IBLOG SPACE

Back in January at CES, we first caught wind of the MSI GX740 notebook computer. MSI has now announced that the MSI GX740 notebook is shipping in the US. The machine is on Amazon and Newegg.com right now for purchase at $1,399.99. For that much scratch you get a machine with some powerful features. The rig uses an Intel Core i5 CPU and a big 17-inch screen with a resolution of 1680 x 1050. Graphics are via ATI Radeon HD5870 GPU and storage space is up to 500GB. The notebook packs in a Blu-ray drive for when the movie bug hits. The sound system has four speakers and a subwoofer, which hopefully means it sounds better than most notebooks. Other features include WiFi, HDMI out, and optional Bluetooth. The notebook has up to 4GB of RAM.

OCZ has been all about new SSDs so far this year. It seems like every time I turn around they are whipping out a couple more new options for computer users. OCZ has now announced a couple new version of the Vertex 2 SSD that are very similar to each other called the Vertex 2 Pro and the Vertex 2 EX. Both of the models promise the same performance with read speed of up to 285MB/s and write speed of up to 275MB/sec. Both of the SSDs also use SandForce SF-1500 controller. The big difference comes in the type of NAND flash the SSDs use. The Vertex 2 Pro utilizes MLC NAND and the EX uses SLC NAND. That difference doesn’t affect performance at all according to OCZ, but it does give the EX version the ability to survive more than ten times the program/erase cycles compared to the Pro version. Both SSDs will come in 50GB, 100GB, and 200GB capacities at undisclosed pricing.

Samsung’s Galaxy S GT-I9000 has shown up for preorder on Vodafone UK’s site, priced from free with a new agreement. Expected to hit shelves on June 15th – next Tuesday – the Galaxy S has a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16GB of internal storage (plus a microSD card slot) and runs Android 2.1. There’s also a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, a 5-megapixel camera, HSDPA and WiFi, together with Bluetooth and GPS. The camera can record 720p HD video, while the UI gets – for better or for worse – Samsung’s own TouchWiz 3.0 theme which does at least make it distinctive among the rank and file of Android. Stump up for a £35 ($51) per month contract and you can take away the 16GB Galaxy S with no upfront payments, and since Vodafone have the exclusive on this particular model you won’t find it anywhere else, bar unlocked. The 8GB Galaxy S is currently up for order at Clove, priced at £452.38 (with a free 8GB microSD card) if you’d prefer to go the unlocked route.

Lenovo’s IdeaPad U160 11.6-inch ultraportable, announced last month, has shown up on the company’s webstore. Priced from $1,049, the U160 has a 1366 x 768 glossy display, a choice of Intel Core i5 or Core i7 ULV processors, and 4GB of DDR3 memory as standard. The IdeaPad U160 08945JU has a 1.06GHz Core i5-520UM CPU and a 320GB 5,400rpm HDD; the IdeaPad U160 089455U gets a 1.20GHz Core i7-640UM and a 500GB 5,400rpm HDD. Both use Intel GMA HM55 graphics, have WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, together with a 6-cell Li-Ion battery. That’s not bad for machines under an inch thin and less than 3lbs in weight, and just in case you drop them Lenovo have added automatic hard-drive protection. The Lenovo IdeaPad U160 08945JU is $1,049 while the Lenovo IdeaPad U160 089455U is $1,149.

No surprise here. On the heels of Sony announcing the pre-order availability of a list of BRAVIA 3D HDTV s, there comes word that the house that built the PlayStation is focusing, from here on out, on 3D. We already knew that Sony was one of the main companies out there focusing on the “future tech,” but we didn’t think it would go this deep. Speaking with CVG , the UK PlayStation boss Ray Maguire pretty much laid out the company’s idea for the future, and there’s a lot of 3D being applied to a lot of different things. There’s already a “stereoscopic collection” of 3D titles hitting the PlayStation Store today, but those aren’t the full intent of Sony. No, they want to make sure that the way we play video games changes forever, and they plan on doing that the only way they know how: make their triple-A titles go the three-dimensional route, too. While Killzone 3 has already been announced, and we know that’s going to be their mainstay 3D title for at least a little while, Maguire con

