Yesterday, Asus launched Eee Storage and Download services. Both the services can be very useful if someone is able to access it anywhere over the air. To make this possible Asus has formed partnerships with Telecom vendors to offer Eee PC netbook as a bundle with wireless service (just like the cellphone subscription). In Japan the company has formed partnerships with NTT DoCoMo and E-Mobile to offer Eee PC 701 for 100 Yen (US $0.91) as a part of a service bundle that will have monthly fee for wireless access. The company is also working with European telecoms like T-Mobile and TNT to push out a zero or one Euro (US$1.5) netbook bundles. These partnerships will make the netbooks more useful, as the netbooks will be able to access Internet over the air.
Acer the other netbook maker is also planning to follow suit and will push out free netbook bundles as soon as the Intel Atom processor shortage is solved. The company is in talks with several telecom vendors to offer netbook bundles for zero dollars. This is the reason why Acer has reinstated its goal of shipping five million units in 2008 even though sales of their netbooks have been low.
[Via Digi Times]

IBM had previously said that it was planning to start software development for the iPhone. The Company has revealed to MacNN that it is planning to release web-based Lotus Notes for the iPhone by end of 2008. Even though iPhone has Microsoft Exchange support, it lacks several key collaboration features that IBM plans to supplement through the Lotus iNotes.
The Lotus iNotes will bring features like day-at-a-glance calendars, email with attachment sending capabilities, quick contact creation, information on contacts and groups, and reading email with extraneous content hidden or show. These functions are based on IBM’s Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure and will add rich user experience for iPhone customers. For more information and photos click on the link here.

Dell has claimed that it is now a carbon-neutral company – five months ahead of its own projected schedule. To achieve their target of becoming carbon-neutral Dell improved energy efficiency at its on facilities, purchased green electricity and invested in wind power. Dell is now using 645 million kilowatt-hours of electricity generated by wind power in US, China and India, reducing 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Dell has invested $3 billion annually in green energy, and its consumption of green energy has increased almost tenfold to 116 million kWh in four years. Dell has also unveiled its partnership with Conservation International to preserve 591,000 acres of rain forest in Madagascar. It is hoped the project will prevent 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere over the next five years.
Some skeptics will say that being carbon-neutral is only a small part of becoming a true green company. But, with global warming being the biggest threat mankind has ever faced. It is good to know big company like Dell is making efforts to decrease their carbon footprint.

Global Equities Research’s analyst Trip Chowdhry today reported that Google Android based cellphones, being built by various handset makers, could be delayed from an end-of -year introduction to sometime later in the first quarter of next year. This will be contrary to what HTC’s CFO Hui-ming Cheng said last week. According to Cheng, the company would begin shipping Android-based handsets to ODM clients in fourth quarter of this year as scheduled.
Trip says the issues behind the delay are following: handset maker High Tech Computer (HTCKF) is having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set; HTC is demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google, from which Chowdhry concludes that “Probably HTC does not think there will be enough demand for Google phone.”
Industrial sources have told Trip that Google’s OS for the phone, Android is not attracting enough developers, because most of the developers are either working on established platforms like Microsoft, BlackBerry and Symbian or are interested in developing for fast rising Apple iPhone platform.
[Via Barron’s]

AMD today added two new graphics cards to its FirePro series. The cards are based on Radeon HD architecture and are optimized for CAD modeling and other professional 3D applications. Both the new cards feature a 30-bit pipeline that can render images in up to one billion colors.
The top of the line V5700 has 320 shader processors, 512MB video memory, two DisplayPort and one dual-link DVI output. The card can support three 30-inch displays. It will ship in September for $599.
The entry-level V3700 comes with 40 shader units, 256MB video memory and two dual-link DVI outputs. AMD has already started shipping the card for $99. AMD claims that V3700 is the least expensive workstation graphics card on the market.
[Via Electronista]

