IBLOG SPACE

After the release of 2D composite animation film My Friend Ganesha part 1 and 2, children all over have pondered and eagerly awaited for the next sequel of this flick. Titled as My friend Ganesha 3 (MFG3), the film has a stimulating effect and has garnered decent reviews from all over. Being touted as one of the best Indian 3D animated composite film, we also get to see India's most loved deity Ganpati Bappa doing an Item number and dancing with real actors. The film boasts of casting well known Marathi actors like Sayaji Shinde, Makrand Anaspure, Himani Shivpuri, along with Baba Sehgal, amongst others. Directed by Rajiv Ruia, the film was produced by Baba Arts and animation was executed by Radiant Animation. Emphasizes Rajiv, on the fact that shooting a 3D composite film wasn't as easy as compared to the 2D versions, "As a director the challenge was to frame the shots and compositing live action characters with the CG Ganesha. Let it be a Dolly, Jimmy-

There’s a lot of hands-on going on today, isn’t there? While Microsoft got their own keynote, looks like the Android-powered WePad wants to have its time in the limelight, too. Can’t say that we don’t blame it, or those who created it, considering all the talk this tablet is getting. We heard earlier about its official pricing, and now we’ve got it on video, doing stuff. And, that’s always better than rendered pictures, right? The WePad was being shown off over in Berlin, and it’s got a mind of its own. If you watch closely, as we know you will, you’ll notice that the tablet is doing things completely on its own. It’s slightly terrifying if you’re not watching close enough. There’s a mouse that keeps flicking across the tablet’s 11.6-inch touchscreen, activating certain features here and there. We’ll do a quick run-down of the specs, again: 16GB storage for one model, 32GB and 3G connectivity for the other version; 1366×768 resolution; Flash and Adobe AIR support; and two USB 2.0 ports

We obviously love all of our gadgets equally here at SlashGear, and wouldn’t dream of playing favorites, but when someone suggests bringing the toys together and having a good old fashioned comparison photo shoot then count us in. We found ourselves clutching an iPad up close to Dell’s Mini 5 and a host of smartphones this weekend, and since they’re not exactly in common circulation we thought you might like to see the end results. Most striking was the difference in size between the iPad and the Mini 5, the former having a 9.7-inch display and the latter 5-inches. It’s certainly noticeable in-person, and while the browsing experience on the iPad benefits from all those extra inches, the Mini 5 gets its own back thanks to Android’s native multitasking support. Finally, just for a little scale, we threw in HTC’s HD2 and HD mini, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and Google’sNexus One. Thanks to Richard and Andy for bringing along their gadget-models!

Remember the WePad? Another Android-based assault on the iPad, the touchscreen slate is getting its official launch today in Germany, including hardware specs [pdf link] and pricing. Kicking off at €449 ($611), the WePad has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor paired with 16GB of flash storage, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 1.3-megapixel camera; a €569 ($774) version will add in 3G and have 32GB of storage. Both models pack an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 touchscreen, two USB 2.0 ports, Flash and Adobe AIR support and a LiIon battery good for up to 6hrs. There’s also optional GPS, a memory card reader, ambient light sensor, accelerometer and stereo speakers, plus an audio output. The project is a collaboration between 4titoo and Neofonie, with Siemens, Intel and Adobe as partners, and the WePad is apparently capable of Full HD 1080p playback (likely with some sort of integral Broadcom HD decoder). Preorders for the WePad will kick off – in Germany at least – come April 27th, with a soft-launch

ASUS have already thrown AMD Phenom II X6 support into their M4-series of motherboards, and now the company have thrown another tidbit into the mixture: IEEE 802.3az. In case you’re not familiar with the latest acronym, that’s Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) and it promises to cut power consumption by up to 81.3-percent during periods of low network activity. Okay, so it’s perhaps not the most exciting feature-add we’ve ever seen, but ASUS are the first to do it and it sits alongside functionality like USB 3.0 in their already-nifty M4 boards. Still, saving money is something everyone is pretty interested in, and the news that operating a gigabit ethernet LAN now requires only 89.1mW of power instead of 476.8mW during periods of lower utilization adds up to more cash in your pocket.

