I don’t know about you guys but I’m waiting for a good excuse to stop playing Wii games altogether. And I haven’t played that many of them in the first place. I certainly have arguments to back up my decision. Like the crappy graphics of the Wii or the fact that its follower, the Wii 2, isn’t going to offer us any significant changes! Add to that the fact that both Microsoft and Sony are adding motion sensing support to their console next year and you’ll understand why I’m more and more determined to ditch the Wii.

With all that in mind I’ll tell you from the beginning that the Blobo doesn’t look like the next console I’d want to purchase. Because that’s what the Blobo is. A gaming console the size of a golf ball. I certainly appreciate the ingenuity of the device as it sure isn’t easy to squeeze a console into such a small device like a ball.

What I don’t appreciate is the fact that the Blobo could not have been made possible without the Wii. It basically clones the whole motion controlled gaming idea and I don’t want to play another series of sports games and experience not-so-good graphics. And I wouldn’t want my kids to get hurt while trying to beat each other at running inside the house. Because that’s basically what the Blobo will target. Kids and teenagers interested in virtual sports. Shouldn’t they run outside if given the chance?

So how does the Blobo work? Well the whole mechanism is remarkable and I see a future for it as long as the manufacturers decide to come up with other games which will offer us a better gaming experience. The Blobo can sense the changes that occur in the magnetic field around it as well as changes in direction, acceleration, air pressure inside the ball and other physical characteristics. It then sends the information through a wireless Bluetooth connection to the display and the magic occurs. All your actions are translated into actions on the screen. Doesn’t the Wii and its Wiimote do that already?

The Blobo costs €54.90 or about $80 but I wouldn’t really recommend it. At least, not yet! I like the entire tech behind the concept but I’m still waiting to see other titles arrive from Blobo. And when that happens, be sure I’ll tell you all about it.

We’re back with more Apple tablet rumors and you might not like what I’ll tell you today. It looks like Apple decided to push back the launch of the tablet to the second half of 2010. Are there any problems in paradise? Is Cupertino unable to deliver the tablet at an earlier date next year?

Rumors say that Apple decided to make an OLED version of the tablet and it looks like we’ll get to chose between LCD and OLED displays. The 9.7-inch OLED screens are coming from LG so maybe it’s worth waiting for the OLED versions. The obvious question here is why couldn’t Apple launch the LCD version around March and then make the OLED version available in the second half of the year.

Foxconn Electronics, Quanta Computer and Pegatron Technology are supposed to make the two tablets. And we can’t but wonder how three companies are going to split two different products. Speaking about the two versions, sources say that you can expect a 9.7-inch OLED tablet and a 10.6-inch TFT LCD model to be available in Apple stores around the world next year.

With these panel-related rumors we also have some prices for you. Naturally the OLED version will be more expensive than the LCD version, which is one more reason for Apple to launch the LCD tablet as soon as possible. Those people willing to pay twice as much for a panel will definitely wait for the OLED tablet to come out.

OLED panels are currently priced at $500 which represents about 30% of the total cost of the device. That means we can expect the tablet to cost from $1,500 to $1,700 in today’s prices. By mid 2010 we might see OLED prices drop so the overall price will also drop to $1,200 to $1,500. Thus an OLED tablet version will eventually cost around $2,000 in stores. On comparison, the LCD tablet will cost from $800 to $1,000 and the device will be significantly cheaper once bundled with a 3G plan from your favorite carrier.

As you can expect Apple hasn’t confirmed any of this yet so we’re still hoping to see the tablets in stores next March.

Since we did show you the Courier in detail already and we keep talking about Apple’s tablet, we should definitely check on the CrunchPad from time to time. After all we can’t disregard the device when talking about ultra-portable tablets capable of doing marvelous things.

I’ll start everything off with a question that keeps popping up in my mind. When does it come out already? We’ve been waiting for the CrunchPad to arrive for a while now especially since it’s not coming from regular computer makers. It’s not an Apple creation, and it hasn’t been conceived by Microsoft either. The CrunchPad is a project of TechCrunch’s guru Michael Arrington and it is meant to be a device that would help you easily browse the Internet, in a more than comfortable position.

Shouldn’t the CrunchPad have been available in stores already? The tablet hasn’t come out yet but it’s definitely not dead as various people suggested lately. Sure Apple’s and Microsoft’s future tablets are closing in very fast but competition is definitely something we love to see, especially at this level.

According to Arrington, the CrunchPad will cost somewhere between $300 to $400 and the cost is coming down. Last time we checked it was supposed to be a lot cheaper. And it looks like there’s also going to be some advertising involved which means that not only is the pad more expensive but it’s also ad-supported now. Will you buy one just for the heck of it? Or is the price too steep for you already? We don’t have clear indications regarding its specs and we have no idea if it will help you do anything else besides surfing the web.

And while we do know that it’s coming, we have no idea when the product will be officially announced. We’d better see it in action before Apple and Microsoft launch their tablets otherwise we might not pay much attention to it after we see the those gadgets in action.

If you love the idea of giving dictation so that someone else can type for you later, this device may be on interest to you. It may also be of interest if you want to record your weekly podcast while you are stuck in traffic. Either way, since we all know that size matters, how about you try out the USB Dictaphone.

This device comes in at a compact 6cm x 2cm x 1.3cm, the same size as a standard USB flash drive, which makes it ideal for sticking in your pocket or even onto your key chain. It recharges while it’s plugged into your computer, which means that you will never need to go look for an outlet. Just be sure to leave it in the USB port while you are at work, and you will be good to go.

But one of the most interesting features is that the USB Dictaphone boasts 2GB of built-in memory. Granted, this does not sound like a lot, until you find out that this covers about 40 hours of recording time. Yes, that’s right, you could record more than a whole day’s worth of materials on this discreet little device.

Just to spice things up a bit, given its size, the USB Dictaphone could be perfect to tape your meetings with your boss so that you don’t forget anything or you can record your whole date so that you and your friends can obsess over what you did right and wrong. More to it, if you have a smart phone with an USB port you could probably even find a way to record your conversations.

Just be aware that most countries and states have laws about recording conversations, so better not do anything illegal, even if it would be the fulfillment of all of your childhood spy fantasies.

The USB Dictaphone will set you back just shy of $50.

Most of the tech related products have managed to lose weight in the last few years, confirming that size does matter. Keeping to the trends, the folks from Active Media Wink have decided to design what they claim to be the world’s smallest flash drive.

Measuring 0.1-inch thick, the new Wink drive is available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB sizes, and comes with a sealed protective case that won’t mind if you drop from the top of the mountain or into your wine glass. That’s because the delicate electronics are housed in a waterproof COB unit protected by a high-impact polymer case that won’t be damaged on shocks. On top of that the Wink Flash Drive supports Windows 7, Vista, XP, OS X and Linux as operating systems.

Ultra small at only 1.2 x 0.5 x 0.1 inches (30 x 12 x 2.5 mm) and only weighing in at 1/20 oz, the new 16GB Wink flash Drive is now available on Amazon with a $37.95 price tag that includes both a keyring and a keychain. Not bad for something that you can slip easily into your shirt’s pocket and forget about it, don’t you think?

[via Geeky Gadgets]

There has long been rumors about the monster in ATi’s new HD5xxx Evergreen series of graphic cards, but we caught wind that the HD5970 (early speculated to be named HD5870×2) will pack two of ATi’s Radeon HD5870 “Cypress” GPUs on one PCB, making for a true performance champion that should be launching tomorrow.

Although the new ATI HD 5970 “Hemlock” graphics card is yet to be launched, today we laid our eyes on some new pictures and pricing info that have leaked out as online retailer ZipZoomFly has listed the card for $599.99 on their website. Too expensive? This is not a surprising price point as the card is expected to be the fastest single card to ever hit the market.

ATi, though currently facing shortages for both of its current high-end cards, seems to have found its mark with the new HD5xxx series. The “Cypress” HD5870 and HD5850 cards released after months of rumors and were immediately sold out even with their slightly high prices. The 5870 has 1600 stream cores while the 5850 has 1440 usable cores for dedicated graphics processing. Hence why the new HD5890 will effectively double the number of cores from its younger brother and on top of these all, it will also pack 2GB of GDDR5 RAM.