For US owners of the Amazon Kindle, the update to 2.5 has been a very unique one. While it showed up on a Kindle DX for one lucky customer, so far reports haven’t been all that “standard” for people with the Kindle waiting to get updated to the latest firmware. Of course, we’re sure it’s out there, somewhere. Making a few people happy. And while this download link has been available for a little while now, we wanted to go ahead and bring it to our international readers out there, that if you’ve got the right model of Kindle, you can manually update your eReader to the latest firmware. What do you get if you do go through the trouble of downloading the update? Well, you don’t have to wait for the OTA update, and that has to count for something. Features wise, you’ll be able to share passes of your books on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and you’ll also be able to sort your novels, and whatever else, into nice little collections. Other features include password protection, a

Press releases are getting crammed these days. But, we can’t blame companies for wanting to shove as many products into one release as they can, especially if they all move towards one goal. In Lenovo’s case, they believe that the desktop computing market has lost its innovation, and that’s why they’re officially announcing five new products to inject some of that innovation back into the market. They’re covering pretty much all of their bases with the products herein, so if you’re interested in what Lenovo is doing for big-businesses out there, then jump after the link to find out what’s going on. The ThinkCentre M90z is an all-in-one PC, shoved into a pretty luxurious looking 23-inch display. You get to choose from Intel’s Core i5 or i3 processors, along with DDR3 memory, your choice of either hard drive or solid state drive, a DVD player, and optional WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity. You can include a touchscreen as well, and the AIO can also come with a physical on/off switch for your

cyamb Motorola’s Android ambitions aren’t exactly unknown, but CEO Sanjay Jha has squeezed out a new tidbit that has left us even more keen to see what’s in the pipeline. Speaking at the Executives Club of Chicago this week,Jha revealed that Motorola plans to have a 2GHz Android smartphone on the market by the end of 2010. Other sources at the company are quoted as saying the device will “incorporate everything that is technologically possible in a smartphone today.” The exact nature of the chip is unclear at present – Snapdragon isn’t expected to reach 2GHz this year, for instance – but it seems possible that ARM’s 2GHz Cortex A9 dual-core could be called on to power the new Motorola handset. As for the rest of the specs, that’s little more than speculation, but likely candidates include a high-resolution, HD-video capable camera (the XT720 has just launched with an 8-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video and paired with a Xenon flash, for instance).

Your eyes do not deceive you; the Liquid E looks identical to the original Acer Liquid, the company’s first attempt at an Android smartphone. That’s because the key change is on the inside: the underclocked Snapdragon processor – running at 768MHz rather than the more usual 1GHz – now gets to play with Android 2.1 rather than the 1.6 of its predecessor. The first Liquid never really managed to lift its head above the rest of the smartphone crowd; will the Rogers Wireless Acer Liquid E fare better? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. The OS may be different, but otherwise much of the Liquid E we’ve seen before. You still get is a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel autofocus camera (though lacking an LED flash), quadband GSM and triband 900/1900/2100 UMTS/HSPA. There’s also WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and an FM radio, along with a microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone socket and A-GPS. At 4.53 x 2.46 x 0.49 inches it’s not the slimmest Android phone, and there are

A phone purported to be the Nokia C7 has turned up in the wild, only a day after being spotted on a leaked 2010 roadmap document. According to Chinese site Tencent, the Nokia C67-00 has a roughly 3.5-inch touchscreen display along with an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash. There are also stereo speakers and a front-facing camera, together with stereo speakers flanking the rear camera and a 3.5mm headphone socket up top. Beyond that, with no sign of photos showing the camera powered on, it’s unknown what OS the C7-00 will run; we’d like to think that it’ll have Symbian^3 (rather than S60 5th Ed) and a capacitive touchscreen (rather than resistive). It’s an unusual design for Nokia, though we’re not complaining; it looks far slicker than some of their other recent touchscreen devices, such as the X6. No word on release dates or pricing, but going by the roadmap leak this should be near the top of the CSeries and priced accordingly.

