Sony PS3 2.53 upgrade late, brings full-screen Flash ...

One week after initial reports of the 2.53 update to the Sony PlayStation 3 gaming console, the software has launched and brings with it full-screen Flash video playback capabilities. Users who use their gaming console to often access YouTube or Hulu video services can now select full-screen options along with a 480p mode in Hulu that ups the quality of the content considerably, especially when using an HDTV.

Voyager docks SATA drives, features quad interface...

NewerTech has announced the quad-interface Voyager SATA I/II Hard Drive Docking Station, supporting SATA, FireWire 400/800 and USB 2.0 connections. The dock accepts any SATA-based hard drive in either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch sizes, in capacities up to 2TB. Upon inserting a drive in the dock and connecting it to a Mac or PC, the drive is detected on a user's desktop via plug-and-play. The dock also supports hot-swapping drives.

Samsung: OLEDs in notebooks by 2010...

In a speech made last week at a seminar in Tokyo, Woo Jong Lee, the Vice President of the Mobile Display Marketing Team of Samsung SDI, said the joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI will bring active matrix organic LED (OLED) displays to market in notebooks by 2010. Lee pointed out advantages of the new display technology, saying by 2010, burn-in for active-matrix OLED panels won't happen for more than 2,000 hours of use. The OLED panels will be used in notebooks first because of their demanding requirements.

Nikon GPS geo-tagging add-on now available...

Nikon has finally launched the GP-1 GPS Unit that connects to its digital SLR cameras' hotshoe and either the D90's GPS port, as well as the 10-pin remote sockets of the D3X, D3, D700, D300 and D200 and therefore allows each captured image to be geo-tagged. The GP-1 uses two LEDs to indicate connection status with satellites.

Iomega adds two new eGo portable HDDs...

Iomega on Tuesday announced two new models to its range of eGo Portable Hard Drives, including the ultra-secure Encrypt with hardware-based encryption for double data protection, and super rugged BlackBelt with Drop Guard Xtreme data protection. The eGo Encrypt uses the advanced 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to protect its 320GB of content from unauthorized access.

Canon can build SEDs after rival drops appeal...

Canon regained the option of entering into the HDTV business today following a decision by legal rival Applied Nanotech to drop an appeal of a court ruling in Canon's favor. The smaller firm now says it would likely be "futile" to further pursue a now-defeated lawsuit that had claimed Canon's license for some of its surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) technology had been abused in a deal with Toshiba. The lawsuit had forced Canon to at least temporarily shelve its plans in late 2007 but, with the case settled, opens the door to resuming the project.

NVIDIA ships 192-shader Quadro FX 4800...

NVIDIA on Tuesday switched focus to its highest-end workstation cards with the unveiling of the Quadro FX 4800. The chipset is based on the same architecture as the GeForce GTX 260 and carries 192 programmable shader cores but is tuned for 3D modeling and other pro apps: it carries a full 1.5GB of memory for higher-detailed models and textures, supports 30-bit color output and allows 32X full-scene antialiasing. The 4800 is roughly twice as fast as previous cards, the company claims.

Acer iMac rival, 10in netbook details slip...

Acer will kick off the new year with both an all-in-one desktop and a larger netbook, tips sent to TGDaily would indicate. Corroborating some previous mentions, the alleged information has Acer producing an all-in-one system that would compete against both Apple's de facto leader of the category, the iMac, as well as ASUS' new Eee Top, which brings the basic concepts of a system like the iMac to nettops with very low-power Atom processors and prices at or near $500.

Hitachi and Intel join to develop enterprise SSDs...

Intel and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) on Tuesday announced they will join forces to develop and produce enterprise-class solid-state drives with Serial Attached SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. Meant for use in servers, workstations and storage systems, the SSDs should be both reliable and fast, the companies promise. The resulting SSDs will be branded, sold and supported by Hitachi GST. They will use Intel NAND flash memory and SSD tech, however, that the chipmaker already uses in its current enterprise SSDs.

Dell opens Design Studio for notebook customization...

Dell has announced the opening of the Design Studio, a service for people buying 15- or 17-inch Studio notebooks. The company says it has commissioned over 100 works of original art from a number of different artists, such as Mike Ming, Brittany Waldner and Joseph Amedokpo. These can then be applied to the lid of a system being ordered, at a cost of $75. 52 of the images qualify under (PRODUCT) Red, which donates $20 towards controlling AIDS in Africa.

