IBLOG SPACE

It’s July 1st 2010, the first day of Q3 2010, and that means Palm has officially slotted into the warm crevices of mother HP. Public announcements of what exactly we can expect from the combination vary from the mundane (webOS-based printers, anyone?) to the mysterious (HP’s various tablet strategies and the company’s refusal to clarify on any of them), but according to the Palm blog this morning they’re aiming for “an amazing roadmap of new tools for your mobile and web-connected future.” Right then, guys, you’ve got our attention (and you’ve seen our shopping list). Now it’s time to deliver. We’ve not been quiet in our approval of webOS – we still rate it as one of the more intuitive, slick and elegant mobile platforms out there right now – but neither have we held back on criticising the seemingly sluggish development cycle of Palm-brand hardware. Let’s hope HP’s purse opens up and clears out some of the cobwebs.

I never bought into the eReader craze and didn’tread a digital book until I purchased an iPad and got bored one day. Then I read a bunch of books on the thing because it was much easier than schlepping down to the bookstore. The downside is that there are not many offerings in the genres that I like for the iPad. Toshiba is set to offer its own online bookstore called the Book Place very soon. The store will be based on Bilo and offer eBook content in full color. The books will be readable in full book view or text only. I presume full book view would be with graphics enabled and such. The service will also allow people to add text and voice notes to the pages and will translate to and from English to other languages.

Samsung Mobile Displays (SMD) has announced that it is working on improving the performance of AMOLED panels and the efficiency of the panels significantly. The improvements will take the white efficiency of the displays from the 20cd/A level currently to 40cd/A. At the same time, the lifespan of the AMOLED screens will go from 50k hours to 100k hours and power consumption levels will drop from 62W to under 30W in the near future reports OLED-display.net. SMD is also working on new methods that will overcome the large size limitations of the current FMM production method. The substrate size used in the new production line that will bring these improvements will use a larger size of 5.5 compared to the current 4. This will allow more panels to be made from one substrate and allow for larger screen sizes. The new production line is expected to launch in Q1 2011.

Remember that awesomely powerful laser I mentioned a while back called the Pro Arctic Laser from Wicked Lasers? You know the one that can burn skin, blind users, and catch stuff on fire. It reminded me and a bunch of other geeks of a lightsaber. Despite the fact, that nowhere in the product description does Wicked use Star Wars terms or link the thing to the film franchise in any way, Lucasfilm is pissed. Apparently, Lucasfilm wants the thing pulled from the market for excess awesomeness and infringement. Wicked received a cease and desist letter from Lucasfilm that stated, “It has come to our attention that a company called Wicked Lasers is selling a highly dangerous product out of Hong Kong that is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars. This product is not licensed or approved by Lucasfilm in any way. We have demanded that Wicked Lasers immediately cease and desist their infringing activities. As Wicked Lasers itself admits, this product can cause serious injury to the u

Sony started shipping its 3D TVs last month with high-end models like the LX900 and others that we have talked about before. Like most of the 3D TVs on the market, the new Sony sets require the use of active 3D shutter glasses. High-end sets like the LX900 ship with two pair of glasses, which is all fine and good unless you have more than two folks wanting to watch TV. If you need more 3D glasses to outfit the rest of the family, Sony’s active shutter glasses are now shipping on Amazon. The glasses are Sony TDGBR100B and sell for $149 each. That’s certainly not cheap at $300 for a pair rounding out 3D watching for the average family. Some of the lower-end Sony 3D ready sets will also need additional hardware increasing the cost even more.

DIY types often take the components that are in the gadgets we know and love and use them for items that we never dreamed of. Tearing up gadgets for the components inside can be an expensive proposition though. If you are the DIY sort and have been lusting after one of those Pixel Qi displays, a new DIY version is now available. The DIY version of the screen will fit many 10.1-inch netbooks on the market as a DIY replacement for broken screens. The big benefit here is that the screens are very viewable in direct sunlight making these ideal for projects that will see lots of outdoors use. The screen will sell for $275. In addition to being easier to read in direct sunlight, the screen is also as effective and readable indoors as your average LCD. The screen also promises to consume about 80% less power in reflective mode making your project’s batteries last longer.

