Apple Patent Keyboard Blows Air

A patent application from Apple, filed in 2009 now revealed, aims to improve the user experience by "expelling air from the input device proximate the key when user selection is imminent." That's right -- your keyboard could blow on your fingertips as you blow my mind in the comments. Another solution in the patent would function like a vacuum to pull keys away when a proximity sensor detects that you're about to type, providing simulated feedback. If this concept takes off in the future, your next MacBook Air could really live up to its name.

Samsung’s Foldable Display Will Let You Stuff Giant Tablets in Your Pants

Tiny tablets' major advantage over the 10-inch crowd: They'll fit in your pocket. Samsung's latest foldable, creaseless AMOLED display will let you fold a tablet in half—effectively making bigger tablets pocketable.

Back in 2008, the South Korean company showcased a foldable OLED mobile phone at the FPD conference for display manufacturers. The technology was stunning back then but it suffered from one major flaw — the hinge required for folding produced a crease in the middle of the display.

The electronics manufacturer has removed this imperfection using a combination of silicone rubber, two protective glass panels and a pair of AMOLED displays. The AMOLED displays are mounted seamlessly next to each other on a flat piece of silicone rubber, two glass panels are placed on top of the AMOLED panels, both to protect the displays and let you use them as touchscreens. This rubber sandwich is then mounted in a case and folded in half.

The magic in this equation lies in the silicone rubber which is hyper-elastic and lets you fold it 180 degrees with a hinge less than 1mm. The researchers were able to fold the display over 100,000 times with minimal effect on the optical quality of the AMOLED (just a 6 percent brightness loss at the crease) or the elasticity of the rubber. This system is better than other foldable OLED technologies as it uses components that are readily available and relatively inexpensive.

 

 

Fujitsu's TH40/D Convertible Tablet Slides Into Japan, Packs Atom Z670 and Windows 7

A slide-out tablet running on Windows 7, you say? Inside this 2.4-pound convertible laptop you'll find a 1.5GHz Oak Trail Atom Z670, 1GB of non-expandable DDR2 RAM, a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 touchscreen, a 120GB 4200rpm hard drive, and a battery life of around 6 hours. Other tidbits include 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out, an SD card slot, and a teeny optical trackpad placed next to the short space bar. If you still want one, then be ready to fork out about ¥80,000 ($990) at the end of June.

 

 

Adapter-Friendly Power Strips Never Get Old

The Pivot Power strip isn't the first to try and solve the bulky power adapter problem. And like others, its rotating design probably won't top the Power Squid in sheer utility. But others aren't nearly as attractive as this one.

 

 

Why You Should Never Ever Post Your Mom’s Photo on a Message Board

The internet is a cruel place. We're all pretty well caught up on that by now, yes? More so, anyhow, than this unfortunate LSU Tigers fan, who asked a message board at Tigerdroppings to fix up a picture of his blessed mum. You can probably guess what happened next.

The torrent of Photoshops and gifs was unrelenting; everything from the Mona Lisa to Austin Powers.

Play Angry Birds Online, Right Now, for Free

Google isn't above killing a little productivity to prove the power of its web browser. The search engine king has released a special free browser-based version of Rovio's avian-flinging sensation Angry Birds on the Chrome Web Store, just to prove it can be done.

Announced earlier today at the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco, the new browser-based version of Angry Birds is a testament to how far Google's Chrome browser has come in a short time. According to Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome, Angry Birds in a web browser wouldn't have been possible a year ago. With a graphics rendering speed ten-times-faster than earlier versions, today's Chrome can make it happen.

The free version of Angry Birds features the game's first level, Poached Eggs, along with a set of exclusive Chrome-themed levels. You can install it now via the Chrome Web Store. It runs rather nicely, and as an added bonus, remains cached for offline play.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got pigs to kill.

An iPad Keyboard That Lays On Top of the iPad

The iKeyboard lays on top of your iPad and has cutouts that fit the iPad's keyboard perfectly. There's a thin layer of film within each key cutout that when pressed, presses into the iPad key. Not only does that film let you rest your hands on the keyboard without touching the screen, it gives you that tactile feedback that most of us need. And since it's not really a keyboard itself, the overall size of the iKeyboard is much smaller than the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. You can find it here.

