Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know already that Verizon is going to debut an Android powered mobile phone this month. Things have confirmed and today, after getting our hands on a bunch of photos and specs we managed to understand what Big Red and Moto have been up to with their Motorola Droid (formerly known as Sholes or Tao).

The new Motorola Droid comes with a slide-out keyboard with a soft-touch rubberized finish, that adds to its thickness making it just slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS. Running on v.2.0 of Android with a significantly upgraded user interface, there’s a Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor (and is hailed as the fastest Android smartphone ever) under the stylish metal chassis.

On top of these all, the highlight of the new Motorola Droid seems to be the rather large capacitive display its amazing contrast and brightness.

Another interesting feature of the Droid is the desktop cradle/charger that comes inside the box, turning your phone into a real “multimedia station” by displaying the local weather, time or any other things of interest.

So what do you think? Should Apple feel the shivers down the spine?

Many thanks to our friends from BGR for the images.

It’s that time of the week again when we get stormed by something new in the automotive industry, with Volkswagen releasing two new models for the German market. We’re talking about the new VW Golf R and Scirocco R which have found their way to dealerships with a rather powerful four-cylinder, 2.0-liter, turbocharged TSI engine that puts them on the hardcore side of things.

Speaking of being fast, the new Volkswagen Golf R manages to churn out 265hp and 350Nm of torque, while the new Volkswagen Scirocco R, which seems to be just a bit heavier, outputs only 260hp. Both cars are being electronically limited at 250 km/h (155mph that is) and are supposedly bringing a significantly improved fuel efficiency (some 21-percent better).

Other than an amazing powerplant under the hood, both got some design changes including LED front and rear lights, 17-inch alloy wheels, updated bumpers, a stylish rear spoiler and a glossy grille. On top of that, there are also sportier seats and pedals.

The cars have gone on sale today, with the VW Golf R selling in at €36,400 and the Scirocco R for €33,475, respectively.

With all the applications for mobile phones, it’s pretty hard to choose a GPS navigator to keep you on track. However if you’re in for a new model, Garmin have just announced their latest nuvi 1450 personal navigation device. Boasting a large 5-inch touchscreen display that does 480 x 272 resolutions, the new Garmin nuvi 1450 offers map details, driving directions and photos in bright, brilliant colors.

Although there’s no Bluetooth or live traffic assist, Garmin nuvi 1450 takes pride with its multiple-point routing, a database of nearly six million points of interest and the microSD card slot for photos or map updates.

Making for the perfect travel companion, on top of that there’s lane assist with junction view to guide you on the right lane while on your way to work, pedestrian routing options and Garmin’s ecoRoute option which gives the most fuel-efficient route, calculates tracks fuel usage and more.

Garmin’s new nuvi 1450 is going to ship by the end of the month and will cost just shy of $450.

First introduced last month, we just managed to spot the new Vodafone 360 H1 mobile phone (which is expected to unleash the potential of the 360 service) showing off on the Vodafone UK website. Apparently the Samsung branded H1 is finally going to be available starting this month, with pre-orders already open.

Meant as a handset that will pack all your entertainment and social networking needs (like Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Facebook) in a single place, the 3G-enabled Samsung H1 has been built around Vodafone’s 360 service. It comes with a 3.5-inch OLED touchscreen display with 3D capabilities, has 16GB of built-in memory, a 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

On top of that, there’s also integrated GPS navigation, a memory card slot, email support and PC synchronisation for your contacts and to back things up.

The new Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 is expected to be shipped from October 30. On Vodafone UK it won’t cost you a dime as the H1 is free as long as you choose one of their plans, starting from £30.

Nikon has just gone official with one of the most craved-for DSLRs of the last couple of months, the new Nikon D3s. Long rumored, the new Nikon D3s is meant for the professional photographer looking for a powerful tool that brings superior image quality and high speed performance.

Bringing improved light sensitivity, the camera comes with a 12-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor, shoots up to ISO 12,800 in normal settings plus expanded settings to an astounding 102,400 extended ISO — that helps coming up with “images previously thought impossible”.

The new Nikon D3s not only looks solid, it is solid. The camera comes with the standard 51-point autofocus, shoots 9 frames per second at full resolution (or 11 fps at a lower-resolution DX crop), features an improved 100% viewfinder and adds better 720p HD video (1280×720 at a cinematic 24fps) with better low light conditions. It also comes with dual CF cards with overflow, backup and copy options — cards that will help you shoot RAW and JPEG separately, if needed.

Adding to the whole list of goodies, the new Nikon D3s has a rugged and precise magnesium alloy construction, a 3-inch super-density 921,000-dot VGA LCD monitor, can snap JPEG photos while videos are being played and comes with basic editing features. Kind of neat, eh?

Nikon D3s is expected to sell starting late November for something shy of $5,200. However we can’t help but wonder why the UK price is £4200 — which is a LOT more than five thousand dollars!

Renowned for their interesting USB peripherals, the folks from Brando never cease to amaze us. This time they’ve done it again with a stylish Wireless Encryption Mouse that keeps away from the standard 2.4GHz wireless devices we’ve been used with so far. And we’re talking about a mouse that comes with an innovative technology that not only promises to protect your confidential data on a PC or laptop, but actually gets the job done.

Especially meant for those who carry sensitive information on their computers, Brando’s wireless mouse comes together with an USB dongle that connect to your computer. When the two devices communicate, your folders are getting decrypted, otherwise you may rest assured that your data is encrypted and no one gets access to it.

That means, or at least Brando thinks so, that in case of a notebook theft you’re all covered.

Brando’s Wireless Encryption Mouse comes with a battery status indicator, tracks up to 1600 dpi, has up to 10 meters of wireless range, measures 102 x 65 x 35mm and should be available in either green, yellow, red or white. Not sure about you, but for $22 that’s certainly a good mouse. No?

[via Geeky-Gadgets]

We’ve covered the HTC Leo Windows Mobile 6.5 right back from initial leaks here on TFTS (see: HTC Leo Edition Clamshell Smartphone Enters the RumorMill) as well as its appearance in O2’s catalogue (O2 Confirms the HTC Leo in Official Catalog) and, yes, we also broung you the HTC Leo’s full specifications (HTC Leo (HTC HD2) Full Specifications & Features Now Official) and now, just to ensure we have all bases well and truly covered, e can bring you HTC’s official announcement concerning their first Windows powered phone to offer HTC Sense.

Agreed, there’s nothing here that we didn’t already know about the HTC Leo, however, in terms of insight, HTC’s official word certainly proves insightful concerning quite why it is that the Leo is gaining quite as much hype as it is (not least from us).

Here’s HTC’s Official release, in full, for your reading pleasure as well as. of course, a host of imagery to feast your eyes over:

HTC Unveils First Windows® Phone with HTC Sense, the HTC HD2

HTC HD2 delivers unprecedented Windows® phone experience with a high-resolution, 4.3-inch capacitive touch display

TAIWAN – October 6, 2009 – HTC Corporation, today unveiled the HTC HD2, the first Windows phone with HTC Sense, a customer experience focused on putting people at the centre by making their phones work in a more simple, natural and personal way. With its industry leading, high-resolution, 4.3-inch capacitive touch display, the ultra thin HTC HD2 delivers more visible content in a sharper, brighter and richer way.