There are many projectors on the market that are short-throw and need five or six feet of distance to throw a picture of 80-inches or less. Vivitek has announced a new projector called the Vivitek D795WT that puts those other short throw projectors to shame. The new Vivitek offering is capable of throwing a big 95-inch image from only 1.3-feet from the projection surface. Now THAT is short throw. In addition to its short throw prowess, the projector also has DLP and BrilliantColor tech inside. The little beastie is also 3D ready and has 3000 lumens of brightness, a 2500:1 contrast ratio, and its lamp is good for 6000 hours. The native resolution is 1280 x 800 and connectivity options include HDMI 1.3, dual VGA, composite, and S-video. The projector will ship in August and the price isn’t set yet. This thing will be an awesome home theater projector for small rooms.

I remember sitting in a meeting with AMD folks at CES a couple years back when netbooks were just getting popular and thinking they would be eating their words when they told me they weren’t going to offer netbook hardware. Today we have a new netbook from Asus Eee 1201K that uses that AMD netbook processor they didn’t want to offer a few years back. The processor inside the new Eee is the AMD Geode NX1750 and the rig comes with 1GB of DDR1 RAM and can be fitted with optional Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. The machine can be fitted with 160GB, 250GB, or 320GB HDDs and it has a built-in 0.3MP webcam. Power for the little machine comes from a 6-cell Li-ion battery promising 2 hours of run time per charge. That run time is a bit scary if the runtime is as inflated as manufacturers normally claim. The netbook has a larger screen than you normally find on Intel machines at 12.1-inches and it has a 1366 x 768 resolution. Pricing is unknown at this time.

Back in February Toshiba unveiled the industry’s highest capacity SFF HDD for enterprise users called the Toshiba MBF series . Today Toshiba has announced that the new MBF drive is available in volume. The drive is a 2.5-inch enterprise-class HDD aimed at the data center needing lots of storage in small amount of space. The 2.5-inch HDD can be used in volume servers, storage arrays, blade servers and rack servers. Other than smaller space requirements allowing for higher storage densities, the 2.5-inch drive also uses less power than a comparable 3.5-inch HDD. The MBF family has a highest capacity offered of 600GB and uses the 6Gb/s SAS interface with a speed of 10,025 rpm. The MBF drive is also offered in 450GB and 300GB with all capacities using the same 16MB buffer.

Transcend has several external hard drives in its line that use both traditional spinning storage media and flash storage. The company has announced that its Transcent StorJet 25M3 Rugged HDD has received certification for USB 3.0. The 25M3 is a rugged hard drive with a 2.5-inch form factor that has military-grade shock resistance for performance and durability. The drive can transfer data at up to 90MB/s in USB 3.0 mode. The anti-shock system inside the drive has three different layers of protection. The outside of the drive has a silicone shell for better grip and to cushion the drive in the event of a fall. The case of the HDD is reinforced to survive drops and the HDD inside the case is mounted on a suspension damper. The drive was able to meet the MIL-STD-810F 516.5-Transit Drop specifications for military use. If you are interested in the new rugged drive you can pick on up in 500GB or 640GB capacity.

Back when it was officially announced, we described Sharp’s NetWalker PC-T1 slate as the epitome of a niche device, and sadly Pocketables’ review hasn’t done anything to change our opinion. The Linux-based 5-inch MID does several things right – its ostensibly chunky casing turning out to fit nicely into the hands, and some intuitively placed hardware controls like an optical trackpad – but in the end sluggish performance spoils the show. Ironically, it’s not the processor – an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 – that’s at fault, but the 8GB of SSD storage. That slows booting OpenOffice to just under half a minute, and makes Firefox page scrolling jerky. It’s not helped by slow touchscreen responses, with the on-screen keyboard being particularly critiqued. Factor in an import price hovering around $540, 4.5-5 hours of battery life and a less fashionable OS than Android (which is likely to appeal to more mainstream users) and the writing looks to be on the wall for the PC-T1. A shame, as we’d l

After Steve Jobs described his iPhone 4’s new LCD-based Retina Display as being better than AMOLED panels during the WWDC 2010 keynote this past Monday, it was pretty clear that Samsung wouldn’t let the snub slide. While a Samsung spokesperson did concede that Apple’s 960 x 640 display was higher resolution than their own Super AMOLED panel (as used in the Samsung Wave and Galaxy S), he also insisted that “structurally, IPS LCD technology cannot catch up with AMOLED display technology” in other ways key to image quality. That includes contrast ratio, color reproduction and response time, Samsung claims, all of which they believe their Super AMOLED readily bests the iPhone’s IPS screen on. Meanwhile, boosting resolution also has significant battery impact: “The visibility difference is only 3 to 5 percent. But raising resolution to that level increases battery consumption by 30 percent” Samsung spokesperson Apple did make a point of highlighting the relatively large non-user-accessib