 

 

Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C Has 3D Cameras

The HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D just got themselves a new buddy in the three-dee picture-taking arena in the shape of Sharp's Aquos Phone SH-12C. We know, that name just rolls off the tongue. What's remarkable about the 12C is that the dual cameras on its back go all the way up to 8 megapixels (to the EVO 3D's 5), which will be creating quite the tasty workload for the 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip contained within. A qHD (540 x 960) screen resolution also keeps up with HTC's latest, though the 4.2-inch, 3D-capable display on the Aquos offers more pixel density and less in absolute real estate. Android 2.3, replete with some evident customizations, will serve as the OS, and 720p video recording in 3D will also be available when Sharp launches the 12C in Japan on May 20th.

 

 

Google Ice Cream Sandwich

"One OS that runs everywhere." There you have it, folks! Google intends to meld its Honeycomb tablet wares and Gingerbread smartphone software into one delicious Ice Cream Sandwich. Maybe that's why the "sandwich" bit is in the name? Either way, it'll be a universal OS that runs on everything from teeny tiny Android phones to 10-inch tablets and will intelligently adapt to each form factor with things like a resizable status bar. Some other fancy new additions were added, including face-tracking and camera focus shifting based on voice recognition, but most of the salient details remain under lock and key for now. 

 

 

This iPhone Finds Landmines

Your iPhone can find a lot of stuff: taxis, toilets, cafés, nearby sexual partners. How cute! And pitiable. While you've been scouting the best place to poop, Harvard researchers are working on an app that finds landmines.

Landmines detection is still surprisingly rudimentary: a human being waves a metal detector over the ground, and listens for audible cues that's there's something metal underground. But that poses a lot of problems. There's a lot of metal junk in the ground where stuff is blowing up all the time. Worse, operators have to be able to pick out mines from debris without losing life or limb. They do that by listening to beeps as they make passes trying to figure out what shape that metal thing underground is. It's hard!

Enter PETALS: pattern enhancement tool for assisting land mine sensing. The basic idea is that it allows anyone, even an inexperienced sweeper, to determine if there's a landmine and where it is. The app receives data from a metal detector and creates a visualization of the spatial pattern below ground. It helps reduce judgement calls in determining if something is or isn't a mine, making de-mining easier, safer and faster.

ASUS Eee PC 1015PX Netbook Now Shipping

Heads up, netbook enthusiasts: the ASUS Eee PC 1015PX is now available for stateside delivery. Essentially an upgrade to last year's 1015PEM, this puppy rocks a 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 display and houses a 1.66Ghz Intel Atom N570 dual-core CPU. It also comes equipped with a 250GB hard disk, up to 2GB of DDR3 memory, Bluetooth 3.0 capabilities, LAN and VGA ports, and a 0.3-megapixel camera.

Buyers have the choice between two models: the MU17, which promises a ten hour battery life and the PU17, designed for an eleven hour run. Despite their battery-related differences, both models weigh 2.76-pounds and are available on Amazon for $320 and $390, or on Newegg for $330 and $350, respectively.

Julian Assange Thinks Facebook Is the "Most Appalling Spy Machine That Has Ever Been Invented”

In an interview with Russia Today, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange went all conspiracy theorist on Facebook. He says:

Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented. Here we have the worlds most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their location their communication with each other, their relatives all accessible to US intelligence.

Assange didn't out and declare Facebook was working in cahoots with US intelligence but said that:

Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them

Julian Assange! What a guy. Watch the whole interview at Russia Today.

Samsung's 75-inch D9500 3D TV Announced in Korea

3D is best served on a large plate, this 75-inch platter, dubbed D9500, has stolen the short-lived crown off LG's 72-inch LZ9700 to become the world's largest LED-backlit 3D LCD HDTV, and obviously Samsung's still staying faithful to its active shutter 3D technology following its recent price drop on its glasses. 

The 240Hz display will also come with the usual Smart TV features, garnished by a QWERTY flip remote for your web-browsing and SNS needs on that large screen. Oddly enough, only an ex-factory price of a whooping ₩19,000,000 ($17,600), so customers will have to pay a bit more than that during the pre-sales at the end of the month.