For now NVIDIA has no comparable product, at least not before their Fermi GPUs launch in Q1 2010.

Google officially announced in a blog post today that it’s ready to offer “twice the storage for a quarter of the price.” In other words if you need a piece of the cloud then Google will happily rent it to you every year. The offer sounds especially good as most of us have various files that we’d like to be able to retrieve at any given point without having to carry around portable storage solutions.

So Google decided to double the storage space while cutting those prices and we’re definitely not going to object to any of that. Right now your Gmail account will offer you about 7GB of storage space while Picasa comes with about 1GB of memory for you. Upgrading to 20GB is really easy and it costs you just $5 per year which is a quarter of the price Google used to charge for half the space until now.

While that offer is very accessible and pretty “normal” for the regular user, some of you may want to purchase more space. Is 16TB enough for you? That’s not a spelling error although the T is awfully close to the G on the keyboard. Google is crazy enough to offer that much space in the cloud as there are plenty of crazy customers to require that much space available. 16TB the upper limit although there are plenty of choices below that number. 16TB storage space is now available for $4,096 per year but if you need that much space to store stuff then you can probably afford it.

Unfortunately for all of us Google is not ready to rent us the cloud for other services than Google or Picassa. That means you we won’t be able to store pretty much anything we want up there, or at least it won’t be that easy. I guess we will have to wait for Google Drive to arrive in order to have more backup options from Google.

As I side note I’d really want to see a Gmail account that would need 16TB of storage space. What about you? What cloud services do you currently use?

Razer is a well known brand between gamers and not only. The company has produced various mice and keyboards over the years and gamers all over the world have cherished them while winning battle after battle with the help and especially the precision of such gaming accessories.

So whenever I spot a new Razer gaming mouse I can’t simply ignore it since I am always looking at a tool that could serve my gaming habits very well. Today we’re looking at a new mouse, the Abyssus that has been just launched by Razer.

Besides having a hard to spell name, the Abyssus is definitely going to impress you both pleasantly and unpleasantly with some of its features. So let’s start with the bad news first since everything should be already clear from the picture above. The Abyssus lacks a complicated design and it has no extra buttons that could be customized in games. It presents a very minimalistic concept and it comes with the regular two buttons, left and right, with the scroll wheel in the middle. Disappointing you say? I tend to agree with that. When I’m playing games I’d like to have some extra buttons on the mouse which can trigger some very specific actions. So why decide to lose those buttons completely?

Here are some of the other features which represent the good news about the Abyssus:

• 3500dpi Razer Precision™ 3.5G infrared sensor
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
• Mechanical dpi/polling rate switches
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Always-On™ mode
• Ultra-large non-slip buttons
• 16-bit ultra-wide data path
• 60-120 inches per second and 15g of acceleration
• Three independently programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
• Ambidextrous design
• Scroll wheel with 24 individual click positions
• Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon feet
• Seven-foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
• Approx. size in mm 115(L) x 63(W) x 40(H)

You’d think that the mouse has a cheaper price since it lacks extra buttons but you’d be wrong. At $49.99 the Abyssus is a little too expensive for my taste. But if you love it and want to have it then you can order it online right now or wait until late December to get it in stores.

Best Buy is getting ready to sell a laptop priced at $249. That’s a laptop, not a netbook as you expect. The machine should be announced tomorrow but we already have an idea of what it’s capable of offering.

The laptop is said to be made by Acer and it apparently has some very decent specs inside. In fact, the unnamed laptop will be able to run Windows 7 Premium which is quite impressive. At $249 this Acer notebook is going to be the cheapest Best Buy laptop available and it’s going to be a lot cheaper than some of the latest netbooks available out there.

The laptop will offer an Intel Celeron processor, a 15.4-inch screen, 2GB of memory a 160GB hard drive and Windows 7 Premium. The Intel Celeron 900 processor offers 1MB cache memory and runs at 2.20GHz which is definitely a lot better than a netbook processor like the Z550 Atom that would run at 2.0GHz while being able to offer just 512Kb of cache. This Acer laptop will definitely surpass netbooks when it comes to overall performance and the extra screen space is most welcomed. Not to mention the presence of a regular laptop keyboard which we will certainly appreciate.

This very cheap laptop could be a best seller especially now that the holiday season is coming. Considering the economic crisis that we still have to face, a laptop priced at $249 is more than welcomed and Best Buy could end up selling a significant number of cheap laptops in the following months.

Here’s what a Best Buy spokesman had to say about laptops and netbooks:

It’s gone from one PC per household to one PC per person. And sometimes more than one laptop per person.

On comparison the cheapest laptop coming from Apple is priced at $999 and we’re talking about the new 13-inch white MacBook version launch a couple of weeks ago. This upcoming Best Buy offer looks better and better especially if it’s intended to be a gift for your kids or your second notebook.

The product in the picture here is about as real as it gets. It’s a mouse officially unveiled in Italy called the OpenOfficeMouse. Yes, that’s a more than strange name for a mouse but the device is meant to work with OpenOffice.org, that free software solution that helps you manage all sorts of documents.

And apparently a mouse designed specifically for OpenOffice.org requires a lot of unpleasant buttons in order to work properly. The mouse features 18 buttons and an analog joystick which will offer you support for up to 52 key commands. The OpenOfficeMouse is meant to help you deal with OpenOffice programs a lot more efficiently than before.

The OpenOfficeMouse comes with default profiles for five core OpenOffice.org applications which can be customized in order to meet your various needs. Besides support for OpenOffice.org the mouse comes with support for 20 other games and applications. The mouse comes with a memory ready to store 63 profiles which means that you can truly customize it in any way you see fit.

Here’s a full list of specs of the OpenOfficeMouse which could convince you that getting one is not such a bad idea:

• 18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality
• Three different button modes: Key, Keypress, and Macro
• Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes
• Clickable scroll wheel
• 512k of flash memory
• 63 on-mouse application profiles with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability
• 1024-character macro support.
• Open source support software for creating, managing, and customizing application profiles
• Import and export of custom profiles in XML format
• Optional audio notification of profile switching with customizable wave files
• PDF export of profile button assignments
• Adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI
• Default profiles for Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, and Draw based on actual usage statistics compiled for OpenOffice.org 3.1
• 20 default profiles for popular games and applications, including Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series.

What do you say? Are you ready to move past the looks of the OpenOfficeMouse and love its personality? The mouse will come with support for Windows, Linux and Mac and will cost you $74.99.

What would you like your digital photo frame to be able to do besides displaying endless slide shows of your favorite photos? Most of the current digiframe offer more and more extra features and the one that we’re looking at today is also trying to tempt customers with various new tricks.

Made by Isabella Products, the Vizit photo frame is a cellular-connected two way device that will let you connect with friends and family over AT&T’s wireless network.

The Vizit will let you send and receive digital photos over the air and it basically resembles MMS messaging. In order for the whole two-way feature to work not only do you need a Vizit digiframe at home but your friends and family will also need to buy one.

The frame offers a more than generous 10.4-inch touchscreen LCD, GSM/GPRS connectivity, an intuitive touchscreen user interface and support for MMS, email and Internet sharing sites.

Before you get all too excited about it you’ll have to know that the Vizit will sell for $279.99 at some point early next year. On top of the already huge price you’ll have to pay a monthly fee to AT&T in order to take advantage of the two-way photo sharing features. Then you’ll have to convince your friends and/or family to buy a similar device in order for you to actually be able to send and receive photos. Does that sound like something you really want to do?

The alternative is pretty simple. You can get a cheaper digital photo frame which you can connect to your computer. And you can use your computer to do all the picture sharing you desire with your friends and family.

The frame also comes with a VizitMe.com account which will let you do some remote photo management and support for eCommerce sites is on the way. The photo frame could be used in the future for buying stuff online. You know, there’s a device for that already, a computer, which can do all the things I mentioned above. But enough about me! What would you say? Is the Vizit worth buying?

I often find myself in need of a scanner and most of the time I don’t have one around as I am on the move. That’s why the DocuPen X-series portable scanners from PlanOn sound very interesting, particularly if you deal with a lot of paperwork every day.

So what’s a DocuPen you ask? It’s obviously a portable scanner that can be very useful while you’re on the go. The device comes with proper software which will let you organize your scans and send them to where they need to be. The DocuPen X Series will let you choose from three different versions, the X05, the X10 and the X50.

