The new ultra low voltage Eden processors which were announced by VIA at a press conference on August 16th will have 21mm X 21mm packaging, will run at 500MHz and consume only 1W power.  According to Digitimes Several IPC (industrial PC) makers including Advantech have already adopted the new Eden ULV processor and products are expected to begin appearing on the market later this month, noted sources at VIA. Lanner, another Taiwan-based IPC maker, pointed out that it has already designed the CPU into several network appliances and embedded boards.

The Aurvana X-Fi headphone is Creative’s first X-Fi technology based headphone. According to Creative X-Fi Crystalizer intelligently analyzes sound and restores the highs and lows lost during MP3 or other file compression. The noise canceling technology in the headphone reduces the ambient noise by 20dB. The headphones have 40mm Neodymium drivers and a microphone concealed in the grilles for noise cancellation. The price and date of release is not known at this point.

On an eKey Biometric Entry System you can assign three different functions to three different fingers like scan first finger to control door lock, use second finger to arm/disarm security and the third finger to send a distress signal. This entry system will be shown at CEDIA and the system includes adjustable camera and intercom. It is still not known how much it would cost you to secure your house using this system.

If you are like me and don’t like the headset supplied with the iPhone and wanted to use Shure or Etymotic or Ultimate Ears earphones with your iPhone. This is the first good accessory that converts your earphones into a stereo mobile headset for iPhone. The inline VoicePort microphone delivers clear voice regardless of the background noise. The control button enables you to send and end calls. You can also use the button to play, pause and forward songs just like Apple’s headset.  You can buy the adapter online on Apple Store for $39.95.

On June 29th Jim Lynch had given ten reasons why you shouldn’t buy an iPhone. I didn’t agree with many of his reasons like tiny storage (show me a phone which has 8GB storage), Stylish and stupid (iPod or Macbook both are great products), Stuck with AT&T (using Cingular for 3 years), No keyboard (after using iPhone I can say touchscreen is good) and Crapfari instead of Firefox (I love Firefox but I just need a good fast browser on phone that works I am not going to edit my website on iPhone, actually you can do that also on iPhone). The most valid reason he gave was “I will get to the Apple store ahead of you.”
Today Jim wrote in his column ten reasons you should buy an iPhone. He writes, “ My iPhone works great as a phone and messaging system, I’ve actually gotten rid of my Vonage land line and now I use my iPhone as my only phone.” The reasons that he gives are:
    1)    Amazing video
    2)    Email and Visual Voicemail
    3)    Music and Audiobooks
    4)    Edge
    5)    Google Maps
    6)    Power Management
    7)    Multi-Touch
    8)    Safari
    9)    Pictures and iPhoto
    10)     Navigation

Well I agree with each and every reason he has given. One reason that I would like to add is storage, no phone has 8GB storage you get maximum 4GB on a MicroSD card and most phones just support up to 2GB of MicroSD only. Yes there are few phones like LG’s new Chocolate phone that support up to 4GB, but then you have to pay $100 to get that card.

The Windows Mobile 6 based Motorola Q 9M will be released by Verizon for $350 with two year contract, $400 with one year contract, and $470 with no contract. The phone has MiniSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, Piano style keyboard, 128MB on board memory and EV-DO. The phone supports Verizon’s V CAST Music service.

The Thomson’s V888 has a 4” screen and support almost all the video/audio/photo formats. But two of the biggest surprises are price and the slider, which reveals the control buttons. When slider is opened the panel has four directional keys, volume up and down keys, home key, select key, start key and another set of four keys marked X, Y, B and A which can be used to play games. The cost is $132 (999 Yuan) for 4GB Player.

The first gear that will be available in September for $199 is BTM630 Bluetooth enabled audio system. It has an iPod dock at top, a SD card slot and USB port. It also comes with slot-loading CD drive that can rip audio files and transfer to USB stick. A cell phone with stereo Bluetooth can play music wirelessly over BTM630 and when a call comes while playing the song, the song is paused and the caller’s number is shown on the LCD screen.

The iPod Remote is an iPod dock with Universal remote. The dock can be plugged in any audio system or TV and the remote has a LCD screen that can be used to navigate iPod menu on the remote itself. It will cost you $199 and will be available in September.

