IBLOG SPACE

HAWAII FIVE-0 is a contemporary take on the classic series about a new elite federalized task force whose mission is to wipe out the crime that washes up on the Islands' sun-drenched beaches. Detective Steve McGarrett, a decorated Naval officer-turned-cop, returns to Oahu to investigate his father's murder and stays after Hawaii's former governor persuades him to head up the new team: his rules, her backing, no red tape and full blanket authority to hunt down the biggest "game" in town. However, now there's a new governor in office with a stricter rule book that McGarrett and his team will need to contend with. Joining McGarrett is Detective Danny "Danno" Williams, a newly relocated ex-New Jersey cop - a working man in paradise who prefers skyscrapers to the coastline - but who's committed to keeping the Islands safe for his 8-year-old daughter; Chin Ho Kelly, an ex-Honolulu police detective, and former protégé of McGarrett's father, wrongl

LG Mobile has sent out invitations today to a special launch event that it’s hosting on December 1 in New York City. The invite doesn’t reveal much in the way of details, stating only that “all will be revealed.” However, the gamut of recent LG rumors suggests that it will likely be for a high-end smartphone unveiling. Recent rumors claim that LG will be launching a US version of its LG Optimus LTE smartphone, which has already launched on Bell Canada. But unlike its northern brethren that’s simply called the LG Optimus LTE, the US version that’s slated for AT&T’s 4G LTE network will be rebranded as the LG Nitro HD. The Nitro HD is expected to feature a 4.5-inch display with 720p resolution, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and pack a large 1,830mAh battery that should give it more juice for the power-greedy LTE.

Microsoft’s Kinect voice and motion control capabilities will soon expand beyond the Xbox 360 gaming console. The software giant has revealed plans to release new Kinect hardware designed specifically for Windows. This new device would sport hardware components optimized for PC scenarios and will be made available by early 2012. Optimizing the Kinect hardware for PC usage will involve several adjustments, such as shortening the USB cable to ensure a reliable connection for all kinds of computers as well as including a small dongle to make the device connect more easily with other USB devices. Software-wise, the Kinect for Windows will have to be tweaked to enable the depth camera to perceive objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device, or about 1.5 feet. This so called “Near Mode” could enable a whole new category of up-close apps to be developed. The Kinect for Windows hardware should launch commercially in early 2012. Microsoft had released a Kinect for Windows SDK beta

Toshiba’s first entries into the ultra thin and lightweight notebook category called Ultrabooks are now available for purchase online after initially being sold exclusively through Best Buy. The Portege Z830 and the Z835 series are deemed the lightest 13-inch notebooks in the world, aiming to compete with Apple’s popular MacBook Air notebooks. There are four base models of the Ultrabook to choose from, all with 13.3-inch displays. Prices start at $929 for the Z835 and go up to $1,429 for the higher-end Z830. The Z835 features a 1.4Ghz Core i3 processor with 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. The Z830 comes in two configurations with either a 1.7GHz Core i5 model with 4GB of RAM for $1,199 or a 1.8GHz Core i7 model with 6GB of RAM for $1,429. Both include 127GB of SSD storage. For more details, photos, and videos of the Toshiba Portege Z830 and Z835 Ultrabooks, make sure to check out our hands-on.

Having the right gadgets to take 3D photos and videos doesn’t have to be expensive, especially with Vivitar’s new digital camera and camcorder offerings. The company is releasing an incredibly budget-friendly camcorder called the DVR 790HD along with a budget HD digital camera called the ViviCam VT135 that both pack a dual-camera array for 3D stills and video capture. The Vivtar DVR 790HD takes on a camcorder form factor for ergonomic handheld shooting and sports a 5.1-megapixel sensor. It offers 4X digital zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD viewing screen that can display 3D images as well as support 3D video playback. The ViviCam VT135 packs a 12.1-megapixel 3D-capable camera into a point-and-shoot form factor. It offers 5X digital zoom as well as a 2.7-inch 3D-capable LCD viewing screen. Both cameras will sell for just $99 and will be available at Target.