Motorola may not make HDTVs, but that doesn’t mean they can’t jump aboard the 3D home entertainment bandwagon. The company has announced that it will be pushing out an update for its 1080p24/30-capable set-top boxes that adds automatic 3D content handling. By integrating the 2D/3D processing in-box rather than leaving it up to the HDTV itself, it means less remote juggling and menu surfing for the viewer. Meanwhile, since the Motorola DCX box is handling the content, it automatically converts the on-screen guide, any captions or subtitles, or other messages so as to be presented in 2D or 3D as appropriate. No word on when the update will be distributed, nor which cable companies are planning to take advantage of it, but of course they’ll need to be offering 3D content themselves, anyway. Still, it hopefully means one less hurdle to getting 3D movies into the home.

It comes as little surprise, but Best Buy have announced that – as of April 18th – they will be offering the Barnes & Noble nook in their retail stores. The nook will be priced at $259.99, and be sold alongside B&N ebook gift cards for those wanting to give the dual-display ereader as a present (or if they’re unwilling or unable to use their credit card). Meanwhile, Best Buy will be preloading the Barnes & Noble desktop app on select notebooks, desktops, netbooks and smartphones, giving buyers a) an out of the box way to purchase ebooks, or b) another piece of bloatware to uninstall. Still, if you’re already a nook owner then the software can be sync’d to the hardware ereader, sharing ebooks bought on each together with notes and bookmarks.

We’ve barely put the first quarter of the year behind us and it’s already shaping up to be one that will be noted as an inflection point going forward. We’re going to remember 2010 as the year that changed everything. I’ve talked in the past about the velocity of mobile and the rate and pace of innovation; now we’ve seen the next step in that process with Apple’s news of iPhone OS 4.0. It was an interesting set of announcements so let’s break them down. First, the platform is evolving, which is good news for Apple. In short, nobodies’ platform from last year will be good enough for next year. We’ve seen Google update Android and Microsoft announce a new mobile platform. Today was Apple’s turn. Most of the news was evolutionary not revolutionary. Apple says there are now 1,500 new APIs for developers to take advantage of but (for example the ability to access camera, calendar and other stores that were previously off limits) and support for some basic features such as Bluetooth keyboard

Whether iPad-inspired or just coincidental, it sounds like Google aren’t content to leave the tablet market to Apple. While devices like the Notion Ink Adam and ICD Gemini will both run Android, according to the NYT Google are planning an own-brand tablet; CEO Eric Schmidt has apparently been boasting about the Android-based Google tablet at a recent party, and sources with “direct knowledge of the project” reckon the search giant has been quietly working on media content deals including magazines and newspapers. Meanwhile, there’s also talk of a second HP tablet, with a six-inch touchscreen. The new HP slate – which would be a second device to the existing tablet the company say will launch later this year – has supposedly been nicknamed “the half-pint” because of its 6-inch display, and is also believed to run Android. As for Microsoft, their Courier dual-display tablet is still being tested – despite there having been no final decision whether it will even launch – as the company

Sony has announced two new ranges of MP3 players, targeted at the budget market. The Sony B150 Series Walkman has the familiar memory-stick form-factor, with a 3-line LCD display and basic controls, while the SonyW250 Series Walkman squeezes everything into a set of earphones. 2GB and 4GB versions will be available of each, though only MP3 and WMA (non-DRM) files types are supported on the B150; the W250 can also play AAC and Linear PCM files. The W250 headphones’ claim to fame is that they’re waterproof, and so can be used in the shower, while jogging in the rain or even if you have a tendency to get a particularly sweaty head. They come with a docking stand that also recharges their integrated battery; they’ll last up to 11hrs from a full charge, while the B150’s will last for up to 18hrs. The B150 and W250 Series models will go on sale – in Europe at least – come late June 2010 and early May 2010 respectively. No word on pricing as yet.

