I was watching the season premiere of The Simpsons tonight when I was surprised by a Samsung commercial promoting three new slim slider phones. The SGH-D807 for Cingular is old news. The SCH-U420 is a new, slim Alltel phone that the carrier just announced in a press release. But the SGH-T629 is a T-Mobile phone that the Tea Mob won't even acknowledge they will be selling. (I'm actually just figuring out the carrier from the model number prefix.)

On your left, you'll see a screen capture from the commercial. The T629 looks like the slider version of the T509, a relatively basic-featured but very handsome and inexpensive T-Mobile phone. I've seen these sorts of disconnects between carriers and ad guys before, most recently in the Wired ad for the extremely hard-to-find Motorola RAZR V3i on Cingular. But the T629 seems like the kind of phone T-Mobile would want to do some of their own press on, so I imagine there are some angry phone calls going around right now.

Looks good, guys. Can't wait to get one to review. Oh, and yes, I was on vacation. Back now.

Now's a good time to jump on the Crack, er Blackberry bandwagon, what with Amazon giving them away for free. Dealhack tells us you can purchase the $400 Blackberry 8700g (T-Mobile) with $350 instant savings and a $50 rebate. (Click on the image on the left to enlarge.)

Our own Sascha Segan reviewed the 8700g back in May and gave it 4 stars (out of 5). He said, "The Blackberry 8700g is the ultimate e-mail and IM phone for T-Mobile customers, with more service options than its Cingular counterpart." Check out his full review and slideshow. He also wrote The Sweetest Blackberrys, an excellent roundup about his favorite Blackberrys, which includes the 8700g.

Also, visit Dealhack for deals on Logitech Wireless Headphones and Nikon's Coolpix L1 digital camera.

And be sure to check out all our cell phone, camera, and headphone reviews on PCMag.com.

No, this isn't our newest columnist. But he is here to help. Got something to say, but need a new way to say it? Try out Monk-e-mail, an audio-e-mail service brought to you by Careerbuilder,  of all places. After all Careerbuilder is there to get you a job and Monk-e-mail is there to help you waste time at your current job.

Anyway, when you visit the monk-e-mail homepage, you're greeted by the gentleman on the left: "You got something to say, I've got a nap to take, so let's get going."

First you choose your chimp from a variety of characters, then you accessorize your chimp, and then give him/her a voice. And you've got some very cool choices: a pre-recorded message, text to speech, record by phone and record by mic.

My favorite option was text to speech. I sent a few messages to my buddy using the voice of a male British chimp (Simon) dressed up like a female schoolteacher. Like YouTube and MySpace, this site is VERY addictive. Consider yourself warned. (Not unlike the Send Your Friend a Phone Call from Samuel L. Jackson" service that I posted about not too long ago. (Unfortunately, it seems its no longer available, but you'll be able to hear that excellent Cobra Starship song if you visit the site now.)

So go ahead, try it. . .

Other "Bestial" Posts:

Put All Your Ducks in a Row

Ducks Redux

Snakes On a Gearlog

You've Been Snaked!

Thanks to Michael "barrel of monkeys" Steinhart for bringing this site to my attention.

A new Japanese tasting robot can tell good wine from bad wine and camembert from Gouda.

Developed by NEC System Technologies and Mie University, the sommelier bot uses its "taste" sensor to analyze the major components—down to the molecule—via spectrum-analysis of food to figure out what it is. So it's taste by identification (ingredients matched up with a database of what ingredients make which foods). This is quite unlike human taste which relies on taste buds/cells to identify sweet, sour, saltiness, bitterness and unique "tastes" in between.

The robot can also detect if sugar or fat is present in the food, and the quantity of each. From the NEC Web site: "When a new food is introduced to the robot, it will compare that food's absorption spectrum against the ones the robot has already cataloged and determine which ones are comparable to the food that has just been introduced."

The robot taste technology is also far from infallible. The AP reports that the robot  "tasted" one reporter and identified him as prosciutto (a sort of cured, spicy Italian ham). Well, perhaps that does describe one or two journalists I know.

[via Mainichi News]

Thanks to Editor, Reviews Lance Ulanoff for this post!

Ever felt so angry you wanted to throw something? Like, when your cell phone drops a call, don't you just want to throw it as far as you can? Well, Mobile Phone Throwing may be the sport for you.

What's that, you say? Well, just last weekend, Savonlinna, Finland hosted the 7th annual Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, sponsored by Fennolingua, a language translation company. The winner, Lassi Etelatalo, a Finland native,  threw his phone a record 89 meters (about 292 feet for us metrically-challenged Americans). 

Split into men, women, individual freestyle, team freestyle, and junior (12 years and younger) divisions, the participants are serious about their sport. The traditional style requires an over the shoulder throw where the length of the throw is most important, while freestyle is just that. Throwers can earn points for aesthetics and choreography, in addition to distance thrown, in this category. Lucky for Floyd Landis, there are no doping tests before or after the competition.