 

 

Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain

Those who are easily distracted from the task in hand may have "too much brain". So says Ryota Kanai and his colleagues at University College London, who found larger than average volumes of grey matter in certain brain regions in those whose attention is readily diverted.

To investigate distractibility, the team compared the brains of easy and difficult-to-distract individuals. They assessed each person's distractibility by quizzing them about how often they fail to notice road signs, or go into a supermarket and become sidetracked to the point that they forget what they came in to buy. The most distractible individuals received the highest score.

The team then imaged the volunteers' brains using a structural MRI scanner. The most obvious difference between those who had the highest questionnaire scores – the most easily distracted – and those with low scores was the volume of grey matter in a region of the brain known as the left superior parietal lobe (SPL). Specifically, the easily distracted tended to have more grey matter here.

 

 

Charge Your Gadgets With Solar Panels and Moving Furniture

Wander through MIT's Killian Court and you'll spot something distinctly modern nestled amongst its classical buildings -- a set of solar-powered lounge chairs called SOFT Rockers. These curved, solar-panel-covered seats rotate on an axis to keep them facing the sun, generating additional energy from the rocking motion created when people climb inside. All that harvested electricity can be used to recharge gadgets plugged into the three USB ports and to illuminate a light strip on the inside of the loop.

 

 

Take iPhone Photos, Get Paid

That's what Gigwalk promises at least, providing you the chance to make some money for snapping some street shots with your phone if you're in the right place.

It's simple: you sign up, enter your PayPal info, and look on the map to pick up a nearby "gig." TechCrunch uses Gigwalk's client TomTom as an example, explaining that the navigation company could use the photos from GigWise users to verify information about streets, such as signs, lights, points of interest or one-way paths. Small gigs pay as little as $3. Others pay as much as $90.

PQI’s USB 3.0 Is the World’s Smallest Flashdrive

We're living in the Dropbox era-I can beam an album, text, or naked pictures to anyone in the world without the need for barbaric physical media. Still, when it comes time for heavy lifting—say, swapping TV seasons with an office buddy or collaborating with obese HD video files, having a blazing, tiny USB drive can be a godsend. This little sucker just might be the logical conclusion of the flashdrive.

World's Biggest CMOS Sensor Could Help Doctors Detect and Treat Cancer

Move over, Canon, because scientists at the University of Lincoln have just seized the crown for world's biggest CMOS image sensor with their new Dynamic range Adjustable for Medical Imaging Technology microchip -- or 'DyNAMITe,' for short. Measuring a hefty 12.8 square cm (or about five square inches), DyNAMITe is roughly 200 times bigger than the chips you'd find in most PCs, making it the largest imager ever made on a wafer of standard, eight-inch diameter. This extra girth allows the active pixel sensor to capture images in high detail, with a 100-micrometer pitch boasting 1280 x 1280p aligned next to a 50-micron layer, carrying 2560 x 2560p. 

It can also run at up to 90fps and withstand high levels of radiation for several years, making it ideal for medical imaging, including radiotherapy and mammography. Researchers say these enhanced images could help doctors detect cancer in its earliest phases, while allowing them to monitor radiotherapy treatments more closely.

 

 

Creative ZEN M300

Secretly want an iPod nano? Creative's ZEN M300 is like a slightly jumbo-er nano—but it plays video, has a microSD card slot, is Bluetooth and doesn't force you to use a thumbnail-sized touchscreen.

What matters most, though, is that it isn't made by Apple, right? Out in June, it starts at $50 for 4GB, and goes up to $90 for 16GB. 

 

 

Google Searches Around the Globe Visualized

Using WebGL and different color crayons for each language, the coders at Mountain View have put together the above Search Globe, which presents a single day's worth of Google queries in a beautiful, skyscraper-infused visualization.

 

 

A Weather-Proof Sneaker

The outer layer is hand-crafted using an updated form of Ventile, a densely-knit cotton fabric invented by the British Navy to protect pilots shot down in the North Sea during WWII. That, along with a construction process that employs only two exterior stitches, should keep your feet dry and warm no matter what weather you're riding through.

The inner is made from a double layer of French calf leather (because socks are for hobos) and the outsole uses Vibram rubber over vegetable leather to maintain a solid grip on the pedals. You can find them  here.