AMD has been gradually dripping out information about their hexacore Phenom II X6 processors over the past few months, but at least one Chinese retailer seems to have jumped the gun and put official, boxed chips on the market already. EXPReview picked up a few AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processors from a local store, with the 2.8GHz chip costing RMB 1,999 ($293). The chips each have six cores (obviously) together with 9MB of cache and use AMD’s Socket AM3 (938); according to the box, they were made in Malaysia. Speaking of packaging, it’s a change of style for AMD with an eye-catching bright blue box and bold Phenom II branding. So far all AMD are confirming is that the six-core chips will support their new Turbo CORE technology for selective overclocking; still no sign of an official launch date.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Meizu but it seems the company has been watching Apple’s iPad and planning their alternative. The Meizu Mbook is an 8.4-inch touchscreen slate running at 1024 x 768, with an unnamed 1.5GHz processor capable of 1080p output via an HDMI port. There’s also integrated WiFi, 3G and GPS, and the touchscreen uses – like the iPad – a capacitive layer rather than resistive. The whole thing is expected to measure 210 x 140 x 14 mm, and the battery tipped to last for up to 12 hours use. OS is presumed to be Android, though heavily customized in the process. Right now we don’t know how much the Mbook might cost, nor exactly when it could arrive, though it’s speculated that we won’t see it on shelves until early 2011.

Naively we thought multiplayer gaming meant you and lots of other people all over the world coming together to play simultaneously, but Zhek Kromtor’s multiboxing rig takes a slightly different approach. Intended to allow him to log into the EVE virtual world as twelve separate characters, the convoluted system – which has multiple mice and keyboards, all stuck together with dowels – is intended to get around EVE’s block on so-called software multiboxing, where keyboard/mouse sharing apps are used to speedily control multiple characters. EVE will block you if they think you’re using software macros to give yourself an unfair advantage, and it seems software multiboxing is also a bannable offence too. What is allowed, however, is multiple PCs, each with their own controls, that the nimble-handed gamer can attempt to wrangle all at once. We can’t help but think it looks like it would take some of the fun out of the game, but this is obviously how Kromtor enjoys his EVE and we bet he ge

Flip’s latest pocket camcorder, the Slide HD, has not only made it to Best Buy before the company have officially announced it, but actually been sold too. Scott Peterson headed down to his local Best Buy in Roseville, California, and picked up the sliding/tilting video camera – complete with touchscreen and HDMI port – for $279. Apparently functionally the Slide HD is pretty much on a par with previous Flip camcorders, only it has a new 3.5mm headphone socket in case you want to preview your footage while on the move. There’s 16GB of onboard memory, good for up to 4hrs of HD-quality video. There’s no sign of an official press release from Cisco yet, but we’re guessing that if stock is already at – and leaving – retail stores then it’s likely to come sometime this week. Still, you could always try to jump the queue and see if they’ll sell you one early.

Archos had already spilled the beans on their plans to flesh out the Internet Tablet range this coming summer, but the company’s recent travels to China have outed a few new tidbits along the way. Apparently Generation 8 of the Archos Internet Tablet range will consist of six new models, with screen sizes ranging from 3- to 10-inches and prices from $100 to $350. As we heard before, Archos are looking to the ARM Cortex processor range with clock speeds between 800MHz and 1GHz, together with 3G OpenGL support. There’ll also be multitouch support, something lacking from the current generation of Internet Tablet hardware. We’re presuming that the new range will run Android with Archos’ UI modifications – and their AppLibs replacement to the Android Market – in place, though there’s no confirmation with it so far. Hopefully we’ll hear more at Computex in June 2010.

