IBLOG SPACE

The blue hedgehog we grew to love in 1993 is back again and pocket-sized! Both players who have loved the blue hedgehog from the early 90′s and those from the younger generations can expect some new features and familiar faces. Starting tomorrow iOS users will be able to play Sonic CD, according to an announcement made by Sega. Other mobile device users will have to wait until into the new year. Sonic CD, a revamp from the original that was released on the Sega CD platform, will feature both US and Japanese soundtracks. The addition of both soundtracks is not all that has changed. The gameplay through the levels has seen some renovations. Sonic now has the ability to travel through time – either shooting to the future or going back to the past. One thing that didn’t change is the ability to see Sonic’s famous sidekick, Tails. Once players clear the game, Tails will be made available as a playable character. Whether you’re just discovering all this hedgehog can do or if you’re old-schoo

GammaTech has announced its latest fully rugged convertible laptop called the Durabook R13C. It will withstand the harshest of conditions and is perfect for those having to work out in the field, such as law enforcement, military, and homeland security. It boasts serious Military Standard 810G certification for drop, shock, and spill protection. It’s also got explosive atmosphere, salt, fog, and freeze/thaw standards checked as well. The Durabook R13C also features an IP65 rating, which ensures that all enclosed portions are completely protected from dust and water. It has a water-resistant backlit keyboard and a magnesium alloy case that’s 20 times stronger than ABS plastic. Additional security features include a fingerprint scanner, Trusted Platform Module 1.2, and a Kensington lock. The laptop features a 13.3-inch multi-touch shock-mounted display with a 1000 NIT LCD that’s readable in sunlight. Inside, it’s powered by an Intel Core Low Power i7-620LM vPro processor along with 8GB o

Sony’s PS Vita could get a good boost from integration with the PS3 console. With casual mobile gaming becoming popular, the dedicated next-gen gaming portable didn’t get quite the reception it was hoping for. But if it can enhance the PS3 gaming experience or somehow work in tandem with the console, it could offer a gaming experience like none other. Capcom has recently announced that Sony’s PS Vita will be the “ultimate controller” for the PS3 version of the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 game. It features dual analog sticks as well as all of the PS3′s face buttons, which means that it can not only duplicate the controller experience, but also add extra touch features to perform moves or attacks exclusive to it. In a way it could work in a similar fashion to what Nintendo has planned with the Wii U. There’s also the possibility of having more support for remote play. The PS Vita has already been shown to work with the graphically intensive Killzone 3 game title when it comes to remote p

Yet another Electronic Arts game will join the free-to-play category. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, announced today, is a new massively multiplayer online strategy game in EA’s real-time strategy series. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances will be the first in the series to be MMO style and free-to-play. Players can expect “a completely interactive and dynamic gameplay experience”, according to EA. There are two factions, Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod. The two are engaged in a war over a potent yet volatile resource, Tiberium. Players must not forget they will also be battling the Forgotten, humans who have been mentally and physically mutated by exposure to this resource. As the title states, Alliances will be important for allying with players and fight the Forgotten or other players. Be careful who you trust. With the popularity of social media continually increasing, it is not surprising we are seeing it more in-game. Command & Conquer: Tib

For those shopping for a tech enthusiast this holiday season, take a gander at Satechi’s latest product. Satechi, a leading mobile accessories manufacturer, is pleased to announce their newest addition – the BT Portable Speaker. With a Bluetooth enabled device, you can listen to high quality audio or make phone calls, sans messy cables! The BT Portable Speaker works with most smart phones and tablets including iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android phones, MacBooks and more. The BT Portable Speaker, weighing in at a mere 3.3 ounces, is highly transportable, but Bass lovers don’t fret. This speaker is loaded with Satechi’s signature Bass Expansion System which extends the speakers to amplify audio range. If you’re attached to your beloved subwoofer and think nothing else can compare, think again. The BT Portable Speaker has a vacuum chamber that “opens up like an accordion” to mimic the acoustic properties of your beloved subwoofers. The speaker comes equipped with long-lasting lithium-ion recharg

