Well this is it: The last day of this week’s Tech Torture with Topher.

I spent a hellish week without my smartphone, but I’m about to get it back in my hands again. Not a moment too soon.

Here’s what I’ve learned this week: I am fully addicted to being connected at all times. I like the fact that between computers and my iPhone I can get online at almost any time of day and get information or have a conversation.

Thanks to everyone who commented and Twittered me about this. Part of the reason I do this monthly video blog series to get feedback and start conversations with you, our audience. But, to answer one disappointed commenter — no, I am not Topher Grace.

I’m looking for ideas for the next Tech Torture with Topher in August, so if you have any suggestions, drop them in the comments or head over to Twitter and message me there.

Thanks again! From me and Darth — see you next time.

Other post in this series:

Tech Torture with Topher: Bye-bye smartphone
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my smartphone back!!
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my Phone Back

Have you owned every version of the iPhone? Can you rattle off specs for the Palm Pre and the Kindle?

Well, gadgetheads, this post is for you.

A number of new gadget-related Web sites are popping up. Here are some I find interesting. But I’m not the biggest gear junkie, so please let me know what I’ve missed. I’ll check the comments and repost the best of the best.

GDGT: This new site, from the makers of Gizmodo and Engadget, takes a social approach to gadget reporting. It launched Wednesday, according to The New York Times, and lets users create profiles and share their thoughts on new computers, phones, etc. Seems like a good idea to me. The best techies are happy to share their expertise.

Hunch: The decision-making site from a Flickr founder is surprisingly good at helping users choose gadgets that will work for them. Perhaps not as up-to-date as the gadget blogs, but it beats them hands down in its simplicity. Users answer questions and Hunch’s computers — and user input — spit out logical answers. Check out the computers/Internet and electronics sections. (Hunch just told me with 80 percent confidence that I need a new iPhone … we’ll see.)

These aren’t necessarily new, but here are a few other gadgety sites worth your time:

BoingBoing: A slightly artsy and off-beat take on gadgetry

GeekSugar: Offers a light take on tech news and aims to appeal to women

ArsTechnica: This respected tech blog has a good gadget section that’s readable (even if you don’t speak PHP) but still techie

CNET’s Crave: The trusted geeks of CNET post gadget updates here (full disclosure: CNET is a CNN.com partner site)

Wired’s GadgetLab: From phones to bicycles, a fresh look at gadgets with a wide lens (Wired.com also is a CNN.com partner)

GadgetWise: The NYT’s answer to Gizmodo and Engadget; good for general audiences

Consumer Reports: The Web’s bread and butter for reviews has an electronics section

Hello all,

It’s Day 3 with no smartphone and, wow, this sucks.

I feel disconnected, and not part of the collective online world. I know — lame, right?

I keep having the feeling I am one or two steps behind in my work because of my lack of connectivity. I know this is crazy, because I added it up and between my home and office computers I’m very close to being as connected as I was when I had my iPhone. But it still feels like I am missing things.

I took my laptop to my meeting yesterday and found myself more distracted than if I had my smartphone. Because I had a full screen in front of me, I was peeking and reading in ways that I would have never done with just my iPhone in my pocket.

I got some great comments on yesterday’s post, including one from Josh that I talked about in this video that I think you all will like once you watch.

Thanks for watching and keep the comments coming! It’s the only way to keep this conversation going, and it always raises new and exciting discussions I never would have thought of.

Here’s a question I asked in the video: What is the one piece of technology you own that you could not live without?

Please take a minute and drop a response. And jump on over to Twitter to join in that conversation.

Other post in this series:

Tech Torture with Topher: Bye-bye smartphone
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my smartphone back!!
Tech Torture with Topher: My Phone’s Back and all’s Right With the World

Mozilla released its latest version of Firefox, the world’s second-most-popular Web browser, on Tuesday. Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in more than 70 languages, Firefox 3.5 is the browser’s first major upgrade since the launch of Firefox 3 in June 2008.

Firefox 3.5 claims to be more than twice as fast as Firefox 3 and has a host of new features,
including a private browsing mode, customized downloadable fonts, the ability to show video built into Web pages without plug-ins, and geolocation technology that lets Web sites know where you are.

