IBLOG SPACE

GenosTV isn’t a name that most of us will recognize, but the company is working on a cool product for the TV. The device is called the Cyclops and it’s a round universal controller that has all the functions you expect on a remote control and more. You get your keys to change channel and control your DVR, Blu-ray, and other devices. You also get a small QWERTY keyboard that is designed to let you enter text much faster. The product is now entering the manufacturing process in China according to GenosTV. Originally, the Cyclops was designed to be the controller for the GenosTV Cable box, but the thing has morphed into a universal remote control. That is a good idea and will open the product to many more users. Another cool feature is that the Cyclops supports Bluetooth and can connect to phones and should be able to connect to PCs too. It would make an interesting HTPC controller. A version for game consoles is in the works. Availability is unknown.

Samsung has been whipping out several new pieces of hardware today and the final new offering is the Samsung SH-B123 Blu-ray combo drive . The drive can read BD-ROM and burn to CDs and DVDs. The new Blu-ray drive is designed to be used inside a desktop PC. The drive has a standard 5.25-inch form factor and ships with Cyberlink Powerproducer software for authoring DVDs and CDs. The combo player uses two lenses and a laser diode structure for stable BD reading and CD/DVD read and write. The drive also offers Samsung’s Firmware Live Update function to ensure the user has the latest BD drive firmware version. The drive supports media burning and read speeds of 12X BD-ROM read, 8x BD R/RE/DL read, 48X CD-ROM, 40X CD-RW, 16X DVD±R recording, 12X DVD-RAM recording, 8X DVD±R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW. Samsung will ship the drive globally in July at an undisclosed price.

Samsung has unveiled a new external DVD burner that is very thin and aimed at the netbook market. The DVD writer is available worldwide right now and has a very sleek and cool design that won an iF Product Award Design. The optical drive is offered in seven colors and Samsung claims that it is 20% smaller and 25% lighter than conventional DVD writers. The writer will work with Mac and Windows. Buffer Under Run technology is integrated to help prevent errors caused by write speeds faster than data transfer speeds and the drive allows PC multitasking. It can burn CD-RW at 24X and DVD-RW at 6x. The SE-S084D is available globally for $69.99.

Super Talent has unveiled a new SSD in its TeraDrive family called the T eraDrive CT . The new SSD is based on the SandForce SF-1200 controller with support for TRIM and Garbage Collection features. Super Talent claims that the drive is good for up to 285MB/s sequential speeds and it is aimed at high-end laptops and desktops. The SSD uses the SATA II 3Gbps interface. The drive is also SAS tested and can be used with RAID cards in servers and workstations. Other features include weal leveling and ECC with up to 24 bytes correctable per 512 byte sector. MLC NAND is used inside the SSD and it is available in 60GB to 480GB capacities. Sequential read speed is 285MB/s for all capacities and the sequential write speed is 275MB/s for all of the capacities except the 60GB which has a 200MB/s write speed.

Amazon has announced that its 2.5.3 firmware for the Kindle ereader is now being pushed out wirelessly to all users. The new software – which adds the ability to sort ebooks into “Collections” (aka folders), share notes and highlighted passages on Facebook and Twitter, and improves PDF handling among other things – should arrive on your Kindle “over the next few weeks”; however we’ve just checked our unit and it’s already been updated. If you’re unwilling to wait, and the 2.5.3 update is nowhere in sight, Amazon allow you to manually download it and install it to your Kindle from amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates. If you’re content to wait, however, simply make sure your Kindle’s 3G connection is turned on; the ereader itself can be in standby mode. It’s worth noting that the first-generation Kindle won’t, apparently, be getting the new firmware. However, we’ve also just tested the web browser on our Kindle in the UK – which previously was restricted to viewing Wikipedia – and it se

Samsung’s final new phones for today pick up the not-long-for-this-world Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, with the Samsung Omnia Pro 4 B7350 and Samsung Omnia Pro 5 B6520 each toting full QWERTY keyboards and, on the Pro 4, a touchscreen too. The Omnia Pro 4 has dualband (900/2100) 3G, a 2.62-inch 320 x 320 touchscreen and a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera, while the Omnia Pro 5 has triband (900/1900/2100) 3G, a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 display and a 2-megapixel camera. Both have WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and a A-GPS, along with an FM radio and a microSD card slot. Since Windows Mobile is enterprise-minded, there’s obviously push-email support, and Samsung preload the decent Opera browser since Mobile Internet Explorer isn’t too hot. The Samsung Omnia Pro 4 will be available from July in European Countries, CIS and South Eastern Asia and Omnia Pro 5 will be available from August in SEA, MEA regions, India and Latin America. No pricing has been announced at this stage.

