The World’s First Hybrid Netbook Is Awesome

When it comes to the word hybrid it’s usually cars that come to mind, but this time it’s a kickass new netbook from MSI. Why it’s a hybrid is because it can operate both conventional HDD and the more modern SSD simultaneously. The U115 Hybrid functions primarily on the SSD for speed, stability and shock-proof, while the HDD can be utilized to stash your gigabytes of videos.

Specification:
Intel Atom Processor Z530 （1.60GHz）
Intel Poulsbo US15W Chipset
up to 2GB DDR2 533MHz RAM
10″ Widescreen LCD (1024×600 resolution)
16GB SSD and 160GB HDD
2.0MP Webcam
4 in 1 Card Reader
802.11b/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth
Windows XP Home Operating System

3-in-1 Wireless keyboard / controller / remote control for PS3

We've seen some goofy looking PS3 accessories -- including Sony's recent Wireless Keypad for the PS3 -- but this one looks like a little bit of crazy mixed with a dab of mediocrity. A product of unknown make, the creatively dubbed "PS3 3-in-1 Wireless keyboard controller remote" certainly looks like it could function in a mind-blowingly awesome fashion. It is available for US$28.52.

ASUS offers up branded keyboard / mouse combo, remote for Eee Box

If your Eee Box experience is lacking something that you can't quite put your finger on, we're 85.32% sure we know what'll fill that void. According to Eee PC News, ASUS is gearing up to ship an Eee-branded wireless keyboard / mouse combo in both black and white motifs, and if that's still not enough Eee to cure your fever, the multi-function remote should handle those media center duties with ease. There's no mention of a price or release date, so we suppose you should assume these are completely fictional until proven otherwise.

Dell Adamo rumored to boast DisplayPort, Blu-ray drive

Adamo’s marketing pitch is clearly a design that improves on what Apple has achieved with the Macbook Air. Apple’s stunning notebook is only 0.76” thick and weighs about 3.0 lbs. Recent posts on Digitimes indicated that Dell may be able to slightly reduce the thickness of the lid that contains the screen. Apparently, the company has been ordering ultra-thin (and expensive) 3.5 mm (0.14”) panels from Samsung, which could drop the thickness of the Macbook Air’s lid (4.1 mm or 0.16”).

There is virtually no information on the standard hardware equipment of the Adamo Thirteen, besides the fact that it will have a 13” screen and come with a 45 watt power adapter that suggests that Dell will offer Intel’s regular 45 nm Core 2 Duo processors and not use low voltage CPUs. Browsing through Google’s Dell site cache also reveals that the Adamo will be available with a 8x slot-load DVD burner, an optional 2x Blu-ray/DVD-RW drive (with SATA interface) as well as a Displayport to connect to a LCD. The option list includes Displayport-to-VGA, Displayport-to-HDMI and Displayport-to-DVI converters.

Sources noted that Dell will be offering solid state disk drives (SSDs) throughout the product line. The capacity is said to be (well beyond 100 GB), which suggests that Dell will be offering either 128 GB, Intel’s 160 GB or possibly Samsung’s 256 GB drive, which went into mass-production recently. Strangely enough, Dell has not listed SSDs for the Adamo, but included (external) 2.5” 5400 rpm hard drives with 250 GB and 500 GB capacity, as well as an 8 GB USB memory key.

The notebook is generally expected to be unveiled at CES in early January, while actual delivery of the device is put into the February time frame. Digitimes’ sources noted that the Adamo will cost up to $3000, which mat sound a bit high since analysts such as Endpoint’s Roger Kay previously said that Dell may be able to offer the Adamo for $400 less than a comparable Macbook Air. “Comparable”, of course is the keyword here. Apple does not offer Blu-ray, the Adamo will feature SSDs with more capacity and we expect wireless broadband to be a standard feature in the device. Add everything up and $3000 may not be cheap, but could turn into a bargain when put next to the Macbook Air.A basic Adamo could start in the $1500 range.

World’s First Slim Blu-ray Combo External Drive

The NU EBC100 is claimed as the first slim Blu-ray combo external drive in the world. The drive features a 8X DVD writer and a 2X Blu-ray ROM. You can easily install this Blu-ray drive. You just need to plug it to any USB 2.0 interface and you’re good to go. The NU EBC100 is smart enough to adjust the writing speed automatically to minimize disc error when using low quality media during high-speed recording.

MSI Wind desktop now available in Japan, slightly less barebones than before

Remember that thrifty MSI Wind Desktop that came out in August? A slightly meatier version -- which looks like the one that was supposed to be out in September -- is now available in Japan. The CD100-JP Nettop still lacks a hard drive, RAM and operating system, but it's now equipped with a slot-loading drive and a snazzy white finish in addition to that 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 and 11.8 x 9.5 x 2.6-inch case. It's currently selling for 26,000 yen, or about $290.

