Two phones in the middle price range are scheduled for release in the third quarter; a third, high-end phone is due out this quarter.
Photos: Nokia’s 3 new phones

The bar none coolest thing at the Celebration was The Vader Project, and art exhibit based around a reimagining of the Darth Vader mask. Artists from around the world, and from all different genres, were given a basic black mask as their canvas and told to make it their own. This was the result. For more info on The Vader Project, including information on the artists involved, you can go HERE or HERE.

(NOTE: I’m sure these masks all have official names, but I’m not gonna go look them all up. Besides, my versions are probably a lot funnier. Also, the lighting in the room was way wonky, and it resulted in a lot of blurry pics. I did my best to correct it where possible, but not all of them are crystal clear. My apologies to the vision impaired. And those easily made naseous.)

Cool character renditions on this one.

Brain Vader

The Cabo Wabo Vader Shack (located on Tatooine, natch)

The Uni-Vader

The Statue Of Vader-y (bring me your whiny, your fearful, your bad actors)

This is crazy blurry, but I love the Yoda on this one.

Um, …ok. Kinda lame.

Rocky and Bullvader (”But Palpatine, when do we get to kill Luke and Obi-Wan?”)

The artist put NO effort into this. What is that, paper mache? This helmet is low-fi.

Pink, but still Punk Rock.

Darth Vader looks so pretentious with that goatee. What a art house douchebag!

This one is fun. Kinda youthful.

Patriotic Vader. God Bless (The) America(n) (Empire)!

I’m Seamus O’Kenobi, this is Bobby O’Vader. i’m ready to get drunk (and force choke some bitches)!

Star Wars plastic surgery gone bad. This guy has a worse eye job than Rose McGowan.

Dude, how awesome is this one? Reminds me of one of the light up bad guy from Running Man (”Thought it was pretty funny in the Death Star, didn’t you!”).

This reminds me of candy for some reason.

Darth Hick

Bozo the Sith Lord

Love the colors on this helmet. Wish I had gotten a clear shot.

Darth Hippy

Darth totally should have rocked a naked chick on his grill. He would have been less intimidating, but he would have gotten invited to A LOT more parties. A Darth Vader upside down force keg stand would be a site to behold.

And finally, my favorite helmet of the exhibit. Spy vs. Spy Vader. I would pay large amounts of money to see a cartoon of two Vaders, one white and one black, trying to blow each other up. It would totally absolve Lucas of the awful prequels. We really need to get the people of Mad Magazine on the phone. Pitch this project up.

Bangarang!

Even if you avoided the panels, neglected the Laser Tag and Droid Race, and had exactly zero interest in walking the sellers floor, there were still greats sights to be seen and fun times to be had. The people watching levels at the Celebration was off the charts. Just standing in one place and randomly clicking pictures would have yielded you high hilarity. Here are my favorite (in focus) pics from in and around the Celebration.

This is what you saw as you walked up to the Convention Center.

This is the awning you had to walk under to get to the main Exhibit Hall.

The view from the top of the stairs, looking down onto the main lobby area.

Kids love R2D2 (though they were too afraid to actually touch him). By the way, this was a working model. It rolled, beeped and the head even swiveled. It was way awesome.

These are made out of Legos. Legos! I could barely make a square out of Legos when I was a kid. But then again, I much preferred chewing on Legos, than actually playing with them. I was an odd child.

The dude in black was not pleased that I took this picture. Though he might actually be pissed because some random dude was trying to zap his alien lady. It’s hard to tell.

Is that a C.O.B.R.A. trooper? Go Joe!

Dark Jedi’s like their cancer sticks. Of course, Anakin probably smoked Virgina Slims (Sith Pussy!).

One of the many totally cute tiny Leia’s.

Even stormtroopers need a cell phone break.

Dimo likes him some Star Wars toys.

Like I said, the gold bikini is a privilege, NOT A RIGHT!

If you camped out for a four day event that never sold out, then you are crazy pathetic. It’s sad enough that the event producers felt it necessary to make this sign.

The Jay hanging with The Fett. Han wishes he could chill with us.

Blurily smooching on the Princess.

Probably the closest I’ll ever get to Natalie Portman.

Loving the R2D2 mailboxes. It almost makes me want to write a letter. Almost.

