There's just so much right about this. [YouTube via BoingBoing]

2011 Chevrolet Volt gets taken for a test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The 6th ROBO-ONE GATE IN INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION 2009 Dance Competiton spons took place in Tokyo Big Sight, during INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION 2009 , on Nov. 28th, 2009. `LOVE & JOY, Yuhi Kimura` by Doka Harumi (Doka Project). No one survived the performance.

Each month, the best new iPhone apps—and some older ones—are considered for admission into Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die?

For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps, click here.

The Month's Best

As gathered from our weekly roundups.

If you hate hate hate galleries, click here for a single post.

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Essential App Directory Inductees

This month was BOUNTIFUL, as we welcome seven (7!) new apps to the fold. Here are your new inductees:

• I Am T-Pain: This app was fun when it first came out, but now that you can sing over your iPod library, it's priceless.

• Waze: Because it's getting to be good enough to depend on (in a few areas), because it's free, and because their video-gamey plan to make the app better is totally charming.

• Voices: Because when your iPhone isn't acting as a tool, it's a toy. And everyone loves some good voice modulation.

• Snapture: Because full 3GS support, which Snapture recently added, was the only thing holding this app back from replacing the iPhone's camera completely.

• ShopSavvy: Because any iPhone decent a good, free barcode scanning app.

• Chorus: Because finding new apps is hard, y'all.

• Jailbreak: Kirikae: Because without a solid task switcher like Kirikae, fantastic jailbreak app Backgrounder is kind of useless. With it, your iPhone is a full-fledged multitasking smartphone, finally. (Don't get defensive!)

And Farewell To...

Our current directory members are all safe this time around. But next month, expect hell. (Maybe!)

What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

Readers offer their best tips for using touch screens in the cold winter months, middle-clicking with your laptop's touchpad, and staying focused on your work when that work is in your browser.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Use a AAA Battery as an iPhone Stylus

Logan shows us a quicker way to use touch screens in the winter:

Wearing winter gloves means having to pull them off every time you want to use your iPhone. There are a few stylus products out there, but I found that the negative (flat) end of AAA batteries, even when remote controls have exhausted them, are conductive enough to act as a stylus. Because it's flat it doesn't scratch the screen, but it works through light fabric too if you're hesitant about the whole metal-on-glass thing.

AA batteries should work just as well and may be easier to come by for most.

Middle Click With a Two Button Touchpad

Photo by CLF.

Chinmay tweaks his settings to allow for quick middle clicking on his laptop:

It's simple really: since you can already left-click by tapping the touchpad and drag by double-tap dragging, set your left-click button to middle-click. Really helps while browsing. I use middle-click all the time for opening links in new tabs and closing tabs.

Access Facebook and Twitter From Gmail

Felipe tells us how he keeps his favorite social networking sites handy in Gmail:

I just found out you can add iGoogle gadgets to Gmail. Since that is not what they are originally made for, they can look a little weird or just not be of any use at all. But these two gadgets I found work wonders!

The Twitter gadget is actually made for Gmail, and the great thing is that it goes "fullscreen", that is, instead of your email you see tweets! The same goes for Facebook, although it's originally made for
iGoogle. But it also goes fullscreen, you just have to click on "Expand" inside the gadget box.

To install them, just do the following:

1. Go to Settings –> Labs, find "Add any gadget by URL" and activate it.
2. Find a XML gadget for Gmail or iGoogle.
3. Go to Settings –> Gadgets, enter the gadget URL into the text box and click Add.

These are the gadget URLs:
Twitter - http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml
Facebook - http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml

Stay Focused in Your Browser

Ryan lets us know how he stays distraction-free when working in his browser:

I frequently find myself wasting time browsing the internet, specifically some of my favorite bookmarked sites, when I should be getting work done. I found that by simply opening the few tabs I actually need (such as Gmail and RTM), pinning them in Chrome, and hitting Ctrl + b to hide my bookmarks bar, the problem is solved! Just the act of seeing no bookmark bar there that I am so used to seeing serves as a reminder that I should be doing something productive. Simple, yet effective tip.

I don't know about Windows, but on a Mac you can take this even further by hiding your address bar if you don't need it too much, by clicking the button in the upper right hand corner of the window.

It's good to know that quotes like this—by Dr Paul Jackson, a particle physicist looking for the Higgs boson on the LHC Atlas experiment—come with a context:

For me, it's nonsense to say that there are forces coming back from the future to stop the machine from working. It really is just ridiculous to think that is the case. If people could travel forward or back in time, why wouldn't they have done something better or worse for humanity than coming and twiddling around with the LHC?

If it does destroy the world, there's no-one in the future to travel back in time to do anything about it. It's all a bit Back to the Future really. It's part of this whole mystery about the machine — people are willing to believe anything. Physicists sometimes shoot themselves in the foot by not saying, 'We won't destroy the world with black holes,' because they work on probability. Saying, 'This won't happen,' is just not ingrained into them.

Good. But that doesn't explain this. Or the fact that an LHC scientist confused Star Trek with Star Wars. That last thing, my dear friends, is what really has me worried. [Crave UK]

As promised, Apple's released the specs for iTunes LP and Extras, with templates, guides and testing materials to create them. Until it goes automatic next year, submission is manual process, and yes, Apple has to approve your work. [Apple]

Praktica unleashes a slew of 10 and 12-megapixel shooters originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A 39-year old Chicago man walked into a Minnesota Target store on Saturday morning and began smashing tvs while muttering "hammer" repeatedly in a monotone voice. Witnesses also describe him as walking like Frankenstein and having blood on his face.

When the police arrived, the man, identified as Jerome Charles Eberle, ran through the store while swinging the hammer at the officers. Eventually, they brought him down with a Taser. Eberle claims that he only remembers parts of the incident inside Target, and he is currently undergoing a mental health evaluation. And you thought retail Frankenstein attacks would only happen on Black Friday. [MyFox9 via Fark Image via Flickr]

Rumors fly that Google will soon release their own phone build around Google Voice (not just another Android handset), the upcoming Chrome for Mac beta will be lacking several important features, and Gmail's creator thinks Wave could someday integrate nicely with Gmail.

• Features Chrome For Mac Beta Will Be Missing
  When Chrome for Mac hits sometime this month, it'll be missing its bookmark manager, Fluid-like app mode, possibly the task manager, and definitely Gears, among other potentially missing features. Beta indeed. [TechCrunch]
• LEAK: The Google Phone "Is a Certainty"
  The gadget gang at Gizmodo is fairly certain a Google phone is in the works (not just another Android phone), and that it'll be based around Google Voice. [Gizmodo]
• So I finally tried Wave...
  The guy who created Gmail gives Google Wave a rundown, says Google should eventually integrate it with Gmail. [Paul Buchheit]
• Google set to map the world — and push out GPS makers as a result?
  GPS manufacturers can't help but be scared by Google's free foray into turn-by-turn directions, but consumers aren't complaining. [BloggingStocks]
• Mullenweg Speaks Out on Twitter, WordPress and the Question of Competition
  The creator of our favorite open-source blogging platform WordPress talks about how Twitter and blogging aren't either/or publishing platforms. [ReadWriteWeb]
• Apple to Take iPhone's Maps App to 'the Next Level'
  Our suggestion: Approve Latitude and Google Maps Navigator for iPhone. [MacRumors]
• The iDoctor will be right with you
  Apparently a yet-to-be-approved iPhone application is under development with the goal of analyzing your cough to determine what kind of illness you have. And there may actually be science behind it. [Download Squad]