Scientists research sex chip to stimulate pleasure in the brain

Would you implant a chip into your head to augment your sex drive? That's exactly what scientists are currently looking into: a device that sends tiny shocks to the part of your brain that is said to control the feelings of pleasure you get from both sex and eating. The neural stimulation is said to provoke physical stimulation, and according to Oxford Neurosurgery professor Tipu Aziz, such a device was successfully tried a few years ago, but removed when the subject complained about her constantly supercharged sex drive. He predicts future versions of the technology will let you turn the chip on and off when needed. Sure, sure -- but can you overclock it?

Nokia Gold Arte 8800 says "gold is not enough"

You probably weren't expecting yet another luxury model of Nokia's long-lived 8800 fashionphone, right? Well, the company continues to prove its dedication to the crazily expensive slider with its newest model, the Gold Arte. This precious puppy is dipped in 18-carat gold and has white leather on the front and back -- just in case the gold wasn't enough to prove its owners are living on the edge of obnoxious ostentation. Other than its looks, you can expect the newest 8800 to be pretty much identical to its Carbon Arte predecessor, with 3G, 4GB of flash memory, an OLED display and a 3.2 megapixel camera. We don't know exactly when it's slated for release in Europe, but we expect it to carry a pretty "impressive" price tag.

Garmin planning Android-powered handsets for late 2009

Some interesting news is coming out of the Garmin camp this fine morning, including word that the company somehow managed to buck all manner of economic trends and boost its holiday sales by 50 percent over 2007. (Apparently peoples' 401(k) valuations weren't the only things getting lost this year.) The company also confirmed that its Nuvifone, which is getting a bit long in the tooth despite being unavailable, is indeed still coming -- but won't be hitting Taiwan at least until Q2 of next year, and there's no indication of whether we'll be seeing it a Little earlier 'round these parts. Finally, and most intriguingly, is confirmation of what the company plans to do first with that freshly laminated Open Handset Alliance membership card: multiple new Android phones are said to be in the works, due for release sometime in the second half of 2009. No further information is available, and while the smart thing might be for Garmin to focus on getting its first handset out the door before drafting a successor, we think any excuse for a new costume on our favorite green Android is a good one.

Sony to release new handheld sometime in the future

According to Eurogamer, sources close to Sony say that sometime in the future, a new PlayStation Portable will be released. While there's been no official word, the game site is reporting that there could be an update to the current PSP (which might be called the PSP 4000), and in the not-too-distant future (2010 or 2011), Sony will introduce a completely new model, confusingly dubbed the "PSP2." David Reeves, SCEE president has recently been quoted as making vague, suspicious statements such as "there are currently no plans for a PSP2," and "I go to Tokyo quite a lot and no one has referred to it - I think they have their hands full at the moment." Nice try Reeves, but If you keep up these kinds of thinly veiled allusions to a new system, we suspect it's only a matter of years till this cat's out of the bag.

AMD's Phenom goes on a budget with the Athlon X2 7000 series

Hot on the heels of word that the 45nm Phenom II chip is up for grabs, AMD has announced that its 65nm predecessor has been relegated to budget duty. The new Phenom-based Athlon X2 7000 chips are now available, replacing the aged X2 6000 and delivering an affordable HyperTransport bus boost to 3.6GHz, 2MB of L3 cache, but still just 1MB on L2. It's a dual-core processor, unlike the higher-spec Phenoms, and consumes 95-watts. That's a handy drop from the X2 6000's 125-watt rating, but isn't exactly frugal compared to some of AMD's other Phenom offerings. The 2.7GHz X2 7750 Black Edition is available now in bulk for just under $80, and appears to be retailing for around $90. Meanwhile a paler, cheaper, 2.5GHz version is shipping just for OEMs -- but that shouldn't stop you home builders from finding one if you're really inclined.

New SageTV HD Theater Full HD Capable Networked Media Player

The pioneer in networked digital entertainment, DVR and home media center technologies, SageTV has debuted its new Full HD capable networked media player, named as SageTV HD Theater, which allows users to enjoy virtually any home video, music or photo from their home network in Full HD on their HDTV, offering online video from YouTube and many other popular online video services, aiming to deliver the best overall digital entertainment experience.

According to the company, “The SageTV HD Theater can also work as a whole home HDTV DVR solution by running SageTV Media Center software on any PC, Mac or Linux computer with a HDTV Tuner on the home network. With SageTV Media Center the SageTV HD Theater works as a high performance HD Media Extender with providing a rich, animated whole home DVR and Media Center experience with full season recording. All the video, music and photos as well as TV Tuners and Internet video from the SageTV Media Center system are available when SageTV HD Theater is used as a HD Media Extender.

