Nokia and Microsoft Sign Definitive Agreement, Bring Windows Phone Handsets Closer to Realization

Microsoft and Nokia's industry-altering announcement of a strategic alliance back in February has today been bolstered with the signing of a definitive agreement between the two companies. In announcing the inking of the paperwork, the Microkia crew point out that they're already hard at work developing "a portfolio" of Nokia Windows Phone devices, which will be shipping "in volume" in 2012, but there's still a twinkling hope that they can get something out on the market in 2011. Nokia devs have started porting key applications and services to Windows Phone, with mapping and navigation getting a highlight mention, while there will indeed be a "Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Marketplace infrastructure." Notably, this is described as a single portal where devs can serve their apps to users of Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices -- it'll be interesting to see how they work out the details of that. There's also confirmation that Microsoft will pay Nokia multiple billions of dollars as part of the agreement, some of which will be spent on completing an intellectual property-sharing agreement between the two teams. So yes, the third ecosystem is well and truly on its way.

 

 

Indulge Your Deepest Digital Paranoia with Signal-Blocking Faraday Bags

In light of recent cellular privacy revelations, your most paranoid neurons might be firing hard. You can put a tinfoil hat on your head, but what about your gadgets? These Faraday Bags put your device in a radio-proof vault.

The cases, like a standard (room-sized) Faraday cage, block out electrical charges and electromagnetic radiation—so zero signal bars for you, sir. The bags come in a variety of sizes, priced from $80 to $275 here.

 

 

Samsung Crafts an Underwater Flip Cam Clone

 

Samsung's new W200 digital camcorder is very, very similar to the recently murdered Flip. It looks the same, functions the same, and has about the same quality (1080p at 30 FPS). But it's got a trick—it swims.

The W200's waterproof up to three meters, and ruggedized against nasty falls. The W200 also snaps 5 MP stills, but the main draw will be for those who want to capture video where a smartphone might wuss out. Check for it in May.

 

 

Stuff Your Camera Inside the Body of an Easter Bunny

Just in time for the holiday, this adorably strange Micro 4/3 camera case has my ears (eh? EH?) perked up with excitement. Sure, it may not be "practical," but come on—it's a furry rabbit case.

No mention on pricing, but it's stitched of cotton and leather, so probably not cheap.

 

 

ASUS Bamboo-plated U43SD Laptop

The U43SD doesn't appear to stray from its predecessor's industrial design (save for its bigger 14-inch screen), but it steps up to the latest Core i3 and Core i5 processors, along with NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics with 1GB of video memory. You can also choose from 5,400RPM and 7,200RPM hard drive options and either a six- or eight-cell battery.

 

 

Maxell's Vibrabone HP-VBC40 Earbuds Can Rattle Your Skull, if You'd Like

Maxell has taken a slightly different approach to the bone conduction trope with its new Vibrabone HP-VBC40 earbuds – headphones that combine standard stereo drivers with the same bone-rattling, vibration-based technology we've all come to know and love. According to Maxell, the Vibrabone's hybrid system enhances the bass that would be coursing its way through your cranium, while its dual volume control allows users to fine tune that bass flow. 

Apparently, this bass adjustment mechanism puts less stress on your eardrums, which might make the entire bone conduction concept seem slightly less creepy. The earbuds come in black, blue and white, and will be available in Japan toward the end of April, for a little under ¥4,000 or about $50.

 

 

Samsung Sells HDD Division to Seagate for $1.375 Billion

The Korean electronics giant has just announced that it's selling its hard disk drive-manufacturing arm to Seagate Technology for a neat $1.375 billion in equal measures of cash and stocks. As a result, Samsung Electronics will own approximately 9.6 percent of Seagate and get to nominate one new member to join Seagate's Board of Directors, while the two companies have further agreed to deepen their strategic relationship with related cross-licensing and supply stipulations. 

Samsung will provision Seagate's solid state drives with NAND flash memory, whereas Seagate will furnish Samsung's PCs and consumer electronics products with hard disk storage. 

 

 

The iPhone 4 is Killing Compact Cameras When it Comes to Photo Uploads

The iPhone 4 has steadily been pushing its way up the most-uploaded list at Flickr for some time now, it's almost toppled the Nikon D40 off the pedestal. It'll be around a month when Apple receives the Flickr crown, on Flickr, at least.