Back during CES, the Syabas PopBox media player was spied. The device was expected to ship this weekend after turning up for pre-order in April on Amazon. If you pre-ordered the device and were looking forward to some media watching action over the holiday weekend you are out of luck. Krunker reports that the PopBox has been delayed until July 23. The delay was confirmed in a blog post by the manufacturer that basically stated the firmware was ready, but the software wasn’t. A few details of the device were offered up to help smooth the delay though. One is that the media player will only work with HDTVs using component and HDMI. A list of apps available at launch was also offered with notables being YouTube, Photobucket, and Twitter. Netflix was expected and talked about back at CES, but Netflix will not make it for launch. The company also points out that new apps in the future will be fully supported with no need for hardware updates. The device also supports hardware security for

Cisco gobbled up the company behind the Flip line of camcorders a while back. Flip makes some of the most popular small and cheap camcorders around that are mostly used for shooting and uploading footage for YouTube like the SlideHD. Comptuerworld spoke to Martin De Beer at Cisco Live! and was treated to a few previews of coming products from the company. Cisco is looking at this Christmas to launch a version of the Flip that sports WiFi. Cisco also talked about an interesting product called Media Experience Engine that would allow Apple products to receive and view Flash content. Cisco also has plans to fully support Apple FaceTime video chat and will develop a video client for supporting video on the iPhone 4 that will be sold on the App store. The app will be called Movi for the iPhone and no launch date was offered.

Sagem’s PUMA phone has finally gone on sale in Europe, a few months later than expected. Packing a 2.8-inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen, custom Puma-themed UI and an integrated solar panel in the back cover, the PUMA phone is priced at €399 ($487) SIM-free and will be offered on subsidized agreements in Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Slovenia. Much of the handset’s functionality is pretty much on a par with a regular featurephone: there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, VGA front-facing camera for video calls, GPS, a microSD card slot and 3G/UMTS connectivity. However Sagem and Puma have worked together to heavily customize the phone to suit their target audience, including adding in a pedometer and other sports-related functionality, and building a cloud-based store and multimedia center for downloading content and buying Puma-brand goods. Whether that will be enough to lure in users remains to

This is one of the more out there concepts that I have seen over on Yanko Design. This thing is magic or a sufficiently advanced version of one of those 3D prototype printers as to fit Arthur C. Clark’s definition of magic. You have these plain gray discs that you place on the morph plate. You then go online and download the style of disc you want. Yes, it’s a magic concept and the best idea the designer could come up with was dinnerware. Once you download, the design you want the Morph Plate rearranges the liquid piezoelectric polymer into your downloaded design. It would be cool if you could download real things form the internet, talk about a new dimension for internet porn.

Intel has apparently surprised its WiMAX partners by deciding to axe its WiMAX Program Office, prompting questions among the industry as to its commitment to technologies related to the 4G network standard. According to DigiTimes, Intel failed to notify the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs – which it has a cooperation agreement and memorandum of understanding (MOU) with – in advance, a decision which has led to speculation that the government may decide to cooperate with ARM, AMD and others in future. As expected, the Intel PR machine swung promptly into action, pointing out that WiMAX had developed to the point where they believed the Program Office was no longer necessary, and reiterating their commitment to the 4G technology: “Intel continues to be one of the biggest supporters of WiMAX. WiMAX is our preferred 4G technology for delivering high-speed wireless broadband for data devices, and this organizational change in no way impacts our commitment to WiMAX.” Intel Intel wil

Wireless charging solutions like the Palm Touchstone are likely to increase in shipments by a factor of 65x by 2014, iSuppli are predicting, suggesting that cordless power will spread from mobile phones to “portable media players, digital still cameras and mobile PCs.” They also predict the rise of a common standard which all manufacturers could promote cooperatively. Current wireless charging shipments are believed to be around 3.6m units in 2010, though iSuppli expect that to rise to 234.9m in just four years time. As for which manufacturers might climb on board, according to iSuppli both Texas Instruments and ST-Ericsson are looking at ways to integrated wireless charging into their printed circuit boards, while Logitech and Case-Mate are tipped as potential accessory partners. Nokia and RIM, meanwhile, are believed to be looking at producing wireless charging compatible handsets.