“At HTC we believe that the best things in life should be experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is based on this principle by making the phone more simple and natural to use and by enabling people to personalise their mobile experience in their own unique way,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “With HTC Sense, the HTC HD2 melds the power and flexibility of the Windows platform with the most advanced phone we’ve ever created.”

“HTC has a long history of innovation with Windows Mobile, shipping millions of devices over the years in a wide range of designs,” said Andy Lees, senior vice president, Mobile Communication Business, Microsoft Corp. “The HTC HD2 Windows phone breaks new ground with its responsive, touch screen.”

The HD2 uses the first capacitive touch display on a Windows phone to make viewing, zooming and resizing websites, Microsoft® Office files, PDF documents and pictures easier with just a pinch of your fingers. The large display also enables faster, more efficient and accurate typing using the onscreen keyboard. Utilizing Qualcomm’s new 1Ghz Snapdragon mobile processor, the HTC HD2 offers enhanced performance that improves the speed of applications, videos, games and more.

Developed with a passion for enhancing peoples lives through innovation, design and ease of use, HTC Sense is rooted in three fundamental principles of Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine

The HD2 continues HTCs drive for personalization by reflecting not only what you want on your phone, but also where you are. Using its large 4.3-inch window-like display, HTC has brought a new dimension to weather with a localized, animated weather experience that utilizes HD2s entire display without being invasive to your important content and information.  The HD2 can also be further enhanced to reflect your needs and style by downloading a wealth of applications at the new Windows® Marketplace for Mobile.

Stay Close

The HD2 helps you stay close to the important friends and colleagues in your life with HTCs people-centric communication approach that provides a single contact view that displays individual communication snapshots of your conversations with the people in your life regardless of whether a call, text, Facebook status update or email were used. While in the midst of email exchange with someone you can easily transition to a call by pressing the call button. HTC has also included a new Windows-based version of its Twitter application, HTC Peep. The pictures you take with the 5MP camera can also be quickly shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Discover the Unexpected

With the HTC Sense experience, the HTC HD2 includes a variety of enhancements that expand and improve the overall phone experience. The HD2 includes a variety of sensors including a proximity sensor that is used to prevent false screen touches when the phone is picked up to answer or make a call. A light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the display. Leveraging its 3G broadband connectivity, the HTC HD2 also offers personal Wi-Fi anywhere for your computer or other devices.

Also available for the HTC HD2 is the optional car kit that automatically transforms HD2s user interface into a finger friendly in-car navigation experience for driving.

Windows phone

As a new Windows phone, the HTC HD2 showcases the powerful messaging, browsing and productivity capabilities delivered by Windows Mobile® 6.5. Offering a best in class e-mail experience complete with the ability to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange, you have the ability to check and manage multiple email accounts. Microsofts new My Phone service enables you to automatically back up and synch photos, music, contacts and text messages for free from the HD2 to the web.

Availability

The HTC HD2 will be available later this month with selected operators across Europe, before rolling out to other regions in the coming months.

About HTC

HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that are sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

Renderings of a new Audi electric concept have found their way online about two weeks ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany, and although the company failed at giving more details, the new e-Tron’s grand debut has managed (not that it would be hard) to cause some serious drooling to all those laying eyes on it.

Now speaking of those who fell for the R8-looking Audi e-Tron, you guys should be happy to know that the company finally came through and made the official announcement that the vehicle is actually going to hit production lines and should be available on the roads in less than two years.

The new Audi e-Tron electric vehicle is a two-seater sports car that runs on four electric motors  drawing juice from a 213kg lithium-ion battery hidden behind the seats, that offers a 154 mile range on a full charge. With 313 horsepower and an astonishing 4,500Nm peak torque (for an electric vehicle that’s nothing short of breathtaking), the new Audi e-Tron reaches 60mph in a mere 4.8 seconds and tops at 124 mph.

No word concerning a price, but we’re definitely in for an expensive four wheeler, one that we wouldn’t mind taking for a spin around the block.

Rumors have it that the good folks from HTC are working on a new Android smartphone to add to their current lineup. Dubbed HTC Dragon, the new handset has leaked in a recent firmware upgrade. Probably meant as the company’s flagship model, word is that the Dragon will be running on a Qualcomm 1GHz processor which will make the Sense user interface run smoother than never — although we’re not sure how it will affect battery life, to be honest!

Other than being ultra-fast, the new HTC Dragon is also expected to feature a rather large capacitive touch screen display that manages to boast an impressive 800 x 600 screen resolution. On top of that, the leaked screenshots have led us thinking that HTC’s new Dragon smartphone is probably going to be available with a TV channel, meaning that a Sprint or Verizon debut, sometime shortly, may be a real thing.

No official release from HTC as of now, but it sure looks like things are becoming interestingly in the Android smartphone niche. Don’t you think?

Although Gateway didn’t took the time to show off one of their most precious little pieces of technology, we still managed to get a hold of this slim and sleek new Gateway EC18T tablet. Leaked online from an anonymous source, the new EC18T is Gateway’s first step into the tablet PC niche which is getting more interesting by the day.

Apparently the new Gateway EC18T comes with an 11.6-inch touchscreen display, comes with Intel Cor 2 Duo processors and packs 4GB of DDR3 RAM to keep things on the smooth side of things. On top of that, the powerful tablet PC packs a Mobile Intel GS45 Express chipset, which, even though it won’t allow you to play the most demanding video game, will do great in rendering either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Basic Edition.

As you’d probably expect, these are not confirmed specs yet, so obviously there’s no word concerning hard drive storage, a certain release date or a price for the new Gateway EC18T. It sure looks appealing to us, though.

Anne Forschner, a 24 year designer who has recently graduated from the Pforzheim University in Germany, is trying to prove her talent by taking the auto industry by a storm with a solar electric BMW concept. Dubbed BMW Lovos — which stands for Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity, although the vehicle looks like an aggressive porcupine, we’re still being attracted by its futuristic design and its uncommon shapes.

Meant to reduce material use to a minimum possible level, the concept stands as a “symbol of the conscious self-restraint” as Anne envisioned it.

The body of the Lovos is made from 260 identical interchangeable particles that resemble with fish scales, which move to either act as individual airbrakes (plane inspired, not a bad idea) or to make the car as aerodynamically as possible.

On top of that the scales are fitted with photovoltaic solar cells that are supposed to grab sunlight and transform it into energy to power the car’s wheels.

Kudos to Anna for such an amazing concept — which we’d love to take for a spin if real, but we’re afraid this solar electric BMW Lovos will never see the sun shining.

Dell have introduced a new notebook to their business lineup, the flagship Latitude Z600. Meant as the thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptop, and the world’s first to charge wireless, the new Z600 has been announced for sale and instead of the rumored $2,000 price tag, you can get it for $1,799 after an online discount.

Still pretty steep for the average consumer, the $1,799 price is going to get you Intel’s Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB SSD and a Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card.

And just in case you were wondering, you got that right, the above configuration is not getting you the sensational wireless charging system that will cost $360 more. Speaking of the innovative system, it’s included in the $2,199 “Business Package” that features a special module and a docking stand to help the Latitude Z600 charge without any wires.

