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Chrysler's Web Edition vehicle package: includes WiFi, iPod touch and a Dell Mini 9


Chrysler has been toying with in-car connectivity for months now, so it's really no shock to see the next logical step being taken. At the San Francisco Auto Show this week, the automaker is set to showcase a "Web Edition" package, which would theoretically be available as a dealer-installed option for most Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge vehicles. The bundle would include an Autonet Mobile router (branded as Uconnect Web), a Dell Mini 9, 8GB iPod touch, Sony PSP and an Eye-Fi WiFi SD card; couple that with one year of internet service and you've got everything that makes up the $1,999 asking price. Reportedly, a slimmed down option will go for $1,100 and only include the router, service and Mini 9, though there's no indication of when it'll be hitting new whips. Nor if Chrysler will survive long enough to tell us.

Nokia adds support for Lotus Notes in Symbian S60


There's hardly anything more embarrassing that admitting that your company still uses Lotus Notes, but for the millions upon millions (140 million, in fact) of licensed users who'd love the opportunity to check in via their S60-based handset, this one's for you. Starting next month, Lotus Notes support will be granted for Symbian S60 3rd Edition, meaning that anyone with a fresh S60 device can soon tap into Lotus Notes Traveler and access real-time email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't be so enthusiastic -- leaving work at work is a blessing too many take for granted.

Sony demos 19-inch FED display running Gran Turismo 5 at 240 fps


FED (or Field Emission Display) hasn't quite caught on as quickly as some other display technologies, but Sony's still out there doing its best to move things forward, and it certainly looks to have turned more than a few heads with its latest demo. Apparently not content with simply showing off a new 19-inch display from its spin-off, Field Emission Technologies, Sony went so far as to demo it with a customized version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue that's playable at 240 fps. To do that, Sony used four PS3s to increase the frame rate, something it had previously done to run the game at quadruple the resolution of 1080p on a Sony SXHD projector. While that setup is out of the reach of most folks, Field Emission Technologies says that FED displays are now finally heading to market, and that some high-end professional FED video monitors up to 32-inches in size will be available sometime next year.

[Via OLED-Display.info]

Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 and 12 get artist makeovers


In recent months we've seen Dell's design department running wild with new colors and art for a lot of their models, such as the Studio 15 and 17 laptops, and the announcement that customizable jobs were on the table for 2009. It probably should come as no surprise, then, to see the Inspiron Mini 9 and 12 get some love, too -- this time in five patterns by artist Tristan Eaton. Otherwise the same under the hood, the paint-jobbed Minis will run you an extra $50 over the base price of each respective model -- $349 for the Mini 9 and $549 for the Mini 12. Check out two more shots of the upgrades after the break.

[Via Electronista]

LG's snobbish Prada II phone and watch combo caught on glorious celluloid


We spied LG's Prada II strutting its stuff in some fancy photos yesterday, and here we are just over twenty-four hours later with a gossip-worthy video spectacular of the luxury house's second foray into handset branding. The lucky gent in the film beautifully demonstrates how the Bluetooth-enabled watch can perform such wonders as silence your ringer and retrieve text messages, all without laying a finger on the touchscreen, slider keyboard-boasting phone. We're pretty sure that you'll agree the video of the device is "not long enough," but just do what we did: watch it twice in a row (while lounging by the pool in a diamond tiara sipping a martini) after the break.

AOC keeps it simple with $160 F19 LCD monitor


AOC's never been one to charge a premium for sex appeal, but it's stooping even lower given the current economic conditions in order to get more monitors in more homes. The 19-inch F19 sports a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 5-millisecond response time, a glossy black piano finish (with a white back for that splash of contrast) and VGA / DVI inputs. Not too shabby for $159.99 -- we mean, who can say no to puppies? Full release is after the jump.

Nyko Charge Station Quad leaves no Wiimote uncharged


It's certainly not for everybody, but if Wii-playing parties are a regular occurance at your place, or if you happen to have a bunch of Wiimotes lying around for some other purposes, you may want to consider Nyko's new Charge Station Quad, which promises to keep four of 'em topped off at all times. You'll also, of course, get four of Nyko's own NiMH rechargeable battery packs with the package, and four rubber battery covers to prevent any unfortunate accidents. Look for this one to hit all the usual locations sometime next month, when it'll set you back $50.

Lawsuits over employees' unpaid computer boot-times stacking up next to unread paperwork

Frivolous lawsuits aren't anything new, but this is an eye-opener straight from annals of "office humor." It turns out that in the past year "several" companies, including UnitedHealthGroup, Cigna, and AT&T have had employee-filed lawsuits brought against them for unpaid time. That "unpaid time" is the minutes each day employees spend booting up and shutting down their computers (also their time-clocks), which they claim adds up to an astounding 15-30 per day. Astounding, that is, if you've never worked in a corporate office with a terrible IT department. If you have, you'll probably agree that this figure may, in some cases be on the mark, if not a little conservative. The employees claim they should be paid to work while the boot-ups and shut-downs are happening, since during that time they're doing tasks like paperwork or "arranging their calendar," while the companies counters that they're probably smoking, getting coffee, or talking to people. We're not really going to judge the veracity of these suits en masse -- we'll take them on a case-by-case basis, but there does seem to be something suspicious about this many people claiming to still use paper calendars.

