Doug Aamoth…

Quick Version: The Samsung Rant is an excellent phone for text messaging addicts who want to be able to do a bit of light web browsing over a high speed data network but don’t want all the feature overload of a full-fledged smartphone. And at $49.99 with a two-year contract, it’s priced to move.

Click through for the full review.

Overview and Features

• Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Sprint One-Click user interface
• GPS, stereo Bluetooth, high-speed data
• Two-megapixel camera
• Won “Best Cell Phone” award at CTIA 2008
• $49.99 after instant savings, a $50 mail-in rebate, and two-year contract

Good for…

…people who send text messages or e-mail all day long. Sprint bills this phone as “the ultimate texting machine” and, while that might be a slight misnomer (everyone knows the ultimate texting machine would be some sort of robot that answered all your e-mails and text messages, showed emotion, and was capable of rational thought), I found the Rant to come pretty close thanks to a great keyboard and simple UI.

It’s a good choice for the person who likes the idea of a smartphone or a pocket PC (or whatever they’re called now) but doesn’t want to deal with all the features. There’s no touchscreen here, there’s no stylus, and there aren’t menus buried within menus buried within menus. It’s just a phone with a little added kick. It’s not that bulky either. There’s a little junk in the trunk thanks to the keyboard but it’s not that noticeable; the Rant will fit in all but the tightest of pockets.

The UI that Sprint loaded on the Rant works pretty well because you can customize it to your liking. The main screen is made up of a series of “tiles” that, when selected, display a few various programs that you can launch. For instance: the Google tile.

Hey, I use Google! When I first selected it, up popped selections for Google Maps, Calendar, G-Mail, Notebook and YouTube. Well I don’t really use Notebook and I’m not a big YouTube-on-your cell phone guy, so I replaced those two options with Google Reader and Google Calendar. You can do similar things with the other tiles. Nice.

Not so good for…

…people who want a more robust online experience. The actual web browser will do in a pinch, but you’re not going to sit and surf from site to site on your phone for very long. That’s a minor gripe, though, as I didn’t find too much I didn’t like about this device. I never thought I’d get along with a non-smartphone, yet here we are. The only thing missing for me is a better browsing experience, but that’s not what this phone’s all about and it’s, admittedly, expecting too much out of a $50 device.

Conclusion

Great phone, great keyboard, great price. It’s perfect for text-happy kids and also for adults who want e-mail and text messaging without all the other smartphone hoopla.

Samsung Rant [Sprint.com]

Sigh… Above, please reference what girls between the ages of 10 and 30 think is cool. Also, as it happens, the same reason MTV will be blocked from every TV in the Aamoth household if I ever have a daughter.

Transcription to follow for those of you who can’t access YouTube at work…

Girl A: Do you know the world’s supposed to end? They just started this, like, in Geneva, this particle accelerator that’s, like, buried 300 feet under ground and then they start smashing particles into each other.

Girl B: What?!

Girl A: Trying to create black holes.

Girl B: Why are they doing that?

Girl A: ‘Cause they wanna figure out how we’re here. They wanna prove the Big Bang and that matter can come out of nothing.

Girl B: (Looks like she’s about to cry) Isn’t this crazy how all this is happening while Lauren’s gone?

[Infopirate.org via Digg]

It’s Halloween and, as such, here’s a handful of gadgets to get you started in the exciting world of ghost hunting, plus a couple of tips and tricks. Enjoy…

EMF Detector ($30)

A staple in any ghost hunter’s arsenal, an electro-magnetic field (EMF) detector does just what it says it does: detects electro-magnetic fields. Many theories say that disembodied souls, while often invisible to the naked eye, emit such fields.

Bonus: You can use an EMF detector around the house to see which of your appliances and gadgets give off unsafe levels of electro-magnetism.

IR Thermometer ($30)

Using an infrared thermometer can help the aspiring ghost hunter to detect “cold spots,” which are often attributed to areas of paranormal activity. The theory is that when a ghost attempts to manifest itself, it’ll draw energy from the air around it, leaving behind a small pocket of cold air. Use an IR thermometer to measure abnormal cold spikes in certain areas where the surrounding air is otherwise warm.

Bonus: Use an IR thermometer to help troubleshoot your car or to measure surface temperatures for cooking.

Digital Voice Recorder ($35)

A decent digital voice recorder is a must-have for picking up electronic voice phenomena (EVP). The idea behind EVP is that ghosts often make sounds that aren’t heard by the human ear but that are able to be recorded electronically. Many ghost hunters will have a digital recorder with them and recording at all times while hunting.

Bonus: Use it to remind yourself to pick up ingredients to make chili and whatnot.

Camcorder with IR Features ($250) and/or Night Vision Light ($40)

A decent camcorder is a must. Some ghost hunters use Mini-DV camcorders, while some use hard drive or flash-based camcorders. I’m partial to hard drive or flash-based, but go with what you like. Whatever you decide, make sure to pick up a night vision light to mount atop your camera or get a camera with built-in IR features (such as Sony’s Night Shot mode) or you’ll be left with super dark footage. Everyone knows you’re supposed to hunt ghosts at night with all the lights out, right?