The phones used in the competition are subsequently recycled. Participants are not allowed to use their own phones, unfortunately, but a wide variety of models are available, all provided by Fennolingua.

But why, you ask again. I think only their offical site can provide the answer:

"Finland is known as the home country of the mobile phones and Finns have always been fashion conscious about the phones. . . .when you most need [the phone] the battery runs out or your sweetheart doesn't answer or someone doesn't return your call. Hope, anticipation, passion and frustration concentrates on mobile phone. . . Mobile Phone Throwing, the only sport where you can pay back all the frustrations and disappointments caused by these modern equipments."

The next Finland-based competition will be held on August 25, 2007, so start working those arms!

News broke last week that a German company, Infineon, has won the contract to build RFID chips into U.S. passports. The program will be up and running by the end of this year.  This has been in the works for a while, so it shouldn't be a surprise. As I understand it, the RFID chips will contain all of the information that already exists in written form in the passport, plus perhaps, a digital image of the passport holder. Still, given the concerns about RFID security, it does bring us to our Gearlog Question of the Week: Are RFID passports a good idea?

For a little background you can check out Infineon's press release or the ironically named Papers Please! It may also be useful to know that Infineon also developed a prototype for a "thinking carpet" that can track users' movements. Put that together with the RFID passport, and what do you get? And how long will it be before these get merged with those new RFID credit cards that are increasingly popular?

We will be discussing this on Gearlog Radio in a few days, but we want to know what you think too, so please post a comment below.

As a small followup, let me just ask: Why are there no American companies that can build this chip?

If you need an iPod accessory or two, here's a sweet deal. Buy a SendStation smartCharge car charger for iPod ($24.95) or a PocketDock Combo USB/FireWire adapter for iPod ($22.95) and get 20 free iTunes songs.

We haven't reviewed either product, but there are plenty of reviews available online. The smartCharger looks cool; it rotates and tilts, so you can arrange your iPod to be easily reached, no matter where your car's lighter jack it. It works with any iPod except the 3G and also works with the Shuffle. The PocketDock lets you connect any iPod with a docking port, including the mini, to a standard 6-pin FireWire cable or USB port.

This offer is for U.S. and Canadian buyers only.

This is a strange idea, and yet could be a lot of fun. To enter MTV's DS Lite Played Out Contest  you submit a photo of yourself playing handheld games "in the most bizarre, exotic or foolish place you can imagine." I hope people don't take "foolish" too literally... Disaster could loom for some nerdy kid trying this on train tracks, on top of a moving car, or in a biker bar. Oh, and I'm guessing the MTV people will get really tired of pix of people playing in the bathroom.

The grand prize is an expenses-paid trip on a ZERO-G plane for you and a friend (don't forget the Dramamine, folks!), and a gift pack with two Nintendo DS Lites and copies of Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart DS and Tetris DS.  Three runners-up will win a DS Lite and copies of Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart DS and Tetris DS.  The contest ends on September 8, 2006.

Back in June, I stood by my PRO-Net Neutrality decision: to prevent Telecom companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, from controlling the Internet. Since then, I've been closely watching the debate, wondering what's going to happen next.

If you agree with me and countless other Web users, then you may want to take part in Net Neutrality Action Day, to be held on Friday, September 8 at 8 a.m.

SaveTheInternet.com advocates will be visiting all 100 local branches of their state Senators' offices and drop off petitions with 50,000 signatures, asking Senators to make a televised statement about their position on the Net Neutrality issue.

So far, 26 senators are for Net Neutrality; 14 are against it; 4 are "waffling"; and 56 are unknown. Among the senators that want to preserve Net Neutrality are Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Mark Pryor (D-AR). According to SaveTheInternet.com's list, it appears that Democrats are for Net Neutrality and Republicans are against it.

Derek Wallace, a concerned citizen and Internet user, created this video and MySpace page to publicize this issue. He wants everyone to bring a camcorder, camera or camera phone with them when visiting their local Senate offices and upload the footage to YouTube.com.

If you haven't yet already, you can sign SaveTheInternet's petition. After submitting the form electronically, it will automatically be sent to your Members of Congress.

For more information on the Net Neutrality debate, visit SaveTheInternet.com.

SanDisk, which has battled its way to the number-two digital-player position after you-know-who, in is continuing its assault on Apple's iPod hegemony with a new campaign called Made for Sansa, PC Magazine's Mike Kobrin reported yesterday. Vendors involved at this point include Altec Lansing, DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters), Griffin Technology, HandStands, Macally Peripherals, Maximo Products and Speck Products (all of these but Maximo are currently Made for iPod manufacturers). Click to Mike's story for details on which products are already in the works.