And finally, here was my favorite picture I took with a costumed character. The Jay and Elvis stormtrooper, rocking out with our Star Wars out!

Bangarang!

One of my favorite distractions at the Star Wars Celebration was the signing wall. It was essentially a hugemongous whie board with markers placed everywhere around it. Anyone could write a message to George Lucas, draw something cool, pay homage to Star Wars, bash the franchise, etc. Here are some pictures I took of the wall.

This is what the wall looked like (it stretched for about 50-60 feet):

I took the opportunity to plug TheJay.com, natch.

And I got in the spirit of things by leaving my own (typically sarcastic) message for George.

My friend Dimo got in on the wall action.

Here was his most excellent addition.

There was some other great messages left. This one pays homage to the biggest unresolved plotline of the entire series.

This is a sentiment many geeks can get behind.

Not everyone brought the snark, though. There were a few sincere, heartfelt words.

Geeks in love, how quaint. i bet that’s one attractive family.

And some people got their draw on.

When did Angelina Jolie show up in the prequels?

And lastly, here is my favorite message left on the signing wall.

Bangarang!

My geekosity has been on the wane as of late. I hated Spider-Man 3, was bored by the Heroes season finale and I didn’t even bother seeing Grindhouse. I was truly starting to wonder if the next time I accidentally caught a bit of an Everybody Loves Raymond rerun on TBS, I would start inexplicably laughing (and holy jeebus would that send me to Promises in Malibu faster than a 5am car crash with useable amounts of cocaine in my sky blue 2007 Honda CRV.). In fact, for the better part of the year I’ve been mulling the notion that I was no longer a geek at all. I didn’t dig Battlestar: Galactica when I caught up on the DVD’s. I actually became invested in Grey’s Anatomy. And I don’t think I’ve turned to the Cartoon Network in a calendar year. Could it be that I’m just a normal kid who happens to occasionally like geeky pieces of pop culture? It was a definite possibility. That is, of course, until last weekend, when I did the one thing possible on this earth that could immediately put my geek-o-meter back to 11.

I attended Star Wars Celebration IV.

You want to renew your faith in the geek religion? Spend a day with ten thousand people dressed as space aliens in homage to a sci-fi film franchise that peaked more two decades ago. Take a day of your three-day weekend to bask at the altar of a man so appreciative of fan support that he didn’t even bother to show up to his own celebration. Immerse yourself so fully into a piece of pop culture that by the end of it you’re questioning why Jar Jar Binks wasn’t in MORE of the prequels. Get down with the group living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

And like that, I felt like socially awkward again.

It was a truly great day. I spoke to artists who spend their days drawing pictures of inane space aliens. I watched a 60 year-old man chain smoke while sculpting a bust of Obi-Wan Kenbobi (Alec Guinness-style, of course.). I saw Veronica Mars herself; rocking a Chewbacca t-shirt and making every geek pulse in the building shoot up by a measure of ten. I saw babies dressed in slave Leia costumes. I rubbed the belly of a 25 foot Jabba the Hut figure. I watched an early glimpse at what will be the best season premiere of the fall (Family Guy retelling the story of Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope, with Stewie as Darth Vader, natch). I basked in the glow of thousands upon thousands of geeks, from all walks of like, from all ages, and from all races and creeds, converging upon the Downtown LA Convention Center to celebrate something special.

I suddenly have the undeniable urge to make fighting sounds with my mouth while twirling around a plastic light up stick.

Here’s how my day went down:

To get an idea of how epic this event was, you have to understand how big the convention center truly is. The Staples Center, home of the soon-to-be Kobe less Lakers, and the Duck-jealous Kings, sits next to the Convention Center, and at max capacity can seat about 18,000 people. The Convention Center is more than twice the size of the Staples. And every inch was filled with Star Wars. The lobby has a glass ceiling that’s more than eight stories tall. It was big enough to put a 30 foot Death Star replica in the middle of the lobby floor, and still make the thing look small! The e-ticket panels were held in conference rooms that dwarfed the biggest lectures halls I encountered I college (so they filled at least a thousand people). The main show floor that held all the sellers booths and the autograph area was like the biggest state fair in the country. There were toys as far as the eye could see. In fact, there was just so bloody much to take in that I became dizzy trying to plan it all out. You can do the entirety of Disneyland and California Adventure in one day, if you map it out correctly (start with Adventureland and go clockwise). There wasn’t anyway to do Star Wars Celebration in one day. I pulled it off by cutting my schedule in half, but I can see why so many people purchased four day passes. And if there’s anything a geek would want to spend four days doing (other than Natalie Portman), it would be this.

