Well, after about 3 1/2 hours, it looks like our new upgrade is up. What you’ll notice most is going to be a new consistency of fonts across pages. There’s more to come, and a lot of tweaks, but we think the new system is now working.

Since it’s about 3:30am here in Central Florida, it’s time to go watch some TV, wind down, and get some sleep. If you notice anything weird (weirder than usual, please!), let us know.

OK, folks. We’re about to install a major upgrade we’ve been working on over the past few months. We’re going to do so from midnight tonight, until it’s working. Hopefully, you won’t see much different (the upgrade’s mostly behind the scenes) although once it’s running, it’ll enable us to do a lot we’ve been unable to do without it.

This is a big upgrade and the site may look crapply for a few hours. If it continues through to the morning, we’ll post another update, but we’re honestly hoping everything will be back to pretty much normal by about 2am.

Thanks for your patience and send cookies.

Resco, a supplier of advanced developer components and tools for mobile devices, announced Resco CustomKeyboard for .NET CF, a brand new control allowing developers to design and create their own keyboard layouts and ship them together with their applications.

Until now, developers were unable to design custom keyboard layouts and choose which keyboard layout to display based on the needs of their application. Using the Resco CustomKeyboard for .NET CF developers will be able to use Visual Studio Designer to design custom layouts. The layout can be defined by a collection of keys with simple graphical representation, or by a skin which allows to use advanced graphic capabilities. Moreover, developers can define multiple layouts for the CustomKeyboard control, and the layout to display can be selected at run-time based on active input field. Limiting the user to a particular input makes the application easy to use and prevents input errors.

Students heading back to school this year have more technology needs than ever. SanDisk is ready to help with exciting new tools that make the return to class more rewarding and fun. Among the many choices from SanDisk are: SanDisk Cruzer Pattern USB flash drive, SanDisk Mobile Ultra cards, SanDisk Sansa Fuze MP3 player, and SanDisk Ultra II cards.

T-Mobile will begin offering the BlackBerry Curve 8320 in a bright new color–sunset. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 in Sunset is enabled for Unlimited HotSpot Calling from T-Mobile (previously called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home) offering great mobile coverage and unlimited calling over any accessible Wi-Fi network and at all T-Mobile HotSpot locations across the country. When leaving home or a T-Mobile HotSpot, calls are seamlessly transferred onto T-Mobile’s wireless network, and the same is true for transferring calls from T-Mobile’s network onto Wi-Fi.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 in Sunset includes a 2 megapixel camera, music and video multimedia player, a microSD expandable memory slot that supports up to 4GB of memory and stereo Bluetooth as well as HTML Web browsing at Wi-Fi speeds, personal and corporate email and built-in spell check.

Continuing its efforts to give families the freedom to stay connected on their terms, T-Mobile announced the upcoming availability of Family Allowances. This new feature, to be launched in August, allows parents to easily manage when and how their family members use their T-Mobile phones and service.

With Family Allowances, parents can give their teens an upfront monthly wireless allowance that works on all the phones T-Mobile offers–virtually eliminating the worry of surprise overages. The feature lets parents set and change limits for minutes, messages and downloads using a simple online tool. Once the allowance is reached, the feature shuts off service for that specific element and parents receive a notification. Parents can stay in contact with their family members by setting up “Always Allowed” numbers that will continue to connect, even after allowances have been spent. Any unlimited calling features that are included in a family’s plan, such as myFaves and T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile, can also still be used, which preserves the value of the calling plan. Additional controls are available so parents can choose to set allowances on unlimited calling features, if desired.

A picture from high school graduation, a favorite sports team logo, or a vibrant splash of the hottest fall color–whatever you want to express, you can design it on the new T-Mobile Sidekick. T-Mobile has added the latest edition to the Sidekick family providing customers with the opportunity to create shells for their Sidekick with the images, colors or designs they choose.

The new Sidekick will ship with two shells: black and metallic green. A variety of pre-designed shell patterns and colors also are readily available for customers to purchase at T-Mobile retail stores or online. Of course, for true individualization, customers can design a completely unique shell unlike any other using a dedicated online Sidekick site via SkinIt at sidekickshells.com. Doing so is as simple as uploading a personal photo or graphic design, or selecting your own text, shapes, icons or logos. The final design is custom-printed onto the shell, then shipped. Once the design is complete, customers can share their work of art in a public gallery that will be hosted on sidekick.com.

Nintendo, one of the top three videogame console and handheld device makers, apparently is preparing to invest some big money into developing holographic storage.

A patent for holographic storage was recently co-signed by the Japanese entertainment hardware and software company, which is a clear indication that the console manufacturer is investigating new methods of data storage for future projects.

Holographic storage is a sector of the solid-state disk market with interesting potential. But development appears to have come to a plateau, since only a couple of companies have been working on trying to bring it to market.

In the first major test of the FCC’s network neutrality principles, the agency found Comcast guilty Aug. 1 of secretly degrading network traffic. On a 3-2 vote, the FCC ordered Comcast to stop blocking traffic, disclose to the FCC the full extent of the cable giant’s traffic practices and to keep the public informed of its future network management plans.

The FCC said Comcast violated the agency’s Internet policy when it blocked P2P traffic by BitTorrent. The agency also found that Comcast misled consumers when it did not properly disclose its P2P policy.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has concocted a remarkable new policy: It reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time laptops taken across the border. A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely–as a matter of course–seize, make copies of, and “analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States.” DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating “copyright or trademark laws.”

This is a disturbing new policy, and should convince anyone taking a laptop across a border to use encryption to thwart DHS snoops. Encrypt your laptop, with full disk encryption if possible, and power it down before you go through customs. Here’s a guide to customs-proofing your laptop published in March.