While the new Mac mini may have brought the HDMI output many were clamouring for, its position as the HTPC of choice was slightly undermined by the continued absence of a Blu-ray drive. According to the latest email exchange with Steve Jobs, we shouldn’t hold our breath for any Blu-ray on an Apple machine; a MacRumorsreader asked the CEO about the optical drive’s absence, only to be told by Jobs that “Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD – like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.” When pushed about Blu-ray’s potential as a way of distributing high-quality video, Jobs went on to argue that for most users 720p HD is sufficient when balanced with the convenience of instant streaming over broadband: “No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (i

Nokia’s latest QWERTY smartphone is out there in the wild, and up until now the most confusing thing about it is knowing exactly what it might be called. Variously tipped as the N9, N8-01, one of multiple Eseries names and more, all we know is that TechnoBuffalo has managed to grab some hands-on time and have come away with not only some more definitive specs but a comparison shot with the iPhone 3GS and the HTC EVO 4G. According to them, the handset has a 4-inch nHD 640 x 360 display with capacitive touchscreen and multitouch support, a front facing camera with an LED flash that’s presumed to be VGA resolution, and an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash on the back. There’s also WiFi, Bluetooth and an HDMI output, together with support for the North American 850/1900 3G bands; we guessed earlier this week that Nokia may have made this new device a five-band 3G/UMTS handset, like the Nokia N8. As for performance, despite not being release-ready the new Nokia seems pretty impressi

Tempted by Motorola’s DROID X , the latest Android smartphone to hit Verizon, but dithering over whether to whip out the credit card? That reticence may see you waiting a little longer for the handset; according to Droid-Life, Best Buy stores are no longer accepting preorders since demand has caught up with the incoming stock they’re expecting. Not bad for five days of pre-sales, certainly, but the DROID X’s 4.3-inch display and 8-megapixel camera don’t hurt. Meanwhile Verizon has apparently told preorder customers for the DROID Incredible that they can swap their order for the DROID X instead. We’re currently working on our DROID X review and should have it live very soon; until then, check out our hands-on report from last week.

Got a taste for Kindle this morning but the new graphite DX too large for you and the regular Kindle’s $189 price tag still too high? Head on over to Woot, then, where the deal-a-day site is celebrating their acquisition by Amazon with a current-gen Kindle – complete with international 3G – for $149.99. The Woot/Amazon aquisition was announced yesterday in a characteristically irreverent blog post by CEO Matt Rutledge. We don’t often see takeover bids described as “similar to what I felt in college on graduation day: excitement about getting a check from my folks combined with nausea from a hellacious bender the night before” but we’re not arguing with the sentiment. Obviously this deal is only available today, and only while Woot themselves have stock. No word on exactly how much that might amount to; Amazon’s warehouses are big, obviously, but we can’t imagine them wanting to get through the entire contents at this price too quickly.

After the price-spat with Barnes & Noble saw Amazon’s Kindle drop to just $189, the larger Kindle DX was beginning to look a tad ridiculous up at $489. Now Amazon have unveiled an updated Kindle DX , with a lower $379 sticker price and a 9.7-inch E Ink display that, they claim, offers 50-percent better contrast than its first-gen predecessor. The casing has now flipped from white to graphite, but otherwise the DX is the same as before. That means integrated 3G wireless – which can be used internationally – for downloading ebooks, magazines and periodicals, a full QWERTY keyboard, storage for up to 3,500 documents and battery life of up to a week with wireless on and double that with it turned off. Of course, at 10.4 x 7.2 x 0.38 inches it’s still a sizeable beast, and the market is probably smaller than for the regular Kindle. The new Amazon Kindle DX is available for preorder now, priced at $379, with deliveries expected to kick off from July 7th 2010.

