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Sony has warned of a potential $1.15bn full-year loss, after lackluster TV sales, the strong yen and the continued impact of the Thai floods saw the company post another quarter of losses. Sony saw sales amounting to $20.5m [pdf link], down over 9-percent year-on-year, good for an operating loss of $21m. In total, for Sony shareholders the loss reaches $350m. Sony says it will undergo significant restructuring to attempt to turn around its decline. Sony says it set its initial LCD production targets back when there was a shortage of panels, and based on the assumption that strong demand would continue. Neither of those are still the case, and so the company will now attempt to save up to 40-percent on production costs, better target developing markets, and boost appeal using smart TV style functionality. Meanwhile, as of this month the TV business as a whole will be divided into three, respectively dealing with the legacy LCD TV business (using Sony-designed and produced components)

HP‘s home PC group may be struggling to find its place in the segment, but the company’s more business-centric arm is having no such quandries: HP has just launched Project Moonshot, intended to dramatically slash power consumption by using CPU-stuffed chips like ARM’s Calxeda. The densely packed processors mean HP can squeeze over 2,800 servers into a single HP Redstone Server Development Platform rack unit, demanding up to 89 percent less energy and 94 percent less space. The first Redstone units will be available, albeit in limited volumes, to HP’s business customers next year. HP will also be pushing for a set of Project Moonshot open standards, working with AMD, ARM, Calxeda, Canonical and Red Hat, the target will be so-called “hyperscale” computing environments which balance power and performance with red  and complexity. Redstone is a major coup for ARM, which bit off two sizable targets in the shape of Intel and AMD when it attempted to challenge the status quo in the ente

It’s a #FirstWorldProblem to be sure: too many gadgets and not enough plug sockets to recharge them all. If you’re an Apple user, however, trying to juggle AC between your MacBook, iPad and iPhone, Twelve South’s PlugBug could be the solution, a 10W USB charger that snaps onto a MacBook/MacBook Pro power brick and allows you to charge both your laptop and your iOS device simultaneously. The PlugBug takes advantage of Apple’s standardized power adapter design, replacing the existing interchangeable plug-prongs with its own. Pass-through power is sent to the MacBook adapter, with a little kept for PlugBug’s own USB charging abilities. If you just want the USB adapter, then you can use PlugBug on its own; Twelve South is also billing it as a double-benefit way to convert your AC adapter for North American use if you’re traveling from abroad. It’s compatible with all iPhone and iPad models, along with all current and previous MacBook power adapters, and is on sale now priced at $34.99.

Japans’ National Institute of Information and Communications (NICT) along with JVC Kenwood have jointly developed a 200-inch auto-stereoscopic Full HD 3D display, which is being touted as the world’s largest glasses-free 3D display to date. The screen allows you to watch a video from 57 different angles, which means that you can even see the sides of 3D objects. The 200-inch display weighs about 500kg or 1,100 pounds, incorporating a condenser lens that focuses the light for sharp images along with a special diffuser film that creates a smooth transition between different viewing angles. It uses 57 projectors in an array with each one tuned to create uniform levels of brightness and color balance. The viewing angles work in such a way that if you were viewing a square box, you could actually move to the side of the screen to see the side of the box. At this point, the display is not being developed with the consumer market in mind, so we won’t be seeing the technology implemented

It appears this week that Tim Cook has started to take ahold of Apple’s innards in a way that’ll make the company more tuned to his own unique brand of low-key. Sources from within the company have spoken with Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro saying that not only has Cook started to tend to administrative matters that Jobs never had interest in attending to, he’s started to send out company-wide emails that address Apple employees as “Team.” Cook has also reportedly been much more communicative than his predecessor thus far. Another point of differentiation reported by Vascellaro through her sources inside the company is one of charitable giving: where one person who attended an event a year ago (not the most reliable source, I’d say) has reported Jobs saying he was opposed to giving money away, Cook appears quite ready to work with those less than fortunate. The new CEO reportedly recently announced an in-company charitable match program that’d give out as much as $10,000 i

