To say RIM has a lot riding on BlackBerry 6 is an understatement. With new kids on the block like Android and iOS stepping in with lustworthy apps and attractive UIs, the BlackBerrys have sitting in a corner BBMing everyone else at the party trying to convince them of its sustained utility. Regardless, the latest tease on the BlackBerry Blogs shows off some of the "fresh, but familiar" elements that are getting some polish in the jump from OS 5 to OS 6. While some features do have us intrigued (namely, BB's implementation of universal search), other headlining changes to the otherwise staid homescreen have us begging for more. New "views" that are toggled from a space right under the notification bar are essentially glorified folders, and the "quick access area" is much like the functionality offered by "Today"-style themes for the handset that have been around for years. Don't get us wrong, the polished look definitely helps but at the end of the day we just hope it isn't RIM trying to put lipstick on a pig -- we guess we'll find out when we get a commercial release to really bite into.

[Thanks, Jason K]

The concept of touching things such as light or smells isn't anything new, but there's so much room for interpretation that it's always interesting to see new applications. At Siggraph 2010, a new tactile display is being shown off which allows the user to fell light and shadow. Called Touch Light Through the Leaves, the device consists of a camera which detects light, and 85 vibration units, which have motors, process the light and shadow information into sensations. Check out the video below to see it in action, and hit up the source link for a bit more info.

So, Dell still won't say when it will actually start selling and shipping the Streak in the US, but it did clear up a bit of confusion. First off, folks who register with the Streak pre-sale on Dell.com between July 20th and July 27th (yeah, today is the last day) get first access at ordering the phone. Pre-sale-ers will get an email link to buy the phone today, with the handset priced at $299.99 with a two-year AT&T contract, or $549.99 without. Meanwhile, Dell is being even more forthcoming in the Aero. It'll be available on August 9th for $99.99 with a contract and $299.99 without. So, are you ready for Dell to be a US phone manufacturer? Have you braced yourself? Because the time is at hand.

[Thanks, Jas]

We suspect SanDisk would have run into some friction by proclaiming that its Cruzer Blade is the world's smallest USB flash drive, but it smartly chose to word things as its smallest in order to not draw attention from those other guys. No matter how you slice it, though, this little doohickey is awfully minuscule, being "about the size of a standard size paper clip and weighing approximately the same as a penny." It's tailor made to hang off of your existing keyring, and it's available in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB. As for prices? $14.99 to $77.99, and (just about) everywhere in between.

Yes humans, you read that right. Engadget and eBoy have teamed up to bring you a heartbreaking work of staggering genius -- namely, the eBoy-designed, Engadget-approved t-shirt you see above. We've got a very, very limited number of these on hand (less than 100), so if you want one, make sure you scoop it up today. If we run out here, eBoy have a small batch available as well. The 100 percent cotton, American Apparel shirts are $30 each (plus $10 for shipping and handling for up to 3 shirts, $20 for shipping and handling for anything beyond 3), and are available in S, M, L, and XL. Just follow beyond the break to see some more design detail, and use our totally reliable and not-at-all scammy PayPal purchasing options. US and international orders welcome!

Update: We've sold out of XL -- we have a few left in the other sizes though!

Update 2: Aaaaaaand mediums and larges are gone... just a couple of smalls left!

Update 3: We're sold out! Check out eBoy -- they should have some left. Maybe?

Yes, you're invited too. Lumigon wowed us with some simple, sophisticated looking handset renders way back in February, the S1 and the T1, promising things like HDMI output and Android 2.1 -- wild things back then. Just five months on and those features sound a little more pedestrian, so we're wondering how it will stack up when the T1 is finally unveiled in the flesh in another three months, on October 20. It'll be a wild night when the Scandinavian Lumigon crew lets loose its keyboard-free smartphone upon the denizens of Copenhagen. Will any Dane be safe?

[Thanks, Jakob]

Ready to suck down your sixth Google Maps for Android update in the past six months? Good. Version 4.4 has just been shoved out into the bright, hopeful world that we call home, with this one bringing about an easier way to find places around you. With the update will come an entirely new logo, as a dedicated 'Places' icon allows users to quickly look up nearby places in a Yelp-esque manner. If you tend to search for similar things regardless of where you are, you can load up your own personalized categories to make finding frequent searches that much easier (think "gas station" or "In N Out"). There's also Place Pages, which now shows the operating hours of listed businesses, compass direction and distance from your location. It's available now for all Android phones using v1.6 or newer, and if you're rocking a BlackBerry, you can expect the Place Page to head your way soon.