Jump Lab intros credit-card sized video player...

Digital video card maker Jump Lab on Tuesday announced the EDG video player, which is about the size of a credit card, although thicker. The credit card size is fitting, as the EDG is meant as a promotional tool for companies, handing out the device with preloaded content to push a client company's products or services. The EDG sports a 2-inch LCD color screen and a built-in speaker, allowing companies to showcase their wares via audio, video or digital photo slideshows. EDG can pre-load the content for customers before shipping or allow them to upload or change it themselves thanks to a USB port that also charges the device's built-in battery.

ASUS intros cheaper, Celeron-powered Eee Box...

In order to lower the purchase price and therefore boost sales of its already well-selling Eee Box nettop, ASUS will introduce a version with an Intel Celeron CPU instead of the current Intel Atom, according to a Tuesday report. While clock speed drops from the Atom's 1.6GHz to the Celeron's 1.2GHz, the new Eee Box will get a larger hard-drive, bumping capacity to 120GB from 80GB.

Motorola intros MOTOROKR EM35...

Motorola announced on Tuesday it will soon add the MOTOROKR EM35 handset to its range, which will have an emphasis on superior audio performance during phone calls through Motorola's now-established CrystalTalk noise reduction technology. Otherwise, the quad-band GSM slider phone sports a 2.2-inch, 240x320 resolution display and a full complement of music controls, including a scroll wheel. The handset has a built-in FM tuner, which can be listened to over the integrated dual speakers or wired 3.5mm or Bluetooth headsets or headphones.

iPhone soars to 16.6% of smartphone market...

The iPhone is now not only the second most popular smartphone in the world but has saved the smartphone industry from a decline this past summer, according to a research note by Needham analyst Charlie Wolf. Apple's handset has represented about 16.6 percent of the entire smartphone market worldwide for the quarter ended in September and is now second only to Nokia. The latter has already acknowledged struggling smartphone share but is now known to have plummeted from 63.3 percent of the market a year ago to 43.6 percent owing largely to the spike in iPhone sales triggered by its 3G version.

Nokia E71 hits Rogers with $100 price tag...

Rogers today became the first North American carrier to pick up the E71, Nokia's top fixed-QWERTY smartphone. The S60 candybar is virtually identical to the reference model and supports 3G on the Canadian provider's HSPA network as well as GPS, Wi-Fi and push data that includes Microsoft Exchange support. A 3.2-megapixel camera with flash also translates directly to the Rogers E71.

Brother intros pair of eco-friendly color printers...

Brother on Tuesday announced the release of two new laser printers, the HL-4040CDN and the MFC-9450CDN all-in-one. Both use an automatic duplex printing feature for reduced paper use that will print on both sides of a page. The HL-4040CDN directly replaces Brother's existing HL-4040CN, sharing many of its features, including 21ppm print speeds for black and white and color pages as well as maximum print quality of 2400x600dpi. What it adds is the duplex printing feature.

Nokia outs networked radio, 3G modem, more...

Simultaneous with the launch of the N97, Nokia today launched a trio of companion devices. The Home Music is Nokia's first Internet radio and provides both Ethernet and Wi-Fi to either stream online content (in unspecified formats) or else music from local computers that support UPnP sharing. It also supports USB and an aux-in jack to directly connect portable media players and other devices and also has FM radio as a traditional fallback.

BlackBerry Storm on Telus gets price, no date...

Telus today priced out its version of the BlackBerry Storm. Contradicting some early rumors, the Canadian carrier says it will offer the Storm at promo pricing for $250 CAD ($200 US) on a three-year plan, or closer to (but still above) the cost of the iPhone 3G on Rogers. The phone will also be available on shorter terms and should sell for $600 when contract-free. More details should be available shortly, the company says.

Nokia intros touchscreen N97 flagship...

Nokia today used its own Nokia World expo to establish a touchscreen phone as its new leading device and its best chance against the iPhone. The N97 has a full 3.5-inch touch LCD that shares the same Symbian S60 5th Edition platform as the 5800 XpressMusic but also hides a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that locks into a more natural typing angle like the AT&T Tilt. Accordingly, the phone is pitched as a social networking hub and includes a new home screen that optionally shows status update widgets from Facebook, MySpace and Nokia's own Ovi service among others.

WARP allows DX10 graphics without GPU hardware...

