Well, things aren't looking too great economy-wise. We might just be headed for a depression, which means you'll need to start changing your lifestyle. While you may start out by changing your lifestyle in subtle ways, you need to be mentally prepared for the fact that more, well, drastic measures may be necessary in the not-too-distant future. Luckily, I've hand-picked 10 gadgets that may be necessary in our frightening, Lehman-Brothersless future.

10. The first thing you're gonna want to do is start saving money. This Tomy RPG Piggy Bank makes saving money fun by featuring a simple game on the front that utilizes the money you insert into it. Make saving a game, you'll be more apt to do it! [Link]

9. A good way to save money is to stop using so much electricity. This energy saving remote lets you cut the power to all of your home theater electronics that suck up juice even when they're off. This should save you precious dollars every month. [Link]

8. Not everyone will be as responsible as you, and they may get desperate and try to steal your precious financial documents. Keep them locked up in this really intense hard drive/safe combo. It's fireproof and waterproof, so you can be sure nothing will happen to your data. [Link]

7. It's not just your digital property that you need to protect, its your physical property as well. This lock uses your fingerprint to allow access, so only you and your family will be able to get into your house when the looting and rioting begin. [Link]

6. OK, so they've cut the power to your home and you've barricaded yourself inside. You obviously can't go to the grocery store for food as all of the stores have been overtaken by roving bands of weapons-wielding former stock brokers, so you should ensure you've got plenty of non-perishable food to last you through the financial crisis. [Link]

5. So they set your house on fire, forcing you to flee into the woods. What you'll need is a tent that's quick to set up and quick to pack up when you hear the sounds of the bloodthirsty brokers crashing through the underbrush. This self-pitching tent sets itself up in the air as you throw it, allowing you to set up camp quickly and easily. [Link]

4. You'll want to be able to know the weather and charge your phone while you're on the run, and this is the device to do it for you. Assuming the national weather services haven't been overrun and destroyed, you'll be able to check on the forecast while charging your gadgets with this. [Link]

3. You need to escape the city, where all the former bankers are based, and since cars are susceptible to bombs and rocket launchers, you'll need something a bit more tough. The Rhino can withstand just about anything that's thrown at it and keep you and whatever is left of your family safe inside. [Link]

2. OK, so you needed to get out of the Rhino and dole out some punishment man-to-man. This recoilless auto shotgun can fire off 300 rounds per minute, making quick work of anyone with a blue shirt with white cuffs flecked with human blood around. Just make sure to pick up plenty of extra ammo while you're at it. [Link]

1. So you didn't make it. That's disappointing! You can at least leave a lasting memorial to yourself with your last near-worthless American dollars by purchasing this digital tombstone with your dying breath. It can display videos on its LCD monitor of you in happier times, buying gasoline for less than $150 a gallon and owning a house that actually has some value. Maybe in heaven things will be like that again. For your sake, I hope so. [Link] [Top image via Pink Tentacle]

Well, things aren't looking too great economy-wise. We might just be headed for a depression, which means you'll need to start changing your lifestyle. While you may start out by changing your lifestyle in subtle ways, you need to be mentally prepared for the fact that more, well, drastic measures may be necessary in the not-too-distant future. Luckily, I've hand-picked 10 gadgets that may be necessary in our frightening, Lehman-Brothersless future.

10. The first thing you're gonna want to do is start saving money. This Tomy RPG Piggy Bank makes saving money fun by featuring a simple game on the front that utilizes the money you insert into it. Make saving a game, you'll be more apt to do it! [Link]

9. A good way to save money is to stop using so much electricity. This energy saving remote lets you cut the power to all of your home theater electronics that suck up juice even when they're off. This should save you precious dollars every month. [Link]

8. Not everyone will be as responsible as you, and they may get desperate and try to steal your precious financial documents. Keep them locked up in this really intense hard drive/safe combo. It's fireproof and waterproof, so you can be sure nothing will happen to your data. [Link]

7. It's not just your digital property that you need to protect, its your physical property as well. This lock uses your fingerprint to allow access, so only you and your family will be able to get into your house when the looting and rioting begin. [Link]