Features of SageTV HD Theater:
- Search for any content including music, photo and video from USB, home network or Internet
- Works with flash or hard disk drive USB storage as well as UPnP, Windows and Mac compatible NAS or

network storage
- Access current weather and forecast with a touch of a remote button
- Works with virtually any non-DRM video, music or photo format

The new SageTV HD Theater that really easy to setup is now available for about $200.

AMD quietly launches first K10 dual-core CPUs

Sunnyvale (CA) – Two new CPUs showed up in AMD’s processor price lists this morning – the Athlon X2 7750 in the public version as well as the 7550 model for OEMs. The new chips went largely unnoticed and even AMD did not make a big deal out of them. But I believe that these two processors deserve a note since they are the first dual-core chips based on AMD’s 65 nm K10 or “Stars” architecture, which is the foundation for its Phenom X4 and X3 CPUs as well.

A generic “dual-core” CPU does not generate big headlines these days anymore. And if it is based on a “last generation” manufacturing process, there may be even less interest in it. Perhaps this is the reason that AMD decided against a formal announcement of its new CPUs and simply added them to its product portfolio this morning.

The new CPUs are part of the Athlon X2 product family, but carry a new 7000-series number sequence. The 7750 and 7550 (available to OEMs only) depart from the old 65 nm (K8) Brisbane core and use the “Kuma” core, which is based on the K10 or Stars architecture (the K10 name does not officially exist, according to AMD.) Built in 65 nm, the chips are released more than half a year after their initially planned release and offer clock speeds of 2.5 and 2.7 GHz. Like the preceding Brisbane core, Kuma comes with 128 KB L1 data cache, 128 KB L1 instruction cache and 1 MB L2 cache. However, Kuma adds 2 MB L3 cache – Brisbane CPUs do not integrate L3 cache.

Other changes include the support of DDR2-1066 memory as well as SSE4A instructions. Benchmarks on hardware websites such as X-bit Labs indicate that the Kuma core may have, depending on the application, a 5-25% performance advantage over a Brisbane processor running at the same clock speed. However, this performance gain comes at a price: While Brisbane chips are rated at a thermal design power of 65 and 89 watts, the new Kuma chips come with a 95 watts spec. That rating translates into real world power increases, according to X-bit labs: The site’s Athlon X2 6000 system ran at 125 watts when idle and at 188 watts under load. The 7750 version consumed 153 watts when idle and 218 watts under load.

The Athlon X2 7750 is currently listed with a tray-price of $79, just above the $76 the company charges for its Athlon X2 6000. With a quick look over to Intel, the same $79 would not be enough to buy you a Core 2 Duo-class processor. Intel currently sells the Pentium Dual-Core E2220 (2.4 GHz, 65 nm) for $74 and the E5200 (2.5 GHz, 45 nm) for $84. The cheapest Core 2 Duo, the E7200, lists for $113.

Google Street View now on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile

Mountain View (CA) – Google’ Street View is adding support for more major mobile platforms: Following its debut on Android debut as well as versions for the iPhone and BlackBerry, Google is now offering the feature for Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices.

Google also said it is in the process of expanding the list of international cities where Street View images are available.Google initially launched Street View as a feature exclusive to the first Android-powered G1 handset from T-Mobile. It was unique to the platform back then, serving as a system-seller feature of the Android G1. However, the company soon allowed Apple to add Street Level to the updated Maps iPhone application that came as part of 2.2 firmware, in addition to a Google Maps client for Blackberry.

The latest update of the Google Maps client extends support to the Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile platforms. The company suggests owners of these devices download an updated Maps client (v2.3) at google.com/gmm to enable Street View on their phones."Say you're going to meet with friends at an unfamiliar restaurant. Now you can search for it in Google Maps for mobile, click on 'Street View', and see what the place and surrounding area look like," the company stated in a blog post. "Similarly, say you need to get to a shop in a part of town you don't know. Find it using your phone, get directions to it, and see how to get there with full-screen panorama images of every step along the way."Google will give Street View more global exposure by adding street-level views of several new international cities in France, Italy, Spain and Australia as Nokia- and Windows Mobile-handsets are particularly popular in these countries.

Besides Street View support, the updated version of Google Maps for the two platforms also adds other new features like walking and driving directions. Also new is the capability to receive transit alerts from certain public transportation authorities and the publication of a variety of reviews from other users on the go.

