Nice and comprehensive review by Vlad Savov. The hardware and software of the N9 both sound great — not mind-blowing, but certainly head-turning. Too bad MeeGo is a dead end. But on the other side, from the looks of it, Nokia may end up having the nicest Windows Phone 7 phone out there.

Siri, iPhone 4S battery life, fanny packs, sushi, 4.65-inch touch screen phones, cameras that let you focus later, monkey hats, and more.

Stephen Hackett rebooted his Apple-centric weblog a while back he’s been cooking with gas ever since. Stephens’s a talented and intelligent writer — he’s cheeky and sarcastic, yet also friendly and polite. And I especially like what a clever headline editor he is. So, yeah, 512 Pixels is a great site. Highly recommended.

When asked about the potential competition his search engine startup may face, M.C. Hammer replied, saying: “They can’t touch this — WireDoo is too legit.”

The first public update since Black Pixel acquired NNW earlier this year.

James Allworth:

In true Apple fashion, there is little that is technologically novel. The original iPhone was much the same — the touch interface; pocketable computers that could do email, web and music — these all existed when the original iPhone was released. Same with the Mac — it wasn’t the first mouse or graphical interface to be introduced. They all existed before. What made these devices successful was the way in which they were put together so centrally around the user.

It’s going to be the same with Siri.

I have never used the Downloads folder. Like Brand, I prefer downloads to show up on my Mac’s Desktop (though I simply changed Safari’s default folder for downloads to save to). I prefer the Desktop for downloads mostly because I don’t always know the name of the file I’ve downloaded. I do however know what type of file I downloaded and literally where on the Desktop it gets placed after download. In short, it’s just plain easier for me to work with downloads when they go to the Desktop.

And to keep my Desktop clean, I have a rule in Hazel that moves all files on the Desktop which have been untouched in the past 24 hours into a Dropbox folder named “Desktop Cleanup”.

A great update to the calendar app I use the most. Fantastical now allows editing and deleting events, as well as iCloud support. Who knew such a fancy and robust calendar application could exist behind such a tiny icon in the Menu Bar?

And if you use this link to snag yourself a copy from the Mac App Store, I’ll get a small kickback.

My thanks to CardFlick for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

CardFlick is a free iPhone app and Web app that you use to create and share digital business cards.

To get started, you can download the free iPhone app and create an account. Your account means you get your own CardFlick URL, and it’s what the service uses to keep your contact info up to date.

Once you’ve signed up for a CardFlick account you can then create your own business card within the app. There are 15 different designs and honestly I think they are pretty classy and unique. Though I have an affinity for more minimal business card designs, I went with the “Stripes” theme. Something about the colors I guess.

After you’ve decided on the design you like, you go to the app’s settings and edit your personal information. From there you can take or add a picture of yourself, and fill in any other information you want your business card to have. Such as your job title, company, email, phone number, web address, and even a personal tag line. Save that and your CardFlick card updates with all of your info. Moreover, this info is updated on your CardFlick URL, so you can publicize that if you want.

CardFlick’s primary intent is for the sharing of contact info. The way it works is that when you and someone you meet both have the app, you launch it while you’re in the same area (CardFlick uses location data to determine when other users are close by), and you just flick your card to the other people’s app. It doesn’t have to be one person at a time either, you can flick your card to multiple other devices.

Whenever you update your contact info within CardFlick then your info is also updated to everyone else who has your CardFlick card.

When I was at WWDC this summer, everyone had business cards with them (including me). I passed out and received quite a few cards, but when I got home after the trip not too many of them made it into digital format. (Sorry WWDC pals — it’s not you, it’s me.) An app like CardFlick could be useful at WWDC because: (a) everyone had an iPhone; (b) the contact info is put into digital format for me; and © if/when someone I met at WWDC were to change their email, company, or website then that info is updated for me automatically within CardFlick.

Today’s OTA update to the TouchPad adds better support for pairing non-webOS Bluetooth keyboards, and it lets you pair non-webOS phones to the TouchPad so you can answer calls on the tablet.

When I tested and reviewed the TouchPad back in July, I could not get my Apple Bluetooth keyboard to pair with it. And James Kendrick confirms that today’s update works with his iPhone.