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College textbooks are way too expensive, way too heavy, and way too tree-consuming. Electronic textbooks, on the other hand, cost less, weigh nothing, and leave forests alone.

You'd think Amazon's Kindle would be the logical place for e-textbooks to make their mobile-device debut, but CourseSmart's new eTextbooks app brings them to the iPhone and iPod Touch instead.

Specifically, eTextbooks is a companion tool for CourseSmart's textbook subscription service, which makes over 7,000 titles available for download or online viewing.

The app itself is free, but it displays only those books you've "subscribed to" (i.e., rented), and only when you have an active Internet connection. What's more, this version doesn't let you add or edit notes, but that's on the coming-soon list.

You can, however, view notes you've added via your PC. The app also supports keyword searches and lets you skim books by finger-flipping through thumbnails of each page.

Long bouts of reading might prove cumbersome, as the app doesn't reflow text to fit the screen the way, say, the Kindle app does. Each page is more or less a static image, much like a PDF. You can zoom in, scroll around, rotate into landscape mode, and so on. If only Apple offered a tablet-sized iPod Touch!

OK, college students, what do you think? Is this the best thing since bar night, or is the iPhone/Touch screen too small to make e-textbooks practical? Speak your mind in the comments!

Natali Del Conte's alter-ego, Motherboard, returns to the show to fight your computer worms and viruses! On today's show, we start off with a bit about fishing and gadgets. I think we have a new show idea: Ms. Del Conte will demo the latest fishing technology on a boat every week. Any takers?

(Credit: Radioshack)

Radioshack is trying to be cool again by renaming itself "The Shack." Too easy when it comes to jokes. There's no way that we're going to hang out at "The Shack." For a matter of fact, the only reason we can think to really go to Radioshack is if we needed something random, like a cable or a transistor.

Further down the show, we find out that scientists think women are getting hotter because of evolution. Apparently, attractive women tend to breed more, but for some reason or another this has no effect on men. We're ugly as ever. Natali testifies to this when she looks at Jeff and Wilson.

A recent graduate of Monroe College in the Bronx decided to sue her school after her information technology degree proved pretty useless in this economy. While we don't know the details of the situation, this can't be good for art school. Perhaps students will get disclaimers when they get Bachelor of Fine Arts or anthropology degrees?

We finish the show with some iPhone app updates. The new OS 3.01 has beefed up Wi-Fi connections in addition to its SMS fixes, but it still doesn't discount Apple's move to block Google's Voice app on its App Store. The Palm Pre gleefully still holds onto its Google Voice app. Finally, Steven Spielberg announces that he will be remaking the Jimmy Stewart classic "Harvey." Why? Didn't Hollywood see what happened to the remake of "Miracle on 34th Street?"

The Kindle DX is geared, among other things, toward textbooks, a potentially huge target market.

(Credit: Amazon )

Amazon announced its most recent Kindle device this week: the Kindle DX. Though it's almost identical to the original Kindle, this newer model is marketed for use with textbooks and for reading periodicals. While this seems to give the impression that Amazon has presented a more practical solution for college students, it's likely that the everyday pupil will reject this new device.

Currently, most students purchase their books on campus, where new and used copies are available, while the more frugal of us order online from Web sites like Amazon.com or eBay's Half.com. At the end of the semester, students can sell their books back to the school or to online buyback services where they receive a check for about 15 percent of the original price. For decades, this has been the routine.

More recently, however, the words "e-textbook" and "Netbook" have created a buzz around campus.

E-textbooks have been available for some time now, and are currently purchased for use on a laptop or desktop for about half the price of the print book version. Electronic textbooks are an excellent alternative to print books since with them, a student can search for a specific word or topic, copy/paste text into their coursework, comment within the textbook, and enjoy a lighter backpack.

After yesterday's downer show, we're back and cheerier than ever. Even Jeff is in good spirits after the New Jersey Devils got stomped all over their home ice. We discover today that Wal-Mart really does rock, and not in a good way.

Who watches the Wal-Mart?