AT&T’s bid to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion is facing another setback. The deal is already being challenged by the Justice Department, which has filed a lawsuit against the merger back in August. And now, according to the WSJ, the FCC is requesting an administrative hearing on the proposed deal. It’s rare for the FCC to do this and it’s not a good sign for AT&T and T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is requesting an administrative hearing to discuss the acquisition, a move that will certainly add more complexity to the deal. It would also extend the time needed to make a decision and hinder AT&T’s efforts to expedite the process. The antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department has already set back the deal to mid-2012 with the first trial set in February of next year. With the addition of the FCC administrative hearing, it could mean a further delay. It’s rare for the agency to make such a request and the last time it did was in 2002 for the proposed merger of

Samsung is taking another stab at rolling out the Android 3.2 Honeycomb update for the WiFi-only version of itsGalaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The device had received an update early last week, which brought a host of problems for users and was quickly pulled. Hopefully this time around, the update should go smoothly and it’s set to roll out over-the-air starting today. The update that was sent out last week hit several snags and didn’t take long for many users to start reporting issues. For some the update wasn’t completing while for others the WiFi connection kept dropping regardless of whether the update completed. There were also reports of Bluetooth and auto rotate problems after users attempted to update. The problems should be fixed with this second 3.2 update, which will also be sent OTA starting shortly. But, users can also manually update on a computer via Samsung Kies. This method will come in handy for those that have lost WiFi connectivity from the first update. For details on the

If you’re really cramped on space or simply prefer minimalist styling but need a multimedia desktop PC, then Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Q180 may suit your needs. The super sleek IdeaCentre Q180 went on sale today as the world’s smallest desktop PC, measuring in at just about the size of a novel at 22mm thin. But the IdeaCentre Q180 isn’t just good looks in a tiny package, it boasts a whole slew of multimedia features to double as a compact home theater system. It features Full HD 1080p graphics processed by an AMD Radeon HD 6540A 512MB graphics with DirectX 11, 7.1 surround sound, and an optional Blu-ray Disc drive that also supports 3D playback. It’s powered by an Intel Atom D2500 dual-core processor with up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM and up to 750GB of HDD storage or 128GB of SSD storage. It also features plenty of ports, including USB 2.0, USB 3.0, VGA, HDMI, and an SD card reader. And, it works with an optional new enhanced multimedia remote keyboard that costs $79.99. Just the IdeaCentre Q180 it

Today Activision has issued a press release proudly announcing that their Call of Duty Elite paid stat tracking and social gaming service has already reached 1 million premium subscribers. The service reached beta in Julyand has seen considerable changes but looks to be finally starting to shape up, even after a rocky start plagued with issues and login failures. Among those 1 million paying subscribers Activision’s press release mentioned that over 600,000 were signed up by Gamestop alone, a pretty impressive number if you ask us. Regarding the rocky and troubled launch Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing had this in response: “The demand for Call of Duty Elite at launch was so overwhelming, that for the first several days, the service did not perform up to our or our fans standards. I want to personally thank our fans for their patience. Our teams have been working around the clock to get the service scaled up to meet demand,” “I’m very pleased to announce today that the serv

Nokia’s Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7 Mango handset made a big flashy debut, but analysts offer a disappointing shipment forecast for the device. Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu notes that the buzz level on the Lumia 800 is just about level as the Nokia N8, which was also a top-of-the-line item for the company but turned out to be a dud. Ferragu writes in his research note that he believes the Nokia Lumia 800 provides no breakthrough innovation while also being priced too high. He also doubts that the Windows Phone platform will gain critical mass against Android and iOS and whether Nokia’s brand would make any difference for promoting the platform. Additionally, Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette believes that the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone shipments in the December quarter will likely be disappointing. At one point, estimates were as much as 2 million units, but the new estimate now has brought that figure down to only 500,000 units for the rest of 2011. The Nokia Lumia 800 is

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet has made its way to the FCC again, but this time around it’s packing cellular bands that will support almost all major US carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Although the already launched WiFi-only version of the tablet hasn’t been making waves, it does offer many unique features designed for business users. This latest Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet sports 3G bands with support for GSM 850/1900, CDMA 850/1900, and WCDMA bands II, IV, and V. This will allow the tablet to be used with pretty much most wireless carriers in the US as well as abroad. Now if only it could support LTE as well, but nothing in the FCC filing suggests that capability. The rest of the hardware should remain relatively the same as the WiFi-only model, which featured an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, dual cameras, and a good number of ports including micro-USB and HDMI. The capacitive touchscreen can also be used with an optional digitizer pen. For more details, m

