Boy Genius has the details on a mystery Motorola phone codenamed Alexander, which is supposedly Moto's last-ditch effort: Word is that if this special ops phone doesn't light the world on fire, Motorola goes up for sale. Personally, the phone described by these specs (though way beyond today's ZN5) is not one I would base the entire future of my company on: 8-megapixel camera, an Nvidia chip for video and 3D jujitsu, GPS, touchscreen (possibly) and the UIQ OS. Due date is around October. Again, it seems strange to tip a whole company on the success or failure of a single phone (why not build several good phones in a row?), but it's not like Moto hasn't done it before. [BGR]

Luxury pens make for a peculiarly classic gadget. Instead of being driven by the latest microprocessor manufacturing techniques, pens innovate purely on design alone—mechanics at their most simple. And this Conway Stewart Evolution pen features a mechanical trick that took three years to develop. The user can adjust the pen's center of gravity from the front to the back depending on fatigue and handwriting style (surely just an adjustable weight, to engineer it perfectly is the challenge). And with its engraved solid silver body, the Evolution is quite "sharp," as my pen-collecting mother would say. Only 200 will be produced for $2,700 apiece. [Conway Stewart via BornRich]

As promised last year, T-Mobile is finally pro-rating early termination fees, so breaking your contract to get some actual 3Gness won't pound you quite as hard. Instead of declining month-by-month, the fee goes down in weird increments. If you've got 180-91 days left, the ETF penalty drops to $100. 90 days or less, it drops to $50, and with fewer than 30 days, it's either $50 or your monthly fee, whichever is cheaper. But if you've got more than six months looks like you're gonna get smacked. Full details:

T-Mobile Offers Customers Additional Service Plan Flexibility

The Recognized Leader in Wireless Customer Care
Launches ETFs That Decline During the Course of an Agreement

BELLEVUE, Wash. – June 23, 2008 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced a new approach to early termination fees (ETFs) that provides greater flexibility for T-Mobile customers.

Beginning on June 28, 2008, the ETF for customers who choose a one-year or two-year service agreement with T-Mobile will decline during the course their contract. The ETF decreases from $200 to $100 if customers terminate service with 91 to 180 days remaining on their agreement; and decreases again to $50 with fewer than 91 days remaining. If customers terminate in the last 30 days of their term, the ETF is $50 or their standard monthly charge, whichever is less.

For customers who do not want term commitments or ETFs, T-Mobile offers a variety of service options, including:

•T-Mobile FlexPaySM: A program that offers customers access to nationwide long-distance calling and roaming, the latest phones, and T-Mobile’s great rate plans including myFavesSM — all without having to commit to a long-term service agreement or make a hefty deposit.

•Prepaid Plans: Flexible plans that give customers the freedom to communicate with no annual contract, no credit checks and no monthly bills. Prepaid options include:

•Pay By The Day: Recently introduced, this option costs $1 per day only on days when the phone is used. In exchange, customers get unlimited T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile calling all day and unlimited nationwide calling from 7 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. All other domestic calls are just 10

User: Unnamed  Source: Gizmodo

As promised last year, T-Mobile is finally reducing its early termination fees, so breaking your contract to get some actual 3Gness won't pound you quite as hard. Instead of declining month-by-month, the fee goes down in weird increments. If you've got 180-91 days left, the ETF penalty drops to $100. 90 days or less, it drops to $50, and with fewer than 30 days, it's either $50 or your monthly fee, whichever is cheaper. But if you've got more than six months looks like you're gonna get smacked. (Update: Consumerist editor and nice guy Ben Popken tells me it's not technically pro-rating, since the fee goes down in increments and never touches zero.) Full details:

T-Mobile Offers Customers Additional Service Plan Flexibility

The Recognized Leader in Wireless Customer Care
Launches ETFs That Decline During the Course of an Agreement

BELLEVUE, Wash. – June 23, 2008 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced a new approach to early termination fees (ETFs) that provides greater flexibility for T-Mobile customers.

Beginning on June 28, 2008, the ETF for customers who choose a one-year or two-year service agreement with T-Mobile will decline during the course their contract. The ETF decreases from $200 to $100 if customers terminate service with 91 to 180 days remaining on their agreement; and decreases again to $50 with fewer than 91 days remaining. If customers terminate in the last 30 days of their term, the ETF is $50 or their standard monthly charge, whichever is less.

For customers who do not want term commitments or ETFs, T-Mobile offers a variety of service options, including:

•T-Mobile FlexPaySM: A program that offers customers access to nationwide long-distance calling and roaming, the latest phones, and T-Mobile’s great rate plans including myFavesSM — all without having to commit to a long-term service agreement or make a hefty deposit.

