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Engadget's recession antidote: win a VTech IS9181 WiFi radio

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We'll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we've got a boomin' VTech IS9181 internet radio on offer, ready to stream jams from the world wide web when not playing back your MP3 collection. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Check after the break for some photos of the prize!

Special thanks to VTech for providing the gear!

The rules:

Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too.
You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) VTech IS9181 WiFi radio. Approximate retail value is $199.99.
If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Wednesday, July 1st, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Star Wars flash drives' giant heads seep into our teensy hearts

We see so many flash drives around these parts, it is truly, truly hard for any to distinguish themselves in our eyes. These ones? Well, we'll admit it: we have a giant soft spot for their massive noggins. Not the first Star Wars flash drives we've seen -- this newest set store up to 2GB per drive -- which isn't anything to throw a party over, but they're really cute, right? The set, which includes Darth Vader, Yoda (look at his toes!), a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett, will be available starting in October for $25 each.

eMachines intros ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 desktop PCs

Just a few short weeks after eMachines outed its EL1300 line of SFF PCs, the company is hitting us up again with a new trio of full-size desktops. The ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 are all encased within a luminous white mini-tower and ship with a matching LCD monitor, speakers and a keyboard. As for specs, the $449.99 ET1300-02 checks in with an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU, Vista Home Premium, NVIDIA's GeForce G100 (512MB), 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, 18x SuperMulti DVD burner, multicard reader, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs and an 18-inch E182H display. The $369.99 ET1810-03 steps to a 2.2GHz Pentium E2210 CPU, GeForce 7500 integrated graphics and just a single VGA port, while the $299.99 ET1810-01 cranks it down to a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The trio should be filtering out to respected retailers as we speak.

LG introduces stylish, LED-backlit 22-inch W2286L LCD HDTV

By and large, there's nothing too incredible about LG's latest LCD HDTV. It's 22-inches, can double as a PC monitor, boasts a deceiving 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and consumes some 40 percent less power than the average Earth-hating 22-inch LCD. There's also a pair of HDMI sockets, a DVI port and a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, not to mention an automatic brightness sensor that responds to ambient light. There's no word yet on how pricey the 20 millimeter-thick set will be nor when it'll ship stateside, but hopefully it -- along with its 24-inch Full HD sibling -- will make the trip in short order.

Grocery cart morphs into electric go-kart, insanity ensues

We won't bother detailing just how sophisticated the system is that's powering the wild whip you're peering at above. We won't bother mentioning just how many A123Systems batteries are installed, nor how intelligent the creator is. We won't bother wearing our jealously on our sleeves. What we will do, however, is point you after the break in order to have a look at just how exhilarating a ride in the LOLrio Cart (otherwise known as an electric go-kart) is. Harris Teeter, you getting all this?

Nokia N97 and Dell Vostro bundled for $730: make one mistake, get one free

The N97 might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're still tempted to pay the $700 entry fee, you could sweeten the deal by throwing in a free-ish laptop -- Dell's currently bundling the Vostro A860 with Nokia's latest for $730 after a discount coupon. Flip that sucker on eBay for anywhere close to its $379 list price plus some "handling fees" and you might just come close to paying a reasonable price for the N97. Well, sort of reasonable. Those still interested should hurry past the read link, as the full discount will only be available through tomorrow or until stocks last.

Marshal's DVD Power Up Dock includes room for HDD, Bugs Bunny jokes

Marshal's DVD PowerUp Dock includes room for HDD, Bugs Bunny jokes

If you're still waiting for NU's DVD/HDD docking station to make its appearance at your local purveyor of flimsy-feeling netbook accessories, perhaps you'd instead prefer to wait for this new, less wedge-shaped one from Marshal. Called the DVD Power Up Dock, it sports a DVD drive with the requisite plethora of reading and writing options plus a 2.5-inch SATA HDD and, finally, a USB hub with the least possible number of ports: two. It's listed as being compatible with Windows and naturally there's no mention of price or availability, but that would ruin the surprise.

Toshiba's TG01 stepping out in London on July 9th

It's already out in Japan and a few select countries in Europe, now Toshiba's skinny TG01 is hitting London on Thursday, July 9th. Presumably the invite will be met with an official UK launch of Tosh's deftly skinned Snapdragon handset with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Then again, it could be a lot of tech reporters eating mini triangular sandwiches slathered with pickle spread discussing the HTC Hero for four hours. We'll let you know next week.

