TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Damaged DVDs are epidemic among online movie-renting services, which makes the Repair Pro sound indispensable for most of us. Repair Pro promises a 98-percent success rate cleaning up and repairing scratches on all CD/DVD media, including software, video games and music discs. The device also applies a thin protective layer on the disc to minimize recurrent problems. You can pick one up for $34.

Repair Pro for old school media [Popgadget]

RC fan Nic Case is attempting a new speed record with his X2 Speed Run Car. The current record is 134.4 mph. Nic plans to hit 200 mph. The power for the almost silent car comes from a Castle Creations HV-110 brushless engine, designed for planes, and the VTEC wheels are made from a Japanese foam which won’t break down at these speeds. Gyroscopes stop the X2 from spinning out of control as it nears the theoretical top speed of 274 mph, although drag will cut that back.

BlueAnt has released its Z9 wireless headset, which won an innovative-design award at CES 2007. It features dual mics and noise-reducing  Voice Isolation Technology, which operates in two modes — one for standard day-to-day situations and one for extra noisy environments. You can also pair it with three different devices and switch to any of them on the fly. The 1.5-inch long Z9 is one of the smallest headsets available, and can be worn on the ear with the translucent ear hook but can also be clipped on the torso or cuff of a shirt.

T-Mobile systems that allow prepaid customers to buy more minutes have been hosed most of this week, meaning folks who zeroed out their balance have had no way to add more minutes. T-Mobile says it’ll have everything fixed shortly, but meanwhile, it’s letting prepaid customers make free calls at least through tonight. So if you’re using a pay-as-you-go phone, today’s the day to reconnect with all those long-lost friends and relatives. Or repeatedly speed-dial your elected representatives to demand an end to the political atrocity of your choice.

A gent has created some software you can use in conjunction with your webcam to monitor your electricity usage. For £5.00, you load the Calc-Electric program onto your PC and point your webcam at your electricity meter. The cam optically reads the data and the program charts what is being used where at what cost. You can export the data into an Excel spreadsheet for long-term analysis. The only obstacle seems to be the location of your meter, which for most folks is not within spitting distance of the household computer.

So, uh, we like to take shit apart here in the Gadget Lab, and recently decided that the dumb.5-millimeter iPhone headphone jack was gonna get reamed out like EXPLETIVE DELETED to make room for our buds of choice. So we broke out our broke-apart iPhone, and took a peak in back to see if the surgery was feasible. The short answer, which bears a striking resemblance to the long answer, is no: the support structure for the SIM card slider leaves no room for experimentation, and the hole would have to be symmetrical.

We’d argue that Duct Tape (or Gaffer Tape to you Brits) is the ultimate MacGyver tool, but we’ve seen what the be-mulleted hardware hacker can do with a paper clip and it makes us swoon. This mockup was discovered on scaryideas.com, a site which aggregates spoof ads and products.

As it says o the box:

A paper clip can be a wonderous thing. More times than I can remember one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot.

Mobile phone stores and carriers in the U.K. are turning up their noses at a new handset designed for elederly customers, saying they’re not really interested in appealing to the support hose crowd. Communic8’s Emporia Life phone has big buttons, a streamlined display and a big red panic button on the back, all aimed at making the phone a good choice for older folks likely to only use it in emergencies.

But Communic8 is still trying to convince carriers and retailers that there’s money to be made from gramps. "They find it hard to see where this kind of device fits within their brand," said managing director Stewart Smith.

The US and Canadian Apple Stores are down. This is probably the only post-it note on the internet that causes such excitement. Other stores are still up, however, and I notice they still sport the ugly old Aqua design.

More as soon as we have it. Since this is US and Canada only, expect something iPhone related.

This is Peng Shulin, Chinese and 2ft 6in tall. Mr Shulin lost the lower half of his body in a truck accident 12 years ago, but last year the medical boffins at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing built this amazing contraption to help him walk again. Shulin is now getting mobile, although still with the help of a custom walking frame.