Interestingly, the D40 is three years old, and the iPhone 4 is under a year old. Behind the iPhone is the Canon EOS Rebel XSi, which is also three years old. The second chart, above, shows the decline of the most popular compact cameras, which coincidentally are all Canon PowerShots.

So what's behind this trend? Is it that more people own iPhones than compacts, or simply that the iPhone's always-connected status (well, if you're not on AT&T, anyway) is a better conduit for uploading pics on the fly?

MacBook Airs With Faster Blade SSDs

When Apple released its redesigned MacBook Air in October 2010, much was made of the switch to flash storage using a custom-built Mini PCI Express form factor SSD drive. It took a few weeks but these SSDs would ultimately be released as the commercially available Toshiba Blade X-gale SSD module, model TS128C. Now we're seeing user reports showing MacBook Airs equipped with a second, even faster SSD with a SM128C part number -- the "SM" hinting at its presumed Samsung manufacturing origins.

 Samsung's SSD manages up to 260MBps read and 210MBps write speeds compared to Toshiba's 210MBps read and 185MBps write performance. Of course, it's hardly unusual for Apple to multi-source components. And a recent decision to source parts from Korea's Samsung would have been a smart move to keep just-in-time supply lines fully stocked following the spate of disasters in Toshiba's home country of Japan. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any way of confirming which SSD you're about to purchase without cracking open the retail box and running the OS X System Profiler. Good luck with that.

 

 

The Minimalist, Lightweight Knife

These tiny, lightweight knives might make the perfect pocket knife for everyday use, and they're no doubt great for travel. Note: Probably not on planes.

Manufactured by Baladeo, the knife is available in two featherweight varieties, 22g and 34g, and performed pretty well in basic knife-related tasks (although, as Boing Boing notes, they are not workhorses).

The only "minor" issue they discovered while using the knife was that the locking mechanism slipped once and folded in such a way that it could have conceivably cut the tester's fingers. But it didn't!

 

 

Paper Alloy Takes

So you're anxiously awaiting your biodegradable car and your biodegradable 3D glasses, waiting for the day when everything you own can return to the loam from which it sprang. But, what about the computer you're using this very moment? It's probably made of non-green materials like injection-molded plastic, and slapping some bamboo on it isn't fooling anyone.

 Design and engineering firm PEGA comes to your rescue with a new composite material made of recycled paper and polypropylene alloy. Lightweight, durable, and inexpensive to produce, it acts just like typical ABS plastic -- and it even comes in the classic soul-killing beige. Maybe this is what Apple's been waiting for.

Google Announces Q1 Earnings: $8.58 Billion Gross Revenue

Well, it looks like Larry Page had a bit of good news and some bad news to deal with on his first quarterly earnings call as CEO of Google. The company has just reported $8.58 billion in gross revenue for the first quarter of 2011, which represents a 27 percent increase over the first quarter of last year, but is actually a bit less than analysts were expecting. That figure also doesn't include the company's so-called traffic acquisition costs, however, which totaled $2.04 billion for the quarter and bring the company's actual revenue down to "just" $6.54 billion. Net income for the quarter was $2.3 billion, which represents a more modest gain from $1.96 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Also cutting into profits quite a bit was Google's operating expenses, which were up a hefty 33 percent to $2.8 billion -- a sizable chunk of which went to the nearly 2,000 new employees the company hired during the quarter.

Interestingly, Google also revealed a few Android stats during its earnings call, saying that app downloads are up a full fifty percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, and that there's a total of three billion Android apps installed worldwide. As for Android devices, there's apparently 350,000 of those being activated every day. Head on past the break for company's full earnings report.

 

 

Brazilian Police Wear Glasses That Can Scan Faces to Find Criminals

In technology that is lifted straight from Robocop, Brazilian cops will be outfitted with glasses that can scan faces in a crowd and automatically pick out criminals. The glasses use advanced facial recognition technology that can scan 400 faces a second at 50 yards away.

Facial profiling! The glasses scans 46,000 biometric points on a person's face and compares it against a criminal database. When the glasses find a bad guy (it's actually a camera attached to the glasses), a red light pops up inside the glasses and alerts the officer on what to do.

The goal is to start using these Robocop glasses in test runs at crowded events (think soccer games and concerts) so police will be familiar with the technology come 2014 (when Rio de Janeiro hosts the World Cup). A big concern about the World Cup being in Brazil was the security, and if you saw Robocop, you'll know he handled his share of bad guys with ease. Hopefully, they can do the same!