•Prepaid Plans: Flexible plans that give customers the freedom to communicate with no annual contract, no credit checks and no monthly bills. Prepaid options include:

•Pay By The Day: Recently introduced, this option costs $1 per day only on days when the phone is used. In exchange, customers get unlimited T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile calling all day and unlimited nationwide calling from 7 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. All other domestic calls are just 10

User: Unnamed  Source: Gizmodo

Flightglobal has a picture of what looks like the cockpit for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, the successor to the SpaceShipOne, which successfully completed the first private manned flight into space. Like the SpaceShipOne, it is being built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA, where these shots were taken. The picture might not seem like much to look at, but it represents a tangible step towards the era of low earth orbit booze-cruises, which I believe to be historically notable. Full wingnerd analysis at [Flightglobal Hyperbola]

That PlayStation 3 with its PlayStation Network has been around for a while now, but Sony is juuusst getting their act together enough to produce and distribute PSN cards. To most of us with credit cards, these Sony gift cards (good for purchasing downloadable games from the PlayStation Network) are no big deal. But for the young masses who are still sneaking cigarettes out of mom's purse and wearing Groucho Marx mustaches to buy dirty magazines, this is pretty exciting news. Try PixelJunk Monsters if you haven't yet. [Kotaku]

This isn't the first product to come down the pipeline offering portable audio recording capabilities for the iPod, but the new ProTrack from Alesis is definitely the most feature-rich. According to the press release, the ProTrack is "the world’s first professional handheld digital stereo recorder for iPod" with two built-in high-quality condenser microphones, a pair of combination XLR - 1/4-inch inputs and a 1/8-inch stereo output. The device should be available sometime in Q3 for iPod (Classic or 5th Generation), or iPod nano (2nd or 3rd Generation)—but a price has yet to be determined.

Feature List:

• Integrated iPod design
• Records to iPod (Classic or 5th Generation), or iPod nano (2nd or 3rd Generation)
• Professional connectors: two combination XLR - 1/4-inch inputs, 1/8-inch stereo output
• Supplies 48V phantom power to inputs when wall-powered
• Records 16-Bit, 44.1kHz or 22kHz stereo
• Two built-in condenser microphones for detailed recording
• Built-in microphones in XY configuration for optimum stereo image
• Switchable limiter ensures overload-free recordings even in unpredictable aural situations
• AC power adapter included
• Four AAA batteries provide up to five hours of operation
• Tripod stand mount for placing into ideal recording conditions

[Alesis via Brad Linder's Blog]

I'm not a huge Olympics fan, but NBC is partnering with digital content provider Wavexpress to provide some pretty remarkable coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. Dubbed "Olympics On the Go," Vista Media Center users will be able to schedule their favorite summer events to download automagically to their PCs or laptops (through TVTonic). Clips will come in "up-to-HD quality," meaning that at least some of the downloads will be good enough to be worth watching. And it's all free. The only catch seems to be that there's no mention of Zune syncing, but what good is synchronized swimming on such a small screen anyway?

Wavexpress to Provide Internet Video Download Service for NBC’s Coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games

Free Service to Allow Media Center Users the Ability to Download Content During NBC’s Coverage of the Beijing Olympics, August 8-24, 2008

NEW YORK – June 23, 2008 – Wavexpress, a provider of broadband media technology and services, majority-owned by Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX), has been selected by NBC Universal, Inc., to develop, host, and support a service for viewing NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Microsoft’s Windows Vista Media Center. The announcement was made today by Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics, and Michael Sprague, President of Wavexpress.

The “NBC Olympics on the Go” service will take advantage of Wavexpress’ TVTonic Internet video service to allow Media Center users to watch channels of NBC’s coverage of Olympic events in up-to-HD quality on the go on their laptop. The free service will enable viewers to watch NBC’s extensive coverage of the Beijing Games on a sport-by-sport basis, with channels designated to match the hundreds of events included in the Games. Users can simply sign up for the channels they are interested in, and the service will automatically synchronize NBC’s video clips as they become available, so viewers will have a fresh slate of Olympic content to watch on their morning commute.

“This service will provide a fantastic viewing experience for Olympic fans with Windows Vista Media Center,” said Sprague. “They can choose their favorite sports, from diving to water polo to gymnastics, and extended coverage is automatically synchronized to their PC in the middle of the night. With a laptop, they will get a high-quality video experience to view on the train, the plane, or in the college quad.”

“As we prepare to broadcast the Beijing Olympic Games, we are committed to reaching as many viewers as possible,” said Miller. “Our partnership with Wavexpress will enable us to reach viewers seeking high-quality in-depth coverage of the wide range of sports that make up the Olympics. The service will especially appeal to fast-paced fans who want to catch up on their favorite sports offline.”

For those of us who have an iPod (or two) along with an iPhone (or two) under one roof, JVC has just released NX-PN7 (we had a hands-on way back at CES). Aside from docking more than one iThing at a time, the $149.95 PN7 features AM/FM tuning, alarm clock, timer and unspecified video out. Plus, the dock features two illuminated strips (one under each iPod) that can display nine programmable colors. That's probably enough selection to match at least one of the other superfluously illuminative devices you have floating around the house. [JVC]

"Yesterday up in the air I snapped a sat that wasn't there,"— so might photographer Trevor Paglen say about his show at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum. It's a series of photos of 189 secret satellites: the ones that officially "don't exist." Dubbed The Other Night Sky the photos are time-lapse images of the snoop-sats moving through the night sky, made with a custom star-tracker. Apparently it's his attempt to draw similarities between government secrecy and Galileo's historic tangles with the Catholic church. Found with the help of an amateur astronomer, each photo is of a named spy sat, and they're quietly beautiful—if you can forget the eerie spying aspect. The show runs until September 14. [Wired]