The iPad may have grabbed all the headlines last week, but journalists who were willing to dig a little deeper at the Apple launch event were rewarded with a glimpse of this little gem, awkwardly displayed in a dark corner of the show floor. You're seeing exclusive pics of the iStrap, Apple's revolutionary Blackberry adapter device. This high-strength yet endlessly flexible device, finally allows iPhone users to seamlessly integrate their Blackberry with their iPhone, something Apple's enterprise customers have been crying out for since the iPhone's initial launch.

© www.achievement-unlocked.com

© www.achievement-unlocked.com

Anyone who has had to carry around both devices, one for personal use, and the other for business, knows how awkward it can be. With the iStrap, you can be being closing an important business deal with Taipei on one side, and ordering a Kentucky fried chicken dinner for kids on the other. "We think the iStrap will reclaim that old adage, business in the front...party in the back," an Apple spokesman said. "It's not just for mullets anymore!"

Don't expect a heated advertising exchange between Apple and Blackberry, ala the Apple versus Microsoft, "I'm a Mac and you're a PC" ads, either. The iStrap represents an important strategic collaboration between the two companies. Apple revealed plans for an ad campaign that were visually reminiscent of the boldly colored iPod ads we know and love, but with the new slogan "Get Your iStrap On!" which Apple feels will effectively target the young urban professional market they so covet.

The critics were quick to pounce, however, claiming that the iStrap would make it difficult to access controls on both phones. In response, Apple pointed out that the user has complete control over both the position, and tension of the device. As for further customization, the spokesman hinted that alternative colors may be available in the future for a premium price, but was tight-lipped beyond that, in the customary Apple style.

Don't answer that Mr. President!A savvy group of computer technicians on Obama's staff have recovered 22 million e-mails from the George W. Bush era that had been previously considered lost, a White House spokesman said today. The e-mails had apparently been put in the "Recycle Bin", a folder on the Oval Office Windows desktop that no one ever really looked in, due to the confusing nature of the cutesy name.

While it will reportedly take years of man-hours and stacks of tax-payer dollars to classify and sort each individual e-mail, the techs have roughly estimated that 20 million of the e-mails are Viagra spam, 1 million are phishing scams hoping to obtain passwords and account numbers, and another half million are Christmas solicitations from the Harry & David fruit and gift basket company. Much to the delight of modern presidential historians, that leaves half a million mails to could contain juicy bits of White House correspondence, funny presidential anecdotes, or off-colour office humor. Beltway insiders cautioned that a good 400,000 of those remaining mails are likely to be the ever-vigilant Vice President, Dick Cheney, typing "test" as part of a simulated emergency e-mail communication preparedness routine.

Photo under CC license from Wesley Fryer.

The new Droid phone from Motorola.

Motorola and Verizon are obviously prepared to take Apple and the iPhone head-on with the release of the Droid phone on November 6th, but I had no idea just how many markets they were poised to enter until I saw some of the early review pics today. It's not an announced feature, but the keen observer can't help but notice that beyond all the glitz and glamour of the vibrant color screen, the full QWERTY keyboard, and the 5 Megapixel camera, there is a secret slideout compartment housing a stealth electric shaving razor!

Just smash this up against your face for the most technologically advanced shave ever.

No more packing your clunky Remington razor in your dop kit- just drop the droid in your pocket and you're as good as groomed. Not only that, but right along the top of the phone, there's a clever slot for noise hair and moustache attachments. If you're going to be mowing the grass, you're going to want a trimmer for spots the mower can't get right?

You can craft the ironic moustache you've always wanted. Attachments available in the Google Android marketplace.

So Bravo, Motorola, for finally moving the ball down the field by taking a dumb old (or in this case, new) smart phone device and striving to turn it into the all-in-one we've always wanted. If you're wondering why Apple never thought of this it is because a) Jobs is not really big on shaving (have you seen some of those keynotes?), and b) the mechanics of a rotary electric razor requires a much chunkier device than the iPhone, something with roughly the form factor of a common red brick, in order to operate properly.

Images courtesy of Gizmodo

Obviously, these glee clubbers are iPhone users. Image courtesy of T-Mobile Sidekick forums.As if T-Mobile needed any more reasons to be upset about not having iPhones to sell, Microsoft and Danger (a Microsoft subsidiary who handles the Sidekick's data) have turned what should have been an invisible server side upgrade into a major fiasco, likely losing all of the data that was not stored locally on the user's Sidekick phones. To add insult to injury, upon visiting the Sidekick forums, the violated customers get to look at the happy youngsters pictured above- who don't seem the least bit concerned- as they read their official apology. Logically, you know one has nothing to do with the other, but it would be a bit like eating your TV dinner while watching open heart surgery, wouldn't it? You'd likely change the channel until you found something more appropriate.

I really hate to be the one to break the news to you, especially since I just got mine a couple weeks ago, but the iPhone may not be all it's cracked up to be. Check out this picture I snapped today of the one of the Blue Angels Navy fighter jets over the Presidio in San Francisco today.

Ignore that giant hole in the ozone layer- I was taking a picture of that tiny speck of a jet. WTF iPhone?!?!?

Detail from above photo. See, I wasn't lying. It's a jet.Pretty crappy picture, huh? Well, I think you see the problem. The iPhone is completely and utterly useless for taking pictures of military jets moving even close to the speed of sound. If you plan on attending the Fleet Week festivites in San Francsico this weekend, think twice about your choice of camera. Better yet, just count the iPhone out. Let's face it- Steve Jobs oversold the thing. It can't take these sorts of pictures effectively, and there is no app for that.

Yes, I already logged the issue with Apple for everyone. Hopefully there will be a hardware update we can all purchase soon that will address this issue.