Some images have surfaced that are purported to be of an upcoming LG smartphone, possibly called the LG Optimus U1. The device appears to sport a large screen, is incredibly thin, and could also be LG’s first smartphone to ship with Google’s latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich update. There aren’t many details to go by on this unannounced device besides the leaked images. Although sources suggest that it will be LG’s first Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, it’s not clear whether it would ship with the update installed or will get updated later on. What casts doubt is that it sports a home button, but Ice Cream Sandwich doesn’t require any dedicated buttons. Android Ice Cream Sandwich was unveiled last month and is set to launch first with the Galaxy Nexus this month before being rolled out to other devices. The update is a major overhaul of the platform, uniting tablet and smartphone interfaces among other enhancements. For the full details on what to expect, make sure to take a look a

While there’s always your occasional DROID or your Galaxy S device here and there in the mix, it’s the Nexus line of Android devices that has the true grasp on the hearts of the Google mobile device lovers everywhere. That’s why when a drop date comes in for the next in line for Google’s vanilla flavored device that’ll be holding the next big version of Android, that being 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, one must pay attention! What’s come through today is what appears to be a map from Verizon that shows not only the drop date for the Galaxy Nexus, but some other starts and ends of promotional periods as well. What you can see here is a map of promotional periods surrounding Black Friday weekend, that being the weekend connected with Thanksgiving here in the USA. What you’ll be able to see quite clearly first is that the Motorola portfolio, it containing more than one DROID-branded device including the DROID RAZR which has already started to be promoted this month. We saw that device inside

Nokia has confirmed that its much anticipated Windows Phone 7.5 Mango handset, the Nokia Lumia 800, will go on sale first in the UK starting November 16. But carriers will only stock the black model initially with the Cyan and Magenta versions to come later. The gorgeous device is designed based off of the company’s N9 MeeGo handset and was unveiled at last month’s Nokia World Conference. According to WinRumors, network operators in the UK expect to offer the black model of the Nokia Lumia 800 in large volume initially before stocking the other two colors. The popular Cyan color likely won’t be in stock until November 28. Pricing is expected to be at £399 (about $640 USD) on various Pay-As-You-Go packages in the UK. Orange will have a variety of plans including one that will offer the device for free. It’s not been confirmed when the Nokia Lumia 800 will make its way across the pond to the US, but recent speculation point to a launch in early 2012. It’s been leaked that Nokia has

Mophie launched the Juice Pack Plus iPhone 4 protective case and battery extension back in May and now it’s offering a new Outdoor Edition that comes bundled with some handy extras. And since the exterior design of the iPhone 4S hasn’t changed, you’ll be able to use this case for either version of the Apple smartphone. It might just be a good idea to get a battery extender like this one given the battery issues plaguing the iPhone 4S. The Mophie Juice Pack Plus Outdoor Edition bundle features a case with a special orange and gray color and comes with a one-year subscription for the Mophie Outdoor GPS app that covers the continental US and Hawaii. You also get a one-year subscription to the Mophie Outdoor Edition website, which helps you plan your trips. After the first year’s complimentary subscription, the service costs $19.99 a year. The case incorporates a 2,000mAh battery that is said to more than double your iPhone’s normal battery life. This means potentially adding up to si

For those of you who’ve not yet seen this little device in action, I definitely recommend you head below at least for the video of it being controlled by its creating group’s CEO, for this is Sphero, and there is basically nothing like it in the world. When I was a kid, I had a remote-controlled monster truck that had a bit of trouble doing much other than running along the sidewalk. Later there was the three-wheeled monster that was supposedly unable to get caught on its side – oh I caught it, alright. Now there’s this, what’s literally a sphere which I can control from my Android or iOS device, and it’s up for pre-order right now. What more could one ask for? This little object is a bit larger than a billiards ball, but not so large as a big bocce ball. It’s semitransparent white so that the lights that shine from within can be seen, and the brand name Sphero can be seen on the side. You charge it by lying it in its stand, and it’s controlled via Bluetooth with your smart device such

Since there are a growing number of smartphones and devices touting the ability to capture 3D images and videos, there ought to be more ways to display and share them as well. And that’s what Fujifilm has to offer with its latest FinePix REAL 3D V3 digital viewer that’s essentially a digital photo frame capable of displaying glasses-free 3D images and videos. The FinePix REAL 3D V3 digital viewer features a 7.2-inch screen with up to a 10,000 x 10,000 maximum resolution and is able to display media in both 3D and 2D. It supports 720p HD movie playback and also features a brighter display than its predecessor. It comes with a remote control and has 512MB of internal memory, stereo speakers, SD card slots, USB port, and an added HDMI port. Fujifilm claims that the addition of the HDMI port is a world’s first for such a 3D digital viewer and it means that you’ll be able to connect the frame to other 3D-compatible devices like the FinePix REAL 3D W3 digital camera and Blue-ray disc pl