I caught the big Irvin Kershner panel. My media pass got me second row seats, which was fortunate, as there were near geek riots trying to get close enough to take a picture of the octogenarian filmmaker. And while most of the panel was a rehash of old stories long since heard in the millions of Star Wars documentaries out there, Kershner still held the room in rapt attention. He is at 84 a more commanding, eloquent and lively public speaker than our current President is at 60. And a hell of a lot smarter. His short answers were recycled pap, but when moderator Jay Laga’aia let him go, he crackled with nostalgic bite. His memories of shooting in the ice cold of Norway are as vivid as if the film was made last year. And his take on the mood of the set of The Empire Strikes Back is the kind of information Star Wars fans live for. He spoke of the turmoil surrounding the infamous Han Solo “I love you” adlib. How he was unhappy with the line as scripted, didn’t know what he wanted instead, and the crew was itching to go to lunch so that they could drink beer. That he only shot one take of the adlib, and Harrison was so tired of the scene that he barely got the line out (giving him two of the most famous improvs in movie history. Not bad for a cranky actor not known for his comedic chops.).

We learned that Lucas was only on set for a handful of Empire shooting days, as he was holed up in Marin County setting up ILM. That the actor playing Vader had to be directed rhythmically during the epic “I am your father” scene because he didn’t know the real dialogue of the scene. That in the test screenings it was revealed that everyone under the age of ten thought Vader was lying about being Luke’s father, while everyone older than ten accepted the Skywalker family dysfunction. Kershner praised Lucas, calling him “the best Producer I have ever worked with”, as well as thanking the bearded master for not cramping his vision of the film. He was told by Lucas just before the start of principal photography, “If you think of it, ILM will figure out how to do it”. That’s a nice line, but Lucas failed to add “and if I don’t like it, I’ll just wait twenty years and CGI the shit without your permission”. Kershner said he has done more than 150 Star Wars panels, but from the energy he brought to the room, I would have believed it was his first time.

I caught the panel for the upcoming “kids break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a print of Episode One flick”, Fanboys, not because I’m that stoked about the movie (I’m not), but because Kristen Bell was scheduled to attend. She, and the panel, did not disappoint. Joining the dearly departed Ms. Mars on stage were here co-stars Sam Worthington and a bearded Jay Baruchel (in a futile effort to look older). The director, writers and producers were also there, but I didn’t pay much attention to them as hello, Kristen Bell was sitting twenty feet away from me rocking a Chewbacca shirt and black Chuck Taylors. I am happy to report she is as hot, if not more, than she appears on TV, smiles easily, looks great in Star Wars gear and is honored to have donned the slave Leia costume in the flick (which is probably good for an extra 5-6 million at the box office). We got to see various scenes from the movie, for about 15 total minutes. I laughed, the crowd laughed, the scenes were cool, but now I feel like I don’t need to see the movie. It’s a one-note premise that can easily be played out in a two-minute trailer. Let’s just say that even with Kristen Bell in a gold bikini I doubt any die-hard Star Wars fan will be camping out for this one. One last thing about the panel, literally milliseconds after it was over Kristen bolted from the stage, so intent she was on not being hassled by an auditorium full of geeks. I understand her predicament, but I was bummed all the same I couldn’t get a closer (or in focus) picture of her.

Oh, and a fun quote from Baruchel, who claims he did the movie for two reasons “I get to wear the Vader costume and because there’s a scene in the movie where Harry Knowles beats [him] up”. Fair enough. But he also revealed himself to be a lifelong Star Trek fan, so even though I loved him in Undeclared, he is now officially dead to me.