On top of these all, the new Dell Latitude Z600 is shipping with a 16-inch 1,600 x 900 LCD display, a backlit keyboard to make writing at night easier, a 2-megapixel autofocus webcam, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (a/g/n) connectivity, and a 4-cell battery that will get the show going for 4 hours. Optional you can also get a 3G module, an external DVD or Blu-ray drive or the more powerful 8-cell battery that gives you an extra 4 hours of working time.

Looks like a powerful little beast to us …

Two years after launching the world’s first full touchscreen mobile, the Prada, and following on its success, the good folks from LG have stepped in once again by adding to their collection with the new LG GD510, also known as LG “Pop”.

Meant as the most compact 3-inch full touchscreen handset ever made, the brushed-aluminum LG GD510 keeps the stylish form factor but loses on the “extra bulk and unnecessary features” that used to make the Prada expensive. Versatile, yet keeping it stylish simple, the GD510 is virtually frameless with a narrow bezel of only 4.8mm.

“We gave the LG GD510 an optimized feature set which allowed us to concentrate on making the phone more compact and simpler to use,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our high-end phones like the Black Label Series New LG Chocolate (LG BL40) may be getting all the attention but there’s a gap in the market for affordable touchscreen phones that we want to fill. The LG GD510 delivers all the essentials in communication, multimedia and entertainment and comes in a compact form factor as well.”

LG GD510 loses the S-Class user interface to something less complicated, comes with a 3″ WQVGA display, a 3 megapixel camera, 8GB of built-in memory and a single home key used for both calling/answering (green) and hanging up (red). Although there’s no Wi-Fi or 3G radios, there’s Bluetooth connectivity. More to it, the handset also manages to appeal to the green minded by featuring a (much craved for) optional solar-panel battery cover.

LG Pop (GD510) will be released in Europe mid-October, while the US customers will get their hands on it by the end of October.

LaCie and loudspeaker manufacturer Cabassee have joined forces to come up with a stylish pair of USB-powered speakers. Designed to be used with any Mac computer or PC, with the iPhone, iPod and virtually any media player there is, the  LaCie Sound2 Speakerss ystem has a plug-and-play connection that will help you set it up in no time — it’s driver-free for Mac and PC.

The LaCie Sound2 loudspeakers feature a built-in Class D digital amplifier with magnetic shielding that helps each speaker output a good 15W, for a total 30W peak. Other than that, the USB-powered speakers are also fitted with Cabasse’s Wide Band Drivers that vouch to deliver Hi-fi sound quality by offering a frequency response between 80Hz and 20kHz.

Crafted with a bass reflex design to better the low-end soudns, these little gadgets — which only measure 7.87 x 5.51 inches and roughly weigh 3.34 lbs, are compatible with Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7. The LaCie x Cabasse Sound2 loudspeakers are already selling on the company’s website for $99.99, but not in stock anymore, meaning that you’ll have to wait a few until you get them home. I know I am …

If, like us, you’re counting down the days till the release of what is undoubtedly the most accomplished driving simulator ever to grace any console with increasing impatience the news that the newly unveiled Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has now been confirmed for star billing in Gran Turismo 5 is hardly going to do anything to stem the mounting excitement.

Officially unveiled at this years International Motor Show, and presently staring at the Tokyo Game Show (until the 27^th of this month), the inclusion of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, which boasts an AMG-tuned 6.3-litre V8 delivering a mighty 571 horsepower, in the up and coming 1080p HD Gran Turismo 5, allowing gamers to experience the sheer power of a car that’s literally set the motoring world alight is, few would argue, a masterstroke on the part of both Mercedes and Kazunori Yamauchi and is sure to cement the title’s already certain success (not that GT5 was ever going to possibly fail).

So, what can you expect of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG? How does 0-100kph in 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 312kph grab you?  Pair this performance with the Nürburgring Nordschleife and, well, we’re talking racing sim nirvana and, just to get those juices flowing, here’s a video of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in action around the Nurburgring (feel free to salivate uncontrollably).

[In Game Images Credits | Jalopnik via GadgetLite]

]]> http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/09/25/gran-turismo-5-to-showcase-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-amg-tuned-v8-gt5-star-billing-officially-confirmed/feed/ 0 http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/09/23/viliv-s10-touchscreen-netbook-announced-10-viliv-s10-with-touchscreen-display-10hrs-battery-life-and-windows-7-home-premium/ http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/09/23/viliv-s10-touchscreen-netbook-announced-10-viliv-s10-with-touchscreen-display-10hrs-battery-life-and-windows-7-home-premium/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:10:05 +0000 Alex http://nexus404.com/Blog/?p=20902

The good thing about netbooks these days is that they’re truly ultraportable, have more than decent specs (including amazing battery life) and come in cheap if you compare them with laptops. These are probably the reasons for such a high demand, too. One of those companies who would love a slice from a pie that gets bigger and bigger, the folks over at Viliv have introduced their latest Viliv S10 netbook at the IDF gathering in San Francisco.

More renowned for their UMPCs and MIDs rather than netbooks, the new Viliv S10 netbook comes with a 10-inch resistive convertible touchscreen display (1,366 x 768), runs Windows 7 Home Edition and is powered by either 1.33GHz or 2GHz Intel Atom processors. Under the stylish casing there’s also the option for a 32GB or 64GB SanDisk SSD, optional 3G and 1GB of RAM memory.

One of the most interesting features of the new Viliv S10 (as most netbooks these days come in as a standard) is the really powerful battery that promises to keep the shows running for 10 hours straight. All these come with a price and it’s not that cheap : $500.

OK, normally there really isn’t that much excitement that can be drummed up for a lowly flashlight. They’ve been around for what seems like hundreds of years (1902, actually) and they all pretty much do the same thing. We’ve seen them all; there are rechargeable one, small ones, large ones, battery-powered ones, you get the idea. But what if I were to tell you that you could purchase one flashlight and that it was guaranteed to last you for the rest of your life? And that it didn’t use any batteries? That’s what the tactical gear makers over at 5.11 Tactical want you to know when it comes to their new Light for Life Flashlight UC3.400.

The Light for Life UC3.400 is not just any ordinary flashlight. First, it was actually designed for use by law enforcement, S.W.A.T. teams, and other paramilitary types, so you know it’s got to be built to last. 5.11 Tactical actually claims that this flashlight offers the longest uptime and fastest recharge of any flashlight on the market. 5.11 Tactical has actually partnered with IVUS Energy Innovations, the makers of Flashpoint™ Power Technology, to make the UC3.400 a reality.

Now here’s the kicker. In only 90 seconds, the UC3.400 Light for Life Flashlight will go from dead flat to a full charge. Yeah, you read that right. 90 seconds. Once the thing is charged it will provide up to two hours of uptime. They’ve even got the light degradation versus time all mapped out for you. The Light for Life lasts for 60 minutes at 90 lumens, cycling down to 25 lumens for 30 minutes and finally 15 lumens for 30 minutes.

And since there are no batteries (Mother Earth will thank you) to worry about there’s also no charge decay either. Charge decay is that annoying feature of most rechargeable devices where the longer you use them the shorter they last. The Flashpoint Power Technology system is rated for 50,000 charge/discharge cycles with virtually no degradation. That’s a charge a day for more than 135 years. Through 50,000 cycles, testing has shown that the Flashpoint system still retains 96% of its peak capacity.

