Microsoft has launched a promotion for college students, dubbed “The Ultimate Steal” in which you get the office Ultimate edition (original price $679) for just $60. The two requirements are you must have an educational institution email address (ends in .edu) and you must be actively enrolled (student card). The promotion will end on 30th April 2008. This promotion is also available in Canada and UK, and will soon be launched in France, Italy and Spain. This is the best deal you can get on Office 2007 ultimate edition, if you are a student or if you can prove you are a student.
The Ultimate Steal

Bloomberg is reporting that Sony Corp. is considering various options for its chip business one of which is selling it to Toshiba Corp. for 100 billion yen ($867 million). Sony’s Spokesman said “ We are considering various options for our advanced chip production, nothing specific has been decided.”  The production line that Sony plans to sell to Toshiba is a “Cell chips” manufacturing line in Nagasaki Japan. Sony in February had said it may give up making the most advanced version of cell chips and would consider outsourcing the production.

HP’s by gamers for gamers desktop, Blackbird Dedication Edition will make a big hole in your pocket, to be precise it will be $5,500. For that amount you will get Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz, Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra, liquid cooled CPU and GPU, 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM, and Voodoo Razer Gaming Mouse and Keyboard. HP started taking order for the 518 Dedication Edition, which will ship in October. If you want to configure your machine hold out until October, when configurable machines will become available, ranging from $2500 to $7100 in price.

Creative released their 16GB Flash player with 2.5” screen last month and two of the most interesting features were SDHC card slot and a very reasonable price tag ($249). The players also has FM tuner, voice recorder and user definable EQ. The Creative Zen is not as slim or sexy as the iPod Nano but with a bigger screen and 16GB for just $249 it is definitely a great option. Cnet has posted a very good review of the new player and I perfectly agree with their bottom line: “We're hard-pressed to find anything not to like about the Creative Zen. It's a great option for anyone looking for a great-sounding, pocketable MP3 player with an excellent, video-capable screen and plenty of extra features.”
Creative Zen Cnet Review

iUnlock Reloaded developed by iPhoneDev team is now automatic (not a graphical user interface yet). What you need to do in this new version is copy all 3 files to your iPhone, ssh in and execute iUnlock_Reloaded and you are done. Your iPhone is free and can be used with any GSM carrier. The GUI (graphical user interface) version is still not ready but if you can wait few more days that will be released too.
If you don’t want to wait,
Download 1
Download 2

The dual core processors have started to show up in low-end computers and quad core are still in the high-end computers only, so AMD plans to make Tri-core processors to address mid-range market. This gives AMD an advantage over Intel, as AMD will have a complete 1 to 4-core range to serve every market. Additionally AMD will be able to salvage bad quad core processors. The Tri core will be priced between the dual core and quad core. Definitely a Tri-Core will have speed boosts when compared to a dual core but will it be profitable for AMD because a Tri-core is basically a quad core with one core fused.

Verizon and LG have launched LG VX8350 a mid-level music phone with external music controls. The phone has a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth (A2DP), Speakerphone, and microSD card slot. The phone supports MP3 and WMA and will be available for $129.99 with a two year agreement. If you buy the phone online you get a $50 discount off the price.

Senneheiser has added four new earphones to its Classic, Street and Style lines. The classic line get CX 400 and 500, both the head phones come with a pouch, cord winder, cable clip and ear adapters. The CX 400 will cost $100 and has a short cord with extension cable. The higher end CX 500, which had better audio response and special flange ear adapters for better seal will be available for $130 in three colors glossy black, glossy white and titanium. The street line gets CX55 that has a reflective blue casing, better bass response and ear adapter. They will sell for $80. The style line gets CX 95 with metallic look, wider frequency response, a short cord, extension cable and ear adapters, and will sell for $140. The earphones will be available by the end of September.

