IBLOG SPACE

Google I/O 2010 this week, and the search company has started the event by throwing open the doors to Google Wave. Previously in an invite-only beta, Google Wave is now open to anybody who wants to sign up; meanwhile there’s also integration of Wave with enterprise Google Apps accounts. Google has also announced that they’ll be opening up more access to the Wave source code, so developers will be able to integrate the discussion service with their own projects and tailor it to suit. Since Wave first launched, Google has added in email notifications of conversation updates, made it easier to track unread messages and remove accidentally added participants, and introduced an extensions gallery. You can sign up here.

Sprint’s HTC Hero has finally got its update to Android 2.1, complete with a refettled version of HTC Sense to suit the new OS. The update is being rolled out OTA (over-the-air) but can also be downloaded from Sprint’s support site and installed via HTC Sync on a PC. However, it’s worth noting that installing the Sprint Hero Android 2.1 update will delete all content from the device in the process. That means performing a backup of any data you’re unwilling to lose is essential; if you’re a PC user then you can use HTC Sync to do that. The update apparently takes around 25 minutes to complete, and of course you won’t be able to make or receive calls while it’s in process. Firmware 2.27.651.5 delivers various bug fixes and OS tweaks, as well as voice recognition and improved corporate email synchronization.

Barnes & Noble have announced PubIt!, a way for independent publishers and authors to create their own ebook content for the B&N ebook store, and the company’s response to the Kindle Digital Text platform. Full royalty details for B&N PubIt! are yet to be confirmed, but ebooks produced via the system will be DRM encrypted and available not only on the nook but the retailer’s PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone and BlackBerry clients. PubIt! will open its virtual doors for business this coming summer, and authors will apparently be able to create ebooks by a simple matter of uploading them in a common text format, adding cover art and then approving them for inclusion in the B&N eBookstore. Its success in comparison to Amazon will depend on how generous the royalties are, but we imagine most self-publishing authors will choose to add their content to both services.

HP’s latest Pavilion and ENVY notebooks have arrived for sale, with the ENVY 17 kicking off at at $1,399.99. The Pavilion dm4, meanwhile, starts at $729.99, while the dv5 starts at $799.99 and the dv6 at $699.99. Finally the Pavilion dv7 begins at $849.99. The ENVY 17 has, unsurprisingly, a 17-inch LCD and a choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors paired with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 graphics and up to 2TB of storage. It also supports ATI Eyefinity for running multiple displays, as well as Beats Audio and a separate subwoofer. Connectivity includes Mini DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA. For full details of all the new models, check out our hands-on with the Pavilion dm4, dv5, dv6 and dv7 here and the ENVY 14 and ENVY 17 here. The HP ENVY 14 is expected to go on sale in June 2010.

Magellan have broadly refreshed their PND range with a grand total of ten new models, spanning the $169.99 4.3-inch RoadMate 2035 through to the 4.7-inch Bluetooth-toting $299.99 RoadMate 3065. All ten come with lifetime traffic updates and a touchscreen, while several also include inclusive map updates too. The largest PND on offer is the Magellan RoadMate 5045, which has a 5-inch touchscreen and lifetime traffic updates. Interestingly, while it has the largest display, it lacks some of the features of the high-end RoadMate 30xx models, many of which have hands-free calling via Bluetooth. Magellan RoadMate 5045 – 5” screen, lifetime traffic $219.99 Magellan RoadMate 3065 – 4.7” screen, includes Traffic Wakeup feature, Bluetooth $299.99 Magellan RoadMate 3055 – 4.7” screen, lifetime traffic, Bluetooth $249.99 Magellan RoadMate 3045-LM – 4.7” screen, lifetime map updates, lifetime traffic $229.99 Magellan RoadMate 3045-MU – 4.7” screen, one free map update, lifetime traffic Magellan

Fujitsu makes components that other companies use to build their gadgets and gizmos as well as making a range of electronic devices themselves. The company has unveiled a new touch screen series today called the FID-53X that promises to be both lighter and stronger than other panels on the market. The new film-film panel is 30% to 40% lighter than film-glass panels and can withstand greater input loads. The ability to withstand greater input loads helps extend the life of the typical film-film panel to twice that of film-glass panels. The panel is made from a bottom layer of shatterproof polycarbonate plastic with a top layer made from 4H hard-tap cover film. This cover film gives the new screen a 50% higher input load than other screens allowing the screen to support heavy handwriting and repeated stylus tapping. The screens are offered in 2-inch to 7-inch sizes at about $10 each in lots of 10,000.

