhone, the Mac Pro, or even Core 2 Duo updates to the Macbook line? You gotta love Apple and their knack for keeping us on our toes.

The really "dizzying" part is that if you wish to attend the conference, you'll have to fork over $1600 for a ticket----or you can save yourself $1600 by buying a 5-pack for $6,380----umm, riiiight. Call me practical, but that's a little steep! I better get a Macbook Pro with that ticket.

So what do you think Apple will announce come Monday? or are their tactics getting a little tiresome these days. Sigh.

Last night at a Motorola press event, I managed to actually handle and make a call on the MOTOFONE, Motorola's new-age, cutting-edge low-cost fone -- I mean, phone.

Holding the MOTOFONE is weird -- really weird. It feels like a solid slab of plastic, a little thinner than the SLVR but very rectangular. The strangest thing about it is the e-ink display. It's a field of gray with numbers and characters that appear on it like digital-watch numbers, very sharply. The keypad feels like it was just printed onto the flat plastic of the face of the phone, which all around has a very matte texture. The phone feels more mineral, and less technological, than a lot of other gadgets of its kind.

The phone has no menu system as we know it. If you press the menu button, you can cycle through icons for text messaging, recent calls, alarm clock (the only non-phone feature I could see) et al, accompanied by voice prompts. Texting is the old-school multitap method, but the keys were very easy to tap on.

I expected more from the voice quality. Yes, I was using T-Mobile in a weak signal area and making a call in a crowded party, but it still sounded like a cell phone, and didn't seem to crank up to Nextel levels of volume. The true test, of course, would have been to compare it to another T-Mobile phone, but I didn't have the opportunity. And Motorola told me that they were still working on the software, which would obviously include audio tuning.

Exciting news: the version of the MOTOFONE I handled was a "North American" version, so presumably it will be coming to somewhere near you ... eventually.

Hopefully by tomorrow, I'll have a bunch of photos to show you all.