Documents suggest Microsoft knew Xbox 360 could damage discs all along

Microsoft long ago fessed up that the Xbox 360 was capable of scratching discs, and it even offered a (somewhat limited) exchange program for damaged games, but some recently unsealed documents from an ongoing lawsuit now suggest that the company was well aware of the issue for about as long as the console has been around. According to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft first discovered the problem in September or October of 2005, and it even went so far as to send a "team of engineers" to stores across the US to determine the best course of action. Apparently, they came up with three options, two of which proved to be impractical, and one of which (installing small bumpers in each and every console) proved to be too expensive, leading Microsoft to offer the disc exchange instead. What's more, the documents apparently also revealed that some Microsoft employees thought that the warning labels on the console were insufficient, and that the company has received complaints about the problem from more than 55,000 customers as of April 30th of this year. No word on any movement just yet in the lawsuits themselves just yet but one of them, filed back in July of 2007, is seeking class-action status on behalf of everyone that's bought an Xbox 360.

Asus Nettop Eee B203 PC Getting a Faster, Cheaper CPU

We only just learned about the HDMI upgrade to the Asus Eee Box line with the B204 & B206 models, but there's another update coming in the B203: A Celeron instead of Atom.

Liliputing is reporting via an Italian Eee PC site that the Intel C220 Celeron upgrade is pretty much the only difference between the B203 and the original Eee Box B202. The chip replaces the Intel Atom chip that currently dominates the line.

The rest is pretty standard stuff. It runs Windows XP (Asus "recommends" Vista, cha-ching!), and comes with an 80, 120 or 160GB hard drive. There's also 4 USB ports, a flash card reader, DVI out, Ethernet port and wifi. Pricing wasn't available, but Liliputing expects it to check in slightly lower than the Atom version.

Sony Walkman grows up with Wi-Fi and touchscreen

With the annual CES electronics show just four weeks away, it's time for the rumour mill to get started in earnest, with one of the first 'leaks' being a revamped Sony Walkman that looks a lot like an iPod touch.

The new player will sport a 3" OLED touchscreen

that is bound to draw comparisons with the Apple device, particularly as it will also have a strong emphasis on video playback with a YouTube icon prominent on the home screen.

Direct music sales
Throw in Wi-Fi and a choice of 16GB or 32GB models and it's easy to see what Sony is getting at here. New online features include web browsing, music search and the ability to download podcasts over the air. Finally, the killer app that Sony has long needed to make the Walkman a contender again has arrived in the form of direct music sales to the device through Amazon.

There's no word on pricing or a release date, but we'd be surprised if it was much under £200 and later than springtime.

Playstation Home open beta now live !

Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 have been dominating game console headlines lately and there was not really a whole lot positive to say about the Playstation 3 lately. Sony’s game console desperately needs new reasons why people should choose the platform – and the Home social gaming and entertainment network and may be one of them. After a long delay, Home went live earlier today as an Open Beta.

PS3 owners can access Home by clicking the Home icon in the PlayStation Network column of the XMB. Sony recommends that users should attach a USB keyboard or Bluetooth headset before they enter Home and they can start meeting other PS3 gamers right away. That said, Home is still in a beta phase and Sony stressed that while previous testers already invested “a tremendous amount of participation, input, care, and passion”, the current Home is just the beginning. “Home will grow, change, and evolve very quickly – and it is all based on your feedback.” The company told its users. And Home may have to grow quickly indeed, given the community and features Microsoft has developed already.

Sony describes Home as a 3D social gaming community that allows PS3 users to meet, chat, plan, and launch games together. "You can create your own custom avatar, decorate your personal apartment, play mini-games, shop, watch videos, attend special events, and much more," the company said. Players can meet at the Central Plaza and travel in a virtual world that includes bowling alleys, arcades, virtual public areas and “private” homes. Similar to Microsoft's overhauled Xbox Live service unveiled on November 19, gamers can communicate via voice or IM and team up for online gameplay.

Addonics' USB-to-NAS adapter: all your external HDDs, now network accessible

Forget about expensive NAS device. Addonics has just introduced a marvelous new piece of kit, the simple-yet-useful Network Attached Storage Adapter. This little box enables any USB hard drive to be placed onto a network for network access, essentially turning your stale USB HDDs into NAS drives. The device supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols, which allows for cross-platform access of shared data for most versions of OS X, Windows and Linux. For users not directly connected over the LAN, the adapter provides FTP access for up to eight simultaneous users anywhere in the world, and it can even be used as "a print server or as a BitTorrent file downloading appliance." Best of all? It's available right now for only $55, sound too good isnt it, I want one now!

MSI plots touchscreen Wind, 13.3-inch U300 ultraportable for CES

After hints aplenty, MSI has gotten super serious about what's going to go down in January at CES 2009. As expected, there'll be a Wind U110, U115 and redesigned U120 (pictured). Those will land in the States in January, and will co-exist with the U100. MSI's also prepping a 13.3-inch U300, which won't be part of the Wind line, but will be billed as an "affordable," thin and light ultraportable -- people will be "shocked," says MSI's US Sales Director Andy Tung. Shocked. MSI also promised to bring a touchscreen Wind to the show, but has no promises on the release front.

