The 8GB Hard Drive Walkman MP3 Player NW-A1200 priced at $199.95 is ready for pre-order. Expected ship date is around the July 20th. At this price for 8GB – it may be a better deal than a nano!
In addition to the cool organic form factor (available in blue or pink) the display really catches my eye. It’s a 1.5 display that seems to float above the surface.
Check out the specs here.

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So I’ve been following this since it was rumored… GOOGLE Checkout and now it is finally here.
Rival Paypal has had incrediable market success and it was only time till a new competitor jumped into the fray and who better than Google? What are the costs associated? Merchants are charged a fee of 20 cents per transaction as well 2.2 percent of the purchase price (PAYPAL has a 30 cent per transaction fee and 2.9 percent of the purchase price as a standard rate).
Verdict is still out but if anyone out there has used this new service chime in with a few comments.

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Adobe released Flash Player 9, it’s smaller and easier to download but it’s only for PPC Macs at the moment. A preview release for Intel-based Macs is here.
The new player renders up to 10 times faster, has a rebuilt Virtual Machine and makes it easier to build Web applications with Flex 2. Sadly Flex 2 is not OS X ready… will it ever be ported?

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I was sitting there Tuesday morning all stoked about what would be revealed at MWSF, clutching my mouse and double clicking the refresh button on all the news sites. I eagerly waited. I guessed the Intel iMac debute and waited anxiously for the Intel Mac mini but to my surprise the PowerBook received the Intel chip – or should I say the “MacBook Pro?”
Eek… MacBook Pro?!
Read more…

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Sometimes you want to be a fly on the wall and hear what actual is going on behind closed doors in tech labs and board rooms. A article over at NEWS.com states the CELL triad has released a 1000 page developer kit. The article brings out a few unique directions that the CELL Processor will be used in: Toshiba will be using it in their TVs (the next step making the TV as the digital hub), Mercury Computer Systems will use it in their own custom made computers, Sony in the Playstation 3, and variations of the chip will appear in mobile phones and PDAs.
Click through for the rest of the story…

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How 2.0: This retro radio cabinet automatically loads the iPod with tracks taken from classic vinyl.

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I was just reading Murco MacLeod and William Lyons article “Why your iPod will be out of date in a year” and have to agree.
I’m tired of carrying so many gadgets. I’ve been tempted to buy the Nokia Engage or a Sidekick for some time (Siemens and LG have some tight products on the way). But the one area they are fatally flawed in is MP3 playback and storage… and this is why the iPod products continue to dominate.
The ability to store large amounts of music is horrid in competitors products and so is their GUI. These machines should ship with at least 1GB built-in flash memory, mini HD’s, or something. with the additional option to swap out more with SD cards. Music should be a top priority with these and newer hybrid use gadgets. Palm’s new TX and LifeDrive should market the listening pleasures of their devices. Business people listen to music, ebooks and news (podcasts) on their commute (either by train or car). So why aren’t these companies in tune to the basic needs of homosapiens via our integral habits of life?
Read more…

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First it was the Panasonic Toughbook, then HP and Dell jumped on the bandwagon, now IBM/Lenovo have launched the new Z60t widescreen Z-Series ThinkPad – with a built-in EVDO modem (Verizon 1xEV-DO WWAN).
According to EVDO Wikipedia EVDO is:

“a wireless radio broadband data protocol being adopted by many CDMA mobile phone providers in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Israel, the United States, Australia and Canada as part of the cdma2000 standard. 1xEVDO is pronounced “One Ex-E:- Vee-Dee-Oh.” It is commonly referred in the industry as DO (Dee-Oh).
Compared to 1xRTT networks currently being used by operators, or the GPRS and EDGE networks employed by their GSM competitors, 1xEV-DO is significantly faster, providing access terminals with download speeds of up to 2.4 Mbit/s. Only terminals with 1xEV-DO chipsets can take advantage of the higher speeds.

Apple should be paying attention to this trend and needs to make sure that a broadband chipset (EVDO, GPRS or EDGE) is embedded on the new PowerBook motherboard. Don’t be the last vendor to include this functionality!

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If you miss the Apple Cube try this one on for size, the MobiBlu DAH1500i. Literally less than one inch all way round (24mm x 24mm x 24mm). This little MP3 player packs 512MB or 1GB worth of music. Quick Specs: USB Flash Drive, Battery life 8-10 hours, 520 minutes of voice recording (@64kbps), radio and clock. Comes in six flavors.

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With impending disasters raging alone the coastal regions and the always possibility of power outages. One sometimes re-thinks what one has in case of a situation like such. I quickly did a search and found some nice items. Please Note: This list is no way exhaustive (I’m sure with more time, one could find even better stuff).
Click the headline to read more…

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