Now that the holiday season is approaching much faster than I’m sure anyone in a position to have to drop their hard-earned bills would want it to, one must wonder what a tech-minded person might want, especially one who has everything, especially one who also has a kid: how about some wood? As it’s been made clear here on SlashGear, many of us have kids of our own, and though we might want to keep them as far from the gadgets we’ve got engulfing our everyday lives as we can, they’ve inevitably got them in their mouths on the daily. That’s why an engraving group by the fancy name of “3Princesses” has decided to make a line of wooden baby toys to nip the drool problem in the bud. So your little munchkin is teething, yes? And she loves to watch television because it’s bright and gigantically flashy – and she somehow figured out that the remote control was was made the visions of euphoria switch between one another. What do you do? You hand her the Baby Wood toy remote control, of cour

The fourth carrier in the US to offer the iPhone 4S is surprisingly not T-Mobile, but instead regional carrier C Spire Wireless, the recently rebranded Cellular South. The carrier had announced last month that it would be offering the much coveted device and today it has confirmed that the latest Apple smartphone will officially be available through its network starting on Friday, November 11. The iPhone 4S features a dual-core A5 chip that’s blazing fast and a higher-resolution 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with more advanced optics and support for 1080p HD video capture. But most notable is the ability to use the new voice-controlled personal assistant app called Siri that’s been introduced with iOS 5 and is exclusive for now to the iPhone 4S. For more details, make sure to check out our full iPhone 4S review. C Spire will be offering the iPhone 4S starting at $199.99 for the 16GB model, $299.99 for the 32GB model, and $399.99 for the 64GB model when attached to a new two-year

With the game which has its developers calling “the most anticipated game of all time,” there’s really no other claim for ultimate supremacy that the group can possibly hope to release for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 before its drop date next week – except some gameplay to back it up. And that’s what the folks at Sledgehammer Games have done, today, making the whole world jump back and toss the rest of the video games they purchased last month directly in the garbage. Have a peek at the gameplay video below and see if its your next go-to multiplayer murder-fest. The trailer features no less than Michael Condrey, one of the co-founders of Sledgehammer Games, the promise of new games modes, new maps, and of course enhanced graphics beyond your wildest dreams. Mark Rubin, executive producer from Infinity Ward, also behind MW3, notes that many of the features feed into the philosophy “create your own Call of Duty.” Kill Confirm He’s also got some news on a wholly new feature that makes

There’s an invention out there, ladies and gentlemen, one called OLLOCLIP, one made for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S that will not only add one single amazing lens to your onboard camera, it’ll add three. Over at BiteMyApple they’ve got this clip which will give you iPhone owners no less than a Fisheye lens, a Wide-Angle lens, and a Macro lens, all of them in one simple little clip. Make your iPhone-only online album all the more awesome for less than seventy bucks! This is one of those projects that was once a Kickstarter sort of situation, where before it had enough cash to get started, the designer headed to the world forum to get money from people who wanted to see the design become a reality. As it stands, this project has 1,300 backers with a total of $68,201 raised, so you know good and well that people thought the idea rocked. What’s going on right now is that the design rests with BiteMyApple where they’re currently in the process of getting more OLLOCLIPS shipped in from the

Today the watchmakers at Cadence have announced their brand new Fall lineup of 4-Bit Watches, each of them in celebration of Binary Day: 1/11/11! That’s today, if you did not know, and the collection includes a fine trio: 4-Bit Retrograde, 4-Bit UTC Chrono and 4-Bit Chrono. A 4-bit watch in this case means that the usual roman numerals around the face of the clock have been replaced by 4-bit binary graphics. 1 and O and 1 and 0 until you understand how to speak Computer. These watches are utterly simplistic, having just a simple leather wristband and a 43mm stainless steel casing around the clock which display which has several different optional sets of information. For the 4-Bit Retrograde, you’ve got the same binary clock times with the ability to display dual time or Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) so you’ll be sure to be able to get to where you’re going without worrying any face is slow. You’ll have the choice of either a white or a black face with features in the opposite co