The main features of any DocuPen scanner are a 200MHz processor, and OLED screen, 64MB of SD RAM upgradeable via microSD card up to 2GB, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. You’ll be able to choose from three scan modes: 24bit color, grayscale and mono and the scanners offer a maximum scan resolution of 600dpi thanks to Planon’t Cyrstal Line Contact technology.

The DocuPen will let you scan in an instant contracts, receipts, invoices, pictures, and basically anything else you need to have scanned around you. The device weighs only 60 grams and it’s as big as a regular sheet of paper. When scanning is complete you’ll be able to send the files to your smartphone or computer via Bluetooth and you’ll be able to e-mail and print them right away.

So what’s the difference between the three different versions? The X50 is the most expensive of the three as it comes with extra accessories like the ABBYY Professional level OCR Software, an executive hard case and a retractable USB cable. The X10 is the only one to offer a 12v automobile adaptor, while the X05 is the default scanner that comes with a leather case, an USB cable, the PaperPort SE software, the CD-ROM install disc and the quickstart guide.

The X05, X10 and X50 are already available for $369.99, $389.99 and $439.99, respectively. Are you ready for a portable, high-performance scanner? Would you buy a DocuPen X-Series model anytime soon?

Microsoft has not announced its Courier tablet yet but it looks like the user interface has been leaked to the public. Is Microsoft trying to build up momentum for the Courier? Apple on the other hand is not willing to show us anything and we have to keep digging for one shady rumor after the other.

This time it looks like Gizmodo got a hold of the whole user interface so let’s take a look at it. The tablet comes with multitouch support which will include various gestures: tap once, touch and hold, 1 finger flick and 2 finger flicks. So what do all those gesture do? Here’s a quick list that should help you better understand how the Courier will work:

• One finger tap and hold: clips content
• 1 finger flick: scroll vertically and turn pages
• 2 finger flick up or down: opens an app
• 2 finger flick left/right: closes the app or moves the app to the other screen

Now that you know what basic hand gestures will do you need to know that the content of the Courier is referred to as the Infinite Journal. The Smart Agenda is what you will be dealing with daily. It will show you appointments, emails, to-do lists, messages from friends and weather details. Think of the Smart Agenda like the home screen of your smartphone for example.

The Journal overview will show you the contents of the Courier. An interesting feature of the search engine is handwriting recognition which is must-have for a tablet. The Journal will also offer you cloud support. Shared portions of the Journal can be used by friends and colleagues to leave notes which will appear instantly in the Smart Agenda. The web browser looks like an index-card. Flip through your recently browsed pages just like you would in Safari. It’s basically a vertical version of Cover Flow if you will. With the touch of one finger you’ll be able to grab the content you want and paste it in your journal.

Copy and Paste is called “Clip, Tuck, Paste” in the Courier. You can copy any content which will be tucked into the spine of the tablet. Then you can move it into any page of the Journal. The Infinite Journal will show you all that content stored in the Courier. Everything is tagged with a timestamp and geotag so you’ll know exactly when and where you took a certain picture or made a certain note.

Besides multitouch support, the Courier will let you use a smart stylus. The pen has an undo button, an eraser and a twist mechanism which switches drawing modes.

Other features include the Library which acts as the main file browser and the camera which can be used to take lots of interesting photos.

That’s how the Courier is supposed to work, at least in theory. What do you say? Does any of that sound like something you want in a tablet?

It probably sounds only logical for Apple to try to pursue TV dreams. The Cupertino-based company is reportedly working on a solution that would help them deliver TV content to you via iTunes for a monthly subscription. The rumored service should be unveiled officially next year as iTunes TV and it’s supposed to cost $30 per month.

What do you think? Are you ready to pay $30 per month to watch TV via iTunes? That’s not the first time Apple is toying with TV ideas. But now the company is not going to launch a new Apple TV version, an experiment that didn’t work out that good for Apple. Instead TV content will be available through iTunes which is already a very stable and popular platform.

The only thing that Apple has to do now is convince TV networks and TV operators to let them enter the TV game. That’s actually a crucial objective for Apple if it really wants to cash in monthly on our TV-related needs. And let’s not forget that there are various other players that can offer TV content: Netflix, Amazon, YouTube or Hulu are each toying with the idea. Some are more successful than others at streaming TV shows and making an honest buck from it while some are still at the beginning.

An advantage for Apple could be the Apple brand itself. Apple is major player in the entertainment business. It has lots of iPods, lots of music and videos, lots of apps, proper hardware like the iPhone and the Macs and reliable software like iTunes. These should work in Apple’s favor when negotiating with various networks as they show Apple’s achievements in very different fields. Which could mean that the iTunes TV idea will also be transformed into an important success.

Don’t get me wrong, this future iTunes TV will not work only on Apple hardware as iTunes can be used with various gadgets and on various platforms. Users will not have to actually buy a new device to access iTunes TV. They will need a dependable Internet connection and they will have to agree to that monthly fee for iTunes TV in order to watch all the shows they want.

So far Apple is refusing to comment but we might expect more details about iTunes TV early next year. If it sounds like this new product will be related to the tablet, well, that’s just a coincidence. Sure the tablet will be able to access iTunes TV but iTunes TV will not be launched just for the tablet.

HTC is already an experienced cell phone maker. Whether we’re talking about Windows Mobile or Android one thing is certain, HTC’s handsets offer a unique user interface which can’t be ignored when comparing HTC to other manufacturers. The company has been busy working on their TouchFlo and TouchFlo 3D UI for Windows Mobile phones and, most importantly, it has developed the HTC Sense UI for Android phones. Now HTC came up with something totally new, the “virtual book” user interface for touchscreen devices.

There’s no official name for it and here’s how the abstract of HTC’s new patent describes it:

An electronic device and a user interface display method thereof are provided. The electronic device organizes a plurality of computer programs executable on the electronic device into a virtual book. Each page of the virtual book includes a user interface of one of the computer programs. The electronic device displays one of the pages as a current page so that the user interface of the current page is accessible to a user of the electronic device. The electronic device senses movement and/or pressure caused by the user and interprets the movement and/or the pressure as operating actions of the user on the virtual book. The electronic device downloads new computer programs from a download server and adds corresponding new pages into the virtual book. At lease one of the computer programs provides a service of a corporate operator of a wireless service network

HTC might just be working on something really huge here. The Virtual Book UI could be used on a variety of mobile devices and HTC should consider bringing it to both Android and Windows Mobile smartphones. And just in case the company decides to make tablets and other kinds of handheld touch-friendly devices, then they’d better include a user interface of this kind.

The patent goes on to describe the full features of such a touch UI and I’m counting on HTC to make it available as soon as possible. A particular phrase in the abstract above reminds me that Apple is also working on a new touch UI for its tablet. You know, the kind of interface that can sense movement, pressure or touch and then rapidly translate it into actions. Who will launch a new touch UI first? HTC or Apple?

Regular TFTS readers should know that Dell have been on a launching spree this week announcing a new AIO PC, their first Android smartphone, a new MID and a multitouch monitor. What you guys may not know is that Dell’s been working on their first rugged tablet PC — the Dell Latitude XT2 XFR, which has been revealed in an FCC filing by Novatel.

There are models in Dell’s XFR badged rugged laptops collection, but the Dell Latitude XT2 XFR is the first tablet to allow for use outdoors or in more dangerous workplaces. It comes with thick rubber bumpers on its sides and a thicker monitor hinge, given the body some extra shock-absorbing protection. On top of that there are also rubber protected ports that will keep dust and water away from getting inside.

Although there’s not much concerning specs, Novatel refers to it as a “convertable Tablet PC with 850/1900 CDMA/EVDO/GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSPA WWAN radio” which means that there’s plenty on the connectivity front. On top of that, we can easily identify a fingerprint reader and a trackpad that you can use only when in tablet mode.

The new Dell Latitude XT2 XFR Rugged Tablet PC seems to be running Windows Vista Ultimate, but when officially introduced to the market we’d expect it to come bundled with Windows 7 and to pack a multitouch display. That’d be neat, isn’t it?

