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Here's a close look into the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, a heavily-armored, modified Ford F-450 that was used in the famous Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers. With its plates, small windows and top turret, it looks like a cross between a B-17 Flying Fortress, a Panzer tank, and a Mad Max truck. The new version of the Interceptor, however, looks out of a Batman movie:

Created by cinematographer Sean Casey, the Tornado Interceptors are used to film impressive images of supercells like this:

Armor or not armor, I wouldn't like to be in that car when something like that hits me. [Ryan Mcginnis at Flickr]

Some guys over at Metacafe have posted this video of possibly the best USB gizmo ever. It's a DIY desktop USB popcorn maker. Sounds good doesn't it? It uses a minimum of parts, and "high intensity heater lights" driven only by the power from your PC. I was skeptical at first, but the electronics kind of make sense, and the video is amazingly convincing. If you're a bored cubicle-monkey and fancy trying it out for yourself, the video shows you how... and you could then cheer up those work days with a snack of DIY popcorn. [Metacafe via Crunchgear]

We mentioned it back in February, and Samsung has now come good with its promise, announcing today that it's started mass-production of 128GB SSDs. They're of the slightly slower but cheaper multi-level cell technology, with a read speed of 90Mbps and write speed of 70Mbps. And Samsung claims they'll have a life span around "20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive." It'll be interesting to see what this move does to the price of SSDs, particularly now that we like them again. Press release below.

Seoul, Korea – July 9, 2008: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with a 128 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity. Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSD also began this month.

“With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Samsung SSDs feature far greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is exceptionally low in standby mode at approximately 0.2 watts and in active mode at 0.5 watts.

The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s - performance levels that approach those of single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production. Moreover, the new 128GB SSD will last approximately 20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive.

Featuring a 3.0 gigabit-per-second interface, the 128GB MLC-based SSD consists of 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 gigabits each, optimized single-chip controller technology and advanced flash-management firmware technology. Enclosed in a brushed metallic casing, it measures 100mm x 69.8mm and is only 9.5mm thick.

Samsung is aggressively expanding its SSD market offerings. It introduced a 64GB SSD in the second half of 2007, and plans to begin producing a 256GB at the end of this year. Samsung’s mass production of 128GB SSDs helps it to maintain its position as the leading producer of SSDs in the world, with capacities ranging from 32GB to the highest available today.

Samsung expects sales of SSD units to increase 800 percent between now and 2010, keeping SSDs on pace to be the largest growth segment in the NAND flash market over the next few years.

I play golf, but I hate the outdoors, so I'm going to move to the Netherlands, because they're on track to open this rad, giant, indoor golf course that I can play year round. Non-golfers won't understand what that means, but those of us in Seattle have a fairly short period that we actually get to go out and play, thus it's a crowded affair, making it very expensive. This magic land will have 34 indoor driving range berths, measure over 15,000 square feet, and feature weather-protected sand traps and water hazards. I'm hoping George Jetson attends the opening, because his handicap sucks. [Tuvie, via TechFresh]

There's something satisfying about having multiple monitors on your machines to keep things organized that you can't really describe. Samsung knows this but also knows that sometimes a full second monitor is overkill, thus the SyncMaster 2263. We've seen it before, but Wired has the first review we've seen up, and it's a a fairly neutral one. Highlights include the attractive finish and innovative design. The downsides include average performance and a high price. We do agree with reviewer, though, that it's a neat idea and somebody's going to figure out how to execute it well, and they'll probably make quite a bit of money. [Wired]

Blu-ray set-top players are expected to be hot sellers this upcoming holiday season, but you might want to hold off until early next year when Pioneer and Sharp team up to bring Blu-ray recorders to living rooms in America. The partnership is hardly surprising—Sharp is part owner of Pioneer—and the recorders will launch in Japan this year and be shipped overseas next, with Europe and America likely being the first markets to get them. No word if they'll use those awesome new ultra-high-capacity disks we mentioned earlier, but not likely for this consumer-focused line. [Reuters]

The first iPhone 3G reviews have just hit, from Walt Mossberg of the WSJ and All Things D, Ed Baig from USA Today and David Pogue from the NYTimes. No one goes deep into the app store but here's what they think:

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing it "for a couple of weeks" and sees that surfing on the faster 3G is between three and five times the speed of the original iPhone. However, Moss found that browsing on the 3G network drained his battery much faster than browsing on the original. Externally, he says the speaker was "much louder" (YES!) for both music and speakerphone, but otherwise pretty much the same as the original. One bug/feature he ran into was that you can only sync your calendar and contacts with either Exchange or your personal accounts, not both.

