MSI's Wind U123 netbook gets unboxed

We already caught MSI's upgraded Wind U120 (which goes by U123, if you must know) sitting pretty at CeBIT last month, but the crazy cats over at PortableMonkey have gone and got a model fresh in the box. Needless to say, this retail edition (which is hitting Japanese shelves any moment now) didn't stay packaged up for long, but we are happy to say that we've been cordially invited to feast our eyes upon the unboxing process. Right out of the gate, we have to share the disappointment in the lack of a rear panel for easily accessing the internal RAM and HDD, but at least the Atom N280 is a (minor) step above what we've grown accustomed to. Check the read link for all the pictorial delight.

Gigabyte T1028 netbook / tablet gets the hands-on treatment

We've already seen Gigabyte's T1028 netbook / tablet up close, and even gotten a glimpse of the user manual, but the folks at UMPC Portal have now finally come though with a proper hands-on of the device, which looks to confirm that it does indeed deliver the goods, if not quite justify its $600+ price tag. What's more, as welcome as that swiveling touchscreen is, it looks like it's the little touches that really push this one over the edge, including an all too often omitted ExpressCard slot, built-in 3G, 802.11n WiFi, some actually accessible upgrade options, and an apparently faster than usual 2.5-inch hard drive. Hit up the link below for the complete rundown (including some benchmarks) and, of course, plenty of pics.

Apple releases iPod Shuffle VoiceOver Kit 1.0.1 upgrade

You know what really gets on our nerves? When we're listening to Van der Graaf Generator (look it up!) on our newfangled iPod Shuffle and it pronounces the band's name wrong. Seriously, this is an important function. Without it working flawlessly, how are we going to know the names of the tracks we purchased on the iTunes store and placed on the device ourselves? Thankfully, someone at Apple has heard our prayers, and as of today the VoiceOver Kit 1.0.1 is available via Mac OS X software update (we're assuming that it'll pop up on the company's website at some point). The 17MB download corrects pronunciations for several artist names, as well as correcting a few "minor bugs." What bugs? Apple hasn't said. They also haven't said which names will now be pronounced correctly in that cold, robotic voice, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that Klaatu is among them. Remember Klaatu? They were pretty sweet.

Wearable blood pressure monitor: portable and fashionable

We've seen some wild ideas when it comes to blood pressure -- including, yes, underpants -- but this newest device, a small monitor attached to the hand, which can be worn 24 hours a day for continuous monitoring, strikes us as having the potential for extreme usefulness. The monitor works differently than regular old blood pressure cuff, using a method called pulse wave velocity, which measures the pulse at two points along an artery. Built by a team of engineers at MIT, this prototype could boast a lot of advantages over monitors, including its portability, its ability to see long-term patterns of rises and falls in pressure, and of course -- you wouldn't have to be at the doctor's office to use it -- which is bound to take a little stress out of the equation. The device is moving toward commercial production and Harry Asada, leader of the MIT team, sees the possibility for monitoring conditions such as sleep apnea in the future as well.

iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style headphones urban-hipster review

Look at that will you, just look at it. That's a pair of $50 iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style (heavy on style, light on the DJ) headphones we've been testing for the last week. As you can tell by the colors, graphics, faux-chrome accents, and over-the-top bulk, these headphones are meant to communicate a statement just as tersely as they'll strum your cochlear nerve. If you don't care about posturing cool, if you're the type who walks the sidewalk wearing a Bluetooth headset in staunch oblivion to ridicule, well mister these aren't the headphones for you. For the rest, click through for our expert urban-hipster review honed by years of knee-jerked responses to trends, ironic facial hair, and a taste for thrift-store clothing. With cred like that, how could we be wrong?

Gallery: iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style headphones hipster review

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Build quality and comfort

The materials here are, how should we say, good enough. The 1.2-meter cable with 3.5-mm plug is just the right length to reach the audio player tucked inside your skinny front pocket or shoulder bag. Too short if you're a DJ, which you're not, so get over it. The chrome is fake, the fit is a bit rigid, and the padding on the headband is almost non-existent and could be a bit more supple around the otherwise plush earphones. The DJ-inspired hinges offer variable (and therefore suspect) resistance -- the left speaker is harder to rotate than the right on our review unit. Not that we'd expect much better from this class of "lifestyle" headphones. Besides, who cares about long term build quality with these? You'll likely replace them to match your new Vespa jacket come autumn or they'll be stolen or lost long before you manage to cause them any real harm.