Samsung had always promised that the Wave S8500 would be just the first of several bada devices, and now the second and third smartphones based on the platform have arrived. The Samsung Wave 2 S5250 and Samsung Wave 2 Pro S5330 are more affordable versions of the original bada phone, each with a 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD display (rather than the Wave’s Super AMOLED), no 3G (EDGE max) and a 3-megapixel camera. The Wave 2 Pro also gets a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. You still get WiFi b/g/n but the Bluetooth is 2.1+EDR rather than 3.0; meanwhile there’s no DivX or Xvid playback either. A-GPS, an accelerometer, microUSB and a microSD card slot are all present, as is an FM radio and 3.5mm headphone socket. The Samsung Wave 2 (S5250) and Wave 2 Pro (S5330) will be available from August in Russia and South East Asia. Customers can choose from the colors metallic black, pearl white and romantic pink; no word on pricing at this stage.

Samsung has outed a pair of new Android-powered smartphones, the Galaxy 3 I5800 and the Galaxy 5 I5500 . The Galaxy 5 has a compact 2.8-inch QVGA display, making for one of the smallest Android devices around, with dualband 3G (900/2100), a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. Meanwhile the Galaxy 3 has a 3.2-inch WQVGA display, 3G, a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. Both get Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 UI and A-GPS, and the Galaxy 3 throws in DivX and Xvid playback, an accelerometer and proximity sensor. Both have 170MB of internal storage and a microSD card slot; OS is Android 2.1. The Samsung Galaxy 3 will be launched in July 2010 in Europe and Asia, while the Samsung Galaxy 5 will drop in the same month in Europe, Latin America, China, Australia, SEA, SWA and EMEA. No word on pricing for either handset.

It’s not just a new Mac mini that Apple’s reworked store has brought with it – the iPhone 4 is now finally up for preorder. The US Apple store has the 16GB iPhone 4 for $199 and the 32GB iPhone 4 for $299, while the UK Apple store has the 16GB model at £499 and the 32GB model at £599. Those UK prices are for SIM-free handsets, which can be used with any UK carriers’ microSIM and in fact pretty much any SIM worldwide. Of course, if you want a subsidized iPhone 4 in the UK you’ll need to head down to your nearest phone store and talk about carrier deals on June 24th. Most of the major carriers have announced that they’ll be offering the Apple smartphone. There’s more detail in the various US options in our iPhone 4 preorder wrap-up article, but it’s worth noting that the white iPhone 4 is currently unavailable for preorder in either the US or the UK. The black model, meanwhile, will ship in time for delivery on June 24th, or you can arrange to pick it up at your nearest store.

Apple has finally unveiled its new Mac mini , and as expected the ultra-compact desktop packs an HDMI port along with “up to twice the graphics performance” and an SD card slot. The new, smaller Apple Mac mini comes with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, 320GB HDD and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics; the regular model has a slot-loading 8x DVD burner, but as before an OS X Snow Leopard Server version will be offered with no optical drive but two 500GB HDDs instead. The server version also gets 4GB of RAM as standard. Both models have WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, an HDMI port and a Mini DisplayPort, together with gigabit ethernet. There’s also audio in/out (which double as digital in/out) and an HDMI to DVI adapter in the box. Now measuring 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches thin with an integrated PSU, the new Mac mini uses less than 10W when idle; it also has a convenient access panel on the underside for upgrading

