friday

What a week of high-end phone news and rumors this has been. The next few weeks, if the speculation is to be believed, will completely shuffle the smartphone market, with no less than four top devices either getting overhauls or debuting.

We're excited about all of them (natch), but we'd like to know which one you're most stoked to see. Vote in our poll.

As we inch closer toward two rather large gadget-world events in the beginning of June (Apple's WWDC and Computex in Taiwan), the rumor mill has been working overtime.

This week in particular, the speculation has been keeping our heads spinning. Will we see a slimmer PlayStation 3? A PSP, iPod Touch, and Nintendo DSi killer all rolled into one device?

Which bit of hearsay do you find the most plausible? Vote in our poll.

Mother's Day is approaching--in less than 48 hours! Quick, what are you getting for the dear woman who birthed/raised you?

If your mom is like mine, she doesn't pick out her own gadgets, so Sunday will be a great time to shower her with all sorts of newfangled (to her) technology.

We've come up with several (admittedly stereotypical) mom-oriented gifts. Which are you most likely to give? Got some other ideas? Let us know in the TalkBack section below.

Friday marks the release of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the first X-Men movie in three years, and the first ever to focus on one character. Now X-Men and Wolverine are properties of Marvel Comics, but Fox still owns the movie rights to all things X-Men and handles the production of X-Men movies, the same way Marvel produced "Iron Man."

Early word on Wolverine is that while Hugh Jackman puts his best claws forward, the film, some say, is poorly written and saddled with a cliched plot.

Also, some of the changes that one of the fan-favorite characters … Read more

It's #FollowFriday on Twitter, which means people will be updating their streams today with lists of users they think others should follow. Usually, the tweets say something like this: "#FollowFriday: @donreisinger @rafe @josh @caro @stshank"

Follow Fridays are a good time to add new people to your Twitter list, or promote the contributors you like the best. But what we really all want to know is this: How do I get included in Follow Friday notes? I did some research to see how a user could capitalize on Follow Friday to increase their follower count. I tried a handful of ideas. Some worked, others didn't. Here's what I found:

Idea 1: Beg I decided begging would be the first option in trying to be added to Follow Friday tweets. I thought my followers would pity me and add me to their lists, thus exposing me to a whole new group of people.

It backfired. After updating my Twitter stream, many of my followers responded angrily, saying I was missing the point of Follow Friday. Others simply made fun of me. I didn't add a single follower.

Result: No change to follower count.

Idea 2: Insult Follow Friday What better way to ingratiate yourself with Twitter followers than to insult them for being a part of a "Twitter scam"?

I updated my stream with discussions on why Follow Friday was a joke. I told my followers they shouldn't be engaging in such activity. I even told them that I didn't want to be on any lists because it was so dumb.

After three tweets and five minutes of keeping up with this ploy, it became abundantly clear that my Twitter insults weren't adding any followers to my list. In fact, I lost about 10 followers in that time. Most chastised me for not recognizing the value of Follow Friday. Others put it more succinctly by calling me a jerk. It wasn't a smart move.

Result: Follower count decline.… Read more

This week, we got a gander at the Noodle Waterslide from Japanese toymaker Bandai, and it looks fun. But it shouldn't be forced to sit at the dinner table alone. We think there should be a whole amusement park for food!

Which of these imaginary culinary contraptions would you try first if you saw them all on the table? Or maybe you have other ideas? Tell us in our TalkBack section below.

Computer vendor Systemax is bringing CompUSA back to life, and now it looks like it might be doing the same for Circuit City. The company bought the intellectual property and domain name this week.

The two might rise as separate chains, but we wouldn't be surprised if they end up as some sort of mashup, a Frankenstein-like monster of retailers.

But why stop there? We can think of a few more franchises Systemax could add to its unholy abomination of shops to round out its offerings to customers. What should it be? Vote in our poll. And if we … Read more

A couple of days ago, Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, said, in essence, that Netbooks--one of the fastest-growing tech markets in the world right now--are for kids. Which is to say the mini-laptops are not for adults. We, of course, politely disagree.

But now we must wonder: what tech is for grown-ups? What are we expected to use if not Netbooks without drawing snickers from Intel? If we missed anything, please let us know in the TalkBack section below.

AT&T had an outage yesterday morning in the bay area due to fiber-optical cables being cut. This didn't just affect landlines, but cell phones as well. Rafe describes the dangers hackers would face in trying to cut those cables. We also estimate the distance to New York as 12 worms, and give a plus-five Holy Avenger sword salute to Dave Arneson.

AT&T was vandalized in the Bay Area? http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26715

AT&T uses Twitter … Read more