With the iControlPad seemingly slipping further and further from reality, iPhone gamers with an affinity for buttons have fewer reasons to get out of bed in the morning and face the world. If that's you then it's time to wake up, Sunshine, because the iPhone Game Pad is here to bring a little light to your life. It's a somewhat chubby slip-on case that, as of now, works only with the original model iPhone. (There's a 3G/3GS model to come.) On the face it offers four primary control buttons plus a D-pad, what appears to be Select and Start buttons, plus a pair of shoulder buttons atop. This combination should make it perfect for emulation hounds or any 'ol heathen who values tactility over design purity. As of now it's just a prototype, but if you have the resources to bring this thing to production the folks at CP Design who crafted it would surely love to hear from you.

The Sony VAIO P: it's a lovely little, pocket-friendly machine that suffers from one glaring flaw: high price. Leave it to the boffins at Sony Style to come up with a solution for that. No, not Sony's Sony Style retailer, but rather KIRF manufacturer Sony Style, which has crafted this 1.6GHz Atom-powered mini laptop with an 8.9-inch screen of undisclosed resolution and a "16GB hard disk" that is either actually an SSD or was manufactured sometime in the late '90s. It offers 1GB of memory (double that for $35 more), WiFi and, according to the specs, "you can carry it to go outside." The price for that kind of convenience? Just $299 -- or $275 if you buy 16 of 'em. Who wants to set up the group buy?

Microsoft may have axed its Flight Simulator franchise a little while back, but it appears that there are still enough virtual pilots out there to keep Mad Catz abuzz with making new apparatus. In fact, the notoriously expensive Saitek Pro Flight range will be seeing an addition of three new products in October. First we have the self-explanatory Backlit Information Panel, which could probably double as a pricey mood light if you have $149.00 / £129.99 / €149.99 to spare. Next up is the identically-priced Throttle, Pitch and Mixture System box that's supposed to replicate the controls found on the Cessna, Piper and Money Bravo light aircrafts. If these two modules fail to drain your piggy bank, you could always fork out another $199.99 / £179.99 / €199.99 for the F16 / F35-inspired, die-cast alloy Combat Rudder Pedals. Bundle these with the other Saitek hardware and you might get close to having the full cockpit.

It's getting to the point where it's not terribly easy to keep track of all the in-car entertainment initiatives our wondrous connected future has in store, but here's two names you'll want to remember: GENIVI and MeeGo. The former is an industry alliance that now includes automakers GM, BMW, Hyundai and Peugeot Citroen alongside the likes of ARM, NVIDIA, Nokia and Intel, and MeeGo is the Linux-based OS that they've just decided will soon be powering our cars. Don't expect this to affect your daily drive anytime soon, but in the long run we wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Moblin-Maemo base underpins future revisions of Terminal Mode and OnStar.

Welcome back to our "worst kept secrets" hour, where HTC has seen fit to release a PR blast informing the world of what it already knew: the Desire and Nexus One are getting Super (duper) LCD displays to fill demand that Samsung's AMOLED division cannot. Interestingly, HTC's statement says nothing of the Droid Incredible, a close sibling to these 3.7-inch devices, but the global Nexus One and Desire are getting hooked up "later this summer." CEO Peter Chou has also helpfully explained that the visual experience on the new SLCD screens is "comparable" to AMOLED, but offers better battery performance. Color us curious to see and hear more.

You didn't seriously think the Mac Mini would be spared, did you? The maniacal customizers over at Colorware have added Apple's latest bit of desktop furniture to their stable of "have it your way" electronics, with a $250 price tag for the paintjob by itself and a $1,000 levy if you want them to procure the hardware as well. Hey, we know that's expensive, but somebody's got to be buying all these crazy-hued gadgets for the company to keep going, right? Anyone willing to own up to it?

The Wireless Power Consortium took a big step forward this past week with the confirmation that its precocious Qi interoperability standard has been finalized. Composed of three documents setting out the interface, performance and compliance requirements, the new dictum has set itself the not inconsiderable challenge of making wireless charging universal, so that any Qi-approved phone can soak up juice from any Qi-verified base station, dock or omnitool. This first spec is limited to devices requiring no more than 5 Watts, an appropriately humble early goal, though cauldrons are already bubbling with ideas for laptops and the like. We just hope the impressive list of big time companies on the Consortium will succeed in taking Qi into the mainstream -- who here hasn't dreamt of their phone being compatible with the Touchstone?

[Thanks, MrStringTheorist]

Wooden computer cases? We've been there before, but few offer the simple elegance of this "Modern Danish-styled PC enclosure" photographed by slipperyskip at Collectors Weekly -- who jokingly indicates it wouldn't look out of place on the set of Mad Men. We think an integrated ash tray is a necessity before it could make the cut at Sterling Cooper, but it does appear to have plenty of room on top for scotch glasses. The case is said to be 85 percent complete, and hopefully some of that last 15 percent includes actually putting some hardware in the thing. Pretty as it is, an empty case won't do you much good.