Microsoft has been quietly setting up its online store and starting today you will be able to purchase hardware and software solutions straight from Redmond’s online store. I think it was about time that Microsoft to stood up from the crowd and started selling stuff from its own online store. After all, Apple has been doing it for a while and the concept works very well in their favor.

If you’re living anywhere near Scottsdale, Arizona, then you can visit Microsoft’s first store starting today too. The rest of us mortals will have to deal with the online store instead. So what does the store have to offer? Unfortunately Microsoft doesn’t make its own computers and unlike Apple it will sell third party hardware. Besides computers you’ll be able to purchase Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Zune players and a bunch of homemade software made especially for your PC and other devices. Third party software games and accessories are also available, so go get your credit card and go wild!

As you expect, Windows 7 is available for purchase today with prices starting at $119.99 for the Home Premium edition and going all the way to $219.99 for the Ultimate version. Microsoft also has a bunch of computers running Windows 7 and the inventory is probably going to get even bigger. Here’s what computers you can purchase right now from the online store:

• Laptops:

• • Lenovo G550
  • Acer Aspire Timeline AS4810
  • HP Pavilion DM3
  • Sony VGN-NW250F
  • Dell Studio 15.6
  • Sony VGN-FW520F/B
  • Dell Studio XPS 13
  • Dell Adamo
  • Lenovo ThinkPad T400s

• Desktops:

• • Lenovo A600

• Netbooks:

• • Lenovo S10-2
  • Acer AOD250
  • Sony W

As you can see the desktop and netbook inventory is pretty limited so far but at least Microsoft has an online store to brag about.

If computers are rather scarce at this point, I can’t say the same thing about accessories. Microsoft offers a vast collection of accessories for computers and phones while music and/or gaming fans are also going to find quite a lot of products to choose from.

Last but not least, Microsoft’s vast software collection is also present so now you’ll be able to purchase all the software you or your company needs from the comfort of your own home. What do you say folks? Anyone excited about the Microsoft Online venture yet?

I am sure that by now you are more than familiar with Archos, a French computer maker that has launched quite a few of interesting Internet Tablets over the years. And since today is Microsoft’s Windows 7 day, the company took the opportunity to announce the Archos 9 PCTablet officially.

Just in case you’re not that familiar with Archos after all, we’ll go through its latest product. The Archos 9 PCTablet is a very good alternative to netbooks. Those tiny laptops are very useful due to their portability, but do they really need a physical keyboard? The keys are smaller than usual and cramped together so why not transform netbooks into tablets. Everything you need is one touch away and you’ll have no problem writing things down with the virtual keyboard.

The Archos 9 PCTablet is a 9-inch machine that’s only 1.7cm thick and measures just about 800g. So what does it have to offer? The Archos 9 comes with a 9-inch resistive touchscreen display capable of 1,024 x 600 resolution and 1080p full HD video. The tablet can be controlled by touch but it also comes with an optical trackpoint and buttons which should make navigation even smoother.

Inside you’ll find an Intel Atom Z processor, 1GB of RAM and a 60GB hard disk drive. If you need more storage space then there’s an extra 25GB waiting for you online in the cloud. The Archos 9 will also offer you VGA and USB 2.0 connectivity, a 3.5mm jack, Ethernet, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, optional 3G/3.5G connectivity and a 1.3-megapixel camera.

As you can see surfing the Internet seems very easy. Simply find an open Wi-Fi network, tether your phone via Bluetooth or get a 3G/3.5G dongle and you’ll be online in minutes. Ethernet connectivity is also possible but who wants cables these days?

Let’s only hope that the battery can cope with our mobile needs. The press release lacks any info regarding the battery features so should we assume that’s the Achilles’ heel of this Archos 9 PCTablet? If you want to get it, the tablet is available starting today and it’s running Windows 7. You’ll have to pay £449.99 or around $750 to get it so once you do buy feel free to praise it or complain about its features in comments below.

ECTACO, a company that manufactures and sells translation dictionaries and language software, have recently announced their new jetBook Lite Pocket eBook reader at the Frankfurt Book Fair. A lightweight and super-portable addition to a market dominated by Kindles and Barnes & Noble e-readers, the ECTACO jetBook is the ultimate pocket library for either the professional, business or leisure reader.

Weighing in at only 7.5 ounces, the new jetBook Lite Pocket eReader features a Toshiba 5-inch transflective monochrome display that has a high-resolution and 180 degrees viewing angle. On top of that, the display is also fully customizable, meaning that you can text size and font face is adjustable for those who need it.

The Ectaco jetBook Lite Pocket reader comes packed with 100MB of internal storage space but also adds an SD card slot for expansion in case that’s not enough for the thousands of books you had prepared. Although it fits perfectly into the palm of your hand, it also manages to hide four regular AA-size batteries for a maximum battery life of 23 hours.

Release date is around the door with prices close to $150.

You can’t say we didn’t tell you so because we told you so! The Barnes & Noble eBook reader has been officially revealed today, exactly as expected. Too bad for Barnes & Noble that their event overlapped Apple’s Macs refresh! Or should we assume that Apple decided to make sure the Mac refresh will steal our attention from the upcoming Windows 7 event in particular but also from Barnes & Noble press event?

After all, the upcoming Apple tablet is definitely a competitor for this Nook eBook reader. That’s the weird name Barnes & Noble has chosen for this outstanding product. In case you want a Kindle then you’d better reconsider and go for a Nook. And let’s not forget that there’s a QUE proReader coming from Plastic Logic too.

So what will the Nook have to offer? It measures only 7.7 x 4.9. x 0.5 inches and it weighs 11.2 ounces. The reader comes with two screens, as expected, a 6-inch grayscale e-ink display from Vizplex and a 3.5-inch color touhscreen under the main screen. Other features include Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity, AT&T 3G support, 2GB of storage space enough for 1500 eBooks, microSD card support for up to 16GB of memory, a powerful battery that needs 3.5 hours to charge after which it will be good for 10 straight days, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, micro USB connectivity, MP3 player and support for lots of files.

What does the Nook do besides letting you read your favorite titles? Well it also lets you make notes, highlight certain passages from your favorite books, listen to music and setup personal screen savers. In case that doesn’t matter that much than features like free Wi-Fi connectivity in Barnes & Noble stores, free eBooks, sample eBooks support and, most importantly, lend eBooks support are going to certainly impress you.

The Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader is now available for pre-order and at $259 and it’s definitely worth considering. Forget about the Kindle for a change and remember how Amazon wrongfully wiped data from everyone’s Kindle just a while ago. Maybe it is time to give Barnes & Noble a try don’t you think? You have plenty of time to sample the Nook before the tablets come in. But that’s a story to tell early next year when Apple and Microsoft will fully reveal their “secret” projects.

It’s always a good idea to check out Apple’s website on a daily basis especially when you know that an update its coming. And we’ve heard for quite a while that a lineup refresh is going to hit us soon.

What better moment for Apple to pull down the site and make the appropriate adjustments than a day after Cuppertino officials have posted the official fiscal Q4 2009 report. Apple’s sales have skyrocketed in the last quarter. The company has sold lots of MacBooks and iPhone while the iPod market saw a slight but understandable decrease. And Apple did say that the following months are going to bring us even more interesting gadgets. We assume they were rather thinking about the upcoming iTablet than the refreshed computers and accessories that we’re going to see today.

And what better moment for Apple to steal the buzz away from Microsoft? Redmond is launching Windows 7 officially in a couple of days and manufacturers already have various laptops and desktops ready to run the new Microsoft OS. Therefore Apple is hitting the market today with new products. New computers and new accessories are coming and Microsoft should definitely be pissed off at Cupertino. Potential Windows 7 laptops and desktops customers are going to choose Macs instead just in a few hours.

So what’s in store for today you ask? Well nothing at this particular point in time but in a few hours we’ll be able to analyze the refreshed white MacBooks, the iMacs, the Mac Minis, the Time Capsules, the Mac Pros and the new mice. That’s about all we know it’s coming from Apple this fall. In theory we shouldn’t be surprised by any new Apple product since most of them got leaked well before launch.

That also means that now is a good time to buy any of the now “old” devices. The refreshed line will come with updated prices so if you don’t want a brand new Apple gadget then you’ll end up saving some precious cash on the older models.

