TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Note to Sony Ericsson: If you want writers to give your new products more than a cursory look over, try not releasing three phones in the same day. Better yet, don’t make variations on those three models by adding “a” or “c” to the names.

Today the phones in question are three (or six) new Walkman models, the W902, W302, W302c, W595, W595a and W595c, shown left to right above.

Waiting in line for the Dark Knight? Here’s something to help pass the time if you have an iPhone: The free HaHaHa app.

Snap a photo of your friend and you can smear Joker makeup all over his face. Hahaha — sucker.

What’ll really pass the time is the sheer difficulty of using this app: Mess up applying Joker makeup once and you have to start all over again. The e-mailing portion of the app isn’t integrated with iPhone’s Mail, and it’s a real pain to use (requiring you to fill out your name and e-mail address as well as your friends’).

I’m not sure how much Heath Ledger fans will appreciate this app.

The point of Guitar Hero is surely to imagine yourself on stage, feet planted firmly apart, groin thrust forward while gently biting your lower lip. The classic rock star pose. But doing that with a little plastic guitar in your hands somewhat ruins the illusion, akin to using a hairbrush instead of a microphone.

Can’t say they weren’t warned.

In a move that took longer than expected, Apple filed suit in a California federal district court against Florida company Psystar alleging copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement.

In April, Psystar began selling an "OpenMac" — essentially a PC hacked to run OS X Leopard — which the company renamed OpenComputer.

You may have noticed a rather high profile product launch this weekend, but it looks like the PR folks at Microsoft either didn’t realize, or chose to put out some of their own big news under the year’s biggest media shadow.

The new product is an improved Xbox 360, which will replace the 20GB hard drive of the current version with a 60GB model. The new console is expected in August, and in the meantime, the 20GB Xbox will drop $50, to $300. The entry level 360 Arcade and 120GB 360 Elite will stay where they are, both in price and capacity. And according to Associated Press, the new model could also se support for a Netflix movie streaming service, for which a bigger hard drive would certainly come in useful.

IPhone fans, don’t miss Michael Calore and Scott Loganbill’s rundown of the coolest iPhone 2.0 apps over on sister blog Monkeybites (formerly Compiler).

Your phone can now make strange noises when you tap it, find a restaurant when you shake it or pause a CD from across the room.

Check out their report for the
lowdown on everything from a virtual flashlight to a virtual rock band to the iPhone version of uber-organizer Evernote.

And while you’re at it, take a look at Eliot van Buskirk’s in-depth first look at Pandora for the iPhone, which might be one of the most impressive-looking iPhone apps to date — and a good argument for buying the smaller-capacity 8GB model (why buy more storage for tunes if you can stream them from Pandora?).

8 Cool Things You Can Do With Your iPhone 2.0 – Webmonkey

Sweet: Pandora’s Streaming Radio App for iPhone – Listening Post

Photo: Jim Merithew / Wired.com

In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab podcast, Dylan Tweney, Daniel Dumas, and Jose Fermoso talk about the new Olympic-themed Summer Test review site, which includes the best of the latest swimming and biking gear, among many other cool items.The new layout is sleek, easy to move around in, and full of content, but they’d still love some feedback on it, so let them know what you think.

Japanese researchers have figured out a way to cram a Blu-ray slaying 42GB onto a single, old fashioned DVD. How have they managed this? By making the small pits that hold the data bigger.

By replacing the shallow old flat-bottomed holes with new, high-tech v-shaped gouges, the discs have room for a lot more data.

Nyko FrontMan Wireless Guitar Controller for Nintendo Wii

Given that the Wiimote handles all the real work in Guitar Hero for the Wii, it’s a bit ridiculous that an extra first-party guitar shell costs just $30 less than the actual game, which comes with its own guitar. Thankfully, Nyko’s FrontMan offers a somewhat cheaper Telecaster-shaped option. But, for fifty bills, it’s not much cheaper than Activision’s Les Paul controller, and with a slightly differed feel, it may cause arguments during multiplayer gaming.

Aside from its Telecaster shape, the FrontMan’s aesthetics are a bit drab. The white model comes with removable black and pink pick guards, while the yellow model includes black and white guards.