According to Asus U3S laptop is world’s first mainstream notebook PC with integrated GPS capability. The laptop depends on NXP Software’s swGPS system, which does the entire GPS signal processing in software. This opens gates for future software update that can improve or add functionality. The laptop comes with discreet graphics card and Centrino Duo technology (Core 2 Duo, WiFi and Bluetooth) in a slim and light package. The laptop will be released by the end of September and will cost 2,300EUR ($3200).

NEC unveiled their 17” pro-media NEC VERSA P9110 notebook aimed at AV home entertainment. The notebook has 1080p resolution, HDMI and SPDIF digital audio ports. The system configurations is Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, 2GB RAM, up to 250GB hard drive, Dual Layer DVD burner, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, ExpressCard slot, 1.3-megapixel webcam, 3 USB and 1 firewire port. There is no word on price and it will be available in October.

Vodafone will carry the F700, which was launched at 3GSM World Congress in February. The phone has 3G (HSDPA 3.6Mbps), EDGE, GSM (900/1800/1900/2100GHz), 3-megapixel camera, 3.2” LCD touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, and microSD card slot. The phone is based on Flash UI and support MMS, E-mail, JAVA, WAP 2.0 and full HTML browsing. On the multimedia side phone supports, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, MP3, AAC+ and eAAC. The phone would be available in fast half of October and the price is not known.

AT&T to launch HTC TyTN II without front camera and call it AT&T Tilt. There will be two models one without any camera and one with a camera on back. The model without camera will be priced at $349.99 with two years contract and the model with camera will cost $399.99. Both the models will have a 2.8” touchscreen, sliding QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth2.0, GPS and Push-to-talk. On the software side it will come with Xpress Mail, Microsoft Direct Push, POP3/IMAP4, BlackBerry Connect 4.0, Windows media player and IM capabilities. The phone will be available in late September and BGR has posted complete details about the data plan and pricing.
You can read it here: BGR

Apple’s webpage, which gives details about $100 store credit for early iPhone buyers shows iPhone that has firmware version 1.1.1 which has yet not been released. No details are available about what new features or functionality are there in version 1.1.1. Apple has already said that they will keep adding new features and functions via free software updates.

A new flash memory standard called Universal Flash Storage (UFS), which will allow for larger memory capacities and faster access speeds is on its way. Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson and many other companies are backing the upcoming format. According to Nokia access time will drop to just few seconds for a 4GB file, which at present is more then 3 minutes. JEDEC Solid State Technology Association is expected to finalize the standard by 2009.

Reports are floating around that few customers have received their new iPod Touch with just the  Factory diagnostic utility and no OS X on it. The interesting part of this news is the diagnostic utility shows a disabled Bluetooth on iPod Touch. This has started a series of speculations that there is no Bluetooth chip or that Apple has disabled Bluetooth in firmware or even if it does have a Bluetooth chip, Apple will never enable it. The reason behind all these speculations is an X mark on the Bluetooth symbol in diagnostic utility, but no one has pointed out that there is an X mark on battery also. Does that mean there is no battery or that the battery is there but disabled in firmware? Whatever the X mark means but we all know that there is a battery and its working. I hope that there is a Bluetooth chip in the iPod Touch and that Apple activates it with a firmware update and adds new functionality to the iPod Touch. The reason why I think there is a Bluetooth chip in iPod Touch is because in existing iPhones on which the iPod Touch is based, you can use Bluetooth only for cars and Bluetooth mono-headsets. One cannot use it for Bluetooth stereo headset or A2DP profiles. May be Apple will activate the Bluetooth when their software is ready for Bluetooth stereo headset and A2DP because Bluetooth mono-headset are of no use with iPod Touch. Lets wait and watch what Apple will do in the future.