Bonus: Use it to record “other” activities in the dark. Mmmm-hmmm.

Compact LED Flashlight ($5)

You’ll want something small but bright. No giant MAGLITE’s here – look at all the other crap you’ll have to carry around all night. A compact LED flashlight should fit the bill.

Bonus: It’s a flashlight. Everybody needs a flashlight.

Other Advice

Stay away from gadgets that are marketed as made for ghost hunting. Case in point: the EMF detector listed above at $30 is sold at double the price when packaged as “The Ghost Meter EMF and Paranormal Detector” even though it’s the same exact thing. There’s a lot of money to be made from this ghost hunting craze, but you can pick up almost everything you need at a hardware store and if you already have some sort of camcorder, you can get up and running with everything else for under $150.

Good Ghost Hunting Shows

• Ghost Hunters (Sci-Fi)
• Paranormal State (A&E)
• A Haunting (Discovery Channel)

Just a heads up that there are a handful of potentially dangerous laptop batteries floating around out there. These ones are made by Sony but are found in certain models of HP, Toshiba, and Dell notebooks. The HP notebooks are the most at risk with about 32,000 affected batteries.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “There have been 19 reports of the batteries overheating, including 17 reports of flames/fire (10 resulting in minor property damage). Two consumers experienced minor burns.”

PC Notebook Computer Batteries Recalled Due to Fire and Burn Hazard [CPSC]

On the game console superhighway, if there is such a thing, the Nintendo Wii just blasted past the Nintendo 64, stuck its left arm out the driver’s side window, and rigidly shot its index finger into the air to let the N64 know that the Wii, in fact, is now number one. Well, not number one, but it passed the Nintendo 64 in lifetime sales.

To date, Nintendo has sold almost 35 million Wii consoles. The N64 sold almost 33 million. Here are the Nintendo consoles that are still in front of the Wii.

• SNES: 49 million
• NES: 61 million
• Game Boy Advance: 81 million
• Nintendo DS: 84 million
• Game Boy: 118 million

Keep in mind that the Nintendo DS number can still grow.

[GoNintendo via BGR]

Holy crap, you could drive a truck under that thing. That’s a nine cell battery for the MSI Wind netbook, which is available on Ebay’s UK site according to a post in the MsiWind.net forums. The item ships from China for a grand total of around £70 – roughly $115 in US dollars.

Owners of this gigantic lump are reporting over 6.5 hours of battery life. When I tested the six-cell MSI Wind, I was able to get a little over five hours before having to recharge so I’d almost think you could squeeze 8+ hours out of a nine-cell battery with everything tweaked to maximize power consumption.

[via Wired]

I don’t find shaving to be a good use of my time. As such, I use a trimmer every week or so to just clip the little guys down to a manageable, non-itchy length. It’s one of the sad perks of never interacting with real human beings day after day.

Anyhoo, this Rolling Razor thing looks a bit intriguing as it’s basically reminiscent of a secret decoder ring with two blades on either side. Oh, "triple convex cartridges," excuse me. You mount the apparatus on your finger like a ring and then go to town. Words don’t do it justice, so check out the above video and watch how quickly this guy lops off all of his manly hairs. I’ll stick with the trimmer since I like to leave a little scruff, but those of you with real jobs and whatnot might find this interesting.

The razors cost about $15 and only come with a set of "long-lasting blades" — you get two blades, though — and replacement blades cost $8. You have to use the company’s blades, too, so keep ‘em stocked unless you want to look like me for a few days.

[Rolling Razor via ShavingStuff.com]

The Dell XPS One line of all-in-one PCs has added two new models, each with 24-inch screens (the other models have 20-inch screens) and 4GB of RAM, standard.

One starts at $1,699 and features a quad-core Intel Q8200 processor, Vista Home Premium, DVD burner, 4GB of RAM, 320GB SATA hard drive, integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics, and a SoundBlaster Audigy HD sound card.

The other starts at $1,999 and includes everything mentioned above except it’s got a 750GB SATA hard drive and a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT video card.

Looking for a last-minute pumpkin carving idea? Curbly has a good Princess Leia jack-o-lantern design that doesn’t look all that difficult to pull off.

The famous hair buns are actually two mini pumpkins that can be held in place with toothpicks or, if you’re feeling ambitious, two 3-inch pieces of quarter-inch doweling and some pretty straightforward cranial drilling. Slap on some acrylic paint, use a dishtowel to simulate the Princess’ gown, and, boom, intergalactic pumpkin.

Once thought to be wildly overpriced (by me, anyway), the MacBook Air almost seems like an okay deal at $1,349. It’s refurbished, yes, so you’ll have to decide if that’s a big deal to you or not. It still has a one year warranty and you can extend it if you like.

The $1,349 version is the one with the 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM, and the 80GB hard drive. The 1.8GHz version is also available for $1,499 along with the 64GB solid state drive version for $1,799. Have at it.

Refurbished MacBook Air (scroll down) [Apple Store via dealnews]