Spotify has begun its assault on the living room, announcing a partnership with TeliaSonera to make the streaming media system available on Swedish and Finnish TVs. Premium subscribers to the Spotify service will be able to access their accounts via TeliaSonera’s digital TV package, with a new TV-friendly UI. Set-top boxes provided by TeliaSonera will be automatically updated to include the new Spotify app. The Spotify option shows up as a new media choice, and can be controlled by the regular STB remote control. Playlists created on the Spotify desktop app are automatically synchronized with the TV version. Interestingly, the STB itself looks to be manufactured by Motorola – at least going by the half-glimpsed logo on the remote – who provide such boxes to many different digital TV companies in various countries. That does suggest that Sweden and Finland won’t be the only places where the Spotify app is offered.

And then there were five! UK carrier Three is the latest to announce they will be offering the new iPhone 4 , though like Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone they’re yet to confirm any pricing or tariff details. A preview page on the Three website allows would-be buyers to sign up for more details as and when the carrier confirms them. So far only O2 has announced any details as to upgrade offers; they’ll be giving existing contract customers the chance to buy out their current agreement for £20 per month remaining. They’ll obviously also have to pay the price of the iPhone 4 handset itself, which is another detail yet to be announced in the UK. The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch 960 x 640 “Retina Display”, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash andFaceTime, Apple’s attempt to popularise video calling. More details in our hands-on report.

As if we needed another reason to be careful about our sexting habits, an apparent bug on Android devices is causing text and multimedia messages to be sent to unintended recipients. Multiple Android users are reporting the fault on Google’s support forums; the native messaging app on their phone – several models have apparently been affected, including the Google Nexus One and HTC Incredible – replaces the selected recipient of an SMS or MMS with a different identity, sometimes only showing the switch after the message has been sent. Confusing matters, not every Android owner has been able to reproduce the fault. Some have found that by holding two separate SMS conversations and switching between them (as replies arrive) mid-typing can prompt a switch, but the issue seems to be affecting devices with no observable pattern. Currently the only workaround is to delete conversation threads when you’re done reading them, though that’s not likely to meet with particular enthusiasm from

An AT&T database hack has left 114,000 iPad WiFi + 3G owners with their email addresses exposed. The hackers, known as Goatse Security, apparently used publicly shown iPad 3G ICC IDs – the identifying codes for the microSIMs used in the WWAN-enabled iPad, and which many owners unwittingly revealed in unboxing galleries online – and some scriptwork to take advantage of a loophole in AT&T’s website. For their part, AT&T say they have closed off that loophole, and that they will be contacting everyone whose email address may have been compromised. However, they also counter some of Goatse Security’s statements, namely the hackers’ claim to have contacted AT&T with regards the security breach. Instead, AT&T say they were warned by a business customer: “AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC IDS. The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS is the e-mail address attached to that device. This iss

The life of iRex Technologies‘ DR-800SG and iRex 1000S is a fascinating story, for sure. We watched as it released one thing, fought to release another, and then slipped out of the mind’s eye for months. Even with the fact that Best Buy started selling the DR-800SG online back in February, it doesn’t look like the company has any good news to report. On Tuesday, iRex Technologies was forced to file for bankruptcy in the Netherlands. According to the company’s CEO, Hans Brons, the company was forced to file for Chapter 11 due to “financial difficulties.” We know that if you promise a product for a holiday release and don’t deliver, bad things can happen. But, to think that missing the launch window by a few months meant the demise of a company, well that’s simply staggering. You can probably also chalk it up to the competition that released in the same expected months of iRex’s eReader launch. Apple’s iPad, and then even before that: Barnes and Noble’s nook eReader. Missing the holiday

