New Sony Ericsson W995

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Sony Ericsson introduced the W995 Walkman phone. The Sony Ericsson W995 walkman phone is powered by 2,6-inch QVGA display, WiFi with DLNA, GPS, FM Radio with RDS, 8GB M2 card, 8 megapixel camera, Google maps and 3G feature.

Sony Ericsson W995 has Media Go™ application that makes worldwide debut on the the W995 Walkman™ and lets you effortlessly and automatically transfer any audio, photos and videos between your phone and computer.

The W995 Walkman™ supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and UTMS/HSPA 900/2100 and will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Progressive Black, Cosmic Silver and Energetic Red.

Nokia 5900 Xpressmusic Mobile Is Comming

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone is one of the successful devices presented by the company. It now appears that the finnish mobile phone manufacturer is rumored to launch a new phone called the Nokia 5900 XpressMusic, reports SlashGear.

It is reported that the new Nokia phone will sport a slim design and large 3.5inch touchscreen display. Apparently, the phone bundles up a 5 megapixel camera that should allow capturing clear and bright images as compared to the 3.2 megapixel camera integrated on the 5800.

This phone is speculated to include a 3.5mm headphone jack. Moreover, it is expected to run on a Symbian S60 5th Edition OS. Supposedly, the leaked images of this phone are coming through a source from China and from the images, it can be judged that the phone will be available in two distinct colors.

Images claiming to show Nokia’s follow-up to the 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen cellphone, the Nokia 5900 XpressMusic, have leaked, and while there’s no confirmation that these are legitimate they certainly look the part. Believed to include a larger, 3.5-inch touchscreen, 3.5mm headphone jack and 5-megapixel camera, the 5900 XpressMusic is expected to run the same Symbian S60 5th Edition OS as its predecessor.

What confuses matters is that an entirely different page is suggesting that, rather than the 5900 XpressMusic, the images are of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, another media-centric touchscreen handset but not the 5800’s successor. Instead, it’s said to use the same 3.2-megapixel camera, paired with a 2.9-inch display.



Images claiming to show Nokia’s follow-up to the 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen cellphone, the Nokia 5900 XpressMusic, have leaked, and while there’s no confirmation that these are legitimate they certainly look the part. Believed to include a larger, 3.5-inch touchscreen, 3.5mm headphone jack and 5-megapixel camera, the 5900 XpressMusic is expected to run the same Symbian S60 5th Edition OS as its predecessor.

nokia 5900 xpressmusic 5 480x318

What confuses matters is that an entirely different page is suggesting that, rather than the 5900 XpressMusic, the images are of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, another media-centric touchscreen handset but not the 5800’s successor. Instead, it’s said to use the same 3.2-megapixel camera, paired with a 2.9-inch display.

Of course a final interpretation could be that, like the Nokla N98, this is yet another fake handset attempting to cash in on Nokia’s design stylings. Right now, there’s no real way of telling, unless someone from Nokia wants to come along and confirm it all as legitimate. We doubt, somehow, that they’ll do that, however.

Sugar Water Can Generate Electricity

Sugar Water Can Generate Electricity:

Researchers announce a faster way to make hydrogen from cheap biomass.
A new way to make hydrogen directly from biomass, such as soy oil, reported in the current issue of Science, could cut the cost of electricity production using various cheap fuels.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a catalytic method for producing hydrogen from fuels such soy oil and even a mixture of glucose and water. The hydrogen could be used in solid-oxide fuel cells, which now run on hydrogen obtained from fossil-fuel sources such as natural gas, to generate electricity. Further, by adjusting the amount of oxygen injected along with the soy oil or sugar water, the method can be adapted to make synthesis gas, a combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can be burned as fuel or converted into synthetic gasoline. The method can also produce chemical feedstocks, such as olefins, which can be made into plastics.

Although the results are preliminary, the new catalysis process represents a fundamentally new way to directly use soy oil and other cheap biomass as fuels; such biomass now needs to be converted into biodiesel or ethanol in order to be used as fuels. "Generally, people have steered clear of nonvolatile liquids--materials that you cannot vaporize," since these typically produce a carbon residue that stops the process of producing hydrogen, says Ted Krause, head of the basic and applied research department at Argonne National Laboratory, in Argonne, IL. By eliminating the need to process soy oil and sugar water to make volatile fuels such as ethanol, the new method "opens up the number of available biomaterial feedstocks," he says.


The process begins when the researchers spray fine droplets of soy oil or sugar water onto a super-hot catalyst made of small amounts of cerium and rhodium. The rapid heating combined with catalyst-assisted reactions prevents the formation of carbon sludge that would otherwise deactivate the catalyst. And the reactions produce heat, keeping the catalyst hot enough to continue the reaction. As a result, although fossil fuels are used initially to bring the catalysts up to the 800 °C working temperature, no fossil fuels are needed to continue the process. "One of the virtues of our process is it requires no external process heat-it drives itself," says chemical-engineering and materials-science professor Lanny Schmidt, who led the research.

The key to the speed of the reactions is the small droplets. Existing processes for converting volatile fuels, such as ethanol or biodiesel, into hydrogen are slower because the fuels are inside pipes, and it takes up to a second for heat to transfer to them. In Schmidt's process, the droplets heat up instantaneously--in just a few milliseconds--and the system can be faster, cheaper, and smaller, he says. The speed makes it possible to produce more fuel from a smaller reactor, reducing capital costs and potentially making it practical for a farmer to use a small system on the farm.

Schmidt says the process could probably be adapted to work with other biomass, such as slurries or powders made from grass or wood, which are now difficult to convert into practical fuels for electricity generation or transportation because of their high cellulose content. The ability to create hydrogen and syngas directly from cellulosic sources would dramatically increase the amount of fuel that could be made from waste biomass because it would be possible, for example, to use the whole cornstalk, rather than just glucose derived from corn kernels, for fuel. Other researchers are attempting to genetically engineer organisms to convert grass and cornstalks into liquid fuels such as ethanol .

Such fuels could help reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil and provide a renewable source of fuel that produces no net increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, since the carbon released when the fuel is burned is recaptured by the biomass as it grows.

Krause says that initial applications of Schmidt's current process will likely be in producing distributed power in small amounts, since utility-scale production will be a challenge. For example, controlling the size of the droplets and the temperature of the system to keep the reactions uniform and to avoid damaging the catalysts will be harder in large systems.

Schmidt says he's not focusing on commercializing the current technique. His next goal is to develop the system to work with sources of waste biomass. Someday it could be possible to use such a system to generate electricity from lawn clippings.