BGR is reporting that AT&T will have a lifetime exclusive for the upcoming Pantech C810 Duo. AT&T will price this Windows Mobile 6 based smartphone for $299 with 2-year contract. The Dual slider phone has 3G (HSDPA), 1.3-megapixel camera, and microSD card slot. The phone support AOL, Windows Live Messenger, AT&T Mobile Music, CV, Media Net, Xpress Mail, Microsoft Direct Push, and POP3/IMAP4. The Duo will be available by end of September.
[Via BGR]

Reuters is reporting that T-Mobile will be officially confirmed as the exclusive carrier for iPhone in Germany. Apple will announce this news at next week’s London Press event. Apple will also announce other carrier partners like O2 for UK and Orange for France. The iPhone might be priced 399EUR for the 8GB model. There is no information available about service plans but a leaked T-Mobile ad hinted that all plans will include unlimited data  and the phone will be released in November.

If you bought your iPhone before August 22, you may be eligible for an instant $100 electronic credit toward the purchase of products at the Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. See the terms and conditions below for more details.
To receive your credit, follow these three easy steps.
Step 1: Identify your iPhone
To confirm eligibility, simply enter your phone number and iPhone serial number in the fields provided.
Step 2: Enter your access code
You will receive an SMS text message on your iPhone containing the access code to redeem your $100 credit. Enter your phone number and your access code in the fields provided to generate an electronic store credit.
Step 3: Get your $100 Apple Store credit
You will receive a $100 electronic store credit to purchase products at the Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.

SanDisk today launched the SanDisk Express line of high-performance flash memory products, based on the ExpressCard technology standard. SanDisk Express products aim at professional videographers and photographers. The SanDisk Express is expected to be available in November in two capacities 8GB and 16GB. The ExpressCard is designed for fast downloads of large video files and is a good solution to off-load video to your notebook computer with no extra cables or readers required. The 8GB card will be available for $499 and the 16GB card will cost $899. Presently only one camera can take advantage of the ExpressCard, Sony XDCAM EX camcorder.

According to Sony Blu-ray is the key to an HD future and to empower consumers on HD path Sony is adding Blu-ray burning capabilities to its laptops and desktops. Aside from Sony’s dramatic statement what Sony is doing is adding HD editing and Burning capabilities to its computers. The VAIO AR50-Series’s VGN-AR51SU laptop has a Double Layer Blu-ray disc burner and a 17” 1080p capable screen. Other features on the laptop are integrated hybrid TV tuner, remote control, Intel Centrino Duo (Core 2 Duo), and NVIDIA GeForce (series 8) graphics card.
The VAIO FZ20-series has a 15.4” screen, Double Layer Blu-ray Combo drive, Intel Centrino Duo, NVIDIA GeForce graphics card and HDMI output. You can attach this laptop to your big screen HD TV to enjoy Blu-ray movies.
The all-in-one desktops VAIO L-series, also has the Blu-ray burning capabilities. The L-series desktop comes with twin hybrid TV tuners, 22” or 19” screens, and Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The computers are available in Europe.

Apple is inviting UK media to its flagship London store (Regents street) for a special event. The invite starts by “Mum is no longer the word” and asks media to join a press conference September 18th at 10:00 am. According to Macworld’s editor Mark Hattersley “it’s a UK-specific event and we know the iPhone is due to be launched in the UK, so that’s the most likely scenario.” It almost looks confirmed that apple will launch iPhone and announce its carrier partner for UK. But the question is what else is Apple going to announce more TV series for UK, film service for UK or Beatles on iTunes.

Financial Times is reporting that cumulative sales of Nintendo Wii have overtaken those of the Xbox 360, making it the world’s best selling next generation games console in spite of having been on the market a year less than Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Based on sales data from NPD Group, Enterbrain, and GfK the console sales break down is:
Nintendo Wii: 9 million units
Xbox 360: 8.9 million units
Playstation 3: 3.7 million units
So after 17 years Nintendo is again the king of gaming console market.

A new Display technology by Unipixel in which LED lights are on the sides of the screen could double your cellphone battery life. According to Unipixel right now only 5% of the light produced by LCD backlight is actually reaching the screen. The reason being that the light passes through a series of filters and light polarizer’s to create the image on screen. But by placing the LED lights on the sides, it eliminates the need to pass through multiple filters, allowing for a brighter and more energy efficient display. A prototype of this technology based LCD is expected by the end of 2007.