Google has another employee to add to their popular and ever-growing list as they’ve recently hired one of the head managers from the Microsoft Windows Phone crew — Joe Marini. Joe was “retired” or resigned follwoing some troubled waters after tweeting information regarding the then unannounced Nokia Lumia 800 Mango handset. The Windows Phone web platform manager got into trouble for not only talking about the handset but he gave a mini review and had a few not so good things to say about the camera. The Nokia Lumia 800 is quite an excellent handset if I don’t say so myself. Feel free to read our in-depth review by Chris Davies. It looks as if Marini is back to his tweeting ways today after posting a few of those 140-character messages about his new venture with Google. You can see from the tweet he aims to “drive the web forward” and his job description is titled “Google Dev Advocate” and will involve developer relations, HTML5 apps, and many other things that aren’t yet known. We are

Microsoft has denied claims that Xbox LIVE has been hacked, despite reports suggesting the online gaming service had suffered a security breach exposing user data. The company took to its official Facebook page after UK newspaper The Sun alleged gamers had lost between £100 and £20o each ($156-313); in fact, Microsoft clarified, victims had been the unfortunate quarry of a phishing scam. Such scams use malware, such as viruses, to infect user’s computers and steal login credentials for services like Xbox LIVE, or alternatively present themselves as legitimate messages from companies like Microsoft, generally asking users to log in at a fake site. Those logins are then used to access Xbox LIVE accounts and extract credit card details or make unwanted purchases. Microsoft is now apparently working with those Xbox LIVE users affected by the scams to re-secure their accounts, as well as suggesting that all gamers take care over what emails they open and what links they click on. The compan

Samsung and T-Mobile USA are promising a white Christmas, with a white variant of the Galaxy S II set to go on sale in time for the holidays. The pale phone will support 4G HSPA+ on the carrier’s network, as well as offering a 4.52-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon dual-core processor running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. In case you hadn’t guessed, then, functionally the white Galaxy S II will be identical to the existing black variant. That’s not necessarily a bad thing when you consider how well-esteemed the smartphone is: Samsung’s display technology is excellent, with vivid colors and broad viewing angles, and the phone has a great 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p Full HD video recording. Neither Samsung nor T-Mobile are saying when, exactly, the white Galaxy S II will go on sale, though we’re told to expect more details – including pricing – within the next few weeks. Best guess is that it will be in the region of the $229.99 T-Mobile is currently as

HTC’s Facebook phone collaboration, reported as “Buffy” yesterday, marks the resumption of an aborted attempt by the social network to create its own smartphone, “Slayer”, from scratch, it’s claimed. “Buffy” was preceded by a device project codenamed “Social Layer” – subsequently abbreviated – with a hand-picked group working on hardware, software and even carrier deals, according to AllThingsD‘s various sources. The project, operating in secrecy in a separate building, stumbled when Facebook’s ambition exceeded its expertise and budget. Designing a phone from the ground up is an expensive prospect, Facebook’s team realized, with that and the politics around the project eventually seeing the team lose motivation and, in several cases, leave the company altogether. Before it was scuppered, “Slayer” supposedly had some of the brightest minds in Facebook – and from elsewhere – working on it. The team is said to have included Firefox founder and Facebook iPhone app creator Joe Hewitt, alon

Last week I talked about the weird markings that had turned up in the Chinese desert. As people noted the markings had been around for a while and were apparently only recently discovered by many people. We all wondered what China was up to out there in the desert and what the weird series of lines and such were actually for. If you thought they were something to calibrate spy satellites in space, you are right according to one scientist. Space.com talked with Jonathon Hill from Arizona State University. Hill is a research tech and a mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at ASU. This is the place where the cameras are operated on Mars missions. Hill says that the images with the white zigzag lines are spy satellite calibration targets. The satellite cameras would focus on the grids and could then correctly orient themselves in relation to the planet in space. He even cited a link to similar patterns in Arizona that the US used in the 60′s for spy satellites. As for the imag

