IBLOG SPACE

Got a first-gen iPhone with nothing to do and nothing to hope for? Don't throw it out just yet, you might be able to recycle it as an extremely fancy readout display for the Redrock Micro "focus control system." The microRemote is, fundamentally, a focus ring detached from the DSLR it controls. It can operate all by its lonesome, but the big attraction here is adding an iPhone or iPod touch to provide visual clues to the aspiring focus master. You get aperture, zoom, and some focusing assists on the display, and then make your selection using some familiar twirling action on the knob to the side. Starting at around $1,000 this summer, this setup can hardly be considered an impulse buy, but we're sure somebody somewhere has a usage scenario that would justify the cash layout.

Sony Ericsson have announced two new Walkman-range cellphones, and they seem to have been looking in the Pokémon book of names for the duo. The Sony Ericsson Zylo with Walkman and Spiro with Walkman each support FLAC lossless audio together with TrackID, but also throw in social networking integration with Twitter and Facebook. The Zylo gets a 3.2-megapixel camera, 2.6-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth A2DP and a microSD card slot to augment the onboard 260MB of storage. It has UMTS/HSPA together with quadband GSM and an FM radio, though no hardware GPS as far as we can see. As for the Spiro, that has a mere 2-megapixel camera, a 2.2-inch QVGA display and no 3G, but keeps the Bluetooth and FM radio. You’ll definitely want a microSD card for it, however, as it has just 5MB of onboard storage. Both the Zylo and the Spiro will arrive in “select” markets come early Q3 2010, with Sony Ericsson yet to announce pricing. We can’t say they’re the most exciting phones we’ve ever seen, frankly, b

That Microsoft are working on a slimmer Xbox 360 update doesn’t seem all that surprising, given we’ve already seen leaked images of the mainboard along with the console itself, but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachte reckons Microsoft will be doing more than just putting the console on a diet. ”At a minimum,” he wrote in a recent research note, “we anticipate the introduction of a more feature-packed Xbox 360 as the standard SKU in late 2010 (likely with a 250GB hard drive) at the same $299 price point.” However he also reckons it’s more probable that Microsoft will want to get Project Natal in there too. “It is far more likely that we will see a slim version of the Xbox 360 with a 250GB hard drive and with Project Natal bundled into the box while maintaining the $299 price point,” he continues, pegging the updated package with the new motion-tracking hardware at the same cost as the current Xbox 360 Elite 120GB. Project Natal is due to make its official debut at E3 come June 13th

Biggest headache with the new TiVo Premiere has probably been the sluggish HD UI, but coming up in second place is likely the mere 320GB hard-drive the company fit as standard. That’s good enough for up to 400hrs of SD content or 45hrs of HD, but if that’s going to put a dampener on your home entertainment experience thenhead over to weaKnees. The official TiVo retailer has come up with some custom models of their own, offering up to 317hrs of HD recording. $299.99 bags you a basic, stock TiVo Premiere, but for $499.99 you can get an upgraded one with a bigger hard-drive good for up to 2070hrs of standard definition content or 236hrs of HD. Step up to $699.99, meanwhile, and an even bigger HDD upgrade makes for a whopping 2777hrs of SD or 317hrs of HD. Finally, $999.99 gets you the biggest TiVo Premiere system of them all, pairing the upgraded DVR unit with an external hard-drive for up to 5600hrs of standard-def or 640hrs of high-def. Despite the upgrades, the boxes are still elig

Sleek Audio have been promising a new set of high-end in-ear monitors for some time now, and courtesy of Pop-Sci magazine we now have a better idea of what’s in store. The Sleek Audio SA7 IEMs slot in above the SA6’s, keeping the user-adjustable VQ system for tweaking treble and bass, but now machined from a single block of aluminum with a carbon fiber shell held on by titanium screws. Inside, meanwhile, there are dual balanced armature transducers wrapped in shock-absorbing silicone that can apparently resist up to 14,000Gs. Whether you’ll experience that sort of shock in your general listening is a different argument, of course, but at least you won’t have to worry about dropping them in your bag and bumping them around a bit. They’re also paired with the Kleer wireless system, though looking at the single photo above it seems Sleek have a new controller which has track skip buttons and other playback keys; that presumably means you’ll be able to control your PMP without having to