We've seen Sharp e-dictionaries aplenty here, but with the exception of a couple of models, that same ol' clamshell form factor's bound to send you to snoozefest sooner or later. To keep the Japanese bookworms interested, Sharp's latest offering -- dubbed the Brain PW-AC10 -- has packaged itself in a BlackBerry-esque candybar, which it claims makes it the industry's lightest e-dictionary while carrying two AAA batteries that keep it going for 110 hours. You'll obviously have to make do with a shrunken color LCD (2.4-inch QVGA) and keyboard, but the device still packs the usual English-Japanese translator, flashcard feature, and a seven-language traveling phrase book (with color images). ¥13,000 ($149) and it's yours early next month.

And just like that, the T-Mobile G1 is no more. A quick stock check at T-Mobile USA, Amazon, and a few other retailers confirms that the world's first Android handset is no longer for sale, marking the end of an era. Of course, it's been nearly two years since we first saw the G1, and its 528MHz Qualcomm processor and 320 x 480 3.2-inch display have been long since outclassed by the recent crop of high-end Android hardware, but we're still feeling a little nostalgic. They grow up so fast, don't they? Take a pause, take a sip, and let's look back on the original of the species.

• T-Mobile G1 launch press conference liveblog
• T-Mobile G1 review
• T-Mobile G1 impressions
• T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream product hub

Monsoon -- after taking advantage of a few delays since our initial hands-on by adjusting the name and pricing -- is finally ready to show off the followup to its HAVA line of placeshifting media streamers, the Vulkano. Integrating a video processor and local storage into its slim frame, the Vulkano accepts HD video over its analog inputs for recording and live streaming to other devices (PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, Blackberry and Android players will be available at launch, with a Symbian version on the way) or it can convert recordings locally for them to be downloaded over WiFi or 3G and stored on those devices for offline viewing. Remote scheduling and channel changing functionality (controlling connected set-top boxes via IR blaster) isn't a shocking new feature, but this goes a step further by bringing internet videos to your TV (YouTube, local UPnP devices) Boxee and Popbox style, and other big names like Hulu, Netflix, Google TV, Amazon Yahoo! Widgets and a full HTML browser are promised to show up in firmware updates soon. Believers can hit the site to preorder now, with units ranging from the $279 Vulkano with 8GB of SD card storage, up to a $379 Vulkano Pro with 1TB eSATA HDD included and other sizes planned in between. Check after the break for a press release with more details, and our hands on video from CES.

Dell's Kevin Andrew answered a few questions about the Streak in a new "vlog" on YouTube, and it's a mixture of encouragement and confusion. On the good side, Kevin showed off Android 2.1 up and running on the phone / tablet / lady-killer. It looks just like 2.1, of course, but with Dell's customizations still riding atop it. Oddly, while showing off 2.1, Kevin reassures us that Dell is still planning to go to Froyo (2.2), which is reiterated by the text below the video, with no clarification if 2.1 will actually be released as an intermediate measure. Either way we don't have a timeline, which is pretty much the same tune we hear with every Android handset. In other news, Dell is planning to launch the cherry red version of the streak "shortly" after the international launch of the graphite model -- which might be as soon as tomorrow (Dell's site still says "late July," but they just wrapped up a 24 hour pre-sale and said to check back tomorrow, possibly just for more pre-sales). Check out the video after the break.

[Thanks, James H.]

Update: Matt at Dell (conveniently tweeting under the pseudonym @mattatdell) has clarified that the Streak is not going to be released this week. That seems odd, since that vague "late July" window ends this week, but hopefully we'll know more soon.

So it's real, and... it's a trackpad. What seemed like it might have been pure rumor and some good Photoshopping just a short while ago has magically (ha ha!) transformed into reality. If you're wondering what the Magic Trackpad is like to use -- get ready for a shock. It feels just like using a slightly larger version of a MacBook or MacBook Pro pad. And we mean exactly, right down to the multitouch gestures and whole-pad click. Yes, it clicks. There's also a new gesture, if you're keeping track -- a three-finger move that lets you drag windows around (very helpful), though you give up the functionality of being to navigate stuff like iPhoto galleries with a swipe (it's an option you can toggle in preferences -- you have a choice). We're going to be doing some serious testing with the new peripheral, but for now, feast your eyes on the pics below.