The Moto ROKR U9 and U3 are PEBL like clamshell handsets. The U9 will have a 1.4” external screen, 2-megapixel camera, 1.8” internal screen, microSD card slot, Bluetooth and touch sensitive keypad. It will support GSM/GPRS/EDGE. The U3 is an entry-level phone with a VGA camera. The ROKR W5 is RAZR like phone with 1.3-megapixel camera, 1.9” screen, microSD card slot, Bluetooth, A2DP support and quad-band GSM. Pricing and date of release are not yet known.

Microsoft today announced five new computer peripherals that included 2 webcam and 3 mouses. The first of the two webcams is LifeCam NX-3000, a compact webcam designed for use with notebooks. The webcam has 1.3-megapixel resolution and a built-in microphone with noise cancellation. The NX-3000 can be pre-ordered for $59.95. The second webcam LifeCam VX-7000 has a 2-megapixel sensor and noise-canceling microphone. It can be pre-ordered for $99.95.
All three mouses are aimed for notebook and the first one is a Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. Well the name says it all; it connects using Bluetooth and has laser-tracking system. The mouse also has a battery life indicator and will cost $49.95. The second mouse Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000 is a laser tracking based mouse that uses 2.4GHz wireless technology to connect to your PC. It’s also available for $49.95. The third mouse is Mobile Memory Mouse 8000, which has a transceiver with 1GB Flash memory. The mouse is USB rechargeable with magnetic connector on the USB transceiver. It’s also available for pre-order for $99.95

Alexander Flak of Ajax World magazine has posted his experience with iPhone. He writes "I've been a big proponent of Smartphone technology for a long time, and have been chasing the "perfect Smartphone" for a while. Specifically, I've been hooked on using Windows Smartphone devices, because of the seamless integration with Outlook and the resulting automatic synchronization of all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and e-mail over the air. And my favorite Smartphone so far was the Cingular/AT&T 8525."
But his wife wanted an iPhone and he was very skeptical about it. The reason was iPhone didn’t had UMTS, Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. Falk reports, “ It took just one week. I played with her iPhone while we were in New York. I played with her new iPhone at home. I played with her new iPhone on the boat. After a few days she said, “Buy your own iPhone!” So I did and I haven’t touched the Windows Smartphone since.”
He says “ The reason is very simple: UI design, UI design and UI design!”
You can read the complete article here

After lot of speculation about what Palm will release on September 12th, Palm today announced Palm Treo 500v a Windows mobile 6 based smartphone. Vodafone will launch the Treo 500v in October. The new phone will not have a touchscreen but it comes with a Qwerty keyboard. The other hardware features on the phone are 3G/UMTS, 2-megapixel camera, 150MB of on-board memory, microSD card slot and Bluetooth. The phone has Internet Explorer and auto delivery of Hotmail, yahoo and Gmail. The cost of the phone is yet not known. The truth is that there is nothing exciting about Treo 500v. The one feature (touchscreen) that has started to become a must on smartphone is also not there. Its just another Windows Mobile 6 based smartphone.

If paying $100 to get iPhoneSIMfree software solution for unlocking your iPhone seemed a bit costly, then the iUnlock was released for you. It's not for the technically challenged as the solution requires little knowledge of using a UNIX terminal, experience with SFTP and some patience. There are some tutorials available online but then also it not easy to unlock the iPhone. So if you want to unlock your iPhone without paying you have to take the risk. My suggestion for you is to wait as many user-friendly installation guides are under development and an installer version based around iUnlock is also in development. If you are curious and just want to know more, then you can get more information on the following link
ModMyiPhone
Hackint0sh
FreeiPhoneUnlock
Iphone.unlock.no

BiTMICRO will release 416GB, 2.5” E-Disk Altima E2A133BL ATA-133 model, a flash memory based SSD designed for military, industrial and commercial users. The SSD will provide 133MB/sec burst with up to 100MB/sec sustained reads and writes and up to 20,000 random IOPS. The operating temperature ranges from -40 to 85 degree Celsius. The drives will ship in March 2008. You can guess the cost (a 128GB SSD costs more the $1000).