Not much to say about the Family Guy panel other than to reiterate my earlier claim that their Star Wars-focused season premiere is off the chains funny. For example, Peter plays Solo and Chris plays Luke. In the scene where they’re in the gun turrets shooting TIE fighters and Luke says “Got em! I got him!”, Peter as Han Solo’s response is “Great kid, don’t get penis-y”. That equals hilarious. As was their mock of the opening crawl which took liberal bashes at Angelina Jolie and her creepy brother love, relative to the potential ickiness of a Luke / Leia love match. Seriously, how did she get America to forget that her Oscar acceptance speech was a love letter to her brother? I know she’s hot and all, but damn is that girl fucked up! We need to really reconsider Brad Pitt’s judgment on this one (but then again he did once date Juliette Lewis, so maybe his compass is just naturally skewed towards the crazies).

Other cool stuff at the Celebration was the Archive room, where I got to see many of the original costumes and models. As well as an awesome model of Luke’s head in the open Vader mask from Empire. I missed out on Star Wars Laser Tag so I could spend more time at the Darth Vader Helmet Exhibit, and boy was that the right choice. Artists from across the country were given Vader heads and told to do whatever they wanted with them, and the results were stellar. I’m going to devote a whole post to the picture I took of the heads. Truly one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. I got to see a full-scale working R2D2 as well as a full-size replica of Anakin’s podracer. I took in a small exhibition of the new R2D2 LCD wall projection, where R2 becomes your DVD player AND your screen, just like in the movies. The image is about six feet across and fairly clean. For $2500 it’s way out of my price range, but well worth it if you are so inclined. The artists area was fun to walk through as most of them were doing paintings on demand, so you could watch how they work in real time. Grant Gould did a killer Jedi picture while we talked and I got some pics of his other work (he does a wide-range of pop culture work, from BSG to Heroes to famous comic book heroes. I was dying for his drawing of the cast of Lost, which by the way, awesome season finale.). I met the artist behind the Snake Plissken comic book series, and got him to autograph each of the comics in the four book set (and paid only ten dollars for the books and the graphs. Not too shabby).

The Ralph McQuarrie booth was the cream of the crop though, and I couldn’t resist picking up a few of his lesser known, non-Star Wars prints. I may be the only person at the Celebration that left without buying any actual Star Wars items, not that I mind to terribly. There’s only so many four-inch Boba Fett figures you can look at before your eyes glaze over. The brand new “Art of Star Wars” book was being pimped out like crazy, but I didn’t bite on that either. I love the look of the Star Wars world, but I’m just not geeky enough to put that on my coffee table. I don’t need George Lucas staring at me every time I grab my TiVo remote. Though I think it’s every geek’s dream to bloop bloop George Lucas.

The autograph lines were forever long, but had no one that interesting in them. How many people could possibly want Jake Lloyd’s signature? I imagine he gets a lot of slushies thrown at him on the street, Weather Man-style (“I heard you talking about midi-chlorians. So I was wondering what are midi-chlorians?” Swoosh! Red Slurpee right in his face!).

And I’m 2200 words in before I’ve even said a thing about all the great costumes. Everyone was decked out. And I’m pretty sure every person who had even a moment of screen time in the series was represented at the event (except Jar Jar, of course). I saw all manner of costume craziness, from a V For Vendetta Darth Vader to a Nacho Libre Stormtrooper. Indiana Jones was walking around, as was The Joker for some strange reason. I saw a shirtless Anakin, though I’m not sure why. And I saw countless Princess Leia’s in the gold bikini. And let me just say that like spandex the gold bikini is a privilege, not a right. Maybe consider a sit-up or two next time you know you’re gonna wear that thing. Just saying…

All in all I spend just over eight hours at the Celebration, took in the three big panels, walked the entire show floor, took more than 200 pictures, bought some goodies, FINALLY peeped the infinitely cool R2D2 mailbox, saw some great art, ate some surprisingly good food and revitalized my love for all things Star Wars. And most of all, I feel like a geek again. I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, but thank you George Lucas. You may have raped my teen movie-going years, but you sure know how to rescue a floundering guy in a geek-life crisis. Now don’t fuck up Indy 4.

Several picture posts devoted to the Vader Helmets, the Star Wars signing wall, and the people in costumes coming up. But until then…

Bangarang!

For more great coverage of this event, check out Blogging LA, Defamer, PopCandy, or the Official Star Wars Celebration Blog.