GPS Tracking Devices In Tennis Shoes

GPS tracking devices have spread through many industries, effecting businesses of all kinds, and now they hit the shoe market. And I don’t just mean that shoe companies are using GPS to track their shipments. GPS tracking devices are being put into footwear. Quantum Satellite Technology is incorporating small GPS chips into the design of athletic shoes.
Beat Your Competition with GPS
So what makes GPS enabled shoes such a great idea? You can’t lose them if you’re wearing them. You can’t set them down and forget where you put them, like you could with a cell phone. They go wherever you go. The GPS shoes have two buttons built in around the shoelaces which were designed to blend in and not be easily recognizable. These buttons activate and deactivate the GPS tracking device which is located inside the heel of one shoe. However, the GPS can also be activated remotely if a concerned parent calls about their child, but a password must be provided for security reasons. The sneakers are meant for emergencies only, not just for simple monitoring.

Although the shoes are a bit pricey (between $325 and $350 for adult sizes), anyone who has known someone that was abducted would tell you that this kind of technology is worth every penny. The new sneakers, which currently come in 6 designs, will also be coming out in kid’s sizes this summer.
The shoes were inspired by Isaac Daniel after he thought his son had been kidnapped. Although it ended up being a misunderstanding, the experience was frightening enough that Daniel wanted to come up with a way to prevent this kind of scare from happening again. He was the creator of the original prototype of the GPS sneakers.

GPS tracking devices have come a long way. Safety is very important, especially in today’s world. These new GPS sneakers will able to locate someone quickly and easily. These shoes can be used to locate runners that may have run into trouble, or an Alzheimer’s patient who may have wandered off, as well as tracking the whereabouts of kidnapped children. Being able to know instantly where kidnapped children are just by using GPS tracking devices in their sneakers will save the police dozens of hours of searching and bring more missing children back home safe to their parents. And that is after all, the most important thing.

The World's Most Cheapest Laptop

From credit card debt and school loans to rising gas prices and adjustable mortgages, there are plenty of reasons why consumers in the developed world can't afford a laptop. Not to mention the fact that underfunded schools and underprivileged kids also exist in the developed parts of the world. Enter the Medison Celebrity laptop. It's a $150 laptop from Swedish company Medison that's available through the Columbus, Ohio-based online reseller 2Checkout.com.

With Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC hovering around $175, and Intel's Classmate PC expected to cost more than $200, the Medison Celebrity laptop can lay claim to being the cheapest laptop in the world. And it boasts an impressive feature set for the money. For starters, it features a large, wide-screen 14-inch WXGA display and weighs a reasonable 4.8 pounds. Powering the Medison Celebrity is a 1.5GHz Intel Celeron M 370 processor and 256MB of memory. You may scoff at such a meager memory allotment considering all the reviews out there that complain whenever a PC serves up less than 1GB these days, but the Medison Celebrity doesn't have to power Vista or any other flavor of Windows. Instead, it uses Fedora Linux, which requires less muscle to run than a Windows OS and no Microsoft licensing fee. Rounding out the specs are a 40GB hard drive, an integrated Via PN800 graphics chip, and 802.11g Wi-Fi. You also get stereo speakers, three USB 2.0 ports, and a PC Card slot. Medison backs the laptop with a one-year warranty but offers little detail about the terms.

Medison takes orders in a variety of currencies, and it claims it will outfit the laptop with the appropriate keyboard. The company estimates it'll take four to six weeks to ship, but "availability of the Medison Celebrity model depends on how many orders we get per day." It also lists additional charges above the $150 price as $6.45 plus 5.5 percent "and extra" for its partner, 2Checkout.com.

Is this $150 laptop too good to be true? Could be--I've tried all morning to place an order, but I keep getting an error message before I can even enter my credit card info and address. I'll keep trying, but it looks like Medison isn't quite ready to bestow Celebrity status on anyone with an extra $150 kicking around. I'll update this post should I get my order to go through.

UPDATE: I successfully completed an order. And wouldn't you know, the $150 laptop ended up costing an even $150. Shipping was free, and no taxes or other charges were applied. I'll let you know when it arrives.


Cheapest Laptop By HCL

HCL Infosystems today launched MiLeap – a fully functional, portable range of laptops that sport a starting price tag of Rs 13,990.

Slated to be the world’s cheapest ultra-portable laptops , the MiLeap would be available in two series, X and Y, at a starting price of Rs 13,990 and Rs 29,990 respectively.

The X series would have both flash-based and disk-based storage options, with a Linux-based operating system. The most expensive model of the series would be available at Rs 16,990.

The high-end Y series , would have multiple navigational features such as touch screen, thumboard, stylus, keyboard and touch buttons, with Windows Vista (Home) as the operating system.

Both the models have network ports, are Wi-Fi ready, have an option for a data card and are available with GUI-enabled, user friendly Linux operating system.

Weighing less than a kilogram, the MiLeap laptops have a 7-inch screen and are equipped with an Intel processor.

The company would start shipping the units on January 26 and these would be available at all HCL retail outlets and distribution centres.

“We will manufacture these PCs at our two plants in India. Initially, we will utilise our Pondicherry plant, beyond which we will use our plant in Uttarakhand,” said George Paul, associate vice-president - Marketing, HCL Infosystems.

“If the demand for the laptops rises, we are open to scaling up through a new centre,” he added.

“With a legacy of having pioneered India’s first micro-computer, the country’s first desktop PC and the first home PC, this revolutionary range of ultra portable ‘MiLeap’ laptops will herald in a new category of computing devices, opening up a wide range of new usage scenarios and application areas,” said Ajai Chowdhry, chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems.

New LCD Technology Is Invented

telescopic pixelA pixel that uses a pair of mirrors to block or transmit light could lead to displays that are faster, brighter, and more power efficient than liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Researchers at Microsoft Research who published their novel pixel design in Nature Photonics say that their design is also simpler and easier to fabricate, which should make it cheaper. Microsoft researchers believe that there is still room for improvement and they feel that their telescopic pixel innovation may lead the way to displays with much higher contrast ratios and brighter colors. According to the scientists, liquid crystals in LCDs cannot completely block light in the off state and are in many cases unusable in bright light. "LCDs transmit only 5-10% of the backlight, because of the polarizer, which blocks more than 50% of the light. Also, each color filter transmits only 30% of the remainder of the light, and there are some additional layers that decrease transmission even further," a paper published in Nature states. Telescopic pixels could solve this problem.
Each pixel is produced in two halves by standard photolithography and etch techniques. The secondary mirror is simply a lithographically patterned array of aluminum islands on glass, but making the primary mirror is a bit more complicated. First, an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode is deposited on a glass substrate and coated with polyimide. The polyimide acts as a support and electrical insulator for the primary mirror. Aluminum is then sputtered onto the polyimide and photolithography is used to pattern 20 µm diameter holes, forming a two-dimensional array that will eventually line up with the secondary mirrors.
"The last step in the primary mirror fabrication is a dry etch, which preferentially removes polyimide from under the holes in the aluminum layer, resulting in sections of aluminum that are suspended in free space. These free-hanging sections of aluminum can be deformed by applying a voltage between the metal and the ITO layer. Once assembled, each pixel is 100 µm in diameter."
Considering the fact that there are already about 2 million pixels in today’s HD displays and future displays may go more than 8 million (quad HD) or even 12 million (4K) pixels, installing mirrors in every pixels sounds complicated and expensive. However, the scientists said that such a display could not only support a "high" image resolution, but can be made "from relatively cheap materials, and is compatible with liquid crystal display production processes."
There was no information when the technology could be put into production.