Windows 7 promises to bring with it a pair of programs that will enable users to process Direct3D 10 graphics on Direct3D 9 hardware as well as processing Direct3D 9-level graphics with no hardware at all, according to an MSDN article. The former feat is made possible with software called Direct3D 10 Level9, while the latter comes courtesy of Direct3D Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP10). The new standard is a high-speed, fully compatible software rasterizer that has already shipped in beta form in the November 2008 DirectX SDK.

Good OS intros quick-loading Cloud operating system...

Good OS, makers of the gOS Linux operating system that debuted in computers sold at Wal-Mart, on Monday announced it will soon introduce its Cloud operating system that can give users near-instant access to Google, Yahoo and Windows Live services, as well as rich client applications and multimedia content. Good OS introduced the Cloud on a GigaByte touch-screen netbook at the Netbook World Summit kicking off today in Paris, and will begin including Cloud alongside Windows XP on the PC builder's tablets early next year. When users need to do access more hardware-intensive programs, they can go from Cloud to Windows XP.

RoverPC intros Pro G7 smartphone...

Russia's RoverPC recently introduced a business-oriented smartphone, the Pro G7. The handset includes a 2.8-inch, 640x480 touchscreen complemented by a scroll wheel. Processing power comes from a 624MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM that run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional particularly smoothly. The quad-band GSM device can connect to the Internet over 3G data networks or hotspots thanks to its built-in Wi-Fi module. Built-in memory is fixed at 256MB but expandable via a microSDHC card slot. A pair of cameras, including a 3-megapixel shooter on the backside and a 0.3-megapixel cam for chatting, is built in.

SageTV back with HD Theater media extender ...

SageTV has launched a new HD extender over the weekend, called the HD Theater or HD200. The HD200 has many of the same functions of the HD100 it replaces, including the same video and audio format support. The HD200 will connect to home networks or directly to PCs preloaded with software that makes them DHCP servers via an Ethernet jack. It has a rear- and front-panel USB port for connecting external drives or USB flash drives for local streaming to users' HDTVs.

BenQ launches 10.1-inch Joybook Lite netbook ...

BenQ has released its Joybook Lite U101 netbook in its home market of Taiwan. The netbook sports a 10.1-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio screen with an LED backlight unit that provides a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and a response time of 8ms. It uses an Intel Atom CPU rated at 1.6GHz and can be ordered with either 120GB or 160GB hard disks or 4GB or 16GB solid state drives preloaded with either Linux or Windows XP Home. Graphics processing is handled by the onboard Intel 945GSE chipiset while built-in memory is rated at 512MB, upgradeable to 1GB.

Leaked Storm firmware fixes lag, battery woes...

A leak from BGR on Monday reveals that Research in Motion is already close to releasing a firmware patch for the BlackBerry Storm that will address the numerous software flaws affecting the launch edition phone. The 4.7.0.76 update dramatically improves the response time for tasks such as rotating to landscape mode, browsing photos or playing music, all of which have suffered from delays as long as several seconds for certain tasks.

Nokia Siemens already showing LTE Advanced...

Nokia Siemens Networks today said it has already run a demonstration of cellular Internet access beyond even 4G. Now called LTE Advanced, the format uses a new radio relaying technique that extends the network without requiring that the carrier build out the entire network infrastructure to a given access point. This will let users on the edge of the network get LTE's faster speeds as carriers can simply put relays in areas where coverage, not bandwidth, hurts performance.

Clearwire WiMAX named "Clear," ready for LTE...

Clearwire today said its recently completed deal with Sprint for WiMAX will use the "Clear" name on its own side of the network rather than use Sprint's Xohm naming scheme. Worth about $14.5 billion, the agreement will effectively replace Xohm on Clearwire's portion of the network rather than see the two provide a united naming scheme.

Sony VAIO netbook exposed in FCC leak...

Sony's long-anticipated netbook has been revealed through filings with the FCC, a report from Engadget suggests. Two versions, known as the PCG-1P1L and PCG-1P2L, have been through wireless testing with the government body; the PCG prefix is known to represent Sony's VAIO portable line. More crucially, the computers match typical netbook dimensions, at approximately 9.5 inches long by 4.5 inches wide. This should make them smaller than many rival systems.

iRiver Wave phone launches ahead of schedule ...