While these iFrogz aren't the most comfy headphones we've tried (they're close), we've made it through marathon stretches of 3+ hours (twice) without suffering any serious injury to our fragile egos or form. They'll certainly get you back and forth to the cubicle farm each day in stylish comfort and fold up, nice and compact when you arrive.

Hint: You can deftly slide a single can behind the ear -- the ultimate in DJ poser moves -- to engage in what people with social skills call "verbal communication."

Sound

The sound is decent, about exactly what we'd expect for this market segment and price. To these ears, the iFrogz 50-mm driver brings a fuller sound with deeper (but not by much surprisingly) bass than the standard buds shipping with Apple's gear. They're not even close to the head rattling thump of Skullcandy's bass amplified Skullcrushers ($70) but definitely superior to the relative limp sound produced by Skullcandy's popular $50 Hesh-series of comparable urban headphones. A decent showing for iFrogz since Skullcandy is king of this market based on our casual observances of the beautifully unaware. Just don't kid yourself into thinking that you're buying these EarPollution cans based on the quality of the listening experience alone.

Wrap up

Besides looking the part, the iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style headphones also serve the purpose of adding a soundtrack to your life, dampening the city hum, and thwarting requests for change from vagrants with dirty outstretched palms. Oh, and chicks dig 'em. Lets wrap it up with this; we've had more ladies and dudes stop to ask us about these headphones in one week than seven years of wearing white earbuds. They're like a puppy without all the high-pitched yowling and mess.

Samsung sneaks Q2 PMP onto the scene with 50 hours of battery life

Looking for a PMP that can hang with you for every last minute of the long weekend, eh? Just in case MSI's MS-5552 is a bit too aged for your tastes, Samsung has quietly introduced a newcomer (the Q2, but not that Q2) which promises 50 solid hours of audio playback on a single charge. Specs wise, we're looking at a 2.4-inch QVGA display, built-in microphone, FM radio module, 8GB / 16GB of flash storage and little else. As for file support, this little bugger will play nice with MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WMV and MPEG-4, though the lack of WiFi and Bluetooth keeps us from really, truly falling in love. There's no word on a price just yet, but we get the feeling we'll have to snoop around in due time for that as well.

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, preview on March 17th

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It's going down March 17th. Apparently, we'll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we'll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple's calling this an "advance preview of what we're building," so we're not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won't have too many months to wait after that for the real deal.

Samsung's HMX-R10 HD camcorder aims for April release

Samsung's devilishly cute HMX-R10 camcorder stole the hearts of many at CES, but ever since, we've been aimlessly wandering about Sammy's website attempting to locate clues on pricing and availability. Thankfully, it seems some answers are starting to surface, and we've only got a month or so before we discover whether these whispers were laced in truth. Reportedly, this pocket-friendly high-def camcorder will be hitting UK streets next month, with early estimates pegging the price at $550. We're told that Americans may have to wait until sometime this summer before they too can indulge, but at least the Britons will be able to test it out beforehand and give you a little heart-to-heart buying advice.

Microsoft: Windows 7 No 'Magic Bullet' for Enterprises

Microsoft warned enterprise customers this week that the migration path from XP to Windows 7 won't be any easier than it is to Vista, and offered recommendations for how companies can move from older versions of Windows to one of its newer client OSes.

"Moving from XP to Windows 7 is not a magic bullet," said Gavriella Schuster, a senior director of Windows product management, in an interview Tuesday. "You have the same level of application compatibility from XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7."

Enterprise customers who would have had to replace applications in a move from XP to Vista will still have the same task when they move to Windows 7, she said. However, if customers have already made the leap to Vista, it will be easier to move applications to Windows 7 because it's on essentially the same code base, she said.

In a company blog post attributed to Schuster, Microsoft made recommendations to business customers to help them decide whether they should upgrade to Vista now or wait for Windows 7, which is expected later this year or, at the latest, early next year.

Many companies chose to stick with Windows XP instead of upgrading to Vista, causing Microsoft to keep new PCs with XP pre-installed in the market longer than originally planned. Once Windows 7 is released, which most expect before the end of the year, Microsoft will have two OSes built on essentially the same code base in the market at the same time, and Schuster said customers have asked the vendor how to choose between them.

To no one's surprise, Microsoft recommends that business customers still running XP or older versions of the OS upgrade as soon as possible, citing security and remote-management capabilities in both Vista and Windows 7 that weren't baked into the original XP release.

XP also was released before the majority of PCs in enterprises were laptops, and both Vista and Windows 7 have features that allow IT managers to better manage and secure laptops and mobile devices for the type of mobile workforce found in many enterprises today, Schuster said.