 

 

Jaguar Million-Dollar C-X75 Hybrid Supercar in 2013

The British automaker has just announced its intention to produce a limited run of 250 C-X75 supercars in partnership with Formula 1 team Williams, however the retail model will eschew the craziest aspect of the original design -- the twin turbine engines at the back. Those will be replaced with a four-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine, which will aid the four electric motors (one attached to each wheel). Don't worry, though, this tweak has actually made the C-X75 accelerate even faster, as it's now rated to go from 0 to 60mph in under three seconds. 2013 is when the earliest production of this road-faring beast is expected to commence, with prices starting at £700,000 ($1.15 million), and there's even a glimmer of hope that a version with the gas turbines will also be built at some point down the line.

 

 

Samsung's Shutter Glasses Fets a Price Cut

Following its pledge to make 3D TV experience more affordable, Samsung's just announced a price drop on the rest of its active shutter glasses lineup.

 The entry-level SSG-3100GB went from $129.99 down to just $49.99 last month; and now the better-looking SSG-3300CR plus SSG-3300GR reduced by $50 down to $129.99, along with the swanky SSG-3700CR(pictured above) getting a $70 discount to just $149.99. Of course, these premium spectacles are still far from affordable compared to their passive counterparts, so it'll be interesting to see if Samsung's attempt to lure more 3D viewers will work at all.

Osama’s Hideout on Google Maps

Osama bin Laden was camped out in a Pakistani mansion—and in typical internet fashion, it's already pinpointed on Google. The mapper's anonymous, but they reveal strange things—police station neighbors?

 

 

Sony Ericsson Announces new Generation of Xperia Smartphones

Sony Ericsson has just outed a brand new pair of compact Xperia smartphones. The new Xperia Mini will run Android Gingerbread (2.3) on a 3-inch, multitouch, scratch-resistant display, which comes with Sony's proprietary Bravia Engine with Reality Display. There's a 1GHz processor inside, access to Android Market, and home screen customization with custom shortcuts available in the four corners of the screen. A 30 percent improvement in battery life is also touted, courtesy of a larger cell. SE is also pretty jolly about having the world's smallest smartphone capable of recording video in 720p HD. You'll be able to grab yours in one of four different colors this August.

 

 

Samsung SENS-240 Navigation Tablet

According to Akihabara News, the SENS-240 uses Bluetooth to take over your voice, data, voice search, and even "video features" from your smartphone when driving. You can then control the SENS-240 using your smarpthone or tablet as an "advanced" remote when idle. Tthe SENS-240 comes packing 256MB of RAM, USB-host mode, and an SD slot in addition to a 1.43GHz processor said to be powerful enough to handle 3D maps, video, or DMB TV on that 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, it's Korea-only for now.

World’s Tiniest Video Camera

Just a few weeks ago, the world's tiniest video camera was as small as a grain of rice. Today, the world's nanoest camera is even smaller.

It's made by medical device company Medigus, and it's only 0.99mm wide. The measly fraction of a millimeter doesn't seem like much, but it means a lot in the world of endoscopic/medical procedures. Using a 0.66 x 0.66mm CMOS sensor, this puniest of cameras produces images with a resolution of 45,000 pixels (just under 1/20th of a megapixel).

 

 

This Mousepad Never Wears Out

Say what you will about the silliness of gaming mousepads, but Razer's new Goliathus has a serious selling point: A new textured weave and anti-fraying stitched frame allows you to tear ass without tearing up your mousepad. The smaller pad starts at $15, and they go up to $25 for larger surfaces.

 

 

The Classy Cord Tamer

Cords! All gadgets have 'em. They're everywhere. And there are a million different ways to deal with them. But this cord tamer from Pinza  is prettier than most, cast from solid stainless steel and hand-polished. $26

Origami Laptop

The teeny MacBook Air has tried inserting itself between the two, but for those of us who prefer a full-sized screen, Niels van Hoof's Feno laptop concept could be the answer.

Well, if it were more than pixels on our screens, that is. The designer suggests flexible OLEDs could be used on laptops so they could fold up in three, making them smaller and lighter than before. I like how it's still wide enough to slide a CD in, and that there's also room for a little pop-out mouse. It'll never get turned into a real product of course, but it's nice to dream isn't it?

