Last week Gizmodo broke a huge story from Microsoft.  Meet the Courier – a dual touch screen device that will redefine the idea of a personal computer.

Sure that seems like a lot of rhetoric, but really, this thing is quite innovative.  Check out the video here to see what the Courier interface will look like.  There’s a lot of intuitive interaction between the two screens, and touch commands seem to work seamlessly.  The use of a pen for sketching and notes is interesting too.  Sure, this can be done on tablets today, but not in the interactive journal format that Courier proposes.

Gizmodo says this is a late stage prototype device, which means, sadly, we may never see it.  Microsoft doesn’t make PCs, it makes PC software, and they have stuck to this model for years.

Who knows, maybe this is a complete fake made by Microsoft to f with Apple.  Or perhaps Microsoft is tired of its partners screwing up tablets and decided to go on its own, like it did with Zune.  All I can say is I hope this device is real, and I hope it comes out soon.

It’s sad when the Lions’ winning a game against the Redskins is one of the top stories of the week.  Thankfully Favre pulled out a huge game winner, or else we’d be hearing about the Lions all week.

-And how about Favre?  He still didn’t look like the Favre of old, but he sure loves to play football.  He was running up the field to throw blocks for Peterson, while throwing for a respectable 300 yards and 2 TDs.  And of course, he won the game with a 32 yard TD pass with 2 seconds left.  That’s why you can’t really hold it against Favre for having such a hard time retiring.  1)  He still can play in the NFL, and 2)  He puts in as much effort as anyone else.

-There are still 7 unbeaten teams in the NFL.  Most surprisingly, the Denver Broncos are one of them.  They won on a fluke in week 1, then had 2 gimmies against the Browns and Raiders.  It’ll be interesting to see how they do in their next 5 games against the Cowboys, Pats, Chargers, Ravens and Steelers.  I’m guessing by week 9 their record will be 3-5.

-It’s nice to see that Tom Brady is still sorta like the Brady of old.  He lit up the Falcons for 277 yards and a TD – not incredible numbers by any stretch, but the Falcons are a tough team and he played well.

-The Bengals are 2-1, and one fluke play away from being 3-0, after beating the Steelers.  Carson Palmer pulled off his own game winning drive, throwing the game winning TD with 14 seconds left.  The Bengals scored their only offensive TDs in the fourth quarter, coming back from what looked like a pretty insurmountable 20-9 deficit.

-The Bears looked bad early, trailing the Seneca Wallace-power Seahawks 13-0 in the 2nd quarter.  But surprisingly, Jay Cutler kept them in the game, throwing 3 TDs, including a 4th quarter game winner with 1:52 left.  Cutler bounced back from an early interception, and ended the game going 21-27 for 247 yards – not bad at all.

-Michael Vick returned to football, but didn’t do much.  He was 0-2, with 7 yards rushing.  I didn’t see the game, but apparently he was used primarily as a decoy.  Either way, the game wasn’t close, with the Eagles winning 34-14.

-The competition for worst team in the league so far is tight between the Rams, Browns and Redskins.  I think the Skins get bumped to the top of this list for week 3 after losing to the Lions.  But really, the Rams, who have averaged only 8 points per game look the worst overall.  Plus, that 8 points per game is buoyed by the 14 points that Kyle Boller threw for this week.

-And you can’t forget the Raiders, who can’t even get enough people to their game to avoid a blackout.  Simply, JaMarcus Russel should not be an NFL quarterback.  He has completed an average of 10 passes per game for about 135 yards.  He has 4 INTs and only 1 TD in 3 games, including 2 INTs in yesterday’s game where he tossed for…wait for it…61 yards.  Look, I know he was the #1 pick, but so was Alex Smith.  It’ll be interesting to see how long the Raiders are willing to waste what is a pretty good defensive team on a QB experiment that should have ended a year ago.

The Raiders lost to the Broncos 23-3 today.  But no one in the Bay Area saw this game because it was blacked out.

Now, one could certainly make the argument that no one that has any interest in the Raiders would want to see their team beat they way they were beat today, but lets leave that aside for the moment.

