Vodafone seems to have let slip that Nokia are planning a "Mini" or "Lite" version of the recently released N97 smartphone.

A moderator on the Vodafone forums said the carrier would not be getting the touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard wielding N97, but would instead be launching the "N97 Mini" later this year, due to its "competitive pricing". No additional info was revealed about the handset and the comment has since been edited, along with users replies. [VodafoneForums via UnwiredView]

Vodafone seems to have let slip that Nokia are planning a "Mini" or "Lite" version of the recently released N97 smartphone.

A moderator on the Vodafone forums said the carrier would not be getting the touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard wielding N97, but would instead be launching the "N97 Mini" later this year, due to its "competitive pricing". No additional info was revealed about the handset and the comment has since been edited, along with users replies. [VodafoneForums via UnwiredView]

It's time for another roundup of pundits espousing heartfelt admiration and none-too-bloody criticism of a pretty hot Apple product. How did they—I mean "it"—do this time around? Have a look-see...

As usual, this matrix is just the tip of the molehill—if you want to really get in deep with these colorful characters, here's where to look:

• NYT - David Pogue

• WSJ - Walt Mossberg

• USA Today - Ed Baig

• Wired - Steven Levy

• Cnet - Kent German

• Engadget - Josh Topolsky

• Gizmodo - Jason Chen

While the brief maintenance-related outage didn't result in new updates for Xbox Live or Zune, Xbox.com's MyXbox page got a nice little aesthetic overhaul. The new design gives your avatar more prominence as well as offering faster access to stats.

The new, much sleeker MyXbox page offers quicker access to achievements, recently viewed friends, recently played games, and the like, through a nice highlighted menu. Basically, it's looking more and more like the Xbox's Dashboard, which we're sure is intentional. Go check it out if you're an Xbox Live user. [Thanks, Shiron!, image from Co-Optimus]

As promised, the Sirius/XM iPhone app is finally live and available to download. It's got a 7-day free trial, but the app'll cost $3 a month if you want to keep it any longer. [Thanks, everyone!]

Amidst all the great stuff in iPhone 3.0, there's bound to be a few oddballs that just aren't as impressive or useful as we'd like—for example, "objectionable content" warnings on such harmless apps as Shazam.

iPhone 3.0's new parental controls allow you to specify the age of the user, from 4+ to 17+, and offer warnings about apps Apple thinks its users might find objectionable. Oddly, one such app is apparently Shazam, the great multi-platform app that identifies songs picked up by the iPhone's mic. CNET speculates that the new parental controls might give Apple more freedom to allow more, shall we say, adult-themed apps into the App Store, but we wouldn't hold our breath. [CNET]

I don't know what kind of school this kid goes to, but I doubt my shop teacher would have allowed me to build an electromagnetic coil gun that can send a round through a soda can.

Aside from the electromagnetics (in a linear electric motor config) and bolt-action which supports a six-round magazine clip, this gun makes use of a multimeter, a few custom switches to turn the weapon on and off, some PVC piping, a scope, and presumably, a battery pack. My favorite part are the fold-down wood legs for those moments when hitting a can with extreme accuracy is imperative.

The actual power of this sniper rifle-inspired gun isn't overwhelming, as it seems on par with (or maybe a bit more powerful than, a bb gun). But the use of electronics and the clever use of wood through out the design give it a DIY allure that I just can't resist. But check out TechEBlog's vid for your self. It's pretty cool. [TechEBlog]

I mean, I don't really see why you'd want to run over a non-rugged, Lenovo T400s laptop with a large truck. But as I was told many times as a kid, it's a free country. Anyways, the spinnerific HDD survived.

SlashGear says this 14-inch, still unofficial lappie is rumored to be only .83-inches thick. Considering that stat, the fact that the T400s was intact at all was impressive. But not only did the exterior hold up, the non-SSD drive booted up seemingly fine. Well played, Lenovo. Well played. [SlashGear]

Triggering a "why the hell didn't I think of that?!" moment, Artmu has designed a laptop sleeve that, when unzipped and opened up completely, transforms into an effective mouse pad. Altogether now: Why didn't I think of that? [Aving]

Most standalone webcams are still trying to capture video at 3-megapixels, but Samsung's gone and pasted a 5-megapixel webcam on the 24-inch Scopia VC240 monitor. Now we can finally see topless Jesus in all his HD glory!

The Scopia webcam captures 720p video at 30fps with a bitrate of 2 megabits. It also supports V2oIP conferencing technology and uses h.264 compression. Obviously, this thing will never win any design awards, but considering this is an enterprise-oriented product and is far more powerful than any comparable product, I'm not sure Samsung cares.

As for actual monitor specs, the Scopia VC240 has 1920x1080p full HD resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, and a 170 degree viewing angle. It will also be available in the fall. Oh, did I mention it costs $2000. Well it does. [Only Gizmos]