Time certainly does catch up with you, doesn’t it? Hopefully you were all having fun, so it flew by and what not. Just feels like yesterday that we all sat here, and brought you the announcement of Apple’s latest iPhone iteration, the iPhone 4 . And in all the hub-bub, we also told you that Walmart, RadioShack, and Best Buy would be part of the third-party retailer brigade offering up their own models for pre-order and sale. Well, tomorrow’s the big pre-order day, so jump after the break to find out where you can go to pick one up, and what you need to do to make it happen. First and foremost, and probably the easiest way to do it, would be to get on your computer, head on over to Apple’s website, and get your pre-order on right then and there. You won’t have to worry about lines, crazy customers or employees, and you’re guaranteed delivery on its release date. So, again, no lines or general craziness. Though, you will have to sit at home and listen to all those people who got it befor

And the hits just keep on coming. Of course, just on the heels of announcing when the Kinect would go on sale, Microsoft have officially announced that a new, smaller, and shinier version of their Xbox 360 is going on sale, too. But, the difference here is that the new console is going on sale very, very soon. In fact, it has already started shipping. That means that you should expect to see the new, smaller (slimmer) version of the Xbox 360 in stores by the end of this week, if not sooner. It comes in a nice, shiny black frame, and just by looking at it you can tell that it’s a lot more angular, and in a good way. The new system comes with a 250GB hard drive, as well as built-in 802.11n WiFi connectivity. So, how much is Microsoft going to charge us? $300. That’s right, they didn’t give us a huge price jump for the new features, or the new aesthetics. $300 will speak volumes to plenty of customers out there, so we’d be surprised if these didn’t “jump off the shelves” when they reach

With all those rumors floating around, it’s good to finally get them to rest. On Monday, Microsoft officially announced that the motion-based controller, formerly known as Project Natal, and now known as Kinect, would be available in North America beginning on November 4th. So, not exactly that October launch date we had heard rumored about initially, but it’s close enough. Plus, it’s closer to Christmas, which is also a good thing. Oddly enough, the initial launch is said to be a North American-based release. However, if a recent tweet from one Major Nelson, of Microsoft, is to be believed, then it looks like it could be a bit more widespread than that. “ # Kinect will launch worldwide on Nov. 4th #XboxE3 ” Interesting, to say the least. We expect a worldwide launch, of course, but now we’re wondering just when that will happen. We’re hearing more and more about a worldwide launch, so we’ll have to assume that’s the story (and Microsoft’s sticking to it). As for games? There’s going

If you’re a fan of monitors, or touching monitors to make things happen, then it looks like 3M’s got something in the works for you. Over at InfoComm 2010, the company pulled the curtain off their 3M M2256PW 22-inch multi-touch monitor . And, when we say multi-touch, we mean they’ve managed to go to the extreme with what’s inside the M2256PW, but it’s all in a very, very good way. And no, it’s not a USB 3.0 monitor, either. The 22-inch monitor is capable of detecting upwards of 20 points simultaneously . It comes manufactured with a projected capacitive touch panel, and there’s a trio of capacitive chips tucked away in the thin frame of the monitor. The resolution is 1,680 x 1,050, and 3M boasts that the response time of you touching the monitor and a reaction happening is no longer than 6ms. Suggested retail price of the M2256PW is $1,500, and it doesn’t look like 3M is positioning the multi-touch monitor for home usage, but rather the enterprise market. Of course, we imagine that a f

It may look like a regular server, but the SeaMicro SM10000 hides a surprising choice of CPU behind its mesh door. Rather than the Intel Xeon chip or two you might expect to find, the SM10000 actually gets a full 512 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 chips squeezed into a 10U rack-mount unit. Capable, SeaMicro reckon, of replacing forty 1U regular servers, the SM10000 also uses one quarter of the power. The real magic isn’t in the processor but the way the company puts them together. Each Atom chip is matched up with its own DRAM and a custom SeaMicro ASIC on a credit-card sized board; eight of these so-called “compute blocks” are combined onto a 5 x 11 inch mainboard, and then SM10000 box packs 64 such mainboards. Then there’s special Dynamic Compute Allocation Technology (DCAT) which balances load across the various CPUs and can dynamically set unused chips into sleep mode. Connections to the network are via up to 64 gigabit ethernet ports, and you can also have up to 64 hard-drives. Acco

