The Social

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the Kindle 2 Monday in New York.

(Credit: David Carnoy/CBS Interactive)

NEW YORK--Were there an anthology of gadget launch announcements, the unveiling of Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book reader would have one of the more anticlimactic storylines.

It started out like any other big press conference, with a line of reporters and photographers streaming out the door onto the chilly sidewalk outside the historic Morgan Library & Museum.

The Kindle 2's arrival had been preceded by the usual blog blitz of leaked photos, rumors, and breathless wish lists. (A color screen! Better PDF support! International versions of the Kindle store!) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage, Steve Jobs-style, with a slide show recap of the original Kindle's success before making the big debut.

But the announcement itself was underwhelming. The price, $359, remains the same. The battery life's been improved by about 25 percent. The Kindle 2 is much skinnier than its predecessor, slimming down to 0.36 inches in thickness from 0.7, but it's only a tenth of an ounce lighter. The storage capacity has jumped from 256MB to 2GB, or about 200 to 1,500 books, and the electronic ink display has improved from a 4-shade to 16-shade grayscale.

The layout of some of the buttons has been restructured, and the new Kindle also has a text-to-speech reader. In short, the improvements seem worthwhile, but there was no real curveball to give the Kindle a mainstream appeal.

Waiting for Apples' iPhone 3G encampment. Large tupperware container is full of worms.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)

NEW YORK--A message to those of you thinking of hopping in line for the iPhone 3G at the Fifth Avenue flagship store here: there are thunderstorms predicted. Please stay home and spend some time with your friends, families, and pets. You're just going to get a sunburn and look silly.

Plus, a scrappy half-dozen activists who call themselves Waiting for Apples are going to get all the positive press. They're hoping to set a Guinness World Record as well as spread the buzz about sustainable agriculture, and are waiting in line with a solar-power generator, a bunch of yoga mats, a compost bin full of hungry worms, a soundtrack of the Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings And Food, and an adorable six-month-old--don't worry, she's only there for a few hours a day, has plenty of shade, and will stay home if it's rainy or sweltering.

They might have also soaked up the last bit of novelty associated with waiting in line for a shiny new gadget for days, if only because nobody thought to bring live worms to a product launch before. Anybody else, well, let's just say I can't guarantee I'll be so nice to you. Waiting in line for the iPhone is officially as passé as, "Dude! You're getting a Dell!"

Remember last year's snaking line? The funny thing is that no one left the Apple Store that night without a phone. Apple's retail process was impressively streamlined, so that if you showed up right after the phone debuted, you'd still have gotten one an hour or so later. Multiday line-waiters were matched within hours by people who smelled much fresher than they did.

Then the folly of it all was added to even more when Apple slashed $200 off the price of the iPhone just more than two months after it hit stores, meaning that everyone who'd waited in line to buy one looked a tad overeager. And dare I say that after the tech press jumped all over the pre-launch hullaballoo of Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, the video game Halo 3, and Apple's own Leopard software, the whole "wait in line for a gadget for days on end" thing has just gotten tacky.

Some people say they're doing it for the "experience." Well, if your idea of "experience" is sitting on your butt for five days, subsisting on hot dogs and salted pretzels, more power to you. There are plenty of other "experiences" to be had in New York that could be uncovered in about ten seconds of Web searching, all of which are much less sedentary and much less sunburn-y.

Others are doing it for the publicity, either for personal gain, to collect donations for charity, or to promote some kind of cause celebre. But answer this for me, without any Googling: which charities were represented by people waiting in line for the iPhone last year?

Can't name many, right? That's the thing. Last year, it was quirky ad agency Anomaly that walked away from the iPhone launch with good press by waiting there to support Keep A Child Alive; this year, it's more or less already established that Waiting for Apples will be the one people remember, if any. Last year, marketers flooded the iPhone line to hand out T-shirts, stickers, snacks, and anything that might get some visibility; the atmosphere got so clogged that single brands and causes quickly got jumbled in the chaos. That kind of PR-soaked atmosphere just isn't that efficient for promotion.

And, gadget freaks, if you're just waiting there to get the iPhone and play with it for months on end, just keep in mind that the original iPhone had no shortage issues until the new version was in the works and Apple stopped making Version 1.0. Also keep in mind that you're waiting in line for five days for a pricey consumer device that will likely be outdated within a year.

Come on. Wall-E would so disapprove.

(Credit: New Line Cinema)

United Airlines has been subject to some pretty bad press recently for being one of several airlines to slap a $15 fee on checked bags, but here's a perk: the commerical carrier announced on Monday that it's starting to install iPod and iPhone connectivity features in its airplanes.

