Sony S and E Series Walkman Players Start Playing Tunes Next Month

We've been spotting Sony's S Series Walkman around since July, and Sony finally feels it's about time to make it official, also Coming along is the slightly lower-rent E Series. Specs on the S Series are are promising, including a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD, FM tuning and recording, along with support for a variety of formats including MP3, protected WMA, AAC, H.264, and WMV. It offers battery life of 42 hour hours when playing music through headphones and 6.5 hours of video, but when you're playing it out boom box style through the integrated speakers that drops the playing time to 17 hours and five hours respectively.



Colorful options of black, pink, violet, and red will be available, with an 8GB model going for $110 and 16GB for $130. If that's a bit too steep for you there's the 2-inch E Series, sporting a slightly smaller chassis, slightly lower battery life (30 hours music and 4 hours video), and a slightly lower price of $80 for 8GB and $100 for 16. Both Sony S and E series are shipping sometime next month.

BrainPort Device Offers Blind a Chance to See With Their Tongue

This could be the coolest gadget ever for disabled people especially the blind. BrainPort is a device that was first introduced in 2006 and would allow users to regain some vision by means of a camera and electrical impulses sent to their tongue.



The BrainPort works by decoding signals that are sent from a camera that’s mounted on your head and transforming them into electrical impulses to your tongue. These impulses are then experienced as spatial awareness and even an ability to read text.

The device is currently pending FDA approval, but if all goes well, the BrainPort should be available early next year. However, pricing doesn't come cheap and is expected to fall in the $10,000 range.

Source: Scientific American

Leaked Apple Tablet Videos: Fake or Not?

The new Apple Tablet videos circulating have stirred much argument and debate today. A lot of opinions are leaning towards the probability that these well done and neatly-executed videos are fake.

But fake or not these video clips demonstrate various applications being run concurrently on the same device, together with boot-up and what’s said to be the development platform. It’s like having multiple iPhones on the same giant touch screen. There are also various arguments that suggest how Apple might manage the transition to a larger-screen device: simply inflating the iPod touch.

But regardless of whatever this is or isn’t, let's admit, we all want this.

Netflix Officially Exclusive Only to Xbox 360 Consoles

Sorry PS3 and Wii fans. The Netflix Watch Instantly integration is now an "exclusive partnership" between Microsoft and Netflix. Microsoft is also going so far saying that the Xbox 360 will be the only console to offer Netflix movie-watching experience. It will be available to Xbox Live Gold Members who are also Netflix unlimited plan subscribers. Full excerpt quoted below.

Netflix Partnership

This exclusive partnership offers you the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via Xbox 360. Xbox 360 will be the only game console to offer this movie-watching experience, available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix unlimited plan subscribers**, at no additional cost.

From the Netflix Web site, simply add movies and TV episodes to your instant Queue, which will appear automatically on the TV screen via Xbox 360. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. In addition to instantly streaming Netflix movies to the TV, Xbox LIVE Gold members can browse and rate movies, fast-forward, pause and rewind, all using either their Xbox 360 Controller or Universal remote.

First Eco-friendly Phone Made of Corn: Reclaim from Samsung and Sprint

Sprint announced today the first eco-friendly phone from Samsung, the Reclaim. At $49.99 with a new two year contract, Reclaim's PVC and BFR (brominated flame retardants) free, "bio-plastic" material made from corn is 80% bio-degradable. The sliding device has QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, can accept microSD cards up to 32GB, and of course, has Sprint Navigation onboard.



The packaging will also be eco-friendly, and constructed from 70 percent recycled materials and printed with soy-based ink. The carrier will be selling the Reclaim in "Earth Green" or "Ocean Blue" come August 16th. Interestingly, $2 of its profit will be funneled to the Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program. And oh, please be reminded, this phone is not microwaveable.

Facebook Connectivity for Nintendo DSi Now Available

If you've been taking a lot of snapshots with your Nintendo DSi's built-in camera and was wondering what to do with them, then you're in for some good news! After 5 pm Eastern time a system update will be released and made available for all Nintendo DSi. This new update will allow you to upload your pictures directly to Facebook! Awesome!



If you want to spice up your profile pictures or simply want to amaze all your FB buddies that your are uploading directly from DSi, then this is what you need. Nintendo explains the process that "While reviewing pictures they've stored in the Nintendo DSi Camera album, which includes photos taken by users and manipulated using the built-in interactive lenses, users can simply tap the Facebook icon on the system's touch screen to instantly transmit photos to the user's Facebook profile," the company also states, "The user's system must be configured to a wireless broadband Internet connection for the transmission of photos."

This interesting announcement also came along with some news that DSi has sold 1.7 million units in the US alone. That's not bad for a system that launched at a higher price point than the original, also brandishing updates handheld gaming users wasn't sure they wanted... such as the Facebook remote uploading feature.

Palm Pre Goes On Sale at Amazon for $199

If you don't want to buy from Best Buy or Sprint, now you've got the option of nabbing one from everyone's favorite online reseller: Amazon. The device is now up on sale at the super-retailer's site, and unlike getting it from Best Buy or Sprint, you don't have to worry about troublesome mail-in rebates -- the phone is $199.99 on a new service plan with Sprint. Also of note, you can get a non-contract unit for $499.99, which is a great $50 savings over the Sprint pricing, and certainly a steal compared to Best Buy's $749.99 price tag. To check it out for yourself, simply head on over to Amazon, and punch in your Zip Code on the right hand side of the site to check availability. It's just too bad that it's currently listed with a 4-6 week shipping lead time.



Head on to Amazon: Palm Pre Phone