$49

AT&T announced late Friday via Twitter that it is selling refurbished iPhones for as low as $49.

The 8GB iPhone 3G is available at this price while supplies last at ATT.com.

A quick cross-country glance via the iPhone 3GS availability tool showed us that the 3GS is in stock at most Apple stores, so AT&T may be doing this to clear out inventory of the older model. It probably won't take long for this to happen since the $49 price is going to be hard to pass up for most people.

Since Dong is still away in Vietnam, we discuss just how hot he must be right now, and I mean literally temperature hot. We all know figuratively hawt, right ladies? All four of you?

Anyway, I tell a story involving GameStop, a Wii, and bad customer service. Also, why Palm Pre testing is dumb and time consuming.

Dong shows us that he's still the best at putting our audience to sleep as he talks about the Verizon Mifi 2200 Mobile hot spot.

This is our final prerecorded week! Next week, we return live! If by "live" I … Read more

If you've been curious to know what it costs to make the Kindle 2, iSuppli has dismantled Amazon's digital reader, taken stock of all its components, and come up with an estimated price tag of $185.49--or roughly half the Kindle 2's retail price of $360.

That figure doesn't include the fee Amazon pays Sprint for the Kindle 2's built-in "free" wireless service or any marketing costs, which can be substantial. So the true "actual" cost is probably significantly higher, though Amazon obviously preserves some of its margin by selling direct … Read more

Sometimes, a screenshot is just the only way to work with a Web page. Perhaps you're using it to mark up revisions, or to create a thumbnail. Whatever the reason, Advanced Website to Image JPG BMP Converter Free could come in very handy. It's got a decent-looking interface, with soft colors, big simple buttons, lives in a single window, and is relatively intuitive.

However, Advanced Website to Image JPG BMP Converter Free is not without fault. There are nagging registration pop-ups and messages, and filetype-specific options that seem out of place, considering the application's HTML-only focus. Despite … Read more

I received an interesting phone call this afternoon. It was from Ellen Howe of the Transportation Security Administration, regarding my blog post on Monday titled "Is Clear a present danger for football fans?"

Howe wanted to correct an error I made. It seems that TSA is no longer running background checks on applicants for the Clear Registered Traveler program managed by Verified Identity Pass, Inc. (VIP).

I made that mistake based on statements on the Clear website and in local news coverage of the new Clear lanes at San Francisco 49ers games.

Howe said that as for the … Read more

Clear, a program approved by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that lets frequent fliers bypass airport security lines, is now being used to let football fans bypass the security lines at pro football games.

Deals are kicking off this fall at home games for the San Francisco 49ers, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Denver Broncos.

Clear, the largest of four Registered Traveler programs operating at U.S. airports, isn't run by the TSA. It's a private service of Verified Identity Pass (VIP).

Doesn't it seem like VIP is leveraging its privileged position in airport security--a position … Read more

I'm a Replacements fan. Paul Westerberg's new album, 49:00, sounded intriguing. Like Radiohead and Trent Reznor and others, he's released it as a download first. Unlike these previous experiments, 49:00 is sold as a single album-length track. And while he's not technically giving it away, it costs only $0.49--a bit more than one cent per minute. (Paradoxically, the album is not 49 minutes long, but 43:55. The number refers to his 49th birthday, which occurs on the last day of 2008.)

So I headed over to Amazon.com's MP3 store. The … Read more