Crave

(Credit: Motorola)

For this weekend, the Crave Giveaway is the Motorola Cliq. It's one of T-Mobile's latest and greatest Android phones, and it scored a four-star rating from Kent German, who noted its "great design," "brilliant display," and "easy-to-use controls and keyboard." Its MotoBlur interface is optimized for fans of social networking and media sites including Facebook, Picasa, MySpace, Twitter, and Photobucket.

Normally, the Motorola Cliq would cost you $449 (with a service plan from T-Mobile, that price drops to $199). But you have the chance to get it gratis.

So, how do you try to win this Motorola Cliq? (Note: no wireless service is included, and you'd need to sign up for a T-Mobile account to get service.) Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read them carefully; there will be a test.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive (1) Motorola Cliq (without wireless service). Approximate retail value is $449.00.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, December 7 at 6:59 am EST.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 6:59:59 AM ET on December 7, 2009. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

Gmail has long had keyboard shortcuts, though learning them can be difficult. Enter the Gboard, a specialized mini-keyboard for Google's e-mail service. It debuts this Friday at an asking price of $19.99.

The Gboard consists of 19 colored keys set in a standard size numpad-only keyboard. Clicking on any one of these performs that particular keyboard shortcut. Included are Gmail-specific features such as starring messages, starting a search, and jumping between message threads. Outside of Gmail they simply act as normal keyboard buttons, and will type in whatever letter or number corresponds with that shortcut.

The device is powered by USB and requires no special software or drivers, however users need to first enable keyboard shortcuts within Gmail's settings before using it. Also worth noting is that it was created not by Google, but by Charlie Mason, a film producer from Venice, Calif. This is his first foray into the computer hardware business.

The Gboard consists of 19 keys, all of which act as shortcuts within Google's Gmail Web mail service.

(Credit: James Martin / CNET)

This really is a product that users will either love or hate. Those who have mastered Gmail's shortcuts will see little need to buy special hardware and find a spare USB port to plug it into. Meanwhile, newbie users may be unwilling to take the plunge on such a specific peripheral for a program that works only within another program (the browser). The Gboard runs the risk of being an unappealing prospect to both parties.

It's also not the first attempt at easing the process of learning and remembering shortcuts. This time last year Google offered users a free pack of color-coded shortcut stickers that could be tacked onto any keyboard. There have also long been specialized keyboards for video and audio editing as well as graphical design--all of which provide similar, color-coded keys. Users who don't want to commit, or tack stickers on their keyboard, also have the option of buying a silicone keyboard mat, though no such thing has been created for Gmail.

Considering there are a total of 69 Gmail shortcuts (with more on the way if Google graduates some of its experimental features from its labs section) the Gboard could just be the first step toward creating a full-size (100 plus key) version. In the meantime, its early December release and low price tag make for a good stocking stuffer if you've got a Gmail lover in your family.

The good:
• No setup required
• Color coding is logical and makes it easy to learn the keys
• Good build quality and feel; keys are flat like on a laptop
• At $19.99 it's not that expensive. Most numeric-only keyboards cost about the same.

The bad:
• Does not come close to including all of Gmail's shortcuts
• Could be rendered less useful if Gmail's shortcuts change
• Only comes in one color (black)

Motorola Droid

(Credit: CNET)

Verizon just informed us that Google released an SDK for Android 2.0.1 Thursday, which means those who have a Motorola Droid can expect a free over-the-air upgrade to their phone in the "coming weeks."

Some updates include an improvement to the camera's auto-focus and the phone's voice reception. There's still no news on the exact dates the new firmware will be rolled out, but we look forward to it all the same.

The limited-edition smartphone comes in a wine finish, and sports a custom leather strap and a branded Monocle "M" logo on the back.

(Credit: Monocle)

Research In Motion and $10-per-issue jet-set business editorial magazine Monocle have collaborated on a BlackBerry Bold 9700 that costs an astounding $1,500.

Well, it actually costs 950 British pounds, but that's just how bad the exchange rate is right now.

Read more of "RIM, Monocle collaborate on $1,500 BlackBerry Bold 9700" at ZDNet's The ToyBox.