If you own an iPod or iPhone, or any Apple mobile device, then you’re probably well aware that there’s a plethora of accessories out there for your mobile gadgets. On Wednesday, Konnet Technology officially announced their latest mobile accessory, specifically designed for the iPod Touch and iPhone. But, what about the iPhone 4? Sure enough, KT have verified that it will work with the latest iteration of phones from Apple. So, feel free to upgrade everything in one fell swoop. The ReflexDock Pro is a new way to charge your device, but one that also features the ability to transmit audio and video to your larger screen. They include the AV Out cables you’ll need to get the job done, which mirrors the image displayed on your iPod/iPhone, displaying it on whatever big screen you want (and that will accept the input method, of course). We’ll go ahead and admit that the ReflexDock is a pretty stylish accessory, and one that catches our eye. Plus, with features like Advanced Sound Reflectio

Hulu Plus . Hopefully you think that has a ring to it, because with another “confirmation” from Reuters , it’s looking more and more like one of the Internet’s favorite media streaming websites is about to add a premium feature. We’ve already heard plenty about what we could expect if such a thing did happen, if Hulu Plus did become a reality, and so we’re not surprised that two of the previous devices are mentioned again in the report. Now, all we need is a time line for launch. According to the new report, which cites two sources and another person with “knowledge of the matter,” Hulu is indeed preparing to launch a subscription-based service. We’ve heard it called Hulu Plus in the past, so we’ll go ahead and stick with that for now, until we’re proven wrong. The sources say that the Xbox 360 and the iPad are both being readied to carry the streaming service soon. And, while other devices are hinted at, the Microsoft and Apple products are the only ones named directly. Just as we’ve

It just won’t stop, will it? Part of that same press release we just mentioned, Sony’s also making sure that your 3D HDTVs have the best 3D home theater systems on the market. At least, that’s their goal. And, we imagine that if you plug it all into one another (don’t break anything), you might just get a 3D experience that makes your comfortable couch way more appealing than the stuffy movie theater with all those strangers. Here’s 3 (kind of) new options for you to choose from, all promoting plenty of features to make any 3D enthusiast drool at the mouth. First up is the BDV-HZ970W, a brand new Blu-ray 3D home theater system. It features full 1080p HD, with a 5.1 channel surround sound. Sony includes a USB wireless LAN adapter (802.11n), which gives owners easy access to the BRAVIA Internet Video platform, as well as Qriocity. You also get two HDMI inputs, both of which have 3D pass-through, an HDMI repeater function, and a universal remote. You can have it some time in July for arou

The push for 3D may have started in the movie theaters, but it’s definitely a sensation that’s invading our living rooms. Whether you’re a fan or not probably doesn’t matter anymore (outside of your own living room, of course), because it doesn’t look like companies are slowing down any time soon. Sony, in fact, has just announced that they’ve got the largest array of 3D-capable devices on the market, which is bolstered by the fact that you can now pre-order your favorite SONY BRAVIA 3D HDTV from their online store. The 3D HDTVs all feature the same things: incorporation of a frame sequential display, that work in conjunction with the active-shutter glasses and Sony’s proprietary high frame rate technology. All this, in the hopes that their TVs offer the smoothest, full high-definition 3D image. One of the most noteworthy of the 3D sets is the BRAVIA XBR-LX900 HDTV, which has a built-in 3D sync transmitter, and Sony is being nice enough to throw in two pair of active-shutter glasses.

Netflix is just about everywhere you’d want it to be at this point. Even the mobile scene. So don’t consider us all that surprised that it’s just shown up on yet another box, with access to your full Netflix library. Western Digital has officially announced the availability of their TV Live Plus HD Media Player (which is much like their previous TV Live HD, but with a plus sign), and if you’re interested in all sorts of cool features, then take a look after the break for what it’s bringing to the table, plus that release date and pricing we know you care so much about. Western Digital packed a few interesting things into the compact TV Live Plus HD Media Player. At least its’ not the worst looking box accessory you can buy for your TV. The custom User Interface will help guide you through your listings, as you peruse the services like YouTube, Flickr, Pandora, and Live365. You’ll also have access to the MediaFly network, which will bring you podcasts from places like CNN, MTV, and ESP