Three LED’s that are rated for more than 50,000 hours each power the 5.11 Light For Life. That’s 40 hours a week, for more than 24 years. Guess you won’t need to replace them very often. The body is made from a rugged and durable polymer that’s impact, abrasion and water-resistant. There’s gotta be a catch, right? There is one downside. This little baby will cost you $169.99. I guess if you amortize that over the lifetime of the LEDs that comes out to a more palatable $7/year. Head over to waypoint www.511tactical.com to get your own.

Well, it certainly seems like the day for new releases in the computer gaming market. Having just reported on the latest release from Dell’s Alienware, the Mx15, it appears that it’s time for the spotlight to shine on Toshiba UK. The Brits are getting yet another high-end gaming laptop from the Japanese technology magnate in the form of the new Qosmio X500. This rocket-fast notebook computer is going to have gaming geeks all over the island wringing their hands in wonton anticipation of its October launch.

Toshiba UK announced today that they would launch the new Qosmio X500 (we can try to forgive them for the name) gaming rig sometime in late October and it is poised to create quite a stir. The Qosmio X500 is dressed all in black with the Toshiba Fusion grid design proudly displayed on the cover. Once you open the case, the enormous 18.4-in high-definition TruBrite 16:9 LCD screen (1920×1080 resolution), backlit keyboard, and LED-feathertouch control panel greet you immediately. But it’s underneath the skin where the new Qosmio really shines.

The Qosmio X500 is powered by an Intel Core i7-720QM (2.8GHz, 6MB L2, 1333MHz FSB) processor and features the nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250MNV graphics processor with 1GB of onboard memory. Upping the coolness factor, you also get an integrated finger print reader and face recognition via the embedded HD web cam. Necessart=y features? No. Does it make us want one even more? Yes.

On the memory side of things, the Qosmio X500 comes with 8GB DDR3 (1066 MHz) RAM and can be configured with up to a 1TB HDD with two 500GB 5400rpm HDDs. You get three USB 2.0 ports that support Toshiba’s Sleep-and-Charge technology – charge your devices even when the PC is off – and an e-SATA/USB combo port. Toshiba’s REGZA-Link HDMI-CEC port allows you to connect HD video and audio devices. A 5-in-1 Bridge Media port completes the connectivity features list.

But wait, there’s more. If you act now, or in late October when they’re actually available, you’ll also get a 6x BD-RE optical drive (Blu-ray rewritable), integrated wireless 802.11b/g/Draft-N, and Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, we’ve got no word yet on pricing, but, as Yoda might say, cheap it will not be. For more info and a detailed specifications listing you can visit www.toshiba.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 were wondering quite whether Bookeen’s Cybook Opus e-Reader would ever see the light of day then wonder no more as its Cybook Opus e-Reader, which sports a 5” 600 x 800 resolution ePaper display (equating to 200DPI), has just been released.

Setting itself against the likes of Amazon’s mighty Kindle, whilst the Bookeen Cybook Opus e-Reader certainly wins us over in terms of its curvaceous aesthetics we suspect that its lack of WiFi wireless connectivity will understandably be seen as somewhat of a disappointment by many potential purchasers and, frankly, it seems a decidedly curious omission. Still, lack of WiFi aside, its not unimpressive in terms of what it brings to the table.

Measuring in at 4.2” x 6” x 0.4” and weighing just 150g inclusive of battery the Bookeen Cybook Opus e-Reader, which is powered by an unspecified 400MHz processer, comes with 32MB of internal RAM backed up by 1GB of flash based storage capacity which, to put matters into perspective, is billed as being sufficient to store up to 1,000 books in HTML, PDF, EPUB or TXT file formats (which will certainly be sufficient for most).

The Cybook Opus comes sans touchscreen, instead offering up nine buttons for navigational and operational functions, whilst the inclusion of an accelerometer will facilitates the device switching between landscape and portrait orientations automatically however whilst the screen, as initially detailed above, is reasonable in terms of resolution it should be noted that it comes without backlighting or any form of integrated screen lighting meaning if you’re looking to use the Cybook Opus for a little night time reading you’ll need to provide ancillary illumination in order to do so.

It’s a mixed bag, certainly, but in fairness the Cybook Opus is far from unimpressive though we do feel that it’s rather steep in terms of pricing considering what’s on offer here in coming in at around $353 a pop.  Drop the price a little and we’d quite possibly be sold.

Many have tried to come up with iPhone or iPod cases that bring all sorts of functionalities or just a stylish design that grabs people’s attention, but little have succeeded to come up with both. Well it looks like the creative folks from Vers have proved their wood crafting skills by coming up with these stylish cases made from select US hardwoods (walnut or cherry) and Bamboo.

With a unique character enhanced by one of the most beautiful material around, Vers’ cases not only look neat, but they also come with reinforced steel pins that turn them into a naturally rigid and impact-resistant accessory for either your iPhone or iPod. More to it, the cases come with a soft, scratch-resistant lining and a durable UV & moisture-resistant clear coat.

Although Vers’ iPhone/iPod wooden cases obscure most of the screen, it can be easily removed thanks to a quick eject detail. Available with a large radii for easy pocket and bag access, the cases suit the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the iPod Classic and the iPod Nano. Prices to beautify your device start from $34.99. We’re sold!

You probably haven’t heard of a company called Kopin Corporation. This could be because they spend most of their time crafting micro-displays for the likes of the military and other highly-secretive, if-you-know-too-much-I’ll-have-to-kill-you type organizations. Either that or you really need to get out from under your rock more often. Anyway, Kopin have announced today that they plan to unveil their new Golden-i™ Wearable Computer at Microsoft’s booth # 400 at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston on September 22 & 23, 2009. Wearable computers a thing of science fiction you say? I beg of you to read on.

Geeky headgear aside, the Golden-i is a pretty stacked piece of technological cranium fashion. The crux of the unit is a combination three-ounce Bluetooth headset and 15-in virtual PC display. It also features a hands-free natural speech recognition interface capable of controlling just about every feature of your mobile device while it’s tucked away safely in your pocket. Kopin is promising that the Golden-i will serve us with hands-free spontaneous access to digital information, broadcast programming and Internet services all using the industry standard Bluetooth 2.0.

Interested to learn more about the behind-the-scenes action of the Golden-i? Thought so. The Golden-i is powered by Microsoft’s Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 R2 operating system along with a Texas Instruments OMAP3530 processor featuring an ARM Cortex-A8, high performance DSP and a graphics accelerator. Now that was a screenful. As for the communications portion of our tour, the Golden-i sports Nuance Communications VoCon3200 speech recognition and Vocalizer text-to-speech software platforms. Still need more? How about Micron Semiconductor’s ultra-fast, low-power, multi-bit node DDR2 RAM / NAND FLASH Package-on-Package (POP) OMAP mobile memories and MicroSD cards. I thought that’d do it for you.

You might be thinking that you need to carry an unlicensed proton accelerator pack on your back to power the thing, right? Well, according to Kopin, current testing suggests Golden-i’s OMAP dual processor platform can achieve over eight hours of typical use with a single 1200 mA/hr Li-ion battery. Boo-yah.