Early reviews have been positive. Slate’s Farhad Manjoo tested a pre-release version and found it “hard to beat.” An excerpt:

Though I can’t call it the world’s fastest browser—Chrome and Safari are just as fast—the new Firefox is no longer a lumbering beast. It launches quickly, fires up complex sites like Gmail and Google Maps without any hiccups, and runs tons of open tabs without crashing (an ever-present possibility in earlier versions).

And ComputerWorld’s Preston Gralla says:

The just-released version 3.5 of Firefox is a winner, offering significantly faster Web browsing, better tab handling, a host of interface tweaks and, like just about every other browser on the planet, a “porn mode.” If you already use Firefox you’ll want to upgrade right away. If you’re not a Firefox user, this version represents a very good opportunity to give the browser a test run.

In his review, CNET’s Seth Rosenblatt is a little more cautious in his praise:

It is by no means the leap ahead that its predecessor Firefox 3 was, and it’s clear that the competition isn’t going away anytime soon.

How about you new Firefox 3.5 users out there? Anyone want to weigh in?

Tiny contributions from many people can amount to something cool in the aggregate.

That’s the idea behind many Internet success stories — Flickr, Wikipedia, etc. — and also seems to be the philosophy driving a new UK science project to monitor air pollution.

Scientists have given out small pollution sensors to 100 commuters, cyclists and pedestrians, the BBC reports. Those sensors will help scientists get a real-time picture of air quality.

Here’s what Neil Hoose, coordinator of the project, told the BBC:

Each sensor has a satellite positioning system, so we could have a bus create a map of the air pollution as it drives along its route. This data could be used to provide people with local information – perhaps advice for those with respiratory problems about their journey to work.

In a wider sense, it could also be used by traffic managers, helping them decide how to phase traffic lights in a way that might reduce traffic pollution.

It’s a new twist on the idea of “citizen science,” which I wrote about for CNN.com. As funding for scientific research gets tight, scientists are turning to everyday people for help in collecting basic data. The Internet has given the idea momentum, as it makes it easy for people with common hobbies and research interests to link up.

Also see this previous SciTech blog post with a list of citizen science projects — some of them submitted by readers.

CNN’s Doug Hyde has the lowdown on the latest video game releases, including “Harry Potter” and “Call of Juarez” in this week’s Gameplay:

Hey everyone!

So here we are in Day 2 of this week’s Tech Torture with Topher. This week, I’m giving up my iPhone to see how hard it is to live without constant Web and e-mail connectivity. After one day, I have one thing to say:

I WANT MY PHONE BACK!

OK, I feel better now.

Already this morning I had a real problem because I didn’t have my smartphone.

When I got to work I went straight to my first scheduled meeting instead of going to my desk. I sat in the conference room, alone, for about 10 minutes until a very nice person walked in and told me the meeting location had been moved. They had sent an e-mail while I was on my way to work in my car. Without my iPhone, I had no way of getting it. Oops.

My first post on this topic Monday has already attracted a lot of great comments. I want to quickly touch on some audience questions.

Yes, believe it or not, part of my job involves the use of Facebook, Twitter and AIM. I know, tough work if you can get it.

I’m also getting a lot of people saying that they refuse to get a smartphone for their job and how freeing that is to them. My response: If you have a job where your boss doesn’t make you have a smartphone so that you can be reachable at all times, I say, ROCK ON!! But I do not. I work in a 24/7 news industry, and my bosses need to communicate with me via e-mail all the time. Lucky me.

Keep the comments going and hop on over to Twitter if you want to join the conversation there.

Other post in this series:

Tech Torture with Topher: Bye-bye smartphone
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my smartphone back!!
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my Phone Back
Tech Torture with Topher: My Phone’s Back and all’s Right With the World

The Pirate Bay, a Swedish file-sharing Web site used by millions to exchange movies and music, is reportedly being sold to the Swedish company Global Gaming Factory X AB for nearly $8 million.

A blog posted on thepiratebay.org Tuesday morning says rumors of the sale are true:

We’ve been working on this project for many years. It’s time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody… The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets.

