As I am sure you are all aware, Verizon Wireless is launching the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm tomorrow. This device is RIM’s first delve into a touchscreen mobile phone and swing at taking some of the market share away from Apple and the iPhone. We had a chance to get our hands on the Storm on the eve of the launch day and had some fun playing with the touchscreen and its unique clicking technology.

Obviously the most interesting part of the Storm is the single big button of a screen so we’ll just cut to the chase. The touchscreen in general works as you would expect, sensing your touch on the glass and allowing you to scroll through things like lists, menus and across maps. What’s different about the touchscreen on the BlackBerry Storm which sets it apart from other touchscreen phones is that the glass display is like a single large, mechanical button.

One of the worst things that can happen to a traveling geek/businessperson is to have their gadgets run down before the day is done. Power for your cell phone, MP3 player, or GPS device can be at a premium some days. A new messenger bag from Eclipse gives you a place to store all your gear and can help keep the gear charged at the same time.

The Fusion Solar Messenger bag can charge cell phones, MP3 players, and rechargeable batteries or any other device that can be plugged into a 12V auto adapter. The solar charger itself is removable and can be used outside the bag.

We had heard talk about Samsung’s 256GB solid state drive back in May and it appears that today the talk has finally come true. Samsung has announced they are now officially manufacturing the large Flash-based drive, and we can tell you it’s fast. What we can’t tell you yet is how much it costs.

The speed of the 256GB drive is double that of Samsung’s 64GB and 128GB drives in what Samsung is calling “…disruptive performance”, with sequential read rates of 220MB/s and write rates of 200 MB/s. Applications can launch as much as 10 times faster than a 7200rpm notebook HDD with speeds that would be similar to a 15,000rpm drive.

It’s amazing how fast Chinese cloners move. They’ve done it again. Poor Motorola. They tried so hard to keep their beautiful new phone off of ebay. Here it is in all of it’s clone-y-ness.

It’s called the Wingtech D20, and basically what they have done is take all the beauty of the Aura and flush it down the toilet through the use of cheap plastics and bad colors. And there ya have it. Instant crap-gadget for people on a budget. Everyone will know you’re on a budget when they see this thing. Some features include: Swiveling, switchblade-like design exactly like the Motorola Aura, Support for dual-band GSM networks, GPRS Class 10, 1.5-inch TFT 128 x 128 pixel LCD, Multi-language support, MP3 and MP4 player, USB connectivity, and Up to 4 hours of talk time and 120 hours on standby.

Kingston’s DataTraveler DT150 USB flash drive has reached the 64GB storage mark, making it the top dog of DataTraveler USB drives. Chances are you won’t run out of space unless you really really love video. The size makes it a great portable backup drive. The Kingston DataTraveler 150 works with Windows Vista, XP, Windows 2000, Mac OS X 10.3 and Linux 2.6 and above. Your $177 purchase will get you a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support too.

If you’re like me, there have been many times when a tripod would have come in handy for picture taking, yet for some reason I haven’t bought one yet. This Bottle Cap Tripod is a handy solution and it doesn’t require you to tote anything heavy around. And chances are you have a soda bottle nearby. This gadget screws into the mounting screw on your camera, then you just put it on a bottle cap. Instant tripod. At only $10, it keeps you from being weighed down with larger equipment.

HP has announced the TouchSmart tx2. The laptop will be able to distinguish between voluntary pinching with two fingers and any accidental input. You can also use the bundled stylus to enter data. The tx2’s 12.1-inch screen is fully multi-touched up, but not in the iPhone/iPod touch way. It uses capacitive touch, which enables more accurate input, also brushes and swipes and two-handed gestures. You can use two hands to crop photos for instance.

Some other features are: integrated digital TV tuner, dual core AMD Turion X2 processor and ATI Radeon 3200 graphics. The screen can be twisted and folded all the way around; converting the standard notebook into a tablet PC. With a digital pen you can make notes and your writing will be converted to editable text. The HP TouchSmart tx2 will be available in January 2009 for about $1,150.

If you’re in the market for a new monitor we’ve come across one you just might want to take a look at. Don’t let all the expensive-looking features scare you away just yet; Dell is listing this one at a mere $379.

The Dell SP2309W is a 23-inch Full-HD widescreen display with a 2048×1152 resolution and up to 80,000:1 contrast ratio. This resolution allows you to bring up two full-sized web pages side by side like you might do with dual monitors, but enough room on just this one (provided your vision is good).

The latest from Neuros is the Neuros LINK, which will let you watch videos from places like Hulu, YouTube and the like on your TV, subscription free, through courtesy of their own TV service. However, the LINK doesn’t appear to have any internal storage. It does boast six USB ports so you can attach your own drives that have photos, video or music. You’ll also get HDMI and optical S/PDIF outputs, a gigabit ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi, and an included wireless “keymote” with trackball. The device is available now for $300, but it’s still in a “gamma release,” so early adopters can get one in exchange for a few bugs.

Digital photo frames are great, but typically, the lower priced ones have bad screen quality and lack the features that make a digital frame really interesting. One of the features you don’t usually see on lower priced digital frames is Wi-Fi.

A company called eStarling has introduced a new digital photo frame for the holiday season that retails for $99.99 and offers features like a 7-inch LCD with a 480 x 234 resolution and integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi that support several security protocols.

Depending on your point of view, this is either bizarre or amazing. This handset does just about everything and somehow stays fairly slim and compact. The iCEphone is due to be released from The Medical Phone Ltd. in the UK and the most exciting and strange thing about it is that it folds three ways. It’s a portable video game platform, GPS and smartphone all in one, plus micro notebook.

It sports a three-way hinge that allows access to a 3-inch touch screen display at 240 x 400 resolution, a QWERTY keyboard and a mouse tracker pad with gaming controls. ICE stands for “In Case of Emergency Phone.” You’ll get a 3G connection with support for GPRS and EDGE, two SIM card slots, WiFI, and a 3.1 megapixel camera. The phone runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro. The iCEphone will be available in Thailand, then in the UK in the spring of next year for under $1,000.

We got a chance to get our hands on Griffin’s new Simplifi desktop device recently and we feel they really got the name right on this one. The Simplifi is a small Swiss Army Knife of accessories packed into a smooth silver box that adds some convenience and maybe even a touch of sophistication to your desk.

For starters, the device is a dock and charger for your Apple iPhone and/or iPod. It has the docking port right on top and comes with little plastic adapters to custom …

What else do you have to do? Might as well watch a cat riding a Roomba. It’s probably waiting to be dropped off near the food dish.

Dell has a computer for every need and more than one type of computer user can see benefit from the new Intel Core i7 CPUs. The benefit to gamers of a fast CPU is obvious so it makes sense to see the i7 CPU in a gaming rig. However, Dell is also putting the processor into computers not aimed at gamers.

Dell announced a new Studio XPS PC that uses the new Core i7 processors with pricing starting at only $949. At that price you can be the CPU used is the low-end Core i7, but it should still offer good performance.

A new CPU from Intel is big news around the PC enthusiast realm. Intel has introduced its latest Core i7 CPU that promises to deliver vastly superior performance compared to the previous generation of Intel processors.

According to Intel, the Core i7 parts deliver 40% more performance in processing intensive applications compared to the previous generation of processors. The CPU features Turbo Boost Technology that accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and the workload of the system at the time.