Apple’s vice president of iPod Product Marketing said, “Apple doesn't oppose native application development, Apple takes a neutral stance - we're not going to stop anyone from writing apps, and we're not going to maliciously design software updates to break the native apps, but we're not going to care if software updates accidentally break the native apps either.” In short Apple will not stop iPhone coders and will not intentionally break the apps with firmware updates. Now my guess is since iPhone and iPod Touch run on same software, applications made for iPhone should theoretically run on iPod Touch also.

Do you want your A-series camera to Shoot in RAW and show Live histogram? You can get that and more features normally available on SLRs and other high-end cameras by using a simple modification from the CHDK Wiki. The Firmware hack is very simple and safe, as it loads the new configuration from the SD card on boot. Simply copy files to your memory card. If you want to go back to your old camera functions simply remove the firmware from the card and camera will go back to original firmware. The models currently supported are A610, A620, A630, A640, A700, A710 IS, S2 IS and S3 IS. The features added by the firmware hack are RAW shooting, Live histogram, Zebra mode, Depth of Field Calculator, Battery indicator, Scripts execution, File browser, text reader, calendar and games. So now if you want all the high-end feature click on the link below.
How to give your Canon camera RAW support

Logitech today announced the AudioHub Notebook Speaker System with Integrated USB Hub. The AudioHub combines a unique 2.1 one-piece speaker system and three integrated Hi-Speed USB ports that fits neatly behind most notebooks. The AudioHub is just 3.5” in height and has adjustable-width speakers effectively position the satellites around most notebooks. The AudioHub will ship in October for $99.99.

According to Engadget, Sprint is all set to release four new high profile handsets for the coming holiday season. The Palm Centro will have EV-DO, Palm OS, Touchscreen, Sprint TV, IM, Mobile email and Google Maps. The LG Rumor comes with Qwerty Keypad, MP3 Player, 1.3-megapixel camera, MicroSD card slot, quick access to Facebook and Myspace, IM and Mobile email. The touch is a Windows mobile 6 based device and comes with EV-DO, Bluetooth, touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV, IM and Mobile email. The Blackberry Pearl 8130 has added EV-DO support to the pervious model and can access Sprint music store and Sprint TV. Pricing details are not yet known.
[Via Engadget]

H&M have started an interesting ad campaign involving billboard and magazine, which contain an embedded code that can be photographed with a cellphone. The Black and white Patterned boxes called Semacode bars are printed on the advertisements, which when photographed using your cellphone can take you to the retailer’s product catalog. Where you can select size and color and buy clothes using your cellphone account. Now you have to take care of your cellphone the way you care for your credit card (if you have a girlfriend).

Ringtones section in iTunes has come alive and now you can create ringtones from over 500,000 songs on iTunes store. You can create ringtones on any track with ringtone symbol. Each ringtone will cost you $0.99 plus the cost of song that is again $0.99 (because you need to buy the song first) that brings your total to $1.98 for each ringtone. Rather then paying $0.99 for ringtone my suggestion is to use MakeiPhoneRingtone, free software that converts any AAC file into an iTunes compatible ringtone.

InterDigital deals in wide variety of mobile technologies like bandwidth allocation, roaming, power efficiency controls and yes 3G too. Apple and InterDigital have reached a licensing agreement for seven years and InterDigital will receive $2 million per quarter for the length of agreement. InterDigital is a big name in 3G technologies which guaranties that 3G and new improvements will come to iPhone soon. The length of the agreement confirms that there will be quite a few revisions of the iPhone in future.

Sony today released PSP firmware update 3.70 that brings custom themes, you can now change what buttons do in Remote Play, video has scene search function and sequential playback function and you can now play music while watching slide show or photos. The update is for both original PSP and the new slim PSP.

