To save you from the boredom of another James Bond marathon this Easter, we’ve got more fab prizes to give away than the Generation Game!

Activision’s peripheral fret-board allows rocking on-the-go. Ace.

Five-meg camera phone comes especially for the laydeez

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

While we’re likely still quite a ways away from having nuke detectors in every cellphone, the Department of Homeland Security is apparently at least making some progress in other somewhat portable options, with it now showing off a radiation-hunting Chevy Suburban XL built with a little help from Raytheon. Intended specifically for the DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, the SUV boasts two sliding panels that can swing out for maintenance but remain neatly concealed when on duty, as opposed to current systems that are mounted in the back of pick-up trucks. That, of course, gets paired with a laptop, which provides a full spectroscopic analysis, and the entire system can be configured to trigger a number of different alarms, including a simple vibration alert to a dedicated PDA, or a scare-the-wits-out-of-everyone approach that involves setting off the car alarm, lights, horn and siren.

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Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Alright Avian Securities, looks like you might have some explaining to do. Dell claims that the 20 to 30% failure and return rates for SSD laptops cited by Avian’s report “don’t even vaguely resemble what’s happening in our business.” Dell says it wasn’t contacted in the study, and that “global reliability data shows that SSD drives are equal to or better than traditional hard disk drives we’ve shipped.” The company says that return rates are “are in line with our expectations for new technology,” and an “order of magnitude” better than what is being reported. To be fair to Avian, the original report cited an unnamed “large computer manufacturer,” which some in the press assumed meant Dell, thought it was never said explicitly. It looks like we’re going to need some more hard facts from both sides to get the true picture of SSD reliability and customer satisfaction, but for now let’s nobody panic.

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