Steve Jobs only explained a few of iOS4 ’s 1,500 new features at the recent WWDC keynote, so we can probably excuse him for not mentioning what appears to be direct Facebook video uploading in the new version of the iPhone OS. 9to5mac spotted a Facebook export preset record in the latest iOS4 code, which would seemingly add a “Send to Facebook” option to the current video sharing choices. According to the preset, video uploaded to Facebook won’t be available in the same 720p HD that the iPhone 4 is capable of recording. Instead it can either be up to 480 pixels high or 480 pixels wide, at a maximum frame rate of 30fps. iOS4 is due to be released on June 21st, and will be available for iPhone 3G, 3GS and (second-gen onward) iPod touch owners. However out of those only the 3GS can record video. More details on the new platform here.

LG Display and iriver have announced a partnership that will see the two companies collaborate as a new ODM/OEM ebook manufacturer. The new venture, L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd., will be based at iriver’s Chinese plant and see LG Display provide the e-ink panels and iriver develop product designs. LG Display will have a small majority stake in the collaboration, providing 51-percent of the total $5m financing. The first output from the L&I plant will carry the iriver brand, though technical details of the model itself are unclear. It’ll likely have a monochrome e-paper display, however; LG Display reckon they’ll grab the number one spot for color and flexible EPD by 2012. No word on when the first ereader device will be available, however.

From Toshiba tablets to ASUS, or more exactly to Asustek subsidiary AGAiT. The company – who are wholly owned by ASUS – has announced that they’ll be jumping into the tablet market, offering models based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset and running the Google Android OS. AGAiT Vento Android Snapdragon tablet apparently design and outsource production of their own hardware, so it doesn’t seem that the new tablets – which will be sold under the Vento brand – will be rebadges of the ASUS Eee Pad and Eee Tablet models shown at Computex recently (one of which is pictured here). It’s unclear, beyond the Snapdragon and Android, what sort of specifications the Vento tablets will offer. So far we’ve generally seen budget models with roughly 7- to 10-inch displays using resistive touchscreen technology, but AGAiT could surprise us with some more complex specs. However, it seems unlikely they’ll reach North America or Europe; AGAiT apparently target their products at China, India, Brazil and

Details on Toshiba’s tablet plans continue to trickle in, with the latest tidbit being a provisional name and some basic specs. According to DigiTimes‘ sources, the Toshiba GuideBook will have dual 7-inch displays and be announced at the end of June 2010. Previous leaks suggested that Toshiba had turned to Compal to produce the dual-screen tablet, which would run some form of Windows OS and use NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset. However this new report – credited to “market watchers” – suggests the Toshiba GuideBook will be designed and manufactured in-house.

Toshiba has announced that it is adding new notebook models to its line of Dynabook machines. One of the more interesting of the two is the Qosmio V65 set to launch soon. The notebook has a 15.6-inch screen that is LED backlit. Other features include a Core i5-450M CPU running at 2.4GHz and a 500GB HDD. The machine has a Blu-ray player and uses a SpursEngine digital TV turner with 32 or 64-bit Windows OS. The Blu-ray player can record and play Blu-ray media. The notebook also features 4GB of RAM. Toshiba claims that the machine’s SpursEngine is the world’s fastest for dubbing material to the Blu-ray player. Pricing is unknown at this time.

Nokia’s N8 remains one of the more interesting smartphones of 2010, and we leapt at a chance to have an extended play with the Symbian^3 handset as it made its debut in London this morning. Toting a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen with multitouch support, 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 720p HD video recording and a Xenon flash, and a slick anodised aluminium chassis, our biggest question was whether Nokia’s OS fettling had been enough to make the N8 competitive with what’s an increasingly competitive smartphone market. Check out our impressions – and some hands-on video – after the cut. It’s not, of course, our first hands-on with the N8, but it was certainly our first proper opportunity to get to grips with the new Symbian^3 OS the smartphone runs. There’s obviously been some consternation about just how different this platform is from its S60 5th Edition predecessor, and while the changes may be relatively subtle – we’ll have to wait for Symbian^4 for the real fireworks