The Pirate Bay and its founders have been under legal attack from copyright owners for years. While the Web site does not host copyrighted content, it does host millions of torrent files which enable peer-to-peer file-trading. Many of these torrent files point to copyrighted material.

In April four of the Website’s co-founders were convicted of collaborating to violate copyright law and sentenced to one year in jail as well as ordered to pay $3.6 million in damages to several major media companies.

A press release from Global Gaming Factory suggests, following the sale, the Pirate Bay is done with piracy:

Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.

There are hundreds of competing Websites that offer copyright infringing torrents, but it appears the Pirate Bay, which once claimed a spot on the Web’s top 100, will no longer be among them. The site claims more than 3.5 million registered users.

The news made Pirate Bay one of the top trending topics on Twitter Tuesday morning, with many tweets mourning the sale. “The Pirate Bay walks the plank for new biz model,” said one Twitterer.

Will the sale of the Pirate Bay mean an end to free copyrighted material for all? And can Global Gaming Factory monetize a site that is based on piracy?

Welcome back everyone to a new Tech Torture with Topher.

First off, thanks to everyone who made the last TTWT such a hit. Because of you all, we get to do a new one this week. The torture topic? My smartphone.

Let me explain. Like many of you, I have a company-issued phone through which my bosses and co-workers often contact me. I have it with me all the time and believe I couldn’t do my job without it.

But is that really true? We’re about to find out. I’m giving up my CNN-issued iPhone for the week and will try to get by instead on an old phone with no Web, e-mail or even texting capability. How will this impact my day? Will I e-mail more or less? Will I spend more time at my desk?

What impact, if any, will it have on Twitter, Facebook and AIM — which I use not just for personal reasons but to keep in contact with other people who work in the same field?

I’m sure some of you will be wondering what the big deal is. You don’t have an iPhone or a BlackBerry and you get along just great in your day-to-day life. But in the past month I’ve heard from a lot of people who say they couldn’t do their job without their smartphones. So it’s not just me.

OK, here we go. I’ll post daily updates throughout the week. In the meantime, hop over on to Twitter or leave a comment below. And check back in tomorrow to see how I’m doing.

Other post in this series:

Tech Torture with Topher: Bye-bye smartphone
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my smartphone back!!
Tech Torture with Topher: I want my Phone Back
Tech Torture with Topher: My Phone’s Back and all’s Right With the World

Editor’s note: Topher Kohan is the search engine optimization (SEO) coordinator for CNN.com, a tech dork, a “Star Wars” aficionado and an all-around good guy. (No, really, he is — just ask him.)

As Steve Jobs returns to work at Apple, several other sci-tech developments also are making news today. Here’s a brief looks at these start-of-the-week stories:

Climate: The U.S. House on Friday passed a climate bill that would cap emissions of heat-trapping gases. Time has a story about what the bill could mean for climate change. Scientists have been asking for action to curb global warming for some time, and The Guardian reports on a new study that says the New Orleans coast will be under water by 2100 because of rising temperatures.

Jackson: Michael Jackson continues to make tech headlines following his death on Thursday. News of the King of Pop’s death was so popular it nearly took down some parts of the Internet, CNN reports. If you’re not completely sick of MJ videos yet, check out the site Billie Tweets, which pairs Twitter posts about “Billy Jean” with the music video. (Thanks to TechCrunch for linking to the site). It’s cool how technology leads to new means of expression.

iPhones: And finally, speaking once more of Apple, reports are surfacing that the new iPhone 3GS is suffering from overheating problems. PC World’s Melissa J. Perenson says she was playing a game on her phone and surfing its Web browser Friday for news about Michael Jackson when she noticed the device getting hot:

toasty doesn’t even describe how surprisingly hot it got. It was too hot to even put the phone against my face. No discoloration to report, though; I have the black handset, and didn’t see any effects.

Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel also discusses the issue in a blog post.

We’ll monitor this to see whether these are isolated incidents or the start of a bigger problem for Apple. As always, we’d like to hear from you, too. Have any iPhone 3GS owners out there noticed your new phone getting unusually hot?