Awesome Tech

Just about every major US carrier has their own HTC Touch Pro2, but Verizon hits the sweet spot 9/11/09 with a $200 price (after $100 MIR), a full $150 cheaper than Sprint or T-Mo.

Alright, so the name could use some work unless you fancy a perm, but the PowerCurl is a potential godsend for MacBook owners; it’s a clip-on cord wrap for MagSafe Adapters.

Available 4Q 2009, Motorola’s CLIQ runs a custom MOTOBLUR Android skin; it boasts a 3.1″ touchscreen, UMTS/HSPA 3G, Wi-Fi, and 5 MP camera with autofocus and video recording.

It’s similar in appearance to the M8/M8.2 with a magnesium housing, but Leica’s M9 packs a full-frame 18 MP sensor, a more intuitive button layout, and a near silent shutter.

Sony’s MDR-DS7100 wireless headphones mean business: they boast 7.1 channel sound, a 50 mm driver, 100 foot range via the 2.4 GHz band and 13 hours of battery life.

Both the Wii and Xbox 360 get their own flavor of Logitech’s Wireless Drum Controller with similar specs: stainless steel surfaced bass pedal, 30 foot range and quick fold-flat design.

Targeted towards Leica neophytes, the X1 is a compact camera with a 12.1 MP APS-C sensor, 2.7″ LCD with Live View, fixed 24 mm f/2.8 lens, max 3200 ISO and Adobe DNG mode.

Made for portability, Microsoft’s Mobile Keyboard 6000 is just a few mm thicker than an AAA battery at the rear, requires Bluetooth, and can be purchased with a separate number pad.

Apple’s iPod Nano 5G may look like the 4G, but it’s a brand new beast with a cheaper price tag, a larger 2.2″ display, 640×480 video camera, pedometer, FM radio, mic and speaker.

Beyond the Nano, Apple’s other 9/9 news: iPod Touch gets up to 64 GB and Open GL, Classic gets 160 GB, Shuffle gets new colors, iTunes store gets tweaked and iPhone OS goes up to 3.1.

Logitech finally rolls out its Wireless Guitar Controller to the Wii; it’ll work with both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero and features a maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and metal frets.

Replacing the Glyde, Samsung’s Rogue is Verizon’s first with an AMOLED phone; specs: a 3.1″ resistive touchscreen, full slide-out QWERTY, EV-DO Rev. A, and 3 MP w/autofocus.

HTC’s fourth Android phone, the Tattoo features the Sense UI, a 2.8″ resistive touch screen, quad-band GSM/dual-band HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3.2 MP camera, and 528 MHz CPU.

Sprint’s follow up to the Pre, the Palm Pixi is a non-slider candybar with 2.63″ multi-touch screen, full QWERTY, 8 GB storage, EV-DO Rev. A and 2 MP camera; no Wi-fi, though.

Quirky’s Scratch-n-Scroll combines two desktop essentials into one: both a mousepad and an erasable writing surface, you can use your finger or a plastic stylus to jot down notes.

With one 180 degree turn, Hyuk Jae Chang’s Power Bridge concept turns the surge protector into an organizer by both hiding and routing unsightly cables underneath its body.

The Frankencamera is an open-source camera made by Stanford scientists; it’ll let you tweak focus, exposure and more on a software level while lenses and sensors can be swapped out.

It’s not as short as Eagletec’s Nano, but the Pico USB Flash Drive gets a higher max capacity of 32 GB, a chrome/nickel finish, is shock and water resistant, and measures 4 mm thin.

An external version of the popular laptop keyboard, Lenovo’s ThinkPad USB Keyboard was crowdsourced via their design blog; users happily ditched the touchpad, numpad and wireless.

Due out in October/November, specs are still not finalized for Sony Vaio X but we do know the following: 1.5 lbs, 0.55″ thick (MacBook Air is 0.76″), 11.1″ screen, and optional 3G.

Hand-tooled and printed, ThinkGeek had to start from scratch since no factory exists for this authentic 50s-60s Slide Rule; it measures 12.5″ and comes in a vinyl sleeve with retro box.

HTC’s Hero lands at Sprint 10/11/09, losing the large chin and squared corners from its initial preview; the 3.2″ screen will also get pinch-zoom but the internals remain the same.

It could use a more memorable name, but Sony’s ICF-CL75iP is an uber alarm clock: it packs a 7″ 800×480 LCD, 1 GB of onboard storage, AM/FM radio, and retractable iPod Dock.