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I don't remember hearing so much talk over a product that nobody has even seen, but the scuttlebutt continues, this time from Australia.

Apple is reportedly shopping its rumored tablet to media companies in Australia to gauge interest in having their products available on the device when its released, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. While specifications of the device were reportedly sent to the companies, nobody would confirm it on the record.

One thing to come out of the Australian talks that we haven't heard before focuses on pricing, and more importantly for the media companies, how much they will get to keep.

The Herald says that it expects Apple to give the media companies a similar price offered to iPhone app developers. Apple keeps 30 percent of the sales and the media companies would pocket 70 percent.

If true, that would be a significant raise for the media companies over what Amazon was offering the companies to have its content available for the Kindle. Amazon's deal was reportedly exactly the opposite--70 percent would go to Amazon, while 30 percent would stay with the publishers.

On Monday, news from an off-the-record meeting with the digital staff of The New York Times revealed that Executive Editor Bill Keller may have knowledge of Apple's tablet as he was preparing the company for platforms of the future, including the "impending Apple slate."

Dying for a new desktop or laptop with a fresh, factory-installed copy of Windows 7 on it? We all know the official start date for the Win 7 era is October 22, but some small custom PC makers are claiming they'll start shipping systems with the new OS as early as October 13.

Puget Systems, a custom PC maker in Seattle, says the following on its Web site:

Customers who place orders for a full personal computer system, and who select Microsoft Windows 7 as their OS of choice, will be immediately placed in queue for shipment which will begin in earnest on October 13, 2009.

According to tech news site Ars Technica, Puget was told by Microsoft that "the earlier date only applies to system builders that buy the operating system through distribution channels," meaning small PC makers, and not the big OEMs like Dell and HP.

However, Puget and other custom PC makers may be a bit too optimistic. A Microsoft spokesperson explains, "October 12 is the date that Microsoft enables our Authorized Replicators to begin shipping Windows 7 to Microsoft OEM Authorized Distributors... So, while in theory a System Builder could get Windows 7 product pre-GA (general availability), based on supply chain analysis, the intended timing for customers to receive Windows 7 PCs from System Builders should be close to GA, on October 22nd."

That means the copy of Windows 7 on your system from a custom PC maker would leave the DVD replicating facility on October 12 and get shipped to a distributor, which would then send it to a company like Puget. After that, your system still has to get built, tested, and shipped. If one is very optimistic, this could get you hooked up a few days early, but realistically, this puts you in the same general October 22 ballpark as everyone else.

But if you're determined to be the first person on your block with a Windows 7 PC, all is not lost. While the official release date of October 22 is a Thursday, we've heard from several sources that certain big brick-and-mortar retail stores are going to start advertising Windows 7 systems in the weekend newspaper circulars that hit on Sunday, October 18.

The implication is, if you drop by a retail store that Sunday, there's a good chance they'll have Windows 7 versions of some laptops and desktops in the store already, and there's a good chance you'll be able to walk out with one.

Plastic Logic has be showing off a larger form factor e-reader--but Amazon may get to market first.

(Credit: Plastic Logic)

Rumors have been circulating for a while that Amazon has a larger form factor Kindle in the works--and we may get a first look at it as soon as this week, according to sources who spoke with The New York Times.

Initially, a lot of the chatter around a new jumbo Kindle was focused on the textbook market. But in recent months, as more newspapers and magazines have become threatened with extinction, these larger e-readers--which also include models from Plastic Logic and News Corp.--have increasingly been pitched as digital saviors for old-media companies looking for what the Times calls "electronic life preservers."

The Times didn't specifically refer to itself as one of the companies requiring such a preserver, but it is expected to be featured in the introduction of the new Amazon device along with other major newspapers and magazines that are already available on the Kindle e-readers for a monthly fee.

Clearly, it's that ability to charge a fee and the potential cost savings of a paperless platform that makes digital readers so attractive to newspapers and magazines. As the Times and other have pointed out, publishers could "save millions on the cost of printing and distributing their publications, at precisely a time when their businesses are under historic levels of pressure."

But there are some inherent problems with shifting paper readers over to e-readers. ... Read More

Extra! Extra! You don't have to pay extra to get Wall Street Journal content on your iPhone.

Good news for news junkies and anyone who can still stomach reading about the stock market: The Wall Street Journal just took the wraps off an eponymous iPhone app, offering news, video, and even podcasts. Better still, there's no charge for the app--or the content.

That may surprise Journal subscribers who pay a little more than $100 per year for unrestricted Web access. But it puts the app on an even footing with The New York Times and USA Today apps, among others, which also provide news at no charge.

