Apple shows off Apple TV and 2010 range

This week is going to be a busy one for the world of technology – the IFA is taking place in Germany and Apple has just shown off their new 2010 models of the Nano, Shuffle iPod Touch and their new Apple TV gizmo.

There isn’t much to say about the new Shuffle so we’ll get that out of the way first. It has a 15 hour battery, the button has made a comeback and is now on the front of the device, it comes in five colours and will be available from next week. $49 will bag you a 2GB model.

The Nano has had the biggest overhaul and has turned the most heads. It now has a touch screen which replaces the click wheel and it’s 46% smaller and 42% lighter. It comes in seven colours and has a 24 hour battery. It’s not all good news though – there’s no camera and no video playback. And although it has a time and date function, there’s no alarm feature…because it doesn’t have a speaker. Prices are set at $149 for 8GB or $179 for 16GB.

As predicted by many, the new iPod Touch is simply an thinner iPhone 4 minus the phone features. That means it’ll feature a retina display from the iPhone 4, an Apple A4 core, 3-axis gyroscope and FaceTime support due to the addition of a front camera. It’ll be arriving in US stores next week at a price of $229 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB. No 16GB or 128GB models it would seem.

If anything, Apple TV is inexpensive. The tiny black box will only cost $99. It sits under your TV and allows you to stream TV shows and movies onto your picturebox in 720p. Apple says that 720p works best for picture quality and bandwidth. Round the back you’ll find a HDMI port, Ethernet, optical audio, USB sockets and it also has 802.11n WiFi. TV shows from ABC and Fox will cost 99 cents at time,while HD movies will cost $4.99. Other services set to appear include YouTube, Netflix, photo sharing site Flickr and Mobile Me. Rotten Tomatoes will be providing information for the movie database. The device also comes with a white-coloured remote that resembles an elongated Shuffle.

Apple claimed during their conference that the iPod Touch is now the #1 gaming device outselling the Nintendo DS and PSP combined. This however does seem a little hard to swallow – at last count 132 million Nintendo DS handhelds have been sold compared to 120 million iPod Touch units.

Nintendo should be worried though, especially if Epic’s new iPhone engine – which can be seen for yourself by downloading the Epic Citadel demo – is anything to go by. You can read a little bit more about that over on Kotaku.

Party ipad

Purveyors of fine Apple peripherals Griffin have filed a copyright patent for the most ambitious looking iPad / iPhone dock yet – one that turns your iPad or iPhone 4 into a fully fledged game console.

The sleek looking dock contains four joypads and can be connect to a TV. It’s simple to set up and comes with three PartyDock mini-games and one full game. Additional PartyDock games can be downloaded from iTunes – only these games are compatible with it, so there’s no chance of playing Doodle Jump or Angry Birds on your TV just yet.

For details such as price and release date, keep an eye on the official website.

Ciclotte takes us for a ride

It has been a year since the quirky looking Ciclotte exercise bike was first shown, but that last year has been well spent – it has started to go into production.

The price tag instantly tells us that this isn’t for the mass market – it’s a reported $10,000. For that price you get to pick a colour (full carbon, silver or purple) while the bike itself has an epicycloid crank system, a magnetized main wheel to generate resistance, a steel and carbon frame, adjustable seat and handlebars, and a touchscreen interface.

Obviously, it looks quite cool too. Check the “lifestyle” photos on the official website.

Control freaks

The first iControlPad has rolled off the production line. If you can’t guess by the photo above, it’s an add-on designed to give the iPhone a proper joypad. There’s also a variant planned that’ll have an extra battery built-in to give your phone a boosted battery life.

There’s a video detailing how it was designed on YouTube. Plenty more details, including images of prototypes, can be found on the official site.

Don’t simply expect to stroll into your nearest iPhone accessory retailer and buy one though; the first run is said to be limited to 3,000 units and may have to be pre-ordered.

$50 tablet revealed for India

Allgo’s Stamp - an Android 2.1 tablet being currently created in India – isn’t particularly powerful or flashy but if it ever makes it out it’ll be dirt cheap. Why? Because it only costs $50 to maufacture.

The Stamp is the latest of a long line of devices designed to bring low-cost computing technology to the masses of India. It features Wi-Fi, USB and an ethernet port and has a 7-inch 800X480 pixel resistive touch screen display. A lengthy list of supported software can be found on Allgo’s official website.

There’s a video of a working prototype on YouTube too.  The prototype is at such an early stage that it doesn’t even have casing yet, so don’t expect it to be hitting shelves – Indian or otherwise – anytime soon.

Pocketbook packs a punch

Just about every company going has got a tablet or e-book reader in the pipeline.  In fact, PocketBook has no less than five different e-readers out soon, one of which is powered by Android.