108 inch LCD TV By Sharp Is World's Largest

Panasonic took the world record in Plasma TV size at the CES 2008, Sharp claims victory for the LCD TV segment with a 108 inch LCD TV.

The Sharp 108-inch LCD has Full HD 1080p resolution and measures 93.9-inches (W) by 52.9-inches (H) in size.
The largest LCD TV features Sharp’s Advanced Super View LCD Panel manufactured at Sharp’s Kameyama Plant No. 2, the first facility in the world to produce panels from eighth-generation glass substrates.
With Panasonic now showing a 150 inch Plasma that has also way more resolution than 1080p, LCD technology still seems to have a disadvantage in large size TV models.

Best Smart Phones

BlackBerry Pearl 8120:

T-Mobile isn't the first U.S. carrier to offer the Wi-Fi-equipped BlackBerry Pearl 8120 (AT&T Wireless launched its 8120 earlier this year), but its version has a decidedly consumer spin. Thanks to T-Mobile's innovative HotSpot@Home technology, this Pearl lets you make VoIP calls over Wi-Fi. The voice-over-Wi-Fi feature improves reception in locations where cell signals are weak -- and in our tests, the technology worked very well.

Other impressive features include a sharp 2.0-megapixel camera, an excellent multimedia player, and RIM's SureType predictive text-entry system for typing on a 20-key keyboard. Both voice quality and talk-time battery life were excellent: In our battery tests, the T-Mobile 8120 was still going strong after 10 hours -- the maximum length of time we test for.


Motorola Motozine ZN5:

The Motorola Motozine ZN5 is part cell phone and part digital camera. The brainchild of a partnership between Motorola and Kodak, it boasts a 5-megapixel camera that carries a bevy of impressive settings and features. Unfortunately, Motorola put so much effort into the camera component that it compromised on other aspects of the phone, such as design and 3G support.

The camera, at least, is super: It has automatic zoom, a low-light setting, three focus settings (auto, landscape and macro), five white-balance settings, panoramic and multishot modes, an automatic timer, and six shutter sounds. You can even edit your photos on the camera.

On the phone side, call quality was very good, and the battery hadn't expired after 10 hours -- the ceiling in our lab tests. The Motozine ZN5 would benefit from a 3G data connection, but you do get support for Wi-Fi and for T-Mobile's EDGE quad-band network.


Samsung Omnia:

The sophisticated Samsung Omnia has almost everything you could want in a smart phone. Its assets include an elegant design (including a chrome finish and a black matte plastic back), a beautiful 3.2-inch touch screen, very good call quality, support for Verizon's 3G network, and a good selection of software (notably, the mobile version of Microsoft's Office suite).

Still, it's not perfect. For starters, the Omnia lacks a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack and a physical QWERTY keyboard -- the latter omission exacerbated by a mediocre predictive text entry system. In addition, Samsung's TouchWiz interface performed a bit sluggishly. Despite these flaws, though, the Samsung Omnia is a high-quality handset that delivers a generous array of features.


RIM BlackBerry Curve 8320:

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 takes the consumer-friendly appeal of RIM's original BlackBerry Curve 8300 smart phone and adds the ability to make voice calls over Wi-Fi. Like the BlackBerry Pearl 8120, the Curve 8320 supports T-Mobile's innovative HotSpot@Home technology, which enables users to make calls in locations where cell signals are weak. In our tests the technology worked very well.

Other features include a thin-and-light design, a small but very usable QWERTY keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 320-by-240-resolution display. And like all BlackBerrys, the Curve 8320 is a stellar e-mail device, with support for 10 accounts.


T-Mobile G1:

At first glance, the T-Mobile G1 ($179 with a two-year service contract) looks like just another bland, HTC-manufactured phone. But spend five minutes using the G1 -- the first phone to run Google's Android operating system -- and you'll start to see why it's one of the best-designed phones you can buy.

The phone has a candy bar design, with a 3.2-inch capacitive touch-screen display and a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from beneath the display. But the real test of the hardware is how well it integrates with the Android software, and here both the phone and Android shine. Thanks to its trackball and its slide-and-glide gesture-responsive touch screen, the G1 has particularly intuitive and smooth ergonomics.

T-Mobile's Android-based G1 isn't especially sexy or eye-catching, but it does a lot of things right. Android's ease of use raises this phone above most Windows Mobile- and BlackBerry-based devices.


Apple iPhone 3G:

The Apple iPhone 3G is a classy device that continues to be a strong contender among smart phones. And while it's not a must-have upgrade from the original Apple iPhone, the iPhone 3G offers some excellent features.

The iPhone's 2.0 software supports, among other things, a multitude of free and low-cost apps available from the iPhone App Store. A speedy wireless radio loads Web pages up to three times faster than the original iPhone did. But the list of details overlooked or omitted is sizable: no removable media, no Java or Flash support in Safari, no cut-and-paste.

Talk quality, on the other hand, is vastly improved, with excellent audio quality and clarity. In our lab tests of its battery life, however, the iPhone 3G managed only 5 hours, 38 minutes of talk time on a single charge.

With its reasonable price, 3G radio, GPS, and business-friendly security features, Apple's iPhone 3G cements Apple's position as a defining force in the cell phone industry.


Apple iPhone 3G:

The Apple iPhone 3G is a classy device that continues to be a strong contender among smart phones. And while it's not a must-have upgrade from the original Apple iPhone, the iPhone 3G offers some excellent features.

The iPhone's 2.0 software supports, among other things, a multitude of free and low-cost apps available from the iPhone App Store. A speedy wireless radio loads Web pages up to three times faster than the original iPhone did. But the list of details overlooked or omitted is sizable: no removable media, no Java or Flash support in Safari, no cut-and-paste.