"When you think about Windows XP in that context -- it came out in 2001, when less than 10 percent of devices were laptops," she said. "There wasn't ubiquitous broadband. There weren't the levels of compliance and regulatory requirements. There weren't data protections."

What may be surprising in Microsoft's message, however, is that the company doesn't care which of its newer OSes customers move to -- Windows Vista or Windows 7 -- as long as they do what's best for their individual IT environments.

"What strikes me is that Microsoft is being fairly pragmatic about what the options are for customers," said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC. "Microsoft seems to recognize the reality that customers aren't going to do what Microsoft tells them to do. They're going to do what's right for them."

Indeed, Schuster said Microsoft is "agnostic" about which OS customers upgrade to. She said Microsoft is just trying to set expectations for any upgrade that may be planned or in progress, so that customers aren't surprised by problems or complexities they may encounter.

Customers should examine their application and hardware environments closely to see which would be the best fit for them. "It really depends on the environment," Schuster said.

She did have some advice for customers depending on what OS they are currently running, and whether or not they have begun migrating to Vista already.

For customers still running Windows 2000, "they clearly need to move fast and need to move to Windows Vista," she said. Extended support for Windows 2000 ends in April 2010, and it will take a company 12 to 18 months to complete the upgrade. "They can't wait for Windows 7," Schuster said.

For companies that are halfway through a migration to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, they should continue that migration as planned, she said. However, if a company has begun piloting Vista and is not yet halfway through the migration process, moving to Vista Service Pack 2 -- which should be generally available in April -- is a better option.

Some customers have already said they plan to wait for Windows 7, and Microsoft is not recommending they change that course.

When Windows 7 is available, it won't be the first time Microsoft will have two OSes on the same code base in the business market at the same time. Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP Pro were built on the same code base as well, and many business customers on Windows 98 waited for XP instead of moving to 2000, Gillen noted.

Windows 7 is essentially the second release of Vista, an incremental update that will include some usability features but not "cause a rift for Windows Vista applications" during a migration, he said.

It will essentially be about as painful for customers to move from XP to Vista as it will be to move from XP to Windows 7, Gillen said, corroborating Schuster's warning. He agreed, too, that a migration from Vista to Windows 7 will be far easier.

However, Gillen said that Microsoft's argument that customers should pick one or the other is more in its own self-interest than an actual necessity for enterprise customers.

"[Microsoft] is trying to use every lever they have to try to encourage customers to move," he said. "But customers are going to make their own decisions based on [their own needs]." Some customers may find they can stay on XP indefinitely as long as they can continue to patch and support their applications on it. Microsoft ends extended support for XP in April 2014.

One company that has already migrated to Windows Vista, and plans to upgrade to Windows 7 as well, is computer reseller Heartland Technology Solutions in Harlan, Iowa. Heartland is a Microsoft partner that participated in the Vista beta-testing program.

Arlin Sorensen, CEO and president of Heartland, said that Vista increased worker productivity, particularly because of its the improved desktop search functionality.

Heartland serviced about 1,900 individual small-business customers last year, each with its own set of unique IT needs, he said. However, one of the most common problems customers needed help with was finding documents or files they couldn't locate.

"This is where the ability to search more quickly and efficiently for files immensely improved productivity," Sorensen said.

"The whole Vista experience has helped in simple but very productive ways," he said. "There's a significant amount of time people waste looking for documents."

FriendConnect, the Google service that lets Web publishers add social networking features to their Web sites, has gained a new feature that aggregates basic social media functions in a toolbar that can be added to Web pages.

The "social bar," as Google calls it, puts functions like logging in, editing profiles and settings, activity streams display and discussion wall postings into a strip that can be placed at the top or bottom of Web pages, Google said Wednesday. People can expand the view of each function by clicking on it.

FriendConnect is Google's offering for data portability, which allows people to control the information and content they enter at social networking sites and social media-sharing sections of Web sites, so that they don't have to manually update multiple accounts.

For example, one idea of data portability calls for people to have an online dashboard of their social information and content -- friends lists, photos, video clips, blog items -- that would be independent from any individual site. From there, people can control what information and content they post where, avoiding data lock-in.

Although data portability has gained popularity among users and Internet companies, it has proven technically complicated to implement as well as controversial, because it brings up questions about users' data privacy and protection.

In a prime example of the complexities of bringing broad data portability into reality, Facebook blocked FriendConnect's access to its site in May, saying the Google service violated its terms of service by redistributing the data of Facebook members "in a way users might not expect or understand."