We have talked about the interesting eviGroup Paddle tablet computer before. The 10-inch multitouch slate computer turned up back in March. EviGroup has announced that the tablet is now available for purchase. The Paddle with Windows 7 Home Premium and included software is 699€ + 31 € postage and the machine with Windows 7 and no software is 649€ + 31 € postage. For that much money, you get a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB of storage, and a 10.6-inch capacitive touch screen with a 1024 x 600 resolution. The Paddle also has WiFi, optional 3G connectivity, Ethernet, and a removable lithium-ion battery. This thing is more like a netbook without a keyboard than a tablet like the iPad. It also has VGA out and weighs 990g including the battery.

Anyone with a PS3 knows that there are lots of cables that go along with it. There are cables for power cables for connecting to the TV, and cables for connecting the controllers for charging and use. One of the downsides to the PS3 and any other game console are all the cables that look bad and get in the way. A company called Vogel has unveiled an interesting new dock for the PS3 called the TwistDock. The TwistDock will work with the new PS3 Slim and the original fat PS3. The TwistDock stands the PS3 up on its side and offers a base that hides all the cables and holds a pair of PS3 controllers for charging. The TwistDock also adds an additional pair of charging USB ports to keep accessories connected and charging. An additional four-port USB hub is also optionally available to add even more devices along with an accessory cable set to make things even neater. If you are using an original PS3, you know how hot the thing runs. Getting more of the bottom of the PS3 exposed to air may h

Late last week we caught our first glimpse and a bit of tease on the coming Samsung Android tablet with the 7-inch screen. Today someone over in Vietnam has leaked details on the coming tablet, and the thing sounds interesting. The tablet will use a big 7-inch Super AMOLED screen. It will have an A8 CPU at 1.2GHz, 16GB of memory that is upgradable via memory cards to 48GB thanks to a microSD slot. The tablet will weigh 370g and the battery is a 4000mAh unit. The tablet will run Android 2.2 and will ship with eBook reading software. The tablet sounds good and I don’t think any of those features are particularly surprising. The person leaking the details claims the tablet will ship this September and be called the Samsung Galaxy Tape.

Nokia Singapore has outed the latest of the Finnish company’s handsets, and the Nokia X5-01 is certainly distinctive. A square-faced slider with a translucent plastic fascia – finished in blue, pink, green and purple, with a black version apparently to follow – the X5-01 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for easier messaging, Symbian S60 OS and Comes With Music unlimited audio downloads with a “Surprise Me” shuffle feature triggered by physically rotating the phone. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 200MB of internal storage and a microSD card slot (Nokia include 2GB in the box, and the slot can support up to 32GB). Judging by the 3G icon you can make out in the press shots we’re guessing high-speed connectivity is a given too, but without any official info from Nokia themselves we’ll have to wait for complete specs. Still, at the Singaporean launch Nokia confirmed up to 16 days of standby and 24 hours of music playback from the X5-01, together with social networking i

Boxee has admitted their its plans to launch the Boxee Box by D-Link – the standalone Tegra 2 based media player demonstrated back at CES 2010 – were “overly ambitious”, and that they will indeed miss their Q2 2010 launch window. Instead, the Boxee Box will make its retail debut in November across the US and Canada. The angular set-top box is the latest second-gen Tegra based device to have seen a delay. However, Boxee’s Avner Ronen has declined to confirm that the 1080-capable SoC is the cause of the hold-up; on the Boxee blog, he states that “the delay is due to all parties involved. everything is interwind [sic], so hard (and not productive) to lay the blame on just one party.” He goes on to suggest that it’s a combination of hardware and software not being ready in time. The Boxee Box will play GPU-accelerated local and streaming video content at up to 1080p, using USB external storage rather than an internal hard-drive, and supporting Flash 10.1. No word on pricing at this st