While Verizon fights Vonage in court, Deutsche Telekom makes a strategic investment in another Internet calling company.

Inventor readies e-mail system based on an innovative alphabet in which the 26 English letters are represented solely by individual colors.
Images: Making words colorful

Federal jury awards Broadcom $19.6 million, but larger rival plans to overturn the verdict or else appeal the California case.

Telecommunications equipment maker is in talks to sell all or part of the company for about $6.1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Company says it won’t sell equipment using the next-generation Wi-Fi standard, as Intel and others are, until it’s IEEE-certified.

With test results approved, city plans to offer wireless Net access throughout its 135 square miles by the end of the year.

Agreement will give Boingo customers access to FON hot spots in residential areas for no extra cost.

Countersuits from Nokia reciprocate Qualcomm suits that claim patent infringement on 3G wireless technology.

10:07 - The Jay, OUT! Bloop-Bloop!

10:06 - Congratulations to Jordin, she’s a great choice for an American Idol, will be a great representative for the show and a (moderately) successful solo singer. Best of luck to Blake, who entertained me so well for five months; I can’t wait for the shaky, beatbox-heavy debut album, and his future career as a hit record producer. And I look forward to seeing how the Top 12 shakes up the industry; who will be the next Daughtry, if Blake will flame out like Bo Bice, if Melinda can bring back Motown, if Sanjaya can capitalize on his pop culture trainwreck potential, if I’ll ever get another look at Haley Scarnato’s fine, fine gams. So many questions… I can’t wait to find out the answers (and illegally download the singles). Thank you to everyone for reading the recaps. See you in January for Season Seven.

10:04 - JORDIN SPARKS! What a shock. NOT.

10:02 - Oh look, the judges. I forgot they were even there.

9:58 - Wait, aren’t there supposed to be, um, you know, like, RESULTS? I’m missing all the resurgent Lost awesomeness! Charlie fighting with gun-toting underwater babes, Sayid planning an Other bombing, Jack being a douchebag. I need to get my Lost on! Let’s get a move on, Idol, damn! Why is it 10pm and we haven’t crowned Jordin yet? This is what you get for putting that stupid Golden Idol awards shit on for fifteen minutes.

9:57 - Mmm, Haley legs, just the thing I needed to push me through to the final moments. Thank you, Miss Scarnato.

9:56 - Watching Ruben makes me glad I didn’t become a real Idol watcher till Season 4.

9:55 - So is Carrie supposed to be the star of the night? Because I thought tonight was about Jordin and Blake? Am I wrong? She’s been on stage more than Ryan tonight. Not that I mind seeing her more than Seacrest.

9:53 - I’m confused, didn’t we decide to just forget Taylor existed on this earth? Who let the Idol Monkey out of the cage? Just breathe Jay, seven more minutes and you’ll be blissfully Idol free for six months…

9:51 - Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club? Umm, ok…. I like Kelly and Joe just fine, but can we stay a touch closer to the AI family tree please? It’s only the LAST TEN MINUTES OF THE SEASON? What is going on here? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

9:49 - K-Ville looks tight. New Amsterdam looks, well, I hope David Boreanaz is getting suitably compensated for that mess.

9:41 - Really? Beaches? Really? Who approved this nonsense? I like Bette Midler just fine, but really, she has to take up five of the last twenty minutes of the season? We don’t get a Melinda/Tina duet, but we have to sit through “Wind Beneath My Wings”? Sometimes I really understand why so many people hate this show. Sometimes I remember that I used to be one of them.

9:35 - What does it say that they paired Blake with a non-Idolist and Jordin with a former Idol winner? Just the producers prepping her to join the fold. Do we really need to wait another twenty minutes to start the Sparks coronation? Even Blake has started drafting his proud loser speech.

9:34 - Can somebody get Jordin some hot tea, or honey or something? Girl needs help. Her voice is SHOT. Even Ruben is feeling sorry for her, and Ruben is in no position to feel superior to anyone from Idol.

9:31 - Look what you did America! Look who you chose last year. Are you proud of yourselves? We might as well just surrender back to the Brits, for all the smarts we have. Taylor freaking Hicks! I miss Katharine McPhee.

9:30 - Aw man, who brought the dick? Taylor Hicks brought the dick.