The NFL black outs, i.e. doesn’t show any game on TV within 75 miles of the stadium, any game that does not sell out 72 hours prior to kickoff.  I suppose this rule is designed to encourage people to go to the games, rather than sit at home and watch on TV.

But this is a BS rule for several reasons.

1.  A team that is doing poorly needs as much help marketing as possible.  They need more TV exposure, not less.  Blacking out games makes people forget about the teams, rather than potentially see a breakout player or improvements that could result in higher attendance in the future.  How can a team expect to improve attendance when it’s primary product, football games, are not even being shown to the areas that should support it the most?

2.  The economy is bad.  If people can’t afford to go to games, then they shouldn’t be punished for it.  The Oakland Coliseum holds 65,000 people – that’s a lot of seats to fill for a city whose unemployment rate is 17.5%.  It’s no surprise that Detroit’s game was blacked out also – the city currently has an unemployment rate higher than 20%.

3.  With the advent of HD, it’s waaaaay better to watch a football game on TV unless your seats are right on the 50 yard line.  In a 65,000 seat stadium, lets face it, a lot of seats are horrible.  Not to mention in Oakland, if you’re in the upper decks you’re likely to get into a fight or robbed before the 2nd half.

I think the main point here is that the NFL’s black out rules are archaic.  I think a better approach would be to cram more commercials into games that don’t sell out – that way at least the league and team benefit and fans still get to see the game.  But this vindictive approach of taking away TV coverage is lame, although I’d doubt that this changes anytime soon.

There was a ton of protestor-shot footage from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this week.  Many, like the video above, show police tear gassing and arresting protesters in the street.

And frankly, I have to side with the cops here.  They gave an order to disperse, which was perfectly within their rights.  Then, they arrested people who didn’t follow their orders.

Sure, most of the time people have the right to assemble on public property.  But sometimes you don’t, and in those cases if you try to assemble you will get tear gassed and arrested.

I mean really, how would you like to deal with these shithead kids all day?

Jennifer’s Body, which relied almost entirely on Megan Fox’s hotness for advertising, came in 5th this week, making a disappointing $6.9 million.  This is an interesting outcome, because Fox is by far the hottest actress now, in terms of both publicity and beauty.

But I think what Jennifer’s Body’s numbers show is that people won’t pay $10 a ticket to just see a hot girl on screen.  Sure, if she could act that would be one thing – but she can’t.  She had two Transformer movies to prove that.

I blame the internet.  Why pay $10 to see a movie with implied nudity, when you can find some pretty good Fox content on the web?

Either way, Megan Fox is way overrated IMO.  Sure, she’s hot.  But there are tons of non-crazy women without tattoo writing all over their bodies who are just as nude on film or on the net.

It’s been a looooong time since the last Woot! Off.  Check it out now.

The nearly-completed Burj Dubai tower is already the world’s tallest man-made structure.  It will top out at 2,684 feet, that’s slightly over half a mile tall.  The building will have 160 stories that are served by elevators travelling 59 feet per second.

The first picture below is of the Burj Dubai in February 2006.  The following pictures, via Gizmodo, show the building today as it nears completion.

So the second week of the NFL season brought some incredible performances.  Starting with the backs:

-Frank Gore busted two 80 yard runs for TDs against the Seahawks, totaling 207 yards rushing for the day.  That’s not too shabby for Gore owners, and it makes up for his 30 yard, 1.4 yard per average performance in week 1.

-Chris Johnson was the story of the day before Gore went off.  Johnson ran for 197 yards and 2 TDs, and added 87 yards receiving as well.  If you’re counting that’s 284 yards – more than most QBs passed for in week 2.

-Over the first two weeks of the 2009 NFL season, Willis McGahee has 4 TDs.  He wasn’t even drafted in many leagues, so this has to be one of the most surprising stats so far for RBs.

As for QBs:

-Philip Rivers and Kevin Kolb both had huge games in week 2, although both also ended in losses.  Rivers threw for 436 yards and 2 TDs, and Kolb, who is taking the place of an injured McNabb, tossed for 391 yards and 2 TDs.

-The most impressive performer so far this year is still Drew Brees.  He leads the league with 9 TDs and 669 yards, while his Saints have outscored opponents 93 to 49 on the way to their 2-0 record.

