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.

Tokyo’s vending machine for the 21st century

The newly installed 47” touch screen vending machines at Shinagawa Station work just how you would expect them to – simply touch the image of the drink you want and it’ll pop out at the bottom.

There’s a little bit more gadgetry going on inside the device though. Built-in face recognition software is able to determine a customer’s gender and age and will then displaying products that have proven popular with their demographic. Rather sneakily, customer data can then be collected for marketing purposes.

The screen can also display adverts which are beamed to it via WiMAX wireless broadband and can be changed depending on the time of day. For instance, in the morning it may show adverts for coffee while during hot spells adverts for cold water could be shown.

Manufacture JR East aims to install 500 machines at its stations in and around Tokyo over the next two years. With the enhanced promotional functions, the company expects the new machines to ring up 30% more in sales than standard units.

iPod Touch 4 rumour round-up

The rumour mill has been churning like mad over the past few days over details for the iPod Touch 4 – or iPod Touch 2010 – as some websites have been calling it.

The speculation actually started back in April when BoyGeniusReport did some digging around in the iPad’s OS file structure and found references to “iPod 4”.

Then posh UK retailer John Lewis mentioned that their autumn catalogue will include an updated iPod Touch with the same 5-megapixel camera with flash, FaceTime software, and HD video capabilities as the iPhone 4.

However, 9to5mac – which is where the image above comes from – seem to think that the camera will be only 3.2 mega pixels.

Hardmac gave us perhaps the biggest glimpse though – they claim that Apple has been sending out size dimensions of the device to various case manufactures so that they can get their cases into stores the same time as the device itself. The story was backed up with an image of a finished iPod Touch 4 case which shows a rounded back and a hole for a camera.

In summary, then, it’ll be pretty much identical to the iPhone 4 only with a rounded back instead of a flat surface on the reverse.

I very much doubt that Apple are bothered about these information “leaks” – it’s bound to sell well whatever happens.

Best Buy jump on iPad bandwagon

US retailer Best Buy are planning to release their own iPad-style tablet under their Rocketfish label. It actually started off as a communication tool to be used between employees but Best Buy had a brainwave and thought it would be ideal to sell to ‘Joe Public’ too.

The images above come from Best Buy’s CTO Ralph Stephens who added the two images to his Twitter account. He had also said about a month ago on Twitter that the tablet has a front facing camera and runs on Android 2.2.

A few people have speculated that it’s simply a rebranded HP Slate, but seeing that the images are of a gutless prototype that’s something hard to believe.

Toshiba’s Nintendo DS doppelganger netbook

This week (11^th August, to be precise) will see the release of the Nintendo DS-alike Toshiba Libretto W100 dual screen notebook in Japan.

The touch-screen  is used as a keyboard and the device also has an accelerometer hidden inside. It’s powered by a 1.2GHz Pentium US400 processor, has 2GB RAM and 62GB solid state drive (SSD). A microSDHC card slot is also present, as are a webcam and one single USB slot. A few more details can be found on the Japanese website.

Toshiba is saying that it will cost $1,099 when it launches in the States this summer.

Lenovo’s mini PC packs a tiny punch

Lenovo’s super slim desktop PC is not much bigger than a CD case and weighs just 1.4 pounds. At $400 (roughly £260) it won’t leave a big dent in your wallet either.

The IdeaCentre Q150 has specs similar to a Netbook – 1.66-GHz Intel Atom D510 CPU, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD and 802.11n Wi-Fi (plus ethernet). Nvidia’s ION graphics chip gives it the ability to play decently released PC games, but don’t expect them to run on the highest settings.

An SD slot would have been a welcome addition – I don’t think it would have affected the size of it at all.

Perhaps the highlight though is the mini keyboard – anybody that owned a Nintendo 64 is going to feel right at home with that bad boy.