It sounds like a recipe for success: take the surprisingly popular HTC HD2, shrink it down some, and offer it as a more pocketable alternative. Yet out of the three devices HTC announced at Mobile World Congress in February, the HTC HD mini has prompted the least interest. The HD mini has to convince prospective buyers not only of its own merits but that it’s worth buying into an ageing OS that’s just months away from replacement. Can it deliver? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. At its launch, HTC told us that the HD mini embodies their new “Hidden Power” design ethos, where the structural form of a device is embraced by its aesthetic rather than hidden away. Most obvious are the four exposed screw heads that emerge through the rubbery back cover, being not just decorative but what’s actually holding the whole phone together. The front, meanwhile, is a single pane of glass, with a 3.2-inch HVGA 320 x 480 capacitive touchscreen and five touch-sensitive buttons for Call

A company called TVLogic has pulled the wraps off a pair of cool OLED displays for computer users. Both of the screens are 15-inches and use OLED tech inside. The first screen is the LEM-150W and is a 2D monitor. It has a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 180-degree viewing angles, HDMI input, DVI input, and more. The screen is compatible with 1080p 60 and 4:4:4 with an optional 3G/Dual-link feature. The really cool screen is the TDM-150W. This monitor is the same 15-inch OLED but has support for stereoscopic 3D content. The screen has 100,000:1 contrast ratio, 180-degreee viewing angles and all the same features as its 2D brother. Pricing and availability are unknown, but these things will not be cheap.

Bad news for would-be international iPad buyers. Apple have just announced that they are postponing the launch of the iPad outside of the US by one month, with the touchscreen tablet now not expected to arrive internationally until the end of May. As for the reason, Apple say they’ve been surprised by the US demand for the iPad that was “far higher” than they predicted and “will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks.” That, combined with the “large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models” has obviously had a knock-on effect for stock availability. Apple will announced international pricing on Monday May 10th, and they’ll begin to accept preorders on the same day. They’re hoping – somewhat in vain, we’d expect – that international customers will take heart for the reasons behind the decision, however: “we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason–the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

One of the things that many people who are not familiar with computers have a hard time doing is installing new peripherals like printers. This is particularly true for in the baby boomer generation who are getting their first computer. HP has announced the industry’s first plug and print laser printers. The plug and print technology means that the user needs no drivers or CDs to get the printer to work. The simply plug the USB cable in and the printer installs itself. HP printers supporting this feature include the new LaserJet Pro P1100, M1130 and M1210 MPF laser printers, and the P1566 and P1606dn laser printers. The LaserJet P1100 is also hailed as the most energy efficient laser printer and has auto on/off tech that only turns the printer on when a print job is detected.

TDK is a brand that has been around for a long time. Most of us will remember the company as one of the big brands of blank cassette tapes back in the day. TDK announced a new set of wireless headphones in February called the WR700 that we talked about. At the time, they were announced TDK offered no information on the US launch or price of the WR700 wireless headphones. TDK has now announced that the WR700 headphones are available in the US for $249.99. The headphones work with any device using a 3.5mm headphone jack. TDK has also announced a new set of in-ear earphones called the EB900. The EB900 earphones have 8.5mm micro drivers for dynamic sound and bass. The earphones ship with three different silicon ear tip sizes and comply foam tips for $89.99.

If you have a network in the home or office being able to share USB devices like scanners, printers, and webcams can save lots of money and install hassles. The catch is that some network devices cost a lot more than other devices lacking integrated network capability. Addonics has unveiled a new network attached USB adapter than lets anyone connect USB devices to their network and have them accessible to any computer that has network connectivity. The adapter sells for about $50. The adapter works with all sorts of USB devices including webcams, speakers, external storage, optical drives, and any other USB device. The adapter has a gigabit network connection and can transfer data at up to 30MB/s

We all tell little white lies each day. Most of them aren’t to be dubious or mislead people; they are out of a desire to be nice. You know what I mean, like when your wife asks if you like her new shirt and you hate it, but you don’t want to hurt feelings. New and strange tech for mobile phones has turned up on Rekimoto Labs that will out your white lies. The tech for cell phones uses the same stuff found in lie detectors. The idea is that it would use a sensor on the phone to tell the person on the other end of your call how you really feel. No thanks. The company does have an interesting way to zoom though. The iPhone lets us pinch to zoom, but the Rekimoto tech lets you press to zoom. The harder you press the more zoom you get. The strangest bit of tech form the lab is a system that lets your cat Tweet. I can only imagine how this tech would fuel the Lolcats movement. The device is worn on the cat’s collar and uses a camera, mic, accelerometer, Bluetooth and GPS to tweet the cat’s l

