TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Donde es el Googlephone? Perhaps it is hiding out in Spain, waiting to make a glamorous public debut in two months.

That’s the theory of various rumormongers, who have grabbed images of a butt-ugly smartphone prototype claimed to be the first incarnation of Android. Word is it’ll be introduced to the world during the Mobile World Congress confab, which starts Feb.

We haven’t managed to track down the origin of either the photo or the manufacturer, but this fence fashioned from giant pencils was too good not to share.

It’s possible that these colossal crayons came from Island Leisure Products, which makes a two meter steel post with a lacquered hardwood tip, but we’d prefer to believe what Makezine claims: That these are real, giant pencils that will mark up any intruders who dare to climb the fence.

At first glance, The Ride looks like just another high-end beach cruiser. But take a look at the crank and wheel, and you’ll find a an innovative transmission that adjusts for an infinite number of gear ratios.

The NuVinci system is based on a mechanism sketched by Leonardo da Vinci. Fallbrook Technologies hope to utilize it in cars, wind turbines and more. But for now, it’s benefits are reserved for those willing to toss $3G to Ellsworth Hand-Crafted Bicycles.

Sunglasses: They make you look cool, except for when they make you look like a dork. For years due to built-in earbuds, Oakley Thumps have fallen into the latter category.  But in its latest evolution, the sunglasses-cum-mp3-player make the buds detachable and hide the buttons—so when you’re not playing tracks they look just like regular sunglasses.

For today’s Great Little Secret Instantly Ruined By People Like Us Writing About It, we have Customer_advocate@dell.com. That’s the semi-secret address through which aggrieved Dell consumers can reach customer service reps several notches above the outsourced-to-a-federal-prison level.

A purported Dell insider says the account is monitored by "our best tech support and customer care troubleshooters." Or was, now that you and everyone else know about it.

Reach The Dell Customer Advocates [The Consumerist]

If we lived in a world where everyone was (a) smart and (b) trustworthy, Toshiba’s micro-sized nuclear reactor, small enough to fit in the basement or a large shed, would be a slam-dunk solution to the energy/climate crisis.

Twenty foot long by six foot wide, the reactors produce 200kW of energy and run themselves: the entire thing is manufactured with the fuel within, and when it runs out, they can just send a truck to pick it up.

"Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core.

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It’s undisputable that 2007 has been the year of the iPhone and here’s some news to confirm it: Google’s Zeitgeist site placed the Jesus phone’s official name as the fastest rising search term around the globe. However, it failed to reach the top of Google News’ most popular terms list, coming in at the sixth slot, right after ‘2007 cricket world cup,’ ‘Chris Benoit,’ and ‘Britney Spears.’ ‘American Idol,’ rather unbelievably, was the top searched term on Google News.

For a few years, Google has been releasing a list of the top searches all over the world and compiling them to its Zeitgeist page at year’s end, often leading to collective head scratching over the true nature of the culture’s mind-state.

The 1394 trade association, the boffins behind the FireWire standard, have announced the next generation of IEEE 1394 standard. Named S3200, the interface is four times faster than FireWire 800, at 3.2 Gigabits per second (SATA, today’s internal hard drive interface, runs at up to 3 Gigabits per second).

The cables will look and work just like the existing FW800 connectors, and will be backward compatible, just like USB 1 and 2. And because FireWire delivers a big jolt of power across the bus, hard drives don’t need extra AC cables to run them. These blistering speeds should be available next year; 1394 expects to have the new standard ratified by February.

Financial analysts say satellite radio sweeties XM and Sirius are still likely to get regulatory approval for their proposed merger, despite a recent letter from key Congressmen opposing the move. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and  Steve Cabot (R-Ohio) sent Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey a letter this week warning him that it’s too early to give an antitrust OK to the merger.

Not a good sign, says analyst Blair Levin, but it doesn’t change the score: "It’s possible the Department of Justice will still try to block the deal and that there’s been some sort of leak, but we don’t believe the reported letter … means there is a greater chance of DOJ opposition."

NeuroSky makes a svelte headset purported to measure brainwaves, transmuting neural activity into input for video games and toys. Asked if any supplemental input is used, however, NeuroSky confirmed last night that its demo devices also monitor muscle movements.

This is the same kind of "mind-reading" technology pioneered and abandoned by Atari, whose similarly-marketed Mindlink controller failed to leave the lab following the 1983 video game crash.