Manchester United have revealed Rio Ferdinand may be fit for the opening game of the 2010/11 season against Newcastle. The 31-year-old sustained the injury while training in Rustenburg on June 4 and had to relinquish both his place in the England squad as well as the captaincy. While some reports suggested he would be sidelined until well into the season, the club have estimated the central defender's recovery will take 10 weeks from the time he suffered the injury.

Chelsea are reportedly on the brink of signing Porto midfielder Raul Meireles for £15 million. Real Madrid, Arsenal and Manchester United are also believed to hot on the heels for the Portugal international, who was previously linked with a move away from the Portuguese giants. However, reports have it that Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has pulled the plug on the move for Meireles as he has shifted his attention to Inter right-back Maicon, who played under him at the San Siro. The Mirror now reports that the Blues have fended off interests from fellow suitors and are on the brink of landing the 27-year-old for £15 million. The west London club are now urgently searching for replacements to fill the huge gap left by the exits of Joe Cole, Deco and Michael Ballack, with the club also reportedly readying an audacious £100 million double swoop for Madrid midfielder Kaka and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

It’s a replay of the Euro 2008 final as Germany and Spain meet in the semis. Can the Germans get revenge in South Africa? Who says you can't win anything with kids? Joachim Low's young German side have proved their doubters wrong with a number of devastating performances in South Africa, and will be looking to use their youthful energy to avenge the Euro 2008 final defeat in Durban. The Spanish got the semi-final monkey of their back by reaching this stage of the competition for the first time, but will be eager to fulfill their pre-tournament promise by making the final.

Its all to play for as European giants the Netherlands square up against Uruguay. Which team will make the 2010 final? The Netherlands shrugged off their tag as knockout stage failures when they rallied to overcome pre-tournament favorites Brazil in the quarter-Finals. Having played perhaps the strongest team in the competiton, they will fancy their chances of making the final against the surprising South Americans. However, a dramatic win shootout win over Ghana has given Uruguay real hope of reaching the final, and Oscar Tabarez will be hoping his side can use that confidence to defeat the Dutch.

Manchester United are putting together a £15 million bid for Bolton Wanderers' England defender, Gary Cahill. Cahill has become a key member of Owen Coyle's Bolton team at the Reebok stadium and has been touted to break into the national team after their poor showing in South Africa. The former Aston Villa man had to watch a huge chunk of last season from the sidelines after being diagnosed with a blood clot in his arm. News of the World reported that Sir Alex Ferguson sees the 24-year-old defender as an ideal replacement for his injury-plagued star, Rio Ferdinand.

Everton's Spanish playmaker, Mikel Arteta is reportedly the next superstar player to be on cash-rich Manchester City's wishlist. The stylish midfielder is widely considered as the best player at Goodison Park and manager David Moyes will loathe the idea of losing Arteta to a potential Champions League rival. The Mirror reported that City have asked Everton to name their price for Arteta as Roberto Mancini seeks to continue strengthening his squad, having already signed Yaya Toure, David Silva and Jerome Boateng.

Joe Cole believes his best days are ahead of him as he starts to consider his club future, and admits he wants a manager who "loves" him. Cole became a free agent on July 1 after his Chelsea contract expired, with a host of clubs now seemingly vying for his signature. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, Cole's former boss at West Ham, revealed earlier this week that he had spoken to the player, with Arsenal among those also reportedly interested. Quoted in several Sunday newspapers, the 28-year-old said: "I'm thinking about my own future now. I want to play in a more central position, like I did at West Ham.