Korea's ReignCom, which makes iRiver-branded personal media players, has released its first cellphone in its home market ahead of the promised March 2009 launch. The iRiver Wave handset sports a 3-inch, 480x272 touchscreen that is capable of recognizing handwriting and will connect to the Internet via its built-in Wi-Fi connection or over wireless data networks, provided by exclusive carrier KT. The handset will also support VoIP calling to reduce airtime costs. Initially, the Wave will be offered in just ten iRiver stores in Korea.

Mac web share hits 8.9% while Firefox tops 20%...

New research data today from Net Applications has revealed both Apple and Mozilla bringing Microsoft's share of the web to historic lows for November. The Mac's usage share of the more than 40,000 websites tracked by the Internet firm has now reached 8.87 percent for the past month; the increase is a major jump from the previous record of 8.23 percent in September and is enough to have pushed Microsoft's Windows below 90 percent usage online for the first time in years.

Nokia working on OLED, NFC-ready tablet?...

Nokia could be developing a new, much larger portable device that sits above its Internet Tablets in features, a new research note by UBS analyst Maynard Um says. Where the existing N810 has just a 4.1-inch display, investigations by Um point to the existence of either a notebook or tablet with a 9- or 10-inch display and features that have never existed on an Nseries tablet, such as a touchpad for input, HDMI out, a secondary OLED screen and Near Field Communication (NFC) for very close-range wireless links.

MEDION intros three fingerprint-enabled navigators...

MEDION on Monday announced it is introducing three new personal navigation devices that use a fingerprint scanner for security and theft-deterrence. MEDION enlisted the help of AuthenTec to integrate its fingerprint sensors into the devices, which include the GoPal P5235, GoPal P5435 and GoPal X5535. Users can save up to five fingerprints using the small AES1510 fingerprint sensor used in millions of cellphones, which then allows them to log in and use each device. The feature ensures only authorized users can access the three devices, which are useless if stolen.

Nokia cancels unnamed stylish 5MP handset ...

Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker, is allegedly declining to bring an unnamed handset (pictured) to market due to low perceived demand. The stylish handset is similar in appearance to the Finnish phone maker's Prism line of phones, while its functions are nearly identical to the recently introduced but homelier looking 6260 slider. Like the 6260, the axed S40-based handset includes a 480x320 display, a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a GPS receiver and an integrated Wi-Fi module. The handset was reportedly due to cost about $300, which could be part of the reason most markets did not want to purchase the handset.

Verizon already drops Omnia to iPhone pricing...

Verizon on Monday has already dropped the price on the Samsung Omnia less than a week after its introduction. Originally priced at $250 with a contract and a $70 rebate, the device will now cost $200 with the same discount and now almost matches the pricing of both the BlackBerry Storm as well as the iPhone 3G, which has an inferior two-megapixel camera but shares a similar 8GB of built-in storage, 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Nokia readying major touch phone tomorrow?...

Nokia is planning to kick off its Nokia World 2008 expo with the launch of a new phone that could be its first high-end touchscreen device, Fast Company's Robert Scoble says. A Nokia executive tells the online reporter that a phone announcement scheduled for the show has been kept unusually well hidden and that outsiders have "no clue" as to what will be unveiled. Even within the company, only "a handful of people" have seen the finished product, the official insists.

Vista SP2 due in April?...

Microsoft's next and potentially last major update to Windows Vista is arriving by mid-spring, a reported source for TechARP claims. The historically accurate site is told that Vista Service Pack 2 should be sufficiently complete to reach release candidate status by February and to be finished by April, when it would be sent to manufacturing for DVD versions and prepared as a download for existing users.

Nokia slips out 2608 fashion phone...

Nokia in a low-key launch today rolled out the 2608. The clamshell targets the budget world but also claims a certain amount of fashion consciousness with a striped outer shell, deliberately angular edges and colors that include fuchsia as well as black and a two-tone black-on-white. It relies on an FM radio for music and touts features such as a built-in flashlight as well as basic support for web browsing and sending business information over SMS.

Nikon launches 24.5MP D3X pro DSLR...

Nikon today launched its long-anticipated D3X as its new flagship digital SLR. As slipped by the company ahead of time, the new pro camera roughly doubles the sensor density to 24.5 megapixels and produces a native 6048x4032 picture -- enough to rival a medium-format camera in a handheld format, the company claims. The camera also adds 16-bit color processing for further image accuracy improvements over the 14-bit D3.