Best Buy-sponsored survey shows that Americans want smartphones even though they don't understand them

Best Buy-sponsored survey shows that Americans want smartphones even though they don't understand them

Do you understand your smartphone... really understand it? Know its moods, its wants, its desires? A survey hosted by Best Buy Mobile shows that half of people don't, with 47 percent saying the things confuse the heck out of them, while 60 percent of those aged 35 - 49 feel that people with smartphones spend too much time working and not enough time playing Wii Sports Bowling. Those feelings of confusion and ire doesn't stop a "sizable segment" of the rest of the 1,000 people surveyed from wanting a handset with brains, with most desiring access to the sort of apps you can't get on dumbphones, and 14 percent of women saying that playing games was "very important" -- only nine percent of men said the same. Sadly, there was no figure indicating how many people enjoy paying too much for text messages and signing their lives away on lengthy contracts.

Jabra Go 6400 and Pro 9400 with capacitive touchscreen base redefines overkill, want

Here's what you get when a manufacturer tries to justify a $199 price tag on its newest headsets. The Jabra Go 6400 (pictured above) and Pro 9400 look to be standard noise-cancelling Bluetooth and DECT headsets, respectively, with a multifunction button to answer/reject/redial/mute calls and adjust the volume. However, these headsets are paired with an industry first touch-screen base for call management. The 2.4-inch capacitive LCD displays caller ID, call records, and lets users switch between their mobile, desk, and corporate softphones via a spin of the carousel. Fun sure, and exceedingly geeky, but hardly worth the $199 to duplicate functions already built-in to the headsets or accessible via the displays on the devices it connects to. Then again, these are aimed at office professionals (read: corporations) when they launch in September and $199 is nothing when you're spending someone else's money. DECT configuration pictured after the break.

Dorel Air Protect keeps your blow-up children safe

It might look like your run-of-the-mill car seat, but Dorel's Air Protect comes with an extra dose of parental paranoia, or as they call it, side impact protection. Sure, you could protect your child by not driving like a reckless maniac, but where's the techno-loving fun in that? You're far better off strapping junior into a pre-inflated airbag, while disregarding the fact your giant SUV is killing the world he is supposed to grow, live and love in. Now that we've guilt-tripped you into recycling your soda cans, how about a self-serving video of the crash test after the break?

Sony's newest remote control ships with a Z200iR compact music system (updated)

It's not often that a remote control becomes the centerpiece of a product launch, but man, would you look at that. That's the remote for Sony's NAS-Z200iR, a WiFi-enabled shelf audio system with slot-loading CD and iPod dock. The Z200iR is DLNA-certified so it works with any DLNA device in your home including NAS boxes and of course, your PC or Mac. The re-chargeable remote features a 3.5-inch LCD display that gives you full control over sourced media including Internet radio, integrated AM/FM tuner, or devices connected via the Z200iR's USB or audio-in ports. The sound comes courtesy of a pair of independent, 20-watt speaker enclosures with double neodymium magnets used to drive the bass. A simpler, WiFi-less CMT-Z100iR system will launch first in July with the Z200iR headed to Europe in mid September. Sorry, no prices announced so no joy.

Windows 7 Beta automatic shutdowns begin today, RC users safe until March 1st

You're not still running Windows 7 Beta are you? Tsk tsk, better get your RC build before your system starts spontaneously shutting down every 2 hours. As Microsoft has warned repeatedly, Windows 7 Beta builds will begin bi-hourly shutdowns starting on July 1st in a bid to move you over to the latest release candidate. RC user will suffer the same treatment starting March 1st, 2010 on the way to a June 1st expiration -- well after the October 22nd launch date of Windows 7 to retail. This concludes this Engadget public service announcement, your regularly scheduled snarkiness will return in a moment.

Kindle's German launch stalled by T-Mobile and Vodafone?

A news item is circulating the internet reportedly from German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche claiming Amazon is facing a major hurdle in trying to bring its Kindle to Deutschland. The problem at hand? The two big wireless providers in the country, Vodafone and T-Mobile, are both saying "nein" to providing Whispernet service, and apparently the issue has to do with how much money Amazon was willing to give -- unsurprising, if true. Another, very likely reason for T-Mobile's unwillingness is that parent company Deutsche Telekom is rumored to be working on its own e-book reader, and we gotta believe those company picnics would be mighty awkward if a large subsidiary was given the competition a major boost. We can't imagine this stopping Amazon for long, and we'd be very surprised if the Kindle didn't find some way to sneak itself into the region sooner or later.

Pentax K-7 review roundup

We've been nothing if not comprehensive in our coverage of this new Pentax shooter, and early reviews are showing why. Photography Blog praised the K-7 for its weatherproofing and for having "one of the best LCD screens" they've ever seen on a DSLR, while ePHOTOzine were impressed by the image quality and Wired found the package of features and specs exceedingly robust given the $1,300 asking price. Some shortcomings were found, such as the slightly unintuitive interface and noise levels at higher ISO settings, but impressions were overwhelmingly positive. If you've been looking for a solid alternative to Canon's 50D or Nikon's D300, check out all the thoroughly detailed analysis in the read links below.