In the world of electric vehicle makers there are some major automakers like Nissan and GM hard at work on full electric vehicles as well as smaller firms like Tesla and ZAP. ZAP may be one of the smallest electric vehicle makers out there, but it has some interesting offerings like the three wheel ZAP Alias. ZAP has announced that it has developed a new battery and battery management system for the Alias and its other electric vehicles that doubles the driving range. The new battery system uses lithium ion batteries rather than lead acid batteries. When the Alias is equipped with the new battery system it can drive up to 100 miles on a single charge. The lithium ion battery pack weighs in at 157 pounds compared to the lead acid system previously used at 430.5 pounds. The new battery packs will be offered as an upgrade for some ZAP vehicles and the new battery has about four times the life span of the lead acid system.

It’s been a long time since we talked about BFGTech around here. The company has traditionally been very popular in the graphics card market and makes computers and power supplies. The last time we talked about BFGTech video cards was back in August of 2009 when the company introduced the GTX 295 and 285 with liquid cooling systems. BFGTech has announced that it will be leaving the graphics card market behind. The reason for leaving the market the company was once so influential in is simple — profits. BFG states that the category is no longer profitable. However, BFG will continue to support the warranty and service video cards it has sold and will continue to make computer systems and power supplies for the enthusiast and gaming markets. It’s sad to see the company leave the graphics market, it was among the best brands out there.

I’m not big on Twitter or other social networks myself, I don’t have the time to spend telling everyone I know what I am doing every second of the day. There are lots of people out there who live for Twitter and other social networks though and those folks may have been a bit nervous when Tweetie 2 disappeared for the AppStore last night. Tweetie 2 is the Twitter app for the iPhone that was purchased by Twitter not long ago. The good news is that while Tweetie 2 is gone, a new app has been offered by Twitter called Twitter for iPhone to take its place. This is the official Twitter app for the iPhone. Android users already received their own official Twitter app last month. The app should be available today after reports yesterday that it was slowly propagating across the AppStore around the country.

One of the methods that Intel has used since the netbook revolution began to help prevent the Atom processor and netbooks from cannibalizing higher profit notebook sales was to place limits on the screen size machines featuring the processors could use. That rule is now set to change. Intel is lifting the panel size limitation on Atom processors for the dual-core Atom 550 set to launch in the second half of 2010. The CPU will be allowed to be stuffed into machines with screens of 11.6-inches and 12.1-inches. Before this change, the screen size maximum for the processor was 10.2-inches. Netbooks using the N550 will get 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 32GB SSD or a 250GB HDD. DigiTimes reports that Intel plans to move hundreds of millions of netbooks over the next few years. I would bet part of the reason for lifting the screen size limits is to better fight the new AMD platforms that are putting more pressure on Intel.

Virgin Mobile UK and T-Mobile UK have stepped up with confirmation that they’ll both be offering the new HTC Wildfire. The entry-level Android device will land on T-Mobile come June 14th, priced from free with a new, £20 ($29) per month two-year agreement. Meanwhile Virgin Mobile are yet to confirm the exact launch date for their Wildfire, and nor have they confirmed pricing, but we’d imagine that the handset will be roughly the same as it is on T-Mobile and at around the same price. The smartphone has already shown up for SIM-free preorder at Expansys, priced at £249.99 ($357) and expected to arrive on July 26th. The HTC Wildfire has a 3.2-inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and UMTS/HSPA. It runs Android 2.1 complete with the latest version of HTC Sense, and includes a new Application Sharing app that makes recommending third-party software easier.