What do you think? Is today an Apple day for you or you’d rather wait two more days and go for a Windows 7 computer?

Earlier today we showed you a brand new eBook reader. The oddly named Alex Android eBook reader has been made official by Spring Design but that’s not the only reader we have for you today.

Remember that Barnes & Noble color eBook which we’ve had in our sights in the last couple of weeks? Well it has been made official by its creator. Plastic Logic has announced the QUE proReader (that’s the official name so far) but the manufacturer failed to reveal the main specs, the prices and arrival dates. What we do know is that the QUE will arrive at the next CES and January 7, 2010 is the day when we’ll return with more details.

The QUE appears to be the official reader of Barnes & Noble. At this point we have no idea whether it will sport a color screen or not and the teaser image above doesn’t show the screen. Instead we can see that this QUE will be one of the slimmest gadgets out there as it measures less than a third of an inch in thickness.

So let’s see what we do know about the QUE proReader! The device will measure 8.5 x 11-inches and it will use the E Ink Vizplex technology in a shatterproof touchscreen display. Other features include 3G connectivity via AT&T and an eBook store that will be available at QUEreader.com. Barnes & Noble will be bringing all those titles at the QUE store.

The QUE will let you read PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents but you will also be able to edit them which sounds very good at this point. That means you’ll be able to work on your documents while on the go which is not something other readers are willing to let you do yet.

Wait a second there! Wouldn’t you be better of f with a tablet instead? You know, a tablet would look like a reader and it will also let you read and edit documents. It would also have a touchscreen display, 3G and WiFi connectivity and it will bring a lot more color in your life. Not to mention it will also offer audio and video playback too.

Before telling you about this Pulse smartpen I’ll have to admit that I happen to type a lot more words than I’m writing. And there’s a simple reason for that. I can understand the words I’m typing whereas my writing isn’t that easy to decipher. Furthermore I’m not getting tired as fast when using both of my hands to type instead of simply writing everything done.

But there are various situations when typing isn’t possible. That’s when one could use the Pulse smartpen in the picture above. Made by Livescribe the Pulse smartpens will be offer you handwriting and audio syncing which is a features most recorders can’t offer.

The Pulse comes in two versions, 2GB and 4GB and they will be available for $169.95 and $199.95, respectively. The 4GB can offer you up to 400 hours of recorded audio files. Furthermore Livescribe will offer applications which can be added to the Pulse when the Application Store will be available later this year.

Before choosing your next writing / recording solution you should also know that the Pulse is also available in Pro-Pack bundles. The Pro-Pack contains a 4GB Pulse smartpen, an A5 notebook, a premium leather carrying case, handwriting to text transcription software and a Pro Charging Cradle. The Pro-Pack bundle will cost you $249.95 and it will be available together with the simple 2GB and 4GB Pulse smartpens in Best Buy, Apple, Staple, Target and Amazon stores.

The Pulse will be using an infrared camera and a microphone in the stylus which will make taking notes a lot easier. The pen will be able to record both your writing and your conversations. The files can be synced with your computer and your handwriting can be transformed into something that you’ll be able to read easily in the future. In order for the Pulse to record everything you write you’ll need to use a special Dot Paper also made by Livescribe. The paper lets the infrared camera know where it is and therefore the Pulse will precisely record all your writings. At the same time the voice recorder will be able to show you exactly what was spoken at the time a certain phrase was written.

Just last week we were talking about Barnes & Noble’s upcoming eBook readers. Now we know that the company will launch an eBook reader next week on October 20 at a special event hosted in New York City.

But this is where things become more interesting! In our recent article we talked about two potential Barnes & Noble readers, both created by Plastic Logic. One was supposed to be available in regular gray by the end of the year while the color version was rumored to arrive at some point next year. In the mean time we heard that Barnes & Noble has denied the existence of a color eBook reader. The regular grayscale version is however on track and should be unveiled next week. Barnes & Noble has even sent out invites for a “major event in our company’s history” scheduled for October 20 in NYC.

So do you really think that the color version is out of the question? Well then how can the picture above be explained? Gizmodo has unveiled what looks to be the official picture of a color eBook reader that’s supposed to be available in Barnes & Noble stores soon.

The device in the picture comes apparently with an 800 x 600 6-inch gray e-ink display and a multitouch 480 x 144 color LCD screen placed under it. So there you have it folks, that is supposed to be Barnes & Noble’s color eBook reader. The color LCD could work as a book cover browser and as a virtual keyboard, but it will probably have other features too.

Will this reader be cheaper or more expansive that the Kindle 2? It’s rumored that the Barnes & Noble reader will come with 3G support which means that carriers could offer it for a subsidized price. Unfortunately we don’t have any pricing details at this point and no carrier has mentioned any eBook plans for now. What are your thoughts on this rumored Barnes & Noble eBook reader?

Clickfree has a new portable hard drive solution for us, the C2, which comes packed with backup, storing and file sharing features. The new hard drive will be available in three versions: 250GB, 320GB and 500GB but before we talk about prices, let’s see what these babies can do!

The C2 comes with a lot of features otherwise not found in similar products. If you’re looking for a fast way of backing up your data, and we’ve recently seen how important personal data backups can be, then you should definitely give the C2 a try.

The new hard drive from Clickfree will come with the following features:

• Redesigned interface
• Built-in USB cable
• iPod Music and Playlist Import
• Migration support
• Encryption support
• DVD burning software
• File sharing support
• Backup and automatic backup support

The iPod Music and Playlist Import feature will basically let you connect both the C2 and the iPod/iPhone to your computer and the C2 will import music and playlists from it straight to iTunes.

Other important features which make the C2 stand out from the ultraportable HDD crowd are: migration, encryption and backup. The C2 will let you move your data to any computer and it will place it exactly where it needs to be. That way you will be able to upgrade or change computers as frequently as you want. Then you’ll be able to move the data on the new computer exactly where you were used to having it on the old one. The C2 can also be used to safely backup your precious personal data. 256-bit hardware-based encryption will offer you all the security you need when whether you backup files automatically or manually.

The C2 also comes with special software which will give it sharing and DVD burning capabilities. The drive will let you easily share media files between computers and even send them to Facebook or MySpace. Whenever you need to backup a DVD drive, the C2 will do it for you easily and effortlessly and a fresh copy of the DVD in question will wait patiently on the hard drive waiting to be burned at a later date.

Are you impressed yet? Well let me reward your patience with pricing details. The 250GB and 500GB versions will sell for $139.99 and $189.99, respectively while the 320GB version will be available starting from October 28 for 30 days only and it will cost $159.99.

GlideTV announced today its first remote control solution, the GlideTV Navigator. The device is the first product of the company and it’s a gadget meant to help you control various devices around the house.

The GlideTV Navigator will be compatible with various devices like home theater PCs (HTPCs), Windows PCs and Apple Macs, AppleTV, Sony PlayStation 3, Boxee and others. The device comes with a very interesting design which will certainly stir interest among your guests. It features a trackpad, backlit buttons and a wireless USB dongle.

If you have the general impression that this GlideTV Navigator is just a fancy wireless mouse then you are almost right. The device acts as a wireless mouse as it will basically offer you trackpad-based features. Besides the trackpad you also have buttons to help you control volume and playback and buttons for two-axis navigation. Other buttons like Esc, Enter, Back and Function keys are also available and they can be used to control various applications.

In case you could also use all the other keys available on a wireless keyboard then you should know that an on-screen keyboard will also be available for Windows users. The GlideTV Navigator also has to offer an integrated search menu which comes with links to Google, Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and more. Needless to say, you will need a connected device in order to actually use the Navigator for making any searches. Both the on-screen keyboard and the search menu are applications that have to be downloaded before you will be able to use them.

Do we really need this gadget or can we simply replace it with a wireless mouse and keyboard? Here’s what Chris Painter, the President and founder or GlideTV had to say about the Navigator, a product that won the 2009 Best of Innovations Award at CES 2009:

“Up to now, consumers who wanted to connect a computer to the TV to take advantage of digital content had to bring office equipment to their living room, making the experience bulky and cumbersome. With the Navigator, GlideTV brings simplicity to accessing internet-based entertainment and ushers in a new era for computing in the living room.”

The GlideTV Navigator is available for around $150 in various U.S. and European markets so if you want a good looking mouse for your living room, go grab it!