LG’s first PRADA Phone was legitimately groundbreaking, with its pre-iPhone capacitive touchscreen. The second PRADA handset was a stumbling attempt to cash in on a much-loved fashion label. Now, with thePRADA Phone by LG 3.0, the Korean firm is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Samsung and end 2011 on a high. The signs are surprisingly good: a great display only marred by mediocre resolution, a neatly designed body and no shortage of top-tier features like NFC, speedy HSPA+ and a potent dual-core. Can the third-gen PRADA Phone – and the lessons to be learned from it – lead LG to mobile salvation? To say LG has had an underwhelming year in mobile is an understatement. The company has consistently fallen in the shadow of Samsung, with the devices it expected to revolutionize the market falling unimpressively flat. Delayed software updates and mixed-messages on which Android phones would eventually get what OS version didn’t do much to encourage early-adopters to stick with LG for the

Swisscom, the largest carrier in Switzerland, let it slip via Twitter that the Nokia Lumia 900 would be launching by the end of February. The Lumia 900 has been rumored recently to be a larger version of the gorgeous Lumia 800, but beyond rumors nothing has been confirmed about this device. Hence, the Twitter exchange, although possibly a mistake, will certainly fuel more speculation. A customer by the Twitter handle @Gimly81 asked @Swisscom_Care about the launch dates for the Lumia 800, the Lumia 900, and the HTC Titan. To that, the Swisscom Care team employee replied that the Lumia 800 would arrive in January, followed by the Lumia 900 in February, and that the carrier would not be stocking the HTC Titan. However, the Swisscom employee responded not long after with another tweet correcting the previous message. The tweet said, “the Nokia Lumia 710 will be available by end of Feb. We’re not informed about the device you mentioned. Please excuse the mistake.” This could either be a tru

The device known as the Galaxy Nexus has been formally announced for sale this week via Verizon Wireless, this device being the first LTE smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and indeed the first Android device running that newest version on the market. We’ve been waiting for this release since the first announcement of the device in its international form back in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, and starting this month we’ll be able to pick the device up here in the United States at our local Verizon store for $299.99 connected to a 2-year contract – starting tomorrow, the 15th of December, 2011. This version of the device is slightly thicker than its GSM HSPA+ international cousin already on the market, this because of not only its LTE radio inside, but because of its slightly larger battery (1850mAh) as well. You’ll also have a slightly darker paneling around the edges and the back, the back panel also sporting the first Verizon branding a Nexus device has ever had – unless o

Nokia’s suggestions that the iPhone may be falling from fashion-grace could be correct, though it seems Samsung’s Android devices not the Finn’s new Lumias are the buzz beneficiaries. New research into “consumer perception” by stats firm YouGov suggests Samsung has edged ahead of the Cupertino smartphone when it comes to being at the forefront of peoples’ minds, a finding that’s attributed to Samsung’s snarky adverts. Those ads took pot-shots at the sort of queueing behavior spotted among the “iPhone faithful”, lining up outside Apple stores waiting for the Next Big Thing to arrive. The commercials “appear to be affecting the iPhone’s consumer perception,” YouGov concludes, “sending it into decline around the time the first ad appeared and continuing now.” YouGov’s methodology involves asking a survey group “if you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” Scores range from -100 to 100, subtracting

With the Holidays quickly approaching, Google has reminded us of other ways for achieving technological growth and innovation. This week Google listed the organizations that were recipients of $40 million in grants. The four causes that were recipients were science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education; girls education; empowerment through technology; and fighting human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Google predicts in the next six years there will be 2.4 million job openings in the STEM fields. The organizations receiving Google’s aid will provide students with the necessary resources to continue excelling in science, technology, engineering and math, leading to a career in one of the related fields. The dreams and hard work of an estimated 3 million kids was recognized by Google’s generosity. Seven organizations, or more than 10,000 girls in the developing world were given the opportunity to receive education in 2011. This education has a bigger impact than just a s

HP’s identity could certainly use a makeover and apparently the company has been actively looking into making some changes during the past few years. Moving Brands, a company specializing in branding, was hired back in 2008 to re-envision HP’s image and has come up with something that was apparently too radical for HP’s tastes. The branding company has recently made the project available for the public to take a look, including rendered images and videos. The proposed redesign features a very abstract and modern logo, where the rounded parts of the HP letters are removed, leaving behind simple slanted lines. These angled lines clearly remind us of the traditional HP logo while creating a new vibe of forward movement, adding an overall cool factor. However, such a major redesign like this one isn’t likely in the horizon for now as HP is still struggling to find its direction after a confusing year. HP has experienced some major changes this year, struggling unsuccessfully to launch a ne