UK carrier O2 and Palm have announced that the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be arriving on the network come May 28th. The handsets – which will be the same as their US brethren, only supporting O2’s UMTS/HSPA network – will be priced from free, tariff depending. Full details after the cut. The Palm Pre Plus has 16GB of internal storage, a slide-out QWERTY thumbboard, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and GPS, together with Palm’s own webOS operating system and Synergy email, calendar and social network integration. The Pixi Plus, meanwhile, has much the same functionality but half the internal storage, a candybar form-factor and a slightly smaller screen. Both will be supplied complete with the Touchstone back panel, though the inductive charger itself will be offered separately. They’ll go on sale May 28th online and in O2 stores.

We love a good concept mock-up, and Freescale are generally a pretty good source for them. After last year’s smartbook designs the company has again turned to the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) to come up with nine new ideas for the mobile device of the future. Among the selection – which are gradually being revealed on Freescale’s blog, along with the research that educated them – there’s a gaming device targeted at teenagers that also allows for easy SMS and instant-messaging, together with a tilt-screen ultraportable notebook that can be used as a slate for young professionals to take handwritten notes in lectures and meetings. The gaming device would have a 6-inch display, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and game controls, and an optional dock for recharging. Meanwhile there’s a second gaming concept, this time focused on touchscreen play, which looks a lot more like the company’s previous smartbook tablet reference designs we’ve played with. Right now, though, the most

Facebook have launched a new mobile site, 0.facebook.com, intended to offer speedier access from cellphones, tablets and MIDs to social networking. The new site will live alongside, rather than replace, the existing Facebook Mobile; that’s because the company has negotiated free access to 0.facebook.com with over 50 mobile operators worldwide. That means subscribers will be able to check their Facebook walls, send messages and manage friend requests without paying a cent in data fees. A side-effect of that is limitations on what content can be viewed through the new mobile site. Likely to be frustrating to most users is the absence of photo support: while you can see links to galleries on 0.facebook.com, to actually view them you have to leave the page and go to Facebook Mobile (thus pay data fees). The full list of countries and mobile networks participating is in the gallery below. Facebook expects to sign up Telstra in Australia, Movistar in El Salvador, SFR in France, XL in In

The spread of Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 processors continues, with Motion’s rugged tablet PCs the latest to pack the vPro chips. The Motion F5v and C5v both meet MIL-STD-810G and IP-54 standards – meaning you can get them wet or drop them and still keep working – but now have faster CPUs and up to 4GB of RAM. Motion reckon you’ll see not only a 50-percent increase in performance but up to 30-percent increase in battery life. The F5v is Motion’s “mobile field tool” intended for outdoor users who need a machine that not only holds up to bumps but recognizes handwriting and runs all the usual Windows 7 apps. Meanwhile the C5v is the “mobile clinical assistant”, and can be specified with a hospital-friendly digital camera, RFID scanner and barcode reader. Both have standard Gorilla glass, apparently up to four times stronger than regular display glass, integrated handles, WiFi and Bluetooth as standard and optional Gobi 2000 WWAN. There’s also an optional View Anywhere display for o

It wasn’t all that long ago, so you probably remember that HP bought Palm. And, with it, there was plenty of speculation about whether or not HP would be putting webOS , the mobile platform created by Palm, on anything else other than smartphones. Like, you know, a tablet. Well, that’s all been confirmed. And, on top of that, there’s something like a nugget of joy included in the assertion. CEO of HP, Mark Hurd, stated that, beyond smartphones, we should expect to see webOS turned “into form factors such as slates and web-connected printers.” So, there you have it. HP is going to put webOS on slates, which makes us very, very happy. And it should make you tablet fans out there pretty happy, too. Now, as for those web-connected printers, well, we’re scratching our head at this one. We’re wondering how poignant that really is, let alone useful, but if we get to see webOS on more devices, even printers, well, we’ll take it where we can get it. No word on when we should actually expect to

The Betas for Apple’s iPhone OS 4 have been coming out at a steady pace, but so far none of them have been all that ground breaking, when it comes to feature lists. Sure, Beta 3 released Folders onto unsuspecting people and developers, but still, it wasn’t earth shaking. This time around, though, along with a few small pieces of a larger puzzle, we’ve got something big in the release. First up, new wallpapers! Yeah, yeah, we know, you were expecting more, right? What? New wallpapers to show off to all your friends isn’t exciting? What about the ability to send a mass message, to everyone you know? You could tell them you’ve got new wallpapers on your iPhone HD. How awesome is that? Okay, okay, the good stuff: remember tethering? You know, that feature that Apple brought with iPhone OS 3? The same feature that AT&T told everyone would be coming, but never delivered on? Well, it looks like Apple wants to put their foot down on the whole situation, as they’ve included a new setting i