Some of you may argue against them but that doesn’t mean we won’t see more and more tablets pop up in the following months. Today we have the WebStation, a 7-inch Android tablet PC announced by Camangi, under the scope.

What’s a little strange about this official launch is that although Camangi issued a press release describing the new product, the official site has gone down and it hasn’t come back up again. The device in the picture above is not the WebStation, but we’re working on getting you a better picture of it. Has Camangi announced the WebStation ahead of time?

So let’s proceed to features and details. After all, whether by accident or not, the WebStation has been officially unveiled. Here’s what we can expect from this Android Internet tablet:

• 7-inch resistive touchscreen display
• WVGA 800 x 400 resolution
• Marvell 624MHz PXA303 processor
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0
• GPS
• USB 2.0 port
• 2-megapixel camera on the back for pictures
• 0.3-megapixel front camera for video calls
• 400mAh battery
• Android 1.5 OS
• Dimensions: 4.7 x 7.9 x 0.53 inch (2mm thicker than the iPhone)
• Weight: 350g.

The WebStation will let you browse the Internet and enjoy your favorite videos while you’re on the move. But the tablet will conveniently act as a digital photo frame or eBook reader too if that’s what you need. What’s impressive is that this tablet is probably one of the few netbook-like devices capable of running Android OS. Just think of it like a much bigger smartphone capable to offering you the same mobile experience. Similar gadgets will probably run Chrome OS by the same time next year but in the mean time Android will have simply have to do.

Camangi is going to make the device available at some point in late November, just in time for the holidays. The company did not specify any pricing details but since the tablet could be bundled with a 3G broadband data plan by interested carriers, we can assume it will be quite affordable for the masses. The WebStation is supposed to be a “simple Internet device that is sufficient to meet the general daily usage of users” which could be another indication that the tablet will be available for a great price later this year.

See: Camangi Unveils WebStation Android Tablet [WebStation to Offer 7-IN Touchscreen Display, Marvell 624MHz Processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & GPS]

If there is probably one thing that we don’t need at this point in time, that’s another eBook reader. There are plenty such gadgets as it is, with Amazon’s Kindles being the most famous ones available. Barnes and Nobles however feels lucky enough to launch a similar product and their color eBook reader is expected to arrive in Spring 2010.

The device in question has been apparently leaked at the CTIA show. According to a Barnes & Noble representative, the future eBook will be made by Plastic Logic and it will feature a color screen. The eBook reader should be as big as a paperback and it would run a Barnes & Noble eBook reader application. Before we get to see the color version Plastic Logic will also launch a grayscale eBook reader. In fact the rumored 6-inch Barnes & Noble device should hit the stores sometime next month, just in time for the holidays. Plastic Logic has also confirmed that the color model is just “around the corner” so a Spring 2010 release sounds plausible enough. Barnes & Noble will be the first company to launch a color eBook reader but will that be enough to impress us?

In an earlier post on TFTS I was telling you how, in the near future, it will make more sense getting a tablet PC instead of an eBook reader. Apple and Microsoft are each going to launch one early next year while several other minions are working on their tablets too. The devices will have enough resources to do plenty of things, one of them being acting as an eBook reader with multitouch support. And it will all be available in color. So if we happen to buy a tablet in a few months, would we really be interested in a color eBook that can’t offer us as many features as a tablet would?

What Barnes and Noble should do is develop a great eBook reader application, one that is capable to run properly on iPhones, BlackBerry and Android smartphones and tablets of course. After all neither Apple nor Microsoft have all that content to offer to future tablet owners when it comes to eBooks, although that might change in the near future. With all that in mind it will be interesting to see if Amazon and Sony decide to pursue similar dreams involving color eBook readers.

The year of the tablet is upon us! Earth will be flooded by tablets in 2010 and LBook doesn’t want to miss out on the action. The company, previously used to selling eBook devices is going to launch the T9 tablet in March 2010 for $350.

I have this complete and utter deja-vu feeling! Rewind back to 2008 and you’re going to remember how everyone in the computer business decided that netbooks was the way to go after seeing Asus success at selling the first Eee PCs. By now everyone is capable of making a netbook and they all bring similar features to their customers. Sure there are lots of netbooks that stand out from the crowd but I’m not trying to make a point about quality issues here.

This year we heard countless rumors about the Apple tablet. Officially denied by Cupertino, the tablet is closer and closer to an official launch. The new Apple computer should be available in 2010 and everyone expects Steve Jobs to announce it early next year. And those rumors related to Apple’s new toy have been growing and growing to the point where its main competitors have decided to also develop tablet PCs. We’ve seen Microsoft leak details about its Windows 7-powered tablet, the Courier, but things have not stopped there. HP is bringing its TouchSmart technology to laptops and we should expect all the other major players try to come up with a tablet product capable to compete against Apple’s and Microsoft’s finest.

Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised to see small manufacturers like LBook trying to pitch similar products in 2010. The T9 will be an 8.9-inch multitouch tablet featuring an Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard-drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, a 4-hour battery, integrated webcam, USB ports, multicard reader and Windows 7 running in the background. Did we just go through the future average tablet portrait? Are we to expect tablets to replace current netbooks? Won’t we miss physical keyboards? We’ll be able to answer all these questions once we’ve seen Apple’s vision of the tablet as it looks like Apple will set the trend in this tablet business too.

Personally, with (currently free) online services such as iPlayer here in the UK (you’ll doubtless have your own particular catch up services) that are already readily assessable whilst out and about via phones and connected PMPs we do wonder quite whether this newly unveiled FLO TV Personal Television, being that it requires you to sign up to a paid subscription service in order to view programming, will find a particularly large market – but if you are happy to stump up monthly payments to access TV on the go, it may well be of interest.

The FLO TV Personal Television, which measures in at a highly portable 4.4”x3”x0.5”, comes with a 3.5” color touchscreen display allowing for touch navigation and, whilst we’re yet to see its full specifications, FLO TV have confirmed that the device comes with onboard stereo speaker (output wattage unknown) and will offer up to five hours of TV viewing endurance based on a full charge or up to 300 hours in standby.

The catch? In order to watch live and time-shifted content over the FLO TV dedicated multicast network you’ll need to subscribe to the service which will set you back what FLO TV’s press blurb states as ‘the equivalent of $8.99 per month*’. You’ll note the asterisk which, on a little further reading, boils down to the following:

*Taxes not included.  Additional fees and charges may apply.  Pricing and service subject to change at any time.  Prepaid subscription required for 1 year / 3 year plans.  3-year prepaid subscription required for $8.99 / mo. package.  After the expiration of the original prepaid subscription, your subscription will automatically renew and your credit card will be charged at the then-current rate.  Special introductory offers and waived activation fee expire 12/31/09.  All prepaid annual and monthly subscription payments are non-refundable.

So, if you want TV on the move, you’ll not only have to pay per month but you’ll need to sign up to a plan ranging from one to three years in duration (just to be clear here). Personally, I’d rather stick with the content I can already access, for free, and without having to take out any plans (except for my phone plan, but the vast majority of us have those anyway, right, and, more crucially, would keep those plans regardless of whether our not you opt for this device and taking up the plan required to access content). It’s not appealing to us, but, yes, we accept, you may see it otherwise.

The FLO TV Personal Television is set to release ‘this holiday season’ and will set you back just short of $250.

We’ve often talked about how digital photo frames are evolving to encompass ancillary functionality and now along comes the D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685, which serves as both a 3.2” digiframe and a 802.11 router in what is, I’m sure you’d agree, once of the most curious amalgamations yet.

Billed as being ‘the industry’s first all-in-one home network router that combines powerful 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity with network attached storage (NAS), USB device-sharing, digital photo frame, Internet content player, FTP server and Green technology in a sleek, compact desktop design’ the D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685 is a decidedly curious device in that, whilst you’d expect its digiframe functionality to be rather limited (as if it were merely an after thought) its capabilities in actuality offer more than just serving as a digital slideshow. Of course, it’ll happily do that, but it’ll also stream video and offer up weather forecasts whilst, thanks to its NAS capabilities it’ll also handle BitTorrent downloads with data being stored on an internally mounted 2.5” SATA HDD (available up to 1TB capacity).

