Asus Eee PC 900 Getting Early Launch [Eee Pc 900]

In order to beat the increasingly heavy cheap subnotebook competition from Acer, HP and everyone’s mother to the market, Asus is pushing its Eee PC 900 out the door a month earlier than originally scheduled, according to our favorite Asian rumor mill, DigiTimes. They were set to launch in June, but Asus is speeding it up to May,
even initially foregoing Intel’s hot new Atom chipset so it can yell “first!” [DigiTimes]

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Sprint licenses Visual Voicemail for the Samsung Instinct

Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like Samsung’s Instinct won’t just be kinda-sorta doing some iPhone stuff — it will be doing actual iPhone stuff. Sprint announced that it has licensed Klausner’s Visual Voicemail (yes, Visual Voicemail) for use in the familiar looking device, adding weight to the argument that this is the carrier’s official play for the iPhone market. If you’ll recall, Klausner sued AT&T and Apple over the feature, which it claims violated two of its patents. Now all they need to do is throw Cover Flow, Google Maps integration, and some wiggly icons on there, and this race will really get heated.

[Via I4U News]

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Toshiba unveils Satellite X205-SLi5 and X205-SLi6 laptops

Filed under: Laptops

Back in February, Toshiba saw fit to dish out the Penryn-powered X205-SLi2 and X205-SLi4 laptops; fast forward a couple months, and here we are yet again with two more updates in the X205 series. The latest duo of 17-inchers — the X205-SLi5 and X205-SLi6 — each pack the same pair of 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPUs and a 1,440 x 900 resolution panel, but the latter ups the ante with a more powerful 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 processor. Furthermore, you’ll find room for up to 4GB of RAM along with dual 160GB HDDs, Harman Kardon speakers, 802.11a/g/n WiFi, dual-layer DVD writer, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. As for the X205-SLi6, you’ll find a potent 2.5GHz T9300 under the hood along with 400GB of total HDD space, but basically everything else remains identical to that found on its lower-spec’d sibling. Check ‘em out right now for $1,999 and $2,499, respectively.

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Carl Icahn and Motorola bury the hatchet

Filed under: Cellphones

Good news coming from the Motorola camp? Say it ain’t so! The long-standing feud between the flagging company and investor Carl Icahn has finally come to an end, and lo and behold, the pending litigation between the two has even been dismissed. Apparently the two parties managed to agree that (effective immediately) Keith Meister, a managing director of the Icahn investment funds and principal executive officer of Icahn Enterprises would be “appointed to serve on the [firm’s board of directors],” and William R. Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht + Co. and co-founder of Hambrecht & Quist, would be “nominated for election” during the 2008 annual shareholders meeting. Heck, Moto’s even soliciting Mr. Icahn’s input in dealing with the hopeful separation of businesses — but then again, it would probably take advice from just about anyone given the current state of affairs.

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$6100 Croc-Skinned Tag Heuer Meridiist Phone: Nothing But a Pretty Face [Cellphones]

Watchmaker Tag Heuer today announced its Vertu wannabe, the Meridiist. Like others in its class, its high price doesn’t seem to justify the goods, unless you count a choice of crocodile, leather or rubber, a sapphire crystal main screen and a famous name. The specs are almost entirely unimpressive: 1.9″ QVGA main screen, monochrome OLED on its outer rim, 2-megapixel camera, MP3/AAC/MPEG-4 playback. There’s no mention of 3G functionality, so I’m going to guess it can only do GSM/GPRS, and though the 7-hour talk time is pleasantly above average, it had better have something to brag about besides style for the price, which will range from about $5300 to $6100. [Le Journal Du Geek via Reg Hardware]

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NTT Turning Cellphones Into Smellphones [Cellphones]

Phones with little scented tissues in them are just soooo 2007. In two days, NTT Communications will start testing something bigger and weirder. It’s a freestanding $195 device, possibly due out March of next year, that holds 16 cartridges of base scents, like an inkjet printer’s basic colors, that mix up more elaborate odors when they receive instructions from a cellphone. The system will accept smell messages via e-mail from the owner who wants an aromatic return from a hard day’s work, or a loved one who just wants to say I HEART—or FART—You. OK, maybe intestinal gas isn’t at the top of the list now, but you know when modders get involved, anything can and will happen. [Reuters; NTT Release]

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Filed under: Robots

Think you could keep pace with Cornell’s Ranger robot? Just last week, the robot walker set an unofficial world record by trotting nonstop for 45 laps (that’s 5.6 miles, for those counting) around the university’s Barton Hall running track. After reaching that mark, the creature presumably fell over from battery exhaustion, but the team of creators are investigating to find out the exact reason it finally collapsed. Although Guinness officials weren’t involved due to too much “rigmarole,” the team has quite a bit to be proud of — after all, an earlier version of the creature only made it 0.62 miles before calling it a day. Aside from garnering bragging rights, the crew is hoping to use Ranger to better understand the “mechanics of walking,” which could be used to improve rehabilitation procedures or even athletic performance.

[Via Physorg]

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Via [Engadget]

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Ultrathin Netbook showcased at Intel Developer Forum

Filed under: Laptops

From what we’ve seen thus far, Intel’s Netbook isn’t exactly the prettiest piece of kit. But apparently, the unit we’ve been shown looks nothing like the Netbooks of the future. At the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, the company was showing off an upcoming design that looked awfully thin (and awfully attractive). As it stands, all we truly know about the lappie was that Linux was under the hood and the Atom will likely power things whenever it escapes the trade show floor and ships en masse. Still, if the price is right, we can certainly see this slab being desired by more than just schoolkids in various corners of the world.

[Image courtesy of Impress]

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Europe Approves In-Flight Cell Calls, Travel Gets Even More Annoying [Cellphones]

Be happy to arrive late to every cellphone technology party, America, because the European Union has just approved the use of cellphones in airplanes. Effective immediately, any compliant aircraft will allow for in- and outbound calls using regular cellphones starting at 9,800 feet. The technical requirements are quite simple.

You will only need an on-board base in the plane. The base will relay all calls to a satellite, which will pass them to the ground-based cell network. According to the BBC, the service will start appearing as early as next month, starting with Air France—which apparently is ready for deployment—and following with low cost airline Ryanair. For sure, one thing that is not going to be low cost are the calls themselves.

Expect to pay an arm and a leg for this air roaming, even while government agencies are already watching for abusive practice. [BBC News]

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95% of Kids Aged 18-24 Are Pirating Music [Survey]

According to a University of Hertfordshire survey of 1,158 kids aged 18-24 in the UK, 95% of them have “pirated” music before. The other 5%? According or our estimates, they’re either technologically illiterate or they don’t like music. [Guardian]

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