(Credit: Flickr/george@sfindie.com)

The lesson of today's show is DO NOT BUY ELECTRONICS FROM WAL-MART, unless you're a rock collector, in which case you'll be thrilled, because apparently the company is literally selling Nintendo DS boxes filled with sediment.

We need to get THE BONCH, aka Bonnie Cha back on our show to talk about the Palm Pre. Actually, Palm is offering preproduction review units to Average Joes (and Josephines) in hopes of receiving "true life" feedback on the smartphone. Wilson seems to think that most consumers will frown on the smaller screen size, but we all have high hopes for the brand since this is definitely a last ditch effort in the smartphone market.

In exciting movie news, Jeff is superstoked to hear about a "Drop Dead Fred" remake starring Russel Brand, that quirky English dude that played the hippy beauhunk in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His brand of piratey humor should do well as a young girl's imaginary friend, right? Oh! We also reveal another popular movie sequel in the works, but you'll have to listen to the show to get the full scoop.

Finally, we touch on the bloated cost of higher education and how NYU students are getting questionable phone calls about their financial aid. Apparently NYU financial advisers are individually calling students receiving significant amounts of financial aid and questioning their decisions to accept the money and attend the university. If I were still in school and someone called me about this, I'd probably just tell them to put the check in the mail and stop telling me what to do all the time.

(Credit: Mr. Maximus, you get the first 404 baby shirt!)

Today's CFTP is rather heartfelt. Thanks to everyone who called in, and we'd like to personally welcome James Christopher Maximus to the world! You were born today, dude! Hopefully you're reading this in the year 2021, when you're old enough to fully grasp our jokes. We love your dad for breeding future listeners of The 404!

Per usual, don't forget to check out our live VIDEOcast (man it feels good to write that) every morning at 11 a.m. ET. We have a ton of fun in the preshow and you get the inside scoop on how we prepare for the show. And please please please call and leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638)!

Sean Tice and Adam Bedient, directors of the online Web series "Streak to Win," join the show today to talk about college kids competitively streaking and the crazy antics they get into.

(Credit: Varsity Productions LLC)

You can find the series online at streaktowin.com. On the Web site, you'll also find a guide to the best techniques of streaking. Most importantly, you have to be sure to tape down all appendages. Their words, not ours.

We also discuss a bit about how the Web is really opening up distribution for films that might get overlooked on the traditional festival circuit. These guys obviously didn't get too much love at Sundance when they pitched their film. And they share some interesting stories about getting arrested during the production of their Web series. Plus, plans for a follow-up featuring Ivy League streaking?

Also on the show today, we talk about a kid who mashed up Twitter, Twitpic, and the public arrest records of the Denton, Texas, Police Department. Kind of scary, but also pretty cool that there are more practical uses for Twitter than finding out that Ashton Kutcher just ate a sandwich. Just don't ever get pulled over for possession in Denton. These mug shots aren't pretty. As for Ashton Kutcher, we think this might be cheating a bit. There are starving people in the world, and someone donates money for this?

Be sure to send in your adventure stories and callbacks to 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Catch you all on the flip side.

Something just feels off about the new Facebook app from Embark.

Called College Planner, this widget lets prospective college students research schools and then apply to them without actually leaving their Facebook profiles. You can also see which people on your friends list are interested in the same schools.

Applying to college through Facebook. A little weird, isn't it?

(Credit: Embark)

I like to think that it wasn't all that long ago that I was applying to colleges.The world was "wired" enough so that most of my application forms were downloaded off the Internet, but I don't recall actually submitting any online.

Online applications, I suppose, have been thoroughly destigmatized (back in my day, there was still the concern that an electronic application wouldn't be taken as seriously as a paper one), but it's still a bit ironic to be applying to college through a site that's best known as an addictive procrastination hub.

What really stands out about "social college applications" is that many people I knew (not all, obviously) were fiercely private about where they were applying, especially if the school was a "reach." Then again, this was before high schoolers were eagerly exposing their souls on MySpace.com profiles, so perhaps privacy is no longer sacred.