Sony Ericsson, HTC say new Android-powered handsets due next year

According to two reports, Sony Ericsson and HTC are both semi-confirming Android handsets for 2009. An SE spokesman by the name of Garfield Brusewitz was quoted as saying that the company would introduce higher-end models of the Google-powered devices to start with, then supplement those handsets with cheaper versions aimed at a broader market. In another article, HTC says that it will launch one "or more" Android phones in the new year, aiming to have them on shelves by Summer. This hardly comes as a surprise from either of these companies, as HTC has been on-board since day one of the OHA and, you know, already has an Android handset out, and Sony Ericsson's announcement of participation was naturally going to lead to some actual hardware. Now it's just a matter of getting these out the door, and... sneak peaks at CES, anyone?

New Wii drives breaking modchips, hearts, legs

If you want to keep on keepin' on with your funky mods and hacks, don't get a new Wii. Apparently, fresh shipments of Nintendo's cash cow are stocked with an optical drive configuration that somehow breaks current modchips -- thus rendering your freedom from gaming oppression null and void. It seems that the drives sport a new fusion of older components (including the controller chip) which contribute to the disruption in your regularly scheduled program of l33t hackery. Luckily for you, you're too hardcore to spring for a new system -- so you're safe from this glaring affront to your personal freedom... right?

LinkStation Mini SSD flavored !

Believe it or not, there still some companies in the world which believe that nowadays people has money to just trough out of the windows, like say, Buffalo and its latest 884€ (106000 Yen) StatioMini NAS where the two 2.5” SATA HDDs has been replaced by 2 SSDs (120GB) offering, depending of your raid Setting up to 240GB of space. You may argue that this is a lot of money for so few, and you will be right, but as you know silence is gold and while your average NAS as an average noise level of 19.dB, our new MiniStation SSD is purely noiseless with only 2.3db…

LinkStation Mini SSD : LS-WSS240GL/R1 W40xH82xD135mm

PlayStation Home launching globally tomorrow, December 11th

We knew it was coming this month, now we have the day: tomorrow. Yup, PlayStation Home will launch globally on December 11th. The 3D virtual on-line community is like Second Life, only with the risk of rootkit. Hot. All kidding aside, the new service gives PS3 owners a customizable place to chat (voice or text) and play games with other PlayStation Home users through personalized avatars. Just like real life except without acne and all your social shortcomings. Home will be available to download and "experience basic features" for free -- some services (like creating a "club") will require cash though, so be prepared

Beijing to be World Largest Wi-Fi City in 2011

Beijing may become the world's largest city to be blanketed in free wi-fi by 2011. Officials, happy with an Olympics test run, are now rolling it out to everywhere. Watch for censor ganking though.

Novatel's Portable MiFi does 3G WiFi in a Beautiful Package

Today, Novatel introduced a portable 3G hotspot router, the sleek and minimalistic MiFi, which transforms 3G internet access into a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever it goes to multiple users.

In addition to being a portable internet hotspot, the MiFi also allows VPN support, custom landing pages, automatic email-syncing and remote management. The internal battery will supposedly last for four hours of use, or 40 hours on standby with one charge. Novatel says the MiFi will be available the first quarter of 2009 through retail outlets and carrier services, for roughly $200 as reported by Engadget.

Open Handset Alliance signs up 14 more Android-lovers, including Sony Ericsson, ASUS and Garmin

The Open Handset Alliance just made a major score with 14 more members: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc. (previously rumored), Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone. That's not quite everyone that matters, but pretty darn close. Were we to climb not-very-far onto the limb of conjecture, we might posit that Garmin might be looking at Andoid for its much-delayed nuvifone, or some sort of followup, while the emergence of an ASUS "Eee Phone" or a XPERIA X1 running Android (Sony Ericsson may very well be the biggest win here, consumer-wise) would be welcome moves from those manufacturers. We'd say at this point the holdouts are starting to stick out more than the actually OHA members, which spells good things for the industry no matter what specific hardware is the fruit of this relationship... but seriously guys, build us some more Android phones.

SCEA confirms: PlayStation Home launch coming this month in US

We know you aren't going to believe it 'til you see it, but SCEA has confirmed to our brethren at Joystiq that PlayStation Home will hit the US market before 2009 dawns. In the words of PS Home director Jack Buser: "We've been saying it will launch by the end of calendar year 2008, and that's getting very, very close." He continued by affirming that "launch is imminent," but stopped short of giving us a date to mark down in our calenders.