Garmin-Asus announces Windows Mobile-based nuvifone M20

We'd been secretly holding out hope that Garmin-Asus would pull an Android piece out of its pocket in time for MWC next week, but it's looking pretty unlikely with the announcement of the M20. The second model in the nuvifone series following the G60, the new piece runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and features a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, quadband EDGE / triband HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, WiFi, Bluetooth, and -- naturally -- Garmin-provided satellite navigation. You'll also find support for real-time traffic, weather, movie times, and other tidbits of information you're probably interested in when you're navigating, either 4 or 8GB of onboard storage, and a service Garmin is calling Ciao! -- basically a friend-finder along the lines of Google's Latitude. Look for pricing and availability to be announced in the first half of the year.

Sony Ericsson exec dismisses rumors of a schism

Despite some nasty financial losses and a rumored smackdown of a PSP phone proposal, the Sony Ericsson joint venture is apparently as strong as ever. That's what Senior Marketing Manager Richard Dorman is saying, denying any talks of a split. He also noted that both companies had been losing money in their respective handset division prior to the assimilation, and the partnership is "full steam ahead." That's great, now how about showing us some more Hikaru, hm?

Samsung's Android phones delayed, won't show up at MWC

Looks like Samsung will be one of the few companies not to show off an Android device at next week's Mobile World Congress. Head of marketing for mobile device division Younghee Lee told The Guardian that none of their Google-powered handsets would be making it out to the show. As for that June launch on Sprint and T-Mobile we heard about back in December, the new plan is to launch in the second half of this year. Hey, at least we've got the i8910 to look forward to.

mophie's Juice Pack Air: world's thinnest iPhone 3G battery / case

mophie's iPhone 3G Juice Pack received universal praise, and while the additional baggage bothered some, most users just appreciated being able to utilize 3G for more than 47 seconds without needing an AC outlet. Not one to rest on its laurels, the company has today introduced the new and improved version: Juice Pack Air. Contrary to popular belief, this actually isn't intended for Apple's MacBook Air (now there's an idea to capitalize on, mophie), but instead, it's the planet's thinnest external iPhone 3G battery / case. The device houses a rechargeable 1,200mAh battery that "virtually doubles the amount of time you have to rock, talk, surf, and send messages." Eager consumers can pre-order theirs now in black, purple or white, while patient souls can mellow out until they hit mophie's website and Apple stores everywhere this Spring. Full release is after the jump.
Mophie Unveils Juice Pack Air - The World's Thinnest 'Works with iPhone' External Battery/Protective Case

Ultra-thin, light-weight juice pack air virtually doubles iPhone 3G battery life and offers the full protection of a hard-shell case in a low-profile design

Los Angeles, CA – February 11th, 2009 – mStation | mophie announces juice pack air, the world's thinnest apple-certified external battery for iPhone 3G. The rechargeable 1200 mAH lithium polymer battery housed in an ultra-thin case virtually doubles the amount of time you have to rock, talk, surf, and send. Juice pack air will be available to consumers world-wide this spring at Apple stores and mophie.com for $79.95 in Black, White, and Purple. http://www.mophie.com/products/juice-pack-air

Juice pack air features an innovative "standby mode" that allows users to control when they want to take advantage of additional battery support versus simply using it as a protective case. The integrated 4 LED charge status indicates how much juice is remaining in the external battery. Unique pass-through design allows users to simultaneously charge their juice pack air and sync their iPhone 3G with iTunes with the included USB cable.

"The juice pack air is a simple yet elegant battery boosting solution for iPhone 3G power users" says Ross Howe, Sales and Product Development Director for mStation | mophie. "Advanced features like standby mode and ultra-thin design make juice pack air the ideal option for both extended battery support and protection."

Additional Battery Time Provided by juice pack air

Standby Time:	Up to 270 hours
Talk Time:	Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 9 hours (2G)
Internet Use:	Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 5.4 Hours (Wi-Fi)
Audio Playback:	Up to 20 hours
Video Playback:	Up to 6 hours

The mophie juice pack air will be available at Apple stores and mophie.com this spring with an MSRP of $79.95. For more information, please visit www.mophie.com

About mStation | mophie
mStation is consistently praised for its ability to create quality products with cool Industrial Design. mStation recently acquired mophie, an iPod accessory company with a wide array of award-winning cases. Their products can be found in Apple Stores and major retailers worldwide.