We’re scratching our heads at this one. It’s only been a week since Nintendo announced that there would be new colors coming to the Nintendo DSi XL line-up, and while that was all well and good, there wasn’t any announcement saying that the new shades would be seeing release anywhere else other than Japan. And then Nintendo sneaks this one in: Midnight Blue is coming to the States. Everyone, including Nintendo, knows that the Nintendo DSi XL isn’t doing all that well. At least not here in the States. It was doing quite well for itself over in Japan, but once it hit store shelves locally, sales slumped. In an industry that’s getting smaller in most cases, adding 40% overall size to the mobile gaming platform may have not been the best bet. In any event, Nintendo wants to go ahead and freshen up the line-up, adding the Midnight Blue color to their current models available in stores. The unit will be available starting on July 11th. It will cost you $189.99, and there’s absolutely nothin

Panasonic have outed their latest rugged notebook, the Toughbook F9 , a 14-inch machine that weighs a mere 3.6 pounds; that makes it the industry’s lightest 14-inch notebook, despite the extra-sturdy build. Based around a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor with a 320GB hard-drive and optional Qualcomm Gobi WWAN, the F9 boasts up to seven hours runtime. That’s impressive, considering the Toughbook F9 can withstand a drop of 30-inches – about the height of your desk – while turned on and without losing data. There’s also a spill-resistant keyboard, and the casing is made of sturdy magnesium alloy. Other specs include WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a DVD burner and 2GB of RAM, upgradable to 6GB. The Panasonic Toughbook F9 should go on sale from July 1st 2010, priced from $2,899.

After early users reported multiple problems with the ereader device, Pandigital has apparently decided to recall the Android-based Novel. Owner Nate has been in touch with Kohl’s telephone support, who have confirmed that owners can send back their tablets for a full refund. Among the problems reported were patchy touchscreen responsiveness, sluggish browsing and WiFi that was reluctant to connect. There’s no detail on the Pandigital site itself, at least at time of writing, but we imagine that if owners of the Novel ring the customer care number in their documentation they should be able to find out the full process. As for when it gets re-released, it’ll apparently still be running Android 2.0, as it is now, and Pandigital promise you’ll eventually be able to install applications yourself (though it’s not clear if that will be through the Android Market). Update: Nate has been in touch to confirm that he spoke to Kohl’s customer service, not Pandigital’s, and that Pandigital hav

UK carrier O2 has announced their upgrade policy for the iPhone 4 , including offers for existing subscribers who want to jump onto Apple’s new smartphone ahead of their contract ending. Between June 24th and July 24th, existing subscribers still within their contract can upgrade to the iPhone 4 by paying £20 ($29) per month remaining in a one-off charge. Alternatively you can transfer to pay-as-you-go and buy an iPhone 4 that way, though you’ll obviously need to continue paying off your monthly agreement. Finally, there are early upgrade bonuses depending on where you are in O2’s “Priority List” (which depends on monthly spend and loyalty); that can grant you up to a six month early upgrade. There’s an O2 early upgrade calculator here which works out how much you’ll be paying depending on how close to your contract renewal date you are. Of course, with Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile all planning to offer the iPhone 4 in the UK, there’s likely to be plenty of competition for your bus

At the Apple worldwide developer’s conference, Steve Jobs talked about a lot of numbers at onstage. Apple talked about the 29% US market share of the smart phone market that the iPhone has achieved. Apple discussed the 58% market share of mobile Web browsing that it now has. Apple even talked about their 22% marketshare in e-books. The most important number, however, that Apple talked about so was 100 million. That’s how many iOS devices are in the market as of this month. That’s significant and it shows what Apple’s long-term platform play is all about. Hint, it’s no longer about the personal computer, at least the personal computer as we know it. The very iOS name is significant. Think about it. When the iPhone was introduced Apple pointed out that this was just another iteration of OS X optimized for a phone. Over time, it became known as the iPhone OS and as of WWDC it now has name of its own. That’s because iOS is a platform play and I believe this is the future that Apple is bet

Nokia continue to drip out new information about the Nokia N8 ’s abilities, and after the impressive photo and video editing demonstration earlier it’s now the turn of multimedia playback to briefly hog the spotlight. According to Blog-N8.fr, a French Nokia representative confirmed that the N8 would be able to natively play DivX encoded videos, along with the H.264, MPEG4 and other formats mentioned at the handset’s official launch. The site apparently saw a demo of Avatar playing smoothly on the N8 in DivX format, while 720p HD content was played back – separately - via the handset’s HDMI port. So far Nokia have made no mention of native DivX compatibility, though it’s certainly not something we’d sniff at. We’re waiting on confirmation from Nokia themselves as to whether this is accurate or a mistake, and will update accordingly.