While the Golden-i may not quite be ready for prime time, Kopin plans to begin shipping Gen 3 Golden-i Eval SDK units for customer field trials in December 2009. Once they’ve worked out all the kinks, you might be able to purchase one of the production units sometime in 2010. There was such an overwhelming amount of info provided in the full press release that I didn’t want you to miss anything. You can click here for the rest of the story.

After Ramos with their promising Android MID, its Teclast’s turn to announce their sweet new Teclast T56 Portable Media Player. The T56 PMP comes with a 5-inch WVGA (800×480 pixels) display and a cool matte finished case with some angular styling that gets the eye.

But other than great looks, the new Teclast T56 also has the ability to output full HD 1080p video streaming. It comes with an HDMI output that allows you to easily connect to your HD display (whether it be an HDTV or an HD LCD monitor).More to it, the Teclast T56 will also have an USB On-The-Go port, an SD card expansion slot, GPS capability, FM radio and a microphone for audio recording.

Whether the display is a touchscreen or not, how much built-in memory it comes with, when it releases and for how much are all details yet to be known. Meanwhile Teclast is also promising more apps soon and an ebook reader for you to play with.

No word if Teclast T56 will ever be released in the US or Europe.

Courtesy of the global crisis we’ve all become aware that the car we’re about to buy — if we can afford one, has to be both sleek and fuel-efficient. However, since the offer is not that large, such a combination is hard to find. But not anymore! Straight from the halls of the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Germans from Volkswagen have taken the wraps off of their new L1 Concept Car which is dubbed as the “most fuel-efficient automobile in the world”.

With a bullet-like design that makes it extremely slim, the new Volkswagen L1 Concept features great aerodynamics and lightweight engineering. Under its hood, the L1 packs a 39-hp turbo diesel engine along with a 14-hp electric motor that only uses one liter of fuel (or about a quarter of a gallon) to propel the car for 100 km or 62 miles — which translates to an unbelievable 240 mpg.

A stylish piece of machinery, the new VW L1 prototype is capable of reaching 100 mph but only if you can afford pay for extra fuel as it consumes a huge 1.38 liters per 100km — which translates to 170mpg.

Word is that given its success at the German auto show, Volkswagen is considering production for the futuristic hybrid TDI vehicle and 2013 sounds like the year it’s going to be released.

We love it!

LG have officially unveiled their first ever ION based nettop in the form of the LG XPION X30 which, apart from being a particularly diminutive PC ideal for those looking for a space saving computing solution, boasts pretty impressive styling that’s sure to positively grace any room (unlike those desperately monstrous beige boxes of old – how things have moved on).

Information is pretty limited to just the essentials in terms of detail right now, but what LG have confirmed is that the LG XPION X30 Nettop, which, size wise, is comparable in height and depth to a page of A4, comes (unsurprisingly, this is an ION based machine after all) with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 CPU under the hood paired with Nvidia GeForce 9400 integrated graphics whilst, in terms of storage memory and capacity, you’re looking at 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM and a 250GB hard disk.

The XPION X30 Nettop, which comes pre-loaded with the Windows Vista Home Basic OS and which, of note, also sports a VESA mount (allowing the XPION X30 to be tucked away, say, behind your monitor – not that we see any reason as you’d not want to show it off) is also notable in coming with no less than six USB ports, not that you can ever have enough of them these days (though six will do just fine for most).

Billed as consuming a maximum of 40 watts of power – another benefit of its ION core – the LG XPION X30 Nettop is set to release in Korea as of today though at this juncture, though we’ve positively crawled though many a Korean page, we are unable to obtain pricing details.

[LG | via Geeky Gadgets]

Of late OCZ have certainly been doing their part to push down the pricing of solid state drives – and are to be commended for doing so – but, if you’re looking for a high-performance SSD, such as their just released Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD, there’s simply no getting away from the fact that it’s going to cost you (and cost you dear).

And the OCZ Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD certainly doesn’t disappoint in this respect, but then nor does it in terms of performance with the new SSDs offering up to 800MB/s read speeds and 750MB/s write speeds – which, in terms of performance, sees the Z-Drive SSD go head to head with the likes of PhotoFast’s G-Monster and their G-Monster Promise (though, it has to be said, nowhere near in the same league as the previously featured Fusion-IO IODrive Duo).

Aimed specifically enterprise set-ups the bootable OCZ Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD comes with high-speed PCI-Express architecture boasting 8 PCI-E lanes coupled with a compact enterprise-grade RAID array comprising of an internal four-way RAID 0 configuration and are offering in both multi-level cell (MLC) and single-level cell (SLC) variants (OCZ p84 and OCZ e84 respectively) with capacities coming in at 256GB and 512GB with a 1TB capacity version (p84 only) following up the rear.

“Traditional enterprise storage technology typically requires overly complex infrastructure as well costly maintenance, and is often unable to deliver the level of performance required by OEM applications,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group, who introduced the Z-Drive SSD range. “The new OCZ Z-Drive is an all-in-one high performance plug-and-play bootable PCI-E solid state drive that addresses these challenges head on, and meets the demands of the complete range of enterprise storage and data access requirements. The Z-Drive is designed not only to be higher performing and more reliable than conventional solutions, but also to significantly reduce both the maintenance and overall TCO for our clients.”

In terms of pricing you’ll be looking at forking out around $1500 for the 256GB variant whilst the 1TB p84 SSD will set you back some $3,300.

OCZ’s new MLC and SLC Z-Drive PCI-Express SSDs are available as of now.

While Sony is still denying the very existence of their Android-based XPERIA X3 smartphone, speculations are still flying around as to when it will be announced. Previously codenamed Rachel, the smartphone is likely to be released sometime in January 2010 according to MobileCrunch, quoting an unnamed source.

According to reports, the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X3 will have a rather large 4-inch WVGA touchscreen along with an 8-megapixel camera. When it comes to connectivity it will support quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as dualband 900/2100MHz HSPDA and HSUPA 3G connectivity along with Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11b/g and A-GPS.

Although Sony Ericsson had earlier demoed a new UI they designed in-house on top of the Android platform, the new XPERIA X3 will probably get it.

Rumors also have it that since the 802.11n standard has been officially approved by the IEEE, Sony may also include it! The device would also be capable of 30fps VGA video shooting and will have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSDHC slot for expansion.

Looks like a sweet specs sheet, just make sure you take it with a pinch of salt before falling for it …

So how would you like to have your very own smartphone running Windows XP? And I’m not talking about some diluted version of the real deal, I’m talking about a full-fledged all the bells and whistles (and bugs) version of Windows XP on a device that’s just about the size of a large-screen smartphone. I’m pretty sure that China’s ITG is betting that you’ll want one as bad as they want to make them. ITG has just started taking pre-orders for their xpPhone, which they are claiming is the world’s first conversion device that combines a full-function PC, smartphone, GPS, and Internet terminal into a handheld unit.