Today Google has begun rolling out their newest look at Gmail, and below we’ve got an in-depth look at the newest version of the web-based version of the platform, it including both the design and the method for updating your interface to this newest edition. Google aims here to make Gmail as “clean, simple, and intuitive as possible.” See if you agree through the description below and see how you like the integration with Google’s other systems as well.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has dismissed criticisms that Windows Phone lacks the app heft of its Android and iOS rivals, arguing that “there’s only so many flashlight apps that you need for a smartphone.” In fact, Elop reckons, the number of essential apps necessary number only “in the hundreds” the chief exec told Bloomberg, suggesting that “it’s not a race of total quantity” but of making sure the “must haves” are accounted for. Elop didn’t specify which apps are considered must-haves, but does point out that Nokia will have not just the pick of the Windows Phone catalog but the fruits of its developer partnerships inked separately. One example is the ESPN sports hub that will be offered on the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, part of Nokia’s collaboration with the ESPN team. As for the US launch, Elop reiterated the early 2012 timescale announced at Nokia World 2011 last week, but confirmed that rather than a single carrier partner the company would be working with multiple carriers. “Our

Apple has released GarageBand for the iPhone and iPod touch [iTunes link], bringing the popular music creation tool from the iPad to the company’s smaller iOS devices. Offering a range of keyboards, guitars, drums and basses, each supporting Smart Instrument custom chords so that those with less musical talent than they have ambition can still get involved, GarageBand also allows you to plug in external instruments and run them through the app’s amps and stompbox effects. Alternatively, you can use the microphone on your iPhone/iPod touch to record vocals or other ambient noises. Up to eight tracks can be recorded, mixed and released as an audio file, all from your iPhone, plus there’s a sampler, 9 amps and 10 stompboxes. Apple packs the app with 250 professional samples to get you started, and exports are in standard AAC format or can be sent as GarageBand files to the desktop app. GarageBand for iPhone and iPod touch is available now [iTunes link] for $4.99. If you’ve already bo

It’s time again ladies and gentlemen to play the game that just won’t quit grabbing our imaginations with its promise of murdering hoards of aliens before they “steal our chicks for breeding” – it’s Duke Nukem 3D and it’s out on Android today! What’s essentially the exact same game as was released all the way back in 1991 has been re-released here for Android intelligently by its current owner Machineworks Northwest. You’ll be able to grab this classic on the Android Market starting right this second for any one of your Android devices, smartphone, tablet, and everything in-between. Though you’ll find that the description for the game in the market has mostly a misleading set of review sentences from the original game, you can bet that the same excellence can be found in the mobile version here for Android. New features include multi-touch controls, native support for tablet sized devices as well as your everyday smartphone. You’ve got the option of either using an on-screen joystic

Launch details and pricing for the Motorola XOOM 2 tablet have leaked, tipping the new 8.2-inch Android slate as hitting the market in time for the holidays. Those in Ireland will be able to pick up the XOOM 2 for €399.90 ($545), Engadget‘s leaked Carphone Warehouse flyer suggests, for the WiFi-only version complete with Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Other specifications include WiFi tethering support, but beyond that the text in the image is just slightly too small to make out. Still, we’re expecting the usual mixture of a front camera for video calls, Bluetooth, GPS and likely 16GB+ of internal storage with a microSD card slot to augment it. Motorola’s use of Honeycomb comes as something of a disappointment, given we’ve already seen that Ice Cream Sandwich is intended for both smartphones and tablets, so hopefully the company will have an Android 4.0 update in the pipeline for shortly after the XOOM 2′s release. We’re also expecting to see a new 10-inch XOOM to replace the original mod

AT&T has announced pricing and availability for RIM’s most recent cavalcade of BlackBerry smartphones, the Bold 9900, Torch 9860 and Curve 9360. The Bold and Torch will each support AT&T’s HSPA+ network – which it continues to brand 4G, despite having recently rolled out LTE -while the Curve will be limited to regular 3G. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 will go on sale November 6, priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement including voice and data. At the same time, the BlackBerry Torch 9860 will land for $99.99, again with a two-year agreement. The BlackBerry Curve 9630 will be the cheapest of all, arriving slightly later – on November 20 – at $29.99 with a new, two-year agreement. Business and government customers will be able to grab the Bold and Torch from November 7 and the Curve from November 14. All three devices run BlackBerry 7 OS. For more details, check out our full Torch 9860 review and our full Bold 9900 review.