The third gear is AZ1330B, which is a shiny black boom box that comes with iPod dock, AM/FM radio, and CD player. This system will also be available in September for $99.

The third gear is AZ1330B, which is a shiny black boom box that comes with iPod dock, AM/FM radio, and CD player. This system will also be available in September for $99.

The last one is a GoGear portable media player that will be launched next month and it has 4GB of flash memory and 3.5” LCD screen. Its battery life is 20 hours for music and 5 hours for video. The price when it will be announced next month will be $149.

You can read more at CNET

Walt Mossberg has posted review of Apple’s iWork ’08 on All Things D website. His verdict: “iWork ‘08 is a nice product, capable of turning out sophisticated and attractive word-processing, presentation and spreadsheet documents. But iWork simply isn’t as powerful or versatile as Microsoft Office, especially when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets. And it suffers from a design that places far more emphasis on making documents look beautiful than on the nuts and bolts of the actual process of writing and number-crunching.” We completely agree with Walt after using iWork for past week.
You can read the complete review here: iWork 08 Review

First off let me make a confession that I don’t like any of the Stealth PCs, Stealth computer look so ugly that I can’t describe. My only question to Stealth “ is it so hard to design a decent looking case?” For a minimum of $1000 you can get a Stealth LPC350PCI with either Celeron M370 (1.5GHz) or Pentium M740 (1.73GHz), up to 2GB of RAM, 80GB harddrive, choice of DVD/CD-RW or DVD-RW drives, DVI output, FireWire and three USB Ports. The Little PC is also not little in size it 5.87” x 10” x 2.75” in dimension compare that to 6” x 6” x 2” for a Mac mini. I think we should save our $1000 by not spending it on an ugly, not very small and not at all powerful PC.

Alienware got overwhelmingly positive response for there Hangar 18 Media Center PCs based upon AMD’s Live Media Center platform and 5.1 Surround sound with 200 watts per channel amplification. Alienware will be releasing high end Media Center PCs soon. The Media Center will have four swappable hard drive bays for 4TB storage, Blue-ray option and option to distribute audio to four separate zones. The system will support Dual CableCards. It is yet not know what it will cost and what processor it will be based upon.

Apple Expo Paris will be held from September 25-29th 2007 in Paris. Apple has announced new products there like the iMac G5 in 2004, but for past two years apple hasn’t used the show for any new product announcements. According to 9to5mac Apple will announce European iPhone, television shows and movies on iTunes for Europe. 9to5mac also adds “ it is looking like an extremely good time to unveil a fresh new line of iPods.” Apple can definitely use the show to launch new products but what products Apple will launch god only knows. Let’s hope that we see the new line of iPods as soon as possible.
You can read more here: 9to5mac

For the past 7 days I had been trying out the new iLife ’08, the enhancements to iPhone, iPhoto, iWeb and GarageBand seem really good. But with iMovie Apple has taken step backward. David Pogue writes in his column “Most people are used to a product cycle that goes like this: Release a new version every year or two, each more capable than the last. Ensure that it's backward compatible with your existing documents. iMovie '08, on the other hand, has been totally misnamed. It's not iMovie at all. In fact, it's nothing like its predecessor and contains none of the same code or design. It's designed for an utterly different task, and a lot of people are screaming bloody murder.” This is very true about the new iMovie ’08 there is no timeline and all the audio effects are gone. You can’t use plug-ins with the new iMovie and all the basic visual effects are also gone. If you have a G4 Mac better not think about the new iMovie, it won’t work. The biggest question is: what was Apple thinking? According to David Pogue, Apple says that it was thinking: "It's 1.0. We'll bring it up to par with free software updates, like we always do." Internally, I'm guessing that it was also thinking, "iMovie had gotten pretty old, and it was haunted by some intractable bugs." And also, perhaps, "iMovie was getting so powerful, it was taking sales away from Final Cut." I totally agree with what David writes at the end of his column “ I can’t help thinking that Apple would have done better to call a spade a spade, and given the new program a different name. Call it Flymovie, or ByeMovie, or WhyMovie.”