In Mossberg's own battery tests, he got 4 hours and 27 minutes (short of 5 hours) of talk time, which is three hours less than his test on the original iPhone. Using 3G, he got 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is slightly better than Apple's own claim. He couldn't test any apps on his iPhone 3G, but did on his old iPhone—they worked pretty much as advertised. He concludes with pretty much what we've all known: it's slightly more expensive on AT&T due to the higher price plan, but satisfies people who really need that 3G speed. What's weird is that Mossberg didn't test the GPS functionality at all, so we're left wondering how that is. [All Things D]

Ed Baig of USA Today also tested the iPhone 3G and claims both that it was worth the wait, but still not perfect. His complaints of the first one—no video capture, no Bluetooth stereo and no voice dialing—are still there. Also, AT&T's 3G coverage was nonexistent in his New Jersey home, which kinda negates the whole "iPhone 3G" thing. He notes that the new plastic backing helps reception, and the new flush headphone jack is "a welcome development." Unlike Mossberg, Baig does have something to note on the gps. He says he was quite impressed by its accuracy when searching for pizza places while driving, and hopes that there will be a third-party add-on for turn-by-turn live directions.

Baig also says that the speaker is improved, but notes strangely that you can't directly charge the new iPhone 3G in some old accessories, such as a Bose SoundDock or a Belkin car kit. There's actually an adapter coming that will enable charging on those. Weird. He finishes up with his wishes for the next generation: Flash, Java and WMV support, removable battery and an expandable memory slot. All in all, a pretty positive review. [USA Today]

David Pogue of the NYT says that the audio quality is much improved, and notes that both incoming and outgoing sound is better than before. "In fact, few cellphones sound this good." The curved back makes the phone feel better in your hand, which is a definite plus. However, he says, the missing "standard cellphone features" from the first generation are also missing from this one. He hopes that the third-party Apps from the iPhone App Store will help fill in the gaps, but some of the ones we've seen—finding parking spots, free phone calls at Wi-Fi hotspots, random restaurant recommender, expense tracker, Etch-a-Sketch and tip calculator—don't exactly make up for the missing MMS, video recording and cut and paste features.

Pogue doesn't have much else in the way of benchmarks or impressions, but comes off seeming like he really likes the phone because of the iPhone 2.0 software; something old iPhone owners will be able to get for free. [NYT]

Notes: We have to say that Mossberg's review was the best in terms of completeness (save for the GPS omission). Normally, Newsweek would have a review up for the iPhone along with these three guys, but both they and Wired don't have an early review. This, we think, is because Steven Levy (the old Newsweek guy) at Wired, and Fake Steve Jobs (who hasn't quite started at Newsweek) didn't get the nod from Apple. We had our own hands on with the phone back at WWDC, which covers a lot of the exterior hardware elements as well as some of the software details.

Packard Bell—previously referred to as Packard Hell and Packard Smell—is diving head-first into the gaming PC market with the ipower X2.0, a gaming rig that features full customization at a decent price. It's aimed squarely at offerings from Acer and Ares. The Intel-based machines give customers their choice of ATI or nVidia graphics, disk drives, audio options, TV tuners and other add-ons. In addition, the PC features advanced cooling, including a silent water cooling system. The boxes are expected for this holiday season at about $2000, and we're hoping they're nothing like the PBs of the past. [Trusted Reviews]

Inadvertently posted to the Nokia site, the 8208 not only looks similar to the n96, the first non N-Series phone to feature a two-way slider. Part of Nokia's music phone push, the phone features the 0-9 keys below the screen, and music player controls above the screen. In addition, the CDMA phone has a 3 Megapixel camera and EVDO Rev.A. No word on release date or price. [Electronista]

Windows Media Center still isn't what Microsoft wants it to be, but it has its fans, and its getting an update this month that they've been waiting for. Word is coming down, though, that this update isn't the one the users are lusting after, the one with H.264 and DirectTV tuner support. Instead it's a minor upgrade that adds things like international support. But fret not, users, as now it seems like there's another rumor flying around about another update later in the year which will add many requested features. Patience, my fellow home theater nerds, we'll get our updates. [EngadgetHD]