When you first lay eyes on this beast of an audio recorder, you’re going to think it’s right out of Ghostbusters or the original switches-everywhere Star Trek series, but it’s not, it’s the new Olympus LS-100 linear PCM audio recording device and it’s about to blow the socks off the competition with its ability to record basically anything. This device is actually just the latest in a series of LS-branded recorders from Olympus, featuring two 90-degree directional stereo condenser microphones with the ability to capture both lower-bass frequencies and louder sound “with less clipping” than ever before*. Have a peek at this aesthetic and sonic masterpiece and see if its the monster for you. This device has two quarter-inch XLR/standard phone combination inputs for any manner of high-quality external microphone or instrument, multi-tracking with two-channel simultaneous recording, and no less than eight-channel playback. If that’s not enough for you, you’ll be happy to know that this mod

Google has released a major update today for its Gmail app on iOS. When the app was first launched back in November, it was quite a mess and although Google fixed the bugs, not much made it more compelling to use than the native email client in iOS or even accessing Gmail directly via Safari. But this latest update brings more to the table, adding several new features that are both useful and fun. Some of the new features that you’ll find useful is the ability to create custom mobile signatures as well as auto-responders directly within the app. And if you’re using iOS 5, the Gmail app now has a new notifications sound for incoming messages that better differentiates it from other iOS notifications. The update also adds a fun new feature called Scribbles, which lets you doodle messages using simple drawing tools with a variety of colors and brush options. These hand-drawn notes and sketches can then be attached to an email and sent from the app. Additional features to come include bann

Though the differences between the original Galaxy Nexus that’s been released a couple of weeks ago by Samsung internationally and the Verizon 4G LTE version of the handset are few, Verizon has gone above and beyond the call of duty in creating an interactive “this is how you do it” page for the device’s relatively new software. What you’ll be able to do on this Samsung Galaxy Nexus support simulator is find out how to access and use everything from Phone Calls to Android Beam, all of this fully activated and ready to go on the handset set to release SOON (tomorrow, if you believe the whispers from above.) What you’ll be able to do on this page is see the instructions Verizon is providing for you in small, smaller, larger, and largest text sizes, this making the whole system readily readable by those grandmothers and uncles just starting in on Android. You’ll be able to see how to use your camera, use your device as a 4G mobile hotspot, and of course, the newly build-in Google+. You’ll

The PRADA Phone by LG 3.0 is official, so we slipped into the softest of our silk evening jackets and grabbed some hands-on playtime with the 4.3-inch Android smartphone. The third in LG’s series of PRADA collaborations, it marks a switch to a smartphone OS – in this case Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade promised for early in the new year – and an all-round more impressive set of specifications. Read on for our first impressions. A tall, slimline monoblock handset, the PRADA Phone is fronted by a 4.3-inch WVGA LG NOVA display – complete with 800 nits brightness, for better outdoor visibility – with touch-sensitive keys underneath and a 1.3-megapixel camera above. On the back there’s an 8-megapixel camera with Full HD video support, surrounded by a leather-effect plastic cover. LG tells us that the choice of plastic over real leather was a conscious one, since genuine cow would wear too quickly. As it is, it feels reasonably grippy though not especially premiu

This week as the Samsung 10.1-inch tablet reaches stores after having been banned for weeks in an Apple injunction to do away with sales altogether, Samsung Australia mobile chief Tyler McGee noted that far from destroying sales, Apple has instead made their Android-based slate a “household name.” A Sydney court lifted the Galaxy Tab sales ban after an appeal by Apple was denied, this ending a two-month out of store stint while the law made its decision on whether or not it thought Samsung infringed on Apple’s iPad product. What McGee is saying now, though he wont reveal any numbers thus far, is that the Apple case and the media coverage it generated will without a doubt provide a boost in sales once they’ve got their product back in stores. In fact, McGee noted that although they were bringing in “as many units as we can” to the market as fast as they can at the moment, “there will probably be short supply against the demand,” as it were. We’ll see how well Apple cut the neck on sales