AMD has pulled the wraps off the new V4900 professional graphics card today. The new video card is designed to give the user unequalled digital content creation capability. The V4900 is also designed to work well for pros that use CAD software heavily. The performance the V4900 delivers is offered at the entry level price of $189 making it a bargain in the pro graphics realm. The V4900 has 1GB of 128-bit GDDR5 RAM giving a total of 64GB/s memory bandwidth. The card supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2, and OpenCL. It also has enhanced AMD Eyefinity and DisplayPort 1.2 technology inside with six-screen setups. The GPU has 480 stream processors and connectivity includes dual DisplayPorts and a single DVI-D port. The maximum power consumption for the video card is under 75W and the cards can be had in full height and half height units. The card uses a PCI Express x 16 slot. The card will work in machines with at least 512MB of RAM and Windows 7, XP, Vista, and Linux.

Seagate has been producing hard drives for data storage in computer systems for a long time now. It has made both 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm HDDs for much of that time. The benefit of the 5400 rpm drive was lower power consumption while the 7200 rpm HDD had faster performance. Seagate has now changed its HDD line for desktops significantly. Seagate has axed all 5400 rpm HDDs and is now going with nothing but 7200 rpm desktop offerings. Seagate points to reduced power consumption in the 7200 rpm drive market allowing it to leave the 5400 rpm units behind. I wonder if the flooding and HDD shortage we are facing had something to do with this too. The 7200 rpm HDD is the more popular choice so loosing the 7200 would free up more space for the popular choice. New read/write tech that allows more data to be stored on a single platter is where the power savings comes from. The 5400 rpm drives will apparently still be offered in the mobile category. The new Seagate OptiCache tech also helps to

Apple’s iOS platform may no longer be the most commonly used in smartphones, but take into account tablets and the platform not only has the most market share but makes up the majority of mobile/tablet web access, according to the latest stats. Browser counters Net Applications have crunched hits on their network of tracking customers and reckon that, as of October 2011, iOS accounted for 61.64-percent of mobile browser use. In comparison, Android languished far behind at 18.9-percent. Java ME takes third place, with 12.84-percent – a slump from over a quarter of browser hits less than a year ago – while Symbian’s performance is even more dreary. Browser use has apparently more than halved since December 2010, down from 8-percent to 3.48-percent. BlackBerry dipped to 2.48-percent and fifth place. The stats are gathered from approximately 160m monthly hits across its partner network, Net Applications claims, along with search engine referrals. Android and iOS are constant rivals in

EXPECTATIONS There was a time when arrival of music belonging to films starring Govinda was a good enough reason for celebration. There used to be 'masti', 'dhamaal' and a lot of fun that was associated with the soundtrack. However of late there has been quite some lull as far as music as well as films starring Govinda is concerned. Though on the face value this fun comic multi starrer entertainer does promise a racy score that that would keep you thoroughly engaged right through the five songs that follow, Loot doesn't quite make you tighten your seat belts and wait with bated breath to check out what do composers Shravan Sinha, Shamir Tondon and Mika Singh have to offer. MUSIC Loot begins with a song which is pretty much set in the same mode as 'Main Aayi Hoon UP Bihar Lootne' [Shool]. Picturised on Rakhi Sawant, this Shravan Sinha composed track is titled 'Jawani Ki Bank Loot Le' and is basically aimed at the gentry. What you get is exactly

EXPECTATIONS You have very good expectations from the music of Desi Boyz. First and foremost this is an unpretentious out and out commercial outing which means catchy music is pretty much on cards. Moreover, the title song with Akshay and John has already caught attention in a big way. Also, Pritam can well be expected to deliver goods in a biggie like this, especially after some chartbuster soundtracks that he has created for Akshay in the form of Action Replayy, De Dana Dan, Singh Is Kinng and Bhool Bhulaiyaa. With prominent lyricists like Kumaar, Irshad Kamil and Amitabh Bhattacharya contributing here, one looks forward to a fun and entertaining ride. MUSIC Desi Boyz gets a powerful beginning with 'Make Some Noise For The Desi Boyz' which is the kind of track that one would have expected when it comes to male bonding between the lead actors. A Punjabi-Hindi-English track by Kumaar that has K.K. singing in an altogether different style (when compared to far sombre songs