The xpPhone is the branchild of a little-known Chinese manufacturer called the In Technology Group, and it really does seem too good to be true. From what can be gathered from the company’s new English-friendly website it appears to be a truly pimped-out Windows XP communications and mobile computing device. According to the specs, the xpPhone is powered by an AMD Super Mobile CPU and comes standard with 512MB of memory (apparently upgradeable to 1GB). The display is a 4.8-in TFT touchscreen that offers 800×480 resolution and on-board storage includes both HDD (30G/60G/80G/120G) and SSD (8G/16G/32G/64G) together in the same unit.

Completing the package are pretty robust network compatibility with support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA (HSDPA/HSUPA), CDMA/CDMA2000 1X/CDMA1X EVDO,TD-SCDMA, and TD-HSDPA. As for its wireless connectivity, the xpPhone comes with integrated 802.11b/g, Bluetooth and optional WiMax. It also supports stand-alone GPS and has a less-than-impressive 1.3MP camera.

As of now there is no pricing information to be seen. ITG is taking pre-orders on their website for AT&T, Vodaphone, and Orange so it appears as if they are gauging external interest before opening the throttle. We’ll wait and see on this one, folks. Let’s just say we aren’t holding our breath. You can check out the whole story at www.xpphone.com.

Consumer demand for laptops is way bigger than desktop PCs, hence why LG have just announced their new WIDEBOOK notebook series that brings an extreme cinematic experience to consumers. Featuring a wide 16:9 HD LED-backlit display and running on Intel Core 2 Duo processors, the LG WIDEBOOK lineup includes five new models — the 15.6-inch R580/R560, 14-inch R480/R460, and affordable 13-inch R380.

The LG WIDEBOOK R580 and the R480 are the premium models that not only come with a stylish design, they also deliver maximum performance. On the other hand there’s the R560 and R460 which act as “reliable everyday workhorse”, and the diminutive R380 that comes with the Smart On feature which enables the machine to boot in a quick 5 seconds.

All models come in either 1600×900 or 1368×768 pixel resolutions, have up to 4GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce graphics with up to 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, 500GB hard drive, Wi-Fi (802.11n) and HSDPA data. They also include a 1.3 megapixel camera, e-SATA and HDMI interfaces to connect directly to your HDTV.

The five new LG WIDEBOOK laptops will be launched in Turkey, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, with Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America following up by the end of the month (September 2009). Nothing official regarding the price as of now!

Slowly, but very surly, we have watched the digital picture frame evolve into a multimedia power house that as well as displaying image slideshows offer multimedia support and wireless net access and now HP are pushing the functionality envelope further with their newly unveiled HP DreamScreen 100 and DreamScreen 130 digital frames.

Whilst offering all the features you’d expect from a digiframe, the new HP DreamScreen digital frames additionally bring both multimedia and wireless internet connectivity to the table to such a degree that one must question whether they have actually stepped aside from the ‘digiframe’ category of devices entirely and become, somewhat more so, digital entertainment hubs offering hassle free access to social media sites and online digital image portals whilst also offering broad audio and video support with the additional bonus of integrated connectivity to online portals such Pandora allowing for audio streaming with the DreamScreen’s integrated stereo speakers meaning that the device is wholly self contained.

Two DreamScreens have been unveiled by HP in the form of the 10.2″ HP DreamScreen 100 and the 13.3″ DreamScreen 130 both of which boast 2GB inbuilt storage capacity along with integrated card readers (Compact Flash I/II, Micro Drive, Secure Digital High Capacity, Memory Stick & Memory Stick Pro, XD picture card) whilst, in terms of connectivity, you can factor in the aforementioned WiFi (specifically 802.11b/g), 10/100 LAN and USB facilitating the playback of media from USB flash drives.

Taking about media, the HP DreamScreens offer pretty reasonable file format support taking in MPEG 1, 2, 4, H.264 video, MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV audio and JPEG, PNG, BMP image file formats though we would, were we to be especially picky, like to have seen FLAC, OGG and RAW file formats also accommodated. Inbuilt DivX support would also have been nice.

HP’s new DreamScreens, which naturally also serve as alarm clocks, are priced at around $250 and $300 (10.2″ DreamScreen 100 and 13.3″ DreamScreen 130 respectively) and appear to be available now from Amazon.

In the small hours of this morning (it was for me anyhow) we brought you the leaked details concerning Pentax’s new entry level K-X Digital SLR whilst advising that an official announcement should be following later today – and, as indicated, Pentax have now officially unveiled their K-X serving to confirm that the leaked details were indeed founded.

Pentax’s full press release is included below as we’re aware that there’s great interest in the K-X, however we have added to the press release with a number of new, official images (that are of somewhat better quality than we could offer you previously – see the gallery below) as well as Pentax’s official video introduction.

PENTAX ANNOUNCES AFFORDABLE, NEW PENTAX K-X WITH HIGH-END FEATURES INCLUDING HD VIDEO AND LIVE VIEW

PENTAX Imaging Company redefines the entry-level digital SLR category with the introduction of the K-x digital SLR. This latest PENTAX camera offers high-end features including Live View and HD video. And, since there’s no rule that SLR cameras must come in black only, the K-x will be available in a choice of white or black, as well as special, limited edition red and navy.

Priced at USD $649.95 (for body with DA L 18-55mm lens), the K-x is perfect for users stepping up from a point and shoot digital camera to their first digital SLR. The PENTAX K-x offers photographic performance that challenges higher class DSLR models and offers several features that set this camera apart in the entry-level category:

• High resolution 12.4 megapixel CMOS image sensor features sensor-shift Shake Reduction for stabilized image and video capture up to 4 stops max.
• Large 2.7 inch LCD features Live View with contrast, phase difference, and Face Detection autofocus (up to 16 faces).
• Widescreen HD video capture in full 720p resolution (1280×720) at 24 FPS cinematic framerate, using any PENTAX 35mm lens.
• Creative processing and filter modes produce high quality finished images, while offering the ability to explore artistic freedom through unique special effects.
• True High Dynamic Range (HDR) image capture blends 3 bracketed images into a single picture with outstanding shadow, highlight, and midrange detail.
• Fast 4.7 FPS capture speed and 1/6000 second maximum shutter speeds are possible with the PENTAX PRIME II image processing engine.
• Powerful automatic modes, including PENTAX Auto Picture and scene modes, ensure the perfect shot in any situation, while helping new photographers learn DSLR photography.
• Responsive 11 point wide angle SAFOX VIII autofocus system focuses quickly and accurately and easily tracks moving subjects.
• Captures up to 1900 shots with universally available, easy-to-find AA lithium batteries (also compatible with AA NiMH rechargeable and alkaline batteries).

Along with the K-x, PENTAX announced the smc PENTAX DA L 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED super-telephoto zoom lens. This lens will be exclusive to a K-x Twin Lens Kit package consisting of a K-x body, this new lens and the smc PENTAX DA L 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 lens.

The PENTAX K-x is now available for pre-order in black or white on www.pentaxwebstore.com and the product will ship in October 2009 in three options:

• K-x single lens kit with body and smc PENTAX DA L 18-55mm lens for USD $649.95.
• K-x twin lens kit for $749.95 with K-x body, smc PENTAX DA L 18-55mm lens and smc PENTAX DA L 50-200mm zoom lens.
• K-x twin lens kit for $849.95 including a K-x body, the smc PENTAX DA L 18-55mm lens and the smc PENTAX DA L 55-300mm zoom lens.