With E3 2010 just a few days away, it’s now time to consider what Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and all the major developers will be delivering. The show is the biggest gaming confab of the year, and it stands to reason that all the secrets that developers and hardware companies have been keeping over the past year (or more) will be unveiled. That’s certainly the case in the past. E3 has been home to console announcements, additions to major franchises, and much, much more. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that every show is great. In fact, 2009 was arguably a somewhat subdued affair with few major announcements. At the time, game critics said that the big E3, and the one that would come to define the start of the next decade, would be happening in June 2010. Well, now we’re here. And although we have a pretty good idea of what will be shown, and what will not, it’s quickly becoming clear that E3 2010 won’t be as exciting as some pundits and analysts are saying. Will it be fun? Sure. Wi

Since the first rumors many months back, to Michael Dell flashing his prototype in the street and then a few quiet appearances at trade shows, the Dell Streak has taken its time coming to market. Running Android on a broad, eye-catching 5-inch display, there’s little like it on the market and it’s been an attention-grabber ever since. Yes, the Streak is a device that certainly prompts questions – among geeks and everyday users alike – but the one we set out to answer is simple: is it any good? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. Perhaps the question most asked of us was “is it a phone?” Dell are at pains to insist that the Streak is an Android-powered tablet with voice capabilities – we’re guessing it’s easier to position your new device when you’ve basically got the segment to yourself – but in reality it’s more difficult to classify. Contrary to expectations it’s surprisingly pocket-friendly; its 220g heft will make your jacket hang unusually if you opt for the inside

Having formed one of Steve Jobs’ nine key points about the new iPhone 4 this past Monday, Apple’s Retina Display technology has been making headlines again today over claims that they are “false marketing”. Wired spoke to Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, who disagreed with Apple’s suggestion that Retina Display, exceeded the “300 pixels per inch” quoted for an average eye. Soneira – though agreeing that the iPhone 4’s display was likely to be the best smartphone screen on the market – converted 20/12 angular resolution to the linear resolution of a display, and came up with a figure of 477 pixels per inch at 12-inches, significantly higher than the iPhone 4’s 326ppi. Since there are some big claims all round here, SlashGear spoke to Dr. William H.A. Beaudot, Ph.D. of Kybervision Consulting, a visual sciences expert with 20 years experience in the research and computer vision field. Dr. Beaudot told us that part of the confusion here is from the mistaken beli

This, according to Kotaku’s mock-up artists, is what we should expect from the Nintendo 3DS when the 3D-capable gaming handheld makes its official debut at E3 next week. The design, based on a sketch by a Chinese blogger who apparently claims to have a 3DS development kit, certainly fits in with what we’ve seen before of Nintendo’s testing hardware; the upper display would be the glasses-free 3D panel believed to besourced from Sharp, while the lower would be a touchscreen of the same aspect ratio as the current DSi. The gaming site goes on to further run through the various rumors about the 3DS, discounting the possibility of an analog stick – they believe any such control would be done via the touchscreen – and mentioning that the Chinese source highlighted the 3DS’ MP3/AAC hardware decoding and onboard media playback. Meanwhile there’s also talk of a new, proprietary game cartridge, expected to be around the size of a CompactFlash card, as well as backward compatibility with DS g

More and more people are traveling without a laptop these days, who otherwise might have been laden with a heavy machine. Some of them are realizing that their email, Web browsing and even basic document needs arebetter met by a smartphone. Some have even taken the plunge to buy a tablet like an iPad, and find that it does the trick just fine. In fact, with its light weight, great casual gaming and top-notch multimedia capabilities, the iPad or a similar tablet might be a better choice than a laptop for many travelers. I recently traveled without my notebook for the first time in ages. My grandmother passed away, so I was taking the weekend off of work to be with my family. I brought my smartphone only. What else would I need? My parents have an iMac, should any serious typing be required, but without work commitments, what could come up? Besides the sad purpose of the trip, traveling unencumbered was pleasant, but not liberating. I never felt imprisoned by my laptop, quite the opposit

t’s been a while since we’ve heard about Archos’ notebook aspirations, but fresh to the company’s French site is the new Archos 13 . A 13.3-inch ultraportable, based on Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD, the Archos 13 runs Windows 7 and is available for €399.98 ($481). There’s also WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, along with 10/100 ethernet and an integrated modem. No HDMI output, sadly, only VGA, while other ports include three USB 2.0, an MMC/SD/SDHC memory card reader, and audio in/out. The whole thing tips the scales at 1.6kg with its 6-cell battery. Frankly we’re not all that impressed by the specifications, and we wish Archos – in keeping with their multimedia focus – had stumped up the extra cash for a 1080p-capable GPU, like NVIDIA’s Ion or Broadcom’s Crystal HD. Still, if you’re desperate to keep it French, you know where to go.

