Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

If you didn't think every single third-party peripheral provider would try to snag a piece of the band game pie, we guess you thought wrong, huh? With outfits like Mad Catz and Ion already jumping in, it was only a matter of time before Logitech threw on its tightest jeans, blacked out its blond hair and threw up some horns. Details are admittedly scarce, but the company has promised to provide "premium instruments" for Guitar Hero: World Tour on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. Rockers can expect the new gear to start shipping "later this year," though prices, designs and pretty much anything else of importance remains a mystery.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

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As a tall guy I can appreciate that designer Nicholas Lee Dunderdale incorporated an adjustable roof into his 3-wheeled Kassou concept car. The rubber "neck" can be raised or lowered depending on the passenger's need for headroom or better aerodynamics. But, to be honest, this thing looks like some sort of crazy science experiment. Like an unholy mixture of a giraffe, bat and a vacuum that surely goes against the laws of nature. I mean, what are those wings for anyway? Despite its odd appearance, the Kassou actually earned second place in the Car Design News Contest for 2008—although I wouldn't expect to see it on the street anytime soon. [Car Design News via The Design Blog via Gearfuse]

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You know that sweaty guy who always comes into work smelling like an armpit? Yeah, you know who I'm talking about—and if you don't, "that guy" is probably you. Thanks to AOKI, you won't have to tolerate the funny looks, wrinkled noses and giggle-laden whispers of your co-workers any longer. The translation is shaky, but their new line of deodorizing suits claim to absorb sweat, suck out odor and provide antibacterial protection using the power of silver ions. They also run about $370 on sale. Unfortunately, if you don't live in Japan you will just have to continue being the smelly office outcast. [Rakuten via Crunchgear]

You know that sweaty guy who always comes into work smelling like an armpit? Yeah, you know who I'm talking about—and if you don't, "that guy" is probably you. Thanks to AOKI, you won't have to tolerate the funny looks, wrinkled noses and giggle-laden whispers of your co-workers any longer. The translation is shaky, but they claim that their new line of deodorizing suits can absorb sweat, suck out odor and provide antibacterial protection using the power of silver ions. They also run about $370 on sale. Unfortunately, if you don't live in Japan you will just have to continue being the smelly office outcast. [Rakuten via Crunchgear]

A California Supreme Court judge has ruled that cellphone early termination fees are ILLEGAL and that Sprint must pay $18.2 M as part of a class action lawsuit. Of course, the decision could be appealed, but in the meantime.... (drum roll, please) the judge ordered Sprint to stop trying to collect the fees from customers in California who were refusing to pay them!

According to the lawsuit, this ruling will affect about 2 million Californians, and may affect other, similar lawsuits that are pending in other states, says the San Jose Mercury News.

"We are disappointed," Sprint Nextel spokesman Matthew Sullivan told the paper.

Consumer's Union (you know them as the publisher of Consumer Reports) were pleased with the ruling.

“This is a huge victory for consumers,” Chris Murray, senior legal counsel for Consumers Union said in a press release, but expressed concern that the FCC might step in and start regulating the fees.

“Not only did this case generate an extensive record showing that these fees are not really used to subsidize wireless phones, but are instead simply used to lock consumers into contracts. Contract law says that's illegal. Let's hope the FCC doesn't turn around and give the wireless industry a get out of court free card.”

We're looking forward to seeing how this affects our readers in California, so if you're battling Sprint over an ETF and you live in CA, send your story to tips@consumerist.com. Let us know how they're reacting to this ruling!

Sprint loses early termination fee case in California [Consumers Union]
Sprint early termination fees are illegal, judge rules [Mercury News] (Thanks, Gilbert!)
(Photo: smcgee )

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yep, just like we'd heard, the Phoenix lander has identified water in a soil sample it collected in Mars earlier, and NASA's extended the mission for another 90 days to go look for more. There's no analysis of the ice yet, but it doesn't look like there's any organic materials in the sample, and it'll take another three to four weeks before there's any more data to reveal. Hopefully that means we'll be packing up our silver go-go boots and taking off for our fabulous future lives on Mars in a month, but we'll see how things go.

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Vizio is adding to its HDTV line with a minimally sleek 26-inch multimedia monitor. The Vizio VMM Monitor ($450) features an all-glass ID and a height-adjustable stand (that also tilts and...
Visit Uncrate for the full post.

Trying to put pressure on their competition, or feeling the pressure from increasing Samsung and LG market share, Nokia has reduced many handset prices by 10%—mostly music and media phones—but also making discounts across the whole portfolio. Analyst and Sean Connery-fan David Hallden calls the move a Crazy Ivan:

This is basically a way to run away from competition. You're putting a lot of pressure on your less competitive peers. I think they're doing a Crazy Ivan.

And we think you are watching too many submarine movies lately, David, but you may be right. In any case, cheaper phones are good for everyone. [Reuters]

Filed under: Laptops

So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.

Read - Dell list of machines and patch
Read - HP list of machines, extended warranty info

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