Gasp at the unrelenting beauty of a knock-off Nexus One cellphone with a carefully cloned iPhone UI: yes, friends, as though Apple and Google had got up close and personal on Spring Break, it’s the TEGW3000. The Nexus One inspired casing is actually a little more pocketable than the original, thanks to it using a smaller 3.2-inch 320 x 480 touchscreen, though you’ll also have to make do without 3G. Still, there are still dual SIM card slots, along with WiFi and both front & rear cameras (though the main one is just 2-megapixels), plus an analog TV tuner. While there’s no talk of what chipset the phone is based on, we’re guessing it’s not using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. The likelihood of it ever reaching US or European shores is slim to non-existent, but if you have 810 Yuan burning a hole in your pocket ($119) then M8Cool.com will happily take it off you.

Sharp have become the latest HDTV manufacturer to tip their hand with regards a 3D launch, confirming that they will be releasing 3D-capable models this coming summer. The Sharp Aquos 3D TVs will use the company’s new four-primary-color Quatron 3D LCD panels, which are apparently optimized for 3D viewing and is, in fact, 1.8x brighter when viewing 3D content (which requires special glasses) than 2D content. As well as the usual red, green and blue pixels, the new Sharp Quatron 3D panels throw in yellow as well; they also have a new processing technology called FRED (Frame Rate Enhanced Driving) and side-mount scanning LED backlighting, which apparently reduces crosstalk (aka ghost images when viewing 3D content). The end result is brighter colors that are more vivid than those of rivals. While specific launch dates are yet to be finalized, the new HDTVs are expected to arrive in Japan in June 2010. No word on pricing at this stage, but Sharp say they’ll be offering sets up to 60-inc

You can’t really argue with the fact that a nettop – especially an all-in-one – is basically a deskbound netbook with a bigger screen, and Elitegroup obviously couldn’t even be bothered combining the ECS Morph-A’s display and base section into a single chunk. Still, they’ve obviously been busy with the orange go-faster stripes, perhaps a little incongruous given the Intel Atom D410 or D510 processors actually powering the machine. There’s also up to 4GB of DDR3 memory and whatever storage you can squeeze into a 2.5-inch HDD bay. Happily Elitegroup have also squeezed in a DVD burner, so you can use the 21.5-inch Full HD 1080p display for media playback, though owners will probably want to plug in external speakers to the 5.1 surround sound connections, rather than rely on the stereo 2W integrated cones. Otherwise there’s gigabit ethernet, six USB 2.0 ports, a 5-in-1 card reader, audio in/out and a slot for either a WiFi card or an optional 3G/WiMAX modem. No word on pricing or availa

Having heard talk late last week that HTC were considering picking up Palm, the big news this morning is that – despite protestations to the contrary by the company’s executives – they’re apparently looking for potential buyers. Bloomberg has heard from three sources that Palm have quietly engaged Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Qatalyst Partners to handle the possible sale; both HTC and Lenovo “have looked at the company and may make offers” those sources maintain. Dell is a third name mentioned in among the potential suitors, though the company’s spokespersons – like those of Lenovo and HTC – have declined to comment. There’s talk that more likely possibilities include Huawei and ZTE, both lesser known telecoms hardware firms but who would be able to use webOS to better differentiate their handsets. Palm themselves are saying nothing, but it’s perhaps telling that their stock has seen its most significant surge of recent months coincide with rumors of a sale. Analysts expect the bele

On Sunday morning two days after his office in suburban Mumbai was visited by goons allegedly attached to the alleged gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, producer Sajid Nadiadwala, no stranger to attacks, is calmly ensconced in his home. "It's not so much me but the ladies in my family, my mother wife and my daughter who are pareshaan . I keep assuring them I am fine. Nothing will happen. I've full faith in the Maharashtra police. Last time in January when there was a crime situation at my home the cops had acted swiftly and the culprits were nabbed. This time too they've leapt into action. I feel I'm in safe hands." On Friday morning the goons barged into the compound of Nadiadwala's office and left number allegedly linked to Lakdawala. "I guess it was about money. Luckily it was too early in the morning for me to be in the office. They asked me to call up on the numbers. I immediately called the cops," says Sajid trying to keep his tone