Apple's just slipped something into its iMac update press release that we didn't want to go unnoticed: a battery charger. Apple's AA battery-powered lineup now includes the wireless keyboard, the Magic Mouse (which seriously burns through the juice) and the Magic Trackpad, and for $29 you can score a dedicated charger for all that gear. The Apple Battery Charger comes with six long-lived NiMH rechargeable batteries which apparently have a lifetime of up to 10 years.

Update: We just had a chance to get a quick hands-on with the little guy, and well, it's a battery charger. Apple tells us the charger has the lowest vampire power draw of any charger on the market -- the idea is for users to keep two batteries in each of their peripherals and two in the charger, so they can quickly swap out as the cells run out. Interestingly, the batteries are some of the only Apple products in recent memory that don't have an Apple logo on them -- they're just plain silver with "Rechargeable" printed on them. The charger itself has slightly nicer charging contacts than the usual spring-and-flap arrangement, and it features the same removable flippy-prong AC plug as Apple's laptop and iPad power adapters, so you can theoretically swap it for a longer power cord if you like.

Microsoft's Hohm service has been going wild on the internets for just over a year, letting people who have signed on with partner utility companies to track their usage straight from the source. But, if you didn't find yourself in one of the 4.5 million homes currently covered by one of those utilities you were stuck counting electrons on your own. No more. Blue Line Innovations has launched its $249 Power Cost Monitor WiFi Edition with the ability to feed directly to Hohm, and we have all the details, plus some early impressions, after the break.

It's not as if we haven't heard the rumors building over the last few months, but Apple's long-standing iMac line is seeing its first real update since the Fall of last year on this fine morning. As predicted, the refreshed family now contains Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processor options, not to mention discrete ATI Radeon HD GPU options, IPS panels, an SD slot that understands the complexities of SDXC and an SSD option on the 27-inch machine. For whatever reason, Apple's not throwing in its new Magic Trackpad with any iMac; instead, it'll be a $69 accessory. One swank addition to this line, however, is the ability to order your new all-in-one with both an HDD and an SSD on the 27-inch model. Of course, it'll cost you dearly (a 1TB HDD plus a 256GB SSD is a $750 CTO option, while the 2TB HDD in that combo makes it a $900 option), but at least there's room inside for DIY adds. Here's a look at the available configurations, with last Fall's lineup saved here for reference:

• The low-end $1,199 unit boasts a 21.5-inch display (1,920 x 1,080), a 3.06GHz Core i3 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, ATI's Radeon HD 4670 GPU (256MB) and a 500GB hard drive. There's also an 8x slot-loading SuperDrive with dual-layer support, Mini DisplayPort, AirPort Extreme 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, iSight webcam, gigabit Ethernet, a foursome of USB 2.0 sockets, a single FireWire 800 port and a bundled wireless Apple Keyboard and Magic Mouse.
• There's a new $1,499 21.5-inch model that includes a 3.20GHz Core i3, ATI Radeon HD 5670 GPU (512MB), a 1TB hard drive and 4GB of DDR3 memory (along with the usual suspects mentioned above).
• The $1,699 model is a 27-incher with a 2,560 x 1,440 LED-backlit display, 3.20GHz Core i3 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, ATI's Radeon HD 5670 (512MB), a 1TB hard drive and available CTO options that include a 3.6GHz Core i5, 2TB HDD, 256GB SSD and up to 16GB of RAM.
• The flagship $1,999 flavor (27-inch) packs a 2.8GHz quad-core Core i5 with 8MB of shared L3 cache, 4GB of DDR3 memory, ATI's Radeon HD 5750 GPU (1GB), a 1TB hard drive and available CTO options that include a 2.93GHz Core i7 CPU, 2TB hard drive, 256GB SSD and up to 16GB of memory.

Having reached a grand old age in the rapidly cycling tech world, Apple's 24-inch LED Cinema Display is today getting itself a new sibling. The new 27-inch display clocks in at a 2560 x 1440 resolution, sports a 16:9 aspect ratio, and does it all for the (not so) low price of $999. That might not sound like a steal, but Dell's similar U2711 (both offer IPS at the same resolution) actually retails for a hundie more at $1,099. For the price Apple includes a built-in iSight camera, a three port powered USB hub, and a universal MagSafe connector for charging up your MacBook. Like the 24-inch before it, Apple has really built this display to be the ultimate MacBook or MacBook Pro companion, since a single cable breaks out into the USB, Mini DisplayPort (with audio support), and MagSafe plug that are just about all your laptop requires when sitting down at a desk. PR is after the break, and the screen will start shipping in September.