With all the flooding in Thailand where many of the HDDs are made that are used in computers and sold on the retail market, production has ground to a halt leaving shortages on the market. There was an early prediction that the shortage would hurt more than just the consumer with computer prices going up and could also hurt large internet companies like Google and Facebook. According to HP CEO Meg Whitman, the shortage is already hurting Facebook and Google since they are the DIY server sort. HP is also having a hard time laying hands on drives, but Whitman says that the firm has a “war room” set up and it will be getting its share of drives. Whitman also claims that for now since Google and Facebook cannot get drives, they are calling HP to meet server needs. Despite the uptick in purchases from firms that typically build their own servers, Whitman still expects income for servers to drop thanks to the shortage. Computer prices are expected to increase with the shortage. The real brun

Sling has launched a new streaming app, SlingPlayer for Boxee Box, pulling in content place-shifted from your Slingbox directly to the compact STB. As with the existing SlingPlayer apps for mobile devices and tablets, along with the SlingPlayer for Facebook app released last week, the new option allows for remote control of an SD or HD video source – including setting and playing back DVR recordings – as well as streaming live TV. The SlingPlayer for Boxee Box app requires a Slingbox SOLO or PRO-HD, and the company warns that – as ever – you’ll need at least a 600Kbps connection for a SD stream or a 2Mbps or higher connection for an HD stream. Unlike the smartphone/tablet apps, however, this Boxee Box integration isn’t a paid download, and will be added free instead. The new functionality is part of Boxee’s attempt to position its platform as a replacement to cable TV subscriptions and the like, with a TV tuner for local live TV access coming in January. Of course you might want to pai

Back in the day I wanted a Neo Geo so bad I could taste it, but the parents wouldn’t go for it. If you have Neo Geo or just want to have one, only made from wood Analogue Interactive is the place that you need to check out. The company makes a wooden Neo Geo and matching joystick. The company has announced a few new products. The Walnut CMVS console has been around for a while and now the company is unveiling the Analogue CMVS Slim has with a new ebonized ash enclosure. That means it is made from ash wood that is colored black. The firm also has the exact same black wood enclosure on a new Analogue CMVS Slim joystick. Retro gamers know that the controllers are the thing that really brings the feel to the old games. The company uses the same parts inside the wooden case that Neo Geo used in the controllers back in the day. The controllers are made to be as near the original Neo Geo controllers as possible and they will work with real Neo Geo consoles as well. The new CMVS slim console s

According to analytics firm Piper Jaffray while the split of app market share for Android is 50%, Apple is still making more money off apps. The firm claims that Apple has as much as 80 to 90% of the share of total dollars spent on mobile apps. The firm also states that the Android Market has generated only 7% of the gross revenue that Apple had generated. This doesn’t seem like an accurate tale though since anyone that has used the App Store and Android Market knows they operate in fundamentally different ways. Apple sells the apps whereas Google and many Android devs simply give the app away and make their money on ads. Rovio is a perfect example with millions made off ads in Angry Birds even though the app is free in some versions. Piper expects that Apple will maintain that lead in revenue through the next three to four years. I wonder if the metrics were looked out with the eye on ad revenue from games if Apple would be the one with a small part of the market. It is interesting to

HP’s TouchPad fire-sale scored the company the second place in US tablet sales, market stats have shown, with the $99 webOS slate edging ahead of Samsung’s entire Galaxy Tab line-up. The Korean firm slipped to third place – behind Apple, in first, and HP, in second – with 16-percent of retail tablet sales between January and October 2011, the NPD Group found, while HP managed 17-percent thanks no doubt to its aggressive discounting. Total non-Apple tablet sales amounted to more than 1.2m units the analysts suggest. It’s worth remembering, before you compare non-Apple tablet sales with those of the iPad, that both the TouchPad and Samsung slates like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 weren’t on sale for the entire year. Still, of those NPD asked, 76-percent of those who bought a non-iPad tablet didn’t even consider opting for Apple’s slate. That, NPD analyst Stephen Baker reckons, is “indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the marke

NVIDIA has tossed a new video up onto YouTube that shows one of the NVIDIA folks walking through a few features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Asus Transformer Prime tablet. You can see the video for yourself at the bottom of this story. The demos are interesting, even if a bit brief. The Transformer Prime packs in the Tegra 3 quad core processor and will be the first tablet to land with that Tegra 3 hiding inside. The demos show off the new drag and drop features of the home screen for moving things into folders. The video shows the menu so you can see that it’s running Android 4.0. I can’t read anything that is in the menu though. The transitions effects is one of the things NVIDIA shows off. Those effects are fast and look really good. Pay special close attention to the 1080p high profile playback. That’s not just coming from Ice Cream Sandwich per-say, but is certainly enhanced by it, as Android 4.0 makes better use of your GPU cores for graphic-intensive tasks leaving yo