Tom and Rafe talk about the gadgets they've been using like Windows Home Server, a Canon printer and the PS3 as a Blu-ray player.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

We spend most of today's show covering holiday gifts you won't want to stuff in the stocking of someone you care about... and a few that you might.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

ThinkGeek 8-bit tie

Necktie for music-loving commuters

Blacksocks — the Sockscription ™

The Cushy Tushy

Passive aggressive gifts for tardy geeks

The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

My DNA Fragrance lets you smell like a celebrity

Perhaps you have already become used to Verizon's Droid tossing names at the iPhone like an 8-year-old boy behind his teacher's back.

However, the latest ill feelings directed at Apple's little cutey seem beyond even anything heard in an elementary school.

In a new TV spot, Droid asks an important question: "Should a phone be pretty?" To which many sane people would say "yes," and many emotionally challenged beings made of metal would say, "Huh? What?"

Its answer--the latest in its presentation of the Droid as a robotphone--is to hurl metallic-tasting custard pies as if the Apple store was a state fair.

"Should it be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?" belches the ad's rhetoric, clearly referencing the iPhone, while wrapping the pie in a question.

I know many Socratically-inclined Apple fanpersons will object to the notion that beauty is only skin deep. But they will surely rail against the mere suggestion that the iPhone is digitally clueless.

Of course, this ad implicitly suggests that the Droid is, well, one of Cinderella's sisters, which might well affect its abilities to entice certain sectors of the populace.

Actually, the suggestion is more than implicit, for the deeply hirsute voice declares: "Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone? In truth, no."

So do you wait for a design that is pretty and is, as this ad so elegantly puts it, "racehorse duct-taped to a Scud missile fast" or do you have to compromise?

I know they say you can't have everything in life, but surely there must be some very attractive engineer out there who can give us everything in a few square inches of cell phone.

A new type of artificial larynx could mean better-sounding speech for those who've had their larynx removed due to laryngeal cancer or other ailments.

Researchers hope the SmartPalate can work for those without a larynx. The space-time graph pictured below the device corresponds to the tongue-palate contact pattern for the word "been."

(Credit: Jaren Wilke/Megan Russell/University of the Witwatersrand )

Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have come up with a system that tracks mouth movements to determine what word is being formed and then uses a speech synthesizer to audibly produce the correct word.

"All of the currently available devices produce such bad sound--it either sounds robotic or has a gruff speaking voice," Megan Russell, a Ph.D. candidate at the university, told Technology Review. "We felt the tech was there for an artificial synthesized voice solution."

Russell and her colleagues created the software for the system, which is being shown off this week at the International Conference on Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering in Singapore. For their research, the team is training a retainer-like mouthpiece already utilized in speech therapy to recognize words mouthed by people without a larynx.

The mouthpiece, called a SmartPalate, is made by Utah-based company Complete Speech. It uses 118 embedded sensors to track tongue-to-palate and lip closure contacts.

A microprocessor input/output device worn around the user's neck or placed on the desktop connects the SmartPalate to a personal computer, and software produces real-time, onscreen visual feedback that shows those with speech impediments how to reposition their tongues.

The system being developed in South Africa, according to Technology Review, would translate mouth movements into words to be reproduced on a small sound synthesizer that could be kept in a pocket.

Russell has trained her software to recognize 50 common English words by saying each one multiple times with the SmartPalate in her mouth. The information picked up by the sensors can be represented on a graph and put into a database, and each time the wearer configures his or her mouth to form a word, the contact patterns are compared against the data to identify the right word.

Russell says the system identifies correct words 94.14 percent of the time, although this doesn't include words that the system classifies as "unknown" and chooses to skip.

Sanyo Pro-700

(Credit: Sanyo)

It was back in April 2008 that we saw Sprint Nextel come out with a bevy of new QChat phones like the Sanyo Pro-700 and the LG LX400, which were designed to offer push-to-talk interoperability between CDMA and iDEN networks.

Now, however, it seems that Sprint is doing away with its QChat offerings altogether, in favor of just iDEN alone. This is quite a turn-around from the rumors last year that indicated the company was planning on doing away with iDEN altogether. Now it seems Sprint is keeping iDEN alive, which is good for Nextel, as well as Boost Mobile.

(Via Engadget Mobile)