What you’re about to experience is an update that your humble narrator has been waiting for since Summer began, an update to the Netflix instant user interface for iOS, specifically on the iPad 2. This update brings us away from the ever-busting interface we’ve been subject to for the past however many months, the one that once you’re done watching a movie you’ve got the flip the device upside-down to re-adjust enough to be able to tap*. This update comes free as the app is in the first place and all users should note that they DO need a Netflix account with instant access in order to use this application’s many wonderful streaming bits of media. One should note that *not everybody had the same problems as I did when using Netflix on the iPad up until now, but based on the feedback I’ve received in my search for a cure, I certainly wasn’t the only one. It should speak to your sense of excellence then to hear that I’ve been paying for Netflix this whole year because streaming videos and

Though it may seem like an exercise in foolish re-reporting to speak on this white version of the DROID RAZR again when we announced it earlier this month, it’s availability for tomorrow (the 15th of December) should strike you hard enough to bring about a bit more buzz than this device otherwise would. Since the DROID RAZR was released in its original black/gray form last month (our full review able to be found here), another color for the casing of this device is essentially just a paint job on the same cool sharpness: but besides the OTHER device you’re more than likely aware is almost certainly coming to Verizon tomorrow, recognize this: the DROID XYBOARDs are being cross-promoted with this handset as a “one-two punch of media mastery and multitasking might.” Isn’t that just the most exciting thing you’ve ever heard in your life? What it means is that Verizon and Motorola remain strong, this newest deal having a tie in with cash as well: $100 off a DROID XYBOARD if you buy a DROID

What you’re about to see is a video of a person using the international edition of the Samsung Galaxy S II with what SamMobile blog says is the first build of Ice Cream Sandwich made for the device by Samsung – what you’ll notice here is not just that the device has the newest version of Android on it, but that Samsung’s own custom user interface has been fully integrated. When we first saw the TouchWiz that’s closest to what you’re about to see, it was way back at the start of 2011 at Mobile World Congress (and the famous CTIA Philip Berne event) with the launch of the original Galaxy S II (aka the one you see here), then again in a slightly updated version here in the USA. What this represents is Samsung’s continued reliance on said user interface to differentiate their products from the competition. If you ask any one of our staff here at SlashGear, they certainly wouldn’t say that TouchWiz is the least pleasing of all the custom user interfaces that Android device manufacturers hav

When it comes to mapping out the earth for mobile devices, there are only a few choices options you should really be deciding between – TeleNav being on of them – and this week they’ve upped the ante with the world’s first HTML browser-based, voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation service. What this service will do is amp up TeleNav into the all-access world of mobile, giving essentially anyone with access to a web browser on their handheld device access to GPS in a way that’s never quite been accomplished before now. In addition, developers of mobile websites and apps with local content will now be able to add one simple line of code to their product to have easy to use navigation at a glance! What we’ve got here is TeleNav’s award-winning navigation system brought over to an HTML5 world of full-color moving maps, automatic rerouting, and audio directions. Essentially what you’ve got is a very similar experience to what you’ve been using in your regular app-based TeleNav navigation sys

Qualcomm is pushing to make its Snapdragon mobile chipset brand more visible in the consumer marketplace, dismissing the threat of NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 as a “single use product” and even temporarily rebranding the Qualcomm Stadium as the “Snapdragon Stadium” from this weekend. Speaking at a pre-CES briefing today, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President of Software Strategy Rob Chandhok suggested that, while Tegra 2 may have been found in many of the headline-grabbing tablets and phones over the past twelve months, “in the mobile space, I’m not sure that NVIDIA has any more brand awareness than we do.” The company is similarly unconcerned about the quadcore Tegra 3. “Tegra 3 isn’t concerning us” he said, referring to the NVIDIA chipset found inside the ASUS Transformer Prime and other incoming Android slates. “There are lots of smart people in the world but what we’re going to focus on is product roadmaps that help our manufacturing partners not just single use products … I could go away and make