Talk quality, on the other hand, is vastly improved, with excellent audio quality and clarity. In our lab tests of its battery life, however, the iPhone 3G managed only 5 hours, 38 minutes of talk time on a single charge.

With its reasonable price, 3G radio, GPS, and business-friendly security features, Apple's iPhone 3G cements Apple's position as a defining force in the cell phone industry.


Apple iPhone 3G:

The Apple iPhone 3G is a classy device that continues to be a strong contender among smart phones. And while it's not a must-have upgrade from the original Apple iPhone, the iPhone 3G offers some excellent features.

The iPhone's 2.0 software supports, among other things, a multitude of free and low-cost apps available from the iPhone App Store. A speedy wireless radio loads Web pages up to three times faster than the original iPhone did. But the list of details overlooked or omitted is sizable: no removable media, no Java or Flash support in Safari, no cut-and-paste.

Talk quality, on the other hand, is vastly improved, with excellent audio quality and clarity. In our lab tests of its battery life, however, the iPhone 3G managed only 5 hours, 38 minutes of talk time on a single charge.

With its reasonable price, 3G radio, GPS, and business-friendly security features, Apple's iPhone 3G cements Apple's position as a defining force in the cell phone industry.



T-Mobile Shadow:

The updated T-Mobile Shadow incorporates a handful of feature upgrades and new colors (drab sage green gives way to white mint and black burgundy) as it supplants its year-old predecessor, the original Shadow.

The most notable new feature is support for the T-Mobile Unlimited HotSpot Calling service via the phone's built-in Wi-Fi service. Unfortunately, calls made over the cellular radio did not sound as good: We heard a distinct hissing noise.

This slider-style phone has a 20-button keypad -- with shared character keys and predictive text for typing, like Research in Motion's design for the BlackBerry Pearl 8120) -- that lies hidden beneath the 2.2-inch QVGA (320-by-240-pixel) display. Other features include a 2.0-megapixel camera and a full complement of Windows Mobile 6.1 software.

The Cellphones Which Are Most Ugliest

The Cell Phones We Love to Hate:

Some cell phones really look great, but are impossible to use. Other cell phones have cool features, but are ugly ducklings. Then there are those rare mobile monstrosities that fail at both looks and usability. Some have pricing issues as well.

Now to be fair, many cell phone makers fail when they are too ambitious, adding cutting-edge features way before their time or taking a design risk. Without these noble failures, perhaps no iPhone would ever have been possible.

The phones in our dirty dozen list all suffer from either design flaws or functionality failures, or both. While we hope you never get stuck with one of these stinkers, we also hope these phones have contributed to the greater good of the mobile world by letting handset makers learn from their mistakes.

How Ugliest Those Are!

The Siemens Xelibri Line:

The Xelibri phones from Siemens were all so odd and ugly that we decided to include the entire lineup here. Launched in 2003, the first wave of Xelibri phones was envisioned to be a consumer must-have. Sadly for Siemens, they proved be successful as a spectacle, but were criticized for not coming close to being fully functioning mobile phones.

The brand lasted only about 18 months, after which the Xelibri designs went off store shelves.

Toshiba G450:

In the category of “What on Earth is that?” is the Toshiba G450. This strange device is a combination USB broadband modem, cell phone and mobile storage unit. Talk about your digital split personalities!

Basically, this is one of those all-in-one gadgets of 2008 that proves less is more. With only 160MB of internal storage, the G450 was a tad on the skimpy side for a decent storage device. The small screen and the odd split-in-two keypad made it very hard to have any sort of decent use as a mobile phone.

Left only with its metallic color (the phones came in black, silver and pink), the Toshiba G450 proved to be used best as a wireless broadband modem, supporting 3G, HSDPA, EDGE and GPRS connections.

Hopefully, Toshiba learned that three bad implementations of otherwise useful tools into one device doesn’t always work.

Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV:

Who needs to kill time playing games on your cell when you have Virgin Mobile's Lobster 700 TV Phone? The name is inspired by its lobster-claw-like shape, but if you ask us, the Virgin phone -- with its dreary gray-and-silver color scheme -- is no catch.

Virgin does deserve some credit when it comes to features. With the unit's unlimited mobile TV, the company made the Lobster the first phone to offer mobile TV without added data costs. The only problem: Who wants a phone that resembles a crustacean?

The Lobster was first released on the Virgin Mobile network in October 2006. The phone is no longer available, and the mobile TV service was discontinued in January 2008.

Compulab Exeda:

For a phone that runs both Windows and Android, you’d think Compulab’s Exeda would look a little more modern. The boxy handset resembles a squashed Palm Treo, and its multiple navigation buttons seem downright confusing. The phone will support both GSM and CDMA when released; it will also have a touch-screen and a QWERTY keypad with a mini-trackpad. Also featured on the phone are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Ethernet port, a 2-megapixel camera and a MicroSD card slot.

You may have to wait a little bit to get your hands on this ugly duckling -- though the company's Web site says the Exeda will be available for purchase starting this month, there is no word on price or whether a wireless carrier will have the guts to offer it to its customers at a subsidized cost.


Vertu Bucheron Cobra:

The undisputable king of ugliness is the Vertu Bucheron Cobra -- with its sole standout feature being the ridiculous price tag of $310,000. Covered by a gold cobra with 439 rubies and crusted with one pear-cut diamond, one round diamond and two emerald eyes, this phone from Nokia’s deluxe division is not for mere mortals.

Only eight of these tacky monsters were ever produced, but you could get one of the 26 “more affordable” units, which were “only” $115,000, with a python instead of a cobra. If you actually shelled out the money for this grotesque piece of technology, you wouldn’t get any of the high-end specs one would expect for a (2006) phone: no camera, no Bluetooth -- just gems!

However, for the hefty price tag you do get a 24-hour remote concierge (no joke) accessible from a dedicated side-button, who will give you local insight into where to go out, eat and drink, anywhere in the world. We mortals could get this feature from our much cheaper and more-advanced mobile phones, thanks to Google Maps.