-Following Brees are a couple of surprises – Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan.  Both sophomores have 5 TDs so far, and both have led their teams to 2-0 records.

Other notes:

-Tom Brady looked, well, mediocre this week against the Jets D.  He was held without a TD for the first time since 2007 when he played…wait for it…the Jets.  However, in 2007 the Pats ended up with a win.  Yesterday, Brady didn’t have enough time to do much at all.  He completed less than half of his passes for 216 yards and an INT.

-Brett Favre isn’t the gunslinger he was in previous years.  He has thrown for only 110 and 155 yards in his first two games.  But still, Favre has led the Vikings to two wins after slow starts in each game.  He also has yet to throw an interception – a sign that we’re seeing a new Favre here.

-The Bears came back from a frustrating loss last week to beat the world champion Steelers 17 to 14.  Cutler redeemed himself, throwing for 2 TDs and no INTs.  You do have to worry a bit about RB Matt Forte though.  Through two games, Forte has rushed for only 84 yards, average 2.2 yards per carry.  That’s horrific for a top 5 back, although he will have an easier schedule coming up in the next few weeks.

-The Green Bay Packers, who are among the top 5 teams favored to win the Super Bowl in 2010, lost to the Bengals in a shootout.  Keep in mind, this was a Bengals team that was held scoreless for nearly the entire game in week 1 by the defensively challenged Broncos.

-Speaking of the Broncos, they have actually done very well so far, holding opponents to only 13 points on their way to a 2-0 record.  It’s odd, because no one expected the Broncos’ defense to perform well this year, but they’ve only allowed one TD so far this year.

-Finally today, the Colts pulled out a win over the Dolphins.  The most spectacular part of this win was that the Colts had possession for less than 15 minutes of the game – they’re the first team ever to pull out a win with so little time on offense.  And this wasn’t a low scoring game either, the Colts topped the Dolphins 27-23 in a great MNF game.

On Wednesday, Microsoft released their highly anticipated Zune HD media player.  Unlike the two previous Zune generations, the Zune HD is actually something special.  The device has a capacitive touch screen, smooth UI and HD radio.  But most importantly, it looks incredible.

I went to Frys and Walmart today to check out the Zune HDs, and to possibly pick one up.  Frys had a model on display, although strangely there wasn’t very much media pre-loaded onto the player.

First thoughts, the Zune HD is incredibly thin – pictures don’t do it justice.  The screen also looks great – text and images are crisp, and colors pop.  However, the OLED screen will probably not perform as well outside in the sun – but I didn’t have a chance to check this out.  There is no plasticy feeling on the Zune HD either – the whole device feels solid.

I also love the aluminum exterior.  Practically, the aluminum makes the Zune HD more durable.  But it also looks great, and feels great in your hand.

Sadly, both 16GB and 32GB versions of the Zune HD were sold out at Frys.  A visit to Walmart netted the same result – no Zune HDs left.  Apparently this is the case across the country…Zune HDs are now sold out nationwide, including online retailers.

Actually, this isn’t surprising.  The Zune HD got rave reviews – 4.5/5 stars on PC Mag, 4/5 stars on CNet, and lots of praise on Engadget.  But it is kinda incredible that a Microsoft media player could generate so much hype.

The true test will be in a month when the holiday season hits.  The Zune HD will be going up against the revamped iPod Touch and iPod Nano.  I have to say though, Apple must be getting a little worried about the Zune HD’s popularity.  Sure, the iPod is still the market leader by far, but there has been little innovation on the iPod line over the last few years.  It’ll be interesting to see how Apple deals with what looks like its first legitimate contender.

Really, I never gave Miley Cyrus’ music a second thought until I heard Stern admit how much he liked her song ‘Climb.’  Now, Climb isn’t really my thing, but I am starting to really like ‘Party in the USA.’  It just has a really catchy hook, and I particularly like the ‘nodding my head like, yeah’ part.  Plus, she’s hot and young.