No, actually, now I think I know what's unnerving about the Embark application. It's the fact that this is a Facebook application that actually could be useful. Zombies and FluffFriends, beware!

(Via AllFacebook.com.)

In theory, robots aren't designed to make mistakes. But a University College London (UCL) project team is hoping errors in how software "sees" optical illusions can make robots more like humans--mistakes and all.

Project leaders Dr. R. Beau Lotto and David Corney at the UCL institute of Ophthalmology say the study provides unprecedented insight into how the human eye can be fooled by lighting and shading. Instead of simulating the human brain, the software simulates learning patterns from past visual experiences.

(Credit: Brown.edu)

The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology study recreated the vision errors using software that "learns" colors and shading based on thousands of images. After the software was trained to predict the shade of colors from those images, it was subjected to shade-based optical illusions.

The illusion in question involves viewing the same shade of color on two different backgrounds. The human eye often sees the color as darker when it's on a lighter background and lighter when it's on a darker background.

And just like the human eye, the program saw shades as lighter when they appeared on a dark background and darker when they appeared on a light background.

These errors can be helpful in simulating exactly how and what humans see, which paves the way for "smarter," mistake-making robots.

The research paper for the project is available here, and this NewScientist article has more details on the UCL research project.

[Via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends.]

It goes without saying that in addition to a stellar reputation for academic innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is renowned for its geeky pranks. The best-known of these was perhaps the time when students decorated the campus' Great Dome to look like Star Wars robot R2D2 in celebration of the legendary film series' first prequel in 1999.

But Star Wars prequels are so last decade. These days, it's all about the much-hyped Xbox 360 title Halo 3. And why prank your own campus when you can pull a fast one on those snotty Crimsons next door?

Consequently, MIT pranksters headed over to the neighboring campus of Harvard University and decorated Harvard Yard's legendary statue of founder John Harvard to look like a Spartan warrior. Enough said.

Click here to see the end result.

A caption in the MIT student newspaper, The Tech, explained the full prank: "The back of the helmet, which is worn by the protagonist of the game, Master Chief, was labeled with 'Master Chief in Training.' The statue was decorated with an assault rifle (bullet count of 2E), as well as a Beaver emblem on the right shoulder." (In case you didn't know, MIT's mascot is the beaver.)

Oh, Boston. What do they put in your water, anyway?

Once again, the top dog among robotic subs is a Gator.

The SubjuGator team from the University of Florida has finished first for the third straight year in the balmy San Diego waters of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition.

The SubjuGator surfaces in the center of the recovery zone on Saturday.

(Credit: Machine Intelligence Lab, University of Florida)

There aren't many details to offer just yet on how Sunday's finals went. So far, it's just the Gators and the Proteus team from Cornell University that have posted brief notes on who won. Cornell reports that it finished fourth overall, behind Florida, the University of Rhode Island's (Ram-boat 8) and Montreal's Ecole de Technologie Superieure (Sonia).

Of the 28 teams that entered the competition, just 7 qualified for the finals, Cornell's team reported Monday morning. Qualifying rounds took place Friday and Saturday.

Cornell isn't wasting any time getting ready for 2008. "Before next year's competition, we hope to accumulate much more practice time with Proteus and a probable new vehicle. In fact, we began brainstorming for next year's vehicle after the competition," the team wrote on its blog late Sunday.

To see some of the undersea vessels entered in the 2007 competition, click here: "Photos: Robot subs vie for top honors."

So what do you do once you've created a robot sub? Some people go into business. By coincidence (apparently), The Boston Globe on Monday ran a story on autonomous underwater vehicles that hunt for ocean-going mines. A Massachusetts company called Hydroid, for instance, has sold about 130 of its Remus AUVs (which use an Intel 486 processor and MS-DOS) to the U.S. Navy, as well as the navies of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, the Globe reports. Some of the Remus machines have been used in Iraq war operations, and they're also being put to use by marine biologists.

It's no coincidence that one of the entities behind the AUVSI competition is the Pentagon's Office of Naval Research, and that the submarine races took place at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.