 

 

Vodafone lets Londoners Pay For Taxis via Text Message

Mobile payment systems may be gaining only gradual steam in the US, but over on the other side of the pond, Vodafone UK has launched a broad new campaign to integrate smartphone technology where Londoners may need it most -- in the back of taxis. As of today, many cab passengers will be able to charge their smartphones in transit, thanks to a wide range of chargers that the mobile carrier has installed in more than 500 of London's iconic black vehicles. Vodafone is also rolling out a new payment scheme today, whereby cash-strapped travelers can text their cab's license number to a specific code, allowing any owed fares to be charged directly to their phone bills. The system certainly doesn't sound as elegant as some of the NFC-based operations we've heard about, but it still beats having to navigate your cab driver to the nearest ATM, with the meter tick-tocking away.

 

 

LG Blade Laptops Bedazzle With Slim Bezels, Aluminum Bodies, and Core i7

The 14-inch P430 and 15.6-inch P530 mark the start of LG's new Blade series of laptops, which are the result of some obsessive slimming work at the LG labs -- display thickness is 4.5mm and 4.7mm, respectively, while the bezel on the 14-inch model is so narrow as to fit its screen within the dimensions of a traditional 13.3-inch laptop. Weight, at 1.94kg on the P430 and 2.2kg on P530, is also said to be on par with machines offering significantly smaller screens, but that's not at the sacrifice of construction materials as brushed aluminum is used to strengthen LG's new slimsters. A Core i7 CPU and GeForce GT520M GPU will provide the internal firepower, though the rest of the hardware specs are as yet unannounced. The P430 will launch in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America at the end of May, to be followed by the P530 in June.

 

 

Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series Now Available for $649 Amazon Pre-order

According to Amazon's listing, the 7 Series should ship with many of the same specs: a 10-inch touchscreen with 1366 x 768-resolution, dual front and rear cameras (1.3 and 3.0 megapixels, respectively), a 32GB SSD, 2GB of RAM and, of course, Intel's 1.5GHz Atom Oak Trail Z670 processor, which was originally scheduled to launch in March, before being pushed back to May. The slider will also run on Windows 7 Home Premium, and come equipped with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. When it debuted earlier this year, the Series 7 boasted optional 3G and WiMax features, as well as a six-cell battery that claimed to last up to nine hours on a single charge. And, at $649, it's even a little cheaper than expected.

 

 

Biological Viruses Might Actually Give Us Better Solar Power

Boffins at MIT have discovered that a genetically modified version of the M13 virus can actually increase the efficiency of solar cells, to as much as a third greater efficiency. This means converting sunlight to electricity wouldn't take so darn long, and perhaps even more electricity out of mother nature's rays, as well.

Fooling around with viruses at the microscopic level is only a tiny process, but has extraordinary benefits. In fact, MIT's researchers have only added 0.1 per cent extra weight to the finished solar cells, but as Professor Belcher says, "a little biology goes a long way."

Gigabyte's S1080 Windows Tablet

Looks like Gigabyte's S1080 tablet, which landed in Taiwan earlier this month, is getting ready to hit shelves in the US. The 10.1-inch Windows 7 slate stopped by the FCC, where it got cracked open and had its silicon-packed innards exposed for the camera. There's nothing new to glean here -- specs are still the same (dual-core Atom, 320GB hard drive, etcetera).

 

 

Finger-Nose Smartphone Stylus

Finally! For those of us who happen to take our smartphones into the bath with us—admit it—Dominic Wilcox has the answer. It's a stylus wrapped in plaster that you wear on your nose to peck at your phone.

As insane as this sounds and looks, it does what its supposed to. Nevermind the fact that you shouldn't get your phone or tablet wet with whatever is on your hands when you use it. Just take the extra time to put your Finger-Nose on, and away you go.

I can just barely see using this indoors for those guilty moments when I need an almost hands-free solution for my iPhone. I really want to see this catch on just to see professionals walking around looking like characters out of a Tim Burton movie. There is literally no downside.

 

 

I-O Data's HDCA-UT3.0K Drive Offers USB 3.0 And 3TB of Storage

If you've been on the hunt for the biggest, fastest hard drive around, it seems your options are expanding. I-O Data just introduced the HDCA-UT3.0K external hard drive, which offers USB 3.0 support and 3TB of storage, which, as the company notes, makes it an ideal companion for TVs with a USB recording mode. Struggling to resist the charm of its blue LED and the possibility of owning more storage than you'll ever need? Look for it in mid-May with a price of ¥26,400 ($324).