We can’t say we’ve ever felt the pressing need to save time and download energy by buying our external storage and digital movies at the same time, but Seagate’s latest FreeAgent Go offers just that simplicity. The 500GB USB 2.0 portable hard-drive comes preloaded with twenty different feature-films, although you don’t actually get them included in the purchase price; instead, Seagate – and Paramount Pictures, who they’ve partnered with for this – allow you to pick which titles to unlock, charging you between $9.99 and $14.99 for each one. To get you in the mood, a copy of the latest Star Trek movie is included in the sticker price of the drive, and the media files themselves are licensed for playback on multiple platforms. They’re not DRM-free, however, and Seagate will be pushing out a firmware update for their FreeAgent Theater+ media player later in April so that you can watch the movies on your HDTV simply by docking in the hard-drive. The full list of pre-loaded titles is in th

No, it won't serve as a replacement for that sweet touchscreen remote Samsung showed off at CES and is shipping with its priciest 2010 HDTVs, but the company's new iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad app will let those devices stand in for standard remote functions. Of course, that's no big deal if physical buttons are more your thing, but it also enables gesture control and game controller functions for Samsung Apps, so if you have the hardware, there's really no reason not to bridge the gap with this free download. Hit the read link to go straight to iTunes for the program and a couple more pictures of what to expect.

If you've managed to pull your eyes away from our no-holds-barred liveblog of Microsoft's Kin announcement, you might've noticed that there are videos up on the official Kin site depicting the the UI in all its hipster-lite, storytelling glory. Still, in case you're not a 20 something living in Brooklyn on your parents' money while pursuing a career in the arts, we've turned those motion video picture things into regular stills for your staid perusal. We even added little descriptors below the galleries, which due to your acute lack of ADD you might even find time to read. We upped the videos after the break as well, just in case you wanted to try your hand at the young-and-hip life, but here's the basic breakdown: Kin Spot is a little hot spot at the bottom of the screen almost akin the virtual "binding" in Courier. You can drag pictures, addresses, web pages, and other media into it, and then drag the faces of friends who you want to send the sta

We've just spent some time handling Microsoft's just-announced Kin One and Kin Two, and we're not sure what to think; the keyboards have surprisingly good feel, particularly the One (think Palm Pre levels of usability on the One, for example -- we wouldn't be surprised if it was their benchmark) and the phones generally feel pretty solid. In fact, we'd go so far to say that this is a marked improvement in hardware quality for Sharp than any of its Sidekicks ever offered. Problem is, we just can't get over the fact that the software is extremely limited in its scope -- yes, we understand that it's by design, but does this so-called "upload generation" of socially-connected teens and twentysomethings really want a phone that they can't download games to? That's the million-dollar question that Verizon will be answering over the next few months, it seems. We know that the One is positioned as the slightly lower-end device on account of its 5 m

It's finally official: Microsoft Pink -- the product of Redmond's acquisition of Danger -- has just been unveiled as a pair of handsets sourced from Sharp (which made most of Danger's Sidekicks) known as the Kin One and Kin Two. The devices are being marketed as Windows Phones, and while they're ultimately based on most of the same underpinnings of Windows Phone 7, it's a distinctly and totally different experience -- the entire user interface is custom to Kin with a heavy social media slant, a custom browser (we're told it's based on the Zune's browser), and surprisingly, zero support for third-party apps. The displays are capacitive with support for multitouch (yes, you can pinch and zoom in the browser), but there's no support for in-browser Flash or Silverlight. Kin One -- the phone we'd seen rumored as "Turtle" -- is basically a curved square slider with a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, an

Now that the iPad is out and iPhone OS 4 has been announced, it looks like Steve Jobs is taking a little time to catch up on his email -- in addition to taking up the new SDK rules, it appears he's very tersely confirmed what we sadly suspected all along: the first-gen iPhone won't get an upgrade to iPhone OS 4. That makes a certain amount of sense, given that Apple's subscription accounting model for the original iPhone only booked free upgrades for 24 months, but really, that's just paperwork -- we don't see why Cupertino couldn't at least allow for an iPod touch-style paid upgrade, especially since the upgradeable iPhone 3G runs essentially the same hardware. And let's not forget that first-gen iPhone owners paid more or less full price for their devices, so if this is true, Apple's summarily dead-ended a $400 phone just under three years after it launched. Of course, none of this is officially confirmed yet, so anything can change -- we've pinged

