Gizmo Hunter

The PlayStation 3 officially gets its second price cut in less than a year.

Announced in October, the new smaller capacity PS3 launches in the U.S. Friday, just in time for the holiday shopping season as Sony aims to better compete against rivals Nintendo and Microsoft.

The new 40GB PS3 comes bundled with Spider-Man 3 on Blu-ray but lacks PS2 playback, additional USB ports, and multi card memory support. It retails for US$399.

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – 1 November 2007 – Leveraging relationships with software developers through its MOTODEV Developer network, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today introduced My Q Paks — complimentary third-party application bundles, which are available for one year from the date of download, and are designed to create a more personalized experience for users of the newly-released MOTO Q 9h global smart device*. My Q Paks are exclusively available to AT&T wireless customers and may be redeemed via download by April 30, 2008, up to 90 days after purchase of a MOTO Q global.

“The personalized experience of the MOTO Q global smart device appeals to a wide audience of users,” said Christy Wyatt, vice president Software Platforms & Ecosystem, Motorola, Inc. “Motorola has already approved a wide array of third-party applications and software components at launch, as well as the distinctive My Q Paks bundles, which exemplifies our commitment to providing the best user experiences for work and play.”

By offering the My Q Paks bundles, Motorola will demonstrate how easy it is for consumers to enhance their wireless experience with the addition of advanced applications that match their personality and lifestyle. Three My Q Paks bundles are currently available, each containing five applications from companies including Capcom, Mobifusion, Gameloft, Astraware and others, and each helping to meet the needs of the on-the-go “Road Warrior,” always busy “Household CEO” or entertainment-focused “Fun Seeker.”

The My Q Paks bundles can be downloaded** directly over the air to the user’s MOTO Q global smart device through a quick, three-step process, which can be found at http://www.motorola.com/us/myqpaks:

My Q Paks Application Bundles:
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Oulu, Finland - Nokia today shared its vision for technologies which will impact the future of the convergence of Internet and mobility at The Way We Live Next, an exclusive briefing at the Nokia Research Center in Oulu, Finland’s northern technology hub.

“The world of mobile communications is changing at an ever increasing pace” said Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia in his key note address. “To continue to stay ahead in this environment and to develop innovative new products and services that excite consumers, companies need to embrace openness on many levels. At Nokia, we work with experts in the academic, scientific and developer communities, and increasingly importantly, directly in interaction with our customers. Innovation can come from anywhere, and we need to have the tools and flexibility to respond to that challenge.”

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In yet another attempt to prevent electronic banking fraud, two companies, Innovative Card Technologies and eMue Technologies, have jointly developed this next-generation transaction card that promises to provide a whole new level of security.

At a glance the Credit Card Embedded Authentication Device looks like your standard banking debit card, except of course that it has a tiny display and a 10 digit keypad. The idea is that instead of entering a PIN or authorization number into a web browser or ATM that could be compromised, you use the card and its own secure system. As an example a user could enter their PIN number into the card and be provided with a one-time use numeric passcode. To authorize a transaction that passcode would then be entered into a device where it would be validated through an authentication server, allowing the transaction to be completed.While I have no idea when a card like this would actually be available to consumers, it is apparently being shown at various trade shows so it’s not just a concept.

Microsoft, according to insiders at Toshiba owner of the HD DVD patents, claim that Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software that is a spin off from its struggling media centre offering.

The device is being developed in response to the PS3 driving sales of games software and Blu-ray content in several countries. A recent Sony Brand Wave study conducted in five countries including the UK, Australia, France Germany and Spain revealed that a key reason that consumers are buying a PS3 is because it includes a Blu-ray player.

Recent GFK research reveals that the recently launched Xbox 360 HD DVD attach player is not selling well. Another factor that impacted early sales of the Xbox 360 was that Microsoft failed to include a HDMI port - omitted because Microsoft wanted to cut down the costs of the console in an effort to compete up against the PS3.

The new Xbox device, while allowing for extensive gaming capability, will be positioned as an entertainment hub that includes gaming and extensive wireless networking capability as well as 1080p playback. There is also talk of it including a dual HD TV tuner and EPG capability and a docking port for an MP3 player. For Toshiba, the device is critical if it is to be successful in beating Sony and the Blu-ray promoters.

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LG Electronics, Inc. and DivX, Inc. today announced their partnership to enable a high-quality consumer media experience with the LG Viewty (Model: LG-KU990), a new 5.0 mega-pixel digital camera phone available from LG Mobile. The DivX Mobile Certified LG Viewty supports DivX® playback and joins the over 100 million DivX Certified® devices shipped into the market today, including DVD players, in-car devices, digital still cameras and more.

The LG Viewty’s unprecedented multimedia capabilities reflect the extensive partnership between LG Electronics and DivX. The LG Viewty enables consumers to easily playback a wide range of DivX files from the PC on the go or output to a TV monitor without converting to another format. Consumers can also view DivX files from popular online video communities such as Stage6.com at ten times the speed of WCDMA through the HSDPA 3.6 high speed internet access capability. DivX is a widely popular digital media format that enables consumers to create, share and playback high-quality video content across an ecosystem of platforms and devices.
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Espoo, Finland - The stunning Nokia N95 8GB made its debut global shipments today, and will be hitting a store near you soon. The Nokia N95 8GB is the memory-packed big brother of the Nokia N95 multimedia computer.

“Our Nokia Nseries family has expanded with added pizzazz and performance with the Nokia N95 8GB, a device as personal as it is powerful,” said Jonas Geust, vice president, Multimedia, at Nokia. “We’ve reached a pinnacle with the Nokia N95 and now with the addition of one of the largest ever displays, built-in Assisted-GPS and improved battery power, the Nokia N95 8GB takes entertainment enjoyment to another level.”

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S60 will introduce new features that enhance the user experience and enable manufacturers, developers and operators to design new types of mobile devices, applications and services.

The touch user interface in S60 smartphone software offers licensees the opportunity to develop devices with a variety of input methods, whether it is a touch screen with a traditional keypad, touch screen with a qwerty keyboard or touch screen alone, supporting both finger or stylus optimized input, in addition to the range of access options that already exist today.

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Helsinki (Finland) - Nokia today launched a new version of its N95 phone with an 8 GB hard drive, matching the internal capacity of the iPhone.

The European phone launch comes just as the continent prepares for Apple’s flagship handheld, which has already sold over a million units in the US.

According to Nokia, the new model also has improved battery life.  The current top-end consumer phone from the Finnish giant, the N95 has built-in GPS technology and a five megapixel digital camera.

The standalone price is set at 560 euros, which can be discounted with service contract subsidies.  The older version of the N95 is available in the US, but Nokia did not whether or when the new model will come out stateside.

[ via TGDaily ]

AriX sent us a press release Sunday promoting iJailbreak, an automated program that allows third-party applications to run on the iPod Touch. It doesn’t work for the iPhone, and it’s only available for iPod Touch owners who are using Intel-based Macs. I don’t have an iPod Touch at my disposal right now, so I’m unable to test whether it actually works, but some users on MacRumors.com reported that it worked.

Ever since Apple released the 1.1.1 software update for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch in late September that broke older third-party application installers, hackers have been hard at work searching for a new way to bypass the restrictions. A preliminary jailbreaking application was released last week, but it required a great deal of expertise to get up and running. Erica Sadun, a writer for The Unofficial Apple Weblog, installed that iPod Touch jailbreak Friday evening but warned, “This is not ready for prime time, kids. Don’t do this at home.”

[ via Cnet ]