The Nikon Coolpix P90

The Nikon Coolpix P90 is the successor to Nikon’s first ever super-zoom compact camera, last year’s P80 model. The 12 megapixel P90 offers a number of significant upgrades, most notably the incredible 24x wide-angle zoom lens which provides a massive focal range of 26-624mm. Featuring Nikon’s VR (Vibration Reduction) image stabilisation system to help ensure that the majority of photos are sharp and don’t suffer from camera-shake, the Coolpix P90 also offers a 3-inch tilting LCD screen, an electronic viewfinder for image composition, a complete range of exposure controls with Auto, Program, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority and full Manual mode, and an extensive ISO range of 64-6400. A 1cm macro mode, Auto Scene, Face Priority AF, Smile Mode and Blink Warning complete the headline specifications of the £379.99 / €449.00 / $399.95 Nikon Coolpix P90.
Ease of Use

The new P90 is very similar to the previous P80 model in terms of its design, so some of our comments about that camera will be repeated here. At first glance the Nikon Coolpix P90 looks pretty much like a true digital SLR camera, with a chunky rubberised handgrip, large lens barrel, pop-up flash, rear control dial for changing the aperture and shutter speed, and an eye-level viewfinder. If you lined it up alongside an entry-level DSLR, you would be hard pushed to spot the odd camera out, which is exactly what Nikon are aiming for.

All is revealed only when you look at the back of the P90 when it is turned on and see the LCD screen showing a live preview of the scene (something which most recent DSLR cameras can admittedly now do as well), or if you hold it up to your eye and look through the electronic viewfinder. Also the 24x fixed zoom also doesn't have the zoom or focus rings that you'll find on a DSLR lens, and it obviously can't be removed from the camera as with a true SLR. In terms of overall build quality, if we're being picky, there's a little bit of flex in the all-plastic body, but it's certainly a lot better built than the competitive £379 / $399 price-tag might suggest.

The incredible 24x zoom lens obviously makes the Nikon Coolpix P90 one of the most versatile compacts in terms of focal range. The 26-624mm focal length should handle most photographic possibilities, with the only exception being ultra wide-angle shots. The P90’s lens is impressively fast, with maximum apertures of f/2.8 at 26mm and f/5 at 624mm, although don’t expect to achieve DSLR-like blurred backgrounds due to the comparatively small sensor. Nikon’s engineers have also provided a 1cm macro mode, so there really is very little that the P90 can’t cope with. There’s no need to carry round a bagful of heavy lenses as with a DSLR system, and because the lens is fixed, there’s little danger of unwanted dust getting onto the sensor. The Nikon Coolpix P90 is only surpassed by the Olympus SP-590UZ which has an even longer 26x, 26-676mm lens. Annoyingly, the lens cap has to be removed before turning on the camera, even if you only want to playback your images.

Thankfully Nikon have included their VR (Vibration Reduction) image stabilisation system to help prevent camera-shake, an essential feature on a camera like this, although annoyingly there isn't a dedicated button to turn it on and off (it's buried within the Setup main menu). In practice I found that the VR system makes a noticeable difference to the sharpness of the images, as shown in the examples on the Image Quality page, but don't expect to get sharp results every time at the longer focal lengths without the use of a suitably fast shutter speed and preferably a tripod too. You can hear a slight mechanical whirring noise when Vibration Reduction is turned on, but otherwise you don't really notice it. Thankfully leaving the anti-shake system on didn't negatively affect the battery-life, with the camera managing around 225 shots using the supplied Lithium-ion rechargeable battery.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Nikon Coolpix P90
Front Rear

In addition, there are 3 electronic functions that help to prevent camera shake. High ISO light sensitivity (3200/6400 at 3 megapixels, or 1600 at full resolution) reduces the risk of blurred images, while the Motion Detection option automatically detects and compensates for both camera and subject movement. Best Shot Selector (BSS) mode automatically selects the sharpest of up to 10 sequential shots. All of these 3 options and the Vibration Reduction system can be used at the same time if so desired.

There are two different way of composing images with the Nikon Coolpix P90. As with the rest of the super-zoom competition, the P90 has an electronic viewfinder (EVF), with a resolution of 230,000 pixels. As this camera has largely been designed to replicate a DSLR, it means that you will invariably compose your images by holding the camera up to your eye. I found that while the P90's EVF is one of the better examples around, it doesn't keep up with the eye quite as quickly or precisely as a true optical viewfinder. On the plus side, you get a lot more visual feedback via the EVF than on most optical viewfinders and you can also playback your images on it if you so wish! I still much prefer a traditional, good quality optical viewfinder though, and this would be one of the main reasons for opting for a true DSLR instead of the Nikon Coolpix P90.

The new 3 inch vari-angle LCD monitor on the back of the camera has the same resolution of 230,000 pixels as the EVF, which is on the low side for such a large screen, resulting in a slightly grainy display. It also offers five levels of brightness, an anti-reflection coating, a wide viewing angle, and can be tilted through 90 degrees upward and 45 degrees downward. This makes it possible to hold the P90 above your head or down by your waist and still be able to clearly see the scene and compose the image, although it's a shame that the LCD can't also be rotated out to the side. A button next to the electronic viewfinder switches between the EVF and LCD screen.

There aren't too many external controls and buttons (13 in total) on the Coolpix P90, reflecting the fact that this is a camera in the mould of an entry-level DSLR. There's a traditional dial on the top that lets you select the different shooting modes, which is a typical feature of SLR cameras, and it enables you to quickly change between the various modes. The Nikon Coolpix P90 offers a range of advanced modes including shutter-priority, aperture-priority and manual, perfect for the photographer who wants to take full control.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Nikon Coolpix P90
Tilting LCD Screen Side

The Movie and various Scene modes for beginners are also accessed via this dial, along with the new Scene Auto Selector and U1 / U2 modes. Scene Auto Selector automatically recognizes the scene in your picture from 6 presets (Portrait, Landscape, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Closeup and Backlight) and adjusts the camera settings accordingly, and U1 / U2 can be used to store and quickly retrieve your favourite camera settings. Another big improvement is the removal of the Setup mode, a rather annoying design flaw on the P80, which has now been replaced by a much more intuitive integrated Shooting, Playback and Set Up main menu system.

The Nikon Coolpix P90 isn't as versatile as a true DSLR camera in terms of its key specifications, with a limiting maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds and aperture range of f/2.8-8.0. There is a well-positioned control dial on the rear which makes it easy to change the aperture and shutter speed, but there’s no second dial on the hand-grip which would have made operating Manual mode much easier. The general layout of the P90 will appeal to beginners more than experienced photographers with an uncluttered approach that won’t scare anyone off, but no dedicated controls for settings like ISO speed and white balance means having to spend time scrolling through the menu system.

The P90 has an SD compatible memory card slot, allowing the use of either SD or SDHC cards, and there's also 47MB of internal memory, which can store 8 images at the highest quality level. If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the well-written and easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea. Thankfully Nikon have bucked the recent trend of not providing hard-copy manuals by supplying it in printed format.