Tablets are tablets, but that doesn’t mean we would like to see an ancient Operating System running on them. In fact, we’d really appreciate it if they all caught up with the times. That would be just about great. So that’s why we’re showing you the Dawa D7 , a tablet that will probably never make it to the States, but we’ve got to give them props for dropping Windows CE, and going with a little Android instead. Unfortunately for the D7, though, Android can’t save this tablet. While featuring Android 2.1 is all well and good, take a gander at the other features: a 600MHz Telechips 8902 chipset, based on an ARM11 processor. It’s got a 7-inch screen (no word on capacitive or resistive, unfortunately), with a 800 x 480 resolution. There’s 256MB of RAM, 2GB of NAND flash memory, and finally a 1500mAh battery. How long will that last you? Dawa says if you’re surfing the Internet, it’ll last you about 3 hours. 3 hours is just about long enough to be frustrating, more than anything else. But,

There new LG Ally Android-based handset is about to hit store shelves, so we wanted to bring to your attention the review Android Community have just posted over there on their site. There’s plenty of text there, breaking down the main features of the new Android 2.1 handset, but they also made sure to include plenty of pictures of the device, too. But, does the LG Ally make the wait worthwhile? Or has LG missed the mark with the device? First and foremost, it doesn’t look like the Ally is going to be winning any beauty contests. LG definitely took an industrial approach to the new Android 2.1 handset, much like in the vain of the Motorola Droid, perhaps, but they do get one thing right: the keyboard. It’s not nearly as bad as Motorola’s physical QWERTY keyboard, even if it isn’t the best on the market. And while we’re not necessarily fans of plastic-feeling touchscreens, it seems that the Ally’s is responsive enough, so we may be able to forgive that. As for features, you’re looking

Cisco has announced that they’ve put in a bid to buy MOTO, but before you get too excited it’s not the Motorola that produce cellphones but the design consulting firm based in San Francisco. MOTO are no strangers to the pages of SlashGear – we’ve featured their Labs work a few times now – but the company has also worked with Cisco before on the Flip camcorder range. The consultancy consists of 35 people, and it looks like they’ll be mostly involved with Cisco’s consumer ranges. That means more work on Flip as well as likely having a hand in future Linksys brand networking equipment. The company also have a wireless media system, though its fallen into the background in the face of competition from Sonos and Logitech’s Squeezebox line. Cisco aren’t confirming how much they spent to acquire MOTO, but it’s expected to be finalised by Q4 of the company’s 2010 financial year. At that point the MOTO team will become part of the Cisco Consumer Products team led by Kaplan.

Intel have begun mass production of their 25nm NAND flash memory, which began sampling earlier this year and will now begin shipping to manufacturers. The memory – which can put 8GB of storage into a chip 167 square mm, capable of storing up to 2,000 songs or 8hrs of video – will be used in smartphones, PMPs and solid-state drives. Of course, Intel will be layering the NAND chips so as to produce larger capacity drives that fit into smaller enclosures. For instance, a 256GB SSD can now be produced using just 32 of the Intel chips, versus 64 previously. No word on how pricing compares to existing memory, nor when we can expect to see the first production products arrive on the market, but given we all demand smaller devices with larger storage this can only be a good thing.

Panasonic’s Skype camera for the company’s VIERA HDTVs has crossed over from Japan and arrived in the US. Activated today on select VIERA CAST enabled Panasonic 2010 HDTVs, the Skype functionality allows for voice and video calls to be made direct from the TV itself, including SkypeOut and SkypeIn support and voicemail. The Skype functionality is available on Panasonic’s VIERA VT25, VT20, G25, and G20 Series sets; however you won’t be able to plug in any old generic USB webcam. Instead you’ll need the Panasonic TY-CC10W, a $169.95 peripheral that comes complete with four unidirectional microphones, an echo canceling system and audio processing, together with a wide-angle lens to capture everyone who’s sat on the sofa with you. We’re not particularly impressed by the proprietary camera, but 1280 x 720 resolution 22fps video chats direct from your HDTV are pretty impressive. The camera is on sale now.

