New BlackBerry Surfaced?

Could this be the next big BlackBerry? This picture of what is presumed to be the new 9000 series was posted on the BlackBerryForums recently, with a one-word comment of "Enjoy."

Will this model have a touchscreen as so many are hoping? Will it have the ability to read HTML e-mail? One can only wait until it comes out in the first half of '08.

Oh, by the way...happy new year to everyone. Here's to a prosperous year for both Techoo and its readers.

[Pocket-lint]

Amazon Kindle Goes Kaput. The Beginning Of Something Big?

A very unfortunate man has submitted this picture to CrunchGear. It seems that with little to no use, much less abuse, the screen of his girlfriend's Amazon Kindle is gradually deteriorating. It could be just a isolated problem, or it could be the start of something a little more serious. When the man informed Amazon, they said that they were aware of the problem and would send a new one as soon as the backorders are filled. So, if you own a Kindle, you should probably start watching out.

The Romantics Snubbed In Court

It appears that Guitar Hero has won the battle with the 80's band The Romantics. As you may have read earlier, The Romantics were suing Activision for using a cover of the song "What I Like About You" that sounded too much like the original. A federal judge rejected the band's request to have the song removed from the catalog of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's.

Too bad, guys. Merry Christmas.

Christmastyme Revue

Well, the day is finally upon us. Christmas is two days away, and we sure do hope that all of you out there have finally finished your shopping, but we know that most of you haven't. If you're still searching for that perfect gift, we have a few good tips and product ideas for ya.

1. Send 'em an online gift card.
The deadlines for shipping a gift by Christmas has passed for most retailers without their own private Concorde jets, so actually buying your special someone a physical gift is not near impossible without heading into the deadly masses of shoppers at the retail stores. The solution? An online gift card. Most online retailers offer there cards, and they can be emailed to the recipient within seconds of ordering. No traveling, no wrapping, just gifting! Easy.

2. Give 'em a USB stress relief thingy!
If your friend is angered by you not getting him/her a present for the past few years, give them this. Instead of releasing their rage on you, they'll happily punch this plastic face that makes noises of pain when impacted.

3. Give 'em a Wii VC game.
If the guy/gal has a Wii, and you do too, then a Virtual Console game could make the perfect gift. Just recently, Nintendo has updated the Wii Shop Channel to allow users to send a game to one of their friend's Wii's over the interwebpages.

4. Get all that shopping done by living at Wal-Mart.
A woman from Georgia did it, so why can't you? This woman shopped, ate, and slept for 72 hours inside a 24-hour Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lilburn, Georgia. She eventually had to be escorted out of the store by police, but not after checking out. So if you really want to get that physical gift by Christmas morning, then get your comfortable shoes and bring a pillow to your local Wal-Mart!

Wizardry: Rare J.K. Rowling Book Sold For $4 Mil

Amazon.com flexed their check-writing muscle recently buy purchasing one of seven handmade copies of J.K. Rowling's compilation of fairy tales, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Here's a little bit from Amazon's bragging page.

We're incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is extensively illustrated and handwritten by the bard herself--all 157 pages of it. It's bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.

If you take a look at the pictures of the actual book, the cover and illustration designs look pretty morbid, so who knows what the pages hold.

Ultimate Geekery: New KITT Chosen

The car to be used as KITT in NBC's upcoming Knight Rider TV movie will be a Shelby GT500KR Mustang, according to Jalopnik.

Although pretty sweet looking, and with a nice integration of the trademark red scanner, the Trans Am seemed to have more of a soul to it. A little more soul than a Mustang that has been raped of all FoMoCo ovals and sex un-appeal. Hopefully it will cushion the blow of Ford's obviously imminent demise.

The movie, slated to air on February 17, stars actors and actresses from such runaway hits as All My Children, The Young and the Restless, and Veronica Mars. It should be expected to be a quite painful two hours to watch. Fear not, however! David Hasselhoff will guest star as Michael Knight, so stay tuned for those three minutes!

Bring Out 'Yer Dead: CompUSA Kicks The Bucket

TWIN PEAKS, WASHINGTON-The body of CompUSA was found this dead this morning, wrapped in plastic, on the shores of Best Buy Lake.

No, this wasn't the actual article, but it might as well have been.

CompUSA, the Dallas-based overpriced computer retailer has been sold to the Gordon Brothers restructuring firm, and will close all of its stores after the holiday season. I wonder if the store closing sales will be as crappy as the last ones they had earlier this year.

Firefox Gran Paradiso: Firefox 2.0-Suckage

I downloaded the Gran Paradiso version of Firefox a few weeks ago, and have just now started playing with it. My main opinion so far is as follows: kickass.

Firefox 2.0 has had it's shortcomings. I've experienced slowdowns with 2.0 that hearken back to my days of dial-up, and my Linux version crashes no less that 7,982 times a day. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but I expect much more out of Firefox, so I have been using Opera for the past month with much satisfaction. Now, I have discovered Gran Paradiso, the beta version for Firefox 3.0, and it has amazed me. It's nothing short of blazing fast, and I have yet to experience a crash yet. And this is the Linux version, mind you. I'll probably be using this from now on, or until I find a glaring bug, which I doubt.