The ProBook 602 and 902 “entry level” units and have 6-inch screens while the ProBook 603 and 903 “premium models” have a bigger 9.7-inch screens. All models will feature 2GB of internal storage, a Linux-based OS, and include WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Only the premium units will have 3G connectivity and a Wacom touchscreen.

It’s the PocketBook IQ that’s being blessed as Android (2.0, if you’re wondering) and will be advertised as an entertainment device. The case comes in three different colours and it has a 7-inch TFT color touchscreen, WiFi and Bluetooth.

All units will be available next month.

PlayStation 3 finally hacked?

The PlayStation 3 has enjoyed many pirate-free years, but if the rumours are true then those days are over. An unknown company has apparently created a USB modchip going by the name of PSJailbreak which once inserted lets gamers install software onto the PS3’s HDD.

Potential pirates won’t even need to buy a Blu-Ray disk burner to get copied games. The hack works by streaming game data either from the internal HDD or via USB flash drives/hard disk drives.

Videos have appeared on YouTube from companies such as OzModChips who have been sent the USB modchip. The USB device appears to be activated when the system is booted by holding down the power followed by the eject button, which suggests that it’s derived from debug equipment used by Sony themselves. OzModChips says that their nameless packages have been sent from a company based in Hong Kong.

Even more worrying for Sony is that the PSJailbreak will reportedly work on any model on PlayStation 3 with any firmware.

We should know within the next few days if this is just one elaborate hoax or not. Unfortunately for Sony though, it would appear that it isn’t the case.

Google isn’t greedy

The Google Chrome Web Store doesn’t open its virtual doors until October – where it’ll be paired with the release of Google’s new OS – but it has already been heralded as a winner.

In the nuttiest of shells, it allows you to purchase PC apps via your web browser. Rather than taking a 30% share of all monies made, which is the case for the Android Market and the Apple App Store, Google is only taking a 5% cut from apps sold on the Chrome Web Store. This means a massive profit boost for developers and publishers – a sure fire way to make sure that there’s plenty to spend your money on. Speaking of which, at launch you’ll be able to purchase apps from anywhere in the world using Google Checkout, but only with US dollars. Multiple currencies and in-app transactions are slated for the first half of 2011.

The likes of Lemmings, Quake II and Lego Star Wars and Plants vs Zombies will be available on the service, claims Google.

Right (write) on! It’s the uDraw GameTablet

The upcoming Kinect and Move accessories will no doubt extend the shelf-life of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But what about Wii? Well, a new and rather exciting peripheral is coming but not from Nintendo but rather third-party game publisher THQ.

The uDraw GameTablet connects to the Wii through the Wii Remote and lets gamers scribble on its surface. Images will then appear on the TV screen.

uDraw Studio will come bundled with the device while Pictionary and platformer Dood’s Big Adventure will also be launched alongside it.

It’ll be available in the US in time for Christmas but it won’t be appearing under European Christmas trees – Europe will have to wait until early 2011.

Although not an official Nintendo accessory, Nintendo has given the uDraw GameTablet a big thumbs up. I bet their just jealous that they didn’t think of it first.

Pleco Chinese Dictionary app amazes

The Chinese language barrier is about become a whole lot smaller – Pleco are launching their real-time optical character recognition (OCR) app on iPhone this September.

It can translate text via  images presented on your phone’s camera display. As the video below shows – which uses text from Lord of the Rings – there’s no lag or loading times and you can even save words and phrases:

Hit the jackpot? Then buy a Jackpot

You may have heard of Gresso before – they make incredibly expensive, but rather nice looking, luxury phones and watches. Their iPhone covers recently got websites in a tizzy because of their $4,500 price tag but they’ve managed to outdo themselves this time round with a phone that costs $1,000,000. One million dollars!

Only three Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot phones are going to be made. The 12mm thick phone has a case made of pure gold (180g by weight) and is encrusted with rare 45.5 K black diamonds. The back panel is produced from 200-year-old African Blackwood while every key is manufactured from single crystal sapphire with a total carat weight of 32.

In other news, Tesco have launched a £6 mobile phone contact.

This Sony Walkman has got legs

Sony’s new E350 Walkman range is proof that not every gadget or gizmo has to be full of fancy new features in order to be desirable.

The 4GB version is priced at $70 while the 8GB version will be $80. Double the memory for only $10 more? Only a loony would turn down that offer.

For your hard earned cash you’ll get what appears to be a simple but decent MP3 player that can offer up to 50 hours of music playback and up to ten hours of video. The use Sony’s own Clear Audio technologies, for clear, deep sound without distortion while Sony’s SenseMe software will automatically categorise music tracks.

Keep an eye out for them on www.sonystyle.com next month, as that’s when and where they’re due to go on sale.