Add into this two USB posts touting D-Link’s unique SharePort technology which ‘allow multiple users to wirelessly share USB devices such as multi-function printers (MFP), scanners and external hard drives from virtually anywhere in the home or office’ and an onboard WiFi scheduler – allowing you to turn off WiFi connectivity in order to save on energy consumption when connectivity isn’t required (say, when you’re sleeping) – and what you have is, by anyone’s definition, and enormously capable, single solution device that covers rather more functionalities then once could possible ever envisage.

“This router is the ideal solution for power consumers who want the ultimate ‘all-in-one’ networking device,” says Daniel Kelley, senior director of marketing for D-Link Systems in Fountain Valley, Calif. “Not only does it offer full functionality as a router/NAS storage/print server/FTP device, it is attractive on any desktop, environmentally friendly and Internet secure.”

The multi-faceted D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685 is now available for just shy of $300.

ASUS, the first company to showcase USB 3.0 ports on a motherboard, has once again proved why they are the world leader in motherboard technology with their new Sabertooth 55i motherboard.  The new board contains components that have been tested under extreme temperatures and deemed “military-certified”.

The military grade of each component is not the only reason for all of the recent hype surrounding the Sabertooth.  The new CeraM!X Microfin coating allows for a better heat dissipation because of the extra surface area provided by the rough coating.  This cooling factor, along with the CoolMem! fan frame that will house most 40-50mm fans directly over the CPU, the Sabertooth will be as cool as the Fonz.  Not only that, but the Sabertooth is built specifically for Intel’s i5 and i7 series processors.

The rest of the Sabertooth’s components are pretty standard when it comes to a high grade motherboard.  This includes four memory slots for a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 RAM, 10 channel Hi-Def audio, support for multiple NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ and ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ graphics processors, and 8 rear panel USB 2.0 ports.

ASUS still has to release information on the rest of the motherboards in their new TUF (The Ultimate Force) series, so do not expect to hear about a release date or pricing information anytime soon.  The good news is that the rest of ASUS’s TUF line and, hopefully, future motherboards will use the new cooling technology to allow for our processors to run at faster speeds.

I don’t know why but I always had a problem with netbooks. They were way too small to properly enjoy movies or even video games, the keyboard was almost impossible to use, not to mention the lack of a touchscreen or even a decent OS. But they quickly become popular due to their ultra-portability and especially their price. In the mean time netbooks have evolved and today we are looking at a dual netbook coming from Haleron Technologies, the Swordfish Net 102.

I must admit that in the mean time I have become used to the idea of actually owning a netbook. It’s not the price that has convinced me but the prospect of the netbook-like tablets running better OS (iPhone OS / Mac OS X and Windows 7). While I am waiting for those to become official I happen to check out all the other netbooks that appear each week. And this Swordfish Net 102 strikes me as a both grotesque but potentially brilliant idea. The Swordfish packs to Atom processors!

Do we really need these small computers to come equipped with two Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processors? What could we possibly do with them besides draining the battery faster? After all the netbook is a handy tool to use when your main laptop or desktop is unavailable. Just larger than a phone, the netbook will get you all the extra features you need during a busy day. So what would we have to do in order to require not one, but two Atom processors in a computer that’s meant to temporarily replace our default machine?

While you’re thinking of a good answer for me, I’ll go through some of the other specs of this smart beast. The Swordfish Net 102 will offer you a 10.2-inch display, 2GB of DDRII RAM, a 160 GB SATA hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, 1.3-megapixel webcam, optional 3G module and Windows XP in the background. All in all this isn’t a bad tool after all. You can have it for just $449 which happens to be a great price. But yes, for the same amount of cash you could get an actual laptop. If you happen to buy the Swordfish Net 102 after all, do drop me a line and tell me how those two Atom processors are performing. Hopefully the default 3-cell battery won’t die that fast…

Pioneer may be forgiven for wondering why they had bothered as reaction to news concerning their new BDR-205 Blu-ray writer which, thanks to boasting 12x write speed, manages to claim the mantel of being the fastest BD writer to date has at best, and in the main, been rather muted in terms of excitement.

In fairness, however, and having thought about it for all of a few minutes (perhaps less, in honesty) as much as we’d like to get excited about it ourselves – I mean, this is the first 12x BD writer we’re talking about here – we just can’t. This is not the fault of Pioneer. This is not a reflection on the BDR-205. It’s just that, all said and done, its just inherently not all that interesting. That said, we’re going to give it a go.

Or then again, perhaps not. No perhaps we’ll just let Pioneer’s press release (and, specifically, its abject dullness) give you an idea as to just how excited Pioneer are themselves concerning the BDR-205 9and in this respect, its all quite telling).

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announces its new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc® Computer Writer, the industry’s first and fastest model to feature up to 12x write speed for single and dual-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) media*. Ideal for authoring providers and system builders, the Pioneer® BD/DVD/CD Writer provides accurate, rapid performance for demanding professional applications.

“The BDR-205 drive represents our ongoing efforts to combine Pioneer’s engineering expertise with advanced technologies, and our next generation Blu-ray Disc writer is a great example of our no-compromise approach to optical disc product development,” said Steve Cohn, director of optical disc sales for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “We are bringing to market the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer to date, and it is just one of the many ‘firsts’ that have come to define Pioneer’s 30-year heritage in optical disc innovation and leadership.”

Dynamic Performance for an Array of Professional Users

When utilized with a properly configured PC, the drive’s Low Vibration Mechanism Design improves overall writing accuracy, especially for those preserving copious amounts of critical data. Designed for maximum flexibility, Pioneer’s writer provides significant solutions for multiple user groups, including:

* System builders can confidently recommend the sophisticated BDR-205 to their clients, noting the drive’s unique design, robust build quality and high grade parts

* With 50Gbytes** of storage space on a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, professional users can utilize the BDR-205 to rapidly test high definition feature films during the authoring process, as well as to back up large volumes of data with ease

* Besides up to 12x write speeds for Blu-ray Disc media, Pioneer’s new computer drive also provides read and write speed performance up to 16x for DVD and 40x for CD media

The new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc computer writer begins shipping October 2009. The retail version of this product, the BDR-2205, will be available Q1 2010 for $249 MSRP.

And there you have it. Perhaps it’s not us after all. Perhaps the BDR-205 is, genuinely, just nothing to actually get remotely excited about at all?

The Nintendo Wii will soon face competition from their arch rival, the Sony Playstation 3.  Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that the year 2010 will see the debut of their “ Motion Controller” (as not featured in this post’s content – being that no actual images of said controller appear to be in circulation). Of course while it didn’t mention Wii as a source of inspiration, its clear that this controller will seek to cash in the motion sensitive gaming phenomena, which the Wii started.

The Sony “ Motion Controller”  prototype was first unveiled at the recent gaming E3 Expo. The controller makes use of PlayStation Eye camera to track motion and according to Sony is therefore highly accurate. Some are calling the controller game changing since it will be able to recognize the player’s face, voice and body motion.

The Sony “ Motion Controller” will feature two motion sensors, three axes gyroscope and three axes accelerometer, in addition to what Sony is calling rumble” vibration which will really give the feel of gaming.  This also means that simultaneously Sony will also work hard at releasing new games that will fully make use of the motion sensitive technology.

As someone who grew up playing the Atari (yes I am old), all these new developments in the gaming world make me really excited. I am sure there are many like me who are not hard core gamers but end up with buying all the consoles thanks to all these new advancements. Also competition means price wars, which are always fun for us consumers!

You can’t say you’re not excited about the prospect of USB 3.0. The new standard is official and all we need now are gadgets capable of using it. We have shown you the other day the first USB 3.0 hard drive, the Freecom XS 3.0, and we can expect even more USB 3.0-ready devices to appear in the following months. But how successful will USB 3.0 really be? Sure it’s 10 times faster than USB 2.0 but do you know what’s coming? It’s called Light Peak and it’s the hottest new connector in town.
Light Peak is an out of the box idea conceived by Apple in 2007 and developed by Intel at Apple’s request. Light Peak is a new optical standard that’s currently developed for future Apple ultrathin laptops and tablets but it will surely become more popular than that. It’s not just a simple new connector; it’s an universal connector which will offer 10Gbps speeds. Imagine having a couple of Light Peak ports available that would be able to handle FireWire, USB, Display Interface and even Ethernet.