Keen to get iOS4 on your iPhone before Apple officially release it on June 21st? Turns out, with the iOS4 Golden Master (GM) release in the wild – which Apple pushed out to developers after Monday’s WWDC keynote – those of us with iPhone 3G or 3GS handsets can now take advantage of the new functionality, and thanks to a little hacking you can also jailbreak an iOS4-running iPhone 3G and enable the custom wallpapers and multitasking Apple don’t want you to have. Pixelated Geek run through all the instructions, and it looks like a relatively straightforward process getting iOS4 onto your device. After that, there are a few – slightly more complex – tweaks you need to do in order to get custom wallpapers and multitasking support on the 3G; of course, the 3GS supports those natively. Unfortunately there’s currently no jailbreak for the 3GS running iOS4, so if you’re reliant on an app or two through the Cydia unofficial app store then you may want to hold out until the iPhone Dev Team pu

Having been the subject of speculation over potential launch delays over the weekend, we caught up with Notion Ink founder Rohan Shravan today to find out exactly where the Adam tablet project is up to. Turns out, Rohan’s team are celebrating today as they’ve just clinched their final round of investment; they can’t tell us the identity of the investors themselves, but it sets them up for potentially producing around 100,000 Adam units per month. Meanwhile there are whispers about new hardware options; more on that after the cut. Until now, we’ve known there would be two Adam versions, one with Pixel Qi’s 3qi indoor/outdoor transflective display and the other with a regular LCD display and a cheaper price tag, and both based on NVIDIA’s second-gen Tegra. Now, Notion Ink are talking about a potential second, cheaper platform that could be offered alongside the Tegra chipset as a more battery-efficient option. This is all still undecided, however, and there’s no indication of which

One of the things that has always bothered me about the way the iPhone gives me notifications is that they are very intrusive. You can’t ignore them if you don’t care what they say and you can’t finish what you are working on at the time the notification appears without fussing with the notification. Palm’s Pre and Pixi on the other hand have slick notification banners you can ignore easily. Depending on if you are an iPhone fan or a big supporter of webOS devices, this will be good news or bad news. The guy at Palm – Rich Dellinger – who was responsible for the webOS’ slick notification banners has left Palm and headed to Apple. Considering that the iPhone is infinitely more popular than webOS devices this is very good news on the whole. Perhaps we can expect to get a much slicker and less bothersome notification system for a future iPhone OS.

I’m not a big fan of Mac computers for myself, but I won’t deny that the machines have a sexy design with the aluminum enclosure and minimalist looks. The Mac world has its own peripherals and accessories to go along with its file system and Western Digital has announced a new external storage solution pre-formatted for Mac users. The new external storage device is the My Book Studio LX . It sports an all-metal enclosure that matches the finish on the MacBook line of notebooks. Connectivity for the drive is via FireWire 800, it has a customizable e-label on the front, and hardware based encryption. The e-label is always on, can show project names, and lots more information making it easy to tell what’s on the drive if you are using multiple externals. The encryption is 256-bit and the storage device comes in 1TB or 2TB capacities. The drive is available now with the 1TB selling for $199.99 and the 2TB selling for $269.99.

If you’ve kept even half an eye on the low-power computing industry over the past couple of years, you can’t have missed Pixel Qi ’s 3qi display technology and the excitement surrounding what an ultra-low-power screen could do for mobile devices. Now it seems Pixel Qi could have another competitor on their hands, this time from CPT, whose 1366 x 768 transflective panel apparently draws 50-percent less power than a regular LCD, despite coming in at 200 nits brightness and with a contrast ratio of 400:1. Now, 50-percent less power consumption is impressive but it isn’t as stunning as Pixel Qi’s fully-reflective mode, at least not on paper. Still, the key difference might be one of manufacture: there are apparently rumors circulating in Taiwan that Pixel Qi are having trouble locating a fab plant for their 3qi panel, whereas CPT are already a display manufacturer and so are in a position to make their own screens using their transflective technology. In the end, then, it could be a case