 

 

Shooting Hoops in the Adidas AdiZero Crazy Lights, the Lightest Basketball Shoes Ever Made

The Adidas AdiZero Crazy Lights, which will make their debut on the feet of professional basketballers during next week's playoffs, each weigh just 9.8 ounces, making them the lightest basketball shoes ever made. They may or may not have helped prevent me from embarrassing myself in terrifying pick-up game earlier today.

The AdiZero Crazy Lights are, indeed, crazy light—when you pick one up, it's hard to believe that it's a professional-quality basketball shoe, something that the world's best players will rely on in some of their seasons' most important games. But they will! Thanks to some disciplined, scrap-what-we-have-and-start-from-square-one design, the shoes apparently offer all the comfort and support needed for play at the highest levels while still doing the least work of any shoe ever to keep players anchored down to terra firma.

 

 

Microsoft confirms IE10 won't run on Vista, millions of IE9 users shrug

If you're part of the dwindling group still using Windows Vista, you'll have to wait until your next upgrade to take IE10 for a spin -- Microsoft has confirmed that the latest version of its browser won't run on its last-gen operating system, either in developer preview form or when the final software ships. 

While it's tempting to interpret that as an attempt on Microsoft's part to put the widely loathed Vista in its past, there's actually a precedent for this -- remember that Microsoft cut off XP support when it unveiled IE9. 

 

 

Download iOS 4.3.2 NOW

iOS 4.3.2 is now available for download, which has fixes for Facetime, the 3G Verizon iPad 2 and other security issues. The update is available for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, as well as the third and fourth gen iPod touch. Just plug your device into iTunes.

Apple also released a separate 4.2.7 build for the Verizion iPhone 4, which only addresses security fixes.

 

 

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Shoots Pics Straight to a Mobile Device

The Eye-Fi's "Direct Beam" magicalness is mobile—doing what the little Wi-Fi cards should have been all along. The new models skip your network entirely, creating a link between camera and mobile device.

What gadget? Lots! Smartphones and tablets will get a suite of Direct Beam-compatible apps dropped on them, allowing for in-the-field transfers. So, for instance, you could snap a photo, shoot it over to your iPad, and then edit it with the wonderful new touchy Photoshop. That's a pretty nifty setup, whether you're a photog pro or not. An 8 GB SD model will be out for $80 later this week.

This Biodegradable Golf Ball Is Made From a Lobster

Lobsters! Not only do they have delicious meat, their shells have use too! Researchers at the University of Maine have developed a biodegradable golf ball from lobster shells.

The material of the golf ball is made from crushed lobster shells with a biodegradable binder and coating. Lobster shells are a great resource to tap into as most of the stuff just heads to landfills (no one has a need for red shells, I guess). The balls work with both drivers and irons and flies a "similar distance to other biodegradable balls", though not as far as real balls. Which is okay!

 

 

Lenovo Hoping To Launch 23-inch Tablet This Year

Dual 14-inch touchscreens not big enough? 21-inches of touch sensitivity still failing to sate your fingers' need to roam wild and free? Maybe the 23-inch behemoth of a tablet that Lenovo is planning on unleashing this year will make those digits dance with delight. The plan is, apparently, to take one of the company's Windows-powered all-in-one machines, delete the stand, put it on a crash diet, slap a big 'ol battery on there, and then watch the eyes of pixel junkies around the world light up with glee.

William Cai from Lenovo said "It's obviously not for full mobility use, but it could be moved from room to room in the house... you could lay it on a table top and use it for family games." Never mind that -- with the addition of just a few legs this 23-inch slab could be a table.

Garmin Intros The Forerunner 610, Its First Touchscreen GPS

Over the years, Garmin's beefed up its line of Forerunner GPS watches, offering something for everybody withgraphs and even a dash o' pink. But the new, slimmed-down Forerunner 610 is the first to feature a touchscreen that you can tap to flip menus instead of feeling around for a host of bantam buttons. For your $350, it'll display distance, time elapsed, and pace all on one screen, though you can add other metrics, such as heart rate.

 The 610 is also the first in the line with a run / walk alert, which keeps Auto Lap and other features active even when it detects you're walking. As always, you can upload your runs to the web in excruciating detail, but this watch jumps on the social bandwagon with "Virtual Racer," a Nike Running-esque community where you can compare your stats with strangers' (or just try to best your own PRs, if you don't play like that).