One of the biggest problems with setting up a home theater for many people is getting the signal from a cable box or other input from the device to the TV. Long HDMI cables can be expensive and if you need to run them to the other side of the room, they can be ugly too. Cables to Go has announced a new wireless HD kit called the TruLink 1-port 60 GHz Wireless HD kit. The kit has a single HDMI port and can send the full 1080p HD signal across the room with no wires up to 33 feet from the transmitter. The system only works with line of sight so it can’t be used to shoot a signal to another room. The kit can be pre-ordered now for $499.99 and is set to ship on June 1.

Nintendo was sued by a company called Anascape Ltd way back in 2008. Anascape alleged that Nintendo controllers for the Game Cube and the Wii infringed on its patent. The case was originally heard in an East Texas court and this case was one of the early cases that lead many more tech firms to file their patent suits in the same East Texas court. Nintendo has announced that its appeal of that original jury verdict has lead to the court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn the jury verdict in the case. The patent at the heart of the suit was No. 6,906,700. The jury in the original case found that the Nintendo Wii Remote and Nunchuk did not infringe on the patent, but ruled that the Classic Controller infringed on the patent held by Anascape. The jury verdict has now been overturned and Nintendo has been cleared of infringement. “In 2008, the jury determined that the Wii Remote and Nunchuk did not infringe,” said Nintendo of America General Counsel Rick Flamm. “Today the Federa

3D is certainly the latest buzzword in home entertainment, and if you’d like to replicate the success of James Cameron but on a slightly more affordable budget, DXG may have the camcorder for you. The DXG-321 packs twin lenses that can record 3D video content – albeit only at VGA resolution and in Motion JPEG format – or take 5-megapixel stills, and the company even includes the necessary display to view your footage on. The camcorder itself has a flip-out 3-inch preview screen, but for more leisurely viewing there’s a 7-inch digital video viewer (we’re guessing it’s a modified digital photo frame) that apparently allows you to see the 3D content without special glasses. DVICE reckon the stereoscopic effect – likely from a lenticular LCD panel – is pretty convincing, though of course it does mean you can’t really take the footage and show it on your 3D HDTV. DXG’s camcorder arrives in June 2010, priced at $400 including the standalone display. The company also has a trio of 2D-only m

I hate waiting on inputs to change on my TV. One of the older sets in my house takes a good 10 seconds to switch between each input and you have to go one input at a time down the list rather than directly to the input. That means if you want to go from HDMI 2 to HDMI 1 you have to thumb through each of the inputs in the list and each one takes about ten seconds to switch. It drives me crazy. Silicon Image has announced that Samsung’s new line of 3D LED TVs will feature its InstaPort S technology. We talked about the original InstaPort tech back in 2008. The tech makes switching inputs and actually seeing an image much faster. Silicon Image claims that the Samsung sets can switch between HDMI connected devices in a single second. That is much less than the typical four to seven second delay most sets have.

Intel have outed their latest Atom based SoC, Tunnel Creek, at IDF 2010 this week, a combined chipset intended for embedded applications, straightforward consumer electronics and making previously dumb devices – like printers – “intelligent”. Tunnel Creek takes a standard Atom processor core, complete with display controller, GPU, memory controller and audio, and allows manufacturers and OEMs to link to it directly via a standard PCI Express interface; according to Intel the GPU packs 50-percent more graphics performance than existing Menlow chipsets. It’s also smaller and cheaper than Menlow, and yet adds in things like hardware video encode acceleration and active noise cancellation DSP. Intel reckon it’ll find a place in IP phones and in-car entertainment systems, which will take advantage of its low power consumption, increase in overall processing power compared to Atom Z5xx series chips, and home information systems like intelligent energy monitors. Tunnel Creek is expected to

We’re all expecting Apple to out their fourth-generation iPhone sometime this coming summer, but according to ModMyi the exact date might be June 22nd. They’ve been peering through the diary at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Francisco, the venue where Apple have announced previous generations of iPhone, and have turned up a reservation by the company on just that date. There’s no confirmation from Apple themselves, obviously, and we won’t see any invitations – going on past behavior – until just a week or two in advance of the event itself. It’s also somewhat later in the month than previous years; 2009’s iPhone 3GS event took place on June 8th, while the iPhone 3G made its debut on June 9th.