If we need another reason to be envious of Chinese residents, it'd be the premium treatment that they're getting from Dell these days. Spotted on Chinese mobile regulator TENAA's website are two 3G phones from seemingly different design departments -- the never-before-seen Mini 3T1 (pictured) is a "TD-SCDMA / GSM dual-mode cellphone" that "supports HSDPA," dons a 2-megapixel camera on the back plus a front-facing one, and we're betting on Ophone for the OS; the second device is the familiar Mini 3iX (an exotic cousin of AT&T's Aero) that will sport the same old WCDMA radio. No word on availability of either handsets in China yet, but hey, who cares when the Streak is on the horizon?

No idea what this is but the Twitterverse has an inkling that we'll see Ovi Maps integrated with Nokia Messaging. Jury's still out on hardware like, say, the N8-00 -- though as the rumored flagship S^3 device we'd expect its reveal to be a bit more formal than a countdown.

You probably have yet to experience its original incarnation, but with mere months left before the IEEE finally decides on the standard for the improved 802.16m version of WiMAX, a group of companies has finally stepped forward to support the new protocol, and solidify that nice, marketable "WiMAX 2" name while they're at it. Dubbed the WiMAX 2 Collaboration Initiative (or WCI for short), Alvarion, Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Sequans, XRONet, ZTE and ITRI intend to, well, collaborate to make sure the new protocol can compete with LTE, while our old friends Sprint and Clearwire -- who are keeping their options open in the 4G wars -- simply cheer them on. Hit the source link for invigorating quotes from each company involved.

While iPhone 3G owners and would-be Windows Phone 7 buyers sit in the corner, quietly weeping over their lack of true multitasking, webOS and Symbian continue to point and laugh. In mid-January, a Palm Pre Plus was seen cackling with joy over its rivals' misfortune even as the device staggered under the weight of 50 simultaneous applications, and less than a week later, a Samsung Omnia HD performed the very same feat, despite having only half the Pre Plus' RAM (i.e. 256MB) to work with. Now, in what we can only interpret as a large middle finger and "come here" gesture to all who aspire to the cell phone multitasking heavyweight title, we have a video of the i8910 running no less than sixty-two applications thanks to a custom ROM by HyperX

Uh, whoa. Bloomberg just reported that Palm is putting itself up for sale and that offers will potentially come in this week. That's pretty wild news, considering CEO Jon Rubinstein was adamant just a few days ago that Palm had a plan to get profitable -- even while his company's stock price went on a buyout-rumor fueled rollercoaster. Bloomberg says that Palm's already retained Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, with HTC (yes!) and Lenovo both expressing interest -- and Dell's apparently already taken a pass. Naturally none of these parties are saying anything on the record -- we just pinged Palm and they declined comment -- but if this is true, things are about to get wild, and fast. We'll keep you updated, stay tuned.

It's been a while since we've heard much about the Dell Streak / Mini 5, but it seems like the plus-size phone (or mini-size tablet, whichever you prefer) went on a bit of an undercover media promotion tour last week: Viacom MTV exec Greg Clayman tweeted that it's "amazing," while Rob Enderle brought one to the set of John C. Dvorak's Cranky Geeks and said it would launch for around $300 on contract. What does it all mean? We're assuming it's being shown off in an effort to drum up some content partnerships: we've already heard about tie-ins with Amazon's MP3, video, and Kindle stores, and we'd bet that Dell's also going after newspapers, magazines, and video sites hard in an effort to push back at the iPad -- especially since the company is planning to bring out an entire "family of tablets" in the future. Or... it's nothing at all, and AT&T is going to completelywreck this thing before it launches, like it did with t