The prospect of not having to worry that your slimmest laptop can’t play nice with all your other equipment is certainly very interesting. And it’s not just Apple computers that will use Light Peak ports as Intel will probably offer it to other platforms too. Who would be able to refuse a speedy Light Peak port? Every computer maker out there will want to offer it to their customers once Intel makes it available.

Does that mean that you shouldn’t upgrade to USB 3.0? Absolutely not! It’s going to be a while until Apple can release Light Peak so why miss out on USB 3.0? We’re probably going to see Light Peak next fall the when the new Macs will hit the streets just in time for school. Then in 2011 a low-power version of Light Peak will hit handhelds and cell phones (think iPhone 5th generation.) Of course, at this time we don’t have any specific details about these upcoming products.

If you’re anything like me you are surrounded by hundreds of CDs and DVDs from years of collecting. While not all of them are worthy of keeping (Lady’s Man, anyone?) it would be nice to be able to have a record of every movie and CD in my collection so I could at least attempt to get myself organized. Something like that might even come in handy for insurance reasons. The IntelliScanner Classic from IntelliScanner can help you do just that and all you have to do is scan the barcodes while it does all the work.

The IntelliScanner Classic is a handheld laser barcode scanner and software system that was designed specifically to help you keep your media collection organized. It really is as easy as it sounds. All you have to do is scan the barcodes on books, DVDs, CDs and games and the IntelliScanner automatically identifies the corresponding detailed product information so you can organize, sort, search and share your collection.

The software that comes with the IntelliScanner Classic gathers information like book and CD titles, album and DVD cover artwork, and authors’ names. Once you’ve scanned and recorded all of your multi-media into the IntelliScanner database you can publish the entire collection online at www.intelliscanner.net so you can share it with family and friends. You can even manage the entire database from your iPhone.

The IntelliScanner Classic is available for sale now for $99 ($79 with student/educator discount) at www.intelliscanner.com. It’s compatible with both Mac and PC and comes with everything you need to get started right out of the box.

For those of you that are really into the whole graphic design thing, you’ve probably been working with digital pens and tablets for years now. Where tablet and pen technology is still a relative newcomer is within the home and general consumer market. Most computer users are more comfortable using a mouse for their digital photo manipulation and until very recently digital tablets have been out of reach of the average consumer price-wise. Not only that, but you were pretty much stuck having to use a stylus as your input device rather than your own digits. All that’s about to change with the latest product updates from the tablet-makers at Wacom. Their new Bamboo consumer tablets have been updated with five new products that now include multi-touch technology.

Wacom has just announced that they are expanding their Mac-targeted Bamboo line of consumer tablets with the addition of five new products all of which now sport multi-touch, finger-based input. The five new Bamboo products include a touch-only, pen-only, and three versions of the pen and multi-touch combo. The new Bamboo family consists of three core products: Bamboo Touch, Bamboo Pen, and Bamboo Pen and Touch. Two additional tablets, the Bamboo Craft and Bamboo Fun round out the new additions. The new multi-touch gestures include zoom, scroll, pan, rotate, and forwards/backwards, and all but the Pen-only model will feature ExpressKeys.

The Bamboo Touch is the most basic model and is marketed to those users that just want an additional input device or want to replace their mouse completely. The Bamboo Pen is a pen-only pressure-sensitive device with two programmable side buttons that ships with Corel Painter Essentials 4.0. The combo pack Bamboo Pen and Touch combines the benefits of both the multi-touch pad interface and pressure sensitive pen input device. The Bamboo Pen and Touch ships with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Color Efex Pro 3.0.

Bamboo Craft, which comes with both the pen and tablet, is for the crafty home user that might just happen to be into scrapbooking and the like. It comes with a ton of goodies including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials, Color Efex Pro, as well as 26 digital scrapbooking lessons from designer Jane Conner-Ziser (Now who wouldn’t want that?), and a free scrapbooking album from Shutterfly. The Bamboo Fun ups the ante with a larger tablet and also comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials, and Color Efex Pro.

All Bamboo tablets plug into your Mac via the attached USB cable and are compatible with Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6. The Bamboo Touch ($69), Bamboo Pen ($69), Bamboo Pen and Touch ($99), Bamboo Craft ($129) and Bamboo Fun ($199) are available for sale now wherever Mac peripherals are sold. For more info and to purchase your own Bamboo tablet you can visit www.wacom.com.

USB is everywhere. It’s hard to remember a time when the ubiquitous technology wasn’t at the business end of just about ever piece of computer peripheral equipment on the market. While the current standard, USB 2.0, has been around for nearly a decade (it was standardized back in 2001) it seems that it may finally be nearing the end of its useful life. We want faster and it looks like we are getting closer than ever to achieving that goal with USB 3.0. Need proof that the new standard may be right around the corner? How about the fact that digital camera technology masters Point Grey have already demonstrated the world’s first USB 3.0 webcam?

The new USB 3.0 standard has been in development for nearly a year and its transfer speeds, upwards of 10x faster than our old friend USB 2.0, are definitely set to change the course of computer peripheral development, as we know it. At this year’s Intel Developers Forum, Point Grey unveiled a working prototype of the world’s first high-speed webcam built using the new USB 3.0 standard. Using the super-fast data transmission speeds of the new USB 3.0 standard, the webcam was able to stream crystal-clear 1080p high-definition video at 60 frames per second onto a 42-in HD monitor.

The camera itself is a melding of several existing digital video camera technologies including a 3MP Sony IMX036 CMOS image sensor and Point Grey’s own software driver, which provides low-level control of the camera via the USB 3.0 bus. The camera was connected to a USB 3.0 interface card on the host side, which was powered by the FL1000, a PCI Express to SuperSpeed USB Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) host controller chip from Fresco Logic. The host PC used an Intel i5-based P7P55D motherboard from ASUS. There are only two words that come to mind here, blazing fast.

Vlad Tucakov, Director of Sales and Marketing at Point Grey states, “One of the potential benefits of the increased bandwidth of USB 3.0 is that it allows the main processor to handle compression. This means that different types of compression can be used for different applications and that some applications, like face recognition, can work on uncompressed video data for increased performance. We certainly see USB 3.0 as a key interface technology for machine and computer vision, and one we plan to integrate into future Point Grey imaging products.”

Until the USB 3.0 standard becomes, well, standard, you’re going to have to wait to get your hands on an actual consumer copy of this type of technology. In the mean time, you can get a glimpse of the world’s first SuperSpeed USB camera from September 22-24 at IDF in the Fresco Logic booth #731 inside the USB-IF Community. The demonstration will also be highlighted on September 24th during the “USB 3.0 Architecture and PHY Interface (PIPE) Specification” Session – part of the SuperSpeed USB Technology Track at IDF. For additional information you might want to pay a visit to www.ptgrey.com.

If you’re the kind of computer user that craves speed and performance when it comes to your graphics processor then you are going to love the latest announcement from the folks over at Gigabyte. This morning they announced the latest release in their Super Overclock Series of graphics cards, the Gigabyte GV-N2752O-18I. The new card has all of the features that you’d expect of a high-end performance video processor along with a couple of new additions sure to have you drooling in anticipation.

The new GV-N275SO-18I Super Overclock Series graphics card marks the latest product introduction from Gigabyte and its list of features is quite impressive. The new card features an NVIDIA GTX 275 GPU and a pretty amazing 1792 MB GDDR3 memory (double that of a standard GTX 275 card) and 448-bit memory interface. Gigabyte uses a stringent testing and selection process called Gauntlet Sorting to test each processor. This ensures that each one delivers top performance, power efficiency, and reliability.

Rounding out the package for the new GV-N275SO-18I is 3-way SLI support and a dual-slot cooler. True to the card’s namesake, each one also comes with several overclocked frequencies: 715MHz for the GPU, 1550MHz for the shader and 2520MHz for the memory. As for connectivity, this card won’t leave you hanging. It provides D-Sub, DVI and HDMI ports.

As if all that weren’t good enough, the GV-N275SO-18I also supports NVIDIA 3D Vision technology, a new technology that is set to provide a full, stereoscopic 3D experience to computer gamers everywhere. No word yet on pricing or where you can pick one up.