Bluetooth SIG promises high-speed specification next summer, likely BT 3.0

After putting those nasty Bluetooth 2.2 rumors to bed, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has directly informed Wireless Week that it will indeed look to come out with a "high-speed specification next summer." Of course, we've been waiting on such a thing for, like, ever now, but Executive Director Mike Foley has asserted that when the spec arrives in summer 2009 it will likely be sitting at 3.0. What's 3.0 promising? Faster overall transmission speeds and quicker connections, namely. So, what's the over / under on the Bluetooth SIG actually delivering?

Mysterious new Nokia touchscreen interface and handset unveiled

In a presentation given at Nokia's Capital Markets Day 2008 last week the company quietly displayed a previously unseen handset, complete with an edge-to-edge touchscreen and subtle, attractive stylings. Perhaps even more interesting is that the screen is sporting an all-new heretofore unseen S60 touchscreen interface, giving hope to folks let down by S60 5th Edition's minor changes to the formula. Unfortunately, Nokia hasn't made any other reference to this phone or the revised OS, and could have very well trotted them out as a proof of concept of the company's direction -- particularly likely due to the fact that they were trying hard to butter up investors at the meeting. Still, the "Tube" started off as little more than a presentation (complete with hints at interface improvements that have yet to emerge), and look how that ended up.

Bluetooth 2.2 spec could be released as early as mid-2009

According to CNET, it looks like Bluetooth 2.2 will see the light of day sometime in mid-2009. Designed to work in tandem with other wireless technologies already present in many devices, the spec will be referred to either as Bluetooth 10x (working in conjunction with WiFi) and Bluetooth 100x (working with UWB). Something like this should good news for manufacturers of PMPs and handsets, expanding the range of possibilities to include Bluetooth media streaming and much larger file transfers. On the other hand, perhaps the new spec will finally herald the age of the Bluetooth viruses the doomsayers have been hollerin' about. No matter what happens, it shouldn't be too long before we find out.

Apple In-Ear Headphones hands-on, ears-on, and impressions

We've been wanting to get some extended face time with Apple's In-Ear Headphones (yes, that's the product name) ever since we spied them at the company's Fall "Let's Rock" event. Of course, they didn't exactly hit the scene on time, and we were starting to get suspicious. Tack on the rumor they wouldn't be compatible with iPhones, and we felt downright indignant. Imagine our surprise, then, at the discovery that they not only sound really, really good (warm lows and crisp highs, a distinct lack of that modern, pushy mid-range), but they do work with the iPhone (the 3G we've got here, at least). Regular playback is a charm, and we had no problem making and receiving calls with the buds and attached mic -- though strangely the remote doesn't seem operable on the phone, thus deflating our excitement ever-so-slightly. Regardless, the sound quality is pretty boss for the price (besting other, more expensive models we've checked out), and they're a huge step up from Apple's previous offerings. Check out some looks at the beauties in the gallery below.Update: It looks like the remote can be used for answering and ending calls on the iPhone, as well as pausing, playing, and advancing tracks. No volume control though -- very odd!

ASUS P565 Released, Claims To Be Fastest In Class

ASUS has recently introduced the ASUS P565, a business PDA phone that boasts an 800 MHz processor—the fastest in the world at the time of this announcement. Featuring ASUS’ latest touch-driven user interface—Glide—the stylish, leather-accented P565 delivers graphics and system performance beyond anything else on the market at present, posting Vsbenchmark scores almost two times that of competing products in its class. This enables the P565 to glide through resource-intensive tasks effortlessly and to handle heavy multitasking exceptionally well—making it ideal for businesspeople who demand uncompromising performance and maximum speed from their productivity tools. Rounding off its impressive feature set is a 2.8” touchscreen running at a high resolution of 480 x 640 pixels, delivering an unprecedented degree of clarity that does wonders for both personal photographs and spreadsheets.
Gliding to New Heights of Productivity
The ASUS P565 is geared toward the business community. The coupling of an 800 MHz processor and Glide—an innovative touch-responsive user interface exclusive to select ASUS PDA phones—makes for a powerful, productivity-boosting combination. The fast processor renders the P565 particularly amenable to multitasking, while Glide enables users to switch between tasks rapidly with their fingertips. The P565 also comes with a potent suite of business-oriented features and software, including push mail, business card recognition and Microsoft Office Mobile. Other useful applications such as Anytime Launcher and Multi-Home enable users to view their calendars, the times of local and visiting cities, weather reports, online news and much more—all with an intuitive tap, slide or flick of their fingers.

Unprecedented Clarity with High-resolution Touchscreen
The ASUS P565 is equipped with a 2.8” VGA (480 by 640 pixels) high-resolution touchscreen that delivers unprecedented clarity and brilliance. Photographs look crisper and more true-to-life, while minute details in business documents, such as the individual cells in spreadsheets, are reproduced much more clearly—reducing eye fatigue over periods of prolonged use.
Air of Bespoke Exclusivity
The ASUS P565 is designed to leave a deep and lasting impression. Its battery lid is lined with black synthetic leather, commanding instant respect and attention. The leather contrasts nicely with the P565’s modern, high-gloss face, and lends the phone a natural tactility and evocative appeal that elevates it far above other phones on the market.

