Whether you're impressed by Sarah Palin's folksiness or disturbed by her evasiveness, there's a good chance you might want to ask her a question. Now is your chance. The California Democratic Party has rented a digital billboard across from an upcoming rally for the Veep candidate in Los Angeles. Anyone can send a text message to 69866 containing a question (160 characters or less) and the keyword "ASK." The question will be shown not only on the billboard, but also on the Internet, where it is streaming live in the above video.

Obviously, many of the questions seem to be somewhat less than pleased with the Governor's previous statements, but despite that we haven't seen anything that's overtly offensive, which makes us think there's someone somewhere approving these before they get published. That's a good thing. [From: textually.org]

A new Australian study has found that up to 50-percent of high school juniors and seniors are not sleeping enough. What's to blame this time? Their obsession with gadgets, of course.

For boys in that age range, video games are the main culprit. For girls, cell phones are the most prevalent cause of sleep deprivation. Though the topic of gadget over-use isn't a new one, the high percentage is a major concern.

Lack of sleep affects memory and academic performance, and we all know how crucial the last two years of high school are. Kids...Get some sleep. Parents...Keep the TV in the living room.

Now, if you don't mind, we have a text message about our favorite video game that needs to be sent out before we jump back online... [From: geeksugar]

Another day, another independent developer gets shafted on the iTunes App Store. Today's casualty? Developer Phunkware and its Tetris-inspired game, Shaker.

According to TUAW, the Tetris Company and Tetris Holdings LLC found the game to be too inspired by its titular cash cow, despite the somewhat intoxicating visual themes, inclusion of martini recipes, and unique "shaker" feature that rotated the blocks based on the iPhone's accelerometer orientation. We'll admit, the core gameplay is similar to Tetris, but honestly, the same could be said for any number of games and the classics they draw from.

In the current wave of App Store rejections and removals, it's sad to see another application go the way of the Dodo -– particularly one that has genuinely unique features to offer. And with so many apps being virtual clones of each other -– games or not -– the only real question left to ask is, "Who's next on the chopping block?" [From TUAW]

A storm's arrival typically isn't something to celebrate, but we're going to make a notable exception here seeing how the BlackBerry Storm is less of a destructive weather pattern and more of an incredibly hot smartphone -- arguably RIM's hottest to date. Fit to its business-savvy roots, the long-rumored handset comes equipped with the most comprehensive global roaming capabilities of virtually any wireless device you'll find anywhere, featuring EV-DO Rev. A, quadband EDGE, and 2100MHz HSPA for Europe.

Beyond that, the Storm becomes RIM's very first touchscreen phone, mounting a 3.26-inch 480 x 360 glass display on a unique clickable surface so that the entire thing can be pressed downwards -- just like a real button -- for tactile feedback when making selections.

The phone also includes a full HTML finger-navigable browser, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0, 1GB of on-board storage with an 8GB microSD card bundled in the box, 3.5mm headphone jack, automatic orientation and ambient lighting sensors, and a 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam with dedicated flash, making it a legitimate jack-of-all-trades that seems likely to be able to handle even the most chaotic personal and professional lives users can throw its way.

It'll allegedly do 15 days of standby or 5.5 hours of talk time on either GSM or CDMA networks.

No word on pricing yet -- we're told all will be revealed "in the coming weeks" -- but it'll launch on both Verizon and Vodafone in November.

We have only one word. Why? Why on Earth wouldn't anyone make an hour long ringtone? Why would anyone want to hold the Guinness book world record for the longest ringtone?

Japanese cell phone content provider Dwango has crafted a 61-minute, 40-second-long ringtone that it claims is the longest handset melody in the world. Dwango has some experience in the realm of absurd ringtones, having previously released one that was only audible to dogs (again we ask 'why?').

Thankfully, you won't hear the obnoxiously long tone on this side of the Pacific. Dwango's ringtone service is only available in Japan. [From: TechRadarUK, Via: Textually.org]

While there is an inherent security risk in storing personal information on your computer, intelligent cell phones pose an even greater threat; we've never lost a computer, but have misplaced more cell phones than we can count.

According to Jonathan Zdziarski's book 'iPhone Forensics,' a tech-minded thief can recover key strokes, GPS maps and even deleted files from an iPhone's memory, potentially making available everything from an private e-mails to credit card information. The book goes on to instruct the reader in the ways of iPhone-pillaging, which we don't think could possibly help the situation.

Not to single out Apple's model, as many phones are surely as liable to leak information, but we are adding the sixth reason not to buy an iPhone. [From: NewScientist.com]

Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.

The campaign of Barack Obama continues to show that it's the more tech-savvy of the U.S. presidential tickets. The Obama campaign has released a pair of new mobile tools for iPhone-carrying supporters. In addition to a specially iPhone designed version of its Web page, there is now an Obama iPhone application that has a number of features to help motivate and organize supporters and volunteers.

The iPhone application access your contacts and reorganizes them so that contacts in battleground states are listed at the top, instead of simply using alphabetical order. The application counts how many calls you make through the app and anonymously sends the tally (but no other data) back to the Obama campaign. The app shows how many calls you've made and how many calls the application has been used to make nationwide, motivating users by making them feel like they are part of a larger community.

The application also can access the iPhone's GPS to locate the nearest Obama campaign office and local events. It also comes with "issues" and "media" links, which delivers statements and videos of Obama's stance on issues.

