By now, you probably already know the MobiBlu B153's claim to fame: it's got a battery life that is so impressive that it's in the model number. That's right; this flash player will last about 153 hours, or over six days of continuous use. That might be great if you're off on a camping trip or too lazy to charge your player more than once a week, but how about the player's other features (you know, like its UI and how it sounds)? CNET checked out the B153, and found that, other than the battery life and its ability to automatically download podcast subscriptions, the player is just so-so. Its interface is strictly folder-driven -- forget about sorting by artist or genre. The screen is also small, and support for DRM is limited to purchased WMA files (no subscription support). Oh, and CNET's testers found the battery life to be a mere 146.5 hours. Hey, we're not complaining. That'll still give us six full days of music.

Now we know the truth. In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained why Apple comes up with new iPod models so frequently: "You keep on innovating, you keep on making better stuff," Jobs said, in response to a question from Williams about why a new iPod might seem outdated as soon as you take it out of the box. Then Jobs offered a bit of advice to consumers: "If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year." Gee, thanks, Steve. We always thought it was the dead batteries or battered shell that kept sending us back to the Apple store. Glad you could set us straight.

[Via iLounge]

If you've been frustrated because Microsoft's Vista Upgrade Advisor gave your blazing-fast, three-month-old, $10,000, gaming monster PC a bad rating, you're not alone. In addition to consumers, chipmakers such as VIA and AMD have commented to Microsoft about the program's deficiencies. Now, Microsoft, admitting that the results can be "misleading," plans to revise the tool, including changes to the user interface to make information more accessible, and possibly fine-tuning the results so that they're more in line with standard industry benchmarks. So, if your PC flunked the test, your best bet is to wait a while before splurging on upgrades -- besides, it's not like you don't have plenty of time before you'll need to be Vista-compatible.

Pioneer continues to pump out surround-sound receivers with the ability to play digital audio files via a USB port, and the latest in the line, the VSX-516, adds a few new tricks, including support for the latest Dolby standards. The VSX-516 also continues Pioneer's support for WMA9 Pro, for lossless playback. And the VSX-516 also represents a decent price drop: Pioneer's first amp with similar features, 2003's VSA-AX10Ai-N, went for a whopping ¥500,000 (about $4,400), while the new model is just ¥49,500 ($440), or about a tenth of the price of the older model. What a difference three years makes.

Sure, we weren't exactly brimming with excitement about the iRiver N12, when we first caught sight of it a couple of weeks ago. But we've heard at least one good thing about the new player that sets it apart from its lookalike predecessor, the N11: the N12 will be available in capacities of up to 2GB, for a price in Japan of about ¥21,980 ($195). Other specs remain the same: OLED display, and support for MP3, WMA and PlaysForSure. Yeah, we know what you're thinking: iRiver's about to give up on the digital audio player business altogether in order to focus on WiBro gaming, so why should I even consider buying one of their players? Well, don't worry. We still don't expect this one to make it to the US, so unless you're in Asia, chances are they're not about to try selling it to you to begin with.

In a move that may pave the way for legislation forbidding phone and cable companies from charging content providers a premium for access to customers, the House Judiciary Committee today approved the net neutrality bill introduced by Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI). The bill, known formally as the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act," must still go to the full House, where it faces a competing bill promulgated by the Commerce Committee. The bill cleared the Committee 20-13, with bipartisan support. If you have no idea what we're talking about, that's cool -- we haven't covered it much here on Engadget, but it's a very important issue about how the internet is or isn't governed by big communications companies in the years to come.

We've heard of these kinds of guys before. They've spent too much time engrossed in Harry Potter books or old Star Trek episodes, and dream of some sort of device that will make them invisible. Every couple of years, one of them surfaces with a new idea about a "cloaking device" that can bend light around solid objects, making them appear to be invisible. This time, two separate teams in the UK are racing to show that the concept is feasible. One group, at Imperial College in London, believes that light-bending metamaterials can be produced within the next decade. Meanwhile, two mathematicians have published a study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, which claims that a "superlens" placed close to an object could produce an "anomalous localized resonance," essentially rendering the underlying object invisible by creating a phantom light wave using the same frequency. The scientists envision building a device soon -- one that could conceivably cloak particles of dust. We'll check back with both parties in a few years. In the meantime, we'd like to present our detailed artist's rendering, prepared at great cost and with much research, which we believe truly shows what a cloaked object will look like to the naked eye.

Read - Metamaterials
Read - Superlens

If you've been hankering to get your hands on one of Dell's next-gen gaming boxes, but can't bring yourself to fork over $10,000 for one of the company's limited edition deals, you can now order a production model XPS 700 (which looks an awful lot like the "XPS Next Generation Gaming Desktop" that the company showed off at E3) from Dell's web site -- at least in the UK. The production XPS doesn't have quite the same specs as the limited edition models (sorry, no standard quad SLI on this one), but it does have dual-core Pentium processors at speeds of up to 3.8GHz, up to 2GB RAM, dual SLI, optional Aegia PhysX acceleration and up to 2TB storage. A base configuration with a Pentium D 930 at 3GHz, 1GB RAM, dual 256MB SLI graphics and a 250GB drive runs about £1,375, including VAT ($2,581). We assume that it will go for a bit less in the US, though we still expect Dell to charge a premium for those shiny blue LEDs.