BeamBox have announced their latest pico-projector, and while we’re still waiting for the company’s MiLi Evolution iPhone-case-cum-projector to arrive, the Evolution R-2should tide us over. Based around a 40 lumen LCoS chip, making it one of the brighter picos we’ve seen, the R-2 has an integrated media player for photos, audio and video (like the Evolution R-1 we reviewed last year) together with both PC/Mac and A/V inputs. If you want to use the 800 x 600 SVGA projector with your PC or Mac, you can hook it up via the MiniUSB port. Meanwhile, the A/V inputs are intended to be used with DVD players and other media sources. BeamBox reckon you’ll get up to a 75-inch picture with a 200:1 contrast ratio, and there’s 1GB of internal storage together with a microSD card slot. The 12W LED is rated for up to 20,000hrs, and there’s a tiny 0.5W speaker along with a headphone socket. The BeamBox Evolution R-2 is available now, priced at £250/$361.60.

T-Mobile USA have apparently chosen to pass on the BlackBerry Pearl 3G , choosing instead to wait for another full QWERTY RIM device. According to BerryReview’s sources, despite the carrier having great success with the original Pearl 71xx and 81xx handsets, it has chosen to instead hold out for a 3G version of an 85xx or 93xx series Curve device. So far none of the US carriers have officially announced they will be picking up the Pearl 3G, but T-Mobile were figured to be a likely candidate given their track record of handsets. The Pearl 3G will launch in the US with a SureType 20-button keyboard, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth. It also has quadband GSM and triband UMTS, an optical trackpad and GPS, together with a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and image stabilization. No word on pricing as yet.

Hulu ’s rumored May 24th “Hulu Plus” subscription looks like it’ll miss its predicted debut, according to sourcesspeaking with AllThingsD. The company is apparently planning a $9.95 monthly subscription package which would allow access to a back catalog of streaming content; however, “people familiar with the company” are now saying Hulu Plus is unlikely to be ready in time for a launch next Monday. It’s unclear whether the delay – if accurate – is a technical one or down to ongoing negotiations with content providers. According to rumors coming out of the company, Fox, ABC and NBC – who jointly own Hulu – are roughly decided on what subscribers will get for their money, but exact details aren’t public at this stage. Nonetheless, the basic Hulu service is expected to continue to be free of charge.

Bad news if you’ve been holding out for Viliv’s N5 MID ; according to the company, the clamshell Windows 7 PC now won’t see its official launch until June 2010, likely meaning availability won’t be until July at the earliest. No reason for the delay has been given, but so far the 4.8-inch MID hasn’t even shown up for preorder at the usual importer suspects like Dynamism. The N5 is expected to have a 1.3GHz Atom Z520 processor paired with 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of RAM, as well as Intel GMA 500 graphics and a 1024 x 600 touchscreen display. There’s also WiFi and Bluetooth, along with optional 3G. We’re yet to hear final pricing.

The FDA has completed a scientific review of available materials concerning cell phones and their link to brain tumors in users. The point of the study was to determine if there were any possible threats to the health of consumers from the radio waves emitted by mobile phones. The FDA says that the research into the topic is ongoing but at this time, there is no link between mobile phones and brain tumors. The scientific evidence used in the study included the recent World Health Organization findings that were released this week. The results of the study that was released this month are from the largest study of its kind ever conducted. The study started in 2000 and was conducted in 13 different countries and coordinated by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer. The findings of the study are that there is little or no risk of brain tumors for long-term users of mobile phones.