About Glide
Glide is a revolutionary touch-responsive user interface that enables users to perform a variety of navigational actions—such as selecting, zooming, scrolling and flipping—easily through simple flicks of their fingers. Incorporated into Glide are also applications that enable users to access a wide range of functions such as looking up the latest news, checking the weather forecast, viewing photo slideshows and listening to music within a few finger taps. These applications, dubbed Multi-Home, Anytime Launcher, EziPhoto, and EziMusic, give the expression "the world at your fingertips" a whole new meaning. For more information on Glide, visit http://event.asus.com/mobile/glide/.

Specifications
Networks : HSDPA 3.6Mbps, UMTS 2100, EDGE/GPRS/GSM 900/1800/1900, Class 10
Operating System : Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.1™ Professional
Color : Black
Form factor : Bar type
Dimensions : 102 mm x 60.5 mm x 16 mm
Weight : 120 g (with battery)
Standby Time : 250-300 hrs with 3G and 200-250 hrs with 2G**
Talk Time : 3 hrs with 3G and 4 hrs with 2G**
Display : 2.8” TFT, 65K-color Touchscreen, VGA (480 x 640 pixels)
Processor : Marvell PXA930 800 MHz
Memory : 256 MB Flash + 128 MB DDR SDRAM
Expansion Slot : MicroSD with SDHC support
Connectivity : WLAN 802.11b+g , USB v1.1(FS), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
WAP Browser : HTTP / WAP 1.2.1/2.0
Messaging : SMS / MMS / Email / MSN / Push Email
Battery : 1300 mAh Li-Ion
GPS : SiRF Star III with InstantFix
Business Applications : PIM Word (editor), Excel (editor), PowerPoint (viewer), Windows® Live, MSN, Voice Commander* and Push Email (Exchange Server).
Other Features : Anytime Launcher, ASUS Today, EziMusic, EziPhoto, Business Card Recognition and PDF viewer*.
Multimedia and Entertainment :Camera 3 Megapixel Auto Focus (Main), 300 K Pixel for Video Telephony (Sub)
Video Record : MPEG4@QVGA 24 fps / H.263@QCIF 24 fps
Playback : MPEG4@QVGA 30 fps / H.263@QCIF 30 fpsAudio/Video Streaming
Picture Format : JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Audio Format : MP3, WMA, 3GP, AAC, and AAC+
Ringtone : MP3 / MIDI
JAVA : J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

Mystery port on 'Rock Band 2' drum kit gets even more mysteriouser

You know the supposed Guitar Hero: World Tour keyboard that never materialized? If you were really looking forward to that, get ready to have your hopes dashed on another mystery instrument that will probably also never come to be. According to Harmonix, that extra port on the back of the updated drum kit -- which previously was said to be for a second kicker -- is actually for something that's totally not a second kicker. What exactly will fill that port, though, the company isn't saying. Speculation is rife about another nebulous keyboard peripheral, but if you ask us our money's on a high hat, or maybe that other fundamental aspect of the drumming experience yet to be captured in the silly plastic instrument game genre: the triangle.

Scosche vomits out reviveLITE "cordless" iPhone charger / nightlight combo

Look, we know haphazardly stapling an iPod dock onto nearly any product can cause almost-paralyzing fits of hyperbole amongst marketing personnel, but Scosche's description of its sad little reviveLITE nightlight charger as "cordless" because it plugs directly into the wall might take the cake. Oh, wait -- you know what actually takes the cake? It's priced at a delightfully insulting $40. Yeah, we'll stick with the monster under the bed, guys. At least it respects us.

Kogan intros world's second Android phone: Agora / Agora Pro

We'll be totally honest -- we pretty much blew Ruslan Kogan off when he proclaimed that he was about to push out a $199 Android phone by the year's end. And truthfully, the guy still hasn't totally delivered, but you won't find us kvetching about more Googlephones, regardless of MSRP. The Agora (AU$299; US$192) and Agora Pro (AU$399; US$256) are available for pre-order as we speak, though neither one is scheduled to ship out until the end of January. For those unfamiliar with Kogan, it's an online-only enterprise that has wares built specifically to its dimensions in China, and so far as we can tell, it's as legit as they come. As for specs, the Agora packs a 2.5-inch touchscreen (320 x 240), 3G networking, a backlit QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot; the Pro adds in GPS, 2-megapixel camera and WiFi. So, with unsubsidized prices this low, are you willing to take a chance?