[Thanks, Gaurav]

We've heard stories about companies banning the use of certain kinds of products, such as cameraphones or digital audio players, since they could potentially be used to snap pics of or download classified info. But in what must be a first-of-its-kind case, Samsung has actually banned employees from using one of the company's own products out of industrial espionage fears. Ki-Tae Lee, CEO of  Samsung Electronics Telecommunications Network, has apparently warned employees not to pick up the company's SGH-B570 cellphones, because the music-playing phone's 8GB capacity "is more than enough to steal all confidential data about our company." No word yet as to whether Lee is also banning Samsung's various thumbdrives, USB hard drives and audio players, which can also be used to slurp company data. Also, we have to admit to being just a little disappointed that all of the company's confidential data can fit on a single 8GB cellphone. What does that say about Samsung's R&D capabilities?

Read (sub. req'd.)

Canon, a company long associated with all kinds of photography, may become the next player to abandon the shrinking film photo business. While Canon says it has yet to make a firm decision, a spokesman said the company is considering whether it makes sense to continue producing cameras for the film market. Canon's potential withdrawal from the film business would follow a similar decision by arch-rival Nikon, which dropped production of all but one of its film cameras earlier this year. For now Canon says it will continue to support existing models, but you may just want to stock up on glass for that EOS before they change their mind.

Sony has updated its E-series flash Walkman, but if you've already picked up a first-gen unit and are happy with it, you probably don't need to rush out and pick up a new one. Like its predecessor, the NW-E005 comes in versions from 512MB to 2GB, and comes in a range of colors. But Sony has added one key feature: the new model now supports the AAC file format, which Sony is in the process of adding to all new players. As previously mentioned, although AAC is the default format used by iTunes, these players won't be able to play any DRM-protected iTunes downloads. However, if you've ripped CDs into AAC using iTunes, you will be able to play them back in the NW-E005 without having to convert them into another format first. Sony's also rolled out a waterproof case for this player, though we'd still be a little wary of taking it into the shower or pool. (Note: Sony is currently offering a firmware upgrade to allow owners of the A-series Walkman to play AAC files, but we have yet to hear of an upgrade for this model.)

There's been a lot of speculation about how Nintendo will price the Wii, with most of it centered around some very low figures (do we hear $200; $150 -- sold, for $99!). Now, Nintendo has finally revealed the official pricing of its next-gen gaming console: under $250 in the US, and ¥25,000 in Japan. We assume that means the US price will be $249.99, and that there could be some interesting arbitrage opportunities based on exchange rates and release dates (at current rates, ¥25,000 is about $220). Nintendo also said it plans to ship over 6 million consoles by March of next year. And at a price that's now officially about half that of the cheapest PS3, they may just be able to pull it off.

Now that Apple has rolled out the MacBook, speculation has turned to the sole remaining PowerPC-based computer in the company's lineup: the Power Mac G5. And, as of today, there seems to be at least one thing that can be confirmed about the new computer: it will be called the Mac Pro. At least that's the assumption that can be made based on a recent Apple trademark filing, in which the company claimed the Mac Pro name for, among other things, "computers, computer hardware, computer software, computer peripherals, notebook computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, computer servers, handheld computers and mobile computers." Which means, of course, that this really doesn't confirm anything, except that Apple likes products with the words "Mac" and "Pro" in them -- which we kind of already knew. And this also raises at least one new question: if the Power Mac becomes the Mac Pro, will the iMac become -- a la MacBook/ MacBook Pro -- just the Mac?

Update: Thanks to Jeff for pointing out that there is still one other PowerPC-based computer in Apple's lineup: the Xserve. We'll have to wait a bit to see whether they decide to rename that one.

We have to admit to occasionally sharing in some of the schadenfreude that surfaces on the internets every time Microsoft announces yet another Windows Vista delay. However, this time we're willing to cut them a little slack. While headlines have been screaming about a new delay all day today, most of them seem to be based on some fairly ambiguous comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Speaking with NEC execs in Japan, Ballmer commented that "We think we are on track for shipping early in [2007]. We've talked about the month, but we get a chance to critically assess all of the feedback we'll get from this beta release then confirm or move [the launch date] a few weeks." Ballmer also commented that he was looking forward to feedback from "hardware partners" about "when would they really like it." Now, a cynical take on Ballmer's comments would be that he's using the recently announced second beta of Vista, along with possible requests from hardware vendors, as an excuse to set the stage for a forthcoming announcement that Vista will indeed be delayed beyond January 2007. However, we'll look at the glass as half-full this time: Ballmer is truly interested in hearing from the beta testers and computer manufacturers, and really wants to factor their findings and needs into Vista's launch date. Besides, the thing is so late already; what's a few more weeks between friends, right?

Emboldened by its recent court victory in a long-running patent battle with EchoStar, TiVo has now taken the volume up a notch, and filed for an injunction to stop EchoStar from making or selling DVRs. However, EchoStar has fought back, insisting that recent USPTO rulings overturning some TiVo patents could render TiVo's victory short-lived. And, of course, EchoStar is requesting that the original ruling, which awarded TiVo about $74 million, be stayed until the USPTO finishes digging through TiVo's records. One thing's certain: this isn't ending any time soon, so if you want to keep up, be sure to program your TiVo box to catch the latest news (or program your EchoStar box, if that's what you've got, and hope that its time-shifting functions don't suddenly disappear via a court-mandated firmware flash).