A patent application filed by Apple reveals new software that would allow iPhone and iPod touch users access to their home computer’s entire iTunes media library while on the go. The company notes that users who are out sometimes find themselves without access to some of their content, which is present on their computer. In the application, Apple says that in theory syncing only the metadata can eliminate the problem. Using the metadata, iPhone and iPods would contain virtual media items representing the media. User would select virtual media items for display or playback on their handhelds just as they would today, the iPhone or iPod would use a wired, WiFi or cellular connection to remotely access and retrieve the media items from a user’s home Mac or PC.
Implementation of this technology will make life easier. You don’t have to worry whether you have all the songs/media on your iPhone or iPod. If you want to listen to a song and it is not on your iPhone, the phone will automatically download it from your computer and you will be able to enjoy the song.
[Via AppleInsider]

Sony unveiled the new T700 phone that looks inspired by company’s most successful T610 handset. The phone is a mid-level handset that features quad-band GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA (2100MHz), 2-inch QVGA LCD screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 25MB internal memory, Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot and stereo speakers. The software on the phone includes media player, browser and email support for POP/IMAP/Exchange. The battery life on the phone is 9.5 hours for GSM talk, 4.5 hours for 3G talk and 15 days standby. The phone measures 4.1” x 1.9” x 0.4” and weigh 2.8oz only. Sony will ship the phone in fourth quarter in three color schemes: black on sliver, black on red and silver. The company has yet not announced the pricing for the phone.
[Via MobileBurn]

Apple announced last month that iPhone would be launched in twenty more countries on August 22nd. Below is the list of countries where iPhone will be launched and the corresponding carriers who will carry the iPhone.

In second round of iPhone launch India will be the biggest market Apple will address. The total population of all the other 19 countries is almost equal to the number of cellphone users in India. It will be interesting to see how many iPhone are sold in India for the launch day and how long it will take iPhone to reach one million mark in India.

Piper Jaffray’s analyst Gene Munster has advised clients that Apple has used a September event to launch new iPods for last three years and Apple shares have risen about 4 percent on average from the week before those events to the week after. Munster believes that it’s only a matter of time before Apple announces its plans to hold the special event.
According to the analyst Apple will refresh its iPod family through a number of pricing and capacity changes. iPod shuffles and nanos will see increase in capacity but no price change. The iPod touch will see a price drop to $199 and design change. Along with the iPods, Apple will also introduce its redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro. The MacBook might see its price dropped to $999 from $1,099.
The analyst expects Apple to eventually change the trackpad to backlit color screens for a more dynamic user interface on the Mac.
We think Apple will definitely update its laptop and iPod lineup in September. But we are not sure whether iPod touch will see any design changes. It is more likely that iPod nano might see some design changes as rumored before.

It was rumored few days ago that Asus plans to add online storage feature to its Eee PC lineup. Today, Asus launched Eee Storage - a 20GB online storage service, and Eee Download service – a download service with around 3,000 free software and games. Asus is planning to expand the service into an online store that will allow users to download music and various multimedia content. Eee storage will allow users to drag and drop files between Eee PC and web storage. Both the services will initially target Chinese language market and will be rolled out for Eee PC family, Asus notebooks and desktop products. Jerry Shen, president of company said the services are designed to add more features for Eee PC users.
[Via Digi Times]