The McCain campaign responded by asking, "What's an iPhone?" [From: CNET and USA Today]

It's a beautiful autumn day, and you're out in the wooded path beyond the railroad tracks just taking it all in and killing some time. Hey, what's that? Why, it's the cutest bunny rabbit you've ever seen! Time to pull out that 8-megapixel C905 and... oh, this sucks, you actually have to press a button to zoom in and out! Screw this noise -- you're a visionary photographer, not a manual laborer.

Happily, Sony Ericsson feels your pain, and a new patent application reveals that they're hard at work on a system to control your cameraphone's zoom level simply by moving it back and forth. Just get the phone closer to the subject, and boom, welcome to telephoto city, population one. We're still totally cool with the old-fashioned way of capturing Pulitzer-winning shots, but we're happy that someone's thinking of this type of stuff so we don't have to -- that'd be work. [Via Unwired View]

Nokia has produced a number of stereo headsets in the past, and while they were... fine, they didn't exactly wow us with any sort of innovation, particularly when it came to aesthetics. Perhaps that's why it's asking for a little help with the Music Almighty Headset Competition. Anyone is welcome to take one of the company's vanilla products, like the BH-604 or BH-903, and tart it up using either a simple Flash customizer or downloadable Maya, PDF, and PostScript templates.

You'll want the templates to really go crazy, like submitter Mase90 did for the hideous, supposedly Sex Pistols-inspired skull-and-chains-encrusted model above. Voting is open to anyone through the end of the year, with the top 10 being whittled down to 5 by a panel of experts. Winners will get to see their designs turned into reality -- though not actually put up for sale. [Via Nokia Conversations]

While it may not be Nokia's first touchscreen phone (anyone out there remember the 7710?), the 5800 XpressMusic is certainly the first to come out of Finland with a mainstream appeal. What we've alternately known as the "Tube" throughout much of its development cycle is the first production device to run S60 5th Edition -- the fourth major overhaul of Nokia's ubiquitous smartphone platform since 2002 and the first to support fingers, styli, and high-res displays. Speaking of high-res displays, the 5800 comes equipped with an impressive 3.2-inch 640 x 360 resistive touchscreen to go along with its 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam, Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm jack, and a microSD slot with support for 16GB cards.

It'll be available in three versions -- European HSDPA, North American HSDPA, and GSM only -- and ships this quarter in black, red, and blue for €279 (about $392) unlocked with an 8GB card thrown in for good measure. Music fans with voracious appetites for new tunes might want to hold out, though, for the Comes With Music-equipped version that follows on "early next year" at a to-be-announced price.

For additional coverage, check Engadget for a hands-on, video, and more.

We've just spent the past three days at CEATEC, the Japanese consumer electronics show, where some of the world's most innovative -- and sometimes outlandish -- prototype gadgets are unveiled. Cell phones are extremely popular in Japan, which is probably why the show floor was filled with plenty of newfangled mobile phone concepts. We rounded up some of our favorites, which we picked either because we'd never seen them before or because we hope they actually get made into working products some day. Take a look...

By now, you've surely heard of China's so-called Great Firewall, the country's continued efforts to restrict access to material that the government deems questionable. We've also covered how Skype is becoming a bit of a haven for those with questionable intents because of the difficulty of monitoring conversations there. China, however, has found a way to track at least some traffic, filtering and censoring text messages sent via Skype.

A service in China called Tom-Skype enables users to exchange text messages directly with Skype users from their phones. Privacy rights advocates at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto have discovered that eight Chinese servers intersect every message and process it against a list of censored words and topics, relating to things like the banned religious group Falun Gong and even references to the current controversy relating to tainted milk powder. Messages that match are often blocked and archived, along with the identity of the individual sending them.

Those servers were apparently not adequately protected, enabling the Citizen Lab members to access them and download millions of messages, as well as information about the senders. Scary? Yes, very much so, as it reveals more signs that Big Brother is most certainly watching in China. [From: The New York Times]

Remember that scene in 'The Dark Knight' where (spoiler alert!) Batman uses the city's cell-phones to look through walls and find the bad guys? Totally awesome, right!? A group of scientists at KDDI apparently thought so too, creating a prototype they say could do something similar. Using geomagnetic sensors, accelerometers, and GPS, the device is able to determine its position and render its surroundings on the screen in OpenGL, including areas that are currently out of sight. We're guessing you must have already scanned those areas with the phone and that it can't actually see through walls, but we'd be happy to be proven wrong -- whenever they actually have something to show us. Like the group's funky concept phones we brought to you earlier, this one doesn't actually work. Yet. [From: TechRadar UK]

Japan is drenched in arcades with female-only purikura (photo booth for you gaijin) corners in which aflutter girls take pictures, bless them with sparkly decorations, and print them to book cover friendly stickers for all to see, for better or worse, to the horror of their moms, to the delight of their potential boyfriends. Let's say Sharp was to take the purikura phenomenon and fuse it with to the teenage girl's number one obsession: the cell phone (keitai for our Japanese readers). That's exactly what it did with this concept phone and software, complete with a shared art space that can be collectively decorated over wireless networks. Scary? Perhaps. Cool enough to snap some video in awesome disbelief? Most definitely.

Don't miss the gallery at Engadget.