Jakks Pacific unveils EyeClops mini projector for the little ones

We see a ton of tiny little projectors these days around here. This one, by toymaker Jakks Pacific, is still pretty eye-catching, anyway. Expected to be on hand next week at the Toy Industry Association's annual International Toy Fair in New York, the EyeClops is obviously designed with children in mind, with a build similar to adult picos. We don't have full specs on this one yet, but it's capable of projecting a 70-inch images via its LED, and can be hooked up to all your child's favorite gadgets -- DVD players, digital cameras, and gaming consoles. The real kicker here is that the EyeClops is expected to sell for under $100 -- much less than most projectors for oldies.

Samsung licenses Sandbridge's reconfigurable baseband tech

Reconfigurable baseband processors aren't a new concept by any stretch of the imagination, but so far, the idea that we might move from CDMA to HSPA to LTE to WiMAX on our handsets with little more than some creative firmware flashing is -- sadly -- science fiction. Samsung's taking that dream a little closer to reality this week by revealing that it's licensing Sandbridge Technologies' software radio tech for integration in future devices; odds are, they're looking at this as a power play for reducing manufacturing expenses and not as a too-easy way for users to switch network technologies on the go, but as the old adage goes, "where there's a hacker, there's a way." Once this is implemented, the only remaining hurdle will be configurability of the actual frequencies in use -- it's dictated as much by the antenna as it is by the baseband itself, so we'll have to wait for tiny antenna robots before that sitch works itself out.

i-mate's rumored "Hummer" rugged handset set to appear as 810-F?

It's been some time since we've seen anything new come out of i-mate, and while we glimpsed the 810-F as a rumor ages ago, we're enthusiastic that mayhaps i-mate's got a few tricks left up its sleeve. The i-mate 810-F apparently runs Windows Mobile 6.1, a 624MHz CPU, HSDPA, QVGA display, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a big 'ol QWERTY pad, all tacked together by a rubberized housing and some hex screws. Other notable features include a 2 megapixel camera for rugged shots, and 2.2GB of internal storage space. Warranty? It's lifelong, if it breaks they replace it. Not a bad outing i-mate and judging by the date on the pic above, I expect we'll be seeing you in Barcelona.

Sony's BRAVIA KDL-46V5100 LCD HDTV goes on sale

Sony told us not to expect its newest BRAVIA V-, S-, and L-series HDTVs until this Spring, but apparently the 46-inch KDL-46V5100 is ready to roll. Available for ordering right now on the company's B2B website, the 52.6 pound set checks in with a 1080p panel, 120Hz Motionflow technology to remove judder, integrated stereo speakers, the BRAVIA Engine 2 and an NTSC / ATSC / ClearQAM TV tuner. Get yours on the way now for $1,899.99, and keep a close eye for availability on all of its siblings -- surely they aren't too far from the shipping dock, either.

Update: Whoa, Charlie! Sony pinged us to say that someone pulled the trigger a tad early, and that this set won't actually ship until early March. Hate to burst your bubble!

Gigabyte to debut GSmart S1200 WinMo phone and more at MWC

Gigabyte is understandably saving most of the details for its official announcement at Mobile World Congress, but the company has let out word that it'll be introducing three new series of phones at the big show, which it says fall under the Multimedia, Business, and Style categories. The former of those will apparently include the MS820, which made a brief appearance last year, as well as an all new model with "higher specifications." Gigabyte is even less specific about its new business offering, with it only saying that it'll be "something very different to what they have before," but it does thankfully have quite a bit to say about the GSmart S1200, which fills out the company's style quotient. As you can see above, this one's a touchscreen phone, and runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 with a new Gigabyte-developed interface atop it dubbed Smart Zone. At 0.43-inches, the phone is also reasonably slim, and it doesn't look to be too underpowered with a 528MHz Qualcomm 7200A processor under the hood. More details as we get 'em.

Mitsubishi temporarily suspends production of LaserVue HDTVs

We had heard that certain Mitsubishi representatives had been telling Diamond dealers that production had been suspended on the outfit's flagship LaserVue HDTV, and sure enough, the story is true. We have confirmed with Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America that the outfit has "temporarily suspended production of LaserVue televisions due to a problem with manufacturing equipment used to produce LaserVue TVs." We're also informed that "Mitsubishi Electric engineers are taking the necessary action to ensure that the company resumes production as quickly as possible, while maintaining the highest standards for product quality and reliability." So far as we know, this isn't a sign of sudden discontinuation, as Mitsu has affirmed that it's "expecting production to resume in early 2009." We'll update with more as we get it in.

Update: We asked a few followup questions, and we did find that Mitsu isn't anticipating any supply issues, which indicates the problem may be short lived (or at least it hopes so). As for an official comment on what went wrong? "LaserVue production was suspended due to a manufacturing equipment issue." That's all we've got