Filed under: Cellphones

Researchers in the UK have all but debunked the theory that cell phone towers, or electronic interference, is making people physically ill. A recent study done by Britain’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that they could find no scientific evidence that feelings of anxiety, nausea, and tiredness occur due to the presence of electronics, or GSM and 3G cell phone equipment. The tests, carried out in 2005 and reported in Environmental Health Perspectives today, claim that when neither the researcher nor the subject knew if cell signals were being emitted, the number of symptoms reported was not related to signals present. Participants did report feeling ill, but it was independent of any cell phone signals, “Hence the range of symptoms and physiological response does not appear to be related to the presence of either GSM or 3G signals,” the study said. Yeah, right, next thing you know they’ll be telling us those voices we hear aren’t “real” either.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The high definition format war took an unexpected twist Sunday morning, when a group of thieves broke into a video store. What they took — every Blu-ray movie in stock — isn’t as interesting as what they left behind. The gang ignored the HD DVD selection entirely, apparently deciding that only the BDA’s baby was worth a five finger discount. Blockbuster choosing Blu-ray for its nationwide rollout is one thing, but being ignored when the price of acquisition is the low low price of free is a reality check for any fledgling standard. We suppose such early morning escapades are one way to build your library after getting the now lower-priced PS3, but it’s not recommended. No word yet on if HD DVD fans are planning a coordinated group theft to reestablish the popularity of their chosen format.

[Via DVD Dossier, thanks everyone who sent this in]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Transportation

Not one to let Qantas get all the attention for its tricked out airline seats, United has now introduced some upgraded amenities of its own. In addition to offering some low-tech improvements like lie-flat seating, the airline’s new United Business cabin also gets a boost in the gadget department, including some new 15.4-inch LCDs, a USB port, and an iPod adapter to let you charge your iPod and play your own music and videos on the seat’s entertainment unit. You’ll also get 20 channels of “stored XM-branded audio,” with an additional 30 channels of other “stored audio” also available for you to create a playlist from, with some noise canceling headphones thrown in for good measure. Look for the first planes with the upgraded seats to roll out sometime this fall.

[Thanks, Tom]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

We’re aware that not everybody feels the need to jump on the AppleCare bandwagon, but if you worry that the one year warranty isn’t going to cut it for you, for $69 bucks, you can have two — unless you live in Alabama, Connecticut, Nevada, and Wyoming, of course. We knew most of the details on this guy at launch time, but were pleasantly surprised to see that this’ll cover your Apple Bluetooth headset as well as the handset. So if you’ve been itching to get at this added bit of security, take a deep breath, then hit the read link to wander over to the Apple Store.

[Via TUAW]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

MS’s headset gets the T3 treatment