6. OK, so they've cut the power to your home and you've barricaded yourself inside. You obviously can't go to the grocery store for food as all of the stores have been overtaken by roving bands of weapons-wielding former stock brokers, so you should ensure you've got plenty of non-perishable food to last you through the financial crisis. [Link]

5. So they set your house on fire, forcing you to flee into the woods. What you'll need is a tent that's quick to set up and quick to pack up when you hear the sounds of the bloodthirsty brokers crashing through the underbrush. This self-pitching tent sets itself up in the air as you throw it, allowing you to set up camp quickly and easily. [Link]

4. You'll want to be able to know the weather and charge your phone while you're on the run, and this is the device to do it for you. Assuming the national weather services haven't been overrun and destroyed, you'll be able to check on the forecast while charging your gadgets with this. [Link]

3. You need to escape the city, where all the former bankers are based, and since cars are susceptible to bombs and rocket launchers, you'll need something a bit more tough. The Rhino can withstand just about anything that's thrown at it and keep you and whatever is left of your family safe inside. [Link]

2. OK, so you needed to get out of the Rhino and dole out some punishment man-to-man. This recoilless auto shotgun can fire off 300 rounds per minute, making quick work of anyone with a blue shirt with white cuffs flecked with human blood around. Just make sure to pick up plenty of extra ammo while you're at it. [Link]

1. So you didn't make it. That's disappointing! You can at least leave a lasting memorial to yourself with your last near-worthless American dollars by purchasing this digital tombstone with your dying breath. It can display videos on its LCD monitor of you in happier times, buying gasoline for less than $150 a gallon and owning a house that actually has some value. Maybe in heaven things will be like that again. For your sake, I hope so. [Link] [Top image via Pink Tentacle]

The latest on RIM's blocky clamshell monstrosity, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, is that it'll be out by the end of this month at the latest, and maybe as early as Oct. 15. Apparently, RIM will not be making a steroid-supercharged play for the masses as previously rumored. No, on T-Mobile, it'll be $150 with a two-year contract, or $200 with a one-year contract, not the perhaps delusionally low $49 originally floated. Which is unfortunate, 'cause not only is $99—$129 tops—a sweet spot, I just don't see anyone paying that much for a phone this awkward, even if it is a full-fledged BlackBerry. [CrackBerry]

Ohmigod, it's a MacBook Mini! Oh, wait, no it's not. It's a cheap MSI Wind clone with a fake Mac backing on it, put together with dremel, six white LEDs, tape and aluminum foil. Impressive, but not quite what people have been waiting for. But hey, nice work nonetheless! I'm sure it works to fool people in coffee shops. [Gadget Lab]

Google, who in aggregate, effectively knows everything, unsurprisingly has a solution for our energy problems. The plan, called Clean Energy 2030 will cost $4.4 trillion over its 22-year span, if we start on it right now. Google says it'll give us back a net of $1 trillion, like half of which will be savings on Google's massive power bill notes the former Fake Steve.

None of the key points are radical, except for asking for a $4.4 trillion investment—90 percent of new cars electric by 2030, 45mpg average fuel efficiency, efficient electricity use to cut demand 33 percent, replacing all coal with renewable electricity. I was hoping for something more innovative and exciting, like Google Power, which would be in beta for 22 years. Cause if Google can't save the world, who can? [Google via Alley Insider]

Most of the time, riding a motorcycle makes you look awesome. The exception to this rule? Riding around on the CAT 1 Über-bike, a motorcycle designed by Lee J. Rowland that has you riding around on the back of a gigantic fiberglass Jaguar. I'm sure it's an amazing bike, what with its 1200cc Buell 97 S3 Thunderbolt engine and custom air intakes and exhaust system, but come on: you'd look like a total jackass on this thing. And for $567,000 (!!), I'd better look like James f'ing Dean when I hit the road. [Lee J. Rowland via Book of Joe]

It seems like the stars are aligning for that rumored MacBook intro event on October 14. Nvidia, which was supposed to launch their MCP7A chipset on September 30, has announced the chipset will actually be available right after the alleged Apple event. Apparently, the new chipset—which is rumored to be part of the new MacBooks—bests Intel's own G45 in the graphics and audio department.