There are a few interesting features that help the Nikon Coolpix P90 stand-out from the increasingly crowded super-zoom market. Distortion control automatically corrects barrel distortion, useful for all those 26mm shots of close-up architecture with converging verticals, but it does have to be turned on before you take a picture. D-Lighting is a long-standing Nikon technology that brightens the shadow areas of an image, and on the P90 it can now be applied to an image both before and after it has been taken.
Nikon Coolpix P90 Nikon Coolpix P90
Battery Compartment Memory Card Slot

Face-priority Autofocus can detect up to 12 faces in a scene just so long as they're looking directly at the camera, whilst In-Camera Red-Eye Fix automatically processes the picture to remove red-eye. Blink Warning alerts you when someone in the frame had their eyes closed, and the Smile Timer automatically takes the picture when a smile is detected. Finally the Optimize Image option allows you to tweak the look and feel of your images before you take them, with 6 presets and a Custom option on offer. The contrast, saturation and sharpening level of each preset can be individually adjusted too, so you should be able to find a setting that suits you.

Movie recording on the Nikon Coolpix P90 is something of a let-down in light of the recent shift to HD quality video. In contrast the P90 offers 640x480 pixel VGA movies at 30 or 15fps, or 320x240 pixels at 15fps. Even worse, you can't use the optical zoom lens during recording, with just a 2x digital zoom available, and there's similarly only an electronic vibration reduction system. Rivals like the Panasonic FZ28 and Canon PowerShot SX10 IS have much better video modes, although the P90's time-lapse movie mode, which records up to 1800 frames at intervals between 30 seconds and 60 minutes and combines them into a 640x480 movie at 30fps, is a unique feature in the super-zoom segment.

The start-up time from turning the Nikon Coolpix P90 on to being ready to take a photo is quick at less than 2 seconds (if the lens cap is already off), whilst zooming from the widest focal length to the longest takes around 4 seconds, understandable given the huge focal length on offer. Focusing is quick in good light and the camera achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations, helped by a powerful focus-assist lamp. The visibility, resolution and refresh rate of both the 3 inch LCD screen and the electronic viewfinder (EVF) are acceptable but not out-standing. Using the single shot mode, it takes less than a second to store a JPEG image, with a very brief LCD blackout between each image during which you can't take another shot.

In the Continuous shooting mode the P90 takes 1.4 frames per second at the highest image quality for up to 25 frames, which is below average for this class of camera. There is also a Multi-shot 16 mode that takes 16 photos at 7.5 frames per second and arranges them into a single image, plus an Interval timer shooting mode which takes between 30 and 600 images at periods of 30 seconds to ten minutes apart, which is useful for things like astrophotography. Nikon are also heavily pushing their new Sports Continuous scene mode, which for shoots at 15fps for up to 45 frames, but it only works only when you set the resolution to 3 megapixels or lower. New for the P90 is the option to press the shutter halfway and record the moments that take place before you press the shutter fully, although unfortunately this is only available in the rather limited Sports Continuous scene mode.

Once you have captured a photo, the Nikon Coolpix P90 has quite a good range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can instantly scroll through the images that you have taken, view thumbnails (up to 16 onscreen at the same time), zoom in and out up to 10x magnification, apply D-Lighting and Quick Retouch (improves the contrast and saturation), set the print order, view a slide show, delete, protect, rotate, hide and copy an image, plus create a smaller version and add a black border. The Display button toggles between various views, including showing detailed settings information about each picture, such as the ISO rating and aperture/shutter speed, and a brightness-based histogram.

In summary the Nikon Coolpix P90 improves on its predecessor in several key areas whilst retaining the successful mix of DSLR-like handling and compact camera features.

The Canon PowerShot A480

The Canon PowerShot A480 is the cheapest model in Canon’s extensive range of compact cameras, but don’t let that put you off what is a well-featured and capable product for the money. The A480 is 25% smaller than its predecessor, the PowerShot A470, and offers a simplified button layout, bigger 10 megapixel sensor, a 3.3x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 37-122mm, DIGIC III image processing engine and a 2.5-inch LCD screen. The icing on the proverbial cake is a 1cm Macro mode, 15 different shooting modes, plus Face Detection, Motion Detection and Automatic Red-Eye Correction technologies. Available in silver, red, blue or black for $129.99 / £129.00 / €159.00, we find out if the Canon PowerShot A480 is worth considering in these times of economic turmoil.

Ease To Use

The Canon Powershot A480 certainly won't win any design awards, with a slightly boxy design and "toy-camera" styling. While it won't impress your friends with its looks, the A480 is undeniably a well-made, quite compact digital camera, with an understated metallic blue, silver and black plastic body and excellent overall finish, impressive considering its budget price-tag. It's easily small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, yet still fits in a 3.3x optical zoom lens that offers a versatile focal length of 37-122mm. Weighing 140g without the battery or memory card fitted and measuring 3cms thick when turned off, the A480 is ideally suited to either a trouser pocket or small camera bag.

As with most Canon cameras that we've reviewed before, the Powershot A480 is one of the better models around in terms of build quality when compared to other competitive products. Every aspect has a quality feel with nothing feeling flimsy or ill-thought out. Even the tripod mount is almost centrally located, although it uses a plastic mount rather than metal. The battery compartment also houses the memory card slot, which means that the AA batteries sometimes fall out when changing the memory card as they don't have a catch to keep them in place. Still, this is a fairly minor criticism of a quality product. The A480 even has a small silver hand-grip with room for two fingers, something that more expensive A-series models have omitted, although it is made from a rather smooth and shiny material. Overall the Canon Powershot A480 is well constructed and designed with no obvious signs of corners being cut.
Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Canon PowerShot A1100 IS
Front Rear

The Canon Powershot A480 has a simple design with few external controls, just 8 in total, which reflects the fact that this is a simple camera in functionality terms which is aimed firmly at the beginner market. Located on top of the A480 are the On/Off button and Shutter button, and on the bottom are the tripod mount and battery compartment, which also houses the SD memory card slot. On the rear of the A480 is the 2.5 inch LCD screen, with a number of controls to the right, including the zoom buttons. You can directly access the various focus and flash options by clicking left and right on the navigation pad, whilst up and down are respectively used to set the ISO speed and timer options. Located underneath the navigation pad are the Mode button, which allows you to select from Auto, Program, Scene and Movie modes, and the Menu button. The various buttons feel a little plasticky but are well-made and easy to operate.