The eBook world is a fickle as the world of digital music. Publishers are always worried that eBooks are taking away from the sales of traditional print books and that the security isn’t good enough. With more and more companies, lending eBooks at libraries and other places the eBook world is changing again. I continue to be surprised that the book publishers allowed lending of books at all. Word has surfaced that Penguin Books has forced the removal of its eBook titles from the Overdrive lending library. According to OverDrive last week it received word from Penguin that it was reviewing the terms for lending on its eBook titles. While the terms were under review, OverDrive notes that it was asked to suspend lending of Penguin eBooks. It’s not looking good for the ability to lend books using eReaders like the Kindle. I don’t understand the issue here. Penguin is claiming that security concerns with its digital versions are delaying availability in new titles on digital formats until t

Microsoft has snapped up intelligent video search specialist VideoSurf, in a deal worth around $70m that could see Bing and future Media Center releases dig through streaming media content more accurately. VideoSurf uses computer vision to actually scan through footage hosted by YouTube, Hulu, DailyMotion and others, indexing them by content rather than just whatever tags uploaders have added; the deal,  Calcalist  reports, is expected to primarily improve Microsoft’s Bing rivalry against Google search. “Using patent-pending computer vision algorithms that can actually see the video’s content, VideoSurf serves up more relevant results for your queries and offers a new, visual way for you to interact with the video set returned. You can refine your results based on the people who actually appear in the videos and pinpoint the specific moments you’re interested in watching or sharing with your friends” VideoSurf Current video search systems take a more basic approach to discovering clips

Back in August, I mentioned that Facebook and Yahoo had been testing the six degrees therefore where we are all supposed to be connected to each other by no more than six other people. This is commonly known as the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan have now reported that there are actually less than six people separating us all. The average number of acquaintances between any two people in the world is now pegged at 4.74. The researchers used Facebook because of the 721 million users. That huge number of users allowed for a more accurate finding. The original six degrees came from a study in the late 60′s that had people send actual postcards to specific other people via friends. The experiment used one month and used a special algorithm to calculate the distance between any two people on Facebook using a sample path. The links between one person and another averaged 4.74 and in the US with more than half the population on Facebook, there wa

Researchers are working on a crazy set of contact lenses that will allow the user to get augmented reality information projected right on their eye. Today we need a smartphone to view augmented reality data, but that might not always be the deal. If these contacts come to pass, there could be a whole new world of augmented reality for a myriad of uses. For now the testing of the contact lenses is being conducted on rabbits. The lenses in testing now have a very low resolution of only one pixel. The researchers think that the resolution will improve over time and that someday we could all be using these lenses for navigation, reading news, email, and maybe watching video. A team of American and Finnish researchers at the University of Washington are developing the lenses. A radiofrequency transmitter powers the prototype lenses. An antenna printed on the lens is about 5mm long. The potential for military applications is also interesting giving soldiers something like Terminator vision t

Lenovo is apparently readying a 5-inch dual-core tablet, running Android on a slate more suited to pockets than handbags and briefcases. Set to go on sale as part of Lenovo’s new IdeaTab brand – or as the LePad in China – according to Engadget‘s tipster, the compact tablet hasn’t been fully detailed yet, though it’s confirmed to have both USB and HDMI connectivity. There’s also a front-facing camera and an earpiece speaker, though the insider couldn’t confirm whether or not the new 5-inch IdeaTab would have voice call support along with its data connection. Rivals such as theSamsung Galaxy Note - and the older Dell Streak 5 - do, but other tablet manufacturers have avoided voice support in an attempt to prevent slates from eating into cellphone sales. Lenovo could be positioning the IdeaTab as a VoIP companion, rather than a true phone replacement. Three buttons look to be underneath the display, which might suggest that this won’t be running a tablet-centric OS such as Honeycomb or Ic

