Notes: Labor Day Changes [Notes]

Hey all. Labor day’s always signaled the true end of summer to me, and this year, it marks many changes and breaks for the Giz team. Jason’s taking a last minute vacation to some tropical destination, and I spent the day finding a ski cabin and getting ready for the upcoming snowboarding season. Jesús is leaving Berlin and getting back home before moving; Mark and Wilson are settling into new homes in new cities; Adam is in Cape Cod; John Herrman is ending his internship and returning to Scotland in a few days; CES prep starts to warm up. We rest so that we have the ability to brace ourselves and resist the rush of new gadgets the companies want to shove down our gullets. So, we’re taking the holiday weekend to post a tiny less and relax a little more. If you end up missing us more than you can bear, here’s a link to our most current top stories and features. Otherwise, we’ll see you on Tuesday.

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Graff Luna: The Samurai Sword of Faucets [Sinks]

We’re in the midst of a sink design Renaissance folks—crazy new designs seem to pop up all the time. The latest comes to us via Graff in a form that bears more than a passing resemblance to a samurai sword. Plus, the faucet itself is 3 feet tall, so I wouldn’t be surprised if visitors to your loo linger a bit admiring this masterpiece of plumbing. You even have the option of wall mounting the handles depending on which style you like. [Graff via HDF]

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3-Channel Black Steath R/C Chopper For $30 [R/c]

The guys at Think Geek are bringing R/C junkies one of the cheapest 3-channel mini choppers on the market with the new “Black Stealth.” Unlike dinky 2-channel versions, the Black Stealth can handle forward flight with ease—or so they claim. In fact, Think Geek goes so far as to say that it is the easiest to fly small copter they’ve ever used. I would be kind of skeptical with a price tag of only $30, but the video below does a good job of showing off its capabilities.

[Think Geek via DVICE]

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Dealzmodo: RadioShack Selling Samsung Instinct For $100 During Labor Day Weekend [Dealzmodo]

If you’re interested in getting your hands on a Samsung Instinct, RadioShack has announced that they will be offering an exclusive $100 price on the phone to celebrate its launch across their 4,400 stores. The Instinct is easily Sprint’s ideal phone, but it is available only to new Sprint users who sign up for a Simply Everything Plan ($$$).The deal starts on Friday and runs through the Labor Day weekend. [MobileBurn]

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The boardroom is tense. Your boss is negotiating with their boss over the Massive Merger. Accountants discuss endless piles of financial statements. Somewhere a middle manager is getting grilled over an $800 dinner spotted in the audit. There are tears in his eyes and sweat on his brow. And there you’re, feet up on the desk with an LED pirate mug in hand. You and your stock options have nothing to worry about because you’re quitting/getting fired anyway. Good thing that mug only cost you $4. [The Large Pirate via Nerd Approved]

Via [gizmodo]

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HTC Tilt Windows Mobile 6.1 Update Actually Out [Htc Tilt Update]

That Windows Mobile 6.1 update we showed you last week when it was supposed to be out is now officially out (according to HTC). Grab it now. [HTC]

New features:

Windows Mobile 6.1
HTC Home Screen
Video Share Calling
Threaded SMS
MS Voice Command
OneNote Mobile
Remote Desktop Monitor
Enroll Domain
Managed Programs
PTT Button now available
for reassignment under
Start>Settings>Buttons.

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Nokia Rolls Out N85 and N79 Smartphones [Cellphones]

The image associated with this post is ideal viewed using a browser.We’ve had eyes on both of these for a while, but Nokia this day has dropped a couple new N-Series phones into the official UK chute, and they are expected to follow stateside soon. The N85 slider (left) appears to be replacing the N81, and the N79 candybar does the same for the N78 (even though it only dropped in the US a few months ago). Gaming and music seems to be the focus of the N85, which adds N-Gage support and ditches the built-in storage in favor of an 8GB micro SD card. An AMOLED screen reduces power consumption for up to 28 hours of music playback. The N79 bumps the N78’s camera up to 5MP and adds an LED flash and swappable faceplates. All feature Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G across the board, but the rumored US 3G support we’re still waiting to hear for sure on. [Pocket Lint via Electronista]

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Wooden Wii Accessories Are Real To Us and Us Alone [Wii]

There is an alternate universe much like our own, but in this universe there is no war and cows produce ice-cold milkshakes. And in this universe, you’ll also find the manifested counterparts to these wooden Wii peripheral concepts. Made of wood and featuring well-placed LED flare, the only thing better than the Wiimote and Nunchuk is this realistic Wiiglock:

It’d be a complete bitch for the TSA, but there really aren’t enough functional wooden firearms in the world. [flickr via ubergizmo]

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Spitzer Space Telescope Celebrates 5th Birthday With Portrait of Stellar Nursery [Happy Birthday]

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the last of the space agency’s Great Observatories satellites to launch, celebrated its fifth birthday recently… giving me the chance to post this amazing multigenerational picture of star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, 6,500 light-years from Earth. The photo takes in an area equivalent to four full moons and puts on show how one generation of big stars can give birth to the next.

The $800 million telescope, which was named after the first man to propose putting telescopes in space, Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr., launched on August 25 2003 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Its mission will conclude when its onboard helium supply is exhausted—estimates from 2007 put that date at April 2009. So happy birthday, Spitzer Space Telescope! Might you continue to provide us with awesome pictures for the last leg of your journey! [Cosmiclog]

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First Ever Hydrogen Car “Cross-Country” Road Trip Had a Lot of Help [Hydrogen Fuel]

I’m all for hydrogen—or any alternative fuel source for that matter (Shai Agassi, my man, let’s get cooking already!)—but if you’re going to heavily promote your cross-country trek as the “first ever” for hydrogen-powered automobiles, at least make sure huge, 1,000-mile stretches of it didn’t involve having the automobiles carried along on flatbed trucks. This was the case today as the “Hydrogen Road Tour ‘08″ wrapped up in Los Angeles after its 60-strong automobile fleet entered the Los Angeles Coliseum. From Rolla, Missouri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the caravan was carried on the back of carbon-belching flat bed tractor trailer trucks. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of an alternative fuel road trip right then and there?

Part of the gaff was, of course, due to that fact that there are just 60 hydrogen stations in the U.S., and only two of those are open to the public “without prior arrangement,” states Reuters. Nevertheless, event promoter Catherine Dunwoody, executive director of the California Fuel Cell Partnership (a major tour supporter), was optimistic about hydrogen’s chances.

“There’s a hunger out there for clean, safe vehicles,” Brubaker stated. “The common refrain everywhere we went was ‘Where do we get these vehicles.’” As a personal aside, I, too, would be interested in such a venture, especially if it meant large swaths of my morning commute meant hopping on the back of a truck, and having someone else do the driving for me.

More seriously, hydrogen as a major fuel source is pretty much nowhere near becoming mainstream. As the article notes, massive wig auto makers like Honda and General Motors only have plans to test a handful of hydrogen vehicles this year and next in select markets.

A best case scenario out of the automobile industry has only 2 million hydrogen-powered electric vehicles on the roads by 2020.

At least there was some diversity on this cross-country trip: Vehicles we provided by Honda, GM, Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co, BMW AG, Daimler AG, Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co, and Volkswagen AG. No word on those flat beds. [Reuters]

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