Banner Tips Music Films Status Under Production Color C Release Date February 17, 2012 Language Hindi Genre Romance Director Mandeep Kumar Star Cast Riteish Deshmukh...... Viren Genelia Dsouza...... Mini Om Puri Tinu Anand Smita Jaykar Veena Malik...... Item Song Music Director Sachin Jigar

Banner Eros International Media Ltd Hari Om Entertainment Co. HR Musik Status Announced / To Go On Floors Color C Release Date November 2012 Language Hindi Genre Action / Comedy Producer Akshay Kumar Director Ashish R Mohan Star Cast Akshay Kumar...... Khiladi 786 Himesh Reshammiya...... Mansukh Paresh Rawal...... Champaklal Cassettes and CD's on HR Musik Music Director Himesh Reshammiya Story / Writer Himesh Reshammiya

Banner JRD Films Status Completed Color C Release Date December 9, 2011 Language Hindi Genre Romance Shooting Locations (City & Country) Thailand Producer Rakesh Jain M.L. Khurana Director Rakesh Jain Star Cast Jatin Khurana...... Abhishek Khurana Noopur Patwardhan...... Neha Dalvi Akansha Shivhare Cassettes and CD's on FilmyBox Music Singers Nikhil D'souza K K Reeky Dev Master Saleem Ritu Pathak Shaan Shreya Ghoshal Vipin Patwa Arun Daga Sasha Nikhil D'Souza Lyricist Sanjay Mishra (1) Yusuf Ali Khan Arafaat Rakesh Jain Music Director Vipin Patwa Reeky Dev Cinematography M.A. Shaikh Choreography Pinky Chenoy Rajiv Khinchi Sagar Das Dialogue Rakesh Jain Story / Writer Rakesh Jain

Banner Yash Raj Films Status Under Production Color C Release Date 2012 Language Hindi Genre Romance Producer Aditya Chopra Director Habib Faisal Star Cast Arjun Kapoor Parineeti Chopra Lyricist Kausar Munir Music Director Amit Trivedi Cinematography Hemant Chaturvedi Choreography Chinni Prakash Rekha Chinni Prakash Action Sham Kaushal Editor Aarti Bajaj Story / Writer Habib Faisal

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission have fined ten LCD panel makers operating inside the country a total of $176 million or 195 billion won. The fines were for allegedly holding meetings with the goal of keeping the prices of LCD screens artificially high. This is not the first time the LCD industry has been busted holding meetings over price fixing in the industry. Together the ten firms that were fined hold 80% of the market share for LCD screens. According to reports, the firms held more than 200 secret meetings dubbed “crystal meetings” between 2001 and 2006 according to an investigator for the commission. Samsung was the firm hardest hit in the investigation with its fine alone totaling 97.2 billion won. LG was the next biggest loser with a fine for three of its units totaling 65.5 billion won. AU Optronics was fined 28.5 billion won. The European Commission also fined some of these same firms in a similar case last year for price fixing occurring between 2002 and 2006. That

Microsoft’s Courier project died in no small part because Bill Gates feared it would cost the company in Outlook sales, despite the content-creation device being only months from a potential launch. According to new leaks about the dual-screen tablet, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called company founder Gates in to meet with the Windows 8 and Courier teams, to help decide which of the two competing tablet strategies would be pursued. Gates, always a fan of anything that supported Microsot’s Exchange/Windows app ecosystem, grew wary of Courier project lead J Allard’s apparent unconcern with the status quo, CNET reports, and recommended to Ballmer that Windows 8 form the centerpiece of the tablet drive. In Allard’s vision, Courier owners would have a smartphone or other device to check email – Courier would support web-based accounts through the browser, but not the company’s Outlook software – and use the dual-display clamshell tablet to take notes, sketch out ideas and generally brains

