The past weekend was full of inspiration and controversy. A famous actress shared her feelings on her battle with cancer, while President Obama gave a commencement address to a less-than-adoring crowd. Also buzzing: horse racing’s newest superstar and Michael Phelps’ losing (gasp!) effort. Check out all those stories and more with the Buzz Weekend Recap.

Farrah shares her story
For years, Farrah Fawcett was one of the world’s biggest stars. Now, she’s fighting for her life. The one-time star of “Charlie’s Angels” was the subject of a hugely popular television special on Friday night. Titled “Farrah’s Story,” the documentary was seen by nearly 9 million viewers. According to USA Today, “the film was NBC’s most-watched program in its Friday night time slot in more than a year, excluding the Olympics.” Of course, when the subject is as dire as terminal cancer, it seems silly to focus on ratings. Not surprisingly, searchers didn’t. Instead, we saw huge upticks in “cancer symptoms” and “anal cancer diagnosis.” Predictably, bloggers weighed in with their thoughts — was the special inspiring or exploitive? Was it even legal?

Obama’s visit to Notre Dame
Barack Obama may be the first rock-star president, but not everybody agrees with all his policies and beliefs. This weekend, after cheering his daughters on in two intense soccer matches, the president gave a highly anticipated commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame. Why the controversy? Many in the Notre Dame community felt it inappropriate for a president who supports abortion rights to make a speech at a Catholic institution. Protesters made their displeasure known, with rallies and “anti-abortion” speeches throughout the weekend. Of all the protesters, Norma McCorvey seemed to generate the most buzz. McCorvey was plaintiff “Jane Roe” in the famous Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. Searches on “obama notre dame speech” and “obama speech transcript” both soared, as did interest in stem cell research.

Runs like a girl
At the annual Preakness Stakes horse race, all eyes were on wünder-filly Rachel Alexandra. The 3-year-old star was the odds-on favorite to take home the title, and she did not disappoint her supporters. Though no female horse had won the Preakness in more than 80 years, and no horse (period) had ever won from the outside position, Rachel didn’t pay any attention to the doubters. She blasted out of the gate and held on down the stretch to beat Kentucky Derby champ Mine That Bird. Over the weekend, lookups for Ms. Alexandra galloped into the winner’s circle, with queries for “rachel alexandra pictures” and “rachel alexandra jockey” also finishing several lengths ahead of the pack.

Also buzzing this weekend…
• A newly goateed Michael Phelps lost his first race following his suspension. He then lost again on Sunday.
• Michelle Obama gave a commencement speech of her own at the University of California, Merced.
• The L.A. Lakers defused the Houston Rockets and the Celtics fell to the Orlando Magic in the NBA playoffs.

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The Nokia Blog’s got it on good authority that the Finnish phone maker’s giving its North America distributors the heads up to expect the N97 to arrive on June 2nd for $699, although that price might end up lower. We’ve been hearing an expected June launch for some time, so it’s definitely not out of the question. This does, however, serve as both an exciting and somewhat painful reminder that, should a couple other rumors pan out, June’s gonna be a busy month for smartphones.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 NAM launching June 2nd? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 23:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Copying Apple’s style and fruit logo (this time it’s a pear) is nothing new, but other than the packaging and no Blu-ray support, this Russian-born “iPozh” multi-region DVD player, found at reportedly one of the biggest electronic retail chains in Moscow, seems fit to look as generic and “un-Apple” as aesthetically possible. Still, if you’re wandering through a store and you get caught in the vicious stare of that poster, you might fork over the 4,490 rubles (US $139) for fear of the gentleman on the right otherwise emerging from the poster and following you with his gaze for months to come. Look for this to hit outside of Russia sometime in… ah, who are we kidding? Enjoy the pics from afar, and in case you’re wondering, that phrase on the blue poster translates to “time for you to play!”

[Thanks, Michael and Mitch]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCX: “iPozh” DVD player lacks Apple’s style, but does the lack of Blu-ray support right originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 21:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Intel presentation promises Medfield-based smartphones by 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sylvain Martel, what hast thou sown? The director of the NanoRobotics Laboratory at the École Polytechnique de Montréal this week is presenting his latest microbot at ICRA in Japan, and it’s got a pretty crazy trick. The solar panel-equipped device sizes up to about 300 x 300 microns, and using a sensor to detect nearby pH levels, it’s been shown as capable of controlling a swarm of 3,000 bacteria using electromagnetic pulses. Sure, Martel suggests there’ll be some eventual medical uses for the technology, but we’d be lying if we said the video demonstration didn’t give us the willies. See for yourself in the video linked below.

Read - Announcement
Read - Video

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots

Microbot controls swarm of bacteria, puts all flea circuses to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So about that apparently canned crimson red Dell XPS 16 laptop. We received a handful of pics from a tipster who claims to have gotten one about a month ago when he returned his other, decided un-red model for a screen replacement. We don’t want to say this is 100 percent legit without holding it in our hands, but if this is the beauty we once had the option to purchase, Dell, please, bring crimson back.

[Thanks, P]

Filed under: Laptops

Crimson Red Dell XPS 16 in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 14:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forget the future for just one second. Kicking off its TechEd conference last week, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for its tabletop-inclined Surface. The update’s mostly developer-centric — not too surprising given its small customer base at present — with one of the only bullet points that’ll directly interest the end user being new calibration guides for setting up the system without needing an external display. No indication on if set up still requires a keyboard a mouse, but if that’s a concern, keep your fingers crossed they find a way around that before you pony up the $13,000 to join Lazarra and Roker as an early adopter.

Filed under: Desktops, Displays

Microsoft’s Surface gets its first Service Pack, devs and yacht owners rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 12:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for another option in MSI’s oft-ballyhoed Turbo Drive laptop series? The company’s announced the GX723, its gaming hat trick for the month. Under the hood, the 17-inch, WSXGA+ portable’s packing an Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M, Windows Vista Home Premium, up to 4GB of RAM, and your choice of 320GB or 500GB HDD and six / nine cell batteries. It’s also got the ECO quick launch touch sensor for cycling through five performance settings, and colorful W/A/S/D buttons for gamers who are interested in picking this up but somehow don’t have the popular FPS directional keys ingrained into their memory bank. Mum’s the word on pricing or availability.

Filed under: Laptops

MSI’s Turbo Drive-equipped GX723 gaming laptop unveiled originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our compatriots at Engadget Chinese just got ahold of that surprisingly attractive SmartQ 7 MID, and have given the thing a proper unboxing. Hands-on impressions are on the way as well, but it’s not hard to see that despite the continued pointlessness of MIDs in most practical applications, they’re only getting better. Except for the ones that aren’t.

Filed under: Handhelds

SmartQ 7 MID unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 08:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t know a lot about driving cars really fast, but we do know one thing: this guy sure does seem excited about the prospect of a touchscreen-driven, QWERTY-equipped slider smartphone with webOS, from struggling handset manufacturer Palm. Apparently at some point during the race somebody from Sprint confirmed that they’ll be outing a launch date in the “next couple of days.” We like the sound of that.

[Thanks, Leo B. and Kenny]

Read - PreCentral forums
Read - Sprint’s NASCAR landing page

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm Pre makes conspicuous appearance at large gathering of cool people originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 May 2009 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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