 

 

IdeaPad S205 Hits Lenovo Webstore, Starts at $499

The base model sells for $499, sporting a 1.60Ghz dual-core AMD Fusion E-350 CPU, an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768 resolution) 16:9 widescreen panel, 3GB of DDR3 SDRAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 6310 graphics, and a 350GB HDD. Two higher cost configurations score an extra gig of RAM, an optional Bluetooth radio, and a 500GB or 750GB HDD. 

 

 

Google launches Chrome 11 With Fat Icon

Firefox 4? Too furry. Internet Explorer 9? Too blue. Google's Chrome? Just the right amount of shine -- or is it? The company introduced a flat new logo for the browser and now that logo is gracing the software's latest stable release. Chrome 11 is now available, the biggest changes being a number of security and bug fixes, some of which "may be kept private until a majority of our users are up to date with the fix." The new version also delivers speech-to-text and, perhaps more importantly, text-to-speech. 

 

 

Depleted Uranium Could Be Used to Create MASSIVE Hard Drives

Uranium that's been depleted isn't necessarily waste, according to researchers at Nottingham University. They think—besides making ammo and tank armor—it could be used as the basis for future hard drives thousands of times larger than current ones.

You see a molecule comprised of two Uranium atoms has magnetic properties at low temperatures, making the element ideal for a super dense hard drive. Referred to as a single-molecule magnet, this possible application for Uranium wouldn't pose any safety threats because any radioactive properties would be absent. All of this is still in the infant stages of the research project, but imagine being able to store the capacity of today's data center in a single desktop drive. Awesome, right?

 

 

iPhone Turntable Concept Brings Dropped Calls to Your Record Collection

Any audiophile worth their weight in 180 gram vinyl will gladly tell you that nothing sounds quite as good as a record. Unfortunately, the format has a few major drawbacks, like a lack of portability and the fact that it really sucks at making phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, is light years ahead of those fronts -- well, one of out two ain't bad. This new concept from designer Olivier Meynard offers the best of both worlds, embedding a horizontal iPhone dock next to a wheel of steel, so you can play back your favorite LP through the built-in speakers and encode those tracks as MP3s, which are uploaded to your handset as it charges. Finally, a way to turn your long out of print prog rock albums into ringtones, as they were meant to be heard.

Free Android Apps Outnumber Free iPhone Apps

Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Google's mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. 

And then there's Apple's sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage -- after all, this report doesn't highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 -- but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS's relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months' time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined -- a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer.

 

 

Microsoft Announces Record Q3 Earnings: $16.43 Billion Revenue, $5.23 Billion net Income

Well, it looks like the record quarters from tech companies just keep on coming -- this time it's Microsoft, which just reported $16.43 billion in revenue in its third-quarter results, a jump of 13 percent from the previous year, and well ahead of analysts' expectations. Net income clocked in at $5.23 billion, a whopping 31 percent increase from the previous year, with Microsoft citing strong sales of Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect as key driving factors. The company also reiterated that it's sold a staggering 350 million Windows 7 licenses so far, and said that its Entertainment & Devices Division has grown a full 60 percent year-over-year -- again, largely fueled by those record-setting sales of Kinect and continued strong sales of Xbox 360 consoles and Xbox Live.

As for Windows Phone, Microsoft unfortunately isn't providing much in the way of specifics -- on its earnings call, it only went as far as to say that "product reviews are good" and "customer satisfaction is high," and that developer interest has increased following its announcement of the Nokia partnership. It was unsurprisingly a bit more eager to divulge specifics for its gaming business, though, and revealed that it sold 2.4 million Kinect sensors in Q3, along with 2.7 million Xbox 360 consoles -- the latter of which is a new third quarter record for the company.