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

This week Inhabitat brought you a surge of renewable energy news as groundbreaking projects supercharged every corner of the world. London officially crowned the first skyscraper with built-in wind turbines while Sicily generated solar power in the dead of night with the world's first solar plant that stores energy using molten salt. And speaking of solar power, China is heating things up with the largest building-integrated photovoltaic plant on the planet.

In transportation news, we scored an exclusive interview with auto manufacturer Edison2, who is currently coming up aces with three ultra-efficient vehicles in the final stages of the Progressive Auto X Prize -- and we watched high-tech aviation soar to new heights as Airbus unveiled its vision for a fuel-efficient aircraft of the future.

Finally, we were wowed by the world's first biomass consuming robot, which actually eats, excretes, and can run for a whole week unsupervised. If you're thinking "I can do that" then we encourage you to try - why not start training with this exercise-inducing treadmill desk? Don't forget to wear your spiffy glow-in-the-dark performance wear; your co-workers will love it.

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

It's generally a bad idea to extrapolate larger consumer behavior from personal experience and say "if I like it, surely everyone else will as well." It's a mistake that happens all the time, but there's is one case where I will use my personal behavior to at least start the foundation for analysis -- when I don't want a new gadget or technology. Granted, sometimes I'm just not the target audience, but even then I'm usually able to remove myself from the process and say it might not be for me but others will love this. In the case of 3D TV, however, I think my lack of interest doesn't bode well for the market.

I'm surprised by figures, forecasts, predictions and prophecies all showing a rosy outlook for 3D TV beginning as early as this year, because I've seen most of the 3D offerings available and I have no plans to buy -- not now and not anytime soon. I should be a part of the core demographic for 3D: I like TV, movies and video games. I'm am early adopter. I have reasonable disposable income. I'm not afraid of betting on the wrong standard. And yet, I'm not buying. Here's why.

Once upon a time in 2007, there was a little-known game called Shadowrun, that let gamers on both Xbox 360 and PC destroy one another for sport. Such is the environment that Microsoft facilitated, but alas, it wasn't for long, as the moment Shadowrun flopped the cross-platform feature was dropped, though it resurfaced once or twice in third-party titles as the years shot by. Outspoken HP exec Rahul Sood (of Voodoo fame) spins a slightly more complex yarn, however: he says Microsoft killed the project when it found that "mediocre" PC gamers could wipe the floors with the very best players on Xbox. Now, we're not confirming his story, and there are plenty of other possible explanations if you follow the money, of course, but we can't help but feel a hint of admiration for the longevity of gaming mouse and keyboard. Here's hoping we can all leave our predilections at the door as developers pit Android vs. iPhone.

A candybar slate from HTC with a 3.7-inch SLCD and 1GHz Snapdragon processor -- sounds about right for the Desire, but this little puppy is actually running Windows Phone 7 (presumably a developer build, given the apps catalog). According to our tipster, the three buttons under the screen are touch-sensitive à la Nexus One, the camera boasts 8 megapixels of memory retention, and the "hardware is ready." What you're not seeing, however, is any sign of skinning -- no Sense on this one, we're afraid. The company is apparently in talks with two US carriers, including Verizon (we'd presume Sprint given the CDMA connection, but we've no insight here). Are we looking at the rumored VZW-bound HTC Spark from June? Unfortunately we can't confirm anything at this point, so for now, just enjoy the tantalizing snapshots.

[Thanks, anonymous]

While high-end QWERTY sliders loaded with Android aren't nearly as uncommon now as when HTC's Vision first leaked onto the scene, it appears this particular handset may be destined for T-Mobile with its (alleged) 1GHz processor, spacious keyboard and 3.7-inch WVGA screen. Of course, we'd heard that the Vision would appear on T-Mobile before, and our worries are the same as then -- there's no telling whether the phone will actually land stateside, or if it's destined for T-Mobile Europe instead. Either way, our tipster tells us it could arrive with a different moniker: T-Mobile may call it the "G1 Blaze."

The HTC HD2 did it, and so did the iPhone 3GS (assuming you jailbroke), but now you can get your blocky amnesiac ex-SOLDIER action on Android courtesy of ZodTTD and yongzh. Their PSX4Droid app just launched on the Android Market for $5.99, and -- despite a few glitches -- it emulates PlayStation games like a charm, complete with multiple scaling modes and save states. Watch a Galaxy S rock the likes of Final Fantasy VII and Ridge Racer after the break, plus Crash Bandicoot on a Nexus One and some paired Wiimote action with a Dell Streak. Then, challenge yourself to adhere to intellectual property law instead of immediately hunting down ROMs and a BIOS file. We dare you.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We're not certain how many screen suppliers Apple has at this point, but LG is certainly a major player, so our ears tend to perk up when the Korean manufacturer admits it can't stay ahead of the game. LG CEO Kwon Young-Soo told reporters the firm just can't keep up with incredible demand for the iPad's brilliant 9.7-inch IPS display, and suggested that Cupertino might actually have to slow international expansion as a direct result. "Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand," he said, adding that even if the firm were to increase production capacity, supplies would remain tight through early 2011. Residents of Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and The Netherlands came in under the wire, but it sounds like there may be another wait for the rest of the world.