This week the folks at Pogoplug have both reintroduced their Pogoplug Cloud service (complete with 5GB free for all users) and have shown off their brand new Pogoplug Series 4 device. This newest device is both a major update to the flagship Pogoplug device and made to be a direct line in for users of the Pogoplug Cloud service. With this device you’ll be working with two USB 3.0 ports, SD, one USB 2.0, and a 2.5-inch SATA/USM/Seagate GoFlex ultra-portable drive input along with plug and play support for the same Seagate GoFlex external drives – USM that is. This fourth generation device gives you more than just four different connection ports to hook up to your HDD, it’s got full-on support for Pogoplug Cloud, giving you the ability automatically get connected with mobile phone photos and videos through the Android or iOS apps also available right this minute. Your Pogoplug Cloud account gives you both 5GB of free storage and the ability to purchase more cloud storage in the near futu

Fujifilm has been tipped as a possible buyer for ailing Olympus, swooping in to rescue the struggling Japanese camera firm as full details of its $1.1bn accounting cover-up. The rumors come as Fuji Xerox prepares a renewed push into Asian markets, particularly China, Bloomberg reports, while its rival flounders amid revelations of investment cover-ups and malpractice. Olympus confirmed the $1.1bn hit in its financial reports today, re-filing five years of results with what the company says is the correct set of figures versus the falsified numbers inserted by previous execs. There’s now just 46 billion yen ($589m) in Olympus’ bank account, and Japanese analysts believe the firm is ripe for takeover. Still, Fujifilm is keeping coy on the speculation. CEO Shigetaka Komori told reporters last month that it was “too early to discuss Olympus issues” during the period where the third-party panel put together to look into the company’s business affairs was still investigating the fraud.

This week we’re seeing Nokia’s first drum hit in an incoming thunderstorm of devices for 2012, this the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango device Lumia 710 as carried by T-Mobile, the first US-based carrier for the greater Nokia/Microsoft collaboration. This device is meant to tend to the smartphone user who wishes to simplify their experience and to the feature phone user looking to upgrade to a smartphone without what Nokia would have you believe is unfashionable or confusing in Android and iOS. While we’re not so sure this is going to be a Google mobile OS or iPhone killer, it does seem like a pretty neat package, and a nice looking piece of hardware to boot! Inside this device you’ll find a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512 MB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and SkyDrive cloud storage app right out of the box. The display is a 3.7-inch touchscreen at 800 x 480 pixel resolution and ClearBlack technoloty to make sure your blacks are black as they can be. The back-facing c

Line art isn’t as nice as a real pic of a smartphone in the wild, but when it comes to line art or nothing, we will take the pic however we can get it. A user manual for the Nokia 803 has been leaked and inside that manual is a drawing of the smartphone from three different sides. The device appears to be thick and have a rounded back. You can clearly see the hump for the smartphone camera and the flash along with controls for the device. The manual gives up a few details on what is inside the smartphone. The device has Symbian Belle for the OS, NFC, HDMI output, and DLNA capability. There are no details on the hardware inside that smartphone; some rumors are claiming this is a flagship update for the Nokia N8. The Nokia blog reckons the screen is 3.2-inches. So far, it doesn’t really sound like a high-end device to me, what do you think?

eReaders like the Amazon Kindle and others are great for reading in a bright room or outdoors since they last a long time and have little glare for the user to contend with. The downside to the design is that the eReaders lack a backlight inside so if you want to read in a dark room you need an external light of some sort for the reader to be able to see the words. Those external lights add bulk and they don’t look very nice either. The Qualcomm mirasol eReader uses an internal light that is similar to the light in the cool demo that Flex Lighting is showing off on video. The demo shows off a new LED-based light that is used inside an eReader eliminating the need for that external light. The Flex Lighting light layer can be turned on or off and promises to slurp little power when on. It also claims to not interfere with normal operation of the eReader when the light isn’t on. The special light layer is designed to offer a more uniform distribution of light making it operate more like a