The built-in audio and video capabilities in the new Nvidia chipset is supposed to be better than Intel's offering for High Definition video decoding, with 24p mode (progressive 24 frames per second video) and LCPM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) multi-cannel audio support. [Homemedia via Macsoda]

In case you've had your eye out for a cheap, quality projector, this Planar PD 7130 over on Woot is a pretty nice deal. It features 900 lumens of brightness and an impressive 4500:1 contrast ratio through TI DarkChip tech. Hi def inputs include two component and one DVI, and its internal lamp is rated for 3000 hours (depending on use, of course). If you've wanted to see whether or not you could handle the whole projector lifestyle, this Planar seems like an inexpensive way to test the waters. [Woot]

The 5800 XpressMusic (aka Tube) is the first touchscreen Symbian S60 phone from Nokia—a surprising fact considering how prominent touchscreens have quickly become over the last few years. And instead of rolling out the new touch-specific S60 Fifth Edition on a flagship N-series phone, Nokia has decided to position the 5800 as a music phone for the kiddies, packaging it with their all-you-can-eat (and keep) Comes With Music service. This choice is probably a brilliant one, because after our quick demo, this thing needs a bit more time in the oven before it can stand with the big guys for a touchscreen-only device.

For a mid-range music phone with touch, though, the 5800 is pretty well equipped: 640x360 touchscreen with haptic response, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, 3G on the 850/1900 MHz band (works with AT&T here in the States), 3.2MP camera with Zeiss lens, and an 8GB microSD card for music in the box. But while the touchscreen is sharp and bright, it's resistive rather than capacitive, which means instead of accurately picking up the light zap of electricity from your fingertips, it registers where two thin layers of the screen get pushed together under your finger.

On the prototype we played with briefly, it's much harder to get touches to register, and far less accurate than the iPhone's capacitive screens. The 5800 packs a built-in stylus for this reason—you'll be using it a lot. Text entry can be done with a full-screen QWERTY, a mini-QWERTY for the stylus, T9 on a touch dialpad, or using handwriting recognition w/ stylus. It's almost exactly like what's found on Nokia's touchscreen internet tablets like the N810, which makes sense, since Nokia recently folded the tablet group in with the smartphone folks to help develop touch features for S60 v5.

Other touch-specific additions are a new Contacts bar similar to T-Mobile's myfaves that can replace application shortcuts—giving quick access to calling or texting your four favorite folks, as well as the option to add an RSS feed of that person's blog or Twitter updates. Application menus also appear on a nice translucent overlay in most applications instead of Symbian's usual pop-up lists, making the camera much easier to operate while switching options, for instance. And a dedicated button on the upper right brings up the Media Bar, which gives quick touch access to the music player, camera, contacts, and web browser at any time. If you're used to Symbian's browser, you'll fit right at home with the touch version. Basically touching replaces the scrolling cursor for zooming and scrolling a page. It's a pretty solid experience, although pages still tend to load their mobile versions by default like in S60 v4.

For music the device looks capable—there's a 3.5mm headphone jack thank God, and 8GB of space on the included 8GB microSD. In the States, the 5800's price (which is not yet set, but the Euro version is €279/$389) will include a year of Comes With Music downloads, which can then be kept. Going beyond Nokia's proprietary sync software (for iTunes, etc) will be like in any other Symbian phone—not super convenient. Comes With Music allows you to sync albums grabbed on the web to your device over 3G, though, which is nice.

The 5800 seems like a solid mid-level touch phone for music—especially if Comes With Music pans out as a cool service. But don't plan on using this thing for heavy emailing or texting—you'll probably be using T9 text entry with the touch dialpad or the stylus for most of your text entry unless you have the patience of a monk, which kind of defeats the point for an all-touch device these days. Look for it hitting before the end of the year for an as-yet-undisclosed price.

Here at Ninendo Media Summit in San Francisco, NOA President Reginald Fils-Aime stated that the Nintendo DSi would not make an appearance in the US until "well into calendar year 2009." He cited the popularity of the current DS Lite as the primary reason for the prolonged release of the new system. For those (like me) still clunking away on the original DS, the wait just got a little more tortuous.