More specifically, owners of Apple's media devices can hook them up to the planes' in-flight entertainment systems; they can navigate through music and video on the seat back televisions while charging the devices in the process. The connectivity technology has been manufactured by Panasonic Avionics.

United is the first U.S. carrier to provide this service, it said in a statement. Late in 2006, iPod manufacturer Apple announced that it had struck a deal with the airline--as well as fellow domestic carriers Continental and Delta, as well as overseas carriers Air France, Emirates, and KLM--to configure in-flight iPod connectivity.

For United, the iPod cables won't be everywhere immediately. For the most part, they'll be installed on planes that make transatlantic flights, and in some cases will be restricted to those with first- and business-class seats. The first "iPod flight," United 936, will take off at 5:40 PM EDT on Monday in Washington, D.C., and fly to Zurich, Switzerland.

So, D.C.-to-Zurich pond hoppers: you can can now watch Snakes on a Plane on a plane (on an iPod, without draining your battery).

UPDATE at 1:39 PM PT on Wednesday: It's official. Veronica Belmont will be the new co-host of Tekzilla.

When former CNET TV anchor Veronica Belmont announced last week that she was leaving her gig as host and producer of the Mahalo Daily video podcast for "new projects," her loyal fan base immediately started wondering where she'd head next. Many figured her destination might be the San Francisco-based Revision3, the video production company created by Digg founder Kevin Rose.

More specifically, some wondered if she might be hired as a host for the Tekzilla show, which covers new gadgets and hardware. (Tekzilla, along with several other Revision3 shows, are syndicated on CNET TV, a sister site to CNET News.com.)

Looks like that speculation may have been correct. Revision3 put out a press release on Tuesday that revealed the show's April 18 episode will indeed introduce a new co-host for Tekzilla, but did not say who it was. Currently, the gadget program has a solo host, Patrick Norton. Belmont, who did not immediately respond to an e-mail inquiry, has guest-hosted the program before.

A source close to Revision3 would not confirm or deny a Belmont hire, but did say to "watch the blogs" on Wednesday morning.

Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis, who originally hired Belmont, wrote last week on his blog that Belmont would be working on two new projects and that they would allow her to work in San Francisco rather than Los Angeles, where Mahalo is based.

Gossip and speculation? Yep. But I'm betting five bucks that Veronica Belmont is headed to Tekzilla. If she's not Tekzilla's new host, I owe somebody $5. If you're lucky, maybe it'll be you!

Chumby Industries, manufacturer of the eponymous huggable touch-screen Wi-Fi widget gadget, announced Monday that it has raised $12.5 million in Series B venture funding. The lead investor in the round was JK&B Capital, but existing investors Avalon Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also contributed.

A friendly-looking device that you configure online, the Chumby cycles through a rotation of custom widgets from weather to Google Calendar to cult-hit shopping site Woot.com. Many of these come from the Chumby Network, a platform of user- and partner-created applications that can be added to the little gadgets.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET Networks)

It's also, aside from the touch screen, soft and squishy.

Formally, the new Chumby cash will be used to "accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices." Does that mean they'll make a Chumby kitten or a Chumby penguin?

"We are pleased to receive this financing, which will enable us to execute our vision and grow distribution of the Chumby Network," Stephen Tomlin, founder and CEO of Chumby Industries, said in a statement. "As the next step of our strategy, we will focus on establishing relationships to broaden distribution to other screen-based devices such as digital photo frames and LCD TVs."

Oh. So much for the touch-screen penguins.

To use the worst of bad plays on words, YouTube has thrown itself into the Ocean: Youth-oriented mobile carrier Helio announced Wednesday that it has souped up the YouTube video offerings for its Ocean handset.

Owners of the double-keyboard smartphone are now able to upload videos to the Google-owned service more easily, fill in various criteria for them (privacy settings, tags, descriptions, categories) and "geotag" them thanks to the handset's GPS capability. Additionally, the Ocean YouTube application facilitates access to some of the social-networking features previously unavailable to most mobile versions of YouTube--rating, commenting, and access to personal videos through a full log-in.

The enhanced mobile YouTube is available free of charge on the Ocean, which has a 3G mobile Web connection. It's not the first time that a handset manufacturer has touted YouTube integration--Apple's iPhone prominently features a player for the wildly popular video-sharing service, and LG makes a "YouTube phone," the KU990 Viewty.

The new YouTube on the Helio Ocean.