You can read the complete column here: David Pogue

The first one is the long rumored Touchscreen YP-P2, which has a WQVGA resolution screen for your pictures and movies. Radio programs or individual titles can be noted directly on the equipment. Further it has a calendar, a bell and a text editor. Bluetooth connects the Player with the headphones. The second one YP-S5, which comes with integrated stereo speaker (1.5 watts). The Bluetooth interface let you connect with Bluetooth stereo headsets. The 1.8” screen has 222 x 176 resolution and can play MPEG-4 video file on it. The third YP-T10 plays music and video, transfers radio programs, loads Java plays, shows pictures and can be used as Voice recorder. The YP-T10 will be available in five colors white, black, lime, red and purple where as the other two players will be available in white and black color only. All three players supports MP3, WMA, WMV (audio) and MPEG4 (video). Price is yet not known.

The Pure-Fi Anywhere is a compact size speaker system for iPod. The system has a rechargeable battery, which can last up to 10 hours.  The system has set of 2” Max-X active high excursion drivers for balanced audio and 3” pressure drivers for good bass response.  You also get a Remote with the system for $150.

In the patent application Apple explains that "as notebook computers are becoming increasingly thinner ... connections systems need to be reduced in size to accommodate smaller form factors. The connection system includes a connection receptacle that is implemented as two separate components. One of the components is fixed in that it is coupled to the chassis, and the other component is rotatable or coupled to a moving mechanism," the company explained. "The combination of the fixed and rotating components are adapted to receive a plug when the connection receptacle is in an open position, and the fixed and rotating components are collapsed into a compact configuration when the connection receptacle is in a closed position."
"Accordingly, this collapsing function enables a substantial reduction in the size of the connection system and thereby enables a substantial reduction in the form factor of a device implementing the connection system," Apple added. "For example, a notebook computer may have a highly tapered chassis shape."
It is rumored that apple will release an Ultra-portable notebook sometime this year.

Corsair has taken the hardware route to secure your data on the USB Flash drive. The USB drive featuring auto-lock hardware security. This prevents any unauthorized access or “Brute Force” attack to the data on Flash Padlock. Users can program in a PIN, much like they do for an ATM machine, to lock/unlock their data. There is a keypad in conjunction with lock/unlock indicator lights on the drive. the Flash Padlock is fully plug-and-play, and requires no software or drivers to work properly. The 1GB drive costs $30 and you can get a 2GB one for $40.

Logitech Announces Pure-Fi Dream Music System with light and motion sensing technologies. Controls light up when you wave your hand near the Pure-Fi Dream speaker system. You can activate snooze with wave of your hand. A light sensor automatically dims the display at night. The system comes with set of ¾” high-definition, soft dome tweeters and 3” high power, long throw woofers. The system has StereoXL technology that widens stereo image dramatically. The speaker system has Dual alarm with battery backup, Digital AM/FM radio, LCD display and a back lighted remote. You can get the Pure-Fi Dream for $300.

Meebo has just released an iPhone only IM webapp that’s just as good as Meebo for desktop. Meebo is the best chat app for iPhone till now. You use same Meebo account and same settings. While chatting you can keep the keyboard up continuously which is very convenient. Few features have been stripped out like adding contacts, to keep the application as light as possible. But chatting is actually great on the iPhone.

If you are planning to buy an iPod any time soon WAIT don’t buy it right now. Apple is slowing down iPod shipments suggesting that the company wants to clear way for new iPods. In addition Apple has not updated its iPod line for past one year so it’s very likely that you would see a major update in next months or two. Apple also said that it’s next iPod will be based on OS-X and that would definitely make its interface way cooler.
You can read all the reasons Engadget gives here: ENGADGET

Keynote ’08, Apple’s industry-leading application for creating cinema-quality presentations, introduces new Smart Builds to make it easy for anyone to create spectacular animations by simply dropping graphics onto a slide. More advanced users can control every aspect of their animations with new A-to-B animations to define movement, rotation, scaling and opacity. Keynote’s new Instant Alpha feature makes it easy to remove unwanted backgrounds from photos and graphics without needing a graphics department. Users can record their presentations along with a voice-over, then deliver them to audiences in person or over the Internet via podcasting or YouTube. The new Keynote also includes a collection of new text effects, transitions and themes.