Interest piqued by ASUS’ Eee PC 1005PR, which carries the Seashell style but pairs it with a 10.1-inch 720p capable display and Broadcom’s BCM 70015 HD Decoder chipset for accelerated high-def video playback? Amazon have put the new Eee PC up for preorder, and $399.99 gets you an Atom N450 1.66GHz processor, 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard-drive and WiFi b/g/n. There’s also a 0.3-megapixel webcam, Bluetooth and a battery good, ASUS reckon, for up to 11hrs of runtime. Thanks to the Broadcom chip you can expect YouTube HD to play smoothly, unlike on a regular netbook, together with Flash 10.1 support. No word on when it might ship, but we’re guessing the release is imminent.

If you eschewed Kindle, nook and iPad last month and instead slapped down your money for Spring Design’s Alex dual-display ereader, then the good news is that your new toy is expected to ship out today. Up for preorder since March 16th, the $399 Alex runs Android and – unlike the nook – allows for full internet access over its WiFi connection. Spring Design have also confirmed that their international multi-language versions will be made official “shortly”. Those multi-language models will support Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Hebrew, while Spring Design are also preparing 3G/EVDO versions for release in June or July this year. As we heard from Spring Design’s Eric Kmeic, the company is negotiating iPad-style data plans for those who want to use the WWAN connection for getting online, while simple book downloads will be included in the original purchase price. The 3G version is expected to add roughly $80 to $100 to the $399 sticker price, making for a pretty expensive eread

It’s obviously a week for laptop processor upgrades, and while Toshiba’s Tecra M11 notebooks aren’t quite as eye-catching – or as fast – as Apple’s new MacBook Pro machines , they’re a whole lot cheaper. The 14-inch Tecra M11 packs Intel’s latest Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs, together with up to 3GB of DDR3 memory and standard Intel HD graphics; if you’re willing to splash out on the top-spec model, you get NVIDIA NVS 2100M graphics instead. Connectivity, meanwhile, includes WiFi a/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports and a combo USB/eSATA, along with an ExpressCard slot, memory card reader and both Mini DisplayPort and VGA outputs. There’s also an integrated DVD burner, 6-cell battery and both Windows 7 and XP. Toshiba reckon the 6-cell battery will last for around 4hrs, which considering the M11 will probably end up on office desks isn’t so bad. Prices for the new Toshiba Tecra M11 models kicks off at $879 for a Core i3 machine, with a preconfigured M11 Core i5

It’s April 15th 2010; do you know where your Xbox LIVE service is? If you’ve been using the online gaming system on a first-gen Xbox console, or playing original Xbox titles on your Xbox 360, the answer is that Microsoft are turning it off. As announced back in February , the original service is being discontinued so that Microsoft can update it with functionality the first-gen Xbox games simply can’t support. Those changes will include boosting friends list capacity, but otherwise Microsoft are keeping pretty quiet as to how they envisage developing the online gaming service. More immediately, it means an end to online multiplayer titles like Battlefront 2, Crimson Skies and Halo 2. However, Marc Whitten of the Xbox Live team also dropped hints that the change includes more integration with the upcoming Project Natal hardware, which certainly has us curious. It bears repeating that Microsoft aren’t shutting off Xbox Live for the 360, nor the titles released solely for that console

Samsung seem to be leading the charge when it comes to cellphones with integrated pico-projectors, with yet another new model from the company. The Samsung AMOLED Beam SPH-W9600 has a 3.3-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and a 9 lumen projector module capable of up to 50-inch images. Samsung reckon the AMOLED Beam W9600 is 1.5x as bright as its predecessor, the SPH-W7900. Like that model, there’s support for showing photos and video (either recorded with the phone’s camera, or preloaded onto it), and the W9600 can also display Microsoft Office documents and play back DivX-encoded video. Elsewhere there’s a DMB terestrial digital TV tuner, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a front-facing camera for video calls, while onboard memory totals 11GB with a card slot for adding up to 16GB more. The whole thing measures 56 x 116 x 15.7 mm. No word on whether we might see the AMOLED Beam SPH-W9600 reach the US or Europe, but we’re guessing we’ll probably get the Samsung Beam I8520