Yes, it’s officially football season again.  I especially love the first week where your fantasy team seems poised for a great year.  I’ll probably be less enthusiastic in week 9 when I’m out of the playoffs.  In any case, here are a few notes from week 1:

-Tom Brady engineered an amazing comeback with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter.  After playing a pretty mediocre game, Brady led the Pats to two TDs in 2:06 for a huge comeback win over the Bills.  Most notable, I think, was Brady’s composure in his final two drives.  He went 12-14 in those two drives, capped with nearly perfect TD passes to TE Watson.  Brady took a few quarters to shake off the rust, but he’s clearly back.

-TO only caught 2 passes for the Bills, although one was a key reception during the Bills’ failed last second comeback attempt.  The leading receiver for the Bills was RB Fred Jackson – not a good sign for the team.

-Drew Brees also went nuts on Sunday, with SIX TDs against the Lions.  Sure, it was the Lions, but it doesn’t matter in fantasy.  Brees stole the weekend for his owners in week 1.

-The rushing leaders list was topped by Adrian Peterson in week one – no surprise there.  But the next four guys on the list?  Mike Bell, Julius Jones, Ray Rice and Thomas Jones are surprises.  In particular, Mike Bell probably wasn’t owned in most leagues, but he filled in for an injured Thomas and unlike Reggie Bush, actually moved the ball.

-Two QB disasters in week one:  Jake Delhomme and Jay Cutler.  Delhomme, who threw 5 INTs in the Panthers’ playoff lost to the Cards last year, started the year with 4 INTs and a fumble.  After 9 years in the league, it looks like Delhomme may be on his way out.

-Cutler also blew it for the Bears, although at least the game was close.  Most notable was Cutler’s interception on the Green Bay 8 yard line.  The Bears only lost by 6, so a TD there would have been huge.  To his credit, Cutler’s receivers weren’t a huge help either, and several dropped balls forced the Bears to punt.

-The return of Brett Favre got off to a decent start, with the Vikings taking care of the Browns, 34-20.  Favre really didn’t do much in the game, with 110 yards and a TD.  But at the same time, he didn’t have any INTs, and he seemed to opt for short screen passes than risky deep balls.  Sure, it’s not the Favre of old, but it does bring a maturity to the Vikings QB spot that would not exist with Tarvaris Jackson.

-On the rookie front, Mark Sanchez performed well, throwing for 272 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.  More importantly, he led the Jets to a 24-7 win over the Texans, who were favored by 4.5 points.  Matt Stafford didn’t have as good of a day, throwing for 3 INTs.  He did have a rushing TD, but the Lions were clearly going to lose that game from the get-go.

-The 49ers had a huge win against the Cards on Sunday.  Warner was pretty ineffective, throwing for 2 INTs and just 1 TD.  Surprisingly, the biggest receiver for the Cards was RB Tim Hightower, who caught 12 passes for 121 yards.  Neither of the Cards’ top two receivers, Fitzgerald and Boldin broke 100 yards.  In fact, Boldin finished the day with only 19 yards receiving.

-The Raiders actually looked good as well.  They played the Chargers close, engineering a last minute comeback, only to have the Chargers win the game with 18 seconds left.  But the Raiders defense contained the Chargers’ passing attack, and only allowed 80 yards on the ground.  The big news here is that LT injured his ankle, giving backup RB Sproles the chance to score the game-winning TD.  LT is questionable for next week.

I don’t really buy the whole Kanye West interrupting MTV award shows thing.  I mean, nowadays an outburst by West is almost expected.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if MTV put West right next to the stage in the hope that he would do…well…exactly what he did.  I mean, without that incident the MTV VMAs wouldn’t have gotten any airtime.  Now that I think of it, I can’t think of an MTV awards show that got press for anything except a Kanye outburst or perhaps the Bruno/Eminem stunt a few weeks ago.

Really, if MTV wanted to create a professional, serious award show, they wouldn’t let Kanye near the stage.  Not only that, they’d have security to prevent incidents like this.  As it was, Kanye was in the front row and had unobstructed access to the stage.  He wasn’t even ushered out while he was speaking.

And lets face it, Kanye may really be an inconsiderate, arrogant jerk…or he may just be very media savvy.  Kanye knows how much these incidents improve his radio play and sales.  He knows he can’t survive just being another black hip hop guy in the crowd.