[Via Wired]

Orb 2.0 streams live TV to your iPhone


We knew Orb was working on an iPhone port of its media-streaming app, and it looks like Orb 2.0 just stealthily went live in the App Store. The $10 app lets TV junkies watch live TV from a tuner connected to a Windows PC, as well as stream music, videos, and photos from their libraries. Even cooler, Orb allows you to monitor a webcam, so you can finally nail those Diet Coke thieves from the comfort of your cube (or keep an eye on your infant, whatever.) Sadly there's no date for the Mac and Linux versions, but Orb says they're on the way. Alright Sling, looks like the ball's in your court.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Upcoming dual-processor Nehalem EP machine benchmarked -- yeah, it's fast


Intel's new Core i7 chip has been showing up in tons of silly-spec'd high-end gaming rigs for about three days now, so it's obviously time to get bored and move on -- and right on cue, TechRadar's got the first benchmarks we've seen of the upcoming dual-processor Nehalem EP platform. The secret test machine featured two 2.8GHz Nehalem EP chips (likely to hit retail in 2009 as the Xeon X5560) and 24GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM controlled by the new Quick Path Interconnect and on-die memory controllers, which together cranked out a SPECfp base rate of 160 -- way above the 90 posted by current 3.4GHz Xeon setups, and higher than the 105 scored by a 2.7GHz dual-processor rig with AMD's new Shanghai chips. Yeah, that's silly fast, and it's bound to get even faster when these bad boys launch with a 3.2GHz part along for the ride. Now if Intel could just siphon some of that speed into these pokey Atoms we can actually afford, we'd be grins-a-plenty.

Tuttuki Bako "poking box" lets you torment low-res creatures


While we don't expect it to be the type of interface that'll replace touch screens anytime soon, Bandai is certainly forging some interesting new ground with its so-called Tuttuki Bako device, or "poking box," which actually lets you stick your finger right into the device to control the on-screen finger. That's apparently done with the aid of some motion sensors which, as you can see in the video after the break, seem to work at least reasonably well. In addition to boasting various "games" like poking a panda, poking a face, or poking a stick figure, the device also doubles a desk clock, and it's available your choice of red, black or lime green. As you might have guessed, however, it's not available 'round these parts just yet, though you can apparently pick one up in Japan now for the rough local equivalent of $30.

[Via Today and Tomorrow, thanks Lennart]

Roll-up mouse pad encloses a hub, speakers, and our hearts

Roll-up mouse pad encloses a hub, speakers, and our hearts
While our minds know that today's mice, particularly those with lasers, work just fine on virtually any (non-moist) surface, that doesn't stop our hearts from missing the soft, forgiving feel of our home mousing surface while on the road. That's partly why the traveler-friendly Roll-up Mouse Pad caught our eye. Sure, just about any pad can be made into a tube and stuffed into a carry-on, but if you pack this one you'll also get a 4-port USB hub and dual, side-firing speakers out of the deal. Sure, the build quality may be sub-par (check the jagged plastic after the break), but for $22 this could make that hotel suite a little bit more inviting for you and that special peripheral you'll be cradling all night.

Mercedes-Benz shows off internet-connected myCOMMAND system


Mercedes-Benz has already toyed around a bit with some internet-connected in-car systems, but it looks to really be going all out with its new myCOMMAND system, which it's now showing off at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Among other things, it would constantly pull various traffic information off the internet and take it into account for route selection, as well as give you access to internet radio stations, let you make VoIP phone calls, and even give you a browser that'll let you " surf the internet in the accustomed way." Mercedes is also promising that the entire system will be completely intuitive, with most of the primary functions controlled with a single rotary pushbutton, and two secondary buttons provided for things like menu operation. Of course, it's all still very much a demo at this point, and Mercedes itself says it'll be least a "few more years" before it actually winds up in a production vehicle.

[Thanks, Jason]

NXE hitting 360s with red ring, freezing and sorta-sexy-avatar issues?


If you wouldn't mind looking up from that avatar creation screen for a second -- yes, we're aware of how much that t-shirt selection means about you as a person -- you might notice that your Xbox 360 is dead. At least, a few hapless souls on the Xbox forums seem to think NXE is to blame for such atrocities. Numerous folks are reporting variously bad red ring configurations, random freezing and a huge pile of blockbuster titles that won't just play themselves. The biggest problem is that Microsoft isn't universally treating problems caused by NXE as an "oh, our bad" sort of situation, and at least from anecdotes we're seeing has charged quite a few folks $100 to fix their freshly-out-warranty Xbox 360s -- not to mention separating them for weeks from their precious murder simulators.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

What has your experience with the NXE update been like?

Google Sync for BlackBerry gets into your contacts


If you're a BlackBerry user or a prospective user, and also happen to be a Gmail enthusiast, you're going to be a lot happier than you were yesterday, because Google's just added over-the-air contact syncing to its Google Sync application. Previously, the app was only able to sync up calendars between the cloud and RIM devices every two hours. Now you can get your names and numbers in the mix, so it looks like the nightmare days of having one list of contacts in Gmail and another, totally different one in your 'Berry are apparently at an end. Sure, Google's timing on this seems a little convenient to us, coming as it does just before the BlackBerry Storm launch, but we're not going to complain about something that makes ours lives easier, okay?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]



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