Gadgets

The Gadget Lab crew kicks off this week’s podcast with a look at Dylan Tweney’s ugly new kicks, a pair of surf shoes made of recycled soda bottles. They cost $70. Seriously.                     Moving on from cheesy hippy apparel, Brian X. Chen shares the news of an upcoming Apple press conference , where we can expect new iPods, a major iTunes upgrade (streaming!) and maybe a do-over of the Apple TV. Apple’s competitors haven’t been so quiet, either. A “leaked” video emerged this week demonstrating Samsung’s Galaxy Tab , a 7-inch, Android-powered touchscreen tablet that looks to be a worthy rival to Apple’s iPad. Speaking of the iPad — Tweney shares a hack for his iPad to gain 3G service at no additional cost with the help of his iPhone. If you jailbreak your iPhone at the site JailbreakMe.com , you can download an app called MyWi to turn the iPhone into a wireless hot spot. Select the hot spot on your iPad et voila — 3G-surfing privileges on the tablet without any monthly bills. That’s sweet. Still, it’s too bad 3G coverage in general is spotty at best (especially here in San Francisco). Dissatisfied customers are in luck: We’ve heard Sprint may give you a free femtocell to boost your service if it’s proving unreliable. Also, an unhappy AT&T customer on Wired.com staff complained loudly enough to score a free femtocell to fix the crappy reception on his iPhone. Who said whining doesn’t pay off? Like the show? You can also get the  Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes , or if you don’t want to be distracted by our smiling faces, check out the  Gadget Lab audio podcast . Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab  video or  audio podcast feeds Or listen to the audio here: Gadget Lab audio podcast #86 http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0086.mp3

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Gadget Lab Podcast: iPods, Tablets, and Wireless Remedies