Nikon today announced five new digital cameras P6000, S710, S60, S610 and S560 for Coolpix lineup. The top of the line P6000 is aimed at prosumers and features a 13.5-megapixel sensor, Nikkor wideangle 4x Zoom lens, built-in GPS, EXPEED image processing, 2.7-inch LCD screen and built-in Ethernet port for uploading images. The camera will ship in September for around $800.
The S710 is a 14.5-megapixel camera with 3.6x Nikkor wideangle zoom lens, auto scene selection, smile detection, exposure modes p/s/a/m, vibration reduction, ISO up to 12800, advanced face priority AF and 3-inch LCD screen. It will also ship in September.
Next in line is compact S60 with 10-megapixel sensor, 5X Nikkor zoom lens, ISO up to 3200, 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen, smile / blink detection, scene auto selector and face priority mode. The camera will be available in September in purplish black, Bordeaux red and pearl white color for $350
The Coolpix S610 and S610C are basically both same cameras, except the 610C adds WiFi support. They feature 10-megapixel sensor, 3-inch LCD screen, 4x wideangle zoom, ISO up to 3200, auto scene selector, child mode and vibration reduction. These two cameras will also be available around September in three colors silver, black and red. The S610 will be priced around $280 and the S610C will cost $330.
The last camera in the lineup is S560 and it will also ship in September. The camera will have 10-megapixel resolution, 5x Nikkor zoom lens, 2.7-inch screen, ISO up to 3200, auto scene selector and vibration reduction. It will ship in three colors silver, pink and black for $250.
You can get more information on Nikon’s website.

Sony launched two new Cyber-shot digital cameras DSC-T700 and DSC-T77 with intelligent shooting functions. The “intelligent” features on the cameras include intelligent scene recognition technology, Smile Shutter function, face detection technologies (child and adult priority) and anti-blink function. Other features on the cameras are high sensitivity shooting (up to ISO 3200), eleven scene modes, 9-point auto focus, in-camera image management / editing and 4x optical zoom with image stabilization.
The 10-megapixel DSC-T77 is the thinnest Sony camera at 0.625-inch and features a 3-inch, 16x9 LCD touchscreen. The slightly thicker cousin DSC-T700 has all the features of T77, but adds 4GB of internal flash storage and a larger 3.5-inch touchscreen. The embedded Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software on the cameras can upload photos or videos using Internet to pre-programmed websites like YouTube or Flickr, when connected to PC via USB. The DSC-T77 will ship in brown, green, pink, black and sliver color in September for $299. The DSC-T700 will ship in red, gold, pink, dark gray and silver color at the same time for $399.

Toshiba today launched a new 32GB flash memory module designed for portable gadgets. The module combines eight 4GB NAND flash chips built using the new smaller 43nm process technology in a single package. This doubles the storage capacity from 16GB to 32GB while keeping the size almost same. The new design also includes its own controller built in the module that will allow device makers to drop the new module in without changing the hardware.
Toshiba is the key supplier of flash memory to Apple. The iPhone maker uses their memory chips in present generation iPhone and iPod touch and this would allow Apple to design a 32GB iPhone as well as a 64GB iPod touch. It is rumored that Apple will add a 32GB iPhone to its lineup before Christmas. Toshiba will start sampling the new memory chip in September and will start mass production by end of fall. We will see products based on the new chip in fourth quarter of 2008.
[Via Electronista]

Virgin Mobile has posted on it website that they are sold out of iPhone and it will take little longer to fulfill customers orders for the iPhone because of the high demand and limited supply. Virgin Mobile has posted this message on its website:

The statement “16GB black is due late August” is a clear indications that Apple is now focusing on second phase of iPhone launch in 20 additional countries on August 22nd. The launch will definitely create more shortage of iPhones in 22 countries that were included in first round of iPhone 3G launch on July 11th.

Sony unveiled BRAVIA RHT-G500 a TV stand with home theater system in it. Sony calls it “home theater in a stand” that has front stereo and center channel speakers, along with a subwoofer. The RHT-G500 is designed to resemble a surround sound home theater system. The stand is suitable for 32 to 40-inch TV and it includes three HDMI ports, monitor output and Sony’s Digital Media Port. You can use the Media Port to plug Sony’s WiFi or Bluetooth adaptors for streaming content to the G500 system. The RHT-G500 can’t replace a surround sound home theater setup, but it could be an upgrade for those using HDTVs internal speakers. Sony has yet not announced pricing or shipping date for the G500.
[Via Slash Gear]

MacRumors has posted that Apple is prepping for Cinema Display refreshes for the Macworld San Francisco 2009 conference that will take place between January 5th-9th, 2009. The new Displays might use LEDs to eliminate fluorescent backlighting and make the displays more environmentally friendly. The transition to LED backlighting will depend on how fast the industry would adopt LED based LCDs to bring the cost down. Though LED based small-size LCDs up to 17-inch have gotten cheaper with increased use in laptop screens, a large 30” LED backlit LCD can still cost more than $4,000. Making cost a barrier for Apple in bringing LED based LCDs to the market.