The Function/Set button in the middle of the navigation pad opens a sub-menu, which allows you to set exposure compensation, white balance, colours, metering, continuous shooting, image quality and image size. This system is inherited from the more expensive A-series models and is a good compromise given the size of the camera's LCD screen and therefore the limited space for external controls. All 8 external controls are clearly labeled using industry-standard symbols and terminology. Overall the camera body feels very well-designed and not at all cluttered. The 2.5inch LCD screen has quite a wide viewing angle from left to right, but much less so from top to bottom, for example if you hold the camera above your head. It is visible in all but the brightest of sunlit conditions, although the low pixel count of 115,000 dots is disappointing by today's standards, resulting in a rather grainy display.
Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Canon PowerShot A1100 IS
Top Side

If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the comprehensive and fairly easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea. Unfortunately Canon have chosen to cut costs and only supply the full manual as a PDF on a CD, rather than in printed format (there's just a short printed guide to the camera's basic features). Not much use if you're taking pictures and need to find out what a particular option does. Battery life is a much better proposition at around 200 shots, outperforming the more expensive A1100 and A2100 cameras.

The menu system on the Canon Powershot A480 is extremely straight-forward to use and is accessed by a dedicated button underneath the navigation pad. Quite a lot of the camera's main settings, such as white balance, exposure compensation and ISO speed, are accessed elsewhere, so the main menu system isn't actually that complicated. A row of 2 icons along the top of the LCD screen represents the Camera and Setup sub-menus, with most of the options being the kind that you set once and then forget about. The various options are easy to access and use, especially as only 6 are shown onscreen at one time.

The Canon Powershot A480 offers Auto, Program and a comprehensive range of 15 different scene modes aimed at the user who just wants to point and shoot, making this camera quite well-suited to the beginner. There's no optical anti-shake system, but there is motion detection technology which identifies camera-shake or subject movement and then boosts the ISO to a level (between ISO 80-800) it considers will compensate without hopefully introducing too much noise. This is effectively what rivals would refer to as digital anti-shake. Face Detection is also available as one of the AF Frame options, detecting up to nine faces in a scene and adjusting the focus, exposure, flash settings and white balance to produce better-looking portraits. The Super Macro scene mode is very impressive, allowing you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm from the front of lens at the 37mm focal length.
Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Canon PowerShot A1100 IS
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

The start-up time from turning the Canon Powershot A480 on to being ready to take a photo is quite quick at around 1.5 seconds, and it takes about 2 seconds to zoom from the widest focal length to the longest. Focusing is very quick in good light and the camera happily achieves focus indoors or in low-light situations, helped by a powerful focus-assist lamp. The visibility and refresh rate of the 2.5 inch LCD screen are perfectly acceptable, although the low resolution of 115,000 pixels does produce a noticeably grainy image display. It takes about 0.5 second to store an image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card - there is a very quick LCD blackout between each image. In Continuous mode the camera takes 0.8 frames per second at the highest image quality, which is very slow, although the shooting rate is maintained until your memory card is full. The flash recycle time is a rather slow 4 seconds to recharge between shots - you'd better get used to the "Charging the flash" onscreen message.

Once you have captured a photo, the Canon Powershot A480 has a pretty good range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can instantly scroll through the images that you have taken, view up to 9 thumbnails, zoom in and out up to 10x magnification, view slideshows, delete, protect, resize and rotate an image. You can also set the print order and the transfer order. The Red-eye Correction options fixes red eye after you have taken a photo (useful if you forgot to activate it before). The Info Disp. menu option offers four choices - Off, Standard, Detailed and Focus Check. Detailed displays a wealth of information about each picture, including the ISO speed, white balance, shutter speed, aperture, and also a small brightness histogram which is helpful in evaluating the exposure. Focus Check shows the image alongside a small, magnified section, useful for quickly checking the sharpness.

In summary the Canon Powershot A480 is a cheap, well-made, straight-forward compact camera that's particularly suited to the beginner, also offering some useful features found on much more expensive A-series models.

Nokia’s Ovi Store Is Offering a new application

Nokia has opened it’s own Ovi Store . The Ovi Store contains bulk amount of mobile content , free and paid applications.

Nokia has opened this Ovi store to probably compete with Apple applications store. Infact the move seems to have been motivated by Apple’s success. Apple has seen paramount success with about 1 billion applications downloaded with in first year of its launch. Nokia is aiming to capture that market, hopefully it will.



After suffering a net loss of $979.7 million in it’s first quarter (Jan- Mar) 2009, its a crucial move by Nokia and it may provide them with some respite from the slowdown. It will be interesting to see how people will react to Ovi.

Mobile users who are fond of greeting cards can now be delighted. Nokia’s Ovi Store offers a new application called Touch note for Mobile which will bring cell phone cameras to optimal use. The application enables users to transform digital photos into actual greeting cards that can be shared anywhere in the world with family and friends.

By clicking a new image or using an existing image from the phone, the user can write down a message and eventually create a greeting card. By adding the receiver’s address, this card can then be sent in the post from the mobile handset using WiFi or the mobile’s data connection.

Raam Thakrar, CEO of Touchnote remarked, “Touchnote for Mobile takes the best of both worlds, combining the ease of use, speed and personalization possible in the virtual world with a physical memento. With our service on their Nokia phones, people will be able to easily create their own personal greeting cards on the move by taking photos, adding a personal message and postal address and then simply uploading this to us for next-day distribution. Our online service has proved hugely popular and we’re delighted to launch Touchnote for Mobile which will make it even easier for people to capture and share those special – or spontaneous – moments with friends and family through personalized photo cards.”

Touchnote for Mobile application will run on all Series 60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and 2 phones including 5630 Xpress, E71, N78, N79, N81, 8GB N81, N82, N85, N95, 8GB N95 and N96.

A free download of the application is available from the Nokia Ovi Store. In addition, the greeting cards will be offered as credit bundles, with 1 card for a price of £3, 2 cards for a price of £5 or 5 cards for a price of £10.

New iphone Gold -3G

After Nokia produce the 8800 Gold Arte with 18 ct gold plated cell phnone. Now the Apple company launch their first Luxurious Gold iPhone ” the 22 ct Solid Gold iPhone 3 G Diamond”.

Goldstriker has introduced the luxury iPhone. From the very beginning the iPhone was positioned as something extraordinary and attracted long queues. Now it’s not enough to obtain an iPhone to confirm high status of its owner. The company offers an 8GB iPhone for those who are gold-mad. It is coated with 24-carat gold. The sales of the golden iPhone should start in mid October. The price for this precious handset hasn’t been unveiled yet.After Nokia produce the 8800 Gold Arte with 18 ct gold plated cell phnone. Now the Apple company launch their first Luxurious Gold iPhone ” the 22 ct Solid Gold iPhone 3 G Diamond”.