SP2 for Vista slated for release in April

Release candidate very possible for February

Microsoft can say what they want, but consumers as well as enterprise customers have not flocked to Vista even with the first Service Pack already having been released. News that a second service pack for Vista is coming was not a real surprise, but the fact that it might go Gold as soon as April with a release candidate likely in February is a bit surprising.Unlike the Service Pack 1 for Vista which primarily focused on performance enhancements and bug fixes, Service Pack 2 for Vista will add some new features, along with all of the usual things found in service packs from Microsoft.Sources are suggesting that additional Blu-ray support along with the new Wi-Fi support called “Windows Connect Now” will be two of the major additions along with Windows Search 4.0 and new Bluetooth 2.1 support. Some additional new features are planned for the Service Pack 2 for Vista release, but sources indicate those will be on a somewhat smaller scale focused on enhancements and revisions to things that are already found in Vista and were new at the time of release.The news that Microsoft is pushing hard to make a release candidate available for Service Pack 2 in February is not really that much of a surprise, as Microsoft may view it as necessary in order to help salvage some of the capitol that Microsoft lost with consumers and IT professionals with the release of Vista. Microsoft may view a quick release of Service Pack 2 as necessary to help build credibility and momentum prior to the release of Windows 7, which many are banking on as the necessary replacement for Windows XP.

Buffalo unveils 16GB and 32GB SSDs for Inspiron Mini 9

It looks like the kids at Buffalo are hard at work making sure that all of you netbook-lovin' Engadget readers aren't stuck with the minimal storage that has plagued early adopters of the solid state drive. In addition to their recent Eee PC-compatible SSDs, the company is now offering 16GB and 32GB drives for Dell's Inspiron Mini 9. Due out sometime this month, the 16GB should set you back ¥5,300 ($57), or you can shell out ¥9,400 ($101) for the 32GB.

ASUS Eee Box B204 / B206 grows an HDMI port, handles high-def material

Man, talk about maturing early. ASUS' Eee Box just hit the shelves here in America a few months back, and now the company is already pushing out a pair of successors. Both the Eee Box B204 and B206 retain the same overall design and processor (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270), but you will find a 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3400 GPU to complement the 1GB of RAM, 160GB SATA II hard drive, multicard reader, 802.11n WiFi, Windows XP Home, 10GB of online Eee Storage, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, DVI connector and the freshly added HDMI socket. The B204 trumps the B206 (weird, right?) with the inclusion of Bluetooth and a built-in battery that acts as a UPS in case of power failure. We've already seen just how decently the B202 could handle 1080p playback; it's just that much easier with a dedicated HDMI port. As is par for the course with ASUS, there's nary a mention of price / availability.

Pioneer shows off 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, affirms compatibility with current players

When Pioneer first introduced its unicorn-like 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, we weren't sure if the thing would make it beyond the drawing board, let alone be compatible with existing BD decks. Over at the IT Month Fair in Taipei, Pioneer showed up to showcase the capacious disc, and better still, a DigiTimes report asserts that these are indeed compatible with Blu-ray readers already on the market. Currently, the 400GB disc is slated to hit mass production sometime between now and 2010, while rewritable versions won't hit until 2010 to 2012. Not like it really matters though -- a 1TB disc is on track for 2013, and you know you'll be waiting for the latest and greatest.

Apple's in-ear headphones finally, really available now

Remember those new in-ear headphones we heard about from Mr. Jobs himself back in September? Well, he promised them for October (see the giant slide behind him), and here we are, in December, and they've finally appeared. Each earbud's got its own woofer and tweeter, so be prepared for Master of Puppets to sound better than ever. They've got a built-in remote and mic -- yet curiously aren't compatible with the iPhone -- and they come with three sets of interchangeable silicone tips for small, medium, and large ears. Are you rocked to the very core of your existence yet? Well, the $79 price tag should finish the job.

New Xbox Arcade units to pack 256MB internal storage

Now that the New Xbox Experience has been mostly successfull pushed out, with its avatars, new interface, and updated marketplace, Arcade owners with less than 128MB of storage have been left out in the cold -- and the big M's "solution" of free memory cards wasn't exactly ideal. That's changing, however -- a MS spokesperson confirmed to Xbox360 Fanboy that new Arcade units will contain 256MB of internal memory. So if you've been looking to pick up a new 360 Arcade, feel free to get your Netflix HD on as soon as every last cord is connected -- if you're a subscriber, that is.

All i want for Christmas is a Nokia N97

Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world's most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5" touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an 'always open' window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia's flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology - including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds - for people to create a personal Internet and share their 'social location.'

"From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. "Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet".

Feature list and more pictures after the jump.

Sensing your 'So-Lo'
The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of 'social location'. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos.

Widescreen - Internet and entertainment
The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The phone is expected to begin shipping early 2009.