T-Mobile announced today the continued expansion of its 3G network with addition of Las Vegas. T-mobile started its 3G network implementation in May with launch of 3G network in New York City. T-Mobile has invested $37.5 million in Las Vegas to launch 3G network in the city. The 3G network in Las Vegas will support voice and data services for the handsets offered by T-mobile. “Customers in Las Vegas are already accustomed to reliable and robust service from T-Mobile, which gets even better with this additional network availability,” Neville Ray Senior vice president engineering operations, T-Mobile said. “This investment in today’s 3G network also sets the foundation to help customers stay closer to their family and friends in new and exciting ways.”
T-mobile has planned in July to start 3G services in top 27 markets by October 1st, but now the company plans to expand its 3G network to at least 20 additional markets by end of 2008. Along with 3G service roll out, T-Mobile will continue building T-Mobile HotSpot WiFi network for addition high-speed Internet access.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HP is working on an array of touchscreen products, including notebooks. The company plans to get touch-enabled notebook computers on the market within next 18 months.
“We’re focused on recognizing the potential of touch now,” said Phil McKinney, the chief technology officer for the company’s laptop-making Personal System Group. “We see touch as the almost preferred method for nontechnical users.”
Touchscreen wasn’t getting any traction among users, before iPhone was launched last year. Apple’s little device developed world’s appetite for touchscreens with its multitouch implementations. According to iSuppli, touchscreen devices will more than double by 2013. HP like many other companies wants to be part of the touchscreen revolution that Apple ignited.

Apple will start shipping the new iPhone in 20 more countries on August 22nd. Bharti Airtel an Indian cellphone carrier has announced that it will launch the iPhone on August 22nd. Vodafone the other Indian carrier who has partnered with Apple to sell the iPhone in India has yet not announced the launch date for the iPhone. According to some media reports, Vodafone may steal Bharti’s thunder by launching the eagerly awaited phone a few days earlier. The company plans to launch the iPhone few days before on August 18th in India. Apple is known for its tight control over its product launch dates, so it is very unlikely that Vodafone will launch iPhone before 22nd August, the date that Apple announced for its second round of iPhone launch. But if Vodafone does get a preferential treatment it will be a big blow to Bharti Airtel. Both the carriers have yet not announced the price of the phone and the plan required with the phone.
In a Statement released to media Bharti Airtel said that millions of Airtel subscribers will be able to purchase the iPhone at Airtel’s Relationship Centers from August 22nd. Sanjay Kapoor, President, Bharti Airtel said, “iPhone has been an iconic technological revelation of this year and Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector. Introducing iPhone in India further underscores Bharti’s commitment to enrich the communication experience of Airtel users.”
India has almost double the cellphone user base when compared to US. If iPhone becomes a hit, it will be almost impossible to get one in India. Goldman Sachs’ sales breakdown for iPhone 3G clearly shows that most countries that were part of initial iPhone launch on July 11th didn’t even get 10,000 iPhone for the day. In India one big city like Mumbai will need more than 10,000 iPhone to fulfill demand. If Apple and its partners Bharti and Vodafone want a great launch in India they better be ready with more than few hundred thousand handsets for that launch day.
[Via India Times]