The Journal app bears a striking resemblance to the Times app, with a five-icon toolbar that spans the bottom of the screen and a banner ad just above that. (Hey, somebody has to foot the bill.)

But this isn't just the Times repackaged. For one thing, the Journal app seems to load much faster than the notoriously pokey Times, and it sports prominent buttons for Video and WSJ Radio.

The latter consists of a two-minute podcast that starts streaming immediately when you tap through. But it lacks a time stamp, so there's no way to know without listening if it's any newer than the last podcast you played.

As for the videos: they flat-out refused to play, though we'll cut the app some slack on its first day; no doubt looky-loos have stampeded the Journal's servers.

Other amenities include a button to save articles for future reference and another to e-mail them to friends. Plus, you can customize the toolbar with any of 16 icons, giving you one-tap access to sections like Tech, Opinion, and Barron's.

Thus, despite a few early kinks, the WSJ app is sure to delight the business crowd--especially considering that they don't have to tap their slush funds to get it.

(Credit: Mitemite)

Are you one of those people attached to the notion that news should only be read on paper? Well, here's something to appease your old-timey sensibilities.

Mitemite--a small Spanish company that boasts their "unnecessary" products line--created a laptop bag in the style of old newspapers. Now you can carry your laptop in the Herald Tribune, the La Vanguarda and other publications.

The bag is ideal for anyone who wants to look appropriately snooty while traveling to work. Well, not anyone. The current styles are only made for the Macbook Pro, but anything smaller than 15.4" will fit, too.

There are no compartments, nor any kind of padding to protect your laptop. So what? Take off the handles, place it in your briefcase, and use it as a sleeve. The 'rents will be proud that you're reading the paper every day.

Jeff Bakalar makes his return on Fat Tuesday--how appropriate. Justin reveals to the world that he loves Alvin & the Chipmunks, on top of his fascination with Disney music. Disney we can forgive, but really? An Alvin & the Chipmunks cover of "Uptown Girl?" And we figure out that Alvin wears a giant "A" because he's committed adultery.

On today's show, Justin learns some new racial slurs from Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." Jeff tells us to check out Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"and reveals to us that he once was a professional wrestler known as "The Flying Daisy." In actual news, newspapers are asking the federal government for a bailout. Get with it! Newspapers are going the way of the dodo. On top of that, it's National Pancake Day, so head on over to your local IHOP! Let Fat Tuesday's debauchery begin in earnest.

(Credit: V12)

V12 Design created some buzz more than a year ago when photos of its dual-screen laptop design were circulated around the Web. It wasn't so much the double LCDs that drew interest--others have done that--but the digital newspaper pages displayed on the screens.

The concept from the Italian design house raised the possibility of a portable device that might come close to replicating the experience of reading an open-broadsheet newspaper. European newspapers have already been experimenting with single-page e-readers that get hourly updates from wireless connections.

Now V12 is reportedly planning to go forward with a real product, complete with a multitouch screen and built-in microphone for voice navigation, but it isn't expected to be ready for 16 months. That's an eternity, especially considering that other dual-screen prototypes are on the horizon, not to mention the recent proliferation of single-page e-book readers on the market.

What's worse is that V12 apparently developed the concept four years ago, according to Gizmodo. Unfortunately, it seems that the company has adopted the pace of the old media it's trying to bring into the digital world.

(Credit: Electronista)

While the hype over e-readers has focused on Amazon's "Kindle" and other e-book devices--or lack thereof--some of the digerati in France are turning the page to a different print medium.

The "Read&Go," being developed by French telecom Orange, is aimed specifically at newspapers with hourly wireless updates by 3G and Wi-Fi connections, according to Electronista. The 1GB device, which will also come with 30 preloaded books, is already undergoing two-month public testing periods. We hope someone works on a dual-screen version so we can scan all the comics at once.

It's bad enough to get hit on the head with a MagLite, but here's one that'll burn your house down too.

All right, so it's been slightly modified. How'd they do it? Twelve 1.2V NiMH (rechargable) batteries capable of a sustained 10 amp draw--encased in that sturdy skull-cracking MagLite body--and an Osram HLX 64623,12V bulb "which is being overdriven to 14+V, to about 140 watts, with an estimated light output of about 4000 lumens." A regular 2D MagLite puts out less than 50 lumens, according to Mr. McCracken at extreme-geek.

The reflector is made of metal, as a stock one "would melt almost instantly from the heat of the Osram." The original switch has also been replaced with something meltproof.

Who's the genius would bother building one of these? Mac's Customs. There's some lively discussion on whether it's for real. Here's a site devoted to flashlights.