Feeling the urge to reach out and jab at your netbook? Samsung have released their latest model, the NB30 Touch, and as the name suggests it’s a touchscreen variant of their existing NB30 netbook. The NB30-JT01ITTouch gets the same Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor as the standard model, but slaps on a matte 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 touchscreen. Elsewhere there’s 1GB of DDR2 memory, a choice of 160GB or 250GB 5,400rpm hard-drive, Intel GMA 3150 graphics and Windows Starter 7. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, ethernet and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with three USB 2.0 ports – one of which is still powered when the system is turned off, for recharging phones and other gadgets – audio and VGA. There’s also a memory card reader and a webcam. It’s apparently a pretty rugged little fellow too, with a shock-protected hard drive, spill-resistant keyboard and a reinforced chassis so that hopefully it won’t get crushed in your bag. The regular Samsung NB30 is priced at €279 ($380) while the NB30

When we brought up the Microsoft Arc keyboard earlier this year, we questioned whether or not its durability would be a deciding factor to those that wanted to pick it up. With the ability to store the 2.4 GHz wireless dongle while you’re on the move, we’re of the mind that Microsoft still would like to market this to the traveler, rather than the stay-at-home business owner. Then again, with how comfortable and sexy as this thing looks, we could be wrong. First, we’ve got to mention that Microsoft calls that wireless dongle a “nano transeiver,” and we think that’s just about the coolest thing we’ve ever heard. At least, when it comes to wireless dongles, anyway. As for other tricks the Arc has, you can turn the wireless feature on and off as you see fit (which should save on the battery life), and as you can see, it’s got a gentle, yet noticeable curve that should help with the comfortability. But, the surprise isn’t in anything you’ve heard before. The surprise comes thanks to Amazon

Intel’s mobile plans aren’t limited to MeeGo at IDF 2010 this week; the company is also looking to take a big bite out of ARM’s market share when it comes to Android-based hardware. The company has confirmed that they’ve ported Android to x68 hardware – including Atom-based smartphones – and that manufacturers have expressed interest in using the new system. The move follows Acer’s own project putting Android on an Atom based Eee PC, for which the company had to do their own development work to get the Google OS running on Intel silicon. Dell have also been experimenting with Android, but are yet to release any netbook products preloaded with it. According to Renee James, general manager of Intel’s software and services group, the company is actually “enabling all OSes for Atom phones” rather than just Android. Currently ARM processors are found in the majority of the chipsets used for Android devices, both smartphones and smartbooks such as Lenovo’s Skylight.

It’s not just the 3DS that Nintendo are thinking about; the company have also been looking to the Wii’s replacement, and the focus seems to be not so much on the very latest hardware but how the company could make the Wii 2 distinctive against their rivals. According to Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto, “in the next generation of hardware, the challenge is how unique and different a product Nintendo is able to make,” pointing out to Games TM magazine that “technology is available to all equally today.” That equality of access means that it’s not enough to simply bolt together the best components currently available on the shelf, but “how we decide to make use of that technology and in what format is what will make our hardware unique in comparison to the hardware from other manufacturers.” Miyamoto declined to comment on speculation that Nintendo are planning a “Wii HD” or “Wii 2″, or even a brand new console.

The Rubik’s Cube was very popular when I was a kid and that means I seemed to get one every Christmas for a few years. Mostly they were given by relative who I suspect hated me. The Rubik’s Cube was the single most frustrating gift I ever received, and that counts the 1400 piece puzzle printed on both sides I had. A new charger concept called the Magic Charger has turned up that uses a cube design and has symbols you try and match, just like the Rubik’s Cube. The big downside I see here is that the Magic Charger doesn’t use stickers like the old Rubik’s Cube did. That means you can’t cheat and peel the stickers off. The concept uses all the motion generated by turning the different sections of the device to generate power. Exactly how much energy it could generate is unknown, it is a concept after all. You can pull the top layer of blocks up to reveal a USB port for charging devices.