(Credit: Helio)

But Helio considers its YouTube interface to be a step above the fray, and apparently YouTube's honchos agree. "Helio has taken the mobile YouTube experience to the next level," Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder and CEO, said in a statement from Helio. "This innovative application offers people even more customization and provides them with instant access to interact with the YouTube community whenever and wherever they go."

Helio, a joint venture between EarthLink and SK Telecom that offers a regularly changing lineup of handsets, apparently has a new phone on the way called the "Mysto." No details on the gadget are available aside from a $150 price tag and a screenshot that appeared in the December issue of hipster fashion magazine Nylon.

But even though Helio continually rolls out new gadgets and high-profile partnership deals like the YouTube application, the company's future is still up in the air. The company has yet to convince the public that its business model can succeed, especially as competitors like Amp'd Mobile have shuttered.

(Credit: Henri Bendel)

According to the PSFK blog, Manhattan's legendary luxury department store Henri Bendel is so notoriously old-school that it launched its first Web site a month ago. But the retailer is moving a step further into the Digital Age by opening a holiday gadget "pop-up store"-- curated by bloggers--inside its Fifth Avenue space.

Last year, Bendel had a holiday shop centered on the youth-oriented mobile phone carrier Helio.

But for 2007, Popgadget, which caters to female readers who appreciate both style and function and is staffed by a team of writers around the world, has selected an array of about 20 gadgets to be sold at Bendel for the duration of the holiday season. The "pop-up store" apparently opened on Monday; I might have to go check it out.

As for Bendel, this is probably a smart move for the store. The upscale women's fashion hub, which first opened in 1895, has become closely associated with the young and tech-savvy Gossip Girl crowd, so the displays of Prada cell phones, Archos portable media players, and high-end Griffin iPod accessories won't be particularly out of place.

But if the selection (or the luxe atmosphere at Bendel) isn't quite your thing, there are other holiday tech shops that have sprung up around the city--like the Wired Store, which opened in SoHo last week.

Party at the Wired Store!

(Credit: Louis Seigal for Wired)

On Thursday night, a slew of well-dressed publishing types flooded into a cavernous space in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood for the opening celebration of 2007's Wired Store. For the past few years, the tech-focused magazine has created a "pop-up store" to feature the gadgets that it wants to highlight this holiday season.

And like any party, there was an open bar. Last year's Wired Store party had featured booze from Budweiser and Yellow Tail. This year, Wired parent company Conde Nast had stepped it up a notch with drink selections courtesy of Patron tequila--including a mojito bar that was consistently mobbed all night.

But the real attractions were the gadgets, which visitors can order by hitting up a computer kiosk inside the store. On display were digital photo frames, satellite radio consoles, solar-powered messenger bags, HDTVs, robots, and thousand-dollar headphones. There were also talking barbecue thermometers, the cute One Laptop Per Child computer, a "Darth Vader Learning Laptop," and a $13,450 "water bobsleigh" designed in Germany.

And no "hot gadgets for the holidays" list would be complete without a mention of either or both Red Octane's Guitar Hero III and MTV's Rock Band video games. At the Wired Store, both were on display and fired up for test runs. But one party guest I was talking to thought that Guitar Hero had passed its prime ahead of the holiday season.

"I don't know," he said to me. "I think Guitar Hero totally jumped the shark on Wednesday night. Did you see it was all over Gossip Girl? That's when you know it's totally over."

"Yeah, um, I watch Gossip Girl," he added, embarrassed.

When I saw Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow speak at a publishing conference in January, he made an offhand remark about how the "directory of wonderful things," one of the most popular blogs on the Web, occasionally came under fire for not being a "true blog" because it didn't allow readers to comment on entries. Comments on Boing Boing, which started as a zine and then went online in 1995, had been turned off several years ago in the wake of trolling problems.

Well, Boing Boing critics can consider themselves moot on that point--the blog has reinstated comments along with a redesign that went into effect on Tuesday morning. Additionally, there's a new Boing Boing Gadgets vertical helmed by former Gizmodo editor Joel Johnson.

In a post on Tuesday, Boing Boing co-editor Mark Frauenfelder hinted that more new developments are coming in the near future, too. Could more verticals be on the way, eventually leading to a full-out blog network? Boing Boing has made a name for itself by chronicling all things bizarre--common topics include steampunk culture, cryptozoology, Disney (a favorite topic of Doctorow's), Creative Commons, and news of the odd--and there's plenty of room out there for even more weirdness.

"We'd like to thank the happy mutants who helped make this major relaunch possible," Frauenfelder wrote. "These folks went under the hood and untangled the mess that Boing Boing's code had snarled into, and created an elegant, powerful system that positively shines."