9:24 - And then they follow the doofy Sanjaya video and perf with a super-serious Green Day performance (?) in support of Darfur. Fuck you, American Idol! What is your stupid show about? Just crown Jordin already so I can go watch Lost. Gah! Also, if Green Day isn’t going to do American Idiot on American Idol then their presence is just not necessary.

9:19 - Imagine for a second if Sanjaya had made the finale. How crazy it would be. How much hate mail the show would receive. How many shots of that stupid crying girl we’d be forced to endure. The riots that would have been caused if Melinda had gotten the boot before him. A Blake vs. Sanjaya finale would have been cause for canceling the show. Simon would have had a meltdown on live TV. He would have strangled Paula, punched Randy in the face and cock slapped Ryan (just like they do at home) before cursing America for it’s stupidity.

9:16 - Here’s my problem with the Idol Gives Back nonsense: less than one commercial break before the adorable African Children’s Choir took the stage to make us all feel bad, Idol was giving a fake award and making fun of a developmentally-challenged kid. It’s just too disparate a dichotomy. The whole is fine on the surface, but REEKS of pretension and substantive desperation. Ugh. They might as well have put Sanjaya jumping a shark tank on a motorcycle up there, for all the good they want it to do. And that’s what I mean, they follow the sweet kids perf with a tongue-in-cheek Sanjaya Rocks video. What’s this shown supposed to be about, you know? I just can’t get over how much the whole Idol Gives back idea repulses me.

9:07 - I’ve been reading a lot of commentary about Blake and Jordin being the best final two in the history of the show, but watching Carrie do her thing I have to whole-heartedly disagree. Carrie and Bo were the best. Two phenomenal voices, two good-looking cool people. They shouldn’t be discounted because Carrie is a robot, or because Bo dropped an a-load of weight and nobody recognized him. I think because they were both country, their season gets discounted. The hicks running the asylum, so to speak. But I remember how much fun that season was. I remember how much I enjoyed watching Bo swoop in and school Constantine. Watch Carrie trounce all over the girls. Carrie is the biggest success that American Idol has ever produced, specific to record sales, her presence should not be discounted. Blake and Jordin are hip, fun and great talents, but I’d rather listen to Bo rock and Carrie belt, then Blake beatbox and Jordin try to emote. But that’s just me.

8:55 - The Wynans? What, was Tina stuck in the Thunderdome? I feel robbed.

8:52 - Did Simon just call Ryan an asshole? Cause if so, that would be legen - wait for it - DAIRY!

8:47 - Tony Bennett! That means it time for me to take a dinner break. Thanks, Tony!

8:42 - Look how happy Melinda looks! I love that! If she ends up doing a surprise duet with Tina Turner, her tiny no-necked head may explode.

8:39 - Dude, Gladys Knight! Melinda and LaKisha are so her Pips!

8:38 - Oh, Haley’s legs, how I’ve missed you! Excuse me, I have to go, um, lock my bedroom door…

8:35 - Who would win in a wigger-off, Blake Lewis or Eminem? That may be one of those unanswerable questions like Ginger or Marianne, Elvis or The Beatles, skinny pop Kelly Clarkson or pudgy angry Kelly Clarkson.

8:33 - I may have to recant my statement that Blake has no audience. Cause this beatboxing perf is in-SANE. He’s putting on a star clinic, and his skills are free!

8:29 - I can’t believe it took so long for 19 Entertainment to launch a band version of American Idol. That’s a bigger no-brainer than Kelly over Justin.

8:21 - Uh oh, make sure the prompter is working, Brandon Rogers is on stage. Also, holla Sanjaya. I think it’s possible I missed you. But then again, I used to eat paint chips as a young child.

8:18 - Why can’t I TiVo live TV? I did NOT need to see Big Bird french Ryan. You can’t do that to a poor tiny metro, you’ll ruin his foundation.

8:17 - The Golden Idol Awards? Really? Can’t we just move this along? I don’t need to see Sanjaya win ANYTHING. Also, J-hud is the house! You can’t give out gold boys with a flesh and blood Oscar winner in the front row. That’s just not how it’s done.

8:16 - J-Hud is in the house!

8:14 - Damn, she is good. Still the American Idol gold standard five years later.