Pages ’08 now has two distinct modes: streamlined word processing that makes it easy to create stunning documents in seconds; and flexible page layout, which gives users complete control over the position of objects on the page. Pages includes 140 Apple-designed templates that let users easily create letters, reports, newsletters and brochures. A new contextual format bar gives users the exact set of tools they need at their fingertips whether they’re editing text, creating a table or adjusting an image. Change tracking lets users collaborate with others on a document by displaying each person’s edits in different colors, then accept or reject each proposed change.

Numbers ’08 is a new approach to spreadsheets that allows people to organize their information, interact with their data and calculations and make their spreadsheets easy to understand and print. With multiple intelligent tables on a flexible graphics canvas, users can rearrange information, resize and add columns—all without breaking their spreadsheet. Each table is a full-blown spreadsheet with automatic header and footer rows, easy sorting and filtering, and automatic cell naming so creating, reading and maintaining formulas is easy. Common functions can be dragged to any cell, and a total of 150 functions are available spanning a wide range of calculations, including numeric, date and time, financial and statistical. Interactive checkboxes and sliders let users change cell values easily to explore different scenarios and see their results instantly. Users can create stunning 2D and 3D charts that are automatically updated as data changes, then complement them with rich graphics, photos and text labels. Interactive printing makes it easy to fit a document on a single page or rearrange and resize tables and objects across multiple pages.

GarageBand ‘08 introduces Magic GarageBand, an easy and fun way for musicians and non-musicians alike to create a song. Users can pick from nine musical genres and interact with a band of “players” on a virtual stage by selecting an instrument and musical part for each player to create thousands of possible song combinations. Users can play along with a built-in software instrument or record their voice to sing along to their own music. The new GarageBand also offers powerful new features for more advanced musicians, including multi-take recording to capture the best performance, arrangements to cut, copy and paste intros, verses and choruses, and support for 24-bit audio interfaces.

iWeb ‘08 offers new features to make websites more interactive by adding live web widgets such as Google Maps, targeted ads using Google AdSense and photos or movies from .Mac Web Galleries. Users can also add Internet video, news headlines, weather and more from any site that supports HTML snippets. A new “My Album” page template lets users easily organize photo albums and videos into one simple index web page. The new iWeb includes a range of beautiful new Apple-designed themes that users can change at any time to experiment with different web page designs, even after their site has been published. With a .Mac membership, users can also now host iWeb websites using their own personal domains.

With iMovie ‘08, Apple’s movie-making software has been completely reinvented to let users rediscover and enjoy their video library, make movies in minutes instead of hours, and share their movies with family, friends or the entire world in a snap. iMovie ‘08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays a user’s entire video library whether it’s stored on internal or external drives. Users can preview any of their video clips by simply moving their mouse over the clip to “skim” through it forward or backward at any speed, including faster than real time. Users can select video as easily as selecting text, make a movie by simply dragging the selected video into a project, then easily add a soundtrack from iTunes, voiceovers, and elegant effects and cinematic titles. iMovie ‘08 makes it as easy as a few clicks to enjoy your movies on an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, or share with the entire world on YouTube.
Two features that are missing and should have been there are, one you can’t alter audio volume within clips. You can only change overall volume, rather than making changes to different parts of the clip. Second you cannot change the length of transitions.

iPhoto ‘08 automatically groups all photos into Events, each containing a day’s worth of photos represented by a single picture. Users can simply move their mouse over an Event to instantly “skim” through all its photos. Users can split a single day’s event into multiple events, such as a birthday party in the morning and a wedding in the evening, or merge events on multiple days into a single event, such as a weekend ski vacation. Users can hide photos they don’t want to see every day but don’t want to throw away, and a unified search allows users to instantly find all their photos across all Events by rating, date and keywords. Users can produce frame-worthy prints on a home printer with new Apple-designed photo themes, and order keepsake books with customizable dust jackets and professional quality hardcovers with elegant foil printing, new spiral-bound softcover books that can be laid flat for easy viewing, or new larger wall calendars.
For .Mac members, Apple is also introducing the stunning .Mac Web Gallery. .Mac Web Gallery is fully integrated with iPhoto ’08 and iMovie ’08, letting users share their photos and movies on the web with just a few clicks. .Mac Web Gallery automatically builds a website containing photo galleries and movies that can be viewed on any modern computer or iPhone. Photos can be downloaded to print at sizes up to 16x20, and movies can be viewed at higher-than-DVD resolution.