Apple and BMW partner to deliver a better in-car iPod experience. You store your iPod in the glove compartment and control playback using controls on the steering wheel. Seems like kind of a bummer that you have to create special playlists and that song information isn't displayed on the dash - not to mention having to purchase a BMW. Apparently Alpine will soon be releasing a new iPod-compatible receiver that will enable much better integration and should work with most any car make/model. The Alpine receiver displays song information and can be used to control playback, and it sounds like you won't have to create special playlists. Can't wait for the day when there's a standard hardware/software interface that makes it seamless to plug your portable music player of choice (be it a dedicated device like an iPod or a multi-purpose device like a mobile phone, handheld, or something else that hasn't been dreamed up yet) into your car.

Got a Gmail account today... without even asking or begging. I know someone who works with someone at Google. I told the person I know about Gmail a few weeks back, she asked her Google colleague for an account and got one, and today the person I know sent me an invite. Of course, logging in to write this note I see that as a Blogger user I could have requested my own account. Whatever.

What would happen if Dell bought palmOne?

PT is now writing a weekly how-to column for Engadget... and here are the first fruits of his labor... Read RSS feeds on your iPod.

infoSync World : Datacomm Report: Feature phones to dominate

Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com has quietly released a beta of their new A9 search engine powered by Google, which includes Search Inside the Book results and a personal search history that tracks results you've previously viewed and is accessible from any PC. Oh, and of course there's an A9 browser toolbar. Another cool, but not necessarily useful, feature of the A9 search engine is the Site Info feature that enables you to view traffic stats and user reviews for any site that shows up as a search result - this treats the site just like any other product on Amazon.com. This feature appears to be powered by the Alexa traffic analysis service, which is designed to translate Web users' browsing habits into a community resource or some other such nonsense. Alexa is an early dot-com that I thought had long ago gone out of business but is apparently now owned by Amazon.com. Surprise, surprise... Alexa has its own browser toolbar.

Such a simple idea (and apparently widely used)... Web service for shortening long URLs.

pPod helps Pocket PCs masquerade as iPods. Update: Apple legal department steps in; utility name changed to Pocket Bop (pBop for short). Update: Application no longer available. Boo hiss, Apple!

Onfolio introduces a $30 Internet Explorer plug-in that purportedly makes it easier to collect, organize, and share snippets of information while researching on the Web.

EA and 3DO founder Trip Hawkins back in the game with new company Digital Chocolate developing games for mobile phones.