Man, it has been quite awhile since we've seen an iPod of any sort get dressed up in limited edition attire. Thinking back to those Harry Potter, Madonna and Tony Hawk editions, we can't help but wonder how this one missed the boat. Coincidentally (or not) enough, the CBS Store has decided to offer up a special run of 8GB Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nanos just as The CW pushes the all new rendition of the show. Buyers can add up to 30 characters of text and choose black, pink, green, blue or silver hues, but you better hurry -- who knows how fast raving fans will be handing over their $269 in hopes of securing one.

[Via ChipChick]

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Man, Sprint just can't catch a break lately -- the beleaguered wireless carrier was just told that it would have to pay some $73M in refunds to customers for improperly charging early-termination feeds. The ruling, from a California state court, will basically set off a flood of similar cases if it stands -- but Sprint still has two weeks to respond to the ruling before Judge Bonnie Sabraw, and you can bet Yellow Swoosh will appeal if it loses in the end. Interestingly, Verizon was facing a similar lawsuit earlier this year and chose to quickly settle -- a lesson Sprint, with far less revenue and shrinking profits might do well to learn from.

[Thanks, Roger A]

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Toshiba -- clearly feeling the heat from other fashionable external hard drive makers -- has introduced a new line of disks guaranteed to bring on a neon flashback from your disco days (or Eurotrash nightmares). The three new models come decked out in the 160GB "Gecko Green," 250GB "Hot Rod Red," and 320GB "Carbon Grey" variations, with USB 2.0 ports and 8MB buffers on-board. The drives are Mac and PC compatible, no word on price or release date -- but with looks like this, who cares how much it costs? Right? Yeah, no.

[Via Pocket Lint]

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If the E60 had you dozing last night, you'll be conked out in no time by the time you finish reading this. Pentax is at it again, proving that point-and-shoot cameras can still be boring this day and age. The M60 tries to be fancy with a 10-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD monitor, "approximately 36.5MB of built-in memory," movie / panorama modes, a variety of scene modes and smile detection capabilities to boot. Expect this one to arrive late next month in blue, pink and silver for around £90 ($179).

[Via PhotographyPress]

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Netbooks based on VIA's Nano mobile processor aren't nearly as common as those based on Intel's Atom, but based on the benchmarking that's been going on recently, that's a shame, since the Nano appears to be much faster than the Atom 230. PC Perspective, Eee PC News, and Hot Hardware all ran some tests recently, and a 1.8GHz Nano L2100 with Chrome9 graphics was usually able to outperform a 1.6GHz Atom 230 with GMA950 graphics at everything from MP3 ripping to 3D benchmarking. Of course, that's not without a tradeoff -- the Nano was a bit more power-hungry, and the Atom's memory and graphics systems were occasionally faster than the Nano's. Still, it seems like the Nano has more raw horsepower than the Atom -- and it's pin-compatible with VIA's popular C7M, so hopefully we'll be seeing machines like HP's Mini-Note make the jump relatively soon.

Read - PC Perspective results
Read - Hot Hardware results
Read - Eee PC News results

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One of mankind's most adored gadgets (yes, the jetpack) is moving one step closer to mainstream today with the unveiling of the Martin Jetpack. Revealed in front of a crowd in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this human transporter is technically defined by the FAA as an "experimental ultralight airplane, equipped with a gas-powered, V-4 piston engine and two ducted fans that provide the lift." Currently, the $100,000 machine can only hover for around 30 minutes and rise to 8,000 feet, and those who sign up to purchase one will first have to complete 15 hours of flight training as well as a "safety screening." Check out an all-too-short video after the jump to see the device lift off, float around and land -- totally underwhelming, but the optimistic few will surely see promise.

Read - Martin Jetpack unveiling, video
Read - Details on Martin Jetpack
Read - More photos from EAA AirVenture

Continue reading Martin Jetpack officially unveiled, lifts off on video

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"Touching is good," but hacking? Not so much. Nintendo has gone on the war path against five Japanese companies that make their living helping users rip off DS games. Of course, a primary use for such hardware -- such as the R4 Revolution, pictured -- is homebrew and emulation, but good luck convincing Nintendo (or any large console manufacturer) of that. Details of the actual lawsuit are slim, but Nintendo has brought along with it 54 Japanese software makers to lend a bit of gravitas to the suit. If you haven't managed to hack your DS yet, now might be a good time to score the requisite hardware -- we might be facing a scarcity before too long.

[Thanks, Michael]

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Just as July began, we heard that Sprint would finally begin shipping its Airave signal booster nationwide before the month ended. It cut things close, but we can't deny that the rumor proved true. Starting right now, Sprint users with horrendous service in their own homes can begrudgingly cough up $99.99 to have the base station sent directly to you. From there, you'll have to throw down $4.99 per month for extending your coverage but still using your plan minutes, $10 per month if you're looking to make unlimited calls (through the Airave) with a single Sprint phone or $20 per month for unlimited calling for multiple lines. Critics have already harshed on the $50 increase in price from when it launched in Denver and Indy last year, not to mention the relatively high monthly fees, but we suppose you can take it or leave it depending on how regularly you drop calls from your couch. Oh, and don't even think of using this overseas -- the required GPS module makes sure you're in the US before enabling calls.

[Via PhoneScoop]

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ASUS' R50A has been hanging around in "almost here" land for, like, ever. Over six months after we laid hands on it at CES, it seems the release is all but imminent as evidenced by its recent showing in the sprawling FCC database. Per usual, the agency did its best with that 1.3-megapixel point-and-shoot that it just can't secure funds to replace, and while we've certainly seen more invigorating dissections, this one isn't half bad considering the dearth of enthusiasm expressed by those doing the splaying. Wander on down to the read link for more dark, dingy shots of the internals.

[Via jkkmobile]

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For those invited to private launch parties in New York and Chicago last Thursday, you've probably been playing with your shiny new US E71 all weekend. For everyone else, today's the day. The Americas version of the handset -- which includes GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and HSDPA 850/1900 support -- is finally on sale to the general public through a variety of retailers. Now, the only problems are sneaking out of the office early, finding a store with stock and coming up with approximately $500.

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