Let's just put this out there: LG's Dare is (or will be) the best touchscreen phone in Verizon's lineup. It's not quite as feature rich as the Instinct, but it corrects a lot of the Voyager's flaws, from the touchscreen to the music player, as you can see in our video walkthrough and massive gallery.

Key is that you can totally customize both main menus—part of the whole appeal of touchscreen UIs is that nothing is set in stone, right? Of course, there are a load of nifty, little features—many of which cheerfully exploit the touchscreen, like the built-in photo editor (combo'd with a 3.2MP camera with face detection), fairly impressive handwriting recognition, and drag 'n' drop calling—that add up to an impressive package overall. And maybe Wilson's favorite, slow-mo video capture at 120FPS.

The problems it does have are ones that have plagued phones for a while: the browser sucks, and Verizon's email and GPS navigation software are painfully retro, in the bad way. Those points aside, color us eager, the first time in a while for a Verizon phone. It'll arrive on July 3 for $199 after contract and $50 mail-in rebate. [Verizon]

It appears that the rumors were right, kinda fake telecom provider Virgin Mobile will buy kinda fake telecom provider Helio. Once the acquisition is complete, Virgin Mobile will consume Helio and hopefully become stronger from the nourishment, but the trendy Helio logo will be gone forever. Since both companies run on Sprint's network, it shouldn't be that big a deal from a technical "will my phone still work??" standpoint. [yahoo and electronista]

Details on Mistubishi's LaserVue, the rear-projection 1080p televison that uses frickin' laser beams to display exceptionally rich color, are pouring out. The TV set will come in 65" and 73" varities when it ships in Q3 this year. It's 10" deep, thin by historical standards, but still somewhat thick for today's tastes, but the 120Hz set consumes a fraction of the power of LCDs and plasmas and is 3D-capable out of the box. No word on price. [Mitsubishi]

Details on Mistubishi's LaserVue, the rear-projection 1080p televison that uses frickin' laser beams to display exceptionally rich color, are pouring out. The TV set will come in 65" and 73" varities when it ships in Q3 this year. It's 10" deep, thin by historical standards, but still somewhat thick for today's tastes, but the 120Hz set consumes a fraction of the power of LCDs and plasmas and is 3D-capable out of the box. No word on price. [Mitsubishi]

If you've been eagerly awaiting the launch of the HP TouchSmart IQ504—an all-in-one 22" touchscreen PC with a Core 2 Duo processor, integrated graphics and an impressive 4GB of RAM—it's shipping now off of HP's site and retailers like Circuit City. If only we didn't suffer from greasy hand syndrome, that $1,249.99 pricetag would be a at least a little tempting. [HP]

According to Softbank's founder, Masayoshi Son, the iPhone 3G will sell out completely within hours of its debut in Japan, despite its contract-binding $214 (8GB) and $316 (16GB) price. I wonder if it will be the same in the rest of the world. Apparently, the rumors are that the iPhone 3G will start selling first thing in the morning in the UK and the US, although there are no official times yet. [Impress via Tokyomango, BGR]

From the same T3 concept design stable that brought us the 2010 Wiimote yesterday comes this piece of pure gadget fantasy. Ramming a XBox 360 and a Zunephone into a slender, shiny little package is always going to be a great idea... and would undoubtedly sell like hotcakes. But considering there's no real Zune phone, and you can now buy bigger cases for the '360 rather than smaller, this is going to stay in fantasy land for a long while. [T3 via Yanko]

Available for both iPod classic and nano, Marubeni Infotech's wooden docks are coming out in Japan next month. In two finishes: American Walnut; and Scandinavian Birch, (*thwack!*) they have a USB connection and two piddly little 1W channels. Costing $100 and $90 respectively, they're kinda cool, if you're allergic to plastic. Bonus shot after the jump.

[Impress]

According to a sources inside the Cupertino's iPhone software development effort, it is "highly probable" that the iPhone 2.0 Golden Master will hit this Friday. The final version could arrive two weeks before the introduction of the new iPhone 3G and just in time for the promised June release.

The iPhone 2.0 operating system Golden Master will follow the release of build 345, which has seen the activation of two code-signing and encryption features not previously available.

Keep in mind that this date is tentative, even if the source remarked that "this is the plan." Meanwhile, the iPhone Dev Team has confirmed they are working hard cracking the latest build, getting ready for the pwnage of the final release.

According to a sources inside the Cupertino's iPhone software development effort, it is "highly probable" that the iPhone 2.0 Golden Master will be done this Friday. The final version could arrive to developer hands two weeks before the introduction of the new iPhone 3G and well in time for the promised July 11 release to the public. Update: for some reason, this morning I saw the original "end of June" release date and copy and pasted that as the release date link, rather than the obvious July 11. My apologies. J.

The iPhone 2.0 operating system Golden Master will follow the release of build 345, which has seen the activation of two code-signing and encryption features not previously available.

Keep in mind that this date is tentative, even if the source remarked that "this is the plan." Meanwhile, the iPhone Dev Team has confirmed they are working hard cracking the latest build, getting ready for the pwnage of the final release. Also, remember that releasing a Golden Master internally or to developers doesn't mean releasing it to the general public. As announced publicly during WWDC, Apple will make the update available in July.