Having been in beta for the past few months, Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 has finally emerged as an official release for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Packing such niceties as hardware-based H.264 video decoding, HTTP Dynamic Streaming, peer-assisted networking and Multicast, Flash Player 10.1 also includes multitouch support – such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale and two-finger tap – for compatible hardware, and boosted Mac support; on OS X machines, the player is a full-fledged Cocoa app. Elsewhere, Adobe AIR 2 is also finalized and publicly available. Adobe reckon 10.1 brings with it reduced power usage, the ability to fast-forward and rewind through web video without always querying the remote server, and functionality to offload video tasks to compatible GPUs rather than bog down the CPU. There’s also a new privacy mode, which respects browsers set to private and doesn’t locally cache content. The official Flash Player 10.1 can be downloaded here. Meanwhile, Flash Player 10.1

We’re big fans of portable 3G hotspots here at SlashGear, and Huawei E585 follows in the footprints of theSprint Overdrive by adding a compact display to the pocket-sized WiFi router. Headed to UK network Three in early July 2010, the E585 can share a 3G connection with up to five WiFi clients – such as your iPad, for instance – with the monochrome OLED display showing network and battery status together with how much mobile data has been used. Huawei have also listened to user complaints about their first-gen version, and reworked the browser-based dashboard status page so that it can be accessed on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. Previously only Windows-based computers could log in, which some found made setting up wireless security tricky. There’s also a one-button startup, the ability to simultaneously charge the E585 while using it to share a connection, and a microSD card slot which we’re hoping can be accessed by all WiFi clients this time around. No word on battery life –

Wicked Lasers has been making laser pointers that are more accurately described as laser burners. These aren’t the sort of lasers that you would actually use to point things out during a presentation, unless you wanted to be able to burn those folks who fall asleep on you. We reviewed a laser from Wicked Lasers way back in 2008 and liked the thing well enough. The company has a new laser they are showing off now called the Spyder III Pro Arctic that makes that laser back in 2008 seem wimpy by comparison. The Spyder III Pro Arctic laser has a blue beam. The laser diode used to create the laser was lifted directly from a laser home theater projector making the thing the world’s first 445nm cool blue laser. You can pick one up for $197.97. Anything with a disclaimer attached that reads as strongly as the one below is something I want to play with. Warning: Extremely dangerous is an understatement to the power of 1W of laser power. It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quic

I bet you are all wondering what is “Chromoting” right now, aren’t you? It’s a made-up word that Google has coined for running legacy applications in Chrome OS. Google is set to launch the Chrome OS this fall, and according to one Google team member Chromoting “will also enable you to access legacy PC applications right within the browser.” Google’s Chromoting process is a way for Chrome to provide access to legacy PC applications. Unfortunately the only details we know come in the form of an email sent to a third party, and technical specifications are sparse about the process. The sender of the email, Google worker Gary Kacmarcik, describes the whole process as being similar to a Remote Desktop Connection in Windows. Presumably, that means that you would be able to load these programs on a Chrome OS netbook by remotely accessing another PC on which they’re already running. However, Kacmarcik didn’t elaborate on specifics of how Chromoting operates, so there’s no way to tell if users