There are many iPad and iPhone owners that would agree the biggest single shortfall of the new iPad and the iPhone is the lack of support for Flash video. Apple is adamant that Flash will not be supported and until HTML5 is more common in video streaming many iPad, users can’t view the content they desire. A company called RipCode has announced a new clientless Flash video codec that allows the video to play on the iPad in a seamless fashion for the end user. The codec allows the video to play at a number of resolutions ranging from QVGA to 1080p. The RipCode V6 transcoding appliance also supports other file formats like QuickTime, MP4 Progressive Download, Apple’s MPEG-TS Adaptive Progressive Download for file-based and live content, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and RTSP. This sort of transcoding could eliminate the issues with iPad and streaming video for many users.

As a child of the 80’s every time I hear the Walkman name I immediately think of those big yellow cassette players that were popular when I was a kid. Sony has evolved the Walkman band over the years and has turned the series into a line of digital media players that have been around for a while now. Sony has announced a new addition to its W-series called the NWZ-W252. The new player is a water resistant design that has all the parts in a behind the neck design aimed at fitness enthusiasts. The new player is light and can be used in the rain for extended periods. Tracks can be synced to the player from a PC or iTunes library as long as the tracks have no DRM. The capacity of the device is 2GB and it can hold 470 tracks 4 minutes long at 128kbps. The player can run for 90 minutes after a scant 3-minute charge. The device will ship this month for around $60.

Intel’s developer conference kicked off in Beijing this week, and among the announcements there’s talk of theirMeeGo collaborative platform with Nokia. That includes some UI examples – for both netbooks, as seen here, and mobile devices, which you can see after the cut – together with feature lists and roadmaps. Nothing specific in terms of actual device releases, of course, but Intel have confirmed that MeeGo v1.1 should land in late October 2010. Netbooks running MeeGo will get an updated UI that splits the desktop into various content chunks, linked to social networks, calendars, internet widgets and more. The preloaded browser will be Google’s Chrome (with Chromium as backup) while Firefox slips to being an option, and there’ll be plenty of connectivity support including WiMAX, WiFi and 3G. Multitouch and gestures will be supported in the underlying middle-ware. As for mobile devices like smartphones, Intel are saying there’ll be the Fennec browser, tight social network integra

Sony Optiarc has announced a couple new DVD/CD burning optical drives for different user groups. One of the drives is an internal and the other is an external slim burner. Both are available to purchase online and at retailers now. The DRX-S77U is a lightweight external slim drive that can burn up to 8X DVD+/-R discs. It can also write to DVD+RW discs and read DVD-RAM discs. It connects to the host PC via USB 2.0 and comes in several colors including black, white, pink, and gold. The drive seems to be aimed at Sony netbook users. The company has also unveiled a new AD-7260S internal DVD/CD recorder. It has a 24x max burn speed for CDs and DVDs. The drive has buffer under-run technology and offers LightScribe technology for disc labeling using compatible media.

The Nintendo 3DS was announced awhile back and pegged for a launch this fiscal year for Nintendo. We know few hard details on the device right now other than it will allow the playing of 3D content without needing glasses. BusinessWeek has interviewed Nintendo America President Reggie Fills-Aime about the new portable. The console will be landing in the current fiscal year, as we already knew. We won’t get full details until June at E3. Fills-Aime still declined any further details on the console other than reiterating the device will not need glasses. He likens the 3DS debut in importance for the portable gaming market to when Nintendo went from the Game Boy to the DS. Nintendo is predicting a decline in sales of its game consoles including the Wii and the DS along with a decline in software sales. The company’s net income will drop 18% because of the sales slump. The 3DS is expected to help improve sales, the current DS is a major income maker for Nintendo.

Most of the Bluetooth headsets we see hit the market are very similar in design and style. They all tend to be black devices with designs leaning more to usability than how they look. Some users want a headset that looks good and suits their personality. The Earloomz line of Bluetooth headsets have surfaced with a myriad of designs. The headsets have all sorts of artwork, flags, and music themed images that can be had on the outer housing of the headset. Under the fancy artwork, the Earloomz Bluetooth headset is your basic hands free device. Bluetooth v2.1+EDR is supported and the device uses and internal rechargeable lithium polymer battery. It can be paired to two devices at once and has about 8 hours of talk time. Standby time is 120 hours and two ear hooks and three different ear buds are included. The Earloomz headsets sell for about $60 each and are available now.