Early this month the Asus Transformer Prime TF201 tablet was announced for the first time. The official page on the Asus site is now up with no hint at a ship date. The tablet sounds nice with a Tegra 3 processor under the hood and a very thin design. The tablet portion is only 8.3mm thick and weighs in at 586g. It can be paired with a keyboard dock that turns it into a netbook-like device as well or used as the tablet alone. The OS the tablet runs is Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but that will be updated next year to Android 4.0. The keyboard itself is QWERTY unit with a touchpad and a USB port. The keyboard packs in a battery that will extend the battery to 18 hours. The display on the table is a Super IPS+ panel with Gorilla glass over the top. The viewing angles for the screen are 178-degrees. The tablet has a rear 8MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash and a 1.2MP front facing camera. Other features include a MicroSD card reader, micro HDMI port, and access to Asus webstorage. Other fe

AT&T has revealed it was the target of an unsuccessful hack attack, with would-be data thieves attempting to force access to customer accounts through the carrier’s website. No accounts were breached in the assault AT&T told certain subscribers in letters recently, eWeek reports, with less than 1-percent of the company’s 101m wireless users impacted. However, it still suggests that subscribers be wary of an uptick in spam and phishing attempts “out of an abundance of caution.” “We recently detected an organized and systematic attempt to obtain information on a number of AT&T customer accounts,” the carrier’s letters to affected subscribers suggested, “including yours.” According to AT&T, those responsible for the failed hack tried to use a script to match cellphone numbers to online accounts, in the hope that a connected pair would enable access to personal data, billing information and more. The prompt communication from AT&T is, it’s been suggested, a reaction to

Apple has been cleared of infringing video patents acquired by HTC from its purchase of S3 Graphics, with the USITC overturning a preliminary ruling in HTC’s favor. Despite an early decision that OS X overlapped patented technologies back in July, Apple has in fact been guilty of “no violation” the US International Trade Commission decided, sending HTC’s share price into a mild downward spin as investors reacted negatively. “The investigation is terminated” the USITC confirmed, forcing HTC to defend its purchase of S3 Graphics altogether. The deal – which cost $300m - only completed last week, and HTC had hoped its expanded patent portfolio would add to its bargaining power against mobile device rivals. “There are many [patents] that are very strong … we think the acquisition is justified because of all the patents” HTC CFO Winston Yung insisted this week. Meanwhile, HTC is the subject of an ITC investigation itself, with Apple claiming the company has infringed its patents in HTC Sens

If you like the idea of Apple’s AirPlay for iOS devices and have wished that there were something similar for the Android users out there, Xbounds might be the perfect thing for you. This little dongle apparently connects to the Android device via WiFi. Once that connection is made the content on your screen is mirrored out to another larger screen in the office or living room. The connectivity is fast enough that the content on the external display be it video or games and other stuff is shown in in real time. That is particularly important if you want to play video games on a larger screen. The demo video at the end of this shows the developers playing Angry Birds and other content and what happens on the phone happens at the same time on the larger display. The Xbounds device supports a lot of features and has tech that allows the user to zoom in and still get clean and clear graphics. This is a very cool little device and will let you sit on the couch and shoot that video content o

VIA has pulled the covers back to show off its tiny little ARTiGO A1150 dual-core PC kit for the enthusiasts out there looking for a tiny chassis to fit on a desk or in an entertainment system. The A1150 is a sub-liter machine that uses a VIA 1GHz dual-core Eden X2 processor and has HD video support. The video outputs on the back include VGA and HDMI. The tiny computer also has gigabit networking support and WiFi integrated along with five USB ports. The machine measures in at a compact 5.7″ x 3.9″ x 2″ and has 64-bit computing support. Along with the 1GHz CPU, the machine also has a VIA VX900H media system processor so it can handle HD video in multiple formats without taxing the CPU. The little computer also has a SD card reader integrated. This would make a nice little HTPC that consumes little power and it should have very minimal heat output as well. The link to the official page for the computer isn’t working just yet. Pricing and availability are unknown. I would expect this to

Onkyo has quite a name for itself in the audio market and makes products ranging from home theater receivers to stereo gear. The company also offers its wares in a large range of prices as well. The latest new product from Onkyo is a new home audio system for dockable iPhone and iPod devices. The system is called the Onkyo CS-345 Mini System. The little stereo system has a dock on top for the iPhone and iPod models, a CD player, and an AM/FM tuner. The system has a digital amp inside and the speakers are a pair of 2-way bass-reflex units with high output levels. The system doesn’t take much room on the counter or desk either. The MSRP for the stereo system is $299. Inside the bass reflex enclosures is a pair of 4-inch woofers. Each of the speakers has its own dome tweeter for high range sounds. The speakers are matches to the amp for lower distortion. The dock will support most all dockable iPods and it has a video output for the iPod and iPhone to shoot content out to the TV. The CD p