Apple has a patent suit pending against HTC in the US that is aiming at trying to stop the import of some of HTC’s devices. The decision in the case has already been delayed once. HTC is now reporting that the decision in the suit was delayed again. The ruling was supposed to have been handed down today in the US via the ITC. The latest delay pushes publishing of the verdict to December 19. The ITC offered no reason for the second delay. The ramifications for HTC are major if Apple wins. HTC could be barred from importing some of its products into the US. HTC is also suing Apple for allegedly violating patents it holds as well. The original deadline for the verdict in the case had been December 6. If Apple loses the case against HTC, the suit HTC has pending with the ITC alleging Apple violating its trademarks might get a boost. No official comment on the delay has been offered by Apple or HTC. I wonder if the delays are a sign that the ITC is having difficulty making a ruling on the s

The Nintendo 3DS has sold decently with sales since the price cut going up significantly. The downside to that price cut was that the folks that had already purchased at full price felt slighted. To fix that issue Nintendo launched the 3DS Ambassador Program where people that purchased early could get a bunch of free games they can download. Today Nintendo has announced a bunch of new games that will be added to the Ambassador program in Japan and Europe. There is no word on whether the US will see the same games, presumably we will. The new program has a bunch of titles from the NES, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, NES Open Tournament Golf, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Mario & Yoshi, Wrecking Crew, and Metroid. A bunch of titles for the Game Boy Advance are in the mix too with the following titles. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, Fire Emblem: The Sacred

Nokia sale rumors continue, with Danske Bank predicting that the company will sell its smartphone unit to Microsoft in a deal announced as early as the first half of 2012. The Finnish company’s share price rose over 3-percent over the speculation, Bloomberg reports, though Nokia itself remains adamant that a deal is not in the offing. Nokia launched its first two Windows Phone handsets – the Lumia 800 and 710 - within the past two months, and has embarked on a broad promotional campaign that saw it dismiss the iPhone as unfashionableand Android as over-complicated and insecure. Danske Bank’s analysts maintain that a sale of the smartphone segment at least “makes sense”, with Microsoft the likely buyer. Nokia, though, is keen to move past speculation of a sale. “We put these rumors to rest a long time ago,” spokesperson Doug Dawson insists. Nonetheless, questions still remain around the potential for a buy-out. Talk earlier in the year  tipped a $19bn purchase price , a rough figure rei

Mitsubishi has its fingers into a lot more than just making cars. That line of automobiles is probably what Mitsubishi is most known for though. The company has unveiled a new concept dashboard system for cars called emirai. The concept looks really cool and reminds me of the dash from a Star Trek shuttle craft. The concept dashboard uses a projector rather than normal gauges. The rear projector system shoots the gauges and displays onto a curved surface touch display providing all the buttons and controls you might need. Mitsubishi says that it hopes to be using the concept dash in cars in the next decade. I don’t see that happening, touch interfaces for car controls are far from ideal. That half steering wheel won’t make it either, there is a reason steering wheel are round. The entire system has 18 buttons that are on two keypads on each of the uprights of that wheel. A touch display to the right of the dash allows the user to enter handwriting or characters for input to the system.

Google’s Majel Siri-rival could soon be delivering personalized entertainment suggestions on Android smartphones, with the news that the search giant has acquired AI recommendations service Clever Sense. The software company produces Alfred, an Android and iOS app that promises to curate nearby restaurants and make suggestions it believes fits with the user’s tastes, with a combination of artificial intelligence and machine-learning improving results over time. Clever Sense’s team will join Google’s local services division, though the potential for future Android integration is huge. “Together with the Google team, we will accelerate our efforts toward this shared vision. Google helps local businesses connect with potential customers, and its worldwide presence can bring the value of Clever Sense to a much larger audience … Discovering local information is extremely important to both users and businesses, and the acquisition of Clever Sense will benefit both” Clever Sense One of Siri‘s

Kickstarter is becoming increasingly where companies go to gauge demand and pre-sell a bunch of product before they actually spend the money to make the gear. Generally, it takes the full month or more time for many projects get the funds needed to come from the idea stage to a real product. A company called Elevation Lab put a project up yesterday for a sweet looking dock for the iPhone, and the product was a hit with iPhone fans. The project had 60 days to reach a funding goal of $75,000, and it racked up that funding goal in only eight hours and continues to gain support. So far, the Elevation Dock has racked up $112,163 in support money and continues to grow. The dock is a very sexy bit of kit with a dock base made of machined solid aluminum. That gives the dock the heft to allow you to remove your iPhone from the dock without having the dock come off your table with the smartphone. It also uses a special low friction docking adapter inside to make installation and removal easy. Th