Information about the upcoming Lenovo S10 was leaked on Monday. Today, Lenovo officially launched the 8.9-inch IdeaPad S9 and 10.2-inch S10 in Taiwan. The IdeaPad S9 will come with 8GB flash memory, where as the S10 will feature an 80 GB HDD. Both the netbooks will feature 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, Express card slot, Two USB ports, 4-in-1 card reader and webcam. The netbooks will be offered with either Linux or Windows XP and have LED backlit LCD. The keyboard on both the netbooks will be just 15% smaller than a traditional laptop keyboard. Lenovo plans to launch both the netbooks in September for China and will start shipping it in October. The IdeaPad S9 will be priced NT$12,900 ($420) and the IdeaPad S10 will be priced NT$17,900 ($580).
[Via Digi Times]

Apple released the iPhone 3G on July 11th and sold the first 1 million in less than three days. Goldman Sachs Research has published detailed statistics on sale of the first one million iPhone. According to the report US accounted for 60% of all units sold during the first three days with 600,000. Japan came in next with 70,000 units followed by Germany with 69,000 and France 67,000. The surprising part of the report was that UK didn’t feature in top five as Spain took the honor with 55,000 units followed by UK with just 29,000 units. Most countries had no iPhones left with in first 12 hours of going on sale, as more than 13 countries got less than 10,000 iPhones to sell. In fact countries like Ireland, New Zealand and Hong Kong got just 2,000 units each. Four of the 22 countries sold 81% of units; it’s bit unexpected that UK didn’t come in top four because in Europe, UK sold most first generation iPhones.

AT&T topped the carrier distribution breakdown with 600,000 units followed by T-Mobile with 89,000 units. Orange took the third place with 77,000 units followed by Japan’s Softbank Mobile with 70,000 units. The carrier distribution is a direct reflection of iPhones sales breakdown based on countries. If you look at the percentage of each carrier’s contract subscriber base in each county, it looks as if all countries have a very consistent penetration rate of around 0.4 percent except in Canada where it is 0.27 percent and US with 1.07 percent.
Lines are still forming out side Apple and AT&T stores three weeks after the iPhone 3G was released. Apple is going to start shipping the iPhone in 20 more countries and it looks like iPhone sales are not going to slow down in near future.
[Via MediaLets]

Pioneer revealed that it has developed optical disc with 500GB storage capacity. Pioneer developed the blue laser disc by improving the optical technology used in the 400GB disc it announced last month. The company achieved the 500GB capacity by storing data on 20 layers of 25GB each. Pioneer said that the technology was based on Blu-ray and could be used in future readers that will be able to recognize that amount of data. Pioneer’s multimedia product chief, Brendan Sheridan said the technology isn’t ready for mass production and it would take four to five years to reach market. The company believes that a 500GB disc will allow storage of multiple 1080p movies or back up of large amount of data.
[Via Trusted Reviews]

Sharp is the third best LCD HDTV makers behind Sony and Samsung. Today Sharp expanded their large-screen LCD HDTV lineup by adding SB series. These entry-level SB series lineup will include 52-inch LC-52SB55U, 46-inch LC-46SB54U and 42-inch LC46SB45U. All three TVs feature Full HD 1080p resolution and are cased in a glossy piano-black bezel. The SB models feature Sharp’s Spectral Contrast Engine for deep blacks and crisp images. All three models have pixel response time of 6ms for fast moving action scenes. These sets come equipped with an array of inputs, including four HDMI on 52-inch model, two on 46-inch model and three on 42-inch model, as well as two component terminals on each. The 52-inch LC-52SB55U is available now for $2,299.99, the 46-inch LC-46SB54U is available now for $1,699.99 and the 42-inch LC-42SB45U will be available in September for $1,399.99.

In the release note of iPhone software 2.0.1, Apple didn’t give any information about the improvements that the update brought. But iPhone users have observed significant improvement in speed and stability of the software. In the video above Slash Gear notes that the website load time over WiFi and 3G has improvement with the new software. Other improvements includes:

It a good thing that Apple has fixed some of the problem, but two functions voice activated dialing and copy/paste, that I want for my iPhone are still missing. I hope Apple will add at least one of them in software update 2.1.