Goldstriker has introduced the luxury iPhone. From the very beginning the iPhone was positioned as something extraordinary and attracted long queues. Now it’s not enough to obtain an iPhone to confirm high status of its owner. The company offers an 8GB iPhone for those who are gold-mad. It is coated with 24-carat gold. The sales of the golden iPhone should start in mid October. The price for this precious handset hasn’t been unveiled yet.

This Solid Gold Phone uniquely designed and crafted by four proficient craftsmen including Stuart Hughes months of detailed intricate work to re-create the original body of the iphone in solid gold all of which was started and finished by hand with 53 VVS1 diamonds housed in the 22ct Apple logo. The result was outstanding even down to the precise polishing to reveal its most beautiful harmonious appearance.


This is your chance to get yourselves the worlds most expensive iPhone. Studded with diamonds and coated with gold, this is not something you would want to take while on your daily commute. But then, if you had this much money to spend on a phone, you won't be commuting anyway.

You’d think that a hand crafted special edition handset like this would at least have a few higher ended features. That’s not the case with this gold edition though. All features remain completely standard.

This Solid Gold Phone uniquely designed and crafted by four proficient craftsmen including Stuart Hughes months of detailed intricate work to re-create the original body of the iphone in solid gold all of which was started and finished by hand with 53 VVS1 diamonds housed in the 22ct Apple logo. The result was outstanding even down to the precise polishing to reveal its most beautiful harmonious appearance.


This is your chance to get yourselves the worlds most expensive iPhone. Studded with diamonds and coated with gold, this is not something you would want to take while on your daily commute. But then, if you had this much money to spend on a phone, you won't be commuting anyway.

You’d think that a hand crafted special edition handset like this would at least have a few higher ended features. That’s not the case with this gold edition though. All features remain completely standard.

Latest Alternative Energy

Solartitle Link for this Post: "How mirrors can light up the world" Guardian Unlimited Business

I have to admit that I am not up-to-date on the latest alternative energy solutions. However that said, I was surprised to find out the latest on solar technology. If this BBC article is accurate, then the solution to the energy crisis may be closer than fusion energy.

Again, I am not up on the technology here and do not know if the costs are prohibitive for these mirrors. Here is an excerpt from the article to get you started:

Most people in Britain think of solar power as a few panels on the roof of a house producing hot water or a bit of electricity. But according to two reports prepared for the German government, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa should be building vast solar farms in North Africa's deserts using a simple technology that more resembles using a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a piece of paper than any space age technology.

Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world's hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power would provide the world's entire electricity needs, with the technology also providing desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable byproduct, as well as air conditioning for nearby cities . . .

Read the rest of this article at the Guardian link at the top of this post.

Lia Timson rounds up the coolest gadgets at the lTTS

Tech heads and early adopters must have had a field day at CeBIT, Australia's largest technology trade show. It wrapped up this week, clearing the way for the latest hardware and software to be embraced by consumers and businesses. Some of the gear is already available, other devices will arrive later this year. Much of it capitalises on the trend toward mobile work.

Among the stars of the show was the ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC) - between a tablet PC and a personal digital assistant (PDA) - with full PC capabilities at half of the price of a tablet. The new $1650 EO from TabletKiosk is 50 per cent bigger than the average PDA, runs Windows XP and ditches Pocket PC applications in favour of full Windows software versions.

It's handier and lighter than a tablet or laptop and more useful than a PDA, primarily because of its 17cm touch screen. The UMPC will come with hard drives from 30GB to 160GB, and with memory up to 1GB. It is Wi-Fi and internet enabled, but does not have a mobile phone, although we are told one can be connected via Bluetooth.

Hugo Ortega, the principal of Tegatech Australia , distributors of the EO, says demand has already outstripped initial estimates, with 250 units sold in the first two hours of orders opening. It arrives in June.

"From what we've seen, there is demand for digital ink to take notes on the screen and have it transcribed to Word or other [program]," Ortega says. He says it will finally do away with paper notebooks carried around by students and note-taking professionals.

Samsung and Asus also have ultra-mobile PCs on the way soon.

Still on the portable stakes, a new credit card-size USB flash drive has arrived.

The compact Wallet Flash has a double-sided USB port that sticks out and is small enough to fit snugly with other cards in your wallet.

Gilad Grinbaum, the director of G-Innovations, distributors of the Israeli-developed device, says it is waterproof, and starts from $30 for 128MB of storage.

If you're a mobile worker in tough and secret conditions, Panasonic's Toughbook CF-51 arrives in September. It is water and shock resistant and comes in a magnesium-alloy case. The 80GB hard drive is removable for security, and fingerprint and smart-card readers are optional. The series was designed to meet US military durability requirements.

Apple quietly updates $999 MacBook, ( tosses in free iPod for students)

Apple has bumped the specs on its entry-level white MacBook with a faster Intel processor, memory architecture and more hard disk space. The update was announced quietly on the company’s online store, which now has the aforementioned laptop at the same $999 but featuring a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor, up from 2.0GHz, in addition to a 160GB hard drive and 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM; up from the 120GB hard drive and 667MHz memory on the previous model.

Apple also advertises up to 5 hours of battery life, a small increase over the previously advertised 4.5 hours. Otherwise all is the same, including the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics with 256MB RAM, built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 400 port, a Mini-DVI port, built-in iSight camera, and an 8x SuperDrive.

The new white MacBook is eligible for Apple's just-announced Back-to-School promo, which offers up to a $229 rebate good for a free 8GB iPod touch to qualifying education individuals who purchase the media player along with a qualifying Mac on the same receipt before Sep 8th.

New Zune Models Are In Market

Two new models to Zune family of MP3 players. The new Zune 120 GB player sells for $249.99, and the 16 GB model for $199.00.

Also MSFT has tweaked the device’s software to allow users to download songs from wireless hot spots, buy music heard on FM radio stations, as well as a music recommendation service, with a few new games thrown in.

Sounds like a step in the right direction and should help Zune move up from its 4% market share, although some grumps are unimpressed, see here: Zune Gets New Features That Won’t Help Sell Zunes.

Zune Takes Music Discovery to the Next Level With New Ways to Find and Access Digital Music.
High-fives to guys at Gizmodo for hunting down a pre-production model of Microsoft's mythical Zune HD. The video below is a bit on the blurry side, but there's also some sharp and exhaustive photos available from both Gizmodo and Engadget.




From the looks of things, Microsoft has really outdone itself on the hardware design. The Zune's OLED touch screen looks beautiful, and the industrial design of the casing is impressive. What a shame we have to wait until fall to see this on store shelves.