Roger Federer came back from the brink as he narrowly avoided becoming the casualty of the greatest upset in Wimbledon history. Federer was two sets down to unheralded Alejandro Falla and the Colombian then served for the match in the fourth set before losing 5-7 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7/1) 6-0. Only two defending champions had ever lost in the first round at the All England Club and Federer had to use all his fighting spirit to avoid becoming the third. The six-time champion, looking to equal Pete Sampras' record of seven this year, was not at his brilliant best but was far from shabby. Falla, on the other hand, played the match of his life. The left-hander more than lived with Federer from the back of the court, looked a threat when he came to the net, while his swinging serve out wide to the backhand was a constant problem - a worrying sign for Federer if he now goes on to meet Rafael Nadal in the final. Certainly he seemed to be a different player from the one who had lost 6-1 6-2 to Fed

Colin Chong rates the players in Chile's narrow 1-0 victory over Switzerland in Group H. Chile Claudio Bravo - 6 He has the referee and poor finishing from the Swiss to thank for his clean sheet today. Mauricio Isla - 7 Started where he left off in the last match. Full of energy and running down the right but the final ball from him has been poor. Gary Medel - 6.5 It is quite unbelievable he is only 22 years of age as he plays like a seasoned professional. Waldo Ponce - 6 He was just standing around watching his team throw away golden opportunities to double the lead. Gonzalo Jara - 6.5 He may have been pushed further up after the sending off to a more attacking position. Arturo Vidal (46' off) - 6 Deemed surplus after the sending off, but his first half performance was commendable. Carlos Carmona - 7 Forced a save from the Swiss keeper with a beautiful shot early in the game. Suspended for the next match as he got booked again and Chile may just miss him against the Spanish. M

Former Liverpool striker Mark Gonzalez came off the bench to head Chile to within touching distance of the last 16. The 25-year-old, now at CSKA Moscow, struck with 15 minutes remaining as Switzerland, reduced to 10 men when Valon Behrami was sent off before the break, finally succumbed at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. His goal will send the South Americans into their final Group H clash with Spain knowing a point will be enough to take them through to the knockout stages. Switzerland, looking to build upon their shock victory over the Spaniards, found themselves up against it even before their numbers were reduced. Goalkeeper Diego Benaglio had to make a fine double save from Arturo Vidal and Carlos Carmona with just 10 minutes gone, and he was in the right place at the right time five minutes before the break when Alexis Sanchez toe-poked a shot towards goal with his defenders once again conspicuous by their absence. In the meantime their task had increased marked

Portugal ran riot today and put seven past a poor North Korean side. This is by far the most entertaining match of the tournament. By Colin Chong Portugal Eduardo - 6 Just a handful of bread and butter saves from Eduardo. Nothing much for him to do today. Bruno Alves - 6 Had a quiet game, but that's because the North Koreans barely troubled him. Ricardo Carvalho - 7 First chance came from the centre back who steamed forward in a counter attack only five minutes into the game. He then heads the ball into the post two minutes later. Miguel - 7 The Portuguese wing backs looked very bright today, which is rare in this tournament. Fabio Coentrao - 8 His unstoppable runs down the left was a constant threat. Did well to pick out Almeida for the third goal. Man of the match performance in my opinion. Pedro Mendes - 5 Everyone forgot he was in the starting line up. Raul Meireles (70' off) - 7.5 Made many late runs into the box making him a difficult player to mark. It paid off eventuall

Join Abhay Puri for LIVE updates, action and analysis from the game between the Swiss and Chile. Good evening all, and welcome to our coverage of the critical Group H match between Chile and Switzerland. The winner of this game is likely to top Group H, and both sides will be hoping to do so, enabling them to avoid Brazil in the next round. Chile Starting XI (3-3-1-3): -Claudio Bravo; Mauricio Isla, Waldo Ponce, Arturo Vidal; Gary Medel, Carlos Carmona, Gonzalo Jara; Matias Fernandez; Alexis Sanchez, Humberto Suazo, Jean Beausejour. Switzerland Starting XI (4-4-2): Diego Benaglio; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Stephane Grichting, Steve Von Bergen, Reto Ziegler; Valon Behrami, Gokhan Inler, Benjamin Huggel, Gelson Fernandes; Alexander Frei, Blaise Nkufo Referee : Khalil Al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia) Kick off is in just a few moments, and this should be an interesting clash of styles, as the defensive, compact side put together by Ottmar Hitzfeld attempts to meet the attacking, fluent team that Mar