According to the latest MusicWatch Survey from NPD group, the top five music retailers in US for first half of 2008 ranked as follows:

iTunes maintained their leadership position that they reached earlier this year and Amazon rose from fifth to fourth place.
“We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group, in a statement. “Amazon’s CD buyers tend to be older, so they haven’t abandoned the CD format to the extent seen in the average music buyer. Plus Amazon’s successful introduction of its digital download store will help the company improve its position in the future.”
[Via MacDailyNews]

Digi Times is reporting that Intel’s next generation notebook platform Calpella is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2009. The platform will be based on Nehalem processor architecture and will abandon the current Northbridge and Southbridge chipset arrangement and transfer Northbridge components to CPU package. A single integrated chip codenamed Ibex Peak-M will coordinate other features on the motherboard. The two next generation notebook CPUs in Calpella platform are Clarksfield and Auburndale, both will feature on-die DDR3 memory controller. The Auburndale will also include graphics core integrated in CPU package. In Calpella platform, the Puma Peak chipset will support WiFi a/b/g/n and the Kilmer Peak chipset will also include WiMAX support.

Elpida today claimed to be the first memory manufacturer to develop 16GB fully buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) RAM. This doubles the capacity of single 8GB FB-DIMM RAM presently available and should expand the memory capacity of workstations and servers. The company uses a unique integrated packaging to fit the memory without creating excess. The 16GB RAM is 0.3-inch thin and has the same power requirements as the 8GB RAM. Elpida says that it will offer 667MHz and 800MHz versions to accommodate different generations of systems. It will start sampling the memory in August and mass production will start in fall.
[Via Electronista]

Motorola today unveiled mid-range ROKR music phones. The three phones EM30, EM28 and EM25 use Linux based operating system. The EM30 is a candybar phone that uses the same dynamic interface used by ROKR E8 that highlights keypad buttons depending on the menu function. The phone has quad band GSM/EDGE, 2-megapixel camera, microSDHC (up to 8GB), FM radio and 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone will supports Windows Media Player 11 for music syncing. It will be available very soon in Taiwan and will ship to other areas later this summer. The other two phones clamshell EM28 and slider EM25 will have 1.3-megapixel camera, microSD (up to 2GB), 3.5mm headphone jack, tri-band GSM/EDGE and FM radio. They will drop support for Windows media player but will have AAC and MP3 support. Both the phones will ship later this summer.

It took iPhone 3G only three days to reach one million mark and it took Samsung Soul just 30 days to achieve that magical figure. What is the big deal if a company sells one million handsets in three months, but than also HTC is announcing that they expect Touch Diamond to reach the one million mark by mid-August, less than three months after it began to ship the handset. I think it’s important for HTC, as it took five month for original HTC Touch to ship up to one million units.
HTC CEO Peter Chou said that HTC would ship two million Touch Diamond handsets by end of 2008. Digi Times’ sources at Taiwan handset industry speculate that later this year, HTC will revise the shipping target to 2.5-3 million for 2008.

Fusion will be AMD’s first CPU+GPU on one chip and the first Fusion processor is code-named Shrike. The chip will consist of dual core Phenom CPU and ATI RV800 GPU core. The chip will be DirectX 10.1 compliant and will use 40nm production technology. It will be launched by second half of 2009. In 2010 AMD plans to shrink the size further by using 32nm processor technology. According to TG Daily 32nm Shrike chip is a stopgap before the next generation CPU core, code-named “Bulldozer” is launched. The Bulldozer based chips will be called “Falcon” and it should arrive by end of 2010. AMD has justified its ATI acquisition by talking about integration of CPU and GPU on the same chip and Fusion will be the first chip to showcase that. Lets hope AMD comes up with an impressive chip to compete with Intel’s domination on mobile processor market.