England's poor performances in the World Cup are beginning to have ramifications on their sponsorship agreements. The Football Association look set to be hit with a £20million body blow with long-time sponsors Nationwide likely to abandon the Three Lions. Nationwide's contract as major England sponsors was due for renewal at the end of this month and the building society had tabled a £20million offer to extend their partnership for another four years.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has voiced his admiration for Uruguay and Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan. The former Manchester United forward has enjoyed an excellent World Cup and is a key reason why his country have reached the semi-finals. Forlan and strike partner Luis Suarez have both been linked with Premier League moves following their performances this summer. And Redknapp is among those following Uruguay's progress with interest, though he fears that Forlan's salary would be a stumbling block for any move.

Wayne Rooney insisted he was fully fit in South Africa and blamed England's early exit on the players' failure to 'fire'. There have been reports suggesting that the Manchester United striker was carrying an injury in South Africa and that has angered Rooney, according to a source close to Rooney. "Wayne [Rooney] was perfectly fit. In fact, he said it was the fittest he'd been in six months," the source revealed to  The People .

Carlo Ancelotti is ready to open the Chelsea's chequebook for an audacious £100 million double swoop for Kaka and Fernando Torres. According to The People, Ancelotti is keen to reunite with Kaka after enjoying a successful stint together at AC Milan. The Real Madrid playmaker is reportedly ready to quit the Spanish giants after claiming he might not fit into Jose Mourinho's tactical style of play. Kaka's comments alerted Chelsea, who will be the first in the queue to pry the Brazilian from the Bernabeu with an offer of £50 million.

Veteran Indian tennis ace Leander Paes, who clinched his 12th Grand Slam with the Wimbledon mixed doubles' title, remained steady at sixth in the ATP list but Sania Mirza's free-fall continued in the WTA chart issued Monday. Paes, who partnered Zimbabwean Cara Black to lift his sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam yesterday in London, has 5,960 points in the doubles rankings. With the Wimbledon triumph, Paes went one better than his estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi in the number of Grand Slams titles and he maintains that upperhand even in rankings.

Roger Federer has dropped out of the top two in the world rankings for the first time in almost seven years. Federer's shock quarter-final defeat at Wimbledon has resulted in the Swiss dropping to third on the ATP list, behind both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. It is the first time since November 2003 that Federer has been ranked outside the world's top two and he remains one week short of Pete Sampras' all-time record of 286 weeks as world number one.

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar is the latest to congratulate India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on his wedding to childhood friend Sakshi Singh Rawat. "How r u guys, my heartiest congratulations to Dhoni," Tendulkar  wrote on his twitter page. Dhoni  tied the nuptial knot with Sakshi Sunday at the picturesque Vishranti Resorts at Bidhauli, about 25 kms from Dehradun, at a closely-guarded private ceremony which was attended only by close relatives and friends.

Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni tied the nuptial knot with childhood friend Sakshi Singh Rawat in a private ceremony attended only by family members and close friends, including a few of his team-mates, at a farmhouse in Dehradun. The 28-year-old wicket-keeper batsman got engaged to Sakshi, a 23-year-old hotel management student, at a private ceremony last night. The wedding at the picturesque Vishranti Resorts at Bidhauli, about 25km from here, was strictly a private affair with only 50-60 close relatives from both the families of the bride and the groom, along with few of Dhoni's India team-mates, attending.

The lack of time to find a life partner is the problem addressed by Bharat Matrimony’s new commercial for their year-old service, Privilege Matrimony. Murugavel Janakiraman, chief executive officer of Bharat Matrimony, said, “For busy professionals and people at a senior level, including the parents, this service provides assisted matchmaking, where a relationship manager understands your requirement, matches profiles for you and helps you connect.” The commercial begins with two executives in a lift. As the lift doors open at a floor, a hand slips in and gives one of the executives an envelope with a woman’s picture in it, as the other man looks intrigued. He gets even more curious as the mysterious hand gives his colleague a horoscope in the middle of a meeting, a coffee appointment through a fax machine, and a dinner meeting with the girl’s parents over the cubicle wall. At the dinner, the colleague snoops around for the source of the hand at which