News Corp. president Peter Chernin told Reuters that they had a perfectly good relationship with Apple and had no Plan to follow NBC and pull out of iTunes. He also said “but let me say this we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”
News Corp., NBC and several other partners will launch their own online distribution for TV shows called Hulu. TV content on Hulu will be available for free (ad-supported). Not many details are available on Hulu but it is believed that it will be launched in last half of September.

Intel today introduced top of the line mobile Core 2 Duo, 2.6GHz T7800 for $530. Intel also introduced 2Ghz T7250, which is same as T7200 except it has 800MHz frontside bus and will cost $209, compared to $294 for T7200. Intel has lowered prices of T7700 and T7500 from $530 and $316 to $316 and $241 respectively. Two new Ultra Low Voltage Core 2 Solo processors U2200 and U2100 have been added to Intel’s mobile lineup. The U2200 is a 1.2GHz processor and is priced $262 where as the U2100 is 1.6GHz processor and is priced $241. Both the processors have 1MB of L2 cache and 533MHZ FSB. The mobile Celeron line got one ULV processor and two new processors. The 523 is a 933Mhz ULV Celeron M processor and will cost $161. Where as the 2GHz 550 and 1.73GHz 530 are mobile Celeron M processors and will cost $134 and $86 respectively. The existing 1.86GHz 540 saw a price drop from $134 to $107.
On Desktop side the1.8GHz Celeron D 430’s price was reduced from $49 to $44 and the price of 1.6GHz 420 was reduced from $39 to $34. The Dual Core 2GHz E2180 will now cost $84 and 1.8GHz E2160 will costs $74, which was $84 before. The E2140, which was priced $71, is now $64.

Business Week is reporting that Apple has also considered joining the bidding of 700MHz spectrum that analog TV broadcasters are handing back to the government in 2009. Signals at 700MHz could theoretically provide faster Internet access than today’s cellular or even WiFi networks and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work even in bad weather condition. Winning a piece of the 700MHz spectrum could provide Apple with ability to offer its own wireless network service to devices such as iPhone. May be Apple and Google can join hands and bid on the wireless spectrum.

Toshiba today announced a prototype hard drive that uses DTR (Discrete Track Recording) technology that boost the areal density of a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) by 50%. Toshiba will start mass production of hard drive using DTR technology in early 2009. At present the highest single platter capacity of a 1.8” HDD is 80GB so the maximum capacity of a 1.8” hard drive (used in iPods) is limited to 160GB. But with the new DTR technology 1.8” hard drive will be able to hold 120GB on each platter and you will be able to get a 240GB iPod Classic.

AMD today introduced the Quad-Core Opteron processor, which according to AMD is world’s most advanced x86 processor ever designed. There will be Nine New Opteron Chips, all based on 65nm technology. The top of the range processor will be a 2GHz Opteron 8350 that will cost $1,019 (in quantity of 1000) and the least expensive option will cost $209. Sun, HP, IBM and Dell will be launching their servers based on Quad-Core Opteron later this month.

Sansa View is SanDisk’s First serious attempts at a Video capable MP3 player. It has a 2.4” 320 x 240 resolution LCD screen and supports MPEG4 (H.264) and WMV for video. Sansa View measures 4.29” x 1.95” x 0.35” and is the slimmest Sansa. The other feature on Sansa are MicroSD/SDHC card slot, FM tuner, Voice recorder with built in mic, 35 hours battery life for music and 7 hours for video. The best feature of Sansa View is its cost $199 for 16GB that is same as 8GB iPod Nano and $50 less then Creative Zen 16Gb. The 8GB Sansa View is for $149, the price of 4GB iPod Nano.

Apple today announced that they sold their one-millionth iPhone yesterday. “One million iPhones in 74 days -- it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.” It is projected that Apple will be selling more then 1.3 million iPhones by the end of September.