Freescale Smartbook Tablet Design

Freescale presents its reference design of Smartbook tablet featuring a 7-inch touchscreen. The tablet is powered by Freescale’s highly integrated i.MX515 processor incorporating ARM Cortex-A8 core, OpenVG and OpenGL/ES graphics cores and HD video decoder. It has 512MB of RAM and up to 64GB of internal storage.

Freescale’s smartbook tablet gets a 7-inch 1024×600 touchscreen and supports GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi 802.11b/g/n. There is an integrated 3 Megapixel camera, speaker, microphone and microSD card slot. 3G modem and RF4CE protocol options are available. Those who need a keyboard can get the optional keyboard accessory. The tablet supports Android and Linux OS.

[freescale]

Medion X9613 The Touch Multitouch All-in-one PC

After a long time Medion announced a new multimedia computer. The Touch X9613 is a 24incher all-in-one with high-end specification, making it one of the best multimedia all-in-one PC. At the core of this machine lies a powerful Intel Core 2 Quad processor (2GHz).

Other features include 4GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Blu-ray drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT240M graphics card with 1GB memory, 24-inch multi-touch display supporting full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, HDMI, and 2MP webcam.

As for connectivity, you get Ethernet, Wireless, and Bluetooth.

The Medion Touch X9613 all-in-one PC will be out in October with Windows 7, price starting at $2,150.

[engadget]

Samsung N120 Now Available In Blue

Geeky Wooden Table with Built-in Computer

File this under: creative wooden gadgets. Designed by Marlies Romberg, Dear Diary 1.0 is essentially a wooden table that has a built-in computer — laser cut to be exact. No word yet on if the computer actually works.

One thing’s for sure, the artist makes a good case for precision craftsmanship with her exquisite woodwork, a delightful counterpoint to today’s increasingly plastic world.

SB6309: The World’s First Cell Phone with Integrated Cigarette Lighter

If a regular lighter is too boring for you, check out the SB6309. This cell phone is the world’s first to feature an integrated cigarette lighter. Other features include: a 2.4-inch display, 1.3-megapixel camera, and dual SIM functionality.

Much like the cigarette lighter in your car, this phone has a heating element in the back for your cigarettes.

Portable Xbox 360 Could be a Reality

Microsoft corporate VP Shane Kim confirmed that a portable Xbox 360 could very well be in the works, and released sooner than later. He stated: “We’re building a service in Live that will…will extend to other platforms…no question about it.”

Surprisingly, Kim even touches on the always touchy (and often not even mentioned) Live Anywhere initiative, saying, “We talked about Live Anywhere a few years ago … Live is the connective tissue.”

Motorola launches the Moto VE66 handset

The Motorola VE66 certainly has its own charm, even if that slider shape is looking a little long in the tooth as we approach 2009.

The VE66 is what you might call a solid performer, packing a 5MP camera with auto focus, LED flash, red eye correction and image stabilisation, along with enhanced Crystal Talk technology for clearer calls and an MP3 player with ‘FastScroll’ navigation - essentially a one-touch wheel to speed through your files. An FM radio and Wi-Fi connectivity just about finishes things off.

Well, almost. There’s actually a ‘first’ for Motorola here too - downloadable widgets. Ok, it’s certainly not new technology, but the option of customising your handset with everything from the latest news to social network updates is certainly a step in the right direction for Moto. Enough to get Motorola back in the game? We seriously doubt it.

No news on a UK shelf date as yet, but you are probably looking at early 2009.

Motorola Aura: $2000 luxury phone

One blog site called it “the phone that thinks it’s a watch”. We don’t care. This is the Motorola we all know that gave the world the iconic StarTac and RAZR. We snucked the AURA into our Labs recently to lust over up close, though we got more fingerprint smudges than we bargained for on the US$2,000 luxury handset. More luscious pictures after the break.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the AURA is its heft. If a stainless steel chassis, sapphire crystal lens and a Swiss mechanism that offers a silky smooth swivel motion aren’t enough to get you interested, we don’t know what will.

You probably can’t tell from the above picture, but the 1.55-inch (diameter of 480 pixels, 16-million color and 300dpi resolution) screen is actually not flat. What we really like about the display is that the colors are very rich and the convex surface feels like we’re looking at a 3D screen.

The keypad is made from aluminum and fits the metallic theme of the handset. Likewise for the main menu, the functions are arranged on the circumference of the screen. The awkward part about using the control cluster is that the center button lets you scroll only up/down/left/right. In order to select a particular option, you’ll need to hit the dedicated OK key on the left. This is a little different from the conventional directional control pads with a center OK key that most people are used to.

Here’s the coolest thing about the handset. You get to see part of the rotary system in action when you open the swivel phone. According to Motorola, the AURA has 130 precision ball bearings that drive the blade. It’s like opening the door on a high-end luxury car, Motorola says. You also can’t tell from the picture, but the surface of the phone isn’t entirely flat. If you run your fingers on it, you can feel the subtle textured pattern Moto says took nearly two weeks to “sculpt, etch and polish”.

Microsoft Offers Free Security

In San Francisco Microsoft stated that it will offer free software to its users. The software will help protect computers from viruses and other threats.

Microsoft is taking aim at McAfee Inc and Symantec Corp which have rivaled the software giant in the PC security market for some time now.

Microsoft with now longer be selling Windows Live OneCare service. The service once costs $49.95 per year but is no longer needed with the free software available to users.

The free software will be called “Morro” and will be available to customers as early as the middle of the 2009 year. The software will work with older smaller computers which Microsoft is hoping with make it appeal to a wide audience.

McAfee feels as though Microsoft is offering a free model that doesn’t meet what the customer needs. They believe that Microsoft is backing down and giving their customers a dressed down version of their previous software.

Microsoft has always given competitors something to talk about. Symantec and McAfee claim that Microsoft designed Windows Vista just to deny them access to the operating system needed to protect them from other malicious software. After much negotiation Microsoft decided to give its competitors the information they need.

Alienware Aurora Online Gaming Edition PC

Alienware rolls out its new Aurora Online Gaming Edition desktop PC that comes with Bigfoot Networks’ Killer NIC K1 network card for more smoother, more responsive online gameplay.

Powered by an AMD Phenom X4 9950 2.6GHz procesor, the Aurora Online Gaming Edition has 4GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphic card, a 250GB hard drive, a 20X DVD SuperMulti DL burner and 7.1 HD audio.

The Killer NIC K1 Gaming Network Card has a dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) and 64MB of memory. It offloads network operations from the CPU and bypasses the Windows networking software to boost your frame-rate and give you smoother gameplay.

[alienware]