I think we all knew that the iPhone 4S was going to be a seriously popular device when it finally launched after all of the rumors and frenzy surround the device leading up to that launch day. Flickr has a camera finder page that keeps track of the most popular cameras used on the service are. It’s no surprise that before the iPhone 4S launched, the iPhone 4 was the most popular camera. The iPhone 4 is still at the top of the list, but before the 4S camera around the iPhone 3G was the second most popular camera. Shortly after the launch of the iPhone 4S, the 3G dropped quickly and the iPhone 4S camera took the second most popular spot. It’s interesting that out of the top five cameras on the service, four of them are the iPhone. The only non-iPhone on the list is the HTC Evo 4G in last place. The iPhone 3GS is the fourth place device, the iPhone 3G is third, with the 4S in second and the iPhone 4 in first. The 4S is a long way from the iPhone 4 in popularity though.

HP is still quietly shopping webOS around among with other Palm assets, according to sources, but insisting that potential buyers of the platform agree to license it back for use in future HP printers. Intel has just entered discussions with HP, a source close to the negotiations spilled to VentureBeat, while Qualcomm – despitesidestepping any suggestions of interest in webOS – is also said to be still in the running. HP has been wedded to the idea of webOS in printers since the early days of its Palm acquisition, though we’re yet to see the platform actually show up in a paper cruncher. The OS would presumable replacing Android in models similar to the HP eStation C510, shown above, which used Google’s open-source platform – along with a reskin from HP’s own software engineers – on a removable control tablet with social networking integration and other multimedia tools. The guess is that HP has already been working on its webOS printer line-up, and is keen not to scrap those new model

Microsoft‘s new Xbox 360 dashboard, integrating Kinect into navigation and bringing the UI in line with Windows Phone and Windows 8, will hit consoles on December 6, the company has announced. At that point, gamers will be able to use their Kinect to control the Xbox via voice and gestures, as well as share content on Facebook. There’s also cloud storage for Game Saves and Xbox LIVE Profiles, together with a new social broadcasting feature called Beacons. YouTube and Bing access will also be integrated, the latter supporting voice search for movies, music, and other content on the console. In addition to the revamped interface, Microsoft is promising new multimedia content – including music and movies, as well as live TV access – that will be streamed direct to the console. The refreshed Xbox 360 dashboard began rolling out to beta testers back on November 10.

Samsung has reconfirmed it is working on Google TV products, with the Korean company’s TV division chief confirming that the sets would be revealed at an event in 2012. TV department president Yoon Boo-keun revealed the ongoing negotiations this week, Reuters reports, as well as insisting that the Samsung Google TV products would “differ from those of competitors” in an unspecified way. Samsung’s first batch of Google TV products never actually reached the market. The company developed a set-top box and a Blu-ray player, taking a similar approach to early Google TV partners Logitech and Sony, but after brief demonstrations at CES 2010, failed to launch them commercially. That reticence doesn’t seem to have harmed Samsung; in the meantime, we’ve seen Sony discount its Google TV sets considerably, and Logitech announce that it had no further plans to release devices using Google’s platform. Existing Logitech Revue owners will get Google TV 2.0, the recently unveiled latest version, but n

Earlier this year, you may still remember the HTC Status and HTC Salsa from AT&T, the pair of “Facebook phones” that weren’t exactly up to their titular status. But just hours ago, reporters over at All Things Digital claim that social-networking company itself is working with a cell phone manufacturer to build, yes, a very Facebook phone, code-named Buffy (from the vampire-killer television series, for some reason). And most likely not one with just a tiny little Facebook button on the front. All Things Digital claims that “the phone is planned to run on a modified version of Android that Facebook has tweaked heavily to deeply integrate its services.” Tweaking Android heavily seems like the common theme of every company out there not named Google. It’s also reported that Facebook is working with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC to build the smartphone, although Facebook had also allegedly considered partnering with Samsung to make the device, but went with HTC instead. No comment on