Australia striker Harry Kewell was left crestfallen by his first-half dismissal in the 1-1 draw with Ghana. Kewell later claimed referee Roberto Rosetti had "killed" his World Cup dream. After missing the Socceroos' 4-0 trouncing in their opening match against Germany, Kewell lasted just 24 minutes before he was dismissed for deliberate handball after keeping out Jonathan Mensah's fierce shot on the goal-line. The Galatasaray forward vehemently contested the decision, but was given his marching orders before Asamoah Gyan slid home the ensuing penalty to cancel out Brett Holman's earlier strike. The incident was the turning point for the Socceroos, who can still mathematically qualify for the round of 16, but must win against Serbia and hope the result in the other Group D match goes their way. Kewell felt he had no hope of getting his arm out of the way of the shot and while he conceded the incident warranted a penalty, he did not think he should have seen red. &q

Cristiano Ronaldo has defended his old friend Wayne Rooney as the England striker faces criticism over his performances. Rooney has failed to impress during the tournament so far, producing lacklustre displays in both the 1-1 draw against the United States and Friday's stalemate with Algeria in Cape Town. The Manchester United forward has looked sluggish and uninspired in South Africa so far and made matters worse for himself with a snarling comment to a pitch-side television camera about England fans' booing after the Algeria performance. However, his former United team-mate Ronaldo, whose Portugal side face North Korea tomorrow, was quick to defend his friend. The Real Madrid forward said: "Wayne Rooney tried very hard, he's always like that, but he didn't play alone. "So it's difficult, when it's not coming, when you don't score a goal or play well, it is always the big players' fault. "Wayne is a great player and will do a good job. He

Cristiano Ronaldo is "not concerned" by his ongoing struggles despite not scoring in a competitive international for two years. The world's most expensive player has long been accused of failing to perform for his country as well as he does for his club. That has intensified recently with the prolific Real Madrid forward enduring a barren spell for Portugal, which continued in last week's goalless draw with the Ivory Coast in their World Cup opener. Carlos Queiroz's side take on North Korea in Cape Town tomorrow in their second Group G clash desperate to secure victory but Ronaldo - whose last competitive goal was at Euro 2008 - has attempted to play down the pressure he is under. "I haven't scored in two years for Portugal," he said. "I hope to score tomorrow. "I'm not concerned with that aspect, the goals will come, today, tomorrow or in a few years' time. I have faith in my coach and my team-mates and if I don't score, it'

John Terry has urged England coach Fabio Capello to recall Joe Cole for the crucial clash with Slovenia. Terry believes Cole and Wayne Rooney are the players capable of breaking down opposing defences. Cole was the only player to feature for the entire 90 minutes in the practice match against the Platinum Stars. But the player just released by Chelsea has so far been overlooked by Capello for the disappointing draws with the United States and Algeria. Capello started with James Milner on the left against the USA and then replaced him with Shaun Wright-Phillips. Steven Gerrard was restored to that berth against Algeria after the return of Gareth Barry in the holding midfield role. But Terry believes a firing Cole can make the difference for England, who have to defeat Slovenia to reach the last 16. He said: "I think Joe can transform our form. We saw at Chelsea that he was a great boost for us when coming back from injury at the right time. "He got a great goal away from home

Abhay Puri rates the individual performances in the Group F game where the Kiwis held Italy to a 1-1 draw. In the feelgood hit of this tournament, the plucky New Zealanders held out brilliantly against an unimpressive Italian side. Here's how the players fared... ITALY Federico Marchetti - 6 Didn't have too many saves to make, and couldn't do much about the goal. Gianluca Zambrotta - 6.5 The veteran was threatening down the right, and involved in a few good moves, but failed to find the perfect cross or an end product. Fabio Cannavaro - 5.5 The Italian captain defended poorly from the set piece that led to the Kiwi goal, and was unconvincing on the few occasions where he was called upon. Giorgio Chiellini - 5 The center-back was not tested much defensively, but wasted a couple of decent chances from headers and a volley a few yards out. Domenico Criscito - 6 Showed promise on the left, but too often his final cross was lacking. Riccardo Montolivo - 7.5 One of the few Italia