Everyone thought that the April 1st announcement of the BlackBerry App Store was a joke. However, members of the CrackBerrry Nation were quickly rewarded with the launch of the BlackBerry App World earlier this morning. However, that’s not the end of the good news from the folks at Waterloo, Ontario.

Just after the BlackBerry App World launch, our cohorts at Futurelooks uncovered a story about a merger that will be heard around the wireless world. It appears that Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerrry, and Palm Inc, creators of the HOT NEW Palm Pre smartphone due later this year, have decided to join forces. The article at Futurelooks is thin on the financials, but they did dish on how the two companies would co-exist under the new arrangement and what the new “PalmBerry” will mean to the company’s handset selection. What’s most surprising is their choice of CEO after the transition of power: Bono from U2.

Bono’s company, Elevation Partners, owns 39% of Palm Inc. The band also recently signed a deal with Research In Motion after their sponsorship met some bumpy roads over at Apple. The board of directors unanimously agreed that Bono would be the most suitable leader of the new company into the future and brings both the star power and the charisms to battle the Apple iPhone and Steve Jobs.

[via: Futurelooks]

I’m about to dive back into the computer project, but I thought I’d best get this done before time runs away from me yet again. Hopefully now that I’ve walked away for a while the wiring diagram will make more sense than it did last time, because I know darn well the hard drive is in there…how could it not be? At any rate, here are this afternoon’s selection of reviews, and hopefully the next time I post it will be from my new old machine!

bit-tech gets us started with Men of War

iXBT Labs takes a look at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 240sp 1024MB

TechwareLabs counters with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 285 1GB AMP Video Card

TweakTown settles in to watch Street Fighter HD Movie

TechwareLabs takes up some bandwidth with the Razer Goliathus Gaming Mouse Pad

HotHardware spends some time with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S and Q9550S 65W CPUs

DigitalTrends rocks out with the Apple iPod Shuffle 3G

TrustedReviews gives a listen to the Monitor Audio Radius HD Speaker system

Hardware Secrets gets into the Gigabyte EP45C-DS3R Motherboard

Verdis Reviews examines the NOX Apex 700W Modular Power Suppl

RBMods gets its hands on the Thermaltake Element S Case

And to finish us off for today, JonnyGURU reviews the Antec CP-850 850W Power Supply

It’s off to work I go! For some reason I woke up in a truly bizarre mood today, but it seems to be relatively happy so I’m going with it. Whatever it is, I’ve been singing that song since I was in the shower. Snow White, wasn’t it? The dwarves? It’s been a few years, I could be wrong. Happy Tuesday!

ThinkComputers kicks it off with the OCZ Platinum Series DDR3-1600 Low Voltage 6GB Triple Channel Memory Kit

TrustedReviews goes mobile with Torch Mobile Iris Browser 1.1.5

Benchmark Reviews chills out with the Prolimatech Megahalems CPU Cooler

PureOverclock gets its hands on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme

Legion Hardware presents Performance Preview: ATI Radeon HD 4890 vs. NvidiaGeForce GTX 275

The Guru of 3D takes a look at the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 285

bit-tech focuses on the BenQ MP512-ST Short-Throw Projector

Bjorn3D spends some time with the Thermalright AXP-140

TweakTown checks out the Hitachi Deskstar E7K1000 1TB Enterprise Hard Disk

Phoronix looks at Moblin V2 vs. Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Ubuntu MID

DriverHeaven examines the Sapphire FirePSU 625W

Legit Reviews sits down with the ASUS N81Vp Gaming Notebook

TestFreaks glides along with the Microsoft SideWinder X8 Wireless Gaming Mouse

High Tech Reviews gets into the CoolerMaster Sileo 500 Case

Finally, DigitalTrends points and shoots the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS

Sure, it’s later than normal, but this way those of you who work later or are in different time zones (which I try to remember, but it’s hard to think in terms of other people’s time…I have a hard enough time keeping track of my own life) can have fresh news, and those who go in early can have something before tomorrow morning’s post. Also, I hit a brick wall with the computer project again, so I’ve decided to leave it until after I get out of work tomorrow before tackling it again. It’s best this way.

Virtual-Hideout starts us off with the Cooler Master V10 CPU Heatsink

TweakTown hooks up with the TP-Link TL-WR941ND Wireless N Router

Bjorn3D cools off with Gelid WING 9 & Silent TC case fans

PCShopTalk gets its hands on the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi Motherboard

TrustedReviews gives a listen to the Philips GoGear Spark SA2940

Phoronix reports Ubuntu’s LPIA-based MID Edition Can Save 10%+ Power

Verdis Reviews gets into some Coolink Chillaramic Thermal Compound

TheTechLounge takes a look at the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 295 1792MB Video Card

InsideHW spends some time with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400S

Overclockers Online examines the HighPoint RocketRAID 2680 and RocketRAID 4320 SAS/ SATA Cards

TestFreaks checks out the very neat BaliYo

BigBruin wants you to know about its Bigbruin.com 6th Birthday Party

OverClock Intelligence Agency taps away at the Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition Gaming Keyboard

GamePyre takes up some bandwidth with DJ Max Fever – PSP

And finally, Motherboards.org announces its Motherboards.org Giveaway

Any of you who have ever built a computer will be familiar with this story… I got up this morning with my box of computer parts, which came Friday, and began putting my “new” machine together. After much trial and error and locking the cat away so he’d stop bugging me, answering the phone, answering the door, etc. I finally got it plugged in and turned on! Success! It works! Well…except for the part where I apparently did some boneheaded thing and it doesn’t recognize that I have a hard drive. So I play with it some more, and it’s still not coming up. I decided to stop for a while and do something else so I don’t throw it out the window. Which is when I looked at the clock and realized I’ve been playing with the stupid thing for almost six hours, as it is now well after 4pm at my house. I haven’t eaten or done a post here or even so much as looked at my email yet today. Ahh…computers. Gotta love ‘em, can’t help hating ‘em!

Futurelooks kicks it off with the NZXT Performance Power (PP800) 800 Watt Power Supply

Tech-Xtreme explains How to copy songs from your iPod to you computer for free

The Guru of 3D takes a look at the TwinTech GeForce GTS 250 1024MB

TweakTown sits down with the Sapphire PURE CrossFireX 790GX Motherboard

HotHardware presents its ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series Preview

bit-tech checks out the Antec MicroFusion Remote 350

Motherboards.org chills out with the Coolit Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling System

Xtreme Computing counters with the OCZ Gladiator Max CPU Cooler (OCZTGLADM)

TestFreaks hooks up with rebit Backup Software

GamingHeaven takes on Grand Ages: Rome (PC)

Overclockers Online gets its hands on the Cooler Master Sileo 500 Silent Mid-Tower Chassis

TrustedReviews gets into the Panasonic Viera TX-P42X10 42in Plasma TV

Bjorn3D tries on the Honeywell Airlite 740

Finally, Legit Reviews examines the SanDisk Extreme III 4GB SDHC Flash Card