 

 

MSI Gets a SteelSeries Keyboard, Builds The GX780 Gaming Notebook

The worst part about buying a fancy new gaming keyboard? It's hard to show the thing off if it never leaves your basement apartment. MSI's newly announced GX780 notebook combines a colorful backlit 102-key SteelSeries-designed keyboard with the (relative) portability of an 8.6 pound gaming laptop. The keyboard features 1,000 different color combinations, five lighting modes, 10 key simultaneous input, and a layout the company calls "The Golden Triangle" -- trademark pending, we're sure. The 17.3 inch notebook has some solid non-keyboard specs as well, including GeForce GT555M graphics, a second gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an impressive maximum 16GB of DDR3. No word on pricing or availability, but hopefully the MSRP isn't as colorful as that keyboard.

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S II Begins Quest for 120 Country Domination

Samsung is holding a media day event in South Korea to celebrate the domestic launch of its smokin' fast Galaxy S II. Thedual-core 1.2GHz Gingerbread handset with 4.27-inch 800 x 480 pixel Super AMOLED Plus display,TouchWiz 4.0 UI, MHL port, and 8 megapixel camera capable of 1080p video is already on limited sale in the UK on its way to a 120 country / 140 carrier invasion.

 

 

Google Docs Gets an Android App, Lets You Capture Text With Your Phone's Camera

Google's had a mobile-friendly version of Google Docs available for some time now, but it's now finally gone the extra step and released a dedicated Android app. That will of course let you access and edit your documents on your smartphone, but the real standout feature is the ability to capture text with your phone's camera and have it instantly made editable thanks to some optical character recognition. 

Google notes that won't work with handwriting or some fonts, but it promises it will get better over time. Hit up Android Market to try it out for yourself.

White iPhone 4 Releases Tomorrow, Finally

The rare albino iPhone 4 has been spotted numerous times in the wild, skulking through the trees in the magical United Kingdom, cavorting across the mysterious lands of Vietnam, and most recently standing in formation in Belgium. Now it's coming somewhere rather less exotic: the Apple Store. Apple has finally announced it will release the white iPhone 4 tomorrow around the world. 

Here in the US it'll come in both AT&T and Verizon flavors, warming the hearts and minds of those who like a little less pigment on their handsets. Other than a proximity sensor tweak nothing else has changed on the device, and so the pricing remains the same: $199 on contract for the 16GB model, $299 for 32GB. 

 

 

MySpace Will be Sold

After buying MySpace for $580 million five years ago, News Corporation will sell the dying social network at a steep discount, with bids due this week. But don't even think about bidding below $100 million. MySpace has its dignity!

One of MySpace's potential buyers, which include a Chinese internet portal and various private equity firms, told the Wall Street Journal that News Corp. has set a $100 million floor on bids for MySpace. Because apparently News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch will gladly take a $480 million bath on the value of MySpace, but they absolutely refuse to take a $481 million bath. OK!

In fairness, News Corp. probably did fine on MySpace when you factor in the $900 million in MySpace advertising it sold to Google five years ago. Did fine, that is, unless News Corp. somehow manages to blow even more of that money trying to keep MySpace alive on its own books.

A Chair With Better Speakers Than Your Pimped-Out Sound System

Anyone who's toured their local modern art museum has seen a fair share of odd-looking furniture. And the Subsonic Chair would fit right in.

It doesn't look like something I'd want to sit in. But what this chair lacks in comfort is made up for in power. The Subsonic uses 1,000 watts to run its two 16-inch subwoofers, two 4-inch mid-range speakers, and two high-frequency tweeters. John Greg Ball, the chair's designer, originally conceptualized the idea in 2005, but has since gone ahead and created this prototype. Ball said he wanted "this to be an extremely loud object... I want the sound to be just like thunder." On second thought, a museum is probably the last place you want a chair that makes your ears bleed.

 

 

Netgear's N750 Wireless Router Newspeaks its Way to 750Mbps

Believe it or not, blazing-fast WiFi routers don't have to look like anti-aircraft weapons. The new flagship device from Netgear, the N750, keeps its array of antennae stashed out of sight. Even without a gaudy design, this dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n router can hit speeds of 450Mbps over the 5GHz band and 300Mbps at 2.4Ghz, for an "aggregate combined data rate" of 750Mbps. 

Don't get too excited though, all that means is you can connect one device in either band without dragging down the transfer rate of the other -- you're still bound by the 450Mbps speed limit. The N750 also includes a ReadySHARE USB port for network storage, parental controls, and guest access -- not bad for $150, eh?