Decide for yourself, the video is below.

Today’s matchup between the Broncos and Bengals was surprisingly boring for most of the day.  The Broncos managed only two field goals after three quarters, while the Bengals didn’t score at all.  And look, these are two teams that aren’t at all known for their defense.

It appeared that the Bengals had won the game when they scored their first TD of the year with 38 seconds left in the game, taking a 7-6 lead.  This left the Broncos stuck on their on 13 yard line, with 77 yards to go in about 30 seconds.

Kyle Orton’s first pass fell incomplete, and on the second down he threw into heavy coverage.  But incredibly, the ball was tipped by the defense…right into the hands of Brandon Stokley.  With most of the defense attacking the pass’ intended receiver, Stokley was left wide open for the game winning TD.

You also gotta love how Stokley runs parallel to the end zone to kill a few more seconds off the clock.  You always do that in Madden, and it’s kinda funny to see a player do that in an actual game…smart move.

The dramatic win for the Broncos overshadowed a pretty ineffective offensive effort for the team.  Orton only converted a few third downs, and he was sacked three times.  Neither team looked very good today, and the Broncos should feel very lucky that they escaped with the win.

I don’t watch a lot of tennis, but this is surely the oddest end to a game I’ve ever seen.  On the second to last point, Serena Williams got called for a foot fault.  The call was questionable, but Williams’ reaction was kinda insane.

Williams blows up at the linesperson a few times, yelling and waving her racket in a threatening manner.  Apparently the exact quote from Williams was, “I would take this fucking ball and shove it down your fucking throat.”

Adding to this comedy is the linesperson, who is a tiny asian woman.  After Williams yells at her, the linesperson runs to the head referee to report Williams’ abuse.  Then, this happens a second time – the linesperson again taking a verbal beating from Williams, then quickly scampering back to the head ref to report.

After her two initial blowups at the linesperson, there is a conference at center court between the head ref, the linesperson, and what appear to be event representatives.  At one point Williams asks the linesperson, “are you scared because I said I would hit you?  I’m sorry but there are a lot of people who have said way worse.”  Then there is a discussion between Williams and the linesperson about whether Williams threatened to kill the linesperson.

I guess you can’t yell at refs in tennis, so Williams’ abuse cost her a point.  But since she had lost the previous point due to the foot fault, the match was over – Serena lost.

There weren’t any good replays of the actual foot fault itself, but it appears that Williams was at least very close to touching the baseline, if not on the line itself.  Sure, this was a huge call that forced a match point, but still, a call’s a call.

Serena was really out of control here, in my opinion, showing an incredible lack of class and respect for the official.  I guess that she was frustrated and having a bad day, but you figure at this point Serena Williams, one of the top players in tennis, would be able to control herself a bit.

After the match, Williams held this press conference.  She showed little remorse, and didn’t even apologize for her blowup.  Her only excuse was that in this particular tournament she has been called frequently for foot faulting – which doesn’t really make sense to me – if anything she shouldn’t have been surprised that she foot faulted.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the 2010 NFL season.  Who else can’t wait?

Thursday’s season opener was an overtime thriller, with Hines Ward coughing up a potentially game winning reception with a minute left on the clock.

Tomorrow, we have a few interesting matchups, like Favre and the Vikings at Cleveland, the 49ers at the Cards, and on Monday the Chargers at the Raiders.

So, who’s favored for the Super Bowl this year?

The Pats are the favorites so far, with 4/1 odds.  The Steelers follow with 15/2 odds, trailed by the Giants with 9/1 odds.  Indy, Dallas and Philly come next, both with 11/1 odds.

Who’s the longest shot?

Detroit is last, with 100/1 odds…and lets be honest, they’re not worth that.  St. Louis has 80/1 odds, followed by Oakland and Cincy with 75/1 odds.  Those are the longest shots out there by far.  The rest of the league is in the 15/1 to 40/1 odds area.

Who may surprise this year?  I think Tennessee is heavily underrated at 16/1 odds.  Chicago, with their new, Cutler-powered offense seems like a good deal at 15/1 odds.

Get your rosters set for tomorrow for the kickoff of the 2010 NFL, and Lawyer Bowl season.