I spent this decade hunting for the perfect gadget. I never thought I would end up with tech as good as this. But it’s not the tech that interests me the most anymore. In 2000, I was just another kid out of college in Boston escaping to the Golden State’s climate and opportunity. The perfect job didn’t present itself for six long months; four months later, it burst with the bubble. It’s not important what the job was

Wow. Can you believe it? We made it all the way through 2009! We truly had some of the most amazing and exciting coverage ever on Engadget this past 12 months — and we figured it’s time to take a look back at the heaviest hitters from the last 365. This was a big year for us, we got a whole new look , an iPhone app (with more on the way), hired some new staff, got ourselves a show , went on late night TV , and managed to snap up some killer scoops and keep the news rolling (better than ever before, actually — this was by far our heaviest year for traffic). So let’s take a moment to reflect on what caused all the fuss in 2009, and yes, we know this list is Apple heavy

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Roland, who can’t wait to get his recently relocated sister some sort of phone with Skype capabilities. “My sister recently moved to Belgium. She has access to WiFi at home, so I’d like to send her a mobile phone that can run a Skype client. Requirements are WiFi, can work on Belgian / European carriers, runs Skype, and has excellent battery life. Anyone have any suggestions?” There’s nothing worse than not being able to communicate with someone when you desperately need to, so we’re hoping that our readers across the pond will be able to chime in here with a little advice.

When thinking about the cost of a cellphone, we consider the phone itself and any service plans, but what about the price of misuse? How often are we finding ourselves paying an unsubsidized price to replace phones under contract? It’s just so easy to damage a phone. It slips out of your hand and crashes to the ground, gets knocked into a sink, thrown into the wash, and abused in who-knows-what other ways. The lousy part is that when you need to replace your precious gadget in the midst of a one-two-three year agreement, you’re very likely to find yourself paying full retail price. It’s miserable, but it happens to even the best of us .

“We discovered a vertical hole on the moon,” says JAXA’s Junichi Haruyama. A mysterious tube so large and deep that it can shelter a future moon base . Until the creatures inside kill everyone, which is what happens in these cases. Before, they didn’t know what the hole’s origin was. Now they have a theory: According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the vertical cave—”213 feet (65 meters) across and some 262 to 289 feet deep (80-88 meters)”—may be a collapsed lava tube, which could provide a perfect shelter for a future moon base: Lava tubes, underground cave-like channels through which lava once flowed, are commonly found on Earth. Because lava tubes are sheltered from the harsh environment on the moon’s surface, such tubes could one day be useful for lunar bases.

“We discovered a vertical hole on the moon,” says JAXA’s Junichi Haruyama. A mysterious tube so large and deep that it can shelter a future moon base . Until the creatures inside kill everyone, which is what happens in these cases. According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the “hole is like a skylight, a vertical cave 213 feet (65 meters) across and some 262 to 289 feet deep (80-88 meters).” They believe it is a collapsed lava tube, which may provide ideal shelter for a future moon base. I’m reading their report and only two things come to my mind. One, the awesome lunar base in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001

A wannabe Wolverine is crying somewhere in the UK, because these homemade claws of his were seized by border agents as part of a crackdown on illegal goods shipping into the country. Guess he’ll just hope for a mutation now. Look at how sharp these seem. A pair of them and some of those nanopaticles that aid healing and I could be the next Logan. [ TMZ ]

Is there still room in your heart for eight more unassuming bits of Xmas? We hoped you’d say yes. See, 8-bit Xmas 2009 is an all-new NES cart full of festive LEDs and an original multiplayer snowball fight NES game. It sells for $43, but for $5 more you can get a personalized title screen — which seems like a relatively cheap fulfillment of that decades long dream of yours to have your name up in pixelated lights on the home console that defined the home console. The cart should be compatible with all real NES systems and hopefully many fake ones , and while it can’t help you forgive your Aunt Samantha for giving you that Sudoku quilt, it might just do the insignificant task of teaching you the true meaning of Xmas .

No, this isn’t an instructional guide on how to build a TwitterPeek . This device is even more useless. Impossible? Hardly. Check out the video

Visentin’s LED shower heads are pretty stunning, that is, until you realize that, not only are you completely naked in front of your guests, but you’re also splashing water all over the living room. [ Visentin via Trendir ]