Over the last few years, MSI has become a much bigger part of the notebook landscape here in America. This is largely due to the company’s very successful netbook line that debuted years ago. MSI is announcing a new notebook today called the CX623 that is aimed at fans of multimedia. The new notebook has a 15.6-inch screen and sports a powerful NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics card with 1GB of DDR3 VRAM. The outside of the machine has the MSI color film print coating with a crosshatch design that offers style. The keyboard is the chicklet design popular on many machines today. The heart of the machine is an Intel Core i5 CPU that promises to sip power giving the machine 15% longer battery life than previous notebook generations. MSI also uses its ECO mode to boost battery life. Other features include a pair of memory slots for DDR3 RAM, up to 500GB of storage, and a memory card reader. Power comes from a 6-cell battery and the machine has HDMI and VGA out. The notebook measures 247.5 x 37

Love or hate Apple, it’s hard to deny that the company makes some impressive products that are widely popular with consumers the world over. The iPod dominates the music player market, the iPhone is among the most popular smartphones around, and the new iPad is doing very well in the market. One of the big appeals of the iPad is that the device can do all sorts of things from surfing the web, to reading books, to playing games all with very impressive performance. The usability and wide feature set of the iPad is putting lots of pressure on one dimensional devices like the Amazon Kindle. Amazon isn’t taking this lying down though and is hiring lots of new folks to help it fight Apple on even ground. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit in all the hiring according to the New York Times is that Amazon is reportedly in meetings with publishers to talk about new games that it will bring to a future version of the Kindle. Sadly, there is no clear indication on how far out the new version wi

Google has admitted after a German regulatory commission asked for information on its data collection policies for Street View that is has accidentally been gathering some “payload data” from unprotected WiFi networks with its Street View fleet. Google regularly captures SSID and Mac addresses of WiFi networks its Street View vehicles encounter on their meanderings. The problem is that when Street View rides came across open WiFi networks the software used was also capturing some of the payload from these networks. Google maintains that it didn’t know its vehicles were gathering this data and that the data was not used for any purpose. Consumer advocacy ground Consumer Watchdog is now asking the FTC to investigate Google to document what data was captured, how long the data has been captured for, and what Google did with the data. Google is working with regulators in several counters to dispose of the collected data and has already pledged to start a third party investigation into the

Early last year Digital Foci pulled the wraps off a slick Photo Book in black that could store lots of photos for sharing and to expand the shooting capacity of your digital camera. Digital Foci is back with a new version of the device called the Photo Book PBK-080 in white. The device has an 8-inch TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 800 x 600. The picture aspect ratio on the screen is 4:3 and the device has 4GB of internal memory. Other features include a multi format memory card reader with support for CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, xD, Memory Stick, and MS Pro formats. A copy indicator shows how much of the copy from the memory card to the internal memory is complete and shows a confirmation when copying is finished. The device supports JPEG (up to 35 MP), RAW (select DSLR), BMP, TIFF, GIF photo formats; MP3, AAC, WMA music formats; and MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 SP video formats. The battery is good for about 2.5 hours per charge. The new white version is available now for pre-order for $189 and

Power supplies are one of the most critical components inside your computer. A junky PSU can make your computer crash and may not have enough stable power so support all your fancy hardware. OCZ has announced a new PSU under its Fatal1ty brand that is modular and has 750W of power. The 750W PSU supports SLI multiple GPU configurations. For added bling, the PSU has red LEDs inside for a nice glow when in use and is cooled by a 135mm double ball bearing fan. The device is also 80-Plus Bronze certified with up to 85% efficiency. The coolest feature of the new PSU is that it uses modular cabling. The only connectors that are hard wired into the PSU design are the ones for the motherboard and CPU power common to different computers. The other cables are modular and only have to be used if you need them. OCZ includes four 6+2 pin PCI-E cables, six peripheral cables, two floppy cables, and six SATA cables.

Love the HTC HD2 hardware but hate Windows Mobile? A full port of Android for the smartphone isn’t quite ready yet, but the gang over at xda-developers are certainly one step closer to it. They’ve managed to get Linux to boot on the smartphone, and to load – and play – a 720p HD video from the command line. Currently they’re not having much luck with a GUI, but the hack paves the way for a full install of Android on the 4.3-inch Snapdragon-based device. Standing in the way is the not-so-small matter of drivers, which will be required for everything from the phone functionality through camera, GPS, Bluetooth, graphics and more. Still, considering the only 4.3-inch Android device on the horizon is the HTC EVO 4G, and that will come with a significant surcharge given its WiMAX connectivity, we reckon there’ll be quite a few HD2 owners keen to dual-boot between Windows Mobile and Android.