Limited edition colors of red and navy will become available at select locations to be announced. (Great to see Pentax offering a white version of the K-X following on from their white K2000 )

An impressive range of features for an entry level digital SLR, and at a keen price, but there’s nothing here to wrestle me away from ordering my EOS 7D (though, in fairness, it would be wholly incorrect to compare the K-X against the EOS 7D as they’re hardly in the same league).

Following on from being available in Europe for some time now its been confirmed that Nokia’s decidedly budget friendly XpressMusic candybar phone, specifically the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, has just become available as of today in the US via T-Mobile.

Aimed at consumers on limited budgets who are looking to buy into Nokia’s XpressMusic range of music phones, the quad-band GSM/EDGE Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, in very much coming in at the low end in terms of pricing, offers a fairly mundane range of features – the handsets main draw being its audio capabilities – such as a 2″ QVGA (240 x 320 resolution) 262k color screen, a 2 megapixel camera, and Symbian S40 OS whilst, from an audio perspective, there’s a reasonably featured audio player, integrated FM radio tuner, stereo Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP for hooking up wireless headphones and/or wireless speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack (for wired headphones) and a series of dedicated music keys allowing direct access to your tracks and track navigation without having to navigate via menu systems.

Other highlights, could you call them that, include a microSD memory card slot allowing for bolt-on additional capacity (a 1GB card being included) as well as a talktime of up to six hours, up to 21 hours of audio playback and a standby time of up to 288 hours based on a full charge.

Not especially exciting, we’ll grant you, but when you consider that the T-Mobile Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is being offered for just shy of a mere $30 following a $20 mail in rebate based on a 2 year contract it puts matters somewhat into perspective.

Exciting, no. A capable budget music phone that’ll not break the bank and which will undoubtedly find a market in the US as it has here in Europe? Most definitely.

High end professional gamers don’t need anyone to tell them how important a mouse is, and unlike me who’d go for cheap, they pay good money to make sure that one quick move is accurate enough to set the target on an enemy’s head. For them, the Swedish designers from QPAD have worked on a new device dubbed the QPAD 5K gaming mouse.

With an “innovative shape” (we’re not that sure about it) and “ground breaking technology”, the new QPAD 5K gaming mouse sports a powerful navigation engine that delivers high performance laser navigation. More to it, the laser sensor also delivers extremely high-speed motion detection and high resolution for precise tracking capabilities.

Although meant to the high profile gamer, the big drawback of the QPAD 5K is that there aren’t enough buttons to customize, but only five.

No word concerning a release date in the United States, but the press release states that lucky gamers in Europe will get their hands on one from October 20 if they agree to pay 60 Euro (some $87) + VAT.

Mostly known for PC imaging, audio, wireless technology products and video games controllers, Hercules would like a piece of the pie in the netbook sector – which seems to be booming lately, and today, they took the wraps off of a pretty powerful new Hercules eCafe EC-1000W netbook.

Coming as an outsider, the new Hercules eCafe EC-1000W netbook runs on 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, sports a 10.1-inch LCD that does 1024 x 600 resolutions and manages to pack a 250GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM under the stylish casing. With 801.

The new eCafe EC-1000W also features integrated Wireless (802.11n) connectivity, adds 50GB of free online storage and a 6-cell 4400 mAh battery pack that should keep the show running for some 6 hours. There’s also VGA out, three USB ports, Ethernet, a headphone jack, mic, and a 4-in-1 card reader to play with.

Bundled with Hercules applications like eCafe Connect (a connection manager for connecting to Wi-Fi) or Email Center (to control all your email accounts from one app), the new Hercules eCafe EC-1000W netbook will run Windows 7 Starter Edition and should cost $399 when released in the first week of November.

If you’re looking to carry an album of digital imagery around with you – perhaps to remind you of a past holiday or, being that we all seem to spend our lives working (or looking for work) these days, perhaps to help re-familiarise you with just how your family looks – you may be interested in the new Kodak branded digital photo keychain, known as the Kodak G150, which comes at us courtesy of Sakar.

Coming complete with enough internal memory capacity to hold up to 100 images, the Kodak Smile G150 Digital Photo Keychain – or ‘pocket-sized digital viewer’ as Kodak also like to refer to it – comes with an ‘extra-bright’ 1.5″ LCD display as well as integrated software that, apart from offering true USB plug ‘n’ play functionality affords the device both Windows (XP/Vista) and Mac (OS 10.4.6 or later) compatibility via the bundled Photo Uploader (PCs) and DPKMate (Mac) applications which also allows for basic image editing such as crop, resizing and rotating as well as differing background color schemes.

The Kodak Smile G150 Digital Photo Keychain, which comes with inbuilt USB rechargeable battery that’ll see you good for around two hours of photo viewing, is set to hit this month (September 09) and will set you back just shy of $30 inclusive of a bundled USB cable.

[Sakar | via Press]

Yesterday we offered you a heads up concerning HP’s latest AIO PC, namely the HP Pavilion MS200 AIO, but if you’re looking for touchscreen functionality, alas, you’ll find yourself looking elsewhere – perhaps in the direction of MSI’s latest Wind Top AIO PC known the MSI AE2200.

Coming with a 21.6″ 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920 x 1080 resolution touchscreen display the MSI AE2200, which is based on Intel’s G45 chipset, comes with Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 CPU paired with 4GB DDRII 800MHz SDRAM memory (which, incidentally, we should add, cannot be expanded due to no free memory slots being available) as well as integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics, a 5400rpm 500GB SATA hard disk and DVD Super Multi Rewriter Drive which, all said an done, may not amount to a powerhouse of a device but is pretty reasonable when compared with a great many AIO PCs currently doing the rounds.

Obviously, in being an AIO PC, the MSI AE2200 naturally additionally offers up Gigabit LAN and well as integrated WLAN (802.11b/g/n – nice the see Draft N represented) as well as the equally obligatory 1.3 megapixel webcam and 4-in-1 card reader whilst, in terms of audio capabilities, there’s built-in stereo speakers rated at 5W apiece though should you want to out the audio to a somewhat more capable speaker setup you’ll be happy to know that the MSI AE2200 additionally offers 7.1 channel surround sound support complete with SRS sound processing technology.

And, whilst we’re talking of connectivity, the MSI AE2200 offers pretty a extensive array of ports taking in E-SATA, SPDIF, HDMI, VGA, headphone and microphone ports though the number of USB ports on offer – just the two – is a little disappointing.

The MSI ‘Wind Top’ AE2200 will set you back from around $800 which, considering what’s on offer here, is hardly a King’s ransom.

Touchscreens are in, there’s no doubt about it. They are finding their way on to just about every piece of electronic equipment imaginable and consumers are eating them up at a record pace. While it’s true that the coolest consumer gadgets are sporting the latest and greatest when it comes to touch screens, most notably the multi-touch interface like that found on the iPod and others, it’s the enterprise users that have typically been left out in the cold. Having been saddled with my share of stripped down business laptops, I know what it’s like to miss out on the fun and, apparently, so does Lenovo. They’ve finally decided to let their hair down a bit and upgrade both the ThinkPad T400s and X200 Tablets with some touchscreen fun.