Some iPad owners are finding out that their PC USB port will charge the iPad when the iPad is turned off and not in use but won’t change if turned on. The issue is reportedly because the power requirements for the iPad when it is running is more than some mainboards can support. Gigabyte announced that it has a new driver for some of its popular AMD and Intel mainboards that will allow the iPad owner to charge the device when the iPad is on or off. The new driver is called the On/Off Charge driver update. The new drive supports a ton of gigabyte mainboards including those for the Intel X58, P55, H55, and H57 chipsets. AMD 800 chipset mainboards are also supported by the update.

We have seen lots of docks where you can plug in a SATA drive turning it into an external HDD via USB or eSATA connectivity. Sharkoon has offered up a new docking station today called the QuickPort Combo eSATA docking station. The docking station can support SATA drives by plugging them into the dock like a cartridge. Below the SATA HDD slot are ports for connecting IDE HDDs to the docking station as well. The dock connects to the PC via eSATA or USB 2.0 connectivity. The dock has slots that work for both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA HDDs. Other features include LEDs to show drive access, required cables and more. The dock measures 71 x 133 x 95mm and weighs 545 grams. The dock is available now for 36.90 EUR.

Multitouch tables are passé; your feet are where it’s at. Over at Professor Patrick Baudisch ’s Human Computer Interaction lab at the Hasso Plattner Institute they’ve been experimenting with using feet to control multitouch systems, but this is far more interesting than the walking piano Tom Hanks played in Big. In fact, the Multitoe system can not only differentiate between general footsteps and control steps, it can track multiple users and identify them by their feet. Rather than relying on users wearing special shoes, Multitoe uses a frustrated total internal reflection mat that can recognize not only points of contact but measure pressure. It’s the pressure that helps identify between taps and steps, as well as letting the system identify different shoes by their sole patterns, while head tracking and balancing are also used to add to the control. Apparently it’s precise enough to allow for text entry with an on-floor QWERTY keyboard, together with all the usual pop-up rotary

The Apple Store is down, and given the persistent rumors about a MacBook Pro line refresh you can’t really blame us for hoping there’s some Core i7 action happening. These updates always get the rumor mill churning – and occasionally for no good reason, with nothing new to show for it – but April 13th is a date we’ve heard mention of repeatedly in connection to a new line of MBPs. The update is expected to include Intel’s Core i7 chips and span a price range of around $1,799.99 to $2,299.99 according to some leaks from online retailers. Apple’s current MacBook Pro line is well overdue a refresh; they were initially expected to be among the first to use Intel’s mobile Core i7 processors. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Apple Store, but we’re not expecting any change – based on past behavior – for 90 minutes or so. Anybody been saving up for a new Core i7 MacBook Pro?

With talk of a Google-branded tablet, the Nexus One already on sale, and the various other projects the search giant has its sticky fingers dabbling into, it comes as little surprise to see them turning their attention to gaming. Google have appointed Mark DeLoura as “developer advocate for games”, the company’s first solely gaming-focused position, and one which DeLoura describes as “both inward- and outward-facing.” “I personally feel that Google hiring someone specifically to focus on games is a signal from the company that they recognize the growing importance of games as a medium” Mark DeLoura, Developer Advocate for Games, Google DeLoura has most recently been working as a game tech consultant, together with writing about game engines and other industry topics, and in the past was lead engineer at Nintendo of America. Although he has not specifically named any individual projects he will be involved in, DeLoura has pledged to make “game development simpler and more accessible”

Lenovo’s decision to delay the Skylight smartbook wasn’t exactly explained in any detail; the company merely confirmed that the expected April release has been pushed back to sometime in June 2010, giving them time to “finalize the product.” According to DigiTimes, however, it’s not just finalization they have in mind but reworking the smartbook to better compete against the iPad. Their notebook sources reckon that Lenovo have got cold feet over the Skylight’s smoothness and general performance, after deeming that it fell short against the iPad’s browsing experience. No specifics, but given both devices prioritize web access while mobile, it seems likely that Lenovo are looking at things like rendering speed, website compatibility and other aspects. Of course, the Skylight potentially has more functionality than the iPad, helped no small amount by its physical keyboard, and it’s possible that Lenovo are looking to make better use of its hardware advantages.