LG’s Windows Phone 7 device looks to have been caught in the wild again, with a photo purportedly shared on Flickr by a French Microsoft employee. The handset – which we last saw back in March 2010 – has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that isn’t shown in this particular live shot. In fact, LG are yet to confirm exact specifications for the device, though we do have Microsoft’s minimum Windows Phone 7 capabilities to give us some idea. They include a 1GHz processor – likely to be Qualcomm’s Snapdragon – and a capacitive touchscreen, as well as at least 8GB of memory and a-GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass, light and proximity sensors. Meanwhile the camera has to be at least 5-megapixels and have a flash. Microsoft even issue guidelines as to the buttons that must be present: just back, Windows and search on the front panel. The first Windows Phone 7 devices are expected to hit the market in time for the Christmas 2010 shopping period.

Early analysis of Apple sales figures suggests that, rather than eat into sales of the company’s Mac range, the iPad has cannibalized iPod sales. According to Gene Munster, outspoken analyst at Piper Jaffray, Apple’s domestic Mac sales were up 39-percent year on year, while iPod sales dropped an estimate-quashing 17-percent for the three month period. Munster reckons this is down to clever positioning and feature-selection on Apple’s part, commenting that “Apple has successfully limited the iPad functionality to primarily content consumption, versus content creation on a Mac” While iPod sales have been gradually decreasing through Apple’s past few financial quarters, predictions for this most recent period only guesstimated the drop at 9-percent year on year. Instead, Munster’s own research suggests it may be almost twice that, with Apple only shifting 9m to 10m units. However, that’s overall a good change, he reckons, since “given the [average selling price] (4x) and margin profi

Chinese researchers are looking to use flickering LEDs to replace traditional short-distance wireless networking standards, and that could be integrated into office or home lighting. By rapidly pulsing the LEDs, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute for the Study of Semiconductor have come up with the Lighting Information Network, consisting of blue LEDs capable of 2Mbps transfer speeds. To demonstrate the system, researchers showed a laptop – with no wired or WiFi network connection – playing smooth streaming internet video that was transmitted via the lighting network. The team reckons concerns over the impact of electromagnetic waves on the human body will leave users open to alternative carriers, such as lighting. As for the lights themselves, the pulses are so rapid that the human eye sees the LEDs as consistently lit. In addition to regular internet connections, the system could be used for “smart” appliances, such as updating clock accuracy automatically, advising home

Nintendo have been pretty coy in confirming the name of their upcoming 3D gaming handheld – with president Satoru Iwata teasing that “the final product name shall be announced in the not-so-far-away future” – but it seems increasingly likely that they’ll stick with Nintendo 3DS. That’s one of a handful of newly filed trademarks from the company, including “3DS”, “N3DS” and, interestingly, “3DSPlay” and “3DSWare”. The significance – or indeed purpose – of the latter two is currently unknown. However, given there is an existing game download service on the DSi called DSiWare it seems likely that 3DSWare will be used for a similar service offering 3D-compatible titles. As for 3DSPlay, there’s speculation that it could be a mobile version of Wii Play, consisting of various mini-games for the handheld.

Visa and DeviceFidelity have announced [pdf link] their contactless iPhone payment system, In2Pay, consisting of a special case for the Apple smartphone and a microSD card that contains a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip. The case itself has a microSD slot that’s interfaced with the iPhone’s dock connector; when paired with the In2Pay Visa app from the App Store, you can tap your iPhone to make payments in participating retailers. Since the NFC technology is embedded into the microSD card rather than the iPhone case or the iPhone itself, there’s a degree of cross-platform compatibility. Assuming Visa offer a suitable app for your smartphone – and that said-smartphone has a microSD slot – you should be able to continue to use the modified card even if you decide to dump your iPhone. Of course, Apple aren’t letting the NFC grass grow underneath them, and the company has already filed patent applications for various NFC-based ticket and mobile payment solutions that would be integr