Hey, that looks familiar. Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah, now I remember. The China-produced NokiPhone N3000i is an iPhone ripoff with N95-type dual slider capabilities. The GSM smartphone features a 3.2-inch QVGA screen, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, dual SIM support, microSD slot, and video recording capabilities.

It will cost you $129 right now, on sale from its $400 MSRP. At least it has features. China, will you never learn? Combining two great things into one is clever and all, but when will you make a knockoff that really captures our hearts?

Typically, translating any book into braille more than doubles its thickness. But with e-books that doesn’t have to happen. Designer Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park want more blind people to be able to enjoy books, so they created this Braille e-book concept.

The idea is that this is a braille Kindle. Using EAP technology, it can change the surface pattern via an electromagnetic signal that will simulate braille text. It’s an elegant and simple solution that would enrich the lives of blind readers quite a bit.

Ready for another Sidekick rumor? This one’s from the desk of a T-Mobile employee. It’s an internal memo that leaks new information on the newest Sidekick. It’s dubbed the Sidekick LX and will feature a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, a QWERTY and a “stunning” swivel screen that claims to be sharper than its predecessors.

Another interesting piece of info is that the Sidekick supposedly has Facebook, MySpace and Twitter applications pre-installed. So the LX will have some decent Internet connectivity.

If you own a MAC and enjoy it, make sure you do not download Apple’s iWork 09 from any bit torrent client. The torrent has been infected with the first ever MAC OS X botnet. It was detected by Symantec and a copy of the bot was also reported in the Photoshop CS4 torrent.

The author of the malware introduced the bot in the downloaded copy of the software. But as you Mac guys have always said, you don’t have to worry about such things. So you’ll probably be fine. This kind of stuff just plagues PCs.

Back in February, a Turkish Airways jet crashed in Amsterdam. Nine people were killed and 121 were injured. One passenger, Sefer Baris, along with his MacBook Air managed to survive the crash. Sefer was in seat number seven at the front of business class.

He was watching a movie when it happened. When the plane began to land he closed the Macbook and put it into it’s skin. Sefer broke his neck, while his MacBook just got a little warped. It’s bent and beat up, but booted up and is expected to recover.

One of the Kindle’s drawbacks is that it has no color screen. That may soon change if Bridgestone has anything to say about it. This is the best attempt yet at a color e-paper screen. It’s still experimental, but this 13-inch color e-paper screen even accepts pen input. Better then that, the screen refresh rate is quick. Only 0.8 seconds.

Those are some nice advancements. But it isn’t ready for prime time just yet. Right now the panel is noticeably dim, with little contrast and we’re assuming that battery life leaves something to be desired. But color e-paper screens are getting closer to being enjoyed in our everyday lives.

The goal of the JaipurKnee Project was to create a prosthetic leg that was amazingly sturdy as well as amazingly cheap. That’s no easy task. Otherwise it would have been done by now. Somehow they did it and created the leg you see in the above pic. It only costs $20.

Expensive and high-tech prosthetic limbs are nothing new. But what about the majority of the world who can not afford them? Legs like the one above may not make you the bionic man, but they will let you function and walk. For cheap. Pretty awesome.

Solar-powered gadgets are nothing new. But a solar powered home theater system? It’s appropriately named the “Guiltless Green Home Theater” and was manufactured from scratch by Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA). It’s the first of its kind and has some surprising specs.

For one thing it will give you up to 19 hours of video and audio playback even if the sun isn’t shining that day. They didn’t sacrifice quality either, with a Sharp projector, a 100″ Stewart Filmscreen, six SpeakerCraft in-wall speakers, an Integra AV receiver, Monster Cable wiring, Lutron lighting, and Universal Remote Control.

Everything else you own Already has GPS navigation. Your car, your phone, even the Sony PSP has a GPS option. Now it’s time for the Nintendo DS to get into the GPS game. You know, in case you want to locate a gamestop.

Designed by China’s Fab Chain, the Ranger is a GPS module for your NDS Lite. Just plug the Ranger into the accessory port on the front of your NDS, and you’ll get turn-by-turn directions with Google Maps integration. It will display maps in both 2D and fake 3D perspective modes, and even has automatic day/night modes. The module even has its own built in rechargeable batteries, so it won’t drain your NDS’ power supply.

The Blackberry does some things that Apple can’t. User defined homescreens. A clever modder skinned a Pip-Boy theme for the device, which is cool. Even cooler, it actually functions, where the iPod Touch mod is just for show.

If you have a BlackBerry and want this, you can pick it up over at Crackberry in green and blue. The creator, sadosdemetrios, would appreciate your donations. Who would have thought that Vault Boy would make it to so many other devices?

It’s been in hiding since its CES debut, but Velocity Micro’s 10.2-inch NoteMagix M10 is on sale with an April 30 estimated ship date. The base price is $380, and comes in red, blue, and black.

The only customization option besides the color is a DVD writer for $70. You’ll get the usual spec list that you would expect with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and a 6-cell battery. There’s probably not enough here to compete with other brands in the over-saturated netbook market. And it looks a little chunky. But we wish them well.

[Engadget]

That’s what seems to be happening with a small group of subscribers who are claiming their discs are arriving with small cracks on the outside edges. They say it’s happening repeatedly. No one is sure what is causing it since the Discs have an extra coating to prevent scratches on Blu-ray.

It could be the automated mail processing machines, manufacturing defects or maybe postal carriers are playing Frisbee. The Mars Box blog experienced this issue back in ’07, but over the last few months reports are picking up again. It’s too bad the extra costs that customers are paying can’t go toward tougher packaging, but Netflix told Wired the problem is “infinitesimally small” and changing shipping wouldn’t be cost effective.

Looking for a pair of speakers to impress your friends with? These Kenwood SP0001 transparent speakers should do the trick. Maybe. I’m not sure. They’re cool, but something about them is very washer/dryer like. If you like transparent washers/dryers then this is gold.

They must look better than they sound however, with a disappointing 10Wx2ch, with 8Ω power, yet costing €765. It comes with a matching pair of stands with white and blue LEDs.

You’re probably getting mighty sick of that all-black DualShock 3 controller. Colorware is one option, but who wants to lay out that much money just to paint a controller? Luckily for you GameStop has your back. Assuming you like silver.

Today, the website has a listing for a silver version of the wireless SIXAXIS controller. It’s actually been available on the Japanese market forever, but those of us in North America can finally have a crack at it now.

It’s time for our weekly roundup of everything robot. Another Easter has come and gone without a robot attack. For this we are thankful. It looked like this might be the year that cyborg bunnies finally made their move and started churning real peeps into Easter peeps. But nope. Nothing. Here’s some of what we covered this week over at Botropolis.

Puff The Magic Robot Dragon: He’s quick with a joke or to put out your smoke.

Tweenbots: The adorable cardboard robot experiment.

Doctor Who: K9 is back.