8:12 - Someone hide crafty, here comes Kelly Clarkson! Just kidding Kel, you know I love you. But really, if you get a moment, a sit-up or two might be a good idea. Just something to think about.

8:09 - I’d just like to take this commercial break to mention that despite my recent axe prediction suckage, I actually picked Jordin, Melinda and Blake as the Top 3 TEN weeks ago. Don’t believe me, SEE FOR YOURSELF (written in Jordin’s recap).

8:06 - What is Gwen wearing? It looks like a Disney Princess Halloween costume made for a four year old. And I think I can see her whole new world, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. Also, in regards to this song, zzzzzzzzz. Where’s Akon when you need him? probably grinding on a 14 year old somewhere, making R. Kelly jealous.

8:04 - They sound OK together, but they both sound ragged. Their voices must feel like Ashlee Simpson at the Orange Bowl by now. Melinda would have sounded as good as ever. Just sayin…

8:03 - Jordin looks good, for a giantess. I like how far away they started on the stage. It was like a forced perspective scene from Lord of the Rings. Does that make Blake the Frodo? Or the Samwise? Let’s just move on…

8:01 - Teri Hatcher is in the crowd. Odds on whether or not Ryan and her have an awkward on-screen chat? 5-2

8:00 - Blake is in a suit! I guess the argyle sweater wasn’t good enough for the Finale.

So, it is down to Blake and it is down to Jordin. After five months of singing, dancing, corporate shilling, song botching, Sanjaya Malakar-ing, Gina Glocksen crying, Sundance Head sucking, Haley legging, Melinda and Bon Jovi rocking, LaKisha diva-ing, Phil’s head shining, and Ryan Seacreast-ing, it is finally time to crown a new American Idol.

Since I decided to recap the American Idol performance night I have written more than 18000 words on the contestants. I have suffered the ups and down of Jordin’s “energy”. I have watched Blake struggle to find the balance between holy crap awesome and holy jeebus annoying. I have watched Ryan and Simon bicker, Paula try to sustain sobriety (and not always succeeding), and Randy becoming evermore unnecessary. I have been through it all. From the first audition to the final performance of last night (and how ironic that an AI loser closed out the season). And after all that, I knew I needed to do something special to mark the finale. So I’m breaking out the rare liveblog to chronicle what should be a spectacular American Idol Finale Results Show Spectacular.

Updates will post up, so make sure when you refresh that you are reading from the top down. So, without further ado, let’s get to the results…

THIS is AMERican Idol!

As exclusive seller of Apple handset, AT&T aims to lift its profile by quickly replacing Cingular name with AT&T at its stores.

Program to enable listeners to text-message radio stations to make song requests and get real-time traffic reports.

The wireless company is the latest U.S. corporate target to be scooped up by private equity buyers.

The interest in Apple’s cell phone could be very good for Apple, and could rub off on some of its competitors.

Silicon.com puts a mobile work force on trial with its jury of CIOs. With 12 percent of the U.K.s workforce online, the question isn’t difficult.

European Commission says $3.24 billion in public funds will be needed to make the network operational by 2012.

Modulus Video will complement recent acquisitions of video, networking firms, Motorola says.

Adding navigation to cell phones will help people find friends, meeting places and more, industry execs at Reuters summit bet.

The satellite TV provider may test delivering high-speed Internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its CEO says.

The two companies team up again to give five teams of university students grants to develop new media projects.

Wal-Mart Stores is first major retailer to dedicate a section to equipment such as handsets, Webcams, headsets for the service.

Software giant introduces phones, headsets and other devices that work with its software with the intention of replacing the traditional office phone

RIM has announced its BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS), which promises to make the BlackBerry smart phone an extension of an enterprise’s PBX system.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. looked at
possible acquisitions to gain a foothold in the market for
so-called business intelligence software, but decided to build
its own business and compete on price against industry leaders,
the company's business division president said on Wednesday.

Red Hat Global Desktop, the company’s latest PC-oriented Linux product, is aimed for users in developing nations.

InfoWorld - Some industry watchers may still question why Symantec moved to acquire storage software maker Veritas for $10.2 billion in 2004, but the fruits of the companies' combined labors are already proving the deal as a winner, according to executives with the massive security firm.