The Skylink universal remote control transmitter is a remote for almost any gate or garage door opener. Yes, UNIVERSAL. Translation, it operates most national brand garage door openers. Hmmm, no door is safe.

$25.00 for a universal door opener to any garage – imagine the possibilities!

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Ok, I’ve flirted with Twitter before, I just never understood it. What purpose does Twitter serve for you? Why should anyone use it? Should I use it again? Does anybody care about people’s passing thoughts?

Sound off in the comments!

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So Gizmodo thought it would be funny at CES and use the TV blaster to turn off demonstration TVs all over the CES show floor.

My gut reaction was it is kinda funny, but after some thought their prank was nothing short of destructive.

Yea, I can take a joke and like I said I did watch it and laugh. It was funny, but lets play Monday morning Quarterback here.

They single handily provided a setback to bloggers, such as myself, trying to get accreditation as “traditional media.” How are we to expect large trade shows, especially CES which is only open to industry PROFESSIONALS, to accept us if they know that bloggers could wreak havoc on their exhibitors which pay upwards of $1 million for exhibit space?

Money aside, large corporations devote hundreds of man hours to put on a CES presentation, which would be viewed as the most important of the year – and some punks decide they want to ruin these valuable presentations.

Sure, it was non destructive – but it pushes the line farther. When will it be too much?

Looking back this prank was irresponsible, reckless and just in bad taste. Sure you got a few hits off of it but in the long run I think it damages your credibility and makes things even harder for bloggers like me. Yes, it was funny to watch small companies like MOTOROLA struggle to showcase the launch of their product but you are damaging branding.

Guys, come on – you are supposed to be a tech review site not Break.com. I’m disappointed.

To see what all the buzz is about check out their post here

Think I’m wrong…. Give me a piece of your mind!

So, I’m sure we have some loyal Blackberty folk among us. So, I have READ that the Blackberry is capable of playing streaming .3gp and .mp3. Yet, I have been able to do it. Anybody in reader land done it? Share your model of BBY and application.

As I sit here applying a new layer of Reynolds tin foil to my international hat of conspiracy, its been proven that Apple tracks iPhone usage and tracks IEMI numbers of all their iPhones worldwide. Hidden in the code of the “Stocks” and “Weather” widgets is a string that sends the IMEI of your phone to a specialized URL that Apple collects.

When the widgets perform a query an IMEI is handed off to Apple’s servers:

dgw?imei=%@&apptype=finance

This let[s] Apple knows which app you are using when connecting with your iPhone. Obviously, they know the IP address you were using, the stocks companies you are interested [in], and so they can track down their customers all around the world. This also proves that there are probably other apps that do the same. Weather.app is also acting the same way. (Offset 13AE0)

Any attempts to modify the URL to exclude the IMEI information will not allow you to retrieve any information in the “Stocks” and “Weather” apps. It is still unknown if any other applications leak information to Apple HQ.

And did you know you actually consented to this gross invasion of privacy?

When you interact with Apple, we may collect personal information relevant to the situation, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and contact preferences; your credit card information and information about the Apple products you own, such as their serial numbers and date of purchase; and information relating to a support or service issue.

Obviously “Weather” is kinda benign, but Apple knowing your Stock habits, isn’t that a little personal? What’s next, they read your email too? Now who thinks I’m crazy?

UPDATE: After 24 hours of being online it’s still not been totally determined that the information being exchanged between you and Apple is anonymous. It seems to now be application identifiers, not an IMEI. Now all we know is that information is being exchanged and we are not sure exactly what.

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Former Apple evangelist and current venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki told the San Jose Mercury News article that he has a “very low opinion” of the world of bloggers. “I think it is made up of about 250,000 people who are mostly 45-year-old men who live with their mother and have dead cats in their refrigerators.”

Hey Guy, I’m not that old and they aren’t cats!

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Here’s an interesting story about someone being called out for a review of a game that made it obvious to at least one reader he hadn’t finished the game. Gaming Today chimes in with some decent commentary on if it’s totally necessary for one to actually finish a game to know if it’s any good. Andrew, the writer of this analysis points out that you don’t have to finish your dinner to know if it’s bad. The thing is, your dinner probably won’t get super exciting coming down to the end that could totally make up for the massive amount of lame you had to suffer to reach there – an obvious discrepancy.

I suppose it goes without saying, but reviews are personal opinion. There are always going to be people that disagree with a review, like me and anyone giving a Tekken game lower than perfect score, but I digress.

Certain games, like RPGs, tend to start off slowly and get gradually better as you go along. (I think they plain suck, but for journalistic integrity I’ll go along with it.) So maybe instead of assigning any game to a reviewer, should certain people should specialize in genre-specific reviews? It would make sense to have someone who understands what to expect from an RPG to review than someone who will get bored in the first 10 minutes and totally write off the game.

Of course to combat that, something should be said about a game that doesn’t draw in a person from the get-go.

At the very least, I think games should be completed, depending on the genre. A fighting game I can get the hang of after playing for an hour, most likely, but the same can’t be said for all other games. At the very least – finish the game.

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As a NYC dweller, everyday I get to experience the joys, heat and odor of our wonderful public transit system. And although it is the most cost effective mode of transportation, it is far from the cleanest. This is why I am disturbed to see McDonalds using the public transit system with its sometimes intense heat to transport perishable goods such as raw eggs and chicken which could really get people sick if not properly refrigerated. Can anybody say lawsuit? [via]

I don’t know if you have noticed but there have been some major setbacks in the efforts to bring WiFi to the masses.

Wisconsin killed their WiFi efforts due to poor economics of the project. CalTrain canceled their bid process for WiFi on their rail system, Earthlink most likely will never build Houston’s public WiFi network due to economic concerns, San Francisco canceled their previously green lighted WiFi project, Springfield Illinois abandoned WiFi for WiMax, the list goes on in the very public humiliation of the popular home wireless networking standard. Even the gold standard, Google FREE WiFi, and they see only 15,000 unique users each month which is VERY LOW considering the population density in the 12 square mile network.

In contrast use of cellular data cards are growing exponentially as lower data prices and improvements in the network transmission speeds continue. As opposed to WiFi Verizon Wireless has 100% EVDO Revision A coverage for their entire network, bringing DSL “broadband” speeds to over 150 million people. Far more then any WiFi provider could do.

Even if WiFi is able to ramp up and get total coverage in at least 80 cities that is smaller then the cellular broadband footprint by its smallest provider – AT&T, and most likely these WiFi networks will be operated by independent companies offering no interoperability. WiFi network operators can’t even get their act together in the nations airports, when I land I’m not sure if there is even going to be a WiFi connection and if there is it is a tossup on what provider it will be.

Unfortunately, I think the age of public WiFi has come and gone and the providers of wireless broadband will be phone companies over some form of cellular network and WiFi will stay regulated to the home.

If it was up to you would you lower the drinking age or legalize Marijuana? Why?