Lenovo announced today that it would launch two new business laptops with multi-touch displays, the ThinkPad T400s laptop and the ThinkPad X200 Tablet PC. Citing both increased consumer acceptance of the technology and the upcoming Windows 7 inclusion of touch technology, Lenovo has made the leap into multitouch with no signs of looking back. Both new PC screens will now recognize at least two-finger interaction and will also feature a new application called SimpleTap. SimpleTap basically gives users a menu interface of big buttons that they can touch to control routine system functions like volume, wi-fi activation, and system sleep.

The new version of the ThinkPad T400s is not much more than a retrofit of the previous model with a few extra bells and whistles thrown in to handle the touchscreen. The new touchscreen version, which Lenovo is calling the Enhanced T400s, still sports a 14.1-in monitor and the slim line design that remains the most portable of the Lenovo laptops at around four pounds and less than an inch thick. The base model is powered by the Intel Core2 Duo processor SP9400 (2.40GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB) and comes pre-installed with Windows XP Professional. It gets a kick from an additional 1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (up from 2GB in the non-enhanced version) and a bigger 250GB HDD (up from 120GB). The T400s also features louder speakers, dual-channel digital microphones and an integrated 2MP webcam.

The new ThinkPad X200 Tablet is also an upgrade. Built on the X200 Tablet platform, the new enhanced multitouch version features a 12.1-in display and Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.4GHz, 3MB L2, 800MHz) power plant. Rather than the stodgy Windows XP Professional, the X200 comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium. There really aren’t that many other points of differentiation between the non-touch version and the multitouch version of the X200 other than price and the screen. They both have the same 1GB of PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM and relatively undersized 160GB HDDs.

Both multitouch enhanced versions of the ThinkPad T400s and ThinkPad X200 Tablet are available for sale now for starting prices of $1,729 and $1,654 respectively. You can get more complete specifications and purchase your own by going to shop.lenovo.com.

Having just posted concerning HP’s up and coming all-in-one PC, namely the HP Pavilion MS200 AIO PC, we felt obliged to follow up with a brief heads up concerning HP’s Envy 13 and Envy 15 laptops – which are widely being touted as HP’s take on Apple’s MacBook Pro and Dell’s Adamo due to there somewhat ‘upmarket’ appeal – whose specifications and feature sets have now been detailed.

Sporting aluminium shells, a button-free trackpad and sexy chiclet style keyboards, the HP Envy 13 and core i7 powered HP Envy 15 laptops, which are billed by HP as a ‘lightweight heavyweight’ and a ‘performance powerhouse’ respectively (the latter being HP’s fastest consumer notebook to date) are detailed as follows:

HP Envy 13 (Specifically Envy 13-1050el) Key Specifications

• 13″ LED Backlit Display
• 1.86GHz Intel Core Duo SL9400 with 8MB cache
• 3GB DDR3 RAM
• 250GB SATA HDD
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 with 512MB onboard memory
• LAN 10/100/1000, WLAN (802.11a/g/n) and Bluetooth
• 2 x USB, 1 x HDMI, Headphone/ Mic
• 4 or 6 Cell Battery Pack
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) OS
• Dimensions: 32.0cm x 21.5cm x 2.05cm
• Weight: 1.7KG

HP Envy 15 (Specifically Envy 15-1060el) Key Specifications:

• 15.6″ LED Backlit Display
• 1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM CPU with 6MB L2 cache
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 Graphics with 1GB onboard memory
• LAN 10/100/1000, WLAN (802.11a/g/n) and Bluetooth
• 2 x USB, 1 x HDMI, 1 x combo eSATA + USB, 1 x RJ45, Headphone/Mic
• 6 Cell Battery Pack
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) OS
• Dimensions: 38.0cm x 24.4cm x 2.65 m
• Weight: 2.35KG

General Key Features (Envy 13 & Envy 15):

• HP QuickWeb allows customers to access key applications without booting the PC. In less than 30 seconds, users can access the Internet, music, videos and photos, and
• email.
• HP Clickpad integrates the buttons into the touchpad and allows for fluid movements, while also allowing users to disable the clickpad if desired.
• The keyboard’s direct-action keys (versus typical function keys) allow users to quickly access often-used commands such as print and volume adjustment.
• Minimal desktop clutter and trial software adds to notebooks’ simplicity.
• An optional external optical drive complements the Envy design and gives users the flexibility to carry the extra weight only when necessary. Two USB ports also transform the drive into a dock for additional capability.
• Both the Envy 13 and 15 are presented in streamlined paper carton boxes using minimal ink. Included in the packaging is a simplified setup poster and documentation contained within an SD card.

According to HP’s press release both the HP Envy 13 and the i7 touting HP Envy 15 are set to begin shipping in the US from October 18^th with unit pricing coming in at just shy of $1,700 and $1,800 respectively.

If you’re in the market for an all-in-one (AIO) PC that comes with an edge in terms of power (relatively speaking, and only just) when viewed against many a competitors low cost AIO, which in the main serve as repackaged netbooks, then you may be interested in HP’s newly unveiled AIO PC, namely the HP Pavilion MS200.

Dispensing with the all too usual Atom CPU for a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon X2 3250e CPU paired with an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card with 256MB of onboard memory, the HP MS200 AIO PC, whilst hardly a powerhouse in itself, certainly comes at us from a somewhat differing perspective than the vast majority of low cost AIO’s currently out there – which is to be welcomed.

Other notable features concerning the HP MS200 AIO PC, aside from the 18.5″ 16:9 aspect ratio (non-touchscreen we should add) display, include 2GB RAM (not the paltry 1GB offered by many an AIO) as well as a 7200rpm 320GB hard drive, a SuperMulti DVD drive, integrated webcam and a 6-in-one card reader whilst, in terms of connectivity, you can factor in WiFi (802.11b/g), Ethernet and no less than 6 USB ports.

Agreed, the HP MS200 AIO PC, which will run with Windows 7, barely has the edge over netbook flavoured AIOs but its refreshing to see HP at least offering something a little different from the same old Atom based AIOs that are currently flooding the market and in being set to retail at just shy of $600 when it commences shipping in October the price point is undoubtedly competitive too.

Back in March we offered you an initial heads up concerning the at that time newly unveiled Asus Eee Keyboard – basically a Eee PC housed within a keyboard complete with touchscreen offering wired and wireless connectivity to TVs, monitors and/or projectors – whilst also informing you of the Eee Keyboard’s billed release schedule (that’s slipped just a little since then). Now, however, it’s release timeframe has reportedly been confirmed as being set for October in both Europe and North America.

The Eee Keyboard, apart from touting an integrated 5″ touchscreen display, is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU (this is an ‘Eee’ branded device after all) with 1GB of DDR2 DRAM whilst, in terms of storage, you’ll have the option of either a 16GB or 32GB SSD whilst the device also offers up Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluettoth wireless connectivity backed up with HDMI allowing output to LCD TVs/HDTVs. There’s also USB and VGA ports.

There’s no official word from Asus concerning what OS the Eee Keyboard will employ but its not unreasonably expected to run with Windows 7.

At this juncture Asus remain wholly tight-lipped concerning unit pricing though our initial projections of it coming in somewhere in the $400-$600 price bracket would still appear to be pretty much in line with expectations.