Micron introduced its next generation solid-state drives (SSD) for servers RealSSD P200 and notebooks RealSSD C200. The new SSDs provide dramatic improvement in capacity, power and performance. The P200 is available in 2.5-inch form factor and comes in storage capacities of 16GB to 128GB. The drive is the first drive to achieve 250MBps read and write speed. The P200 uses Micron’s high-performa single-level cell NAND technology. The RealSSD C200 aimed at notebooks uses Micron’s multi-level cell technology and is available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors. The 2.5-inch C200 will be offered in densities of up to 256GB and the 1.8-inch C200 will range in density from 32GB to 128GB. These drives will be the first multi-level cell based drive to achieve read speed of 250MB/s and write speed of up to 100MB/s. All the drives will ship in fourth quarter of 2008 and according to Micron will be priced competitively.
[Via Micron]

Ars Technica has got its hand on an internal email sent to Apple employees this evening by Steve Jobs. In the email Steve admits that MobileMe launch was too early and not up to Apple’s usual standards. Jobs also believes that it would have been better to launched each MobileMe service one-by-one rather than launching all the services together.
“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Jobs said. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”
Apple has made Eddy Cue the lead for all Internet related services – including iTunes, App store and MobileMe and he will report directly to Steve Jobs.
“The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services,” Steve said. “And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by end of this year.”
[Via Ars Technica]

Polk’s new SurroundBar 360, which the company demoed at CES 2008, will ship in September for $1199.95. According to Polk the SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater is the best performing single-speaker surround sound theater system on market. The company uses patented SDA surround digital technology to deliver surround sound from single speaker system with eight drivers. The speaker comes with a CD/DVD player that uses a DCDi video upscaler capable of upconverting SD video to 480p, 720p or 1080i resolution. The system uses an integrated powered amplifier so there is no need of additional A/V receiver. According to Steve Guttenberg of The Audiophiliac blog the SurroundBar 360 makers a fair amount of bass on its own. In Polk’s demo he assumed that there was a sub-woofer somewhere in the room, but in fact the speaker produced a big, fat bass sound all by itself. Overall the SurroundBar 360 sounds a good system for those who don’t want clutter of multiple speakers and wires in their room. But a single speaker can’t match the surround sound effect you get from multiple speaker arrangement.

Apple today released the iPhone/iPod touch 2.0.1 software that includes bug fixes for the iPhone and iPod touch. To get the 249.2MB download, connect your iPhone or iPod touch to iTunes and click “Check for Update” button. Based on release note it looks like the update only includes bug fixes and no new feature.

Lenovo has also joined the mini-notebook club today by announcing the new IdeaPad S10 netbook based on Intel’s Atom 1.6GHz processor. The new S10 comes with 10.2-inch LED backlit screen, up to 2GB RAM, up to 160GB hard drive, 4-in-1 card slot, express card slot, WiFi b/g, Ethernet and Bluetooth. The base configuration comes with 512MB RAM and 80GB hard drive for $399. Another standard configurations available is with 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive for $449, The IdeaPad is based on Windows XP and will come in three colors red, blue and white with a 1.3 megapixel web-camera. The S10 measures 9.85” x 7.20” x 0.86-1.08” and weighs 2.42 pounds. The base model comes with 3-cell battery that will last for up to 3 hours and there is an option of upgrading to 6-cell battery that should double the battery life. One paper the IdeaPad S10’s configuration looks better than all the mini-notebooks presently offered. Lenovo plans to ship the S10 in first half of October 2008.
[Via Slash Gear]

A Taiwanese website Apple.pro has leaked photos of the casing for the upcoming all aluminum MacBook. It has been rumored that the upcoming Macbook will use aluminum casing like the MacBook Air and Pro. It is also believed that the new MacBook would take design cues like tapered edges from MacBook Air to make the new MacBook thinner. The leaked photos show the lid with tapered edges and the screen casing for the new MacBook. No other information about the upcoming notebook is revealed in the leak. But it is expected that Apple will use the new Core 2 Duo chips, which has 25 watts TDP. This will give the new notebooks a slimmer profile around 0.8-inch thick. Apple will launch the new laptop in September along with redesigned MacBook Pro.