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been teaming up with aircraft pioneer Burt Rutan for a long time in an effort to build a reusable space plane that could make it into orbit and return to earth to be used again. The result of that partnership was SpaceShip One. Rutan also designed SpaceShip Two that is used by Virgin Galactic. Allen and Rutan have another space project that they are set to start work on that will result in a cheap and reusable launch method for satellites. The gigantic aircraft launch system is being called Stratolaunch. The aircraft launch system is still in the design stages at this point, but the beast would have a wingspan wider than a football field and need a runway at least 12,000 feet long. Allen would invest in the area of $200 million from one of his funds into the project. The aircraft would have six engines from a Boeing 747 hanging underneath the wings along with the landing gear from the normal passenger aircraft. As you can see in the conce

Nokia has revealed a limited Lumia 800  Dark Knight Rises  special edition, complete with a laser-etched Batman logo, to tie in with the upcoming feature film. Only forty of the handsets will be produced, seen here snapped by Jon Choo in London this morning ahead of IMAX previews of the Batman film itself. Matching packaging – wrapping up the traditional bright Nokia blue with a matte black sleeve complete with black Batman logo – rounds out the package. There’s a movie tie-in Live Tile visible on the screen in the video below, though it’s not clear exactly what specific software or apps Nokia has added at this stage. [timeline] Although the chances of picking up a Batman  Dark Knight Rises  Lumia 800 in stores is low, we wouldn’t be surprised if one or two show up on eBay eventually. Otherwise the regular black Lumia 800 and some time with a laser etching machine are your best bet; check out our full Nokia Lumia 800 review here.

Apple is readying a super-high resolution MacBook Pro update for Q2 2012, supply chain sources claim, with displays running at a whopping 2880 x 1800. The new notebooks – the screens of which would well exceed Full HD resolution – would be the first of a fresh breed of highly pixel-dense portables, DigiTimes sources say, and clock in higher than the current 1920 x 1200 maximum on the existing 17-inch MacBook Pro. The decision to throw in extra pixels is part of Apple’s strategy to better differentiate the MacBook Pro line-up from Windows-based notebooks, the insiders reckon. Apple has for some time now used the same Intel processors and AMD/NVIDIA GPUs as its PC rivals, relying on OS X and its distinctive industrial design to hold the MacBook Pro apart. However, a more comprehensive refresh of the notebook is believed to be in the pipeline, with aesthetics said to be borrowed from the MacBook Air turning the existing Pro into a slimmed-down powerhouse for mobile professionals. A switch

The PRADA Phone by LG 3.0 isn’t expected to be made official until later on today, but that hasn’t stopped press shots and specs of the dual-core Android smartphone from leaking out ahead of time. The monochrome aesthetic of LG’s hardware and custom UI – running on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread – don’t come as a huge surprise in BestBoyz shot, given we’ve already seen the K2 in the wild and teased ahead of an early 2012 release by the company itself. Still, it’s a rite of passage for any new Android phone to leak like a janky faucet ahead of its official debut, and so the third-gen PRADA Phone shouldn’t be any different. The weather widget, with its pared down graphics, looks particularly good, while the Etch-A-Sketch style browser, music, gallery and camera shortcuts are neat. [timeline] The black & white color scheme should be shown off well on the 4.3-inch WVGA NOVA display, with 800 cd/m2 brightness, while inside the 127 x 69 x 8.5 mm chassis there’s a TI OMAP4430 1GHz dual-co

Linksys has a cool new router for your wireless home network that will make taking care of that network while you are away a snap thanks to special access capability that doesn’t require you to be at a computer to change your settings. The router is called the E4200 v2, and the new version adds a few other tricks as well. The router has a faster processor inside for speedier downloads from a USB connected storage device. It also has better access speeds to devices on the network using the 2.4GHz band with 450mbps access. The 5GHz band offers the same 450Mbps access. This means that streaming HD video around the network will be smoother and faster no matter the band you are on. The new CPU is a 1.2GHz unit. One of the big new features is app access from a mobile device, including the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as well as Android devices using an app. The app is called Cisco Connect Express. You can log into the admin area of the router using the mobile app to change settings on the net