Having been spotted last month tiptoeing through the GCF in GSM form, the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus have been confirmed for launch on O2 Germany. Announced with a tweet from the carrier’s account, the two webOS smartphones will apparently go up for sale on April 28th. While there’s no word from O2’s other European arms, the assumption is that the two handsets will see similar launches in Spain, Ireland and the UK. The biggest change between the Plus handsets and their regular predecessors is the increase in internal storage – the Pre Plus gets 16GB, the Pixi Plus 8GB, though neither has a memory card slot – but the Pre Plus also has more RAM. It remains to be seen whether the MiFi-style connection sharing app available on the Verizon CDMA versions makes it through to the European handsets.

Having confirmed yesterday that only their Skylight smartbook launch was delayed, and that the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is still on track, Lenovo have quietly put up a pre-information page for the distinctive notebook. The page doesn’t confirm anything we don’t already know about the U1 Hybrid, aside from reiterating that it’s “coming soon”. Last we heard, that “soon” translated into a June 2010 release, with a price tag of around $999. While that might sound a little on the expensive side, you have to remember that you’re in effect getting two machines in one: a Snapdragon-based capacitive touchscreen tablet and a regular notebook. The main notebook packs an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor and 128GB SSD, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium, while the slate section has its own Linux-based OS and a 16GB SSD. The U1 Hybrid turned out to be one of the more interesting devices at CES 2010, and even with the iPad on the market we’re still keen to get our hands on a production model.

We don’t know who it is that’s inviting Google CEO Eric Schmidt to parties, topping up his glass frequently, and then encouraging him to talk about upcoming Android-based hardware from the company, but we hope they carry on. After the report yesterday that suggested Schmidt had told friends that Google were developing an own-brand tablet, further details have emerged from others apparently attending the same party; Schmidt supposedly confirmed that the device will run Adobe Flash content and games. The exec is also said to have gone on to admit that “Google might not get it right the first time” but that Apple probably wouldn’t manage that either with their first-gen iPad. He then apparently alluded to “some better features coming with the second generation of iPad” although those features have not been specifically detailed. Schmidt expects that Google and Apple will have “the next two to three years to figure it out.” As for the Google tablet itself, further sources within the pro

After having been leaked, discussed and even sold early, the Flip SlideHD camcorder is finally official. Priced at $279.99, the SlideHD’s most distinctive feature is its sliding, tilting 3-inch touchscreen, but it can also record up to four hours of 1280 x 720 30fps 8.8Mbps video to its 16GB of integrated storage. While the top display is a resistive panel, there’s also a capacitive touchstrip on the bottom section that can be used for whizzing through video timelines. As well as an HDMI output and swing-out USB 2.0 plug, there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket so that you can privately review your video on the move. 720p with a basic 2x digital zoom and neither optical or digital image stabilization doesn’t seem especially impressive for $279.99, and we can’t help but wonder whether Flip – or their parent Cisco – simply saw all the touchscreen furore of late and decided they simply had to include one in their new model. It’s available to buy now.

Nokia has announced three new social networking and messaging handsets, the Nokia C3, C6 and E5. Each packing a full QWERTY keyboard, the C3 runs S40 while the C6 and E5 each get Symbian though with a consumer and business focus, respectively. All of the devices have IM, email and social networking support. The Nokia C3 has a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, FM radio, 3.5mm headphone socket and a microSD card slot (happy with up to 8GB). It also gets 1-click access to various social networks, including image uploads, via Nokia’s Communities app, though you’ll probably want to be near a WiFi b/g network since it tops out at EDGE only. It’s expected to arrive in Q2 2010 priced at €90 ($122) before taxes/subsidies. As for the Nokia C6, that has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, WiFi b/g and quadband UMTS/HSPA. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera, IM and email support, together with Ovi Maps with free navigation, a front-facing camera for video cal

Well, well, well. Who would have seen this coming? Sure enough, it seems that everything is about to change. Or, if you believe that when Apple actually does something as crazy as allow a third-party developer to get a web browser (you know, like Safari) approved for the App Store as a sign of the end times, we’ll let you read into this what you will. But, Opera has officially announced today that Apple has given the green light to their Opera Mini web browser for the App Store. Which means, as you’ve already guessed, that the Opera Mini Web browser will be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch soon. And, in fact, sooner than we could have imagine: some time in the next 24 hours, to be exact. There’s no details as of yet, other than the fact that the new browser will in fact be free, but we’re sure that sooner than later, we’ll get a whole hand full of stuff to showcase. But, we imagine that many of you are already in the App Store, hitting refresh, waiting to see if it’s there. You’