Novatel Wireless has announced that it is celebrating a milestone this week. Novatel is celebrating the fact that it has shipped three million of the MiFi portable intelligent hotspots so far. The device was introduced in 2009. It is a small box that allows the 3G or 4G connection it has to be shared among multiple devices using WiFi connectivity. The MiFi was the first of that sort of product and there are others on the market today that jumped on the mobile hotspot train. Novatel does hold some important patents that have to do with the tech needed for the MiFi to operate. The MiFi is in use on 25 different carrier networks around the world. In June of this year, Novatel added DLNA to the MiFi to give the hotspot even more capability. Before that DLNA feature, the MiFi also offered the ability to share storage on a microSD card placed into the memory card slot on some models. We can expect to see more features added over time since Novatel is known to update the devices regularl

Apple has announced the next batch of countries set to get the iPhone 4S, with Hong Kong, South Korea and Greece among the fifteen new locations where the fifth-gen iOS smartphone will launch. Shoppers in Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea will see shipments and in-store sales beginning November 11. With the exception of those in Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro and Panama, particularly keen buyers will be able to pre-order the iPhone 4S from November 4. Local pricing for each handset is yet to be confirmed, but the 4S will go on sale alongside the previous iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS at different price points. Apple confirmed that it had sold over 4m iPhone 4S handsets in the initial opening weekend of sales, and since then has spread availability to a total of 29 countries. The company says it is on track to sales in more than 70 countries by the en

Nokia has revealed plans to kick off a free WiFi trial in London, UK, offering free internet access that could spread to other cities as the company’s wireless ambitions progress. The new scheme uses phone kiosks operated by Spectrum Interactive which offer up to 1Mbps downloads per user; registration will not be required, and you won’t need a Nokia device in order to access it. The two month trial will be operated until the end of the year, the BBC reports, with 26 hotspots initially. They will be clustered predominantly around central shopping districts in London, but there will be some outliers in other frequented places in the country. Full service, if the trial period goes well, will involve more like 1,000 hotspots, each centered on a public phone kiosk, and launching in 2012. Nokia is also considering expanding its free WiFi horizons to cover developing nations, such as India and Africa, where 3G infrastructure – and indeed 3G-capable devices – can be rare. The company laun

The Boxee set top box is a streaming device that is like the innocent cousin to the FyreTV box that is only for porn. If you are the sort that can’t bring yourself to have to part with your hard-earned money for a set-top box purely for porn the new FyreTV app for the Boxee system might be just what you need. Apparently, the app will offer access to a huge amount of adult content. The number of films on the FyreTV network is said to be in the 15,000 range from about 100 different adult studios. The FyreTV app will be offered on the Boxee store if adult apps are enabled. There is already an adult app category for Boxee users and videos directly from some adult studios have been offered previously. Considering the FyreTV box required a rental at $9.95 monthly with some free VOD minutes offered I would bet there were few takers. The app on the other hand should do much better than the dedicated box. Parents worried about this app will need to block adult apps. It’s not clear if the B

A recent SEC filing from Motorola has unveiled that it has raked in $228 million from a company resulting from a patent licensing deal between the two firms. For some reason Motorola won’t spill the beans on what company has paid it so much loot in licensing fees. This has caused speculation to run rampant on what the unnamed company is. The rumors floating around right now are claiming that RIM was the company that paid out so well. Motorola noted in the filing that it entered into the settlement agreement in June of 2010. That settlement resolved all outstanding litigation between Motorola and the other firm. However, it was in June that Motorola and RIM announced they had tied up in a patent license agreement. At the time, the patent agreement was said to cover several categories including licensing and use rights to patents covering things like 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi technology. That $228 million in revenue that Motorola is reporting came in only 9 months for the period ending o

According to Scientists, we don’t need to start rolling out the retired space shuttle fleet or suiting Bruce Willis up to save the planet, but an asteroid will pass very close to Earth this week. Close is a relative term when we are talking space, but this giant 1,300 foot wide asteroid will pass between the Earth and the moon. The exact distance the asteroid will streak by the Earth is pegged at 201,700 miles according to NASA. The details on the asteroid come from NASA’s Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Program Office at the JPL in California. The asteroid is called YU55 and Yeomans says it poses no threat to the Earth. Yeomans says that the asteroid will be no threat for at least the next 100 years. NASA has spent the time since the asteroid was discovered refining trajectories to get the best telescope for the job to observe the asteroid. NASA has used that item wisely and expects to be able to get telescopes on the job and observe the passing asteroid at a resolu